The HOME Competition
Combating Loneliness; Remaining Independent
Project with Jonathan Withers
During lockdown, we overlooked our chosen site [in Edinburgh] and envisaged a community who had learnt from our experience. The concept was developed around the loneliest members of our society: the elderly, living alone, without the need for full-time care; young professionals, needing the sociability of a house-share, but also the space which comes with their own flat; and a single-parent family with neighbouring parents/grandparents. All of which benefit from the proximity of the other but want to remain independent for the majority of their daily rituals.
Therefore, a niche exists between co-habitation and independent living. This scheme proposes separate apartments gathered around three large, shared, flexible, live/work and dining spaces, which promotes sociability within each group. Every apartment has its own front door, giving its resident(s) a sense of ownership. Furthermore, separate kitchen and sitting areas are housed within each apartment, fostering a critical personal space amongst a community environment.
In addition to the shared spaces, each independent living space has the capacity to become digitally connected. Our proposal arranges these spaces specifically for video calls; with the camera, screen, seating, and window arrangements determined by the view-cone [72°] and focal length [2.4m] of a webcam.
Site Theatre
Project with Santong Li and Elsa Konkka
The ArkXSite Competition was located on the Baleal Peninsula, Portugal. The site is bounded by the drama of the coast line, and entry is granted via the ruins of a fortress, sited to protect Portugal from invasion. The competition looked for a site based performance space. To respect the site, intervening in a sensitve manner, we proposed small experiential nodes positioned along a tailored route across the peninsula.
Movement was key to this project, in terms of visitors, but also in how the harsh environmental conditions could be interacted with and displayed. The entire peninsula was already performing, we purely intervene to allow the public to be able to enjoy it, through incorporating places to shelter, areas to picnic, viewing platforms and interactive 'instruments'.
