How Should We Live – Together?
Studio Theme
The focus of the studio is the critical and experimental study of domestic space, spanning from the single dwelling to groupings of low-rise buildings. The ambition is to investigate the conventions and codes of the home and its basic architectural elements - both programmatic and tectonic. The studio will examine what is the most familiar and yet difficult kind of architecture: the house. We will explore its potential as a contemporary model of living. To many the house still symbolizes the most desirable form of living - more than half of Sweden’s population live in one or two-family dwelling buildings. Yet, its current model seems at odds with the environmental and financial challenges of today. The aim of this studio will be to reappraise the spatial, social and ecological contracts of the home. We shall explore alternative living models that go beyond dichotomies such as husband and wife, living and work, private and public, house and garden.
Studio Method
Through the study of everyday elements and fundamental domestic programs such as cooking, working, bathing, resting, reading, gardening and playing, we will search for new domestic thresholds that can provide a space for both tradition and innovation. Based in Stockholm, the studio will work on the outskirts of the city. We shall test the house within a site-specific context that is ordinary rather than exceptional. The aims are social, spatial and natural. Through modest means we will look at how architectural reinvention can turn the house into a regenerative social and environmental type, set somewhere between archetype and prototype. During the semester we will build a common archive. We will encourage iterative design, model-making and explorative modes of representation. Each project is expected to be rigorous in research and design, and realistically grounded within its context.
Teachers: Michela Barone Lumaga, Mikael Bergquist