Window | Precinct | Housing | Thesis

Live - Work Housing | Critic: Andrew Scott

The design of housing is a core part of the MIT studio curriculum. In this studio, our task was the design of multi-use housing on the Farmington River in Collinsville, Connecticut. The program called for both housing and work space, and the intention was to create a community of people working from home. The units I designed for this studio are two stories, with a working space on the first floor, and a living space above. The working space is more solid, a concrete box, and the living space is a light timber frame set on top. Each facade is treated differently, to address the different natural lighting and ventilation needs. And each unit has a communal central entryway and porch, to hopefully facilitate interaction between neighbors.

The first image above is a sight study, outlining views and topography. The second is a sketch idea of the views from within the cluster of new housing units. A large scale model was built to examine the quality and materiality of the upper living space. And a final model shows the relation of three units to each other and the water.