ARCH 567- INFORMAL STUDIES ON HOUSING

TASK 1: REFLECTING AND COMMUNICATING

QUESTIONS SELECTED:-WHAT IS CONSIDERED TO BE A HOUSE TODAY?

-IN WHICH WAY THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM DETERMINES HOUSING TODAY?

DAMLA MISIRLISOY

What is a house?

House is the place in which we live. It gives us shelter and comfort, both physically and emotionally. It serves to define who we are and who we are not (Sudjic, 1999).

The house occupies a unique position in architecture and in the history of human culture. The house is the domain of the family, of domestic activities and is used for living , working, eating and sleeping and as a private place where individuals and families enjoy their personal lives. However, the house in its traditional form, a series of common rooms and separate sleeping areas has undergone a number of radical changes over the last century in which the possibilities for self-expression in the domestic environment have released a new platform for architectural experiment (Mcleod, 2007).

Housing today and ecomony

Ecomony is one of the determinants which effects housing today. A search of an economic house by users and developers limits the designer. Limitations force designers to produce various solutions. Living in a single house is accepted as luxury and this search lead us to the mass production. So users are forced to live in small apartments or row houses attached eachother repeating eachother with similar solutions.

Housing today and ecomony

Another solution to the economic housing is the prefabrication. Industrialised building components will be the another key to decreasing the cost of the building. The growing high cost of labour and site work force building more and more into factories where the components will be made to be assembled on the site in a minimum time. By prefabrication variety of housing types is extremely limited and monotony (Seidler, 2003).

Housing today and ecomony

The pioneering days of modern architecture are over. We are now in a period of consolidation and development (Seidler, 2003). Adapted housing from diffrent functions brings a new economic solution to the isuue and additionally aesthetic and unique solutions of housing developments. Vacant buildings which is not in use converted into housing units which is more economic than a new built which is exampled in next few slides.

JACKSON’S WAREHOUSE in MANCHESTER

GASOMETER CITY IN VIENNA

Location: VIENNACompletion date: 2001Original use: Coal gas storageNew use: Residential

A new solution to the issue and a new housing concept : Adaptive reuse of a old building as housing

Location: AmsterdamCompletion date: 2003Original use: sugar warehouseNew use: Residential

SUGAR WAREHOUSE

(www.adaptivereuse.info)

Conversions bring an alternatıve housing model and a new way of living in the city.

Knox church residence

Location: Victoria, Australia

Completion date: 2009

Original use: church

New use: Residential (www.adaptivereuse.info)

New residential buildings creted in the industrial space with innovative and original designs for the needs of the users and taste of the city.

[www.cabe.org.uk]

BRITANNIA MILL IN MANCHESTER

[www.urbansplash.co.uk] [Mengüşoğlu, 2006]

References

BORRAS, M. (2007) City Lofts , Barcelona, Monsa Publising

SEIDLER, H. (2003) Houses and Interiors, Australia, The Images Publishing

SUDJIC, D. (1999) The Twentieth Century House, Glasgow, Lawrence King

MCLEOD, V. (2007) Detail in Contemporary Residential Architecture, London, Lawrence King Publishing

BROOKER, G. and STONE, S. (2008), Context and Environment, Switzerland, Ava Publishing CRAMER, J. and BREITLING S. (2007), Architecture in Existing Fabric, London, Birkhauser

DOUGLAS, J. (2006) Building Adaptation, London, Butterworth-Heinemann Publishing

MENGÜŞOĞLU, N. (2007) Endüstri Dönemi Yapı Mirasının Konut İşlevi Verilerek Yeniden Kullanımı, Gazi University, Unpublished Master Thesis