Architectural Design V-IX: Care Hub – Designing Thresholds of Care (GD W.Doi/Y.Iwata/C.Konno)

Abstract

This studio aims to design new local community centers – Care Hubs – where people can support each other independent of institutionalized frameworks. We will work in Otelfingen a rural village near Zürich. While rapid population growth in urban areas weakens community ties, in peri-urban areas, a subtle network of people's lives and activities can be seen. They can be utilized to create Care Hubs.

Objective

Each individual student is able to: Phase I: Hypothesising a Care Hub (4 weeks) Understand and analyze the environment of people of vulnerable groups in peri-urban villages. (2) (4) Evaluate the importance of places for living with dignity of the vulnerable groups from the perspective of spatial characteristics, environmental components and their dimensions and the relationships between people’s behavior and their environment. (5) Represent the behavior and movement of people in a given space over time. (1) Apply the methods of field research by actively reaching out to persons of vulnerable groups and creating a professional relationship of respect and exchange. (3) (6) Formulate a care hub hypothesis in form of manifesto that proposes a vision for communal space centered around care. (6) Phase II: Testing a Care Hub (4 weeks) Discover the potential of villages on the outskirts of urbanized territory. (2) Apply the knowledge gained from phase I by embedding the care hub hypothesis on a specific site. (3) Analyze the existing buildings and evaluate their current condition against the care hub manifesto. (3) (5) Design the threshold of a care hub in relation to the village's public space. (6) Design the threshold of a building that is serving a person in need of care in relation to the village's public space. (6) Phase III: Proposing a Care Hub (5 weeks) Understand the construction and features of existing buildings and consider future care architecture through reduction, extension and refurbishment. (1) (2) Think about architectural space from the perspective of the “care environment” imagined from the behavior of specific people. (2) Develop the care hub by differentiating its function and clearifying its relationship to the surrounding public space. (6) Design architecture that activates external spaces. (6) Restructure the interior space of an existing building by starting from the design of the building envelope and the intermediate areas that connect the inside and outside. (6) Evaluate existing materialities and adapt their characteristic considering their contributions to the care hub. (5) (6)

Content

With the modernisation and population growth of the 20th century, architectural plans for institutional-type buildings such as schools, hospitals and other welfare centers have been developed in the pursuit of functionality and rationality – or to promote specialized nursing. In the past decades, such architectural spaces have been composed as average spaces based on abstract human models. In the desire for safety and ease of management, such buildings have been tightly enclosed and located far from the city center, creating a condition of care within modern society that is difficult to see from day-to-day life of citizens. In recent years, as many developed countries have experienced falling birthrates, an aging population and an increase in migratory movements, it is becoming increasingly clear that the future care for the socially vulnerable, such as the elderly, the disabled, children and immigrants cannot be provided by social security systems on their own. It is necessary to think about new forms of care architecture and its environment by thinking about autonomous mutual aid frameworks, beyond the systems that have been established since the modern era. We believe that by looking through the eyes of people in need of care has the potential to reveal the nature of the local community in a mature society, which is different from pre-modern farming communities. This studio will focus on environments of care that need to be reconsidered, and aims to design new local community centers – Care Hubs –, where people can support each other independent of institutionalized frameworks. This studio will take place in Otelfingen, a rural village near Zurich with a population of about 3,000 people. While rapid population growth in urban areas weakens community ties, in peri-urban areas such as Otelfingen, a subtle network of people's lives and activities can be seen. In these areas, we want to find actors who can support and create the environment of care and think about the future of the community. Thresholds will be the main architectural element that will serve as a focal point for looking at behavior of people and spaces of care. A threshold can be a door, a window, an opening, a skin, a space, a facade, a border, a room – it functions as a transitory element that allows for subtle gestures or harsh distinctions. It constitutes an intermediate area between territories of different purposes. One design is always in relation to another. A space of care that welcomes people of various kinds should always activate the public space surrounding it. In Phase 1, the focus is on vulnerable people in need of some kind of care, and the relationships between things centered on them are drawn (actor networks), while the individual care environment is captured by focusing on the behavior of specific people. In Phase 2, based on the knowledge gained in Phase 1, each group designs an external space by creating a care hub, while individuals design facades and intermediate areas facing the hub. In Phase 3, based on the concept of the care hub and the façade design that creates human behavior, which were discussed in Phase 2, individuals will design an architecture that generates care while utilizing the existing buildings they are working on.

Resources