In Fragments
Programmatic distinction combined with smaller unit sizes, or the redistribution of ownership of existing homes has led to the fragmentation of the home into multiple rooms. Depending on local regulations, sometimes these can be tiny and inadequately lit and ventilated. This phenomena is also triggered by marketing strategies that sell the home as a product with many features.
Miniscule bathrooms, closets, kitchens, offices, distributed within units disintegrate the cohesion of the floorplan. These fragmented rooms may become difficult to inhabit and their internal arrangements are certainly difficult to modify and adapt throughout time.
Is it possible to rethink some of these fragments as part of larger scale infrastructural components? Can certain facilities – such as wet areas – be coupled in the general layout of the building, even if maintaining the distinction amongst units? Can certain fragmented programs be integrated into the communal areas?
Design Operations
Externalise
By externalizing certain internal programmatic components of the unit towards the communal areas, corridors and hallways can be transformed into livelier spaces. This also allows to free the internal arrangement of units from programmatic fragmentation. Thus, obtaining more spacious apartment arrangements.
Project Descriptions
26- Utilities/“Lived Corridors” – Santiago
Utility spaces, hallways, bathrooms and kitchens are externalised, increasing the size of the corridor so that these become varied functional communal infrastructure.
By transforming the corridor into a usable shared space, the boundaries between private and communal become more gradual, allowing for more variation amongst the extremely standardized unit layouts.
Original Project: High Density Slab, Santiago.
28- Dining Rooms/ “Dining Pinwheel”, Santiago
The landings of the spiral staircases, leading into the units, are transformed into a shared dining space connecting two to four units of a student residence compound.
These dining hubs reimagine the organisation of all communal-private transitions, by proposing a new sequence for the eating, cooking and hygiene routines. The rows are mirrored along the dining hubs creating inner patios enriching the public-communal thresholds.
Original Project: Poblacion Arauco by Secchi & Berlindeed, Santiago.