New York and Rome-based architecture firm Architensions and architect and design educator, Andrew Bruno, have designed a speculative, cooperative fourplex sitting in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of south Los Angeles.
Called Knolls Co-Living, the project is a proposal for the Low-Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles competition. The $100,000 design challenge tasks architects and landscape architects to envision appealing and sustainable models for low-rise, multi-unit housing. The project also expands, as stated by the firm, “...Architensions’ interest in reimagining contemporary housing as multi-generational and deeply communal.”
This project follows other cooperative housing proposals by Architensions, such as Big Ideas Small Lots in New York and Ex-Galateo social housing in Italy. Knolls Co-Living challenges traditional single-family typologies, and, instead, emphasizes shared spaces and functions. Additionally, the fourplex responds to the lack of shade in historically low-income Los Angeles neighborhoods by including energy-efficient cooling strategies and canopied communal areas throughout the design.
“With this project, we are attempting to overcome the contemporary idea of housing as a lifestyle. Units are not self-sufficient, isolating environments, rather they need the help of collective spaces created outside the units to properly support their inhabitants' daily lives,” says Architensions co-founder Alessandro Orsini.
“The problem of standardization of housing and their production has made architects rely on the same spatial distribution solutions. Instead, we want to transform under-utilized spaces such as corridors inside the units and lobbies to eliminate the idea of hierarchy and seclusion. In addition, we need to move on from the modernist notion of housing linked to the patriarchal family model informed by traditional male-female relationships and the nuclear family as isolated unit,” adds Architensions co-founder Nick Roseboro.
The fourplex comprises four units, seen as volumes suspended in a matrix of columns and outdoor communal balconies. Two 1,250-square-foot units that are two levels and suspended above the ground contain internal stairs and entries on both floors, and two single-story, 600-square-foot units sit on the upper level. The varied square footage and layout is intended to draw heterogenous ages and family structures, ranging from young singles and elderly couples to larger multigenerational families.
Each apartment is organized around a modular service core, which contains the kitchen, bathroom, and storage area. It also functions as a divider that separates living spaces from bedrooms. Social spaces are intentionally absent indoors, in favor of outdoor communal zones that promote community building.
The defining element of the complex’s design is its system of sizable, shaded outdoor areas that connect individual units and expand the living spaces. They are conceived as shared spaces that are programmatically flexible and could be used for dining, entertaining, work, or relaxation. The structure’s system of windows is also distinct as they are irregularly shaped and rotate depending on the program of the room they accompany.
Adding to the project’s inhabitable outdoor space is the full-lot communal outdoor space on the ground level, which is created by lifting the building with a series of columns. Space, commonly used for parking in L.A., provides room for a children’s play area and other social and relaxing activities. Two sets of stairs connect the ground and the lower and upper levels in addition to an elevator near the street. The cooler micro-climate generated by lifting the units from the ground also helps minimize the energy and costs used for cooling. The structure’s hollow nature, as a whole, further reduces energy output.
Finally, the roof features a photovoltaic system that minimizes energy consumption and supplies hot water. It also acts as a catchment area for rainwater.
“While most housing minimizes common space in order to maximize saleable square footage, this proposal emphasizes the needs for communal spaces in order to create healthy communities,” concludes Roseboro.
2 Comments
Nice to see some models and a plan not just renders.
And a section!
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