Habitactory
Habitactory hybridizes contemporary and traditional forms of working and living by hybridizing the domestic perimeter block and generic factory box.
The project is organized by wrapping a series of factories with housing. The factory inserts itself into the middle of the block to allow for a human-scaled pedestrian experience along the streets. Between these two uses a series of circuits strategically tie these programs together - to benefit from similar needs - while providing separation to ensure privacy, sound isolation, and safety.
The circuit acts as public infrastructure, tying the three blocks together and blurring the distinction between interior/exterior, street/park, and shared spaces of production/living. Programmed with shared amenities, the circuit allows adjacent spaces of working and living to expand and contract to find productive overlaps. Ultimately, the mediatory role of the circuit not only strengthens the links between the residential and production spaces, but also enables their independence, responding to their diverse needs and schedules of occupation.
Habitactory proposes a new model of development that shares the resources of the city to create a resilient framework for differential users and uses.
Two trends can be leveraged to reconcile how we live and work today. Firstly, traditional productive spaces - such as factories - are now complimented with a broad array of new ways to work - workshops, DIY start-ups, and co-working spaces. While each of these has been considered a separate entity in the contemporary city, if grouped together, they could benefit by sharing equipment and auxiliary programs while producing a range of economic models.
Secondly, domestic living arrangements are evolving beyond the nuclear family to include new ways of co-living. Not only do these living arrangements embrace a range of users, through sharing amenity spaces they inherently build communities and a higher quality of life.
In collaboration with IGG, The Open workshop, Antonio Mora & Diego Soto Madrinan