Houses are more than containers for Humans

Abstract

As part of my graduation within Architecture, Explore Lab, I want to develop a method to help future residents and other involved parties of a collaborative housing group, to compile a clear and plenary design brief in order to create a coherent architectural design. After developing and applying this method I will redesign a former school building into a collaborative home. Setting up a design brief is mostly neglected in collaborative projects. Often, future residents discuss their demands, wishes and ideas only amongst themselves during informal gatherings, even though this is an important factor in the eventual designing of their space. In my master thesis, I want to develop a method to help future residents and other involved parties of a collaborative housing group, to create a clear and plenary design brief. By applying this method to develop the design brief, I will gain knowledge on the demands and wishes of future cohousing residents and supply further knowledge on the spatial and social dimensions of collaborative housing. After this I will implement the results of the research and method into a design project. With these results, I will start the design of a fictional collaborative housing project.