TYPOLOGIES

I want to look at typologies of communal living at both the individual building and the neighborhood/settlement scale. I will look at that larger scale through the lens of refugee housing. It is amazing how similar the layout of refugee camps is to the layout of military camps. Even in terms of facilities, they are fairly similar (check-in/administration, medical, sanitation, power). Above is a picture of the growth of Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Here you can see how regimented they start out as and how organic their layout becomes, even in the distribution of services. Part of this is due to an influx of popultation growth that exceeds the space limitations needed to keep it regimented.

I began looking at how the typical layout for refugee camps could be staged in a way that would allow it to transition from temporary to permanent at both the programmatic and structural level (at this stage, with no particular innovation to the system). At stage one, the necessary programs include administration, emergency medical, waste disposal, and housing as defined by its structural elements. The elements used within the housing and other structures are walls for function of privacy and roof for function of shelter from the elements. The utilites provided (water, latrines) exist at a communal level and are not accessed through the individual shelters. The layout of shelters in stage one, is also a simple open floor plan without any differentiation of rooms within the individual "building."

Stage two would bring ewlctricity and water to the individual shelter, requiring piping and infrastructure to make this feasible. They would most likely be laid in the pedestrian pathways that weave between the shelters and demarcate regions. Structural, walls would be begin to have a structural function beyond privacy and temporary protection from the elements. This means that walls would have foundations and and footings that allow them to be load-bearing. This would still allow a degree of mobility and thus impermanence. Precast foundations can be set into the group, and then with proper machinery can be moved as one unit or dismantled. There are also foundations that rely on jacks that can support a building but can be moved when necessary. These are most often used with mobile homes or with fabric/inflatable structures. 

Finally, stage three would bring slabs--an element much more difficult too move and almost always rendered unusable when its (re)moved. This provides a foundation that walls can be structurally bound to, and thus the permanence filters up through the system. Programmatically, a more permanent stage renders a more heterogeneous mixture of program types, specifically with the opportunity for income-producing spaces, ie small business incubators. Administration grows to include municipal services, specifically more waste removal and transportation. Finally, public facilities (often a luxury in emergency situations) are brought into the fabric of the community, including schools, a hospital, and recreation.

At the individual building scale, I would like to look at a typology particular to India: the chawl. I had looked in the past at Soviet examples of communal housing. Most had linear arrangements of minimal living quarters with circulation down the center. Communal facilities such as the kichen and dining area residing on the first or top floor, not dispersed within the living areas. Communal programs included organized childcare, libraries, and sports facilities. The Indian chawl is a 4-5 story building with 10-20 tenements (kholis) per story. Latrines and kitchens are communal, as are the balconies by use. They become the social area of the building and represent the lifestyle embodied in the chawls. The first floor is most often commercial, with business owners living above. 

By focusing on what structural elements occur in which stages, innovation can occur in the structure, its relation to living space, and its transition to the next stage. What I intend to explore in terms of materiality are several conditions. 1) Walls that double as foundations. This usually occurs with mass, such as dirt filled tires or earthbags. 2) Foundations that double as living spaces. The example I found for this were large fabric and structural frames that use shipping containers are foundations. 3) Finally and most promising, I want to look at temporary walls for a first floor living space that can transition into a permanent foundation for a second floor living space and allow the first to be used either as communal or income producing.