An Architecture for the Human Environment
Architecture, specifically housing today has become a measure of wealth and power, completely disregarding the surrounding context and most importantly the occupant. Architecture is no longer helping society develop, instead it has destroyed our environment and the method in which humans relate to each other, creating a new lifestyle. This type of life is revolving around the object, changing how humans inhabit architecture and the city.
The phenomenal expansion of cities in the Middle East has made the current housing typology irrelevant to today's adapting society. The placement of villas and compounds within cities like Dubai and Doha have added to urban sprawl, dividing the way in which a city functions and promoting the car as the main method of transportation. This reliance on the car has redesigned the method in which interstitial space between buildings is being used, subtracting opportunities for open public space and a social environment. Housing has become an object surrounded by the perimeter wall, completely disregarding culture and climate, and segregating housing from one another. Both the typology of the home and its relationship within the city need to be re-examined, studying the ways in which the void space of the built environment is being used. These unforeseen spaces have great opportunity in redefining the human element, in a variety of scales from the home to the city. I propose to examine these relationships of interstitial space of the existing housing typologies and their relationship to the city; creating housing for the inhabitant. This manipulation of space between the interior and exterior can promote a housing environment and lifestyle that utilizes the harsh climate of the Middle East and expands the limits of ones home. Making the city a more live able and social environment.
Do you know what is the reason for cities like Dubai and Doha to increase demands for villas and usage for cars? Based on your description above, it sounds like the residents change their ways of living during the time of cities expansion. Is there culture shift within those cities and they are also looking for a typical "American Dream"? How can you design and persuade the occupants that with good design, it is possible to manipulate spaces between the interior and exterior and bring in a different and more live-able lifestyle?
ReplyDeleteI think that the housing typology has somewhat to do with class. In Doha typically expatriates live in compounds while Qatari's live in villas. I would like to focus on this expansion of the interior space to the exterior specifically how the negative space between buildings can be used.
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