My interest lies in challenging existing architectural designs and policy frameworks, to identify new strategies for developing inclusive and empowered communities. Adaptive architecture has been a recurring theme within my projects to provide an environment for inhabitants to shape a world of their own construction according to their needs, priorities and agendas. I believe architecture should aim to create spatial and social frameworks that value everyone’s right to contribute to the spaces they inhabit.
‘Reframing Junkspace: A New Typology for Student Accommodation’, is a speculative design project tackling the issue of settling within student accommodations. The project characterises existing typologies as Junkspace, a transitional space where identities are lost due to the effects of supermodernity and capitalism, where students are seen as characterless commodities with high turnover. The proposal draws from the theories of ‘unfinished architecture’ and ‘activist architecture’ to challenge the existing perspective of students as consumers into students as producers. By shifting the power to students, enabling them to spatially manipulate the building to their needs and positioning student accommodation as a political tool, the new typology aims to build a culture of empowering students.
Adopting the temporal nature of student living and modular construction, the design methodology of [re]construction influenced the project’s architectural design, ensuring the building components are made for safe assembly and disassembly. During the project, I have truly enjoyed utilising video production as a communicative tool to imagine the potential spatial experience and adaptation by students as they attempt to settle within spaces designed for temporality.
Ultimately, if cities were to implement the framework of inhabitants as producers and recognise buildings as unfinished active structures, how would this new culture improve the overall experience towards feeling more settled within communities?
