Rethinking housing typology through communal dining

Elangkumaran S

UR2022

The project describes urban living in a more communal setup and focuses on single-person dwelling conditions. It looks at opportunities to work with the typology that can give back to the neighborhood and bring people together. The project ranges through different scales from urban space to units and dwelling conditions. Through such investigations, it rethinks the existing model to hypothetically speculate a more sustainable environment bringing in better connections along with functional usage. The set of ideas could thus be replicated by other typology formats looking at the intent of food as a medium thereby assisting a more communal environment. Specifically, in the case of Mumbai, the minimal space and the demographics, the project attempts to bring in a conversation on reframing the typical developer-designed housing models to open up to act as an urban phenomenon rather that could facilitate better developments within the urban block.

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Defining kitchen based on personal findings and related arguments, leading to certain framework of the project w.r.t single person lifestyle.

Documentation of different spaces through the photogrammetry technique and analyzing the schematic layout and movement based on functions.

Set of charted analysis of food intake w.r.t space and the conditions, simultaneously thoughts and observing arguments to develop stronger narrative of single person cooking and eating habits.

The following are a series of traced over perspective plans showing the analysis on the arrangements and the spatial aspects of the different documented spaces.

The following slides are the comparisons charts depicting the aspects of what the space is and what set of objects are placed, observations based on the single person conditions and also the materiality vis a viz the space.

Study of housing typologies in different cases of neighborhoods in Mumbai like Boriwali, BMC, Colaba, Worli. Understanding the prominent connections in relation to food urbanism, production consumption and the urban block.

Representation of the urban blocks in Navi Mumbai followed the grid form for its development. The site is at Vashi, sector 14 which has more residential units with a few tall towers.

The tall tower as a housing typology generally being designed by the idea of developer model focuses on bringing in programs that are very exclusive to the residents while still occupying a huge chunk of the neighborhood. The project intent is to investigate this type at different scales ranging from urban space by opening up the ground level to the neighborhood to individual unit development.

The design focuses on bringing in communal cooking and dining spaces as anchor points to bring in people and also develop individual units accordingly for their lifestyle. The aspect of removing the BHK type and opening up more to the urban setup offers a higher degree of communal living aspect.

The idea of a more open setup for the urban activity offers higher flexibility and looks at minimizing the urban loneliness that were analyzed from the initial observations. Visual connections, dynamic movement through different kinds of spaces promotes communal wellbeing.

Project Video