Course: Unit 08 Live-Work; The New Norm

This studio will focus on the theme of living-working, reconsidering what it means to live, work, and dwell today and how we can envision doing so in the future. The current pandemic and migration crisis together with the ongoing technological innovations raise questions to the making of our cities
to which we, as architects and urbanists, can no longer avoid to respond. In this framework, Unit 8 will rethink the notion of home and its merging and diffusion with the urban and the work space at different scales, from that of the room (primer project) to that of the city (comprehensive project).

The Project will focus on drawing and detailing out one or multiple living-working units for a population of the Welsh society that students choose to address with regards their domestic life and working patterns. The PET site or sites of intervention will also be selected by the students in the wider area around, under, or next to the railway tracks between Cardiff Bay and Cardiff Queen Street train stations. Students are asked to look at the ways in which these PET sites can be appropriated and redesigned, taking advantage of their current infrastructures and location in the city.

The rationale behind this exercise is to understand the potential of smaller often hidden, unwanted and overlooked places in the city and their role in densifying the social and spatial synergies in it, as well as to discover the networks and links of spaces to existing communities and activities. Physical, social, and legal constraints need to be taken into account in order to develop well-articulated ideas and designs.