From 2013 to 2018, the urbanization rate increased from 52.6% to 58.5%, with an additional 80 million people migrating from rural to urban areas. However, due to the city's limited land area, many people are unable to own a suitable dwelling. The housing in the city is monotonous, like Tetrominos stacking together to form a massive and opaque structure. They may add order to an urban plan by cleaning up the city, but they would not take into account the diversity of residents or the specific needs of different types of families.
Suburban Capsule
2018 SUMMER|BSU
Instructors: James Kerestes
Location: Chongming Island, Shanghai
Individual work
China is experiencing rapid urbanization, with landings becoming valuable and limited resources, making the dwelling the largest investment for average residents, and housing prices rising at an alarming rate.
However, the high cost of housing does not guarantee better living conditions, and one family is confined to the conventional dwelling box. This design project investigates the viability and longevity of familiar housing typologies in relation to contemporary modes of living.
Similarity in space does not imply a commonality between habitats. This irony indicates that the urban environment is severing the connection between people and living space. Living space becomes a lifeless container, just to carry the urban population to survive, which is not selective for the majority of people.
The project's test site is located on Shanghai's Chingming Island. In contrast to Shanghai, Chingming Island remains a rural and bucolic area with plenty of free land. The proposal is to create a speculative domestic dwelling that reflects modern lifestyles influenced by culture, economy, context, environment, and political infrastructure.
