Brief and Site |
Semester II presented Common Ground’s co-housing design brief. I approached the design, initially, at the scale of the site and surrounding context, elements that became integral to the co-housing scheme and the research. The chosen site is Bray DART station car park, which bounds on three very public and busy edges; Bray rail station, Bray railway tracks and Albert Walk, a pedestrian thoroughfare to the train station, lined with commercial and residential units. The public space that is Albert Walk drew me to this site. It accommodates over five thousand pedestrians each day (Nolan, 2021), while also hosting a range of amenities such as cafes, shops and a casino. However, many units are unused or derelict.
Axonometric of existing site and Albert Walk
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MethodsEarly design exercises explored Albert Walk through model and sketch studies to spatially analyse both the existing and potential social interactions. These explorations prompted a project which sought to foster a symbiotic relationship between the co-housing scheme and Albert Walk. This method of working from the edges inward, ensured consideration and inclusion of each edge’s respective public realm, within any design decisions made. This aided with the concept of demarcating the boundary of the co-housing scheme and began to help create a permeated scheme, both physically and socially, deviating from the aforementioned established Irish custom of designing private, individualistic homes.
This method of working from the edges inward allowed for a loose configuration of the scheme to develop. This supported ideas and interventions of how visual, aural, spatial and social privacy could be achieved within a purposefully overstated public home, if desired. Due to the differing public realms presented by each edge of the site, as well as the anonymity of the future occupants of these units and their respective stances on the privacy of a home, offering one universal typology did not seem sufficient to accommodate all of these factors. |
The physical outcome which resulted was a dense terraced housing scheme comprising houses, duplexes, and apartments. In addition, there were public buildings including a community centre and community allotments accessible to the wider public of Bray. The units fronting Albert Walk allow for pockets of space to be returned to the laneway, with the ‘occupants’ of each unit determining how their home responds to this nook of social space.
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Final Proposed Site Plan
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Character Occupancy Methodology
To address the issue of the anonymity of occupants, I developed a specific methodology that endeavoured to allow for elements of privacy within a notably public con-text, according to the specific occupant. The methodology takes the social theorists, studied in Semester I, and their theories, and develops representative personas. These personas became the occupants of units of varying type within each realm. I considered how my interpretation of their theories would play out in the design of their unit, along with the consequent interactions and relationships between the personas and their physical context, thus influencing the final overall design. This methodology allowed for a testing of the limits of public and privacy within a home, while also attempting to dovetail social theory with architectural practice. It also allowed me an entry point into the project, a third guiding factor, additional to the Common Ground brief and the existing context. Testing this methodology involved trialling various traditional design methods, such as drawings and models, which examined differing ways in which units could be used or occupied. I explored how one occupant’s response to a public home or surrounding context may differ to another’s, through my interpretation of these theories. For the purpose of this dissertation, this methodology will be labelled as Character Occupancy. Through the Character Occupancy methodology, different potential relationships began to materialise, highlighting possible areas of agreement but also conflict within the scheme and its existing context. With each introduction of a new character came a layer of hypothetical, social complexity that influenced the overall design. Each persona and their theory constituted a differing relationship with the existing public context, existing residents of Bray, commercial retailers on Albert Walk, Common Ground neighbours and community. |
Explanatory diagram of unit types
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Plans of units in relation to each other and Albert Walk and the social spaces created as a result of the differing typologies
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Unit plans were designed through the developed Character Occupancy methodology. The occupants’ theories, backgrounds and perspectives on inhabiting public space informed the design decisions and how their units were used and also how these units were put together which explored scenarios of conflict, harmony and productivity within the Common Ground and greater community. |
Character Occupancy Methodology Through Details |
The Character Occupancy methodology permeated down into the details of the design, particularly with regards to privacy. This section explores the detailing of a winter garden which allows for communal covered social spaces, but also acts as a double skinned facade which works as a visual and aural barrier to the DART line. |
The courtyard wall for each home can be dictated by the occupant in relation to the internal walkway which was developed as a route or linear garden through the centre of the Common Ground scheme. The brick may become perforated and work as a screening boundary rather than solid wall, which allows for passive surveillance throughout the scheme.
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Elevation of the apartment and duplex units showing the potential of screening rather than a solid wall
Technical Plan of an apartment unit
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Supplementary Drawings
Long Section through the proposed scheme
Section showing the communal allotments and greenhouses in the Common Ground co-housing scheme
Plan showing the Common Ground green space and the shared public greenhouse with the DART station
Section showing the public space at the North end of the Common Ground scheme and its connection to the DART station
Plan of the public space illustrating the potential for a shared market space for the Common Ground residents to sell produce grown in the scheme
Perspective drawing showing the social spaces on the first and second floor of the co-housing scheme
PART I
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PART II
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PART III
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