Armand E. Gamboa “Housing For:The Single (but not isolated) Parent”
Urgencies in Lifestyle
Housing development since the advent of the industrial age has catered almost exclusively to upholding the bourgeious ideal of the Nuclear Family; whose strict definition includes a married husband and wife alongside their biological children. This restrictive concept of family has profoundly impacted the social and spatial organization of daily life, such as through the division of public work from private life. The longstanding trend of new housing developments to overwhelmingly cater to single-family construction is invalidated by an abundance of alternate social units to the nuclear family. Units such as multigenerational families, stem families, single-parent families, the elderly (both independent and assisted), scholars, and tradespeople among others. Simply put, it no longer makes sense to dominate the housing market with the single family home; a typology ill-equiped to deal with our current social landscapeone which is increasingly trending away from the Nuclear Family. Rather there is an urgent need for a deeper understanding of these alternate units to devise flexible new typologies centered around these unique lifestyles.
The Single Parent of Washington Park
This project focuses on the single parent family; a growing demographic of predominantly matrifocal families-those led by a single mother. A comparative analysis of census data between Washington Park and the overall city of Chicago reveals that the community area is saturated with single parent families, households earning under $25,000, and individuals under the age of 19. These vulnerable groups must contend with a glaring lack of access to healthy food, as well as abundant and affordable childcare and medical services. This is especially troubling considering that the early years of life- from birth to age five- are the most important stages of human development. To ignore the multifacted plight of the single parent is ignore the welfare of all future generations.
Architectural Response
In response, this project sets out to understand and provide for the material and social needs of the single parent while simultaneously providing benefit to the overall neighborhood. Developed in phases, originating at a permanently closed food market on the corner of S Calumet Ave and E63rd Street. The proposal involves returning the market to the community but expanding its reach to include used articles such as clothing, furniture, domestic essentials, as well as fresh grown produce. Resting above this public market is an open community space populated with enclosed shapes that would house services such as clinics, legal and financial support services, libraries, and a chapel. One level further up will be dedicated entirely to daycare services, populated with interior courtyards and bands of support spaces such as offices, storage, and bathrooms. Directly above the daycare level is the forested rooftop which contains access to the base of the housing towers where the laundry services are located. Puncturing this roof are the openings for interior courtyards below as well as numerous skylights which pierce the entirety of the plinth lighting the market below. Each housing tower follows a typical layout of units arranged along a series of single loaded corridors. Pivotal to the single parent is the need for a dynamic and changing play space. To accommodate this, the units have been designed with a custom and mobile door/wall element whose configuration modifies the surrounding space. Using this element residents are free to modify their unit according to their evolving needs throughout the day. Needs such as isolating sleep from cooking, creating pockets for study, expanding their play space out towards the exterior balconies, and even linking up with neighboring units to share child watching duties. Most importantly the project is not intended to be marketed as a generic one size fits all template for housing but a specific yet flexible response to the needs of single parents and their children.
