METRO CO-OP HOUSING

Spring 2022

METRO COOPERATIVE HOUSING receives its name from the Latin word “Metropolis,” which translates to “Mother City.” This name embodies two key themes that the project seeks to convey: Domesticity and Urbanism. Loosely based on the Cerda Urban planning project in Barcelona, Spain, the project takes on the form of a block intersection with chamfered corners that provide public spaces. These shared, public spaces, inspired by the urban kitchens in Lima, Peru examined in Anna Puigjaner’s e-flux Architecture article “Bringing the Kitchen Out of the House,” take on the form of traditionally domestic rooms such as a laundry room, kitchen, and garden. The encouragement of socializing in these traditionally domestic spaces challenges the dweller’s perception of not only who these spaces are for, but also the importance of the domestic role in the maintenance of an urban social fabric. The building is designed to be customizable and eventually multiplied. This creates a campus which seeks to emulate a microcosmic urbanism. In order to refrain from monopolizing the park in which the originally assigned site location lies, the project takes on various environmentally conscious design aspects in order to not only decrease its environmental footprint, but to blur the lines between the natural and the built environment. For example, the exterior north-facing wall is a solar powered, self operating wall of moving panels which help to naturally control the climate inside the building. Several rooms in the building contain folding or pocket doors in order to expand the room outdoors, further fostering the feeling of simultaneously being indoors and out, and challenging the dweller’s perception of nature’s role in both the domestic realm and the urban.