Public Domesticity
densifying social interactions through the design of a public building in Ydre-Nørrebro, Copenhagen
H.A. van Rossum (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Antonio Cantero – Mentor (TU Delft - Public Building and Housing Design)
G.Y. Warries – Mentor (TU Delft - Teachers of Practice / AE+T)
Sang Lee – Mentor (TU Delft - Public Building and Housing Design)
Erik Louw – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Urban Development Management)
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Abstract
Identifying a need for increased social interactions in the neighborhood of Ydre-Nørrebro in Copenhagen, this design project aims to densify social interactions through the architectural design of a Public Condenser. This typology - a public building with a focus on hybridity, multiplicity, sustainability, healthiness and resilience - in its program facilitates the need of residents to extend the range of their domestic environment, to feel at home in public space. The keyword here is 'domestication'. Being able to domesticate a public space, temporarily inhabiting it, allows users to consider a greater part of the city their home. By creating an atlas of functions that respond to the needs of the site area's residents, a diverse and inclusive building program is determined. This functional atlas is spatially structured in a way that encourages unexpected encounters, and juxtaposes intimate interior spaces with open-plan flexible spaces.
The building design through its inside-out approach reimagines the techno-optimistic high-tech architecture of the 1980s from a more sustainable and social perspective. A display of building functions and movement projects and promotes the building's publicity and creates an understanding in how it functions, socially and technically. Building services are presented as active 'organs' - in this project called 'plug-ins' - that support the interior spaces. The plug-ins facilitate rational movement on the outside of the building by a lateral gallery and elevators to move vertically in the building. Additionally, they facilitate in the climate system of the interior spaces. By acting as a heat buffer, a energy generator and an air extractor, the plugins take up an active role in the passive strategies of the interior climate system.