The Working Homes

Abstract

The Working Home Project seeks to create a social housing residential neighborhood that affords opportunities for financial betterment through the use of integrated workspaces. This project stems from an interest in people. How they live and interact with each other through exploring their likes and dislikes, their needs and wishes. To explore this notion of people and their interaction, the research undertaken looked at compiling people’s stories and contextualising them within the city of Nijmegen. Considering the context of Covid-19 and a pandemic aware society, this thesis explores the coexistence of live and work activities within the home. Prior to, but enhanced by the recent pandemic, we increasingly find more people living and working in the same spaces and therefore this thesis project looks at creating a solution to the issue of designing for the contemporary family lifestyle. To adequately create design solutions for these current issues, the thesis relies heavily on the observation and study of the everyday mundane activities that take place within both the private and public realms. The studio theme Bricolage sparked several topics of interest within the working home thesis project. On a social scale, this thesis took the stories of the people of Nijmegen and began to stitch them together in order to create a broader picture of the essence of the city. Architecturally, the existing building stock was a starting point for the design. With the knowledge that the majority of our cities are built to capacity, why don’t we look at the current building stock for future use. Here we can create opportunities through interventions that repurpose and reimagine spaces within our cities by giving old buildings a new lease of life. Through the retention of the ramp and the structure of the Molenport Shopping Centre, my thesis project explores this avenue of repurposing. I find this project fitting with current issues such as sustainability and exploring new ways of repurposing materials.