ABSTRACT:
‘Most of the spaces we will be occupying in 2030 are those already built, and yet much of our existing housing stock was not designed to support the changing user needs of our diversely abled population or our changing climate. How can we work towards making our built environment? more accessible and sustainable, while acknowledging the material and financial costs of construction? The solution is to develop strategies for retrofit that will preserve the strong ‘bones’ or structures of our buildings while facilitating the changing of their ‘skins’ so they can better adapt to our evolving world. This project will look at a multi-unit residential typology in the Québec context and develop a strategy for its retrofit that would optimize it for current and future accessibility and sustainability needs.’
JURY COMMENT:
With its focus on multi-unit social housing, this is a very low-key proposal with a potentially profound impact; spreading the benefits of architecture across a broad spectrum of society.
The approach is nimble; promising significant improvements in spatial quality and building performance through modest interventions in existing public housing projects. In so doing, it shifts the conversation from the iconic to the everyday; focusing on what, from a social perspective, is arguably our most important building typology.
Another important aspect of the proposal is the idea of unfinished architecture that actively engages the building users in the creation and evolution of their built environment. Precedent projects by Elemental in Chile and Lacaton & Vassal in France, affirm the inherent beauty and potential outcomes of this design approach. Embracing uncertainty is part of its appeal.