KARSTADT
Collective Domestic _ Studio Krucker Bates
Technische Universität München
Proposed solutions to the housing crisis in the European city are often reduced to the single ambition of building more homes year-on-year, while the more profound question of what type of housing should be built goes unanswered. With more people living alone than within a family unit, the cost of living and property rising, there is both a need and a demand for a wider range of options, including the opportunity to live within small collectives where resources can be shared, individual privacy retained and small communities established. Inter-generational housing, housing that can adapt to changing need, housing that could accommodate those who wish to live on their own, those who wish to live in groups, those who are part of families - even extended families as is favoured by some communities, those who need assistance in living but at the same time wish for independence, all represent the broadening of housing models and bring with them the need to find appropriate and sustainable architectural solutions.
This community intends to be open to all, regardless of professions or ages, and does not wishes to close in on itself. It realizes that we do not all share in the same way, but it also knows that this can change. It wants to invite the city to be part of the community, to continue it and to offer special moments to it.
Booklet with research about Collective living and with the main concepts of the project
Our intervention site was the Karstadt, in Munich. It used to be an old shopping center and an important centrality in the city. Nowadays the space it’s closed.
Ground Floor Plan
We can see the relation between the exterior public space and the built areas
How the building completes the existing public space and supports it with permanent use, a market area (on the right).
On the other side we propose a new square that creates a public space where there was none, with multiple uses that serves the community needs.
That needs are also supported with ateliers spaces, used by the inhabitants of the building or the city, and a space that invites the city to enter the building and get together with its inhabitants.
Floor Plan
The spacialization of the initial concept of different levels of sharing and intimacy is achieved by the creation of three different patios surrounded by communities that differentiate each other by the way they connect with the patios.
Common spaces (in blue) that are both a link and a separation of the communities
There’s also a balcony all around the building as an exterior shared space of the inhabitants.
Apartments: they are very flexible, as they can have different sizes and can be easily changed because of its typology. It is also possible to see the double relation of the apartments with the patios and the balconies around the building.
Facade
We wanted to preserve the memory of the original facade, keeping the original proportions, but letting the light in the building.
So we propose a glass sliding panels, that allows the light to come in and the use of the balcony all year. We keep the vertical elements and the original structural concrete and propose the addiction of fiber cement panels to keep the horizontality of the original facade.
Section One
In this first section it’s possible to see the different atmosphere of the patios depending on their connections and how they relate with the habitation.
On the left, we have one that connects directly with the city, allowing the city to enter the building. On the right, we have a patio that connects the habitation level with the first floor, the common level.
Section Two
In this second section, on the right side, we can see the third patio, where the relation between its inhabitants is much stronger, since the patio is in the habitation level.
And on the left, where there previously existed a ramp for cars to get all the way to the upper part of the building, we propose its removal and the making of a multi-story public room, that connects the city and the inhabitants almost as a fourth patio.It is a Green house by day but can also provide closer moments with the community, when part of the spaces close and a film is projected.
Section Three
The main focus of this section is to show how the apartments can be inhabited in different ways by different people.It’s also possible to see it’s relation with the rest of the building and its surroundings
Work in collaboration with Carolina Moura and Luca Canfora
