Northshore RIBA Competition

Concept and Aerial view of the development

REPORT

The housing facilities is intended for the up-to-date needs of modern families (mainly with children). We all want to live “with a view”. We all want the exceptional, but at the same price (literally & metaphorically). We all want to live in our privacy, but have the possibility of a joyful neighbourhood. Where our friends would like to come to meet us. Where to know our neighbours’ personality and help each other in friendly manners. We all want our products meet all the technical requirements, to perform at their best: also our homes.

But at the same time we all want to live into emotions.

Emotions brought by our familiars and relatives, by work successes and friendship warmth. Emotions that often come also alone for ourselves’ intimacy. Laws, norms, documentations, requirements, long-lasting: all to be fulfilled but still basic in our lives. We need emotions and spaces where they can act and be cultivated.

So it is necessary to come to architecture as an “emotional rescue”.

Different typologies of building, yet still being part of the same recognizable “pod” family, with a traditional inner configuration (not so strange frills) and a modern touch in the external appearance, with a strong unifier value to strengthen the idea of community. Be a part of it!

Buildings, mainly with houses with their own external entrance, made of 2/3 and 4 floors. Inner “loggias” for living the outdoor indoor, stay together with the family in the summer evenings, and eat protected from wind and rain. Directly facing the living room. Huge social spaces, connecting the pods, which want to be part of the everyday community life: children grouping, adult barbeques, chit-chat and recipes q&a. Those decks, connecting social to private everyone life, also offer shelters for ground level car parking, and could be appropriately opened and punctured to let light go through and form a ground-level playground (visually connected with the upper deck for parents’ safety). Each face forming each pod could be basically of three types (precast): void (glazings and shutters), plain (plastered wall, décor or wooden panels), solar & thermal-solar panels (low energy attitude, south-southeast and south-southwest sides).

From west to east (river) the height of pods is decreasing, and the orientation of each pod let almost every family have their own river view. By the river a one-storey sinuous building let people walk over it and enjoy river view (light & colours!) from a privileged point of view without loosing stroll fluidity nor disturbing inhabitant privacy.

Outdoor spaces are made of a grid of green areas, with different types of plants, so that the artificial (pods) seems natural and nature seems quite ordinate and user-friendly. Water games, pools and humid refreshments are part of the area, intersecting the most important pathways to the river. Pedestrian pathways, cycleways runs west-east and south-north also in the inner part of the plot, while small roads for cars are mainly on the borders, being the parking lots near to where live is (our homes).