Description:

The threat of global warming calls for changes in the way we live, and how we fill in the gaps of our cities with transformative and regenerative typologies. Additionally, the densification of cities are forcing us to live in higher-rise buildings. This poses the question: could the traditional infill apartment floorplan and material composition be challenged? The Camp-Out is a brief that hopes to answer the question:“Given the need of adaptation to the ever-changing nature of living, how can transformable design foster the creative inhabitation of high rise timber structures?”

The project takes inspiration from the No-stop city, Zip up house and Ken Isaac furniture design to produce a regenerative apartment and commercial complex that inhabitates a 4m narrow infill volume at 24 metre height. The design explores the interlocking of two separate units which façades are characterised by personalised timber modules prefabricated utilising reclaimed materials at the bottom timber workshop.

The design process involved active exploration of transformable timber parts at multiple scales. From the smallest portmanteau which looked at folding volumes, and the blur between inside and outside, to the one-room building that explored the basic timber skeleton which can be inserted with a set of opening modules customisable based on the one living habits. Active mapping were also carried out to argue that the designer provides library of parts which the users then freely explore, thus, how efficient the library of parts are delivered may affect how creative the result of living may be reflected within a space. These experiments were then taken into a much larger object- an infill building that is only 4m in width.

The structure is divided in three sections, with the north containing main living functionalities such as the bedroom and living, south containing services such as the kitchen and bathroom, and the centre populated with light coming from the atrium of the shared space. With customizable elements inserted as panels for each of the living pods, the facade appears as an expression of the inhabitant’s personalities and living style. To acknowledge nature as an inhabitant itself, green wall panels populate the space through the public stairwell as well as the façades, emphasizing the sense of coexistence and transformation over time, with the possibility of a complete nature take over once the building is no longer inhabited.

Two separate stairs running on either side allowed for the two groups of users to have their individual circulations without interruption, while also allowing for irregular interior heights and half levels, breaking the conventional floors of living, and allowing for adaptation as more inhabitants wish to live in the building in the future.

The neighboring building is designed by Tzu Shou Huang, and the shared laneway in the middle are designed as a group as a creative ground for timber reclaim and reuse.