A NIMBLE PLANE: FORMING COLLECTIVES



CO-LIVING AND WORKING SPACE



EAST PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, AMERICA

S1-2018/19

INSTRUCTOR: NEERAJ BHATIA

COOPERATED WITH: THOMAS DEVORE




People in the Bay Area find themselves in an increasingly precarious situation. They cannot afford to invest in capital (property) and they are often paid in promises (stock options). This precarious class either commutes long distances from outside the city, or lives in cramped conditions in the city. Both spaces, small apartment and office, fail to provide space for meeting people or hosting friends. Meanwhile, there is a trend of the living and working realms collapsing: people work from home and offices attract talent with more home-like amenities.


We propose an architecture that leverages the collapse of traditional barriers between the living and working realms in order to create an infrastructure for sharing space based on time. Three architectural interfaces will mediate this sharing: a single floor plane, curtain walls (both fabric and glass), and flexible furniture.


The project is situated in the post-industrial sector of East Palo Alto, adjacent to Bay Road, the main artery through the city, and the Bay Trail. This land is in a present-day flood zone, and will continue to experience more frequent flooding until it is underwater due to sea level rise. This project exposes these forces as experiential factors inside the building. It allows the tides to change it. Incorporating the changes of the sea with the changing states of living and working, the project attempts to embrace and mediate complexity, rather than separate and ignore it.



Living Condition Plan



Working Condition Plan



Working Area



The floor plane connects all program elements together. Permanent, structural living communities are evenly dispersed throughout a continuous plane of flexible open space; The curtain walls define and divide space, forming enclosures that mediate different environmental conditions. The glass curtain walls form pockets of exterior space and the different kinds of fabric curtain walls can be pulled out to temporarily define the program and conditions of interior space based on the time of the day and the day of the week; Flexible furniture is deployed to allow time-shared space to adapt to changing programs.



Working Area



Adaptation of sea level changing The sliding doors can move and connect multiple rooms. Water level changes the position of living units and views from the bedroom.



Working Areas



Adaptation of curtain and furniture changing Curtains generate different areas under different conditions and blur the working and living areas.



View in the Working Area



Furniture Design: Flexible Chair and Adaptable Table



Flexible furniture is deployed to allow time-shared space to adapt to changing programs. Café tables can fold up and roll away to clear a dancefloor, desks can lock up and become counter tops, lounge chairs can be reconfigured to form large group cuddle pads.



3275 Peralta St, Oakland, California 94608, USA