Constructing agency 2016-2018

CLOUD LIVING

Studio Shajay Bhooshan / Alicia Nahmad Vasquez

Team Leo Claudius Bieling (Germany), Basant Elshimy (Egypt), Ariadna Lopez Rodriguez (Mexico)

Own nothing, access everything; that is the aim of Cloud Living. An increase in demand for subscription services such as Netflix, Adobe CreativeCloud and DriveNow raise the question of an architectural manifestation for a subscription living model, where there are no tenants but rather subscribers. Cloud Living explores the benefits of subscription, including scalability and exchangeability of home functions which are transformed by data collection on usage and peer-to-peer space exchange.
Cloud Living proposes subscription living as a model of collaborative consumption, where the cost of living is not borne by an individual, but rather negotiated within a larger group. The aim is to build a dynamic community in Inner City London which is fostered by technologies which enable data-driven design and combinatorial spatial customization. This yields a contemporary living model which adapts to the increasingly complex lifestyle of the subscriber in high density cities. The proposal is comprised of robotically woven reinforced fiberglass components and a light weight timber structure assembled from developable surfaces. This method combines geometry, fabrication and statics within a digital common ground. Cloud Living targets underutilised plots dispersed through East-Central London requiring phased construction to exploit the potential of infill sites.
The living model implements seven subscription categories, each one of them catering to user-specific spatial requirements. Those spatial requirements are manifested architecturally through customized three-dimensional weaving in the form of hyperbolic paraboloids which range in terms of size, portability and complexity. Coupled with the timber structure, the hyperbolic paraboloids are used as a tool for subdivision and further spatial customization. Cloud Living challenges current concepts of home ownership by means of subscription living, where the subscriber owns nothing yet has access to everything.