Constructing agency 2017-2019

oikos

Studio Shajay Bhooshan / Alicia Nahmad Vasquez

Team Taizhong Chen (China), Jianfei Chu (China), Cesar Fragachan (Venezuela), Melis Küçüktunç (Turkey)

Our research is focused on contempo¬rary design, fabrication technologies and trends in contemporary living. The project is interested in adaptive models of living considering the changes in social behaviour towards a time-based environment. We are developing an architectural rule-set that empowers people to participate in the design process of their homes.

Social dynamics shape our communities and constantly evolve, adapting to various socio-economic, cultural, technological and environmental factors. Today, our living requirements are unpredictable and most likely will not be the same in the next several years, possibly even months, or weeks depending on one's specific circumstances and immediate context. We are interested in an architecture that can account for these changes and accommodate an individual's circumstances throughout time by envisioning a dynamic housing system.

To investigate this aim we evaluated behavioural tendencies of specific groups of people through a simulated environment, notably 'game theory'. Each 'player' has local and global consequences within the social-networks and the spatial configuration of the system. This allows for an environment where diverse decision trees allow for user participation and account for an organic emergence of self-organising communities.

We have been developing our architectural language through the use of robotic hot wire cutting. The housing units are composed by the configuration of mass-customised prefabricated joints and furniture blocks. These systems ideally would allow a rich exchange of relations between individuals having a direct impact on the overall spatial configuration of their communities within a specific contextual environment. Ultimately, these bottom-up organisations will accommodate the complexity and diversity of the city through local specificity in hands of its inhabitants.