We would like to, once again, thank all architectural designers who submitted quality designs and raised over 1000 USD for the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Response Fund. mOOO team will contact our winners, finalists and honourable mentions regarding details of our publications, Q&A interview and a non-monetary prize that we will be sending you. We would like to draw your attention to our public vote on Facebook as well. Please vote for your favourite team to win our special non-monetary prize!
WINNERS
T H E F L O A T – by Divjot Singh & Baldeep Singh
The Float is home for an Architect couple. This small home is divided into 3 zones – Live, Work and Play. The triangle being the most stable, forms the basic form of the structure, which will resist the tropical storms.
With the land being on full capacity of and now not being a safe place to live on, our design visualizes a possibility of another way of living after this worldwide lockdown where people will live in mobile and self-sustainable modules among the aquatic habitat. The sea air is charged with negative ions, which helps our body to absorb oxygen, improve alertness, and combat free radicals. They also balance the serotonin levels in our body, which is a chemical associated with mood and stress. Also, floating structures can have a positive effect on the aquatic environment. Inside the house, a dedicated work space is on the upper floor which helps set aside household distractions and focus on work. An underwater relaxation and play area will help to let go off all work pressure enjoying the beautiful aquatic life. The lowest part of the house contains the generator, bioreactor and energy storage which helps to produce power by harvesting the thermal mass of the ocean, force of tides and currents and converting waste into energy.
After the worldwide isolation and lockdown, the change in lifestyle of the people is bound to happen. People will start to incline themselves towards an improvised and sustainable way of living. People will start considering water as an option to start living on. With the concept of Floating Cities and underwater houses already in action, floating houses that are mobile and prefabricated and which can form a community in themselves will also looked upon.
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STRUCTURE TO BREATH MOTION TO HEAL – by MD. Galib Nur Anan, Shunila Binte Ahsan & Taorem Rahul Singha
The world after pandemic is both an age towards technology. The concept of work from home is also an outcome of technical advancement. But this pandemic has teaches us to how human system is certainly dependent on natural forces. So we tried to merge both the need of natural force & technical advancement.
The Idea was to design a system which will both meet our demand of nature & multifunctional spaces, again can also segregate spaces when it’s necessary.
Initially four blocks were divided according to functions (like- public, private, semiprivate & working spaces). Where these blocks are integrated by the core structural system. This structural system hold several plates. In the demand of segregation these plates works as balcony of the blocks. But when you need the integration of spaces this plates connect with each other, merge the blocks & act as multifunctional intermediate space.
Again this structure holds the vertical garden. Where in urban context being surrounded by the skyscraper the need of natural forces can be meet with this core vertical gardening. The functional blocks were designed around the central green space to meet the need of open air, green space, birds chirping, water-body, daylight & the nature we forgot in the city.
The motion of plates can break the monotony of life being inside the same environment. With the change of seasons. The house can bloom with different flowers, different environment & different smells of the nature . Again movement of the plates can integrate the bedroom with the studio or the living room with the family living or the study with the children bedroom or the studio with the office. Can create a central court to enjoy the green or the rain and sometimes just the balcony to enjoy the nature.
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Social Void – by Jerry Hacker
If nothing else, the pandemic places at the forefront of our everyday experience an incredibly important reminder for architects: The public realm truly is the soul of architecture and the city, and perhaps the soul of our lives. Devoid of meaningful shared relationships born in the collective domain the impacts of social isolation and self-quarantine can inflict a unique hardship on people of all generations. Surveying a day in pre-pandemic life reveals a series of critical shared social interactions, the ease and frequency of which are taken for granted. In post-pandemic life, a strong social media and technological link strive to create meaningful connection at a distance but somehow lack the depth, intimacy and natural bond that occurs effortlessly in physical space.
As a conceptual departure, Social Void attempts to re-conceptualize the metaphorical and literal divide arising from social distancing by using this emergent phenomenon as the basis to structure and foster respectful yet robust public engagement. Under this lens the 2m grid becomes the starting point in developing an urban plan, a series of urban armatures, and an architecture in plan and section that all operate as infrastructure capable of creating a new type of void in the public realm: a spatial void primed for social occupation and connection at a distance.
This social engagement tool works at the scale of the residence, the neighbourhood and the community creating an interwoven tapestry of public and private spaces curated to allow people to remain in strong dialogue with one another while respecting the personal space and health rights of others. By virtue of the social void becoming the ‘figure’ of the traditional figure-ground relationship, the urban fabric is highly porous admitting an abundance of fresh air and daylight, all the while creating a gradation of public-private experiences where people can holistically live, work, care for, plant, grow, play, and recreate in place because of a new type of social void in their lives.⠀⠀
FINALISTS
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- Hybrid-Home - by Seyed Mehdi Ghorashi Nezhad & Golnaz Barekatian Problem/ Solution Fit: COVID-19 pandemichas suddenly affected all aspects of our lives, including economy, social life and routines! The established routine of 8 hours work, 8 hours entertainment and 8 hours sleep are no more practical. Everything now must be adapted to the new normal. Action, Recreation and Restoration are all merged together under the same roof to begin a new lifestyle. It seems that this new normal is not temporary and has come to stay for a while. Hybrid approaches can be used to make the best of spaces when designing a house. A place for all! Unique Value Proposition: Everything is happening in a BOX. Fixed total area is the limiting factor when designing this place and everything needs to fit inside that box! Aren't we forgetting the fact that we have Z-axis to address this need? All the spaces can be moved and relocated along all axes. All realms can be expanded or shrunk on demand. For example, bring the working space to the front when you are productive or shift the exercising space to a higher level when you are done! Rotate your bedroom to the view you like the most or optimize the kitchen and saloon at parties. The entrance and disinfection chamber can be adapted to your needs. Hydroponic farming is a recyclable sterile method for dwellers to grow foods and vegetables. All these versions can be created and modified through Hybrid-Home applications, just like playing LEGO! ⠀
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- H.O.M.E. – Housing and Office Modular Environment Live-where-you-work-where-you-live.- by Ricardo Goncalves, Matheus Marques, Luis Favilla & Rolando Figueiredo The office building, symbol of the modern metropolis of the 20th century, presents itself now as an obsolete heritage given the ravaging power of a hidden enemy that forces us to seek shelter in our own homes. The financial districts, the large commercial centers with glass skyscrapers are pale, unrecognizable without the single element that gives them meaning: the people. Even after activities resume and a certain stability obtained, we know that our work relations will undergo profound changes that will directly affect the demand for office spaces. With more people working remotely, there is indication that commercial buildings may become less relevant, causing a reduced area needed by corporations to accommodate their staff. Granted that, what shall be the future of so many office buildings in the urban centers? Our proposal intends to transcend the individual, isolated residential scale and to imagine how we could recreate our cities in a post-Covid-19 world by radically transforming the existing commercial buildings. Our idea is to intensify mixed use by utilizing the structure of these buildings to promote a direct symbiosis between office and habitation. Within current commercial towers, a few office floors would have their uses maintained, being interspaced with new residential floors. Different apartment layouts would be vertically connect to at least one office module in a newly devised “plug-in type” connection system. In this way, the residents guarantee an adequate workspace, free from domestic interferences, but directly connected to home nonetheless. In contrast, the offices may function with independent access though their exclusive hallway, maintaining the necessary professional atmosphere between clients and external staff. With this system, we have achieved the ideal level of proximity between house and work. The rooftop of these buildings would provide essential green and leisure areas to fulfil our permanent need of external contact, a commodity that, in the post-Covid-19 world, is as rare as precious for all those who felt the artificiality of the enclosed spaces of current apartments. ⠀
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- WFM (Work-From-Maze) - by andrew magnus Lately, my small studio apartment has fel like a maze. Not physically - it is impossible to get lost in the one room - but with political misconduct and horrifying economic prospects it's becoming harder and harder to navigate the world and architecture's role in it. My bed is on one side of the room, my desk at the other, and in between are the kitchen, the bathroom, a yoga mat, and a closet. The distance between work and home, despite being about 10 steps, is a journey. Yet, perhaps there are merits to a maze: the sense of exploration, the excitement approaching a corner, or the achievement of emerging safely. This proposal elevates our physical realities to match the mental gymnastics needed to make it through each passing day. It jumbles and compartmentalizes the tasks of the day, and emphasizes the journey between and among these non-rooms. And it counters the blinding optimism of designers to suggest that the strange and unnatural might grow to become normal. ⠀
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- Living in the Manifold - by Yuanyuan Dong & Yue He Architecture has always been about physical presence, but COVID-19 is challenging this assumption. While our home is constrained to an isolated three-dimensional physical space, the virtual world connects us in physically impossible ways. Mathematically speaking, cameras and screens, as the extension of physical space to the virtual world, connect us through a 3-manifold in a high-dimensional virtual space. Under this new topology, we redefine programs of single- person live-work units following two principles: First, the manifold changes the functional requirement of some programs: work, socializing, and entertainment are happening online, so the living room, office, and gym are redesigned as interfaces to the virtual world. We change the forms of these programs accordingly. For example, the living room is no longer the center of circulation, and its size is reduced because we do not need to have a traditional gathering space to physically host guests. Second, food storage, home growing, trash disposal and contact-free delivery become new rituals that require physical interactions. Physical spaces for these programs are reconfigured and placed in more prominent positions. For example, the home garden, an enlarged balcony, is designed as the center of circulation, because outdoor experience is rare and precious during worldwide isolation. The central position of the home garden also encourages food-growing at home, which may help regional food shortage during the isolation. The home garden is connected to other food-related programs in an integrated space, creating an efficient food growing-preparing-disposal cycle. Our manifold perspective is an initial step towards rethinking the role of architectural design under worldwide isolation, whose effect will linger even after the pandemic. We hope Living in the Manifold will spark discussions about the symbiosis of virtual and physical worlds in architecture design and promote a self-sustained lifestyle under physical isolation. ⠀
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- House in an Orchard - Theodora Beckett & Christopher Nils Shaw The design is a response to the feeling of timelessness one experiences during self isolation and working from home. As the days and months pass by, it is easy to feel disconnected from reality as our lives settle into a simpler routine. House in an Orchard uses natural light, spatial hierarchy and the vibrant seasonality of fruit trees to create external time givers, allowing the occupants to adapt to a new daily rhythm based on changes in nature. The house proposes separate spaces for working, private living and gardening, establishing a distinction between each of these activities during the day. The office is connected to the main house via a covered walkway that frames views of the surrounding orchard and provides a sheltered place to experience the weather. Each morning, the occupants are awoken by light that enters the bedroom through a large skylight to the east. As the sun moves through the sky, windows are positioned to bring light into spaces as they are used. The kitchen is designed to be accessed throughout the day and as the central point of circulation. The courtyard garden contains raised beds to create a supplement food supply and promote healthy mental wellbeing. Fruit trees were chosen for the scheme not only because they provide an abundant crop during late summer but for the striking visual changes each tree shows throughout the year. From the fragrant white blossom and verdant leaves of spring, to russet leaves falling in autumn, each season provides a sense of time. ⠀
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- All in the Radius - Emma Ng & Maple He We believe that a great work-life home extends beyond its borders. A great-work life home is supported by its community and its environment. Public space, greenspace and energy efficient systems equip the work-life home and its dweller, with personal resilience, social resilience, and environmental resilience. In the post pandemic future, tight knit and self-sufficient communities will become ever more important. Our isometric pictures a series of four modular work-life homes arranged radially around a green courtyard to provide greenspace and neighborly interactions. This ensures that each home has equal access to fresh air and greenspace to sustain both physical and mental health, necessary for personal resilience. Homes are also positioned around the courtyard so neighborly interactions are frequent and socialization is easy, allowing for the development of social resilience. Neighbors strolling will cross paths in the courtyard, chat to each other from their stoops/steps, wave from their balconies and even join in on a friendly game of frisbee. The work-life home itself is designed as a resilient, efficient and enjoyable home. The home is supported by renewable energy, including solar and geothermal and collected rainwater supplies bathroom and garden water. Large balconies (100ft2) and porches provide ample space for fruitful gardens and a supply of fresh produce. These are the operating systems of this home. Within, the spaces provide an excellent balance for work and life, and a balance between the public and private. On the first floor, the main living spaces including the kitchen, the lounge and the dining table face the public side of the house and near the courtyard. This allows the occupant to engage in community from their own home. The home office is tucked away towards the back of the home, for greater privacy with a separate door for guests. The home worker enjoys dual views of greenspace, in a corner position. Taking the interior stairs to the second floor leads to the personal spaces, where there is a large space for indoor exercise or hobbies, and the bedroom. The exterior stairs connect the lounge and office to the balcony, creating a continuation of these spaces in an outdoor setting. The balcony provides personal greenspace, and respite, where one can lounge and eat, or work in privacy. In conclusion, each home is designed to be an efficient and resilient home, which also balances the needs for public and private spaces in the work-live lifestyle. ⠀
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- Staying Connected During Isolation - by Alejandro Favero In the wake of this pandemic, and the new normal of working from home, something that has become increasingly apparent is our need for tangible connection with others. Engagement with friends, neighbors, and coworkers, these things are essential for a person’s wellbeing and unfortunately these needs have been significantly affected by this new reality. We have been doing our best to stay connected digitally, through our screens, phones, and online personas, and while all these tools have helped immensely, these methods can only ever do so much to replace real interaction. Responding to this, the design of these units seeks to reflect the desire for closeness in a time where that is not necessarily an option, and provide for moments of connection, however small, in day to day life. The forms of the units hug each other, without ever touching, and while separate, are still connected through two extrusions serving as balconies. There is separation, but still a sense of connection and unity. And while the inhabitants go about each day spending time working and living in the same handful of spaces, there are periodic breaks in this potential monotony, as carefully placed apertures allow for temporary connections with the neighbor, chances for visual connection and interaction. Each unit has private spaces and windows, as well as scattered openings overlooking the shared balconies and each other, this being an effort to strike a balance between privacy and connection with one’s neighbor. Of course, this is not how it will always be, as eventually things will return to normal, as they always have done. The connecting balconies of these particular inhabitants have been turned into a shared garden space, and knowing that this isolation is temporary, they look forward to being able to tend to these spaces together again soon. ⠀
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- InDENSE Hong Kong - by Gayathri Sivakumar & Ethan Chiang Our design responds to one of Hong Kong’s biggest issues - DENSITY. Social distancing measures, combined with a lack of space, can make living at home feel confining rather than comforting. As citizens of Hong Kong, we wanted to address this by creating a prototype for a typical 495 sq ft public housing apartment, which is traditionally pre-fabricated, modular and intended for a family of three. In this regard, the design hopes to address the scale of a larger community. Building in a tiny apartment requires space saving configurations, so we first introduced a rotating wall that uncovers a professional workspace; one that is physically separated, yet visually connected. The second element is a deep platform, which allows families to hide a large sofa, household objects, and a full-size dining table entirely from view. Thus, the living space has the potential to be entirely open plan, and can cater for exercise, social gatherings and a children’s playpen. The platform’s timber surfaces also have a soft underside, which can be used as comfortable seating for working. A detachable kitchen counter also doubles as another mobile workstation. On the other hand, the lofted bedroom brings intimacy by reducing the sense of scale, and provides a sheltered space for the child and family gatherings. We chose to represent our design using a 360° rotational isometric drawing to show four distinct times of day, and to express the flexible functions of each space. The transformations help to enforce a sense of routine, as families must create the spaces to suit their work-life needs. By incorporating motion and negating the static, this urban condenser liberates the constraints of a tiny home, and allows for a highly multi-functional way of work/life. ⠀
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- MicroHome Office: Let’s install it - by Pronoy Chowdhurym, Anirudva Bhowmik & Fahad Khan "Intelligence is the ability to adopt to change"- Stephen Hawking. Where change is a necessary in this period of pandemic situation to work from home or home office concept, a minor thoughtful change may impact much as well as practical enough. Thus our focus is to create a simple minor change in home to transform it into an office and to reuse it. House is the space where people of different profession live together. The objective of this project was to design a platform for that may welcome different types of professionals simultaneously. At the same time transformation of home into an office requires flexibility of space which is our main concept. The proposal stands for the installation of that flexible modules which can serve people of different profession by creating interesting spaces for work. The proposed integrated space modules can be converted into a formal office space (while working with a laptop on a table top) when necessary or a flexible dining table or can be used as partition wall of required dimension. This multipurpose spaces is lightweight, thin and easy moveable as polypropylene has been used as the filler material. It also offers to create outdoor office in rooftop or terrace as getting fatigue while working long time in a closed space is a common for the office workers. This modules also give enough flexibility to create space closed (i.e: for making VR conference room) or open (i.e outdoor horticulture) according to the necessity of the worker and can be adjustable in any type of home weather it’s congested or free. And it can be kept folded within only 5ft if necessary. ⠀
HONOURABLE
MENTIONS
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- OFFICE CONCLUSUS - by Sara Maria Camagni
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- FLEXi-OFFi-HOMiE - by Jiachen Du, Qiongsen Jin & Yuxuan Lin
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- Plato’s Cave - Jan Dabrowski
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- OIKO SYNERGY - by Francesca Rausa & Rallou Grigoropoulou
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- Copper Conversations - Corrie Graham
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- TRANSFORMATION STUDENT HOUSING COVID-19 CRISIS - by Leslie Ing and Fenna Regenboog
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- TERRACE TRACED HOUSE - by Thadtham Semaeakarat
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- CO-VIVE, N° 19 - by Helia Rasouli & Mahsa Taslimi
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- Kakuri no Niwa 隔離の庭 - The Isolation Garden - by Matthew Lam
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- HOUSING PLUG-IN - by Mario González & José Antonio Portero
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- THE LIVING HOUSE - by Adil Imran, Syafiq Karim & Nadiy Abdul Rahim
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- mOOO-NA LISA - by Elif Ekinci
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- Living Through the Aquarium - by Ahmad Saefudin Ferdiansyah
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- (encapsulate): A spherical response to an ongoing crisis. - by Erika Ruth L. Florendo & Kelvin D. Magno
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- ISOLATED UNITY - by Zheng Yin & Sihan Li
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- HomeBound - by Celdin Fajardo
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- Pixel-culture: Exploring the new work x live x grow typology - by Nathan Keebler
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- RoomInsideRoom - Rossella Cappellone, Antonella Stefania Cataneo & Nicolò Cinti
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- Home -office whit a gap - by Gerardo Fosado Rodríguez
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- THE HOUSE OF JHAROKAS - by Ashish Rao & Maanit Bajaj
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- Project by Pau Hiu Wing Kathy, Tong Samuel Ho Yin & Yiu Chi Ho Kenny
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- Al ONE - by Mincho Stoyanov
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- THE NOMADIC MODULE ECOLOGY - by Sarah Kemali
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- Space in Space - by Serra Utkum Ikiz