This project entailed an original design for an apartment building located at the Sydney Film School in Redfern. The building was to be designed for a social experiment which includes inserting two demographics, young (20-30) and semi-retired (55-65), into a multi residential building that also acts as their work place. It is this combination of working and living that creates a dynamic and interesting project.
My design was inspired by the Superdesk project by the Barbarian Group. This precedent included a large desk that folds and bends around the existing structure. Within my design a large “super-desk” runs through the centre of the building, drawing residents out of their compact apartments and encouraging interaction. The structure folds into rooms and acts as entrances into each apartment. A perpendicular structure runs where each apartment begins, this acts as a shared dining table and entrance point for the neighbouring units. The apartments are set up like camping sites with no walls between kitchen spaces. This results in the dwelling spaces being inside the apartment, living spaces in the semi private kitchen area and working space in the centre.