SPACE AS CURRENCY[$$$] 4 TRADE : TOWARDS A NEW WAY OF DWELLING

Abstract

Flexibility became a widespread design buzzword in the 1960s in response to new demands placed on buildings, particularly in housing. Family sizes were going through rapid changes in composition and expectations of comfort and efficiency became a main priority as well. In the context of Singapore, where HDB [Housing & Development Board] plays a major role since its inception in the 60s to introduce a high-rise and high-density living seems to have provided flawed and deterministic housing prototypes to facilitate the nation of Singapore. Thus this is where the systems thinking of “space-as-currency-4-trade” comes in playing a major role by asking the question, “Can our current living spaces adapt to accommodate changes in our life-cycles?” This thesis seeks to examine current systems and prototypical strategies deployed by HDB [Housing & Development Board] in the crafting of housing blocks to re-create a new system that will govern the design of a new typology of public housing. The architecture of housing, apart from it being a highly standardized subject, must be able to accommodate and allow for change as all advocates of flexibility such as John Habraken, J.F.C Turner and Nabeel Hamdi have come to recognize in their works. Space-as-currency-4-trade is simply a system that allows for negotiation between neighbours to personalize their households depending on their own needs. In every negotiation, the medium of exchange is usually money but in this project, space becomes the new currency.