COLLABORATIVE HOUSING FOR SMALL-SIZE HOUSEHOLDS

Abstract

By 2030, there will be an increasingly significant percentage of small-size households among Singapore resident population. This phenomenon has been built up with the rising trend of singles, independent elderly, single parents and childless or one-child families in the recent years (Population White Paper and HDB Department Statistics of 2012). The average number of persons in a household is now 3.4 as compared to 4.8 twenty years ago. With this prevailing shift in resident population, my thesis questions how should housing arrangement adjusts accordingly. Currently, the needs of these small-size households are not ideally met in conventional public housing arrangement. Underutilized kitchen in normal everyday scenario, occasional need for space to host gathering, lacking hobby space for some and rising interest in SOHO typology to allow the flexibility of working from home are among the problems often encountered by this small profile group. In addition, the need for community help is relevant because of its very nature being small in size; they have less chance to be self-sufficient in performing their daily household tasks. Either busy working couple with a child that no one to look after, single professionals who lack time to cook but desires home-cooked food or elderly couple who wish to feel useful to others; these small-size households may find community help extremely useful.

With these two primary needs of small-size households, namely oversupply/ undersupply of spaces in a house as well as the desire for community help, my thesis proposes a collaborative housing model which reduces private space to the essential minimum and to take out domestic spaces that are not necessarily private to be provided at various levels of sharing. Each dwelling unit consists of most private space [bedroom, bathroom, private study area and small pantry]; the core wet areas are in the middle of the unit to free up the side walls for access to shared spaces. Semi-outdoor space between 2 private dwelling units is shared for hobby space or client-meeting space. In the next level, 8-12 private dwelling spaces are sharing common but less-private spaces in a house such as living space, dining space, large kitchen, garden, laundry area and store space within a cluster domestic unit – as if a house beyond a house. The subsequent level of sharing involves inter-cluster level which allows for exchange of collaborative services in the form of voluntary help or home business (tuition, child-sitting, design meeting with client, skill-sharing class, etc.) to happen near home. The thesis proposal seeks to accommodate housing needs of small-size households in a way that allows collaborative synergy in the everyday scenario.