A GUIDE TO HOUSING BOTTOM UP COMMUNITIES

Abstract

This thesis attempts to introduce an alternative system of public housing which emphasises on the growth of bottom-up communities as a critique towards the overly planned top-down public housing system in Singapore. There is a need for a shift from the centralised hierarchical (convergence towards a single narrative) to the dynamic hierarchical (diverging into endless possibilities), introducing the element of contingency within a framework to create self-organising communes beyond mere showcase of designed democracy.

The project structures a set of spatial rules as a form of participatory game involving the authority, existing residents, potential residents and the architect. The design exploration focuses on the methods of collaboration between the individual-individual, individuals-community and community-community. The residents no longer own simply the boundary of a unit but the whole spatial environment reflecting the complex relationship. This is shaped through repeated iteration to mitigate the spatial requirements, connect new residents with bonds, managing the sharing quantum while maintaining privacy, and other architecture conditions. This scenario-based design exemplifies intensive networks within and between communities - a characteristic of the internet world - now converted into the physical environment. From the exercise, a set of step-by-step guideline to a bottom up community is generated, illustrating a possible method of collaborative design.