For the Term 2019-2020 ARCH 301 focuses on the design of a an important old urban settlement, known as one of the most symbolical places of Ankara- namely the Ulus Central District. The region is conceived as a study project for the re-vitalization of the existing historical square (Ulus Square) and central district (including the Market hall and the mosque) as well as the degraded area on the southern side of Sulu Han.
ARCH 301 focuses on the design of a moderate scale urban development that includes a main component of housing units together with other mixed functions differently integrated in the plan. In particular, the housing component serves as a typological framework to test a set of basic principles in the design of buildings. The course mainly promotes the construction of an integrated urban community where students are expected to explore components and concepts such as social housing, experimental communal living, co-housing, collective living, services and facilities, community housing, new configurations of private and public sphere.
Among these, the idea of cohousing seems quite to fit the aim, for it implies a type of intentional community composed of private homes supplemented by shared facilities. The community is planned, owned and managed by the residents, who also share activities which may include cooking, dining, child care, gardening, and governance of the community. Common facilities may include a kitchen, dining room, laundry, child care facilities, offices, guest rooms, and recreational features. Cohousing eventually enables interaction among neighbors for social and practical benefits, economic and environmental benefits. The design of such a community, due both to its peculiar typology of dwelling and building (less compartmentalized the former, more specialized the latter), offers an opportunity to explore and question the very idea of domestic habitat, the ultimate role of communal life, new and alternative relationships between private and public realms. Therefore, particular emphasis is given to innovative and experimental trends in the design of residential neighborhoods.
Studio: ARCH 301 Fall 2018
Instructor(s): Özge Selen Duran, Mark Paul Frederickson, Giorgio Gasco, Maysam Foolady, Ahmet Ünveren
