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Condition_Lab is a Design Research Laboratory based within the School of Architecture at CUHK. Established in 2018, our primary focus is to improve people’s lives through design.
The Lab’s research resolves around designing socially responsible architectural prototypes. By working hand-in-hand with local partners on real sites, our aim is to develop projects that foster a better sense of community. The prototype acts as a vessel to generate new knowledge about how people inhabit their environment.
Our philosophy revolves around the paradox embedded into the word “condition”, as a noun it refers to a context, a circumstance, or a situation, while as a verb it implies change - to condition something based on an original state.
Condition_Lab © 2021 School of Architecture,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
All Projects
︎︎︎Research
︎︎︎Teaching
︎︎︎Design
News
People
Contact
Outreach
Facebook
Instagram
Issuu
Wechat
Condition_Lab is a Design Research Laboratory based within the School of Architecture at CUHK. Established in 2018, our primary focus is to improve people’s lives through design.
The Lab’s research resolves around designing socially responsible architectural prototypes. By working hand-in-hand with local partners on real sites, our aim is to develop projects that foster a better sense of community. The prototype acts as a vessel to generate new knowledge about how people inhabit their environment.
M1
Hong Kong, 2017
Hong Kong, 2017
Condition/ Together:
The Urban Residual Block
“I am searching for a new form of living – not shared flats, but houses that enable communal living in a larger context and encourage the creation of public spaces. My colleagues and I want to re-invent the urban residential block, providing public spaces that work without intruding on the privacy of the individual. The trend to living alone has proved to be negative, for someone in their twenties, its fine to live in a sublet. But it would be better if people could live together and contribute to the community”
(Sennett, 2016)
This studio tackles the issue of Density/Place in Hong Kong by investigating the notion of collective dwelling. Housing is scarce in Hong Kong, and conventional ideas of housing developments consistently prove unable to meet demands. The new economy of sharing which in recent years has manifested itself across various areas of society: Car sharing, Apartment sharing and Entrepreneurial sharing such as crowd funding have started to have an important impact on housing. An example of this paradigm shift are “Collective Housing” projects, where architects are able to propose unconventional solutions to contemporary social issues such as: ageing demographics and collective working.
The Urban Residual Block
“I am searching for a new form of living – not shared flats, but houses that enable communal living in a larger context and encourage the creation of public spaces. My colleagues and I want to re-invent the urban residential block, providing public spaces that work without intruding on the privacy of the individual. The trend to living alone has proved to be negative, for someone in their twenties, its fine to live in a sublet. But it would be better if people could live together and contribute to the community”
(Sennett, 2016)
This studio tackles the issue of Density/Place in Hong Kong by investigating the notion of collective dwelling. Housing is scarce in Hong Kong, and conventional ideas of housing developments consistently prove unable to meet demands. The new economy of sharing which in recent years has manifested itself across various areas of society: Car sharing, Apartment sharing and Entrepreneurial sharing such as crowd funding have started to have an important impact on housing. An example of this paradigm shift are “Collective Housing” projects, where architects are able to propose unconventional solutions to contemporary social issues such as: ageing demographics and collective working.
The studio’s contention is that Hong Kong should seek opportunities to densify within their existing territorial limits before the expansion of land surface is considered. Students will be asked to challenge the mono-functional housing model of the modern era, where non-residential functions can be used not only by residents but by people in the whole neighbourhood. Well-designed buildings alone cannot solve the housing problem, schemes must engage spatially and conceptually with their surrounding context if they are to become lively urban spaces rather than gated dormitory towers.
︎︎︎
Studio Brief
Studio Instructor
Prof. Peter W. Ferretto
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