Episode 16: Four Dimensional Housing
Four Dimensional Housing
Text & Graphics Courtesy of Bryan Samuel, Drew Kaczmareck, Sabrina Nagel, & Samson Aching; Audio Hosts: Austin Raimond & Ken Filler
Our fantasies are changing. Working class dreams of backyard football and white picket fences have been superseded by neighborhood coffee shops and walking distance grocers. This shift from privacy to community prioritizes people over space - and successful communities attract more people. This is the dilemma that faces most of our great cities. The demand for high quality urban living is greater than our capability to supply reasonable accommodation, and the price of admission is reaching unreasonable premiums. As costs per sq ft soar, residents are turning toward smaller and smaller housing arrangements to find some semblance of affordability.
But space is not the solution.
An adoption of minimalism has dovetailed nicely with these rising economic pressures. The age of more could not have sustained the advent of micro-housing, but an emphasis on experientialism over materialism has led to an acceptance of apartments smaller than 400 square feet, then 300. But this race to the bottom is unsustainable for long-term human habitation.
The solution is time.
There is more than enough built space in cities to shelter residents, but most of the day it sits vacant. Empty homes await owners returning from jobs, working to pay for spaces they don’t fully use. Four Dimensional Architecture introduces the layer of time to the housing equation, empowering participants to use what they need, when they need it. It challenges the traditional model of absolute ownership, creating economic and spatial efficiencies through sharing.
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Our proposal looks at Rome as a case study for the Four Dimensional Architectural model. The first part of our proposal looks at the existing housing stock, suggesting a kit of retrofit elements designed to subdivide and diversify space, allowing anyone to maximize the economic potential of their home. This commodification of domestic space reduces financial barriers to enter the housing market and incentivizes the cultivation of high quality and unique spaces. For example, square footage costs once prohibited the creation of nonessential spaces, but now potential income generation makes it financially feasible to pursue passion projects such as woodshops or darkrooms. The platform also allows for altruistic participants to easily open their doors to the homeless or low income renters.
The second part of the proposal examines new construction developed under the guidelines of Four Dimensional Architecture. Sharing allows for fewer, but larger, spaces - not every household requires a kitchen for 24 hours a day, for example. Aligning parties by function and schedule allows for maximum efficiency. To further the proposal, we imagine a prototypical development in the airspace above Roma Termini Station. A superstructure and module system developed by the declining Italian supercar industries can provide something Italy desperately needs: quality affordable housing.