This is another example
of minimalist housing. Add in common
services as well and it really works.
Actually why do we not provide comfortable bedrooms alone even hanging
from chains alongside a redesigned fire exit stack for example to provide easy
egress and access to common facilities.
Or simply build a stair
stack that protects from vile weather but allows several bedrooms per level
with excellent open air access. Three
such stories with perhaps as many as ten units gives us a community of thirty
for common facilities. This is not improbable
and can surprise.
We need to be
thinking along these lines. And the sooner the better. Renting out the cellar room in a rundown
seventy old building is hardly a first choice anywhere and this is surely
better.
Bamboo Micro House
proposed to shelter Hong Kong's homeless
March 2, 2014
In a bid to ease the plight of the homeless
living in Hong Kong and other cities throughout southeast Asia, architectural
studio AFFECT-T recently designed the Bamboo Micro-House prototype. The firm
proposes that the tiny bamboo dwellings, which can be placed nearby other units
to form small communities within Hong Kong's disused industrial buildings,
would serve as temporary shelter while the occupants secure more stable and
permanent public housing.
Gizmag has featured several low-cost bamboo
housing prototypes before, including the Blooming Bamboo home
and the Bamboo Lakou vision
for Haiti, but the units designed for this project are on a much smaller scale.
The two-story prototype unit featured here measures just 15 sq m (161 sq ft),
while still featuring a living area, kitchenette, bathroom, fold-out dining
table, work area, and sleeping quarters. Different sized units can also be
combined to form larger areas for things like communal dining, games or
education.
The idea is that numerous units could be
combined into larger groupings making them suitable for individuals, couples or
families. Individual "homes" would have their own water, electricity
and waste disposal, while groups of units would share cooling, heating and be
protected from the elements by the larger industrial structure in which they
are located. The modularity of the transitional housing system would also allow
the number of units to grow and shrink with demand.
AFFECT-T says the units would be constructed
quickly and cheaply using local materials, with the pattern of the curved
rattan pieces linking the walls and ceiling able to be varied to provide more
or less ventilation and privacy as required. Such housing would be an
improvement for the more than 280,000 people AFFECT-T estimates are currently
living on the streets of Hong Kong without a permanent home.
There are also other designs slated for
construction, including larger units and one suitable for disabled people.
The prototype Bamboo Micro-House can be viewed
at an interactive display at the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale
exhibition.
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