Towards an inclusive Living Environment

Students of the Elective Studio Towards an inclusive Living Environment design a residential, residential + mixed function or alternative project in an urban environment. The main question of this elective is to what extend can architecture provide an inclusive and healthy living environment for all. To understand the needs of the people within the selected environment (understanding and analyzing), the elective starts with a short phase of human-centered research (visual anthropology, participation and/or interviews) and the evaluation of the outcomes. Then, design work starts, done individually.

Each semester the design assignment may be different from the one before. It includes projects for special groups of our society(more vulnerable people like the elderly, children, people who need care...) or it focuses more on the topic of a health promotion or a specific health care environment. The design may end up in a series of small scale interventions, a design of a transformation of one or more existing buildings or the design of new building(s).

At the core of each studio lies the question: what does an Inclusive and Healthy Living Environment mean for the architecture? What is needed in the (sub-)urban environment? We will explore the question by looking at one chosen neighborhood as a multi-domain structure and by working on different scales. Each semester we try to closely work together with the target group themselves, municipalities and housing associations. We will discuss new ideas for an inclusive living environment.

A Research Report: a written document made by the whole group about the human centered fieldwork, done in the neighborhood. Students deliver a Draft version after 4 weeks and will get feedback to be able to finalize the product until the end of the course. The assessment will be supplemented with an oral presentation to explain the product directly after the fieldwork phase of the first weeks. The report has to be delivered halfway or in consultation with the tutors, at the end of the course.

A1 poster Drawings: Students make A1 posters of their design. One day before the end-presentation they have to be delivered and uploaded on Brightspace. The end-presentation will be held in week 4.10. Process Presentations will be held throughout the course; Exact requirements to be announced at the start of the studio.

The design project is awarded a grade that is a whole or half number between 1.0 and 10.0. Students pass the course with a 6.0 or higher. With a grade below 6.0: students who presented assessable work during the course are allowed to do a repair to change the grade into a ‘pass’. The repair is unsupervised and needs to be completed within 2 weeks after the end of the course. When the repair is unsuccessful, the student needs to follow the entire course again.