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.