Connection and Differentiation: Housing for an Urban Renaissance

As architects and planners explore ways to re-introduce housing and attract a stable population into the higher densities of urban environments, the inadequacies of both traditional urban and suburban models of housing become apparent. Issues such as entry, flow of interior space, connection between interior and exterior, dwelling identifiability, relation to the greater urban fabric and others present themselves as fertile territory for re-evaluation. This thesis explores one possible response to issues of residential form and identity in the context of a multi-use building at a prominent urban intersection. While the basic physical form of this project responds to the programatic needs of housing, allowing it to function in an efficient manner, the expression of this form attempts to speak to the individual acts of moving through and living in these dwellings. It is in elevating these activities of daily life beyond merely serving a utilitarian function that architecture finds its place; empowering them to ignite our spirits and enrich our souls. This is where architecture begins to engage in a dialogue with the dreams and aspirations we hold as a society.