Architecture's Invisible Tie to Loneliness
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Having lived in apartments in densely populated cities most of my life, I felt this stark difference between my experiences in India and residing in the United States for the last several years. The silence, hiding neighbors, smiles consumed by KN 95 respirators, deserted ground plane, long narrow corridors, disconnection from the rest of the city, all this prevented me from seeing a home in the apartment I had rented in the United States. Philosopher Lars Svendsen's analysis and understanding of this feeling of perceived disconnection has made me to give it a name – Loneliness.
One may reasonably hold the global pandemic accountable for this feeling. It can be true; the pandemic has forced a lot of us to spend all of our time at home, and be socially distant from other human beings. But surveys and studies suggest that the pandemic has only accelerated this feeling and is not the only causal factor. This thesis explores the widespread feeling of loneliness and how it relates to the design of physical space. As we continue to spend a lot of time at home, I have chosen to rethink the conception of a multifamily residential complex keeping in mind the opportunities architecture can create for people to redefine the space they occupy, connect with neighbors and retain the option of solitude as they choose.
If there is something we think that we never have enough is time. We spend a lot of our time in cars commuting to and from work during the week and to the grocery store over the weekend. In a time when we are slowly moving towards normalcy, if normalcy still is physically going to places, I wanted to take into account some factors to help me identify a suitable site - access to public transportation, walkability, property prices, access to a grocery store, census data on demographics, household income, and car ownership. These factors are considered to motivate residents to interact with the street and provide flexibility for people of different age groups to live together.