Move in, Move on
Team
Name: Saran Kim
Nationality: Japanese
Institution / Company: The University of Melbourne (2017-19)
-FINALIST of HEALING Competition
It is a design suggestion for the reuse of vacant office buildings in cities.
The pandemic triggered waves of work-from-home lifestyle, questioning the necessity of offices in cities. However, the return to offices is still possible as the economic climate improves. My proposal considers this uncertainty of the future use of office space.
Though converting office is not a new idea, the process of scrap and build ignores that existing buildings are perfectly functional. Construction and demolition debris represent over a third of all landfill wastes, so this proposal aims for a maximum impact through minimising wastes.
Transforming office space into temporal apartments provides stability to the local businesses in the city that have lost customers, and places of refuge to those affected by the exacerbated housing crisis.
It consists of a series of modular cabinetry. The cabinets can be dismantled and reassembled to fit in standard lifts. Each type offers different functions, including sleeping and working, customised to fit in the available space. When residents move out, they can pass them onto someone else who needs them. It is a solution for the current pandemic, but also for the future of the office space, people’s lives and the environment.
#Household Organization #Homeless #New Lifestyles #Reuse #Housing
