DIVIDonect
Team
Name: Khaldoon Khaireddin
Nationality: American, Jordanian
Institution / Company: Khal Khaireddin Architects
Name: Evelyn Mercado
Nationality: American
Institution / Company: Khal Khaireddin Architects
Name: Marco Tadros
Nationality: American, Egyptian
Institution / Company: Khal Khaireddin Architects
Name: Cristiene Morcos
Nationality: American, Egyptian
Institution / Company: Khal Khaireddin Architects
-FINALIST of SOCIAL DISTANCING HOUSING BLOCK Competition
Housing in the age of a highly contagious airborne disease requires a realignment of spaces, priorities, functions, and as architects, it requires a re-thinking of old paradigms, and questioning ‘What is a Home?’. Home is no longer just the place we live; it is our workplace, our school, our gym, and our safe refuge in an uncertain world.
To re-imagine the housing block within this context, we began with a simple notion of division, to isolate the individuals within a housing block and create a safe haven for the simple act of living. However, to live as social beings, we cannot perpetually be divided, we must connect; DIVIDonect.
With the imposition of a divided housing block, the immediate concern is circulation; a simple stair tower is not an effective means of socially distant movement. As such, separate and unique stairways are incorporated, all exterior to promote air circulation, such that each unit has its own unique entry experience, minimizing cross contamination between the residents.
Understanding that social connection is imperative to health and wellbeing, the negative space between divided housing is where the social connection must occur. By carefully programming glass boxes within this connective space, conscientiously sized to limit large gatherings, we have created a place where the feelings of isolation and loneliness can be relieved; a place to watch movies with our peers, a space to relax without the confines of walls or floors, the spaces we need as humans to maintain our humanity through uncertain times.
#protectedsocialinteractions #mental&physicalhealth #solveisolation #nomoreloneliness #dividedconnection
