Hinge, Inter-Generational Housing 2013

Finalist, Phase I
Rotch Travelling Fellowship


A hinge is an interface that both connects and allows for autonomous movement.

This scheme proposes three elements that can be linked to form a large array of unique units: two family apartments (one small for an elderly couple, one larger for a nuclear family), and a hinge that connects both, fostering interaction and community.

What emerges is a recombinant typology, where the elemental housing units are joined and reconfigured to allow for various aggregations. With only slight variation, the apartments can adapt to many housing types and densities, from the duplex, to the courtyard house, to the high-rise, repeating ad-infinitum.

The hinge is the physical and metaphorical core of the new double-dwelling type, the main circulation space, the entrance, as well as the horizontal and vertical links for the family apartment. It provides a shared terrace that connects all inhabitants together, and creates a visual relationship that is more than just neighborly. It provides both the visual identity of the home, and the nucleus around which a new family life revolves.