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Alternative, single family housing, multi-family housing and mixed-use housing for Richmond City, suburbs

University of British Columbia

The objective of this project is to propose the addition of a new layer of housing in the typical Post WW II suburban residential context in order to provide more housing alternatives for today's diverse population. This project was also an exploration of ways that this new housing could address the transition of zones from residential to other uses such as commercial, industrial and agricultural. I chose Richmond as my prototype site for exploration because I believe it is typical of many suburban communities throughout North America. The image in North America of the traditional family of a married couple with young children with an employed husband and homemaker wife that characterized the 1950's and 1960's doesn't match today's demographics. Today other types of family structures account for nearly 79% of the households created, the fastest-growing household type is the single person living alone, which comprise 23% of all households and single-parent families account for 14% (Canada Census Statistics 1991 and projections). As household composition becomes more diverse I believe architects must develop new forms to accommodate these changes. The residential landscape we inhabit today is largely the result of Post WW II prosperity and values. In the 1950's the single-family house became the standard and bankers, builders and developers continue to concentrate the bulk of capital resources of housing on the model of the single family detached house despite the demographic shifts to new types of households. Today many individuals and families are experiencing difficulties in finding housing that meets their particular needs. The design solutions for the nineties will not work unless they challenge gender stereotypes glorified in the Post WW II pattern of development. This pattern of development implemented rigid zoning that separated activities of public life such as places of wage work from the activities of home life. Private life and public life, private space and public space are bound together despite cultural pressures to separate them, I believe even more so today more with emergence of the home office. In this project I explored ways to create more flexible forms of housing and much richer and complex sets of transitional spaces in order to accommodate the activities that are required to connect private life and public life effectively for today's population.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-05-19

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7933

Architecture

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace