Architects, designers and researchers have been grappling with questions of what it will mean to live, work and play together in the future. With housing, future solutions might incorporate hybridised or amalgamated forms.
Future Hybrid High-Rise Commune is a conceptual design research project that explores socially and environmentally sustainable residential buildings. It emphasises flexibility, regeneration and adaptability. The project imagines a permanent support structure, complemented by infill modules constructed out of timber, a native Southeast Asian resource.
The central model illustrates how these structures can be appropriated by different forms of cohabitation and mixed with shared programmes beyond housing. Visitors are invited to play with the building modules and interact digitally as prospective tenants by expressing preferences for forms of cohabitation and location. An algorithm will allocate the user’s wishes into real time vertical neighbourhoods. Visitors can also interact with a social media interface, designed to facilitate communication and mutual decision making between the commune’s tenants. In doing so, this project sparks debates on future forms of living.
This project has been developed by REAL Renewable Architecture Lab and the UHL Urban Housing Lab at the Singapore University of Technology & Design, and is funded by the SUTD-MIT International Design Centre.
Begin your journey at the Future Hybrid High-Rise Commune! Take the opportunity to “Create your unit” and participate in a debate on social issues regarding living in a high-rise commune.
Michael Budig is Assistant Professor in Architecture at SUTD, director of REAL Lab for Research in Renewable and Regenerative Architecture and director of REACT Studio. His research is driven by computational design and fabrication, and the desire to provide innovative solutions for decarbonisation, digitalisation and changing demographics in the built environment.
Oliver Heckmann’s practice, research and teaching focus on housing typology, design research for future urban habitation and sustainable design. He is the co-publisher of the ‘Floor Plan Manual Housing’, a seminal work on innovative housing. The research of his ‘Urban Housing Lab’ concentrates on socially and environmentally sustainable urban housing, with concepts for vertical communality, flexibility for shifting demographics and inclusive forms of co-habitation.
Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore’s fourth public university, is one of the first universities in the world to incorporate the art and science of design and technology into a transdisciplinary, human-centric curriculum. SUTD seeks to advance knowledge and nurture technically-grounded leaders and innovators to serve societal needs. A research-intensive university, SUTD offers academic programmes like the Architecture and Sustainable Design, which incorporate elements of innovation, design thinking and industry collaborations to serve the emerging critical needs of a world in transition.
