Neighborhoods For Generations - A Framework for Social Topographies

Mono-functional housing developments are common landscapes in suburban Greater Copenhagen. Modern Welfare acts that followed WWII replicated social housing projects with prefabricated concrete panels as isolated buildings in park-like settings. With the automobile industry's growing momentum, suburbs became an escape from a hectic and worn-down city center. Decades later, however, the reality is far from the initial visions that favored homogeneous cultures. Driven by a search for “sameness” amongst wealthier populations (Low, 2001), occupation of the suburbs created spaces that lack plurality and diversity as residential complexes became “a way to ensure neighborhood homogeneity”. (Vesselinov & Le Goix, 2009:2) While isolated buildings once disfavored social spaces, most modernist complexes are in need of new shared infrastructures serving and equipping today's communities for tomorrow’s uncertainties. The challenge here lies in providing new spaces while creating a sense of community and associations of belonging - strengthening civil society and facilitating inter-generational interactions.

Towards a sense of conviviality and cross-generational living, our proposal aims to densify under-utilized and vacant spaces, primarily occupied by cars, and provide necessary tools for programming, implementation, and management of designed spaces. New typologies deploy prefabricated wooden elements in this proposal, which adapt and scale methods utilized in the 60s, as the designs favor simple and fast construction, minimal maintenance, and passive and smart systems - catering to diverse activities. Functions will be determined by collective resident-led efforts as continuous involvement of current and prospective inhabitants is crucial in addressing community needs. Each designed space relates to a different combination of age groups, sunlight exposure, and noise levels - consequently varying in size. Thus, allowing for a myriad of regular and extraordinary gatherings to take place. Space uses are adaptable in nature, for example, offering flexible housing for different life situations (i.e. temporary housing for those waiting for vacancies), as well as part-time job creation for residents.

Where the design is materially realized, systems of evaluation and maintenance reinforce the idea of an overarching and flexible framework as opposed to top-down site-specific intervention. Additionally, tools and resource-sharing networks take advantage of existing online and in-person platforms on-site facilitating interaction. Finally, the modularity and sustainability of prefabricated panels ease replication in other social housing projects in Denmark and globally, and contextual implementation based on local sunlight analysis in the allocation of spaces according to daylight necessities, optimizing climatic comfort and improving mental health and awareness for resident-users.

The proposal focuses on, though it is not limited to, addressing issues of citizen involvement (challenge #5), facilitating intergenerational meetings and understanding (#3, #6), and strengthening civil society (#1) within and beyond social housing complexes. It aims for a new novel of home and living that bridges the gap between the public and private by reversing the logic that previously drove suburban construction en mass. Implementation of the proposal is seen as the first step towards a greater degree of understanding, cohesion, and representation of different age groups, professional expertise, and cultural backgrounds.

By providing the space and tools for inter-generational living, the proposal tackles mental health issues of loneliness while granting access to welfare services. The proposed physical environment allows the framework for social infrastructures to thrive, based on resident-led governance and maintenance networks. There is also untapped potential for citizen participation in concurring activities that can further be enhanced through technologically facilitated sharing networks. We must recognize and leverage the diverse pool of expertise too often taken for granted within a community. For such, fostering social interactions through involvement and collaboration can affect positive knowledge production and sharing geared at the overall well-being of residents, whether directly or otherwise.

A new urban topography that is denser and richer in its social, material, and resources composition bridges between existing and proposed buildings, breaking down physical barriers while connecting residential neighborhoods to the city (#2). While most single-function buildings in this context are separated from the city through grass fields, paved areas, and parking spaces - this new urban topography forefronts human-centered spaces at the street level, inviting passers-by and residents from surrounding communities to interact with often-marginalized groups. Thus, furthering opportunities for meaningful connections across socio-cultural demographics.

Senior citizens and younger children are the generations most directly impacted by the design proposal. However, other groups also benefit greatly as research shows intergenerational programs are productive to people across their lifespans. This design intervention aims for all people regardless of age or ability to thrive and build upon shared resources for social well-being. Coexisting across generations within space not only facilitates a positive and safe environment but lends to meaningful and longer-term connections rooted in mutual support and understanding.

For example, children can have someone trusted to care for and play with them while the parents work, whereas on the other hand, seniors develop a new sense of belonging and affinity in mentoring youth while having space to wander without having to go outdoors (Krause, 2022). Consequently, adults and teenagers have more time to pursue necessary activities, work, or study, and therefore experience better family communication, less worry, and social isolation (Krause, 2022). In altering the program and use of parking spaces per se, 'A Framework for Social Topographies' begins to transform even the areas between proposed buildings into pedestrian-oriented pathways that encourage spontaneous gatherings and activity. Where residents appear to be isolated and discriminated against per age group within the current schema, this new and dense urban landscape hopes to impact all generations and bring people together.

Apart from specific benefits catering to each age group, the idea supports an intergenerational community firstly by understanding that interacting with strangers actually helps individuals better understand people around them while staying patient and tolerant. (Gladwell, 2019) There is often a preconceived idea of "the other" that creates a barrier to harmonious collective living. Understanding the residential complex as a living structure (not only as a place to live, but one that is systemically “alive”), this scalable project brings together residents through activities and conviviality spaces.

Allowing the architectures to become spaces for inhabiting than simply detached ‘habitats’, there are multiple possibilities of shared services and activities offered from, by, and to the residents towards a degree of circularity and self-sufficiency, which integrate people despite and leveraging age, financial status, and skills. The proposal addresses a contemporary issue the fear of the “stranger”, the “mixophobia” (Bauman, 2009), by aiding the creation of a sense of community rather than heightening surveillance, enclosure, and segregation.

This proposal is but a mere beginning towards an architectural positioning on practices of community engagement, activation, and solidarity-building. Regarding the architectural and urban-level design components, the proposed typologies would further be iterated upon, and developed in parallel to studies of possible implementation scenarios in Høje Gladsaxe. The process would involve regional stakeholders and community activists, leveraging insights and inputs to better cater to local needs and desires. Community outreach is envisioned through a series of workshops, interviews, social media presence, and other virtual means of engagement such as surveys acting as a guideline for future design.

For the exhibition at UIA Copenhagen, we are determined to achieve an accessible exhibit by drawing on diverse visual, sonic, and sensory media. Acknowledging the diverse audience of scholars, practitioners, community members, students, and activists alike, we hope to drive the narrative through a series of immersive and scalar physical models, in addition to supporting images and short videos. Fore-fronting the dynamic ambitions of the proposal, larger scale models would highlight and materialize some of the module typologies in juxtaposition to contextual motifs, while others draw attention to their tectonic, social, or material nature within and beyond the site.