Two reflections by involved researchers on BK Expo “Together! The future of living”
What better way to inspire new forms of collaborative living than through design? Through the BK Expo, staff and students of the TU Delft were offered the opportunity to showcase innovative design approaches to co-creation. Sara Brysch and Anne Kockelkorn reflect on their own contributions and the exhibition’s relevance, which can be visited till 29 October at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment.
Anne Kockelkorn
Can you say something about yourself?
I’m an architectural historian focused on the intersection between housing design, housing finance and territorial politics. My current research investigates the effects of financialization on housing design and urban development as well as possible alternatives to it. Since February 2021, I work as an assistant professor at the Chair of Dwelling at TU Delft; the two previous years, I co-directed the MAS in history and theory of architecture at the ETH Zurich.
Recently the opening of the BK Expo “Together! The future of living” took place. What was your first impression?
I greatly enjoyed the variety of the different contributions, ranging from studio concepts to in-depth activist engagements by students to academic research. It’s a very instructive overview how faculty members engage with the question of how to live together – in the Netherlands and elsewhere – and it was fantastic to be able to meet the authors on site during the opening.
How have you contributed yourself?
Susanne Schindler (ETH Zurich) and me highlight the regulatory underpinnings of cooperative housing in Zurich. There, 25 percent of the city’s dwelling units are permanently withdrawn from the for-profit sector, with the largest share, 18 percent, cooperatively owned. What does it take for this breathtaking variety in housing design and scope of social inclusion to become a reality? To answer these questions, we present eight conditions for the emergence, preservation and further development of nonspeculative, experimental housing: An Idea of Sharing, Public Opinion, Nonspeculation, Equity, Debt, Land, Zoning, and The Competition. This contribution is based on a seminar taught at ETH Zurich in spring 2020 and gathers the research of 17 Master students, including film and photographic investigations. The full work is currently on show as a research station at the Venice Biennale and available online. The book will be published with gta Verlag, Zurich in 2022.
Sara Brysch
Can you say something about yourself?
I’m Sara Brysch, an architect and currently a PhD researcher on the design of affordable collaborative housing at Co-Lab Research, MBE Department, BK-TU Delft.
What caught your attention at the opening of the exhibition?
The topic and the diversity of proposals and building typologies were of great inspiration for me, because as architects, we must be able to find creative solutions for contemporary challenges.
What is the core take-away of the exhibition?
The exhibition displays different ways of how people can live and work together. This theme is of extreme pertinence to be further used in architectural studios in all architecture schools, so students can explore alternative housing typologies and alternative processes, such as co-design, where future residents are also part of the design process.
What are you displaying at the exhibition yourself?
I am part of the collective group project entitled ‘’Together: Social proximity at a distance”, where different spatial layouts are proposed for pandemic and non-pandemic times. Rather than locking up each household in their individual unit, we design for sociability through clustered dwellings. Flexibility, possibilities for social interaction, and access to exterior transition spaces were key to the development of this proposal.
More information
- Webinar “Cooperative Housing the Netherlands” on Tuesday 19 October 15:15-18:00, organized by Anne Kockelkorn
- BK Talks “Act Together!” on Thursday 28 October 18:00-20:00 in the Oostserre
- Read a research article and interview with Darinka Czischke on collaborative housing.
