The thesis proposal comes from the necessity to produce an alternative new type of low - income housing for Bogota, Colombia, which responds with a new approach to how projects can become an active element in a communitys' economy, by taking advantage of new physical and visual relations between public, communal and private space. The project deals with three main problems. First is the proposal of a new set of relations between public, communal and private space. The material investigations with wax and the diagramming process , provided the way in which public and communal spaces move through the project, and the potential for a wide range of new relations in which these spaces relate to each other and to private space in the housing units.
The housing is embodied in a model of growth over time, as a family or group increases or decreases in size, or has the need to incorporate new economic activities into the household. This model will have extraordinary psychological effects, as a family has the possibility to project ahead and improve its economic situation. The material investigation and the images it produced, introduced to the project the issue of different visual privacy levels, as a new strategy for creating new community bonds in the area, with the idea of visual openness as a trust development tool. The project acts as an x-ray of the community, the private home and public space.
PRATT INSTITUTE - M.ARCH II THESIS STUDIO
09.04.2003 - 15.12.2003
LOW - INCOME HOUSING IN BOGOTA, COLOMBIA