reGENERATION
An Intergenerational Living Competition
The Center for Public Interest Design hosted an ideas competition in order to explore new models in intergenerational living. We received over 100 submissions from all over the world. Participants from a range of disciplines were asked to address ways of reintegrating an often isolated aging population into active settings where they can thrive, participate in lifelong learning, and lend their voices and expertise to the the greater community. The proposals ranged dramatically in scale, strategy, and presentation. The jurors identified a number of excellent submissions but chose winners and honorable mentions that they felt offered particularly unique, thoughtful, and/or thorough proposals.
At the Center for Public Interest Design we are extremely excited by the immense interest in this issue and the strength of the submissions. We look forward to sharing these six projects (and many others) to help advance the dialogue on the subject of intergenerational living. Work from this competition was exhibited in conjunction with a forum on design for intergenerational living in Fall 2014 in downtown Portland.
Congratulations to all the winners and honorable mentions!
1st Place: Auberge du Dialogue Des Ages
By Mutations Architects - Paris, France
Location: Saint Denis, France
Excerpts from the narrative: Saint Denis is undertaking massive transformation due to its proximity of Paris, and its former industrial structure that makes it easy to turn to big urban housing blocks and office floors. In consequence, a phenomenon of gentrification is visible and is pushing vulnerable populations out. Seniors, with small pensions, are among them. Within this Northeastern Parisian suburban context, which often implies spatial and social segregation, the Auberge du Dialogue des Ages’ idea is to counter that specific segregation one may find between generations in individualistic societies. The Auberge du Dialogue des Ages believes other forms of group and community may soar out of the classical schemes. Those forms either spontaneous or supported by institutions, are bound to meet success, grow independent and spread.
Concerns for the daily life of the seniors and their implication as citizen, drove the sought for a site location close to a main axis within the city center. A brewery stocking lot, south of the bustling city center, seems to be underused and the perfect location for a project of community housing that would shelter both young adults and elders. The postulate of this age association would be the mutual benefit each group may find in discovering the other. Therefore all conception efforts shall be looking forward to provide exchange conditions. Architecture would translate that idea into a sort of introverted urban eden, enclosed by protective and existing walls, where the Auberge du Dialogue des Ages, community spaces and private, luminous et generous rooms included, is organized around a vast courtyard that would act as a cooking pot for a student / senior sauce project of life with its own ingredients (rhythm, rules, balance,...).
2nd Place: CRUX, An interGENERATIONAL Hub
By Sofia Weller – Baltimore, MD U.S.A.
Location: Baltimore, MD U.S.A.
Excerpt from the narrative: Generational segregation could not be more evident than on the Maryland Institute College of Art urban campus in Baltimore, MD. The proposed site is straddled between the MICA campus and an existing senior housing high-rise. Currently there is acknowledgement of both communities living on the same site, but unfortunately no interaction between the two, making it the perfect location to introduce an interGENERATIONAL hub. CRUX proposes a resolution between multi-generations: a hub to interact, to heal, to live, create and grow. The urban building will host a series of public spaces with the intention of enhancing arts and wellness while also serving the Baltimore community. Public spaces in the program includes classrooms, a gallery, retail space, gym and pool area, a roof garden for growing produce as well as an adult and child day care. All spaces allowing the built environment to create and encourage interactions between generations.
3rd Place: Into the Void, Ideas for Intergenerational Living
By Ian Nazareth / Priyan Perera / Natasha Maben – Melbourne, Australia
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Excerpts from the narrative: Intergenerational housing is an opportunity to explore a new typology of urban development, one that actively learns from and engages with the contemporary city and its pluralistic architecture and urbanism. the project prototypes urban form, articulating a clear architectural position through testing social interactions and demographic interplays at multiple resolutions and scales. the vitality of the urbanism thus produced, has the ability to stimulate its own feedback loops and adapt to the circumstantial.
Each discrete unit is figural, identifiable and engenders a sense of autonomy and ownership. Floor plans are pragmatic, offering maximisation of utility and, in its iterative design process, a responsiveness and sensitivity to its orientation. The units are customisable, and directly linked to economies of scale, with a potential for pre-fabrication and / or in-situ construction.
Overall, the project prototypes urban form, articulating a clear architectural position through testing social interactions and demographic interplays at multiple resolutions and scales.The vitality of the urbanism thus produced, has the ability to stimulate its own feedback loops and adapt to the circumstantial.