SOCKS

An online magazine of Art, Architecture, Media, Culture, Sounds, Territories, Technology)

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Housing the Multitude

Since the beginning of human history the need for a house has implied latent meanings, from the bare “looking for a shelter” to the fulfillment of complex spiritual and social needs. Historically, a number of inhabiting solutions were imagined for the coexistence of individuals and families in collective dwellings, in order to provide an improvement in resource sharing, built terrain and infrastructural optimization and waste limitation.

Completely dissimilar visions of communal life and conditions of social stratification lay behind this group of projects, but all of them share the search for a density which doesn’t restrict the private sphere yet allows, in different degrees, room for shared activities destined to enhance the life of the community.

A Downsized Manhattan Between Analogy and Abstraction: “Roosevelt Island Housing, competition” by O.M. Ungers (1975).

June 24, 2018 by Mariabruna Fabrizi Leave a Comment

In 1975, German architect Oswald Mathias Ungers took part in the “Roosevelt Island Housing", a competition sponsored by the State’s Urban Development … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Housing the Multitude, Representation: Axonometric projection, Territories, Visual Atlas Tagged With: analogy, grid, Urban

The Eastern Workers Village at Amarna (c. 1349-1332 BCE)

May 22, 2018 by Mariabruna Fabrizi Leave a Comment

The Eastern Workers village at Amarna in Egypt (c. 1349-1332 BCE) was a walled settlement located in the North-East side of the city and intended for … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Cluster Urbanism, Housing the Multitude, Territories Tagged With: archaic, enclosure, housings, square, walls

A Perfect Grid: the Roman Town of Timgad, the African Pompeii

June 21, 2017 by Mariabruna Fabrizi Leave a Comment

The city of Timgad, in today's Algeria, was founded as a military settlement by Emperor Trajan around AD 100 and its original scope was to be a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Fields, Housing the Multitude, Territories Tagged With: grid, military, roman, square, town

Understanding the Grid /1: Michel Ecochard’s Planning and Building Framework in Casablanca

December 7, 2016 by Mariabruna Fabrizi 2 Comments

French architect Michel Ecochard, also trained as an archeologist, was the director of the Morocco Department of Urban Planning from 1946 to 1952 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Fields, Housing the Multitude, Territories Tagged With: colonialism, grid, housing, planning, ubranism

The Narkomfin Building in Moscow (1928-29): a Built Experiment on Everyday Life

December 4, 2016 by Fosco Lucarelli 2 Comments

The Narkomfin Building (Dom Narkomfin) in Moscow was designed by Moisei Ginzburg and Ignatii Milinis in 1928 to host collective housing for employees … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Dysfunctional Plans, Housing the Multitude Tagged With: communality, constructivism, housing, socialism

Communal Living Around a Void: The Shabonos, Dwellings of the Yanomami Tribes

November 16, 2016 by Mariabruna Fabrizi 3 Comments

The shabonos (or yanos) are the traditional communal dwellings of the Yanomami tribes of Southern Venezuela and northern Brazil. They are circular … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Housing the Multitude, Territories Tagged With: communal, jungle, round houses

The “Grand Hotel Babylon” by Adolf Loos (1923)

November 5, 2016 by Mariabruna Fabrizi 1 Comment

In 1923, Austrian and Czechoslovak architect Adolf Loos conceived the project for a terraced hotel of 700 rooms in Nice, the so-called "Grand Hotel … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Housing the Multitude Tagged With: gradins, hotel, terraced, ziggurat

Almost Metabolist: The New Sky Building #3 by Yoji Watanabe

October 23, 2016 by Mariabruna Fabrizi Leave a Comment

The New Sky Building #3 is a 1972 project by Yoji Watanabe built in Higashi-Shinjuku, Tokyo. The building is made up of a central core, which … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Housing the Multitude Tagged With: capsules, housing, Japan, metabolism, shared housing

“Habitat and the City”: Competition Entry by Neutelings, Wall, De Geyter and Roodbeen (1990)

July 13, 2016 by Mariabruna Fabrizi Leave a Comment

In 1990 the "Competition Habitatge i Ciutat" (Housing and City) was promoted by the review Quaderns of Barcelona. The entry by W.J. Neutelings, A. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Housing the Multitude, Representation: Axonometric projection Tagged With: axonometric projection, competition, habitat, housing, interior

A Prototypal House at the Bauhaus: The “Haus am Horn” by Georg Muche (1923)

May 31, 2016 by Mariabruna Fabrizi 3 Comments

The "Haus am Horn" is an experimental building erected and furnished as a part of the Weimar Bauhaus exhibition in the early summer of 1923 which had … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Housing the Multitude Tagged With: bauhaus, exhibition, House

Cedric Price ‘Housing Research’ (1971) and the ‘Steel House’ (1967)

April 14, 2016 by Fosco Lucarelli Leave a Comment

Published in a supplement of Architectural Design in 1971, this research project by architect Cedric Price is an investigation on "the good life". … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Dysfunctional Plans, Housing the Isolated Individual, Housing the Multitude, Technology Tagged With: experimental, flexibility, housing

Ivan Leonidov’s Competition Proposal for the Town of Magnitogorsk (1930)

April 12, 2016 by Mariabruna Fabrizi 1 Comment

In 1930, the Russian architects group OSA, with Ivan Leonidov as team leader, took part in the competition of the urban design of the chemical and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Art, Disurbanism, Fields, Housing the Multitude, Territories Tagged With: competition, linear city, planning, proposal, Urbanism

The House of Glass Was Suddenly All Solid Walls, A Project by Anne Holtrop (2006)

October 19, 2015 by Fosco Lucarelli Leave a Comment

Not much happens in A.M. Homes's short story "The Weather Outside Is Sunny and Bright": the protagonist visits her Alzheimer's mother, takes a bath, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Culture, Disurbanism, Dysfunctional Plans, Fields, Housing the Multitude Tagged With: dwelling, wall

The Artic City. A project by Frei Otto and Kenzo Tange

October 3, 2015 by Mariabruna Fabrizi Leave a Comment

In 1971, German architect Frei Otto presented the project for a city of 40.000 inhabitants to be built in the Artic circle beneath a pneumatic dome of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Artificial Microclimates, Housing the Multitude, Technology, Territories Tagged With: arctic, city, ice

Musgum Mud Huts

June 26, 2015 by Fosco Lucarelli 3 Comments

The traditional dwellings of the Musgum tribe in Cameroun consisted of sun-dried mud huts of a shell shape. Each domestic structure (also called … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Culture, Housing the Multitude Tagged With: adobe, housing, hut, mud construction, vernacular architecture

Steven Holl’s Bridge of Houses (1979-1982)

April 19, 2015 by Fosco Lucarelli 2 Comments

Throughout history bridges have been a focus of legends of every civilization. Esthetes, philosophers and poets have used the bridge as a transcendent … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Culture, Housing the Multitude, Representation: Axonometric projection, Territories Tagged With: axonometry, bridge, houses

Civilization and its Discontents According to Ben Tolman

March 8, 2015 by Fosco Lucarelli 4 Comments

The hyper-detailed ink-on-paper drawings by Ben Tolman depict the built environment and the effects it has on the people who inhabit it. Cities … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Art, Culture, Housing the Multitude, Territories Tagged With: city, civilization, drawings, ink, Urban

A Settlement for Equals: The Town of Biskupin in Poland

March 21, 2014 by Mariabruna Fabrizi 4 Comments

In 1933, a team from Poznan University led by Polish archaeologist professor Józef Kostrzewski, started a series of excavations close to Lake Biskupin … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Housing the Multitude, Territories Tagged With: archaeology, form of form, Poland

Learning from the Casbah: Horizontal Housing Units in Rome by Adalberto Libera

February 20, 2014 by Mariabruna Fabrizi 3 Comments

Adalberto Libera's "Unità orizzontale" (Horizontal Unit) in the Tuscolano neighborhood in Rome is an experimental housing complex built in the city … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Housing the Multitude Tagged With: form of form, housing, Italy, Libera, Rome

A City Made of Rooms : The “Neue Stadt” of Köln (1961-1964) by O.M. Ungers

February 5, 2014 by Mariabruna Fabrizi 3 Comments

  In 1957 the urban planning department of Köln decided to develop a new satellite-town of 100,000 inhabitants (Neue-Stadt) in the northern … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Dysfunctional Plans, Housing the Multitude Tagged With: "urban planning", form of form, Germany, housing, ungers

An Ancient Example of Cluster Planning: Pit Houses and Kivas in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

December 2, 2013 by Mariabruna Fabrizi 1 Comment

  The ruins of the pueblos in Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, (villages founded by ancient Native American communities, Ancient Pueblo people, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Cluster Urbanism, Housing the Multitude Tagged With: Ancient cities, Archeology, Architecture, Chaco, form of form

The Walled City of Shibam, a ‘Manhattan of the desert’

August 12, 2012 by Fosco Lucarelli 16 Comments

Sometimes ago we wrote about the walled city of Kowloon, a spontaneous, unregulated urban development near Hong Kong. Whereas that one was a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Cartographies of Reality and Fiction, Housing the Multitude, Territories Tagged With: Architecture, form of form, information graphics, maps, past futures, psychogeographies, Technology, urban chronicles, visions, world weird web

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SOCKS is a project by Fosco Lucarelli and Mariabruna Fabrizi of MICROCITIES, Architecture Cityscape, Landscape.
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