ACT OF DWELLING: ALTERNATIVES FOR SUSTAINABLE MASS HOUSING [How STEEMIT can help provide the solutions we need]
Hello, my name is Benji and I am the Junior Designer at Act of Dwelling, an architecture firm which explores the best way to provide sustainable mass housing in any part of the world. Behshad Shokouhi, the Principal Architect of the firm, has spent the last 30 years researching and implementing his ideas into small scale residences.
"Many of the worlds problems are influenced by one of the most overlooked human necessities; a properly designed living condition"
-Behshad Shokouhi. principal architect @AoD
PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING DUE TO LACK OF A PROPERLY DESIGNED COMMUNITYOne of the saddest things in today's world is the amount of resources which are misplaced! There is not a lack of materials in the world, but a lack of good, humanitarian uses for them. If the governments of the world wanted to eradicate the sickness of poverty and unsanitary living conditions, they would have already redirected the billions of dollars in funds used for other, less important things.We may wonder if the condition of the poor could be fixed by just throwing money at the problem, but there are deeper ways that even our own living conditions have failed to provide the lifestyle you dream of.
The most expensive living complexes can often be the most bland and dull living experiences, not to mention they waste more resources than are replaced :( (as shown below)
Some of the most exciting architecture is happening in slums such as the Favelas in Brazil.(as shown below)This type of housing demonstrates extreme variety and a unique infrastructure which respects each others space will agreeing on public uses is an extremely dense and necessary condition. It is also flexible and lends itself to easy modification when possible.
GOOD IDEAS, YET LACKING REFINEMENT AND STABILITY
While the most exciting and rich communities are being formed in places such as Brazil, the construction methods and social infrastructure remain hurting for it is quite hard to live in poverty and not fall victim to the hunger which has led to endless crime. But at Act of Dwelling, we believe that the Favelas are not yet lost and that a mass effort to fix the architectural code of the community would have major positive effects. This long term goal of injecting mass housing phenomenons with positive innovations can only be fed with short term, smaller scale examples of how our system will work.
In this image, you can see bits of our design being inserted into a highly dense region of Mumbia, India.
The imagery created by organic housing can somewhat be universalized.
THE UNEVITABLE HISTORY LESSON
- sustainable construction methods have existed since the beginning of time
- passive cooling and heating methods have also existed
- we tend to throw away passive methods and make buildings unsustainable
History has taught us that we don't need to reinvent the wheel but we try to do so anyways.Act of Dwelling aims to utilize ancient techniques and merge them with modern innovations, which make it a literal living building.PROVIDE AN ADAPTABLE MASS HOUSING DESIGNAct of Dwelling is a proposal which looks at history for sustainable practices and marries them to solar technology and gardening in order to create a power generating force.
HOW STEEMIT GETS INVOLVED.
We want to make this architecture a COMMUNITY formed architecture, much like the favelas, where people make decisions based on others. We want to see what the online community thinks about such a project and how we can work to make it better.
For more information about the project, check out my next post, which will illuminate on the endless intricacies of this brand new way of providing a solution for sustainable mass housing.
I look forward to your comments :)
-Benji
I have also attached the website here: ACTOFDWELLING.ORG