‘n+1: Habitat Formula’ project of the
Bauhaus Open Studios 2020, Dessau
Elizaveta Zemlyanova, artist, Dean of the Faculties of Design and Photography of IGUMO, Curator of Days of Contemporary Art (DOCA) international festival;
Anastasia Petrova, architect, Dean of the Architecture College of MKIK, Head of TZAM Architects architectural bureau.
Project manager:
Olga Baranova, art historian, Head of the Department of Design of MKIK
‘n+1: Habitat Formula’ project is a collaboration of the students of the Faculty of Design of IGUMO and Architecture College of MKIK.
The basis of the project is the study of public spaces and social housing as an important part of human habitat.
The goal of the study is to identify the formula used to construct social housing in Russia today.
Content of the study:
- historical analysis of the development of residential and public spaces of the urban society starting from the primary planning unit (living room) and finishing with large urban structures (city squares);
- study of the influence of public spaces on the process of interaction between people;
- analysis of architectural designs of public spaces in Bauhaus school of design, with them being an example of innovative cultural space design;
- research of modern housing politics (practices) in Moscow.
Since the mid-1950s, standard housing has become a popular practice in the USSR with the aim of improving social and living conditions for the population. The number of living rooms in a flat was determined by the ‘n-1’ formula, in which ‘n’ meant the number of residents. The principle behind the basis of the design of social housing was determined mainly by economic calculations. This mechanistic approach corresponded with the ideology of the time.
The ‘n+1: Habitat Formula’ project analyses the modern housing practices in Russia, particularly, the Housing Stock Renovation Programme.
The study outlines the impactful role of public spaces in the lives of citizens, including the impact that urban environment has on self-development, communication, and behavioral patterns.
Conclusions of the study:
Individual spaces should be harmoniously connected to public spaces with no intrusion. Hierarchy plays an essential in space planning. The absence of public spaces breaks into the ‘human genetic code’, thus bringing closer the ‘epoch of a nomadic individual’ predicted by Walter Gropius.
Formulas and calculations of economists should not become the defining factor for modern social housing design. The architectural environment should become the basis for interaction among different groups of people irrespective of their social status.
‘n+1: Future’
‘n+1: links/communication’
‘n+1: gravitation point’
‘n+1: displacement/pressing’
‘n+1: physiological state’
‘n+1: group/individual involvement’
‘n+1: time’
‘n+1: tourism/ transit’
‘n+1: absence of public space/commerce’
‘n+1: mass movement/utopia’
‘n+1: joint use’
‘n+1: correlation/scaling’
Photo album
