Thinking Housing

Typologies of Sharedness

Two recent publications completed through international collaborative research delve into housing design strategies based on the concepts of sharedness and transformation in the practice and pedagogy of housing design

The article Typologies of Sharedness: From Utility to Spatialized Focal Practices and Exchange, co-authored by researcher Rosana Rubio (Center for Historical Studies of Public Works and City Planning in Madrid, CEHOPU-CEDEX) and professor Fernando Nieto (Tampere University), develops a conceptual taxonomy based on the idea of sharing as the basic principle of sustainability in collective housing. The article’s trigger is the theoretical paradigm of focal things and practices formulated by American philosopher Albert Borgmann in his 1984 book Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry and how this concept may be applied to the practice of housing design.

The article is the result of the conference presentation by the authors at the NAF/NAAR Symposium 2021 – Concepts of Transformation, held at the Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark in 2021. The paper is published by the Nordic Association of Architectural Research (NAAR) within the NAAR Proceedings Series 2023 edited by the Nordic Academic Press of Architectural Research: “Critically pursuing different concepts of transformation, how they have emerged – why and when – the book sheds light on the role of transformation and transformation processes within architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism”.

The article Transformation of Architectural Design-Research Pedagogy: Guidelines for the Design of an Experimental Master’s Course Based on Disorienting Dilemmas, co-authored by researcher Rosana Rubio (CEHOPU-CEDEX, Madrid), professor Guiomar Martín (Technical University of Madrid UPM) and professor Fernando Nieto (Tampere University), delves into transformation as the triggering concept of a research-oriented design studio. The paper is built around the concepts of disorienting dilemmas and transformational learning developed by American sociologist Jack Mezirow in his 1991 book Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning and how these concepts can be applied to the practice-oriented pedagogy of housing design.

The article was presented at the 14th Annual Symposium of Architectural Research (ATUT) held in autumn 2022 at the Tampere School of Architecture in Finland. It is the result of a design studio held at the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM-UPM) in spring 2022 as a collaboration between ETSAM and the Tampere School of Architecture in the context of the Master in Advanced Architectural Design (MPAA), a postgraduate level programme in which the authors took part together with professors Javier Maroto (responsible professor), Sergio Martín and Mara Sánchez. The paper has been published in the journal Architectural Research in Finland Vol. 8, No. 1 2024, a peer-reviewed journal publishing research in architecture resulting from the ATUT symposia and published by the three schools of architecture in Finland: Aalto University’s Department of Architecture, the Tampere School of Architecture and the Oulu School of Architecture.

[Image by Sila Kartal and Elena Sitrakova elaborated from The Urban Village Project by SPACE10 and EFFEKT Architects]