Recent events have shown how essential our homes are in providing a place of shelter, refuge, nourishment, and work. California faces a dire housing shortage. This, along with the climate crisis, will require an increase in urbanization, and a move away from traditional single-family homes. Remaking this domestic space may be increasingly necessary to building a healthy, sustainable, and equitable future.
Housing design and construction is an inherently interdisciplinary process, but current approaches reinforce artificial divisions between the components that make up a residence. In most homes, walls, windows, technologies, products, and furnishings are designed and built separately. The past decades have seen a renewed interest in reformulating our approaches to housing. Pre-fabrication, micro-units, ADUs, and other solutions have attracted interest as responses to our housing needs, but these approaches generally reinforce the idea of housing as a commodity for investors that can be filled with products instead of as a product itself, designed to serve its occupants.
- Instructor: Randolph Ruiz