The Fable of THE COMMUNITY

Taipei City faces the challenge of high rental costs caused by urbanization, high population density, and insufficient rental housing. More than 2.5 million working-class members cannot secure housing within the city, making them vulnerable to high living costs. This project seeks a solution based on the existing residential landscape.

Project Context

At least 80% of living units in Taipei City are apartments with a central staircase. Instead of rebuilding new housing complexes, installing a new spatial mechanism to redesign interior spaces offers a better approach. The ground-floor apartments, particularly those adjacent to local markets and street food stands, blur the boundary between the building and the site.

Design Solution: Living Kit

The Living Kit system requires several key features: high mobility to adapt to different functions such as office or bedroom, lightweight construction for use in old apartment buildings, and the capability to integrate space and furniture like a move-in-ready unit.

Living Kit aims to create a dynamic living environment that adapts to the diverse lifestyles of metropolitan residents. While the building maintains its original structural framework, the interior partition walls are reimagined as a flexible and responsive interface.

Modular System

Living Kit is composed of modular geometric elements that are carefully scaled and proportioned to function as built-in furniture within the space. Overall, it operates as a mobile partition system made up of multiple cubic-style furniture modules, allowing spaces to transform according to different patterns of use.

Spatial Flexibility

Because of the mobility of the Living Kit, the definition of space becomes more flexible and diverse. The same portion of an apartment unit can serve as an office in the morning, a living room at night, a co-working space on weekdays, and a hostel on weekends.

The variety of configurations is determined by the placement of the wooden geometric elements inside the Living Kit. These boxes can function as tables, beds, or chairs depending on the user's needs.