There's something very fascinating about architectural models: professionals use them to study how a structure may be designed and how it is integrated into a surrounding urban area, but ordinary people relate to models in different ways, at times even trying to picture themselves living in those buildings or towns.
This is definitely what happens to visitors stepping into the space dedicated to the Star Apartments project by Michael Maltzan Architecture, at the Central Pavilion in the Giardini section of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice (closing on Sunday 25th November).
Maltzan is known for having designed prestigious museums and luxury private houses, but, believing architecture has a role in our cities and landscapes, he has also worked on cultural and social projects including shelters and other forms of accomodation for the homeless people in Los Angeles.
The Star Apartments, created for the non-profit housing developer Skid Row Housing Trust and completed in 2014, house long-term homeless people. Here individuals can try and create a new space - or, even better, their "freespace", the theme of this year's biennale - to start living again, inspired by a sense of pride, independence and dignity, and eventually grow within a community.
The housing project consists in 102 apartments created in an existing one-story commercial building in downtown Los Angeles.
Star Apartments is a 95,000 square foot multi-unit residential project organized around three principal spatial zones stacked one upon the other: a public commercial/retail zone at street level; a second level for community and wellness programs; and four terraced floors of residences above.
On the ground level the building includes a residential lobby, parking, an onsite medical clinic, a 15,000 square foot Health and Wellness Center, and the new headquarters of the LA County Department of Health Services' (DHS) Housing for Health Division.
The indoor and outdoor community wellness spaces on the second level are linked with the streetscape below thanks to its expansive views onto the city.
People can have access in these areas to a garden, kitchen, lounge, art room, walking track and sports court: by combining social services, community recreational facilities and residential apartments together, the building provides the residents with a sense of unity.
The project also employs a new construction methodology: the limited budget and tight schedule meant the team had to opt for prefabricated elements that rested on a new concrete super-structure above a renovated existing single-story building. This is actually the first building organised around this structure in Los Angeles.
The installation in the central pavilion at the Giardini recreates the division of the Star Apartments in three parts: on the walls there is a colourful mural entitled "The Scale of the City" showing the building in the context of the metropolis with its open and horizontal space.
"The Scale of the Building" features instead a series of models and architectural drawings, while "The Scale of the Individual" is the most interesting and accessible part of the installation.
Several apartments were recreated via detailed dioramas showing the rich diversity of interiors occupied by the residents with their belongings. The installation is completed by videos and images telling the stories of the people living in these flats.
Each apartment features a kitchen, bath and bedroom with natural light and ventilation coming in through open-air corridors and courtyards.
While the concentration of apartments adds an unprecedented amount of density to the urban site, each apartment seems neatly arranged and represents an oasis of calm and quiet in the city.
There are small piles of books on the floor of an apartment and folded clothes on a chair in another; posters or paintings decorate the walls; there's a television set in one flat and a bicycle in another; here there is a wheelchair, there a desk with a computer on top of it, several guitars hang on a wall and a couple of potted plants are employed as decorative elements.
These elements hint at normal lives and prove that a comfortable "freespace" doesn't necessarily mean an apartment full of luxurious interior design pieces, but it certainly means dignity. The Star Apartments show that even compact spaces and the possibility of carrying out simple actions inside them such as sleeping, washing oneself, reading or watching the TV, help indeed an individual to improve one's circumstances and physical health and mental wellbeing.
Comments