Reside

Competition entry- Reside: Mumbai Mixed Housing

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Location: Mumbai, India

Area: ~8 Acres

Status: Submitted April 2018

Conventional residential towers or housing complexes have a fixed number of flat layouts. While there are usually a few options for a one-bedroom or a two-bedroom apartment, they are most likely standardized and its variety is a result of the building site constraints. “Rooms as Modules” is a proposal that brings tailor made living into the urban metropolis setting. Here residents do not choose a single apartment from what’s available, but they pick room modules that fit the best their everyday lives and habits, and create their own layout. For instance, a college student has a very different requirement and budget from a business person who travels a lot. Therefore, their respective one-bedroom apartment would reflect such differences in their lifestyles.

The site is located at Worli Koliwada in Mumbai City. We would like to create a mixed residences for two distinct socio-economic populations: the Koli community (fishing villagers) and the Worli (new demographic drawn to upscale Mumbai). The “Rooms as Modules” Housing System aims to bring these people of different backgrounds, income and lifestyles together into one living habitat. Under this system, the developer would build a structural framework and residents purchase an amount of inhabitable space and prefabricated room modules as they desire. Like clothing, the room modules are available in different sizes to meet different demands, yet they all have a standard width of 2500mm or 5000mm so they are compatible with each other and the framework. Residents can configure and potentially reconfigure their homes according to their needs and budgets, now or in the future.

Sports ground, gym, coin laundry, restaurants and retail stores are scattered throughout the complex to create a walk-friendly neighborhood. The unoccupied negative space becomes public open space where social events take place. Residents of different backgrounds and ethnicities meet and interact with one another.