CIRCULAR LIVING. Brainport Smart District in Helmond, the Netherlands

Implement an architectural solution in a portion of UNStudio's proposed masterplan for the Brainport Smart District, The Netherlands. The project should aim to make for a better future of living, always considering the relevant theme of circular living. It must include housing as the main program with at least one other complementary program. This residential design must consider a framework that ensures economic, ecological and social sustainability are possible by integrating circular economic strategies.

With the growth of cities, agriculture is pushed to the sidelines, increasing the distance from farm to plate. The motive here is to show how integral food is to everyday life on many scales and to intentionally design to integrate this crucial layer back into the way we live. The neighbourhood scaled project works as one, with a vaulted roof spanning across all intricate scales, providing pockets of intimate environments, private homes, and community spaces. The spaces created focus on igniting community relationships, using the dining table as the meeting point. The dining table is a strong symbol of this project as it is used in the privacy of homes or in the middle of a market plaza but always serving as the connection between people and food. Using ceramic brick walls and tiled vaults, interchanged with arches and columns, allows the built fabric to play with intimacy and openness across the site. The “negative space” between enclosed private homes is celebrated as an opportunity for fruit trees and dining tables. Similarly, the market space serves as the most central dining table of all. The choice of bricks and ceramic was intentional to allow the architecture to create unique spatial conditions, while provide a level of self-structure. The materiality of this project is not hidden, rather used to define its character. These methods of construction are techniques that have been used for centuries and pays an ode to the founding principal of this project, aiming to revive the positive aspects of almost forgotten culture, such as community grown foods, markets and the friendly neighbourhoods. The complexity of layers in this project serves as its strength, allowing the singular fabric of the building to provide the multilayered needs in a neighbourhood.