TO DWELL
Repairing the high street + re-populating the urban core in Beith
Tutor: Iain Monteith • Studio work of Stage 2 - 2015-16
This residential project is to design a small number of dwellings for typical user types, rather than known individuals. ‘Housing’ is not designed with an individual occupant in mind; it is necessarily less directly personal and has to transcend specific individual requirements.
MANIFESTATION
The introduction of contemporary housing typologies into Beith provides opportunities to enrich the character of a place physically, socially, culturally and economically. The life of a place is determined by the activity of people and in the context of a small town that activity can be diverse, it can be engaging but it can also be dysfunctional as well as functional.
A series of dwellings are composed on the site that respond meaningfully to the needs of the contemporary urban dweller and the identified and perceived needs of the town. A design should be created that can accommodate the activities of living, working and playing; individually and collectively.
SITE COMPONENTS | DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
As the town of Beith has been physically expanded with various typologies of dwellings, it was the key point how a new typology will be formed and proposed. In this proposed project, the main concept is to provide occupants with their kitchen garden or community garden where they would be able to work together, share food and get integrated with one another. Namely ‘creating a community within the community’.