Architecture is co-produced. A professor I had once compared Architects to orchestral conductors. He suggested that to actualise our work, we need to guide the entire cohort of built environment professionals in our symphony. However, I don’t know if I see it this way, architecture is as much engineering as it is construction, it is much the client as it is the architect. We are not dictators of design, rather spatial interpreters that turn complex and contradictory facts and beliefs and into meaningful architecture. Sheltered was a major lesson in coproduction. with my multi-project collaborator Kaitlyn Sandeman, we amalgamated our two unique initial designs to produce, a functional and aesthetically representative student house.

We collaborated on an initial concept in which a student house was combined with a youth shelter. The two interacting functions would allow vulnerable youth access, interaction and friendship with strong academic role models, improving their collective social networks, local support systems, academic opportunities and future growth. Community building is essential for this project; therefore, I based my initial design around a central green space, with housing stilted above. The tiered levels allow sun access despite obstructive neighbours, while also reducing summer heat loads. Further a central atrium and solar chimney was implemented to accelerate passive cooling and winter warming.

Coincidentally Kaitlyn also produced her space around a central courtyard, becoming a major aspect of our collaboration. Over multiple iterations we fine tuned the amalgamation of my hyper linearity with her free hand curving.

On a greened pedestal stands a sinuous extrusion wedged relaxingly between its sensible neighbours. Lower-level communal spaces and a lush exterior courtyard support the housing above. The entire building hinges around a solar chimney-cum-elevator, while large windows hide in extrusions and pockets created by radial differentiations of the façade. It’s large open spaces on each floor are differentiated by height and the buildings curve, producing inviting situations for interaction, collaboration and bond building. Further, green roofing, highly insulated floors and walls, operable windows, solar shingles, and its spatial orientation have significantly reduced the structures environmental impact. The collaboration has produced more than a just a place to live, rather, a place to call home.