Co-living propositions by architects and designers including Charles Holland, Tonkin Liu and Eley Kishimoto are among 14 longlisted projects for this year’s edition of ideas competition, The Davidson Prize.
Charles Holland Architects, Quality of Life Foundation, Verity-Jane Keefe and Joseph Zeal-Henry –
Co-Living in The Countryside
Multi-disciplinary teams were invited to respond to the theme set for this year’s Davidson Prize: Co-Living – A New Future.
The jury whittled down entrants to a long list of 14 teams, from which three finalists will be announced in April and an overall winner of the £25,000 prize fund selected by June. A People’s Choice Award will also be given, and voting is now open until 6 April 2022.
The 2022 Davidson Prize long list:
- Azhar Architecture – Co-Living Retrofit
- Baillie Baillie Architects and Community Land Scotland – A Culture of Community
- Charles Holland Architects, Quality of Life Foundation, Verity-Jane Keefe and Joseph Zeal-Henry – Co-Living in The Countryside
- Child-Hood – It Takes A Village
- Child Graddon Lewis, Split, Eley Kishimoto & Hungry Sandwich – Curious Minds Society
- Heta Architects – Recipro-City
- Living Streets – Urban Network of Collective Care
- Moebius Studio – Communiversity
- NAME Architecture + airc.digital – Afterlife
- Team 5 – Retrofitting Co-Living
- The Progressive Housing Design Group – A Model for Progressive ‘Family’ Housing
- Tonkin Liu – Care / Ring
- Will King and Hari Kumar – A Taste of Home
- Workhome Projects – Co-Living Works!
Left: Baillie Baillie Architects and Community Land Scotland – A Culture of Community. Right: Child Graddon Lewis, Split, Eley Kishimoto & Hungry Sandwich – Curious Minds Society
Among the long-listed projects is Co-living in the Countryside produced by Charles Holland Architects with the Quality of Life Foundation, Verity-Jane Keefe and Joseph Zeal-Henry to question the typically urban notion of communal living.
“Rural areas in the UK suffer from a shortage of affordable housing and are overly reliant on a narrow but ubiquitous development model – often leading to atomised communities of single-family units in car-dependent cul-de-sacs,” reads a statement from the group.
Their proposal, which takes in a site for new housing in the South Downs National Park, looks at how the residents in co-operatively managed and owned co-housing could share facilities as well as community tasks ranging from childcare to gardening to ease loneliness, the need for individual car use and stress.
Workhome Projects – Co-Living Works!
Paul Monaghan, who chairs the the jury for the 2022 Davidson Prize said: “It was interesting to see how people’s approaches to co-living may have changed in the aftermath of the pandemic. Although there are similarities in many of the submissions, each of the 14 longlisted teams put forward an innovative solution to this year’s theme – we’ve got a tough job ahead of us now to agree on the three finalists.”
Left: Child-Hood – It Takes A Village. Right: Heta Architects – Recipro-City
A longlisted entry by Tonkin Liu titled Care / Ring puts forward a kit of care infrastructure actioned by bells, a nod to the doorstep clap for carers appreciation that took place through the worst of the UK lockdown. The kit includes pop-up caring centres in under-used public spaces and co-living buildings, furniture designed by Studio Mama and a suite of “care tasks” developed with Goodgym, a community action group where volunteers run, walk or cycle to participate in practical tasks.
“At the core of co-living lies the spirit of co-care. Care / Ring is a clarion call to acts of care inspired by sonic urban rituals: the daily call to prayer, church bells, the weekly ‘clap for carers’ during the Pandemic,” says the practice.
Left: Living Streets – Urban Network of Collective Care. Right: Moebius Studio – Communiversity
A team made up of members of Child Graddon Lewis, Split, Eley Kishimoto & Hungry Sandwich proposes a multi-generation co-living system called Curious Minds Society.
“Within this new typology for living, children will grow up surrounded by ‘extended family’ in a spatially diverse and creative place with people, stories and activities just waiting to be discovered,” explains the group. “The model encourages the development of skills and social bonds through shared activities such as sports, theatre societies and art classes run by volunteer residents.”
Left: NAME Architecture + airc.digital – Afterlife. Right: Team 5 – Retrofitting Co-Living
The Davidson Prize, now in its second year, was set up in honour of the late architect and visualiser Alan Davidson, who was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2012. He set up the Alan Davidson Foundation to help those living with the condition from which he died from in 2018, but also to support architecture initiatives. The Davidson Prize fulfils his wish to support an annual ideas competition centred on the design of the home.
Left: The Progressive Housing Design Group – A Model for Progressive ‘Family’ Housing. Right: Tonkin Liu – Care / Ring
Left: Will King and Hari Kumar – A Taste of Home. Right: Azhar Architecture – Co-Living Retrofit
Source: Architecture Today