HOKING
Location: Chicago, U.S.A.
Type: Affordable Housing
Team: Marcos Escamilla-Guerrero
Irving Shen
Status: Idea
Year: 2021
Chicago currently presents a non-unknown issue, the lack of affordable housing. This project pretends to provide a solution to this problem through a series of design concepts and considerations, all of them being articulated by the main intention, which is to achieve an affordable design, a design hat contemplates materials such as galvanized steel, CLT, polycarbonate and 3D printed polymers.
The first and core concept is the co-living housing idea that in this case, would offer a shared amenities and public areas scheme. A second consideration is the desire to provide an infrastructure such as a parking garage, rather than an enclosed building, an urban infrastructure that is awaiting the residents to inhabit it. That being said, HOKING is the result of mixing the words home and parking, which is translated to the architectural design, the project pretends to be a parking for small DIY units. The last and most evident design component is the modularity, not only of the building but also within its parts. The building is based on a 5 by 5 three-dimensional grid that established the order and rhythm of the composition.
"Modular systems for affordable housing"
(Home Parking)
Overall site plan
The building shows two faces, one towards the lake and one towards the city. The lake face is composed of a timber module with playful shapes that correspond to the home’s parking (HOKING). The second face hosts circulation elements and support functions for the building, as cores, stairs and amenities, this face has a more industrial character that relates better to the city.
"Public property / Private property"
The building presents two types of property, the public and the private at the same time. Public property must be understood as the building restrooms, corridors, platforms and open spaces. In the other hand, the interior of the capsules are the private piece property that parks temporarily in the building. This is very important since the proposed site is a public park along Chicago’s Lakeshore.