New Concepts for Housing

New Concepts for Housing

Exploring solutions for today’s habitational challenges at Rocagallery.com

Blue and white concrete building during daytime © Tony Shostak/Unsplash

Roca’s online platform for contemporary debate and research on architecture, design and sustainability starts off 2021 with a series of articles that explore how evolving models of housing can respond to some of the most demanding challenges of our time.

At a time when the concept of home is taking on new meanings and the need for adequate housing is reaching new levels of awareness, how are architects, designers and urban planners pushing forward new solutions for shelter? Rocagallery.com takes a look into the many shapes of this critical issue in its current topic of the month, “New Concepts for Housing”.

As the past months have shown, the concept of the domestic space continues to be in constant evolution, reflecting new ways of living and proposing new relationships between private and public space. Building on visionary models of the past – from single-family homes to collective housing complexes – architecture and design professionals continue to experiment in response to challenges old and new, from homelessness to population displacement, gentrification, post-COVID realities and more.

In “New Concepts for Housing”, Rocagallery.com explores new ways to advance this debate at a critical stage for its development, exposing the views of a transdisciplinary panel of experts in a series of commissioned articles published weekly on the platform until the end of February.

Among the articles already made available, architect Heather Macey, Associate Director at John McAslan & Partners and founding member of the homelessness think tank Architects Aware!, discusses new solutions of emergency housing for young people, putting forward holistic models to address a growing problem. On a different note, Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects Mario Corea reflects on three landmark collective housing projects by Josep Lluís Sert, one of the most influential architects of the past century.

As part of Rocagallery.com’s continued commitment to supporting the best emerging talent from universities, there are is also an article by IED Madrid’s award-winning student Virgínia Herrera, who envisions a new approach to a free and sustainable life in coexistence in “How Do We Want to Live”, while UIC and Berkeley alumna and artist Marta Delgado delves into the relationships between design, identity and the house in the article “The Meanings of Home”.

Still to come, an interview with Anne Lacaton – winner of the 2019 Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture and 2018 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture -, will look into her studio’s extensive and convention-defying work in social housing. We will also hear about recent experiences in post-industrial living from architect Paulina Olszowy, while the pair behind the Bosch.Capdeferro studio will discuss the “rehumanization” of the living space and its practical implications. Marcelo Faiden, co-founder of Adamo-Faiden studio, will further analyze the need to design living spaces that reflect increasingly unstable and indefinite social patterns.

“New Concepts for Housing” is the latest in a series of monthly and bi-monthly topics that explore pressing global issues from the point of view of design, architecture, innovation and sustainability. All articles are available online in both English and Spanish at www.rocagallery.com, with further topics currently being prepared by the platform’s editorial committee, a group of leading experts and thinkers.

In 2020, topics included renewable energies, plastic (in)dependence, rising sea levels, aging demographics and the rebuilding of food systems. A selection of these writings has now been compiled into the e-book “Rocagallery.com 2020 Highlights”, available for the subscribers of Rocagallery.com’s newsletter – to join the mailing list, please visit the website.

Run by Roca, world leader in the design, production and distribution of products for the bathroom space, Rocagallery.com is the digital embodiment of the concept behind the Roca Galleries seen in Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, London, Shanghai and Beijing, which serve as meeting points where industry experts and enthusiasts can share knowledge and best practices. Since its launch in 2018, the online platform has featured over 160 diverse voices, including writers, photographers, artists and Pritzker winners, and has become a reference for news, trends and quality content in the fields of architecture and design


05 Mar, 2021