KITBASH BRUTALISM

Studio Fall 2019
London, United Kingdom

Collaboration with Alex Sheremet, Jack Hymowitz and Charles Chu

Professor Davide Sacconi + Jad Semaan


Inspired by the French Surrealist exercise of the Exquisite Corpse, to disassemble and reform parts of the human body as collage, this project looked to isolate elements of iconic brutalist architecture to create new formal relationships and social outcomes. Brutalism can be identified by its grand architectural gestures to form public space, that result in massive, easily extractable pieces such as the Trellick Tower’s floating corridors, the Economist’s Plaza, the terracing of the Ainsworth Estate and the layering of plinths of the Hayward Gallery.

The project assumes itself as a stamp that can be replicated and arrayed along the straight edge of a city block inspired by Le Corbusier’s Athens Charter. Plinths, plazas and terraces gradually merge the architecture into the landscape and frame different opportunities for program development. The building replicated by the stamp is a multigenerational housing complex with accessible units designed to provide students and young adults the opportunity to live with elderly residents in need of assistive care for a discounted rate. The unit design features spaces for communal living and moveable walls to create larger rooms by opening into the corridor, by doing this, the corridor becomes a vibrant space that offers social connection (inspired by how residents gather in the halls at senior living communities).