Building small, enlarged by the common.

This project explores the field of housing cooperatives. It is intended as a counterproposal to standard market-driven housing—apartments designed primarily as investment products rather than places to live. It focuses on architecture made with people, for people. The work is also personal. It represents a first step toward the possibility of building a shared house with friends in the future. The approach was based on observation and listening. I chose a site close enough to visit regularly and invited real participants—friends I know well—to take part. Their responses to a series of interviews shaped the design. The result is a building tailored to a specific group with shared values and overlapping interests. The project is not intended to be hermetic. Like any housing community, it begins with a specific constellation of people, but its structure allows for change and adaptation. It advocates for diverse, unschematic apartments and takes a non-orthodox approach to the division between private and shared spaces. This also touches on a broader tension: the need for privacy versus the need for community. And if loneliness and alienation are growing social issues, should they be addressed not only through individual choices but also through how we plan and design our cities?