Observing Labour through Play
Long Section through Proposal
My project focuses on the needs of workless families, making different models of labour observable to children from these households and supporting parents to find jobs.
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My project focuses on the needs of workless families, aiming to break the cycle of unemployment by making different models of labour observable to children from workless households and providing parents with the facilities to access support finding a job. From the initial site analysis, we identified the lack of social infrastructure in the surrounding area of the site and so my proposal contains a public library on the lower floors with housing on top. The proposal is set back from the street to allow for the creation of public squares on both sides. All domestic circulation is external and exposed to allow for smaller communities to be formed around the shared front gardens that each serve four flats.
There is a large vertical play area that takes place in the core courtyard of the building. This allows children to observe different modes of labour in the public library on the lower floors and the office spaces within the flats that are placed to face into the play area. The flats are split over two levels and interlock to create shared outdoor space at the front and back. This front and back garden will be shared between a different set of 4 flats to create smaller communities for shared working and childcare. The design comes from my aim to create housing where domestic labour (primarily childcare) and traditional labour (‘work’) can coexist and complement each other by creating working and childcare communities around shared outdoor space.