collective living: The Latest Architecture and News

The European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe have announced the second list of 85 works competing for the 2022 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award. Joining the batch of first nominations announced in February 2021, the full list comprises now of 532 competing works for the EU Mies Award 2022. The shortlist of 40 will be announced in January 2022, the winners in April 2022, and the Award ceremony will take place in May 2022.

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The Corviale housing complex, located in the south-western periphery of Rome, was designed in the 1970s as a solution to the growing number of dormitory districts in the Roman suburbs, caused by the significant population increase between the 1950s and 1970s - when the population grew from approximately 1.6 million to 2.7 million inhabitants - followed by suburban sprawl.

The project, also known as Serpentone because of its huge proportions, was developed by a team of architects under the leadership of Mario Fiorentino between 1972 and 1974. Construction took place between 1973 and 1982, but the original plan to use the fourth floor of the main building for commercial uses, services, and common areas, was dropped because the contractor went bankrupt. The floor was eventually taken over by informal settlements, and this event is considered to be the root of the problems with this emblematic project in the history of housing in Italy.

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Following up on their series of urban block flashcards, Spanish publisher a+t architecture publishers launched in 2018 a new deck of cards featuring collective living floor plans as part of one of their series of cards about urban density, Density. As a courtesy to ArchDaily, the publishing house shared some of these expanded cards, both typical floor plans, and each unit, where you can see the designs and privacy parameters and openings to the outside of each project.

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Bee Breeders announced the winners of the Modern Collective Living Challenge, one part of their Global Housing Crisis competition series. Participants conceived new types of accessible housing for rural China’s relocated farmers. China’s fast-paced urbanization is causing millions of rural folk to move to cities. With no designated site, successful projects need to be versatile enough to work in a variety of sites and even be adopted as a standard for addressing relocation. Winning projects were held to a high standard in their answering of the question: how can we create modern community living situations where relocated individuals are not forced into changing their way of life? Common themes in winning projects are modularity and green space.

The competition winners are listed below.

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In this article Marcos Parga, director of the Madrid-based office MAPAA, presents an exploratory essay on the possibilities of living in developed urban centers, taking as a case study a site between two existing party walls in Madrid. The objective of MAPAA's exercise is to seek ways to enjoy the benefits of rural life, such as close contact with nature, in the city.

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