The winners of the thirteenth Architizer A+Awards have been introduced! Waiting for subsequent season? Keep updated by subscribing to our A+Awards E-newsletter.
In lots of modern cities, our each day environments are formed by age segregation, usually represented by services akin to retirement properties, kindergartens and starter residences. These environments spatially and socially divide generations, with penalties which can be felt throughout all age teams: isolation, loneliness, and a disconnect between younger and previous.
Intergenerational and multigenerational dwelling problem this fragmentation by means of considerate structure. Whereas usually used interchangeably, the excellence between the 2 is vital. Multigenerational dwelling usually refers to a number of generations of the identical household sharing a house. Intergenerational dwelling broadens the idea to incorporate unrelated folks of various ages, cohabiting or sharing communal areas. This strategy fosters each day encounters and mutual help.
Many modern residential fashions nonetheless prioritize privateness and effectivity on the expense of connection. Items are sometimes remoted, solely linked by uninviting circulation areas that depart little room for spontaneous interplay. But, a rising variety of architects are rethinking these precepts. Drawing inspiration from vernacular traditions, akin to courtyard properties or co-housing, they’re designing versatile models, energetic circulation areas and shared facilities that foster a way of neighborhood throughout age teams. These initiatives replicate a shifting paradigm in housing that values adaptability, mutual help, and intergenerational contact.
City Land Institute’s 2024 report, Making Multigenerational Communities Occur, highlights a transparent demographic shift. It notes how the variety of folks dwelling in multigenerational households has quadrupled within the final fifty years and emphasizes that present housing fashions not often accommodate this actuality. The report advocates for areas that aren’t solely versatile but in addition designed to spur interplay, together with shared kitchens, laundromats, communal gardens and workshops. These environments help evolving household constructions whereas selling broader social connections.
The next initiatives exemplify this design course. Some home prolonged households, others carry collectively unrelated people throughout generations. All reply to the rising want for housing fashions that promote connection, adaptability and mutual help in more and more numerous city communities.
STA | zwei+plus intergenerational dwelling
By trans_city, Vienna, Austria
Zwei+plus is a sponsored, intergenerational social housing undertaking that reimagines how folks of various ages can stay aspect by aspect with each independence and mutual help. It’s designed for “tandem housing”— two separate however mutually supportive households, whether or not household or shut pals, dwelling in adjoining models.
4 L-shaped buildings body lush courtyards, whereas the bottom flooring is devoted to shared facilities — together with a café, kindergarten, kids’s playroom, laundromat, assisted dwelling heart, and neighborhood gardens — all designed to foster on a regular basis interplay. A very considerate characteristic is the pairing of seniors with preschoolers in cooperative packages that encourage intergenerational connection by means of shared care and expertise.
Circulation areas are handled as energetic social zones, and one-bedroom models embody “raised verandas” that face communal galleries and invite informal dialog. The housing layouts are versatile, supporting a spread of family sorts, from two single dad and mom sharing frequent areas to households incorporating an aged member in a semi-independent suite. Zwei+plus demonstrates how structure can nurture social bonds, creating not simply housing, however a resilient, multigenerational neighborhood.
HAN – Residential Quarter Bothfelder Kirchweg/ Hanover
By AllesWirdGut, Hanover, Germany
Bothfelder Kirchweg blends intergenerational dwelling with a deep respect for panorama and neighborhood. The core of the design is a shared public house that anchors the event and encourages social interplay. 5 semi-public yards round this shared house act as thresholds between communal life and personal gardens, echoing the spatial logic of conventional villages.
The structure prioritizes social cohesion by means of clusters of L-shaped buildings organized round semi-public courtyards, providing intimate out of doors areas. The housing combine is designed to help a broad vary of residents: compact residences for households and older adults are complemented by versatile, shared areas, akin to playrooms, workshops, visitor suites and laundry rooms, encouraging each day interplay and mutual help.
Floor-floor models are totally accessible, reinforcing the purpose of making a neighborhood the place folks of all ages can cohabit. By its strategy to shared and personal house, Bothfelder Kirchweg creates a small-scale neighborhood that invitations residents to attach and thrive collectively throughout generations.
Fox Residence
By Horton Harper Architects, Cleveland, Ohio
Fox Residence responds to the evolving wants of a multigenerational household, set within the historic Duck Island neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Surrounded by late Nineteenth-century employee cottages and industrial riverfront views, the house honors its context and the occupants’ wants and aspirations.
Commissioned by a mom of three daughters, the home is designed to help intergenerational dwelling. The undertaking consists of two buildings: a principal home and a carriage home located on adjoining heaps as soon as occupied by separate properties. A single-story connector hyperlinks the 2 buildings, serving as the primary entrance.
Every era occupies a special stage inside the two homes, with the bottom flooring of the primary home serving as a shared gathering house. Inside these layers, every dwelling quarter is tailor-made to its occupants’ wants, providing a customized association of public, non-public, and transitional areas. By considerate design and spatial generosity, Fox Residence gives a resilient, adaptable mannequin for multigenerational city dwelling that’s each rooted and forward-looking.
Flexiblock
By INARO Built-in Structure Workplace, Helsinki, Finland
Flexiblock gives a brand new typology that helps altering life, multigenerational dwelling and financial adaptability, whereas reimagining the connection between work and dwelling in city housing. The design introduces a two-level dwelling idea, that includes a versatile workspace on the decrease flooring and residential house above, reflecting the planning custom of Helsinki’s Malminkartano district, the place the combination of labor and dwelling areas has lengthy been a cornerstone. This configuration accommodates quite a lot of makes use of, from house workplaces or workshops to visitor rooms or dwelling quarters for growing older relations.
This design strategy permits for spatial adaptation in keeping with the evolving family wants. Circulation areas in Flexiblock transcend mere performance; they function shared public areas that foster interplay amongst neighbors, reinforcing the undertaking’s purpose to create a resilient, community-oriented housing mannequin suited to the modern evolving demographics and work-life dynamics.
Three-Era Home
By BETA workplace for structure and town, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Three Era Home reimagines intergenerational dwelling in a up to date city setting, responding to society’s shifting financial and social dynamics. On this context, the undertaking gives a versatile mannequin for a younger couple and their growing older dad and mom, searching for closeness with out sacrificing independence. The home stacks two separate but linked residences. The grandparents stay on the totally accessible higher unit, whereas the youthful household occupies the decrease residence, which has an workplace and entry to a personal backyard. A shared entrance maintains privateness whereas permitting for each day interactions akin to shared meals or occasional childcare.
The design anticipates future adjustments in household construction, enabling the house to adapt each bodily and functionally to totally different cohabitation fashions. As an illustration, the higher residence’s decrease flooring —initially meant for company— may be included into the decrease unit or transformed into studio areas for grownup kids, permitting the structure to adapt as household wants evolve. This undertaking demonstrates how structure can help evolving intergenerational relationships inside the constraints and potentialities of the fashionable metropolis.
A Home For Two Generations
By SUPER VOID SPACE, Tehran, Iran
A Home for Two Generations is a renovation undertaking that addresses the challenges of cohabitation between a contemporary, minimalist son and his tradition-oriented dad and mom. The unique house was stripped right down to its core and reconfigured as a clear white shell containing distinct “packing containers,” every tailor-made to a particular operate and designed to replicate the household’s numerous tastes and values.
One of many packing containers accommodates the kitchen and eating space, that includes heat wooden and smooth grey tones to create a comforting environment for the mom, whereas preserving the son’s choice for openness and ease. The doorway appears to have been carved from the white shell. It pairs grey with uncovered brick, a nod to the daddy’s style. The son’s suite is functionally unbiased but spatially built-in into the general structure. It includes a streamlined storage wall, a light-filled workspace, and blue-green accents, reflecting his private aesthetic. The design embraces distinction as a artistic driver fairly than a compromise between two opposing tastes, permitting minimalist readability and textured heat to coexist in an intergenerational house.
Single_Multi Residence
By NOA Architects, Nicosia, Cyprus
Single_Multi Residence rethink the boundaries between non-public and communal dwelling. The constructing options a variety of unit sorts designed to accommodate numerous life, from a ground-floor three-bedroom residence with its personal entrance, backyard, and parking, evoking the texture of a standalone house, to compact one-bedroom models, family-friendly two-bedrooms and a beneficiant four-bedroom penthouse. This selection invitations a vibrant neighborhood of singles, {couples}, and households. A rooftop terrace with a pool and barbecue space brings neighbors collectively. With its considerate steadiness of independence and shared expertise, Single_Multi Residence gives an adaptable and fascinating mannequin for collective dwelling.
The winners of the thirteenth Architizer A+Awards have been introduced! Waiting for subsequent season? Keep updated by subscribing to our A+Awards E-newsletter.
