The thirteenth A+Awards invitations companies to submit a spread of well timed new classes, emphasizing structure that balances native innovation with international imaginative and prescient. Your tasks deserve the highlight, so begin your submission at present!
In South Korea, there’s a phrase on everybody’s lips: “honjok.” A mixture of the Korean phrases for “on my own” and “tribe,” honjok actually interprets to “the tribe of 1” and is a lifestyle that celebrates solitude and autonomy. Individuals who comply with a honjok life-style will go about their days partaking in lots of actions alone and, notably, with out concern of judgment. They take themselves for dinner, go to the films solo, and even purchase a house — alone.
For a lot of younger Koreans, honjok is a response to the relentless tempo and pressures of contemporary life. Aggressive workplaces depart little room for conventional relationship milestones corresponding to relationship, marriage and even dwelling collectively. On the similar time, a rising want to push again towards strict household expectations that usually demand conformity, profession success and parenthood play a task, too. On this atmosphere, selecting to reside alone turns into an act of riot in addition to self-care.
Whereas the phrase honjok could belong on the Korean Peninsula, the pattern is much from distinctive to South Korea. Throughout the globe, solo dwelling is turning into extra fascinating. In Europe, nearly 40% of properties are single-occupancy, whereas within the US and UK, one-person households make up roughly 30% of the inhabitants — a determine that has greater than doubled within the final 50 years.
Jackie XU Non-public Residence I A Love Letter to My Canine by Workplace of Goldchild, Shanghai, China | Pictures by Jian XU
Solo dwelling is rising for a lot of causes. Within the UK, single girls are one of many fastest-growing teams of homebuyers as monetary independence and the power to buy and keep a house alone has grow to be an emblem of empowerment, a approach of breaking from conventional home roles or expectations and a approach to make sure private and monetary safety. Even inside conventional relationships, the notion of cohabiting is altering.
More and more, {couples} are selecting to reside aside whereas sustaining romantic partnerships — a dynamic often called “dwelling aside collectively” (LAT). For some, it’s about preserving individuality and prioritizing private house. For others, the calls for of dual-career households, usually unfold throughout completely different cities, make separate properties a sensible resolution. In different circumstances, blended and distinctive household items have required rethinking the household dwelling preparations most would regard as conventional.
In the meantime, in nations the place familial responsibility sometimes dictates that getting older mother and father reside with their youngsters — Japan, as an example — smaller households and shifting cultural expectations have led to an unprecedented rise in one-person households amongst older generations. For these people, solo dwelling is usually about dignity, management and sustaining autonomy in later life.
Clearwater Lake Retreat by Wheeler Kearns Architects, Clearwater Lake, Wisconsin| Pictures by Steve Corridor
For a lot of our historical past, properties had been designed for households and communities. Shared performance formed all the things from flooring plans to furnishings selections. Eating rooms, as an example, had been a should for household meals, whereas a number of bedrooms and loos to accommodate youngsters, prolonged family and company had been a high precedence. By the motor growth within the mid-Twentieth century, the two-car storage turned a staple of suburban household properties, and as household dynamics modified, open-plan dwelling inspired interplay and togetherness. Houses had been designed to prioritize collective wants over particular person expression. Privateness and personalization had been secondary issues, and compromises stored everybody completely satisfied.
Nevertheless, the rise of solo dwelling has turned issues the wrong way up. Architects, designers and even city planners are being required to rethink the operate of the house and take into account how areas designed to serve one slightly than many can, like their occupiers, break from custom and push boundaries.
Designing for a single occupant comes with a singular set of challenges. Not like multi-occupant properties, which should usually stability competing tastes and wishes, solo dwelling calls for an area that aligns wholly with its inhabitant and their distinctive circumstances. For single dwellers, priorities fluctuate and shift dramatically. Social areas like eating rooms or expansive dwelling areas is likely to be crucial for somebody who hosts a whole lot of social gatherings however not a lot for somebody in a location merely for work. Equally, drastic profession and life-style adjustments are extra widespread within the lifetime of a single dweller. When designing inside these parameters, performance turns into hyper-specific, turning into tailor-made to hobbies and routines. Pull up bar within the kitchen? Positive, why not? Standing desk within the bed room? Go proper forward. However at all times take into account the necessity for change and adaptableness. Conventional boundaries and expectations might be thrown out the window to make approach for full personalization. The probabilities for inside designers and designers are intriguing and huge.
Tahanan Supportive Housing by David Baker Architects, San Francisco, California | Pictures by Bruce Damonte
Nevertheless, as a lot as solo dwelling celebrates individuality, it additionally raises questions on connection and neighborhood. For a lot of, dwelling alone doesn’t imply a want to really be alone. With this in thoughts architects and planners are responding with co-living developments. These tasks characteristic smaller, personal items whereas making approach for extra communal facilities like co-working areas, espresso retailers, gyms and gardens.
By specializing in shared facilities and lowering the footprint of particular person flats, many co-living developments can supply decrease costs for these becoming a member of the property market as single renters or consumers. Moreover, the discount in house inside the house makes areas outdoors the condo, like rooftop gardens and shared courtyards, extra precious to the proprietor and encourages interplay with neighbors.
There may be nonetheless a protracted method to go. Many conventional social housing fashions prioritize bigger household properties, and governments and planners should deal with the shortage of inexpensive, well-designed items for single occupants. A shortfall is usually skilled by younger professionals and lower-income people, for whom dwelling alone stays an aspirational but usually unattainable objective.
Condominium Home Koya by OOS, Andermatt, Switzerland | Pictures by OOS
Like most societal shifts, solo dwelling is coming below scrutiny. The decline of conventional household buildings has raised issues by some concerning the breakdown of casual care networks and cultural continuity. Households as soon as functioned as financial items, pooling sources and offering assist throughout generations. With out these buildings, some policymakers fear about financial pressure as people reject or are unable to bear the burden of further dependents within the house. In nations with low start charges, solo dwelling has been blamed—although not confirmed—for contributing to demographic challenges like inhabitants decline.
Nevertheless, regardless of this, many cities are starting to undertake promising fashions. By together with inexpensive one-bedroom flats and studios of their public housing developments, they’re making certain that solo dwelling might be each accessible and dignified. Elsewhere, modular housing and backed co-living areas are rising as scalable options.
As solo dwelling expands, architects and designers face each challenges and alternatives. How do you create areas which might be deeply private but extremely adaptable? How can properties for one deal with and never exacerbate the burgeoning loneliness disaster? And the way can the selection of dwelling alone be obtainable and inexpensive for anybody who needs to? These questions demand a rethinking of the house—not solely as a bodily construction but additionally as a societal construction.
The thirteenth A+Awards invitations companies to submit a spread of well timed new classes, emphasizing structure that balances native innovation with international imaginative and prescient. Your tasks deserve the highlight, so begin your submission at present!
