THIS IS NOT A PIPE
This project disrupts the traditional perspective of infrastructure in architecture by negating the distinction of architectural dichotomies: structure and ornament, superstructure and infrastructure, front and back, servant and served. Substantiated as pipes, ducts, and cables, the physical network of building infrastructure in contemporary architecture creates an overwhelming volume of hidden spaces that are off-limits to architects and the occupants. The increasing demand of sustainability and smart building technologies have enhanced the physique of a building infrastructure to a considerable extent, prompting the need to translate pipes, ducts, and cables into the architectural vocabulary.
Combining the mechanical and architectural to form everyday objects within a space, this project suggests five primary elements, establishing a new system of use based on shifting notion of health, comfort, and living. Housing serves as a vehicle to investigate the tension between service spaces and the served spaces. Following the physical property of delivered building services, heating and cooling, ventilation, electricity and communication, plumbing, downspout drainage become wall and floor, column, corridor and stair, fixture and façade. Having moved to the front of the stage, forms of physical infrastructure deals not only with architectural and mechanical concerns such as structure and ornament, sectional configurations, privacy, and service efficiency, but also with various environmental concerns such as daylight, natural ventilation, and materials. Every building infrastructure integrated with family living is activated becoming a meaningful stage for a living, providing a family with individual privacy as well as a family gathering.
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