Full House, an adaptable prototype for multi-generational living, mediates the specific needs of multiple generations living together, while integrating values of familial symbiosis and support. The five-bedroom home offers flexibility in programming, fluid circulation, and plentiful garden spaces and natural light, in a space where multiple generations can co-exist harmoniously.
The project started with a simple question: How do we design a house that will last a hundred years or more, and accommodate multiple generations of family members to grow up and grow old together?
Full House is a multi-generational housing typology developed in the city of Vancouver. While this particular project is a contextual response to the economic, social, and urban conditions of this specific place, urban centers across Canada are bearing witness to skyrocketing real estate prices across, and a general increase in the numbers of adult children living with their parents. In a city where the average selling price for a detached house is now over $1,800,000 (over $650,000 for condos, and over $850,000 for townhomes), multi-generational living is the only viable home ownership option for many families.
Regardless of whether the situation is a result of choice or financial necessity, the benefits of multi-generational living are becoming widely recognized: financial support, mutual benefits for young and old through childcare, decreased physical and emotional isolation for aging grandparents, as well as emotional bonding and closeness across generations. The benefits of multi-generational living– emotional, physical, and financial – are experienced by all family members. Adult children living at home can save money while going to school or working. Spending time with young children can bring purpose and meaning to the lives of older generations, while the demands of keeping up with kids – both physically and intellectually – helps grandparents stay active and feel younger. The benefits to grandchildren include empathy, learning care and respect for elders, as well as important social role-modeling.
The project is conceived as a 5 bedroom home with a detached 1 bedroom laneway dwelling. The home is reconfigurable to operate across a variety of traditional program scenarios through the orientation of a pivot door - inspired by the Duchamp Door: 11, rue Larrey (1927). The device is a pivoting steel plate partition that can occupy three possible positions, and adjusting the position of the door alters the architectural programming of the suites in the house.
The life of the house is understood as existing at any point in time through 3 scenarios that intend to provide flexibility, facilitated by the operation of the Duchamp Door:
• Scenario A / Two discrete dwelling units: 3 bedroom suite + 2 bedroom suite
• Scenario B / Two discrete dwelling units: 4 bedroom suite + 1 bedroom suite
• Scenario C / One large multi-generational home: 5 bedroom suite
Rather than proposing a fixed model for cohabitation, Full House is designed to adapt and evolve as family structures and lifestyles change. The flexible spaces are responsive to the fluidity of cultural shifts, proposing a sustainable way of life which is simultaneously pragmatic, poetic, and deeply humane.
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