Open Building Intensive with Prof. Stephen Kendall (Part 2)

The Base Building transformations exercise was a task to take an existing Hostel and transform it into an Open Building, a building with the capacity for change and adaptation by its occupants, and transformation over time.

The exercise was a purely technical task. I enjoyed it mostly because the architectural nature of it was my first real encounter with the more technical aspect of time based design, beyond the abstract concepts. 

Not finding a plan for a hostel online, I used a "single-loaded corridor" typology, similar to the Denver Hostel. The above is me testing the capacity of the building, + what can be permanent/temporary elements.
What is shared and what is occupant owned?

Transforming the existing layout, taking away and adding to the overall layout. Keeping circulation, structural elements and shafts, also adding a new layout of service shafts. 

Possible variations and change of layouts with the new framework of the Base building. 

With the increased capacity of the hostel, the various subsystems set the bounds/restrictions for the smaller systems. (Where the shafts are determines what spaces can/cannot become.)
Questions raised throughout the process...

From the above exercise, questions in ones mind were that within the context of Denver, should such a transformation happen within the hostel, who would control which elements of the base building? 

-Between the occupant and the owner, who would control where the pipes go?

- Would economic factors affect whether occupants can define the infill walls? 

- Who would provide/own the infill walls/ service pipes and fixed elements ie. ablutions.?

I look forward to exploring these ideas in my own individual base Building design.