a quick summary of our project goals so far, for those unable to make it to the midreview. Our project is working to develop a positive model of housing for farmworker families to live on farms.  This location cobenefits the farmer and farmworker and had the opportunity to increase the standard of living for the workers.  The question is how to develop a prototype that is flexible enough for multiple sites, but is also specific enough to develop a sense of place and community.

The rapid pace of our design called for developing a set of principles and adhering strictly, almost authoritatively to them:

views east: views were one of the principles developed by the land owner, Henry. Except he only identified views for half of the units.  We thought this should be extended to every one.

solar access: in order to passively heat the buildings, they needed to be oriented towards the south.

ownership: we were understanding ownership in a multitude of ways.  Figuratively, it was investment in the household and community.  Literally, we were exploring ways to create social justice through housing.

the midreview started off on the wrong foot, but eventually came around to something that approximated a discussion.  The main comments focused on lack of understanding of the site plan.  This, I believe is fair but was a direct manifestation of our principles.  Moving forward, we’ll have to reinterpret out principles and maybe adhere less strictly to them.

Much discussion came out of our lack of detailing the spaces between the units.  This was a major deficiency in our project, we were not able to develop this in the time allotted.  However, we were equally envisioning it as being developed by the inhabitants–a strategy we will need to think about.

Also, we put our skylight in the wrong place.  But maybe we don’t need a skylight at all.

All in all, I think we are moving forward.  We need to readdress our principles and possibly rescheme for a while, but I believe we are starting to ask the right questions.