The concerns went from façade study and its vertical transition to bringing a new kind of relationship between the inhabitant inside the building. The idea is to adapt the clusters typology to a multiple floor building, with a generous common space located in the ‘Structural T’, the intermediate level, and linked by multiple stairs. The analysis of the Zurich old town, ‘Zurichness’, through machine learning was all about the vertical transition of a traditional building composition: shop & housing. The computer produced GAN image revealed an intermediate level, a space through which the transition is made. This floor is now used in the project as the common space for all the inhabitant.
The spatial translation is done differently in both sides: the front façade, which is all about the extrusion of the ‘Structural T’, is rotated and aligned with both the two neighbor façades, living the intermediate level untouched and thus protruding compared to the rest. The rear façade is an interpretation of the GAN in a chaotic manner. It is actually an adaptation of the front façade of the third variation presented during the last review, into the rear façade.
The clusters are a new kind of typology and have been used multiple times in Zurich already. It offers more possibilities for different people and different needs, such as elders who wants to live together, new young couples or even recomposed families. If the clusters are usually planed as units inside a common space on the same floor, we decided to offer the entire intermediate level seen in the GAN image to the community. The housing floors are always structured in half but can welcome different types of inhabitants. One of the last floor apartments benefits a balcony and three bedrooms. In general, the apartments are equipped with a small kitchenette and no living room. Because of the different protruding volumes, I used the lateral walls as bearing wall and added a structure of beam and columns in the middle. Therefore, the façade no longer needs to be load bearing, but the GAN image suggests a heavy old façade. So, I went with a prefabricated sandwich wall system at upper floors. The Structural T is also prefabricated but function as a ‘beam’ and is attached to the second floor’s parapet.