Temporary housing project ex scalo Farini

This dissertation provides a design project of a Temporary Residence Complex in Scalo Farini area in the city of Milan. The project tries to suggest a design solution by using the ISO container as building components. The availability and the low price of this material in addition to its easy transportation make it as a possible resource for a low cost building project. This document tries to study the technical issues to provide viability for this component as well as creative solution for creating dynamic and live urban space. The master plan of the area of Scalo Farini has been designed and developed during a two year multi-disciplinary course. This enriches the project from the point of view of studying the functions and activities. The main program for this area with more than 350000 square meter surface was a cultural zone. It resides three theater buildings in different scales (400, 1000 and 4000 seats), a city museum, a mediatech institute and a residential building area. However, the further researches indicate that having some other activities in order to have a live and safe area during the different hours of a day is inevitable. Therefore, some other activities are proposed in the site based on the different needs. Having different cultural activities in the scale of city and even more than the boundaries of Milan brings users and performers to the site in a scale bigger than the neighborhood. According to the system of night transport in Milan, providing a space which temporary can resides these users was considered. Furthermore, having the artists and performers which might have a performance for a period of time, and not necessarily all of them are from Milan, brings the needs of creating a residential space for them. These demands lead us to propose to have some temporary residence buildings in the site. The inhabitants of these residential blocks are mainly artists. From another point of view, the life of an artist can be projected as an exhibition; therefore, I tried to intensify this sense in designing them. Some parts of these residential blocks are working as an exhibition spaces or simply they are exposed to the public with a high transparency. However, having a certain level of privacy in a living space is still mandatory. By placing some private cores in the central parts of the units, this fact is taken into consideration. Furthermore, the aim of the project was not only creating a temporary residential neighborhood but also a context to enhance the sense of a community even in a temporary space. Functioning as a temporary residence yet having the sense of a collective space is tried to be achieved by providing some public buildings or spaces to site collective activities and to amplify the interaction among people. For example, the big piazza in the middle of the site, inspired by the Italian historical piazza, tries to create a forum for public activates such as small weekly markets, some performance like street theater or concerts. The strips among the raw of the building blocks are also functioning as public space with different uses while some services like public laundry and so on are also provided in these spaces. The temporary aspect of this project is reflected in both terms of functions and elements. The main function as mentioned before is the temporary house for the artists. Moreover, the building components and the construction techniques try to be adaptable to the upcoming possible changes in the function of this project as well as complete dismantling of it. Using the ISO container as a recyclable and transformable material follows this aim. Studying the possible change in the massing plan has been done based on this concept and indicates that the future transformation is possible. Although, this aspect needs further and meticulous research in order to avoid from creating an urban void in the project. To approach this purpose the use of movable landscape element was necessary. Therefore, the soft landscape elements are chosen based on the priority of the easiness of their transportation.