To address the complexities of intergenerational housing, we propose “The Library of Things”. From baby strollers, to hobby equipment, to walkers, people have differing demands for space and things that evolve over time–especially when generations overlap. The organizing principle for this scheme is a central “library” that offers families the “things” and the space as they need it with the ability to negotiate their needs.
Our proposal features a storage system on a moving gantry that supplies anything within the system to these families to reduce their need to purchase transitory or sharable goods. This expanding system thus becomes a community archive . Flanking the central atrium containing the gantry are two double-wide corridors that enable wall sections to protrude into the walkway and link adjacent apartments, allowing them to expand and contract as families do.
Furthering the notion of the “library”, the consolidation of public spaces, such as a public kitchen, laundry space, gyms, and other amenities allows us to provide high-grade equipment and facilities. Through adaptive reuse and a judicious selection of remedial plants, we have designed along a timeline for the both generational living and generational remediation of the site’s soil contamination.
