4 × 5

    The proposed site is in a narrow long rectangle shape that has a minimum width of 6.2 meters, and length of 27.55-meter, located in the central heart of New York City, surrounded by the three mid-rise buildings. The majority of its sunlight will be blocked by those neighboring buildings; therefore, the living units are placed on the west side near the entrance, and stacked along the north side of the property, leaving the service center placed on the back of the site. An exterior metal mesh hallway is placed on the opposite side of the property with 1.5m aways from the living units, in order to maximize sunlight reach into the housing and protect privacy.

    This project requires the design of a living unit of temporary use that must be modular, and suitable for the small remaining vacant spaces around the city. The initial design idea came from shipping containers, which is a common and popular material that can be easily transformed into a living space and available in every country. Most importantly, its modularity in a variety of sizes and small width could fit into the small, oddly vacant of lands in the city effortlessly. The idea started with the shipping container and the detailed dimension is further developed because of the restrictions of the site and the project requirement. After investigating several left-behind spaces in the megacity, we decided to arrange our unit into 4 meters by 5 meters by 2.5 meters boxes. 

    The combination of stacking modular and additional walkway could easily fit into most abandoned spaces in the city through different arrangements. One of the examples we found is an unused open field in 277 Victoria St, Toronto,Canada. It is an triangular shaped land with around 200m2 of lot coverage, but only about ⅕ of the area on the south end is used for bicycle parking. By placing the 4x5 modular units on this site, this unoccupied downtown land can be transformed into a housing block to decrease the scarcity of housing. The roof area for any building is another possible location for emergency housing by stacking more of these modular units. The 4x5 modular unit can be also used as hiking cabins when placed in the forest, mountains, and hiking trails; its small-scale is beneficial for reducing environmental impact such as cutting down trees.  

    The unit is divided into two spaces by a sanitary section. One space includes an open kitchen and a living room, the other space contains a sleeping area and a study space. Due to the increasing demand for working remotely, the office/study area is taking most of the unit’s space. On the west side of the unit, a custom-designed storage shelf is placed, serving the main storage space for the whole unit. By minimizing the use of interior walls, living/dining/cooking spaces are integrated into one open space, which massively increases the utilization of the space. When the unit is occupied by more than one person, the living area and sleeping area can be separated into two rooms for multiple users to have their own individual space to work or study.

    In terms of material choices, metal cladding is selected for the exterior finish due to its lightweight, high durability, and the possibility of prefabrication. It can also be processed with recycled shipping containers to reduce the building cost. Within a small living space, a light colored theme can help to form a visual expansion; therefore, light color plywood is chosen for all the indoor furniture for a simple aesthetic. As the south face is the only possible side to have an opening, the windows are designed to be in larger size; the windows are extruded outwards to extend the indoor space, presenting as a materiality contrast from the exterior view. 

    “Colors are fundamental elements of our visual perception and environmental experience; they are the substance of how we experience the environment”*. Orange and white color were chosen as the main color of the design, these two bright colors not only could bring a sense of  vibrancy into the community, the white and orange could reflect as much sunlight as possible, thus brightening the space, helping the property to gain more natural light; even at night these two colors could brighten the space and giving people a warmer and safer feeling. With the use of reflective exterior metal cladding, more light can be reflected into the site and add depth to the space.