As the winner of ‘Environmental Quality Mention’, the proposed scheme for the HOf – Horizontal Farm International Ideas Competition is conceived of an intricate weave of the ‘farm’ and the ‘dwelling’. Drawing from the traditional Indian courtyard typology, the project, designed by ETT Architecture, enables community living (and farming) through a modular, scalable model that offers residents the benefits of low purchase cost, flexibility to expand as per means, and the potential of skill development and employment through self-build. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The population of people living in slums in India, today exceeds the entire population of Britain. Slum Clearance projects as variously seen in the past have had limited success with incongruous built environments imposed upon a people whose lifestyles are in marked conflict with the spaces they are (supposedly) ‘rehabilitated’ within. The key in the project then, on finding a solution that ‘integrates the culture and traditions of Indian society with improved living conditions for inhabitants of urban slums’, was an opportunity to develop a built environment that may have a closer connection with the lifestyles of the people it shelters.
