Linear Living

Itinerant Student Housing & Tower-as-City

ContextMcGill University · B.Sc. Architecture

RoleIndividual project

AdvisorProf. Daniela Leon

ToolsRhino · AutoCAD · Photoshop · Illustrator

Post-COVID vertical city · 40 units · live/work spectrum

Overview

Completed independently as the second-year studio project of the Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree programme at McGill University, Linear Living is a radical proposal for student housing and mixed-use design in downtown Montreal, Quebec. This studio took place during the COVID-19 pandemic and proposed a re-thinking of how housing, urban design, and infrastructure could be configured in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The proposed response to the design problem is predicated on the notion that post-COVID life would be marked by global mobility, the possibilty of continuous, sustainable itinerance, and a complete dissolution of temporal structure. In turn, this live/work prototype critiques capitalist building trends by departmentalising to a nearly comic degree. Underlining this is a new approach to understanding time and space; post-COVID, any activity can theoretically take place anywhere, at any time. Designed as a microcostic city within a single building, the tower incorporated a nightclub, study hall, café, and 40 single-bedroom residential units along a vertical spectrum of living & working.

Extending up to the maximum building height permitted in the city of Montreal (set by the height of the central Mont Royal), the massing is simultaneously critical of the pencil-tower typology while embracing its utility in designing high-density living spaces. Each floor is composed of two living unit modules connected through a central core housing circulation and communal program elements. The elongated residential units create a spectrum of living, isolating the ultra-private spaces while connecting the kitchen and dining spaces to the central communal core. Moving vertically, the building is designed in section to produce a variety of experiences, social interactions, and sound level as the visitor moves in height. The dance hall is stacked above the study hall, separated by a fitness center, while it's all grounded by a café and lobby. The site, connected to Montreal's famous "underground city," straddles two public spaces; its massing maintains clear circulation and view corridors between the two.