A network of autonomous living units seeks to challenge the notion of ‘the commute’ - ultimately removing it from the Everyday.
Using the constraints of street parking spaces within London and existing technology to bind together aspects of habitation and transportation, a new fabric of the city is created.
This new fabric of London reinvents the existing infrastructure of a street into living spaces, while being forced into continuous motion by the constraints which the street imposes upon it.
Taking a walk from one tube station to another, I notated the aspects of the Everyday that interested me. Frustrated by the banality of the everyday residential street, I found interest in otherwise mundane objects.
An early rendition of the unit involves autonomous, mobile spheres that are able to aggregate and cluster while on the move. The focus of these units were to enhance the commute, rather than to remove it - consequently, the element of living was sacrificed.
A map annotating parking bays within Camden, along with their tariff and maximum stay periods. These prices are compared with prices of flats in the same area, and scenarios are used to determine how much 'council tax' the unit would have to pay depending on its behaviour.
The unit is constrained by the height of a London bus and the maximum width of a parking bay - the result is a two floor autonomous, mobile living unit. The first floor swivels outwards to create a balcony, and the wheel mechanisms allow it to move perpendicularly as well as forward and back, in order to move into parking spaces easily.
Just as buses have bus lanes, and bicycles have bicycle lanes, the unit has its own area within the existing infrastructure of the street - however, as it is a living unit and not just a mode of transport, its lane does not lead to anywhere - it is a dead end. Just as a system can dictate the behaviour of a unit, the unit can affect the system it is constrained by.
