House Gig (2019)
Commissioned by FRAME Magazine as part of ‘The Challenge’
Published in FRAME #131
A GIG-ECONOMY HOUSEWORK MODEL FOSTERS A SELF-SUFFICIENT NEIGHBOURHOOD
Why did you choose to rethink co-living from both a spatial and a labour-oriented perspective?
We’ve been experiencing a serious transformation in the labour domain for a while: women are rejecting unpaid reproductive labor - domestic roles including cleaning, cooking, childcare - while paid labour is becoming short-term, gig-based and generally precarious. Add to this the emergence of societal formations that differ from the nuclear family. We need new modes of living and adaptable spaces that can accommodate multiple identities. But as Jeremy Tiller discusses in the article ‘Not-Family’ in Harvard Design Magazine- Issue 41, flexible options that grow with a space’s inhabitants aren’t in the interest of housing developers, whose industry benefits from fast cycles of buying, selling, and renting. Since megacity dwellers tend to move every two years, they have no permanent community.
How does House Gig address these concerns?
Current domestic layouts are designed to make reproductive roles invisible. In contrast, my complex celebrates and realigns such tasks.House Gig acknowledges that the corridor prevents chance encounters and instead employs the enfilade to encourage spontaneous communication, positive friction, and multiple spatial usages. All communal areas are connected via the enfilade; they open up to one another to make a continuous whole. Curtains placed at regular intervals make it possible to create more intimate shared spaces. Each unit opens up via doors to adjacent units and to communal living rooms. Members can therefore choose however many units they need, and expand or downsize according to changing circumstances. Rooms are also connected to shared living spaces via interior windows, imitating the relationship between ground-floor flat and a busy footpath. This way, residents feel included in the neighbourhood from the privacy of their own homes.
This self-organized community comprises around 200 people. Applying the principles of gig economy, domestic labour is shared, visible, social and - most importantly - paid. Everyone has areas of specialisation or preferences when it comes to domestic work. Some are competent childminders, others are food at caring for the elderly. Some people prefer cleaning or ironing, others like dog walking or cooking. Others still would rather hire someone else for reproductive roles, which is where gig-economy principles come in. Tasks would be posted to a digital interface used exclusively by community members, who receive notifications for their chosen categories. Each completed task deducts a certain amount from their monthly rent. Conversely, points spent by hiring someone to do domestic chores are added to the receiver's rent, so they pay more.
According to research, 40% of UK workers have side jobs. With House Gig's shared and paid reproductive-labour system, housing would no longer be a problem, even for those with inconsistent primary jobs. If a member's main income decreases temporarily, they could pick up more chores to make up the difference. And during busier, higher-income months, they could hire other members to do their domestic work. Members could even make housework their primary job to live in the complex rent-free.
Your solution sounds more permanent than many of today’s co-living solutions...
Co-living is currently seen by most as something to tolerate before the next step. My concept aims to forge strong bonds among members to facilitate a lifelong home and community. House Gig takes advantage of the community’s intergenerational and diverse nature. Elderly people with more free time, for example, might appreciate the company and sense of purpose that domestic roles provide. Families might look after the elderly-taking them to appointments or cooking dinner for them. University students might assist children with schoolwork. People are more likely to share intimate activities with people from their community and, in turn, these shared rituals and tasks further strengthen the community.
References&Inspirations include: Harvard Design Magazine No.41&46&47, Alone like the Horn of a Rhino: Reproduction, Affective Labor, and the Contemporary Boarding House in South Korea by Maria Sheherazade Giudici, IMAGINE Issue 2 by SPACE10 x Urgent.Agency, The Antivilla by Arno Brandlhuber, The British Pavillion ‘Home Economics’ at the 2016 Venice Biennale