Following the protocols of social distancing, the Net Positive Studio too has transitioned into online learning. As our focus shifted from building prefab to intensive research for our book, we realized this phenomenon was a perfect time to reflect on the purpose of our future careers. After an extended two-week spring break, the Net positive studio got together to talk about their outlook on ‘Resilience in Architecture’.
The objective of this research and writing assignment was to introduce the concept of resiliency and understand its relationship to current events relative to COVID-19 and the underlying themes of the studio, like affordable and sustainable housing. Prof. Gibson explained the idea of resilience as the ability of a system to adapt, respond, and recover from a stress or disturbance. In concept, it shares a great deal of perspective with sustainability, which is one of the major aspects of Net Positive studio. This assignment was also intended to reevaluate the studio’s design intent for the St. John house in terms of its Resilience.
For this assignment, each individual had to use a strong image to support their essay and dive into a variety of subjects to understand resilience. The topics ranged from physical, economical, and psychological aspects to importance of essential services, support of daily life, environmental sensitivity, opportunity etc. As each person explained their outlook on resilience with respect to a specific need in infrastructure and housing, we saw many strong ideas in design and construction. These provoked the thought of our impact through sustainability, affordability and resilience in housing design as well as recognizing the utmost importance in the physical and psychological impact of house design in our modern world.
As a studio, the outcome of this assignment was that we re-examined our design, considering this as an opportunity to reflect and be prepared for the future challenges in housing design.
The Net Positive Studio 