Everything Matters: Conducting a Holistic Transformation of Student Housing
Colin, Emma (2023)
Colin, Emma
2023
Arkkitehdin tutkinto-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Architecture
Rakennetun ympäristön tiedekunta - Faculty of Built Environment
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-05-16
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202304264543
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202304264543
Tiivistelmä
This master’s thesis investigates the necessity of having holistic sustainable approaches when conducting transformations of student housing; by proposing key research-based interventions for an existing project in Tampere.
Buildings are one of the main contributors to carbon emissions, orienting architecture toward transformation more than demolition. However, with the population and student’s community of Tampere growing, new student housing is needed while the old one is being renovated. At the same time, there are no performance evaluations of transformations being undertaken to assess their ability to address multiple crises and aspects. As a result, a double risk is emerging: a risk for the future transformations and the new buildings to repeat the same issues as the old student housing, while not providing holistic solutions to plural crises. For this reason, this thesis explores a holistic diagnostic analysis of existing student housing to propose adequate holistic transformations while revealing issues that need to be avoided in new buildings and future transformations.
To conduct the diagnostic analysis, tangible and intangible data have been collected through on-site observations, desktop analysis and student’s housing tenants being interviewed. Then, they have been analysed through three different lenses regrouping sustainable sub-themes: contextual lens, social lens and technical lens, and at different scales: macro, meso and micro. Based on the result of the diagnostic analysis, key interventions were proposed for the transformation, targeting specific points to impact multiple issues at multiple scales.
The diagnostic analysis concluded that promoting greenery and community feeling were the two focus areas that could impact a larger proportion of the issues and threats revealed. While reducing energy consumption should not be neglected, social and contextual aspects should always be considered when conducting transformations and designing new buildings. Building community and providing restorative and green design is as important as reducing emissions and they are always interconnected with each other. The key interventions proposed for the transformation shows that having a holistic and comprehensive approach of the project allows for more and better positive impacts than energy-centred or economic-centred approaches.
Buildings are one of the main contributors to carbon emissions, orienting architecture toward transformation more than demolition. However, with the population and student’s community of Tampere growing, new student housing is needed while the old one is being renovated. At the same time, there are no performance evaluations of transformations being undertaken to assess their ability to address multiple crises and aspects. As a result, a double risk is emerging: a risk for the future transformations and the new buildings to repeat the same issues as the old student housing, while not providing holistic solutions to plural crises. For this reason, this thesis explores a holistic diagnostic analysis of existing student housing to propose adequate holistic transformations while revealing issues that need to be avoided in new buildings and future transformations.
To conduct the diagnostic analysis, tangible and intangible data have been collected through on-site observations, desktop analysis and student’s housing tenants being interviewed. Then, they have been analysed through three different lenses regrouping sustainable sub-themes: contextual lens, social lens and technical lens, and at different scales: macro, meso and micro. Based on the result of the diagnostic analysis, key interventions were proposed for the transformation, targeting specific points to impact multiple issues at multiple scales.
The diagnostic analysis concluded that promoting greenery and community feeling were the two focus areas that could impact a larger proportion of the issues and threats revealed. While reducing energy consumption should not be neglected, social and contextual aspects should always be considered when conducting transformations and designing new buildings. Building community and providing restorative and green design is as important as reducing emissions and they are always interconnected with each other. The key interventions proposed for the transformation shows that having a holistic and comprehensive approach of the project allows for more and better positive impacts than energy-centred or economic-centred approaches.