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Commendation

The Grand Domestic

Part 2 Project 2023
Elliott Wang
London School of Architecture | UK
‘The Grand Domestic presents a new form of domestic life driven by the recognition and revaluation of reproductive labour.

The proposal turns away from a capitalist agenda of consumerism and its associated tropes of individualism, quasi-efficiency – represented here by housework – and an exacerbation of gender inequalities. It presents a new form of collective living enabled by a tenancy agreement that equates reproductive labour to market labour, challenging domestic dogmas.

The project adopts a nuanced form of the hotel-apartment typology, separating out domestic processes from the dwelling. It celebrates all forms of reproductive work in grand spaces furnished with new forms of shared equipment that operate as social mechanisms to playfully engage in domestic work. The private dwelling is subsequently reduced and refined, forming the once theorised respite from the surrounding world of work.

Driven by reproductive labour, the pandemic, and alignment with feminist campaigns, the project hypothesizes that the City of London chooses to retrofit and extend the Museum of London site, including Bastion House, thereby circumventing the controversial demolition of the landmark – a symbolic act for reproductive labour and retrofitting first.

The project presents a socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable mode of living with reproductive labour at its core.’


Tutor(s)
Esther Escribano
Matthew Whittaker
2023
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