Academy of Architecture Amsterdam (2018)

P2a - Next Neighborhood II (by Hiroki Matsuura & Martin Probst)

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NO SLAVE TO SPACE is a plea for using available space. There are those among us that do not need a lot of space for themselves, and are willing to share commodities. The project shows that in one small industrial area more persons could be housed than in the entire city center of Amsterdam. 

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If bathrooms, toilets, kitchens and living rooms would be intensely shared, extreme densities are possible. The layout of the area is defined by the existing structures in the area. The large structures are being used for storage and production, by inverting the area and keeping those 'productive spaces' open for the inhabitants, a small city emerges.

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The project is not an utopian dream, but rather a critical note towards the never ending desire for higher densities in city centers. A city center that houses only one specific group of persons is not a healthy city.