Universal design is an ambition, declared by law, which so far has achieved architectural results limited to accessibility and security.

At the same time housing projects realized in Norway tend to get more uniform and conventional in terms of organization and materiality.

Can housing projects designed for special needs inspire architectural solutions which also have greater general quality than the average housing project in society today?

Can demands of special needs in terms of spatial  organization and materiality result in improved architectural intensity for the user, and also enrichen the general housing by examples of variation and quality?

Each student will choose one user group with special needs and design a housing project within a given urban site. The housing project might be planned for young, elderly, single-parent families, collective groups, patients, students, blind, disabled, etc..

Knowledge of housing design in scale related to surrounding situation, organization of the project and single unit, and architectural detailing. (1:500, 1:200, 1:50, 1:20, 1:5) Studies related to needs of the special user. Development of physical models, understanding of use of materials/tectonics.

Desk crits, lectures, group crits, excursion.

Pass / fail

Colomina, B. (1994). Privacy and publicity: modern architecture as mass media. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Davis, L. J. (2010). The Disability studies reader. New York: Routledge.

Pallasmaa, J. (2005). The eyes of the skin: architecture and the senses. Chichester: Wiley.

Riley, T. (1999). The un-private house. New York: Distributed by Harry N. Abrams.

Sontag, S. (2004). Om fotografi. Oslo: Pax.