Sonya Falkovskaia

Three Temporalities, of A Genealogy of the Bedroom

Professor: Alfredo Thiermann
Project partner: all work done in collaboration with Andrea Sandell
GSD Core 4, semester
The apartment has dissolved: ever-evolving forms of life have revealed its internal inconsistencies. Homes once organized around the separation (apartment) of daily activities now invite new modes of organization capable of exploring the relationship between individuals and collectives.

The following project follows a two-part methodology. Beginning with a study of the bedroom, a research and design genealogy is produced with the intention of relating the singularity of a room and its artifact (the bed) to typological models of housing. Second, the genealogy is extended through a tri-partite housing proposal. Diverse temporalities of inhabitation ground the definition of different users, their relationships to ownership and the city, and the models of collectivity and individuality they might give shape to. Different forms of life already exist within the city; by dissolving the inheritance of the apartment, such forms may find architectural reification and thereby validate new extents of individuality and collectivity.

8 months

The boarding house holds 48 beds, 15 double-story showers, and 3 large kitchens.

Itinerance as a form of life is taken seriously, and with it, notions of permanence, ownership, communality acquire new meaning.

12 years

Permanence is found in stability. The scale of the body, rigor and restraint in settings of individuality and collectivity define a home in the neighborhood.

30 years

The home in the park moves slowly, while the bedroom forms itself as the activities of daily life are sedimented.