HALF EMPTY HOUSES

Abstract

The single family house is a typology with an invisible vacancy and a great future potential to tackle large societal challenges. 50% of Swedish households live in single family houses and they are to be found all over the country. Many of them are built for a family with children but today the majority of these houses are inhabited by only 1 or 2 persons and a third of all house owners express they have too much space. There is a discrepancy between what we build or dream of and the reality of how we live today. The lack of variations in sizes and ownership models can make it hard to both stay in and move to the area. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the potential of the single family house to develop new housing solutions within the existing as well as summarising knowledge and strategies for how this can be done and how to reach qualities in the design while doing so. The project takes place in the context of the island Åstol where the only option to create more housing is to develop within the existing 180 villas and where the future of the local community is dependent on how they make use of their limited space. The outcome of the thesis is a design proposal of how 3 of these villas can be transformed to support a sustainable development. Through research of relevant reports and references on the subject together with real life examples based on interviews and statistics, the proposals of transformations are presented as a palette of potential showcasing new ways of living - matching the needs of today’s society as well as challenging the norm of how we live today.