Rethink Luxury | Redefine Sustainability
AquaBox is a multi-unit housing project which rethinks the excess of 'luxury' by simplifying the private domain and moving some functions of the home into the shared space of the water core. The project challenges the conception that one must suffer for the sake of sustainability by finding luxury in this overlap.

As luxury condos pack more into less space and mcmansions become an ever bloated caricature of luxury, they deliver less of the pleasures they promise. The home sauna is really a moldy box, no one actually knows how to operate and the Double French hollow-core doors somehow open less spectacularly than one might imagine. In addition to disappointing performance these antiquated ideas of luxury are unhealthy for our cities and environment.




AquaBox proposes to trim excess from the concept of 'home' and accentuate the spaces we do use. Each of the units simplifies the private domain and connects to the water core which acts as a satellite extension of one's home. The water core is a tangle of paths through which each unit is connected to small 'neighborhood' clusters providing their daily water functions with access to the whole for a swim, steam or soak.

Each unit's program is organized from public to private with the various water programs signifying the level of intimacy.










AquaBox at Mission Creek
The AquaBox is located on the southern shore of Mission Creek in San Francisco's Mission Bay. The building presents a closed form to the street and dissolves on the creek facing facade to frame views of the water.




Layers of Circulation Redefine next door Neighbor

The water program is distributed through-out the core to create new adjacencies across the building. Two Unit A's may be located across the core from one another but become 'next door' neighbors based on their connection through shared water spaces.


This model was a mapping exercise to understand which units are connected through shared water programs.





Faculty
Leanardo Zylberg
John Barone