What does it mean to co-live with compost? How does soil shape our domestic space? Just by going about our domestic routines, we are active participants in a sequence of microclimate interactions that maintain our bodies, our surrounding plant ecosystems, our buildings, and our communities. But understanding just how much additional labor preserving these spaces entails led us to ask: How can we make a building that both empowers residents to maintain their own public and private spaces, but also alleviates them of the burden of having to do all the work? This project places compost at the core of the domestic routine, understanding the residence as a means by which communities co-produce byproducts, or “co-compost.” In this project, co-composting is expressed through communal compost chutes – located next to the building core – which both serve as building waste infrastructure and create shared domestic experiences. Compost lands in a hot composting system beneath the building, a small domestic routine act which kickstarts a larger building-scaled process: the upwards release of heat and humidity that maintains the courtyard and greenhouse space above. The building is thus understood as a living organism which plays an active role in the domestic routines of its inhabitants, for co-living is a reciprocal, symbiotic activity. Co-living with plants entails an inherent domestic duty, because when we help plants live, they help us live better.
