Project by Zhiwen Guan and Yifan Zu
Everyday Commons explores how architecture can cultivate collective identity and belonging through shared space. Inspired by Loisaida’s long tradition of self-built community, cultural festivals, and environmental activism, the project understands home not only as shelter but as a social and emotional commons. Drawing from everyday journeys, from private rooms to shared backyards, streets, and parks, the design emphasizes fluid transitions between private and communal life. This adaptive reuse project retains the existing load-bearing masonry walls and wooden joists, using the original structure as a framework for new shared living spaces. Rather than four isolated buildings, the proposal integrates housing into a cohesive form organized around shared living clusters. Collective space begins in the existing parking lot, turned into a recreation area, and slips into the cellar spaces below the residences, where media, theatre, and flexible programming spaces invite in all the creative production that is historically valuable to the neighborhood.
