Locating Commonalities in Type

Hybrid Typology: Storybook House + Motel

 Any attempt to define type is an attempt to define what is typical and what is most typical is common to all. Therefore, types can be understood as a common architecture that constitute the collective and are the embodiment of the spirit of the city, where the people/citizens recognize a vernacular as the common language for urban life. For type to be “common” it must persist over time and be involved in the incremental transformation of the city or accommodate differences.

In regular motels, the ‘in-between’ spaces such as balconies and corridors are always integrated into the volume and rarely expressed on the facade. As such, I want to utilize the domestic image to define and accentuate these communal spaces. I created the hybrid typology by reflecting images from the storybook house in smaller volume parts inverted from the facade to the inside. Despite the seemingly austere facade of the motel, this inversion allows guests to feel like they are absorbing this notion of domesticity as they enter, subverting their initial expectations