New hybrid housing scenarios

Abstract

Living and working in a contemporary metropolis nowadays means adapting to the socioeconomic, working and community dynamics dictated by the forma urbis itself. Dwelling represents its founding element, not only for its archetypal role as a "domestic hearth" and for its ethno-identity component, but also because it is now also part of the production process itself, thanks to the spread of remote working. Furthermore, the ways of living, in the broadest sense of the term itself, vary according to personal housing practices as well as consolidated cultural legacies. Within this framework, starting from the specific case of Dubai, chosen as a field of investigation for its contextual specificity, the social and spatial paradigms of living and working in such multicultural context were identified. Its forma urbis, today, is no longer representative of the environmental and cultural context of the resident communities, as it was until a few decades ago, but instead the result of globalization and city branding. The salient and specific characteristics of this recent past have therefore been identified, which have led to the formulation of the theoretical framework of the present Research. The new settlement paradigm identified is based on an incremental and time-varying urban density housing system, based on the synergy of two constituent elements defined as: "Combinatory Urban Matrix" and "Unit(y) of Living". Their application reveals new hybrid living and working scenarios in Dubai that will allow to overcome the current applied models. From the synergy of these two factors together with the Internet-network, social media and digital technologies, such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, urban spaces will acquire osmotic properties. The diaphragmatic features of the "Combinatory Urban Matrix" will constitute the physical-virtual support for the re-establishment of spaces for social and community interaction, as well as the physical support for the "Unit(y) of Living". The latter, thanks to its planimetric and aggregative flexibility, will also be responsible of interpreting the housing identity of the various resident communities. As well as to provide the necessary ductility to the urban settlement system itself, in order to proceeding beyond cultural barriers, in the name of integration and social equity