CHEN LIANG



This is a long three-story building developing and consisting of three rectangles of the equal area but with different side lengths. The building consists of several short (10 feet) units. Each unit on the same floor has a different height, and all units form a large staircase, while each unit is a large step.
This is a three-story building shared by two families. Each family lives on the first and second floors, and the third floor is a shared kitchen. In the context of the community, the two families are very close and often have dinner together. The shared dining room also saves the family expenses.






The building is located in the middle of the northern half of the entire community. My building shares the same wall as Dylan's building on the east side and has an access path that runs through both of our buildings. Across the middle road on the south side is Fareeha's building. On the west side, across the pedestrian bridge is Mitch's building. Since my building is located at the intersection of the median road and the pedestrian bridge, I incorporated these two transportation systems into the design of the building separately. The bike station on the first-floor outdoor portion is accessed by a bike ramp to the community median road. The second-floor balcony is connected to the pedestrian bridge, and families living on the second floor can enter the second-floor interior from the pedestrian bridge via the second-floor balcony. Others can also use the balcony to reach the stairs on the north side that lead to the third-floor kitchen.





The first and second floors rise and fall from north to south, using the different heights to give the space different functions, for example, the lowest step has a higher clear height for a living room, and the highest step has a lower clear height for a child's bedroom. And the first and second floors are divided into individual rooms (units) using sliding doors. On the third floor, a grand staircase is formed from the interior to the exterior, while a dining table of the same horizontal height connects the interior to the exterior, with steps of different heights for people of different heights to eat.  This makes it possible for everyone at the table to be at the same height. And it makes it possible for the person sitting in the chair to be at the same height as the person sitting on the higher step. Desks in the same style as the dining table are set in the bedrooms on the first and second floors. The same height desk connects the two adjoining bedrooms, allowing the children's room in the middle to have a lower desk. On the first and second floors, all rooms are connected by two open and continuous passageways. At the same time, each room (unit) is separated into individual spaces by multiple sliding doors that cut off the passage.