Constructional LEGO

Project Living framework, designed by the architectural firm AKKA Architects for one of Bombay slum districts vividly demonstrates for the construction is not always necessary to have a free plot of land: a high-rise building can be implanted above existing urban fabrics. Erected above existing slums, Living frame|work is a three-dimensional ‘scaffolding structure’, where containers are plugged in with a crane.

It deploys itself above the urban fabric and keeps the ground floor free. It is replicable and transferable to other cities around the world. Rising like a tree looking for air and sunlight, Living framework is a solution for the rapid urbanization of highly dense populated areas.

This Is Not A Building, This Is A City
Living frame|work is not a residential building but a city within a city. It provides housing but also shops, open spaces and urban features. The flats have private, but also semipublic and public sections for small home-based businesses. In its different towers and levels, the skyscraper houses different neighbourhoods with their local activities, including recycling facilities, leather tanneries, metal and wood workshops, pottery studios… Living frame|work creates the context that fosters interactions, to support the local economy of residents.

An Incomplete Skyscraper
This proposal provides the framework (structural, mechanical, electrical, sustainable and public spaces…) and a starting status (an initial number of flats is provided). This requires lower initial costs. Once people inhabit the skyscrapers, do business and grow families, Living frame|work will grow organically - within the given framework. It is up to residents to bring in new container flats, as they move in, marry off their son or start a new business. Guided by the structural and facilities’ framework, future growth is sustained by residents who add container flats as they go. Delivering this project as an ‘unfinished’ building creates room for growth and invites residents to own their context.

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Materials provided by AKKA Architects