Justeen Tsai

Admix

Total House, an architecture representing an era of automobile ownership during the 1960s, was conceived to encourage patrons to come to the city. An outdated model, the function gradually turns less valuable and will no longer bring people to the city and participate in city life. Today as architecture has manifested into individual structures that led to the decline of urban life. People liveliness has increasingly become privatized with limited social interaction. Accessible spaces are critical in improving interaction.

This thesis will challenge the current relationship between the building and its environment. Using the strength of Total House as an accessible development for the city, the project will explore how to develop a high-rise tower that provides social opportunities. It aims to explore, experiment, and negotiate between the public and private program.

Total House currently is an open, accessible, and 24/7 building in the city. A space for people to explore regardless of their preferences – from large to individual gathering. While it is illegal for these “wonderers” to walk through the private building, it is undeniable that the significant trait of Total House is how people can find intimacy within themselves in a commercialized car park.

Recognizing the value of Total House today as a public space. The public space proposed in this thesis intends to answer the demand for shared spaces in the city. A space that gives the much-needed space to the city to strengthen social engagement, encourage incidental activity, and allows a diverse scale of interaction to occur in the public realm.