Noyonika Gaba
2026
This project begins with a memory of growing up in India, where care was never confined to the boundaries of a single home. Everyday rituals such as sleeping, feeding, washing, and playing unfolded collectively, shared among extended family and neighbors who became part of an informal but deeply reliable network. Streets and in-between spaces came alive with children at predictable rhythms, watched over not by one person but by many. Care was not scheduled or assigned, but ambient, woven into daily life. In contrast, in the United States, childcare often becomes a private and isolating responsibility, contained within the home and disproportionately carried by the mother. Without the support of informal networks, these same rituals transform into continuous, solitary labor.
The project translates these memories into a housing prototype that makes space for care to be both personal and shared. A dense cluster of private units is paired with an open, collective field where domestic rituals can unfold together. Staircases extend from individual apartments into this shared space, acting as thresholds that connect while gently organizing the field into smaller clusters. Within it, spaces for sleeping, cooking, washing, and playing are defined yet flexible, allowing activities to overlap and evolve through use. Kitchens open outward, giving residents the choice to participate or withdraw. Enclosed within a climate-responsive envelope, the shared field captures warmth in winter and releases heat in summer, supporting year-round use. Through these spatial strategies, the project imagines a way of living where proximity fosters familiarity and where small, everyday acts of care accumulate into a collective support system.