Housing Forms for New Family Forms

As its name implies, the single-family home is rooted in individuation, the nuclear family, and maintaining the integrity of private property—fostering and naturalizing particular myths of how to live. While the relationship between private property and inequality through the commodification of land are well documented, what is less discussed is the dissolving of the nuclear family and rise of new family forms. With less than thirty percent of Americans living as a nuclear family, social ties, and familial relationships are often set up outside of kinship. Many are starved for meaningful forms of social interaction and dependencies that would provide care and resilience to everyday life.

Expanding our notion of ‘family’ needs to be complemented with housing forms that seek not to individuate the family members and reaffirm private property but rather to find moments of sharing, care, and acknowledge the evolutionary nature to new family forms. New family forms are not often accompanied with socialized hierarchies—their composition, organization, and structure are often designed and redesigned. This requires an architecture that enables different states of occupation and the reappropriation of space. The following houses challenge the single-family home by challenging the nuclear family itself, offering a space that empowers new family forms.