This work is made by Taiwan-based Jmarvel interior design studio .A business-owner couple who travel between Taiwan and the U.S. to live every 6 months decided to purchase a home and live with other family members in their home town of Kaohsiung. They purchased a newly constructed home with an excellent living environment and combined it with two residential spaces on the same level to create a communal space where family members can gather and interact with each other. The couple often stay in design-oriented hotels in and out of the country and cultivated distinguished taste and rich experiences. They wanted to own a fashionable home which represents their personalities and taste, also have the space to display and share with their family a collections of "agarwood" that they've collected over a long period of time. The open-space living room and kitchen became a lively stage where the families exchange and share everything that happens in their lives, while the 6.6 square-meter study and media room which solely belongs to the male owner reflects a space for individuality of calmness and serenity. Motion and stillness intermingle, while gathering and separation take place in the same home, creating an excellent balance of the aura of the whole environment.

Background

Many Taiwanese families reside overseas from time to time due to immigration status or jobs. This means their homes in Taiwan may be left vacant which require extra maintenance. A lot of these young generations, who have been working hard and growing their businesses overseas, slowly built their financial foundation and now choose to return home to live with their families in various styles of "two-generation residences". "How does one plan a two-generation residence that supports urban living?" and "How can the residents find a balance between gathering and separation, as well as motion and stillness?" have become important tasks for the new generation families. The original design intention of this project was to create a "co-share space" and a "space for individuality" and make adjustments according to the occupancy frequency in order to re-structure an "urban two-generation residence" for the Taiwanese new generations.

Design Concept

Creating a "residence of individuality" and a "residence of two generations" that respect each other by adjusting the division or sharing of the layout, motion path and function of the house according to occasion and frequency of the occupancy.

The Purpose Behind The Planning And Development

The amount of younger generation Taiwanese families who work abroad are increasing every year. The vacant urban homes they leave behind create a lot of problems. Since these younger generations often come from a financially affluent class, they inadvertently bring out class issues in the cities where "some leave their homes vacant" while "some can't afford their own homes". Therefore, we provide a layout arrangement and living style that is the most suitable for the real circumstances and help the shared residences of the new generations achieve a win-win situation.

We have a lot of friends and families who are career men and women traveling between Taiwan and foreign countries. It is apparent that when they come home, they want to unite with their families whose love offers them comfort and company during the lonely journey abroad. We wish to solve the vacant home maintenance problems for the overseas workers by developing this project and create an excellent "two-generation residency" for the new generation at the same time. We hope that more people will learn about this design project and that the project will become a model of co-habitat for the traveling new generation families.