In contemporary cities, housing is consumed as a finished product.
Buildings are decided before people arrive, and life is forced to fit within predetermined boundaries.
But urban formation has always followed the opposite flow:
Paths emerge first, people gather, and space accumulates along those lines.
This organic structure is not unique to a specific site. it represents a universal logic underlying urban growth across the world.
Root Architecture reactivates this principle.
Dwelling units attach like roots along branching paths, and the housing cluster grows not through planning, but through movement and accumulated use over time.
Driven by repetition, choice, and coincidence,
this system redefines housing as something that grows, not something that is merely built.
Rigid systems fail to respond to changing urban lifestyles.
Cities are evolving rapidly, yet housing systems remain largely static. Despite the rise of diverse living demands. transient populations, single-person households, students, short-term residents. urban housing continues to rely on rigid, uniform block typologies. Such systems fail to accommodate spatial diversity and mobility, leaving many urban voids underutilized and functionally disconnected.
Contemporary housing can no longer be defined as a fixed type. Space must adapt and evolve with its users,
demanding a more flexible and responsive housing framework.
01 single-person households
02 university students reside in studios, communal lodging or goshiwons
03 short-term migrants