Not sure about communal kitches, but I agree on more gathering spaces. Having a common garden for growing plants, herbs and vegetables could be a good idea too.
How would you design a floor plan for subsidized basic housing...
Joshua Williams
David Peterson
If communism won't let me lock myself in my hovel and ignore the world then I don't want any part of it.
Justin Barnes
I'm not saying no private kitchens, just that they shouldn't be very big.
A communal kitchen is necessary for communism as it cuts down on wasted, duplicate labor doing individual cooking. The fact is that outside of hobby cooking, cooking only for yourself or two people is a big waste of time.
Christian Wilson
so you mean like say, four adjacent homes share a big kitchen and the 'unit' does some/most cooking together.
Or like communal kitchens distinct from the house structure itself, and only basic kitchen stuff in the individual living area but there would be separate spaces you could go with a group of say 15 friends and cook up a pot-luck
William Perez
This. Fewer walls dividing the space, and put that extra material you save around the individual spaces so they're more private. Every apartment complex should get public spaces by floor including amenities like shared balcony space, movie theater projection screens (or similar stuff) gardens on the inside or outside, etc.
Zachary Scott
There should be both a small kitchen optional (not every room needs one, so maybe have modular rooms for the units) as well as a building kitchen with a professional staff who cooks for everyone. You could do it like a restaurant where people place orders for instance. You could eat in a communal cafe/cafeteria or have the food brought to your room. If you like frozen food then you could have a microwave/oven for your hotpockets and pizza.
Jackson Lewis
To have professionals cook for an entire housing complex sounds exaggerated. I think it could be better if the people in the housing cooked the food themselves.
Kevin Evans
Just the floor plan? I think that's a bit too narrow for this topic (besides, we're not interior designers). Pretty much every socialist housing plan that I'm aware of puts emphasis on communal spaces and communities - places outside of the house - whether we're talking about villages, apartment blocks, or something crazy dense like arcologies. With all that, the housing itself can be fairly minimal, though it should still be nice to live in. There should be access to natural light and fresh air (perhaps a balcony), it should be spacious enough to not feel cramped, and in case of families there should be enough rooms for everyone. Besides that it should provide all the basic necessities - a small kitchen, bathroom(s), living room, perhaps some office space. The point is to have something comfy and with a sense of permanence, whether it's a house or an apartment, and the communal spaces should amplify that.
Jeremiah Long
There's a Danish company of architects called BIG which make some very skandi designs with a mixture of density, communal spaces, amenities, offices and housing mixed in. It seems very utopian, as most of them seem to be just plans, but I have no idea how normal that is for most architecture companies.
Jayden Johnson
I've seen exactly this OP on other boards. Anyway. What is important is that the toilet and the kitchen should be really close to each other so you hear people pooping while you eat, and both should be close to the center so that the various fumes created in these spots are kept around and enrich your living experience.