Andreea Stanuta (she/her)

Over 1 in 3 children in Glasgow are living in poverty, with the highest rates in the ward of Calton, where this project is located. Calton is lacking safe and engaging spaces for children. It has been proven through numerous studies that play is essential to cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being – it also boosts confidence, self-esteem, and improves social skills in children. As we are approaching a post-pandemic society, these skills are critical points of development that children have been deprived of in the past two years. Within this context, this project proposes a play centre for children aged 2-12, designed to offer a space that children feel comfortable and safe in to encourage and facilitate curiosity through independent exploration, and a sense of ownership over the space. The building is located next to housing for single mothers (as designed within my housing project), further making the building appropriate in the context.

For many people, the link between domesticity and labour is intertwined rather than seperate – aspects of domesticity are labour. In this project, labour is interpreted as a domestic sub-type. A study conducted in 2020 calculated that on average a person will spend 2 years on household chores. Therefore within this project, the most time-consuming tasks have been taken out of the living space and collectivised at ground floor level (of the entire scheme), removing the workload to a certain extent, and adjusting the living space to a simpler environment. Within this context, I have designed collective housing for single mothers where domestic labour such as housework and childcare is collectivised. A study conducted in 2018 determined that raising a child is the equivalent of 2.5 full time jobs. The 40 hour working week was also designed at a time when traditional gender roles meant there was one full time wage earner and one full time head of the household. It is unrealistic nowadays to expect a single adult to manage all of this. This project therefore aims to simplify and improve daily life.