Liz Shepherd

2'x2': Situating Cohabitation

Situating Cohabitation explores how we might approach conversion by examining the relationship between content and container. In the wake of technological innovation and remote work, many office buildings have become vacant, leaving spacious, unresolved shells available for alternative forms of habitation. This thesis considers how existing spatial conditions and inherited narratives can be reassembled to reconfigure social norms, while also offering occupants agency in shaping how they exist alongside others and their belongings. Ultimately, examining our relation to living and how we contend with our possessions in a reconfigured environment.

Chunk model of an access floor and a prototype for a storage insert.

Detail drawing of an access floor system and storage components.

Drawings showing a system that repurposes existing access floors to function as floor, furniture, and storage.

Collage showing differing means of habitation.

Detail Diagram of adjustable access floor pedestal components.

1/4" Scale model showing a unit with the access flow system implemented

Axonometric of Existing office building shell.