Drawing its name from the Hittite maniiahh (“to distribute, entrust”) and the Greek utopia (“non-place,” itself derived from topos, or “land”), manu-topia envisions a residential complex that fuses private property with collective ownership—where, in other words, occupants enhance their sense of belonging by sharing their belongings. The circulation between each of its sixty duplex units is allocated as storage for commodities shared between neighbors while those corridors lining the exterior-facing public ramp offer items for passersby. Thus commodities—like suitcases, tools, kitchen equipment, clothes, books, and bikes, once strictly private property—become co-mmodities.

The ramps and staircases lining each unit’s slender corridor contain its basic housing utilities: circulation, storage, kitchen, and bathroom. The remaining interior pocket serves as the resident’s living space.

Harvard GSD
Lütjens-Padmanabhan
Architekten

manu-topia