Thesis Project: Becoming Familiar

Thesis Statement

A space becomes familiar through inhabitation. This thesis constructs an urban dwelling unit through memory, sensory thresholds, time, and accumulation, operating within a fixed architectural shell. As a Lebanese living in Los Angeles, the design adapts with hyper-specificity to the occupier, shaping how one cooks, rests, arrives, and gathers daily. Framed as a gesamtkunstwerk, each element produces experience rather than representing it. The project follows a system of five rules that act on edges, thresholds, and surfaces to continuously reshape the space. The dwelling operates as a process, shifting toward an ongoing state of becoming familiar.

CONCEPT

I developed a spatial system through which an urban dwelling becomes familiar through inhabitation while its structural shell remains fixed. Rather than transforming the architecture itself, the project acts on the interior through adaptable thresholds, inhabited edges, controlled light, shifting spatial intensities, and mixed-use occupation. Familiarity emerges through repetition, memory, sensory experience, and daily rituals, allowing the dwelling to continuously evolve over time.

The Five Ways of Kaia

Catalog of Instances

Applying the Rules: Prototype Apartment

Render Collages

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DESERT FOLDS