Living Choice by Venusri Harigopal is a student housing project about how people actually live, work, relax and share space. The project questions the fixed BHK model and asks whether residential architecture can offer more choice.
Set around Jumeirah Open Beach, the proposal explores flexible living through mixed-use space, operable modules, green areas and a more open relationship between home and public life.
The housing question behind the project
The useful question here is simple: why should homes be reduced to a fixed number of bedrooms, hall and kitchen spaces when people’s lives are more fluid than that?
Living Choice uses that question as the starting point for a residential and mixed-use proposal. The design brings live, work, play and rest into a looser system that can respond to different patterns of occupation.
What makes the project useful
- It starts with a clear critique of fixed housing typologies.
- It connects residential space to work, leisure and public activity.
- It uses operable modules to explore adaptability rather than static room labels.
- It adds green space and an open market layer to make the housing feel civic.
Research-led design
Venusri’s background matters because the project is not only a formal exercise. She graduated from Heriot-Watt University with First-class Honours and won 8th place in the Undergraduate Research Competition 2021 at Abu Dhabi University.
That research-led approach gives the project a stronger foundation. The design is trying to test a housing idea, not just produce an attractive residential image.
Portfolio lesson from Living Choice
If you are presenting a housing project, make the reader understand the living model before they judge the drawings.
- State the housing problem in plain language.
- Explain what your proposal changes for the resident.
- Show how flexibility works spatially, not just as a claim.
- Connect the housing idea to the wider public or social setting.
Architecture Social view
Stephen’s recruiter view is that housing portfolio projects are stronger when the social and spatial argument is easy to understand. A practice wants to see why the proposal exists, not only what it looks like.
Showcase your housing project
Architecture Social Showcase is a good place for student projects that test a clear housing, community or urban idea.
- Lead with the design question.
- Show the site and resident logic.
- Explain the drawings in language a wider architecture audience can follow.
- Use the project to show your judgement, not only your software.
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