Light Settlement is a parasitic community infrastructural multifamily housing project for the global nomads of 2059. It is designed to operate as an independent settlement deeply tied back into the city of application in order to feed off of - while simultaneously supplying support for - social, infrastructural, logistical, and political qualities through an intricate contextual and objectively driven network of nodes and connectors.

Many cities worldwide will not be able to house its citizens by the year 2030 due to the uncanny increase in population and urbanization. With this in mind, this housing design for the year 2059 manifests itself as a sprawling urban parasite growth algorithm, which spreads over existing cities creating new ground through an added urban context in the sky. In the following example, this housing strategy has been applied to a site along the L.A. River near MTA and SCIArc in Los Angeles, CA

Light and lightness are perhaps one of the most prominent characteristics of this application. The living units in the Light Settlement are essentially light tubes. These tubes are placed in position on the site originally facing true south. Then by identifying the solar position throughout the year relative to the site, a maximum range of pivoting is determined where the control and exposure to direct sunlight is optimal as per the climate and lighting conditions. At this point the respective resident of the unit can choose to pivot their unit as they see fit in order to receive the sun they like within this limited range.

The units themselves have been designed and skinned in order to operate as light boxes, receiving washes of light during the daytime, and glowing with light during the nighttime, like street lamps. The perception of the aggregation of the housing application across a site is also derived through light; by the degrees of filtration of light by the users and their units, whether they are making their units more or less opaque during the daytime, or by how much light they emit at night.

Lightness also plays an intricate role in the structuring and physical presence of this parasite. The project is an air-rights project and predominantly elevated into the air above, touching down to the ground and attaching itself to existing structures very lightly and sparingly. Although the physical contact with the ground and existing site is very light, its influence and impact is extremely strategic and has profound residual impact

The application of the Light Settlement begins with the node and connector network process. This exercise identifies nodes on the site at the larger urban scale. These nodes are places of cultural relevance, urban necessity, or infrastructural importance - such as power supplies, sewage maintenance, transportation nodes, or economic hubs/attractors. The identified nodes are then linked to the closest nodes of the same family by connectors, which is where the circulation and public realm occurs and also where the units are attached within the settlement.

Once the network is determined the application of the process begins by first constructing a large tower crane. The reach of this crane will then determine the expanse by which the settlement can be established. As this settlement needs to expand, more cranes get built and more connectors established. As this is an entirely additive system the development can proceed to aggregate and spread over any urban environment as necessary/desired.

The living units are prefabricated light boxes. When a user decides to move into the Light Settlement, that user purchases their unit assembly type from a catalogue. This unit will then be placed in the greater structure at the desired angle within the limited range. When the owner of the unit needs to move, as our populations are becoming increasingly nomadic with globalization, the users unit can be broken down and shipped to the Light Settlement in the next city the resident calls home