After completing high school, Tania studied art for one year while dedicating herself to politics and activism. During this time she realised that architecture was the career that could best combine these interests and she applied to study at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. After completing her undergraduate studies, Tania worked for one year before joining the RCA (3 months at Studio MDA in NYC and 9 months at OMA in Rotterdam).
Tania Tovatt
During my final year at the RCA, I have been analysing the perception of privacy within domestic environments. I have been specifically looking at the spatial consequences of unveiling the interior of a home to challenge the purpose and hierarchy among different rooms as well as the relationship between the private and the public.
The impetus of the project was the pandemic, which led me to pack up my apartment in London and head back to Stockholm. Unfortunately, all of my belongings were lost during the shipment. Without any particular place to return to, or any things to hold on to, I spent the school year studying digitally from various couches and hotel rooms in different countries. My new nomadic, yet isolated, lifestyle changed my expectations and the way in which I relate to my physical surroundings - something that has informed the design of my final project at the RCA.
Health House - Eloise — The design of the Health House is presented via a short film portraying the life of one of its residents, Eloise.
How can architecture respond to a society where interaction around the fireplace, in the office, at the school, or in the corner shop is no longer as common as it once was? This project is meant to both embrace and critique the rapid digitalisation of our daily life. Besides increasing isolation, can this relatively new lifestyle also be used to positively alter our perception of the human body and privacy?
The project is set in a speculative hyper-individualistic society where people live in voluntary isolation and where most human-to-human interactions occur online. My proposal is meant to celebrate the publicity of otherwise private and enclosed moments in modern architecture, such as those in the bathroom and bedroom.
Campus - site plan — The students of ADS5 collaborated to form a universal campus - a city walkable in under 15 minutes in any direction and consisting of each student’s individual building. The objective was to create an urban oasis located somewhere in the UK that was ‘self-sufficient and self-regulating, hyper-local and centered around nature and community’.
Street — View from street level of the Health Houses situated in the campus
Site plan — The design consists of two eleven-floor apartment blocks standing in close proximity. Each building is only ten meters deep, resulting in a shorter distance between its facades compared to the standards over the past half century.
Exterior — View of the Health House from a distance
Typical plan — The narrow building depths allow natural ventilation in all the rooms including the bathroom without sacrificing light in other spaces of the apartment.
Interior — View through the apartment
Interior — View through the apartment - closeup
Exterior — View from the opposite building
Interior — View of the eastern wet room - the toilet and winter garden
Interior — View of the western wet room - the bath and the kitchen
Interior — View of the western wet room - the bath and the kitchen
Interior — Living room
Interior — Bedroom
Section — The height difference creates different spatial qualities on each side of the apartment. The bed is located in the most intimate side of the apartment, while the living room is located in the more generous space with grander ceiling heights.
Interior — Matrix of rooms, each of them opening up directly to another
Rooftop — The rooftop has two pools which make the otherwise very lightweight building structure heavier.
Perspective — View of the showers
Perspective — View of the pool