Leonard Palmer

Designer.Researcher.Maker.

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A School with Room for Queerness
Pipecycle_Design
Data Pub(lic)
Slope House
Inside Out
Monoliths
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Pipecycle_Experiment
Feel the Flux
Moss*Crete
Shells of Light, Blobs of Shadow

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woodles.n.things
Zero Waste Cart
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Slope House

Housing centered around childcare

Fourth semester core studio
Spring 2021
Harvard GSD
Instructor: Jenny French
Design Partner: Sumayyah Raji
Slope House takes on housing centered around children and childcare. The project investigates how play can be integrated into everyday life through a dynamic roof as a place for free play. By sharing a roof, the residents share childcare as a collective responsibility, evoking Jane Jacobs’ “Eyes on the Street.” Cities are increasingly less safe for kids to wander around, often requiring individualized adult supervision. Hence, children’s time and place of play is becoming more prescribed. In contrast to the prescribed play model in the highly regulated commercial playground equipment that we see today, the project explores the roof’s sloped surface as an opportunity for organic play, while creating unintentional glances onto children’s activities. The form of the roof creates a village where kids have the freedom to imagine creative and organic forms of play, and parents can supervise from a distance. The “Eyes on the Roof” renegotiate childcare and play into families’ everyday lives, creating a safe haven in the city for kids to explore freely and discover play within the context of domestic living.

Slope House offers opportunities for creative and organic play, while eyes from each unit pours onto the roof. The eyes on the roof renegotiates childcare and play into the everyday life of families by making it a communal responsibility among the residents.
The housing complex is designed as a large sloped form, with the roof being a playscape where children can wander around and explore the pockets of shared collective spaces carved out of the roof.
The roof of Slope House has pockets of play spaces dispersed throughout - blurring the line between play and everyday life.
The roof form is a collection of different kinds of conventional roofs, creating playful spaces - inspired by Claude Parent’s Tilted World
In section, the sloped surfaces create three large roof scapes, with a shared backyard and corridors slicing through the mountain-like form for better access to sunlight for all units.

Public programs such as daycare and youth-led community programs live in the two public corridors on the ground floor on either side.
In addition, on the top level above the corridors, communal terrace spaces are shared among residents. 
Each unit has a view into the collective play space from their interior living and domestic spaces.

Play and everyday life mixes together in section, offering lines of sight and adventurous circulation.
Play shapes circulation—storage boxes and ladders transform daily routines into adventure. A kids’ mezzanine connects seamlessly to shared play spaces above neighboring units. Even smaller units thoughtfully integrate play, keeping children central to the design. Studios support retired couples or young professionals who may not have children of their own but still are a part of the community eye.
The ramps weave in and out of the roof surface play area - also becoming an opportunity for play.

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