James Christian designs parasitic structures for disused city spaces
London designer James Christian has created a series of architectural parasites intended to occupy empty rooftops, car parks and greens of dilapidated estates across the capital for his residency at the city's Design Museum.
![Disruption by James Christian at Designers in Residence](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/09/Disruption-by-James-Christian-at-Designers-in-Residence_dezeen_468_4.jpg)
One of four designers commissioned to produce work under the topic of Disruption, Christian's variation on the theme is Disrupting Housing.
"I'm really interested in estates. I was very interested in the Rookery slums and how these were unimaginable awful places but had a sense of intimacy that we don’t see now," Christian told Dezeen.
![Disruption by James Christian at Designers in Residence](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/09/Disruption-by-James-Christian-at-Designers-in-Residence_dezeen_468_2.jpg)
Presented as "doll-house-scaled" models, the two proposed structures are designed as a new type of live/work paradigm that is instigated and shaped by the inhabitants of the building.
![Disruption by James Christian at Designers in Residence](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/09/Disruption-by-James-Christian-at-Designers-in-Residence_dezeen_468_0.jpg)
"It's two new forms of housing that could be inserted into existing estate structures. They're modelled on two examples of popularly condemned housing," said Christian. "Both projects are about programmed community – a community where there is something happening."
![Disruption by James Christian at Designers in Residence](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/09/Disruption-by-James-Christian-at-Designers-in-Residence_dezeen_468_1.jpg)
The new dwellings and workspaces have exteriors in keeping with the host building but interiors and courtyards are intended to be left open for customisation by each resident. A section through one model reveals brightly coloured lattice work representing this element of the design.
![Disruption by James Christian at Designers in Residence](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/09/Disruption-by-James-Christian-at-Designers-in-Residence_dezeen_468_5.jpg)
A series of storyboards charting the fictional scheme's progress – from construction and prefabrication of the buildings to the fictional lives of the residents and housing cooperative – will be added to over the duration of the exhibition.
![Disruption by James Christian at Designers in Residence](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/09/Disruption-by-James-Christian-at-Designers-in-Residence_dezeen_468_6.jpg)
Christian is a graduate of the RCA, teacher of Spatial Design at Middlesex University and co-founder of design studio Projects Office.
![Disruption by James Christian at Designers in Residence](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/09/Disruption-by-James-Christian-at-Designers-in-Residence_dezeen_468_8.jpg)
Each year the Design Museum invites four young designers to take up residency at the museum over a period of four months. This is the last residency that will be hosted on the museum's Shad Thames site before its move to Kensington in 2016.
![Disruption by James Christian at Designers in Residence](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/09/Disruption-by-James-Christian-at-Designers-in-Residence_dezeen_468_7.jpg)
Christian's fellow Designers in Residence are Ilona Gaynor, Torsten Sherwood and Patrick Stevenson-Keating.
![Disruption by James Christian at Designers in Residence](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/09/Disruption-by-James-Christian-at-Designers-in-Residence_dezeen_468_9.jpg)
The exhibition opened yesterday and will run until 8 March 2014.
Photography is by Luke Hayes unless otherwise stated.