thesis: reproducible reproductive

In the 1930’s, the New Deal sought to produce 1,500 post offices cheaply, effectively, and quickly, so the federal government “adopted the perfectly justifiable expedient of designing [these] smaller buildings in groups conforming to certain types” (Federal Architect, July 1934). In this process, standard formal solutions provided a consistent expression of identity across the country’s postal facilities. Each building, however, with its choice of materials, organization of circulation, and ornamentation of the facade and public interiors, was also made to reflect a local identity.

Federal commissions have historically been preoccupied with delivering a consistent and fluid formal language. Modular and factory-produced construction methods dominate contemporary architectural practice, so how might federal commissions mobilize these methods? Under such circumstances, how would a reproductive health clinic be designed today? This project proposes a method for designing a network of buildings in which individual instances demonstrate a collectively coherent formal strategy, that is simultaneously sensitive to the specificities of the site. Similar to the post office in being sites of transactional interactions which are nationally in-demand, these clinics will help us evaluate the capacity for designing unique buildings that can span national geographies and sensibilities.

option studio: the dovetail, a universal building in london

This studio, part of a semester abroad asked us to consider what it means to design a universal building at Canada Water, London. If the structure of a building is the first to go up, and last to be torn down, how can it be designed to adapt to continuous adaptation of use and program within? The project was designed in defined chapters to ensure an iterative process.
Envisioned as one large room, the structure allows the building to be subdivided into smaller parts as various user groups move in and out. If floor to ceiling heights are some of the greatest barriers to change of use in a building, this proposal’s alternating single and double-height spaces enable a variety of programs to adapt to the building.
Activation of the facade and public space is critical as this building is positioned on the corner of a large development site, so single height space is shifted to the corner, and a tension structure was added to free the corner. The back corner is open to allow light and air to the whole floor plate, and ensure the circulation systems can evolve over time. It also creates a semi-public space for the surrounding buildings.
The structure creates large public spaces but can also be transformed over time to adapt to use within, and in neighboring buildings. The thickened floor slabs in the final version highlight the double height sandwiches, and reduce solar heat gain while celebrating the structure. Although it is an irregular building, it is both universal and specific, efficient but memorable.
An external limit was that all of the deliverables had to fit inside a wedding box to enable transport back to Harvard.

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option studio: no shirt, no shoes, no park

Mikyoung Kim with Bryan Chou | Fall 2017

This project creates public space in the Boston Seaport neighborhood that suggests methods of occupation but does not dictate the activities of its users. It allows for the users to negotiate amongst themselves what activities will happen here, when, and how. It will allow for groups of all shapes and sizes to gather and participate together.

Cities must create cohesive spaces for public gathering while incorporating all different kinds of activities in the same place. Parks should offer sites for social respite and friction for people at all times. The brief also called for a public space that could be used for massive protests, while being an enjoyable place for small groups of people.

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The project began with an exploration of materials and models that capture kinetic activity in static form to create an engaging environment that would encourage movement throughout the site. The connection between the city and site was analyzed and diagrammed. Retail L’s were proposed to attract people to the project beyond times of protest.

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An undulating skin topography was then placed above, composed of hexagons at the scale of human occupation. At various “suggested” places of program, the spaces aggregate together to allow for flat or angled gathering places at the small, medium, and large scales. The fractalized units of pentagons allow for fraying of structured space; enabling any user of the space to choose how to occupy the specific moment, and permit a wider variety of topographic elevation.

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This project is not about the hexagons, it’s about the moments; the geometric forms are the vehicles for unlimited journeys. Materials are applied to enable activities, but the edges and colors hide the “intended” program in favor of a more fluid experience.

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VR views – click on arrows or eyeballs to change views, arrow keys (swipe on mobile) to navigate
MyLumion

gsd: communication for designers

Emily Waugh | Fall 2017

Final project for GSD 2341: Communication for Designers

 

(View in full screen)

From the project brief:

This assignment combines all of the lessons learned throughout the term— finding the story, making a case, framing your project, constructing a narrative, writing clearly and convincingly, telegraphing your message, choosing / making images, and public speaking.

Prepare a proposal for a project in your hometown that will highlight or celebrate the hometown phenomenon you presented in Assignment 4. You will not be designing the project, but are asked to design a proposal to submit to the town council to present the case as to why this phenomenon (and therefore, project) is relevant to the town, what it will be, where it will be sited, and how you expect this to change the image/perception of the city.

core iv: olympic flame development, inc.

Jennifer Bonner | Spring 2017

With Khorshid Naderi-Azad and Marianna Gonzalez

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This project rethinks the role of luxury in multi-family housing today. It injects cultural phenomena (including the GIF, the representation tool engaged with throughout the semester) that are symptomatic of our lives into the traditional residential typology of Boston, the triple decker, to propose a new set of typologies that more productively engage with who we are, how we live, and what we care about.

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We closely studied the song “Bad & Boujee” by the Atlanta rappers Migos, which expresses the dichotomies embedded in contemporary conditions and ambitions.

The artists drink champagne while eating microwaved ramen, they smoke weed inside a BMW X5 while pulled over at a housing project.

Contemporary luxury is about layering. This project uses the ways that people misread objects, forms, spaces, and social constructs, to shape a housing development where all people can share city. Through purposeful misreading, it obscures and disguises luxury in the contemporary city.

Olympic Flame Development consists of 135 buildings that are variations of 5 new residential typologies. These 5 types are all alterations of the traditional triple decker. Variations on luxury were produced by taking the volume of the 5 types, stretching and squashing the mass to produce different heights and slenderness ratios while maintaining the same number of occupants.

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No building in the development matches another, but no building is foreign. The urban fabric is cohesive but not monotonous. The project revamps the ordinary triple decker to embody the complexities that we experience in our contemporary lives by layering and misreading.

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core III: mixed-use hotel tower in doha

Elizabeth Christoforetti

Despite traditions of hospitality within the harsh environment, Doha is a segregated city (expressed as a waffle). In this project, the nested distribution and mixing of programs, people, and environmental systems/structures attempt to provide answers to questions of social and environmental responsibility, bringing the users together (expressed as a pancake).

Programs are distributed such that user groups shift up and down throughout the building, sliding past one another. Tourists using the gym and restaurant are forced by the locals checking out the art gallery, who are forced past the migrant workers in the clinic, who are forced past the service workers using the kitchen facilities.

On one side of the central core are the private rooms with access to views of sunrise and the Persian Gulf. With Vierendeel trusses throughout the floorplates, the public programs can be located on the opposite corner, creating cantilevers when the program requires a large floorplate. The rigid, cellular private half of the building provides structure while also creating a constant dichotomy between private and the freeform, cantilevered public spaces. Above these enclosed, fully conditioned cantilevers are gardens, wrapped in an additional layer of building envelope for maximum environmental efficiency. This double enclosure creates additional opportunities for interaction between users of different programs, across public and private space, while expressing a stance towards energy use in a climate like Doha’s. Through the social and spatial organization, a new architecture is proposed to fully enable the political and social agency of the hotel users and wider community.

Above: Model detail of public program cantilevers

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core II: circulating + rare book library

Max Kuo

An extended precedent analysis of the Sou Fujimoto Musashino Art University Library analyzed how although the spiral organization suggests a gradient of experiences, the interaction of users with books and social dynamics among users is fairly homogeneous.

 

This proposal offers a range of experiences for the users although it is suggestive of a consistent experience throughout with platonic geometry and the same pixelated shelf system as found in the precedent. Public, fully accessible, circulatory portals skewer the buildings, instigating incisions, clefts, cantilevers, and shafts. The resultant networks and their associated shelving system and level of transparency to the sky or to the landscape offer a variety of experiences into each building and within each building. The puncture of the facade by the portals enhances the formal and programmatic organization of the library while also providing the public with new experiences within the park. By trading public space in the Boston Fens Park for enhanced public pathways that connect users to the MFA, the city, and the park, the library reinforces its relationship to the site. The divide of the river and difference in formal systems allow users of the library, MFA, and park to engage with the seemingly arbitrary distinctions between circulating and rare library collections, and the status and attitudes towards each held by the larger knowledge and arts communities.

Above: View of library from above

gsd: making sacred spaces

Christine Smith
Final project for GSD 4368: Making Sacred Spaces

The Cathedral of Saint Thomas More, located in the Columbia Point neighborhood of Boston will serve as a paradigm for future cathedrals because of its liturgical arrangement and architectural details. The arrangement of the cathedral’s programs and liturgical furniture enhances the experience of the congregation joining the clergy in worship. Located in a politically important location within Boston, and oriented to honor the patron saint of statesmen, the cathedral will serve an important role within Boston’s Catholic and political community. Built with simple materials, the church reflects the values of the congregation while enhancing the congregation’s spiritual experience. Congregants and visitors from around Boston and the world will look forward to their time spent celebrating the liturgy together as they celebrate the glory of God, praise Christ, and yearn for a future redemption.

Above: View of the altar

Full report:

View of altar

 

core II: cancer club

Max Kuo

Although millions of people are diagnosed with cancer each year, undergoing treatment is an isolating and lonely process. This is especially true for millennials; for whom it is rare to be diagnosed.
This project for a cancer “club” inserts itself into the existing cancer treatment infrastructure as a healthcare facility that not only battles the disease and treats member’s symptoms, but also cares for the member’s social well-being.

Although the project centers around communal spaces, the treatment and housing of the members is the primary concern for the club. Thus, the architecture is based around the individual private nodes, the guest rooms and treatment rooms, designed on a rotated 13’x13’ grid to enable full handicap accessibility while preserving privacy. The aggregation and integration of public and private spaces creates a fluid experience for members, in which they are able to socialize with fellow members constantly while still being able to find moments of quiet and private refuge. By distributing public and private spaces throughout the project around a central atrium, the architecture is an enjoyable and flexible social experience on each floor and throughout the building. The facade treatment reflects this sifting of public and private spaces; the material treatment and orientation represents the difference in use of the space, while the geometry breaks down the barriers between intimate and community spaces. The facade also reflects the clubs position within Brutalist Boston.

Instagram, similarly blurs these lines, allowing for the merging of public and private spaces through the exposure of private spaces to a general social media platform while private users can interpret and experience public spaces on their own.

Above: Site model in context

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

gsd: ouagadougou bus shelter network

Diébédo Francis Kéré

This project proposes a network of bus shelters throughout Ouagdougou, Burkina Faso that will improve public transit experiences for residents and visitors, provide community public spaces, promote education for all ages, provide electricity for the public and lessees, and create rent-able spaces. A design for one medium-sized shelter is explored but a network of various sized shelters is proposed. The shelter captures solar energy to power lights and electrical outlets while the roof provides maximum shade during the dry season and water protection during the rainy season. The interesting roof support design would be attractive during the day and when lit from within at night. In addition to seating for bus users, the benches could be used by community members, and the central chalkboard could host tutoring sessions, business meetings, or children practicing drawing and writing.

This design was produced for a January Term course dealing with construction in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. One design from the class’s work will be constructed during Summer 2016 in Africa.

Above: Rendering of shelter during day showing engagement of community members and bus users in the central chalkboard and seating area.

Plan showing how the shelter would interface with buses and enable gathering and learning

 

Other possible sizes and combinations of modules; bottom left also demonstrates a possible configuration to host a small shop

At night, the rebar supported structure would produce interesting shades and designs, which would enhance the night-time experience of the street

Lightweight yet durable, the structure is easily constructible and replicable across the city.

The proposal uses cheap materials available locally like concrete, rebar supports, and metal roofing as well as solar panel technology

core I: quad neighborhoods dorm

Cristina Parreño

This project, a dormitory, proposes a system of quad rooms composed of two doubles lofted together in order to maximize the use of space in order to fit the given programs. These quads were then arranged to create neighborhoods of quads, providing 3 different living styles for students according to their preference for more individuality, smaller clusters, or larger groups. Certain requirements pertaining to program, overall dimensions, and facade design were given. The efficiency of the quads enable 330 beds to be accommodated in this proposal, 60 more beds than required, and significantly more common space is produced.

Above: Axonometric view of dorm – individual wing at bottom left, small cluster wing at right, and group at top

Top and bottom plans of group quads and twin quads showing similarities and differences about layout and access

 

Plan of proposal, arrows showing means of access to each grouping of quads

Renderings showing three wing types (from left: cluster, group, and individual)

Sections of three wing types (from left: cluster, group, and individual)

Physical model

core I: extensive/intensive

Cristina Parreño

This project uses a transformation system based in Grasshopper to create an architecture that uses intensive processes of convection and conduction thermodynamics in a first state, and the process of radiation in the second to inform the extensive properties. Through a thick envelope, compact structure and central temperature/people circulation system, the first state utilizes the attributes of the stack effect and a central chimney to drive and enhance its thermodynamic system. As the armature unfolds the geometry (in Grasshopper) into a second, exposed state, the radiation and shading enables a completely different thermodynamic and organizational environment. The proposal references, enables, and explores the dichotomy between environments, geometries, thermodynamic systems, and circulation systems.

Above: Exposed state – hot environment

Process diagram of shapes used in Grasshopper transformation system; shape selected based on maximum exposure to sun in compact state and maximum exposure to sun and wind in the exposed state

Two states analyzed for properties of convection and ability of the building to produce a stack effect

Plans and sections of compact and exposed states

Animated gif showing transformation between compact to exposed states in Grasshopper – although building intended to be able to transition between states in Grasshopper, two states were intended to be static building designs

Program diagram showing where room moves in Grasshopper armature

Compact state – cold environment

Compact state physical model

Exposed state physical model