Living in a Cubic Fugue
RSA_MALTZAN
Scale: Architectural
In preparation for a condition in which urban densities will be necessary, this project aims to provide a series of adjacencies that promote interaction as well as separation, creating a microcosm that is aerated for relief, and creates positive relationships between volumetric programs. With the sharing of resources, whether it is space, circulation or facilities, each party obtains access to more than they are entitled to alone. In this way, the project proposes a method by which future populations may coexist in the city.
The 5 Analytic Models:
THRESHOLD
Since the central site is the infrastructural threshold, the model shows a diagrammatic infrastructure that attempts to filter the project from NE to SW, having larger spaces at both ends, and accumulating subdivided areas towards the center.
Shown as a series of frames, the interior spaces are coded with shades of yellow to white, with the darkest yellows being the program with most emphasis (clinic, housing), the white showing the church, and the lighter yellow marking the secondary spaces (educational, administration). The frames allow full view to the city beyond, while marking the division of density from downtown to the warehouses, while the sides pick up the grid of the surrounding area, folding it upward into the building.
North
West
South
Southwest
Programmatic Developments
The base program calls for supportive housing and a health clinic. This has been modified to take advantage of the existing church on the site, which is quite monolithic, and aggregate it into the cubic mass. Connections between this modified program are extremely modulated, so that the residents can reassimilate at their own pace. The four parts are:
Public Health Clinic with Emergency Access
Emphasizing individuality and natural health care, the primary clinic areas reflect a holistic view with a back to earth supportive system. Each clinic is coupled with landscape, with a buffer zone between the clinic and the city. The microcosm insulates and promotes three dimensional networking, with a wide view in all directions. Planes provide added shelving for prospective future development.
Adjoining Educational Facilities
Sharing an outdoor lobby with the clinic at the base of its stem, the educational system is latched onto the clinic, in an obvious parasitic relation. The directional axis shifts to encourage movements into the educational spaces, and an additional exits lead towards the clinic and housing in a mutual exchange.
Supportive Housing (100 SROs)
Each unit is on display, avoiding a condition reminiscent of the underside of the city. Shared resources force exchange, with facilities teasing out the residents into the community. Aerated spaces allow for group work, both within the comfort of the dedicated zone, and all the way across to the educational spaces. Occupants are encouraged to participate in the clinic and educational programs provided.
The Glory Church of Jesus Christ
The existing church has been reassembled into a new whole, providing its members with additional spaces and renovations, as well as opportunities to volunteer in either the clinic or housing areas. Additional areas are vertically integrated and shared with the other two major programs in the building. Members are able to evangelize, though the spaces they occupy are optionally circulated.
Plans
Diagrams
Distributive Organization
The above diagrams show the general programmatic distribution, as well as the layering, both architectural and programmatic. The more saturated the color, the more dedicated the space is. Overlaps are also shown, though the less intense colors already imply sharing. However, areas shown as shared spaces mean that no party can claim ownership of those areas.
The units are aggregated in a dense and linear formation, beginning at the homeless housing. It then proceeds to disperse through to the other side, forming single suspended units by the time it reaches the health care square. The gradient reinforces the desired space/mentality of the program elements: community is highlighted for the housing, and individuality is desired for health care. The units are grouped accordingly, forming a seamless whole with units side by side, or floating volumetrically in a space pulled from the city but raised above the street. The larger spaces are the secondary unit size, forming a gradient from private to public, with the spiral beginning at the base of the housing and the already formed community of the homeless, opening onto a mixed audience clinic landscape, and a fully public educational space.
The building is structured by the 12‘ regular layering of its major supports. Each support is deleted where possible, and retained when it is necessary to provide a single unit. The layered field provides a regular structure, and forms the basis for the unit development and spatial proportion. It also marks the changes, with each layer traveling through multiple programs; the structural layer and the programmatic layering are perpendicular systems. Connectivity occurs when the programmatic layering and the architectural layering run parallel, merging programs and spaces into mixed use areas.
Entry into the building is available at multiple locations for both pedestrians and vehicles. For drop offs, the lane approaches the right side of the building and each visiter may disembark in a covered area. For emergency drop offs, the helipad above the educational spaces leads directly into the more secluded health care facilities on the topmost floors. Pedestrians and commuters who are proceeding at a more leisurely pace will find themselves traveling downwards to the base of the building, where there are dedicated entrances to every major program for the seasoned frequenter. An atrium appears at the crossroads; it leads upwards through the central void, connecting to every volume.
Interacting with visitors regardless of intent can occur at any point. Beginning at the main entry, there is an optional mode of circulation that bundles all the routes to the different locations. As the visitor progresses upward, the interactions become more pronounced, and the spaces become more obviously adjacent, then shared.
Sections
