GSAPP MSAUD . 2017
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preface no man’s land [c]
co - labor-a tive [re]
hell’s gardens
more . . .
preface
preface The work in this portfolio expresses my persona and highlights my interest and style. It includes academic samples of my work at Columbia University’s Graduate school of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). It represents the time and effort I placed in various projects while completing my masters degree in Architecture and Urban Design (MS. AUD). At GSAPP, I have broadened my critical thinking processes, research and thesis development within both architecture and urban design completing a series of projects that focus around the topic of spatial justice.
spring ‘17 / urban design III
no man’s land
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no man’s land a water commons
No Man’s Land: A Water Commons is a commentary on the displacement of the Syrian refugees in the North-Eastern border zone between the Syrian and Jordanian berms. Rather than seeing the zone as a holding area, this proposal seeks to inhabit the berm and empower refugees by using fog harvesting, waste water management, permaculture and landscaping techniques to create the possibility of an autonomous No Man’s Land. Through the harvesting of this scarce resource not only is a humanitarian crisis mitigated but it proposes to create a different strategy for organizing emergency migration and a long term ecological solution for Jordan’s water infrastructure. Since 2011, The Jordanian-Syrian border has become the point of entry of a mass exodus of Syrian refugees. As the situation in Syria worsened, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to Jordan by land. To stem the overwhelming flow of migrants, the northern border crossings began to close. The Jordanian Government built additional earthen berms along the borders. Security concerns posed by ISIS increased, calling for Jordan to permanently close its border. As a result, the berms began to swell with refugees at two main points, Rukban (~77,500 refugees) and Hadalat (~7,500 refugees).
collaboration: Gabriela Fiorentino, Mayra Mahmood, Zarith Pineda, Liao Yang location: The Berm, Jordan - Syria Border
Site Transformation Strategy
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Berm Cluster - Water Cycle
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View From Fog Canopy
Waste Water System
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Permaculture System
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fall ‘16 / urban design II
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the co - labor-a tive project [c]
[re]
The project provides new spatial and programmatic opportunities for the underserved social, racial and ethnic groups now living on or around Main Street, in downtown Poughkeepsie. The programs are based upon our research of various activities of groups and institutions, from informal gatherings to religious institutions, community centers and ethnic festivals.We propose a flexible infrastructure to expand and leverage their capacity and reach, as well as promoting new local businesses and skill building that would become genius loci of ethnic locals. Our intervention consists of a shared resource center, a cultural hub and temporary structures placed on the city owned vacant land and unused property, located in the spaces between Main street and the arterials. This will allow the city to test the project at a lower cost and in a phased manner. The initial phase starts by inserting these functions into a part of a built underused parking garage next to the arterials and using the empty lots around for temporary extensions. The subsequent phase takes the approach of plugging into an existing resource framework and build a symbiotic system of learning and sharing. This attachment to Bardavon theatre spreads out in later stages as a cultural node with temporary markets, performances, vocational training centers and public play-scape as a reflection of locals. The system will incorporate a layer social – credit, to encourage small scale growth and locally-beneficial programming. Over time, this system will encourage larger scale activities, drawing in people from the region and contributing to the rejuvenation of the core of Poughkeepsie.
collaboration: Dissa Raras, Sreyash Dasgupta, Vrinda Sharma location: Poughkeepsie, New York
Regional Scale
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City Scale
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summer ‘16 / urban design I
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hell’s gardens Current development pressures in Midtown Manhattan are further exacerbating the lack of biodiversity, the heat island effect and storm water run-off problem in the city. At the same time, the Clinton special zoning has preserved the low-rise tenements in the Hell’s Kitchen district in contrast with the surrounding high-rise development. We see the opportunity to use the vacant space above the neighborhood, to mitigate environmental problems and create common spaces for the residents in the scale of the block. Due to the environmental problems caused by skyscrapers in Midtown Manhattan, skyscrapers should pay extra environmental tax to government. Government incentives the landlords of tenements to install the green roofs with funding and tax rebating. The common green roof space built by landlords in Hell’s Kitchen will mitigate the environmental problems, provide landscape view for the Skyscrapers, and increase the property value for the tenements.
collaboration: Dongfang Pang, Tianyang Xie, Ge Zhao location: Hell’s Kitchen, New York, NY
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site interactions
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more . . . Through each semester, site interaction and research have been the most critical part in constructing our thesis. Below are some images of our site visits, installations and community interactions.
Draw Main St. - Site Interaction Installation Poughkeepsie, NY
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Hell’s Kitchen, NY - Site Research
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Draw Main St. - Site Interaction Installation Poughkeepsie, NY
thank you