Suburban Plaza Project Document by Brian Kato

Suburban Plaza Project Document

12-41

Book 1:Preexisting Conditions 1.1 Physical Site 1.2 Infrastructure 1.3 Zoning and Code

42-65

Book 2: Precedent 2.1 Ideational Precedent 2.2 Material Precedent 2.3 Methodological Precedent

66-105

Book 3: Project 3.1 Order 3.2 Material Palette 3.3 Coordinated Technical Documentation

9.10.13 Sense of place. Do you have to have a sense of place in order to be a place-maker? Are all places meant to make one feel welcome?

9.11.13 Places are emotional. Without emotion, a place is just a space which has a physicality to it as well as a point along a timescale. Space is objective whereas place is subjective. Architecture is the bridge between space and place. As architects, we do not have the ability to make a place, but we do have the ability to make a bridge to allow people to make their own places within the space that has been created by the architect. The measuring factor of architecture then becomes how good of a place a space can become, and that is what we are designing for. Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim museum would not be the same place that it is in New York if it were moved to the mountains of Colorado. The space would be exactly the same, but the place that it would become would be completely different. Therefore, an architects reading of the context of a place becomes pivotal in how the designed space function as a place for the people that will occupy it. This is why there is not one single answer to solve the problem of architecture and why modernism failed in its attempt to create systematic rules for architectural space. It is interesting to think about the idea that place offers a way out of time. When we are in a place we feel comfortable, our thoughts do not usually drift to how time is slowly passing us by and how we have cares and worries to take care of. So maybe place is a state of mind just as much as it is a particular space or construct. Maybe a space can become a place at a certain time of the day for someone, but then disappear an hour later. The story of the Puluwat provides an insight for architects into what is contained in a place. The ocean has a current, a color, a taste, and a temperature. The ocean is far from homogenous, but it is hard to dig underneath the surface to figure that out. What lies underneath the surface of Ballymun. Is there more than demolished social housing? What's the infrastructure that makes up the city? What route does the trash man take in the morning? Is that different from the route the postal man takes? When is the most electricity used over the course of the day? What types of flowers do the people in Ballymun plant? There are endless possibilities.

Space + Time

Emotion

Place

9.12.13 I find myself thinking a lot about boundary and the difference between the relationship of boundary and space between the relationship of boundary and place. Maybe a place has no boundaries, but is merely the intersection of different spaces and infrastructures and histories. Place is the superimposition of different layers of information including the information we bring to the place. That information can be physical, ephemeral, psychological, or emotional. That is how a place is made. Places engage all of these elements on many different scales. Space engages the element of the physical and at times the element of the ephemeral. There are so many different boundaries of space in a given place. For example, Right now I am in a place called studio. However, the boundaries of the spaces of the building, campus, city, county, and country are all involved in making the place. The fact that I am in Ireland already changes the experience of the place compared to studio in America. There are different languages and different methods of learning in this new place. Within Ireland, the place of studio is located within Dublin meaning it is in an urban context. Further it is on the campus of UCD which means I am surrounded by people my own age. Finally, the place of studio is located in a building in the Richview quad which means that currently I am cold. These different boundaries of spaces just contributed a sense of newness, a sense of the urban, a sense of youth, and a physical sense of coldness to the place I am currently occupying. I hope my project deals with a space with a specific program that engages the important element that make up the place of Ballymun.

Space

Place 4

9.13.13 Today we visited Ballymun for the first time. We discussed two observations about our visit: trash and fences. In certain areas of the city, there was trash strewn everywhere. It didn't necessarily depend on whether or not it was a good part of Ballymun. Logically the problem correlated with the number of trash cans in the area. Whenever we saw a trash can, there was hardly any trash around to be seen. It kind of relates to the same idea that if kids start to get bored, they will start doing bad things. If there's nowhere around to put your trash, it will inevitably end up on the ground. Another observation was on how many fences there were in Ballymun which presented a sort of paradox. In order to feel safe, people will put up fences, however, by doing so the place instantly feels more dangerous. Ballymun isn't necessarily lacking anything in terms of physical construction. The main need is for an identity. In fact the building with the most identity was one of the oldest- the city center mall. That is where all the people were, and it seemed like the older generation of people there had a very strong community. Perhaps they were the people who first moved into Ballymun in the '60's. They were a very gruff looking people with tatoos and missing teeth, but you could tell that they cared about one another. Despite all the new construction in Ballymun, the people were all inside one of the older building in the town. You could also tell the people were starting to latch onto one of their parks. The graffiti at the park was all 'positive' in favor of the neighborhood the park was located in, and the area around the park was quite nice as well. Another physical, infrastructural issue the town is facing is that there is a freeway which literally cuts the town in half. It has a lot of traffic and is hard to cross. The result is that it is hard for people to engage the town center and makes the town center an uncomfortable place.

9.16.13 Mapping. How does one avoid the typical? How do you show a place through mapping. I would like to map something only using descriptive text and then create a series of overlays correlating with the text. Maybe the text will show some sort of underlying theme or current that currently remains unseen. Mapping is inherently two-dimensional, but can we make it three-dimensional? Text is useful in mapping because you can create a hierarchy simply by changing the color or size of the font. The primary purpose in architectural mapping should be to show something other than the physical. I wonder if there's a way to make a map of the cost of energy bills.

9.18.13 In chapter one of Edward Casey's book titled, "Getting Back Into Place," he takes us through the idea of implacement and how mankind has developed ways of figuring out where they are, or their place. Originally, sailors could only figure out their latitude by measuring the angle of the sun, so they would always sail to a certain latitude and then from there go either straight west or straight east to their destination. However, once time could be accurately measured, it was used to find longitude which resulted in much quicker traveling times across the ocean because sailors could now take a more direct route to their destination. Casey then goes on to discuss place and how place is both the limit and condition for everything else. Nothing can contain a place besides other places. The place was there first, it is what everything else was put into whether it be space or time. Casey states, "to be is to be bounded by place." Place is the condition in which all things exist. Chapter two takes us through the ideas of displacement. Place does not merely ask the question of where, but also how and who. In a sense, places are emotional. Without emotion, a place is just a space which has a physicality to it as well as a point along a timescale. Space and time are objective whereas place is subjective. Architecture can become the bridge between space and place. Architects do not have the ability to make a place, but we do have the ability to make a bridge which allows people to make their own places within the space that has been created by the architect. Therefore, an architects reading of the context of a place becomes pivotal in how the designed space functions as a place for the people that will occupy it. The story of the Puluwatans provides an insight for architects into what is contained in a place. The ocean can be seen as a place which has a current, a color, a taste, and a temperature instead of just a homogenous surface. Casey brings up how people suffer from unplacement, specifically in the case of the Navajo indians who were literally displaced from the land they lived on. The Navajo have a deep connection with the land in their sense of place. Therefore, when their place was taken away from them, the result was depression, alcoholism, and a high suicide rate throughout the tribe. Losing their place was not the sole contributor to these things, but one would have to think that it certainly added to it. On a much more personal scale that everyone can relate to, nostalgia could be used in conjunction with the idea of being displaced or in a state of unplacement. Nostalgia is a pining for a lost place that you can no longer go back to. It is a pining for something or someone or somewhere that created a sense of place for you.

9.19.13 Zumthor states that every building is built for a specific use in a specific place and for a specific society. He goes on to say that his buildings try to answer the questions that emerge from these simple facts as precisely and critically as they can. In my own thinking about Ballymun, I think that one of the question that arises is what is the identity of Ballymun and how can a building answer that call for identity? How can a building feel as if it has always existed in Ballymun and have its roots entrenched in Ballymun? I think that material will place a key role for this project as well as a sense of being held. I think my project will have introspective spaces as well as social space and an interaction between the two. For this project, I want to think about program qualitatively instead of specifically. I don't want to be quick to say something is a gallery or a gym.

9.23.13 "Maps that depict movement and overlap could also be called animation; they animate reality... Thus, cartography continues to do two things at once. As an act of understanding the world, it helps separate main issues from a multitude of side issues, and allows us to discern what really matters... Designers don't get off so lightly, however, since their work is not about casting a vote but about realizing an intervention... Designers who aspire to remain forceful actors in the battle for space simply cannot ignore the new representations of reality. They need maps in order to understand the big issues and dilemmas. Only then will their designs go beyond solving practical problems, and acquire cultural relevance. That said, there is a growing gap between the fantastic studies in which hidden forces are revealed and interconnected, and the masterplans and scenarios that are supposed to change the appearance of those maps." (p.54-57 Else/Where: Mapping) Mapping and research plays a pivotal role in the realizing of an architectural work of intervention. In a sense, developing a methodology to how you research is just as important as developing a methodology to how you produce a space. The research will eventually be what contributes to the formation of a place. Perhaps more so than the space itself. The built space should help to clarify what the research is saying. So far, the research on Ballymun shows that it is a very tumultuous place with a lot of varying factors and a lot of change over short periods of time. What is needed is something that will last and will draw the public in again and again and be a place for the people of Ballymun to come and be connected to their place over and over again. What does that look like specifically in a programmatic sense, or maybe it doesn't have a specific program?

9.28.13 We went to go see the kids again yesterday. It really is amazing what they have had to go through, and how there is such a lack of community in Ballymun. They told us a story about how they watched through a window in their house while a man got beat up outside in the street and two guards stood outside of their car and just watched the entire thing and did absolutely nothing. Nobody knows any of their neighbors, nobody watches out for the person next to them, and nobody has anything to do. How can we, as architects, foster an environment of community and gathering and how can we help the people to create a place of their own. Could we show them how to use fire in constructive ways? As a gathering of people? How can we help them interact with each other. Can we provide the backdrop, or the setting for people to have conversation with one another? Where would we do that, specifically. What does it look like, formally?

10.7.13 Today we were given the brief of coming up with a proposal for the neighborhood we have been working in as well as the town of Ballymun as a whole. How do you begin to solve the massive problems which afflict Ballymun. I would like to focus on a rather simple answer to the greater question which is to create spaces where the people of Ballymun have the opportunity to interact with each other and begin to form a bond in the community. In a sense, I wish to create a social weaving together that is not forceful, but rather presents opportunities for the residents of Shangan and Ballymun to interact with their neighbors. Circulation and movement will be a major part of the project and hopefully creating a safe path between community gathering areas. I do not know yet if the result will be a homogeneous structure or a series of structures, but I do know that the architecture will navigate people from their private space to the public spaces as well as between public spaces. This week I would like to explore program and perhaps the scale of program. What programs would be beneficial? Galleries? Parks? What is the programme? Is it a series of introspective spaces? A series of spaces for people to be vocal? Or some combination? How do we people to comfortably navigate between private and public spaces?

Book 1: Preexisting Conditions

The map below shows the county of Dublin in the context of Ireland and the map on the right show Ballymun in the context of County Dublin and in relation to Dublinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; s city center.

County Dublin 14