HOUSING AS PROCESS

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Gavin Carroll, Ian DeWald (Social Gradient); Raul Nieto, Fazal Khan (Pulling from the Neighborhood)

Annette LeCuyer, Laura Lubniewski, Erkin Özay (coordinator), Jason Sowell, Bradley Wales

Fall 2022

ARC403

BS Arch

How can we improve the quality of existing public housing? The final studio in the undergraduate architecture curriculum focuses on housing and its critical role in shaping the city. This iteration of the studio delved into the challenges of public housing. Working with the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority, students developed two complementary projects: refurbishing an existing 1970s housing facility in the first half of the semester and adding to the same structure in the second half. The semester culminated in a competition evaluated by a blind jury, a tradition within the School. Students worked in teams of two for the entirety of the semester.

The studio emphasized the understanding of housing design as a set of processes. From funding mechanisms to maintenance operations, individual and collective living patterns enabled students to think through complementary formal and procedural arrangements. This approach encouraged students to think critically about how we inhabit our cities and relate to our communities. This involved studying how people behave in formal and informal social settings and how caring for the priorities and needs of vulnerable populations can drive design decisions to generate empathetic architecture.

Social Gradient

Gavin Carrol and Ian DeWald designed Social Gradient, a six-story terracotta-clad apartment building that addresses the social needs of

Buffalo’s immigrant population. The proposal seeks to strengthen the neighborhood’s social infrastructure by providing programs such as counseling services, a community kitchen, a public library, and a cafe, all to foster a supportive social network among refugees.

The scheme employs a terracing strategy that scales down the complex to the neighborhood scale. Adding thresholds, balconies, and mansard roof profiles establishes a dialogue with the neighborhood fabric. The project's centerpiece is a civic center that takes the form of a library. With its expressive roof canopy, the civic center aims to connect residents to all types of local and global information. By prioritizing basic human necessities, Social Gradient provides an example of how the City of Buffalo could address the needs of its growing refugee population.

Pulling From The Neighborhood

Pulling from the Neighborhood, by Fazal Khan and Raul Nieto, stems from the team's shared vision to adapt architectural elements from the neighborhood into their scheme. Thanks to their fascination with the neighborhood housing typologies, front porches, and the variety of fenestration elements found in the context, a push-pull strategy emerged as a parti for the proposal. Private outdoor green spaces, or raised “yards,” lend generosity to the upper-level units. To negotiate the different floor-to-floor heights in the existing building and new addition, a multi-story atrium space serves as a transitional volume.

Throughout the semester, Kahn and Nieto tackled all project phases together rather than splitting up tasks and working individually. From early brainstorming to design development and final production, the team shared a common vision for the project's direction and carried it to the end.

“We sought to utilize the pushing and pulling of 2-story volumes, which let us create a form that pulls features from the neighborhood.”

- Raul Nieto