MASTER OF SCIENCE IN
CRISTINA ADVANCED ARCHITECTURAL
VARGAS DESIGN
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GSAPP - GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE PLANNING AND PRESERVATION 2014 - 2015
Große Zeit, Vertan Ich habe gewußt, daß Städte gebaut wurden. Ich bin nicht hingefahren. Das gehört in die Statistik, dachte ich. Nicht in die Geschichte. Was sind schon Städte, gebaut. Ohne die Weisheit des Volkes. - Bertolt Brecht (1953)
Great Time, Wasted I knew that cities were being built. I did not go. This is about statistics, I thought. Not about history. What are cities after all, built. Without the wisdom of the people. - Bertolt Brecht (1953)
1. HYBRID RESIDENTIAL INFRASTRUCTURES IN THE CENTRAL CITY. CRITIC: JUAN HERREROS
ADVANCED 2. REVOLTING APARTMENTS. CRITIC: ANDRES JAQUE
STUDIO WORK 3. WHAT IF...? THEN... CRITIC: SARAH DUNN
EMPOWERING THE BLOCK - ‘WIN WIN’ HYBRID SPACES. THE LOBSTER SOCIETY - SYMBIOTIC PRODUCTIVE DOMESTICITIES INVADING 432 PARK AVENUE. MEGA - URBAN SCALED ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION IN BEIJING.
ARGUMENTS
“What are cities after all, built. Without the wisdom of the people.“ - Bertolt Brecht (1953) PHOTOGRAPHS: LOCATION: HARLEM
HARVEY STEIN - HARLEM STREET PORTRAITS
1. HYBRID RESIDENTIAL INFRASTRUCTURES IN THE CENTRAL CITY. CRITIC: JUAN HERREROS EMPOWERING THE BLOCK - ‘WIN WIN’ HYBRID SPACES. DESCRIPTION: The site for the project is located in the area of Saint Nicholas - Harlem. Where social housing developments popularly known urban typologies have lost their ideal conditions for living but offer at the same time a physical fabric full of architectural interest. The city changes with time according to the social, economic, and political characteristics of its inhabitants.
COMMUNITY - THE CITY, THE BLOCK AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD Similarly, Harlem’s architecture and urban spaces have reflected a specific identity within the city, the block, and the neighborhood. Some of the questions that come to mind when visiting the projects are: ■■ What is the role of the social housing block within a community? ■■ How are these spaces and this architecture linked to the community regarding the identity of its citizens?
MANHATTAN DOWNTOWN - CORPORATE
MANHATTAN SAINT NICHOLAS - DWELLING BLOCK
THE PROPOSAL Introducing a radical program, Amazon also known as “The Everything Store�, to reconfigure the dwelling units, the neighborhood, and the city on a larger urban scale. Amazon as an enterprise introduces two main programs to the existing housing projects: offices and warehouses. The new program will bring in diversity and will economically support people living in Harlem by empowering the economy and its social character yet maintaining the link to the old neighorhood by reflecting the local identity of the people living in the project. DOWNTOWN COMMUNITY - CORPORATE
SAINT NICHOLAS COMMUNITY - DWELLING BLOCK
THE PROGRAM ‘WIN - WIN’ - SUPPORTING PROGRAMS Spaces called “win-win” are symbiotic spaces that allow the empowerment of the community within the project. Amazon and the housing programs will therefore have a symbiotic relationship, both allow new connections to happen between these two worlds the corporate and the housing.
HARLEM - URBAN CONTEXT
SAINT NICHOLAS - THE PROJECT
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ARCHITECTURE - COMMUNITY This “platform of diversity� will bring the community together allowing them to connect within each other and with the rest of the city. The social interaction and multiplicity of spaces will empower the community of Harlem. Architecture is linked to its community. A community that will be empowered by this new relationship between two different programs. Two different worlds the corporate and the dwelling.
SECTION CUT
PLATFORM OF DIVERSITY - COMMUNITY
HYBRID COMPLEX PROGRAMATIC RELATIONSHIPS
ARCHITECTURE LINKED TO THE COMMUNITY
“What are cities after all, built. Without the wisdom of the people.“ - Bertolt Brecht (1953) PHOTOGRAPHS: FALL STUDIO INTERVIEW - BEN SARGENT - DR. KLAW LOCATION: BROOKLYN - BEN SARGENT’S PRODUCTIVE HOME
1. REVOLTING APARTMENTS. CRITIC: ANDRES JAQUE THE LOBSTER SOCIETY - SYMBIOTIC PRODUCTIVE DOMESTICITIES INVADING 432 PARK AVENUE DESCRIPTION: Apartments have become the ultimate architecture of globalized urbanisms. If there is one single architectural device that shapes the contemporary bodies, consumptions, displacements and reproductions of the global networks of power is the apartment. 432 PARK AVENUE - THE TALLEST
BILLIONAIRE - APARTMENT GLOBALIZED URBANISM
432 PARK AVENUE - UNOCCUPIED DOMESTICITY
WHERE IS THE DIVERSITY IN NYC - DOMESTIC TRADITIONS... ?
PRODUCTIVE HOMES Diverse ways of domestic traditions have been present among New York City for years through history. Productive homes are spaces where living and working happen. “This is Ben Sargent who lives, prepares and sells lobster rolls in his tiny basement apartment located in Brooklyn - NYC.” “Seafood passion among NYC area - consumption of food related to the marine ecology of the lobster.”
BEN SARGENT - PRODUCTIVE HOME
PRODUCING LOBSTER ROLLS - DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENT
FROM A DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENT
TO NEW YORK CITY ENVIRONMENT
CONNECTED OCEAN LANDSCAPES - NYC ECOLOGICAL AWARENESS “Ben is passionate about ocean landscapes. He is concerned about the ecological values among oceanic areas. He loves fishing in the East River - in the middle of the NYC urban context.” “An important percentage of environmental concerned population live in NYC; they are constantly bringing ecological awareness and they are supported by the existence of politics.”
EAST RIVER - OCEAN LANDSCAPE
FISHING - IN NYC URBAN CONTEXT
NYC - CLIMATE MARCH SEPTEMBER 21TH
NYC POPULATION - ECOLOGICAL AWARENESS
LOBSTER - CLIMATE CHANGE “The US is the number one fresh lobster producer worldwide.” - Producing and consuming lobster related products in NYC area. “Due to climate change the HOMARUS AMERICANUS lobster population is decreasing among the US coasts 5% per year.”
HOMARUS AMERICANUS - PRODUCTION / CONSUMPTION
DECREASING LOBSTER POPULATION AMONG U.S. COASTS
GLOBAL WARMING - CLIMATE CHANGE
AFFECTING OCEANS AMONG U.S.
QUESTION “Ben prepares and sells sea related food - lobster rolls from his domestic - productive environment.” “How to introduce a responsible ocean landscaped domestic / productive architecture within the NYC urban environment?”
BEN SARGENT - DOCTOR KLAW
DOMESTIC TRADITIONS AMONG NYC
HOW TO INTRODUCE... ?
DIVERSITY IN NYC 432 PARK AVENUE
PATTENTS - INVENTIONS Introducing “The Losbter Society” as a networked system of productive homes into 432 Park Avenue. This is a system of inventions or patents which work together allowing new situations to happen into the pre-existing project. Diversity and new programs will be taking place into the tower as:
“THE LOBSTER INCUBATOR SATELLITE”
“THE LOBSTER DELIVERY BIKE”
“THE LOBSTER DELIVERY WATER BIKE”
“THE LOBSTER INTERCONNECTED WATER SYSTEM”
“THE LOBSTER LARVAE FARM & EGG HATCHING AREA”
“THE TERRACED WATER COLLECTORS”
“THE ALGAE SCRUBBER SYSTEM”
“THE LOBSTER MATING ENVIRONMENT TANK”
“THE LOBSTER ADOLESCENT ENVIRONMENT TANK”
“THE LOBSTER SOCIETY - CAVE LIKE LIVING MODULES”
“HYBRID ENVIRONMENT WHERE HUMANS AND LOBSTERS COHABIT”
PROJECT - PATENTED SYSTEM “This system of patents are introduced in 432 Park Avenue as a model for productive homes located in this globalized urbanism in NYC.”
“NETWORKED STRATEGIES OF THE DOMESTIC / PRODUCTIVE LOBSTER SOCIETY”
“THE LOBSTER SOCIETY STRATEGY”
THE LOBSTER SOCIETY - PRODUCTIVE HOMES
MAN - MADE OCEAN LANDSCAPED ARCHITECTURE - 432 PARK AVENUE
“What are cities after all, built. Without the wisdom of the people.“ - Bertolt Brecht (1953) PHOTOGRAPHS: LOCATION: BEIJING
SPRING KINNE TRIP
1. WHAT IF... ? THEN... CRITIC: SARAH DUNN MEGA - WHAT IF MEGA FORMS COULD ALLOW EXPANSION AT THE EDGES OF BEIJING? DESCRIPTION: The first part of the excersice engages and explores the formal and programmatic possibilities of previously invented large-scale architecture into the city. In a back-and-forth process with key historic projects we develop a series of design-based scenarios that leverage specific qualities of the city, and seek to mine these scenarios for their formal possibilities. The studio operates in a “slack space� to allow us freedom from the historical and theoretical significance of the key historic projects. Formal and spatial invention is the goal.
MOUND BUILDING - TOWER OF BABEL - WHAT IF...? THEN...
Through a process of collage and montage (old fashioned, but dependable), we speculated on how the introduction of difference might have changed these projects. For example, we asked questions such as: What if Tower of Babel had an interior? And, what if Yona Friedman lived in Venice? We appropriated and hybridized. We played with megabuilding types like mat buildings and wall buildings. Our speculations are not supported by any hard evidence, nor are they able to be proven. They are imaginary and factually questionable. But we created coherent and precise (graphic) arguments for our speculations. We developed a formal language. We pursued multiple possible scenarios, compiling a catalog of speculations.
MAT BUILDING - VILLE SPATIALE - WHAT IF...? THEN...
WALL BUILDING - PONT DU GARD - WHAT IF...? THEN...
We followed up our “what ifs” with a series of “thens.” If urban-scaled architecture is _____, then _____. The site or sites of the “thens” are outlying areas of the super-fast growing megalopolis of Beijing. The city is both famous and infamous for its growth: a duality of plenty (economic gains) and scarcity (clean air, clean water). The speculative projects we developed will ultimately be swallowed by the ever-expanding megalopolis. We anticipated and designed scenarios for this absorption and envelopment. We posited that architecture can be both/and — it can be both pro-development and pro-environment through the manipulation of form and the tactical deployment of ecologically based systems. PROBLEM: Beijing is the third most populous city in the world. Population grows constantly. As a result, the city is in constant expansion. Site location: Miyun - between the rural and the outer suburbs as a “possible site for expansion”. New urban and architectural forms emerge constantly among Beijing’s rural areas, outer suburbs and inner suburbs. The site is between the pre-existing settlements of Miyun and the mountain landscape located among this area.
BEIJING’S POPULATION EXPANSION
Yanqing
Miyun
Huairou
Changping
Mentougou
Shunyi
Haidian 3
Pinggu
Chaoyang 2 1
Fengtai Fangshan
1. Dongcheng 2. Xicheng 3. Shijingshan
Tongzhou
Daxing
POSSIBLE SITE LOCATED IN MIYUN
Miyun
THE SITE: MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE, FARMLAND, MIYUN RESERVOIR AND GREEN AREA
THESE MEGA FORMS WILL BECOME AN INFRASTRUCTURAL SYSTEM
CONSIDERING WHAT ALREADY EXISTS ON THE SITE AS THE FARMLAND, THE RESERVOIR AND THE GREEN FOREST AREA
WHAT IF... MAT BUILDINGS APPEAR AS A RESPONSE TO THE FARMLAND THAT IS DELIMITED BY THE MOUNTAINS AND THE RESER
RVOIR?
WHAT IF... WALL BUILDINGS APPEAR AS A RESPONSE TO MIYUN RESERVOIR?
WHAT IF... MOUND BUILDINGS APPEAR AS A RESPONSE TO THE GREEN FOREST AREA BY THE WATER’S EDGE?
THE WALL BUILDING CONNECTS THE BORDER OF THE PRE-EXISTING SITE TO THE EXISTING FARMLAND IN FRONT OF THE RESERVOIR
WHAT IF... THESE UTILIZE WATER AND BECOME A WATER TREATMENT PLANT IN ORDER TO PRESERVE THE WATER RESOURCES OF MIYUN RESERVOIR?
THE MOUND BUILDINGS WILL NOT ONLY PROVIDE DWELLING SPACES BUT ALSO WILL RESPOND IN ORDER TO PRESERVE THE PRE-EXISTING GREEN AREA AMONG MIYUNG RESERVOIR
WHAT IF... ORIGINAL VEGETATION FROM THE SITE ITSELF TAKES PART WITHIN THESE ARCHITECTURAL MOUND VOLUMES?
THE MAT BUILDINGS WILL PROVIDE SUPPORTIVE PROGRAMATIC SPACES TO THE FARMERS OF MIYUN
WHAT IF... THIS ARCHITECTURAL FORMS ALLOW ORIGINAL CROPS TO GROW IN BETWEEN ITS OPEN SPACES?
01. HYBRID SYSTEM - bringing infrastructural programs among these new MEGA forms placed in Miyun. 02. MOUND - Dwelling and preserving the original green vegetation of the site. 03. WALL - Linking the preexisting city in expansion and also bringing supporting program for water preservation in this area. 04. MAT - As a supporting infrastructure among the original farmland area of Miyun.
CRISTINA VARGAS M.S. IN ADVANCED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GSAPP 2015