DT.
DREW TIEDEMAN
Selected Undergraduate Projects El Mirador Experiential Observatory // Machu Picchu
Runaway Clothing Factory + Showroom // Durham, NC
In/Visible
Mobility Counseling Center // Raleigh, NC
El Mirador Location: Machu Picchu, Peru Year: Fall 2019 | Junior Professors: Tonic Design Program: Experiential Observatory
EL MIRADOR El Mirador, or “The Looker,” is an observatory on top of Machu Picchu, near the city of Cuzco, Peru. The site and inspiration was derived from the cultural and spiritual connection between the ancient Inca civilization and the sky. Conceptually el mirador is about a connection to the earth with an outward focus on the sky. A single solid mass of elemental geometry is interrupted by transparent apertures and spaces that allow you to be consumed by the stereotomic structure while also being connected to the vast expanse of the sky. The structure is split into two programmatic elements, a more open residential sector and the observatory space, each occupying their own cube. A steel, tectonic bridge is used as a transition into the structure, contrasting the heavy concrete of the building’s core. As the structure gets taller the apertures get smaller and more focused on the sky. The apertures pinpoint certain stars and constellations, culminating at the oculus where you can view the entire sky. As the structure lowers toward the ground there is a focus on the earth, including views toward the ruins of Machu Picchu.
3
4
1 Inca Observatory 2 Auguas Calientes, Peru Site
3 Machu Picchu
5
1
Observatory that the Incan priests used to monitor celestial bodies, influencing agriculture and religion.
2
Aguas Calientes is the closest town to Machu Picchu and is often used as a resting spot for tourists.
3
Machu Picchu is a 15th century citadel for the Incan empire, designed based on astronomical alignments.
6
1
2
1 3
4
5 6
First Level - Residential
Third Level - Entry
1. Bedroom 2. Bathroom 3. Exit 4. Living Space 5. Entry 6. Bridge 7. Aperture Room 8. Oculus Room
Note: Second Level similar to the Third Level, just without the bridge. 7
7
8
Fourth Level - Aperture
Fifth Level - Oculus
4’
8
8’
16’
32’
Oculus Room - Day versus Night
9
Oculus Room
Aperture Room
Residential
10
11
4’
PRECEDENT:
Observatory instrument used by Incan priests to monitor the positions of certain stars. When the sun hit a hole in the wall at an angle of 20 degrees they knew it was harvesting season.
CONCEPT:
A connection between the earth and the sky was inherent in Incan culture, the stars were utilized in governance, harvesting, and spatial design. Apertures can offer a window into the Inca civilization.
12
8’
DESIGNED:
16’
32’
Each aperture acts in the same way that the Inca’s used their observatory. During the day the apertures allow light into the space, while at night they point to certain constellations in the sky.
13
MODEL DIAGRAM The model for El Mirador acts as a diagram, showing views toward the landscape in the lower portion of the tower, and the aperture views towards the constellations in the upper portions of the tower. The concrete base reflects the materiality and the stereotomic nature of the tower, while the wire and basswood bridge reflect the intersecting transparencies.
14
Runaway
Location: Durham, North Carolina Year: Spring 2020 | Junior Professors: Edwin Harris Program: Clothing Factory + Makerspace
RUNAWAY The Runaway Factory is a farm to table style clothing factory for the Runaway street wear brand located in Durham, NC. The factory includes the brand’s flagship store, clothing manufacturing, and makerspace, all meant to teach locals about the art of making that has been so integral to Durham’s history and culture. The design strives to provide an equitable environment for workers and visitors alike, by challenging traditional factory models that have, and continue to, act as oppressive forces. With a form directly derived from Durham’s past cotton mills, and concept inspired by Durham’s activist past, the design acts as a vernacular intervention in the city. In order to invite people into the site, the factory’s courtyard is completely open and is oriented towards the city center. Further, to activate the site and invite people to learn about textiles, a monument called “The Stack” unfolds and becomes an outdoor Runway.
17
18
SITE CONTEXT: Durham’s history of crafting and social action are nicely exemplified by the Erwin textile mills that fueled the cities economy during the 1900s. Operating from 1893 to 1986, the mills were some of the primary denim producers in the world. The factories were known for having some of the best union labor agree-
ments in the south, reflecting Durham’s greater impact on progressive policies nationwide. The site for the Runaway Factory lies in between the old Erwin Mills, one block from the City Center and strives to continue the progressive values found at the old Erwin Mills and also introduce Durhams rich histo-
ry of crafting back into the city. Surrounding the site are many different use lots such as commercial, residential, green space, and public amenities such as a housing center. Central to the concept of this building is a need to gather the various groups of people surrounding the site and introduce them to the art of textile making - farm to table.
1 2 SITE
4 3 6 5
1. Erwin Mill No. 4 2. Erwin Mill No. 6 3. Historic American Tobacco 4. City Center 5. Historic Hayti Neighborhood 6. Erwin Mill No. 1 19
1 Current Site Condition City Parking Lot
2 Adjacent Green Space Durham Central Park
Parks Residential Public Resources
Research
2 1
SITE
Commercial
20
Precedent:
The Stack derives its form from a textile mill smoke stack. By moving the form from its traditional place on the exterior of the factory, to the interior courtyard, the form takes new meaning and acts as a gathering mechanism meant to activate the space.
Floor 2
4
Floor 3
5
6
7
1 2 3 4
Entry Sewing + Cutting + Loading Washing Folding + Packaging
5 6 7 8
9
8
Break Room Offices Maker Space Storage
9 10 11 12
Note: Ramp lining the interior of the building is taken out for clarity. 21
10
Classroom 1 Bathrooms Classroom 2 Indoor Multiuse
11
Floor 1
2
1
3
16
15 12
13 14 15 16
14
13
Storage Showroom Changing Rooms The Stack + Runway
4’
22
8’
16’
32’
Interior View of Ramp + Factory Space
23
CLADDING Perforated corten steel panels wrap the factory, tying back to the materiality of traditionally heavy, brick, cotton mills. Conceptually, they are unwrapping the factory and opening it up to the city.
BROWN ROOF In an effort to give back to the site and the city, a brown roof fosters a healthy urban ecosystem on the site. Utilizing on site plantings and native species, the roof would be seamlessly integrated in Durham’s environment.
CIRCULATION The circulation lies along the middle of the courtyard, offering views into the activated space and also into the factory. A circumambulatory circulation reinforces the linear nature of a farm to table manufacturing system. You see the process before you buy, allowing consumers to question the meaning and deeper processes behind their everyday clothing.
24
Exterior View from Outdoor Education Center
25
The Stack
Outdoor Education Center/Lookout
26
Courtyard View
27
ACTIVATION The courtyard in the middle of the site provides an opportunity for gathering. The space is activated by a monumental kinetic sculpture that unfolds into an outdoor runway. The Stack is a staircase that models can take from the main structure to the
outdoor runway, and is wrapped by a triangulated metal mesh. The idea is that by creating a center piece in which to direct a pedestrian’s focus, they will then be drawn into the space where they can learn about the art of textile making and how it contrib-
28
utes to Durham’s rich history, and culture. The space could also be further activated by non architectural means, such as food vendors, and company planned events.
In/Visible
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina Year: Fall 2020 | Senior Professors: Burak Erdim Program: Mobility Counseling + Housing
IN/VISIBLE The Southeast Raleigh Mobility Counseling Center is a response to decades of social injustice, by Raleigh and by the US government, that has been enacted on the African American community. The center was conceived of after the completion of a research paper examining historical housing inequity, such as acts of redlining, that have barred America’s Black community from home ownership, and thus, wealth. Imagining a combination of real estate, financial, and community efforts, the center becomes a new type of financial institution that would use it’s profits for community good. The program is split into a housing block and a financial education block. The housing block is meant to offer affordable housing for community members that are seeking help finding affordable homes. The finance and community block would offer seminars and guidance on finance, and home loans, as well as offer community gathering spaces.
33
34
In/Visible Boundaries: Redlining and Spatial Practices of Race Drew Tiedeman Thesis: African Americans have been systemically oppressed, and discriminated against by financial institutions, and by a white dominated society. These institutions have created an urban landscape defined by exclusionary, hyper-racialized space, acting to suppress African American economic, and spatial development. During the 1940s and 50s, Raleigh and many cities around the country were being dismantled with a majority of white citizens leaving for the suburbs. Communities were being persuaded to suburbanize by State institutions that offered subsidies and produced various modes of propaganda in order to maintain a high level of State economic production. While home and land ownership came to define the American Dream, the economic plan utilized to build these communities excluded any race that was not white. Towards the latter half of 1950s and the early 1960s, Black community leaders were able to leverage the issue of segregation in order to gain land for housing, usually on the fringes of the city or near historically Black universities. Black institutions and political leaders, having developed considerable clout during the postwar era due to political and economic gains from the migration of African Americans to cities in the 1940s, were able to further advocate for housing equality. However, the advent of the Black suburb also benefited white developers who wanted to maintain racial boundaries to protect their housing and development values. In Raleigh, four middle class Black suburbs were established from 1956 to 1960: Madonna Acres, Battery Heights, Rochester Heights, and Biltmore Hills. Rochester Heights lies in the southeast of Raleigh, at the lower topography of the city, sandwiched between the Walnut Creek Wetlands and the I-440 highway, land that is at its surface: undesirable. Historically, southeast Raleigh has been regarded as marginalized land because of its lower topography and propensity for flooding, a fact that city developers often used to justify the increasingly segregated geography of Raleigh throughout the early twentieth century—whites were just using their wealth to buy more desirable land. The notion that wealthy white landowners naturally gravitated to the northwest of the city is wholly reductive and ignores institutions of power that influenced the creation of Raleigh’s racialized topographies. Rochester Heights is just one example of a Black space that devel-
oped in response to measures, such as school placement, racial covenants, and redlining, sanctioned by the state in service of housing developers in order to maximize return on property investment. As the white community began to populate the higher topography to the northwest of Raleigh, no doubt being influenced by the questionable relocation of white schools, the Black community was pushed to the southeast, where Black schools were relocated. While Rochester Heights was platted in 1956, the redistribution of Black and white schools through acts of governmentality in the 1920s would directly influence the creation of the postwar Black suburbs and dynamics of racialized space in Raleigh for decades to come. In Foucault’s concept of governmentality, he addresses the dynamics of power between the state and the bodies it controls, analyzing how that power is exercised by the state through its local institutions and authorities. Foucault’s main argument is that the state, through institutional means, maximizes economic productivity of the population in order to make a return on its investment. In his essay, The Enclave Society, Bryan Turner further connects Foucault’s concept of governmentality to a new system of enclavement in which boundaries are erected throughout society in order to control the movement of bodies. Enclaves manifest through visible or invisible boundaries, such as gated communities, prisons, and redlines. The theory of the enclave society can also be applied at the urban scale, exemplified by the way that Black bodies, and their segregated spatial environment, have continually been controlled by a coalition of real estate interests and government policies, all in the name of economic development. Utilizing the theories of governmentality and enclavement, African American postwar suburbs can be contextualized simultaneously as, space for congregation, and space for sequestration. Raleigh provides a clear example of a city that, through acts of governmentality, has directly influenced development patterns, and wealth generation, through the politicized placement of schools, which were especially integral to community development and property values during the segregation era. Thus, Raleigh’s developers and government officials created the hyper racialized topographies that have divided the city and created in/visible spatial boundaries. One example is the 1924 placement of the 35
Diagram of Raleigh’s racial distribution in 1960 (top) versus 2010 (bottom). Red is African American, Blue is white.
Washington School, the first Black public school in Raleigh, further to the southwest of the city was highly contested and contributed to the further racial divide of the city. By placing the school in the southwest, only one block away from the city limits instead of centrally, the school board ignored proximity of Black students to the school, forcing them to walk or ride the bus long distances. Being located in the southwest also stymied further Black development because much of the land was, and still is, state owned, pushing any future black development to the marginalized land at the southeast of the city. Ultimately the placement of schools in Raleigh reflected the fears of a white dominated society, wanting to protect their property values and create desirable, homogenous development opportunities for the white elites, at the expense of the African American community. As school boards around the country were being used to enact the segregationist agendas of the state and developers, government housing agencies such as the HOLC and FHA were also contributing to the racialized divisions within the city and creating massive wealth inequality within the African American community through homeownership. HOLC redlining is the clearest evidence we have of the state’s influence on the creation of racialized urban landscape, drawing todays in/ visible boundaries, thus barring African Americans from homeownership and the generation of economic security. While HOLC institutionalized discriminatory appraisal methods, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) utilized HOLC methods and manufacturing housing inequality at a nationwide scale, giving almost no loans to areas designated as African American housing, and stipulating that no Black residents were allowed in FHA funded suburbs. While Black space has developed, and in effect, allowed the congregation and collective mobilization of Black bodies for social change, the space has for the most part remained marginalized and subdued by a dominant white space. As a result these inequitable conditions and the transition from displacement to land ownership, have ingrained an understanding of the importance that space has on the development of community value and identity in the African American community. Note: This paper has been condensed for the purposes of this portfolio.
36
URBAN CONTEXT
The site lies within the historically redlined district of Raleigh, where the majority of residents in 1960 were African American renters. The chosen site lies between the four postwar African American suburbs and is located where there is a modern day need for housing equality, as the wealth gap between white and Black households continues to widen.
A. St Augustine University
D. Washing High School
G. Fuller Elementary School
B. NC Capitol
E. Shaw University
H. Floodplain
C. Washington Terrace Apartments
F. Ligon Middle School
I. Intervention Site
37
SITE CONTEXT
The chosen site is immediately surrounded by residential, commercial, and historical contexts. A is the Ligon Middle School which at one time was the only Black highschool, influencing the movement of Raleigh's African American population further southeast. The
center could serve as a resource for Ligon student's and their parents. The site lies on MLK Boulevard and is right next to B, the MLK Jr. memorial garden. The memorial serves as a beacon for Raleigh's Black community, with outdoor space that would complement
38
the center's program creating a campus. C is an existing hospital on the site that has a mission statement indicating their service to underfunded communities. D is adjacent retail space.
01. TRANSVERSE SITE SECTION
A
A A S. Raleigh Blvd.
02. LONGITUDINAL SITE SECTION
C
C
D D MLK Blvd. MLK Blvd.
CC
D DD
B MLK Memorial Gardens
A Adjacent Retail Space
39
B
MLK Blvd.
Rock Quarry Rd.
C Joe Louis Park Neighborhood
D Martin Luther King Blvd.
40
FIRST LEVEL
1 2 3 4 5
1 2
SECOND LEVEL (ENTRY)
6 8 12
3
5
4
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
7 9
Media Center Meeting Spaces Kitchen/Dining Outdoor Stair Public Seating
10
11
Entry Indoor Stair Seminar Room Offices Workroom Outdoor Stair Housing Entry Housing Block
13
THIRD LEVEL
14 15
Housing Block Outdoor Stair
15
14
16’
41
32’
64’
128’
42
01 02
43
DESIGN CONCEPT
The center serves as a community hub, with a focus on home finance education. Derived from historic redlining, the facade of the building envisions the redlines as a physical boundary drawn through the city. A metal panelized system on the exterior of the building visually dematerializes and allows
entry into the program. Past the red facade, the building opens to the landscape behind the center where there are multiple activity nodes. In the seminar, office, and lecture spaces both the red facade and the outdoors are visible creating a connection between the past, present, and future of civil rights. The
front landscaping of the center geometrically connects to the MLK Memorial Garden, inviting visitors from the garden into the center. By connecting the center, the MLK Memorial Gardens, and the hospital, a campus is created with multiple functions and space to grow.
01. LONGITUDINAL SECTION
MLK Blvd.
02. TRANSVERSE SECTION
MLK Memorial
Rock Quarry Rd.
16’
44
32’
64’
128’
FACADE DESIGN Conceptually the facade is meant to represent historic redlining. The facade dematerializes to symbolize the end of de jure housing discrimination, while recognizing de facto discrimination and the lingering after effects of redlining policies. Functionally the facade acts as a sun shader, and adds visual interest to the building. Using Rhino and Grasshopper the facade’s panels are laid out randomly on a system of mullions along the sides of the building. The back side of the building has no facade and opens out onto the landscape.
FACADE DEFINITION
45
Interior Meeting Space - Finance + Community Wing
46
DREW TIEDEMAN
Contact Email drew.tiedeman@gmail.com
Phone (704) 778 5599
www.linkedin.com/in/drewtiedeman