UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

DANIEL SUNGMIN CHOI DWELLING IN THE INTERSTITIAL URBAN TERRAIN

DANIEL SUNGMIN CHOI VIRGINIA TECH SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN STUDIES

UNDERGRADUATE THESIS DOCUMENTATION THESIS ADVISOR: ELLEN BRAATEN, PROFESSOR EMERITA

CONTENT

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003 INTRODUCTION 005 STUDY: MICRO-SPACE IN THE URBAN TERRAIN Micro-Architecture Interstitial Urban Terrain

019 RESEARCH: KNOXVILLE, TN, USA Knoxville, TN, USA

041 PROPOSAL: MICRO-HOUSING 065 BIBLIOGRAPHY 067

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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The work presented in this book is a culmination of studies done from August 2010 to May 2011...

THESIS: a position.

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Maneuvering through interstitial urban terrain , micro-architecture calls for the re-evaluation of urban dwelling space, developing a dialogue between independent structures and the spaces created between them. It is an architecture of the individual scale that breeds collectivism. It treats spaces like individuals that can mingle and interact with others and creates opportunities for communities to participate in the urban context.

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STUDY: ROOM #004

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“The room is the beginning of architecture. It is a place of the mind. You in the room with its dimensions, its structure, its light respond to its character, its spiritual aura, recognizing that whatever the human proposes and makes becomes a life.”

LOUIS KAHN, “THE ROOM, THE STREET, AND HUMAN AGREEMENT (1971)”

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STUDY: ROOM #003

Kahn adopted the notion that the basis of architecture is the room. With a similar framing, these drawings were studies of the individual character of a room.

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STUDY: ROOM #002

The focus of these studies was to create compact spaces with distinct personalities. A purposeful space with a unique character that could be recognized by all its inhabitants.

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MEDIAPOD, ATELIER BOW-WOW

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“...so micro means small, but at the same time individual. The smallest public space might be a public space for just one person.”

YOSHIHARU TSUKAMOTO, ATELIER BOW-WOW

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The interstitial urban terrain is the collective space within the city that is in a potentially exploitable state, either under-utilized or undefined. It is a space open to spontaneity and creative use that could otherwise be limited within the order and regulation of the traditional cityscape.

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URBAN TERRAINS WITHIN DOWNTOWN KNOXVILLE

The physical makeup of Knoxville is built around its historic sites and structures. Preserved for decades, these untouched landmarks create an invisible buffer zone between the physical city and its inhabitants; the interstitial urban terrain.

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URBAN TERRAIN #0001

URBAN TERRAIN #0003

URBAN TERRAIN #0010

It is within these buffer zones that the urban terrain exists and where an alternate view of the city can be experienced.

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UL-9025 URBAN SURVIVAL APPARATUS, MAS YENDO

UL-9025 / INTERIOR DRAWING, MAS YENDO

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“The only effective means to create new social space is through precisely imagined architectural propositions.”

MAS YENDO, IRONIC DIVERSIONS

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“It was the city of James Agee’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” a city of “middlesized gracefully fretted wood houses built in the late nineties and early nineteen hundreds,” with porches and yards and “softwooded trees, poplars, tulip trees, cottonwoods.” But it was also a city of “flea-bitten semi-rurality...mean little homes, and others inexplicably new and substantial,” of trash and slash and broken sheds and rained-out billboards.”

EXCERPT FROM THE HEART OF THE VALLEY BY THE EAST TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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DOWNTOWN KNOXVILLE, 2009, KGIS

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SOUTH GAY ST, 2010

SETTLED: POPULATION: METRO POPULATION: ELEVATION: LAND AREA: WATER AREA: POSITION: DISTANCE FROM CAPITOL:

1786 178,874 699, 247 sea level to 886’ 92.66 sq. mi.

5.43 sq. mi.

35°58’22”N 83°56’32”W 179 mi.

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SITE PLAN 1:200

The site is located along the historic Gay Street with many of the surrounding structures being over 100 years old. The site is plot on the corner of Gay St. (downtown Knoxville’s main thoroughfare) and Church St. (another major entrance into the downtown area from the east). Roughly 80ft by 180ft; an existing building (a flower shop) is located the corner of this plot.

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URBAN TERRAIN #0001: SITE, 2010

Spatially the site is a sloping hill, with the upper most portion touching the most visible and accessible part of downtown knoxville, Gay street. The Lower portion is met by the ruins of a pre-existing structure that have been demolished.

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THE FLOWER POT, KNOXVILLE, TN, 2010

The flower shop’s independence from the city is evident in its position and function. It changes the dynamics of the city to an urban terrain.

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THE FLOWER POT, KNOXVILLE, TN, 2010

Marking one end of the historic Gay Street, it’s existence signals the end point of downtown’s main attractions and leads south to the Holston River and iconic Gay Street Bridge.

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STRUCTURAL FRAMING SYSTEM ITERATION #002, DIGITAL MODEL [RHINO 4.0]

STRUCTURAL FRAMING SYSTEM ITERATION #006, DIGITAL MODEL [RHINO 4.0]

S.F.S. ITERATION #002, SOUTH-WEST PERSPECTIVE

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S.F.S. ITERATION #006, SOUTH-WEST PERSPECTIVE

S.F.S. ITERATION #006, NORTH-EAST PERSPECTIVE

A structural framework was designed to interject into the urban terrain and to accommodate the building of independent unit structures. The system was designed to expand and contract between the city’s permanent structures as a connective tissue for the interstitial spaces. These spaces potentially intersect with newly formed unit structures, which form a microcosm of the city itself.

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PHYSICAL MODEL CONSTRUCTION

PHYSICAL MODEL PERSPECTIVE

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SKETCH, 2011

Different systems would arise based on the given area and characteristics of a specific terrain. Ultimately one site was selected for a micro-housing proposal.

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SKETCHBOOK, 2011

The manufacturing and assembly of the structure is an integral part of its relationship with the interstitial urban terrain. The system and order given by the superstructure is a basic grid over which different types of units can be mixed and matched.

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SKETCHBOOK, 2011

The connection between the individual units and the superstructure is a vital point of departure for the overall experience of the urban terrain. The unified design is a land-based housing mechanism for which individual spaces can be created through the growth and development of the community at large.

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UNIT0006: EXHALATION SPACE

UNIT0005: BALCONY

UNIT0003: CAVE

UNIT0001: ENTRANCE

UNIT0004: LUNG

UNIT0002: MEDIATION ROOM

MICRO-ARCHITECTURE #001/002: PROTOTYPE

An experimental prototype was drawn specific to site #01 (700 Gay St. / see PG23). Each space was envisioned as a specific architectural device meant to interact with the inhabitant and its adjacent spaces.

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MICRO-ARCHITECTURE #001-002 PROTOTYPE MODEL

Experimental Prototype Model, 2011.

[UNIT#0003: Cave] an armoured, isolated individual dwelling unit meant to last 50 years. The unit itself is detachable and only directly connected to the balcony above it.

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UNIT#0004: LUNG

[UNIT#0004: Lung] a tensile structure attached to the superstructure that brings fresh air into the space through the use of large fans. An escape space from the tensions of the Mediation Room.

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UNIT#0005: BALCONY

MICRO-ARCHITECTURE #001-002 PROTOTYPE MODEL, TOP

Above: [UNIT#0005: Balcony] open air unit facing the street.

Bottom: Micro-Architecture #001/002 Prototype Model

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M.A. URBAN DWELLING ZONE #001 PHYSICAL MODEL, FACADE

Following the experimental prototype, another model iteration was built as a more specific attack on the site. The site calls for new urban living spaces to be created as a bridge between the various districts of downtown Knoxville. The conglomeration of units created a new type of living and working zone and the superstructure is clad in a double mesh screen that lets the city enter the space but only to a certain extent.

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M.A. URBAN DWELLING ZONE #001 PHYSICAL MODEL, INTERIOR PERSPECTIVE

The interstitial urban terrain is further developed within the new structure itself. The relationship between part to whole is intensified as the space between units becomes a microcosm of the site it is sitting within.

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M.A. URBAN DWELLING ZONE #001 PHYSICAL MODEL, PERSPECTIVE

The structure as a whole is an urban attack. A grouping of individual elements, each with a specific purpose that creates a new order for the chaos that is the city to build on.

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M.A. URBAN DWELLING ZONE #001 PHYSICAL MODEL, TOP

The attack is an isolated incident. It is placed within specific boundaries to address an issue (urban dwelling). But from this the structure has the potential to expand and contract.

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“We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind mass merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the instant translation of science and technology into popular imagery, the increasing blurring and intermingling of identities within the realm of consumer goods, the preempting of any free or original imaginative response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel. For the writer in particular it is less and less necessary to invent the fictional content of a novel. The fiction is already there. The writer’s task is to invent the reality.”

INTRODUCTION TO CRASH (1973) BY J.G. BALLARD

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MICRO-HOUSING ZONE #001, IN SITE

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SITE#01 INTERVENTION: MICRO-HOUSING The Micro-Housing Project provides a new living condition for the Downtown Knoxville community.

Units have specific functions and can be grouped to create various dwelling environments that are adaptable and expandable.

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MICRO-HOUSING ZONE #001, FACADE

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MICRO-HOUSING ZONE #001, INTERIOR CORRIDOR

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MICRO-HOUSING ZONE #001, INTERIOR ATRIUM

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MICRO-HOUSING ZONE #001, SINGLE UNIT

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MICRO-HOUSING ZONE #001, UNIT BALCONY

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MICRO-HOUSING ZONE #001, TOP LEVEL ATRIUM

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Acconci, Vito. Public Space in a Private Time. Wien: Galerie Hubert Winter, 1992. Print.

Benzel, Katherine F. The Room in Context: Design Beyond Boundaries.

New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998.

Ching, Frank. Building Construction Illustrated. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Print.

Deaderick, Lucile. Heart of the Valley: a History of Knoxville, Tennessee. Knoxville, TN: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1976. Print.

Idenburg, Florian. The SANAA Studios 2006-2008, Learning From Japan: Single Story Urbanism. Switzerland: Lars Muller, 2010.

Kim, Kwang-Soo. “The Other Public Space: The Korean “-Bang” Culture”. Germany-Korea Public Space Forum: 61-75.

Atelier Bow-Wow. Pet Architecture Guide Book: Living Spheres Vol. 2. Nakano: World Photo, 2002. Print.

Yendo, Mas. Mas Yendo Ironic Diversion: .01-09 = Aironikku Dibājon. Wien: Springer, 2001. Print.

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To my family, I love you all dearly.

To Ellen, thank you for your wisdom and kindness.

To my friends and colleagues, your love and influence has been far reaching and deep.

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dsc@vt.edu d4nielchoi@gmail.com

12731 Heathland Drive Knoxville, TN 37934

5719708078

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