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Immobilization
Modest Intervention
Urban Operation
Exploration of a City Pocket
G e o r g i a W i l li a m s geb.williams@gmail.com m. arch I candidate, 2012 university of ___________
Found Object Art
Photography & City Drawing
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As my first project in Introduction to Architecture, we were asked to explore the most basic tool, the human hand. I analyzed all the meanings and uses of the hand and fingers. But after investigating everything it can do, we were asked to immobilize it--to paralyze the hand’s power. This device of entrapment ironically led to understanding the way we and our whole bodies occupy space.
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from which we derive the ability to grip foreign objects
strength and force exist in the contact between fingers
isolating fingers from each other inhibits their strength
the abstraction of the hand form can create
an inhabitable space.
M O D E S T
Natural conditions should be preserved with any type of building intervention. On the Unversity of Texas: Austin lies a rare
plot of green nestled between a parking lot and a power plant. To preserve its vitality and utilize the space for an art gallery for student art and gathering space for gallery-hoppers, how can the space’s natural conditions be integrated into the building?
I N T E R V E N T I O N
noise concentrations sidewalks level ground tree canopies creek energy plant
{unity between site and intervention}
to ensure that the gallery is integrated into the site, I measured the locations of the site’s trees., and used them to outline shapes for use as the gallery’s skin.
erior light int
U R B A N
Time is so scarce, so it seems that a community is maintained in part by how people connect while in transit. in the bicycle community of Austin, where I spent a summer, there is a strong identity but no place of gathering. if a biking community is to be maintained, a community center is the next step. I want to see what would make such an idea thrive.
O P E R A T I O N
of trips made in the Netherlands were by bicycle compared to
in a country where bicycle usage is almost non-existant, facilities must be created to
30%
welcome the everyday use of the transportation form; this project proposes a
home for bicycles in Austin, Texas, a refuge for cyclists, one that is integrat-
1%
of trips in the U.S.
ed into the existing urban environment, to
community has the conditions to flourish in the future. ensure that the bicycle
Noise concentrations Standing traffic Moving traffic
bike lanes
{Austin’s urban landscape}: to understand the site at 24th and guadalupe,
one must observe pre-existing conditions and locations of movement and noise.
fic w traf ith
kin e
s
ng shift i shape , c s ti
ic thresho gan ld r o
red nucl eu nctu u p
{turning forms + bicycle materiality}
a community f so
try
ture of ind tex us
{community entrance + bicycle circulation}
{bicyccle circulation vs. pedestrian criculation}: a space promoting bicycle movement promotes rolling, organized circulation, an intimate continuation of the street.
INVESTIGATION OF A
I spent my whole life in Houston before moving to New York for college. I keenly remember the final stretch of my
road trip to the city--we drove up 2nd Avenue and double parked to grab a coffee in the crisp morning air. the streets of the Lower East Side represent the beginning of my exploration of unfamiliar territory, living in a space that I am conscious of because I was not born there. During the last months of my senior year of college, I returned to these streets that, for me, firmly represent the beginning. I spent hours wandering and observing the streets of eastern downtown Manhattan; this journey resulted in an analysis of the neighborhoods’ pocket possessions and urban dwellers.
CITY POCKET
reach in to read, drop in to send, wait to walk.
{encounters with daily street objects}
{signs of vitality turn to marks of dereliction}
{changing owners} debris fits into the pockets of the streets.
{the journey of street objects}
{repurposing street furniture}: ashtrays and phone booth receive refuse.
broken benches are not thrown away, instead the body reforms to the new structure.
FOUND OBJECT ART
Since I was in high school, I have kept a box full of found things--ripped paper, pieces of plastic and metal and wood, negatives, postcards, fabric, thread, magazine scraps, notes to friends. I believe that exquisite things exist even in that which we normally throw away. I believe in reviving tossed aside objects to discover how they can be beautiful. The size of my box has grown not only because I have been I have become more observant, but also because every day I find my definition for beauty grows to encompass more things.
P O R C I T Y
I
have always taken portraits. Through the mediums of photography, video and drawing I have been fascinated by the attempts to capture someone. I believe one can learn wonders about a person through a simple portrait. I believe the same about a city; I spent my first month in Paris wandering the streets and drawing what I saw, not only to ground my barings but also to learn about the personality of Paris.
T R A I T S : A N D P E R S O N
l’eglise Saint-Germain-des-Prés
place de la Contrescarpe
rue Lhomond
Pont des Arts / l’Institut de France
sur le pont de la Concorde
statue de Diderot, boulevard Saint-Germain
le Panthéon
rue de l’Université
My best friend studied abroad in Gulu, Uganda our junior year of college. On days when she could find internet and we could skype, she would tell me stories of how difficult day-to-day life was living in Uganda. She felt more and more homesick everyday.
On her birthday in May, I compiled a video of messages from her friends living all over the United States to remind her that even though she is thousands of miles away, she can still be surrounded by familiar faces.
Technology has dramatically shifted the way people interact. By becoming more connected, we have ironically lost the one-on-one closeness we once had. However, I like to think that in some small ways, technology allows intimacy to remain and even flourish.
Thank you for your consideration.