H E C TO R GARCIA
ARCH. PORTFOLIO Select Works 2015-2020
CONTENTS
4-11
12-17
SCHOOL OF CONSTRUCTION
SENSE PAVILION
Newburgh, NY
New York, NY
18-25
26-31
NYTEL
DOMESTICITY IN OBJECTS
New York, NY
New York, NY
32-41
42-45
MODULAR DWELLING
WATERWORKS MOUROU
Redwood, CA
Djerba, Tunisia
54-61
62-77
ELDORADO FLUTUANTE
PROFESSIONAL and TECHNICAL WORK
Amazonas, Brazil
TA N G I B L E T I M E : SCHOOL OF CONSTRUCTION NE W BUR GH , N Y
P r of e s s or : A dam Fr amp ton
Urban Renewal struck Newburgh in the 60’s. It promised the replacement of slums with new construction. Unfortunately reconstruction was never followed after demolition due to political corruption. Today, many homes in Newburgh are in a state of decay. The poor economic situation in the city has left many of its residents in the lower class with little opportunity of jobs. The necessary demolition of these decaying buildings is costing the city on average $80,000 per home. 4
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Classrooms
Administration Cable Car Access
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T he Sc hool o f C on s t r uc t ion s er v e s a dual pur po s e , pr o v iding e duc a t ion s ur r ounding building c on s t r uc t ion a s w ell a s a building r e c y c ling c en t er me an t t o br ing in demolis he d building s and ou t pu t ne w home s f or t he c i t y. T his w ould c r e a t e job s in t he c on s t r uc t ion s e c t or and als o le a v e a v oc a t ional s k ill s e t f or t ho s e t ha t w ould enr oll .
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Classro oms
S tudios
Galler y
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T he ide a is t o e duc a t e pr oac t i v el y in or der t o r ebuild Ne w bur gh . T his is e x plic i t l y s ho w n in t he di v ision be t w e en one side o f t he c ampu s w hic h f oc u s e s on c la s s r oom s and t he o t her w hic h f oc u s e s on r eu s e and c on s t r uc t ion . Ev en t uall y t he c ampu s c an u s e t he f r eigh t t r ain ac c e s s t o s er v e o t her t o w n s in t he Hud s on Valle y s u f f er ing f r om t he s ame e c onomic and poli t ic al c r i s i s .
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E a c h d e m o li s h e d h o m e c o u l d provide 510 pounds of metal, 913 board feet, 4,800 brick s and 360 square feet of flooring. The d e m o li s h e d m a t e r i a l s w o u l d b e brought onto the campus via a d u a l p u r p o s e c a b l e c a r. I t w o u l d ser ve as a crane by night and by day would provide citizens of Newburgh an iconic form of transpor tation that would span from the airpor t to the city of Beacon. T h i s w ill r e v i v e t h e w a t e r f r o n t t o i t s p r e - U r b a n R e n e w a l d a y s w h il e c o n n e c t i n g t h e c i t y e c o n o m i c a ll y to the region.
Material S eparation Diagram
C onstruction Workshop S torage Material S eparation
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The campus also creates a promenade folly to which all residents of Newburgh can enjoy. The brick material is only used on the promenade and adjacent facades to create a stereotomic formal expression.
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S E N S E PA V I L I O N E A S T R I V ER NE W Y OR K , N Y
P r o f e s s o r : C h r i s t o p h a . K um p u s c h Piers in NYC are known for having relaxing green spaces that ex tend out to the river to e s c a p e t h e n o i s e o f t h e c i t y. U n f o r t u n a t e l y, t h e s e a r e n ’ t a l w a y s a c c e s s i b l e t h r o u g h o u t t h e year due to various weather conditions, par ticularly in the winter when the river can intensif y cold temperatures. I saw this as a problem that prevented the yearlong enjoyment of t h e r i v e r a n d t h e b e a u t i f u l v i e w s i t p r o v i d e s . S e n s e P a v ili o n i s d e s i g n e d a s a n i n d o o r p i e r t h a t f o r c e s y o u t o q u e s t i o n w h e t h e r y o u r e a ll y a r e i n d o o r s a t a ll . I t i s a l s o c r e a t e d a s a sound instrument to subdue the noise of the city and ac t as an area of serenity and peace.
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The site is located on the east river close to the East River Outdoor Gym. It was placed directly in front of a dense tree area in order to transition seamlessly from city to greenery to indoor greenery. The pier is enclosed with a curtain wall system as to allow as much light in without compromising views or thermal comfort. The roof is made up of an intricate metal structure holding up a series of tubes that are open from the top side. The tubes act as mouthpiece for the wind to blow into and create a distinctive hum. The hum varies throughout the pier due to the variation in size of the tubes that start to mimic a terrain. The result is a beautiful chandelier instrument reflecting light into the pier. The roof is held up as delicately as possible through a series of columns that hold the structure in a suspension and allow a hole to appear on the roof. This is the only place in the pier where it is exposed to weather. Rain water is allowed to flow down through the column and enter the hidden area of the project which exists under the terrain. 14
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The final part of the Sense Pavilion is tucked under the landscape, accessible through a spiral staircase on the column. This space is completely open to the outside in contrast with the rest of the building. It allows for just the noise of the waves crashing on the edge to be heard while offering a very distinctive view to the East River and Brooklyn.
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NYTEL NE W Y OR K , N Y.
P r of e s s or : Nanc y C lar k P ar t ner : A dr iana Ur bi s tondo Expensive hotels and outlawed hostels renders NYC as one of the most expensive tourist destinations in the US. Hence, the goal is to bring affordable youth hotels to NYC with the sociability of a hostel. By adapting a modular form of temporary construction combined with micro-rooms, Nytel offers site adaptable architecture with huge economic potential for developers and tax payers alike. This brings in a new form of tourism contributing to the Manhattan economy.
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D owntown South St
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High Line 18 S t
Time Square 48 St
Oc c upanc y Ra t e v s . Dail y Ro om Ra t e “The new law [2010 New York Hotel Law- S.6873/A.10008] aims to help New York City agencies clamp down on illegal hotels. Apartments designated as permanent residences that are improperly rented out on a nightly basis, by providing a clear definition of what constitutes transient and permanent occupancy”
- Governor David Paterson “We are missing out on an important piece of the market: the young people who have an itch to get out and see the world on modest budgets. Hotels in our city can be out of their price range”
More hotels are being built while the daily room rate continues to fluctuate although it has never been higher than $300 or less than $200
- Michael Bloomberg. Nytel is essentially a loophole through the 2010 New York Hotel Law. This is the solution Bloomberg sought but was unsuccessful in implementing.
E xploded A xo of Unit
Job s and Ta x Sa v ing s Gener a t e d b y V isi t or ’s Sp ending
Residents of NYC have benefited from an increase of $1,100 average tax savings per household. A 230% increase from 2003 to 2013. 21
Common Areas
Nytel High Line offers a connection to one of the most famous urban projects in the world. Nytel takes advantage of close range tourist destinations and visually connects to the high line due to it’s proximity. The project suspends over a parking lot, taking up as much air rights as the high line allows.
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Rooms Balconies
Rooms Common Areas Highway
Nytel Downtown provides a beautiful sight to the East River, as well as a connection to the financial district. Nytel engages the site by directly attaching underneath FDR highway which allows the area underneath to be a public space. Besides, Nytel can adapt to future projects of the area such as The BIG U’s flood retention wall.
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D owntown - C ommon Area
Time Square - C ommon Area
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Nytel Times Square site offers an incredible proximity to the heart of NYC. Nytel engages this site by inserting into a small alleyway in between two buildings; taking advantage of under used space and still providing public access through the street level. Floors made up of glass allow filtered light penetration. So, even in this tight space, daylight illuminates the corridors.
Green Space Rooms Common Area Rooms Public Walkway
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DOMESTICITY IN OBJECTS BR ON X , NE W Y OR K , N Y
P r of e s s or : E r ic B unge e P ar t ner : L ui z a Fur ia
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This housing block questions traditional room typologies such as bedroom, kitchen and bathroom and redefine dwelling spaces in reference to domestic objects. These objects exist in the determinate space which is pushed to the perimeter of the unit while leaving the indeterminate space in the center. Each determinant space is given a portion of infrastructure such as a sink that affects plasticity of the space. However, placement of objects and furniture are not influenced by traditional domestic spaces. The user is free to develop new relationships between objects and spaces within the unit. This idea is supplemented with a system of curtains on tracks that allow connections between spaces to be created in the indeterminate space. The determinate spaces are clad with channel glass. The more objects are housed in the determinate space the more privacy is given to the user but less light is available. The domestic objects therefore shapes the space 27
Each unit has a different combination of determinate spaces which allows the indeterminate spaces to stack while creating a field of determinate spaces from the exterior of the building. The aggregating of units is in the form of a double loaded corridor with stacking units. The double corridor acts like a zipper that disconnects and reconnects the corridors. The siting creates pockets of public space for the city to host possible markets and a number of activities.
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Ty pic al Unit Fl oor Plan
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N or th Entrance C our ts
M ail
L aundr y S outh Entrance
Play Room
Groun d Fl oor Plan
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MODULAR DWELLING - INCISION
R E D W O OD , C A
P r of e s s or : Br adle y Wal ter s 33
Architectualizing dwelling means to understand our idling and how it can be enhanced through the home. The driver of this project was how the connection to nature within the house meant a strong relationship with the living world. This is the root of dwelling, the idea that while we idle we must take the time to live in nature, not in society. The home will house the dwelling and so the house must have a clear relationship to the exterior. While dwelling is taking place, the architecture must also provide all the opportunities that a home would. The project was defined by the fact that it must have a clear understanding of what a home is while also incorporating the maximum level of dwelling.
C oncrete S teel Frame
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Open L andscape
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S uburban
Living Sitting
Buffer
Resting B
Circulation
Meditation
Living Cooking
Continuous Linear Connection
Resting A
Living Eating
D ense F orest
Open L andscape
S uburban A modular system was created for the main functions of a home which are living, resting, and meditating. Three distinct spatial qualities were created for each module and so the modules were able to be shifted around while still retaining their characteristics. The project headed towards a test of these modules in three different typologies. The typologies are common to homes and include a suburban typology, an open landscape typology and a dense forest typology. The modules needed to adapt to each typology and be able to have the connection to nature. The suburban typology adapted a vertical green space in its attempt to save space. The open landscape typology adapted by spreading on to the land and captured a centralized green space that the modules surrounded. The dense forest typology was an opportunity for the architecture to quietly land within the density.
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The modules successfully created the spatial qualities needed while establishing a relationship to the natural landscape. I decided to then develop the dense forest typology. Each module gained its own unique view to the landscape. The spaces within blurred the line between interior and exterior. The spine of the project was the circulation, which was also the entrance. It was simple, cohesive, and worked to give division to the spaces.
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WAT E R W O R K S MOUROU Djer b a , Tunisia
P r of e s s or : Z iad Jamale ddine Waterworks Mourou is an infrastructure project aimed at providing a family community with clean water, agriculture and social spaces using historical techniques that have existed in the island for centuries. Djerba is located in the southernmost coast of Tunisia and hosts an arid climate. This makes water incredibly scarce. Two methods of water harvesting were developed throughout the history of the island, dating back almost 1000 years. The Djerbans used wells that tapped into the water table to provide fresh drinking water as well as irrigation water. Water Collections slabs were also used to harvest rain water and store it in underground cisterns. The Mosques of Djerba adopted this function and allowed for the entire footprint to serve as water collection. Waterworks Mourou uses this relationship to the mosque to revamp the water collection system and not rely on the now contaminated wells of the island. Water collection will also increase the production of agriculture. As Djerba is also known for high quality olive oil, the project also aims to increase olive oil production and efficiency to put the family on a global market
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M osque M ourou
Well
S lab to Cistern
Water C ontainer Trailers
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The community chosen is a family of 80 that has lived there for multiple generations. Aptly named Ibn Hamoud community, the sons of Hamoud still to this day live here. They no longer can rely on well water and must bring in their water in liquid container trailers. This water crisis has limited their agricultural production and shifted the historic position of family communities as self sufficient to reliant on corporations making clean water. 44
Not only can this community benefit from a water collection system for their consumption and irrigation, but it can also double the production of olive trees for commercial use. The current grid due to arid climate is 34’x34’
The new grid could be 17’x17’. This not only doubles the amount of olive trees but makes harvesting much more efficient because of their density. This is similar to how Spain, Italy and Greece operates and is able to compete. 45
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Using the slab architecture strategy I designed an outdoor water collection system based around the families Mosque, Mourou. The slabs use the same clay and rocks as the mosques use for easy availability. As shown in the diagram below, the slabs must be built in units of 3 each housing a specific function. Agriculture being the highest point, following social infrastructure and finally the natural filter. Below the social infrastructure will house the cistern where the water will be stored. This system can be expanded by adding more units of 3 at a time making it highly adaptable to fit the needs of the community. It can also mean that phasing is an option to provide essential water before collecting for commercial needs.
Water Flow Diagram Agriculture S ocial Infrastructure
Filtration
Cistern
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The system can easily avoid tearing down precious olive trees that took years to grow. The water in the cisterns can be pumped back for drinking, olive tree irrigation and agriculture irrigation which also ends up in the same filtering cycle. The community also gets to enjoy new programs such as outdoor prayer, kitchen and eating. 48
Nasone
Cistern
Irrigation Pump Pump
Water Filtration
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Wudhu Prayer
E ating
C o oking
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Burial
Olive Press
The relationship with the new landscape to that of the Mosque is one of respect. The landscape is always treated as an excavation so that it juxtaposes the erected nature of the mosque. From afar, the slabs are hidden and blend in with the horizon line. But from within, you experience a fresh new breezy climate, surrounded by internal pipes and cisterns. Simple, yet beautifully negotiated with the terrain.
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ELDORADO FLU T UA N TE A m a z ona s , Br a z il
P r of e s s or : P e dr o R i v er P ar t ner : Ma x ime S t . Pier r e Eldorado Flutuante examines how colonial histories and modern consumer appetites have fostered a neo-colonial history of material extraction in the Brazilian Amazon. Our project seeks to mitigate the deleterious attitude projected onto the jungle by reimagining the relationship between miner and mined. ElDorado Flutante acknowledges the economic incentives placed unto the artisanal miners in Amazonia and seeks to re-establish this correlation through fluid interventions in the Amazon River. Throughout Brazilian history there have been numerous repetitive moments of El Dorado. A famous modern case is the massive rush of people and resources to the Serra Pelada mine in the state of Para. While the Serra Pelada mine may have closed, the mining industry remained strong.
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Legal sites of extraction like Serra Pelada, often near trains and semi-urban areas have been supplanted by smaller sites that operate outside of the law and under the canopy of the jungle. The size of the jungle and lack of satellite imagery makes the job of the government regulators nearly impossible. In most cases the illegal mining operations are found on accident, by people who live in the jungle. As miners exhaust the easily available gold deposits they are moving further and further into the jungle. Mercury is most commonly used by small scale artisanal miners because of how efficient the chemical is in dislocating gold dust from the host rocks. When earth is removed it is washed with water and mercury. This chemical slurry is then disposed of either in the ground or the river leaving only the gold in the miners bucket or pan.
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T h i s a b s t r a c t m a p p e d l a n d s c a p e s h o w s a ll t h e a c t o r s a n d e l e m e n t s o f t h e B r a z ili a n g o l d m i n i n g i n d u s t r y. T h e p e r m a n e n t t o w n s a r e j u x t a p o s e d t o m o b il e m i n i n g c a m p s a n d i n d i g e n o u s v ill a g e s . G o l d r e l a t e d i n d u s t r y p o ll u t e s t h e r i v e r, w h i c h l e a d s t o t h e i n t e r n a t i o n a l p o r t o f M a n a u s , w h e r e ill e g a l g o l d e n t e r s t h e g l o b a l m a r k e t . N o w t h e m i n e r a l i s s o l d a s j e w e l r y a n d t e c h n o l o g y, b u t m o s t l y s t o r e d i n t h e s t r a t e g i c g o l d s t o c k p il e s o f E u r o pean nations.
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Zooming in a bit, to the state of Amazonia, We propose an alternative definition of “mineable territory” in Amazonia. We created a “counter map” recognizing indigenous land and nature reserves and re-mapped the mineral territories of the state. The catalog of elements shows materials readily available near Manaus. Broken apart these take on a second future as building materials for our machine. The catalog is our tool box from which we develop an architectural language that addresses both the context of the amazon and the vernacular gold mining.
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T h e m i n e r s o c c u p y t h e r i v e r, a s s e m b li n g t h e p i e c e s f r o m o u r c a t a l o g i n t o a f l o a t i n g m a c h i n e . R a d i a t i n g f r o m a central square, barges and bridges connec t various floating programs. This assembly is made of 11 dif ferent barges, each home to a unique program ranging from housing to eating to a greenhouse. Scale and program is entirely adaptable, and able to reorganize in response to site and adopt or dismiss barges as programmatic needs change. 57
D ormitor y
Greenhouse
Workshop
T he Square 58
We have created housing from the parts of shipping containers. Using the sidewalls of the disposed containers as walls and roofs we created a series of perforations to allow for natural ventilation. Waste from the floating machine is brought to the greenhouse for compost and filtering. Compost generates the fertilizer necessary for the crops grown. The greenhouse also collects water from the river and purifies it through a series of activated carbon filters. The water is used to irrigate numerous crops, some for food consumption, but most importantly to nurse the young trees that will be used in the reclamation efforts of the mining operation once they leave this land. The machine is ephemeral and moves at the pace of the river. Life on the river is vastly different from the boomtowns. We aim to achieve an acceptable level of comfort and leisure for the workers while accepting that mining is a dirty business
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The gold processing center allows for gravitational gold separation to happen on land in this compact and moveable vessel. The method of gold extraction used here releases no toxins to the water or land. On board the floating machine there is a certification area as well as a secure storage location as theft remains a reality for many prospectors. When gold mining is complete, the process of leaving and reforestation begins. Using a mix of 50 different plants and trees that are defined by an Amazon reforestation NGO, PureEarth, we begin to replant the trees we cut down, and fill in the holes we’ve created. The machine moves on. 60
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PROFES S ION A L A ND TECHNICA L WORK
64-65
66-67
100 FRANKLIN
BELMONT FREEMAN
New York, NY
New York, NY
68-69
70-71
GREENPOINT THEATER
THE GREEN DIP
Brooklyn, NY
Delft, Netherlands
72-73
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UNESCO WORKSHOP
MUSK CAMPUS
Miami, FL
Newark, NY
76-77 LIGHT BASED ZONING New York, NY
10 0 FRANKLIN NE W Y OR K , N Y. Br ic k De tail s DDG P ar t ner s Dur ing my inter nship a t DDG, I pr imarily wor ked on designing and dr af ting br ick de tails f or 100 Fr ank lin. I t was alr ead y under cons tr uc tion w hen I joined the team so the de tails needed to be designed quick ly because of the time cons tr aint s. T he de tails included per f or a ted br ick scr eens, f lying jack ar ches, and cor ner ar ches. T he design f or the br ick scr een came f r om a gr asshopper scr ip t I cr ea ted tha t allowed me to r andomize the size and posi tion of the per f or a tions w hile ensur ing the br ick s could suppor t themsel ves. T he scr ip t also allowed me to quick ly cr e a te cons tr uc tion shee t s so the mason k new e xac tly how to cu t and place each br ick . O ther br ick de tails wer e designed in Rhino, br ick by br ick to f ully under s tand how to de tail and assemble on si te.
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BELMONT FREEMAN NE W Y OR K , N Y.
R ender ing /A u toc ad During my time at Belmont Freeman Architects, I worked on a large number of projects in which I primarily created renderings. I also drafted various plans, elevations and sections using autocad. Usually the task was to translate a dimensioned sketch to a draft on autocad. This was done monthly. Daily, I would work on updating the renderings to reflect the current state of design. To create the renderings, I would typically create a rhino model from the autocad plans and sections. I would then render using the desired materials, lighting, and time of day and photoshop the context and finishing touches to the rendering. Occasionally I also needed to update the physical model. I was also tasked with updating the firms website using adobe dreamweaver. I have a rudimentary understanding of html but enough to make any necessary updates to the website such as images and descriptions .
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GREENPOINT THE ATE R BR O OK LY N , N Y.
R e v i t - C on s t r uc t ion Doc umen t s P ar t ner s : Wend y Guan , Eduar do Mene s e s , Shang y u T ian Greenpoint Theater is a flexible theater space that includes both a black box theater and a 300-600 seat theater that is able to accommodate many different performances in different orientations. The architectural concept focused on creating a mystery box which programmatically housed the theaters and lifted them using mega V columns, allowing the building to be column free. We worked on detailing various structural, mechanical and architectural solutions that would allow us to achieve this. The sustainability concept focused on creating lungs for the secondary spaces to maximize natural ventilation. We also developed water collecting and filtering strategies, passive cooling and passive heating systems and strategic HVAC systems to minimize their use. I created these systems in Revit using appropriate fixture families to easily spec them in the construction document set.
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THE GREEN DIP T HE W H Y FA C T OR Y R e s e ar c h P ar t ner s : Ma t t Nini v aggi The Green Dip is part of a research collaboration with GSAPP and The Why Factory to reconsider the relationship between green and cities. Looking through the lens of precedents we are able to understand what green trends are part of an aesthetic choice instead of a necessary function. We quantify and categorized them into hyperspecific functions and imaged a city where they would all occur at the same time. This would be the Green Dip. The coating of green on buildings is no longer part of an architectural fashion statement but rather an incredibly mutualistic relationship between green and city.
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UNESCO WORKSHOP MI A MI , F L OR ID A
R e s e ar c h / Wor k s hop C on s or t ium f or H y dr o - gener a te d Ur b ani s m (C HU ) The UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Urban Quality and Urban Culture (UNESCO Chair) with the Consortium for Hydro-generated Urbanism (CHU) University of Florida co-organized a two week international workshop examining specific problems of sea level rise and its related effects on urban structures and infrastructures as exemplified in the Miami-Dade region and applicable world-wide. The resulting design proposals include paradigmatic strategies with potential for world wide application: hydro infrastructure as indispensable support for adaptation; the creation of innovative water-based mobility systems; the creation of new water based economies; the development of new settlement typologies inclusive of civic engagement. These strategies are interlaced in a comprehensive approach to envision a viable future for Miami communicated through visualizations of workshop.
-text description by CHU
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MUSK CAMPUS NE WA R K , N J .
Ur b an P lanning P ar t ner : S tone C heng , C hr i s t ine Shi, L une Yue Z uo Musk Campus looked to revamp the historic downtown district of Newark, New Jersey using a Tesla/space X hybrid tech campus as the datum for a futuristic city based on technologies that Elon Musk himself is currently trying to normalize. Phase one Includes the construction of the campus itself and include the type of smart technology and transportation that will serve as a demonstration for the rest of the city. The campus will include mixed-use buildings for office, commercial and residential spaces. Phase two will move to the rest of downtown to incorporate a complete light rail system, self driving road transportation in order to create a carless downtown district. Phase three will be the extension of the light rail and the hyperloop to connect Newark as a hub to other big cities along the east coast.
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LIGHT BASED ZONING NE W Y OR K , N Y.
Gr a s s hopp er/ Di s c o v er P ar t ner s : G aur i B ahuguna , A nna C r e a t ur a , Jame s P iac en t ini The project began with an idea to write a script that would work on an urban scale that could redefine zoning around a park based on cast shadow data. The goal of the project is to use this data to improve comfort in public spaces, specifically city parks. We have chosen Marcus Garvey Park, in Harlem, as a case study for this tool. Since the park is in an area that, as Harlem continues to gentrify, could see a potential jump in construction and tall buildings. The tool would ensure that this new construction is done in a way that maintains the integrity of the park as is. The script works by importing existing environmental data, creating a script to generate variable zoning envelopes, and then an optimization to analyze the options that maximize building height while minimizing shadows on the park.
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HECTOR GARCIA HEC T OR . A . G A R CI A O@GM A IL . C OM 9 5 4 . 5 7 3 . 0 41 4