KELSEY WILLIS 2017-18 ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO TULANE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
ABOUT KELSEY
I am an architecture student and French double major from the city of Bellingham, WA, in my fourth year at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. I am particularly interested in the intersection of social and evironmental justice with the field of architecture, as well as the necessity of community engagement in their built environment. Outside of studio and on campus, I work with Tulane’s fossil fuel divestment campaign, coordinate service learning courses at the Tulane Center for Public Service, and head “The Charrette”, a student arts organzation dedicated to installation art and print media.
COVERS & TITLE PAGE:
Images from various stages of an interactive “stringstallation” designed by Charrette members in 2018
FLEXIBLE USES OF CHAMBER HALL
INDOOR CONCERT
OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE
LARGE PRIVATE EVENT
POLITICAL RALLY
URBAN QUARTET: CHAMBER MUSIC FOR A NEW AUDIENCE VESTERBRO, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
FOURTH YEAR, SEMESTER 1 Addressing waning interest in classical music by creating a “tent concert”-inspired destination for musicians and music-lovers in the heart of Vesterbro, the primary nightlife neighborhood of Copenhagen. Acknowledging the many uses of the square (including a skate park, a homeless shelter, and a kindergarten), the project incorporates a combination of flexible practice spaces, musician residences, and outdoor performance spaces, as well as a large chamber hall, while retaining the open public park nature of the site. This works to make classical music accessible to all by reducing formality of performances and by introducing a format that welcomes all types and classes of musicians. It can be a safe and welcoming destination for all, day or night.
PRACTICE SPACES
CHAMBER PERFORMANCE
FLEXIBILE USES OF PRACTICE SPACE MODULES
OUTDOOR PERFORMERS
SITE AXONOMETRIC
NIGHTTIME ELEVATION
CHAMBER HALL INTERIOR VIEW
SKATE PARK FUTURE ENGHAVEPLADS METRO STATION
SHELTERED, POPULAR TRANSIENT & HOMELESS HANGOUT AREA
PRACTICE ROOMS
CAFE, EXTENSION OF PERFORMANCE SPACE
BAR
CHAMBER HALL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE UNIT
BACKSTAGE OFFICE
BØRNEHUSET
PROJECT PLAN
LOBBY
SERIAL COLLAGES: PROGRESSION THROUGH THE SITE FROM METRO DISEMBARKMENT TO OUTDOOR STAGE AREA
PRACTICE ROOM INTERIOR VIEW
NEIGHBORHOOD MICROCOSM: COHOUSING FOR IMMIGRANT FAMILIES NØRREBRO, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK FOURTH YEAR, SEMESTER 1
A community center, library, ecumenical religious space, and cohousing complex for immigrant families to feel welcomed into Danish society without losing hold of their own cultural traditions. The program arose by developing three resident user groups, then designing spaces and program specifically for their perceived needs, while providing additional program to ensure that the complex can serve as a community space for the highly diverse gentrifying neighborhood. The “shifted box” layout creates a series of public squares for play and gathering around the site.
TRANSVERSE SECTION, SHOWING RESIDENCES AND A COMMON SPACE
ELEVATION
Site flexibility analysis: the site was designed to be constantly usable for residents and non-residents alike, so program was designed to allow for use throughout the day and night to provide resources for busy families at work in Copenhagen.
MEDITATION & PRAYER
COMMUNAL DINING
LEAST PUBLIC
SCHOOL & PLAYHOUSE MOST PUBLIC
LIBRARY & LIVING ROOM
Program was designed to fit specifically with the designed immigrant user groups’ needs and my personal analysis of the neighborhood, where I lived while in Denmark. In the area, I perceived a shortage of green spaces, areas welcoming to Muslim immigrants, and a lack of venues for immigrants and their families to gather outside of the context of supposed “Danishness”. By allowing them to practice and share their cultures with the community, Denmark (and the western world) can work towards changing its attitude against immigrant acceptance.
HOSTEL FOR HIKERS, BIKERS, & SNOWBOARDERS LAKE TAHOE, NEVADA THIRD YEAR, SEMESTER 2 This project is an environmentally-conscious temporary residence for visitors to the resort mecca of South Lake Tahoe. The hostel provides a low-cost option for outdoor sports fanatics to get outside without the high cost barriers. It works to emulate the experience of being in a traditional cabin or lodge, while expanding the scale to house hundreds of visitors at a time. Similarly, it intends to have low visual impact on the environment, as well as a low carbon footprint, by employig a locally-sourced wood structure and cladding and a system of ground-source heat pump and solar panel heating. The butterfly roof scheme allows water to be directed intentionally for snowmelt collection, and brings in significant amounts of natural light to the dorm-style sleeping units.
LONGITUDINAL SECTION
INTEGRATED BUILDING SYSTEMS AXON 2"x8" beam
standing-seam roofing 2"x6" beam
rigid insulation timber decking 3" x 1"
bolted timber beam 12" x 6"
charred cedar siding structural dimensions 8" glulam columns 12" glulam beams 15" glulam girders
air ducts recessed
sheathing rigid insulation plywood sheet batt insulation
drainage gutter leads to roof joint
glulam timber column
siding material: VERTICALLY SEAMED CHARRED CEDAR
additional beams to support crux of butterfly roof
glulam timber column batt insulation plywood sheet rigid insulation charred cedar siding
flashing sill plate decking finish timber joists
concrete foundation finish floor thermal conductivity pad
drainage
concrete substrate to host thermal coils moisture retardant gravel fill earth
radiant flooring coils beneath finish floor
hostel for hikers, bikers, & boarders kelsey willis
operable clerestory windows for air circulation
behind beams
large windows establish views towards ski lift
interior render of axon space
TRANSVERSE SECTION: EAST
TRANSVERSE SECTION: WEST
VIEW FROM ROAD ACCESS
X4
SIMPLIFIED ADA ACCESS & CIRCULATION
n S
SITE TOPOGRAPHY AND AXON
MASSING PROCESS
3-D INTERPRETATION
PUBLIC INTEREST DESIGN FELLOWSHIP ALBERT & TINA SMALL CENTER FOR COLLABORATIVE DESIGN
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, SUMMER 2017
We worked on three two-to-three week projects centered around exploring ways to engage communities and a range of stakeholders in the design process. Over the course of the summer, we did work in research, advocacy, design, construction, and housing policy and presented our work to various NGOs and research groups. Each project was developed in partnership with a nonprofit / NGO and worked to further their missions and existing bodies of work or research. Throughout the process, we were asked to reflect constantly and discuss our process amongst the six fellows to ensure that the focus of our work was on sustainable best practices, incorporating as much user input and selfcritique as possible.
TYPICAL ROAD 26’
typical 4-6’ sidewalk
7’
typical green row
parking allowed 20’ from curb
trees
8’
possible green water storage locations
shrubs
flowers & low plants
30’ is enough space for 2 cars
utilities are usually buried in the row call your utility company before
you dig!
“bump-outs” can reach to the edge of street parking
trees are great, but new tree plantings must be approved by the department of public works
grasses
MODULE 1: LIVING WITH WATER Learning to understand the complex issues around water policy in New Orleans and developing educational resources and engagement tools to work with communities to address these issues on a micro scale. We focused on bridging public (governmental) and private (residential, business) interests in rapid design charrettes to develop proposals for neighborhood green infrastructure projects.
MODULE 2: ECOLOGICAL SHELTER We worked with a group of local high-school students to design and build a solar-powered bus shelter, funded by grant money from the EPA. Turnaround was 2 weeks from start to finish, including developing educational signage for the inside of the shleter and a “building instructions� booklet for the high-schoolers to reference in future project iterations, which will be placed along major transit corridors in the city.
A FEW PAGES FROM THE FINAL PAIR OF DOCUMENTS “AFFORDABLE TREME” & “HEALTHY TREME”
MODULE 3: TRANSIT-ORIENTED DENSITY
We mapped every vacant lot in Treme, while collecting & analyzing data on how changes in zoning, particularly around transit corridors, could increase residential density and create opportunity for affordable housing in the gentrifying neighborhood. Information was processed and presented to the advocacy group HousingNOLA and to the city planning board to advocate for increased residential density in the neighborhood. Further data was collected by surveying every home in the Treme neighborhood, analyzing the responses, and mapping neighborhood access via public transit to healthcare, safe parks, childcare, and more.
EAST FACADE & SECTION
SOUTH FACADE & SECTION
This project is a reimagination of an empty lot in the rapidly transforming and gentrifying Central City neighborhood of New Orleans. The mixed-use complex creates a new urban commercial and residential node in the heart of the city, blurring the lines between public and private space while engaging the formal elements of the existing commercial corridor. The core of the project is a central public plaza with open ground-level circulation and a dense commercial layer on the ground floor. In elevated roof gardens, the residents can interact with, but are separated from, the busy street front.
APARTMENTS ON EUTERPE & BARONNE
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA THIRD YEAR, SEMESTER 1
COMMERCIAL
BIKE STORAGE
YOGA/DANCE STUDIO
LOBBY
LARGE MEETING SPACE
SMALL MEETING SPACES
FITNESS
COMMERCIAL
GALLERY / GATHERING SPACE CAFE
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
T. ITY S FELIC
O.C .H
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E UT
T. ES RP
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BA
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RO N
NE
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VERY BRIGHT LIGHT: CLERESTORY / SKYLIGHTS, TRANSLUCENT CIRCULATION SPACES, HEAT GAIN REDUCTION
W
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IC PS ER
SUNDOWN GLARE: DOWNTOWN “PICTURE WINDOWS”, LIMITED RESIDENTIAL UNITS
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EVENING GLARE: FLEXIBLE WINDOW SHADES, TREE COVERAGE
CONSISTENTLY DIFFUSE LIGHT: WINDOW MAXMIZATION, ORIENTATION OF PRIVATE LIVING SPACES AROUND LARGE WINDOWS
S RE HO
T.
AL EY
BL VD .
FRONT FACADE
The project’s central goal was to explore the intersection of public and private space in a social housing context: through publicly accessible courtyards that support local commerce and a multitude of accessible interior public spaces, the project serves to create a privately maintained extension of public space for the good of the whole neighborhood - the opposite of a “gated community”
CENTRAL COURTYARD
IRESIDENTIAL UNIT
INTERIOR GALLERY
MAKING THINGS
VISITOR’S CENTER
AN INTERVENTION IN ALVARO SIZA’S LECA POOLS OPORTO, PORTUGAL FIRST YEAR, SEMESTER 2
FINAL PROJECT MODEL
INTERPRETIVE SITE COLLAGE
MARDI GRAS INDIAN CULTURAL CENTER NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA SECOND YEAR, SEMESTER 1
A community arts center centered around the colorful traditions of New Orleans’ ”Mardi Gras Indians”, whose performance and festivals are deeply rooted in the city’s civil rights movement. Members of the “tribes” are social and policitcal leaders in their communities who do much for building local pride and preserving cultural traditions in the city. We worked closely with leaders of the community to document and analyze their beautiful hand-beaded suits to prepare for the project and to better understand their artistic traditions.
EXTERIOR NIGHT RENDERING
The center contains workshop spaces, artist housing, performance and practice spaces, and two large gallery / gathering areas, as well as a rooftop space. The form is derived from the traditional New Orleans “corner store” typology to reference and rejuvenate the busy commercial corridor in a contextural manner. At night, the project acts as a beacon over the interstate, the occupied top floor artists’ lofts of the upper floors shinging to the other side of the divided neighborhood.
URBAN SPRAWL ANALYSIS NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA SECOND YEAR, SEMESTER 1
A process of research and diagrammatic analysis of the growith of New Orleans at various scales through hand-drawn mapping and diagramming. Neighborhood-scale focus is on the Treme and its changes over time due to processes of oppression and renewal.
SCALES OF SPRAWL: DRAWINGS OF NEW ORLEANS’ EXPANSION AND DENSITY
MUSEUM: CORNER RENDERING
MUSEUM OF THE CITY
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA SECOND YEAR, SEMESTER 1
A neighborhood museum in the historic Treme district, rooted in studies of the community and its complex geographic history.
We were challenged to develop a museum and archive space on blighted spaces in historic neighborhoods. This project is sited on a high-traffic corner of Basin Street in the Treme. The building design was extrapolated from a geographic study of the development of New Orleans as a whole, leading to a more comprehensive understanding of the astonishing changes in the area.
THANKS!