61 Branching Out: A Neighborhood of Care

Branching Out: A Neighborhood of Care

Community Hub in Lower Roxbury

Fall 2020 Critic: Hansy Better, RISD

A good neighborhood is a place where pedestrians have the opportunity to walk safely with meaningful destinations. A great neighborhood is one which also has amenities for residents to meet, recreate and learn.

Using branching as the guiding force throughout this project to create interconnections which would transform this good neighborhood into a great one. A proposal which branches out into the community, and pulls them in through and around.

Roxbury seems to have been transitioning for many years now, the character and atmosphere has changed drastically over time. The Blair Lot site is surrounded by Roxbury’s retail center with residential housing on either side. However, despite these key attributes, this neighborhood still has a difficult time fulfilling its potential within the city of Boston.

Urban renewal in the mid 20th century caused for a high density of public and subsidized housing in Lower Roxbury. This resulted in extreme conditions of poverty, crime and economic stratification. Despite this, I see a bright future for Roxbury. A future of revitalization.

As well as adjusting the urban problems of the site, I was committed to providing a space where the community of Lower Roxbury can flourish, where pedestrians can shop, work, learn, and grow. With accessible walkways which lead to community

gardens, low carbon transit options, and easy walk-ability

on the site.

The site has some urban problems that need to be addressed. The major problem that I aimed to address was the poor walk-ability of the area. In the existing map of Roxbury, located on the site is a large parking lot as well as some other large commercial buildings.

This parking lot does not allow for safe walking space, and the perceived walking distance is quite lengthy. Additionally, this existing parking lot being in such a central location takes away the softness of the neighborhood, and the connectivity with the street scape is lost.

site plan of infill proposal highlighting the border of the site

the buildings are placed in a way to allow for urban continuity by developing sidewalk frontage and strengthening the street edge

multiple passages through the site to allow for easy access to all 4 streets which the site is bounded by

the main urban corridors: washington st. and harrison ave.

several points of access onto the site coming from all directions

multi-use program with a mixture of public, semi-public, and private spaces accessible to the community

This design proposal provides a mixed use community core with educational spaces, cafes, public restrooms, market spaces, courtyards and residential housing. Promoting a lively, vibrant neighborhood. Simple pleasures such as, walking, talking, getting a cup of coffee, people watching or even window shopping will be enhanced with these different strategies.

The material ecology of the site is produced using existing materials from the site as well as those local to Boston. Half of the site was already covered in grass and I proposed the other half be covered with re-purposed brick pavement which guides the pedestrian onto and through the site.

In order to mitigate the issue of urban heat islands, I have proposed the addition of field maple and eastern white pine trees along the streets as well as on site to provide shade.

The idea of branching is further carried through the residential housing; in form, configuration, circulation and concept. The apartments are of studio, one bedroom and 2 bedroom typology and are combined in different ways to remove monotony from the building. They are aligned on either side of the structure to allow for the residents to receive adequate amounts of sunlight and ventilation, as well as provide views for all units.

Each cluster of 3 units shares a terrace. These terraces allow for branching by permitting integration and interconnections within the community of residents due to these semi-private gathering spaces.

The facade is completely constructed of ethically sourced timber with glass apertures which allow for more connection and branching out to the community. The warm natural appearance of the wood and plants growing from the balconies brings the building to life while creating a sustainable, environmentally friendly structure which enhances the neighborhood.

After Nature

Early Education and Community Center

Spring 2021 Critic: Cara Liberatore & Almin Prsic, RISD

Although wood is a renewable resource, deforestation is happening and this mass consumption of wood is due to development. Studying the after life scenarios of wood, it is clear that as architects we need to be more precious about our materials. What happens when something is out-dated? When something is ready to take its place? Is that existing structure demolished and are those materials taken straight to the landfill?

Designing for disassembly can be a new frontier in architecture to solve this issue and answer these questions.

This circular community intends to adopt the idea of designing for disassembly. Reusing and assembling materials so that they can be taken down and used again,

The demolition of the Apex building in Pawtucket, Rhode Island provides many materials for the projects. Metal structural members for the primary structure of the project, concrete aggregated and reused for slabs and foundations, asphalt aggregated and used for landscaping, and breeze blocks reused as paving. Additionally, all trees that are cleared on the site will be processed on site to be used in the structure.

The existing site has a view of the Seekonk River as well as the existing Taft Street Community Garden. This garden will be expanded onto the site as the primary community garden. This project is heavily based on connecting children and adults to nature and agriculture. Teaching the community how to grow and harvest their own food. The program consists of two parts: educational facilities and community spaces.

Pathways made out of reused breeze blocks from the Apex Building connect each of the spaces, and allow for a permeable surface for storm water runoff. Two platforms allow for lookout views to the river during the Winter months and in the Summer, classrooms will be moved onto those platforms to create a courtyard between the 4 classrooms. This allows for outdoor open learning, and a central space for events such as farmers markets, fairs or play space.

The structure has a natural appearance to display to the community the materials that will be used to construct the structures. Children can physically see real wood and understand how it connects with the metal structure since everything is exposed.

This hybrid construction between metal framing and wood infill, allows the structure to be easily disassembled, moved, and the materials can provide a material bank for future use. This move-ability allows for various types of programs between the classrooms. Students can understand how structures are constructed in this way by physically observing their movement.

The structure begins with steel columns and beams, steel trusses, then wooden infill, and lastly corrugated metal roofing. Large transparent windows and doors increase the opportunity for children to interact and experience nature.

Open classrooms allow children to explore freely and grow a better sense of independence and confidence. Montessori education respects the independence of children and creates an environment for them to explore and feel the world through their own senses. This free movement is also adopted in the community spaces. Allowing for interaction with nature. The community spaces are connected and framed around a courtyard space for open dining and recreational community activities.

Classroom orientation in the Summertime. A central courtyard/outdoor classroom space is created allowing children to be even more exposed to nature in the warmer months

Classroom orientation in the Winter. Classrooms are placed side by side to allow for quick and safe movement between classrooms during the colder months.

Tap into Me

Public Library for Downtown Providence, Rhode Island

Spring 2020 Critic: Gabriel Feld, RISD

For a city with such charm and sophistication, an area which is home to corporate buildings, churches, restaurants and night clubs, this library aims to provide a new quiet public space amongst the abundance of activity which surrounds it.

A space which allows the pedestrian to ‘tap’ into and out of the city around it. The architectural language, spatial sequences, program, and transformed site are all derived and influenced by the gesture ‘to tap’

The transformation of my gesture to a structure began with the pavilion. The folding undulated language of the structure was the first translation of the gesture into an architectural form. It made way for different ways that pedestrians could interact with the structure and experience the tapping motion through this structure’s articulate form.

The second transformation of the gesture was the stack, raising the question of vertical circulation and low bearing structure. It also developed the challenge of how to stack this undulating structure in a way which would allow for this vertical circulation and maintain a sturdy structure. Inserting planar floors allowed for this. These floors also emphasizing the directionality of the overall form and initiated experimentation with the folding structure.

The library is located in Downtown Providence on a large slightly sloping block, bounded by Empire, Weybosset, Chapel and Snow Street.

Aiming to connect the site with all four streets while drawing pedestrians into the library, I determined the different axis which would connect the cross walks of each street with my site. These axis would allow for the best flow from the crosswalks to sidewalks, onto the site and eventually into the library. In order to open my library and my site to the city I connected the park on the other side of Weybosset Street with my own ‘green spaces’ which the pedestrian can seamlessly flow onto. These green spaces were inspired by the gesture of tapping as the pedestrian can leisurely use these spaces, interchanging between built, transformed sections of the site such as the pathways and the natural surfaces.

The library is filled with voids and pockets of private covered spaces. As the user moves upwards in the library, the programmatic spaces become more private.

Beginning at the ground level, consisting of the cafe, community rooms and bathrooms, this entire level in open to the public even when the library is closed. Moving upwards, the first floor consists of open reading as well as the librarians office which is connected to it. The majority of this floor is double height; exposed to the entire library.

This open reading flows onto the 2nd floor and this floor end with closed reading. Less of this floor is exposed to the library. The third and final floor, houses special collections which is not exposed to any of the other floors, however, because of the double height spaces, users on the top floor can still feel a part of the entire library while remaining private.