Recombinant Configuration

Honor Award; SoA Archive Project; 2020 Spring; Architectural Design Studio 4; Second Year; Professor: Zbigniew Oksiuta; Teamed with Emmy Chen;

Concept: Lin; Renders: Lin; Drawings: 30% Chen; All works presented are individual works;

This is a 2 person group project: a housing + library project for 50~60 units of residents located in Troy. This project discusses the utilization and the social meaning of public space in a residential houses. In this project, architectural movements are considered as the action of the city, which could alter the living habbit of the people livinng nearby positively. The shape is only given by the existing environment rather than a noval shape. Through this recombinant configuration, the city would be held up more tightly, and functioning better. The Recombinant Configuration acts as a verb for the city, and for the people.

The Video:

Urban Expansion of Troy

In the recent 35 years, Troy has been through rapid economic revitalization and urban expasion, Building density and landuse are at the apex.

Urban Fabric Studies

The urban structure of this area shows a distinct grid planning pattern, which is unbalanced in the contemporary use of extra traffic and housing. At the mean time, the opaqueness of building set up a "wall" for Troy, hindering people's eyesights.

Urban Integration Studies

In light of "Space Syntax", this map visualizes the integration level of downtown Troy. The site is at a special moment that connects several essential elements of Troy: main road Broadway, Monument Square, unused City Park, Farmer’s Market, and the Hudson River. This project aims to use the architectural morphogenetic form as an urban rheostat that links this these moments as urban resistances and make the circuit of Troy more unobstructed, in other words, to be the recombinant configuration of the city

Input the basic bars shape that follows the original arrangement of the city

From the bottom to the top, gradually rotating the basic massing toward the angle that parallel to Hudson River.

Enlarge the base of the building to meet the program volume requirements.

Boolean the massing along the angle of the main road, Broadway. Relinking the Monument Square and the Hudson River.

This void prolongs the Farmer's Market next to the building, and punches the path from river street to the city park along the riverside, adding more economic value for the market and promoting the use of the city park.

Adding the other footing for the building that balance the weight, and touching the River with the program of community library.

River Street Views

From the both sides of the River Street, the smooth "twist" of the project transmit the signal of the River to the people walking in the city, attracting them to the turning point of city, having the special feeling in an urban context.

The building creates a gap of the city that links the city to the hudson river, and a frame for visitors on the monument square as well as people on the hudson river, nevertheless, it presents as a door, or an opening for Troy, to accept new era while preserving its history treasures.