Porchdog House Prototype Biloxi, Mississippi Marlon Blackwell
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Author(s): Marlon Blackwell Architects
Architect-in-charge: Marlon Blackwell, with project team David Tanner, Chris Baribeau AIA, Matt Griffith, Jonathan Boelkins, Meryati Blackwell
Structural Engineers: Black Rock Engineering and Tatum-Smith Engineers Inc.
Completion Year: 2009
Program: Residential (Affordable and Storm Resistant)
Sq. Area: 1,412 ft2 (131 m2)
De S cri P tion
The main purpose behind the design of the Porchdog prototype is in a proposal for affordable housing with an emphasis on hurricane preparation, developed for the Architecture for Humanity Model Home Program. As a result, a number of the house’s design features are aimed at mitigating flood water issues, including a stilted main living space and open stairs that allow for water flow while preventing structural damage. The construction material is steel with metal cladding, ensuring strength in high wind, with metal storm shutters that also operate in terms of natural lighting control on sunnier days. In terms of cultural preservation, Blackwell maintains the porch-living aesthetic often attributed to the usonian south, despite the main living area being above street level.
Hea D ing 2
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Biography
Marlon Blackwell, born in 1956 in Germany, is an American architect and professor in Faye�eville, Arkansas. He received his Bachelors in Arc�ecture degree from Auburn University and a Masters in Architecture from Syracuse University (Florence). He co-founded the University of Arkansas Mexico Summer Urban Studio and has taught in the program since 1996. He became architecture department chairman in fall 2009. His work focus on vernaculars, typologies as well as contradic�ons of place. He started his firm in 1990 and contributed unique design to both his clients and social context since then.
THE FAMILIAR STRANGENESS
–––– THE APPROACH OF TRANSGRESSING VERNACULAR
Marlon Blackwell is a unique architect who produces work roots on “things” that is evident in the everyday life of a place. Meanwhile, his work also shows a remote scope that brings a larger conversa�on about how architecture connects to the universal world. “Once familiar, but also remote” is the sentence he men�oned in his lecture and is also a precise descrip�on of his project Porchdog House Prototype. Porchdog House Prototype derived elements from local en��es, just as many other projects he previously produced. The inten�onal li�ing up of the building made it quite dis�nct from its context. In this sustainable housing project for residents who suffered from hurricane Katrina, preven�ng flooding is a major considera�on of the li�ing up strategy but it also created strangeness on site.
“This is new for me,” Blackwell said. “I think the idea of sharing ideas, sharing collective responses to environmental tragedies is a good one. We think we have a good design that can be deployed in many different regions and contexts.”
“It was a chance to test out a housing type and provide some alternatives to neo-traditional housing designs that are primarily nostalgic in conception,” Blackwell said. “This house is practical for the 21st century, instead of the 19th……Like open source software, the site is designed to foster collaboration and creative problem solving.”
Apparently, the strangeness of the building results from a universal idea: natural disaster preven�on. When the tradi�onal housing type blends with “things” that does not originally belong to the region, a new perspec�ve towards local and tradi�onal architecture is provided. The porch as a social device is emphasized when it extended to three stories’ height. The communica�on between private space and public space is reinforced via this large scale porch. Benefi�ng from the stacking of shotgun house type, both the form and site are intensified to break the mundane stereotype of the original context.
This feature could also be read in his Keenan Towerhouse as well, which is a residen�al project built in 2000. The tower is not a prevalent building type for residen�al housing in that area. However, based on client’s need and distant reference, Marlon Blackwell applied local material and building technology to a house type that is rare in Faye�eville.
“In the late 1990s, James Keenan of Fayetteville wanted a house that reminded him of the tree house that his grandfather built for him as a child. He hired Blackwell, who came up with the idea of building an 82foot tower that sits above the 50foot trees to provide panoramic views of Fayetteville and northwest Arkansas.”
In Marlon Blackwell’s Lecture, he said:” The typology of the building responds to particular situations……The form partially took reference from Italy Tower I documented when I was pursuing my master’s degree in Europe. The texture is naturally provided by local trees……it also resembles some local infrastructures that penetrate the treeline.”
“Recrea�ng strangeness” is the primary task for Marlon Blackwell’s work. To him, architecture should have profound meanings for people to rethink the rela�onship between the specific situa�on and the universal world. Naviga�ng through his early work, such as Bullfrog House and Dragonfly House, to his later work, for instances, L-Stack House and Porchdog House Prototype, the approach of mixing familiar “things” with an outside universal idea is constant throughout his projects even though material and technologies somewhat vary.
Mr. Blackwell doesn’t literally design doublewides; he is inspired by the shapes and the way these buildings are situated on the land.
The new regionalism isn’t a return to an area’s most familiar architecture: It doesn’t mean building Colonials in Connecticut or ranch houses in California. These houses are decidedly modern, incorporating open floor plans, integrated exterior, and interior spaces and sliding glass walls. As a result, they can feel traditional and contemporary at the same time, fitting in with the local natural landscape yet often standing out dramatically from their neighbors.
As an architect who lives and prac�ces in northwest Arkansas, Marlon presented the site as ”a place considered to be in the middle of nowhere, yet ironically, close to everywhere. …… This land of disparate condi�ons is not just a se�ng for my work—it is part of the work. In these condi�ons, I do not see a nega�ve, but instead, a source of deep possibili�es.” The significance of his architecture is to widen the ordinary scope that restrained people’s sight from viewing vernacular buildings. Through “recrea�ng strangeness”, architecture becomes a social tool that not only enlightens people on further thinking of their daily life but also pushes the vernacular tradi�onal architecture to absorb contemporary trend for further evolving. Transforming architecture from the past into the present and make it work during prac�ce is the ul�mate merit of being an architect.
REFERENCES
Book:
Graham Founda�on for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, 2005. “An architecture of the Ozarks the works of Marlon Blackwell”.
Ar�cles:
Co�ngham, Jan. 2010. “State Trends in Home Design: ‘Smart,’ Efficient.” Arkansas Business 27 (7)
Friedman, Mark. 2011. “Architect Based in Faye�eville Wins Acclaim.” Arkansas Business 28 (6)
“ARCHITECTURE PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS DEVELOPS NEW MODEL FOR HURRICANE-PROOF COASTAL HOUSING.” 2007.US Fed News Service, Including US State News, Jul 11
“ARCHITECTURE PROFESSOR’S PROJECTS FEATURED IN CURRENT ISSUE OF ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.” 2008.US Fed News Service, Including US State News, Oct 13.
Keates, Nancy. 2011. “FRIDAY JOURNAL --- Top Architects Go Local.” Wall Street Journal, Dec 30.
Boddy, Trevor. 2011. “GIVING UP THE GHOST.” The Canadian Architect 56 (8): 34-38.
Internet Source:
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