The Little City That Could KAE DONAHUE TIM SUNSET ETHAN CASSELBERRY EMMA HUNDSDORFER
THE LIVE-WORK ECOSYSTEM Tom Smith, Jian Yun, Alejandro Martinez UCD Fall 2020, Instructor: Kae Donahue
This particular plot is situated between the borders of Globeville, RiNo and Elyria Swansea, and is presently being pulled in all three directions but remains isolated by this myriad of forces. These forces created a battle between landscape and infrastructure, resulting in overarching themes of urban decay, tension, and chaos, represented in the collage, which we look to embrace in our project. The goal of our proposed structure is to create an architecture that people want to interact with to break the tension, play with the chaos, and combat urban decay.
SITE ANALYSIS 02
The environmental activist seeks to create change throught the observed chaos of their urban environment. They seek repose from an abrasive, up-hill field of work, yet need constancy in reminders that their duty is to help.Their reach extends beyond the bounds of their office and chair, grasping to create change for more than the faces walking by.
MAKER DIAGRAM
LIVE/WORK DIAGRAM
The eco-fabrication furniture maker creates gathering spaces and stopping points through the often unseen overlap of conventional furniture standards and unconventional materiality that is only limited by what can be found and recycled. The result is a unique addition to the local built environment at a human scale, prompting community growth through the utilization of materials common to each surrounding neighborhood.
The urban farmer looks to re-define urban space. Their use of greenery juxtaposed with blank concrete surfaces tells a story of urban beautification and spacial re-use. Urban farming seeks to utilize the forgotten and makes the best of sub-optimal space, exploring the divide between industrial and natural. When was the last time you walked by a bright green bush and didn’t touch the leaves?
MAKERS 03
Makers chosen in relation to one another for unique collaboration and inspiration, resulting in a further accesibility to the resources provided by each maker. Informal conversations on couches, in the halls, and at the dinner tabl often yield the best results.
MAKERS 04
This group of drawings explores the movement of protagonists about architectural “stage sets.” It’s purpose was to diagram and map the close and interconnected relationships between an architectural space and its use- furthermore defined by “set and script,” “type and program,” “object and event.” This fundamental analysis of actual interaction with space set to further define houw architecture actually directs movement about it, and how space, movement, and events relate to one-another, yet never actually connect. Tschumi created these drawings as a manifesto to his own ideologies, hoping to define the theory that architecture is changed by the events that take place in and around it, a more “dynamic definition of architecture.” Tschumi’s drawings explore fundamental themes of architecture, themes we hope to elaborate on. In the particular way that we took to designing the structure, we looked to create space that has a direct relationship to its user - in that both scripted and unscripted space exist. The juxtaposition of space and its use sets a conceptual basis for the modules and pathways of both the inhabitants of the live-work space, and pedestrians just playing within the structure. This element of play and of uncertaint creates latent space for people to exist within, and in this attempts to create an animated city playscape.
The Plug in City was a 1960’s exploration of the role of infrastructure within the city. It involved modulars of living and essential units that would literally “plug in” to the infrastructural machine, creating a neverending cityscape to house humanity. It took fundamental ideas of flexibility and change to their fullest extent, creating a conceptual “framework” for growth and obselecense to occur. Their goal was to create a city that can move and bend with changing needs, and foster a growing society. The project took place due to an emerging architect’s distaste for prefabricated building components, and the notion that pre-fabricating an entire city would liberate society to live in a better way. The ideas of community living and the infrastructural scale of pre-fabrication struck our group as key takeaways from this precedent. Our project looks to bridge a gap between cityscale prefabrication and housing-scale prefabrication to allow for opportunity within a live-work housing clump. In providing a similar structural frame to the plug-in city, our structure provides ability to change and create community via interactions between modules.
Casa Sperimentale explores suspension of living cubes to house a changable structure. Its goal was to be pre-fabricated and never finished, allowing for interactions to happen long after it was initially constructed. Casa Sperimentale takes structural framework to a housing level, providing level plates for construction that can be added or subtracted from, and its formal goemetries echo that same notion. The architect intended for the structure to evolve and grow into an “endless treehouse,” situating the structure within a grove of pine trees. He was keen on rejecting ideals of tradidtional housing, and wanted to create complex architectural form through use of two simple geometries. Since it’s construction, the housing unit has been abandoned, now hosting hundreds of graffitti tags and a plethora of litter. It’s abandon has given the structure much more acclaim than when it was new, as its brutalist ruin becomes a stunning example of decaying concrete set within a growing forest. Casa Sperimentale is an interesting precedent in that it wasn’t appreciated until its eventual decay. This project took an interesting approach to housing design, and its pitfall was inevitably that it was never properly utilized. It’s formal cohabitation of geometries and complexity give it prowess in designing interesting space, and it’s placement amongst the natural environment spark dialogue of man’s place within nature. We took particular interest in the simple geometric clashes exhibited in this project, and looked to extend similar notions of fun and play to our own structure.
PLUG-IN DIAGRAM
CASA SPERIMENTALE DIAGRAM
MANHATTAN TRANSCRIPTS DIAGRAM
PRECEDENT 05
CONCEPT AND APPROACH 06
CONCEPT AND APPROACH 07
Occurring in an overlap of borders enabling decay of the urban ecosystem, our project investigates porosity within built form as a lens to create a structure latent with the possibility of animation, within a series of improvisational spaces that prioritize community empowerment and access to environmental resources.
CONCEPT AND APPROACH 08
CONCEPT AND APPROACH 09
CONCEPT AND APPROACH 10
This model explores animation and play within a
set of defined rules. Defining points of connection and bounds of play it becomes an excercise in variation and glee within a set of constraints.
CONCEPT MODEL 11
ground floor plan
second floor plan
third floor plan
fourth floor plan
The structure follows basic guidelines for formal shape, allowing cores and modules to relate to folleys and platforms through basic geometries, and pathways extending tendrils out from their relative starts. By continuing this architectural language, the structure becomes increasingly visually accesible and understandable to those using it, and allows for unscripted interactions to occur.
FLOOR PLANS 12
SECTIONS 13
By elevating the structure, the ground plane becomes free for opportunity in misuse. The structure becomes an extension of the ground plane, inviting and begging for participation by the public. This creates a unique condition that allows the public to become the means of animating the structure.
GROUND PLANE 14
2’0”
4’6”
3’0” 4’6”
6’6”
Planter/ Sea�ng Detail
1”
2’0”
2’6”
1’0” 5”
1’0”
DETAILS 15
Pendant Light Detail
SUGGESTED LIVE SPACE AND ACTIVIST FLOORPLANS 16
BALCONY
UP
ECO FABRICATOR BEDROOM
URBAN FARMER BEDROOM
SHOWER
SHOWER
SHOWER
SHOWER
BENCH
BENCH
BENCH
BENCH
BALCONY
ECO FABRICATOR BEDROOM
SINKS
URBAN FARMER BEDROOM
ACTIVIST BEDROOM UP
LIVING ROOM
ECO FABRICATOR BEDROOM
URBAN FARMER BEDROOM KITCHENETTE
BALCONY
ISLAND/STORAGE
ACTIVIST BEDROOM
ACTIVIST BEDROOM
ACTIVIST BEDROOM LOFT
UP
DESK/ADMINISTRATION
FORMAL CONFERENCE
CONVERSATION PIT
ACTIVIST BEDROOM LOFT
CREATION SPACE
ACTIVIST BEDROOM LOFT
SUGGESTED LIVE SPACE AND ACTIVIST FLOORPLANS 17
SUGGESTED ECO FACBRICATOR FLOORPLANS 18
DRAFTING/ENTRY
ASSEMBLING SPACE
WOOD CUT 1
UP
WOOD CUT 2
WOOD STORAGE
UP
WOOD CUT 3
DRAFTING
WOOD PREP
DRAFTING
METALS PREP SPACE
UP WELDING METALS CUTTING SPACE
ASSEMBLING SPACE
UP
BATHROOM METALS STORAGE
URBAN FARMER STORAGE
SEASONAL GARDEN
SEASONAL GARDEN
SUGGESTED ECO FACBRICATOR FLOORPLANS 19
SUGGESTED URBAN FARMER FLOORPLANS 20
SHOWER BENCH
PERENNIAL GARDEN
MATERIAL STORAGE RESTROOM/ EMERGENCY SHOWER
PLANNING AND DESKWORK
UP
VEGETABLE GARDEN
HYDROPONIC STORAGE
OUTDOOR VEGETABLE PLANTERS
PERENNIAL GARDEN
UP FLOWERS
VEGETABLE GARDEN
ORDER FILLING STATIONS
UP
MUSHROOM GARDEN
HERB GARDENS
OUTDOOR HERB GARDEN
UP
SEASONAL GARDEN
SEASONAL GARDEN
SEASONAL GARDEN
TOOL STORAGE
CABBAGE GARDEN
SUGGESTED URBAN FARMER FLOORPLANS 21
COLLABORATION CORE 22