Squatter Dormitory by tagore hernandez

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C.1 Architectural Student Dorm Charles Garcia, Kyle Sturgeon - 12 classes

orientation Week 1

1 out of 5 people on the planet inhabit dwellings without ownership or legal tenure, including the amenities and rights associated with said conditions. This fact is personally overwhelming. The notion of this precarious living condition terriﬁes me. On the other hand, this population also has the most direct and personalized impact on the development of their so-called unplanned communities and the spaces they inhabit—this excites me! It’s possible that these environments promote creative communities that grow directly out of an immediate and ever shifting culture. This might be a more appropriate living arrangement considering how our ever accelerating and shifting future, both ‘abroad’ and in the United States, is coming at us with great uncertainty.

my problem...

with conventional pedagogy in design education is that it has led us away from the art of making. Drawing and modeling, physical or otherwise, has steered us away from the inherit truth of space, light, form and use, particularly under the false pretense of “concept” driven design without criteria. The word ‘criteria’ alone seems to inspire blank stares amid most conversations. As students, we scarcely perceive the impact of the objects we create. I believed that the speciﬁc program called upon us for this project was an opportunity to explore not simply new forms for dormitory life, but, a new educational model for cultivating learning experiences for design students altogether. For me, the building was secondary.

rendered study of the evolution of an unplanned development typical in Turkey

process

Having built over a dozen sketchbooks combining collage and hand drawings, I felt comfortable with “thinking with my body” and was ready to try new modes of communication. I decided to focus on digitally produced hieroglyphics as a way of developing new translation skills. I wanted to learn how to tell a story without sketches or words. This was my personal challenge. To start, I developed several power-point presentations and mini-publications on the conditions of squatter lifestyles throughout South America, Eastern Africa, Eastern Europe, and tropic Asia as a means of front loading several weeks of research. My professor was particularly interested in pushing the agenda of “digital expansion” which became a parallel point of departure.

how crazy would it be if students learned to design and build by squatting?

the living kit Week 2

Taking cues from squatter innovation, Montessori’s sensorial education, and applied learning found in programs like Rural Studio, and Taliesin, I developed the idea of a squatter campus. To facilitate this ideas I needed a system. In essence, each student is given a single living/ learning capsule that they build into, unto, and over as years progress. It’s a 9’3 cubical that is comprised of several interchangeable components, a ﬂat base panel, and what I dubbed the ‘living wall.’ The wall contains domestic storage, a murphy bed, a small fridge, and state of the art touch-sensitive-screens and digital apparatus for work and entertainment. Small? Perhaps, but the rendering below demonstrates how various functions can take place at this scale. The module’s assembly uses existing ﬂat-pack and tent frame technologies to come together. The modular panels (which can be changed at any time) align with one another and are linked with spring operated rods like those found in

contemporary tents. Students assemble the kit on their first day. The first year challenges them to reconfigure it according to shifting context (like a neighbor adding a window aligned to theirs). Panels vary in color, surface, and operations. Some can be writing walls. The curriculum challenges the students to add to their module thereby applying real life criteria. Facade studies compliment early studios, the “cardboard chair” actually becomes a fixture that they use and test over time. Structures courses are augmented with structural assemblies and prototypes as students build vertically. All the while, students learn to think with their bodies as our predecessors did. Over time, students develop appreciation for material, touch, smell, weight, assembly, disassembly, recycling, and how to be resourceful in a world with steadily declining resources. In the end, students attain a profound understanding of context, space, light, form, and the reality of architecture.

year 1, assembly & personalization

let’s party!

let’s not :(

year 2, tectonic exploration

year 3, urbanism

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dia

BAC/ Dormitory urban connection

outdoor cafe, “Jewel Box” , & bicylces

art, circulation, & the resource pile

day one: setting up of the pods

the approach from Boylston

Boylston St.

BAC 20’

Alley 444

study + lounge

1st flr bathrooms 2nd flr kitchen

1st flr studios office mezzanine

140 sf 2600 ft 3

pods

continuous circulation

vertical circulation

use

pods

w/c

lecture space study lounge

work / study play

ofﬁce

cooking

cleaning

theater seating

living

accessible green roof

‘material pile’ ‘jewel box’ shop

program

88 (max) private living pods

this feature in the squatter dorm. Rather than using Corbu’s domino plan, I used the parking garage typology to link all material levels together so as to create one contiguous depot street from freshmen to seniors (or graduates). The resultw/cis a barbel-like diagram that loads the ends with weighty programmatic funcramp/ tions such as plumbing walls andtheater mechanical with a stretched, lightweight, post-tensioned outdor concrete cafe slab connecting the two ends. Because the building is tightly nestled between jewel two buildings on a small urban lotboxwith little access to light, the center is carved out allowAlley ICA ing natural light to ﬁlter to the bottom of the building. Main circulation routes inscribe the void. The two ends are supported by massive concrete spikes that also serve to house oversized cargo elevators for students who will be material depot wheeling materials+on large Home Depot like exhibition space rolling bins. The ends are where students live communally; showering, cleaning, meeting in ofﬁces or in lounge spaces. The center is dedicated to squatter living where all the modules reside. open to below

open to above

Surely, the most hair brained scheme I developed was this idea that the floor plates operated as computer boards that students modules plugged into. Imagine for a moment a touch sensitive, 10’x10’ grided floor plate with a shopuniversal jack in each square. The floor plate literally senses where people are and generates a map that students can visually access from any module. If you want to see where the party is you simply look it up. Each module’s ‘jack’ contains CAT5, telephone lines, fiber optics, etc. and perpetually streams all work that students do. Open source, in real time, all the time. Anyway, I was interested in removing the academic hierarchy that a pancake assembly would invariably engender—freshmen on the bottom and seniors at the top. Education is a continuous journey and I wanted to express this. Furthermore, my research taught me that the only thing that links squatter settlements is the path. In so many unplanned settlements, the only perceivable organizing principle is the path that links all homes to one another, so I felt it was important to develop

1st flr bathrooms 2nd flr kitchen

2-5

(complete with life support systems) a 10’x10’ mesh grid inﬁlled with polycarbonate wafers replacing ﬁber optics by operating as ‘glass plates’ transmitting light, information, temperature while connecting encapsulated mechanical functions

kitchen + bath

service block

rooftop access

bathing cooking bathing

studio offices r/a

oking

existing conditions (recycled hardware)

r/a

cook tinkle

390 SF

interface (overlapping physical conditions, optics, light,

studio offices

fire station

office block

software (inﬁll, mutable units, ﬂuxuating program)

typical service block

pod

snack shower

circulation tower

sprinkler system

Alley 444

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Hereford

BAC

light

fibe r op tics

circulation

Newbury

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introducing a path to the pancake Week 3

Favelas/Gekecendu overlay

territorial development

What fascinates me about Favelas, Gekecendu, and so many establishments throughout the world, is that they all developed organically. How does one foster this growth for student housing without the associated chaos of real-world squatter scenarios? My solution was to develop a 10’x10’ grid that the 9’x9’ modules plugged into. Three simple rules were established to address ﬁre and egress my safety concerns. I tested these rules by deour veloping a script that ran possible solutions, shared of which there are millions. Each year would open never be like the previous. Context would always be in ﬂux, building assignments would never be predictable, and student territorial development issues would always be present (which is precisely the point!) Squatter settlements have demonstrated extremely high levels of social networking not found in developed cities because of the issues that people have learned to deal with. Cultural anthropologists have attributed these successes to the development of negotiation skills and social empathy and greater social acumen. This program is not for the light-hearted, but programs like Rural Studio have demonstrated that there are many people interested in developing and learning in these unconventional academic settings.

1) 2 Life Walls must touch 2) 48” passageways must lead to any entrance 3) should occupancy drop, disregard rule #1

1 2 3 4 5

student life Week 4

Like most art students who spend days unpacking an installation, each year, students disassemble their construction, which in itself is a lesson of intelligent assembly. Your living arrangement on campus is based on both lottery and choice the following year. Registration feels and looks like buying a ticket online for a airline flight. An online script enforces the rules previously mentioned and you ‘pick a seat’ first come first served. A bit like Ikea Online, a student can toggle through options of color and location. The module is smaller than the lot to allow students to build outside of their walls within their allocated parcel. Students are also able to combine lots and work on larger scale projects. The system allows people to graft onto one another or work strictly in an exclusive manner depending on their preference. Every level has unique ‘street’ arrangements based on the input that students gave during online registration. Below, a few diagrams and renderings illustrate just five examples of how the script plays out according the rules of settlement and how diverse each one is despite the subtle difference.

street view

Week 7

industry at large

outdoor cafe, “Jewel Box” , & bicylces

BAC

junk yard

art, circulation, & the resource pile

day one: setting up of the pods

Newbury

BAC

Hereford

‘jewel box’ installation space

This educational system relies on the symbiosis enacted by industrial involvement. How the hell else are students going to get all these materials? The ground level dedicates seven thousand square feet to a ‘junk yard’ and invites many of the hundreds of local industries to ‘free-cyle’ its cut-offs or overstock with the BAC. It’s a win win win situation. Local companies like 3M are spared the costly fees of waste (akin to emergent practices within restaurant composting& practices), and stu-pile art, circulation, the resource dents get new raw materials such as plastics, sheet goods, paper, and metals. Meanwhile, two critical occurrences take place; students learn to work hands-on with contemporary materials while companies create future clients sans advertising. This system connects and accelerates the link between people, material, industry, and product—a link that is usually reserved for registered architects that need several years to develop.

Alley 444

day one: setting up of the pod

Boylston St.

the approach from Boylston

1st flr bathrooms 2nd flr kitchen

‘top’ yard

140 2600

pods

lecture 3

BAC

pods 1st flr bathrooms 2nd flr kitchen

1st flr studios office mezzanine

1st flr bathrooms 2nd flr kitchen

w/c

pods

offices

lecture space

140 sf 2600 ft 3

housing

pods

lounge

study lounge kitchens w/c

junk yard front alley

lecture space alley 441 shop

study lounge

Boylston

theater seating

the perceived front letting the community at large to think what it wants. Because the site is so constrained, and the project as heavy with program as it is, I chose to lift the building 25’ above the ground plane and shroud it in glass to allow ample light provoking the sense of ‘airiness.’ This allows the existing alley, currently not so hospitable, to swell about the base and feel more lively and urban. The primary idea here is to deemphasize the macabre sensation associated with small alleys such as this.

context Week 9

bathing cooking

cook tinkle lunch poop

lessons learned

I learned that it is much more important to develop strong criteria through research and diagrammatic investigation than it is to develop formal strategies. Honestly, this is the ugliest building I have developed thus far but it has the greatest meaning and purpose for me because I understand what drives each (if few) design strategies. I learned that materiality is only as good as the notions that inform it.

studio offices

bathing

390 SF

r/a r/a 9 feet typ.

traffic / loading zone

cooking

snack shower

office block

studio offices

fire station

circulation tower

service block

typical service block

This project is slated to replace the old ICA Museum. I was interested in maintaining the facade which is ultimately the only piece of ‘fabric’ that the community cares about. The proposed building is set back from the existing (now ﬂoating) facade to create yet another alley so as to balance the front and rear. In a way, the remaining facade acts like a curtain and allows the proposed building to reorient it’s “front” towards the rear alley abutting the BAC. This is the real “front,” for the BAC students anyway, and the back is

pub 26 feet

bikes

people + cars

material depot: refuse from local industries to fuel pod development

view from typical module

view from alley at bike depot

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view from cargo elevator view from BAC proper

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view from upper floor

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CAB

444 yellA

subgrade studio

ground

levels 2-3

Alley 444 Entrance Alley 444 Alley Entrance 444 Entrance Alley 444 Entrance lounge shop

shop

lounge

1st flr bathrooms 2nd flr kitchen

lounge

1st flr bathrooms 1st flr bathrooms 2nd flr kitchen2nd flr kitchen

1st flr bathrooms 2nd flr kitchen

typical levels 1st flr bathrooms 2nd flr kitchen

1st flr bathrooms 1st flr bathrooms 1st flr studios 1st flr bathrooms 1st flr studios 1st flr studios 2nd flr kitchen2nd flr kitchen 2nd flr offices 2nd flr kitchen 2nd flr offices 2nd flr offices

shop

pods

140 sf 2600 ft 3 pods

exhibition space

w/c

studios

w/c

ramp/ theater outdor cafe

shop

outdor bistro cafe

bistro lounge

w/c

ramp/ theater outdor cafe lounge

jewel box

shop

Alley ICA

jewel box Alley ICA

pods

140 sf 2600 ft 3

pods

140 sf 2600 ft 3

pods

140 sf 2600 ft 3

pods

140 sf 2600 ft 3

open to below

studios

open to below

diner

exhibition space

open to below

studios

open to below

studios diner

open to above

diner

open to above

diner

exhibition exhibition space space

140 sf 2600 ft 3

1st flr studios 2nd flr offices

ramp/ theater bistro lounge jewel box

w/c

ramp/ theater

lounge

mixing chamber

mixing chamber mixing chamber

jewel box

mixing chamber

Alley ICA

Boylston Street. Boylston Entrance Boylston Street. Entrance Street. Boylston Entrance Street. Entrance

study + lounge

88 (max) private living pods

kitchen + bath

rooftop access

final Week11

lsto

ramp by day / theater by night

444

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quarters

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up to living