tulane school of architecture
Exhibition of Thesis Projects 2014-2015
a catalog of thesis projects created by the tulane school of architecture master of architecture candidates for 2015
tulane school of architecture
page 02
thesis class of 2014—2015
An Architectural Thesis Each of the Thesis Projects presented in this exhibition was developed in two consecutive courses over the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015. In a three credit fall course, students researched an architectural topic and developed a thesis able to be explored through design. Students then entered the spring semester design studio course with a provisional thesis explored and elaborated through the design of a specific program and site. In both semesters, each student was guided by one of the following faculty members. Scott Bernhard, AIA
Jean and Saul A. Mintz Associate Professor Thesis Coordinator
Ammar Eloueini, AIA
Professor of Architecture
Graham Owen, RA, OAA, NCARB
Associate Professor of Architecture
Cordula Roser-Gray, AIA
Professor of Practice
In this Booklet pages 04-05 An alphabetical list of the 2015 Thesis Students with each exhibit location, and a project description page number. pages 06-07 A plan of the Thesis Exhibition in Richardson Memorial Hall with each of the exhibition panel locations indicated. pages 08-54 An Illustrated, one-page description of each students thesis and thesis project.
page 03
tulane school of architecture
Thesis Project Summaries Each of the thesis students below has created a one-page illustrated summary of their Thesis project presented on the indicated pages of this booklet: student
page
location
thesis professor
Allen, Katherine
page 08
panel 42
Owen
Baudoin, Vincent
page 09
panel L-1
Owen
Bethany, Eric
page 10
panel 18
Roser-Gray
Blankenbaker, Erik
page 11
panel 28
Bernhard
Bocash, Hillary
page 12
panel 09
Roser-Gray
Boynton, Rachel
page 13
panel 15
Bernhard
Brown, Elliot
page 14
panel 11
Bernhard
Bruentrup, Kayleigh
page 15
panel 39
Owen
Callander, Kathryn
page 16
panel 04
Roser-Gray
Cohen, Victoria
page 17
panel 13
Bernhard
Conlay, Noah
page 18
panel 24
Owen
Dunn, Christopher
page 19
panel 23
Owen
Edmisten, Emily
page 20
panel 35
Eloueini
Epler, Carly
page 21
panel 38
Owen
Evans, Lauren
page 22
panel 08
Roser-Gray
Frankel, Austin
page 23
panel 41
Owen
Gamberg, Jake
page 24
panel 26
Eloueini
Henseler, Peter
page 25
panel L-4
Owen
Hockney, Tanya
page 26
panel 30
Eloueini
Howard, Kelsey
page 27
panel 17
Bernhard
Jacobs, India
page 28
panel 27
Eloueini
Jacobs, Meredith
page 29
panel 16
Bernhard
Keady-Molanphy, Aubrey page 30
panel 33
Eloueini
page 31
panel 37
Eloueini
Kilpatrick, Ryan
page 04
thesis class of 2014—2015
Thesis Panel Locations Each student has presented their exhibition of design work on a 6‘ tall by 8’ wide panel located as indicated below (“L” indicates a Lobby exhibit): student
page
location
thesis professor
Kingston, Emily
page 32
panel 06
Roser-Gray
Kozatch, Miles
page 33
panel 03
Roser-Gray
Little, Heather
page 34
panel L-2
Owen
Loughlin, Colleen
page 35
panel 01
Roser-Gray
Mears, Stephanie
page 36
panel L-6
Owen
Miller, Sumner
page 37
panel 14
Bernhard
Moraczewski, Tatyana
page 38
panel 31
Eloueini
Morin, Paul
page 39
panel 12
Bernhard
Omuro, Daniel
page 40
panel 05
Roser-Gray
Parker, Caitlin
page 41
panel 10
Bernhard
Perez, Robert
page 42
panel 19
Roser-Gray
Pineda, Zarith
page 43
panel 22
Owen
Pontiff, Olivia
page 44
panel 36
Eloueini
Rosenfield, Ian
page 45
panel 20
Roser-Gray
Shaikh, Sanaa
page 46
panel 21
Owen
Sharp, Julia
page 47
panel 29
Bernhard
Snedeker, Andrew
page 48
panel 40
Owen
Tischler, Heather
page 49
panel 07
Roser-Gray
Weimer, Charles
page 50
panel 25
Eloueini
White, Alfia
page 51
panel 02
Roser-Gray
Williams, Megan
page 52
panel L-5
Eloueini
Williams, Charles
page 53
panel 32
Eloueini
Youngblood, Emily
page 54
panel 34
Eloueini
page 05
tulane school of architecture
Thesis Exhibit Plan
second floor of richardson memorial hall
01 14 13
10 09 12 15
11 16
08 17
07 18
02 04 19
03 20
room 201—thomson hall
28 27 26 31 29 30
06 05
25 32
24 35 33 34
23 36
22 39
21 40 41
37 38 42
page 06
thesis class of 2014—2015
room 204
L3
room 206
L4 L5
L2 favrot lobby
L6
L1
terrace
page 07
tulane school of architecture
Places of Memory experience MManifest anifest in pin ost -War sarajevo Experience Post-War Sarajevo
Katherine Allen
location
xx 42
Architecture as Reconciliation: Architecture’s relationship to war and conflict is perceived as tangential, a collateral victim of human discord. And yet the active and systematic erasure of an urban landscape is the strategic levelling of identity - intentionally done. Rebuilding after war, thus, is a complex task; one must seek to both address the traumatic past while also moving beyond it. But when the destroyer is one with the destroyed, this becomes nearly unworkably fraught. Architectures of memory are able to remain both neutral and specific pieces in harnessing the support of a still-fractured community to move past war. Placing Memory in the Living City: Interventions are focused within the heart of Sarajevo, tightly held to the setanje (a traditional path through centre of the city) to ensure both popular meaning and visibility/access. The sites themselves are places of significance in the past conflict and are representative of various traumatic typologies. Tied together by an abstracted gravestone grid motif, each intervention responds specifically to the experience of its site, allowing users to recall the past in constructed space and place.
page page08 08
thesis class of 2014—2015
An Infrastructure for Intensity Self-Build, Affordability, and Collective Housing in an Urban Context
location
L-xx L-1
Vincent Baudoin
Colonias and a tradition of self-building: Colonias are neighborhoods that developed with few or no building codes or planning restrictions. In Texas, colonias appear mostly in rural areas near border cities, where they developed thanks to a regulatory vacuum that existed prior to 1995. Built without proper infrastructure, colonias are problematic: due to their low density, it is expensive to retrofit them with water, sewer, and paved roads. But they have also allowed tens of thousands of families to achieve home ownership. This thesis explores the implications of building regulation and infrastructure on the creation of decent housing with limited means. Building an infrastructure for intensity: Architect Renzo Piano proposes that cities be considered in terms of intensity rather than density. This thesis focuses on a former rail yard in Houston’s Near Northside, a place where the right infrastructure could support an intensity of self-building and urban regeneration. The proposal is both a physical and conceptual framework for the self-building of an alternative colonia. It suggests a balance between public and private investment and individual and collective effort, creating a model that could promote social justice, support long-term development, and create lasting economic value.
page 09
tulane school of architecture
Catalyzing Aquatic Urbanism A Floating Intervention in the Makoko Waterfront Community, Lagos, Nigeria
Eric Bethany
location
18 xx
Leveraging the intuitive strengths of informal urbanism: Urbanizing populations have depleted housing resources in many developing cities worldwide, often resulting in the development of informal settlements, or slums. Electricity, potable water, and waste management infrastructure are virtually nonexistent in these areas, and those located near rivers or coastlines must also contend with frequent flooding. Despite these challenges, informal settlements are able to develop challenging topography, distribute resources efficiently, and act self-sufficiently. The intuitive strategies of informal urbanism point towards a more resilient and just model for urban inhabitation. Facilitating urban integration to catalyze responsible regeneration: The estimated 100,000 residents of the Makoko Waterfront Community, one of several waterfront slums in Lagos, Nigeria, live in elevated shelters above the surface of Lagos Lagoon. The geography and density of the settlement make access to urban resources difficult, despite the settlement’s location near the city center. This project proposes the implementation of an intervention anchored to the bridge’s structural piers to be placed at the edge of each waterfront settlement, utilizing the bridge as an armature for the integration of these disconnected aquatic communities into greater Lagos.
page 10
thesis class of 2014—2015
Introspective Development The Role of Architecture in Developing Leaders of Character Prepared Morally, Mentally, and Physically to Face the Challenges of Tomorrow.
Erik Blankenbaker
location
xx 28
Spatial Introspection as Cultivation of Self In the contemporary college setting, students may find themselves prone to distraction and focused on priorities they did not initially intend to seek. Just as monasteries of the past served as bastions of self-reflection through solitude, so too can architectural design today improve the quality of self and selfdiscovery through the creation of introspective spaces and communities. The cultivation of oneself, just like the cultivation of a garden or plan, begins with examination. Self-Reflection in the Culture of Today: Long ago, college fraternities were created with the singular goal in mind of creating a community of individuals focused on reaching their highest potential through discourse, studies, and the sharing of knowledge. Today, fraternities engage in notoriously deviant behavior. This project explores the ability of architecture to help guide the original tenants of a fraternity lifestyle back into the foreground, using the Sigma Phi Epsilon house at Tulane University as the current model of a space which functions without regard for introspection. By creating a series of spaces, cultivation of self can occur throughout the college experience in aspects other than the purely academic.
INTROSPECTIVE Monks’ Quarters DEVELOPMENT
Public Areas
This monastery possesses a somewhat
Erik Blankenbakerunique layout for each monks’ quarters. 1 December 2014While most monasteries contain extremely
small rooms for their inhabitants, preaching austerity, the Florentine Charterhouse takes
a different approach. Professor Bernhard
Diagram by author
Seen at left in green is the garth and cloister space of the Monastery. This serves as the “public” space which is only for the introspective community of monks. This is in direct contrast to the other primary “public” space which, when originally designed, was opened to the public. The church and chapel are now closed off to almost all visitors due to the order of monks currently utilizing the monastery, but the divide remains, manifesting itself as seen at left by the single line separating the society of monks from the more open church which can be used by the public. Diagram by author
Primary Circulation
Green Space The open space is important not just for the typical use of planting, but for the infiltration of light, openness to air, and density of program mass within the building. This is most apparent, and most important, when comparing the public to the private space. The private space contains only several small courtyards, paying very careful attention to the infiltration of light which allows for more dramatic and thoughtful atmosphere. In contrast, the private space becomes more open, allowing the monks what essentially becomes a small neighborhood of individual residences around a central park, in contemporary
There are several avenues and methods of circulating throughout the building, but as seen at left, they are based on central symmetry, despite each possessing a different primary axis. This is an important distinction because it maintains the orignal idea of public and private space: if the axis carried all the way throughout the building it would suggest movement completely through the building as well. The layout permits movement from the chapel into the cloister for the monks who live there, but does not suggest it for visitors who are meant to remain in the public area. Diagram by author
Monks’ Quarters
This monastery possesses a somewhat unique layout for each monks’ quarters. While most monasteries contain extremely small rooms for their inhabitants, preaching austerity, the Florentine Charterhouse takes a different approach.
INTROSPECTIVE
DEVELOPMENT
While the size remains relatively small, each room fronts to the internal cloister and backs up to a private courtyard. This gives a second level of privacy in a similar type of environment, giving options to the monks who could read in the more public courtyard, or in their own personal one. This separation could easily be applied.
Sophomore Courtyards
Green Space
The open space is important not just for the typical use of planting, but for the infiltration of light, openness to air, and density of program mass within the building. This is most apparent, and most important, when comparing the public to the private space. The private space contains only several small courtyards, paying very careful attention to the infiltration of light which allows for more dramatic and thoughtful atmosphere. In contrast, the private space becomes more open, allowing the monks what essentially becomes a small neighborhood of individual residences around a central park, in contemporary terms.
DEVELOPING STUDENTS OF SOUND BODY, MIND, AND CHARACTER THROUGH SELF-REFLECTION AND SHARED EXPERIENCE.
Caesura
While the size remains relatively small, each room fronts to the internal cloister and backs up to a private courtyard. This gives a second level of privacy in a similar type of environment, giving options to the monks who could read in the more public courtyard, or in their own personal one. This separation could easily be applied.
Public
Diagram by author
14
Junior Courtyards banks”. While they are exclusive and introspective, there are reports
ESSAY
PHYSICAL
PUBLIC
sometimes even the death of a young new member, and the latter leading to members being picked not based on their merit or by the INTROSPECTIVE DEVELOPMENT
MENTAL
SOCIAL
ESSAY
ADVISOR: BERNHARD
11.24.14
ERIK BLANKENBAKER
Seeking Brotherhood How young males find friends like themselves
drug use. For each stated mission of the fraternal system there is a
IDEAL EDUCATION
Senior Courtyards
members overcoming other shortcomings through their lack of moral
PHYSICAL
MENTAL
FIGURE 6.1: Introspective Communities Diagram by author
SOCIAL
another. Some of the finest young men today in college are seeking ACTUAL EDUCATION
and ultimately counter-productive habits like drinking and drug use.
FIGURE 7.1: Real vs. Actual Fraternity Education Breakdown Diagram by author
IMAGE 6.2: Cloister of Saint-Michel de Grandmont Photo taken by “Myrabella”; free to the public
IMAGE 6.3: Tulane Fraternity House Party
Since young people so commonly bond together and seek out individuals like themselves, it makes sense in a historical context to examine such introspective communities. Military organizations and athletic associations tend to be introspective, bent on self-improvement, and exclusive, but both are determined primarily by their membership and have relatively little architectural influencers acting upon them, except perhaps in the way of organization or hierarchy. This is especially true since members of both communities typically do not actually live together. A more fitting historical precedent would be a monastic community. Such communities of men (young and old) are highly introspective, determinedly exclusive, and focused on promoting their members well being physically, mentally, and especially morally – all attributes which create great thinkers and leaders. The primary difference, of course, is obvious: monastic communities develop these men to better serve God, as opposed to their country. That being said, many of these same historical ideals can be used today with an architectural basis for how to promote a healthy living style that leads to young men developing themselves FIGURE 10.1: Transfer of Knowledge and Skills and each other, as opposed to contributing to a cycle of negligence. Diagram by author
SENIOR
JUNIOR
SOPHOMORE
Private PRIVATE
LEVEL 3 CUT AT 46’ 1/16” = 1’ - 0”
page 11
tulane school of architecture
Live | Work | Play An Intentional Community in Jericho, Vermont
Hillary Bocash
location
09 xx
Combating Sprawl through Sustainable Community Development As farms begin to fail and foreclose, their land is sold and developed into lowdensity development. This thesis explores integrated communities that can be inserted into towns in need of economic revitalization as an alternative to urban sprawl and the destruction of public natural land. This land can be repurposed through sustainable land use strategies to encompass denser residential units that reside harmoniously with agricultural business and practice. This new typology can then be used as a prototype and be applied to other open agricultural land and buildings. A Master Plan for an Agricultural Based Community in Vermont The proposed integrated community is centered around agricultural production and the existing barn. The barn is re-purposed into a central hub of communal activity. Single family unit clusters flank either side of the main road running through the site directly to the town core. In compensation for the lack of traditional large suburban lots, residents are given access to various trails that run through the site as well as semi-private communal green space in each housing cluster. The open land is planted with barley, hops and apple trees for the sites agricultural based business: a brewery. Water is also collected and stored on site to be used in the beer making process.
page 12
thesis class of 2014—2015
1.5 inch by 1.5 inch gray-scale photograph showing your face. Please remove the gray box before submitting and make sure your image fills the square space completely.
(IN)habit Modes of Collective Dwelling in Underutilized Urban Block Interiors
location
xx 15
Rachel Boynton
Excavating the Implied Densities of a New Orleans Block : New Orleans residential blocks have lost density over the past century, leaving vacant or blighted lots, and underutilized block interiors. This circumstantial interstitial space offers an opportunity to integrate a specialized residential communities into the existing urban fabric, while simultaneously stitching the disintegrating block into a cohesive whole. The interior of the New Orleans block can be viewed as a figure ground composition. This proposal looks to strengthen and define the street edge, respect the scale and character of the existing residential neighborhood, and create a new enriched layers of interpenetrating spatial experiences within the urban block. The Scaler Dichotomy of Assisted Living: This design proposal is an assisted living facility in Central City, New Orleans. The fifty dwelling units are situated to allow the residential character of the design to have the most prominence on the street. The more institutional and collective programs occupy to the middle of the block. The collective programmatic spaces, such as the lecture room and dining hall, are clustered around a central courtyard at the intersection of two dominant axes that reach out to the four streets that border the block, from Dryades Street to Daneel Street and Sixth Street to Washington Avenue.
COLLECTIVE
NEIGHBORHOOD
page 13
tulane school of architecture
Atomized Architecture Cultivating Knowledge through Overlapping Information Nodes
Elliot Brown
location
11 xx
Reconnecting Physical Space, Knowledge, and Human Interaction This thesis seeks to address two problems brought about by the digital proliferation of knowledge and information. First is the dissociation between knowledge and its relationship to physical space. Second is the widening gap between those with access to technology and those without. As digital media becomes the primary mode of obtaining information, people become scattered across digital and physical landscapes. We can access information at any given place and time. Places like libraries and internet cafes become access points. We are physically present, but the public forum is online. This, however, does not eliminate the need for physical interaction. New Orleans Knowledge Incubator The New Orleans Knowledge Incubator seeks to both reconnect physical space and information and to serve as a civic amenity that provides universal digital access. As a hybrid business incubator and community center, the project will facilitate both informal and formal modes of generating and cultivating knowledge. The project is located at the intersection of three districts: Marigny, St. Roch, and Seventh Ward. This accommodates the overlap of a diverse range of demographic groups and perspectives.
page 14
thesis class of 2014—2015
Animals in Mind Creating Co-Habitation in an Urban Context
Kayleigh Bruentrup
location
xx 39
Addressing the Issues of Growth on the Ecosystem: As the population in cities continually increases so does the urban sprawl. This sprawl begins to encroach upon the wildlife in the area, displacing them from their homes or distrubing their migration patterns. The interruption not only impedes wildlife but can also cause havoc in the daily lives of humans. Disrupting ecosystems, whether it be with compacted land such as concrete or by cutting off a predator creates a huge rift in an ecosystem that may not be apparent at the moment, but will create negative ripples that affect humanity’s daily lives. One problem; many solutions: Through design, spaces can be cultivated for humans, animals, and other living things to exist side-by-side. By taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of different species of animals along with humans, space can be designed to establish an ecosystem of cohabitation. Interventions that can easily be introduced into exisitng infrastructure and buildings can begin to reverse ecological damage and create a healthier place to live for all.
humanity
design
nature
page 15
tulane school of architecture
Impartial Space Integrating Affordable and Market Rate Housing through a Shared Public Realm in San Francisco
Kathryn Callander
location
04 xx
An exploration of mixed income and affordable housing models: Affordable housing is often physically and ideologically detached from society, isolated on the fringe of cities. Although overall designs are well-intentioned, the result has often become a government-funded slum, rather than a step out of poverty. Successful realizations of affordable housing should blur the lines of the economic divide. Though the mixed income model has offered possibilities for change, current schemes leave residents divided. Design should be used to offset the negative reputation of affordable housing, creating lasting communities based on a mixed income model that integrates shared public space. Activating the waterfront, integrating public space into pier housing: San Francisco is currently a city with very little affordable housing. A pier design proposal along the Embarcadero provides a model for affordable housing in the city. The design focuses on public space, with a commercial ground floor and waterfront spaces created to invite visitors in an effort to reconnect the city with the bay. Living spaces, rising above the public plane, rely on a shared hallway condition with affordable units that look inward and market rate units that look outward. The resulting design balances two competing opposites: public and private space, and market rate and affordable housing.
WATERF
RONT
ERFRON
T
page 16
thesis thesis class class of of 2014—2015 2014—2015
Consistantly Inconsistant Climate Responsive Design for Comfortable Living in a Highly Variable Climate
location location
xx 13
Victoria Cohen
Contemporary Dwelling in the Temperate Climate The climate control systems of contemporary buildings in temperate climates are often predicated on mechanical heating, cooling, and ventilation in a nearly sealed environment. The creation of passive climate control through building form and user-controlled devices in such buildings is completely antithetical to the imperatives of mechanical systems. This research project will propose new ideas of building form, organization, and envelope systems that engage passive systems and celebrate seasonal climatic extremes and thus producing a building that is both climate responsive across a broad range of conditions and a compelling experience of interaction and dwelling. Transient Dwelling & Lyrical Living This thesis emerges architecturally through the design of apartment units. The units have two perpendicular components in order to utilize the advantages present for all orientations. The living and dining spaces emerges from the hybridized design of combining the compact, low-surface area cube seen in cold climates and the elongated, high-ceiling rectangle present in hot climates, thus creating a space that can be manipulated to adjust to all climatic extremes and fluctuations to ensure maximum comfort. The bedroom wing features an operable double-walled system to allow for personal manipulation to the user’s personal comfort as a physical reaction to the climate.
page page 17 17
tulane school of architecture
The Nature Machine Architecture as a Viewport
Noah Conlay
location
24 xx
The Impact of Human Logic on a Natural Landscape: The earth evolved as a symbiotic whole, interconnected and balanced in each introduction of a new system. With the insertion of human-kind came the birth of logic. In an alien manner to Nature, Logic short circuits life processes in order to obtain material for financial gain. This leaves unchecked components floating within the natural machine having a great impact on the overall momentum of the system, irrevocably changing the course of life on Earth. Industrial Redemption of a Local Site within the Global Context: Human Logic as industry manifests itself in the form of the machine. Cutting, extracting, and scarring the landscape, the machine is alien to Nature. As a destructive force, the machine is above nature. To redeem the damage done, the machine must learn new behaviors to be employed for positive site impact. The Bonnet Carre Spillway along the Lower Mississippi River Industrial Corridor is utilized as a site of Forced Nature in which education about the course of the future must take place. The machine becomes the tool subservient to Nature, re-aligning the global hierarchy and setting a new course for Human Kind.
EDWARD BURTYNSKY
page 18
thesis class of 2014—2015 thesis class of 2014—2015
Parametric Typology Exploring Type Through Algorithmic Prototypes location location
23 xx
Christopher Dunn
A Parametric Typology: Although parametric and algorithmic design have been cited as potential avenues for change in the architectural practice, their use so far has been largely limited to formal and spatial manipulations. However, parametric and algorithmic design have the capability to determine factors more intrinsic to the typical activities undertaken in a building, including the subdivision and balance of program elements. Furthermore, as a parametric function, a design could be made to respond to multiple sites’ demands. The intent is thus not to pre-determine the structure of activities within the building, but to allow a type to emerge from typical elements as a parametric series. Algorithmic Prototypes: This project investigates the applicability of parametric and algorithmic design in determining a prototype, exemplified by creating a dynamic hybridization between the public library and the multi-disciplinary workshop, or the “makerspace”. In investigating type, differentiated instances of prototypes must be created in order to form a series with inherent typicalities. These individual instances are generated using program areas as parameters, allowing each prototype to flexibly accomodate differing ratios of program as needed per location. The end result therefore consists of multiple schematic designs whose collective attributes describe a new potential type for the library.
STACKS
STACKS
OFFICES
OFFICES
MEETING
MEETING
WORKSHOPS
WORKSHOPS
WORKSHOPS
WORKSHOPS
MEETING
MEETING
OFFICES
OFFICES
STACKS
STACKS
page 19 page 19
tulane school of architecture
Adapting Infrastructure Reconnecting a Los Angeles Community
Emily Edmisten
location
35 xx
Post-Industrial Waterfront Revitalization: Due to aging technology and evolving environmental regulations, coal-fired power plants are increasingly decommissioned, leaving behind vacant historical structures. These waterfront sites are ideal locations for adaptive reuse projects. Redesigning under-used industrial space will provide useful and needed resources to a community that has been divided by an industrial plant. Revitalization of historical post-industrial structures can reconnect a city’s waterfront and integrate it into the existing neighborhood. Redondo Beach Power Plant, Los Angeles: The current AES Power Plant consumes 50-acres of beachfront property in northern Redondo Beach, a small coastal town in Los Angeles County. Although it is currently cast aside, this wedge of post-industrial land has the potential to be a key point of the community. By readapting this 70 year old power plant facility, it could reunite the marina with the surrounding residential neighborhoods and nearby civic buildings. Its location would allow for a commercial hub that could be vital to this beach town. The purpose of this thesis is to design a gathering place that would provide resources to the community, by turning an under-used industrial site into a flourishing center for the local people.
page 20
thesis class of 2014—2015
Reconnecting a Connected Society Physical Engagement for the Virtually Distracted Observer
location
38 xx
Carly Epler
Architecture and the Digital Condition : Information overload from mobile devices results in a disconnection from ones surroundings. A solution to this is interactive architecture, which can reunite us back with the physical environment through the creation of “slow spots”--pockets of silence-- which create spaces that result in a deceleration of movement, and a focus on experience. Since public spaces are now perceived differently because of mobile technology, I’m proposing a linked transportation hub as a catalyst to both enable the flow of people, and promote public attention and interaction from within. These experiments in motion are designed to alter one’s perspective of the city. They create new kinds of access, views, sanctuary, information, and delight in looking up and around, instead of down. Diagnosing the Digital Condition: The design goal was to engage the body with the physical environment and orient oneself within an urban setting. The architecture acts as a threshold between the environment and the occupant; reacting to environmental conditions and the presence of people and mobile technology. This brings the physical realm to the foreground and relegates the virtual realm to the background. These pockets of multi-sensory experience capture and sustain people’s attention as a counter experience to the sense of transient attention people have developed because of mobile technologies.
page 21
tulane school of architecture
Activating the Seam Transitioning the Barrier between Local and Transient Communities
Lauren Evans
location
08 xx
Socio-Economic Barriers from Gentrified Communities In gentrifying neighborhoods, previous residents are being displaced by an influx of new people. As places become areas of interest, adjacent neighborhoods become the home to the displaced, leaving upkeep and renovation overlooked to focus on limited development. From this, a condition develops creating a threshold between the adjacent, but demographically different communities. In New Orleans, this condition is highlighted as the Upper Ninth ward and New Marigny neighborhoods are divided by St.Claude Ave., a mix of new businesses, blighted properties, and neighborhoods institutions struggling to integrate the demographics surrounding it: the newcomers, the locals, and the transients. Social Architecture in the Multi-Function Building The concept of New Urbanism promoted the idea of inclusive architecture, built form and amenities meant to accomodate beyond social class structure. As development continues in the area, the St.Claude Streetcar line will make the corridor an opportune place for short stay accomodations. As a European-style hostel and artists’ outpost, the growing local artist community can benefit from and interact with the visiting community, while offering free art classes and studio space for community activities. Organized around an central atrium space, the building will function as a series of transitional spaces, blending private with public and tourist with community program.
page 22
thesis class of 2014—2015
Urban Integration of Counter-Cultural Artist Space A Neutral Ground for the New Orleans’s Rooted, Transient, and Vacationer
Austin Frankel
location
xx 41
Buskers and the Creative Economy: A city’s culture is derived from its traditions and current events; here in New Orleans that couldn’t be any more evident as society is distinctly characterized by architectural styles and eclectic forms of entertainment. The historic French Quarter is the premier location for tourists and locals alike to consume such commodities as it is the city’s original footprint. Attractions are not solely reserved to the buildings and the life that takes place within but are also largely extended onto the streets and sidewalks. Vibrant open-air experiences are amplified through the animate spectacle of artists and street performers in public spaces. Most creative personalities who contribute to this added factor of leisure are not able to live healthily adjacent to where they work. Creating a new hotspot for enjoyment of the visual and performing arts: Increased property values and the continued street artists’ struggle to survive lead to creating a periferal district for them to enjoy refining their crafts while exhibiting their work. Located at the corner of Elysian Fields and St. Claude Avenues, the site hosts lodging accomodations for visitors of the city, a reopened grocery store, and resources to foster and display artistic talent. By bringing together three different personalities of the city, through the deployment of a multi-functional dynamic surface, the development connects, engages, and revitalizes the immediate surrounding community and metropolis at large. Synergetic Response Economy Hotel & Bus Micro-Terminal
Artist Residency Assistance Mission
Low-Budget Tourists
Impermanent Artists
Neighborhood Residents
Supermarket
HOTEL HOTEL HOTEL HOTEL ARTISTS RESTAURANT
ELYSIAN FIELDS AVENUE
BUS ZONE PUBLIC PARKING RETAIL
HOTEL HOTEL HOTEL HOTEL HOTEL HOTEL
SUPERMARKET GALLERY
MARIGNY STREET
page 23
tulane school of architecture
DURA Deformable . Unit . Remote . Assembly
Jake Gamberg
location
26 xx
Mass customization and an off site construction process: Standard construction typologies generate repetitive spatial conditions, where the gap widens between catalogued materials and the design of a material. A pre-fabricated sandwich assembly system that is composed of pieces not bound by the standardization of mass production, but rather the variability of mas customization is the focus of this thesis. We can begin to think about architecture not as an aggregate build up of foundation, structure, systems, finishes, and fixtures; but rather a consolidated sandwich panel system that consolidates these components into one assembly logic that is manipulated to conform to the programmatic and functional needs of a space. Rothera Research Station, Antarctica: Mass customization maintains a high level of accessibility and economic benefit in typical urban construction typologies. Therefore, the project is removed from that context, and placed in a remote location where off site construction and mass customization methods can be explored. Antarctica is a continent dedicated to research. As a result, the research unit consists of lab spaces, living components, and utility spaces.
page 24
thesis class of 2014—2015
This Will Kill That A Case for a Haptic Workplace
location
L-x L-4
Peter Henseler
Workplace as Media The benefits of physical communication, once demonstrated so profoundly by newspapers and the media houses producing them, have been threatened by the rise of digital communication capabilities. The ubiquity of a socializing media landscape has raised questions concerning authenticity, privacy, democracy, and creative property. In this climate, how will the role of physical propinquity adapt to the changing definition of a “mediated center”? This thesis investigates design strategies to promote and ensure maximum exposure between coworkers, leading to more fruitful creative development. Mediated Center The design of a workplace for a digital publisher requires consideration of place and program with regards to work styles. The influence for such ideas comes from the recent workplace design strategies of offices in the Silicon Valley. The site for this fictional publishing house, however, is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan rather than the sprawling suburbs of Northern California.
$
?
Boss 1+2
page 25
tulaneschool schoolofof architecture tulane architecture
Blurring Boundaries Architecture Blurring the Boundary Between Humans and Wildlife
Tanya Hockney
location location
xx 30
way that does not disrupt natural habitats. Can the built environment promote
be a natural companion and complement to the expansive landscape it inhabits. How can we design in a way that leaves a minimal footprint on nature, the landscape?
researches to observe and learn about animals in their natural habitat. Placing the wildlife center on the water leaves a minimal footprint on the site and creates a natural boundary between humans and wildlife. It’s prefabricated the volumes to move up and down the river or be taken away completely over
page page 26
thesis class of 2014—2015
Pocket Change Creating Inner Block Pocket Neighborhoods to Ameliorate Economic Displacement
location
xx 17
Kelsey Howard
Economic Displacement: In tourist driven urban economies, the delicate balance between accommodating visitors and maintaining the authentic culture they have come to experience is often contingent upon avoiding population displacements from desirable parts of the city. An important contribution to this balance is the possibility of increases in residential density without extensive capitol or wholesale building stock replacement. In the older neighborhoods of New Orleans, this concept can be deployed by exploiting the advantages of light, open source architecture, relatively empty block interiors, and anomalous urban lot characteristics to create a new inner block density. Densification Via Pocket Neighborhoods: Using open-source architecture, we can create a system where people in danger of being displaced can select their own modular secondary units from a catalogue of prototypes, personalizing them with optional addons. This increase in residential density involves the creation of a “pocket neighborhood�: groups of homes that maximize space and relate to each other around a landscaped common area. The systematic deployment of these neighborhoods and alleyways would enable current residents to supplement their income by allowing new people to move in, temporarily or permanently, and become a part of a community that is unique but still part of the larger context.
page 27
tulane school of architecture
Future Mythologies Revisiting the American Dream
India Jacobs
location
27 xx
How the American Dream Became the Fuel for Capitalism: After WWII, booming industry afforded young families the opportunities to buy homes in the suburbs, cars to get them there and consumer goods to ensure a comfortable lifestyle. Marketing these goods to this demographic became less about the product and more about how it would represent the consumer to others. Today, generations of Americans work tirelessly to fulfill their duties as consumers and surround themselves with the accoutrement this Dream dictates. All leisure time activities and disposable income are aimed at achieving comfort, security and distraction. My work aims to critique the resulting values this pattern yields in the middle class consumers who embody this dream. “Desert Golf Course Airships for the Wealthy, Because They’re Really Struggling Right Now Keeping the Poor Off Their Grass” Taking cues from the work and rhetoric of Matthew Barney and Paul McCarthy in their critique and lampooning of The American Dream, I have created my own mythological environment that seeks to exaggerate and exacerbate this All-American myth through the lens of middle class leisure activities, recreation and tourism culture. The placement of this architecture above the Hollywood Hills is fitting in that it creates a tension with California’s historic draught, and that it complements LA’s existing culture of True Fictions and Hyper-Realities.
page 28
thesis class of 2014—2015
Digital Presence Revitalizing the Vacant Small Town Core Through New Networks of Connection
Meredith Jacobs
location
xx 16
Approaching the Vacant Downtown Condition Historically, the Mississippi small town typology has formed and reformed itself around major axes of connection, beginning with the river, then the railroad, then the interstate. Formation around the interstate led to a decline of the downtown area that once supported the railroad, depleting public space and hurting local small-scale economies. In recent years, a Fiber Optic trunk line was buried beneath a major railway that runs through many of Mississippi’s vacant small town cores, forming a new axis that is part of a greater network of the Internet. This thesis explores attaching to that axis in a way that ensures growth of a fiber optic network, but also forms careful relationships within existing downtown corridors to create successful public space within them. Designing Effective Relationships The seemingly small support system of a fiber network can be broken down into elements that can also define public space when placed relative to existing components downtown. This thesis project explores new configurations of public spaces through placing these elements in multiple Mississippi downtown environments. One intervention is explored in detail in Batesville, Mississippi, and results in a network of public spaces that meet its spatial needs downtown while also allowing for future growth of a new fiber optic network.
platform
water tower
park
side rail
train station
courthouse
commercial strip
platform
water tower
commercial strip
train station
solar canopy
park
side rail
courthouse
tower
cellular receptors
internet cafe
fiber control room
tornado siren
geothermal park
business incubator
fiber walking path
page 29
tower
cellular receptors
tulane school of architecture
The Urban School Designing an Education Typology for Future Generations
Aubrey Keady-Molanphy
location
33 xx
Schools should address present issues The need for the school typology to be reevaluated is more pressing than ever with the introduction of new technologies, pedagogies, and information about how children learn. As our world population moves more into cities, and there is an increase in densification, schools should begin to adapt to the new advances of the millennium, while addressing the needs of the growing urban community. This thesis investigates how a building can begin to incorporate the spatial needs of an urbanizing population, while altering education methods to increase the likelihood of student success. How a building can start to address some issues in a troubled community This project is set in the upper east side of New York City, known as East Harlem or Spanish Harlem. This area contains high poverty rates, low graduation rates, and a diverse community. To confront the issues present in this site, the goal of the school is to combine spatial planning ideas from urban sites, public school models and alternative pedagogies. It houses more community spaces to bridge the gap between school and home. In addition, the school fosters individual exploration as well as communal lessons, to adjust to different learning levels. The proposed building tackles present and future issues in order to improve education in the area and other issues in the community.
PUBLIC SCHOOL
GROUND
RTICAL SITE OWTH
MONTESSORI SCHOOL
URBAN MODEL
GROUND
VERTICAL BELOW SITE VERTICAL BELOW LEVEL BELOW LEVEL GRID COMMUNITY LEVEL GRID COMMUNITY EROSION GRID COMMUNITY GRADIENT EROSION GRAD ERO VERTICAL GRADE BELOW LEVELIMPRESSIONGRIDIMPRESSION COMMUNITY GROWTH GRADE SITE GROWTH GRADE HEIGHTS HEIGHTS IMPRESSION HEIGHTS GROWTH GRADE HEIGHTS IMPRESSION
page 30
thesis class of 2014—2015
Grown Market Structures A Response to Programmatic Changes Over Time
location
xx 37
Ryan Kilpatrick
Climate Change: a new paradigm in building materials As China emerges as a global superpower, its scale of urban expansion is staggering. In three years [2011-2013], China has produced and used more concrete than the United States used in the past century [1901-2000]. Only considering its production, cement emits its weight equivalent in carbon emissions. This alone contributes to six percent of anthropogenic hydrocarbon emissions. As the rate of use will only increase, my thesis aims to speculate an alternative. Mycelium is Nature’s cement. Reinforcing soils across the globe, it presents interesting design possibilities if utilized as a building material. Xiangzhou Market Pavilion: a dynamic material for a dynamic program Since its conception in 1980, the city of Zhuhai has gone from being a collection of indigenous fishing settlements, to an urban center with a population of nearly 2 million. Due to its relative youth, the city remains an eclectic mix of old cultures mixed with new development. The Xiangzhou Fishing Port, located adjacent to Zhuhai’s CBD, has served as the point of entry for the local fishermen well before the city’s creation. As part of a cultural redevelopment plan, the city has scheduled its demolition. My hope is to create a self-sustaining, and active market structure that breathes cultural relevance into the site.
page 31
tulane school of architecture
Evacuation Destination A Symbiotic Relationship Between Big Box and Community in New Orleans
Emily Kingston
location
06 xx
Evacuation Trends in New Orleans: Examining major storms throughout history exposes the city’s lack of preparedness in evacuating less-mobile citizens. Hurricane Katrina left countless families devastated for an inexcusable amount of time and forced officials to re-examine its disaster protocol. With the lead of a new director of emergency preparedness, the City-Assisted Evacuation Plan was developed, providing all resourcerestricted residents with public transportation out of the city when the area is threatened. Although the CAEP moved evacuees out of danger, it was unclear in delineating appropriate evacuation destinations. Big Box as Shelter // Big Box as Community: Big box stores are centrally located, easily accessible, and are a familiar site within a community. Their expansive, under-utilized rooftops provide an elevated location for a flexible architectural intervention. When a mandatory evacuation is called, the building transitions from its community component into a disaster shelter. The shelter provides families with a safe location during a storm and the proper resources for survival from the newly incorporated systems of water and solar collection and edible gardening.
27%
of New Orleanians lack resources to evacuate 1 dot = 20 families without vehicles
page 32
thesis class of 2014—2015
Rocinha Recycling Institute Evolving the Architectural Vernacular of Favelas in Rio de Janeiro Through Urban Infrastructure location
Miles Kozatch
03 xx
Rise of the Favela In Brazil, the growth of the urban population is placing heavy pressure on informal communities and slums. The favelas of Rio de Janeiro are growing at 9x the rate of the formal urban fabric. In response, the Brazilian government has created an initiative to provide urban infrastructure to vibrant informal communities that face systemic problems of water scarcity, electricity shortages, lack of public space and danger of landslides. The site under consideration is a steep void in Rocinha, the most populated favela in Rio. At its current growth rate, the built fabric will soon consume the void, creating hazardous conditions, and stunting the development of urban infrastructure. Stabilizing the Void The architectural intervention anchors into the landscape, providing the residents of the favela with a framework to build upon, creating a new type of built fabric, capable of sustainable growth. The building acts as megastructure, providing anchorage in the landscape. The integral pieces of microstructure are the retaining walls projected out from the building, built by favela residents with the materials produced by the recycling center. The ultimate goal of the project is to elevate the favela vernacular from raw to refined, in the same way that waste becomes raw materials, and raw materials newly refined products.
Rocinha Rio de Janeiro Brazil
18% Approximately 11 million of 200 million Brazilians live in favelas
page 33
tulane school of architecture
Reuse Remember Rejuvenate A New Solution for Sites with Sordid Histories
Heather Little
location
L-x L-2
Remembering the Past, Educating the Public, and Embracing the Future: The reuse of historic buildings has become commonplace, but what should be done when a building has a history related to death and tragedy? Society has to determine its psychological approach to dealing with the past, many times resulting in demolition, a memorial, or museum. This thesis looks at an alternative solution through which adaptive reuse honors the past while moving forward into a better future, encouraging society to come to terms with a difficult part of their collective history, while not allowing it to define them. The South Side of Ellis Island and its Immigrant Hospital: Ellis Island is well-known as one of the major entry points into the United States, but few people know of its south side, where immigrants were sent if they were deemed unfit to enter the country. People were detained for an indefinite amount of time, separated from their families. As many as 3,500 people died on the island and countless others were deported, never achieving their dream for a better life. A series of small interventions along a path within the deteriorating buildings informs visitors of its history and a documentation center is retrofitted into an existing building, allowing research of the hospital’s medical records. The cultural appreciation center embraces our diversity and only reveals itself at the end of the path as a “building within a building�. IC AG TR E SIT E US
RE ER
MB
ME RE ATE
VEN JU
RE
page 34
thesis class of 2014—2015
Resisting the Waves A Case Study for Interactive, Protective Coastal Infrastructure in Massachusetts
location
xx 01
Colleen Loughlin
Addressing Rising Sea Levels and Developed Coastlines: Coastal erosion, rising sea-levels, and man-made development on barrier islands pose high levels of risk to coastal communities, ecosystems, and environments. As the populations along the coasts continue to increase despite these hazards, it is necessary to address the failing protective infrastructures in place and reinterpret architecture’s role in incorporating local communities and industries into their function. Interactive Storm Watch Center off of Plum Island, MA: This thesis project is sited on Massachusetts’s North Shore off the coast of Plum Island. A fishing and boating community, Plum Island is facing drastic beach erosion and loss of homes. Realizing that the existing protective infrastructure in place is failing, the proposed offshore breakwater seeks to protect the coastline by breaking wave energy while also accumulating sediment for gradual beach replenishment. The commercial fishing industry is served by additional programming located within the storm watch center, and an educational component allows the public to learn about rising sea levels and see natural systems in action in the museum and the watch tower.
page 35
tulane school of architecture
Bouyant Resilience Repairing Broken Identity through Adaptive Prosthesis
Stephanie Mears
location
L-6 L-x
An Exploration of Floating Topology Biological plasticity is understood as the ability of an organism to adapt to changes in its environment or to maintin its form between two habitats. The concept of plasticity is inherant in a floating topology, yielding both basic survival and community resilience. Metaphorical porosity within a site creates opportunites for change, encouraging growth through continuous variation. In an environment such as New Orleans, where destruction from natural disaster is eminent, exploration of new building techniques is essential. Lincoln Beach, an Aquatic Village Lincoln Beach, established as an African American beach during segregation, was open from 1954 until the Civil Rights Act in 1964. The construction of the Lake floodwall made Lincoln Beach and the water completely inaccessible. To re-establish a connection with water, an adaptive architecture topology is proposed to increase community resilience in New Orleans East. This project proposes a dynamic solution to a fluid landscape that has previously been confined, opposed and designed without respect to the environment. A topological organization of flexible residences and program fosters community reslience through reconnecting the inhabitants to their environment.
+2 +3
+3
+1
+2 +1
+1 +3
water courtyard
3 2 1
4
+2 5
2 1 3
+1
15 single residences 05 flat above retail 06 light commercial
2
3
3
2 140’ platform parameters for largest possible best level humandepth 13’ comfort and
75’
100’
140’
100’ 100’
350’
page 36
350’
3
=
2
1
1
4
4
1 4
5
thesis class of 2014—2015
Bridging Borders Reconnecting Baltimore’s Post-Automotive Landscape
Sumner Miller
location
xx 14
This thesis explores borders and their divisive and destructive effects within urban environments. Large scale industrial and automotive corridors form impermeable borders, sever neighborhoods and create voids in the social and physical urban fabric of cities. As this infrastructure reaches the end of its intended service, these former borders can be exploited as resilient, catalytic and connective spaces. This thesis examines Baltimore, MD and more specifically the Jones Falls corridor. The corridor has a long history as both a productive and destructive line through the city. What was once center of life in colonial and industrial Baltimore became a divisive line as various borders caused and exacerbated problem in the area. Drawing on the sites history as well as previous proposals, this thesis establishes ways to reconnect the separated neighborhoods following the potential removal of the Jones Falls Expressway. In doing so the site can go from being an urban cancer to a connective and catalytic center in a post-border neighborhood. The infrastructure that remains in the corridor following the expressways removal can be used to establish lateral and sectional connections through an active and attractive new center for Baltimore.
Baltimore
1914
1959
2015 page 37
tulane school of architecture
Greening Greed Creating Homogeneous Architectural Form that Serves Conflicting Functions of the Metropolis Resort-Casino
Tatyana Moraczewski
location
31 xx
Accepting Recreation and Deviance, Merging Vice and Play By evaluating the motivation of the modern casino-resort traveler in order to realize their social, artistic and cultural appetite, we will advance the evolution and architectural expression of casino-resort typology. Integrating transparency of vice and play on the casino floor through a mash up of art, architecture, innovative technology, and unique programming will energize and invigorate guests to draw them back again and again. The AstroCasino, integrating the revisited casino typology in Houston, TX This architectural thesis explores the development of a full scale self-contained entertainment district in an established urban fabric - and within the confines of the historic Astrodome and its site, the NRG Park and Convention Center. Based on critical analysis of Las Vegas’s history of mega- and metro-casinos, this project readdresses the articulation of function for a casino. As opposed to keeping the status quo of the casino floor and manipulating the resort around it, the Astro-Casino has the opportunity to focus on and reevaluate options on the floor — the opportunity to completely fuse the resort and gaming experience.
Park & Hotel on the Ground Level
page 38
Resort ‘Voids’ on the Casino Floor
Casino Floor ‘Streetscape’
thesis class of 2014—2015
Designing from the Inside-Out Improving Spatial Phenomena in an Urban Mega-form
location
Paul Morin
12 xx
How Can a Design Method Improve an Architectural Experience: Large housing mega-forms are used to accommodate contemporary urban trends. These housing complexes have unique spatial design challenges. Using an “inside-out” design approach can improve experiential phenomena of architectural spaces for occupants in an urban housing mega-form by directing design decisions to focus on the experience of individual spaces for occupants instead of focusing on rational didactical concepts that direct design decisions for formal reasons or construction economics. The “inside-out” approach used is a bottom-up method in which the result is a sum of parts in which individual elements take priority over the holistic form. A Housing Mega-Form at the Urban Center of New Orleans: The design challenges of urban housing mega-forms are predominant in dense urban neighborhoods in which site footprints are small, and the climate of New Orleans offers unique design challenges and opportunities. The mega-form contains over two hundred units, retail spaces, a shared roof garden, building services, restaurants, and a five hundred space parking garage. Architectural tactics implemented to ameliorate spatial phenomena include: scale, proportion, sequence, adjacencies, orientation, encloser, materiality, proximity to nature, lighting, color, pattern, and texture.
Inside
Out
page 39
tulane school of architecture
Engaging City, Embracing Culture Negating the Impact of Elevated Infrastructure through Cultural Nodes in Honolulu
Daniel Omuro
location
Honolulu, 05 HI
Activating Residual Spaces and Reconnecting Across a Broken Fabric As urban populations rise around the World, new systems of public transportation are implemented into existing city fabrics. Elevated Transportation systems invariably create underused residual spaces; this along with the sheer size and scale of these systems often split previously cohesive urban communities into two. Architecture can be used to activate the rejected residual space, enhance, and reestablish a connection even stronger and more relevant than the one that existed beforehand. Bringing Honolulu back to it’s Cultural Origins. The city of Honolulu has always sought to preserve as much of the culture and tradition of Ancient Hawaii as possible, yet in light of the rising population and increasing industrialization of the city, it has found it hard to do so in recent years. An elevated rail is currently being constructed in order to alleviate motor vehicle traffic; its location on the edge of the waterfront threatens to cut the city off from the beach, a vital space for the people of the city. An architectural intervention on the rail to connect the city fabric to the waterfront is the means to close the seam as well as highlighting cultural principles of the Hawaiian People.
page 40
thesis class of 2014—2015
On the Nature of Flexibility Strategies for Simultaneous Civic Constancy and Spatial Malleability with the New Orleans Charter School System location
xx 10
Caitlin Parker
Reconciling Disparate Needs: This thesis seeks to resolve a flexible building strategy with a stable and reliable community presence. This new understanding of flexibility defies the historic permanence of buildings, while allowing the historic ideals of permanence to resonate within the community and provide a reliable, public amenity. Site planning strategies protect shield the community from change, while simultaneously employing a matrix of flexible strategies that allow the building to change and evolve over many generations of use. Resolving New Orleans’ School Transience: The New Orleans charter school system is under a decade old, and as such is struggling with radically transient student bodies and faculty. These old neighborhood schools, which once acted as integral parts of neighborhood communities, have been replaced with transient school systems that move buildings and location every couple of years in response to permanent and failing buildings. This contemporary cultural issue offers an opportunity to explore the question of the thesis in great detail: how can a new school in the city offer great flexibility for a changing student body while regaining its social importance through a reliable community presence?
Historic School Permanence & Failure
page 41
tulane school of architecture
Reclaiming the River Redeveloping Postindustrial Riverfronts in Urban Contexts
Robert Perez
location
19 xx
Normalizing the abnormal development: The recent relocation of historic urban port spaces have left large swaths of waterfront spaces as developmental gaps within the larger urban context. Due to the removal of these specialized spaces, the residual waterfront space becomes a developmentally-isolated condition that stands to separate the city and its residents from the waterfront, particularly through the remnants of the infrastructure needed to service these spaces. This thesis aims to use architectural planning and design to normalize these outlying post-industrial conditions along urban waterfronts by tying them back into the existing urban fabric and redeveloping them as multifunctional publicly-accessible spaces. Engaging the Mississippi River: Due to the postwar movement of the Port of New Orleans to the Uptown neighborhood, the Mississippi waterfront adjacent to the Central Business and Warehouse Districts have been left developmentally isolated from their surroundings. This proposal aims to develop a planning strategy to reoccupy the waterfront for multifunctional public usage and circulation while preserving the localized infrastructure. Existing circulatory connections are extended over the abnormal superblock condition to normalize the urban movement while tying in new waterfront development to its existing surroundings.
page 42
thesis class of 2014—2015
Engineered Paradises A Nation of Catharsis in Hebron, the West Bank
location
22 xx
Zarith Pineda
Witnessing Vulnerability as Means to Acceptance of the Other Can we design for intangible affective program? Can architecture produce spaces that are compelling enough to allow for the emotional release of its users? The thesis proposes that in proving shared spaces whose programs are dedicated to the safe expression of universal emotions [such as; mourning, fatigue, love, embarrassment, solitude] between dissonant factions in conflict areas, users will be forced to confront the humanity of the ostracized other in hopes of catalyzing enough empathy for acceptance and eventual hopeful reconciliation. A Nation Above Two Nations The city of Hebron in the Occupied West Bank/Israel is shared by the nations of Palestine and Israel due to their respective claims of ownership over religious sites and territories. Hebron suffers from a unique condition of complex segregations through invisible and visible dimensions that greatly harm the quality of life of its citizens - an apartheid that creates great tension and distrust among them. Through the deployment of nationless ‘engineered paradises’ at the urban scale, the thesis aims to create a respite from the complex spacial formalities of life in the West Bank, constructing safe spaces connected through a network of elevated walkways that delineate a new nation of shared identity.
page 43
tulane school of architecture
Ornament and Time Transforming the Plaza Tower in the City of New Orleans, Louisiana
Olivia Pontiff
location
36 xx
Ornament and Time By studying architectural ornament’s role from ancient to contemporary times, this thesis sought to find common ideologies between distinct aesthetics. Through the three main ornamental movements in architecture, political, religious and technologically based ornament, two main functions of ornament emerged: semiotics and techtonics. Transforming the Plaza Tower This thesis project is a revisiting of the Plaza Tower, which seeks to remake the building with an ornament that is situated to the specific needs of New Orleans, Louisiana. The design combined the two main functions of ornament discovered in the research. Semiotically, the new envelope provides a large amount of semi-private covered outdoor space in the interstitial space between the old a new structure, creating a vertical porch culture. Technolically, the tetrahedral facade provides structural support for the new addition and the old building, whose structure failed to meet codes for lateral bracing. The project is an example of how to reinvigorate the blank facades which characterize the skyscrapers of cities around the country.
1. Existing Site Condition
page 44
2. New Massing Strategy
3. Staggered Floorplates Carved From Existing
4. Structural Facade Braces Original Failing Structure
thesis class of 2014—2015
San Francisco: Autocorrected Responding to the Urban Future of Shared, Driverless Transport
location
xx 20
Ian Rosenfield
What is the Issue? How will architectural infrastructure, systems, and solutions may respond to, influence, and serve the future of San Francisco’s autonomous transportation network. The integration and combination of the access economy and driverless technology is at the forefront of a technological and mobile revolution within and throughout San Francisco. The effects of this revolution will be immense; including faster, safer, cheaper, more efficient vehicle transportation, coupled with extensive urban modifications. In a city steeped in innovation and technology, how can architecture respond to and influence these imminent changes? How Can Architecture Help? As the use of automated vehicles steadily grows, urban amenities and transport frameworks (personal parking spaces, lots, and garages) will eventually prove redundant, signalling a shift to centralized parking. Depending on fluctuating supply and demand, a series of transit hubs or nerve centers can serve as ‘home base’ for the vehicles. A hybrid live/work campus, designed to create, support, and, most importantly, progress autonomous technology, takes the form of a spatially efficient vertical tower with subterranean vehicle storage: an urban prototype constructed to serve a new model of mobility.
page 45
tulane school of architecture
CoExist A Study of the 21st Century Mosque in a Secularizing Society
Sanaa Shaikh
location
xx 21
Contesting the Mosque: The building of mosques, particularly in Europe and the United States, has been contested for the past few decades. Two reasons for this are society’s fear of the other and the mosque appearing as an alienating obstacle in the urban fabric of the city. The contesting of mosque construction suggests a new trajectory must be taken when building mosques in the 21st century. Rather than thinking of the mosque as simply a worship center for Muslims, it must accommodate the community needs of not only its Muslim users but also the needs of possible non-Muslim users. Essentially, a mosque is a community center: a place that reconciles the sacred and the secular. Reconciling the Sacred and the Secular: The thesis CoExist is a mosque community center in Detroit that ultimately takes elements found in the traditional mosque and reconciles them with the secular realm. Shifts in building geometry, the use of a walled garden, and the undulating edges within the building emphasize and break down the threshold between two worlds that have been at constant turbulence for the past decades. These moments of reconciliation are essentially a series of exterior spaces highlighted at the edges of the building and ultimately dissolve the threshold between the sacred and the secular.
page 46
thesis class of 2014—2015
Transforming the TrailerPARK Redeveloping a Suburban Prototype
location
29 xx
Julia Sharp
A Stigmatized Typology The mobile home park is a housing typology that is uniquely American. This formation of low-income housing has a long history within the country yet remains stigmatized and overlooked for its design potential. Many of these parks lack an internal organization and consideration for the context into which they are placed, further promoting the negative view associated with them. This thesis explores the redesign of the mobile home park with elements that promote order and amenity in attempt to promote a new prototype, which relates itself to its surroundings. Designing a New Park The thesis project looks at an existing mobile home park in Charlotte that presents the issues of poor organization as well as the possibility to focus on water management. The proposal addresses the issues of poor organization, isolation from the surrounding context, lack of collective space, and response to existing site conditions by providing a new prototype that utilizes elements, such as bioswales, to create both order and amenity. The multi-faceted approach looks at redesigning not only the mobile home park layout but also the individual units with a similar sensibility and consideration for cohesive organization and beneficial amenities.
page 47
tulane school of architecture
A Panoptimal Alternative Binding Nature with the Architecture of Institutions
Andrew Snedeker
location
40 xx
Transforming Bentham’s Panopticon: The goal of this project is to encourage a new institutional/architectural paradigm through the vehicle of a rehabilitative center for convicts of drug crime. Instead of facilitating jaded forms of negative reinforcement, the new program prioritizes positive, open, and sustainable approaches towards the alleviation of drug abuse. A Panoptimal Alternative serves to replace the destructive behavior of individuals with a visceral understanding of Self as intrinsically connected to community and environment, encouraging them to go forth into the world with an enlightened sense of resonance and change. Cultivating Community in Asheville, NC: A series of circular forms sprawl across a river valley, each funneling in the landscape of the nearby foothills. The largest of these collects water from a mountain stream. Branching off this main communal hub, an array of housing pods embeds itself within the forest. On the ground floor heavy stone walls encase bath-houses, kitchens, and dining halls. On the second level rings of cellular rooms emerge to house patients and on-site therapists. Through circularity, each individual room shares an orientation towards a common origin; through linearity, the whole of the institution gestures towards the greater horizon.
page 48
thesis class of 2014—2015
Promoting Preventative Care Sustainable Community Health Through Architecture
location
xx 07
Heather Tischler
Exploring Existing Health Care Conditions: Evaluating current urban conditions, heath care insurance spending, per capita income and unemployment rates should result in the appropriate type of health care facilities required in a community. By reducing the physical scale of health care facilities, health care can be re-focused on patients by creating a less institutionalized space, and make patients feel more comfortable. Integrating facilities into an existing community and urban fabric will make health care facilities more easily accessible, encouraging frequent use. Preventative Care Center Health care facilities in New Orleans are clustered along the Mississippi River, leaving communities like Gentilly, which is located to the north, unable to easily access health care facilities. This facility will not replace larger institutions, but help community members within these communities manage their health. By combining consultation and treatment rooms, a recreation facility, and community outreach, this new health care building typology will become part of people’s everyday lives, ultimately decreasing health disparities. Small scale architectural interventions can significantly contribute to the development of many under served communities.
page 49
tulane school of architecture
The Hong Kong Skybridge An Emergent Urban Paradigm for a Hyperdense Future
Charles Weimer
location
25 xx
In Search of an Emergent Approach From a simplified definition, emergence is the establishment of order from a state of relative chaos. In this process there is a marked transformation from low-level rules to higher-level sophistication of a system, and this higherlevel pattern arises out of parallel complex interactions between the system’s component parts. By experimenting with these explicit models of interactions, observable patterns, and unexpected mutations, designed systems have the capacity to evolve architectural elements which are able to self-structure, respond, and grow, exhibiting evolutionary dynamism within the city. Dissolving the Ground Plane of Hong Kong From the density to the noise to the dizzying urban hardscapes, Hong Kong is a city of chaos. The physical and social complexity of the dense urban dynamic denies a stable relationship between public and private spheres, and through extensive networks of overlapping roadways, elevated pedestrian footbridges, and underground railways, begins to obscure the traditional definition of ground. To accommodate living in density and respond to the projected hyperdensity of the near future, the skybridge was explored as the emergent architectural component to create a distinct network above the city and extend the public sphere to a new level.
page 50
thesis class of 2014—2015
Education Re[FORM] Integrating Civic Space into Philadelphia Public School Buildings
location
02 xx
Alfia White
Education’s Place in the Urban Network School buildings designed and constructed in the early 20th century no longer function efficiently and fail to align with contemporary society’s emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches, progressive urban perspectives, and innovation among individuals. Outdated buildings hinder programmatic operations of administering education, and when abandoned, result in blight and decay in urban communities. At the end of the 2013 school year the Philadelphia School District closed 23 of its public schools with the intention of resolving a budget deficit of $1.35 billion dollars over five years. An architectural rejuvenation will have positive repercussions on students, communities, and the urban economy. Generating a Culture of Learning This thesis seeks to construct an efficient contemporary system by integrating civic space into the structure of the public school. An analysis of the current school building typology, using Germantown High School as a case study, identifies inefficiencies and areas of opportunity in the ground floor level, the interior courtyards, and the interior circulation paths. The proposed intervention generates porosity within the school building in order to stimulate the connection between the school and surrounding community while simultaneously promoting a social culture within the school itself.
51 page 53
tulane school of architecture
Architectural Plasticity The Growth of the Non-Living System
Megan Williams
location
L-5 L-x
Anticipating Change and the Capacity for Growth Biologically informed architecture should be designed to have the capacity for growth and continual change. By designing structures informed by biology to have the capacity for growth, fluctuating functional activity, and continual transformation, architecture can begin to aid and anticipate such change and disasters. In biology, plasticity is the adaptability of an organism to change in its environment and between its various habitats. Utilizing science informed design methods that are intelligent and multifunctional through the use of components, parameters, and variations to develop an architectural project is one way to begin exploring plasticity and new potentials in architecture. Testing Architectural Growth Strategies Vines and tree grafting were examined as a biological growing inspiration for the system to determine how the system could grow. The system continually fluctuates in size and shape. The architecture is robotic in nature and more of a system than a building traditionally. The project is a marine science center located in New Orleans along the river. The center provides a place for preserving and celebrating aquatic organisms. The structure is experienced dually and each user is benefiting from one another to create one inhabitable place through the development of a diverse, flexible, and open-ended design.
C T U R A L P L A S T I C I T Y _the growth of the non-living system MeganWilliams // DSGN 6020 / Thesis Studio - Spring 2015
+ Deform
//Constrict
//Expand + Forces
//Constrict to Expand + Forces
+ Heat
//Constrict
//Expand
//Constrict to Expand
//Expand
//Constrict
//Expand to Constrict
//Connecting + Sensing
//Connecting + Knotting
//Shape Memory Alloy
3.00
3.30
4.00
4.30
5.00
5.30
//System Growing + Reaction
page 52 6.00
6.30
7.00
7.30
8.00
8.30
knotting/
on/ Pattern Layer
//Pattern Studies
thesis class of 2014—2015
Planned Informality The Incremental Creation of Space
location
xx 32
Charles Williams
The Top-Down Design and Informal Construction Architecture has traditionally been the realm of the wealthy, and rarely been available to the poor and homeless. This has caused social and infrastructure problems in slums around the world. People, left to create their own architecture, have built entire communities within every space of major cities, sometimes for decades. These communities are treated as a blight, creating a rift between the city and the people. By combining the design intelligence of architecture with the ingenuity of informal creation, infrastructure and design can help support a growing urban population that could not afford it. The Vertical City of Caracas Located in Caracas, between one of the city’s major thoroughfares and one of it’s larger informal communities, this project seeks to create a dialogue between the city’s wealthiest and poorest citizens. The site consists of a large concrete tower that acts as support structure for all the residents to build within. Designed as a ramp, vehicles can move freely up and down, transporting materials and people. Organized around the tower are communal spaces, as well as workshop space and room for market stalls. The spaces act to connect the tower back to the dense, but small scale community around it.
51 page 53
tulane ãç½ Ä school Ý «Êʽ of Ê¥ architecture Ù «®ã ãçÙ
Densifying Downtown An AlternaƟve ResidenƟal Strategy for Sprawling CiƟes
Emily Youngblood
location ½Ê ã®ÊÄ
34 xx
Returning to Density: A challenge facing the United States today is addressing the ramicaƟons of the urban renewal projects and policies of the 20th century, which “de-densied” the urban cores. While the policies and projects sought to improve the urban condiƟons by encouraging suburban growth, the resulƟng urban deserts and suburban sprawl now burden ciƟes. An alternaƟve residenƟal model to suburbanism is necessary, one of increased density in the city core which can couple the ameniƟes of both urban and suburban lifestyles. This thesis proposes the creaƟon of a new residenƟal typology downtown, which can transform the cultural aƫtudes towards sprawl and urban living. ReincorporaƟng Residents into Downtown: Located in San Antonio, Texas, Hemisfair, the 1968 World’s Fair site, has decayed to the point that it acts as an island, isolaƟng the Downtown from the eastern and southern sides of the city. UƟlizing the underused World’s Fair site as a locus for a new community, Hemisfair will be comprised of a series of mixed use residenƟal structures, interwoven with public park spaces, which emphasize a spectrum of public to private outdoor spaces. Repairing the exisƟng historic fabric, and reinvigoraƟng it with new residents, park space and new economic opportuniƟes, will enable the fair site to reintegrate within the city and will create an alternaƟve residenƟal model to the exisƟng suburban sprawl.
page Ö ¦ 54
thesis class of 2014—2015
page 55
tulane school of architecture