DD Peer Review: Alice

Alice and Tyler began their review by identifying the missing link between the Navy Shipyard and Brooklyn Bridge Park, which justified their formal logic of the diagonal line across the city block as well as determined their targeted audience for the site: the “techie” workers and other young professionals that live and work around Dumbo. Introducing their project within this framework seemed to be successful, but I think that the determination of a term that could better define and encompass this strategy is necessary. Though a missing link carries some strong imagery, I think something more like “Collaboration via Transportation Landmark” or something similar develops the idea of the link a bit further. Continue reading DD Peer Review: Alice

Dan Kiley – Exhibition Roundtable

The exhibition was very open ended, and the panelist tried to level with the audience and create an environment that does not create any form of hierarchy. The panelists were landscape professors from Penn State, but there was a special guest, Jim Nickroll, who was in charge of archiving architectural works from Columbus, Indiana. The roundtable exhibition was set up along with the help of landscape students from Penn State, who did a good job in categorizing and creating typologies for various plants and trees found in Dan Kiley projects around the United States.

What I found very interesting was the office environment of Dan Kiley back in the 1960’s, where the office was located in the middle of woods and looked like a residential building, rather than an office. From the pictures and explanations from Mr. Nickroll, there seemed to be a tight working environment among the co-workers, but also bonding between the workers also seemed to be very highly stressed at Dan Kiley’s office. There were a lot of times, when the workers went out for a swim in the lake or went sailing on the weekends, but also during the free times when they had breaks from work.

I think Dan Kiley saw the importance of his office and situated it amongst the woods, which helped the workers to focus on their projects, but also be close to nature rather than being in a large city and be caught among the busy urban life. In addition, Kiley looked for young workers, who had little work experience and handed them large responsibilities, which really set them off to a fast pace career paths.

There’s lot to learn from the projects of Dan Kiley and what he did for the town, Columbus, Indiana, but it’s also important to note his influences with his coworkers and how he has inspired students in 2015 and how his works influenced them.

 

Biophilia: Brad and Amanda

Stephen Kellert is a well-decorated scholar and professor at Yale University. He holds numerous awards and titles all related to the fields of architecture and forestry. Kellert’s thesis is simple and clearly stated, “Incorporating biophilic design into modern development is critical.” This boils down to the idea that people are disconnected from nature in the contemporary built environment and because of this are more likely to neglect the buildings they inhabit. We are more likely to invest in a building if we are emotionally attached to it and we become emotionally attached by making a building biophilic. He argues that restoring environmental design should incorporate the aspects of sustainable design practiced today, and biophilic design like a relationship to vernacular and organic design. Kellert tries to support his argument but ultimately fails to provide any irrefutable, compelling evidence. Because of his broad generalizations and vague terms like nature and modern, it becomes hard to draw any conclusion from his writing. Using his descriptions an argument could be made for any building somehow relating to nature or relating to the vernacular. He is essentially arguing for ‘good’ architecture, something that isn’t debatable. Kellert fails to acknowledge the destructive nature of construction and therefore loses some credibility for not even recognizing a crucial aspect of buildings.

His argument is still interesting in the sense that it opens up discussion about sustainability (a word that has also received much criticism for its ambiguity). Architects and buildings can be certified as sustainable but these ratings become superficial as the building ages. Ratings are done at the time of construction and never followed up with an analysis of how the building performs with daily occupant use. Kellert’s model proposes that sustainability is the industry standard, and therefore isn’t graded by a list of requirements, but instead is judged by its psychological and physical effects on people.

  • Do you think the goals of restorative design are appropriate for all forms of architecture (low-budget, residential, commercial, industrial)?
  • Kellert expresses a need for an increased emphasis on positive impact design that he feels is not being met in modern design. If LEED were to include biophilic requirements into its certification criteria, would that prompt an increased value for positive impact design among architects?

Work. Play. Live. Unite.

Alice Stewart Castner // Tyler Rafferty

Walking through Brooklyn, one is likely to notice the diverse neighborhood typologies that serve just as diverse groups of people. DUMBO plays an important part in Brooklyn’s rapidly changing landscape, and has an opportunity to mend together otherwise separated communities. To the west is the Brooklyn Bridge Park, a place for play and leisure. To the east is the Naval Shipyard, a newly re-purposed area for small businesses and techies. Our design proposes a mixed use site that connects both disciplines of work and play.

By connecting two corners across the site, the design begins to break away from the a-typical grid of Brooklyn. Encouraging more efficient circulation across a network of strict linear movement, our site provides a central subway terminal that serves both tourists and the working class of DUMBO.

The mixed use site places an emphasis on outdoor social spaces,  with respect to the recent influx of techies and artists. The site is designed to encourage collaboration between local artisans and fast paced commuters. To do this, we emphasized subway level commercial space as well as street level commercial space. Every street level space on the site, is designed as a public investment, each encouraging stimulation and unity within the site.

Located on York Street lies a hybrid building containing a performance center on the first two levels, with a daycare and offices above. The design adapts to its surroundings through its form to accentuate specific outdoor conditions. The facade facing the outdoor theater reacts through replication and layering of the theater’s radiating seating. The opposite end of the building serves as a boundary condition to a small plaza on the corner of the site. Aside from adapting to site features, the building also shares an immediate connection with the transportation hub and market below to develop a shared language between all site programs. Through this language workers, tourists, and commuters can find a sense of unified community within DUMBO.

 

DD Statement: MULTI-FACE INTERACTION IN THE CITY

As New York City progresses from summer to winter, collective outdoor spaces become dead, and the communal way of living that is so appreciated in the open plazas of the city seems to disappear. Our goal is to create a space that can be inhabitable in both the winter and summer months, and can act as a central hub for the communal experiences that an environment like New York City has to offer.

Our solution is to take the single-face of “the plaza,” or ground plane, and tilt it so that the public can have a multi-face interaction with the public spaces. “The plaza” is no longer a looming empty plateau, but a welcoming and sheltering place to be.

The path that cuts through the sites diagonally connects the bustling western side of the site to the more quiet and residential east side. It offers a chance for the two sides to finally have a relationship that encourages interaction. Although a lot of program will be put into our site, for the community it will be a welcoming public park space built for them, not a massive inaccessible corporate block. The path bridges from building to building while underneath there are secondary paths that connect the north and south edges of the site. The subway station in the southwest corner folds up to invite people into the block. As it swoops down it meets the market place plane that is swooping up, with a public outdoor farmers market on top. The performance center plane both provides a means of shelter for the indoor studios, as well as an outdoor forum and theatre space. The office and daycare planes offer private oases for productivity beneath, and recreational areas up above.

The block as a whole has been thought of and molded into an ever-lasting public plaza, where people may flow in and out, up and down, and through the site. Social interaction is encouraged, and that is what will make this city block a thriving example of communal living throughout the year.