INDA ARCH DSGN 2

[y3s1-20192020]

Love, Children and Cats Stuyvesant Town is a modernist complex built in 1947 after the slum clearance of 1930. The inhabitants of the former "gas-district" were evicted in order to raze the neighbourhood. These are social housing units for war veterans and their families. However, this quarter of 11250 apartments for more than 25'000 inhabitants is from the beginning subject to extreme social obsolescence: expropriation of the former inhabitants of the slum, rents not honouring their cost promises and racial segregation are the most difficult examples of this. Currently, even if the racial segregation no longer takes place, Stuyvesant town survives under a commercial banner selling an idyllic community life protected by private security agents armed with nightsticks and pepper spray. The quasi-hotel management of the complex and the still high price of the apartments underline strong social tensions between the inhabitants. In fact, these tensions can be explained by a community disaggregation between owners and renters. Some speculate on a long-term investment and pay for hotel facilities (cleaning, waste management as well as fitness and private nursery). While the other, rents their apartments for a shorter period of time and does not generally take advantage of all these fee-based facilities. The result is a quasi-impossibility of meeting and social exchanges between these two worlds. The lists of complaints are as long as the island. The city dormitory never meets the mansion. That is why the aim of the project is to revitalize this social wound that has never healed. This required an understanding of how people with different social and historical cultures could develop a sense of belonging to this place and reconnect with the community. It turns out that the culture of space can be a good vector for social cohesion. We will then turn to the internalized landscapes. These landscapes experienced so many times by all. These urban sequences are part of the collective unconscious of all Manhattan inhabitants. The fire stair, escape is omnipresent on the facades of Manhattan. It is also present in popular culture as a formless place to live. The hidden loves are found there during the night, housewives hang their clothes on it and cats are the acrobats. The scaffolding creates ephemeral spatial sequences that can be experienced by everyone. Suddenly the sky falls on our heads, passers-by get closer, the noises change and the children have fun. Who is more suitable to occupy the space than cats and children? Finally, these constant landscapes change according to a logic that the walker does not fully understand but that affects him enormously. This appearance of chaos is regulated by the most logical and mathematical of urban planning tools: the grid. From the hypodamian plan to the New York grid, the matrix organizes the unorganizable. It becomes the stable element allowing peaks and depths, a superposition of layers resulting in moiré, event creators. These events that we want to find in Stuyvesant town. Applied to the Project, the grid is the stable structural element between fire escape and scaffolding. It becomes, in the system thus created, the second constant. The first invariable is the location of kitchens in its buildings. Even if the typology of the apartments were to be transformed; only the kitchens - for obvious technical reasons - stay in the same places. As a result, they are connected to the grid network through a vertical core. The primitive need to feed ourselves generates that of social sharing to perhaps give us the courage to mix ever more, by advancing the layouts of our system.

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Phase 3 

The Priva-city Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were born out of an ideological desire to import modernist principles into the United States. These tours in the park were only possible due to the tabula-rasa resulting from Manhattan's slum clearance. Le Corbusier's ideal dream tried to take root in a culture that was not ready to receive him. Stuyvesant Town quickly became the puppet of economy and politics: real estate speculations, failures and cheating on state subsidies supposed to allow low-cost rents. Today, Stuytown continues on its roots of discrimination - once racial, now based on social level- and egoism behaviour. We have analysed different obsolescence, the techno materials and ecological one are all converging towards a more global social obsolescence. Firstly The reduced insulation typical of the 1950s construction has been optimized in the more expensive rental apartments but not in the others. This results in moulds at the friction points of temperature differences. Subsequently, Apartments modified to accommodate one more room instead of the living room are in desperate need of living space. Afterwards, The mechanical and individual ventilation of the apartments is old and obsolete, it is an energy abyss that must be optimized. And above all, the scale of the complex and the layout of the park are not suited to the size and speed of the human being. Modernism has designed a masterplan that is pleasant to live from the sky but not from the inside. This error of scale does not encourage people to meet and to actively include them in the life of the park and the desire to preserve nature. The purpose of the intervention is to allow easy identification of Stuytown residents towards their homes and neighbours while having a broader impact on the technique and ecology obsolescences of the case study. To ensure a sense of security in the private sphere - which I believe is the basis for people to dare to interact with each other - privacy zones are redefined and interacted with each other in a controlled way. The major architectural tool, the bay window, in addition to enlarging the living area, allows you to project your protected privacy into the parc and control this exposure with sliding shutters. The construction of the living window allows natural ventilation in summer thanks to the opening flap against the vegetated part. This vegetated and one-eyed part connects in the corner with the kitchen window. This creates a small garden suspended and shared between two apartments. The bay windows are connected to the facade by a set of scaffolding that undoubtedly recalls the famous New York fire escapes on the facade. Anchored in the collective imagination and here habitable, they participate in the exchange between the inhabitants along the facade. They are a rule-breaker and tools of criticism. The entire facade becomes an experience through which one can observe - or not - the interaction - or not - of the inhabitants between them. The initial modernist complex becomes a priva-city : a human-scaled system where urbanism provides cohabitation between areas of different privacy levels; allowing everyone to withdraw into their intimacy or interact with others without feeling in danger. Is it possible to create interaction and a sense of belonging in a place without cultural roots through architectural intervention? « If you go to the best public spaces or squares or street in the world and take along the universal quality criteria -which the human scale is the most important one-. Also made with concern for architecture, details, materials, texture and enjoyment of the user senses. When all these things are actually made you have this feeling that you belong there, this is it !» Jan Gehl, interview 2017

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Phase 2 :

Understanding of the social vectors that can create a sense of belonging for people with neither the same culture nor the same history. Comparison of field experiences with diagram research

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Phase 1 : 

Site analysis and understanding of the social functioning of this modernist complex.

Emphasis on social obsolescence since its construction in 1948 until today.

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Strategy and me

Before ending the projects, coming back into me, an architectural student. While I was developing the IBA+ strategy, I was simultaneously also testing the strategy in reality as I want to develop a more intimate relationship to the strategy.

The start of this was a small chair in the center of communal space for my seniors at home and they wil use this chair to share their snacks.

So I design this simple pushable cart to help the senior without the need to stand up a lot when they are sharing food as their back are not quite well. However, the design iself isnt succesful in terms of functiona and taste.

So I started to apply the strategy by testing on both technical and asking for different user feedback according to the matrix of exposure groups. For instance, Inda Ajarns, different students, carpenter, etc. Which from that I have recieved varieties of feedback and able to generate a one day routine track of the usage of the cart.

THE IMPLEMENTATION

This cart itself has been a piece of architectural device generating conversation and feedback that touches through functional aspect, techniques, realm of intimate and the taste of the user. I think that is the value of this project.

PERSONAL REFLECTION

There are alot of people who keep asking me, why won’t you change the entire design of new cart rather still keeping the shape from the last one. I personally think that if it's happen to really be in the IBA+, this cart might be one of the designer's ideas and I believed that the designer themselves might not want to entirely changed their whole design but still keep the core of the cart  and embraces some minority changes to suit the users in terms of both functional and taste. Honestly, yes I do not think it is a well designed cart as well as it isn't my personal favourite since it has been quite a clash of feedback as well as time restrain. However, when I look at the cart I feel quite connected to it tho as I feel there is this dedicated details of feelings and emotions that are inserted in the cart. The functional stuff such as adjustable feet panels to suit user comfort, elastic rope to hold stuff on, small corner on the table for people to put stuff, soft touches on the handrail or even adjustable panels for different functions. While I was designing this cart I always think about how people will use, what will they feel like, how would the cart will use in long terms, will it suit the context? I think the project has brought me up to think a lot more about people, we could not accept every feedback.As well as time management, I have messed up some communication with the technicians (such as he applied dark wood color before I would tell him what color I wanted) but I managed to try to fix as much as I could in the moment.I think to make people appreciate our design sometimes it is not as easy as people might have thought.This is why every feedback matters.

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THE ALGORITHM

The algorithm acts as an automatic generator that creates a combination list of innovation according to the architect's preferences. First, the designer needs to fill in the numbers and information of the clients, then it would categorize the client into different innovation experience groups. Secondly, the designer or architect could select their preference architectural elements and the scale of their housing proposal. Lastly, the algorithm will generate a combination of different successful projects according to the best preferences from each of the exposure groups from my book publication. It is to maximize the preferences of each group as possible.

The designer could fill in the numbers and information of the clients, then it would generize the client exposure groups. Then they could select their preferences architectural elements and size.Which the algorithm will generate a collision of different successful projects from the statistic of the exposure groups.

As time passes, there is a change in demographics and climate, lifestyle, as well as technological advancements. Innovative solutions will enable us to manage our homes more smartly, more efficient and more flexible. This strategy is created for people to embrace the failure of the innovation and appropriately look deeper into the connections towards the user interactions to enhance the quality and inclusivity of the innovative elements. Sometimes an innovative product might not be able to answer every person's solution but it could be developed to meet its maximum capability to fit in with people's daily routine without faultily. This is why every feedback matters.

[y3s1-20192020]

IBA+ ORGANISATION

IBA+ we embraces the failure and it inspired us in developing more on how the innovation could grow into the realm of public housing. Our goal is to apply our strategy to enhance the quality and inclusivity of the innovative elements supporting the prototyping phase and capitalising user feedback.

Faces of Users

[y3s1-20192020]

     This project called Porosity, the term Porosity or void fraction mean a measure of the void spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume. This term is perfectly describe the strategy that is being used to fix the obsolescence of the original build. The strategy that is chosen to refit the ecology of the housing project is eliminating an empty unit and rearranging the floor plan and deals with existing structures to fit with the new activities that going to happen in the building. The main objective of this strategy is to first, create an interaction between neighbors. Second, interaction between people from different floors and last, interaction between the private residents and public. From creating a small social interaction within the building to create a community within the Queenbrdge houses. Also open up the space to allow natural light and air ventilation into the building. This strategy help improve the quality of life of the residents and people who live in the queensbridge area.

      Start with breaking down the wall at the kitchen room to create a sharing kitchen between the neighbor because every units are sharing the wall and the kitchen room are connected. Sharing kitchen will help create a social interaction between neighbors. After that, take out multiple units that are empty to create a communal space for both people who are living in the building and people who are not the residents. Frist, divided the space into 3 seperate zone. Private, Semi-Private and Public zone. There are around 60 buildings in the private zone. Each of theses building have at least one floor that are sharing space. These sharing space are used for activities such as Dining area, Laundry room, Share kitchen, Co-working area. In each units of the private area have a shared kitchen, too create more space for the user. Second, Semi private zone. There are 24 buildings in this zone. The first floor of the building are open to the public and the Fourth to sixth floor are private. Sharing space are use for library and fitness. The public area has around 8 buildings, because it is located in the middle of the queensbridge houses and the most crowded area these buildings are fully open to the public and are used for shops, office, church, and a space for art exhibition.  

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Kowloon walled city was found in 1898 started as a military fortress and later became a small village after the war. Emigrants started coming into the city due to poverty in other areas or countries such as China. At its peak, Kowloon Walled City became home to over 33,000 people in just two hectares of land the size of about two rug fields making it the densest place on Earth at the time in the year 1990. Kowloon walled city is a very dense city located in Hong Kong itself. The walled city is like another country within Hong Kong, it goes by a completely different system from the government where they are not in-charge, however the Triads. Most of the land in Kowloon Walled City is basically granite and rocks which makes the land itself pretty strong allowing Kowloon walled city to be constructed purely without foundations up to 14 stories high.

[y3s1-20192020]

(F)UNESCO MASS PRESERVATION

Scale 1:4 Portion of Facade

Mold casting technique

The prototype portrays the physicality of the replications through the construction process. Each generation of Casa Mila will apply the different technique of construction, but as (F)UNESCO aim to create mass preservation, the method of constructing will be mass-produced. The technique of mold casting was applied in order to make a series of facade panels, where you could cast the same shape and copies for several times.

[y3s1-20192020]

Material analyze

The okohaus built by frei otto is result of that effort for human. It was sustainable architecture project in berlin. that was located in the site that was formal Vatican embassy.

It was surrounded by forests. Each residents build their own house, with the effort to respect nature by making a grass roof on the top, use solar panels, reuse water. It was successful quite project. So the residents live almost 20 years.  But the problem is what happened when this house demolished.

It is a sustainable architecture but it doesn’t remain forever and someday, it has to be demolished.

what they did for ‘respect nature’ just cause more environmental burden not a respect nature .

The US EPA in 2016 says construction demolition produces about 534 million tones of debris per year.  

As you can see in this graph, most of the material takes over hundreds of years to biodegrade. Concrete which comprise seventy percent of the construction debris is non biodegradable.

I analyze every single materials in this house for each units and the color means possibility of demolishing. Then, I divided all units into 4 types with the starting side of breaking.

 Below material shows de-comolishing strategy of each type and material analyzation.     

[y3s1-20192020]

Concrete recycling experiment - concrete cannibalism

Strategies for recycling concrete exist already, but the energy and lavor involved in this recycling is suspect, and the quality of the aggregate is low. Papers on the recycling of concrete make no references to the idea that one could take a block of concrete from the construction site and use it as a load bearing brick.

The reality is that today the majority if concrete is landfilled because a solution to build random sized concrete into the main material stream has yet to be provided. 

The weird pattern you see mimics the growth of trumpet flowers that is exist in the okohaus garden, a kind of vine. It increase outside exposure of the surface. From different scale, it could Offer environment for bacteria and lichen, become a supporter for vine.

Below video show the process of concrete breaking. I carved with CNC and break it 10 concrete blocks.

Then I scan every broken pieces. And analyze dimension, volume, angles of every single pieces. I found out for one breaking process, the volume reduce into  25.2pecent of previous one on average. It means [30x30x30cm]  cm cube become [18x18x18cm] cube from first breaking and [4.7x4.7x4.7cm] cube in forth breaking.  I conclude 4 breaking process is enough for physical decomposing.

I find out stones that are roughly the same proportion and angle to each other,  and build the wall in rhino virtually and make several prototypes. In reality, the gap between rhino is filled with small concrete pieces. This suggest a kind of algorithms workflow connected to digital for random sized concrete debris.

First prototype of recycling concrete wall.  

Experiment of the pattern and breaking

[y3s1-20192020]

De-comolishing Project

Phase 4  

Building process and demolishing process of Okohaus

Okohaus IBA project

 As Okohaus represent as a precursor project of the sustainable architecture it shows eco environmental process of building - responsible energy use, natural resource recycling and systems for creating new resource. Currently, it has very few modifications, both inside the house and abroad, and the vast majority of the original families that went through the whole process of project conception still live there 20 years later. 

 The problem occurs when the new families come. Initially, newcomers were supposed to be able to ‘demolish the old nest’ and start over again, but this has never been the case. Moreover the building gets obsolete and prepare for the total demolishing. However, when it faced with demolishing, it just became same house that goes to landfill not a precursor project of the sustainable architecture.

As time goes by, we all die. Earth still remains and there are not only humans . There are million of non human beings. But we pretend like we are the only creature on the earth. And produce like we live forever.

 As a human and a student who study architecture, I’d like to offer a modest proposal to suggest proper environment for human, but also for nonhuman.

The De-comolishing project. An house demolishing process by human decomposing.

Pollution and several global changes have allowed biodecomposition of concrete. Concrete is modified by chemical and physical impact of microorganisms, plants, lichen. I adapt this process in  human activity.

We break the concrete wall, and rebuild and live there. The food such as coconut oil, mustard oil activate concrete erosion.  After 10 or 20 years, break, rebuild and break again and gain. The concrete debris become small and between the process, nonhuman organism intervene and decompose concrete.

Picture below show specific human and non human action changing during decomolishing.

Section of Okohaus red wall refers to movable wall (de-comolishing wall)

Plan of de-comolishing process

1989-2018yrs

2019-2024yrs

2024-2034yrs

2034-2044yrs

2044-2060yrs

[y3s1-20192020]

Unité d’Habitation, Marseille

After Bright leaves Unité, the building itself has already transform into the city purification of Marseille. The interior which was inhabited by ivy, moss, fern and microorganism. Therefore the ecology would starts to recover itself and spread through Marseille little by little. The value of certain things can be determine depends on how we look at it or with what perspective. In the end, Unité d’Habitation might just be an oblivion for the next generation of people or the city purification of Marseille.

Looking through a perspective of people in 2070, where all the greenery and natural resources are almost depleted. Unité d’Habitation had turned into the purification for them and the starting point for the nature to slowly recover.

[y3s1-20192020]

DIY and Seasonal aspects

The diagrams above show what tools and how the dwellers of the estate can make the intervention from the reused material.

The picture shows how the intervention is being built by the dwellers through different season around the year

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Unité d’Habitation, Marseille

2070,  Unité d’Habitation becomes the city purification of Marseille without anyone knowing what is actually happening to it or who made Unité into this stage...The answer lies within Unité.

Before 2070, Bright an architect from Thailand traveled to Marseille, finding his way to  Unité d’Habitation in order for him to preserved Unité under the circumstance where Marseille had transform and all the natural resources are almost depleted. His strategies is to bring Unité back into the wild, allowing nature to overgrown the structure by the the small fragmented interventions, which would allows the small ecosystem to slowly inhabit the building. Starting from the very first day he arrived at Marseille, finding his way through the forest, exploring the real iconic modern architecture in completely different context. Before starting to install his interventions to experiment with the vegetation and allows it to sustain itself while slowly taking over the structure and turned into the real city purification.

His intervention started from just a very simple camp for him to be able to store the materials he need for his experiment before he started to build his own entrances, which allows him to explore the interior of the building and start to experiment with the vegetation. While he experimenting, he also observed the relationship in the ecological system around Unité. This leads to the installation of artificial nest that wouuld allows Hirondelles, an engendered species of swallow he spotted to inhabit the space and transform the environment inside into the nature. Finally he solved out the way that would allows the vegetation on higher levels to sustain itself through the help of irrigation system and gutter which would allows the water source to occur inside the building and allow them to grow even higher.

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Pruitt-Igoe We-grow