My Final PDF can be downloaded at the following link:
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B2xgBV1UjribNGE1NjRiMGUtOGU2Yy00OGM0LTk5ODYtMGNiYzBlMDdjYWZi&sort=name&layout=list&num=50
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Place: Worcester, MA
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| Photomontage of the Character of Worcester: Revival of Industrial City |
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| Map of Worcester: Major transportation networks highlighted (I-290 & Worcester Railways) |
The site for my thesis project is Worcester, MA. Worcester is a former industrial city, which is now reviving its image, similar to Pittsburgh, as a technologically and culturally advanced city that connects visitors to Boston. Worcester is the second largest city in New England, after Boston. The city neighbors my hometown, and I travel in and through the city often.
Worcester has a strong, diverse character that is ethnically mixed with several different races that have assimilated to different neighborhoods throughout the city. But the city is often overlooked my many, who prejudgicely compare it to Boston.
But Worcester is a promising city that offers growth and potential, that fits well with my thesis project. It is one of the fewest cities that experienced a significant growth since the 2000 census count. When applying this specifically to my thesis project, this is a fitting location that would welcome the “transient mover.”
Worcester’s other strength is that it has the potential to be a major transportation hub for the Northeast Corridor to connect cities as far as Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York City to Boston and the rest of New England because it is situated ideally in the center of Massachusetts. This is even further possible due to the extensive railways that already exist within that city that currently connect to Hartford, Providence, and Boston for freight movement, but is severely underutilized for commuter movement.
Specifically, for my thesis project it is important that the site is well connected to other areas, with ease. The existing building stock of abandoned warehouses and mills, offers great potential for reuse and attachment/insertion strategies, as I explore the development of parasitic, portable architecture for the transient.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
1 + 3 + 9 = Position Paper v.2
Architecture needs to adapt to the changing nomadic nature of society with architecture that is portable and transient.
Today’s society has reverted back to the nomadic culture of our early ancestors, with changing economic, social, cultural, and environmental conditions that require re-transplanting to new environments. While the American lifestyle has become more mobile, our inhabitable environments remain stationary. This is no longer possible in our global, dispersed, portable world and architecture must respond.
In 2008, more than 10 million Americans moved from one county to another1, with almost 2 million of this group moving to different regions of the United States.2 The average American moves 11.7 times in a lifetime, and often moves every 5 years.3 This type of movement pattern most often means moving to a new home or apartment that is stationary but impermanent, in the fact they are often demolished within a 50 year lifecycle to make room for new buildings. With this constantly transient lifestyle, why can’t our habitable dwelling move with us in order to create a sense of permanence within our impermanent environments we move to. Great precedents exist from ancient times and nomadic cultures that still exist today, who have developed design patterns over thousands of generations to support the transient lifestyle. The economic, flexible, and lightweight qualities of this architecture can be adapted today with our advances in technology to provide shelter for today’s transient society. In such a way, the portable architecture necessary can be less parasitic and respond thoughtfully to changing ecologies. Because portable architecture takes into account movability, the value of these structures is in the minimal destruction it leaves behind. The successful application of portable architecture will require special attention to tectonic, spatial, and material characteristics that align with the needs of the current nomadic society of today.
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