THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD

You've seen (many) of the alternate site plans, you've read about/wintessed/experienced our extremely productive charrette, so what has come from all this sound and fury? What path will we chart as sixteen students tackle a half city block to generate a single provocative, beautiful, and livable community for our clients?

First up is a generic 'hybrid template' master plan of the site, derived from the clients' comments during the charrette:
lower level:

upper level:

This diagram was based on the following major priorities we reached during the charrette:
1) Provide a 'plinth' of storefront uses upon which residences can sit. the change in level can enhance security and privacy while maintaining a close connection to the neighborhood, to daylight, and to views.
2) Expand the number of full residences to 8, and incorporate all residences into some sort of shared communal space and uses.
3) Use the upper level of the historic brick building at the Russell st./Albina ave. corner for all indoor activities to be shared by the residents, but make it easily accessible to all.
4) More dense and attached residences are preferable to detatched, 'suburban' configurations.
5) Add some public program that 'gives back' to the neighborhood--beyond merely gentrifying through retail. Result: provide a new space for 'Do Jump!' theater's acrobatics school, and allow it to share some of the communal open space.
6) Provide retail uses which will directly serve the residences and the immediate neighborhood. Result: small corner market/deli, flower shop, cafe, etc.
7) Avoid surface parking lots by burying it. Keep it safe and secure.
8) Sculpt the common outdoor spaces, make sure they work as extensions of the adjacent interior spaces and uses.
9) Keep it flexible, and DON'T BE AFRAID TO PROPOSE UNUSUAL AND NEW IDEAS!
10) As for materials and general building massing, it was determined that the industrial character of the neighborhood be used as a precedent, but should be softened somewhat to allow for large expanses of daylight, and more humanistic materials where the buildings come in direct contact with one's non-visual senses, such as touch, smell, memory, etc. A generic structural diagram--which is to be applied to individual elements and the project as a whole-- was generated:

Call it a cross between the 'habitat 67' project (shown in a previous post) and a garden pavilion. Like the site plan, this is meant as a mere template upon which the students can apply their most clever ideas with utmost beauty and elegance.

Now that we have a direction, how will it be followed by sixteen creative minds?
First, the site program was divided into pieces which will be developed either independently, in pairs, or in trios.
A questionnaire was generated which queried each student as to his/her preference for individual program elements, collaborative conditions, and general strengths and weaknesses within the creative process. The following matrix was developed as a result:

Much head-scratching and hand-wringing ensued, and an assignment of tasks was made, in which everyone was given either first or second choice of element to develop for the remainder of the term:


Will we make beautiful, meaningful, and progressive architecture out of this?
Will the whole transcend the mere sum of its parts?
Will traditional ideas about commnal living and neighborhood urban development be re-thought and supplanted by a new set of innovative proposals?
Will the clients embrace this new way of living?
Will the students have achieve an enlightened understanding of the collaborative process and the issues related to working with clients?
If you stay tuned I'm sure you will find answers to all these questions, and probably a whole slew of new ones cropping up as we move into this next phase.

We will continue to post student work and other interesting things as they're created.
And lastly, SEE THE RESULTS IN PERSON AT OUR FINAL PRESENTATION, WEDNESDAY NIGHT, 06 JUNE!! (details to follow)