Infill housing Development Project- Surrounding Communities

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 This site was very challenging because it is sort of a center point for multiple communities with a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds.  Before beginning the design process, I felt as though it was very important to get a feeling of the overall context of the surrounding communities.   The following sheets on this blog posting quickly summarizes the surrounding communities.

So as one can see, the major hurdle to this site is designing a community that compliments, or ties together, the surrounding communities.

Infill housing Development Project

The first project for the Graduate Studio III class was an infill housing development.  The site, seen below in a google earth image, is located in Starkville, MS, on the corner of Scales and Whitfield Streets.

Below is the problem statement and a project schedule, which was to be used as a guide throughout the design process.

Eyelevel Perspectives for Cohousing Development

This post contains perspectives used to illustrate the different spaces within the design.  Two eye-level perspectives can be seen below.

The perspective to the right illustrates the courtyard areas created by the single family detached housing units.  I believe these spaces would be good for such amenities as play areas for children.  The perspective to the right is a view of the courtyard, created by the single family attached housing units, as seen by a player on the east end of the bocci court.

This perspective is a birds-eye view of the site.  The view is from the northeast portion of the community gardens, facing southwest across the development.  The main purpose of this drawing is to show the major spaces created by the trees and housing units.

Cohousing Project Detail Plan

For the final phase of the Cohousing Development project, we were asked to fully develop one area of the preliminary plan, seen below.

For the detail plan, I chose to focus on the space created by the single family attached housing units.  The Detail Plan can be seen below.

As you can see from the plan above, the Bocce Court was placed in the formal courtyard created by the single family attached housing units.  As mentioned earlier the view from the courtyard to the west is terminated by the arbor structure, which shelters the outdoor fireplace and pizza oven area.  This area is designed with movable tables and chairs, ideal for lounging or dining.  There are pedestrian lights to illuminate the spaces at night.  There are two raised seating planters for bocce spectators and people enjoying the outdoors.  As the eye moves east, across the central open space, the feeling gets to be less formal, until you reach the community garden area.  At noon, during the solstices and equinoxes, the public art sculpture casts a shadow which lands in the middle of the boulders placed in the design.  The tree formation in the community garden area represents the star constellation Canis major.  This constellation contains the largest star in the sky, Serrius.  The Ancient Egyptians said Serrius could be seen in the sky on the night before the summer solstice, which meant the next day the Nile would rise (this process was the backbone of their agriculture).  Because of this, the constellation is positioned to be viewed standing on the boulder receiving the summer solstice shadow.  The red line connecting the fruit trees is actually an 18" red fiberglass box, which is illuminated at night.  The fruit trees themselves have up lighting so that their effect can be noticed at night, at the time people enjoy the stars.  I feel as though this design definitely promotes a sense of community within the development.  Finally, as mentioned above, the view from the central courtyard to the east is terminated by the greenhouses and ornamental grasses.

Cohousing Project Preliminary Plan

For the preliminary phase of this project, I chose to develop conceptual plan 1.  The major deciding factor for choosing plan 1 was the fact that all the single family attached homes addressed the common green, as well as created smaller courtyards extending off the common green.  There was still one major problem that remained to be solved, "How do I address Collegeview Street, while also designing with the existing topography on site?"

This plan was very symmetrical, and I was still not pleased that the school buildings isolated the courtyards from each other, as well as the gathering space, which tied all areas of the development together.  Another problem I had was that the gathering space, which was to have a fireplace and pizza ovens, was too far away from the community, which would result in it not getting used very often.  The preliminary plan I developed, based on these major design issues can be seen below.

As a solution to addressing Collegeview Street, I oriented the southern half of the site with the street and left the northern half unchanged.  The entire site was moved south, so that it would be possible to address Collegeview Street.  The school buildings were moved to front Collegeview Street.  The buildings are meant to be mixed use, with businesses and a bus station on the bottom floors and classrooms on the upper floor.
The outdoor gathering space, with fireplace and pizza ovens was relocated to terminate the view to the west from the single family attached housing courtyard.  The greenhouses were relocated to terminate the view of the openspace to the east.  I was very pleased at the direction this project was going, but because of time restrictions left in the semester we had to proceed without fully completing this portion of the design.

Conceptual Plan 2

This post will cover the second Conceptual Plan that is developed during the fast paced class exercise.  The plan can be seen below.

In this conceptual plan, the single family attached units still formed a formal courtyard.  The school buildings were moved to the outer edges to terminate the view to the north and south, while in the formal courtyard.  The single family detached units were arranged to be their own separate communities, within the cohousing community.  I felt as though this solution did not promote a sense of community as well as conceptual plan 1.
Below are two sections of the plan (the cut lines can be seen on the plan above).

Conceptual Plan 1

The next class period we were asked to choose one of the two functional diagrams we created and develop two conceptual plans, with two sections per plan.  This post will cover Conceptual Plan 1, as seen below.

I liked this plan because the single family attached units, seen in light blue, created a formal courtyard.  I felt this would help bring residents together, especially with the bocce ball court being in this area.  The single family detached units are arranged to create several smaller courtyards, while defining the edges of the common green.  The two common houses were placed to terminate the view on either end of the common green.  Mixed use buildings were placed along Collegeview Street, but this exceeded the limits set in the project description and would have to be removed before moving into the preliminary plan.  The major flaws in this plan are: 1. The community does not address Collegeview Street 2.  The two school buildings separate the courtyard created by the single family attached housing, in essence creating two separate courtyards with a central gathering space isolated from both spaces.
The two sections, whose cut lines can be seen in the Conceptual Plan above, can be viewed below.