Welcome to the online studio report for Architecture 282, the spring quarter second-year undergraduate design studio at Portland State University's department of Architecture. As our focus for the term is the investigation of community and collective experience, we recognize the importance of communication and shared information in fostering these themes. Hence, our new digital community--this blog.
Our non-virtual exploration seeks to imagine a community of dwellings and businesses in a dense and ever-changing neighborhood close to the urban core of Portland Oregon.
We are students of architecture, not developers. So over the next two months we'll be looking at the 'Portland Dense Housing' issue through a slightly different lens than what is normal out there under the construction cranes.
We will form our own design community, and will ultimately collaborate on a single 'development' to take place on the corner of north Mississippi ave. and north Fremont st. Instead of focusing on the developer-driven priorities of profitability and product marketing, we will base our work on often overlooked values--such as domestic ritual, collective social arrangement, the psychology of materials, and the physical, social, and phenomenological patterns of the surrounding neighborhood.
Yes, this project is purely hypothetical, but by exploring these priorities, we aim to delve much deeper than issues of mere 'style', 'image', or 'performance' in proposing an ideal by which future development may be judged.
Please visit this blog often and feel free to comment, as things are taking shape rather quickly as I write. We'll make sure to post all of our research and progress designs as this exciting project develops.
-your humble scribe,
Garrett Martin
BACKGROUND
Alert! This just in: it has been decreed by atmospheric fiat that the entire ground floor at street level must be devoted to public and/or commercial activities. This means that a mere 30,000 square feet are available for the purposes of dwelling and any collective spaces for use only by the residents. How can a balance between these uses and the imagined individual dwellings take a physical shape? How can these priorities negotiate with the values of open space, sunlight, and neighborhood responsibility?
STUDENT WORK
PRELIMINARY STUDIES:
'Mississippi Rose'
(Kai Pannu Sergey Marandyuk, Zephyr Anthony)
Vertical Horizon
Composite
Looking SOUTH: (downtown portland)
WEST PERSPECTIVE: ('mississippi rose')
Team C (Ian Coltman, Calder Erwin, Johnny Karam, Wendy Fan):
Ian and Calder: 'The Cooling Towers'
Wendy and Johnny: 'Mount Mississippi'
Team B (Brittany Teeter, Jeff Su, Frank Gonzalez):
The 'pistol'
The 'hanging gardens'
ASSIGNED: Monday, 28 April
DUE: Wednesday, 07 May
TO DO:
1. Monday-Wednesday: each team is to propose two massing "gestures" for the site, based on the following criteria:
• 15,000 square feet at the street level must be devoted to public and / or commercial use.
• 30,000 square feet above the street level must be devoted to residential use.
• Approximately 30% of the maximum volume of the cube measuring 100' x 150' x 65' high must be open. Some portion of this open space must extend from the 'roof' of the volume to the 'ground' or below; some portion of this open space must extend from one 'wall' of the volume to another, across the volume.
• Use all the background research compiled in the last two weeks as a basis for your design decisions.
• Each massing gesture must be made from white museum board or some other pale rigid boardstock which will contrast with the site model materials.
• Each massing gesture must be built to 1/16" = 1'-0" scale, and must fit into the site model.
• Each massing gesture must have a name.
2. Wednesday - Monday: each team must decide on two aggregations of the individual 'houses' proposed for assignment 05. Each aggregation must include a combination of all the user groups accommodated for (single occupant, extension, etc.) • These aggregations may include any combination of the user groups, as long as all are represented, and there is a compelling reason for the balance of use.
• Residential shared spaces may be included.
• These aggregations must not exceed a total of 30,000 square feet.
• These aggregations must be derived from two sources:
• The priorities for adjacency and open space determined for each in assignment 05
• The massing 'gesture' developed in part 1 of this assignment, including accommodations for open space.
• These aggregations must be accompanied by a space-planned and programmed proposal for the 15,000 square feet of public/commercial space at the street level.
• These aggregations must be presented as color-coded plans and sections at 1/8" = 1-0", true to the scale and topography of the site. The presentation may be 'rough' or 'sketchy' as long as it is accurate and comprehensive.
3. Monday - Wednesday: each team is to make improvements on the previous diagrams and massing gestures, and present a single diagrammatic scheme for the mid-term review / charrette. Each scheme must be presented as the following:
• A name.
• A massing gesture (model) at 1/16" = 1'-0" scale, to fit into the site model
• One 24x36 presentation board consisting of:
• A color-coded site plan (to-scale) multiple plans will most likely be needed, for multiple levels.• A color-coded site section, at the same scale as the plan. (minimum 1, possibly 2)
• One photo-collage (minimum) visualizing the massing model into a photo of the site. Best views are up and/or down n. Mississippi. Ave.
BACKGROUND How do you take a collection of wishes and requirements, and anticipate their conversion to physical spaces? The first step is to develop a diagram of all rituals / activities, qualified by a set of modifiers.
STUDENT WORK
Sergey Marandyuk:
Ian Coltman:
On-site Shared Childcare Scheme
Sergey Marandyuk:
Zephyr Anthony:
Johnny Karam:
Brittany Teeter: extended occupation: live-work 
multiples:
Extended Use: Roommate Apartments (Steven Christian)
Felix Velazquez (the nuclear family)
Aggregation
ASSIGNED: Friday, 25 April DUE: Monday, 28 April (PIN UP & discussion)
TO DO: 1. From the models, drawings, and discussions of the first two weeks of studio your are to assemble the spaces for domestic ritual into a collective, single 'dwelling'. This collection must include (quantitative):
• A 'space' for each activity shaped by your classmates, and a notation for its size (in square feet). The form of this quantitative result is a written LIST. Each team must compile and agree upon a single list.
• Feel free to add spaces and rituals which your team agrees are missing from the collection (e.g. outdoor spaces, multiples of sleeping rooms, etc.) By each student in the team, the list must be characterized by (qualitative):
• User:
o 1 student within the group must tailor his/her investigation to a single occupier/couple without children.
o 1-2 students within the group must tailor their investigation(s) to a nuclear family.
o 1 student within the group must tailor his/her investigation to an 'extended' occupation. (this definition is open-ended, and can be an extension of either 'user group' above. An example may be a guest-suite, a live-work scenario, in-house care, group-home, etc.)
• Adjacency. Based on the diagrams and proposed adjacencies provided at the end of assignment 02--and posted on the blog-- diagrammatically arrange the spaces adjacent to others as you see fit. Remember, this is not a plan--just a meaningful list of spaces.• Feel free to adjust the shapes of the spaces provided, change their suggested adjacencies, meld multiple rituals/activities into the same space as you see fit, but be mindful of honoring the priorities and sensibilities of the the prototypes.
• Aggregation. Once a diagrammatic arrangement is complete, duplicate it into a minimum of two and a maximum of four, and arrange them into a meaningful adjacency.
• Outdoor connection. Graphically represent the degree of outdoor connection required by each space, and shared within the aggregation of 'units'.
• Public vs shared use. There will be some gray-area here, so entertain all possiblities. If it is a single space that may be shared by all in the community, keep it separate from the others.
• Use color-coding, or similarly clear graphic description to illustrate the above criteria. The initial list and standard of graphic presentation must be decided unanimously within the group, but the diagrammatic arrangements--the 'units' are to be done ideally in isolation from your teammates. The idea here is to present a variety of approach for discussion.
There are no 'right' answers! Bring all alternates, developed to the same level of graphic acumen and color-coding to studio for pin up and discussion on Monday, 28 April.
