Final thesis title and description

Shape a community & Coop in the Crown Heights grid

How a community center and a cooperative housing project can cross-fertilize each other.

The existing real estate crisis forces us to rethink building typology so they are more resistant to fluctuations in the economic market. Cooperative housing is a good example of this kind of typology but it is a difficult project to realize. By combining the Coop with a community center, the existing structure of the community can be used as the fundamental basis to set up the project. The mix of these features in one site creates a tension between the microculture and the community culture respectively created by the Coop and the community center. The generic grid of Crown Heights creates the perfect condition to rethink this new housing typology.

review 3

Weeksville

The City Concealed: Weeksville from Thirteen.org on Vimeo.

Pin Up 8

Programme definition:

I want to work on a medium scale (between the scale of the block and a building). The housing stock is aimed at the average family of two parents with two children but by the many shifts in society is the exception rather than the rule. Therefore there is need for more variety. This can be obtained by designing and flexible types, specific types of design. A thorough typological research is the beginning of this design element.

Site.

I moved my particular site because it is illogical to think about the types of the block to an exception / boundary of the grid. So I have moved to the generic grid. The specific block located between St Marks Ave, Buffalo Ave, Prospect Pl and Rochester Ave. The block has very diverse neighbors and has a very important historical value. On this block is namely the Week Ville Heritage Center which houses one of the first free African Americans in New York. This is the origin place of Ville Weekly. After the rediscovery of this place is growing as a community with very diverse activities. On the vacant lot next to the protected buildings they currently build a 19,000 square foot community center.


I want to design on that spot a building for both residential and community functions and so look for how they can reinforce each other.

Quick Start Proposal - second model -

Crown Heights - Exploring the grid

Open publication - Free publishing - More brooklyn

This presentation is about the site Crown Heights, and in this analysis, we are exploring the grid. During our analysis we have seen a potential to improve the livability of the grid. That’s why we asked ourselves some questions related to these topics.
Our first approach was to define the borders of Crown Heights, between which we collected all kinds of data. But after a while we came to the conclusion that neighborhoods that are located in the grid don't have specific borders. The aspects that form these borders can change in a very short period of time. That is why we changed our area of analysis to a larger area, including parts of adjacent neighborhoods such as East Flatbush, Brownsville, Prospect Heights and Bed-Stuy.

Presentation made by Antrees Engelen, Koen Moesen, Pieter Van den Poel, Arnout Van Soom, and Sofie Verjans.

Quick Start Proposal

Presentation by Studio Brooklyn at GSAPP Columbia University

- intro -


- city ecology -


- transformation moments -


- official respons on part 1 -


- collective culture -


- living models -


- official respons on part 2 -


- final discussion -

casestudy: cooperative housing

Open publication - Free publishing - More casestudy

EXPERIMENT

As an experiment, I looked at the subway as a destination instead of an instrument to get from point A to point B. I have therefore taken the subway 24 hours and lived one day without daylight. On the map below I wrote down my findings and feelings.

 

00.00 Start
00.40 A man has made a drawing of me to make money, but I think that

      I do not look like it(see below).
01.02 I feel okay.
01.22 I feel sorry for the woman and child who sleep in the subway.
03.10 Alternating hot and cold makes it hard.
03.30 It is strange to realize that at day, mass transit is for 

      everyone, and at night it becomes a sleeping place for 
      thousands of homeless people.

06.00 Commuters come on stream.
06.30 I'm falling asleep.
06.54 I feel tired and shaken.
09.45 I feel lonely in the crowd.
10.00 The words "see something say something" do not make me feel

      safe.
10.20 Transporting people is only part of the job of the subway.

      Much more takes place there : shelter for the homeless, 
      (illegal)trade, art, care of drunken people.

10.40 Subwayman loves it to say "stay clear of the closing doors 

      please".
10.45 A drunkard talks to everyone and finds everyone beautiful
12.00 I have seen 3 people arrested and removed by the police. I
      think they are more alert than usual.

13.20 It feels like I see a lot of people for the second time. 

      They all start to look alike.
14.00 Just watched boxing on TV in the subway at Time Square.  

      All tourists are awake
14.30 I talked with a crazy old Italian woman
16.50 Solitude and the airco is too hard.
18.30 Peak hour is insane.
19.00 Many tourists leave the subway.
19.10 Now it is enough.
20.15 Man has a tattoo of an external hard drive.
22.31 People smell like alcohol.
13.30 A man gets a stroke and is carried away by the police and 
      people.
24.00 Stop

In the Time Square station, in the corridor between the blue line and other lines is a poem hidden in the ceiling:

overslept 

so tired 

if late, 

get fired 

why bother? 

why the pain? 

just go home 

do it again