Research Topic #1 - Housing Prototypes

The new use that is most amenable to a mixed-use of commercial on the ground floor and multi-family residential on the second and third floors. I began my research by investigating different housing types for multi-family use. I first looked at data, site & home design and neighborhood amenities for low-rise apartments.


After researching basic information concerning this building type, I began to investigate different housing types. From the book Apartment Footprints edited by Roger Sherwood, I acquired several examples of different housing units. The first is Alvar Aalto's Interbau 1957 Hansarviertel Apartments in Berlin Germany. This an example of the courtyard housing type. This type was adapted from the courtyard house to a multi-family use. It features a central "gathering" space in which other spaces are arranged around. This central space acts as a central courtyard.

This typically results in units that are of the same size. Therefore, families that require larger (or smaller) units are not accomodated very easily.

The second housing type that I researched was a 'skip stop' organization which arranges the units around interior courtyards. The apartments known as Walden 7 by Taller de Arquitectura located in Barcelona, Spain are an excellent example of this type. Stairs and narrow walkways connect different levels together. This unit design allows for a variety of sizes from small single room flats to larger maisonettes. These units are typically distinctive and two story layouts are available.

The Rue Franklin Apartments in Paris, France are an example of flexible planning. These units are unique in design. However, the major spaces are typically connected in a french enfilade arrangement.

Units of this type usually require more square footage which means fewer units are available, leading to higher cost per unit.

After investigating this source I turned my research to specific architects that have addressed housing issues and types. I initially went to Le Corbusier in a paper entitled, "A Typological Housing Design: The Case Study of Quartier Fruges in Pessac by Le Corbusier". After the turn of the 20th century he was influenced by the industrial revolution and searched for ways to simplify or automated housing design. Corbusier's typological housing design allowed for rational prototypes using the golden proportion. Quartier Fruges in Pressac, France gave him the opportunity to test many of his theories. He developed five housing types for this project. They are the "staggered" type, the "Z-formation", the arcade", the "skyscrapper" type, and the "free-standing" type. This allowed for a variety of units based on the same proportions. Le Corbusier wanted a "set of rules to organize visual forms on both the exterior and the interior of the structure."

Corbusier used the abstract concept of 'cellules" to desgin low-rise clustered housing. Jose' Luis Sert expanded on this idea in later years with his design of the Eastwood Complex on Roosevelt Island in New York. His use of 'cluster' housing and open courtyards allowed residents to have magnificent views of Manhattan.

Interim Thesis Schedule (Fall 2008)

I set weekly goals to help plan my time and to keep me on track for the interim between semesters 3 and 4. This should allow me to be prepared for the Schematic Design Presentation at the beginning of the January Intensive.

Instructor Feedback

Angelo Logan, August 08 Intensive
Feedback by Heinrich Hermann following final review on Aug 23, 08

Hello Angelo,

As I look at my notes from the review and revisit the paper copy of your proposal, these thoughts come to mind:
· During the week in Boston you managed to identify an appropriately smaller part of the huge complex you had selected and it strikes me now that it would allow you to focus in one building on both components you initially aimed at, i.e. at historic preservation and sustainability, and that you have to deal within the same building with both new and existing construction. I find it overall a very promising, useful and potentially very valuable project.
· My assessment of you based on working with you during the eight days of the intensive is that you are a very serious, committed, dedicated, and thoughtful practitioner. I also got the impression that ‘Design’ does not come easy to you (suggested by the vignettes/sketches on the case study diagrams page as well as those on the Lemp Brewery page (where the fenestration overlooked the very important stone banding)). Also, in your floor plan sketch of the sketch problem, the plan leaves an enormously deep zone of space on the right which makes one wonder what your thinking is of possible floor plan layouts given the unavailability of light in parts of the space – but you could of course have been thinking of unit-internal light wells); the heights of the trees you grow will play a role in the configuration of the light wells around the courtyards, unless they are open to the sky.
· I suggest therefore to restrict your ‘large scale’ case study focusing on urban restoration/intervention to only one, namely the historic Pabst Brewery.
· Beyond that, your precedent study will have to focus much more on typologies of very specific bearing on your proposed design, such as interior courtyards, plantings in courtyards, winter gardens, roof terraces, appropriate housing plans that correspond with your basic layout ideas, access paths to interior courtyards, access paths to housing units in the way you suggested versus several stair cases, the strategic location of elevators in your layout (or the avoidance of them given the limit in height)……
· Given the image you showed of the dilapidated roof, my guess is that at least the roof, possibly all slabs as well will have to be demolished
· Once again I suggest you look a common European approach to historic preservation that seeks to use new intervention as a way to enhance the qualities seen in the old, both by deferring to the old and intervening forcefully, while subtly (think of the example of Carlo Scarpa). Here you have to find your own approach, of course, but it would be very helpful to you to expand your frame of mind and explore such ideas as well.
· This could be a way to help you formulate the ‘thesis’ dimension of your thesis better, e.g. the work’s relation to time and the ‘intensifying’ of the felt presence of time through your intervention
Good luck with it all, Angelo, dive into it intensely!

Due for all:
By Sunday, Aug. 31: complete your assessment of the Thesis Assignments between Intensives 3 and 4, scan, and email me for comment
By September 7: upload revised pages on Angel

Intensive Presentation