Circles of Community

Fall 2021 | ARCH 205 - Architecture Design I  |  Professor Shawn Lutz |  Rhino, Illustrator, Physical Model 
Team: Ekaansh Kalra, Jayne Goodman
Third Ward, Houston
“I see them as I walk the Third Ward of Houston, the rhythm of their shadows, the square of the porch three over four like the beat of a visual gospel.”  - Dr. John Biggers. As Dr. Biggers describes, the Historic Third Ward is a symbol of the rich history and culture of the African American community in Houston. The Youth Cultural Community Center incorporates the rich culture and the City of Houston’s Third Ward Community action plan (Diagram 1). Mayor Sylvester Turner recommends that future developments within Third Ward, Houston the neighborhoods should “expand enrichment programs for children and youth by promoting out-of-school programs” (Turner 10). For example, Mayor Turner suggested a “youth public art program” that encourages children to “design, build, and install public art” (Turner 44). Located next to the Project Row Houses, The Circles of Community Project transgresses the idea of community within the Third Ward through circulation, individualism, and redefining modular housing.
PRECEDENT STUDY
Three specific housing projects influenced the elements of urbanism, circulation, and individualism within Circles of Community. Jimenez Lai’s A House Apart is a theoretical project based in Los Angeles that focuses on utilizing an exterior corridor into more aspects of everyday living (Diagram 2). Jimenez Lai transgresses a conventional and isolative suburban house by creating a fragmented housing project that embeds the circulation of the site with the streets of the neighborhood. Spaces between the fragments and topography are conditions that influenced the diversity of introverted and extroverted paths and spaces within the site. Instead of restricting the residents to the confined boundary of the buildings, he utilizes the corridor to create ambiguity between the interior and exterior. Vertical Village II, by Tham and Videgård, is a neighborhood of nearly identical houses arranged in a radial layout (Diagram 3). This project utilizes circle packing through its irregular forms created by the hedges surrounding each house. These conditions not only create yard spaces but also provide a distinction between public and private areas. The circles influence circulation and promote socialization in the public areas and contribute heavily to the idea of individuality in the private areas. The Moriyama House by Sanaa realizes the concept of an open community within the dense context of Tokyo, Japan. Sanaa understood the tight edge conditions provided by the city and used that to his advantage within his design. He brought an urban relationship to the project when he transgressed the idea of the corridor and moved it to the outside of the traditional “house,” making a micro-city within a city (Diagram 4). Each “room” then gained a different identity, creating pockets of gathering and walking spaces in this new collage of urban space.
INDIVIDUAL CHARICATURES
Each building serves a specific purpose throughout the overall concept of the youth community center. The Welcome Center is very inviting with its large windows and plentiful access to the street and the rest of the site (Diagram 5). The reception desk and sitting areas greet the Third Ward guests. The art studio has space for many art mediums, with a kiln and pottery area on the first floor and a more open studio space on the second space (Diagram 6). Within the music studio, there is a more extroverted teaching space on the first floor and a private practice and study area above (Diagram 7). The pavilion serves as a transitional space, as it takes concepts from the forms of all three buildings and incorporates them with the outdoors (Diagram 8). This space can be used for public discussion and galleries. The amphitheater, which utilizes ground conditions, can be used for various public performances, such as concerts, theatre performances, or public discourse (Diagram 9).
REDEFINING MODULAR HOUSING
As an homage to the preexisting shotgun houses used in the Third Ward, the forms take elements from these staple homes and redefine them within the context of a community center (Diagram 10). The first area of interest was the porch and the exterior/interior transition space it provides. Each caricature incorporated both curved and rectilinear subtractions, reminiscent of a porch, to create a facadal relationship between the buildings. These dynamic relationships are represented throughout the site in the art studio, music studio, welcome center, and pavilion in order to create balance and unity within the buildings. The gabled roofs of the shotgun houses around the site inspired the second area of interest. In the project, these gables were placed to mirror the slopes of the Project Row Houses but are given a new identity by the addition of subtractions and flat surfaces.
CIRCLE PACKING
The organization within the site begins with the grid formation on which the six inner circles are fixated. Pulling ideas from the Moriyama precedent, the overall linear layout (Diagram 11) reflects the linearity of the surrounding site. The hedge concept is influenced by the conditions in Vertical Village II, with similar efforts of defining public and private spaces. Each hedge lines up with either an element from the surrounding site or a datum of the building within their circle, and a corner on each building was snapped to a corner on its corresponding hedge. The next offsets of the inner circles were snapped to the hedge/building points to extend the platform of each site element and further highlight the compression of the circles. The final layer of the circle packing seeks to tie all of the site elements together and connect circulation with the streets and paths of the overall site. These layers of offsets and circles are meant to defi ne key elements of the site in a way that encourages movement without forcing direction.
CIRCULATION
The circulation created by the circle packing allows for a fluid and intuitive flow of circulation. The open space acts as an outdoor corridor that connects the “rooms” each building represents. This exterior circulation supports and encourages the idea of community by giving the users the freedom to decide where to walk, congregate, and find seclusion. Due to the spacing between the circle packing, there is a juxtaposing relationship between the larger paths and the smaller introverted paths near the edges (Diagram 12). This variation in circulation networks connects to the complex urban identity of the neighborhood.
INDIVIDUALISM
Influenced by the microcosmic individualism seen throughout the House Apart by Jimenez Lai, each building and space within the project has its own distinct character. This relationship mirrors the diverse nature of housing in the Third Ward. The juxtaposing relationship between the curves, linear elements, solids, and voids, creates a complex transition between extroverted and introverted spaces. Some spaces throughout the site encourage interaction, while others are more private (Diagram 13 &14). The hedges further emphasize these private areas in order to create security and privatization.
This project was influenced by fragmenting buildings, circle packing, and a linear layout from A House Apart, Vertical Village II, and the Moriyama House precedents. In order to unify the occupants with the urban plurality of the Third Ward, The Circles of Community develops the connection between the site and neighborhood through the use of exterior circulation, microcosmic individualism, and redefining the neighborhood’s modular housing. Overall, the project transgresses a conventional community space within an urban neighborhood into a design that interacts, unifies, and celebrates the culture of the Third Ward community.
REFERENCES
1. Architecture | Project Row Houses. Project Row Houses. https://projectrowhouses.org/architecture. Accessed 6 December 2021
2. Turner, Mayor Sylvester. Third Ward Complete Communities: Action Plan. City Of Houston Planning and Developing Department, 2018. https://cms7files.revize.com/ldrhoustoncctx/Our%20Communities/third-ward-complete-communities-action-plan.pdf