ROOTED: DE’ GULLAH GEECHEE HOST COMPOUND

ANDRE DANIELS | CIERRA DAVIS

GROWING TOGETHER UNDER ONE ROOF

2023 | TOURISM AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER | The impacts of tourism on cultures, communities and environments

Ulrike Heine | David Franco | George Schafer

Located on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, De’ Gullah Geechee Heritage Compound is a response to the encroachment of ecotourism which threatens the Gullah Geechee. A Nation of people located along the Gullah Geechee Corridor, which stretches from Jacksonville, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida and includes the Sea Islands to 30 miles inland, the Gullah Geechee are a people who have origins through the Transatlantic Slave Trade, as well as indigenous roots to the Americas. They were swiftly freed in 1862 with the Union occupation of the Sea Islands, and on St. Helena Island, the Penn School (now the Penn Center) was established to educate the newly freed slaves in trades in order to assimilate them into American Society. Our approach to the threat of ecotourism on St. Helena Island will address a few issues: a lack of homeownership, the negative effects of heir’s property laws, and the island being a food desert. Encroaching tourism and development have led to cultural losses and dilution of the Gullah Geechee in the surrounding Sea Islands and areas (think Hilton Head Island, Edisto Island, Charleston, South Carolina, just to name a few). Our site sits 2,000 feet away from nearby marshland, where the sweetgrass used by the Gullah Geechee to meticulously craft their famous sweetgrass baskets grows abundantly. It also sits directly adjacent to the historic Penn Center, the first school for freed slaves in the United States, established in 1862. It now serves as a cultural center for the Gullah Geechee, having recently celebrated 160 years of existence.

Our site will serve the Gullah Geechee community, and our design is modeled after the traditional settlement style of compounds, which is comprised of a cluster of homes, typically family members, all around a shared garden. Our approach modifies and modernizes this settlement style. Our compound is a live-work environment, where businesses are on the ground floor, residences are on the top floor, and rooftop gardens sit atop each structure. Our businesses include a crafts and essential goods store, a barbershop and beauty salon, a familyowned restaurant, a market, and an advocacy unit to address heirs’ property, which has plagued the Gullah Geechee and African Americans living throughout the rural Southeastern United States. We have residential units for each business, as well as 2 additional units. Lastly, we have implemented a host program, where tourists can come stay with families and become immersed within the culture; also, we have 3 tourist units where tourists can also stay privately. Overall, our intention is to create a space unique to the Gullah Geechee culture, where their customs, traditions and practices can be preserved through their own expressions without the threat of being diluted by threats of ecotourism and development.

ABOVE THE MARSH

MIA WALKER | LUCAS SCHINDLAR

GROWING TOGETHER UNDER ONE ROOF

2023 | TOURISM AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER | The impacts of tourism on cultures, communities and environments

Ulrike Heine | David Franco | George Schafer

Above The Marsh seeks to solve the disconnect in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, a coastal community that continues to be washed away with rising sea levels and land erosion and a population that is aging and lacking diversity. Our design protects the coast from flooding and erosion with a living shoreline composed of a native marshland ecosystems. In addition, Above The Marsh’s goal is to bring a new tourist that can have an experience through a hostel work exchange along the Intracoastal Waterway that focuses on ecotourism and teaching sustainable traveling habits. With an artificial, but natural protection, the site can provide activities to attract new populations such as agriculture, retail shops, and low impact boating, that would otherwise not be possible on a site bound to be submerged under water within future decades through a series of building, harvesting, and inhabiting from land to sea. Building protection for the community and utilizing local dredged soil and marsh plants to redevelop a marsh ecosystem that has become lost to Sunset Beach. Native species of flora and fauna have become destroyed for housing development and depleted with increased wake activity. The utilization of a living shoreline will bring back these lost ecosystems, and can protect Sunset Beach from complete flooding as sea levels continue to rise. This shoreline will be a complete composition of coastal plants, sediments, and oysters that filter and absorb water, create natural wave barriers, and attract local marine life. Harvesting the site begins following the living shoreline development.

This brings agriculture and aquaculture to the site combining popular economies of inland and coastal North Carolina. These crops are organized based on sunlight and growing properties that rotate through the year, while becoming harvested in offseasons using greenhouses that provide year round produce to the site and Sunset Beach community. Above The Marsh incorporates an aquaculture center to harvest local fish and oyster populations using sustainable methods to avoid overfishing and depleting these ecosystems. Inhabiting the site brings in a population of young travelers that want to give back to the Earth and depleted communities. By providing service jobs on site in various disciplines of agriculture, aquaculture, and restaurant and retail service, travelers can work, while experiencing the North Carolina coast to the fullest. Hostels provide short term stays with immersive views of the developed marsh, while taking advantage of coastal breezes and sunlight to create passive strategies within the units. Above The Marsh creates low impact boating that uses kayaks and paddleboards that create small wakes and low harm on surrounding ecosystems, while completely immersing people within their environments. Each strategy focuses on redeveloping Sunset Beach into a ecotourism hub along the Intracoastal Waterway with protecting and diversifying the depleted community its main goals. Above The Marsh displays how a site can bring populations and activities together that would not be possible until a location is protected as sea levels continue to rise and tourists abuse the places they visit.

THE CRAFT, THE TRADITION AND THE CELEBRATION OF CULTURE

OLIVIA WIDEMAN | ANGELA KRAUS

GROWING TOGETHER UNDER O

NE ROOF

2023 | TOURISM AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER | The impacts of tourism on cultures, communities and environments

Ulrike Heine | David Franco | George Schafer

The Craft, the Tradition, the Celebration of Culture, aims to solve the disconnect between culture, place, and estranged descendants through an immersive, hands-on learning center that celebrates the trades and traditions through practice. The area spanning from Jacksonville, FL to Wilmington, NC is known as the Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor. With the rise in development and tourism along the coast of South Carolina, the ecosystem is on the brink of an environmental disaster. The increase of storms and flooding is detrimental to the environment that was once self-sustained. St. Helena Island is the last South Carolina Sea Island along the corridor where the Gullah still lives and practices. The sea islands and culture are at risk of vanishing completely if traditions are not practiced and passed down to younger generations. Self-identity strengthens character and confidence. When children have a deeply rooted understanding of their heritage, their self-worth is increased. Studies show the most impactful age range for character development is between the 2nd and 8th grades. Trades and traditions from locals are passed onto students attending the 7-day heritage program, in hopes to strengthen cultural identity and self-importance. Situated across from the site is the Penn Center. This historical campus became one of the first schools in the country to provide a formal education to previously enslaved West Africans. Today the center serves as a museum, community center, and historical landmark.

Agriculture, cuisine, build + restore, art + folklore are the four programmatic approaches, each of high value to the culture and resilience to the direct community and environment on St. Helena Island. Re-introducing Carolina gold and a vegetable garden allows for year-round interest to inspire education. Students learn about the process’ of soil preparation, sewing seeds, maintaining, and harvesting crops. Once harvested students create Gullah dishes with the three traditional methods of cooking: grilling, stewing, and wood burning. Other methods of cuisine include preparation and preservation, from deshelling and creating spices, to canning and salt-curing. Outreach donates excess crops and meals to local markets for profit. Students learn traditional construction methods and blacksmithing in the tool shop. In the material shop students learn processes of harvesting, carpentry, and joinery, as well as creation of the vernacular material. Outreach consists of repairing and building structures on the island. Students experience folklore and language through immersive guided tours along the site. Students learn traditional song, dance, and instruments during their stay. Outreaches include festivals where students can sell and celebrate their crafts. Lofts are playfully incorporated in each zone to spark a sense of discovery and immersion. Each zone incorporates unfolding furniture elements that support the learning experiences, as well as indoor-outdoor classroom spaces that fully immerse the student in place.

PERENNIAL

NATHAN CARLTON | ERIC DOWNING

 SUPERFICIE-AL

2021 | EXPERIMENTS IN COMMUNAL LIVING | Resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and cooperation in the fallout of COVID

David Franco | Ulrike Heine | Andreea Mihalache | George Schafer

Perennial is set in rural Fairfield, Montana at the base of the Rocky Mountains. The area is subject to daily winds that average 15-20 mph from the western downslope winds, harsh arid climate, freezing temperatures, and snow for eight months out of the year. This allows the existing town to produce large amounts of grain crops such as barley in the short growing season each year dubbing the town, “The Malted Barley Capital of the World. ”In order to address these harsh conditions, we began by implementing a four story west facing facade that could block a majority of the wind affecting the site. This area houses office space, event space, library, rock climbing/leisure space, and residential housing with growing spaces on both the ground floor and elevated gardening spaces. Next, we developed a series of greenhouses that would act as a source of food for the community year round. The greenhouses will be able to maintain a calm, humid, and warm climate year round for both plants and residents to take advantage of. Additionally, the greenhouses are equipped with a water and snow collection system on the roofs, becoming completely self-sustaining. These spaces become a social space and a melting pot for the various programs that surround them. Programs such as the education center, consisting of a preschool and trade school, are placed adjacent to these greenhouses and used as an outdoor space for both education and leisure. The housing would also be directly connected

to each greenhouse, providing personal garden spaces for each resident to grow and cultivate their own food. The on-site brewery also takes advantage of these greenhouse in many ways. The site is able to produce the barley and wheat needed for basic brewery operations while excess fruits and vegetables from the residentials greenhouses are collected and fermented to develop seasonal brews on-site, attracting some tourism that can enter the site through the attached train station. Moving forward, the program began to be divided by the axis. This geometry is derived by the surrounding town as an acknowledgement to Fairfield and its existing environment. It creates the entrances to the site and access points between buildings, wide enough for industrial combines to enter the garden spaces for cultivation as needed. Fairfield currently does not have any sidewalk or bike paths available. The main structure of the complex supports a green roof, ¼ mile distance, for the locals and residents to take advantage of. The green roof will provide walking and bike paths during the summer with ski slopes during the winter. These roofs are angled to admire the distant Rockies to the west while providing some elevation change in the flat town of Fairfield. The project is designed to create a self-sustaining and habitable environment for residents in a harsh, arid climate year round.

RECIPROCITY

LINDSEY SINISI | MARISSA CUTRY

 SUPERFICIE-AL

2019 | LOST SPACES | Architectural solutions for leftover space created by America’s elevated urban highways

David Franco | Ulrike Heine | George Schafer

The US Interstate highway system began its trek across the country in the 1950’s under Dwight Eisenhower’s orders, and the land felt its presence im-mediately. Cities saw long established communities split in two, often defined by economic and cultural disparity. One such example is the city of Louisville, Kentucky, where Interstate 64 entered the city in a tangle of lanes that touched down onto 9th Street and divided the city into two halves. The east-ern side of the divide features a thriving downtown filled with museums and nightlife, whereas the west has become a virtual food desert, accommodating government housing and large warehouses. Louisville shares a border with the Ohio River and has a hot climate with a high yearly rainfall averaging 46 inches. The city floods each year with lasting consequences. Currently, an ineffective floodwall running parallel to I-64 wraps its concrete arms around the city, isolating its people from the water’s edge. In fact, the only way to experience the water for both halves is from atop I-64 itself. With 50- and 100- year flood lines reaching far into Louisville, architectural solutions that adapt to flood conditions while repairing the divisions in the city’s fabric are imperative. RECIPROCITY: Mending an Ecosystem through a Floating Community proposes an innovative solution for these complex issues. The proposal reclaims the water’s edge by pulling in the shoreline underneath I-64 and adapting the adjacent floodwall condition to provide water connectivity to the pedestrian. Floating buildings activate a lively public space adjacent to the existing Interstate infrastructure. These structures are designed to adapt to rising flood levels, leveraging their connection to the

existing infrastructure for stability. Central to both sides of the divide, new living and destination spaces, including one- and two-bedroom apartments, public parks, restaurants and water recreation facilities, aim to appeal to all economic strata represented throughout Louisville’s adjacent neighborhoods. The organism at the heart of this floating urban ecosystem is the freshwater mussel. Once a thriving species in the Ohio River, mussels are now subject to many conservation efforts as they have been depleted due to detrimental dredging techniques. Mussels are essential to the river’s ecosystem and this depletion has contributed to the loss of healthy fish and clean water. RECIPROCITY will leverage mussel farming to create a revitalized, sustainable ecosystem featuring on-site greywater filtration, learning opportunities for the community, farming jobs, restaurant supply and revenue, and a beautified shoreline. A system of ropes beneath the floating structure serves as the new, safe habitat for the mussels. The habitat will be emphasized throughout the site to raise public engagement and awareness about the importance of the ecosystem’s health, now and in the future. Just as a mussel grows on its rope, RECIPROCITY features clusters of structures at a variety of scales, providing a human scale to the large project. It is zoned to a final density of 35 one-bedroom and 30 two-bedroom units ac-companied by 3 restaurants and 15 assorted recreational shops and spaces totaling 300,000 square feet.

A VERTICAL SOCIAL STREET

JOSH GUERTIN | KELLY UMUTONI

 SUPERFICIE-AL

2018 | AGING IN THE CITY | Architectural strategies to create multigenerational urban communities

Dan Harding | Ulrike Heine | David Franco

Most people in the US assume that people ages 50+, after retirement, prefer to move to warmer and more affordable suburban locations. As a result, the urban city is not designed to serve retired and aging populations, posing a serious age diversity gap in the fabric of current and future cities. This is especially true for the city of Minneapolis. It is a relatively young city with an average age of 31.9. However, the number of senior and retiring citizens is growing and will continue to grow in the coming years. As the Baby Boomer and Millennial generations age, they will want to remain in their urban homes. This calls for sustainable long term living solutions along with fitting amenities. To provide an appropriate response to the problem, the following question is asked: How can we sustainably design for multi-generational long-term living, in a city prone to extreme weather conditions, while promoting wellness and integration in a multi-generational community? Located in the Warehouse District of Downtown Minneapolis, A Vertical Social Street (VSS) seeks to promote long-term living by proposing a mixed-use project with an integrated social core that moves vertically through the building starting in the lower public areas up to the residential floors through a series of ramps and stairs. Along the social core are programmed spaces that allow for chance encounters between the building occupants. This creates an indoor vertical social street in the building to promote wellness and connectivity within a multi-

generational community. The building is also punctuated with vegetated terraces that provide access to green space for occupants and aid in slowing down the rate of storm-water runoff, which is predicted to augment as Minneapolis is expected to experience a drastic increase in precipitation and surface flooding as a result of climate change. With a total building area of 280,000 square-feet, the program includes a much needed public market, and outdoor public spaces like a skating rink and family park. The design also features indoor social spaces including a library room, yoga studio, local artist studios, a gym, a basketball court, and co-working spaces, along with seventy housing units of varying sizes. In December 2018, the City Council passed ‘Minneapolis City 2040’, a comprehensive plan to permit triplexes in all the city’s neighborhoods including residential ones and to encourage the development of high-density buildings along transit corridors. Single-family home zoning was a legal way to keep minorities from moving into white neighborhoods, and it still functions as a barrier today. By abolishing restrictive zoning, the city begins to put an end to the damage done by segregated zoning and embrace the rich diversity of Minneapolis. VSS further helps support this initiative by bringing this diversity downtown to the Warehouse District.

 SUPERFICIE-AL

SOLENE CLAVEL | ANDREW COLLINS | KATIE KOWALSKI

 SUPERFICIE-AL

2017 | REFUGEES WELCOME | Reinventing the Architectural Possibilities of a Refugee Center in the Heart of Madrid

Ufuk Ersoy | David Franco | Ulrike Heine

Beginning in 2012, a rising number of migrants journeyed to western Europe, seeking asylum from economic hardship and war-torn countries in what the world now refers to as the “refugee crisis”. During their travels, refugee’s cell phones become their lifelines, affording them access to locations of refugee camps, various government services, and contact with family members. Yet, this same accessibility to resources is not so easily found upon arrival into Madrid. Immigrants become alienated from Spanish society due to a lack of language training programs, employment opportunities, and government aid, making it difficult for them to truly integrate within their new culture. To bridge this gap, Superficie-al seeks to use the already familiar lifeline of the cell phone to bring in both refugees and residents of Madrid and create meaningful physical connections through integrative programs and open spaces. It’s name (a play on the Spanish word for surface and the English, superficial) goes beyond surface level by challenging media’s perception of refugees as a superficial condition and highlighting technology’s importance in understanding their needs. One of the key aspects of this proposal is the building’s ability to respond to users on a personal level – through their cellphone. An application specific to the building provides a gateway to its programs, allowing users to filter and choose the services they require. As technologies shift and building methods advance, the digital feedback loop created in Superficie-al will respond and adapt to conditions based on user demand. This connectivity, as well as energy and water movement, is manifested in “energy columns” found

throughout the central open-air portion of the structure. These columns perform multiple functions, including funneling down the energy collected by solar panels above to capacitors that provide wireless charging on each level. They also capture and circulate water through the building and down to cisterns in the existing unused parking garage below, which doubles as a space to pre-condition forced air. The columns also provide support for the large roof above, which shades the space from Madrid’s hot, dry weather, and plays host to BIPV panels, rock gardens and walkable surfaces. The building’s form follows the perception of the refugee by creating a subtle landscape with a strong emphasis on sightlines. Users can meander along the sloping paths and find themselves in an open courtyard looking up at the faceted surface overhead, or, they can wind up fifty feet above looking out over busy Spanish streets. By adopting the properties of a traditional plaza, the paths created take into account the various velocities at which people move across the space, making plenty of room for possible social interactions. Similarly to how refugees rely on technology during their travels, the infra-structure of Superficie-al supports interaction and access to a new physical network through a technological platform. This proposal is about connecting and integrating newcomers and city residents through positive interactions that not only add to the existing digital, physical, and infrastructural net-works, but also support a sustainable life cycle for the building.