ARCOS

LYDIA GANDY | MICHAEL URUETA

ARCOS

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

David Franco | Ulrike Heine | Andreea Mihalache | George Schafer

Arcos Por La Dignidad reuses remnants of industrial structures to provide dignified space and refuge for asylum seekers in the border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Arches, both a vernacular of Mexico and indicators of thresholds, play an integral design role throughout the commune. Arches act as portals to dignity for refugees during a journey full of uncertainty. The industrial facility brought economic and social vitality to the community until it burnt down in 2017. Only shells of adobe rick and steel remained until Arcos Por La Dignidad repurposed what was left behind. In some cases, an additive process is used to enhance what remains. In others, the existing materials are deconstructed and reassembled as new forms. The arid desert climate brings warm days and cool nights, requiring an emphasis on passive and low tech building systems. A few of the passive implementations highlighted in this commune include cross ventilation, operable shutters, overhangs, vegetative cooling, rooftop gardens and cisterns, thermal masses, and a solar chimney. Where passive strategies are not enough, active strategies are used, like wind energy harvesting through turbines, solar energy captured on rooftop arrays, and water collection and purification from the Rio Grande River. During extreme climate conditions, hydronic floor systems regulate building temperatures. The 156,500 gross square foot self-sustaining commune addresses two primary user groups: scavengers and asylum seekers. Scavengers make a living by collecting and reselling material left in streets and dumps around the city. Asylum seekers are left to remain in Mexico, homeless and vulnerable, while they await

their hearings. The diverse skills and knowledge of the scavengers, asylum seekers, and surrounding residents of Nuevo Laredo allow for a complex system of components to be assembled and operated within the commune, ensuring the longevity and resiliency of the community. The commune is built using local construction practices which reduces labor costs and avoids the need for specialized building techniques. Brick and concrete are used on the ground level to support the levels above and create space for public programs like classes, clinics, resource offices, water purification, and a recycling center. Recycled steel is used to create an elevated platform for houses to sit on which provides safety and visibility for the asylum seekers living there. Houses are built with ladder frame and straw bale construction that can be easily replicated as the need for housing increases. The commune and its residents live together in a symbiotic relationship. Each resident plays a vital role in building, maintaining, supporting, growing, and sustaining the commune. They do this by constructing the low-tech buildings, maintaining the farm, teaching in classrooms, maintaining the park space, supporting the clinic and selling collected materials to the recycling center. In return, the commune not only provides them with basic needs like shelter and food, but also provides them with opportunities to develop skills and relationships. Residents find dignity by contributing to their community and being part of a larger purpose.

FRONTERA HAVEN

EDGAR ALATORRE | ZOE JACKSON

FRONTERA HAVEN

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

David Franco | Ulrike Heine | Andreea Mihalache | George Schafer

Next to the international bridge in Laredo, Texas, temporary tents hold immigration court hearings. Asylum-seekers line up at four in the morning to attend court hearings that decide whether they will be granted refugee status and enter the United States. In the past years, asylum-seekers entering the US at the border have been forced to stay in Mexico for the duration of their U.S. asylum case due to US Government programs, such as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). They have been allowed to enter the United States for court hearings temporarily. Even though this program is no longer in effect, hundreds of asylum seekers escaping persecution and hardship wait at the Nuevo Laredo border entrance. As of December2020, 3,047 pending cases in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Five to fifteen Asylum Seekers are processed daily, and the average minimum and maximum wait times are three weeks to 18months. This population faces homelessness, malnutrition, and violence as they remain in the city as their case is processed through immigration court. The systematic kidnapping of asylum seekers in Nuevo Laredo continues to be a serious concern. Asylum seekers are at risk of being kidnapped both when they are first sent to Nuevo Laredo and also when they are attempting to return to Nuevo Laredo by bus for their court hearings. Frontera Haven is a multi-generational sustainable community that provides a haven for these asylum seekers to transition to the United States at the Nuevo Laredo border crossing.

The design of the commune mimics the local haciendas and provides central courtyards for activities while protecting the residents from the outside. Pools of water divide the community into three distinct “haciendas” with different programs. The first focuses on residential, the second on business, and third on agriculture. The commune adapts to the semi-arid climate by using solar panels for energy and sourcing water from the Rio Grande for drinking and power. At 240,000 gross sq/ft, the commune houses 300individuals and family members seeking asylum in single, pod, and family housing. It aims to better Nuevo Laredo for the occupying residents and locals through various programs. Quilting, Leather Works, Repair Shop are available for residents to utilize prior skills. A chapel, soup kitchen, theatre, vendors market, and school provide local outreach. Residents and community members will have the opportunity to learn a new skill, take educational classes, and receive income. However, most importantly, be part of a safe community of people living and working sustainably amid unimaginable circumstances. Although the commune cannot solve every issue that faces Nuevo Laredo, Frontera Haven hopes to provide a foundation for the community that prompts sustainability and leaves an everlasting mark on each individual that passes through.

ELEVATED INTEGRATION

GEORGE SORBARA | HUNTER HARWELL

“Elevated Integration” is a direct response to Portland, Oregon’s growing number of families facing homelessness. As of 2019, there were 4,015 individuals facing chronic homelessness within Portland. Seventeen percent of those individuals, including 374 children, belong to a family that is facing chronic homelessness. The necessity for a response to this situation is imperative and the very essence of “Elevated Integration” at its purest form. “Elevated Integration” is also an architectural response regarding the leftover spaces that are a byproduct of elevated urban highways. From uninhabitable zones to discontinuities in the urban and social fabric of cities, the interstate highway system has had seemingly irreversible consequences for America’s urban ecologies. “Elevated Integration” is a design solution to support a marginalized population of homeless families while simultaneously mending a discontinuity within a “lost” space on Portland’s industrial east side. The site of “Elevated Integration” is located on Portland’s industrial east side along the Willamette River, adjacent to the Eastbank Esplanade, an underutilized, waterfront pedestrian and bike path resurrected as an urban renewal project to counter the discontinuities created by the elevated I-5 highway system. The site previously housed three parking lots that were demolished and recycled to allow for a 103,000 square foot building (24,000 square foot building footprint) and nearly 300,000 square foot urban park. The programmatic elements of the building are designed as a response to the insufficient housing model that currently exists within Portland for homeless families. The vision for “Elevated Integration” was to

create an all-encompassing building that is capable of offering homeless families all vital human necessities under one roof. The integration of these families into an environment designed to promote the ideals of community, wellness, development, and support offers a solution to transition these families into a more stable lifestyle. A supportive approach resides in designing a building capable of self sufficiency and providing basic human necessities. The residents have the ability to gain knowledge and skills that allows them to reintegrate back into society. The project includes a two story public market, three story workforce development sector, public library, residential plinth, and a public park. Integration occurs along two ecologies within the project, environmentally and socially, to ultimately reverse the hindering elements that homeless families encounter and transform those setbacks into opportunities. This reversal is fueled by environmental systems that power the residents’ net-zero community, and by meshing the residents back into a public setting to counter the social isolation that homeless families encounter. The utilization of a completely unique, prefabricated, simply-assembled wall unit that is able to be configured by the residents and local community allows for the empowerment of the residential population. The wall unit is fabricated utilizing local, recycled wooden construction pallets. The illustrated configuration includes thirty-one mixed type units with the ability for this community to fluidly change over time based on the necessities of its residents.

MICRO/MACRO

MEGAN GOTSCH | CHLOE VOLTAIRE

MICRO/MACROE

2018 | AGING IN THE CITY | Architectural Strategies To Create Multigenerational Urban Communities

Dan Harding | Ulrike Heine | David Franco

In Micro / Macro we’ve asked, how do we integrate individual, community, and environmental lifecycles, at various scales, into architecture? Housing communities are complex ecosystems existing within the city fabric. They should offer solutions to issues at various scales - personal, community and the greater environment. Lifecycles such as aging, water and material use exist within these scales. Micro/Macro proposes a design that lives at the intersection of these vastly broad yet deeply personal cycles. You hang your bike on the shared rack of the first floor, as you’ve just gotten off the half hour ferry ride from Seattle and are about to walk up the stairs. The move from Seattle to Bremerton, Washington was beneficial, your family enjoys the lower cost of living and the strong sense of community around you. You and your partner reside in a three-unit communal living apartment-that has plenty of room to grow. The patio you sit on to watch the stars can one day become a nursery for your child. In the future, with the help of your neighbor, prefabricated panels will be placed to expand your home. Re-used from the empty nesters across the courtyard who were downsizing, they’re constructed from regional fir timber and cedar siding. In the apartment, the kitchen is what it has always been, a place for friends, family and neighbors. The elderly man, residing in the second unit sits in his usual chair and the family down the hall fills in the rest of the table. After dinner, the couples clean up their plates in the communal

kitchen. Leftover food never goes to waste, compost bins are located outside and will be used to fertilize the garden’s soil. As the night ends, the elderly man takes the eager children to the raised pathway where he shares stories of the constellations over the Sinclair Inlet. During your morning stroll, you walk past the community gardens and wave to your elderly neighbor who is harvesting zucchinis. The gardens flourish using grey water collected in the cisterns and compost produced from com-munity waste. The crops stock the shelves of the farmers market and grocery on the ground level, where you will go after work to pick up tomatoes for the potluck lasagna. As it begins to drizzle, you pull the hood up on your rain jacket and look down to see the water being absorbed into the pavers and greenery, reducing the amount of polluted water runoff flowing into the Puget Sound. The ground level is the heart of the community, busy with early morn-ing bustle. You grab coffee at the coffee shop and see neighbors on their way to painting class and group exercises at the gym. Amenities such as the day-care, clinic and wood shop are open to the Bremerton community. You grab your bike and soon are on your way to the 8:15 ferry to Seattle. Micro / Macro answers how the micro, the site, positively impacts the macro, the greater community and the environment.

ADAPTABILITY

SOPHIA DELGADO | KAITLYN SALVIA

ADAPTABILITY

2018 | AGING IN THE CITY | Architectural Strategies To Create Multigenerational Urban Communities

Dan Harding | Ulrike Heine | David Franco

Our project offers a solution to Colorado Springs’ expensive housing market by providing adaptable architecture and a cohousing community. Cohousing not only brings together different cultures and generations, but extends the unique opportunity of strengthening a community. By sharing resources, meals, and time, residents form a strong community bond that lasts for many generations. Colorado Springs needs an adaptable, affordable, cohousing community to allow the opportunity of aging in place. A neighborhood is often composed of single-family homes each having their own private kitchens, living spaces, and fenced in yards. However, this suburban design generates expensive homes, lacks community connectivity, and can create social isolation between generations. Our project’s cohousing community dissolves these barriers—residents share amenities, communal pods, and outdoor spaces to reduce living costs and encourage sustainable relationships amongst neighbors. Cohousing establishes a community that functions like a village. Every res-ident has the opportunity to take on a contributing role such as maintaining the gardens, cooking in the kitchen, or providing daycare services. Collaborative relationships amongst young professionals, families, and the elderly are vital to the community’s ability to thrive. Communal pods are dispersed throughout the site with

shared kitchens and family rooms where residents can gather. Additionally, residents can harvest produce from the shared community gardens to prepare for weekly meals with their neighbors. Our architecture provides two adaptable building forms: Type A-Residential & Type B-Mixed Use. Each type is repeated, rotated, and reflected throughout the site to create a variety of in-between spaces. Adaptable balconies can be infilled based on one’s socio economic needs at each residential unit, business, or communal pod. For example, as a family grows, they may infill their balcony to become a nursery. Or, a young professional can transform the balcony into a home office to start their small business venture. Our architecture allows people the opportunity to adapt in reaction to change, and by doing so, our architecture’s form will also change over time. Our project ensures long-term living in Colorado Springs by providing an adaptable, affordable, cohousing community. Adaptable cohousing is ideal for the aging population because it allows the residents, businesses, and community the opportunity to shape their environment based on their needs. This multigenerational approach re-establishes living in a community where social interactions are encouraged, intentional relationships are formed, and residents live happier, more fulfilling lives.