Saturday 29 August 2009

The Next Images


Les Folies Bèrgères



Gare du Nord



faubourg St. Denis


faubourg Poissonnière

Tuesday 12 May 2009

The Cohousing-housing

While the first two floors serve mostly public or community uses, community referring to the cohousing community, the upper floors contain the residential units and more intimate community programme. In total, this scheme provides 16 residential units. 5 3 bedroom units, 5 2 bedroom units, 3 1 bedroom units, and 3 studio apartments. In a quick rundown, floors 2-5(6) contain the following residential and cohousing units:
2nd floor: one 1 bedroom apartment in the street front building, one 2 bedroom apartment in the street front building, one cohousing guest room in the circulation corridor, one studio in the courtyard building, and a second 2 bedroom apartment in the courtyard building. In total 4 units.

3rd floor: one 2bedroom apartment in the street front building, one studio in the street front building, one cohousing guestroom in the circulation corridor and two 1 bedroom apartments in the courtyard building. In total, 4 units.

4th floor: one 3 bedroom apartment in the street front building, one cohousing guest room in the circulation corridor, one studio in the couryard building and one 2 bedroom apartment for a total of 3 units.

5th floor contains the entrance and mainfloors for 4 duplex units. Including the 6th floors contirbution to these units, the street front buidling contains two 3bedroom apartments, and the courtyard building contains one 3bedroom and one 2 bedroom. In the circulation corridor there are two office spaces.

The 6th floor is the place to have a little fun in terms of new construction. The roof line in it's essences is a simple A-line roof however it has been modified so much and so poorly to accomodate as much as was possible under the eaves that it most likely needs to be replace completely. My scheme proposes the maintainance of the original A line roof but with newely designed dormers to accomodate an expanded floor plan, or at least expanded headroom for the existing floor plan. It was decided that dormers could be modern as they cannot be seen from the street which means that the historical character of the building would not be compromised. For now the gables are just blocked out, but my imagination is working...

Tuesday 5 May 2009

The Adjusted First Floor

In an effort to remedy the two major issues i had with the last plan, the following plan evolved. The space occupied by the café on the second floor allows only enough room for toilets and the kitchen which alleviates the need for a secondary egress, which in turn allows for the day care centre to have a visual connection to the courtyard.

The visual connection was of great significance as it increases the number of monitored windows on the first floor. The windows on the stairwells are only monitored on an infrequent basis by people coming and going, leaving them frequently unmonitored. The windows in the guest suite are only monitored when there is someone using the suite and in which case it is mostly used in the evening, not throughout the day, likewise the two bedroom windows in the apartment only offer (in an average household) occasional monitoring. Now that the daycare occupies the 3 windows on the first floor in the building on the road, there is a better balance throughout the day. The daycare is used on a daily basis while the more private or intimate spaces in the evening.

Thursday 30 April 2009

The First Two Floors...

The ground floor is the most important floor in the moderation between public and intimate spaces. Firstly instead of allowing entrance into the commercial properties directly from the street, one must enter the building from which two doors lead to the café bar and then to the courtyard and the cohousing day care facilities.
Although this may seem like a lot of doors, using the common entrance to the building for the commercial properties in fact reduces the number of thresholds in a typical Parisian residential building. However, it increases the awareness of who is coming and going and when, as it forces every person to pass by someone who lives or works in the building.
There are no individual residences on the ground floor. It holds half of the café, half of the day care space, the office for the cohousing community, and the cohousing's communal space which includes kitchen and dining facilities large enough to seat 28-30 people.
The first floor hosts the second half of the café, the second half of the daycare and one of the largest individual family units boasting 3 bedrooms and living/dining room + kitchenette in 72m2 (775sq.ft.)


Also on the 1st floor, between the stairwells is a guest unit for the cohousing community, that is available for guests of residents.

Wednesday 29 April 2009

The Building's Recent Past

48 rue faubourg poissonnière's recent past offered a rather similar to living situation to cohousing. Although it didn't sport any fancy titles, nor were the residents organized on any fancy committees.

The residents were all recent immigrants to France. Their lifestyles reflected much more rural, family/clan based organization, but seemed to live quite peaceably in what most people would consider VERY small spaces.

Their story is all in french, but for those who don't read french, there are some very interesting images.

http://www.picturetank.com/___/series/409caf437cb454839fa65af7eaaa6c15/48_rue_du_Fbg_Poissonni%C3%A8re_(office).html

Monday 27 April 2009

The Abstract of the Day

My interests in historical typologies and adapting existing buildings for contemporary use led me to my choice of a vacant building on the limit of the 10th Arrondissement as the site for my thesis project.

The history of Parisian society and the trends of its architecture and urban development from 1540 to present day combined with the study of the impact of modernity’s spatio-temporal acceleration and the alienation between self and other make up the background research.

My thesis attempts to understand and offer a solution to the conflict between the self and the porosity, transparency and speed that resulted from modernity; a solution to the dichotomy between the human need for intimacy and a connection with the other in the urban context of Paris.

The Ethos

These are the 10 design ethos that I did for my last project. The process definitely helped me figure out exactly what I was doing in terms of the design. I realize the writing is probably illegible. I'll copy it into another post. For now, enjoy the images.