SPATIAL DESIGN WITH SHARED SPACES
Challenge: Build mixed-use residential living for faculty and students within a set location.
My Role: As an Architectural Designer I established scope of work, led site and user research, developed design, and created end deliverable drawings and model.
Summary: The study focused on privacy as a gradient. Doors and walls are traditional definitions for privacy and space allowances. I wanted to explore how height can be a new effective and impactful way to discern and abide by privacy changes and restrictions. The site location was positioned among common cut through paths on the campus edge. I wanted the buildings to work within this natural movement and only disrupt flow when intentional. Through a series of site studies and diagrams I designed the buildings to create moments of stability within the ever-changing environment. The public roofs sloped down to the ground to establish a connection with the paths. In so doing, the gradient slowed down the speed of foot traffic through the space and established an ability to meander. Each building’s slope is directly related to the amount of privacy needed for the type of residents. The rooms within the building further the study of privacy by having only one door - a translucent front door creating complete physical separation while maintaining visual connection. Each apartment is then made up of a series of rooms cleverly arranged to increase privacy the further into the apartment you go by way of strategically positioned partitions to decrease visibility and height changes to emphasis a change in space and a learned change in behavior.
These diagrams represent the movement through the site location and begin to identify optimal locations for the buildings to impact the traffic flow.
The two joined central buildings are the largest and most public of the building clusters. Both building’s roofs slope to the ground, pulling in flow from the pathways and guiding visitors to gradually interact with the buildings. The building clusters around the center increase in privacy and decrease in size the further away they are. The more private, student living buildings are courtyard style with flat roofs to provide a variety of calming, encapsulated study spaces. The shape of each building was designed by a variety of factors, including height to mitigate noise and welcoming light and views. The shape formulates a typology language of privacy.
Floor plans for 3 main floors of the central building.
Floor plans for each type of family apartment: one bedroom, two bedroom, and three bedroom.
Each living space only has one main door – the translucent entrance. Privacy is thus achieved by a series of heightened spaces. Through human behavior studies, it was found that humans have a natural pause before proceeding up stairs with an underlying understanding that “upstairs” is a more private space. Thus, the initial stairs down into the common space are inherently welcoming and propel visitors into the apartment. Stairs positioned up from the common space are treated as a filter into the private rooms. Furthermore, the introduction of anterooms or studies bordered by partitions to strategically hinder eyesight provides a progression of privacy.
The section cut of one of the large public buildings showcases the slope of the roof, the changing window structures to align with privacy needs in each room, and the apartment height gradient that can be inserted to better understand the relationship to the larger structure.