Friday, February 12, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
site and program
location//Columbus park, Chinatown
program//Chinese culture extender
Columbus park is a vivid gather point for the chinese neighborhood.
users there consists of all ages: elderly, working age, children.
chess, poker, sports, community activities take place in the park.
the street right next to the park is full of funeral homes and related stores.
along with the the surrounding area, the site has a protential to intergrate recreational, educational, religious and commercial events and enhance awarenwss of Chinese culture.
the already missing or gradually missing chinese traditions therefore can be pssed on.
the tower would have funeral parlor, ash tar tower, temple, community center, rehabitation center, children care center, cultural center and park.
this tower will consolidate Chinese community: educating chinese descendants and benefiting the elder immigrants.
program//Chinese culture extender
Columbus park is a vivid gather point for the chinese neighborhood.
users there consists of all ages: elderly, working age, children.
chess, poker, sports, community activities take place in the park.
the street right next to the park is full of funeral homes and related stores.
along with the the surrounding area, the site has a protential to intergrate recreational, educational, religious and commercial events and enhance awarenwss of Chinese culture.
the already missing or gradually missing chinese traditions therefore can be pssed on.
the tower would have funeral parlor, ash tar tower, temple, community center, rehabitation center, children care center, cultural center and park.
this tower will consolidate Chinese community: educating chinese descendants and benefiting the elder immigrants.
site/program proposal [1st pass]
site:Rikers Island
program: Prison
Entered only via the Rikers Island Bridge, it has grown autonomously as New York City’s secret ghetto. With its own schools, clinics, ball fields, chapels and mosques, tailor shop, bus depot, power plant, bakery, and carwash, Rikers may appear like a typical Queens neighborhood. But, it is precisely designed under specific rules and laws and is also designed to be self-sufficient and self-contained. The electrical blackout in 1977 did not affect Rikers. It has the means to carry on and survive. In this ‘total institution’, this massive drive for autonomy adds to the isolation. The Rock, in thought and action, is truly a separate world. Such a site is compelling because it has this symbiosis of top-down authoritarian control and the illicit underground informal networks that are not present in most urban conditions.
Urbanism is characterized by the cognitive relationship between individuals and their built environment as well as the infrastructural relationship between populations and formal institutions of power. The existing urban condition in Rikers is one of laws and autonomy. Yet, operating under this restrictive infrastructure, Rikers reveals the existence of illicit, informal networks that operate within these controlled spaces.
Though often, these informal networks are perceived as harmful or even a breach of security; they can also be be beneficial. While the population and formal power structures are always present in the urban context, the informal networks are novel and subversive exhibiting flexible, transient, and emergent characteristics. Their flexibility responds to changing situations by dynamically altering goals, self-organization, and resources. In this context, robust architecture is not an extensive dichotomy between either a top-down system of formal structures or a bottom-up system of a group of individuals, but rather an intensive synthesis of the positive aspects of each system. This precarious balance between the authoritarian and subversive needs to exploited in the redefinition of a place of incarceration.
program: Prison
Entered only via the Rikers Island Bridge, it has grown autonomously as New York City’s secret ghetto. With its own schools, clinics, ball fields, chapels and mosques, tailor shop, bus depot, power plant, bakery, and carwash, Rikers may appear like a typical Queens neighborhood. But, it is precisely designed under specific rules and laws and is also designed to be self-sufficient and self-contained. The electrical blackout in 1977 did not affect Rikers. It has the means to carry on and survive. In this ‘total institution’, this massive drive for autonomy adds to the isolation. The Rock, in thought and action, is truly a separate world. Such a site is compelling because it has this symbiosis of top-down authoritarian control and the illicit underground informal networks that are not present in most urban conditions.
Urbanism is characterized by the cognitive relationship between individuals and their built environment as well as the infrastructural relationship between populations and formal institutions of power. The existing urban condition in Rikers is one of laws and autonomy. Yet, operating under this restrictive infrastructure, Rikers reveals the existence of illicit, informal networks that operate within these controlled spaces.
Though often, these informal networks are perceived as harmful or even a breach of security; they can also be be beneficial. While the population and formal power structures are always present in the urban context, the informal networks are novel and subversive exhibiting flexible, transient, and emergent characteristics. Their flexibility responds to changing situations by dynamically altering goals, self-organization, and resources. In this context, robust architecture is not an extensive dichotomy between either a top-down system of formal structures or a bottom-up system of a group of individuals, but rather an intensive synthesis of the positive aspects of each system. This precarious balance between the authoritarian and subversive needs to exploited in the redefinition of a place of incarceration.
PROPOSED SITE SCENARIOS A & B
PROGRAM: A dance/yoga/pilates studio [a place of well-being, body & health awareness,nutrition
QUALITIES: fluidity/tranquility/escape/calmness/release/movement/expression
While there are various reasons that New Yorkers may attend movement based classes, whether it be occupational, a natural need to escape, or for therapeutic reasons, the question is what is expected in attending such a class. Typically, when one attends various classes, excluding dance institutes such as Joffrey and NYC Ballet, you may find yourself navigating through a single street level doorway, which then travels into a narrow hall, till one cautiously finds their way to yet another doorway which then finally leads into a studio. Interestingly, many studios have a glass facade for purposes of natural light, also allowing spectators to observe from a street level distance. While a pedestrian is absolutely allowed to observe, there is a sense of intrusion should a spectator catch an eye with a dancer. A moment of awkwardness may occur and then everyone carries on with their own activities once again. This is because there is a definite distance between one and the other. While there is a reason for a needed separation, how can a connection be made between spectator and mover? How can both become involved as active contributors? Or should this separation not only exist, but be exaggerated more so?
There has to be a degree of participation. Dance studios tend to be stowed away in obsolete and undefinable areas, with a simple sign to give direction. Dumbo, just south and adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge is of interest. Surrounded by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy "Main Street lot", Empire-Fulton Ferry, the area is progressively evolving in exciting, eventful, and informative ways. Soon-to-be-open Piers section of the park have attracts visitors to attend programs and events, as well as picnics, ball play, daydreaming and more. Open to new and inventive ideas, this site is perfect to program a new vision of movement studios.
QUALITIES: fluidity/tranquility/escape/calmness/release/movement/expression
While there are various reasons that New Yorkers may attend movement based classes, whether it be occupational, a natural need to escape, or for therapeutic reasons, the question is what is expected in attending such a class. Typically, when one attends various classes, excluding dance institutes such as Joffrey and NYC Ballet, you may find yourself navigating through a single street level doorway, which then travels into a narrow hall, till one cautiously finds their way to yet another doorway which then finally leads into a studio. Interestingly, many studios have a glass facade for purposes of natural light, also allowing spectators to observe from a street level distance. While a pedestrian is absolutely allowed to observe, there is a sense of intrusion should a spectator catch an eye with a dancer. A moment of awkwardness may occur and then everyone carries on with their own activities once again. This is because there is a definite distance between one and the other. While there is a reason for a needed separation, how can a connection be made between spectator and mover? How can both become involved as active contributors? Or should this separation not only exist, but be exaggerated more so?
There has to be a degree of participation. Dance studios tend to be stowed away in obsolete and undefinable areas, with a simple sign to give direction. Dumbo, just south and adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge is of interest. Surrounded by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy "Main Street lot", Empire-Fulton Ferry, the area is progressively evolving in exciting, eventful, and informative ways. Soon-to-be-open Piers section of the park have attracts visitors to attend programs and events, as well as picnics, ball play, daydreaming and more. Open to new and inventive ideas, this site is perfect to program a new vision of movement studios.
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