Article Response

This article helped me define community while also enabling me to shape and sharpen my conception of a neighborhood. As Cater and Jones explain, “A simple approach for distinguishing between the two terms is to link neighborhoods with a geographic location and communities with social interaction,” (1989).

Comparing and contrasting many different definitions of community and neighborhoods aided my own definitions. “Mumford (1961) defined neighborhood as an area in which people share certain common facilities necessary to domestic life.” “Lynch (1981) referred to neighborhood as a local unit in which people are personally acquainted with each other by reason of residential proximity.” “Cater and Jones (1989) defined neighborhood as local urban space bounded by the occupants’ self-definitions and practices.” In my own personal experience, I have found these definitions to be in and of themselves accurate.

There are many different components to a neighborhood that shape the community within it such as sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology, geography, urban and rural planning, and community development and housing. People come from different backgrounds, have different preferences, and act differently. A neighborhood accommodates these many different people while still bringing them together as a community. A community is a network of social interaction and bonding, usually based on mutual interest.

The building codes listed in the other article help guide builders to create these functional spaces

that condone good health within the community, both structurally and culturally. With all of these social

and physical constructs working together cohesively the neighborhood community is destined to succeed.

commUNITY CASE STUDY

GRANT PUBLIC HOUSING

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Grant Houses

- General Ulysses S. Grant Houses is a public housing project at the northern boundary of Morningside Heights in Manhattan, NY.

- The project was constructed between Broadway and Morningside Avenue, spanning from 123rd Street/La Salle Street to 125th st.

- The subways lines are 2 to 3 blocks away

- The bus lines are 1 to 2 blocks away

- General Ulysses S. Grant Houses in Manhattan consists of nine buildings, 13 and 21-stories tall with 1,940 apartments housing an estimated 4,519 residents. The 15.05-acre site was completed September 30, 1957 and is bordered by West 123rd and West 125th Streets, Morningside Avenue and Broadway

- The complex, with the adjacent Morningside Houses, was completed in 1957, along with your webmaster.

- "At Grant Houses, for instance, 'bricks of mixed pink and buff' were added, with limited success, to break up the monotony of identical brick towers. The designers poorly integrated the colored bricks and they appear as an odd afterthought" (141).

- For good lighting the homes are directly north of Morningside Gardens, which is a "middle income cooperative" in Morningside Heights.

The New York Times noted the racial identification of the first five families to move into the Grant Houses, each from a different racial background.

At Grant Houses, a few neighbors cared enough about the state of their community, their city and their environment to raise their recycling rate from zero to thirty percent. They've not only made it easy, they've made it possible for tenants here to do the right thing and recycle.

- Coming together for this single cause (to recycle)

- Different people living in one place (has same effect as a dorm)

- The garden project will primarily serve to provide low income grant housed residents access to nutritious and sustainable food.

- The garden project will increase interaction between the Grant Houses

- Lead to the cultivation of personal relationships between university students and Grant Houses residents, and helped to shape a collective vision

THE WOLFSON BUILDING

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Wolfson Building. Somerville College. Oxford England. 1966

- Named after Sir Isaac Wolfson who funded the building.

-This structure was built for undergraduate students.

- It was one of the first women’s colleges to be founded in oxford, England.

- The college is located at the southern end of Woodstock road, with Little Clarendon Street to the south and Walton street to the west.

- Somerville College was converted into a hospital during World War 1.

- It completes the enclosure of the Somerville’s large quad.

- Rooms face onto Watson st. and onto the quad.

- The staircases, located in the freestanding brick towers at each end of the block, form connections between the new concrete structure and its older neighbors.

- Each room has a very large singe-pane square window.

- The window projecting beyond the line of columns forms a lookout post and provides good light for the working wall that carries desks and bookshelves.

- The windows all reflect images of the other buildings located in the quad. Bringing them all together.

- On the bottom floor of this building is the “Flora Anderson Hall” where many social events are held.

- Dorms hold events where people meet new friends.

- Living on campus creates a better sense of community and comfortability by seeing the same people each day.

- College campuses have everything you need within a small amount of land. There is food, lodging, social activities, clothing stores, and art supplies right on campus. You can stay in one place and still have everything you need.

- The dorms vibrant social life draws many students to it.

Works Cited

Maxwell, Rober. New British Architecture. New York: Praeger, 1973. Print.

Bloom, Nicholas Dagen. "Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century." University of Pennsylvania Press. Philadelphia 2008

Explorations in Photoshop

The above images are what i used to create the collage below. We've learned several selection tools and photomerging techniques the past two weeks and with careful editing you can create smoother compositions that create an abstract feeling.

The image below is created by five images, a snowflake, a theme park, a ceiling, and a cathedral. I used these images to create a collage that fulfills the meaning behind the words ornate and metallic. Did i succeed?

HAITI support

Doing this project in studio makes me realize how self-sufficient i could be. To be able to create a relatively livable structure inspires confidence. Making these structures also shows me how much we waste, and what we're not doing with it. Our culture is so self centered. If we all worked together, every weekend even, we could do incredible things for other people in a very small amount of time. This project really makes me understand a little bit better how much we as people, as designers, as college students, are capable of. Is it laziness that keeps us from doing these things on our own? This is just one idea to help. THere are so many ways people can help each other. [we as a culture need to be more willing to help others.]

a Creative Narrative

Walking along the shore of Arcachon on this warm fall day i notice a large fort sitting in the open dunes. Through a small window i notice there are people inside and i can see through one of the openings as i get closer that there are three, two teenage boys sitting on a couch and a younger girl lying on the floor. Any other day this gray structure would have blended into the sandy dunes but i'm feeling particularly serene today and so i just took in my whole environment. This shelter felt like a place one can only find if they seek it. I decide to enter the fort. As i do the kids are leaving out of the other door and i worry that i had intruded, but it is apparent that they just simply found something else to do. The space is comfortable and inviting. It is a place to be alone, but still part of the nature around you. I can still feel the sand and hear the ocean clearly. The sun enters through the openings and the small window but does not intrude. A cool breeze filters through, shifting the fabric of the walls and ceiling, but not dangerously so. It is a shelter to gather one's thoughts momentarily in solitude, or stop to sit leisurely with friends as the children before me had been doing. After a moments observation i was on my way down the beach again, excited about my new discovery...

Solo Reflection

Group Red Team (Clairissa Anderson, Hailey Allen, Jeff Lynne, Wesley Shamlian) was asked to design a makeshift shelter where people could socialize. With socializing in mind we came up with certain parameters we felt needed to be followed. When thinking about socializing and how people interact when they socialize we decided that our space should be warm, welcoming, comfortable, energetic, informal, relaxed, and meant for two or more people (since you cannot socialize by yourself.) We thought about pre-existing spaces where people socialize and decided that this space should be a size that allows for intimate socializing and a circular shape that makes everyone feel included and involved. Generally in places meant for socializing you see people standing and some people sitting so in our space we are including seating, as well as space enough for people to stand and still be a part of the social gathering. In order to create a larger space that maintains an intimate atmosphere we decided that a darker color scheme would be most appropriate, depending on the materials we obtain.

Process drawing