Student Works

CLAUDIA BARRETT

SELECTED WORKS

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO

COMPLEMENTARY ROOFS, COMPLEX PAVILION

CANOPY ARCHIPELAGO: MEXICO CITY AND THEIR URBAN SCULPTURAL LANDSCAPES

LINEAR CITY: SIGN & SCALE 10-13 2-9 14-27

COMPLEMENTARY ROOFS, COMPLEX PAVILION

This pavilion examines how basic computer-aided design commands form unprecedented roof types that serve as a kit of parts to a comprehensible whole on a nine-square grid. When the pitched roof and butterfly roof are lofted together they produce a series of complex roof types. Through shearing, mirroring, and rotating these pieces further, the complexity and unfamiliarity develop extravagant walls, elaborate overhangs, and elongated ramps. Yet, pieced together they generate recognizable features that are not precedent to the pitched or butterfly roof; the plateau roof of the pavilion shears down and out emphasizing pockets of public and private spaces, the flat balcony provides additional voids to the grid, and the pitch and butterfly profile retain legibility throughout the pavilion.

ARCH 105 | Fall 2016

Zehra Ahmed

CITY OF CANOPIES

FROM MAKE-SHIFT VENDORS TO INFORMAL

ECONOMIES

Mexico City has become a multitude of temporary enclaves defined by urban canopies; these canopies externalize public spaces by utilising informal street vendors as a new form of collective space. Historically, Mexico City’s urban development has been driven by informal urban architectures; the city’s ability to rebuild and repurpose what is already existing continues to be a driving factor for today’s urban spaces. As an attempt to improve the overall quality of urban life, Mexico City began the reforestation of its periphery by utilizing the current ecology and lose of open space as a way to rethink the interrelationship between urbanization and infrastructure. The verdant canopies were to restore the existing landscape by providing shade as a way to reduce pavement heat and encourage slower traffic. Unlike the verdant canopies, that provide recreational green space, the informal street vendors today, focuses on the urban block, and externalizes public spaces to the periphery of the block separating the different speeds of urban spaces. 11

ARCH 414 | Fall 2017

Alexander Eisenschmidt

Mexico City has become a multitude of temporary enclaves defined by urban canopies; these canopies externalize public spaces by utilising informal street vendors as a new form of collective space. Historically, Mexico City’s urban development has been driven by informal urban architectures; the city’s ability to rebuild and repurpose what is already existing continues to be a driving factor for today’s urban spaces. As an attempt to improve the overall quality of urban life, Mexico City began the reforestation of its periphery by utilizing the current ecology and lose of open space as a way to rethink the interrelationship between urbanization and infrastructure. The verdant canopies were to restore the existing landscape by providing shade as a way to reduce pavement heat and encourage slower traffic. Unlike the verdant canopies, that provide recreational green space, the informal street vendors today, focuses on the urban block, and externalizes public spaces to the periphery of the block separating the different speeds of urban spaces.

The vendor sets up temporary structures in between urban spaces with concentrated foot traffic, separating the pedestrian from the streets, once one vendor enters the periphery of the block, another one will follow suit, soon, the people emerge and populate the streets.. The colorful plastic coverings cast shade upon the existing environment below, creating a new space for the urbanite to collect. Below the canopy, life emerges; one experiences the city in a whole new light, the sounds of traffic is replaced with the ringing of bell and the laughter and conversation; the chaos of the city is gone and the city dweller is able to take in the beauty of the city. The entire experience of the block changes within in moments, providing a variety of goods from cast iron pans to an ice cream cone, what the urbanite wants is what the urbanit gets. The presents of the vendors transforms what was once a just a path, into a new urban space full of vibrant colors, traditional crafts, and homemade foods. While walking down the streets of one travels through a network of vendors, each with its own experience beneath the shade.The vendors of mexico city take reminiates of the city, rebuilds the existing landscape and creates a new experience that gives back to the city, improving the pedestrians experience through the streetscape. The Street vendor takes what already exists, repurposing it to build a new urban architecture, graphically identified by its make-shift structure defined by two defining features; a roof and an enclosure. The structure is typically made of tarps, umbrellas, stalls and grocery carts; all elements are portable. In order for the vendor to become a space for urban activity it must be able to access the the presence of the collective and have the ability to relocate at any moment. Together these elements create a canopy for a new form of externalized public space, that is both temporary and mobile, allowing the people to experience the city in a new way.

1/16”

1/16” =

1/16” =

1/16” = 1’

LINEAR CITY: SIGN AND SCALE

Linear City combines seven disparate American cities into a new urban fabric with new forms of residence. By aligning one defining street of each city parallel to another, Linear City produces strips of distinct urbanism when traveling north and south. Whereas, navigating east and west, each block is shared with a juxtaposition of two cities. Boston is the catalyst for cohesion of the differentiating cities as it curves away from the linear trajectory and intersects at a diagonal path forcing a blend of three city identities at each corner.

Houston’s radical zoning places private subdivisions on top of big-box department stores. Las Vegas’ fascinating signs become the exterior wall of a suburban home; the home also shapes the wall of the strip mall, thus signalling the residential subdivision that is above. And Boston’s pedestrian oriented expansion repurposes parking lots into a park space. This creates the southwest corner of one city block. At the southeast corner of the block, Boston’s cemetery tombstones get scaled up for residency, which also signals the cemetery below. Las Vegas’ marvelous fountains spew at the cemetery park to celebrate life. And Houston’s suburban homes get scaled down for the dead to rest in their own homes.

ARCH 106 | Spring 2017

Judith De Jong

Concept Diagram

Diagram

Top | Model Image Bottom | Scale Diagram

Top | Model Image Bottom | Sign Diagram