A Dispatch from the Site Office
An Alternative to Social Housing Regeneration  Over the last half-century, the UK’s social housing stock has been systematically diminished - parceled out for private sale to individuals and investors, transferred to private non-profit management organizations, or demolished altogether. Local councils now implement regeneration plans that present a binary choice between total demolition and managed decline - plans which often result in displacement.

Can an architectural practice operate in a way that intervenes on this process? What can a designer do to shape attitudes about social housing and existing buildings that are so often seen as problems in need of a solution? This project explores these issues through a close analysis of the Wendling Estate, a housing estate in North London that was slated for demolition in 2021. The analysis takes place from the position of a permanent site office (the Wendling Site Office) that allows for a new pace of building transformation across scales. 

Full thesis book available here.
 Type  Thesis Project
Date
Spring 2024
Location
London, UK

Advisors

Amelyn Ng, Debbie Chen
Aging in Place, Together
An Intergenerational Community HubThis proposal explores the idea of aging in place at the scale of a four tower apartment complex just outside the center of Stockholm. In its current state, the complex is anchored by retail and community resources at the street level on one side, and overlooks a park on the other. The site also spans a slight grade - the park sits about a story below the main street level.

Apartments on the upper floors are designed for independent living, and residents are given the option to transition to assisted living facilities located at the second level of the same complex. This “Managed Care” level contains a number of medical support facilities and an abundance of community gathering space, all of which is also accessible to members of the local public.

The intention is to generate moments of interaction, engagement, and participation between the neighborhood’s elderly residents and the wider community at large in a space that’s inviting, warm, and comfortable.

 Type  Senior Housing
Date
Fall 2022
Location
Stockholm, SE
Collaborators
Andrew Schnurr
Good/Poor
A Speculation on Wood Framing
This speculative object explores the potential of wood framing through new applications of Audels’ “Good” and “Poor” stick-building conventions. The unconventional assembly of custom CNC-milled joints and members expresses a typically hidden structural system, and questions whether “poor” building practices might be pursued with enough technical rigor to produce a complete and stable “good” assembly.

A cast concrete bench serves as the assembly’s foundation; the complex framing structure elevates an OSB-sheathed wooden box that matches the volume of the bench. Each piece has a distinct and specific purpose, and no two components ever repeat identically. The specificity of the fabrication process smooths over some of the irregularities and imbalances apparent in the entire form.
Type  Fabrication Experiment
Date
Fall 2023
Location
Providence, RI

Collaborators

Alexandra Croft
Grange Hall by the Sea
A Coastal Gathering Place  This project grew out of a close examination of the West Tisbury Grange Hall and Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society - two rural gathering centers that serve a wide range of community functions for the interior of Martha’s Vineyard. Both spaces are similar in size and structure, and both have traditionally been hubs for the island’s agricultural life. They now function as a generic space that can serve a wide variety of community gathering needs.

What might a grange hall by the sea look like? It might be open on all sides, to allow the breeze and winds to pass through, and maintain views out to the harbor and open waters beyond. The upper level might be a vast, open observation deck, from which to survey ferry traffic. What types of activities might be supported in these open spaces? A fleet of stored chairs and tables might be deployed for a wedding, a community meeting, a memorial service. A book club might meet in the rotunda on a warm night, a town dinner might become a major summer event.

This exploration imagines a version of the island where these gathering spaces might be established in a few diverse contexts - Grange Hall in the Woods, Grange Hall by the Marsh, Grange Hall in the Village, Grange Hall on the Green, Grange Hall by the Pier…
Type  Community Center
Date
Fall 2023
Location
Oak Bluffs, MA

New Incentives
Some Ideas about New Ways of Living and Working  For decades, community land trusts (CLTs) have been some of the most effective tools for ensuring the long term affordability of entire communities. By listening to community-led organizations that have achieved a level of permanence at a hyperlocal scale, we can be better prepared to create a world that meets the needs of real people, in harmony with our surroundings, over a longer period of time. With this idea in mind, I visited two community land trusts in January 2023 - the Granby Four Streets Community Land Trust in Liverpool, UK, and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Roxbury, MA. I conducted interviews with organizers and designers who have had a hand in translating these organizations’ goals into real spatial expressions.

This broadsheet publication contains excerpts from my interviews, and represents an effort to understand how designers and community based organizations might work together. A close level of collaboration and understanding might help design act as an agent for generating stronger connections to a place.

Digital and print copies available by request. Type  Independent Research
Date
Ongoing
Location
Liverpool, UK
Roxbury, MA
Providence, RI
Made possible with support from the Somerson Sustainability Innovation Fund
©MMXXIVThanks for visiting : )