PORTFOLIO: SHORT

BROOKE MALLON. ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO 2017-2020 email: bmmallon@iastate.edu

URBIA Urbia began as a simple investigation of affordable/co-housing in New York City. We began by first internalizing and analyzing what it means to be living in New York.

After initial research, we were having trouble understanding what it is like to live and grow up in an urban environment. To better understand and as an act of complete juxtaposition, we decided to reflected on how we grew up, in the midwestern suburbs. In our childhood, people explored backyards, met neighbors in driveways, lawns were mowed, and dogs were walked. As we dove further into how people of New York City lived, we found a current ‘phenomena’ of people moving from the city to the NYC suburbs. As it turns out, nobody lives within the ‘Big Apple’, and as a result, city living is suburban living.

A need for greater space, familiarity, and affordability all act as major calling-cards in the suburban movement. The combination of public, semi-public, and semi-private yards and spaces that are present in the suburbs allow for a variety of areas that provide points

of interaction and socialization.

However, the suburbs are very often critiqued of being isolating, monotonous, and far from amenities and jobs.

Physically situating suburban living within the urban fabric of a city allows us to create and foster a new kind of living environment that synthesizes what is normally thought to be two dichotomized living situations: urban and suburban. By providing familiar suburban features such as porches, yards, and space to grow, within an urban environment that is close to city amenities with greater social diversity, we are hoping to creating a new form of “city living.”

Partner project with Kylee Cangas

URBIA | YARD DIAGRAMS

URBIA | DIAGRAMS

URBIA

17th Floor

15th Floor

16th Floor

Single Unit 1-2 Beds

Family Unit 1-4 Beds

Double Unit 1-2 Beds

open to below

open to below

up to balcony

open to below

open to below

open to below open to below

| FLOOR PLATES & UNIT PLANS

LAUNCESTON CITY ‘HOTEL’ Launceston, Tasmania began as a

trading town. As population soared, the town could not keep up with the amount of settlers and travelers moving through.

As a result of the population boom, hotels were one of the first architectural staples of “Downtown” Launceston.

Within these hotels, everything from bible studies, sports games, and schools were housed. Within this new proposal, the city block will act as a historic hotel scaled-up to span a city block. With axial passageways that weed between the historic existing storefronts and less-cared for “back of house” buildings, an indoor corridor is created, connecting whole programming of a city block, under “one ‘hotel’ roof”. The new walkway will sew together past and present by weaving through existing walls along once-connected alleyways, and add additional circulation to each storefront with minimal disruption of historically listed buildings.

Just as the occupancy of the interiors of the storefronts are being challenged, as is the large parking lot within the block.

As an attempt at an “adaptive-reuse”, the parking lot keeps its original function, parking cars, but put a twist on the physical practice. During the day, it functions as it always does, but during the night (and special events), new programming allows for a fifty-car drive-in-theater available for the public.

LAUNCESTON CITY ‘HOTEL’

| DIAGRAMS AND ANALYSIS

LAUNCESTON CITY ‘HOTEL’

CITY ANALYSIS

BLOCK ANALYSIS

DESIGN STRATEGIES

DESIGN STRATEGIES

DESIGN STRATEGIES

S NT

RO

EF

OR ST

HISTORIC BUILDINGS BUILDINGS LISTED ON THE HERITAGE TASMANIA WEBSITE AS HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT.

GREEN SPACE BRINGING TASMANIAN VALUES TO THE CITY, POCKETS OF GREEN SPACE PROVIDE A COMFORTABLE SPACE FOR REST, EATING, MEETING, AND ENGAGING WITH OTHERS IN THE COMMUNITY.

DEMOLISH

ST ’S S HN

ST

1.

1.

T 2.

2.

3.

T

SS

LE

AR

CH

PUBLIC PARKS OUTDOOR PARKS ARE A STAPLE WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS OF LAUNCESTON, BUT THERE ARE NOT MANY IN THE CBD.

PASSAGEWAYS BRINGING TASMANIAN VALUES TO THE CITY, POCKETS OF GREEN SPACE PROVIDE A COMFORTABLE SPACE FOR REST, EATING, MEETING, AND ENGAGING WITH OTHERS IN THE COMMUNITY.

2.

JO

NE

BA

IS BR

PATHWAY

NO DEMOLISHION OF HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT BUILDINGS, AND A PATHWAY FOLLOWING AN EXISTING ALLEYWAY THAT CREATES ADDITIONAL CIRCULATION TO STORE-FRONTS THROUGH THE BACK. ENCLOSING TO CREATE AN INDOOR SHOPPING EXPERIENCE.

RY DA ON S EC NT / S RO TH EF PA R W STO

ER

M

OR

NE

/F

ET

RE

ST

ROADWAYS MAIN ROADS THAT RUN THROUGH LAUNCESTON ALSO RUN AROUND THE CITY CENTER SITE, MAKING SITE VERY ACCESSIBLE FOR TOURISTS AND PASSERBYS.

3.

T KS

R YO

BUS STOP BLOCK/SURROUNDING BLOCKS ARE MAIN DESTINATION FOR POPULAR BUS-STOPS.

4.

PATHWAY AXIS CUTTING THROUGH ON A “T” AXIS PROVIDES PEDESTRIAN CIRCULATION AND ACCESS FROM ALL SURROUNDING STREETS, AS WELL AS CONNECTING RESIDUAL PASSAGEWAYS.

PASSAGEWAY TYPES 1. SOUTHERN ENTRANCE; PUBLIC PARKS/SITTING AREA 2. ENCLOSED SHOPPING AREA, OPEN TO BACKS OF THE STOREFRONTS 3. INTERIOR COURTYARD, ENCLOSED 4. PASSAGEWAY THROUGH EXISTING BUILDINGS, NO CEILINGS REMOVED; WALL OPENINGS IN CONNECTED WALLS

DRIVE-IN CIRCULATION 1. ENTRANCE 2. PARKING SPOTS 3. CONCESSIONS, BATHROOMS TWO MAIN POINTS OF CIRCULATION ALLOW FOR QUICK ENTRANCE/EXITS OF CAR FLOW.

| DIAGRAMS AND ANALYSIS

LAUNCESTON CITY ‘HOTEL’

| INTERIOR VIEWS

[ THIS IS NOT] A REFORM After years of successful ship building which supported the economy, the innovations of the new world meant that the old Venice ship industry could no longer keep up with the demands of the new naval era. As old industry died, the island remained frozen in time. Venice became a novelty--a vacation destination that was cast in the past. Now, nearly twenty million people annually make Venice their travel destination, making tourism the main source of the economy. A parasite is defined as an organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host’s expense, and at first glance it would seem appropriate to consider those twenty million tourists parasites to the city of Venice. Tourism itself has attached itself to the city, feeding off of its rich history and beautiful scenery.

However, compared to the amount of tourists the city sees per year, the live-in population of Venice is less than three percent of that number. This vast discrepancy is pushing the Venice natives out of the city at the rate of around one thousand people per year. Tourism, the trade that keeps Venice alive, is also what is killing it.

At initial examination, this relationship may seem parasitic, but can it truly be parasitic if a parasite kills its host- it’s life source? This exploration brings about the question, will tourists “kill” the city by forcing out the true Venetians? Does the exodus of natives mean the death of the city, or can it still exist simply as a novelty, as a Disney World attraction? Finally, could it be possible that one could be both a host and a parasite, evolving in relation with the other? The issue is much more complicated than it would outwardly seem. Is it something we could even fix? Does it need to be fixed? Aren’t we all parasites to one another, pushing our host to the peripheries while lacking the ability to empathize their position? Our project aims to look at these issues and ambiguous complexity in this seemingly parasitic relationship. Initially we wanted to create environment with different layers of transparency,

where in certain areas one group could see the other inhabiting a space and vice versa, thus creating a sort of zoo of “the other kind.” However, after critique from professors and amongst ourselves we found our plan too simple/one dimensional. We wanted it to be more of an experience. Additionally we were looking too literally at transparency, limiting the possibilities our form could take.

We decided that our building needed to provide more an an inquiry into a lack of authenticity, conflicting relationships, and changing positions that arise in the struggle between tourist and Venetian. Keeping these goals in mind, for our next investigation, we began by addressing the form and function of our proposal. Extending walls and grid lines that were present within the site allowed us to build onto and, subsequently, break the grid.

This provided us with a new series of rooms that allowed us to create a parasitic path that grew through it. By taking shape within the existing shell of the building, our exhibit itself becomes inherently parasitic, rendering the site it’s host. of viewing other parties, we resolved to trade mirrors and glass for live stream projections. By casting video from within the site (people from the “other side of the membrane”), within the city of Venice’s hot tourist/ hot local spots, and even other places in the world, the projections provided us with a larger sample, or cast of entourage/experiences. With the exposure of the videos/ images broadcasted on the walls, the path allows tourists to become locals, and locals to become tourists within their own city through manipulative illusion and displacement.

Through displaying the propaganda of each opposing group the occupant is given the opportunity to compare and reflect on both viewpoints. An exhibition of “both sides of the coin”, the occupant is supplied with evidence to inform their own decision, which is why this is not a reform, this is a medium for YOUR reform.

Partner project with Kylee Cangas

[NOT A] REFORM | TUNNEL & PROJECTION DIAGRAMS