STRENGTHENING PLACE-IDENTITY:
URBAN CEMETERY
THE OAKLAND CEMETARY - ATLANTA, GA
Place-identity is defined by a person’s cognitions about the physical world around them. At their core is a person’s environmental past, made up of places, spaces and characteristics that have shaped their biological, psychological, social, and cultural needs. This thesis analyzes how the changing built environment can be used as a tool to reveal layers of place-identity. The mutual experience of change over time will inform the connection between the physical body and the spatial body, resulting in a stronger sense of self-identity.
*NOTE: this project is a small sample from a much larger MFA thesis completed in 2021. The buildings shown are three of six buildings in the overall design proposal to reframe the experience of the urban cemetary.
EXISTING
SITE MATERIAL ANALYSIS: DOCUMENTING PLACE-IDENTITY IN THE
Oakland Cemetery’s current greenhouse is a 50ft by 30ft aluminum tempered glass structure that fits in the ruins of the former greenhouse.
GREENHOUSE
Traces of fingerprints by brickmakers / B.Mifflin Brick company New greenhouse meets old greenhouse ruins
Trace of old greenhouse on workshop exterior
Old brick greenhouse walls surround new inserted glass and steel greenhouse
SITE: OAKLAND CEMETERY
The Oakland Cemetery was chosen as the site for this analysis due to its location in the rapidly gentrifying city of Atlanta, Georgia. The cemetery holds a history of its own, steeped in a complicated history of race and religion in the southeast. Headstones have been moved, lost, and found. This project seeks to shine a light on how the present day user navigates such a complex space. CITY AND COMMUNITY ANALYSIS
The inserted scrim and scaffolding system is derived from its similarity to the human skin and skeleton. Additionally, scaffolding is an existing system deployed in the field to repair headstones at their resting location.
The entry and exit were reimagined to create a deeper user experience. As the user enters the workshop, they walk on a scaffolding floor system, maintaining the original floor beneath, similar to archaeological excavations. As the user exits, they step down into Potter’s Field where an estimated 7,500 people are buried, unmarked.
An analysis by Governing Magazine ranked Atlanta fifth among US cities experiencing the most gentrification, with more than 46% of its census tracts currently gentrifying. According to the city, median rents are up 28% since 2000, compared with just 9% nationwide over the same timespan. A 2018 report by HotPads found rent in the city was rising three times faster than the national median. It also ranks third nationwide for evictions, with over 400 cases being processed a month.
“It’s scary to see who is going to be priced out of places that they’ve grown up in, and the places that they’ve lived and remained in for so long,”
- Cheers, a resident in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Atlanta.
MATERIAL PRECEDENT : EXISTING SCAFFOLDING USED FOR ON SITE REPAIRS
RACE IN ATLANTA, GA
CAPITA INCOME IN ATLANTA, GA
The Community Sanctuary redirects the users gaze by reorienting the interior environment. An inserted cube comprised of scaffolding and scrim materials places the user’s view towards Potter’s Field. This redirection calls witness to the lost identities located there.
The design language is guided by the entry stair which creates a connection between the exterior and interior environment.
The pew like seating in the Community Sanctuary was designed with wood material to show age and wear over time. This choice of material reflects the wooden markers originally used to identify those buried in Potter’s Field.
The pew bench gradually forms individual seating, reflecting these individual markers.
The Watch House acts as an interrogation of vision, a means of reflection. A hidden system of cameras placed throughout the cemetery and corresponding screens are used to analyze the user impact. The tracking system highlights the role of the unconscious mind in establishing place-identity.
AGING IN PLACE:
RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
A pair of creatives and recent empty nesters were intrigued by what aging in place could look like for them. While interested in embracing an updated interior, the couple wanted to keep mobility in mind, which meant upgrading their bathroom to accommodate a future walker or wheelchair. This also meant embracing creature comforts that allow for an ease of living, like integrating heated floors, and embracing the art of “more is more” when it comes to bookshelves displaying their curated collections.
Concept collage of office and adjacent laundry room
Concept collage of kitchen and butlery
3"GAPFROMEDGEOFPLATETO COUNTERTOP
T.O.CEILING 1193/16"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.CEILING 1193/16"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.CABINETS 961/16"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.CABINETS 961/16"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.CEILING (1193/16"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.CEILING (1193/16"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
(947/16"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
(80"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.LOWERCABINETS (0"A.F.F.)V.I.F. B.O.UPPERCABINETS
T.O.TOEKICK (4"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.FINISHEDFLOOR (0"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.FINISHEDFLOOR (0"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.FINISHEDFLOOR (0"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.FINISHEDFLOOR (0"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
(4"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.CEILING (1193/16"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.CEILING
SCHLUTERCHANNEL
SCHLUTERCHANNEL
C.O.SHOWERARMFLANGE (84"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
C.O.SHOWERARMFLANGE (84"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.HANDSHOWERMOUNT (70"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.HANDSHOWERMOUNT (70"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.FINISHEDFLOOR (0"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.FINISHEDFLOOR (0"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.FINISHEDFLOOR (0"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.MEDICINECABINET
T.O.SHELF (47"A.F.F.)V.I.F. T.O.COUNTERTOP (36"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.SHELF (47"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.COUNTERTOP (36"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
(0"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
T.O.SHOWERCONTROLTRIMS (48"A.F.F.)V.I.F. C.O.TOWELBAR (42"A.F.F.)V.I.F.
Concept collage of bathroom
Final design images
Final deisgn photos [clockwise from top left: guest room, reading room, living room, butlery]
RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
This single family residential home is influenced by the client’s passion for photography. Materials with varying degrees of opacity are deployed throughout the home to create a play on long exposure, camera focus, and lense perspective.
Concept collage: playing with focus + exposure in photography
Second Floor
First Floor
Precedent
Milk glass panels, varying in opactiy and framed by wood, are used to create sliding doors that cover the storage.
Initially informed by the structure of film negatives, the final dimensions of the frames changed according to client use. When the doors are in use, they slide and overlap,drawing comprisons between camera exposure and focus in the interior of the home.
Translucent fabric panels are installed from floor to ceiling around the exterior or the primary bedroom. The fabric densities change as the user moves them through the space to access a custom coffee + tea station, outdoor patio, and primary closet. These changes in density impact light exposure into the room, once again calling back to the theme of photography.
Living Room
Entry Storage
SACRED / PROFANE:
EXPERIENTIAL DESIGN EXHIBIT
BROOKLYN, NY
This partition installation at the Pratt Institute interior design gallery analyzes the dichotomy between the Sacred and the Profane. This partition design challenges the idea that what defines something as sacred vs profane is static.
In this design, symbolic light calls movement to the partition as the user navigates through the gallery space. Clean lines define the “sacred” shape of the partition when it is stationary at the center, void of light. As the partition begins to move, light is abundant, but the flexible components create a “profane” jagged shape.
DESIGN FOR THE MIND / LABYRINTH:
ICFF SHOWCASE
Mental Health Design - ICFF X Pratt Institute Industrial Design
This work builds from research that suggests anxiety can be managed by meditatively focusing on the meandering paths found in labyrinths. Initially developed in a range of scales with various at hand interior home objects, the final napkin design (opposite page) was refined to blend in with a group dining setting.
Preliminary design iterations developed using Adobe Suite: [clockwise from top left] blanket, coasters, napkin, pillow
International Contemporary Furniture Fair exhibit in collaboration with Pratt Institute
Mindful walking is used by psychotherapists with patients who deal with high levels of anxiety and/or panic. Mindful walking is seen as a transitional tool to help patients move more easily from one location or activity to another.
In Pathologies of Modern Space: Empty Space, Urban Anxiety, and the Recovery of the Public Self, author Kathryn Milun interviews psychologist Robert McLellarn who specializes in anxiety disorder. McLellarn notes that labyrinth walking could be used as exposure treatment for patients with agoraphobia. Labyrinth walking could create a calming, soothing, and safe environment that would make walking not feel dangerous. Milun explains the labyrinth as “a little training ground, a safe space in which to experiment with recovering the public self”.
Labyrinth walking is linked to similar biofeedback techniques such as mindful breathing, visualizations, and meditation. All of these strategies are used to help control the stress response. Biofeedback techniques can help to:
- Lower blood pressure
- Improve GI symptoms
- Manage chronic pain
- Improve quality of sleep
- Manage anxiety and depression
Contact
www.linkedin.com/in/claire-riordan
Thanks!