Erika Benson Work Sample
Erika Benson Portfolio Contents Professional: Nicaragua 2011-2012 ............................................................2-6 01. El Arenal Ecotourism Center - Construction Documents...............2-4 02. Granada Daycare - Construction Documents.........................................5 03. ODESAR Esquipulas Branch Office - Construction Photos...............6 Studio: University of Southern California 2005-2010..........................7-11 04. Thesis - Diagramming Example............................................................7-9 05. Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council - Process Example..........10-11 Drawings..............................................................................................................12 Policy and Critique Excerpts...........................................................................13 -The City Coffee Built Published March 2012 for Untapped Cities -The Affordable Housing Shortage Facing Low-Income NYC Households Final Term Paper for Governing the 21st Century City at Columbia University, April 2013
Professional...Studio..Drawings..Policy
01 El Arenal Eco-Tourism Center Location: Matagalpa, Nicaragua Organization: Secretary of Tourism, City of Matagalpa, Nicaragua Donor: Canadian Federation of Municipalities An old farmhouse was transformed into a museum and cafe. Program includes reception, kitchen, gallery, shop, auditorium and offices. Phase 1 - Renovation Phase 2 - Addition: Second Floor Auditorium
Original Site Plan
Phase 1 Site Plan
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Garden Behind Stage
Phase 2 Plan Trellis Dividing Garden From Auditorium
Section 2
East Elevation
Section 1
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Open to air Open with protective bars
Plastered with adobe
Wall Panel Details
Wall System: Wood frame wall panels are divided into different segments that are either: - plastered with adobe. - semi-open, but protected with bamboo bars. - completely open. An exterior bamboo trellis, hung at a diagonal, protects the wall from rain.
Trellis Details
Garden Floor Detail at Concrete Column
Auditorium Garden The auditorium has a garden behind the stage; this garden is divided from the auditorium by a 2’ wall and trellis hung from the ceiling. The ceiling above the garden is made from transparent corrugated panels.
Garden Floor Detail at Adobe Wall
Garden Trellis Details
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02 Granda Daycare Location: Granda, Nicaragua Organization: A local church group. Funding: Funded by donations from the Bradford family. A small bedroom for the school’s executive director and classroom for 50 children. Construction Strategy: The initial design centered around a prefabriced adobe wall panel system that would allow students of a local trade school to construct the panels offsite. Volunteers from the United States would then be able to erect the completed panels within a week.
Zinc Cover, Cal. 26 Cana de Castilla 20mm Green Roof Zinc Cover , Cal. 26 Bamboo Diameter 20mm Bamboo Diameter 20mm
Bamboo Diameter 100mm C1
A
South Elevation
B
D
C
E
F
G
South Elevation 1:100
1.65
Green Roof Zinc Cover Bamboo Diameter Metal-Wood Screw 20mm 2" x 4" Wood Stud Bamboo Diameter 100mm
Wood Stud 50mm x 100mm 2.70 Wood Nail
Steel Bolt 10mm Diameter Wood Stud 50mm x 50mm x 150mm
Half Bambu 40mm
Bamboo Diameter 20mm C1
2" x 4" Wood Stud
G
F
E
D
C
B
A
North Elevation 1:100
Gra
Window Opening with Metal Protector 2.800
Eleva
Arquitecta:
North Elevation 1:100
April 25, 2
2" x 4" Wood Stud
Bamboo 100mm Diameter
Adobe with Lime Finish
2" x 4" Wood Stud
Half Bamboo 40mm
Mortar
0.502
WaterProofing
Granada Daycare Walls
Wall Detail 1
Wall Detail 1 : 15
Arquitecta: Erika Fitch Benson
April 25, 2012
501
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03 ODESAR Esquipulas Branch Office Location: Esquipulas Nicaragua. Organization: ODESAR Redesign of the ODESAR branch office.
Original Office
Construction
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04 Fortress Farms - Diagrams Fiction: Dreaming of Peace
Professor: Doris Sung Studio: Spring 2010 Thesis Studio, University of Southern California School of Architecture Location: Al Walaja, Palestine Defense Strategy: 1. Mobility 2. Camouflage 3. Tunneling 4. Adaptability
West Bank
Housing Demolitions Worldwide
Stage 1: Agriculture
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Mobility Strategy Small, tensile, collapsible tents which are:
Collapsable Tent Structure
-Mass produced
- Rapidily deployed
-Adaptable: the tent can be a stand-alone structure or skylight for underground tunnels
The tent may be distributed during demolitions to protestors occupying the site.
Tent Construction
Tent as Skylight for Underground Bedroom
Tent As Skylight -Tent can serve as a skylight for underground homes.
Tent As Skylight - Tent can open and close to allow in light.
Stage 1: Agriculture
Underground Farm
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Irrigation Lines Irrigation lines initially follow the natural topography.
Randomized Points Wells that collection rainwater every 20’ along the irrigation lines are projected off of the irrigation lines at random distances.
New Irrigation Lines Irrigation lines are now randomized.
Individual Irrigation Lines Each farmer has a different irrigation line.
Points Start with randomized points.
Randomized Grid Individual crop plots points are made by connecting four points.
Camouflage Strategy Pixelation randomly distributes ownership of crop plots and olive trees accross the entire area making it difficult to target one complete farm for destruction.
Individual Crop Plots
Pixelated Irrigation - Start with straight irrigation channels. -Every 20 feet a point is marked along channels. -Points are moved a random distance to left or right. -Randomized points are connected. Pixelated Crop-plots -Points marking property limits are randomly distributed. -Points are connected to make crop squares. -Each farmer takes the crop-plots around his irrigation channel. -A certain number of plots are then exchanged among farmers to distribute ownership.
Camouflaged Crop Plots
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05 Boyle Heights Neighborhoood Council - Process Professor: Ed Woll Studio: Spring 2008, University of Southern California School of Architecture Location: Boyle Heights Program: Design a council chamber and social hall for the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council. Program includes a Social Hall, Council Chamber, Office, Office Suite, 3 Classrooms, Library, Planning Counter, Utility Spaces, and Outdoor Space. Design Strategy: 1. Design a monumental building at a residential scale. 2. Provide the community with an outward expression for itself. 3. Maintain the original retail buildings in order to provide a sense of history. 4. Create additional park space for the community.
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Massing Studies
Lighting Studies
Programming Studies
Layout Studies
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Professional...Studio..Drawings..Policy The City Coffee Built Northern Nicaragua’s overly-fertile hills have a way of swallowing the work of human beings; buildings, both grand and impoverished, are little more than white noise against an impressive array of orchids, flowers, ferns, rivers and trees. Architecture, regarded as secondary to this grander backdrop, displays a kind of modern aesthetic: detail-less, white and minimal. It is a stripped-down colonial style described by Pablo Antonio Cuadra in El Nicaragüense as a complete disregard for ornament that came from contemplating the placid waters of Nicaragua’s two great lakes. Yet, hidden amongst these hills a local coffee farm has developed a new kind of model architecture for the region. The Spanish architecture firm, ABCDesign, in conjunction with the social-business, State Street Coffee, has harnessed the environment’s fertile energy to build an architecture of dignity in support of Nicaragua’s marginalized coffee workers. Architect Jordi Galopa of ABCDesign Studio was commissioned to design a community that would house these temporary workers and serve as a model to be replicated throughout the coffee zone. ABCDesign produced an ambitious plan that re-imagined the hacienda as a city in the countryside “based on a minimal urbanistic self-sufficient cell working within a sustainable system.”This plan set about creating not only housing, but also infrastructure, streets, kitchens and public spaces for an over-arching communal unit. In the architect’s words “the whole process was based on the premise of helping isolated communities better manage their environmental and natural resources through social regrouping.” The basic unit of this city-farm is a four-apartment unit built out of a wooden frame in which pre-fabricated bamboo panels are inserted. Several panels are covered with lime-washed adobe while others are left open to provide light and cross-ventilation. Recycled coffee sacks serve as curtains and provide privacy. The first floor is raised off the ground to protect the building from humidity and minimize the need for topographical changes. Each roof is made in the colonial style using cana de castilla, a species of cane native to the Mediterranean, which is then covered with seven sheets of recycled plastic, a wire-mesh, 4-6” of soil and plants. The furniture is made from a combination of càna de castilla and recycled wood. The goal was to create a rural human settlement with low resource needs and plenty of communal space. Housing units State Street Coffee has har- provide privacy, but the over-all design emphasizes public space. nessed the environment’s fertile Apartments are connected to the social life on the streets through porches and a large traditional-style ranch provides an open-area energy to build an architecture public gathering space for the entire complex. Circular tables are of dignity in support of Nic- built around surrounding trees and outdoor benches line the wide public through-fares. All services, such as the kitchen, laundry aragua’s marginalized coffee area and bathrooms, are communal allowing for greater density: up to 500 people live on 1 hectare (that is a density of 50,000) workers. without over-crowding.
The Affordable Housing Shortage Facing Low-Income NYC Households Socio-Economic Causes
Outcomes Will create or preserve 165,000 units, 50% are low-income.
Overview: The Problem The Housing Shortage Facing Low-InAffordable housing is still uncome Renters in New York City Problem: affordable in many areas. Supply: Poorer residents face tougher choices in Affordable Some main causes are not beLand is constrained. New York City than their richer cohorts. ing addressed. housing New Housing Construction and operatshortage for Marketplace This is no surprise: the latter group wields The city could lose as many ing costs have risen. low income Plan units as are being created. the option to buy, allowing them time and individuals and houseOutcomes resources to shop around. But lower-income holds. Weak enforcement - leads to Legal Causes Rent Regulation renters also face another disadvantage — discrimination. Excess construction regumarket conditions are markedly different. Many units are being deregulation and zoning restriclated. tions drive up costs. Their rents have risen dramatically over the past two decades while their wages have High-income households reCity authority is conceive unnecessary benefits. strained by the state. remained stagnant. This has created a crisis Still...A huge percentage of the Inappropriate Federal Inof affordability. Atop this sits a shrinking rental market is rent regulated. come definitions. supply of affordable housing due to a leak of Decision-Making Process subsidized and regulated units. These two factors combine to create an affordable housing shortage for low income households. This paper asks how New York City can better use policy to provide affordable housing to low income renters, a category of households fit for discussion here due to their interaction with municipal, city-level policy. For comparison, consider poorer renters (considered very- or extremely-low income), who are generally far more likely to be covered by federal policies, namely Section 8 housing vouchers and public housing; the city of New York merely passes funding for the Section 8 program through to beneficiaries, with no real input into the policy making processes shaping the program (Wambua, 2013). On the other hand, low income individuals and households benefit far more often from city and state policies. Low income, working class residents also hold a constructive place in a city’s economic fabric and its chances for economic vitality and sustainability. Without affordable housing, new workers may lack an important incentive as they consider moving to New York and contributing to the city’s tax base and economy. Although a restaurant server earns less than an accountant, he or she may represent a larger portion of the work force and city tax base (see appendix Figure 8). It is necessary for the city to attract more lower-income workers to buttress the foundations of its tax base and to nourish the human capital needed to thrive economically and sustainably in the long term. The paper’s first section addresses the key economic and demographic components behind the mismatch between supply of and demand for mid-range apartments, as well as legal constraints that contribute to the Demand: Increasing demand from a growing population.
between supply of and demand for mid-range apartments, as well as legal constraints that contribute to the housing shortage. The second section focuses on two major housing policies in New York City, the New Housing Marketplace Plan and rent regulation, as a lens for scrutinizing city-level problems and recommending potential city-level solutions. We will discuss whether the two policies achieve their original goals and whether their goals adequately target the shortage. The last section looks to improve current policy in two respects: reworking zoning laws and enhancing enforcement of rent regulation.
Without affordable housing, new workers may lack an important incentive as they consider moving to New York and contributing to the city’s tax base and economy.
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