Josh Greene Portfolio

JOSH GREENE

Yale School of Architecture

RICA ON EST ENSEMBLE ABSENCE | PRESENCE

ABOLITION DEMOCRACY POLTERGEIST CURRENT [UN]REFINED

WE COME HERE ONLY TO DREAM

STORYTELLING HOUSE COSANTI

CAMELBACK YARD

Professional 2020 Graduate 2022 Graduate 2020 Graduate 2021 Graduate 2021 Graduate 2022 Graduate 2020 Graduate 2022 Undergraduate 2017 Professional 2020 Independent 2016

Today, eighty percent of land in Rwanda is employed for food production, yet 21% of the population still remains food insecure. By 2050 the population of Rwanda will double, placing a higher demand on the already exhausted farmland. The Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) was designed as a new flagship agricultural institution that utilizes a “One Health” curriculum to develop stainable solutions by training the next generation of conservation agriculture leaders. Its construction utilizes rammed earth, CSEB, timber, clay tiles, and local stone in order to combat climate change and to showcase agricultural products in the built environment. As a result, 96% of the materials are sourced from within Rwanda, and the earth walls are built with soil directly from the site. As a designer, I contributed throughout the entire design phase, and took leadership of the design of over 25 animal husbandry and value add processing facilities.

Firm: MASS Design Group Position: Designer Exhibited: Nature - Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial Awards: ASLA Design Excellence

How do we train the next generation of conservation agriculture leaders? PC. Chris Schwagga

Survey of existing food processing facilities

RICA Campus. PC Iwan Baan

96% of materials were sourced from within Rwanda, with the earth coming originating from site.

PC. Chris Schwagga

Embodied carbon calculation compared to the industry standard. PC. Chris Schwagga

Channel 381

Roof Membrane 12mm Coverboard Steel Truss (UC203x203x46) SHS 80x80x4mm Purlins at 500c/c CHS 63x3 Cross Bracing & Steel 19mm Mineral fiber acoustic ceiling 240 x 250mm Concrete Ring Beam 240 x 250mm Ring Beam Reinforcement 5,732

Envelope 0.75mm 3,209

Structure 2,101

1,126 1,506 1,250

07 06 620

257 x 436mm Domino Clay Tiles 30mm Furring 30mm Sleepers 4.4mm Waterproof Membrane 20mm Wood Board Roof Decking 3,066

04 03

1,205 679 02 01

1,657 565

Vegetable and Tree Crop Enterprise

PC. Iwan Baan

ON EST ENSEMBLE 02

The village of Ganvie exists as a collective human endeavor which showcases the cultural intricacy, social conglomeration, and spatial invention of water-based beings. Ganvie is a constellation in which life exists as a continual negotiation between people and layers of their material. It is a patchwork of geographic, spatial and material intricacy which layers networks, labor and expertise at multiple scales. At its current state, we see Ganvie is an urban-scale open-air manufactory – an action-oriented ecosystem of making where materials, components and natural resources are claimed from ‘end of life’ and utilized as inputs for everyday use. This project centralizes the collection of organic and plastic waste, the act of making patchwork objects for boat repairs, housing, transportation or objects, and meeting as a forum to discuss within the community scale.

Critic: Francis Kéré and Martin Finio Partner: Nabil Haque

Utilize architecture as a method for listening and amplifying the power of the collective human endeavor.

Unfolded elevation embroidered on canvas

Plastic terrazzo material study

Floor plan and model photograph

Above: photo transfer and paint on canvas. Opposite: detail drawings

Seamstress house detail, axon, and image

View from underneath the tree

Workshop detail and worms eye

1:100 Model walnut and basswood

Commenting on the absence of Blackness within rural America, this project acknowledges the lack of representation within our National food system. The proposed structure is erected as an architecture of reparations in the small farming community of Conrad, Iowa where the local dirt is celebrated and spiritualized for it’s blackness. Drawing formally from the abstract work of Kerry James Marshall, this project is built from rammed and infilled agricultural dirt to provide spaces for the community to educate themselves on the historical disenfranchisement of people of color within the food system. By ultimately uncovering and exhibiting the power and wealth inherent in the soil, the mission of the project is to create radical transformation in Conrad, with consistent reverberations across all aspects of the supply chain.

Critic: Nikole Bouchard

Published: Retrospecta 44 Published: Paprika

How do we give presence to the absence of Blackness in our food system?

Floor plan, exploded axonometric, and site soil study

Exterior Entry Sequence

MIDDLENESS

An in between implies another suggests an other sibling, a sister who gets under your nerves for telling your father you snuck out the house and the young one, your brother who sits with that smile that charm that makes you forget the jam he spilt all over the aisle just moments before But alas! for I do not tattle nor spill any goods perceptibly insignificant and always alive, I live the middle of sequence

And when you are angry or triggered by that man who merged into your lane it’s never your pinky, for he’s gone to market or your thumb who’s too tired from scrolling and tapping one waits for a band, while the other is famous but we have no name for the one the boasts all the height for it is defined by the pairs of nails on both sides central and useless, a finger resides in a middle of proximity

And when signing important documents with letters so tiny you must reach out for your glasses and freshly print pages with ink blots that linger it asks for my full legal name Of course! essential to democracy, and the fulfillment of contracts, I eagerly scribe the name of which I do not frequently use the name which is often reduced to a letter, or forgotten altogether, hidden from most who don’t know me intently essential but hidden, a name proclaims the middle of importance

And when we’re past our prime beyond the age where our friends get married and go out to the bars to see a new show but not yet wise and respected with grandchildren to spoil and checkers to play rather I spend my days thinking of the car I should buy or the vacation I would take. I am close to a crisis for occupying the middle of time

But the most confusing of all is when I am so far in between that I cannot see the edge of a volume or mass instead I see nothing for miles and miles just fields of corn that feed all the cows and nourish my body all lined up in nice little rows in the middle of nowhere

Paprika launch: Issue 03: Not Urban. 11.09.21

ABOLITION DEMOCRACY 04

Pulling from WEB Du Bois ideal of Abolition Democracy, this project investigates the sobering intersection between a broken law enforcement and mental health system, and proposes the spatial, structural, and architectural abolition of the police. By proposing crisis response vehicles operated by mental health professionals trained in de-escalation, we collectively envision a future that does not involve deploying New Haven Police officers. The architecture employs permanence, by utilizing a site that brings together mental health professionals and community organizers in one space to treat patients immediately after their crisis. The buildings leverage structural plywood as a fugitive material layered in histories of protest and re-appropriation, and makes visible the structural change that has occurred. The buildings are disaggregated with critical curb cuts that allow the architecture to engage with mobility, while still prioritizing the needs of pedestrians and community health.

Critic: David Moon Published: Retrospecta 45

How do we architecturally and structurally begin to abolish the police?

Plywood as Fear. May 26 - May 30, 2020

Plywood as Art. May 30 - June 8, 2020

Plywood as Archive. Post - 2020

Department of Police Services

New Haven May Day, 1970

Conceptual Site Plan

Process Model

A. B. C. D. E. F. G.

2” MASS PLYWOOD PANEL PRERES LUMBER OR EQ. WATER RESISTANT BARRIER

3/8” AIR GAP VENTILATED AT TOP

2” RIGID WOOD FIBER INSULATION STRAPPED TO PLYWOOD PANEL

1” VERTICAL FURRING STRAPPED AND VENTILATED. BLACK.

1/2” HORIZONTAL FURRING SCREWED TO CLADDING FROM BACK. BLACK

1/4” VERTICAL WOOD CLADDING WITH 1/8” SPACING. SHOU SIGU BAN FINISH

A. B. C. D. E. F. G. D G

2” MASS PLYWOOD PANEL. LUMBER OR EQ.

WATER-RESISTANT BARRIER

3/8“ AIR GAP VENTILATED

2” RIGID WOOD FIBER INSULATION STRAPPED TO PLYWOOD

1” VERTICAL FURRING STRAPPED VENTILATED. BLACK.

1/2” HORIZONTAL FURRING TO CLADDING FROM BACK.

Entry view from exterior

Entry view from interior

In our global effort to address the environmental crisis, humans cannot control the channel of transporting carbon back into its solid state. We have historically mishandled it’s inverse condition and agency must be given back to the forest, as an ancient shepherd of this historic transportation channel. This project proposes a memorial that marks the death of solution’s based thinking, formally marks the end of this top-down geo-engineering mindset, and makes room for ecosystem thinking that gives agency back to the forest. Basalt is celebrated as the main character, while the forest acts as the client. Juxtaposing the two scales poses questions of ancient geological significance, tectonics, and value.

Critic: Trattie Davies

A memorial to carbon that marks the end of geoengineering.

I am a restless soul

Unallowed to decompose and too expensive to be left alone

Millions of years after my funeral I have been unearthed: violently extracted, combusted, and re-released into a new world

I have, once again, changed states and transcended time, defined now as a poltergeist: seeking the return to my grave below the surface.

Deciduous Forest

Evergreen Forest Woody Wetlands Mixed Forest

Basalt, forests, and extraction

Deciduous forest

Deciduous Forest

Deciduous Forest

c rocks (Basalts)

c rocks (Basalts)

Evergreen forest Woody wetlands Mixed forest

Evergreen Forest Woody Wetlands Mixed Forest

Evergreen Forest Woody Wetlands Mixed Forest

Mafic Rocks (Basalts) Ultramafic Rocks (Peridoties and serpentinites)

Ma c rocks (Basalts) Ultrama c rocks ( peridoties and serpentinites)

Wporld Mercator

c rocks ( peridoties and serpentinites) Coordinate System : Wporld Mercator Central Meridian : 0° 0’

c rocks ( peridoties and serpentinites) Coordinate System : Wporld Mercator Central Meridian : 0° 0’

World of Basalt and Forests

World of Basalt and Forests

Coordinate System Wporld Mecrator Central Meridian 0° 0’ 0”

The three states of carbon

To New Haven

To Massachusetts

SYNTHETIC FOREST MASSACOE STATE FOREST SUBTERRANEAN FOREST

Total Tree Count: Synthetic Modules: 11,753 6

Total Area: Carbon Sink: Total Trees: `

Basalt Storage 3,180,000 ft2 5,840,000 kg 11,753`

2,964,252 ft3 143’ x 143’ 143’

Connecticut Central Valley 200 Million Years Ago

Connecticut Central Valley Present Day

Massachusetts

Central Valley

Mountain

Hanging

Higby

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Barndoor Hills Onion Mountain West Su eld Mountain Penwood Mountain Talcott Mountain Cedar Mountain The Hanging Hills Mount Higby Beseck Mountain Totoket Mountain Saltonstall Ridge East Rock West Rock The Sleeping Giant

Day

New Haven Arkose the diabase Sills Talcott Shuttle Meadow Formation Holyoke East Berlin Formation Hampden basalt ows Portland Arkose Diabase

Mountain

Sediment

1. 2a. 2b. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Western Uplands

Eastern Uplands Down

Eastern Uplands Down

Present Day

New Haven Arkose The Diabase Sills Talcott Shuttle Meadow Formation Holyoke East Berlin Formation Hampden Basalt flows Portland Arkose Diabase

1. 2a. 2b. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Eastern Uplands

Case Study

The Bank of England as Carbon Form

60’ 6”

16’ 6”

71’ 0” Outside Inside

f. f. f. f. Wall Seed Bank

Western Uplands Central Valley Eastern uplands

b. f. f.

h. b. b. b.

p. h. bs. f.

b. b.

c. h. h. f. b. f. c. b.

b. h. p. bs. c. f.

backing stone hearting stone plum stone bono stone chip stone facing stone Western Uplands

Central Valley

b. h. p. bs. c. f.

backing stone hearting stone plum stone bono stone chip stone facing stone

Eastern uplands

f. c. h. h. f. b.

p. h. bs.

26’ 8” b.

b.

b. h. p. bs. c. f.

plum stone bono stone chip stone facing stone

f. c. b. backing stone hearting stone

Summersolstice

10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0”10’ 0” 10’ 0”10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0”

Winter solstice

f. f. h. b. b. b. b. b.

f. f. f. f. 10’ 0”

5’ 0” 5’ 0” 5’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0”10’ 0” 10’ 0”10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0”

Stair Vernal Pool

Existing Grade Steel Cricket

Weep Hole. Hand Chiseled

Basalt Stone Drip Edge

Existing Grade Steel Cricket Chiseled Weep Hole Basalt Stone Drip edge

Vernal Pool (Spring) Tadpoles

Vernal Pool (Spring) Tadpoles

f. f. f. f.

c. h. h. f. b. f. b. 5’ 0”

b. h. p. bs. c. f. b.

0”

0”

10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0”10’ 0” 10’ 0”10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0”10’ 0” 10’ 0”10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0” 10’ 0”

Wintersolstice Summer solstice

Eric Sanderson claims that “Manahatta had more ecological communities per acre than, Yellowstone, more native plant species per acre than Yosemite, and more birds than the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.” During the time of the Lenape inhabitants, the Harlem river once met the shore with diffuse plantlife and open space. Our project centers this historic river where water, soil, and life converge and flow together into the larger estuaries of Manhattan. Through ecological and fishing centers, this project seeks to celebrate the wonder of this current, this flux and this nowness, and use food to dissolve the constructed boundaries between people and their watershed. The design of the Ecology Center was my contribution to our group’s project, and provides a space for ecologists and local fishermen to work together as historic caretakers of the river.

Critic: Caitlin Taylor Partners: Zach Felder, Huy Truong Published: Retrospecta 45

Utilizing existing infrastructure to catalyze community awareness of the Harlem River

The second-largest central fish exchange in the world

Vacant lots in the Harlem River Watershed

This image-based object investigates ritual and identity through the textile art of Sonya Clark. Her sculpture, “toothless” appropriates a utilitarian mass-produced tool to evoke beauty and struggle. My first object investigates tensegrity as a form derived entirely from tension. However my resulting image-volume draws from the formal aspects of the Destijl movement as a plastic rejection of nature juxtaposed with the organic and tactile natural hair movement. The project ultimately questions the role of material in the breaking down of architectural form.

Nikole Bouchard

Critic:

What is the role of material in breaking down architectural form?

Exerting force upon a structure in tension

Tensegrity grasshopper study

Image-based object

Shadow as projection and plan

Over the course of four weeks, I meditated on the transition from Barragan’s house as a masculine shelter of refuge, to the homeplace as a site of resistance. Inspired by the surrealist works of Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dali who used surrealism to reject modernism, I propose a new typology specifically for daydreams. On the outskirts of the city, a small bit of earth is hoisted up into the stars, and occupies the airspace above the domestic realm. Similar to the idea of the new cable car, the ground plane is rendered as cluttered with congestion, unaffordability, and labor. The only ability to escape into the dreamworld, to take a breath, to lay with the one you love, is to escape up into the clouds. Unattached to capital, and domesticity, the sleeping platforms only server one function and are always available for public use.Meditating on this theoretical framework, I pushed this concept within a brief exercise in my studio course when asked to design a room on a lake with local materials.

Critic: Tatiana Bilbao

Critic: Francis Kéré & Martin Finio

We come here only to sleep, we come here only to dream. It is not true it is not true. That we come to live on Earth.

Warm up exercise: plans and sections

Gravity watercolor painting on paper

My undergraduate thesis addresses the high demand of housing units in the Gila River Indian Community and proposes an architecture that brings tribal culture into the everyday context of the home. Initially, the existing condition is critiqued from an architectural and cultural lens, and establishes the current realities of the residents. An investigation of the existing condition and the surrounding context determined that the immediate contradiction to the existing house is the storytelling tradition of the Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh tribes. This project accepts and revises the existing condition and attempts to combine it with the fundamental traits of storytelling culture to create a dwelling that encourages storytelling across generations, and serves as a space that allows residents to practice culture in the every day.

Critic: Claudio Vekstein

Winner: ASU Design Excellence

Published: Discipline ASU Architecture Journal 04

How does a dwelling celebrate daily culture?

COSANTI BELL 10

This project was specially commissioned by a local hospital who wanted patients to celebrate the end of their chemotherapy with the ring of a bell. The bell takes inspiration from Paolo Soleri’s styrofoam produced at the end of his life and archived on site. Utilizing his old hand tools, the bell was hand carved in styrofoam, covered sand, and casted with aluminum.

Firm: Cosanti Client: Banner Hospital

A summer learning material, scale and form from Paolo Soleri

Sand Casting Process

Drawing of Arcosanti utilizing Grasshopper

Aluminum-casted bell

CAMELBACK YARD 11

CamelBackyard is an independent volunteer project that reclaims a vacant lot in the heart of Downtown Phoenix. Our team utilized design to support the International Rescue Committee’s vision of harvesting, prepping, storing, and selling fresh produce in the heart of Phoenix. Our team started by generating concept images to get community interest for the project and to help IRC advocate for themselves. After winning a community action grant, we were able to move forward with a small design intervention on the site: a family table to catalyze future development on site. The construction of the table was made possible by coordinating a series of volunteer build days with Intel, ASU professors, and fellow architecture students.

Partners: Nicole Bone, Brandon Ramirez Client: International Rescue Committee

Acts of love in a Phoenix vacant lot catalyzes a refugee hub around food

Community Charrette at existing garden

Dedicated to all of the people who showed me something different

JOSH GREENE

josh.greene@yale.edu