Anna Creatura

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Anna Creatura Master of Architecture Portfolio 2020

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CONTENTS 01 Tropical Hybrids 02 Art Storage Library ESSAY 01 03 Form Work 04 Exclosure 05 Urban Mountain ESSAY 02 06 Octagonal Detournement ESSAY 03 07 Lost and Light 08 Outfall

01 Tropical Hybrids Anna Creatura Havana, Cuba This project proposes the introduction of sustainably managed forestry as a new industry for the Antonio Guiteras housing development. While the larger tracts of land transform into rural forest, smaller spaces between existing housing blocks will be infilled with new public space. Built over time, these extra suites, decks, and courtyards will expand housing square footage by building public/private amenities. Ultimately, the suburban housing development of Antonio Guiteras transforms into rural forestry and urban housing hybrids that together embrace Cuban culture and construct a more harmonious neighborhood.

Sustainable Self-sufficiency The project is driven by an introduced forestry concept to bring much needed materials to the Cuban building landscape. In addition, this specific neighborhood is quite cut off from the rest of Havana- so the programs added - daycare, library, wood workshops, kitchen, and garden - are all strategically added to increase the sites potential for self-sufficiency.

In between spaces As shown by the problems of the existing housing blocks, developing the in-between spaces was just as important as the addition of new programs and new housing units.

The addition of the housing blocks creates courtyards of different scales, with a larger central courtyard in between. Each courtyard has a different Connection Strategy The operation behind connecting the existing buildings and infilling with additional units became the main architectural driver for the project. Strategically connecting the cores of the existing buildings saves space and results in a slightly irregular architectural language. The added timber-framed gridded scaffold structure creates a modular system that gives more power and flexibility to the occupants to customize the apartment to suit their needs, and also create flexible balcony locations that creates a facade with an incredible amount of variation. The modularity of the system mirrors the soviet model, but the result is a huge comparison to the monolithic repetative concrete apartment buildings that already exist on site.

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Tropical Hybrids / System Axo

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Studio Buro Moscow / Spring 2020

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Tropical Hybrids / Model / Connection Logic

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Studio Buro Moscow / Spring 2020

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Tropical Hybrids / Ground Floor Plan / Communal Courtyard View

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Studio Buro Moscow / Spring 2020

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Tropical Hybrids / Forest Section

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Studio Buro Moscow / Spring 2020

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Tropical Hybrids / Typical Plan - Old and New / Interior Courtyard View

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Studio Buro Moscow / Spring 2020

02 Art Storage Library Anna Creatura Los Angeles, CA Art Storage Library is a non-institution for the equitable storage and consumption of the art object. “... the price of a work of art is now part of its function, its new job is to sit on the wall and get more expensive. ...Suppose that every worthwhile book in the world cost $1 Million - imagine what a catastrophic effect on culture that would have.”

-Robert Hughes A New Kind of Storage The concept of the non-institution is three part, to provide the curation of a gallery experience, the density of a storage facility, and the visibility and accessibility of a library. The noninstitution’s purpose is to bridge the gap between art and community, essentially using the community to store the excessive amounts of artwork that are currently hidden away in sealed, climate controlled art storage facilities around the world. A person can come to the institution, browse the collection, and then choose a work of art to take home. “treating art as a commodity and just hiding it in storage is something that to me is not really moral.”

-Eli Broad By taking these existing programs of storage, exhibition, and shelving, and recombining them- new types of interactions and access to and with art are created, including placing program within storage spages, new types of browsable storage for artwork that can be taken home, and visible storage for art that is too fragile to be checked out Light and Art The signage on the exterior a play on the unique program combination. As you approach the building from different sides you either read art Library or art storage. The Envelope of the building also driven by light restrictions of art- thin slice of fenestration at ground floor- all light sensitive storage is nested within the very solid exterior, creating an inverse relationship between porosity and environmental enclosure. The spaces are also sunk slightly from the roof, allowing natural light to come in around them but not enter the vault spaces directly.

Art as Infrastructure The overall goal for the noninstitution is for it to operate infrastructurally for the community in a similar way that the wetlands is operating as infrastructure for the city. During rain events, the wetland fills and holds the storm water until it can be released back into the drains. In the meantime, it creates a beautiful wetland and green space for the park. The storage facility works in the same way, both an amenity and an infrastructure- storing the art and managing its release into the community.

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Art Storage Library / Art Circulation Map

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Studio Leong Leong / Fall 2019

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Art Storage Library / Storage Section

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Studio Leong Leong / Fall 2019

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Art Storage Library / Ground Floor

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Studio Leong Leong / Fall 2019

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Art Storage Library / Bathroom Gallery / Basement and First Floor Plans

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Studio Leong Leong / Fall 2019

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Art Storage Library / Library Storage

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Studio Leong Leong / Fall 2019

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History of Architectural Theory Mark Wigley Fall 2019

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when the reader comes to the phrase, “Manhattan has no choice but the skyward extrusion of the Grid itself; only the skyscraper offers business the wide-open spaces of a man-made Wild West, a frontier in the sky”10, the absolute statement is now called into question. The heading suggests that there may actually have been a choice, and that the description of the inevitability of the skyscraper was actually a rhetorical tool used to further an agenda.

Delirious New York- Analysis

LAYOUT Koolhaus states that, these independently organized blocks of text operate in a similar way to the blocks of Manhattan, describing both as “a collection of blocks whose proximity and juxtaposition reinforce their separate meanings”. Not only is Rem making a statement about the way that the blocks of Manhattan are linked at the urban scale, but he is also reinforcing this statement by imitating it in his text. This way the reader can see for themselves how two separate ‘blocks’ (either blocks of text or city blocks) can operate together even when they are meant to be understood independently of each other. His organization of the text is itself a proof of his theory, adding further layers to an already complex piece of writing.

PROXIMITY The ‘proximity’, as Rem calls it, of one block of text to another defines the flow of his narrative of New York City. The blocks aren’t quite as standalone as he posits, as they often rely on each other for context and flow, although perhaps the same thing can be said about Manhattan’s city blocks. However, unlike city blocks, the blocks of text are only bookended by two other blocks, rather than an array of blocks… further chipping away the solidity of the metaphor. In addition, since the narrative is told chronologically, the book does suggest that it should be read in order, rather than wandered through like a city. That being said, most segments do stand alone, each coming to a solid conclusion related to the bolded title.

“Apres L’amour” by Madelon Vriesendorp

RHETORIC

INTRO Delirious New York, is a self-proclaimed “retroactive manifesto”1 written in 1978 by Rem Koolhaas. Part history, part theory, and part fiction, the book weaves together historical photos, drawings, and quotes with Rem’s conjectures, theories, and interpretations of the story of New York City- layering historical and factual info with perceived and imagined realities. The result of this interpretation is a new theory, which he calls Manhattanism- described as “so ambitious that to be realized, it could never be openly stated”2. Rem’s retelling of the story of Manhattan is his attempt to define the rules that were unconsciously followed during the creation of the city with the idea that, once defined, could indicate a new formula for architecture.

TITLES The text of the book is organized not into traditional paragraphs, but rather into blocks of text separated with bolded titles. The titles range from straightforward descriptors such as BUILDINGS, THEOREM,and CULTURE too the perhaps less obvious WOMEN, OBFUSCATION and TOE. Usually the titles are directly related to the content of the block, such as FREEZE FRAME – which immediately launches into a description of a “postcard (that) presents a freeze-frame of architectural evolution”3, but sometimes present more of an opposing idea, or a juxtaposition, calling into question the sincerity of the history described within the block. One example of this is the heading ALIBIS, where the title suggests that any contents of the block below should be understood from an angle of suspicion. For example, 1 Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York: a Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. New York: The Monacelli Press, 1994.

2 Ibid, 10 3 Ibid, 97

In addition to the organization of text into specifically defined blocks to assign framing, meaning, and intention to the work, the rhetoric used within each block is used to further the manifesto-like nature and operation of the text. This is achieved using a forceful and authoritative tone to assert absolute truths using less than absolute evidence. In addition to this, many of the statements are written in the future tense, prescribing what “will be”- even though what is described has already come about. One example of this unusual rhetorical style comes in to play during his description of the Empire State Building. He says, “the Empire State Building is a building with no other program than to make a financial abstraction concrete—that is, to exist. All the episodes of its construction are governed by the unquestionable laws of automatism.”Here we can see his use of absolutes- “a building with no other program” as well as his authoritative word choice. By using words like ‘all’, ‘unquestionable’ and ‘laws’ he strengthens his statements- not giving the reader any space to deviate from the narrative he is weaving, even when it may deviate slightly from the readers presuppositions.

TYPOGRAPHIC STYLE As previously mentioned, bolded headings are used throughout the work in order to define and describe paragraphs of text. However in addition to this, a more subtle use of italics throughout is used as a tool to add emphasis in a slightly atypical way. Not only are italics used to indicate titles (of buildings, writings, etc) but also to single out phrases within the text. Again looking at the section on the Empire State Building, the words “process… automatic architecture… process… to exist,”13 are all italicized. The italicization adds rhythm and emphasis to the text, often calling out the same word or phrase as it appears throughout a section.

QUOTES Throughout the text, the historical quotes are used strategically to prove or support

Evolution of the setback building

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various claims that Rem makes. The inclusion of the quotation marks alone adds validity to the complex narrative that he is weaving. However, at times the quotes begin to sound more like fantasy than Rem’s portion. For example he includes quotes like, “The sound of New York tossing its traditions in the air and devouring its own landmarks”14 and “when seen at nightfall bathed in electric light as with a garment… it inspires feelings too deep even for tears…” -- both descriptions of some of the first skyscrapers in Manhattan. He chose to include provocative quotes, full of opinion and emotion that, while historical by definition, are not exactly describing past events with any accuracy. So while these quotes don’t provide any insight into the events of history, what they do instead is paint a picture of how that history felt, how people were talking about it, while also somehow grounding and supporting his claims.

JUXTAPOSITION This combination of poetic historical quotations and intense authoritative rhetoric creates a unique reading experience that flows back and forth between logic and emotion. The history of a building is described in one section, and then it is personified and given agency in the next. In each case Rem’s text is followed by quotes that give a historically grounded yet opinionated view of the topic at hand. The rhythm between the two styles of writing creates meaning in the space between them.

EXAMPLE An example of this disorienting collage of images and rhetoric is a short section titled AIRSHIP from the chapter The Double Life of Utopia: The Skyscraper. Taken in isolation, this section is a prime example of the how Rem uses and combines different rhetorical styles, quotes, and images to first disorient the reader but then also add meaning to the work. Within just these four sentences, Koolhaas includes a claim, a quote, a description, and a speculation: AIRSHIP Only at the top is there symbolism.

“At the eightly-sixth floor level is the observation tower, a sixteen story extension shaped like an inverted test tube, buttressed by great flanking corner piers…”

It is also an airship mooring mast and thus resolves Manhattan’s paradoxical status as a city of landlocked lighthouses.

Only an airship could select its favorite harbor among all Manhattan’s needles and actually dock to make the metaphorical literal once more.

Included in this section are two images, which can both be seen below.

ANALYSIS OF THE TEXT

IMAGES

“Real Estate Number”

by A.B. Walker

The images used in the book operate alongside the text, occupying nearly half of the space of the book. Just as the text contains a mash up of quotes, theory, and historical facts- the images included alongside the text are a delicate mix of historic photographs, maps, artwork, architectural plans of projects both realized and speculative, all alongside a series of imaginative illustrations created by Madelon Vriesendorp, Koolhaas’ wife and partner.

Although, like in the text, the difference between historic and imagined is usually indicated somehow- it is not always overtly apparent. This again adds a level of ambiguity for the reader- allowing them to forget or question what they know to be true. Is an architectural plan a fact just because it looks professionally drawn and is presented as so? Or could the project be purely speculative? Without the correct context, these questions are hard to answer, but it is exactly this removal of the context that allows the theory to operate.

CAPTIONS There is no sort of consistent labeling or referencing of the images used throughout the book. Some images are straightforwardly labeled, with a description of what

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the image is and where it came from (such as “Raymond Hood”15 underneath a photo of Raymond Hood), but more often Rem uses quotes to identify images (such as “In times of danger, the chief must go where others aren’t…”16 under a photo of Le Corbusier) Sometimes the label is just a few words, and other times takes up multiple paragraphs, the image description bleeding into the theory.

This further adds to the ambiguity of the written text. The lack of standardized captions suggests that the images are not meant to be references, but rather are an integral part of the narrative. They do not explain the text, but add more points for interrogation.

First, he sets up a claim that what is at the top of the skyscraper (the spire) is symbolic. The next sentence is a historic quote that describes the spire in an awed and inspired tone. Then he includes his own description of the function of the mast as an airship mooring mast. Finally, he speculates on a situation where all the skyscrapers in Manhattan operate as airship docks- imagining a future that is not entirely fictional, but also one that didn’t manifest. In addition, since the historical quote did not include any indication that an airship mooring mast was ever meant to be the function of the spire- the reader is left uncertain of the historical accuracy of that claim. This uncertainty leads to doubt, and the doubt leads to questioning.

Even though today there aren’t any zeppelins docking on skyscrapers, were there ever? If not- could there have ever been? Did anyone ever intend or imagine that the spires should be used this way? If not- why? It is this continuous cycle of questioning the reader is forced to reckon with at every new block of text that makes the theory so compelling.

ANALYSIS OF THE IMAGES The two images that accompany the text are similarly disorienting. Even the captions of the images participate in this confusion- the first, “Rendezvous with destiny: the airship meets its metropolitan lighthouse” is ephemeral and evocative, while the second, “Empire State Building, details of airship mooring mast”18 is plain and descriptive. However- neither of the images are credited or verified. The first- seen above- is an image of a zeppelin approaching the Empire State Building.

Although it looks like a photograph, it could easily be a collaged image. Even if it is a photograph, it could be just floating over the city, not meeting “its metropolitan lighthouse” as the image description suggests. The second seems more technically specific, and more grounded in reality, it essentially is showing the same thing, an airship moored to the Empire State Building. There is no author credited, nor any indication that this plan aligns with what was actually realized. Was the image a plan that was abandoned, a speculation, an imagination? For the purpose of this

(1) Empire State Building: Mooring Mast (2) Gaudi Grand Hotel (3) Airship over Manhattan

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theory- it doesn’t actually matter what the truth is. Since this drawing is a historical fragment, whether it is accurate or not, it is reinterpreted and used to construct the narrative. Whether or not the spire was used in this way- the fact that it was once imagined to is enough.

AMBIGUITY The ambiguity woven in throughout the text and images creates a new condition where assumptions are abandoned and new claims can be made and tested. Be rearranging, decontextualizing, and reinterpreting pieces of New York City’s history that were either forgotten, thrown out, or assumed, the manifesto looks at history not as it is written, but as it could have been. The theory takes nothing for granted-starting from scratch in order to construct a completely new narrative, one that includes the possibility of plural futures (such as one that includes zeppelins as a major form of transport). This plurality is present throughout the text at different levels-- from the organization of the text at the sentence level, to the division of the paragraphs under the bolded headings, to the framing of the book as a whole, where the main body of the text is sandwiched between the introduction and the appendix, the prehistory and the postmortem.

APPENDIX Delirious New York ends, not with a list of rules for building a city “at once ambitious and popular,”19 as Rem originally described, but instead with a few new projects for Manhattan, a series of proofs of the theory that has just been described.

Koolhaas describes them as “an interpretation of the same material, not through words, but in a series of architectural projects”20 The introduction to these projects is illustrated as The City of the Captive Globe (1972), which describes an arena where architectural theories and constructions can be tested and retested, using the base of the Manhattan grid as a framework for rapidly building and rebuilding.

The language in this chapter becomes even more evocative than the rest of the book, “a theory that works, a mania that sticks, a lie that has become a truth, a dream from which there is no waking up,”21 and it is revealed that this exercise was completed before the book was even started, calling into question its place in the appendix rather than the introduction. However, this seemingly backwards process is once again a reflection of the book’s nature and purpose as a retroactive manifesto. Both the city of Manhattan and Koolhaas’s projects in the appendix were designed without a manifesto, and both were used to go back and write one. This is supported by the fact that the actual practice of the theory is relegated to the Appendix and takes up only a few short pages of the volume.

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So why does a city that has already been built need a retroactive manifesto detailing and defining the principles of its early development? Rem claims “If Manhattan is still in search of a theory, then this theory, once identified, should yield a formula for an architecture that is at once ambitious and popular”24, implying that the purpose of the theory is to provide a new recipe for architecture, or rather to discover what Manhattan’s formula was, in order to replicate it somehow. The book begins with a quote from Giambattista Vico in Principles of a New Science, “Since the world of nations is made by men, it is inside their minds that its principles should be sought”25 This quote in a way sums up Rem’s process and purpose. In Delirious New York, he uses primarily first person accounts to retell the story of NYC in order to discover its underlying principles. However, unlike in a traditional manifesto, these principles are never explicitly laid out for the reader. The final chapter of the book, the Postmortem, describes the end of ‘Manhattanism’ but still verges on the historical rather than the declaratory. In addition, as previously mentioned, the Appendix is too retroactive to be considered an appropriate conclusion.

PROCESS An analysis of the text is easy enough to begin as Rem has himself already provided a method of analysis in the introduction itself- explaining how to read, how to interpret, and how to understand the work ahead. However, while this is a very straightforward interpretation of the operation and purpose of the text, it seems a little bit too literal given the fluid nature of the text itself. Beyond the context of just Manhattan- the theory actually provides a method of recontextualization that could be theoretically reapplied to any number of locations or systems. Delirious New York could be just one case study of a new type of analytical and even historical thinking. In this case, it would seem that the actual purpose of the book is not a lesson in Manhattanism, but a lesson in analysis itself.

CONTEXT Zooming out from the text to take a brief look at the context in which it was written brings up an interesting point. While Delirious New York is a fascinating and detailed take on the biggest American city, it was written by someone who is neither American nor a New Yorker. Koolhaas, born in 1944, is a Dutch Architect whose first visit to New York wasn’t until 1972, and who has only just completed his first New York City project at the age of 7422. He describes himself in the introduction as a GHOSTWRITER, saying that “movie stars who have led adventure-packed lives are often too egocentric to discover patterns, too inarticulate to express intentions, too restless to record or remember events.” 23 It is clear in this metaphor that New York City is itself the movie star, but it seems to include the inhabitants of New York as the egocentric ones as well. The inclusion of this block of text seems to be an anticipatory defense to the question of how a book about New York could be taken seriously when written by someone who isn’t native to Manhattan. However, Rem suggests that you actually need an outsider to make such radical claims, and that the ability to take a step back and discover these “patterns” and “intentions” can only be done by someone without an “egocentric” interest in the place—making Koolhaas the perfect candidate.

PURPOSE

The City of the Captive Globe, Koolhaus

03 Form Work Anna Creatura & Adina Bauman Newburgh, NY Inspired by the First Assembly of God Church which functions as a neighborhood activator, as well as by one of its faith leaders, a contractor by day and a preacher by night, the project looks to set up community centered sites that can be incrementally constructed in order to combat the widespread vacancy in Newburgh Vacancy As mentioned, vacancy was an imporant entry point for the project, and is a huge issue for Newburgh and other former industrial cities. As an early exercise, we tried to find a new way to map this vacancy, the result of which you can see on the next page. Here we have drawn only the vacant spaces along the William street corridor. From there we flipped each street facade to get an idea of the existing street wall (and lack thereof) and used it to begin to lay out our program. By focusing our attention on what is usually left blank, we begin to shift the mindset of vacancy from that of blight to one of opportunity.

Construction From there the challenge became how to implement a system that can be constructed incrementally- creating a productive space that doesn’t have to wait, fenced off, while the community works to raise the necessary funds over time. The intervention begins with a series of latent structural foundations that are embedded within the site. This sets up possibilities for a variety of future constructions, while also providing opportunities for activation in the meantime. Gabion mesh walls are used in these early stages of construction and activated using found materials. The system infrastructure is also latent within the construction, waiting for city activation when the time comes.

Community At the urban scale, the existing network of religious communities that already exist along William street can expand their programming outside the building and work together to both create and sustain this strong urban network of incrementally productive interventions.

Through this incremental process we create a network of continuous growth for the formerly thriving William St corridor, as well as a system that continues to operate even after initial construction is finished.

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Form Work / Urban Network Plan and Vacancy Map

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Form Work / Urban Network Section

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Studio Ziad Jamaladine / Spring 2019

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Form Work / Plan Vacancy and Gathering Space Intervention / Detail Model

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Studio Ziad Jamaladine / Spring 2019

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Phase 1

Form Work / Gathering Space Detail Section

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Form Work / Gathering Space Detail Section

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Form Work / Gathering Space Detail Section

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Form Work / Plan Vacancy and Memorial Space Intervention / Detail Model

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Studio Ziad Jamaladine / Spring 2019

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Form Work / Memorial Space Detail Section

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Form Work / Memorial Space Detail Section

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Form Work / Memorial Space Detail Section

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Form Work / Plan Vacancy and Kitchen Space Intervention / Detail Model

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Studio Ziad Jamaladine / Spring 2019

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Form Work / Kitchen Space Detail Section

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Form Work / Kitchen Space Detail Section

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Form Work / Kitchen Space Detail Section

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History of American Cities Jennifer Gray Fall 2018

beyond that, do not need to have any sort of depth or culture. As Boyer mentions, cities are widely aware of this, and adapting quickly- working to market themselves and their ‘imageability’1. So what does this mean for our rapidly gentrifying cities and for the role of spectacle in architecture?

NewYorkLand: Revisiting ideas of the fantasy city from a Globalized Context

These metal letters reading “IRONWOODLAND”2, are currently on display on the High Line, located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, as part of a larger exhibit. The actual meaning of this piece, titled C.R.E.A.M. (in reference to the Wu Tang Clan song) criticizes the hypocrisy of developers who deliver both high end real estate and also prisons. However, when set so dramatically against the backdrop of the site that is often used as a case study for rapid gentrification in New York City- it is hard not to interpret as a criticism of the recently commercialized and increasingly tourist-driven neighborhood. It seems to point to the surrounding high rises (most still under construction) and paint this new Chelsea Neighborhood as the New York City version of the storybook-style Hollywoodland housing development that was advertised by the original sign.3 Sorkin describes the urbanism of the theme park as “producing a kind of aurastripped hypercity, a city with billions of citizens (all who would consume) but no residents”. The former statements were used to describe the consumerism and urbanism of Disney World, but these days could very easily be applied to any number of highly trafficked tourist areas around the world, including the neighborhood around the High Line park in Chelsea. Architecturally, the park is not even a part of the city, but rather a platform that snakes above it. The park is used solely for observation rather than participation, and is “a place (like Disneyland) where everyone is just passing through”4. The transformation of a formerly useful and productive train line to a place that has no purpose but to look from presents an inversion of normal city functions.

While there are maybe more permanent residents in Chelsea than there are in Disney World, more and more native New Yorkers are being pushed out of the area due to rising rent prices and an increase in services such as Airbnb. These problems are indicators of far more deeply rooted concerns related to cost of living in a capitalist society that values touring more than living, where people can get more money renting their apartments out to tourists than by actually living in their homes. This problem is affecting cities around the world- including the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona, which has a reported 16.9% of residences listed on Airbnb.5 Cities are introducing changes in policy that are trying, often unsuccessfully to curb the rampant takeover of the platform, which again raises rents and pushes out residents.

“C.R.E.A.M.,” by Sable Elyse Smith

Sorkin’s book “Variations on a Theme Park” was published in 1992, just a few years before the Dot-com bubble is said to have officially begun. Now, twenty six years later, information is spread at a dramatically higher volume and authenticity, in both news and social media. This rapid globalization has lead to a constant questioning of the validity of experiences, including the architecture that houses these experiences. No longer is the constructed fantasy of a World’s Fair or a Theme Park an adequate substitution for a cultural experience. The question remains- how does the often fantastical nature of social media affect the spectacle of the cities we live in?

In this way- these unoccupied portions of the city are becoming more and more like a theme park- devoid of anything other than commercialism and entertainment.

However, at least Disney is very straightforward about its identity and ambitions.

The commercial pockets of our cities are often less transparent, dressed up like old fashioned markets or quaint mom-and-pops. Even the names of these places often conceal the identity of the corporation or primary investor of the space, in order to maintain the narrative of the small scale marketplace. Chelsea Market, for example, is just one of Google’s many real estate holdings throughout the city of New York6but you won’t see the name written anywhere in the area.

Because of this newly widespread availability of information, which is sometimes true but often also misleading or completely fake, authenticity in experience is something that is coveted by social media influencers and tourists alike. Actually going to a place, and being photographed there, has become so culturally important that it has worked its way into the vernacular, with expressions such as- ‘do it for the ‘gram’’or ‘pics or it didn’t happen’. In this social-media obsessed society, the recombinated and reproduced realities that Sorkin uses to describe the experiences of visiting Disneyland are no longer an adequate substitution for the real thing. Experiences must be concrete, photographable, and shareable, but,

Boyer blames this cultural emptiness on the forced historical style of these buildings, through city codes regulating appearances neighborhood to neighborhood. She uses the example of the restoration of Times Square, arguing 1 2 3 4 5 6

Boyer 193 Smith Williams Sorkin 231 Gutentag Bagli

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that the restoration forced and fake, that it skates over the history of Times Square, both good and bad, and most importantly that the prescriptive regulations for the buildings actually creates a monotonous experience, failing to capture what made the original Times Square interesting. She argues that with these restrictions on appearance, the nostalgia of the historical places is maintained, but the actual history is erased, leaving behind a shell of historicism filled with a commercial interior7. This begs the question- when is it okay to define a city’s appearance?

Which history is worth preserving, and when does it become inauthentic?

Unlike Boyer- I would argue that spectacle is an important part of any city, and even say that mandating styles for neighborhoods is important in maintaining the identity, even artificially, of different places. This identity prevents a homogenized appearance across an entire city, and gives residents a sense of belonging to their quarter. Boyle criticizes these codes, arguing that setting codes and requirements for the appearance of neighborhoods is hollowing out these places, that she defines as ‘city tableaux’. She says “in the scenographic tableaux of our contemporary cities, whether a historic district, a contextually zoned district, or a carefully managed theme park, the act of ‘just looking’ and enjoying the pure visibility of the show absorbs the spectator’s view...These tableaux separate pleasure from necessity, escape from reality. They widen the gap between the city on display and the city beyond our view”8 Her argument is strong, but for me the problem lies more with the programmatic changes being made by these developers, and less about the forced styles. There are countless old-world cities in Europe whose appearance has been unchanged for hundreds of years due to restrictions such as these. The most obvious example of this is Paris, which has remained basically the same since Haussmann. In this way, the entire city, rather than specific neighborhoods, becomes a sort of tourist attraction- which leaves the question - is the identity of a city determined by the appearance of its facades, or by what is held within them.

Both Disney World and places like the recently developed Chelsea Neighborhood of New York City participate in this inauthenticity that Boyer and Sorkin both vehemently oppose. Boyer quotes Foucalt, who describes these historical places as places “of rest, certainty, reconciliation, and… of tranquilized sleep.”9 Both these places are artificially nostalgic, calling on moments of history that either don’t belong to them, or are long past. So why then is Disneyland still an incredibly popular tourist destination- if, as Sorkin says, it is “someplace that is ‘like’ someplace else…(where the) authenticity of the substitution always depends on the knowledge, however faded, of some absent genuine”10. If Sorkin’s argument is true, Disneyland should be the less authentic of the two, and should hold less value in the new social-media driven economy.

76 However, as the machine of social media hastens these changes within the context of real cities, an interesting reversal occurs. Disney World is still nostalgic, and inarguably artificial. However the nostalgia no longer comes from a fetishization of other worlds and places. In fact, the timeline of Disney often outdates these new commercial developments. Disney World has become a place of this nostalgia- no longer relying on the historical nostalgia of foreign places, but rather because it has morphed into its own place, with its own history and memories, and unlike many of the ‘city tableauxs that Boyer criticises, has maintained this history over what is now quite a long period of time. Compared to Chelsea, which looks old but is in fact an incredibly recent development, Disneyland has been Disneyland since its conception in 1955. The content of Disneyland has not changed- which actually makes it more authentic than places like Chelsea.

Disneyland, Historic Photo

What began as an epitome of inauthenticity has proved over time to more authentic than the commercialized city centers that eat away at previously historic districts in our cities. So in this way, our cities have become theme parks and our theme parks become places of pure fantasy.

It’s not common knowledge that the bright ‘Hollywood’ letters that define the identity of Los Angeles, California, actually began as a sign for a housing development. At its conception, the houses had to be built in French Normandy, Tudor English, Mediterranean, and Spanish styles, creating an idyllic, fantastic, community for movie stars up in the hills11. The fantasy put forward by these housing developers came, over time, to represent an entire city.

What could this mean for the future of New York City- with futuristic luxury apartment buildings popping up on a daily basis. These skyscrapers are the modern version of this storybook style - providing a compelling outward appearance without any real substance or history. In Chelsea, the alternative to the historical facades of the meatpacking district, however inauthentic they may be, is a complete takeover of the neighborhood by these modern skyscrapers. A prime example of this complete erasure of historical context is the neighboring Hudson Yards development, which in just a few years has grown from the old neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen. Now the area houses countless skyscrapers, without a trace of brick in sight. Would it be better if these new buildings were done in an authentic New York style? Or, as Boyer suggests, would that be a false representation and erasure of history? Is the problem an architectural one at all?

Hollywoodland, Historic Photo 7 Boyer 195 8 Boyer 192 9 Boyer 191 10 Sorkin 216

11 Williamson

04 Exclosure Anna Creatura and Wenya Liu Bronx, NY Exclosure aims to house and promote a healthy, thriving, and diverse community, not only for the residents but also for the surrounding neighborhood. The inverse floor plans have alternating interior and exterior facing shared spaces that challenge our perceptions of privacy and community and create an architecturally varied mix of unit size and placement. The floor plans create each other through a strategic extrusion of specific units. The ground floor plan approach works with the natural topography of the site to create natural paths through the site.

Interior The project inverts the idea of public and private, placing the most private units facing the exterior, normally considered to be a more public space, and the more public units facing inwards. The outward facing units are serviced by balcony spaces shared by just a few units, creating a contemplative space from which to view the city. The inward facing units are serviced by communal kitchen/dining areas, encouraging social interactions between neighbors. The circulation pattern differs dramatically on these alternating floorplates. On the public floors, the corridor creates a continuous loop throughout the floor, wheras on the private floors, each core leads to a specific number of units, and does not connect. The balconies, communal spaces, and variations in corridor are all created by the same operation, the strategic sideways extrusion of unit. The varied facade which may look at times random is actually a carefully created mix of inverse spaces that support each other on each of these levels.

Program The housing project supports a huge variety of household types, and specifically deals with two age groups that are a common demographic in this neighborhood, the elderly and children of single parents. For this reason, the three main programs of the space are a daycare, a community center for the elderly, and a small performance space where the two can come together.

The daycare and the center are housed at opposite ends of the project to give each population privacy when they need it, but between the spaces, interaction is encouraged.

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Exclosure / Section Model EW

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05 Urban Mountain Anna Creatura, Yang Qi, Chris Liu, and Tola Oniyangi Queens, NY Urban Mountain is a new theater designed for a unique site at the crux of a park and the city. The theater acts as a transition between the natural aspect of the park and the industrial urban surroundings. This is achieved not only by the sloping green roof that wraps the extruded auditorium program, but also by the development of two distinct facade systems, a bronze panel cladding, and a teracotta louver sunshade. “There is that smaller world which is the stage, and that larger stage that is the world�

- Isaac Goldberg Flexible Programming The theater was designed with maximum flexibility in mind, to accomodate the vastly differentiated needs of contemporary performance requirements. The main theater space and the blackbox space can be either separate spaces with separate performances, or combined to create one larger performance space.

In addition, the operative front facade of the bronze performance cube can be deployed to reveal the interior performance to the park outside.

Climbing Park The waterfront site as well as the adjacent park inspired construction that would give back as much space to the public as possible. To this end, the western facade of the building slopes upward from the park, providing a staircase to a rooftop viewing platform. The slope can also be used for seating in the case of an outdoor performance, providing one more option for this flexible performance space.

Envelope The envelope helps create the and define the programming of the space, from the terracotta sun shade louvers that allow just the right amount of light into the lobby and auxillary spaces, to the bronze metal panel clad cube that contains the theater spaces and protects them from outside light. The wall systems also work together to fulfill a number of complex technical requirements, most notably the green wall that services the interior lobby space, and is fed by a rooftop rain water collection system.

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Urban Mountain / NS Section and W Elevation / Wall Type 2

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II.

RUSSIAN CONSTRUCTIVIST ART AND ARCHITECTURE

The Art and Architecture of the Russian Constructivist Movement, following the trend of Avant-garde art at the time, was transformative, reconstructive, political, and above all, operative in creating social change.3 The constructivists sought to create and define an art and architecture for the social context within which they were working.

Questions in Architectural History II Kenneth Frampton Spring 2018

Revolutionary Art & Architecture in the work of El Lissitzky

The radical ideals of the Russian Constructivism, although they changed over time as the movement, and the surrounding political context shifted and developed, were laid out in the style of a manifesto in 1921. Written in bold typography laid out across the page, the document expresses the need for a new form of art for the new world order. This is expressed very graphically, with phrases like “DEATH TO ART” written across the page in bold and underlined letters. The proclamation is radical, and even a little bit violent. As laid out in the manifesto, the constructivists saw and rejected the way in which the art that came before them worked only to represent already existing things. They saw a need for new kind of art, created from elemental forms and arranged in such a way spatially, that- the art in itself– latently contains as much meaning as a manifesto. Their focus was on the materiality, as well as on the labor of art and architecture, stating that new art must be ‘reconstructed’ because of the new world order,4 and, “The emergent culture of labor and intellect will be expressed by intellectual material construction”.5 This closely aligns to the political goals of the movement, that was dealing with such a radically new social order and organization, as well as the fundamental ideas of labor and collectivism in the socialist regime. The architecture of the movement also followed these patterns, and was deeply rooted in technological and material realities and advancements.

In both art and architecture, Constructivism served to determine the function of the intellectual and creative endeavors of the artists, architects, writers, designers, and thinkers of the time. It was defined by ideas of thoughtful production of art that strongly aligned with the productive and communal ideals of communism that reconciled the collective ideas of communism with the rapid advances in technology that were taking place congruently.6

Proun 99, Lissitzky, 1924

III. I. INTRODUCTION The Russian constructivist movement was born from a revolutionary combination of socialism, productivism and suprematism, catalyzed by World War I and the October Revolution in 1917.1 The movement was primarily an attempt at describing a social reorganization following the Soviet ideas of collectivism and communism. Not only did the ideals of the movement permeate through art, architecture, print, and culture, but actually the movement was itself created by these things. The art and architecture of the Russian constructivists was not just taking place during times of revolution- the art itself was experiencing its own revolution.2 Just like the art at the time, the prominent figures of the Russian Constructivist Movement were performing many roles. El Lissitzky, now known primarily as a painter, was also an architect, writer, teacher, designer, and politician; all in the service of his vision for an ideal society. While this view was strongly aligned with the ideals of Russian Constructivism, it was also very much his own. However, just as the soviet experiment failed, so did the constructivist movement, leaving the question of the legacy of the highly politically and socially charged works of the Russian Constructivists in a contemporary context. In addition, this brings up questions of and how the respective mediums of art and architecture carry or lose meaning over time, and what this means for the legacy of Russian Constructivism today.

1 Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical History (World of Art), London: 2007. 169.

2 Bann. “The Tradition of Constructivism” 37

EL LISSITZKY

One figure who was intimately involved with the movement since its inception was Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, known as El Lissitzky. Although generally considered an artist and a painter, El Lissitzky was, in every sense, an architect in his own right in the way he thought about and treated his art. In addition, he designed a variety of architectural projects, although most remain unrealized. Although his repertoire of architectural work is quite small compared to his large amounts of work in painting, typography, and graphic design, architectural ideas permeated all of Lissitzky’s works. This is apparent in each piece, due to his emphasis on three-dimensional spatial relationships even in the two-dimensional plane of the artists’ canvas. In addition, Lissitzky wrote extensively about his work, and describes in detail the thoughtful and architectural way in which he treated his paintings.

In addition to the art, architecture, typography, and other visual aspects of the constructivist movement, Lissitzky was also deeply involved in the political theory and actions of the movement he helped to sculpt and represent. According to Tafuri, Lissitzky was “the principal propagandist of constructivist idealogical themes”. He was as much a part of spreading the ideas of Russian constructivism as he was creating them.

3 Tafuri. “The Sphere and the Labyrinth” 122.

4 Ibid., 38 5 Bann. “The Tradition of Constructivism” 38 6 Tafuri, Manfredo. The Sphere and the Labyrinth: Avant-Gardes and Architecture from Piranesi to the 1970s. Cambridge; London. MIT Press, 1987. 120.

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Art at the time was so deeply embedded in politics that it had its own governmental body. The IZO– or fine art department was established by the Soviets in 1918. The primary responsibility of the organization was for spreading ideas through the performance of art through exhibitions and festivals. At the time, art was often a revolutionary public performance – with festivals of art, theater, music, and sculpture used to spread and celebrate the ideas of the movement.7 The politics and art of this era were so intertwined, that the meanings and messages in both hard to separate from each other. Lissitzky himself became involved in IZO in 1918- very close to its inception.8 However, more so than many of his contemporaries, Lissitzky was enthusiastic about the universality of the utopian ideals he was trying to propagate.

Lissitsky was also involved in INKhUK – the institute of artistic culture which was a school of thought that “concerned to conduct a systematic investigation into the formal elements within a given work of art”- with the viewpoint that “art represented the greatest possible good” – This organization began actually outside constructivism but developed alongside and was important in developing some of Lissitzky’s earliest formal ideas.9 Lissitzky was also involved in teaching, working to spread his ideas to the younger generations. He joined the VKhUTEMAS, or higher state artistic and technical workshops in 1920 . In addition, he was involved in the Veshch publication which “was a political act: the ideology of the plan emerged as a unifying moment of the Soviet intellegentsia and of that of the West as well.”10

IV.

ASNOAVA, 1923

OBJECT STUDY 1 – PROUN 99

As previously mentioned, ideas of architecture permeated through all mediums of El Lissitzky’s work, as expressed in both his work and his writing. Even in his typographical work, the words were treated as spatial objects and very deliberately organized on the page. Using layout, bold letters, and underlining, Lissitsky had more control over the order, pauses, emphasis and way in which the words were read, and was able to assign meaning to the work that reached deeper than just the meaning of the words themselves. Lissitzky treated his paintings in a similar way.

He called these works Proun, or pro-unovis – which means “for the school of the new art”. Lissitzky felt that a new word was needed to name his works that were not quite architecture but definitely not a painting.11 The word Proun was needed to describe such a new way of constructing art and the new purpose it was meant for.

Lissitzky was not just an artist, as his work was deeply embedded into the political 7 Lodder, Christina. Russian Constructivism. Yale University Press; Reprint edition. 1985. 47.

8 Ibid., 249.

9 Ibid., 91.

10 Tafuri. “The Sphere and the Labyrinth” 144.

11 Frampton, “ Modern Architecture: A Critical History” 169.

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and social ideals of the time. Although the medium of Lissitzky’s prouns are obviously paint media, the meaning and scope of his intent for the works was much more. This is demonstrated in depth by his writings on the Prouns. He says about his work “Proun is the creating of form (control of space) by means of the new economic construction of material to which a new value is assigned.”12 He speaks about the composition of his paintings as if they are three dimensional architectural constructions, referencing balance and tension of space and forces of physics of the objects themselves. He says, “The surface of the Proun ceases to be a picture and turns into a structure” In addition, he focused on the materiality of the paintings rather than the overall aesthetic quality of the work. In this, he argues that color is actually a material quality rather than an aesthetic one due to the physics of light and energy. He talks about the dynamic quality of the shapes in space, saying that “material form must be shaped according to its movement in space, that is construction”. He firmly believed that these works, although paintings in essence, were much more than just paint on paper, saying that“in this way Proun goes beyond painting and the artist on the one hand and the machine and the engineer on the other and advances to the construction of space, divides it by the elements of all dimensions, and creates a new, many faceted unity as a formal representation of our nature.” In this quote he is delving into the layers of meaning embedded into the formal characteristics of the work itself.

Lissitzky described the role of the constructivist artist as “turning from an imitator into a constructor of the new world of objects”.The specific history and circumstances surrounding the creation of each Proun was irrelevant in Lissitzky’s eyes. The paintings were not done for any specific reason- and were not representing anything. “My aim- and this is not only my aim, this is the meaning of the new art- is not to represent, but to form something independent of any conditioning factor.”13 The works, unbound by the material and physical constraints, become the truest and most elemental architectural expressions. Lissitzky would argue that his Prouns are more architecturally representative of the movement because they were free from these conditioning factors that architecture was limited by. However, this fact, in the end points to reasons of the eventual failure of the movement itself as it maybe was too idealistic for any physical manifestation- not just in art, but also in society.

Proun 99 was painted by Lissitzky in 1924. The composition of the work is both balanced and precarious at the same time. The background contains a bold dark line crossing vertically from top to bottom, overlaid by a cube, slightly rotated, that is fenced in by two curved lines that is also off balance. The imbalance of the cube is caught by a semi-solid shape at the bottom. Depth and the spatial organization of the discrete objects is emphasized by the flatness of objects in the background versus the shadows and material texture of the cube. It is impossible to assign representation meaning to the objects themselves, as well as the composition as a whole, as that would be in opposition to what Lissitzky intended. Instead, the meaning is embedded within the color, materiality and texture implied on the one surface of the cube as well as in the angles of each object and their spatial relationships to each other. Lissitzky’s proun’s can be read like a floorplan or section in terms of the way a person could occupy or travel through it. In this way the paintings can be read and operate like a piece of architecture.

As previously mentioned, this idea of compositional meaning, a fundamental tennent of constructivism, was present through Lissitzkys work, including typographical layout and treatment of the visual characteristics of the words contains as much meaning as the words themselves. He also had a big role in designing his exhibitions- defining exactly the way in which his art should be viewed.14 He viewed “space as a global object” and carefully laid out his works in 12 Lissitzky, El. El Lissitzky; Life, Letters, Texts. London : Thames and Hudson, 1980, c1968. 347.

13 Lissitzky.“El Lissitzky; Life, Letters, Texts.” 358.

14 Lissitzky.“El Lissitzky; Life, Letters, Texts.” 359.

(1) Proun 8, 1921 (2) ‘Announcer’, 1923 (3) Proun N 89, 1925

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‘Prounenraum’ or proun room.15 However, these works were more operative at the time, since they were temporary and poorly documented.

V.

OBJECT STUDY 2 – PRINTING PLANT OF OGONYOK

Lissitzky and his contemporaries placed emphasis on the importance of architecture in the Russian constructivist setting and its role in defining and describing the new order. “It has become clear to our structural engineer that through his work his is participating, as an active collaborator, in the construction of the new world.” As with his paintings, Lissitzky knew that the formal characteristics of architecture could contain as much, if not more, meaning than his Proun compositions. He says, “We are striving in our architecture, as in our whole life to create a social order, to raise the instinctive into consciousness.”16 Architecture provided a concrete and more utopian possibility than the theoretical space of the Prouns.

Ogonyok Printing Press, 1934

Lissitzky’s one realized architectural project was the Ogonyok Printing Press. The building was designed in 1930, towards the end of the constructivist movement, and completed in 1934. It operated as a printing plant until 1938, when it occupied by governmental security services. The building was abandoned in the 1990’s and set for demolition in the early 2000s. However, since then the building has been reconstructed, the work completed in 2016.17 In addition to the formal properties of the building, the programmatic use of the printing plant is itself meaningful to the Russian constructivist movement. As mentioned above, print media and graphic typology were a large part of spreading and illustrating ideas of Russian constructivism.

There are no surviving plans of the plant, the axonometric provides a closer parallel to the dynamic composition of the Proun 99. Just like in his prouns, the printing plant is composed of different elemental formal shapes operating together in a three dimensional space. However, this time the forms contain program and utilitarian endeavours. In the Press building, the main portion is a rectangular L shape, with two offshoots of curved elements, one curved in the horizontal plane of the building’s walls and one in the roof. In addition to the overall massing of the building, the fenestrations in the façade imply some additional formal meaning, due to the variation of rectangular and round windows found throughout the structure.

VI. LEGACY The Russian Constructivist Movement as a whole had large goals of inventing a new society based on intellectual and creative ideas defined and explored 15 Tafuri. “The Sphere and the Labyrinth” 132.

16 Lissitzky.“El Lissitzky; Life, Letters, Texts.” 376.

17 “Ogonyok Printing Plant.” Ogonyok Printing Plant. Accessed May 04, 2018. http://theconstructivistproject.com/en/object/24/ogonyok-printing-plant.

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throughout the years of the movement itself. However the lofty social, political, and technological ideals of the revolution fell short in the face of real problems such as food and housing shortages, and political dissent, that ultimately led to the failure of the movement, as well as the Soviet Government as a whole.18 Lissitzky, and many of his contemporaries in the Russian avant-garde, were actually located in places like Berlin- suggesting that even then, the ideals and of their movement they were trying to create was not possible within the social and economic limitations of Soviet Russia at the time. However, the impact of the work from the Russian constructivists, especially that of El Lissitzky, reached into all corners of the Avantgarde movements throughout Europe, and sent Echoes into the Bauhaus after the movement can be said to be concluded.19 In the wake of the failed movement, Lissitzky’s work lives on. His paintings, photographs and typographical work are still exhibited, his building still stands.

However, when looking at works that were so embedded with latent meaning at the time of their creation, it is easy to question their operation when taken out of context. Lissitzky himself said, in a letter to a museum curator that “You go on to enquire on which wall you should hang my work… You say that we are hung on walls in the museums?... it is not my fault that the museum directors are convinced of the perpetual infallibility of their own spectacle lenses so that it never occurs to them to devise another method of exhibiting.” This comment was probably meant sarcastically, but still acknowledges the complete lack of control that Lissitzky had over the eventual exhibition of his work.20 Lissitzky himself, as previously mentioned, was not only trying to further the Soviet communist mission but also was trying to create something universal. He said that his creations were an ’object’ [that] provides the link between two adjacent lines of communication” (Speaking about Russia and the West). Wheras others may have been more focused on the nationalistic and propaganda characteristics of their work in the Russian Constructivist movement, Lissitzky was trying to really create something universal with his art and architectural works.

In addition to the different political context when looking at Lissitzky’s work today, there is also a difference in way that the art was being performed back then.

According to Lissitzky, “the culture of painting no longer comes from the museum, it comes from the picture gallery of our modern streets, the riot and exaggeration of colors on the lithographic poster, the black glass signs with white letters pasted on, the light from electric lamps that have been colored with violet lacquer” Again this demonstrates art’s operative role in defining and enforcing ideals of the revolution, and how art was used as the language of revolution.21 Perhaps now that his art is viewed in the static world of books and museums, it is not operating in the same way.22 Lissitsky’s art was imbued with so much meaning at the time of its creation, and now may operate much the same way as any other representational painting.

Lissitzky was already thinking of this shift in context and operation. He says “To this thing I gave the independent name Proun. When its life is fulfilled and it lies down gently in the grave of the history of art, only then will this idea be defined.”.23 This refers to the fact that he has done what he can and the rest is up to the eventual user, but also hints to some allusion that what he has done is incapable of being written, that the prouns themselves are the language and the words that he is preaching. “it produces living bodies, objects of a specicic kind, whose effects cannot be measured with an ammeter or manometer…”24 Lissitzky knew that eventually he would lose control of his works, but for him, the latent meaning contained within the object compositions was enough.

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Frampton, “ Modern Architecture: A Critical History” 173.

Tafuri. “The Sphere and the Labyrinth” 133.

Lissitzky.“El Lissitzky; Life, Letters, Texts.” 348.

Tafuri. “The Sphere and the Labyrinth” 140-141.

Lodder, “Russian Constructivism” 47.

Lissitzky.“El Lissitzky; Life, Letters, Texts.” 358.

Ibid., 358

(1) Ogonyok Printing Press photo (2) axonometric

06 Octagonal Détournement Anna Creatura Brooklyn, NY A library designed using a spatial infrastructure approach.

The arrangement of the octagon determines both the structural and programmatic formation of the libraryallowing for unique changes in circulation, function, and program.

“Action becomes the protagonist of the space; structure develops from an open system.”

- Mansilla+ Tuñón Octagon The project seeks to discover the innate architectural properties and spatial capabilities of the octagon in an architectural setting. The shape was chosen because of its innately human proportions, looking at Leonardo DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man as a precedent, and expanding on Claude Parent’s questions into the function of the oblique.

Spatial Infrastructure The accumulation of the octagonal unit creates an architectural experience over three different scales- first at the individual scale of the single unit- a personal, monastic library space, to the larger scale that is created through the structural aggregation, to the grand scale of the lobby space. The large spaces are the inverse of the small. At each scale, the programmatic opportunities offered by the shape change, offering in sum an incredibly diverse spatial experience that was created from one modular piece. The circulation innately implied by this geometry is new- a transversal approach with one central circulation core that is crossed by an amazing number of hallways and individual rooms.

Structure The structural capacity of the octagon is once again implicit in its shape, the stacking modules creating arched vaults. The modularity of the concrete system creates not only a building, but also a new flexible system of construction.

Library The application of this system is for a new NYPL branch in Dumbo, Brooklyn. The huge vaulted lobby collapses into smaller rooms, before becoming individual sized modules at the perfect scale for a single bookshelf, desk, reading nook, or study room.

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07 Lost and Light Anna Creatura 14th Street L Train Station, NY Lost and light responds to a need for a new lost and found for the MTA system. Inspired by the lost grandeur of the old Pennsylvania Station, the project seeks to enhance the subterranean experience of the standard MTA Subway stop by maximizing the light in the space. “One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat.�

- Vincent Skully Lost and Found The current lost and found for the MTA is located at the new Penn Station. The directions to access the lost and found are complicated, requiring a person to exit the subway from a certain exit before heading down to the lower mezzanine. In addition the number of items stored there is incredible. In 2013, a total 24,443 items came in.

Of that, only 8,466 were claimed, or about 35%. In order to recover an item, a person has to provide a detailed description, and cannot themselves look for it among the shelves.

Circulation The project hosts two distinct methods of circulation for passengers catching trains and for those seeking lost items, but a visual connection is maintained through various apertures deployed throughout the project. The multiple circulations serve a few purposes, first, to maintain the direct access needed for rushing commuters, but also to provide a different, more meandering, experience for people visiting the lost and found. Recovering items becomes a reflective task, and there is no pushing through crowds or fighting for space.

Lost and Light Although the experience of seeing the light streaming through the windows of the old Penn Station can never be recreated, the project attempts to filter light down into the new lost and found underground. The apetures of different sizes also indicate which space the user is walking in. Even normal subway-goers will be able to peek at the lost and found during their daily commutes.

The resulting expereince rests somewhere between a museum experience and high-functioning lost and found.

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08 Outfall Anna Creatura East River, NY Outfall seeks new way to connect New Yorkers with their waterways, while also reducing the ecological impact of the cities aging infrastructure.

Sewage New York City has a long and dirty history with the East River. The river has long been used as a receptacle for the city’s sewage. Because the NYC sewer system is inherently combined with the storm water system- and the increase in size and population of the city- the existing sewers are over capacity. During rainstorms, the pipes begin to overflow into the city’s waterways.

At the Houston Street CSO, where the pier is located, it takes just .1 in of rain for the pipes to overflow and pour raw sewage straight into the East River- outputting 2.43 million gallons in a 1 inch rainstorm.

Treatment Outfall provides a solution to this problem by damming the flow of sewage from Manhattan to the East River.

Sewage treatment is expensive, and takes up a lot of space [see: Riverbank state park]. The problem is not a lack of adequate sewage treatment facilities, but rather the limited capacity of the pipes leading to them. Outfall provides an intervention that can start to solve this problem. During rain events, the underwater containers located within the pier act as a sewage retention facility, storing the city’s wastewater until the rain has stopped and the sewer system can handle the excess water. Yearly, this could prevent over 60 million gallons of CSO overflow from polluting the East River every year.

The structure of Outfall encompasses the sewage retention tanks without interrupting the natural flow of the river. The perforated nature of the rocky structure enables this by providing a solid structure within which the tanks can be anchored. By utilizing the existing tectonic nature of the rocky material the stones themselves provide most of the support and form gaps through which the water can flow freely. The perforated nature of the rock structure allows the water to inhabit the pier at any level, making the pier also adaptable to sea level rise. The form of the pier is maintained by a metal gabion structurefencing in the rocks and making the overhanging roof possible.

Materiality and Program Outfall’s program is simple, and connects, literally, to the underwater function. At the end of the pier are bathrooms, a much needed service for New York City. In addition, the pier has 100 feet of docking space, used as a temporary stop for boats looking to offload their sewer tanks. (Currently, they too use the East River to dump) Also located on the top of the pier is an access point to the underwater tanks for maintenance.

The form of the pier is rocky and organic. At different moments in the pier, the water creates spaces of enclosure within the pier, and times when the pier gradually steps into the water. This type of accessibility to water is not often found on the East River, and bringing New Yorkers closer to their waterways will hopefully make them more aware of the pollution they are pouring into it. Swimming in the east river is still not recommended, but the portions of the pier that touch the water provide an optimistic invitation for future New Yorkers.

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