EoYS21_MArch_1

A L I N A A BO U E L E N I N PORTFOLIO

questions

of entanglement

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND PRESERVATION

Foreword why do questions matter?

The question I have been asked the most over the past three years was how someone with a journalism background ends up in architecture. More precisely, the question came from a larger one – how do journalism and architecture relate? For me, the answer is obvious: in architecture or journalism you’re essentially doing the same thing, the only difference is your medium and your output.

One of the first things taught in journalism is that any good lead to any good story needs to answer the 5 W’s: who, what, where, when and why. That is because essentially every story starts with a series of questions, and every good story, I would argue, will not just answer them, but leave you with more. Architecture, to me, operates in the exact same manner. For me, every single project stemmed from a question which I tried to interrogate through research and design, and the architecture being the result of it. Thus, the way I think about architecture is that you begin with research; you listen to stories; they shape your questions and your thesis; they inform your proposals; and eventually what you end up with is an entirely new space or place to

hold and provide the context for new stories to unfold. It comes full circle. Yet, architecture not only holds stories, it can reshape and rebuild them. Thus, it goes one step further than journalism. Architects are not just telling stories, they are building them.

Questions of entanglement explores through a collection of architectural projects and embedded writings in between, the many provocations that architecture stems from and arrives at. This collection of work also becomes a collection of questions and interrogations, which at their core ask and try to answer “Why do questions matter?”

They matter because they keep us curious.

They matter because they are the essence of every conversation and discussion.

They matter because they are the start of all ideas.

-Alina Abouelenin

Contents

from public to private and everything in between

1. Where does sports begin and politics end?

THE EMBASSY OF X

p.5 Advanced V (Dan Wood)

2. Can a walled off space ever truly be public?

LIBRARY UNRAVELLED SUPERSTUDIO - A THEORY

p. 27 Core II (Mimi Hoang) p.29 History of Theory (Mark Wigley) p.43

3. How much of the building does the facade reveal?

THE HAMILTON

Core I (Amina Blacksher)

4. What stories does architecture write?

FOREST MOTEL SOLO HOUSE DINNER CONFESSIONS COMMUTE SOUNDSCAPE WRITING ARCHITECTURE

p.71

Advanced IV (Ziad Jamaleddine)p.73

p.89 Core III (Adam Frampton) p.91 Arab Modernism (Elsheshtawy) p. 113 Typologies (Juan Herreros) p. 115

7. How does migration challenge our definitions of family?

US-MEX TRANSNATIONALISM FAMILY ACROSS THE BORDER

p. 47

Ultrareal (Brennan & Crupi) p.57 ADR (Joshua Uhl) p.59 Seminar of Section (Tsurumaki) p. 61 ADR II (Lexi Tsien-Shiang) p. 65 Core I (Amina Blacksher) p. 67 The Contemporary (Tschumi) p. 69

6. Does housing lead to segregation?

THE SLAB HOUSING & UPRISINGS LIVING TOGETHER

p.45 p. 55

5. Where do religion, water politics and ruralism intersect?

PROCESSION OF WATER

p.7

p. 119

Conflict Urbanism (Kurgan) p. 121 Advanced VI (Anna Puigjaner) p. 123

Where does sports begin and politics end?

Can a walled off space ever truly be public?

How much of the building does the facade reveal? What stories does architecture write? Where do religion, water politics and ruralism intersect? Does housing lead to segregation? How does migration challenge our definitions of family?

THE EMBASSY OF X

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THE EMBASSY OF X

Advanced V: Center for Sports Diplomacy Critic Dan Wood

Located on Randall’s Island, in New York City, the Embassy of X is conceived as a political building where interest groups come together to work through conflicts and deliberate on issues, in order to come to a mutual understanding and find solutions. At the heart of these negotiations is sports. Drawing on sports psychology, the “game” and the skills that are learned through the various sports that exist within the building become a vital element to the negotiation process. Thus, the court becomes conceptually and literally the extension of the deliberation room and the deliberation room the extension of the court.

Furthermore, the building does not only host an array of different sport arenas but also a range of different meeting and deliberation spaces. The shapes and forms each speak to a different set of “space politics,” the outcomes of deliberations have been found to be directly impacted by spatial qualities e.g. circular vs. rectangular meeting spaces

have different effects. As a result, the building hosts a gallery of different spaces, where not just the sport becomes an element of spectatorship, but also the “politics.” Similarly, it is not just the politics that actively engages in deliberations but so does the sports.

These essential concepts consequently allow for unique outdoor and indoor spatial moments to occur throughout the building, which allow for visual and sectional connections between the different programs to exist thus, promoting an engagement with both sports and politics at all times while circulating the building. The embassy becomes a tangible translation that explores the intersection between sports, politics and architecture, blurring the boundaries between all of them, and with it introducing a new typology. At its core, the building challenges the question, “Where does sports begin and politics end?”

ADVANCED V

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THE EMBASSY OF X

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ADVANCED V

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Drawing on Sports Psychology: What elements in sports and skills learned, are invaluable to successful negotiations?

Massing studies: Black volumes are based on different sport field dimensions.

Research included identifying in what spaces sports activism took place in the 60s and 70s: In some occasions the field was literally the place in which protest occured, in others it was the media frenzy around the event, other times it was the boycotting of the actul hame. Sometimes it was the game itself that was revolutionary and then there is also the case in which sports took place albeit conflicts around it. Black in the diagram above marks the place of "activism" during the different events.

Different shapes of spaces result in different atmospheres and outcomes during negotiations. For example, oval spaces avoid having a "head," of the table, making it more democratic but also difficult to arrive at decisions.

Circular shapes symbolize equality but can create distance. Long and skinny creates intimacy in those directly next to you but difficult for bigger groups.

THE EMBASSY OF X

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ADVANCED V

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THE EMBASSY OF X

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ADVANCED V

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THE EMBASSY OF X

North/South section Right: Close up of North/South section. As people are circulating between spaces, they are constantly moving between game and deliberation.

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ADVANCED V

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THE EMBASSY OF X

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ADVANCED V

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A

B

C

G

F

D

E A. Meeting Rooms B. Library C. Media/Production Rooms D. Pool The Embassy of X is located at the southern tip of randall's island, adjacent to the pedestrian bridge Ward's Island Bridge. The location of the building pushes the desire in designing a building that through its openness engages with the surroundning city, water and greenery. The sport fields are pushed to the corners of the building, to allow the public to also engage and spectate from the park.

E. Basketball Court F. Work Spaces G. Tennis Court

THE EMBASSY OF X

Buidling elevations in order from top left going clockwise: North, South, West, East.

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ADVANCED V

1/32nd Resin model. White volumes indicate different "rooms" such as negotiation, auditorium, conference rooms etc.

Most spaces remain in glass, to allow not just the sports to be observed but the deliberations as well. In this building they are interchangeable.

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THE EMBASSY OF X

EAST/WEST SECTION East/West Section

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ADVANCED V

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THE EMBASSY OF X

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ADVANCED V

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Where does sports begin and politics end?

Can a walled off space ever truly be public?

How much of the building does the facade reveal? What stories does architecture write? Where do religion, water politics and ruralism intersect? Does housing lead to segregation? How does migration challenge our definitions of family?

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LIBRARY UNRAVELLED

CORE II

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LIBRARY CONCEPT:

LIBRARY UNRAVELLED STACKED MINI LIBRARIES

Core II: Alone Together Critic, Mimi Hoang

How can you achieve the publicness parks have achieved with a space built of walls?

How can you build rooms that are tailored towards three age demographics, while creating a space that allows for immersion and integration across all age groups?

Located in Sara D. Roosevelt Park, this library, composed of three circular stacked mini libraries, takes to task these very questions. With three separate datums – a library for children, youth and adults – this library brings together all age groups by allowing the movement of people throughout all libraries, without ever having to enter through doors to reach the others. Programming, by designating levels rather than rooms, allows for open spaces that subsequently allow for a distinct path of circulation that aspires people to move from occupying the perimeter of the library, to actively occupying the core in the last cylinder, which is intended for all age groups.

The stacked cylinders are shifted allowing for the park to expand vertically and become outdoor extensions to study spaces. With this move, the classic circular library is also critiqued and challenged which were studied

SHIFTING OF DATUMS

SHIFTS ALLOW FOR OUTDOOR SPACES

DECENTERED CORE

CIRCULATION

UNRAVELLING FACADE

during precedent anaylsis. Both the former British Library and the Asplund Library were analysed, particularly the notion of the authoritarian center and the notion of observation. In this proposal the core is no longer centric, but rather shifted to the side; the authoritarian middle is denied, offering a democratic space that promotes equity among ages and people, which is emphasized at the very top, where the relationship between occupation and circulation is reversed, with people occupying the now centric core, and the void and circulation of the cylinder is pushed to the periphery.

Thus, the classic model of a circular library is unravelled. The classic walled off library and the concept of walled off knowledge, is literally dissembled, with an unravelling façade that exposes the interior and melds into a ramp that penetrates the park. With the unravelling of the facade, so does the program, which spills into the park in order to actively engage the public from a distant point, whether that be children, seniors, teenagers or the homeless population.

Precedent Analysis: Asplund Library

Degrees of Engagement at Sara D. Roosevelt Park during different seasons.

LIBRARY UNRAVELLED

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CORE II

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YOUTH LIBRARY

KIDS LIBRARY

ADULT

The different datums are reflected in the different library zones in the park.

LIBRARY UNRAVELLED

With the unravelling of the facade also comes the unravelling of the program.

The library 'spills' into the park, with different program along the ramp engaging the public without having to enter the building.

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CORE II

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LIBRARY UNRAVELLED

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CORE II

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SECOND FLOOR: Main reading room at the center of the first cylinder, occupying the space that used to be reserved for the librarian. The reading room is visible from all levels and has stepped terraces leading down to the main etrance. The ramp also leads up to the main reading room with another entrance.

BASEMENT LEVEL: "Kids Library" and an Auditorium accessible from the park.

LIBRARY UNRAVELLED

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CORE II

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SIXTH FLOOR: 'Youth Library' and exterior study spaces.

FOURTH FLOOR: 'Adult Library' and stacks as walls.

CONDENSER SPACE: Circulation on the periphery, occupation of the center

LIBRARY UNRAVELLED

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CORE II

SECOND FLOOR/MAIN READING ROOM: Main reading room. Circulation is occuring throughout the middle, allowing interaction between all mini libraries.

THIRD FLOOR:/ADULT LIBRARY: Stacks are used to create divisions/privacy. Desks are oriented outwards, the unraveling facade allowing views of the park/city, engaging with what is beyond the walls.

BASEMENT LEVEL/KIDS LIBRARY: A slide from the park enters the childrens library, that is surrounded by the main stacks.

SIXTH FLOOR:/YOUTH LIBRARY: The circulation/balconies allow for both visual and social interactions throughout the library, in order to create a library for all age demographhics.

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LIBRARY UNRAVELLED

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CORE II

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SUPERSTUDIO: A THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE

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HISTORY OF THEORY

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Superstudio: a collective; a movement; a theory of architecture

Cristiano Toraldo di Francia. Memories of Superstudio. In Peter Lang and William Menking.

“Superstudio: Life without Objects.” Italy: Skira. 2003. P. 66 Kenneth Frampton. “Modern Architecture,” London: Thames and Hudson. 4th edition. 2007. p. 280 Cristiano Toraldo di Francia. Memories of Superstudio. In Peter Lang and William Menking.

“Superstudio: Life without Objects.” Italy: Skira. 2003. P. 71 Cristiano Toraldo di Francia. Memories of Superstudio. In Peter Lang and William Menking.

“Superstudio: Life without Objects.” Italy: Skira. 2003. P. 66 Adolfo Natalini. Destruction, Metamorphosis and Reconstruction of the Object. Published in In, no. 2-3, 1971. In “Superstudio: Life without Objects.” Italy: Skira. 2003. P. 121 Adolfo Natalini. Lecture given at the AA School of Architecture, London, 3 March 1971. In Peter Lang and William Menking. “Superstudio: Life without Objects.” Italy: Skira. 2003. P. 167.

Peter Lang and William Menking. “Superstudio: Life without Objects.” Milano: Skira. 2003. P. 21 Superstudio. The Continuous Monument: an Architectural Model for Total Urbanization. 1969.

Peter Lang and William Menking. “Superstudio: Life without Objects.” Italy: Skira. 2003. P. 122 Superstudio. The Continuous Monument: an Architectural Model for Total Urbanization. 1969.

Peter Lang and William Menking. “Superstudio: Life without Objects.” Italy: Skira. 2003. P. 128 Superstudio. The Continuous Monument: an Architectural Model for Total Urbanization. 1969.

Peter Lang and William Menking. “Superstudio: Life without Objects.” Italy: Skira. 2003. P. 122 in Italian is used to refer to a gridded, ruled notebook.

Superstudio. Life or the Public Image of Truly Modern Architecture: Supersurface, an alternative model of life on earth. In Peter Lang and William Menking. “Superstudio: Life without Objects.” Italy: Skira. 2003. P. 183 Adolfo Natalini. Destruction, Metamorphosis and Reconstruction of the Object. Published in In, no. 2-3, 1971. In “Superstudio: Life without Objects.” Italy: Skira. 2003. P. 121 SUPERSTUDIO. “Supersuperficie (Supersurface),” Italy: Marchi. 1972. On Architecture player, 9:28, https://www.architectureplayer.com/clips/supersurface-an-alternative-model-for-life-onthe-earth.

Cristiano Toraldo di Francia quoted in “Staff Picks: Searching for Utopia.” MoMA. Accessed December 17, 2019. https://www.moma.org/slideshows/338/10.

Where does sports begin and politics end?

Can a walled off space ever truly be public?

How much of the building does the facade reveal? What stories does architecture write? Where do religion, water politics and ruralism intersect? How can housing lead to segregation? How does migration challenge our definitions of family?

THE HAMILTON

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THE HAMILTON

Core I: Broadway Stories Critic Amina Blacksher

Oftentimes, the first thing you learn of a community is the immediate information available to us; the headlines, the data, the statistics. This was the first information I came to learn when studying our site, West Harlem, which is marked by gentrification. Yet, what you soon come to discover is the discrepancy between that outright information and the faces and stories behind it. Similarly, the first thing we learn of the built environment is its exterior façades, yet there also often seems a discrepancy between the exterior and the interior. One of the sites I found this to be particularly true was Hamilton Theater, a rich façade on the outside, and a crumbling interior behind it, and with it a crumbling archive of stories. Thus, the idea of playing with what we see vs. what is beneath the surface became the larger concept, facades being the metaphor of it and thus, the medium through which I chose to intervene.

Rather than proposing something completely new, the goal was to retrofit something iconic and unique to the neighborhood, providing something abandoned with new life. Hence, facades are used to construct a multifunctional event space.

space can be created by just using a series of movable façades.

Removing interior elements within the nearly 60-foot tall existing theatre allowed for the newly carved out void to be packed with a collection of façades, which were inspired by the neighborhood - Harlem. When you flip these horizontally, they become floorplates with holes in it. When you position them vertically they serve as partitions and walls.

With some of these facades remaining permanent load-bearing structures and others being movable to allow a flexibility in the type of spaces that can be created.

Thus, the building’s interior becomes a matrix of surfaces, which merges both elements of architecture and stage design, thereby also paying tribute to the theater’s original program. By pushing facades forward and backward, pulling them up or down, a multifunctional space is created, which can be “rebuilt” and repurposed to meet the needs and demands for a range of different settings that might be needed by the community or events hosted within this building.

The project “The Hamilton” challenges our traditional understanding of what we have defined to be interior and exterior elements of architecture. More specifically, this project becomes an analysis of how a modular event Concept Video Stills

CORE I

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THE HAMILTON

125th STREET

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CORE I

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THE HAMILTON

North/South Section by day.

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CORE I

North/South Section by night with an alternative constellation of facades.

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THE HAMILTON

West/East Section: Event space in front, theater space behind.

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CORE I

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where does sports begin and politics end?

Can a walled off space ever truly be public?

How much of the building does the facade reveal? What stories does architecture write? Where do religion, water politics and ruralism intersect? Does housing lead to segregation? How does migration challenge our definitions of family?

FOREST MOTEL

FOREST MOTEL

Ultrareal, Critic Joseph Brennan & Philipp Crupi

The objective of the class Ultrareal was to use perspective and rendering as a method of both presentation and also design. The idea of the project was to design a single building in collaboration, and then each of us imagining a unique “life” of this building. The render to the left is my iteration of this building.

Studying imagery of both photography and film, this specific project “Forest Motel” became about the notion of creating a surreal reality. The possibilities of rendering - to create ultrareal images - yet having complete control over them allow for infinite possibilities. With this specific render, the idea was to create a building and place it into an incongrous surrounding. The idea of having a tiny forest cabin be a motel, set in a forest in the middle of nowehere, plays with the idea of creating something unrealistic yet, using the tool of rendering, to create an incredibly realistic image.

Thus, the idea became about pushing the envelope of what the definition of “ultrareal” real is; it became an investigation into creating hyperreal images in a completely fabricated virtual reality.

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ULTRAREAL

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SOLO HOUSE

SOLO HOUSE

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3:35 PM

ADR

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01:35 AM

07:35 AM

ADR, Critic Joshua Uhl

Although the Office project provides all basic structural elements, it is one of a kind that challenges traditional conventions. With the open floorplan and the lack of permanent walls, and overemphasized use of glazing, the solo house begs the question whether it can be called a house at all?

At the center of the exploration and interrogation of the solo house was the notion of visibility vs. invisibility. The Invisibility of the building leads to enhanced visibility in the interior spaces. With the large glass panels, the notion of privacy – something that a house usually provides – is questioned. Yet, although the use of glazing would suggest lack of privacy, the drawing explores how visibility and privacy become a dependent factor on the time of day and how the characteristic of the glass changes with the amount of daylight. Privacy is in fact more present during the day, with sunlight creating opaqueness and night time creating and almost “display window”- like effect, where people’s privacy is most invaded.

The building is imagined during three different times of the day, and with the changing characteristics of the building you get uniquely unfolding events taking place as a result of it.

EXTERIOR/INTERIOR.

EXTERIOR/INTERIOR.

FADE IN.

ENTER UNCLE FRIEDRICH, MAMA ULLI, LUKAS, MARIA, OMA TRAUDE, OPA WILHEM & PAPA OTTO.

AT FAMILY DINNER, WHERE SCHNITZEL IS SERVED, THE SITUATION ESCAL ATES.

EXTERIOR/INTERIOR.

THE MÜLLERS ARRIVE TO SPAIN FOR A FAMILY REUNION AFTER 10 YEARS. MAMA ULLI IS PREPARING THE HOUSE, WHILE OMA TRAUDE IS ENJOING THE SUN OMA TR AUDE LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL L ANDSCAPE! KIDS! GET OFF YOUR PHONE AND JUST TAKE IN THIS BEAUTIFUL SCENERY SURROUNDING US. SHE HOBBLES OFF AND HAS A PEAK AROUND THE HOUSE. OMA TR AUDE BUT HANG ON A MINUTE, THIS CAN’T BE THE HOUSE WE’RE STAYING IN – IT HAS NO WALLS!”

UNCLE FRIEDRICH GETS DRUNK ON SCHNAPS. MARIA AND LUKAS DECIDE THEY HAVE NO INTEREST IN THIS PSEUDO FAMILY REUNION AND DECIDE TO GO OUT AND GET DRUNK AS WELL .

THE REST GO TO BED, WHILE UNCLE FRIEDICH SPENDS THE NIGHT OUTSIDE, SINGING ‘BEISL’ SONGS.

FADE TO BLACK.

THE NEXT MORNING, THE HOUSE IS QUIET. THE ONLY ONE UP IS OPA WILHEM, WHO IS ENJOYING THE BRISK MORNING AIR. HE IS READING THE PAPER. IT WON’T BE LONG, UNTIL THE WHOLE TURMOIL STARTS ANEW.

DINNER CONFESSSIONS

DINNER CONFESSIONS

Independent Research (Seminar of Section), Critic Marc Tsurumaki

At its essence, this project sought to speculate on and explore representational strategies for section drawings and extend the ways in which section drawings can expand beyond just being spatial or representational techniques, but think about how they can be used to convey and tell the life of a building and the stories of its program and its inhabitants.

Thinking about cinematic references, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, where the obsession of watching neighbors through windows and consequently the stories they become witness to is explored, the concept of a section drawing becomes particularly intriguing.

A section reveals everything we try to conclude ourselves using our imaginations when we picture the worlds beyond building facades or conclude stories based on the glimpses we get to see through windows. Sections take away the enclosing walls, and reveal all the individual stories within a building, which occur adjacent, below and on top of each other, all at once. The use of sections is often used as a cinematic device, allowing cameras to pan between rooms and spaces. When we think of comic books, story boards or camera film roles, the framing of events remind us of sections. How can these techniques be used in architectural drawings, where the section becomes the story frame?

Through Tatiana Bilbao's Casa Ventura, such a story is imagined.

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH: SEMINAR OF SECTION

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DINNER CONFESSIONS

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH: SEMINAR OF SECTION

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COMMUTE

COMMUTE

ADR II, Critic Lexi Tsien-Shiang

How do you experience phenomena spatially and how do you record this? How do you capture a scene, a journey or a story? Are notations scaled equally? How is distance represented? Is time represented as distance? What notations could be invented to map out this specific phenomena?

Focusing on specific instances, phenomena and spatial elements along a path, these drawings intend to map out the journey from home to school.

The map to the left is choosing to focus on the phenomena of vision. The goal is to map out the visual journey of a daily commute, in interaction to by-passers, during a given time of day.

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ADR II

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THE WAY THINGS GO SOUNDSCAPE

THE WAY THINGS GO SOUNDSCAPE

Core I, Critic Amina Blacksher

One might argue that architecture writes or creates spaces of stories. Inversly, how can stories build and design the architecture?

The evolution of sound stands at the center of this interrogation of the artistic piece “The Way Things Go.” At the very essence, the aim was to analyze the evolution of how sound morphes from being an element that occupies space, to becoming the space that provides the envelope in which the events of the art take place. Sound expands beyond the confined space of a room, becoming the protagonist that pushes both the narrative and thesis forward.

This series of drawings is aimed to be a parallel to the notion of “The Way Things Go,” which argues that everything in life is interconnected and explores how one reaction or process might ignite a new idea or notion. Here too, we see how the exploration of sound leads to an entirely new trajectory to be studied, where one study leads to the next.

Sound becomes a soundscape that can now be explored by itself. We witness the shift from analyzing the visualization of the narrative sound, determining how sound would look like in 2D to consequently exploring the volumetric shape of sound and thus, investigating how sound would materialize as a spatial entity that could be occupied.

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CORE I

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WRITING ARCHITECTURE

“Writing Architecture”

To what extent can writing be considered a design method? An analysis of the writings and projects of Rem Koolhaas The Contemporary (Ideas & Concepts from 1968 to the present), Professor Bernard Tschumi

The relationship between writing and architecture is longstanding, but in the past, they were thought of as more formally separate practices. We thought about the relationship as writing about or on architecture, rather than thinking about it as “writing architecture,” where writing can be understood as a means to produce architecture. Rather than using lines to draw out an idea, this essay aims to explore how words are used to sketch out ideas, whether that is using words of programs to test out relationships and forms, or using words to construct narratives that help visualize a building and programmatic relationships. Focusing specifically on the work of Rem Koolhaaas, one sees how he has challenged the previously assumed separation between writing and architecture, by using writing as an integral part of his work as an architect. He has argued that some of the best works of architecture can be “read as a text.” Thus, this essay, will set out to explore to what extent writing architecture can indeed be considered a design process. Do we “write a building” in the same way we write a script? Does the way we layout program, think about it’s hierarchy and programmatic adjacencies, become a similar exercise to the way we write out a text or an argument and think about what statements we make and in what order? This essay will explore the intrinsic relationship of writing and architecture by first providing context to the idea of “writing architecture” and then exploring three distinct themes that come through when discussing Rem Koolhaas and writing architecture: textual strategies, scripting program and writing diagrams. Through these themes, one can analyze how writing indeed influences architectural design, each in their own specific way.

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in architecture was technical or strategic in that I sensed that I wanted to be a particular kind of architect and I felt that at the time there was no place for that kind of architect,” which he claims is why he wrote Delirious New York, “to construct – as a writer – a terrain where I could eventually work.” Thus, through this statement, one comes to understand that Koolhaas’s entire career, and arguably success, was embedded in him laying out a foundation that allowed him to operate as an architect in a specific way, which consisted of making writing an integral part of his work. He goes on to say that through his writing, he “was trying to deemphasize the artistic part of being an architect and describe a role that was much more concerned with intellectual issues, where other interventions were possible and therefore, by definition, could not be done through drawing.” His emphasis on the intellectual part of architecture is well encapsulated by his offshoot firm AMO, which is a knowledge-based architecture consultancy firm founded by Rem Koolhaas and Dan Wood, who claim that the research and the ideas that stemmed from when they were working on the Universal Studios Project in LA were more valuable than any physical design. Koolhaas says, “at the beginning of every project there is maybe not writing, but a definition in words – a text – a concept, ambition or theme that is put into words and only at the moment that it is put in words can we begin to proceed to think about architecture; the words unleash the design.” Hence, we are provided insight into how crucial the formulation of architecture through writing becomes to Koolhaas. He claims it “unleashes” the design and so with it we understand it to be the very first element to his design process. “All our projects, or our best projects or maybe our most original projects, are first defined in literary terms, which then suggest an entire architectural program,” says Koolhaas and claims that the entire idea of the Très Grande Bibliothèque was based on a single suggestive sentence “to imagine a building where the most important parts would be absences of buildings.” How a sentence was translated into architecture can be seen by this renowned model of the Grand Bibliothèque (figure 1.) where the attention on form is put on all the voids of the building, rather than the building itself. Hence, it can be argued that the idea provided through the written word, inverted the orthodox method to architecture by focusing on what will not be built, rather than what will. Therefore, one can argue that the writing was the method, that designed the project. The Grand Bibliothèque is just one example of many where one can see support for Koolhaas’s claim, “it’s only when there is a text-like formulation of the problem that we can really start. The design is a demonstration of a thesis or a question or a literary idea.”

CONTEXT: A new concept of reading and writing developed in France in response to a number of intellectual figures, including Jacque Derrida, Roland Barthes and Louis Althusser, which eventually also influenced the practice of architecture, especially in the 70s and 80s. Among those influenced by it were Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi, who said that “writing has been a very important tool to our exploration of architecture. At least as powerful as drawing.” With this statement, Tschumi equates the method of writing to that of drawing and thus, highlights how crucial it becomes to analyze in what ways writing does indeed become a mode of architectural design. In a conversational interview between Peter Eisenman and Jacques Derrida, the two discuss the idea of “writing architecture.” Derrida says: “Let’s start with the grammar of the title ‘writing architecture’…That is the first question. This possible only in English. You could not translate ‘writing architecture’ into French because the English grammar allows you to think that writing architecture means to write or to be writing architecture as an object: writing architecture, writing on architecture, or writing in architecture, architecture being the object of the writing. But at the same time, within the English grammar you can understand that the architecture itself is writing, not only written on but also writing, actively writing.”

It is precisely the latter understanding that this essay seeks to explore. Michael Speaks elaborates on the matter, as he says: “If we understand writing as production and not as an essence at the center of which is the word, then writing becomes architectural not according to what it is but to what it does: writing becomes architectural by producing architecture.” While the notion of writing enabling the production of architecture can be explored through an array of architects, who have adopted this method as part of their practice, this essay will focus on just one architect – Rem Koolhaas – and how through his work, we can analyze to what extent writing can indeed be considered a method of design in architecture.

TEXTUAL STRATEGIES: The first theme through which “writing architecture” as a means to design will be explored, is using text as a strategic device to arrive at ideas to inform the architecture. Rem Koolhaas explains in an interview that, “writing

THE CONTEMPORARY: IDEAS AND CONCEPTS

where there is no daylight. There he undresses, puts on boxing gloves and enters an adjoining space equipped with a multitude of punching bags (occasionally he may even confront a human opponent). On the southern side, the same locker room is also serviced by an oyster bar with a view over the Hudson River. Eating oysters with boxing gloves, naked, on the nth floor – such is the ”plot” of the ninth story, or, the 20th century action.”

Figure 2: A scene from inside the New York Athletic Club envisioned by Koolhaas.

The narrative that unfolds, encapsulated in the render (figure 2), is a direct consequence of the programmatic set up, and from the way he writes about it, one can detect Koolhaas’s innate storytelling fascination.

This passage highlights how Koolhaas doesn’t simply list or describe the architectural program, instead, he narrates the story set on the 9th floor, directly as a consequence of the unique spatial adjacencies it consists of, as seen on the floor plan (see fig. 3). Koolhaas writes, “there is a genuine equivalence between text and plans, that plans can be read not as compositions, but more and more as partitions where programs are simply inscribed in proximities or distances or in relationships that are very similar to the way in which you compose a story.” With this insight, we are able to gauge a better understanding of how Koolhaas treats planning – the adjacencies and organizations of program are very much driven by the desire of wanting to create unique set ups that would allow for interesting narratives to unfold. The plan is curated in a similar way a plot is set up – each is crafted to allow for a good story. Thus, we come to better understand what Koolhaas might mean when he says for him the program becomes an expression of narratives just like screenplays do and how scripting program through stories and narratives becomes another way in which writing is used to design and produce architecture.

Figure 1: A model of the void spaces of the Très Grand Bibliothèque SCRIPTING PROGRAM: The second theme through which to discuss how writing can inform and produce design will be analysing the notion of “scripting” architecture. More specifically, the intent is to understand whether one can write a script of an architectural program, just like you can script the narrative of a movie.

Koolhaas, claims “I’m still writing scripts, which is what I did when I was 22,” and puts it into context with program by explaining that his work “with program began as a desire to pursue different means of expression that were similar to writing screenplays…any aspect of daily life could be imagined and enacted through the architect’s imagination.” His fascination with script writing and its application to architecture and program is perhaps most visible when studying his writing on the Downtown Athletic Club, in his famous manifesto-like book Delirious New York. He dedicates an entire chapter to the Athletic Club in which he describes the fascination of stacking diverse programs on top of one another within a single skyscraper, as this collision and assemble of human activity, generates all types of narratives to unfold as a consequence of the relations of these different spaces. He writes: “Emerging from the elevator on the ninth floor, the visitor finds himself in a dark vestibule that leads directly into a locker room that occupies the center of the platform,

Figure 3: Plan of the 9th Floor of the Downtown Athletic Club

WORDING ARCHITECTURE: WORD DIAGRAMS AND PROGRAM BRIEFS The last theme through which the notion of designing architecture through writing will be explored, is understanding and dissecting the use of word diagrams. Stan Allen writes, “Although diagrams can serve an explanatory function clarifying, structure or program to the designer and to others, and notations map program in time and space, the primary utility of the diagram

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is as an abstract means of thinking about organization.” More specifically, one needs to analyse how project briefs and word diagrams affect design processes when discussing the idea of writing as a method of designing.

Dan Wood writes, “the traditional definition of the program is the formal written instructions from the client to the architect, setting out the necessary requirements for a building.” This, in and of itself, does not necessarily evoke anything ground breaking – the brief can oftentimes consist simply of a list of words, yet what becomes interesting is when these words are reshuffled and reorganized in a way that provoke interesting adjacencies and a procession of spaces that eventually can be transformed into a building. One can argue that it is precisely this that is the craft of the architect: thinking of how to organize, combine and define the hierarchy of programs, which is perhaps most easily done through the means of writing. Therefore, one can also think of program as a list of possibilities with which to write a building. When looking at the work of Koolhaas, the idea that a list of program becomes a tangible translation into a building can be seen in the Seattle Public Library.

The writing on the Downtown Athletic Club illustrates Koolhaas’ interest in human behaviour and more specifically how stacking of program can affect it and lead to unexpected ways of living. This train of thought can also be seen in the way the Seattle Public Library was designed. “In the case of OMA, a literal stacking of square footages will not lead to interesting solution; unless the stacking does in fact have an agenda and design intent of its own as is the case of the Seattle Public Library where a literal brief was translated into a built form.” The process through which program as a list became transformed into a new reshuffled programmatic assemblage and ultimately into the form of a building, can be analysed through the diagrams of the Seattle Public Library. The initial list of required programs was: Parking, Public Forum, Entrance, Readers Forum, General Information and Periodicals, Children’s Centre, Young Adults, Tech Learning, Main Collection, Main Collection, Main Collection, Government and Law, Collection Services, Operations and Administration. Those 15 programs were eventually simplified down to the 11 categories and these eventually became reimagined and defined as 9 new categories of program: Parking, Kids, Staff, Living Room, Meeting, 6 Mixing Chamber, Book Spiral, Reading Room and HQ. All of these got reshuffled into a new stacking of program that would allow for an interesting and diverse interaction of spaces. As can be seen in the diagram below (fig 4), program got pushed left and right, to allow buffer zones to exist between the programs, this process of operating supports the argument of Pollak, “The aesthetic decisions came as a result of the program. Architects turned into designers of program or zones of human behaviour as opposed to designers of forms.”

Figure 4: Diagrams of Seattle Public Library Program ´ From the bar diagram above (fig 4), we start to see not only an architectural section to transpire by breaking up the program and allowing for overlaps of activities, but through the shifting of bars, we also start to see a desire of wanting to create vertical and horizontal connections between programs. For example, staff, meeting, parking, HQ and spiral seem to be the more bureaucratic spaces of the library. While they are not all placed on the same level, but stacked throughout the building, we can see that all words are placed to the left. On the other hand, we see the more public and intertwining programs e.g. kids, living room, reading room and mixing chamber, are all to the right, yet, what is key is that the program is split up to allow for variation.

Koolhaas says that, “in Seattle we literally pushed the brief in a particular critical direction to produce specific effects.” Through this organization of words, we start to understand how categories of programs emerge that eventually can translate into the diagrams below (fig. 5&6) of more stable spaces (in black bars) and more volatile spaces and how the word diagram and tugging and pulling and shuffling of these words, quite literally became translated into the envelope and form of the building. Although Koolhaas claims that the famous diagram we are all familiar with to (fig. 7) came after the fact, he does also say that it is “a retroactive illustration of what, in a more private sense, is a way of thinking,” which again supports the fact that writing, and text and word arrangements is a thought process of design that leads to architectural concepts.

Figure 6: Diagrams of Stable and Instable Program

Figure 7: Programmatic Section Diagram CONCLUSION Through the three categories: Textual Strategies, Scripting Program, and Wording Architecture, one has been able to explore three unique ways in which writing informs and produces architecture. In the first category, we come to understand how literary ideas, or textual formulations are very often the initial stages of Koolhaas’ designs. When discussing “scripting program” we come to appreciate how the designing and organizing of program can also be understood as a very unique way of writing out the stories of a building, hence, showing yet another way in which writing can be used to plan spaces. Finally, in the last category, we come to understand how word diagrams allow for methodological ways through which to sketch out ideas of a building and explore unique ways to stack/assemble programs. Given the inherent notion of writing in architecture, one can circle back and find greater appreciation for the initial quote of Rem Koolhaas, where he states the best architecture can be read as text. One might want to take this statement one step further and argue that the best architecture: is scripted and allows for the best plotline; becomes the most interesting sections to read; and the most innovative floor plans to explore – because all of these aspects allow for the most interesting stories of human activities to unfold in any building.

Hence, architecture is not just a building, it’s a great story. “Maybe, architecture doesn’t have to be stupid after all,” says Koolhaas, “liberated from the obligation to construct, it can become a way of thinking about anything — a discipline that represents relationships, proportions, connections, effects, the diagram of everything.”

1. Rem Koolhaas. “Why I Wrote Delirious New York and Other Textual Strategies.” ANY: Architecture New York, 1993, 42-43. Accessed February 20, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41845557. P.42 2. Michael Speaks. “Writing in Architecture.” ANY: Architecture New York, 1993, 6-7. Accessed March 28, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41845546. P.6 3. Bernard Tschumi. “Modes of Inscription.” ANY: Architecture New York, 1993, 50-53. Accessed April 16, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41845559. P. 50 4. Jacques Derrida and Peter Eisenman. “Talking About Writing.” ANY: Architecture New York, 1993, 18-21.

Accessed March 28, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41845550. P.18 5. Michael Speaks. “Writing in Architecture.” ANY: Architecture New York, 1993, 6-7. Accessed March 28, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41845546. P.6 6. Rem Koolhaas. “Why I Wrote Delirious New York and Other Textual Strategies.” P.42 7.Ibid.

8.Ibid.

9.Michael Speaks. Speaks, M. (2002). Design intelligence and the new economy. Architectural Record, 190(1). P. 73 10. Rem Koolhaas. “Why I Wrote Delirious New York and Other Textual Strategies.” P. 42 11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. Hans Werlemann, “Très Grande Bibliothèque,” OMA, |PAGE|, accessed April 16, 2021, https://oma.eu/ projects/tres-grande-bibliotheque) 15. Rem Koolhaas. “Why I Wrote Delirious New York and Other Textual Strategies.” P.43 16. Rem Koolhaas & Bernard Tschumi. “2 Architects 10 Questions on Program Rem Koolhaas + Bernard Tschumi. ”Questions written by Ana Miljack, Amanda Reser Lawrence and Ashley Schafer. PRAXIS: Journal of Writing + Building, 2006, No. 8 RE: Programming pp.6-15. p.7 18. Rem Koolhaas. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. USA: Monacelli Press, 1994. P.155 19. Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. USA: Monacelli Press, 1994. P.159 20. Rem Koolhaas. “Why I Wrote Delirious New York and Other Textual Strategies.” P. 42 21. Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. P.154 22. Stan Allen. ANY: Architecture New York No. 23, Diagram Work: ATA MECHANICS FOR A TOPOLOGICAL AGE (1998), pp. 16-19. P.16 21. Dan Wood and Amale Andraos of WORK. “Program Primer v 1.0 A Manual for Architects.” PRAXIS: Journal of Writing Building, no. 8 (2006): 111-21. Accessed April 16, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24328982. P.112 22. Pollak, Deland. “ABOUT PICK UP STICKS - PICK UP STICKS.” Put Your Projects on the Web. Accessed April 15, 2021. https://cargocollective.com/pickupsticks/filter/Koolhaas/ABOUT-PICK-UP-STICKS. 23. Ibid.

24. Deland Pollak. “ABOUT PICK UP STICKS - PICK UP STICKS.” https://cargocollective.com/pickupsticks/filter/Koolhaas/ABOUT-PICK-UP-STICKS. 26. Ibid.

27. Rem Koolhaas & Bernard Tschumi. “2 Architects 10 Questions on Program Rem Koolhaas + Bernard Tschumi. ” p.7 28. Ibid. p.14 29. Igor Fracalossi, “Seattle Central Library / OMA LMN,” ArchDaily, February 10, 2009, |PAGE|, accessed April 16, 2021, https://www.archdaily.com/11651/seattle-central-library-oma-lmn) 30. Ibid.

31. Deland Pollak. “ABOUT PICK UP STICKS - PICK UP STICKS.” 32. Igor Fracalossi, “Seattle Central Library / OMA LMN,” 33. Rem Koolhaas. “Why I Wrote Delirious New York and Other Textual Strategies.” P.42 34. Sjors Timmer, “Rem Koolhaas - designing the Design Process,” Medium, April 03, 2015, |PAGE|, accessed April 16, 2021, https://medium.com/next-iteration/rem-koolhaas-designing-the-design-process7f1328821f70)

Where does sports begin and politics end?

Can a walled off space ever truly be public?

How much of the building does the facade reveal? What stories does architecture write? Where do religion, water politics and ruralism intersect? Does housing lead to segregation? How does migration challenge our definitions of family?

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PROCESSION OF WATER

In the name of God. Advanced IV, Critic Ziad Jamaleddine In collaboration with Matthew Brubaker

Procession of Water is a project conceived as a response in dialogue with in-depth research into the politics of water in the state of New York. More precisely, Procession of Water, interrogates the exploitive relationship between the rural and the urban through the lens of exclusive water systems and overlooked latent water potentials. This is particularly palpable at our site; Laurel Creek, a latent agricultural corridor in upstate New York.

This project explores how the exploitive system occurring at a macro-level can be studied and adapted to benefit those in rural areas. More precisely, the particular relationship of interest, New York City’s main water supply source, Cannonsville Reservoir, which solely benefits those in the city at the cost of adverse impact to the communities directly adjacent to it. In reaction to this cycle of exploitation the project is a productive and locally beneficial manipulation of a local watershed. This intervention leverages the scalable effect of surplus to improve local water-networks, activate latent agriculture, and give structure to cooperative productivity subsequently creating a surge of economic and social activity in a depressed and divided region.

In our core site, Islamberg (an Islamic intentional community), this new water system enables interrogations of religious practice, intentional community building, and collaborative domesticity at the architectural scale. These interventions probe how a sequence of newly built reservoirs amount to accumulated different “scales of water”, subsequently forming curious and unique adjacencies that conspire to redefine the relationship between water, religion, agriculture and community and the many network benefits that arise as a result.

ADVANCED IV

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PROCESSION OF WATER

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ADVANCED IV

POLITICS OF WATER

CANNONSVILLE RESERVOIR

LAUREL CREEK/ISLAMBERG

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PROCESSION OF WATER

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WATER

CANNONSVILLE RESERVOIR

CHILDREN FROM ISLAMBERG

ICY ROADS ISLAMBERG

FARMING

ADJACENT MOUNTAIN DELL FARM

FARMING IN ISLAMBERG

FARMING ALONG LAUREL

MOSQUE CONDITION

NEED FOR EXPANSION( PRAYING OUTSIDE)

RELIGION

EXTERIOR OF MAKE-SHIFT MOSQUE

COMMUNITY

EXTERIOR COMMUNITY SPACE

RELIGIONS CELEBRATIONS, ISLAMBERG

COMMUNITY CELEBRATIONS

DOMESTICITY

FRAGMENTED DOMESTICITY

HOMES IN ISLAMBERG

HOUSES IN ISLAMBERG

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Manipulating the topography allows for a micro a procession of water to occur along different scales of water reservoirs, all the way down to the main one that allows an aggregation of surplus water for the creek.

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ADVANCED IV

WATER BECOMES THE SPATIAL ORGANIZER AGRICULTURE THE SOCIAL CONNECTOR RELIGION THE ARCHITECTURAL FRAMEWORK

Community spaces start to form in close proximity to the main water reservoir of Islamberg/the local watershed. The spaces, including a halal farm, a date processing area, community kitchen and a collective gathering space are embedded in between the agriculture.

Domestic Cluster of houses around micro reservoirs and sharing of agriculture.

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PROCESSION OF WATER

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ADVANCED IV

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The volume to the left breaks the rectilinear form, orienting the entire main prayer platform towards Mecca, the entire space becoming the “mihrab.”

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ADVANCED IV

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The greenhouse mosque becomes the architectural synthesis of the entire proposal. It envisions how water, religion and ruralism all merge together within a single structure. The water reservoir within the mosque simultaneously becomes the ablution fountain; the greenery provide platforms of privacy in place of makeshift walls between men and women and the palm trees under which members of the community can pray under, at the same time enable the farming of dates – a symbolic fruit particularly during Ramadan.

PROCESSION OF WATER

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Surplus of water activates the community along laurel creek.

Where does sports begin and politics end?

Can a walled off space ever truly be public?

How much of the building does the facade reveal? What stories does architecture write? Where do religion, water politics and ruralism intersect? Does housing lead to segregation? How does migration challenge our definitions of family?

THE SLAB

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270’

1B

D O R M

D O R M

D O R M

D O R M

D O R M

D O R M

D O R M

D O R M

D O R M

D O R M

D O R M

D O R M

D O R M

ROOM

ROOM

ROOM

ROOM

D O R M

COMMUNAL LIVING

D O R M

1B 2B D O R M

TH OO WU NS E

TH OO WU NS E

2B TH OO WU NS E

2B 1B

TH OO WU NS E

1B

MICRO

1B

MICRO

1B 3B

3B

1B

2B

2B

STUDIO

3B

‘THE EGG’

COMMUNAL LIVING

LOBBY

In collaboration with Maru Pérez & Begum Karaoglu

A Vertical Collage of New York Housing Typologies.

This project intended to accumulate all of New York City’s housing typologies into one slab building with the intention of bringing together, under a single roof, an eclectic group of people that can seek out all forms of living, whether that be a family looking to live in a townhouse, or a student looking for a dorm room. Thus, this project is a vertical collage of New York City housing typologies that includes: townhouses, lofts, micro units, dorms, hotel rooms, a penthouse, courtyard building units and single and double loaded corridor-defined units ranging from studios to multi-bedroom apartments.

2B 2B

Core III: Housing Critic Adam Frampton

This project was conceived by looking at the growing range of different family compositions as well as questioning how existing housing typologies and the lack of variety can also lead to a lack opportunities for multigenerational living. The analysis led to concluding that it is housing typologies that define who the occupant is and what type of families live in them. Rather than leading to inclusivity, architectural spaces and typologies can lead to segregation because one building rarely satisfies the needs of all demographics.

1B

STUDIO 1B 2B

D O R M D O R M

POOL

2B

2B

TERRACE

TOWNHOUSE

D O R M

2B

1B 2B

1B

LOFT

2B

TOWNHOUSE

D O R M

LOFT

2B

TOWNHOUSE

D O R M

ROOM

ROOM ROOM

ROOM

ROOM

LOADED

H O T ‘THE BEAN’ E L

LOFT

COURTYARD

2B 1B

1B

SINGLE

ROOM

1B

1B

LAUNDRY

2B

TOWNHOUSE

ROOM

ROOM

1B

TOWNHOUSE

3B

STUDIO

COURTYARD

2B

TOWNHOUSE

ROOM

ROOM

130’

ROOM

LOFT

COURTYARD

TOWNHOUSE

LOFT

PENTHOUSE

TOWNHOUSE

THE SLAB

PENTHOUSE

BUILDING MASS

VOIDS

CIRCULATION/ “STRAW”

CAFE

4B MICRO LOFT

CORE III

92

THE SLAB

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All residential units are housed in the 70’ by 270’ slab, which extends over 12 stories. In order to bring in natural lighting into the deep building, and to provide bespoke outdoor living conditions, geometrical forms found within close proximity of the site are transformed and used to subtract from the building. In addition to taking these geometrical forms from the surrounding site and carving them from the slab building, these forms are added back into the greenery in front of the building and become community spaces ranging from an elderly center, to a market and a gym.

CORE III

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THE SLAB

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CORE III

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THE SLAB

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CORE III

UNIT TYPOLOGIES

The variation of units allow for a variation of families and inhabitants.

1/4 rockite unit model of courtyard one bedroom unit typology with two floors.

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CORE III

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THE SLAB

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CORE III

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THE SLAB

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Interlocking typology variations within the building create a collage of housing typologies and the possibility for multigenerational living and neighboring.

CORE III

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1/4 model showing how carved out spaces from within the building and its facade allow for communal spaces and unique lighting conditions.

THE SLAB

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CORE III

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Carved out forms from the building are placed back onto the site, creating an assemble of community spaces for both the residents of the building and the neighborhood.

THE SLAB

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CORE III

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HOUSING AND UPRISINGS CAIRO

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ARAB MODERNISM

How can urban planning and housing p o l i c i e s b e c o n s i d e r e d b o t h a c au s e for social movements and a method of control in Egypt?

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Another resident of Maspero describes: “You feel that the revolution started here. The entrance to Tahrir started from Maspero Triangle, the protesters and the revolutionaries had an area to protect them. Protesters had a place to go and hide if they were injured or if they needed anything and they felt that the people of Maspero were with them because these people also had an injustice. On 24 January 2011 Maspero Triangle and Bulaq Abu Al-Ila were the first areas after Suez to clash with the security forces. Maspero became a shelter for activists and revolutionaries.”

Arab Modernism Professor Yasser Elsheshtawy

What these accounts highlight is how Maspero became invaluable in providing a spatial buffer zone between the governing apparatus represented by the police and the monumental Tahrir Square, which became the stage for the revolution. Not only did settlements such as Maspero become the scenes of clashes between law enforcement and civilians providing a defence wall, but its specific urban fabric that tends to make control and oversight difficult, allowed demonstrators to use smuggle alleys in order to get to the square and a safe haven for protestors in need. Thus, this highlights a vital argument which was similarly made by Beier: these movement did not simply take place in the city, but rather, the physical urban fabric and its related policies played a crucial role in facilitating the revolution and adding to people’s rage. Thus, this strengthened the authorities focus on the city post-revolution.

“Ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām.”

That is the hymn that has become synonymous with the Arab Spring. This is the chant that has revitalized the discussion into social movements. It is the call to action, that shed light on the role urban contexts play in revolutions.

Egypt becomes an interesting case to dissect when analysing informal housing and its ties to uprisings, specifically the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. While the uprising is often considered to be the revolution of the middle class and the educated youth, the story often neglects a very crucial actor: the urban subaltern or the urban poor.

Egypt’s informal housing settlements make up 2/3 of the population, thus the man power, the voices, the desires, and the call for actions of these residents become an inherent root cause to this “people’s” revolution. The unrests that surmounted in Tahrir Square are often equated to being the result of successful “street politics” thus, already implying the intrinsic role of the urban in the realisation of the revolution. Not only does it become relevant to study how the city – more precisely the fabric and the inhabitants of informal settlements – was crucial in enabling the uprisings, but also how crumbling housing conditions were a vital factor that led people to flood the streets of Cairo, demanding their basic rights. Given the crucial role that informal quarters played in the Egyptian revolution, the loudest and most threatening uprisings to the governing regime in Egypt’s modern history, it becomes inevitable that consequential housing policies that followed 2011 can also be understood as a tool by the government to reinstate their power and ensure that their rule would not have to withstand such genuine disruption again. How the revolution and its aftermath can be understood through the lens of the urban and housing policies will be specifically studied through the case of Maspero Triangle.

1. Éric Verdeil. Translated by Oliver Waine. “Arab Cities in Revolution: Some Observations.” Metropolitics.org. February, 2011.

2. Ibid.

3. Yasmine El Rashidi. “Why Do We Destroy What Makes Us?” The New York Times. The New York Times, November 5, 2018. https:// www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/opinion/cairo-heritage-development-maspero-.html.

4. Dina Wahba. “Urban Rights and Local Politics in Egypt: The Case of the Maspero Triangle.” Arab Reform Initiatives. January 2030. P. 8 & 22.

5. Salwa Ismail, 2012. “The Egyptian Revolution against the police.”

Social Research, 79(2), pp.450.

6. Raffael Beier (2018) Towards a new perspective on the role of the city in social movements, City, 22:2, p. 222.

7. W. J. Dorman. “Informal Cairo: Between Islamist Insurgency and the Neglectful State?” Security Dialogue 40, no. 4/5 (2009): p. 421.

8. Dina Wahba. P. 2 9. ibid. P. 9 10. ibid. P.10 11. Raffael Beier. P. 233 12. Nasser Abourahme (2013) ‘The street’ and ‘the slum’: Political form and urban life in Egypt’s revolt, City, 17:6, p.716 13. Yasmine El Rashidi.

14. Ninette S. Fahmy. “A Culture of Poverty or the Poverty of a Culture? Informal Settlements and the Debate over the State-Society Relationship in Egypt.”

Middle East Journal 58, no. 4 (2004): p. 597 15. Raffael Beier. P. 222 16. Dina Wahba. P. 15 17. ibid. P. 17 18. Khaled Siddiq interview. In Mostafa Mohie. “Interview: On Developing the Maspero Triangle and the Future of the Asmarat Housing Project.” Mada Masr. Accessed May 2, 2020. https:// madamasr.com/en/2018/08/04/feature/politics/interview-on-justice-in-the-development-of-the-maspero-triangle- and-the-future-of-the-asmarat-housing-project/.

19. Dina Wahba p. 14 20. Dina Wahba. P. 13 21. Paul Amar. 2011. “Turning the Gendered Politics of the Security State Inside Out? Charging the Police with Sexual Harassment in Egypt.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 13 (3): p.308 22. Dina Wahba. P.4 23. Salwa Ismail, 2012.

Verdeil has argued that while factors such as corruption and democratic freedoms have been propagated as the most important factors leading to the revolution, he also emphasizes that unemployment and urban living conditions are crucial components. He goes on to argue that discontent and forms of resistance relating to housing and unemployment can be considered a precursor to the revolution and prepared the grounds to some extent. While this trend can be traced in a number of informal settlements, one of the areas in which the significance of informal settlements is most expressively seen is in Maspero Triangle: an informal settlement neighbouring the most important governmental buildings. Not only is it adjacent to Tahrir Square and close to the Egyptian parliament, and many ministries including and it is home to two ministries, the Egyptian Radio and Television Union headquarters and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thus, making it a particularly relevant example through which to study the role of space in revolutions. Hence, there are two components through which to understand Maspero’s role in the uprisings: people’s plight living there and the spatial characteristics of the neighbourhood acting as an enabling component

Focusing on the first point, Maspero Triangle highlights the tribulations of living in Cairo’s informal settlements, which can largely be referenced to the government’s attitude of purposeful negligence. In 1970, President Anwar el-Sadat ordered a moratorium on renovations or improvements, purposefully intending the neighbourhood to fall into dereliction. The area’s grave condition was only exacerbated in 1992, when an earthquake affected the area but the government still refused to grant maintenance licenses. These poor living conditions and the fear of being evicted led to grass root youth movements such as the Maspero Youth Alliance, which created a network with organizations working on housing rights, urban scholars, researchers and journalists and started slogans such as “yes to development and no to forced evictions.” These efforts are sometimes referred to as preparing the grounds for a larger revolution and were the result of people’s grievances over how they were living, which eventually acted as a vital catalyst for uprisings that erupted sweepingly on Tahrir Square in 2011. ­­­ The second aspect through which to understand Maspero’s role in the revolution, is its spatial characteristic.

Ismail and Beier have both argued that the informal neighbourhoods serve as spatial political laboratories that provide places of encounter and act as incubators for ideas, grievances and accumulations of knowledge about governance and how to resist them. Thus, just like in any revolts, this interchange is crucial and always the biggest fear of any authoritarian regime that tries to undermine this exchange. Aware of the uncontrolled and informal nature of these settlements, these quarters had been written off by the government already prior to the revolution as “ashwa’iyyat” – referring to ‘random’ or ‘haphazard’ areas— and “pathologized them as squalid havens for criminals and terrorists, a direct threat to Egypt’s physical, moral and political health.” The notion of these quarters being important spatial enablers for social movements was reinforced by the 2011 revolution that took place adjacent to Maspero Triangle.

Wahba highlights that in 2011, Maspero was one of the most militant neighbourhoods and given that it is directly next to Tahrir Square, it also became a key location that defended and sustained the square during the first 18 days.

Residents of Bulaq Abu Al-Ila described their role in the revolution: “We were helping people to get there and telling them about alleys and other streets they could go through so that they do not get lost. The same thing happened in Maspero Triangle”

Abourahme claims that informal settlements and Egypt’s urban poor have both participated and provided enabling conditions for the revolts. Thus, it is inevitable that just like roots of the revolution can be traced in urbanity, so can reactionary policies. Hence, it seems like no coincidence that Maspero Triangle, so pivotal to the revolution, was bulldozed and erased, leaving little more than an 85-acres-plot of nothing, just 7 years later. Fahmy argues that the government’s response towards squatters takes the following forms: negligence, demolition, relocation and exploitation. However, post-revolution, the most persistent response has been demolition and relocation and given the stark eradicating effect that these policies have, one cannot help but interrogate how demolitions and relocations can also be considered a very strategic policy move. Given the key role that marginalised neighbourhoods played in the Egyptian revolution, it becomes invaluable to consider how public authorities have thus, considered these as primary fields of action after uprisings, in order to consolidate their power. It is no coincidence that a key action plan of President Fattah El-Sisi has been solving Cairo’s “informality problem.” One of the core projects to solve this issue has been the Asmarat housing project, also known as “Long Live Egypt,” which is the same as the infamous slogan he used in his 2014 election campaign, thus, indicating the importance of this project to his presidency. If a key factor contributing to the revolution was spontaneous gatherings, then projects such as Asmarat— where there are no public spaces; where shops are owned by the military; where police officers are patrolling residents, and asking guests whom they are visiting – represent the antithesis to informal settlements and become the epitome of state control manifested into housing policies, inhibiting popular revolutions. Khalled Siddiq, the executive director of the Informal Settlements Development Fund has said himself, “We won’t leave any room for randomness to come back to this area again.” It is this “randomness” of the informal that was a key to Tahrir’s momentum, and something that “open-air prisons” like Asmarat, strategically deny.

While conditions can somewhat be considered inhumane and the demolition of Maspero Triangle, and its subsequent evictions and relocation of its people, an infringement on their rights, these projects are met with little resistance. Part of this was the government successfully being able to present government-inflicted grave living conditions as not being sustainable for the inhabitants, which was already an argument made with the Cairo 2050 plan. The other explanation can be attributed to the governments success in fostering the “thug-” narrative post-revolution, that allowed the military to eradicate and disperse vital pockets of resistance to consolidate their power. The Egyptian revolution presented a crisis of legitimacy for the state and the government and one of the key tactics deployed by the regimes, in order to regain its power, was to demonstrate those who have challenged its legitimacy as an enemy of the state. Crucial to this method became the narrative of the “ungovernable urban masses that manifested itself in the “Baltagy” discourse,” where the Arab streets and these quarters were depicted as “crazed mobs of brutal men, vaguely Islamist and fiercely irrational.” The revolution blurred the lines between who is a thug and who is a revolutionary, and the government not only took full advantage of it, but fuelled it. Through this discourse, the regime was able to successfully propel an “us vs. them” narrative and dismantle any bonds of solidarity formed during the revolution. This discourse also enabled them to literally eradicate and physically dissolve pockets of resistance, and relocate groups of people who pose a potential threat to their power, to the fringes of the city. By moving opposition groups away from literally the doorstep of the government, the governing body is actively changing the map of local politics. Thus, they proved to have successfully administered an anti-revolutionary roadmap.

Leaving Maspero Triangle up to fate, when the government considered many of its inhabitants a dangerous threat to its popular acceptability, can be argued was too much of a gamble for the military regime. What the case of Maspero Triangle highlights so well is the key role urban context plays in social movements. Not only has this case demonstrated that grievances related to failed housing policies become catalysts for revolutions, but also how the specific urban-make up of informal settlements provided unique physical characteristics that became enabling and facilitating factors in Egypt’s uprising. Having identified the role of the urban in igniting the revolution, it comes as no surprise that subsequent urban policies also became a fundamental and successful method through which the ruling elite was able to dismantle opposition and regain legitimacy. As Wahba and Ismail have both highlighted, “These battles manifest the moment of convergence between locally grounded grievances and national revolutionary politics.­­”

LIVING TOGETHER

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LIVING TOGETHER

Typological Corrections , Critic Juan Herreros In collaboration with Joud Al Shdaifat & Maru Pérez

This project questions how changing buildings and typologies can subsequently also change the way we live together. The concept of living together is reimagined through a series of typological corrections that are applied to three very different buildings: a social housing typology (Chelsea-Elliott Houses); a luxury condominium (Jean Nouvel's 100 Eleventh Avenue); and an office building (Frank Gehry's IAC HQ).

The typological corrections that were pursued, in attempt to propose new ways of living, can be encapsulated in three main categories - the objective was to rethink access to: a) light and air; b) density and c) the street connection.

Although all these corrections shape the buildings in unique ways, they nonetheless lead to subsequent new configurations of both living and working together. Through the introduction of program and the removal of space an interesting dichotomy is established, which as a result creates new opportunities fostering community and better qualities of living and working.

The street connection describes the role of rethinking the way the building connects to the city and thus, becomes a crucial aspect to think about community. It affects how the public and the inhabitants engage with the street condition and the building and hence, the different typologies are addressed in different manners based on their distinct conditions. NYCHA projects are seen being woven back into the city fabric through an additional mass on the ground floor, to enclose outdoor greenery and provide a sense of ownership and privacy to their gardens.

On the other hand, the office building and luxury condo needed a subtracted mass to allow for a porous ground condition, inviting the public in.

These volume changes allow for a more smooth integration to the Chelsea fabric.

De-densifying becomes a method through which the building is conceived as growing and reshuffling. It allows to redistribute where people engage in activities and how different programming might lead to space reduction in certain areas, giving way for new spaces and places of interaction to occur. In some cases, changing the program itself will allow for a decongested set up. Designing flexible spaces can allow the size to fluctuate in response to the density of the moment.

Lastly, thinking about the notion of light and air, which becomes an integral driving force in creating spaces that have direct access from both dwellings, as well as offices, one can see how this spatial priority consequently also reshapes the interior space. By subtracting or adding spaces, a new dynamic is created between indoors and outdoors, which leads to new interior spatial arrangements and revisions new exterior usages. For example, pushing the building envelope of the Chelsea Elliott housing project inwards, to create balconies, leads to a rethinking of both unit access (circulation) and living together. Furthermore, by prioritizing outdoor space the outdoors becomes as much more intentionally programmed space, similar to the indoors and hence, starts to blur the boundary of the building envelope, e.g. How might an office look like that exits partially outdoor? Having outdoor spaces as part of the private space proposes a change in the way we inhabit the city, which becomes particularly salient in a time where outdoor space is increasingly valuable as we spend more time outdoors than ever before; by making the “indoors” more like the “outdoors” and vice versa, an emphasis is proposed for more productive and intentional spaces in a post Covid-19 world.

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LIVING TOGETHER

Looking specifically at the Chelsea Elliott housing project, the typological corrections at the unit scale mainly involved the pushing and a pulling of the facade, in order to create balconies or lodgias, as seen in the elevation.

The resulting changes in dimensions of units required a rethinking of unit access and also spatial organization, subsequently leading to a resuffling of program. More outdoor space, resulted in combining units on top of each other, in order to rework space.

Bedrooms are placed on the top floors, a main shared living room and kitchen is provided below.

Direct access from units to the buidling's new "in between" garden terraces are established to rethink circulating in public vs. private spaces and how access can also affect the sense of ownership or understanding of unit extension.

Through corrections the way we live is tested and questioned.

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Where does sports begin and politics end?

Can a walled off space ever truly be public?

How much of the building does the facade reveal? What stories does architecture write? Where do religion, water politics and ruralism intersect? Does housing lead to segregation? How does migration challenge our definitions of family?

TRANSNATIONALISM ACROSS THE US-MEXICAN BORDER

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TRANSNATIONALISM ACROSS THE US- MEXICAN BORDER

Conflict Urbanism, Professor Laura Kurgan

This narrative map considers the overall theme of the class, Conflict Urbanism, through the lens of migration, specifically through the idea of transnationalism in the form of remittance flows and the movement of people due to migration and reverse migration.

Over the past few years we have witnessed a very distinct narrative being crafted under the Trump administration, where border control and hostile immigration policies became a vital aspect of the presidential campaign. Yet, even before Trump took office, Mexican migration has been declining, with more Mexican immigrants returning to Mexico voluntarily than coming into the US1,2, indicating a trend of reverse migration taking place. From 2010 to 2018, a total of 2.6 million Mexican nationals left the US 3 undocumented population. Curiously, around the same time that Mexican migration has been declining, the amount of remittances from the US to Mexico has steadily been increasing and in 2020, with remittances around the world suffering a massive hit due to Covid-19 impacts, Mexico has reached an all-time record with almost $40 billions of remittances being sent back to Mexico, approximately equal to 4 4 percent of Mexico’s GDP. Flows from the US to Mexico has become the single largest bilateral transfer of remittances in the world. Between 2014 and 2017 alone, the corridor grew by 42.7%

5

from $24 billion to 34.70 billion in 2017.

These trends, however interesting they are, remain just that – trends and numbers. The goal of this project was to do a human driven narrative map. Through anecdotes shared through a series of interviews that I have been conducting, in order build this map, the data and the numbers are provided a different perspective – they are given a name and they are given a story.

This project, through reporting and journalistic work, set up the wider themes that were explored for my Advanced VI Studio project, “Family Across the Border” and provided a fundamental foundation. Through this mode of operating, the goal was to highlight how methods of journalism are invaluable to the discipline of Architecture.

1. "Mexican Migration Could Be the First Crisis of 2021." Council on Foreign Relations. Accessed February 23, 2021. https://www.cfr.org/blog/mexican-migration-could-be-first-crisis-2021.

2. Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, "More Mexicans Leaving Than Coming to the U.S.," Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends Project, September 04, 2020, |PAGE|, accessed February 22, 2021, https://www. pewresearch.org/hispanic/2015/11/19/more-mexicans-leaving-than-coming-to-the-u-s/) 3. Robert Warren. “Reverse Migration to Mexico Led to US Undocumented Population Decline: 2010 to 2018.” Journal on Migration and Human Security 8, no. 1 (March 2020): 32–41. https://doi. org/10.1177/2331502420906125.

4. "Remittances and COVID-19: A Tale of Two Countries," The Fed - Remittances and COVID-19: A Tale of Two Countries, |PAGE|, accessed February 23, 2021, https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/ feds-notes/remittances-and-covid-19-a-tale-of-two-countries-20201230.htm) 5. FinSMEs, "The World's Most Important Remittance Corridors," FinSMEs, July 22, 2020, |PAGE|, accessed February 23, 2021, https://www.finsmes.com/2020/07/the-worlds-most-important-remittancecorridors.html)

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FAMILY ACROSS THE BORDER

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ADVANCED VI

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FAMILY ACROSS THE BORDER

Advanced VI, Critic Anna Puigjaner In collaboration with Maru Pérez

Family across the border at its very essence tries to interrogate how migration challenges our normative definitions of family and how architecture can and must respond to these new realities faced by millions of people.

The entry point into this project was researching and analyzing patterns of migration between the US and Mexico, as well as conducting both data and primary research through interviews in combination with the course Conflict Urbanism.

The goal was to better understand the very complex lives lived by Mexican immigrants in Sunset Park – the primary site of the studio. Given the intrinsic complexity, particularly realizing the intrinsic ties between families across the border, this project chose to operate in both New York and Puebla, Mexico: the most prominent state from which Mexicans in New York migrate from.

On both sites we are operating on two scales: the family home. Rethinking the family home and addressing ways in which it can be rethought in order to meet and enhance the realities of immigrant families and the scale of the block in order to foster community, share responsibilities and burdens, and create productivity and independence.

In New York the architecture becomes about how to change the way we design a traditional brownstone to meet the needs of new types

of family and complex social relationships that challenge hetero patriarchical norms. In Puebla, it’s not about altering a specific architectural typology, but about rethinking the way in which the remittance house expands to welcome these complex family dynamics that are born as a result of migrations.

Although the particular scenarios and circumstances vary in both sites, at its core, both proposals consider how current domestic spaces do not adequately serve the families that inhabit them. The proposal is not about restructuring the definition of a family but about restructuring the architecture to fit these new definitions of family that are redefined and might consist of chosen families, to neighbors, networks of caretakers or biological family ties.

In Mexico, the site is San Andres Azumiatla, a small, rural town outside the city of Puebla, characterized by a landscape of homes under construction. Back in the U.S. the site is a block in sunset park at the corner of 53rd street and 5th avenue, characterized brownstones, and walk ups and also a block that has one of largest percentagest of Mexican migrants living there.

FAMILY ACROSS THE BORDER

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ADVANCED VI

The current condition in Mexico is that of crowded spaces in large plots of land, lack of privacy, storage and space for production. Power structures are projected on the architecture, and when homes are expanded, they are often left unused and unfinished.

Brooklyn brownstones were designed hundreds of years ago for a single family. Today, up to 16 people in a single apartment unit. There is a severe lack of privacy with people having to share everything.

Spaces of Family: testing domestic adjacencies

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FAMILY ACROSS THE BORDER

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In the New York the proposal looks at three key elements in order to rethink the existing architecture: 1) issue of severe overcrowdedness 2) re-addressing outdated domestic typologies that no longer fit for emerging families 3) providing spaces of encounter in order to foster social/ familial networks.

FAMLY ACROSS THE BORDER

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BASEMENT

ADVANCED VI

GROUND FLOOR

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SECOND FLOOR

FAMILY ACROSS THE BORDER

THIRD FLOOR

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ADVANCED VI

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FOURTH FLOOR

MARICELA

4 KIDS

LORENA

MARICELA

4 KIDS

LORENA & GUSTAVO

ATTIC FLOOR

The complex family relations require complex room relations.

We start to dialogue these complex room relationships throughout the building.

Some rooms share spaces with other rooms in the form of interior patios. Some rooms have bathrooms, others share bathrooms to allow for room adaptability.

Spaces associated with domesticity, i.e. the laundry room, are prioritized in terms of location: the laundry room is placed at the very top, under a roof skylight and access to the roof patio - questioning room politics and domesticity.

Looking specifically at one instance, the scheme shows how placing the bathroom outside of the room, and testing different adjacencies and door locations allow for a variety of family constellations to take place and moments of privacy through adaptability.

BENITO

PABLO AND KIDS

LORENA & GUSTAVO

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ADVANCED VI

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FAMILY ACROSS THE BORDER

The remittance home is incremental housing that reflects the success of family members in the US and plans for the expected return of migrants. Many of the houses being built by money flowing in from the US remain empty, due to Mexicans never returning or money not coming in leaving many under construction, with their symbolic “rebars of hope.” With this proposal, the idea is to think about how a home can expand to not only fit the needs of emerging family typologies, as a result of migration, but also how to rethink “under construction” spaces and convert them into productive spaces that can alleviate the dependency on remittances.

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FAMILY ACROSS THE BORDER

SINGLE FAMILY HOME

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REMITTANCE HOUSE PHASE 1

The Kitchen is converted into a productive space. The lower level gets built and converted into bedrooms.

REMITTANCE HOUSE PHASE 2

The remittance house continues to grow around the outdoor patio, that ties the house together. Circulation exists both outdoor and indoor to allow direct access to the street.

ADVANCED VI

REMITTANCE HOUSE FINAL PHASE

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FAMILY ACROSS THE BORDER

SAN ANDRES AZUMIATLA, PUEBLA

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x-ray site plans of productive and communal spaces

ADVANCED VI

SUNSET PARK, NY

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At the scale of the block the goal is to create spaces of collective productivity.

In New York, in order to improve living conditions and allow for financial independence, especially among women who often end up more dpeendnt as a result of migration. In Puebla the goal is to reduce dependency on remittances.

However, the goal is not only to create spaces of productivity but also foster community and familial and social ties by sharing responsibilities, resources and shared burdens.

FAMILY ACROSS THE BORDER

SAN ANDRES AZUMIATLA, PUEBLA

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ADVANCED VI

SUNSET PARK, NY

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that’s why

questions

matter.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND PRESERVATION