FRAMING THE FUTURE
SUMMER 2024 COMPETITION KYLEMERTENSMEYER
In collaboration with Gongqi Wei & Logan Plaisted
This is an evolving people-focused solution designed to serve Saltivka's citizens physically and emotionally in the present and future so that a genesis may take form by adapting the existing environment and structures to serve the community's immediate needs today while building resilience for tomorrow. Our project aims to restore both the physical structures and the sense of belonging for Saltivka's residents, facilitating the swift return of six to seven million externally displaced and one to two million internally displaced Ukrainian citizens to their homeland.
This modular mass timber exoskeleton is designed to rapidly provide structural longevity, thermal insulation, and layered protection while increasing indoor and outdoor living spaces for residents. As a kit-of-parts, this system is adaptable over time and enables the concrete panels to be removed over time and replaced with new mass timber panels in the future.
While uncertainty may loom, the priority for safety and a sense of belonging remains. Through conversions and additions, the site has adopted socially intelligent community nodes, connected via shared courtyards, and provides amenities that cater to demographics with synergistic needs, such as wounded veterans, the elderly, orphans, and single parents. Adaption within units and balconies allows users to personalize and tailor spaces to their needs, creating a sense of home and community in Saltivka once again.
User key typologies include the Disabled, Orphans, the Elderly, and Single Parents. At the urban scale, the ground plane is reimagined with mixed-use services specific to users' needs. At the building scale, programming was sensitive to accessibility and safety while considering intergenerational living with orphans and the elderly and reserving units along the lower levels for the disabled. At the unit level, areas such as balconies are left open and un-designed, with the intention for the users to adapt space to their needs, thus turning space into place.
Thank you.
INES BICI | PORTFOLIO | MARCH 12027
SELECTED WORKS HARVARD GSD 2022-2024
