Iris Kim B.Arch Thesis at the Rhode Island School of Design

O U R H O M E and THEIR HOUSES

A THESIS

By Iris Minna Kim

OUR

HOME

and

THEIR

HOUSES

A Thesis Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Architecture in the Department of Architecture of the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island.

By Iris Kim Rhode Island School of Design Class of 2017

Approved by Barchelor’s Examination Committee: Hansy Better Barraza, Department of Architecture Primary Thesis Advisor

Ijlal Muzaffar, Department of History of Art + Visual Culture Secondary Thesis Advisor

Jonathan Knowles, Department of Architecture Thesis Coordinator

We each have our own story But we all have a shared home

To my family, for their unconditional love and support To my second family: 이모,이모부,my brothers, bhainas, and didis-without whom, these stories could not be written To Hansy, for both support and criticism, to whom I owe countless opportunities gained throughout the past several years To Hanna, Sally, and Ivan- for never letting go Thank you, Danyabad, 고맙고,감사합니다.

STORIES A Reflection

Rainbow Promise Center and I A Thesis Position

02

A Thesis Statement

06

A Story to Tell

Our Home and their Houses

A Program Position

Stories of Healing A Site Position

04

08 10

A Story of a Village

ARTIFACTS An Accordian Book

Three Flights Away A Flutter Book

Where’s Home?

An Inch Book

Inches of Home An Archive

Letters from Home

Individuals and their Collective

A Thesis Probe A Thesis Probe Reflection

12 20 24 30 32 38

CONTENTS

CREATED NARRATIVES Journey Home

A Narrative of Distance and Closeness Unconventional Family

A Narrative of Dwellers Daily Rituals

A Narrative of Program

46 50 52

Daily Rituals

A Narrative of Flexibility and Heirarchy

60

House Made of Narratives

A Narrative of Design Wintersession Reflection

74

STORYTELLING

translated as design

84 86

In Search of Site

The city revealed through our encounters

90

Design Criteria

3”x3” Models

94

Design Investigations

9”x9” Models

98

Design Development

Parts to a Collective Whole

102

OUR (NEXT) HOME

An Architecture of Collectivity

108

A Reflection

1. Noun. Indian. from Hindi dÄŤdÄŤ. Definition: An older sister or older female cousin (often as a proper name or form of address) 2. Noun. Indian. Definition: a term of brotherly endearment and address that is applied to male members of the community. Term is specific to the regions of Orissa, used by the Oriya people and language.

Rainbow Promise Center, and I I have 24 younger brothers in Hyderabad, India.

They are my second home.

I feel I belong with them-afar and amongst, regardless of changing settings.

They teach me to see the world differently.

They create in me another identity. . . .

Memories are (re)collected to (re)create space(s).

Elements of home remain consistent throughout their changing houses: A yard to play, A ground for worship.

Favored spots, 24 brothers and several didi1s and bhaina2s.

Morning good-byes, Afternoon volleyball, Evening praise.

I desire is to embody their lifestyle through representations of space.

After all, I am their “Iris didi (sister), the artist.�

02

A Thesis Position

A Story to Tell My story is mundane. When I watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire in 2008, I was disturbed by the issues portrayed in the movie. I was not poor, I was not afraid, I was not tortured, I was not in fear. I told myself I will never go to India. Eight years later, I have been to India five times and refer to it as my second home. I have 24 younger brothers in Hyderabad, India and they create in me another identity.

Their story is complex. My brothers are survivors of a religious genocide. Some of their houses were burned; some of their families have passed; some of them slept in escape in the forest; all of them were victims to an extent unimaginable to myself. I shiver as I write. The second parents to my brothers, whom I now call my aunt and uncle are missionaries. They asked the village adults at the time what they needed the most, and they pushed their children forward and asked, “ Please send our children to school.�

The place I call my second home started as so. Our home is named Rainbow Promise Center, and it was founded with aspiration to heal with the promise of a bright future.

A thesis for me.... is a start. It is a story to tell.

It is testimony. I believe testimony can ignite change. A thesis narrates the past and the present. It hopefully speaks to the future. A thesis is a start.

A thesis is sensitive.

It narrates the story of the muted and challenges those who can hear.

A thesis reads beyond the audience. It is legible, visible, and tangible.

A thesis for me searches for more- more than I already know, more than what I am comfortable with knowing, and more than I have ever expected.

A thesis for me is a story. Stories are meant to be shared. I hope a story heard leads to another story made.

A thesis for me is a story being written.

04

A Thesis Statement

Our Home and their Houses This thesis is the story of my search for an understanding of home.

My brothers in Hyderabad, India have moved through several houses. They each have their own story. But we all have a shared home- a home made of narratives. A home of testimonies.

What and Where is Home?

What can Home house?

Is home individuals and their collective?

Is home family?

Is home healing?

Is home refuge?

Is home sanctuary?

06

A Program Position

Stories of Healing In his TED talk titled, “Architecture that’s built to heal,” Michael Murphy quoted, “Buildings are not just expressive sculptures. They make visible our personal and collective aspirations as a society. Great architecture can give us hope.

Great architecture can heal.”

Dr. Paul Farmer, a leading health activist for the global poor, quoted that “buildings were making people sicker, and that for the poorest in the world, this was causing epidemic level problems. Where are the architects?” and “if hospitals are making people sicker, where are the architects/designers to help build and design hospitals that allow us [doctors] to heal?”

I heal through the programs embedded in architecture.

I believe healing is program.

I believe ritual and catharsis is program.

Program is as much an act as it is a problem to be solved.

Program is often referred to as a noun- a space with use- but I believe program is a verb.

It is what a building does- how architecture facilitates and expresses life tailored to specific stories, stories of: A yard to play, A ground for worship.

Favored spots, 24 brothers and several didis and bhainas.

Morning good-byes, Afternoon volleyball, Evening praise.

08

A Site Position

A Story of a Village Site is the story of a village. It is the history some would rather not share. The home of many, their place of birth, and their land that was once taken.

Site is the forest of evacuation. It is the shaded terrain that protects and provides shelter. It is the cold air escape from fire and ashes.

Site is the story of terrain. Its happenings have become its history. It is prepared to be re-birthed. It is ready to be re-written.

But site has scale.

It is the story of vast terrains, but also the story of a very specific land, a land some call their village or home. The two stories are very different.

Site is malleable. It is carved and shaped by the people that have long resided there, by the foreigners who have come and destroyed, and by the welcomed visitors who have come and rebuilt.

Site is accumulation and negotiation. Its pages grow with time. Its chapters change as its inhabitants and conditions of and over terrain change. Outsiders become residents, Ambushed Christians evacuate their homes, and a family with 24 young boys is separated when a new law is passed.

Site is the history is of its people, its terrain, and all the good and bad that turns its pages.

10

Artifact 01 : Artist Book (Accordian) “Three Flights Away”

12

A Haiku:

Three Flights Away Didi why you no come soon I have school Kishor Come tomorrow then

14

16

Three Flights Away is the story of my flight home. It is a story about my conversation with my brother Kishor. It is a story about distance. It takes me on average 33 hours in flight time to get from Providence to Hyderabad. Kishor makes me smile, but the haiku I wrote makes me sad. I cannot physically come or go tomorrow.

There are 7, 921 miles between us.

We are three flights away.

18

Artifact 02: Artist Book (Flutter Book) “Where’s Home?”

20

Where’s Home?

I began these series of flutter books with the desire to recollect memories of home.

It became a series of 24, a gift for each one of them.

22

Artifact 03 : Artist Book (Inch Book) “Inches of Home”

24

What and Where is Home?

What can Home house?

Inches of home are created as memories are collected of specific elements of home.

I have objectified and simplified inches of home to objects that played homage to these elements. Some were much easier to create than others, some more personal to I and others just difficult in general. What is home to my brothers? What are their inches of home? How do you represent and make concrete the concept of individual and their collective?

26

28

Artifact 04: Artist Book (An Archive) “An Archive of Letters from Home”

30

In search of what and how, I had to start an archive.

These are my letters from home.

32

A Thesis Probe “Individuals and their Collective�

34

A Thesis Probe “Individuals and their Collective�

Throughout thesis seminar, I had been creating artist books as a means to recollect memories of home and translate these elements of home into stories. The consistent restraint to my process of making, however, had been in defining what home means to us as a collective.

I realized that I overlooked the individual, unintentionally creating a label to my brothers as the 24, each individual unconsidered. But I imagine our ideal home as an architecture that is taliored to, or having elements tailored to the individual.

This thesis probe investigates the individuals that live as a collective. I wanted to create an artist book that has 24 different compartments, still part of one whole. Each drawer affects the others, but all must come to a negotiation to form a cohesive whole. Each differs in either height, depth, width, or length, and opens slightly different than one another. It begins to expand how the individual resides within a collective and begins conversations about what defines collective housing.

36

38

A Thesis Probe Reflection On Malleability Should this home be just for me and my 24 brothers?

Though I have only been exploring what home means to myself and my family in Hyderabad, I had percieved myself to design something that is tailored, but still adaptable or malleable for other communities. What happens to the shell that remains when we leave? Brett mentioned he thinks a key part of this thesis is that our home is one we’ve come into, not grown into, and that it is interesting that we could and should come and go.

The thesis probe review has expanded the potentiality of home as temporary as well as malleable.

On Preciousness and Universality Lili said the reason why she loves my inch book is “because homes are made of memories, and associations, relationships.” She commented on an article about Vietnamese soldiers and that “what they took into the battlefield were things most meaningful to their identity and their need for identity to be connected to a thing or place. They were all through something that might be as small as this (inch book), and for each it was something different. What I appreciate about the packaging and the preciousness of this is that it’s like a shrine that you open up and set up wherever you are. That I find very beautiful.”

What are the associations and relationships of universal elements of home? How do you design between preciousness and universality?

On Common Rituals I was challenged to take immediate stance on identifying the elements and relationships that are instrumental to Critics: Silvia Acosta, Lili Hermann, Brett Schneider and Jeff Geisinger

On Common Rituals (cont.) allowing for a sense of home and place. So what ARE these elements? Silvia mentioned, “We live with certain things that are consistent. We sleep, we bathe, and there are artifacts that allow for those rituals to take place. It’s granted that they are different for different cultures, but we all still eat, sleep, and bathe.”

To sleep.. To eat.. To bathe.. and To worship. This is where I’d like to begin.

On System and Site How malleable is the system? How porous are the boundaries and what determines the boundaries? Lili mentioned the thesis probe suggests “not only that not everybody is going to be behaving or interacting with architecture in the same way at all times, but also that the drawers coming out are now creating a new set of connectivity. There are new ways to navigate through that as a set of conditions... That it’s a system of design.”

Finally, Jeff suggested having a sense of context and attitude to consider how the project is anchored in urban context. Referring to residential situations with housing refugees in other countries after violent situations, he mentioned an ongoing problem-that it may not be enough to design a better shelter but rather a mechanism considering the displaced situation is long term.

He continues that one criticism of previously mentioned design is the social integration of the community. He recommended that I consider external, as well as internal site. I appreciated this reminder that my site is not only within the enclosure of a building, but rather in expansion to a larger community.

40

42

44

46

48

50

52

54

56

58

60

62

64

66

68

70

72

74

76

Journey Home, A narrative of distance and closenes

Daily Rituals, A narrative of program

78

Daily Rituals, To Play, To Eat, To Worship

Daily Rituals, To Study, To Bathe, To Sleep

80

A House Made of Gold on Ashes A House for Growing and Changing Users A House of Daily Rituals A House Made By Daily Rituals A House of Desire A House for Us in Orissa Our home consists of many narrativessome of which we bring with ourselves, some that our guests bring, and many that we create together. Can our narratives make our home? A Home Made of Narratives is one that is built by and added to by the narratives of its users. One narrative begins the design process, but the accumulation of many explores what our home can be and should be. One narrative may translate into the symbolic meaning of a monumnetal wall while another may translate to ideas of flexible structure/construction. Perhaps this is the start to a method of design.

Home Made of Narratives, A narrative of design

82

Critics: Hansy Better, Ijlal Muzaffar, and Eric Carver

Wintersession Reflection On Site I was encouraged to dive into site and explore the relationship between the geographic location of our home and the forces that exist around it. What do my brothers not have that architecture can accommodate for?

On Stereotypes What are the generalizations of philanthropic institutions?

Ijlal mentioned that the way in which I had represented our life seemed almost too perfect, he asked what the imperfections were and how I go about not imposing my own way or conception on them. He challenged how I may convey my project in a way where my brothers are shown clearly as individuals and not as subjects or categories.

On Adaptability and Methodology What happens when these boys grow and get married or go to college? What happens to the house?

The question of time, age and adaptability has been a repeating issue of my project. Though there are many ways to approach answering this problem, I was encouraged to first create a design manual through site analysis- to fully understand my surrounding context and create a design criteria manual.

84

S

T

O

R

translated

Y

T

A S

E

L

L

I

N

G

D E S I G N

86

I have 24 younger brothers in Hyderabad, India.

They create in me another identity.

They are my second home.

Their story is complex.

Their history is a part of them, but does not define them.This story is about healing in the present and future A thesis for me... is a start. It is a story to tell.

A testimony A story being written.

Memories of home are collected through stories: The story of distance, The story of moments within our past homes,The story of our inches of home We are an unconditional family. Not all of us know each other because we are rather large But like a body made of many parts, we grow and change. Most of us are not related by blood, but by faith.We all have our own story but we all have a shared home.

We dwell with daily rituals We wake up to the sounds of each other We eat breakfast, then say our morning goodbyes. When they come back from school. We play. Of course, we study. We worship. And after a while, we sleep.

There is a heirarchy to our daily rituals.

Their is flexibility in where our rituals occur and how.

88

In Search of Site

The city revealed through our encounters My brothers have moved through several houses. Their journey began in Orissa, but they have moved through multiple houses in Hyderabad as well. Reasons vary from religious discrimination with rent, changing schools, to local misunderstandings.

Our next home is proposed on Kakatiya Nagar, Neredmet, Secunderabad, Telangana- Our first shared home.

Though we had to leave for reasons of the past, can we remediate the past through the decisions and actions of our present and future?

Their and our first shared home.

A site of testimony A site that parallels, in many ways, the childrens’ villages.

A chance to remediate a site that was once a place of conflict.

How can architecture remediate a site that was once a place of conflict?

90

7

6

9

4 3 5 8

2

1

Hair Barber Shop Bakery Bethel Assembly of Christ Church Hermon Worship Centre Kirana General Store St. Andrews School Samaritans High School . Nandu Chicken Store Bikes and Scooter Service

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

6

7

9

9

33 4

5 5

8

1

2

2

92

Design Criteria 3x3� Models

94

1

2

8 7

3 4

6

5

Armature Massing +Thresholds Public vs. Private Old RPC layout Program Relationships Program Detail+Roof Urban Understandings Context+Massing

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

96

Design Investigations 9x9� Models

To Bathe To Sleep To Study To Eat To Worship To Play

Programmatic Relationships Inches of Niches- Level 01 Inches of Niches- Level 02

98

Programmatic Relationships Inches of Niches- Level 01 Inches of Niches- Level 02

Programmatic Relationships Inches of Niches- Level 01 Inches of Niches- Level 02 100

Design Development

Parts to a Collective Whole

Public Collective Spaces: -Privately run Music Learning Center - Public Performance Stage -Public Restrooms - Various Shaded Areas -Pourous Walls -Local Materials -Playscape+ Interventions -Street-curb “Push and Pull” Interventions (Shaded Seating) - Vegetation - Added Entry (two total) - Blurred Boundaries - Public Playscape

102

01

02

Roofs+Shade: Type 01- terracotta tile Type 02- Metal or Plastic Corrugated Sheets *Wooden underlying structure

Stairway Niches

104

Playscape as “Walls”

Domestic Niches

106

My brothers in Hyderabad, India have moved through several houses. They each have their own story. But we all have a shared home.

What and Where is Home?

What Can Home House?

Our (Next) Home An Architecture of Collectivity This project proposes a future home for 24 brothers from Odisha, 2 missionaries whom are their second parents, and our growing and changing family.

Our next home is one that attempts to define a collective way of living.

An architecture of collectivity is a common sanctuary.

Proposed is a home built from existing narratives, testimonies, and extracted elements of past homes. Each brother inspires a specific intervention designed as niches within our collective home. The theme of collective living inspires a set of principles and an attitude towards our community within and outside of our walls.

108

Site Plan

Ground Floor Plan

110

Second Floor Plan

Third Floor Plan

112

Section A

114

Section B

114

North Elevation

116

118

120

122

124

Iris Minna Kim B.Arch 2017

All works Š Iris Kim 2017 All Rights Reserved