Jordan Walters - MIT - Work Sample

Jordan

Array Library

This building design explores grid manipulation as a new form for libraries in the digital era while yielding to institutional needs.

Seed

This initial model consisely states the spatial logic driving the design approach.

First Growth

Material experiments show how a grid can be manipulated to be both solid and diffuse. This model recalls a honeycomb and its association with gathering.

Second Growth

The structure reponds through the extending and retracting of intersecting plates. The Array arches over a performance space and lays flat under a walkway, it reaches to create floating plateaus.

Oasis

Situated on the historic campus of Barnard College, this library is tasked with both embodying the collective knowledge of the school and operating as a gathering point in front of the central green.

Media Mix

There are a large variety of learning styles that extend beyond reading books. The stack system accommodates artwork, screens, and auditory experiences within its uniform cells.

At its Core

On one hand the atrium allows the library collection to become visible as a corpus held by the institution. On the other it serves as a metaphor for the gestational activity of the liberal arts university.

Campus Site Plan

The library is a centerpiece flanked by modern and historic buildings.

Library-level Floor Plan

The front of the building hosts reading rooms while the back is intended for research.

The left side elevates classrooms on a south-facing series of enclosed terraces.

Section A through Reading Rooms

The hive-like reading rooms display student activity towards the campus.

Section B through Atrium, Classrooms, and Theater

A central skylight illuminates the building core and a basement theater opens onto the rear street for public events.

Section C through Core and Street

At its bottom, the stack floats free of the structure and becomes an elaborate showcase.

Floor Plate and Circulation

Two sets of stairs and a spiral ramp provide means of ascent.

Axonometric Cutaway

The library stacks are held on one face of the atrium as a vertical, undulating grid.

This research and design project presents a Danish housing model as a potential solution to urban social issues in the United States.

Housing History

“Dramatic demographic and economic changes are taking place in our society and most of us feel the effects of these trends in our own lives. Things that people once took for granted – family, community, a sense of belonging – must now be actively sought out. Many people are mishoused, ill-housed, or unhoused because of the lack of appropriate options”

–McCamant & Durett

American housing has long revolved around the ideal of the nuclear family and its architectural expression: the single family detached home. Yet in the 20th century and beyond, profound changes have taken place in society that have made such housing not only inappropriate but also unjust for vast portions of the population. Encoded within the architecture of the nuclear family home is a system of social relations and technical functions that ease the lives of many while alienating others.

population that is reliant on social ties to provide stability and meaning. Given this situation, it is time to rethink what a home is and what it is capable of. Halfway between theory and practice, utopia and pragmatism, cohousing is a form that promises to replace with housing design what has been devastated in the urban social fabric.

In its late-modern form, cohousing was first recognized in 1960s Denmark by architectural theorist Jan Gudmand-Hoyer. His article “The Missing Link Between Utopia and the Dated OneFamily House” gave the first argument for a union between the commune and the modern family. This thinking was strongly influenced by social movements of the era and Utopian visions of communal living. Since that time cohousing has gained widespread acceptance in Scandinavian culture and can be seen as part of a functional contemporary communalism. Choosing a different path than our Danish counterparts, since the 1960s the US has emphatically embraced the single family house and the private car. We built gated communities and guarded towers at the expense of transit. These norms are now deeply entrenched in social policies, housing programs, and consumer demand. The observation of insularity that inspired Gudmand-Hoyer is once again showing its relevance.

The Contemporary City

In the 21st century a housing crisis has pressed these issues so as to make them more relevant than ever. Communities have been fractured and hollowed out as a result of real estate capitalism. The housing that remains is tragically ill suited to support a 2016. Columbia University - Independent Research Project - L Meisterlin.

Cohousing, A Modern Alternative

Our cities have been shaped by isolationist ideas about the role of private housing for over a century. Luxury condos provide pristine finishes and an eye towards exclusivity while public housing falls into disrepair and neighborhoods move well beyond the affordability of the average person. The market provides a high-priced dream of autonomy and few arrangements for community.

While many people accept the public atmosphere that this generates and are resigned to a cityscape that neglects collectivity, for the people who are struggling socially and economically this mode has become toxic. Entire communities have been turned out and those who stay are forced into precarity, overwork, and loneliness.

This modern transition is well understood and widely documented. In 1991 housing theorist Dorit Fromm wrote, “Basic human qualities of creativity, service and a sense of oneself as a useful member of society were supplanted with a measure of one’s economic worth of saleability in the marketplace.” Local communities once provided limits that promoted mutual importance. In the shift to a situation in which fracture of networks is the norm, these forms of protection and validation have been lost.

I believe that the cohousing system is a much needed antidote to the current structure of urban community. Within the framework of cohousing, one is able to measure value amongst familiar faces in a collective instead of solely in an mechanistic society governed by utility. The cohousing participant is a person providing directly for others and seeing the fruit of their actions in terms of shared happiness.

Cohousing typically involves a small to medium sized group of friends and families chosing to occupy adjacent living quarters and to share a central space for community gathering. This initially took the form of houses, private streets, and a shared house but the concept has recently been applied to single, urban buildings as well. In any form, the members will frequently share responsibility to cook, clean, plan, and provide care.

Of greatest significance in combating current trends is the selfgovernance of the cohousing community. In a return to democratic ideals, decisions are only reached through deliberation and consensus. For an individual, arguing and deciding the fate of a group can empower and teach responsibility for others in a meaningful way. As political

historian Lucy Sargisson suggests, “deliberation results in the discursive reconstruction of selves that are more public-spirited, tolerant, knowledgeable, and insightful about one’s own and others’ interests.” The emotional and intellectual development inaccessible in urban culture may be returned through intentional community encoded in the buildings we choose to live in.

I believe that cohousing has the potential to return a fugitive sense of social foundation to the modern city dweller. While the origins of living communally stretch back to the beginning of civilization, cohousing developed as a deliberate rejection of the use of housing to barricade onself from society. It posits that a return to collaborative living through the sharing of space, resources, and labor can instead be a refuge from the damaging effects of isolation and the constant pressures of competition in today’s society.

Between Brownstones

Cohousing New York

Housing in New York is at a crossroads as a supply shortage combines with an influx of the affluent to raise a perfect storm of unaffordability, leading to an exodus of longtime residents. Not only does such rapid change undermine the character of the city, the cost of housing also damages its competetiveness and economic pluralism. Emphasizing real estate values and business over diversity is a losing proposition - over time this compression also leads to a decline in the quality of business and in the cultural vibrancy that attracted workers in the first place.

And while recent city housing policy has sought to generate lower housing costs, this is still not sufficient to ensure that people continue to find New York a worthwhile place to live. Affordable housing can promote class diversification, but this does not guarantee maintenance of the robust communities that stabilize against the difficulties of city living.

Focusing on the dimension of cost alone ignores the real meaning of quality housing. It’s too common that government solutions only provide a solution to statistical problems. Instead, by experimenting with and applying new housing typologies, it may be possible to achieve deep social good and long term interpersonal value rather than objective affordability alone.

This housing layout is a prototype conversion of a Brooklyn townhouse into a cohousing project. It proposes 2 additional stories to accommodate approximately 20 people (a standard brownstone suits 12).

The design is family oriented with an open environment. It incorporates a number of varied gathering spaces and a winding stairway through a skylit atrium.

25’ wide by 75’ long and 70’ tall with 7 total stories 2 Studios, 1 1BR, 4 Small 2BR, 2 Large 2BR. 40% communal

Playful Heights Community

Work a Day

Construction is about more than how to build - it’s about communication and relationships with both the wealthy and the working.

Concorde Hotel

I managed this lobby renovation near Rockefeller Center. The client wanted a luxury space on a tight budget, so much of the work we did was to elevate standard materials through precise installation.

Jordan Walters - MIT - 2024

I coordinated the set-up of a high-end data center for an animation company. We prepared structural steel, custom HVAC, and major electrical upgrades.

Neuehouse

I ran the construction of a luxury co-working space that involved welding steel officefronts and doing detailed install work for a demanding client.

Framestore

Against the Grain

Furniture is like physical poetry. It relies on the language of tradition and craft. It speaks to the needs we already feel but haven’t resolved.

A performance stand designed for a musician with a complicated electronics set-up.

This 3-piece furniture set houses the culture of a modern homebooks, music, and art - and serves as a statement in itself.

Ghost Secret

Totem Case

These realized projects bridge the gap between Architecture and architecture and bring some academic play into the real world.

2016 - 2018. Frederick Tang Architecture.

Sackett Street

An artist couple requested a minimalist apartment conversion for their townhouse.

Above: One option to provide studios on the ground floor and a new kitchen above

Right: The pure forms of the finished space

An underwear company wanted an office to match their bold branding and became a frequent client.

Center: Floor Plan of MW’s Midtown office, for which I designed an extension and coordinated construction

Left: Officefront graphics and angular custom tables

Bottom: Retail furniture concepts for MW products

Mack Weldon

A person may live for a century but a building can last for a thousand years, we’re always in the act of reinterpreting the designs of the past. 2016 - 2022. Personal Photography.

2015. UC Berkeley - InArch Advanced Studio - K Plymale.

‘Visual circuitry’ describes the way the viewer’s eye moves through a composition. This commute is a major part of graphic design.

3: Components and movements of a cheese grater

1: The latent dynamics between objects in a still-life

2: Translating the relational study back into ‘objects’

5: Unfurling the graphics into the third dimension

4: Interpretation of the cheese grater in motion

2015. UC Berkeley - InArch Advanced Studio - K Plymale.

Wanderloop

Situated on a famous waterfront, this community center extends a vital urban circuit and mimics the wavering shoreline.

Plugging into the Past

The Wanderloop is a reimagination of the many piers that once jutted out into the San Francisco Bay and even preserves a fragment of a remaining one within its walls.

The perimeter of the building serves as an extension of a popular waterfront strolling path and emphasizes the experience of being on the water. A rooftop walkway centers the visitor between city and sky.

Pool

Open Tables

Serra Tilted Arc

Tearoom

The City by the Bay

The Wanderloop’s geometry is an interpretation of the neighborhood fabric, which swings as the city adapts to a bending shoreline.

The central walled area blocks out the urban surroundings and permits isolated contemplation of the lapping water and stretching sky.

2016 - 2018. Personal & Frederick Tang Architecture.

Electric Sheep

Renderings allow depictions of fantastical objects and assessments of potential beauty. They are halfway between the dream world and reality.

A series of rendered sculptures emerged from an attempt to push workplace software to the limits of imagination.

A loft addition to a small Upper East Side studio apartment required extensive testing of the the new stairway and ceiling.

Latigona Loft

Dimension R

This urban park looks to the history and future of Jordanian development in order to address environmental balance in the Amman of today.

Suffocating Growth

Amman has rapidly evolved into a city of 4+ million. The loss of pasture land combined with clogged streets has led to poor air quality. Nonprofit Amman Urban Lungs has identified the remaining areas of air-purifying vegetation in order to preserve them.

Swords into Plowshares

I worked with a local urbanist to propose another ‘lung’ for Amman: an active missile defense base that may one day be reclaimed as public land. This project is both imaginary and preparatory.

2015. Columbia University - Design 3 Studio - K Baxi.

Topography Analysis

A study of the various levels of elevation shows 70 feet of height change. Peaks in red and valleys in green define the site.

Use by Elevation

It is important to make the main pathway around the park relatively level while placing vegetation downhill for rainwater

Slope Analysis

Slope is crucial for accessibility and flat areas make gathering easy. Steep areas are better for recreation

Use by Slope

Community gardens are placed in the flat, easily traversable areas while olive trees grow on their customary slopes

Park Space: The remaining area of the park is divided into either earth or concrete terraces. Selected sections are raised to create shaded pavilions high on the hill. Dividing lines become walkways and scientific towers are erected on the former launch pads as a symbol of peace.

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