III.
(sub)URBAN HOUSE
Critic: Anastasia Congdon When this project was pitched, Columbus, Ohio had one of the fastest growing Real Estate markets in the country. This project is sited in Franklinton, a neighborhood adjacent to the downtown alongside the Scioto River. This neighborhood has a history marked by floods, redlined disinvestment, and urban isolation. As a result of low rent prices, infrastructural fixes and a growing young professional interest in Columbus, Franklinton has been gradually finding new investment through the arts. Columbus leadership wants to build on this cultural opportunity and rebrand Franklinton as a new arts district. While this could be a beneficial investment for the neighborhood, it could also suffer the same fate as many similar neighborhoods in the area already have in Columbus' effort to be as their website gleefully describes, "Developer Friendly".
15
Fall 2018
Critiquing the gentrification symptoms issued by international style implants (an image of luxury with rent prices to match, an aesthetic that "others" vernacular architectures), this project aims to invest in the art culture of Franklinton without replacing the aesthetics that residents know to define it. This project posits the Franklinton house as a fellowship residency. Two artists are to be housed here, one local one not, with formal organization driven to prompt social exchange between the two parties. The aesthetic investigation stems immediately from the adjacent houses, mixing their material assemblies to code zoning, sidedness, and directionality within and upon the house. This practice enables the house to accommodate work, play, and home-- for two residents-- all under one roof.
West Street Elevation 2nd Story Cross-Courtyard View