On Friday during our studio we met and planned for our 9/16 Small Group Review.
The review has invited members from Seamon Whiteside Landscape Architects, Green Heart, the Charleston Housing Authority, residents of the Enston Homes Neighborhood, and teachers from the nearby schools. With all of the people attending the review, we decided it would be best for the projects to present in a small round robin format. Through this approach we can have more intimate conversations about our design and how people react. It is our intent to have the best discussion we can on Monday so that when we move forward with our final design we can understand the best needs of the community.
After this discussion on Friday we had the awesome opportunity to meet with Green Heart and the residents of the Enston Homes from 4-6 at Green Heart’s Second Friday event. There we got to hang out with residents , eat pizza, and speak with them about why they love their neighborhood and what its like to live there. It was a great and casual way to talk about the project and speak to its scope and potential.
After we kicked off the weekend with the residents, we went to make our final deliverables for the review. Everyone put together a scale model, plans, renders, and diagrams of our idea. We also prepared digital and printable boards for their review.
I was in a group with Ahmad Walker and Taylor Bissert. Our idea grew out of an interest to the programming of the Enston Homes. Through researching the form of the houses and other buildings, we identified that a key theme present in each building was an entry accentuated by an arch. This arch serves as a threshold to mark the pathway into the building. It is found through the archway marking the neighborhood, on the old and new homes, on the water tower, and in the community gathering space.
The archway at the time of building was a necessity of structure so that the bricks could span to create an opening. We wanted to retain the idea of an entry, but did not have the same structural needs that the first builders had. Therefore, we decided to abstract what the arch and think of it as a repeating element to use throughout our building. With the idea of the repeating threshold, we created a modular system that changes to meet our programatic needs.