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Sept. 29 – Oct. 1, 2021 | Virtual Conference

2021 AIA/ACSA Intersections Research Conference: COMMUNITIES

Fall Conference

Schedule

May 19, 2021

Abstract Deadline

July 2021

Abstract Notification

Sept. 29 – Oct. 1, 2021

Virtual Conference

Schedule + Abstracts: Thursday

Following is the conference schedule, which is subject to change. This year’s AIA/ACSA Intersections Research  Conference will be held virtually from September 29 – October 1, 2021.

Schedule with Abstracts

Below read full session descriptions and research abstracts. Plan what session you don’t want to miss.

Obtain Continuing Education Credits (CES) / Learning Units (LU), including Health, Safety and Welfare (HSW). Registered conference attendees will be able to submit sessions attended for Continuing Education Credits (CES). Register for the conference today to gain access to all the AIA/CES credit sessions.

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Thursday, September 30, 2021

11:00 – 12:00 EDT /
08:00 – 09:00 PDT

Plenary
1 HSW Credit

Post-Pandemic Communities

Track Plenary

Building Stronger Communities

Plenary Description

This session is closely tied to healthy communities but with a forward-looking lens. A city officials’ panel, featuring a mayor or former mayor, highlighting the opportunities for designers and elected officials to work together to build strong communities post-pandemic, including how we can better prepare for the next public health crisis. Touch on initiatives to reinvigorate downtowns with new thinking, retail and restaurant solutions. Feature perspectives of architect, elected official, property owner and potentially community member.

Moderator
Rico Quirindongo
City of Seattle, Office of Planning and Community Development

Presenter
Chris Tyson
Build Baton Rouge

Shirley Franklin
Former Mayor of Atlanta, GA

30-minute

Coffee Break

12:30 – 14:00 EDT /
09:30 – 11:00 PDT

Research Session
1.5 HSW Credit

Post-Pandemic Communities

Session I

Moderator: June Williamson, City College of New York

Post-Pandemic Nomadic Cohousing
Thomas Fisher, University of Minnesota

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic showed what life might increasingly be like in the post-pandemic world: a digitally enabled existence that lets people work, learn, and shop from almost anywhere. The architecture for such an existence may differ greatly from what we do now. In the short term, we will have an excess of built space as the digital environment makes face-to-face activities a matter of choice rather than necessity. With five times the retail square footage per person than other developed countries the U.S. will see the adaptation of commercial space into more experiential environments – event venues, maker spaces, recreational destinations – that offer what cannot be found online. Over the long term, we may see a movement away from a lot of underutilized, single-use buildings to fewer, fully occupied, mixed-use buildings that can accommodate a range of producing and consuming activities. This will lead to buildings with a much smaller physical and environmental footprint as the digital environment lets us use physical space more efficiently and with fewer resources.

This represents a profound transformation in architectural practice and in the role architects will play in the post-pandemic world. The architectural profession arose in the 19th and early 20th century, parallel to the emergence of specialized building types in response to the rise of an industrial economy. And many firms still practice in specialized markets that formed around these functional types. In a digital future that enables people to engage in a range of activities in the same location, architectural space will become more generic and adaptable rather than functionally fixed, and architectural practice will become more about helping clients and communities develop spatial strategies and system innovations rather than about our designing specialized buildings.

Some of those spatial strategies may even challenge the very idea of architecture as the creation of permanent structures. Humanity existed for 95% of our history living in nomadic communities, sharing much of what we had with community members, carrying with us the few things that we needed, and constructing shelter from the resources that a particular place had to offer. Then, around 10,000 years ago – 5% of our history – we began an experiment in what it means to be human, living in permanent settlements, in fixed structures we call “architecture.” We have remained nomadic as people move with increasing frequency from house to house and community to community, without knowing those who live around them: a situation that our ancestors would have found very strange indeed, living among strangers in strange lands.

But as the digital environment enables us to live and work where we want, we may be entering a “post-architecture” future. This paper will describe two experiments in what that future might be like. It will document two efforts to create intentional communities of people who know and care for each other as they occupy small, mobile structures and share outdoor gathering space and common facilities, in a high-tech version of the oldest form of human settlement: nomadic co-housing.

Citations:

Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. London: Vintage, 2011

Pevsner, Nicolaus. A History of Building Types, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976

Zakaria, Fareed. Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2020

www.ic.org

www.nomadcohousing.org

www.envisioncommunity.org

www.settled.org

Community-Connect: A Platform for Sustainability Resource Exchange in Post-pandemic Smart Cities
Biayna Bogosian, Florida International University

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of our public and private socio-spatial systems during emergencies. In the initial stages of the pandemic, there was a surge in demand for information and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) as well as sanitization tools. The pandemic made it difficult for caregivers and businesses to acquire the necessary supplies to adhere to safety regulations and protect people in the wake of this crisis. When supply chains slowed down due to lockdowns, this situation was even further exacerbated, leading to global shortages from most large suppliers of PPE. At the local level, communities’ ability to locate necessary resources and gather appropriate and relevant information became increasingly difficult. The pandemic revealed the importance of supporting business networks and the value of disseminating quick and accurate access to critical information. It also highlighted the lack of distributed coordination mechanisms for connecting citizens in both local and global scales.

Our interdisciplinary funded project, Community-Connect, addresses these issues in a novel AI-powered platform to meet the sustainability needs of communities for the COVID-19 pandemic as well as for other unforeseen disasters. The project major goals are to: 1) provide a networking tool that facilitates communications between suppliers or resource owners and people who need their products, resource seekers, 2) ensure the safety of products through an automated process of validation and approval by appropriate authorities and based on high standards, 3) support and enhance interactions and discussions among community members with pertinent information, educational materials, and guidelines, and 4)  demonstrate how this research compliments contemporary smart city conversations focused on the integration of networked technologies for facilitating efficient methods of addressing local socio-environmental and economic challenges while improving city services.

In meeting these goals and after interviewing several policymaking and technical experts, we have identified two objectives for this smart cities research: First, our platform connects people to appropriate resources for sharing information, learning about relevant issues, and purchasing materials they need at a lower cost during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as during other emergencies such as hurricanes, floods, wildfires, etc. Second, with the end of the pandemic in sight, our platform will be modified to serve as a tool for communicating, delivering information, and educating people on environmentally responsible consumption, access to green products at lower costs through group purchasing and disseminating information on how households and communities can contribute to reducing their carbon footprint. Ultimately, our goal is to help mitigate the climate change crisis’s impact and its concomitant emergencies.

Residential Adaptive Reuse of Decommissioned Cruise Ships
Ibrahim Desooky, CRTKL

Abstract

The rapid influx in cruise ship decommissioning during 2020 has created a unique opportunity to recycle or repurpose large ships using innovative strategies. This report examines the potential for the conversion of decommissioned cruise ships for housing, with a focus on the Miami-Dade County area. The goal was to investigate an alternative mode of coastal living, taking advantage of the oversupply of decommissioned ships as a primary housing structure, using a semi-permanent docking in available port spaces. We identified case studies of residential cruise ships to serve as relevant precedents. We collected and synthesized raw data on the specifics of size, tonnage, capacity, age, and cost of the decommissioned ships of the year 2020, creating key datasets highlighting the magnitude of the issue. We then investigated the engineering feasibility of a docked residential cruise ship in Miami, conducting interviews with engineering practitioners having marine terminal expertise. Finally, we conducted an on-line survey to 362 adults in Miami-Dade County, (Qualtrics) to investigate perceptions from potential residents of this new living concept. We found that residential cruise ships could be moored in developed areas, such as the Port of Miami, but that infrastructure costs would be considerable, and the need for hurricane evacuation would be an issue for prospective residents. Our survey results strongly supported the proof-of-concept, with respondents expressing (88% yes or maybe) interest in living on a repurposed cruise ship. Those expressing the greatest interest are 41-50 years of age, earning at least $100,000 per year, who are single or have children, and willing to pay between $849-$4000 per month.

Citations:

Saunders, S. (2021). Which Cruise Ships Will Be Scrapped or Taken Out of Service Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic? Cruise Critic, Mar. 1, 2021.

ArcGIS. (2020). ACS Housing Costs Variables – Boundaries. American Community Survey, Updated Dec. 14, 2020.

Buchanan, M., et al. (2020). Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Threaten Affordable Housing. Environmental Research Letters, IopScience, Vol. 15, No. 12, Dec. 2020.

U.S. Census Bureau. QuickFacts, Retrieved December 2020.

Stansfield, John. (2020) MS Albatros Leaves Phoenix Reisen’s Fleet. CruiseMapper.com, Oct. 9th 2020.

CruiseMapper. (2015). Ship Breaking-Recycling, Old Cruise Ships. CruiseMapper.com, Nov. 26, 2015.

Dolven, T. (2020) Carnival to Ditch 18 Ships in Total as U.S. Cruises Remain Banned amid COVID-19 Pandemic. Miami Herald, Sept. 15, 2020.

Liberman, S. (2019) People Pay $7M to Live on World’s Largest Ship.” Asbury Park Press, Apr. 22, 2019.

Boonzaier, Jonathan, and Trond Lillestolen. (2020) Indian Recyclers Get in on Cruiseship Culling with Karnika Buy. TradeWinds, 30 Oct. 2020.

Navionics ChartViewer, (2021). Navionics Chartviewer – Government Cut. Garmin, Retrieved Jan. 2021.

ArcGIS. (2021). Sea Level Rise Inundation – 6ft Above MHHW. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management, Retrieved Jan. 2021.

Rodriguez, Rene, and Yidira Lopez. (2020). Miami-Dade is One Storm Away from a Housing Catastrophe. Nearly 1M People Are at Risk. Miami Herald, 8 Oct. 2020.

U.S. Census Bureau, Census. (2010) ESRI forecasts for 2020 and 2025 ESRI converted Census 2000 data into 2010 geography – Miami-Dade County. 5-mile radius of Dodge Island. Retrieved Nov. 2020.

Infrastructure Corridors: Leveraging Linear Systems for Public Life
Anya Domlesky, SWA Group

Abstract

The community benefits of public open space were made ever more apparent during lockdowns in U.S. cities during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Parks and open streets became outdoor living rooms, birthday party venues, protest sites, meeting places, date spots, restaurants, and safe group gathering locations. Their function as necessary social infrastructure in the sense that sociologist Eric Klinenberg has defined it, became visible daily.[i]  At the same time a racial reckoning and climate emergency pressed for action while municipal budgets strained to meet basic needs.  We know public space provision is key to democratic life for both dissent and community building.  We also know we need to densify cities and make urban spaces livable and desirable if we want to reduce climate impacts and individual carbon footprints.  Developing linear parks and open space systems that take advantage of existing infrastructure corridors is one promising option to meet these goals.  These spaces utilize infill sites either by reuse or co-use of transportation infrastructure and due to their long form, have lots of edge which provides access to a greater number of people than a traditional parcel.  And also, like all parks, they have the capacity to mitigate adverse urban impacts like heat, noise, and flooding.  Our practice-based research group has studied four infrastructure types that were generated from the dominant transportation infrastructures of past waves of regional economic activity: port, river, rail, and road.  Looking at over 200 precedent projects across the globe, we have distilled out five main strategies that inform the design, development, and use of these corridors and their associated storage areas.  Contextualizing urban design and open space projects through the lens of their originating infrastructural footprint has not been attempted to date.  This research paves the way for understanding the catalysts for infrastructure reuse or co-use, the unique benefits of linear systems, lessons learned from accompanying development patterns, exclusive funding streams, and political returns of investing in this type of open space.  The research has been impactful in making the case for linear parks and systems as high-benefit, lower cost method of open space provision for American metro areas.

Citations:
[i] Eric Klinenberg, Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, Reprint edition (New York: Crown, 2019).

The Seattle Street Sink: Fostering Local Community while Addressing a Public Health Crisis
Richard Mohler, University of Washington
Elizabeth Golden, University of Washington

Abstract

Seattle, the country’s 18th largest city with the third largest population of people experiencing homelessness, faces a crisis.1 With businesses closed, the unhoused have limited access to handwashing facilities making the city’s most vulnerable population more vulnerable to COVID-19 and Hepatitis B.2

Even before the pandemic, Seattle fell woefully short in providing enough hygiene facilities. This shortfall was exacerbated by the governor’s ‘Stay at Home’ Order on March 25th, 2020.3 In response, Seattle contracted with private vendors to install temporary handwashing stations on public property. However, these stations are limited in number and require costly constant maintenance as grey water must be emptied and replaced with fresh water.4  This led Real Change, a local advocacy group for people experiencing homelessness, to contact architecture faculty at (redacted) by way of the AIA Seattle Committee on Homelessness. Two architect/educators then recruited landscape architects and public health experts to the project team.

The team developed handwashing stations assembled from readily available, off-the-shelf parts that can be easily replicated by anyone in the community. The stations utilize existing water infrastructure, namely hose bibs, located in publicly accessible spaces around the city, and treat grey water on-site, eliminating the costly maintenance of the city installed units. The team intentionally sidestepped city bureaucracy by inviting non-profit community organizations to host and maintain the stations on their property.

The first version of the sink consists of a stock, $30 utility sink fitted with a soap dispenser and a metering (auto shut–off) faucet connected to a nearby hose-bib with a garden house. The sink is bolted to a stock agricultural feed tank filled with soil and water loving plants which acts as a rain garden to treat the grey water before being released.  The garden also prevents the sink from being stolen and serves a placemaking role at the alleys, street corners and bus stops where they are sited. A second version, designed to be nearly ADA compliant, consists of a galvanized pipe stanchion bolted to the rain garden tank with a modified baking pan serving as a washbasin. The public health benefit of the sinks is being tracked by counting the number of hand washes at each station.

What began as a technical response to a public health crisis has evolved into a community problem-solving network. The project hosts a user-friendly website providing detailed parts lists, assembly diagrams and DIY videos inspiring community members to shift from intention to action. Six sinks have been installed and tested in Seattle and the model has been replicated in eastern Washington State and at Duke University.

This paper will discuss how the Seattle Street Sink responds to a crisis by building bridges between the design and public health disciplines, advocacy groups and community partners to foster local action. It will review strategies for individual and community education and empowerment and the benefits and pitfalls of local and global supply chains. And, it will address the potential conflicts between bottom-up, community-based efforts and top-down, bureaucratic government intervention.

Citations:

1. According to the 2018 Annual Homeless Assessment Report by the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development. The King County 2020 Point-in-Time Count for Seattle/King County found 11,751 people experiencing homelessness on one night in January, with 53 percent sheltered and 47percent unsheltered.

2. Sydney Brownstone, “Here’s what the Seattle area has – and hasn’t – done to protect its homeless population from coronavirus,” The Seattle Times (Seattle,WA), April. 11, 2020. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/heres-what-the-seattle-area-has-and-hasnt-done-to-protect-its-homelesspopulation-from-coronavirus/

3. Ashley Archibald, “Hygiene facilities for Seattle’s unsheltered have diminished along with plans for more,” Real Change (Seattle, WA), April 15, 2020. https://www.realchangenews.org/news/2020/04/15/hygiene-facilities-seattle-s-unsheltered-have-diminished-along-plans-more

4. Seattle City Council Central Staff. Homelessness Response: Budget Summary, by Jeff Simms and Brian Goodnight. Issue 10.21.20, Seattle WA, 2020.

12:30 – 14:00 EDT /
09:30 – 11:00 PDT

Research Session
1.5 HSW Credit

Equity in the Time of Covid

Session II

Moderator: Ying Zhou, The University of Hong Kong

Advancing Health Equity through Design: A Collaborative Assessment of Community Changes + Challenges
Pegah Zamani, Kennesaw State University
Catherine Mercier-Baggett, The City of Sandy Spring

Abstract

To create an equitable, sustainable and healthier community, what role does the collaboration among academia, government and practice could play? Such notion of engaged scholarship is inquired in the latest collaborative project of our research lab on Design for Health: Advancing Built Environment Performance through Equitable, Ecological and Sustainable Developments. In partnership with The City of Sandy Springs, a team of undergraduate architecture students mapped the health equity within a built environment setting, proposing environmental responses to challenges common to disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The City of Sandy Springs, GA is home to more than 110,000 residents, with roughly the same number of workers commuting daily. While the local population is on average relatively wealthy, there is increasing pressure on housing affordability. The area of study illustrates a dual reality. Many older multifamily apartments are located along major transportation corridors and house a greater socio-economic diversity than that found in the single-family home subdivisions. These outdated developments are often the only option vulnerable renters can afford (HNA)(1). Since 2013, over 1,000 apartment units were demolished; many others were upgraded and increased rental rates, displacing residents and increasing the cost burden of those who stayed in Sandy Springs. The selected neighborhood, The Crossroads, encompasses a mix of uses with garden-style apartments built for the most part in the 1960s. The community is characterized by a concentration of LatinX families with modest to low incomes whose population has increased over years. The Crossroads area was the subject of an urban design exercise in the Roswell Road Small Area Plan, an appendix to the Next Ten Comprehensive Plan, that envisioned a complete redevelopment of the area, generating substantial changes and challenges for the low-income community. The students, instead, consider the existing assets to develop proposals responding to community needs and wellbeing including challenges associated with the interdependent impacts of air and noise pollution, transportation, flood risk and ageing housing stock. The team has conducted a literature review and research on health and equity indicators, applying their findings to analyze existing conditions. They examine the interrelation between individual/community health, and equity through the lens of socioeconomic status, ecological and physical environment. In collaboration with The City staff, the research team seeks means to create healthier, more equitable and ecologically balanced built environments by providing design solutions to improve the quality of life at a low cost to landlords, to stabilize rental rates.

Despite the complex matrix of authorities, policies, and funding, the research community mapping could assist decision-makers with a deeper understanding of the neighborhood. The findings can likely be adapted to other areas of Sandy Springs and the region, and the solutions provided by the students could benefit thousands of residents’ living conditions. Thus, the study underlines the impact of decoding an academic project into a collaborative mainstream platform — shared by the government, practitioners, policymakers, and community — to translate design research into action for an equitable and resilient community.

Citations:

Sharing Space for Equitable Design: Engagement plan to intentionally elevate historically excluded perspectives
Michael Ralph, Gould Evans
Ricardo Millhouse, Gould Evans
Patricia Algara, BASE Landscape Architects

Abstract

The Mitra Middle School Improvement Project (pseudonym, site in example image 01) is a community design project that prioritized partnerships between designers, parents, and students to improve Latinx and Black/African American students’ educational outcomes and promote the well-being of users. Compared to Hira (pseudonym) and Enitan (pseudonym) Middle Schools, Mitra has the highest percentage of students of color—24% Black/African American and 43% Latinx. Most Mitra students also face substantial “headwinds”, defined by a district measure called the Academic Support Index that weighs factors like homelessness and non-fluency in English as challenges to succeeding in school. Mitra Middle School needed facility maintenance and improvement (visible in example images 02 & 03) to bring it to an equitable level of operation compared to the other middle schools in the district, which afforded an opportunity to remove a barrier to attainment for Mitra students (Pérez Huber, Vélez, & Solórzano 2018, Lane, Linden, & Stange 2018). We designed an engagement process for this project that centered the community voices to ensure the renovation design met the needs and supported the vision of the community, with specific attention to historically excluded members of the community.

The Mitra Middle School Improvement Project addresses equitable and healthy communities by shifting the power dynamic from the architect to the users. The Project regards race, class, and architecture as fundamentally intersectional; and therefore, dismantles systems of power that utilize architecture to reinforce social injustices (Covarrubias, Nava, Lara, Burciaga, Vélez, Solorzano 2018). Intersectionality is about people. The concept highlights the myriad ways policymaking and design impact people, and by extension, its capacity to support long-term positive educational outcomes. Intersectionality highlights the interconnectedness of various spheres of social life—cultural, social, political, etc.—which underscores the way the network of power presupposes a mainstream user.

Our presentation discusses our localistic engagement approach to the Mitra Improvement Project. First, we will discuss reflexivity in the field, particularly focusing on strategies to shift power from the designer to Mitra users and the surrounding community. The community members were the experts and the designers facilitated design interventions in support of students’ educational progress and well-being. Second, we discuss our engagement process by reflecting on assembling a partnership network to seek out, identify, and signal boost the contributions of various constituencies within the local school community in order to co-develop meaningful design.

Our presentation discusses the data collection of the Mitra project to highlight moments and methods in which our design team centered community voices through an approach to design focused on facilitation. These moments include the development of multilingual survey materials, planning and delivery of targeted community listening sessions, and student engagement activities. The methods include quantitative analysis techniques that preserve the plurality of voices in survey samples when presenting summary statistics and data visualization and the qualitative coding process. Our localistic engagement approach considers on Mitra’s history, its community members’ experiences and design visions. We conclude that research, local partnerships, and architectural practice are co-constitutive; and therefore, can effect social change.

Citations:
Covarrubias, A., Nava, P. E., Lara, A., Burciaga, R., Vélez, V. N., & Solorzano, D. G. (2018). Critical race quantitative intersections: A testimonio analysis. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(2), 253-273. DOI: 10.1080/13613324.2017.1377412

Pérez Huber, L., Vélez, V. N., & Solorzano, D. (2018). More than ‘papelitos:’a QuantCrit counterstory to critique Latina/o degree value and occupational prestige. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(2), 208-230. DOI: 10.1080/13613324.2017.1377416

Lane, E., Linden, R., & Stange, K. (2018). Socioeconomic disparities in school resources: New evidence from within-districts. Retrieved from: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kstange/papers/LaneLindenStangeOct2018.pdf

The Versailles Landscape Planning Organization: Landscape Planning as Autonomy
Jennifer Tran, University of Toronto

Abstract

This design research project explores New Orleans East’s history as a sacrificial landscape and proposes the creation of more Equitable Communities through landscape planning that incorporates environmental data and community self-determination.

The exclusion of voices of racial minorities from environmental decision making has been one of the causal factors in the declining health of New Orleans East’s disproportionately racialized residents. My site of focus is the neighbourhood Versailles, which is home to the densest Vietnamese diaspora population in America. The design proposal outlines an operational framework for a community-based organization, The Versailles Landscape Planning Organization (VLPO), that allows the residents of Versailles to determine the environmental uses of community land, to monitor the health of these lands, and to bring this data to that table with regional authorities so that their voices can be directly heard in environmental decision making in the future.

There are 300,000 m2 of vacant lots owned by the Catholic Church, the City of New Orleans, and privately throughout the neighbourhood of Versailles; they will become the sites where a network of air quality, groundwater, and stream water monitors are embedded by the VPLO. The monitors are a way to strengthen the already present environmental knowledge in the neighbourhood. This data can be used to plan their community more resiliently and as a tool to hold extractive industries accountable for the real effects of their practices. Streamwter monitors provide data on water temperature and flood risk, which is important for the residents planning water distribution in their farms and reservoirs. Groundwater monitors record data on the water table, important to know when planning future land-use. It also provides data on groundwater pollutants such as arsenic and diesel-organics. Air quality monitors sense the concentration and types of particulates in the air, which can have negative effects on respiratory health of those affected.

The VPLO will catalogue data collected from monitors, as well as elevation and lot size to create an environmental assessment of the vacant lots in the neighbourhood. Then, with this knowledge, the residents of Versailles can collectively choose the kind of productive landscape programming that will be implemented on site. Individual lots can be converted over short, medium, and long terms, with each productive landscape contributing to the food security, economic enrichment, and/or environmental health of the neighbourhood.

Short term strategies (Aquaponic Agriculture and Community Market Spaces) are extensions of the food and economic security initiatives of existing community organizations like VEGGI Farmers Co-op and the Vietnamese American Youth Leadership Alliance.  Medium term strategies ( Solar Farms and Biomass Energy Generation) will establish district energy and stormwater management systems with the funding of the Louisiana Regional Planning Authority, and the NOLA City Council, reducing dependency on the extractive oil and gas infrastructure adjacent to the neighbourhood, replacing them with renewable forms of energy. Long term strategies (Biochar Soil Remediation and Arsenic Precipitation) will establish remediation of groundwater and soil strategies funded by petrochemical and industrial polluters with the consultation of the community.

Citations:

Airriess, Christopher A. and Clawson, David L. “Vietnamese Market Gardens in New Orleans.” Geographical Review, Vol. 84, No. 1 (Jan., 1994), pp. 16-31.

Bankston, Carl L. III. “Versailles Village: the History and Structure of a Vietnamese Community in New Orleans.” Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology, Volume 26 No. I, May 1998.

Botic, Christiana . “Meet The Refugees Fighting for the Future of New Orleans.” National Geographic, 2018. https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/03/06/meet-the-refugees-fighting-for-the-future-of-new-orleans/.

Bullard, Robert D.; Mohai, Paul; Saha, Robin; and Wright, Beverley. “Toxic Wastes and Race, 1987-2007.” United Church of Christ, 2007.

Chiang, S. Leo.  “A Village Called Versailles.” PBS Independent Lens Selection, 2009.

Newell, Peter. “Race, Class and the global Politics of Environmental Inequality.” Global Environmental Politics, vol. 5 no. 3, 2005, p. 70-94. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/186524.

Simms, Patrice Lumumba.  “On Diversity and Public Policy Making: An Environmental Justice Perspective.” Sustainable Development Law & Policy, 13, no. 1 (2012): 14-19, 57-59.

Sze, Julie. “Toxic Soup Redux: Why Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Matter after Katrina.” Social Science Research Council, 2006. https://items.ssrc.org/understanding-katrina/toxic-soup-redux-why-environmental-racism-and-environmental-justice-matter-after-katrina/.

Tang, Eric. “A Gulf Unites Us: The Vietnamese Americans of Black New Orleans East.” American Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 1, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011, pp. 117–49, doi:10.1353/aq.2011.0005.

Weaver, Matthew P. “Fear and Loathing in Post-Katrina Emergency Debris Management: According to Whom, Pursuant to What, and You Want To Dump That Where?” Tulane Environmental Law Journal, vol. 20, no. 2, 2007, pp. 429–446. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43292844. Accessed 16 Feb. 2021.

Localism in the Amazonian Basin: A case study of what is architecturally local under the global lens
David Isern, Texas Tech University

Abstract

Since the early 2010s, increased attention and publicity surrounding buildings and communities in the Amazonian region have taken place. Renowned publications like Archdaily, Dezeen, Architizer, and Architect Magazine have featured projects of many architects and firms that show thoughtful and well-resolved buildings in cities and regional communities in the Amazon. The work reveals an architecture quality that looks and acknowledges materials, techniques, and practices of its locale and part of the ayllu (Quechua[1] for community) and minga (Shipibo[2] for collaborative labor) – the core of these communities’ culture and lifestyle. The projects published bring awareness about these Amazonian communities and their construction and material cultures. Also, it can easily be reasoned that the projects talk about ideas and processes of sustainable construction methods and practices. However, the projects are unable to engage with and holistically present the resiliency of these communities and their practices because 1) often the projects are globalized[3] to add an architectural articulation that, in substance and aesthetics, makes them worthy of publication; and, therefore, 2) they isolate the projects from the conversation of true localisms and the communities’ point-of-view about resiliency.

Using architecture projects from communities of the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazonian region as sites of critical analysis, this paper will present how the efforts to “be local”[4] by architects and firms are often reformed by the Architectural disciplinary desire to achieve a globally understood form that, consequently and without vicious intension, lessen the local efforts and practices of the communities. Using projects that have garnered a public presence, within and outside the architecture practice, this paper will also engage with the more extensive discussion of how architecture at the community level often tends to be polarized by the architecture itself; therefore, minimizing the grassroots efforts and the power of its local determinations. The resiliency of the Amazonian ayllus and mingas are perhaps closer to ideas of “non-pedigreed architecture.”[5] Therefore, the pluriversality[6] of the architecture practice needs to make an effort to showcase these works, alongside the projects of architects who are making a push to design a local, sustainable, and resilient narrative, but in the process sometimes thin-out the local communities’ cultural engagements. This paradox is the challenge of how architecture’s desire to highlight the local resiliency tends also to oppress it.

Similar examples can be found across the Amazonia Basin[7] and within the Global North and Western architectural practices. This paper will open the discussion about localism as public image and global perception vs. localism as truly local. And start to talk about the reality that the resiliency of communities needs to be presented and talked about in its true form. Perhaps the design process and the architect’s desires need to take a step back, even when they have the best intentions to promote the resiliency of the local communities. Instead, the architect should take the position of a “promoter of the local” and recognize that architecture without architects is part of the processes of working to address the discrepancies the subaltern communities experience.

Citations:
[1] Quechua: language use in the Andean countries of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia; it influenced other regional dialects in the North Amazonian region.

[2] Shipibo: dialect, part of the Pano-Tacanan family of languages spoken in the Amazon region between Peru and Brazil.

[3] Design to make international influence or operations possible and to appeal to larger audiences outside its local regions – “Glocal;”  Nicolai, B., 2021. Architectural History After Globalization. E-flux.com.

[4] From the ideas present in: Wilson, R., and W. Dissanayake, eds. Global/Local: Cultural Production and the Transnational Imaginary. Durham; London: Duke University Press, 1996.

[5] Rudofsky, B., 1987. Architecture without architects. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

[6] Escobar, A., 2020. Pluriversal politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

[7] Countries include: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Perú, Suriname, and Venezuela.

12:30 – 14:00 EDT /
09:30 – 11:00 PDT

Special Session
1.5 HSW Credit

How to Fund your Research & Projects

Special Focus Session

Session Description

Examine two different funded projects, see the many benefits of academia, practice, business, and government collaborations. Resources and contacts will be shared in a series of short presentations from government agencies and non-profits highlighting their organization, vision, and resources. The goal of this session is to encourage collaborative architectural research and innovation through sharing examples, stories, and a variety of resources and contacts for conducting research; funding projects (inc. tax credits); supporting curriculum; engaging in industry and government R&D; and finding internships and professional development opportunities too!

Moderator
Corey Gracie-Griffin
Pennsylvania State University

Presenters
Jordan Goldstein, FAIA
Gensler

Kyoung-Hee Kim, PhD, AIA
Integrated Design Research Lab, UNCC

Mary Hubbard, LEED
US Department of Energy

David Corman, PhD
National Science Foundation

Ray Demers
Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.

Marty McIntyre
PCI Foundation

Simon Hyoun
Softwood Lumber Board

Heidi Henderson
Engineered Tax Services

30-minute

Discussion Break

14:30 – 15:30 EDT /
11:30 – 12:30 PDT

Plenary
1 HSW Credit

Zero Carbon Communities

Track Plenary

Just Transitions to Zero Carbon

Plenary Description

This session will balance on-the-ground stories, how you finance and retrofit real energy improvement projects with groups such as BlocPower and what that means for architects implementing work in cities with energy performance standards with international community stories. How do policies in international cities in turn influence climate-progressive US cities? What are progressive cities like Seattle doing to jumpstart zero-carbon goals and how are architects engaging in this work?

Moderator
Andrea Love, AIA, LEED Fellow
Payette

Presenters
Dom Lempereur
BlocPower

Arathi Gowda, AIA
SOM

Sandra Mallory
Green Building & Resource Conservation, City of Seattle

16:00 – 17:30 EDT /
13:00 – 14:30 PDT

Research Session
1.5 HSW Credit

Zero Carbon Communities

Session I

Moderator: Christopher Rhie, Buro Happold | Cities

Fostering Augmented Intelligence in Architectural Education
David Newton, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Abstract

Over the last hundred years, human populations have increasingly become urbanized. Currently, it is estimated that 55% of the world’s population lives in cities (DESA 2018) and by 2050 models estimate this number could balloon to 70% as climate change makes farmland unusable and drives mass migration into cities from rural areas. Researchers have identified several megacities (i.e., cities with a population of over 10 million) around the world that will see dramatic increases in population due to climate-change driven migration – straining the infrastructural capacities of these cities and creating dense living conditions that may be unhealthy and dehumanizing. Providing sustainable design solutions for these scenarios that balances multiple quantitative and qualitative stakeholder needs is a pressing problem for the architectural discipline. Developing pedagogical models that can equip architectural students to meet this challenge is, therefore, crucial. How can educators teach students to manage the complexity of mega-dense scenarios and other wicked problems through project-based educational models?

The emergence of artificial intelligence technologies in the last several decades has opened the door to the creation of entirely new ways of defining and searching a space of possible design solutions based on quantifiable criteria (e.g., energy use; daylight exposure, cost, etc.) with unparalleled speed – allowing millions of solutions to be explored in the same time it would take a human designer to explore dozens of design alternatives. Numerous automated strategies have been developed by researchers (Von Buelow, 2012; Mueller and Ochsendorf, 2011; Turrin et al., 2011) to efficiently explore design spaces, but researchers have found that augmented intelligence-based processes (Bechikh, Elarbi, and Said 2017) – in which a human and a search algorithm work together – provide the greatest capabilities to search a design space and find solutions to problems involving many objectives. In these workflows, the dynamic and non-linear styles of human thinking are layered with varying levels of artificial intelligence to create a hybrid style of thinking that can solve problems neither the human nor the algorithm could solve individually. These augmented workflows have demonstrated efficacy in managing complexity but their application in architectural education to address the complexity of mega-dense design scenarios and other wicked problems is still largely unexplored. Further, previous work in this area has been limited in its ability to integrate qualitative criteria (e.g., aesthetic, experiential criteria, etc.) into the design search process.

In order to address this gap, this research investigates pedagogical models that integrate augmented-intelligence-driven workflows into project-based educational contexts. These pedagogical models are investigated for their capacity to foster integrative and metacognitive knowledge (i.e., knowledge about how knowledge is created, strategic thinking) (Bloom, College, and Examiners 1964, Krathwohl 2002).  Educational case studies are presented that introduce key concepts and tools in relation to augmented workflows. Educational outcomes are then evaluated, and best practices are discussed – providing a roadmap for the discipline on the value of augmented intelligence-based processes in architectural education.

Citations:

Bechikh, Slim, Maha Elarbi, and Lamjed Ben Said. 2017. “Many-objective Optimization Using Evolutionary Algorithms: A Survey.” In Recent Advances in Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization, 105-137. Springer.

Bloom, Benjamin Samuel, Committee of College, and University Examiners. 1964. Taxonomy of educational objectives. Vol. 2: Longmans, Green New York.

DESA U. (2018) Revision of world urbanization prospects. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs16.

Krathwohl, David R. 2002. “A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview.”  Theory into practice 41 (4):212-218.

Mueller C and Ochsendorf J. (2011) An Interactive Evolutionary Framework for Structural Design. 7th International Seminar of the the Structural Morphology Group (SMG), IASSWorkingGroup15. 1-6.

Turrin M, von Buelow P and Stouffs R. (2011) Design explorations of performance driven geometry in architectural design using parametric modeling and genetic algorithms. Advanced Engineering Informatics 25: 656-675.

Von Buelow P. (2012) ParaGen: Performative Exploration of generative systems. Journal of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures 53: 271-284.

Builder’s Paper / Paper Builders: Crafting Cellulose Construction Systems in Circular Economies
Brendan Shea, University of Southern California
Neal Lucas Hitch, Texas Tech University

Abstract

Architectural design research on local materials and vernacular building is increasingly moving toward an integrated model of design-build optimizing processes of digital modeling and fabrication. Conversely, this paper details a low-tech—though high-performance—alternative: exploring the construction of architectural structures using mass-produced, recycled paper products to offer a promising avenue toward grassroots sustainability as it intersects with circular economy and sustainable craft. Informed by architectural histories of environmentalism, the paper presents design research, architectural applications, and construction logistics in the form of documentation and discussion of two recently fabricated domestic prototypes—and one speculative housing proposal—utilizing recycled papier-mâché and eco-adhesive tested at sites in the extreme climate of the American Southwest.1

The paper specifically demonstrates the unique application of Builder’s Paper—a ubiquitous and widely accessible industrially produced product made from recycled fibers—as a structural and aesthetic alternative to concrete, stucco, and other materials. Paper outperforms its rivals in sustainability, construction efficiency, and availability. It is lightweight, completely non-toxic, tensile, and available for purchase worldwide. Most notably, paper is both recycled and recyclable—making its use in our research circular by generating a secondary or tertiary lifecycle of an already low-carbon product. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the projects presented in our research, paper rivals its alternatives in its structural capacities and versatility as a facade application.

This paper demonstrates the versatility, sustainability and accessibility of paper in three projects. It first documents the application of paper strips soaked in non-toxic adhesive as casting material for convexo-concave thin-shell structures—demonstrating the structural capacity of paper as a primary construction material using an inventive process that reduces material waste by half and limits the need for industrial equipment. Next, it examines the usefulness of paper pulp as a facade application on par in performance with stucco or plaster—yet offering a more renewable alternative. Lastly, this paper imagines speculative futures in which these technologies can become implemented at large scales to create resilient, Zero-Carbon Communities as safer and healthier alternatives for the environment and users.2

Citations:

  1. Luke, T. (2010). Ephemeralization as Environmentalism: Rereading R. Buckminster Fuller’s Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. Organization & Environment, pp. 354 – 362.

  2. Boulding, K. (1966). The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth. Resources for the Future, pp. 1 – 14.

Sustainability Policy and Zero-Carbon Communities: The Role of California’s Community Colleges
Leigh Sata, California College of the Arts

Abstract

Overwhelming scientific data confirms that the primary cause of global warming is anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (IPCC, 2014).  The resulting extreme weather events (sea level rise and extended wildfire season amongst others) contrast with the discrediting of climate science at the national level beginning as early as the late 1980s (McCright & Dunlap, 2011).  This discrediting has led to a lack of national sustainability policy and has compelled the State of California to take a leadership role in addressing the issue.  California’s legislative policies and Gubernatorial executive orders include the reduction of GHG and electricity consumption by targeted dates (Air Resources Board, 2006, Office of the Governor, 2020).  State Agencies, including California’s Community College system, have financial incentives to meet these goals.

The core mission of Universities and Colleges is to educate society.  Colleges impact society over the long term by exposing students to new ideas and shifting paradigms (Dyer & Dyer, 2017).  As the most accessible of higher education institutions in California, the community college system includes 116 colleges educating 2.1 million students annually (California Community College Chancellor’s Office, 2021).  The ability to expose students to sustainability principles is greater than at the University of California and California State University systems, educating 765,550 students combined (California State University, 2020, University of California, 2021).  Moreover, individual Community Colleges are rising to the challenge by creating sustainability committees, writing sustainability plans, and hiring staff to implement those plans.  Demonstrating leadership, the Community College Board of Governors adopted an energy and sustainability policy (CCCCO Board of Governors, n.d.).

This qualitative study (n=8) is a gap analysis of a Northern California Community College’s sustainability plan.  A gap analysis frames the problem of practice by seeking input from those closest to the issue by analyzing their knowledge, motivation, and organizational support for the initiative (Clark & Estes, 2008).  The focus of this study is the College’s Sustainability Committee, a group of 14 members representing Students, Faculty, Classified Staff, Managers, and Academic Administrators.  The college’s energy reduction plan includes installing high efficiency lighting, solar panels, geothermal systems, energy monitoring, and the incorporation of environmental classes into the curriculum.

The findings demonstrate that committee members were knowledgeable about the “triple bottom line” of sustainability, including the ecological, economic, and equity impacts of policy (Rieckmann, 2012).  These principles mirror the Kaiser Foundation’s “social determinants of health” (Kaiser Foundation, 2010).  However, committee members struggled to include measurable, achievable, and time-bound goals.  Remedies include a facilitated goal-setting workshop.  Committee members were found to be highly motivated and engaged, seeking to change the culture of the institution.  Noticeable organizational support began when “sustainability” was included in the College’s strategic plan.  Finally, faculty were stymied by systemic structures preventing the integration of sustainability classes into the general curriculum.  Despite these challenges, the College was acknowledged by the Community College Facility Coalition (CCFC, 2018) for their work.

This paper provides inspiration and lessons-learned for other community colleges and institutions of higher education.

Citations:

Air Resources Board. (2006). Assembly Bill 32 overview. Retrieved from https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm

California Community College Chancellor’s Office. (2018). California Community Colleges key facts. Retrieved from http://californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/PolicyInAction/KeyFacts.aspx

California State University.  (2020).  California State University Enrollment Reaches All-Time High.  Retrieved from https://www2.calstate.edu/csu-system/news/Pages/California-State-University-Enrollment-Reaches-All-Time-High.aspx

CCCCO Board of Governors.  (n.d.)  Energy and Sustainability Policy.  Retrieved from  https://www.cccco.edu/-/media/CCCCO-Website/About-Us/Divisions/College-Finance-and-Facilities-Planning/Programs/Sustainability/x_BOG_Energy_Sustainability_Policy_FINAL.pdf?la=en&hash=B06235FB2D7ACE097D4CDB1AA1C8080E15AFF1C7

CCFC. (2018).  CCFC Workshop Presentation.  Retrieved from  https://www.caccfc.org/documents/18-FacilityMasterPlanning.pdf

Clark, R. E., & Estes, F. (2008). Turning research into results. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.

Dyer, G., & Dyer, M. (2017). Strategic leadership for sustainability by higher education: The American college & university presidents’ climate commitment. Journal of Cleaner Production 140 part 1, 111-116.

IPCC. (2014). Climate change 2014: Synthesis report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Geneva, Switzerland: Author.

Kaiser Family Foundation.  (2018).  Beyond Health Care:  The Role of Social Determinants in Promoting health and Health Equity.  Retrieved from  https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-brief/beyond-health-care-the-role-of-social-determinants-in-promoting-health-and-health-equity/

McCright, A. M., Dunlap, R. E. (2011). Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States. Global Environmental Change 21, 1163-1172.

Office of the Governor.  (2020).  Governor Newsom Announces California will Phase Out Gasoline-Powered Cars & Drastically Reduce Demand for Fossil Fuel in California’s Fight Against Climate Change.  Retrieved from  https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/09/23/governor-newsom-announces-california-will-phase-out-gasoline-powered-cars-drastically-reduce-demand-for-fossil-fuel-in-californias-fight-against-climate-change/

Rieckmann, M., (2012). Future-oriented higher education: Which key competencies should be fostered through university teaching and learning? Futures 44, 127-135

University of California.  (n.d.)  The only world-class public research university for, by and of California.  Retrieved from  https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/uc-system

Combatting Environmental Justice Disparities in Sunset Park, Brooklyn
James Perakis, Elementa Engineering
Shreshth Nagpal, Elementa Engineering

Abstract

In New York City, highly-polluting power generating facilities known as “peaker plants” are used to produce electricity when demand exceeds normal levels – primarily during the summer months when residents and businesses turn up their air conditioning during heat waves. Overwhelmingly, peaker plants run on fossil fuels, operate without modern pollution control equipment, and are located in or adjacent to communities of color and low-income communities. By some estimates, peaker plants in New York City emit twice as much carbon dioxide and 20 times as much nitrogen dioxide as regular power plants, contributing to chronic respiratory illnesses among the city’s most vulnerable populations. New York City peaker plants, some of which are more than 60 years old, were originally intended to be used only for peak demand, but now run more frequently to meet the city’s growing energy needs. Fortunately, there are cleaner alternatives in the form of distributed energy resources (DERs), such as renewable energy generation and battery storage, which can be deployed alongside building energy efficiency improvements and demand response measures to reduce air pollution in environmental justice communities.

This paper presents Elementa’s analysis of DER strategies in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and how these strategies can reduce the runtime of two peaker facilities – the Gowanus and Narrows generating facilities. There were three primary objectives of this work: i) to establish the theoretical potential of each strategy to reduce peak demand, ii) to assess the overall impact of peak demand reduction on peaker plant operation, and iii) to identify areas for further analysis and research. Our analysis was based on an urban-scale energy model, calibrated to hourly utility data, that was used to identify the main drivers of energy use in the community and assess the potential of various DER strategies.

We will also present this work as a case study in community engagement, highlighting how Elementa worked with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and two members of the PEAK coalition in New York City – the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA) and Uprose – to refine the scope of analysis and create actionable insights related to scenario planning, DER sizing, and project siting. Lastly, we will discuss ongoing work with NYSERDA to translate our analysis into a community energy planning tool to facilitate the implementation of DER strategies in Sunset Park.

Readers should come away with a deeper understanding of the localized health impacts of fossil fuel-based power generation, and the important role that distributed energy resources can play in correcting environmental justice disparities. Our paper will highlight how architects and engineers can help unlock the full potential of distributed energy resources – through better design, engineering, planning, and procurement – to accelerate the transition to a more equitable and sustainable future.

16:00 – 17:30 EDT /
13:00 – 14:30 PDT

Research Session
1.5 HSW Credit

Sustainable Localism

Session II

Moderator: Maria Arquero, University of Michigan

The Rise of the “Small Box”
Keith Peiffer, Oklahoma State University
Jared Macken, Oklahoma State University
Seung Ra, Oklahoma State University

Abstract

It’s a cliché hardly worth noting. Big box stores swoop into new territory, push out smaller mom-and-pop stores, creating a homogenous, ubiquitous condition that erases local culture and disrupts economies. While sharing some of these same familiar dynamics, however, the “small box” poses a unique threat to the vibrancy of local communities.

Dollar General (DG) is a key example of the small box; this prominent discount retailer is rapidly expanding with over 16,000 locations and $27 billion in annual sales. Averaging 8,000 square feet, DG is significantly smaller than a standard big box store. Despite its small scale, the small box poses a threat to local communities through offering fewer jobs, supporting poor nutrition, and targeting low-income shoppers with the appearance of a discount. While DG mimics small, community-based stores, even evoking nostalgia for bygone days of general stores, it is a local instantiation of a much broader network. Although this phenomenon of “mass intimacy” purportedly offers significant benefits for consumers, there is growing evidence that these stores significantly contribute to economic distress, often disproportionately affecting low-income Black communities.

This proposal synthesizes work from an undergraduate studio with faculty research through investigating a specific Dollar General location in a dying retail center. Built in 1978, Cimarron Plaza was a strategic development intended to keep shoppers from leaving Stillwater for larger metro centers like Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Despite supporting the local community for a couple decades, many of its retail spaces are now empty. Cimarron Plaza no longer meets the criteria for Class C properties as it is over 20 years old, lacks a desirable location, and requires significant maintenance. Yet, DG successfully continues to thrive in its location there.

Through analysis and speculative design, this work investigates the implications of the small box for architecture and discourse on the city, using Fumihiko Maki’s concepts of collective form as a framework for understanding the morphological and programmatic changes DG imposes on the towns it inhabits. In this context, Cimarron Plaza inverted the form of Main Street, turning an ecology of small businesses into a series of façades enclosing a centralized parking lot. Within advanced stages of capitalism, this ecology is eroded further and inverted into a condensed form: the small box. These small boxes are not reliant on the vibrancy of their surroundings but rather are sustained by a vast, distributed infrastructure employing economies of scale to thrive where a traditional general store could never survive.

The work identifies threats to community localism by considering the role architecture plays within different scales: global to hyperlocal. At stake is a critique of the dominant model by which the discipline of architecture typically responds; the threat to local communities posed by the small box cannot be adequately met by designing a “better” or more aesthetically pleasing box. Through understanding this condition in its complexity, we can see the limits of architecture’s agency and consider other, new models to intervene within the infrastructure of the small box.

Citations:
  • Hayward, Martin. “any colour you like as long as it’s any colour you like.” dunnhumby, 2009.
  • Healy, Jack. “Farm Country Feeds America. But Just Try Buying Groceries There.” The New York Times, November 5, 2019. https://nytimes.com/.
  • Maki, Fumihiko. Investigations In Collective Form, Washington University in St. Louis, 1964.
  • Mitchell, Stacy, and Marie Donahue. “Report: Dollar Stores Are Targeting Struggling Urban Neighborhoods and Small Towns. One Community Is Showing How to Fight Back.” Institute for Local Self-Reliance, December 6, 2018. https://ilsr.org/.

A Fence and a Ladder: Subversive Acts of Everyday Urbanism at Home
Stephanie Davidson, Ryerson University

Abstract

This paper documents and examines the power of an informal, spontaneous, low-tech spatial gesture: a ladder built to straddle a fence between two properties. The ladder was built in order to give the children in the neighboring backyards a way to traverse the boundary easily, without the need for permission and without the risk of climbing and falling or cutting themselves. The ladder is not elegant. It was made using spare 2x4s. It’s clumsy looking. It leans. But the power of the ladder is not in how it’s designed or its materiality. The ladder extends the agency of the property owners on both sides of the fence, but especially the children, expanding their territory and opportunities for play. It connects two families and encourages sharing caregiving responsibilities. It is an example of what Margaret Crawford would call “everyday urbanism” or what Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett would call the “urban vernacular:”

“The vernacular is what ordinary people do in their everyday lives. It consists of local practices that take shape outside planning, design, zoning, regulation, and covenants, if not in spite of them. The relationship between the built environment and the social practices that occur within it reveal both intentional and unintentional effects of great importance.” (Kirschenblatt-Gimbett, 19).

The fence divides. The ladder connects. But the spatial situation is complex because these two opposing forces sit together; while the fence is needed to provide an enclosure for the two small dogs belonging to the one family, the ladder sits as an invitation for the parties on both sides to cross-over casually at all times. It is a particularly subversive example of “everyday urbanism” because it turns the fence into its opposite –a bridge. In “Fences and Between Fences: Cultural, Historical, and Smithsonian Perspectives” (Davis and Williams, 2008), the authors unpack Robert Frost’s declaration, that “good fences make good neighbors.” This particular case brings new meaning to the idea of a “good fence.” Is a “good fence” one that actually complicates property boundaries and increases social interaction and interdependence? Can deliberate modifications to fences strengthen localized communities?

This paper uses drawing to illustrate how the ladder expands the landscape of play for the children on both sides of the fence. The paper describes how the ladder became a spot where baked goods are exchanged between families, and clean cookware is left once the baked goods are eaten. It became a short-cut for the one family to access the beach, through the property of the other. It became the spot to leave the kids’ clothing after it’s laundered by the other parents. It was where flowers were left for Mother’s Day and take-out pizza was deposited when the one family tested positive for COVID-19 and the other family did not.

The ladder straddling the fence is a modest, DIY intervention with a big spatial and social impact for the two-family community that it connects. It is a contradictory spatial condition that sits outside of convention and complicates our understanding of property ownership and community-making.

Citations:

Davis, Robbie and Ed Williams, “Fences and between Fences, Historical, and Smithsonian Perspectives” in Journal of the Southwest, Autumn, 2008, Vol. 50, No. 3, pp. 243-261.

Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara, “Performing the City: Reflections on the Urban Vernacular” in Everyday Urbanism, edited by John Leighton Chase, Margaret Crawford and John Kalinski. 2008: The Monacelli Press, New York, NY, pp. 19-20.

Micro-community: A Design Build Catalyst
Charles MacBride, University of Texas at Arlington
Brad McCorkle, University of Texas at Arlington
Joshua Nason, University of Texas at Arlington

Abstract

The recent design-build project by the School of Architecture expands upon a successful pedagogical model that embraces community outreach, design experimentation, and climate advocacy. The project is a prototype tiny-home micro-community in a city taking conscious, progressive approaches to rethinking housing, its engagement with not-for-profit development, students, and other local partners. It demonstrates an intersection of education, research, and practice, expanding on the established design-build model through collaborative community building, continuously evolving partnerships, and attention to building performance. This paper describes the project in all these aspects, critically exploring the potential of small-scale housing development as an effective solution within the context of the DFW metropolitan area.

Dubbed Oak Crest Meadow in Kennedale, Texas, the project is an alternate-density micro-community of tiny-homes built on a 1/3-acre lot in a transitioning neighborhood with historically mixed zoning and uncoordinated land use. The design matches the experimental and progressive attitude of the city, where previously, tiny-house communities had not been allowed. The encouragement to be creative within this typology has created a walkable garden community with six 540-sf leasable senior-living homes, a pavilion and central promenade. Project partners include the school, the city, a local not-for-profit, and a host of vendors, contractors, and suppliers.

The project provides a viable housing and community solution for seniors, an underserved demographic disproportionately affected by rapidly increasing housing costs and limited availability. Units are arranged within specifically programmed external common spaces that foster interaction. The micro-community is a catalyst project offering both an urban and architectural model for the neighborhood and city. The student-led team engaged complex challenges, including budgeting, design pre-fabrication, and working alongside a high-school Youth Build program teaching building trades to at-risk students.

This school has inaugurated a new design-build and community engagement facility which underscores its mission and curricular goals, reinforcing a pedagogy of learning-by-making alongside establishing local and community relationships. The project has allowed the design-build program to intensify its core teaching of both community service and building science. Following a year of lockdown and online-only design studios, the Kennedale project is being prefabricated by students learning about prototyping, modular construction, mock-up testing, and improved quality control. The first tiny-house has been fully framed off-site and is now ready for flat-packing and final installation.

Finally, a focus on building performance and residential assemblies underpins the critical role of research and teaching climate and energy stewardship. The ability to construct six nearly identical units had provided a unique opportunity for comparative analysis. By slightly varying unit assemblies and equipment, a performance analysis of energy and water usage, carbon footprint, IAQ and more can be made. The metrics viewed across the entire project will create useful research for the local housing industry and influence future design-build work.

As an ongoing project, the local micro-community offers potentials to further develop both social and architectural prototypes. Future implementation of this typology also signals a new level of cooperation and partnership that suggests real alternatives in an otherwise limiting and prohibitive housing market.

Citations:

Carpenter, William J., AIA. Learning by Building: Design and Construction in Architectural Education. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1997.

Kieran, Stephen and James Timberlake. Refabricating Architecture: How Manufacturing Methodologies are Poised to Transform Building Construction. McGraw-Hill, 2004.

Kraus, Chad, ed. Designbuild Education. Routledge, 2017.

Schneiderman, Deborah. Inside Prefab: The Ready-Made Interior. Princeton Architectural Press, 2012.

Welch, Marshall and Star Plaxton-Moore. The Craft of Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning. Campus Compact, 2019.

Local timber to support community growth – the strategy behind Hope Island Health and Education Facility
Jonathan Monfries, University of Calgary
Alicia Nahmad Vazquez, University of Calgary

Abstract

This paper proposes a Health and Education facility as proof of concept to apply a robust strategy to support prosperity and community re-settlement on a remote island. The research focuses on utilizing local resources and innovative construction methodologies to create high-performance buildings through deployable digital design and fabrication techniques. Located off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, the Tlatlasikwala people have expressed an interest in re-occupying their island after being wrongfully driven off the land. The strategy proposed through this research supports an economic model that promotes community localism. It integrates cutting-edge technology with local skills and knowledge to ensure efficient materials use through customized robotic fabrication systems. The strategy reduces carbon emissions by engaging with local material properties, minimizing the need to transport a wealth of equipment and materials offshore, and promoting circularity.

Material and fabrication research are applied to a health and education facility by addressing the island requirement for a local clinic and classrooms for children – essentials to establish a life on the island. The design develops programmatic flexibility allowing for expansion and change. The building adapts as the community grows while embracing a connection to the landscape and serving as a landmark for the island. Residents should feel comfortable accessing the local facility, whether in medical need or simply for social interaction and wellbeing. Multiple vistas looking to the ocean give a sense of porosity to the building. An outdoor courtyard space separates the education and health program, providing the crucial connection to nature whilst supporting human interaction.

Local timber species were studied to understand their different material qualities. Lodgepole pine and western hemlock species have properties that make them suitable for on-site ad hoc lamination into beams. A robotic fabrication micro-facility is designed and deployed on-site in shipping containers to process the lumber. The facility has various stages, including 3D scanning and robotic band-saw cutting to maintain accuracy and material efficiency. Once processed, the laminations are assembled with varying thicknesses based on each local species’ identified strengths. Custom glue-laminated beams are developed with unique variations in their textures and layering based on the wood species. The design produces a hierarchical kit of parts consisting of precise nodes that can be assembled using the skills of the local community. The resultant geometry is a fluid, curved timber shell structure optimized for efficient material use while existing contextually within the oceanfront landscape.

This research project engages with design for equitable communities and design for local resources. The building application fosters human interaction and sociability, while the fabrication process ensures that the community is engaged in the construction and takes ownership of the project. Bringing digital fabrication to the remote island up-skills the community in an engaging way that showcases technical innovation augmented with local skills. By utilizing architectural geometry and digital fabrication to capitalize on local natural resources while minimizing materials waste, the island is provided with a process that can efficiently support the growing community socially and materially for years to come.

The Trellis at Silo City: a Case Study of Co-Creation
Joyce Hwang, University At Buffalo, SUNY
Nicholas Rajkovich, University At Buffalo, SUNY
Laura Garofalo, Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract

The Trellis at Silo City is a landscape intervention project that is designed as a structural and spatial framework to shape willow trees to grow into a dynamic, living canopy. Created by three semesters of graduate students from the [Redacted] Department of Architecture and completed in December 2020, the structure is a 60-foot diameter dome, constructed primarily from salvaged stainless steel conduit donated by [redacted]. The installation is intended to serve as an outdoor gathering space in a formerly-abandoned post-industrial site that has become an increasingly popular destination for outdoor cultural activities and community gatherings over the last decade. With the projected growth of the willows in the next few years, the space will become a shaded area for summer gatherings and a wind buffer in the winter.

The introduction of planted willows on this site aims to help regenerate a post-industrial landscape. As the soil at the site became degraded from its industrial activity in the 20th century, native plants struggled to survive, as adventive species — such as knotweed — began to take over. While these plants are beneficial in that they have begun to improve soil health through biomass and nitrogen fixation, they are aggressive and severely limit biodiversity. The design intervention uses permaculture techniques, specifically Hügelkultur systems, to both smother the cut knotweed and to create nutrient rich soil for the willows and the new, biodiverse plantings. These systems utilize decaying biomass, such as large logs, as a carbon and nutrient supply for healthy growing conditions. This ultimately acts as a carbon sink, putting the carbon back into the growth cycle rather than letting it escape into the atmosphere. Through these strategies, the new intervention aims to establish a system of regeneration for the areas of monoculture on site. The use of Hügelkultur in reshaping the ground around the structure also serves a number of aims in the project’s temporal cycle. First, the mounds shelter the willow growth during its early stages. Next, as diverse vegetation overtakes them, the mounds then act as a buffer that encourages occupation by other forms of flora (and fauna) while the willows are dormant in the fall and winter.

Beyond the initial phases of site preparation, design, and construction, the continual care and cultivation of the project is a significant part of the project. Cyclical operations over time would include training the willows to grow against the domed structure, collecting compost material, and sowing during dormancy periods. These extended practices of care — guided by the stewardship of the Director of Ecology [of Redacted, name Redacted] — will include participation from local NGOs, school groups, and community members. Cultural and community programming is integral to the co-creation of this project, as a living infrastructure for habitat, landscape, as well as both human and non-human residents of the city of [redacted].

16:00 – 17:30 EDT /
13:00 – 14:30 PDT

Special Session
1.5 HSW Credit

Students and Sustainability

Special Focus Session

Session Description

Panel featuring AIAS leaders’ voices about what they see in the future and how they’re designing for it. CRIT Scholar research and high performance designs will be presented, as well as AIAS committee initiatives around sustainability and the future.

Moderator
Shannon DeFranza
AIAS National Vice President
ACSA Student Director

Panelists
Juan Espinoza Onofre
University of the District of Columbia
AIAS CRIT Scholar 2020-2021

Erin Doerring
Clemson University
AIAS CRIT Journal Writer

Aubrey Bader
University of Tennessee Knoxville
AIAS Sustainability and Technology Task Force Co-Chair

John Young
University of the District of Columbia
AIAS CRIT Scholar 2020-2021

Haley Rogers
Clemson University
AIAS Advocate 2021-2022

30-minute

Discussion Break

18:00 – 19:00 EDT /
15:00 – 16:00 PDT

Networking

Networking Session

Wrap-up of Today’s Discussions

Session Description

Join us for discussions and networking around today’s session tracks of Post-Pandemic & Zero Carbon Communities.

Nadav Malin, Honorary AIA, LEED Fellow
BuildingGreen

Questions
ACSA Conferences

Melanie De Cola
AIA, Manager, Architectural Research
202-626-7574
melaniedecola@aia.org

Eric W. Ellis
Senior Director of Operations and Programs
202-785-2324
eellis@acsa-arch.org

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