ataylor « Rogue HAA

Author Archive

NEW ORLEANS STOOP HOUSE PART II

Friday, August 6th, 2010

The United States Green Building Council 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition challenged young designers to envision a LEED platinum home in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans. Due to recent stipulations which require new homes to be raised above flood levels, the brief asked that entries find creative ways of addressing this prerequisite, while also maintaining strong ties to the neighborhood context, and designing under a $100,000 construction budget.

HAA’s design approach focused on the stoop as a critical physical and social space. By emphasizing this literal and conceptual middle ground between the public street and private home, the design attempted to mitigate contextual issues brought on by lifting homes above Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters. The resulting design directly opens traditionally public functions to the front of the home and the stoop, reinforcing the connection of the home to the community. (more…)

Posted in Architecture, Competitions, Landscape Architecture, New Orleans, Projects, Urbanism | Comments Off

STOOP AS MIDDLE GROUND 01

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

New Orleans Stoop House

The United States Green Building Council has initiated a nationwide design competition for a LEED platinum, single family home for the Broadmoor district of New Orleans, LA. This competition, entitled USGBC’s 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition, targets innovative design solutions from students and emerging professionals, while challenging designers to create an inexpensive (under $100K construction budget) contextually sensitive home.

A small group of HAA designers have challenged themselves to create the new archetypal home in New Orleans – a home that engages the existing neighborhood and city infrastructure from the elevated platform of post-Katrina housing. Four winning designs will be constructed by the Salvation Army, measured and verified during a designated sustainable testing phase, and then only afterwards will a final winner be selected. (more…)

Posted in Architecture, Competitions, Landscape Architecture, Projects, Sustainability, Urbanism | Comments Off

DISASTER RELIEF HOUSING

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

DISASTER RELIEF HOUSING. The president of Haiti, Rene Preval, is living in a tent. Or rather, he will be shortly, once they pitch it. He is doing this in part out of necessity and partly as a show of solidarity while he makes an international appeal for 200,000 tents. Potentially, these 200,000 tents will house as many as a million Haitian earthquake survivors.

As the Haitian relief efforts transition from rescue, food, and medical aide, to longer term reconstruction efforts like transitional and permanent housing, the world of architecture will likely revisit the design typologies of disaster relief housing. While much of the architectural and design community is uninvolved with disaster relief housing, some architects and entrepreneurs have produced effective prototypes that serve the global community in times of need. There are a number of considerations for the design and implementation of disaster relief housing strategies, not the least of which address sustainability, duration of use, vernacular architecture, climate, cost, and the lives of refugees impacted by the disaster. Most importantly, many in the scientific community predict that the global climate is becoming increasingly violent and the destructive power of natural disasters will be experienced all over the globe. It is imperative that we develop holistic methodologies for disaster relief housing, as their necessity will become more urgent. (more…)

Posted in Architecture, Planning, Research, Sustainability | Comments Off

PRO BONO : THE HEIDELBERG PROJECT

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

PRO BONO PUBLICO : For the public good or well being, and more commonly understood in the world of professional services as ‘free’.

DEFINING PRO BONO. We all understand disparities in wealth and access to professional services. To some, these disparities compel a moral imperative to provide professional services to under-served communities. Many architects regularly perform pro bono services for a variety of ends. While certain firms focus on needs of the international community, such as Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and his disaster relief housing for Japan, Turkey, and India, others focus on issues specific to the United States. Auburn University’s Rural Studio has been designing and building housing and civic buildings in rural Alabama since 1993, while Yale University has an even longer tradition of volunteering their design/build services to their local community. While globalization has increased the reach and scope of the architect, it has also brought to the forefront the major issues that plague our societies. A great need exists globally and locally, and architects are more capable than ever to affect change.

FOR-PROFIT ENGAGEMENT. Even as a number of non-profit firms work diligently across the country, almost exclusively for other non-profit organizations, the for-profit environment has yet to wholly embrace the social and moral side of architecture. Public Architecture, an organization founded in 2002, has initiated a 1% commitment for all for-profit architecture firms. They strive to commit the resources available within the field of architecture to act as advocates for social justice, thereby improving communities locally and globally. “The 1% program of Public Architecture connects nonprofit organizations in need of design assistance with architecture and design firms willing to donate their time on a pro bono basis.” Public Architecture speculates, “If every architecture professional in the U.S. committed 1% of their time to pro bono service, it would add up to 5,000,000 hours annually – the equivalent of a 2,500-person firm, working full-time for the public good.” (more…)

Posted in Architecture, Detroit Urban Strategy, Interior Design, Projects | Comments Off

Detroit Port Authority Terminal

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Detroit’s latest riverfront development is a modest two story structure that significantly transforms Detroit’s skyline. The Detroit/ Wayne County Port Authority commissioned Hamilton Anderson Associates (HAA) to design a new 22,000 square foot international ship passenger terminal. However diminutive in square footage, the scale of the building’s importance as a gateway far exceeds its physical stature. It is in this dichotomy that we find the most interesting design problems of this project.

The Port Authority terminal is designed to function as both a domestic and international facility, including associated functions such as customs, border patrol, baggage handling, ticketing, and queuing. The building and dock will accommodate Great Lakes cruise ships, tall ships, and other large vessels, as well as the offices for the Port Authority. The $15 million dollar project is currently under construction at the foot of Bates Street, between Atwater Street and the Detroit River. (more…)

Tags: Port Authority
Posted in Architecture, Detroit Urban Strategy, Planning, Projects, Urbanism | Comments Off

Downtown Detroit Storefront Competition – Part 2

Monday, May 18th, 2009

HAA Designed Storefront

POSITION. Participation in the Detroit Storefront Design Competition (DSDC) has provoked a series of questions regarding the existing urban conditions in the downtown area, and creative ways to stimulate activity that may plot a course toward significant redevelopment in the city core. Acknowledging both the current economic recession and Detroit’s past difficulties in renovating, occupying, and activating its downtown buildings, we are interested in how seemingly small-scale interventions may be used as interim devices to activate downtown streets and buildings.

QUESTIONS. Could similar storefront concepts become the high impact and low cost, dynamic interventions necessary for this process? What type of program or content could maximize the impact of these comparatively small and static venues on the downtown visitors, workers, residents, restaurants and retailers? How can these storefront interventions be organized and implemented to capitalize on existing downtown destination events, such as sports and entertainment, while providing day to day places of interest that engage a broad audience for extended periods of time? Finally, could these interventions become larger scale urban strategies that lead to further renovation and redevelopment of vacant buildings throughout the downtown area? (more…)

Tags: Detroit Urban Strategies
Posted in Competitions, Detroit Urban Strategy, Projects, Research, Urbanism | Comments Off

Downtown Detroit Storefront Design Competition – Part 1

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

CONTEXT. Through great effort, Detroit’s sports venues and related organizations have attracted several highly desirable sports championship events. Detroit recently hosted both the 2006 Superbowl XL and the 2009 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four Championship. These types of events create tremendous opportunities for their host cities to generate revenue and gain positive publicity. Hotels, restaurants, and retail stores all benefit greatly from the influx of spending, and while revenue estimates vary widely, the simple fact is that for cities such as Detroit, these are exceptional opportunities. Publicity is another asset to event hosting. According to one estimate, during the Final Four, Ford received as much as $22.5 million in publicity by having naming rights to the venue that hosted both events. Additionally, on a national scale, positive Detroit publicity is invaluable.

During both events, Detroit created a staged idealization of its urban experience; temporary bars opened in abandoned storefronts and the city lights blazed for one weekend. The riverfront and streetscapes were further animated by city-sponsored entertainment, including free concerts. The spectacle strategy is applied in many other host cities, in part, to provide comfortable urban environments for non-urban visitors. Alive with people, the city appeared occupied and marketable. Detroit excels at hosting such affairs, as evidenced by the success of these events, as well as the The Detroit International Auto Show, The Red Bull Air Race and The Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix.

But every other day of the year, Detroit struggles. There is great need for viable, creative solutions to the many issues that face the city. While greater investment, public safety, and schools are obvious long term objectives, as a starting point, street activity and beautification are critical components of a day to day urban vitality.

Accordingly, in preparation for the Final Four, the Downtown Detroit Partnership initiated a storefront design competition. Designers were charged with the creation of temporary installations in designated abandoned or unoccupied storefronts in downtown Detroit. The competition’s goals are generally understood as providing engagement, activating the street, and attempting to beautify abandoned buildings. (more…)

Tags: Detroit Urban Strategies
Posted in Architecture, Competitions, Detroit Urban Strategy, Interior Design, Projects, Research, Urbanism | Comments Off