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Project name: Unite d’habitation

Architect:Le Corbusier

City / Location:Marseille, France

Year Designed / Built:1947 /1952

Area: 386,130sq ft

Floors: 12

Units: 366

DESCRIPTION

After World War II, the need for hous-ing was at an unprecedented high. The Unite d’ Habitation in Marseille, France was the first large scale project for the famed architect, Le Corbusier. In 1947, Europe was still feeling the effects of the Second World War, when Le Corbusier was commissioned to design a multi-family residential housing project for the people of Marseille that were dislocated after the bombings on France. Complet-ed in 1952, the Unite d’ Habitation was the first of a new housing project series for Le Corbusier that focused on commu-nal living for all the inhabitants to shop, play, live, and come together in a “vertical garden city.”

ington Park, the role of the block becomes more evident. Further, zooming into dia-grams of the details of s

CASE STUDYUnite d’habitation

CASE STATEMENT

The Unite d’ Habitation was a first, both for Le Corbusier and the ways in which to approach such a large complex to accommodate roughly 1,600 residents. Especially since Le Corbusier did not have many buildings of such a substan-tial scale when compared to the villas. When designing for such a significant number of inhabitants natural instinct is to design horizontally spreading out over the landscape, rather Le Corbus-ier designed the community that one would encounter in a neighborhood within a mixed use, modernist, resi-dential high rise. Le Corbusier’s idea of the “vertical garden city” was based

on bringing the villa within a larger vol-ume that allowed for the inhabitants to have their own private spaces, but out-side of that private sector they would shop, eat, exercise, and gather together.

With nearly 1,600 residents divided among eighteen floors, the design re-quires an innovative approach toward spatial organization to accommodate the living spaces, as well as the public, com-munal spaces.

Interestingly enough, the majority of the communal aspects do not occur within the building; rather they are placed on the roof. The roof becomes a garden ter-race that has a running track, a club, a

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, a kindergarten, a gym, and a shallow pool. Beside the roof, there are shops, medical facilities, and even a small hotel distributed throughout the interior of the building. The Unite d’ Habitation is es-sentially a “city within a city” that is spa-tially, as well as, functionally optimized for the residents.

Unite d’ Habitation has since been the example for public housing across the world; however, no venture has been as successful as the Unite d’ Habi-tation simply because the Modular proportions that Corbusier established during the project. Nonetheless, Le Corbusier’s first large scale project has proved to be one of his most sig-nificant and inspiring.

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CASE STUDYSimmons Hall MIT Campus

DESCRIPTION

Simmons Hall, designed by Steven Holl and architects, is an undergradu-ate dorm that holds 350 students. In addition, it also contains a night cafe, street level dining, and an 125-seat theater. The building is 382 feet long and ten stories tall. Each single room or the dorm contains a grided pattern of nine operable windows. The depth of these windows 18” into the wall provides shade from the hot summer’s sun and allows ample heat gain in the winter.5 One explanation for the different colors coated on the head and jamb of the windows is to denote the different houses within the build-ing.7 Another deals with stress which will be discussed along with structure. The colors are very visible from some angles and not as visible from others.

Project Name: Simmons Hall

Architects: Steven Holl Architects

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Local Architect: Perry Dean Rogers & Partners

Project Year: 1999-2002

Structural Engineer: Simpson Gumpertz & Heger

CASE STATEMENT

Holl’s design solution was that the building would metaphorically work as a sponge. It would be a porous struc-ture that would soak up light through a series of large openings that would cut into the building so that light would filter through in section. These breaks in sec-tion would then become main interac-tive spaces for the students, providing views onto different levels. In his original drawings, Holl referred to these breaks as the building’s “lungs” as they would bring natural light down while circulating air up.

The model at the bottom was an early model depicting the sponge or porous concept idea behind Simmons Hall’s design. The porous parts of the building serve as atria to allow ventilation to flow up through the building and to serve as a common area for students to gather. Shown here are two atria within the building.

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Much of Holl’s idea for Simmons Hall can be traced to a single word - “porosity”. The idea was supposedly inspired by the sponge he was bathing with one morn-ing. The Sponge concept allows for the transformation of the building into a series of programmatic and bio-technical functions. Sculptural fluid spaces within the building connect residential houses vertically and pro-mote student interaction. These large porous sections also serve as “lungs” for the building by allowing light to enter and serving as a means of vertical ventilation.

You can see through the floor plans that similar holes begin to link floors together vertically within the differ-ent houses in the building. You can also begin to see how systems work together as a whole.

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CASE STUDYWEST 57

Project Name: W 57

Architects: BIG

Size:80.000 m2

Location:Manhattan, New York, USA

Project Area: 870,000 sqf

Hight:467ft Peak

Landscape Architects: Starr Whitehouse

Structural: Thornton Tomasetti

Status:Ongoing

DESCRIPTION

BIG’s inaugural project in NY is a hybrid between the European perimeter blockand a traditional Manhattan high-rise, West 57th has a unique shape whichcombines the advantages of both: the compactness and effi ciency of a courtyard building providing density, a sense of intimacy and security, with the airiness and the expansive views of a skyscraper. By keeping three corners of the block low and lifting the north-east corner up towards its 467 ft peak, the courtyard opens views towards the Hudson River, bringing low western sun deep into the block and graciously pre-serving the adjacent Helena Tower’s

views of the river.

CASE STATEMENT

The form of the building shifts depend-ing on the viewer’s vantage point. While appearing like a pyramid from the West-Side-Highway, it turns into a dramatic glass spire from West 58th Street. The courtyard which is inspired by the classic Copenhagen urban oasis can be seen from the street and serves to extend the adjacent green-ery of the Hudson River Park into the West 57th development. The slope of the building allows for a transition in scale between the low-rise structures

to the south and the high-rise residential towers to the north and west of the site. The highly visible sloping roof consists of a simple ruled surfaceperforated by terraces—each one unique and south-facing. The fi shbone pattern of the walls are also refl ected in its elevations. Every apartment gets a bay window to amplify the benefi ts of the generous view and balconies which encourage interaction between residents and passers-by.

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CASE STUDYTaipei City Wall

Project Name:Taipei City Wall

Client:Taiwan Land Development Corporation

Collaborators: CPP Wind ARUP

Size:82.000 M2

Location:Taipei, TW

DESCRIPTION

Simply by stacking small communities on top of each other you maintain the proximity to green free space and get the benefit from living in a tower such as view, light and urban density. The result is a threedimensional check-erboard where each 15x15x15meter box overlaps enough for an elevator to reach the highest floors.

CASE STATEMENT

Throughout the thirty floors, five large gardens allow the residents to play, swim and relax. The five gardens each have a unique appearance to accommodate all the needs of a modern community; a green forest where you can enjoy the spectacular view of the city, a Japanese stonegarden for relaxation and immersion, a wooden pool garden where you can go for a swim, a playground for the kids and finally a rooftop terrace on the 25th floor.

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CASE STUDY Elephant & Castle Eco-Towers Project Name: Elephant & Castle Eco-Towers (Residen-tial)

Architects: Ken Yeang

Areas of Tower #1:Total gross area: 276,304 sq.ft.Total nett area: 232,095 sq.ft.Total area of plantation & circulation:44,209 sq.ft.

Areas of Towers #2&3:Total gross area: 95,765 sq.ft.Total nett area: 79,485 sq.ft.Total area of plantation & circulation:16,280 sq.ft.

Location: Elephant & Castle, London

Nos. of Storeys:Tower #1 - 35 storeysTower #2&3 - 12 storeys

Date Start: 2000 (Design)

The project ecological features :Over 1 million sq.ft. shopping and lesure 3,500 new homes for saleOver 1,100 new social homes New public transport intechange 500,000 sq.ft. of offices One hotel 800,000 sq.ft. worker accommodation New community facilities Three major parks (one of 15 acres)

DESCRIPTION

The Elephant and Castle regeneration project was jointly designed by a number of consultants. A new railway interchange divides the site into two. The left hand side of the railway track was developed by Foster & Partners and the right hand side by TR Hamzah & Yeang, HTA Architects and Benoy Limited. The design takes the model of a general geographical area of a city, with its inherent sys-tems, zoning and social infrastructure and inverts it into skyscraper buildings.

The skyscraper and its retail and commercial base is seen as a microcosm of the city, containing within itself the inherent elements of a city block, i.e. parks, shops, entertainment centers, community facilities and housing etc. The “City-in-the Sky” concept provides

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for:-• opportunities for local em-ployment through mixture of use, both on ground and upper levels• A healthy mix of residents within the same building. Through “vertical zoning”, resident types are grouped according to accom-modation preferences (single units, family units, luxury apartments), yet common facilities (e.g. parks, shopping streets etc.) are shared.• close proximity to basic amenities, such as the local gro-cery store, postal boxes, chemist etc. These are all located within the ground development and/or within the tower.• a healthy landscaped envi-ronment, with spatial progressions of public open spaces (parks in the sky) to semi-private (entrance courts) to private open spaces (balconies).

CASE STATEMENT

The design seeks to re-create conditions on the ground up-in-the-sky, with features such as an entrance lobby, light wells and balconies for every unit and shared secondary and tertiary landscaped open spaces and sky pods within groups of housing in the form of sky courts and com-munal pods.