The Scrap Exchange is a non-profit organization specializing in reuse arts. They purchased an adjacent 10 acres to their 2 acre site giving them additional commercial buildings and parking to start to shape and mold into their vision. The PID Incubator Studio was brought in to analyze the site and surrounding neighborhoods to determine critical issues that design could address on the 12 acre site. The data collected was overwhelmingly obvious in the direction of the project.

From the historical, analytical and survey information collected, was clear that the once united and vibrant community hub of the Lakewood community had become a desolate place leaving nine neighborhoods fractured from each other. eaving these communities together again was the focus of this project. Based on conversations had with individuals and homeowner's associations and an online survey sent out to the surrounding residents, there was a need for activities that would create social interaction in a safe place. Maker spaces, green spaces, large community gathering space, artist studios, and a coffee shop were among the top spaces requested. These results combined with the mission statement of the Reuse Arts District created the driving force that produced the program for The Annex.

The Annex is a 22,000 sq ft multi-purpose building. The program includes 8 individual studios that are rented, maker spaces such as a metal shop, woodshop, fibre arts, pottery, and a recording studio. It also has support spaces such as offices, lounges, classrooms, rehearsal spaces, and a large flexible multipurpose room that is large enough for a 200 seat stage, but can also be sectioned off into smaller galleries with moving wall. The spaces are laid out according to visuals and sound. The maker spaces and individual studio spaces are lined along the exterior of the L-shaped form while the support spaces and recording studio create a sound buffer of those work spaces from the multi-purpose exhibit/performer space.

The main stakeholders for this project continue to be the Scrap Exchange and the Neighborhood Associations as major players of the sustainability of this proposal who would utilize the event spaces, meeting rooms, and activities provided in the maker spaces. Additional stakeholders needed to maintain the new building will provide the activities. Nnenna Freelon is a performing artist looking to teach and The Art of Cool is a performing art non-profit looking for teaching, recording, and performance spaces. Triangle Visual Arts focuses on visual arts and maker spaces who are looking for studios, workshops, and event spaces.

The Annex, when built, will provide a space for the community to meet, engage socially, and exhibit their own work. Gives the Scrap Exchange and other artistic organizations to grow in place. The maker spaces within The Annex will diversify and improve the skills in the community, inspire creativity in youth who discover a passion which leads to a potential career. They will also inspire family, community, and freedom of creative expression.

As part of the Public Interest Design Incubator Studio's partnership with The Scrap Exchange in Durham, NC, the students set out to engage with the surrounding community and propose a Mini Design Build that would be a small gift to the community. This project is a result of surveying the neighborhoods, talking with residents, and an understanding of the history of the area. Understanding the signifigance of the informal paths throughout the area, there were several discovered that were obviously highly used, but very difficult to manage. One resident said, "When it rains or snows, I have to take the long way around and it adds an additional 10 minutes to my commute." This intervention is a concept or gesture to a larger project that could become small community interventions all over the surrounding neighborhoods.

Requirements of the project included the install had to be done in one day, materials must be a reuse material, and beautiful poetry.

The Design Build Studio at NC State University's School of Architecture is a cherished tradition. The 2016 Summer Project is located at the campus of North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) as part of their new Discovery Garden geared toward kids and families. The program requirements include a garden tool storage with a small outdoor classroom. The design studio created a pavilion that is beautiful, structurally expressive, functional, safe, accessible, family-friendly, and durable that is affectionabely called "Rock Bottom".

Specific Contributions: 

Collaborated with 16 other students to determine final concept, design, materials, and methods. This included a design charrette, team proposals, studio presentation of ideas and discussion, and full scale detail mock-ups.

Worked with a team of 4 students to organize, cut, transport, and brace board-form onsite for concrete pour after rebar was in place and footings were poured. We also worked with a concrete consultant on site to verify our methods would avoid a blow-out. We were successful.

Worked with a team of 2 students with a blow torch to char, clean, and seal reused board-form to create the charred siding that wraps the garden storage. Approximately 500 feet of reused board was included in the total 1100 feet of 2x6 boards that were prepared.

Worked with a team of 3 students to design, organize, cut, and finish all storage shelves and tool hooks on the interior of the garden storage. Work was done at the College of Design Materials lab and transported to the site for installation.

Raleigh continues to be a booming city. As a response to the new Union Station being built in the Warehouse district of downtown, this studio looked at the historic Dillon Supply block to propose a multi-purpose building. 

The program included 10,000 sq ft of office, 30,000 sq ft of botanical gardens, 20,000 sq ft of conference space and retail for the gardens, and 20 dwelling units.

The site analysis revealed the ability of the site to connect those arriving at Union Station to the sites and excitement of Downtown Raleigh. Therefore the concept became CONNECT.

Mapping Raleigh's Family Ties: How Historic Landowners Shaped Today's City.

DIY Cartography has identified mapping as a synthetic, analytical and formative research tool. Critical mapping is a valuable tool used to reveal the rich history of a place.

This mapping series explores the history of Raleigh, NC through a social lens. By isolating the social aspects of Raleigh's history, a rich narrative of the influence of original landowners is uncovered to reveal hidden truths and meaning in Raleigh's family ties. Through spatio-temporal maps, influential property owners are identified and their influence on the growth and developemnt of Wake County is illuminated; the relational map analyzes the flow of wealth and property through these founding famileis' descendantes; and lastly, the experiential maps explore a specific neighborhood that is directly related to these influential families and how it has been shaped and preserved because of such associations.

2016 AIA Triangle Scholarship Nominee

The project site is located downtown Raleigh on the corner of Jones and Blount Streets. The current parking lot is to be converted to a site that will house the Raleigh Performing Arts Center. The site slopes a total of 10 feet from east to northwest. The program must allow for 120 parking spaces on site, a main auditorium that seats 300 people, ticketing office, lobby, separate black box to seat 100 people, rehearsal spaces, classrooms, administrative offices, and space for required supporting roles.

The driving concept was a push out of the box that paired organized control with passion that is ignited by the arts. The offices, classrooms, and black box were confined and controlled within a rectangular form while the main auditorium broke away and has been transformed to an elliptical form. In that move, the grid of control has been transitioned to the netting over the lobby creating dynamic light and shadow. With the parking garage below, guests and patrons can ascend up the escalator into this dynamic transitional space. Walking down the hall toward the offices, panels line the hall to create a streetscape of artifact niches and door openings. The space planning is organized to promote creativity and efficency.

This project was a comprehensive project consisting of Site Plan, Floor plans, two Building Sections, all Exterior Elevations, Structural Plans, Mechanical Layouts, and a Cost Estimate.

The Brion Cemetery was designed by Carlo Scarpa. Extension is an exploration of the original design with the added design of an extension for a museum of the site and culture of the area. The model of the Brion Cemetery was a project done in partnership. The Extension project itself was an individual response on the analysis of the site.

The program includes a visitor center, archives, offices, interior gallery and exterior gallery. Because of the size of the program requirements, the new design needed to be strategically located outside the existing limits of the site.

The extension accentuates the axis that was the original access path and an important part of Scarpa's design. The new deisgn bridges over the main axis and aligns itself with the built-in views and shifts made by Scarpa.

Throughout my time at NCSU's School of Architecture, the sketchbook has been a tool I have used to express myself through class notes, questions, working through problems, and understanding my classmates. This project is a compilation of pages from my sketchbooks collected through the last three years.

Bifurcate and Carve. 

Here is a focus on composition and the transformation of that composition to create beautiful and meaningful spaces. The program included three volumes: a 2x2 cube; a 1x2x4 rectangle; and a 4x2x8 grounding rectangle.

The composition was driven by the forming word: bifurcate. The Y-Building, Amsterdam, by Crux and Ortiz Architects, Mo Church, Norway, by Erik Holten, built in 1728, and the idea for the Walter Tower, Prague, by BIG were precedent studies that drove the composition. Once the composition was decided, carve was introduced to transform the volumes into rooms, promenade, and views.

Agriculture as an Amenity

Brunswick County is the 11th largest county in North Carolina and has its history and culture rooted in agriculture. In this master plan of the site owned by the Gore Family, a return to those roots through farmland experience is the driver for development, economy, and lifestyle. Agriculture, in this plan, is defined as lands used for the production of food. This lifestyle of views and access to farmland provides for a healthy and sustainable community. Rather than a plan based on the development of residential areas, the agriculture lands are prioritized, with a strong focus on connecting those living here with the benefits and experience of living on a farm. A large network of greenways and walking trails encourage a pedestrian friendly lifestyle, where no matter where you live you’ll always be a less than five minute walk to green space. An institutional presence through partnership with North Carolina State University, Brunswick County Public Schools, and Brunswick Community College will provide educational, research, and production based facilities that will drive traffic, growth, and connect the area to a larger network of academia. Commercial areas will have a similar integration agriculture through marketplaces, general stores, restaurants, and many other commercial buildings that will provide residents will all the necessary amenities to live comfortably.

The three main aspects of this master plan’s identity are “Healthy Land, Healthy Food, Healthy Life.” These qualities illustrate the progressive, wholesome lifestyle created by a connection to agriculture and pedestrian friendly circulation. Converting from traditional agriculture fields into a diverse mix of wetlands, orchards and diverse type of farm lands allows the community to lead a more sustainable lifestyle with a higher degree of self-sufficiency while offering the same services, amenities and freedom, as urban life in the city.
This design aims to create a network between local resources based on agriculture potentials, creating a sustainable community that can support basic needs through local resources that are integrated in their lives.
One of the main concepts of the design is to promote healthy lifestyle within the community while creating a striking alternative for diverse class of people who want to relocate and are looking for something other than what is currently available. The new sustainable and self-sufficient master plan is routed in three main themes: a healthy, sustainable natural environment within a rich biodiversity, agriculture and pedestrian friendly community.

The five main goals used to achieve this identity are sustainable agriculture, pedestrian friendly connections, a variety of organizational patterns, resilient communities, and the preservation of the county’s historic and cultural identity. Agriculture being integrated into residential, institutional, and commercial spaces provides a way for people to grow their own food in community based agriculture lands, for educational spaces to have the lands needed for research and learning, and many businesses benefit from the selling and producing of food. Promoting walkability works to promote the physical fitness of residents, as well as the mental and emotional benefits of being connected to nature. The different patterns used provide a variety of lifestyle choices among different communities, which allows people to have a variety of experiences and the opportunity to live where they feel most comfortable. Through self-sufficiency of access to farmland, nature, and commercial spaces, this allows for a community grow resilient to outside factors and maintain their wholesome lifestyle on their own. The agriculture lands also provide a connection to Brunswick County’s history of farming while also bringing that history into today’s culture and lifestyle.

The site has a very rich and fertile soil, which is very suitable for cultivating tomatoes, wheat, soybean and corn. Also the water level is high; therefore, the site is very suitable for farming and agriculture. Since the main focus is to create resilient community that can sustain itself within network of resources, agriculture has a strong connection with residential part. Based on the size, production and how the farms are managed, three kind of farmlands are proposed for the site: production, CSA and farmette. 
The production farmlands are manly lands that their size exceed up to 50 acres. Mostly, farmers lease the farm, use the land for producing in big scales that are eventually sold in market. CSA, stands for community supported agriculture which involves a group from a community that support the farm so that the farm functions for the community. In this model the community is the first consumer of the farm; therefore, the locals provide support and share the risks and the benefits of the production. The size of CSA exceeds up to 25 acres. A farmette is a small residential farm. The size is between 2 to 10 acres. A farmette is run by individuals who merely benefit from the farm’s production and their main source of income is other than the farm.

AGRICULTURE AS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

“Agriculture is the new golf.” Andres Duany, DPZ 2008. 

Agriculture has been ingrained in the history and culture of Brunswick County. Over the last century, land that had previously been agriculture has been lost in the name of development and progress. The natural uses of the land has been ignored and forgotten. In recent years, ideas such as food to table, organic farming, sustainable agriculture, community supported agriculture and life/work balance has brought Americans to the point of looking at the benefits of agricultural land. 

This system study challenges developers to look at the typical amenities of a community and go beyond the swimming pools and golf courses to promote value to a healthy life. The system ultimately informs an architectural language that transforms the vernacular structures which in turn activates the development system.

A Growing Community (AGC) is a system study looking at how to get a community developemnt to make a high social impact on not just the site, but the county as well. Farm to table is a social movement experience that promotes fresh ingredients direct from the farm This gives the customer piece of mind. The AGC System has a similar foundatoin and at the core begins with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). To be sure the site is not a burden ono the county, sustainable systems and practices of Low Impact Design (LID) are incorporated at every level of deveopment and maintenance. Public Interest Design (PID) is woven into the system to maximize the incorporation, involvement, and impact on the site, city, and county as a whole. 

Looking at the three systems outlined above, there are clearly identifiable overlaps that naturally directs coorelations when combining them together into one system. The diagram to the right shows how AGS provides a way to weave together agriculture, research and education, sustainablity, and community. The connectivity and impact goes beyond the individuals who live here. 

“A healthy diet helps protect against malnutrition in all its forms, as well as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. Unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity are leading global risks to health.” World Health Organization (www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs394/en/).

Brunswick County’s top priorities, according to the North Carolina Health Collaborative, is to increase social cohesion and health education. The survey that was sent out to residents of Brunswick County in 2014 revealed an alarming amounty of people with high blood pressure, cholestoral, diabetes, and adult obesity. Furthermore, almost three-quarter of the population cannot afford adequate healthcare. 

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has surveyed the eight-hundred and fifty acres to understand the best use and soil chemestry of the land. It is identified in the diagrams above where on the site are the wetlands, soil breakdowns, and use allocations accordingly.

Using the land as it is according to what nature has deposited there is a great step toward sustainability of the area. When looking at the land, one must consider the weather within the environment. While only four miles from the coast, the property is not in the flood plain but will be dependant on the sun, rain, and storms that hit the area. The diagrams on the next few pages indicates the yearly pattern of the weather as it relates to the three sytems we are employing for AGC.

In order to maximize the impact of AGC, the land allocation and connectivity of traditional development must be broken down and understood. In this same manner, understanding the connectivity of development that would follow the systems of CSA, LID, and PID would also need to be outlined. 

Understanding the solid, clear connections along with the dashed possible connections help maximize the potential of the analysis. These relationships between the built environment, activities, and land are imparative to understand the big picture of possibilities that would impact not just the site, but the greater community and county as a whole.

From land allocation based on the USDA census and soil uses to the built environment and the activities that are possible within the site, a system emerges that has four areas that directly relate to eachother. The first hub is the agriculture center that includes the working barn and equipment. All the produce produced is then distributed to the residents, the market and commercial components. The research hub is a source of education and improvement on current agriculture and auquaculture as well as a draw for jobs, internships, and students to the area. The third hub is that of the commercial element that brings economic resources in the area but also utilizes the produce, research and education that is established on site. Lastly, the residential hub provides housing for people in the region. Retirees, students, temporary, and tourism is all accomodated under this hub which also feeds back into the other three hubs of the system.

Case Studies - Presentation Boards

The purpose of this assignment is to identify and research significant issues in public interest design, become familiar with successful completed projects, and document your findings and analysis/conclusions for future reference. Additional goals are to teach each other through in-class presentations of the findings and by engaging in professional discourse.

Working  individually, select a pair of public interest design projects to study, compare, contrast, document, and present in graphic and written.

For this case study comparison, two projects grounded in social equity were chosen. While both projects are located in different parts of the world, involve different scales, and different stages of completion, the thread they have in common is the powerful impact potential they have in both the community and the environment that surrounds them. The Gita Primary School and the Vertical University both have developed models that declare their ability to not only promote education and community involvement, but community improvement and sustainable practices that reduces the environmental impact of the projects into sensitive landscapes. By analyzing each component of the projects, measurements and analysis will bring to light the true impact of these projects.

Gita Primary School is a completed education center located in a small community outside Kampala, Uganda. Thirty-one million children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have a school to attend. Only 21% of students in Uganda finish primary school and 85% of the children at a 3rd grade level do not know how to read, write, or do math at a second grade level. Building Tomorrow (BT) has trained and sent out Ugandan college graduates to return to their country to make a difference in the lives of the children there. To date, BT has influenced the education of over 6,000 primary age children. Other stakeholders for this project include Building Tomorrow, Inc. (BT) supported by the University of Virginia’s Studio reCover, EiC Engineering Students, and the Ugandan Ministry of Education.

The Vertical University is a conceptual preservation proposal with six nodes that stretches across Nepal from Koshi Tappu at 228 feet above sea level to Lelep at 28,169 feet above sea level. Because of rapid development in Nepal, the indigenous lifestyles and species of the region are being lost. Between 1990 and 2005, Nepal has lost 1.2 million hectares of forest; that is one-fourth of its overall forest cover. Many of the endangered mammals, birds, plants, reptiles, and amphibians on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUNC) Red list are in Nepal. In 2012, 90% of the bird migratory numbers had declined, it is estimated that as many as half a million natural springs may be in the process of drying, explosive fishing practices is causing severe harm to freshwater ecosystem, along with poaching and illegal trade of species that is contributing to the local extinction of the rural areas of Nepal. Other stakeholders for this project include Cornell University, Oxfam USA, the Atkins Center for a Sustainable Future, and the Phul Maya Foundation and the local farmers and indigenous people who solely possess the vast knowledge of the species in the region.

The increasing educational challenges in Nepal shines a light on the global trend of moving away from rural life to a more urban or international existence. The little education that is possible about rural life in Nepal is handicapped by the classroom setting and the agrarian lifestyle of the student. Biodiversity, indigenous knowledge, and direct interactions with the focus of study are being lost. The Vertical University empowers the local farmers and indigenous people, who have intricate knowledge of the climate, flora, fauna, and lifestyle of the region, to become the teachers who will pass on this rich culture.

Only student chosen to be featured in upcoming publication.