Title

Text

Passive Conditioning

Text

Title

Text

Title

Text

Title

Text

Title

Text

Title

Text

Program Distribution

The original program of the Magnolia Projects was composed of 1400 residential units in flat vertical buildings: 400 X 1 bdr (360sqf), 400 X 2bdr (480sqf), 200 X 2 bdr (540sqf), 40 X 2 bdr (600sqf), 40 X 3 bdr (720sqf), 200 X triplex 2 bdr (600sqf),80 duplex X 2 bdr (600sqf), 40 X 3 bdr (720sqf).

Precedent Prototypes

The precedent prototypes diagram compares existing models: Super Thin, Tower, Hilberseimer, Karl Marx Complex, Blcok Structure, Barcelona, New Urbanism, and Shotguns via the categories: north/south facade, facade/floor area ratio, private open space, connectivity to street grid, % of private entrances, building depth, street grid, and amount of facade.

Site Border Conditions

By distributing the building mass along the edges of the site we create border conditions that establish a clear definition of built and unbuilt.
The housing mass is distributed along the periphery of the site while the empty area in the core will be enclosed and protected as a semi private natural reserve.
The organization of the housing mass around the site creates a connection between the project and its surroundings, avoid a communal structure within the site and thus avoiding potential segregation.

Program Distribution: Ecological, Contextual, and Programatic Parameters

In order to provide the greatest biodiversity, the wetland size should be between 40-50 acres. The existing topography defines the shape of the reserve.
The shotgun houses are arranged around the wetland. Depending on sun angles and the surrounding context, the housing mass is being differentiated.

Site Program Distribution

By offering a variety of programs additional to housing the projects evolves towards a city neighborhood.

TITLE: Site Wetland

Depending on elevation and topography the wetland become differenciated including: wetland, wet meadow, shallow marsh, deep marsh, aquatic bed, upland buffer, and forested wetland.

Composite Project Map

The project seeks a new relationship between nature, domesticity and city. The site is divided into 8 unique zones:
Zone 01:
Elevation: (-3)-(-1)m
Orientation: W
Facade Permeability: 25%
Block Porosity: 100%
Program: 100% housing
Zone 02:
Elevation: (-1)-(0)m
Orientation: NW
Facade Permeability: 80%
Block Porosity: 62.5%
Program: 20% retail, 80% housing
Zone 03:
Elevation: (0)-(+1)m
Orientation: NE
Facade Permeability: 50%
Block Porosity: 37.5%
Program: 4% retail, 96% housing
Zone 04:
Elevation: (+1)-(+2)m
Orientation: NE
Facade Permeability: 50%
Block Porosity: 75%
Program: 4% retail, 8% education, 88% retail
Zone 05:
Elevation: (+2)-(+3)m
Orientation: SE
Facade Permeability: 65%
Block Porosity: 12.5%
Program: 12% retail, 6% education, 82% housing
Zone 06:
Elevation: (+1)-(+2)m
Orientation: SW
Facade Permeability: 35%
Block Porosity: 37.5%
Program: 6% retail, 94% housing
Zone 07:
Elevation: (0)-(+1)m
Orientation: SW
Facade Permeability: 35%
Block Porosity: 37.5%
Program: 10% retail, 4% education, 80% housing
Zone 08:
Elevation: (-1)-(0)m
Orientation: W
Facade Permeability: 30%
Block Porosity: 62.5%
Program: 20% retail, 80% housing

Walmart World Map

The world map charts insolation levels, annual precipitation, cultural protectionism, economic freedom, anti-globalization, and four climatic case studies: Stockholm, Sweden, New Jersey, Cairo, Egypt, and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

New Orleans Vernacular

The dominant housing typology is the so called “shotgun house.” It exists in a great variety – from single shotgun, to double, to camelback.

TITLE: Shotgun Typology

Observations:
-people live on the street due to climate condition
-the shotgun house works in relationship with the street
-the porch is the threshold between public and private space

TITLE: Shotgun Typology: Elevation

The shotgun house:
-3-5 rooms in a row with no hallways
-typical house dimension is 12 ft by 45-60ft
-rooms are generally squarish approximately 12 ft by 14ft
-it has a vertical format
-excellent airflow due to length
Reference: Vlach, John Michael “The Shotgun House: An African Architectural Legacy.”

TITLE: shotgun Typology: Rooms

The shotgun house is a compilation of rooms that can be reorganized according to need and context.

TITLE: Shotgun Prototypes: Rethinking of the Shotgun

The shotgun is limited to around five rooms which equals an apartment for 2-3 people. How can we transform the shotgun in order to provide adequate housing for a larger family or other programmatic variations?

TITLE: Shotgun Prototypes: Vertical Circulation

TITLE: Shotgun Prototypes

These prototypes illustrate the range of possibilities latent to the shotgun typology. It can be used for various programs beyond housing including: cornershops, kindergardens, schools, etc.

Shotgun Prototypes: School Variation

Shotgun Prototypes: Increased Density

The shotgun typology is limited to three stories. To increase the density beyond that the system introduces an extended street. Every shotgun should be approached from the street and have a garden facade.

Vernacular Ornamentation Prototypes

Existing ornamentation patterns will be used as sunshading devices with size and density responding to orientation.

Composite Project Map

The project seeks a new relationship between nature, domesticity and city. The site is divided into 8 unique zones:
Zone 01:
Elevation: (-3)-(-1)m
Orientation: W
Facade Permeability: 25%
Block Porosity: 100%
Program: 100% housing
Zone 02:
Elevation: (-1)-(0)m
Orientation: NW
Facade Permeability: 80%
Block Porosity: 62.5%
Program: 20% retail, 80% housing
Zone 03:
Elevation: (0)-(+1)m
Orientation: NE
Facade Permeability: 50%
Block Porosity: 37.5%
Program: 4% retail, 96% housing
Zone 04:
Elevation: (+1)-(+2)m
Orientation: NE
Facade Permeability: 50%
Block Porosity: 75%
Program: 4% retail, 8% education, 88% retail
Zone 05:
Elevation: (+2)-(+3)m
Orientation: SE
Facade Permeability: 65%
Block Porosity: 12.5%
Program: 12% retail, 6% education, 82% housing
Zone 06:
Elevation: (+1)-(+2)m
Orientation: SW
Facade Permeability: 35%
Block Porosity: 37.5%
Program: 6% retail, 94% housing
Zone 07:
Elevation: (0)-(+1)m
Orientation: SW
Facade Permeability: 35%
Block Porosity: 37.5%
Program: 10% retail, 4% education, 80% housing
Zone 08:
Elevation: (-1)-(0)m
Orientation: W
Facade Permeability: 30%
Block Porosity: 62.5%
Program: 20% retail, 80% housing

Flat Horizontal Mechanical System

The Flat Horizontal is a victim of its own success. In order to accomodate a wide range of events, it depends heavily on systems of mechanical control.
Today over half of the building’s annual operating costs are committed to heating and cooling alone.
1/3 of construction costs are committed to temperature and air handling systems.

Maximized Solar Exposure Diagram

Floor Area = Roof Area
Maximizing the Flat Horizontal roof’s solar potential.

Thermal Exchange Diagram

Site Area > Floor Area
With its expanded site infrastructure (parking, playing fields, fallow land) the Flat Horizontal can use the potential energy contained in its site to supply heating and cooling to the building interior.

Thermal Exchange section Diagram

Site Area > Floor Area
The site provides a large thermal sink but a relatively low temperature differential. This lends it more to a radiant (surface based) system than to a typical forced air method of heating and cooling.

Thermal Exchange Diagram: Ceiling, Wall and Floor Systems

Roof Area >> Wall Area
A radiant system is most effective across the horizontal plane. In order to minimize obstructions and maximize exposure, heating and cooling capacity is spread throughout the ceiling of the building.

Radiant Surfaces Diagram

Spreading the radiant system throughout the ceiling of the building puts a particular emphasis on the relationship between ceiling and program area. By maximizing the exposed surface of the ceiling and minimizing the radiant surface of the wall, this system informs architectural organization.

Maximized Solar Exposure

Floor Area = Roof Area
Roof Area >> Wall Area
The expansive roof plane is inevitably exposed to solar energy. In the current political climate, this translates into access to a wealth of subsidies for electrical production.

Availability of Overhead Light

Floor Area=Roof Area
The single story condition of the Flat Horizontal allows its entire floor area to be lit by sunlight during daytime hours, relieving pressure on electrical lighting systems.

The paradigm of the decorated shed is turned inward to reconsider the possibilities of the ground plane and ceiling canopy.

The flat horizontal envelope offers the opportunity to supplant mechanical systems and produce architectural effects through its construction of interior climates.

Design guidelines for new public buildings explicitly divorice environmental contral from both architecture and the building envelope.As superindentent of all public education facilities in the state, the New Jersey School Construction Corporation has identified 25 design criterion that impart specific (and increasingly stringent) requirements on the performance of school buildings.

Design guidelines for new public buildings explicitly divorice environmental control from both architecture and the building envelope.This has effectively codified the paradigm of the decorated shed and reinforced its organizational principles. Frontality, objecthood, and isolation become drivers.

The construction of a conditioned interior space for a variety of recreation, assembly and performance programs under could operate under one roof.

Combined requirements result in nested envelopes.

Diagram explores the organizational potention of the circle as an omni-directional part: radiated organizations, bi-directional organizations, multi-directional organizations, hierarchical whole, non-hierarchical whole, ambiguous whole.

Roof Elements: Drain (catchment, number of panels, orientation), PV (coverage, panel size, orientation), Skylight (spacing, size, rotation, differentiation), Green (ratio and planting type), Paint (finish, hue shade warm/cool).
Section:
1. Extensive Green Roof Subsoil Composite
2. Seasonal Grass Planting by Location
3. Aluminum Flashing
4. 1″ sq. Batten
5. 1″ Rigid Board Insulation
6. Batt Insulation
7. Light Gauge Framing
8. Window Head Assembly By Others
9. Window Sill Assembly
10A. 2″ Drainage Pipe
10B. 4″ Steel C-Section
11A. Intensive Green Roof Composite
11B. Web Stiffener
12. 5′ Open Web Joist at 5′ OC
13. PV Array
14. Custom Welded Steel Rack
15. PV Installation/Repair Specialist
16. PV Mounting Hardware

Floor Area = Roof Area
Availability of Overhead Light:
The envelope is deployed as a tunable mechanism of light control capable of regulating direct sunlight to meet a wide range of specific requirements.

Hurricane Kartina (2005) left New Orleans in a major lack of housing solutions due to the vast damage created by the storm. One of the results of the hurricane was the rise of real estate values causing the exclusion of a large part of the community, mainly the black, poor part, from the city center. The population was reduced to half of its original size. The lack of affordable housing created a different social and ethnic mix. The percentage of the black community was significantly reduced.

What are the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans population and housing situation? Hurricane Katrina (2005) left New Orleans in a major lack of housing solutions due to the vast damage created by the storm. One of the results of the hurricane was the rise of real estate values causing the exclusion of a large part of the community, mainly the black, poor part, from the city center. The population was reduced to half of its original size. The lack of affordable housing created a different social and ethnic mix. The percentage of the black community was reduced significantly.
Within the site, 70% of the population is under the poverty levle. The average household income of the Magnolia Project population was less then $13,000.

Map made as part of: “Exposing New Orleans” an urban analysis of post-Katrina New Orleans by Anthony Fontenot, Jakob Rosenzweig, Anne Schmidt, Fall 2005 Princeton University

Map made as part of: “Exposing New Orleans” an urban analysis of post-Katrina New Orleans by Anthony Fontenot, Jakob Rosenzweig, Anne Schmidt, Fall 2005 Princeton University

Within the site, 70% of the population lived below the poverty level. The average household income of the Magnolia Project Population was less than $13,000. They were fored to leave.

Public housing project St. Thomas in 1998 and 2004.
The project was being redeveloped before the flood in 2005.
“Before the storm, we were not realistic about the fact that the city was already shrinking, and had been for a long time.” Steven Bingler, architect and leading player in the post-Katrina United New Orleans Plan.

Impressions of New Orleans five years after Hurricane Katrina.

All major public housing sites are being currently redeveloped with the financial support of Hope VI.

All major public housing sites are being currently redeveloped with the financial support of Hope VI.
The Magnolia projects are currently being redeveloped.

Carbon “cap and trade” credits financially enable the protection and restoration of local wetlands.In the early years of the mitigation banking industry in Louisiana, the majority of the transactions hovered in the range of $3,000 to $5,000 per acre: however, as time increased, credit prices did also. This upward trend is depicted in Figures 4.4 and 4.5. In the most recent years sampled (20004-2006), several transactions were recorded in excess of $20,000 per acre. Nevertheless, a substantial number of transactions in Louisiana during that same period remained at or below the price of $5,000 per acre. This bimodal trend could be indicative of segregation in the wetland mitigation credit market. In fact, over the ten-year period for which Louisiana credit prices were collected, the average price was only $6,382.

In New Orleans, Magnolia Projects is a classic example for a flat vertical public housing project which has become one of the most problematic sites in the country in terms of crime rates since its construction between 1941-1955.
The Magnolia Projects, officially the C.J. Peete Projects, was among the largest Housing Projects of New Orleans and first all-black public housing federally founded in the United States (after the construction of the all white St. Thomas). It housed approximately 2,100 people in 1,400 units distributed in 41.5 acres. Completed in two phases (1940-41 and 1954-55), it became famous nationwide for its legendary violent-crime rates (one of the highest murder rates in the United States).