In 2010, Pakistan was devastated by flooding in its agricultural Indus valley. Nearly 20 million people were affected, and many were displaced from their homes for months at a time. Many of the families affected lost all their accumulated wealth because their homes, possessions and crops were destroyed by the rising waters.

This project proposes two systems: First, a minimal, pointed concrete foundation that is a landmark to which families can return after floodwaters recede. This addresses issues of land tenure and ease of rebuilding.

Second, a woven system can be used flexibly as furniture, possession transport and protection, temporary shelter or part of a permanent shelter. This woven system can be constructed at different scales for different uses and its technique is grounded in the local Pakistani means of making rope beds, known as charpoy.

The charpoy rope bed is a piece of furniture that is owned by many families in the parts of Punjab and Sindh provinces that I researched. Its versatility allows it to be used as a surface for sleeping, eating, and gathering, and its material economy means that it can be made using few resources. To make this already ingenious piece of furniture into something more broadly functional, I removed the legs, made it square for ease of connection between modules in multiple directions, and used the inherent tension in the diagonal weave to give rigidity by introducing a doubly-curved surface. This allows the modules to span longer distances and gives the surface strings more ability to take lateral and gravity loads when connected.

The system can function at the scale of a piece of furniture and be stored or used as a building component, enclosure or substrate during times where there are not floodwaters. When a flood comes, the module can be reconfigured using simple sticks or short bamboo pieces as attachment. It can be waterproofed through secondary and tertiary weavings and used as temporary shelter when configured differently.

PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGNCRITIC / TOSHIKO MORIFALL 2011 / 12 WEEKS

01 View / Foundation Concept02 View / 2 person Shelter03 Diagram / Form Generation

TEMPORARY HOUSING SYSTEM

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The Foundation serves as a marker of place and allows for faster rebuilding when disaster strikes. It may have a part that floats above floodwaters like a buoy and be painted to create a unique identity, much like the tradition of decorated Pakistani trucks.

01 Diagrams / Module Configurations02 View / Drying Rack03 View / Possession Transporter04 View / Temporary Shelters05 View / Temporary Shelters

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The System can be deployed at multiple scales and in different numbers to give it a maximum flexibility of configurations and uses. At the small scale it can be used to transport water, filter water and dry clothes. It can also be used as a small bed or to transport smaller posessions.

At a larger scale, 2 meters on each side, a module of 3 pieces can be configured as a float, a storage unit, or different one-person shelters. When combined with other modules it can be used to shelter more people, such as a family. The possibilities for aggregation are only limited by the availability of people in the family to carry these light structures.

The module, at any scale, can be clad to create temporary shelter and structure. In addition, the clad module or unclad surface can serve as a substrate for other, more permanent, materials such as mud, straw, waterproof fabrics or even concrete. In this way, the system is flexible in its material identity and its outward expression. It can be personalized so that any settlement built using the system does not appear uniform or generic.

Mud or Concrete Supported by Tensile Frame

The goal of our HOME-FOR-ALL is to create an architectural catalyst to revive the urban downtown of Kamaishi. We are interested in how the HOME-FOR-ALL will serve as the initial hub for regeneration, yet the revitalization will not remain within the Home-for-All. Instead, the home-for-all acts as a catalyst as part of a larger system, one that generates growth throughout the commercial district by expanding out into the urban field. This architecture is active; we are interested in re-thinking architecture not only as what it IS, but what it can DO.

Kamaishi has lost its center. The shopping street is mostly empty. In order to revitalize this city, the downtown needs an inspiring new center from which the community can initiate urban revitalization.

The downtown was devastated by the tsunami. It left the commercial district with three new types of urban space: - empty lots from buildings that were completely washed away, - short foundation walls where almost the entire building was destroyed, - open first floors with an intact building above.

The distribution of temporary housing impedes the regeneration downtown - the housing communities are detached, on the outskirts of the city. The temporary housing sites are not well connected to each other, and are too confining. Residents may be placed miles from their former neighbors, detaching them from networks that are important for rebuilding the city.

The displaced residents in these communities need a destination that will:encourage social re-connection, give the residents of Kamaishi a new apprecation for their urban surroundings, and provide a more expansive space than they are afforded in their isolated temporary homes. The goal of the home-for-all is to serve as that space.

Our Home-for-All is located at the intersection of Kamaishis two main commercial axes. This enables the Home-for-All to re-center the city and by catalyzing activity, spread regeneration throughout the downtown.

We think of the home-for-all as a beacon. It can attract and accommodate a variety of different types of activity. By bringing together a broad collection of Kamaishis residents, it can foster new connections and become a starting point for Kamaishis regrowth.

A flexible architectural system will compose the Home-for-All, drawing people in, gathering the community, and by doing so, begin to repopulate the downtown. By simply offering a community space - the people of Kamaishi will be excited to leave their temporary homes and come back to the city. A symbol of the community emerges through the identity of the Home-for-All as a beacon of activity.

KAMAISHI, JAPAN

HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGNCRITIC / TOYO ITOSPRING 2011 / 12 WEEKS

HOME-FOR-ALL

We believe people gather around trees because they serve as landmarks that offer a node to be near and around. They are special because they offer different atmospheres during different times of the year and provide a connection to nature. Our home for all can learn from the way a tree simply marks space and allows for a variety of activities under and around it.

People are attracted to the tree because they know it will be a recognizable landmark to meet a friend, a shaded place to relax, provide a good backrest when reading a book, or be a pleasant space for a picnic. Similarly, the basic architectural element - something between a column and wall - can attract people through simple surface programming. The adjacency of a table, a bench, or a shelf invites people to relax as they lean against the wall, gather around a table and eat, and read while still connected to neighbors.

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Eating Relaxing Playing GrowingCooking Meeting Reading Trading

Eating Relaxing Playing GrowingCooking Meeting Reading Trading

We are not interested in the tree as an isolated landmark, however. We are interested in how the composition of many of these elements creates different spaces. We dont want to divide space into enclosed rooms, but we prefer to create an open space that is loosely defined by different activities around and between nodes.

The articulation of the column-wall can define space as both a column-like node (unifying) and as a wall, seaming between two separate activities. We imagine this wall allowing for flexible program to occur around and on it. It could simply be a - bench, transform into a - green wall as a flower shop, or become a - table for an afternoon snack.

Our goal is to activate space by allowing various activities to occur in the same place, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes at different times. We have reduced the infrastructure necessary to a catalogue of different sized surfaces to allow for activities at different scales to occur. The system is simply composed of a set of minimally designed horizontal surfaces easily put into a vertical wall, inviting the user to create his or her own desired space.

BENCH 450 mm

PANEL SIZES

200 mm INTERVALS

400 mm 800 mm 1800 mm 3000 mm

STEEL SUPPORT ANGLE

REINFORCED CONCRETE

THE USERS OF THE HOME-FOR-ALL CAN CONTINUOUSLY RE-FORM THE SPACE

TABLE 700 mm

COUNTER 900 mm

BAR 1000 mm

SHELVES/HANGING 200 mm INTERVALS

MEET LEARN AND STRATEGIZE

RESERVE CONSTRUCTAND ADVERTISE

OPERATE AND EARN

REVITALIZE

As a new HOME at the center of the commercial axes, the HOME FOR ALL will also provide a space for shop owners and entrepreneurs to establish their businesses. As such, we want to offer both a HOME within the city and a place to begin commercial revitalization. As the Home-for-All aids in the commercial revitalization of the downtown, its progress is tracked on the entrance wall to the shop, proudly displaying the new growth of the city.

The home for all is related to the urban through the deck and the wall. The home-for-all will spread its identity by integrating its basic elements (column-walls and deck) into the urban environment. These urban elements will further catalyze commercial and social revitalization. Open lots can be reappropriated as places for new natural growth and outdoor activities. The deck again can be used as a platform for gathering above existing foundations. The empty first floor spaces of still-standing buildings can become almost any type of new shop with minimal, flexible intervention of column-walls and some enclosure. Over time, the home for all transforms from a single beacon and gathering point to an element within the forest of a larger system, a regenerated urban environment.

EMPTY FIRST FLOORPARTIAL FOUNDATION WALLSEMPTY LOT

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01 Book / Precedent Studies of Barcelona and Tokyo02 Infographic / Comparative Population Density in New York City

Our site, bounded by water and major transportation

infrastructure, currently acts as an inhospitable and largely

impassable barrier, dividing: the diverse neighborhoods of Corona

and Flushing, Citi Field and the US Tennis Center, the 7 train

and the LIRR, and Flushing Meadows Corona Park and Willets

Point. Our goal is to bridge between these places, in the form of

corridors allowing people to cross the site, and a local density of

residences and activities that is high relative to the surrounding

areas (at 2500 housing units over the 100 acre site). High

urban densities can improve efficiencies in infrastructure and the

servicing of activities and buildings, and can improve access to

amenities, cultural production, and economic competitiveness.

The goal is to make this high density socially productive. Social

productivity can emerge from relations that may be physical,

economic, cognitive, or cultural, and which we cannot design

directly. But we can code for ways for the built environment

to support two fundamental types of relations that, in turn,

enable the others: social relations between people, and material

relations between people and the spaces they occupy.

This city of relations (as opposed to things or objects) is not

smooth and orderly, but rather is dynamic and responsive. Our

codes aim to create a system of flexible relationships that can

provide the framework for multiple possible cities.

QUEENS, NEW YORK

HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGNCOLLABORATION WITH LIAN CHANG AND JOHN TODDCRITIC / CARLES MUROSPRING 2011 / 6 WEEKS

CITY/CODE

0 100 200 300 500 1000 ftCONTINUOUS ACCESSIBLE / PUBLIC SPACE

GENERIC BUILDING MASS

7 TRAIN

LIRR

The coding of the site was executed based on Data Sets.

The data sets are abstractions of the external relations of

the site, which are made into internal relationships through

a series of connective operations.

Examples of some of the codes that these data sets inform

are:

Identify External Connections Re-connect internal intersections Identify and Categorize internal intersections

Identify Nodal Clusters

Connect according to Hierarchy of Paths

Overlay of Relevant Data Sets

Categorize Triangles by Area Resultant Nodal Pattern

Connect Relevant Clusters with Primary Roads Resulting Site Map

[Activity Density] is based on triangles and code for density

of programmed space

-dwelling density:

-100 housing units / 4 acres

-150 sq. ft. to 2000 sq. ft. per unit

-trade (i.e. all non-dwelling) density:

-500 sq. ft. per triangle

-resulting built density:

-Floor to Area Ratio on each triangle

capped at 10, with a maximum height of

12 stories

[Trade Duration] is based on triangles and codes for typical

minimum durations of activities:

-errand: dark gray triangles code for no minimum

typical duration

-visit: medium gray triangles code for a minimum

typical duration of 1h

-stay: light gray triangles code for a minimum

typical duration of 5h

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01 Section / Transverse of Station North-South02 Axonometric Diagram / Unfiltered Public Space03 Rendering / Views from Slow Passage onto Central Public Space and Citi Field s04 Model Photograph / Plan View of Station05 Model Photograph / Aerial View of Central Public Space

Given the codes from the earlier group design, I propsed this

train station as a neighborhood center and a transit hub serving

the LIRR and MTA 7 Trains. The Station acts as porous filter in

the east-west direction, allowing for multiple crossing points and

gathering points along its length. It stitches the site together by

asserting its presence as a continuous seam between the two

neighborhoods.

At the mezzanine level, the station acts as a bridge, providing

multiple continuous paths between Citi Field and USTC/

Corona Park. These varying connections allow for flexible crowd

accommodation and their different lengths and orientations

dictate different speeds of movement.

The megastructural form of the station is broken up by its

structural system. By using a modular bay to organize space, the

station becomes a rule-based system, deforming the structural

frames with respect to the desired program (enclosure) and

necessary structural support. The frames are thin and closely

spaced at 6-foot intervals. Every 18 there is a primary frame.

The close, thin frames are deep to provide extra structural

support and to create a visual difference. When viewed across

(in the porous filter direction), the station is light and transparent.

However, when viewed at an oblique angle, or when moving

quickly through the station, the fins appear to merge and the

station is read as a single, opaque figure.

QUEENS, NEW YORK

HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGNCRITIC / CARLES MUROSPRING 2011 / 3 WEEKS

TRANSIT HUB