Brownfield, Greenfield, Queensfield

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Brownfield, Greenfield, Queensfield

Type

Residential › Multi Unit Housing

Architecture is “a plunge into social relations.” Nowhere within architecture is the materialization of social relations more prevalent than in the planning, design, and construction of housing. Analyzing our society’s social relations backwards through its housing stock, and here we speak mainly of single-family tract housing, produces a reading that is wasteful, environmentally destructive, socially alienating, and aggressively protective. In Queens is it not possible to develop in a way that addresses energy and land use, a problem, which is now directly accountable for over 20% of Americans annual greenhouse gas emissions? Simply consolidating a set of housing resources could considerably reduce our emissions. By clustering apartment units around a shared space consisting of kitchens, laundry, and social facilities, we propose a development that lowers its environmental impact significantly, while fostering a new sense of “community.” The global financial crisis was in part created by overwhelming optimism, irresponsible housing finance and the irresistible desire to own a bigger house to house more and bigger things. In the face of these pressures, shouldn’t we conceive of development strategies that mediate economic, personal and environmental concerns? At the Hunter’s Point South site in Queens, toxic soil would prevent us from responsibly developing the site. A sensitive approach using plants to bioremediate the site would indeed take nearly 30 years, but would provide the opportunity for the site to develop according to its needs over time rather than develop for a “projected future.” These problems are holistically linked. The housing, economic, and environmental crises of today are all tied together by an endless cycle of consuming and the desire to consume. It is our desire to pose the question: Can new organizations in housing empower us to stop consuming so much? Can we, as architects, propose an architecture that is conducive to new social arrangements, appropriate for confronting the challenges that face us? We have proposed a set of structures that encourage environmental stewardship, community building, and a new reading of what it means to be a “homeowner.”

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Team

Andy Vann

Co-designer

Daniel P Baciuska

Co-designer

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Brownfield, Greenfield, Queensfield

Brownfield, Greenfield, Queensfield

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team