PUAD 4010 Design Studio 5 (Fall 2022)
Led by Professor Andrew Bernheimer
Led by Professor Andrew Bernheimer
Site Axonometric
This adaptive-reuse project navigates the neighborhood of Mott Haven in the South Bronx. The existing building—the NYCHA Mott Haven Community Center—is set within a large public housing complex and a varied fabric of manufacturing buildings, a public school, community gardens, and urban infrastructure.
The project considers the existing community center and the community it serves, as well as addressing the surrounding landscape in the Mott Haven NYCHA houses. Ultimately, this project explores the role of architecture in catalyzing change and serving the needs of a community.
The existing building totals approximately 11,000 square feet. Currently, the East Side House Settlement hosts Head Start programming in the Community center.
East Side House Settlement cares for the individuals, families, and communities we serve by expanding opportunities to live more fulfilling lives through education, career, and supportive services.
All Head Start programs offer full-day, year-round care for families. Programs are at least eight hours long and are open during the school year and the summer. Head Start programs offer safe, positive learning environments for children aged three to four to learn, play, and build the skills that get them ready for kindergarten and beyond.
Roof Plan
Second Floor Plan
First Floor Plan
Sections
Architecturally, the proposed building utilizes the existing structure of columns and floor slabs and does not pass the extent of the existing concrete foundation. The primary motivation for this is to limit the use of new materials and avoid unnecessary carbon intensive processes. The proposal also relandscapes the site with the intention of creating more permeable areas, more public green spaces, and a community garden. What once was an underused parking lot will become a rehabilitated green space with raised planting beds for the community garden.
The central staircase serves to connect the community programs of the interior with each other, and to seamlessly integrate the interior with the exterior green spaces.
The design of the stair employs a playful quality—quirky angles and dynamic landings. Utilizing steel cables to suspend the staircase that both plays off of the verticality of the existing columns, and creates dynamic lightscapes in the interior as the sun filters through the skylight.
On either end of the circulatory spine of the building, there is greenery—from interior planting on the ground floor to the community center’s green roof.
Stair Detail: Exploded Axonometric
"Unrolled" Facade Elevation
The primary gesture of the intervention is a “re-wrapping” of the building using a stacked brick skin. The vertical stacked brick façade allows for a softened exterior that peels away to create entrances and openings.
Within this skin, there are three additional types of openings: 1, the punched openings for windows serve to juxtapose the softness of brick skin and work within the dimensions of the brick unit; 2, there are habitable windows in the pre-school classrooms that are extruded openings; and 3, perforated brick openings that maintain privacy for interior programming, especially for street-facing pre-school classrooms, but allow dappled light in the interior.
