Week8

Context

For the group presentaion, my role was to answer questions 3 and 4.

How does the function of the building influence the context?

The building represents a rather elaborate market-rate housing to be built above reconstructed piers in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The function or the architecture of the building influences Economic, Demographic and Environmental Impacts.

Firstly at the bottom of the building there is an outdoor shelter which provides shelter for the homeless. If the problem was only a lack of shelters for the homeless, it is predicted that they would be busier during the winter period. But more shelters do not solve the problem. Often on the street people shake with a big smile on their face saying 'I've got a place.' But often they end up spending most of their time on the streets alone because they just don't know anyone else other than other homeless people. Homelessness is about a lack of connectedness. Belonging somewhere is about belonging with other people, like belonging to a family or a local community. The largest social demographic in first world countries that experiences homelessness are actually the elderly who are houseful. Quite often their spouse has died and their children live at a distance. They feel the some loneliness and abandonment as the person living on the street.
The architecture of the building provides not only cheap rental housing, but provides a friendly shelter or an area for the homeless to gather. The outdoor shelter not only provides an area for people streets sleepers, but also for people who feel lonely. The function of the architecture helps them gather and create their own friendly community. This way it would solve the problem of feeling homeless and would look better for the overall neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Secondly, function as a high rise building maximizes the use of space. It therefore provides housing for lots of people in the space provided. By doing this it is able to achieve its aim to provide cheap rental units that are affordable to low and moderate income households.

Thirdly, the reason why this architecture was to be built above reconstructed piers plays an important role. Maintaining an economically diverse residential base is critical to the health of the city. The addition of new housing units such as market rate-hosusing in a growing area is a necessity and an automatic outcome of population shifts. In declining areas, developing new housing is often a challenge, but it is viewed as an important economic development strategy. By retaining residents or attracting new ones to the city, local leaders hope to capture additional tax revenue. New housing not only adds to the residential property tax base, but can also contribute to the commercial property tax base by attracting new businesses. The reason for choosing "Market rate housing" was because of its cheap housing in a bad area. This is the reason why this architecture is to be built above reconstructed piers in the Greenpoint. As an industrial area with a shipping history, it was still being used as a port. Although a lot smaller than neighboring ones, this was an affordable place which was best to be targeted.

Could the context be changed and not affect the inferred concept?

In researching the context surrounding our choice of building and its history, we found that the project’s concept or its aim was to provide cheap housing in a high capacity area with comparatively high rents.

It is difficult for the context to change and not affect the inferred concept. The surrounding context such as the location, time, and history is what makes the place it is now. The concept is derived from these contexts and would not be possible to keep the concepts if the surrounding context changed.

In the 19th century, Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn was used as an industrial location specializing in shipbuilding. Placing market-rate housing at this location at this period of time just does not make sense.

Towards the end of the 20Th century, residential area were starting to be created from the old industrial buildings as creative arts was becoming recognised in the area, which increased the rent to make Brooklyn one of the highest rental areas. With the boost in rental prices having to think of building market-rate housing was just off the topic.

Having to bring forward this idea only came in the recent years when building propositions introduced on bringing 16,700 new residents with cheaper market rate housing. In the year 2000, with the increase of rent throughout Green point; most people left for cheaper areas, as the homeless continued to survive out on the streets. A new development was promised by the council to produce a new area at the waterfront to accommodate some of the homeless with cheaper market rate rents. This was when the concept was made available.

As stated above, context is what makes the concept. Our group believes that concept can only be made when the situation allows it to be made.

Week7

Hierarchy

According to the definition in the wikipeida “A hierarchy is an arrangement of objects, people, elements, values, grades, orders, classes, etc., in a ranked or graduated series. The word can also refer to a series of such items so arranged. Items in a hierarchy are typically thought of as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another.

In terms of collaboration, each individual’s role and responsibilities has to be identified in order for success in completion of the project. Structured hierarchy allocates responsibilities to each individual from the leader demanding tasks, giving orders, making decisions; to workers completing and reporting completed work in return for their wage. This type of hierarchy has been working for generations.

Hierarchy in relation to our building:

The building “market-rate housing” in a way also provides a hierarchy. Firstly, is it’s location. The building represents a rather elaborate market-rate housing to be built above reconstructed piers in the Greenpoint neighbourhood of Brooklyn. It is being built in an industrial area with a shipping history, as it is still being used as a port. Although it is situated in the city, it is also situated away from the city where the skyscrapers are. This is because it is affordable and considered a poor location compared to the rest of the city. This division creates a sort of hierarchy.

The indoor shelter located at the top and the outdoor shelter located below also creates hierarchy. Although aimed at people with low incomes, it divides people with low incomes with homeless people, who live at the outdoor shelter beneath them. Low meaning poor and higher meaning wealthier with better views creates hierarchy.

Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy