Create a multi-use building and space that acts as an attractor for redevelopment in one of New Haven's up-and-coming nine square blocks. Define a work program that requires the response of a new architectural strategy. Insert a live/work housing prototype that adds a vertical profile to downtown while converting an underutilized public path into an urban gesture.
PROGRAM: The introduction of a third food cart zone in New Haven. The site becomes a destination on New Haven’s busiest food streets (Orange St + Crown St) while establishing a new user-base and locale. The linking and fostering of networks becomes a strategy for developing the relationship between LIVING space and WORKING space and also the overlap between units within the building.
MOVING ROOM: Add a shared and negotiated live/work space. Residents would rent and appropriate the space as a means of expanding their environment. This space can be communal if used on the shared floors or private if attached to living units. The greater community sees the space as a spectacle and interfaces with it when it services the park. The position of the room in profile would be synonymous with certain activities. Common living/working clusters can negotiate the borrowing of the room as a shared common space for multiple residents. It becomes a discussion among the complex and its desirability keeps it active.
PROGRAM: Live-work Housing
CONTEXT: New Haven, CT, USA
CRITIC: Joel Sanders
SITE: The building is set in back of the local Art Space park. Installations rotate throughout the year, but the most active element remains the bus stop which services downtown from the outlying neighborhoods. Hundreds of people land and linger on the site throughout the day. Insert a live/work housing prototype that adds a vertical profile to downtown while converting an underutilized public path into an urban gesture.