Kubera and Klem
- cross - graining
This project is about a developed menu of design strategies that are translated into a system that can be used on various sites. This enforces the idea of connections between settlements, by creating cohesive site strategies and pixelating the boarders that separate them.
The goals of the project are to develop a new hierarchy of priority, place various forms of connections and promote growth in respect to landscape over that of isolation for the sake of security. A way to achieve the last goal is to think of security in a different way. The isolation small settlements can create an inverse effect in respect to security, making a town seem vulnerable to attack. The creation of a system of connections with outside communities can counteract this problem.
The idea of blurring the line of the boundary works at various scales. At a large scale, it works as a connection from town to town. Increasing the scale of the ‘fingers’, or strips of land/program, to span between towns and take on the program of circulation. At a smaller scale it works as a connection of urban and agricultural. The ‘fingers’ are used to pull strips of urban program outside of the center, and pull strips of the agricultural program into the center. The smallest scale works by blending municipal programs with private. The ‘fingers’ are used to overlap the sections of program and integrate the categories.
The design also responds to the topography of the site, by allowing for the layout of programs to change with the slopes and variations of the site. The density of programs is in direct relation to the slope of the terrain and width of the valley. The steeper the slope becomes, the denser the program becomes. The less space between slopes the more overlapped the program. This approach allows for the architecture to become less political, and allow the program distribution and arrangement to be controlled by the uncontrolled land.
The architecture occupies within the land instead of setting on the site. This allows for a new interaction of land, program and movement through the site. This helps to create the connections between programs and helps to blend the urban areas with the agricultural. The interactions of building strips allow for the creation of public gathering spaces, orchards, plazas, interior spaces, canopied spaces, green spaces, and pathways that all blur and mingle together. This interaction also changes the movement across the site, creating promenades that move through the various spaces.
All of the goals and objectives determined by research of the existing settlements are met by creating subtle strips of programs that extend out of the land. They bridge architecture with landscape, program with orchards, and settlement with settlement.
CONTACT: Kristen Kubera /
PROFESSION: Architecture
CODE: kkak
