Vaafoulay 10/12: Tenements

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• Ideas
  • Street life as an escape
  • Fire escapes
    • Repetition
      • They take the same form all the time.
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      • chrome-extension://ohfgljdgelakfkefopgklcohadegdpjf/https://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Tenement-Life_.pdf
    • Fire escapes adorn the facades of New-York’s low-rises. Sometimes, inhabitants make little aesthetic customizations to this purely functional structure.
      • Is there an opportunity for them to mean more?
    • Instead of obstructing our views of a buildings façade could they form part of it?
  • Soane Museum
    • Shafts of light – hallway lighting
  • The American Dream/Classic Assimilation/Humble Beginnings
    • For immigrants, Tenement housing was the starting point for many families.
    • It represented their beginnings in America.
    • With increasing success and assimilation, some people still remember their roots and they try to celebrate it.
    • How can we add dignity and grace to something which in retrospect should evoke a sense of humility?
  • Where do Tenements fit in today
    • Who would they be designed for?
    • Who belongs to the working class populous cities?
  • Learning from the early tenants
    • What did the early tenants do to ameliorate their living conditions?
    • Ingenious solutions?
  • What were the positive aspects of the communal life that arose from such high-density living?
  • Staggering the living units.
    • Sometimes a lot can be gained if even half a story of space is added to a unit. Not all spaces need to be accessible by the full human figure.
    • What other combinations can be achieved within the same volume?
    • Different extrusion heights (Berlin Memorial)
  • Light and Air
    • Dumbbell tenements
    • Letting light and air carve out the form of the building.
    • The history of tenement houses – a struggle for more light and air.
  • Circulation
    • Dispensing with straight prison-like corridors.
      • They remove identity.
  • Backyards
    • Clothesline as symbols of low-income
    • No privacy
    • Clothesline to tarpaulins to privacy
  • The City and The Tenement Houses
    • The relationship between New York’s Grid and the lots occupied by tenement houses
  • The Staggered Planes of Rooftops as possible communal spaces connecting multiple houses

• References that might prove useful
  • Movies
    • Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese)
  • Books
    • ”How the Other Half Lives

Got a lot more work to do