Architecture and Neighborliness: Defining Spaces of Social Interaction and Hierarchy
Mentor 1
Arijit Sen
Location
Union 280
Start Date
28-4-2017 1:00 PM
Description
Milwaukee's Martin Drive neighborhood demonstrates a unique sense of neighborliness. According to architectural scholar Dana Cuff, neighborliness is a quality that allows neighborhoods to become communities.This paper argues that the physical character of buildings actively frames the ways that residents behave and belong within their social spheres, thereby producing neighborliness.These physical characteristics include strategies that mark and define edges and boundaries in a place. This paper discusses findings fromthe results of a year long project that examines a series of houses on the east side of 37th Place in Martin Drive. After conducting archival research and a census of the buildings in the neighborhood, patterns of similar characteristics among the houses emerged. Through drawing and modeling, these patterns were explored and reduced down to basic principles. Spatial patterns that encourage social exchange emerge when westudy the formation of thresholds.Threshold is a term used to describe change in space and an edge between socially definedterritories. Thresholds control the interaction between residents and neighbors by creating a hierarchical sequence of spaces that moderate levels of privacy.Homeowners claim their spaces by marking territorial boundaries and setting up thresholds. They share these spaces with neighbors by inviting them across thresholds into their domain.Permeability and protrusion of the façades of buildings are physical characters that maintain thresholds.Permeability is the measure of the size and amount of apertures on a façade, and protrusion is the distance an element extends out toward the street. When we explore how permeability and protrusion of a façade are articulated, we discover how these conditions encourage distinctspatial domains. It is important to study relationships between thresholds and how space is claimed, because design strategies derived from this relationship can be used in real world applications to influence neighborly tendencies, encouraging strong communities.
Architecture and Neighborliness: Defining Spaces of Social Interaction and Hierarchy
Union 280
Milwaukee's Martin Drive neighborhood demonstrates a unique sense of neighborliness. According to architectural scholar Dana Cuff, neighborliness is a quality that allows neighborhoods to become communities.This paper argues that the physical character of buildings actively frames the ways that residents behave and belong within their social spheres, thereby producing neighborliness.These physical characteristics include strategies that mark and define edges and boundaries in a place. This paper discusses findings fromthe results of a year long project that examines a series of houses on the east side of 37th Place in Martin Drive. After conducting archival research and a census of the buildings in the neighborhood, patterns of similar characteristics among the houses emerged. Through drawing and modeling, these patterns were explored and reduced down to basic principles. Spatial patterns that encourage social exchange emerge when westudy the formation of thresholds.Threshold is a term used to describe change in space and an edge between socially definedterritories. Thresholds control the interaction between residents and neighbors by creating a hierarchical sequence of spaces that moderate levels of privacy.Homeowners claim their spaces by marking territorial boundaries and setting up thresholds. They share these spaces with neighbors by inviting them across thresholds into their domain.Permeability and protrusion of the façades of buildings are physical characters that maintain thresholds.Permeability is the measure of the size and amount of apertures on a façade, and protrusion is the distance an element extends out toward the street. When we explore how permeability and protrusion of a façade are articulated, we discover how these conditions encourage distinctspatial domains. It is important to study relationships between thresholds and how space is claimed, because design strategies derived from this relationship can be used in real world applications to influence neighborly tendencies, encouraging strong communities.
