MUSICIANS’ RESIDENCES
Class: Architectural Design III
Professor: Ximena Valle
Semester: Summer 2016
Program: Music Store and Modular Housing
Location: 13th and Carpenter Streets, Philadelphia, PA
In this project, emphasis was placed on the parameters of the context
In this project, emphasis was placed on the parameters of the context, which informed not only my design but also my program. As a class, we transformed two vacant, mixed-use sites located at Broad and Washington Streets, which together form the gateway to Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts. Each student was assigned a lot within the two sites, and in collaboration, responding to both the context and each other’s designs, we created a plaza in this developing residential neighborhood. Each of us had to invent part of our program based on the surrounding neighborhoods. In response to the Avenue of the Arts, my special program was a music store, which was located underneath required modular housing units. Due to a corner location on the plaza, my design was informed by creating views toward the center of the courtyard. In addition, the design had to allow for four housing units to fit together seamlessly and also utilize at least 20% of its total floor area as greenspace.
