core.form-ula

Pratt Arch 200.01 Summer 2008

Jeremy Carvalho

Pratt Institute School of Architecture

Undergraduate Architecture Program

Arch 201 / 202 Intermediate Design Studio

Eleven Week Studio Course

Inflected Crystallography:  A Solid-State Media Archive

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

At Material Scale:

As a materials science, crystallography can evaluate typically invisible structural forces at an atomic scale that subsequently give rise to multiple phenomena at much larger scales of visible crystalline form.  As a research model, this field of study suggests provocative applications for intricate spatial ordering systems, diffuse structural systems, and nonhierarchical yet coherent spatial organizations that occur naturally in crystalline mineral solids.  Consequently, crystallography served as a lens for proposing a Greenpoint media archive that might also respond to various inflections of site, structure, program and environmental control.

At Systemic Scale:

Building system proposals attempt to create a diffuse condition of paradoxically ‘solid transparency’ by integrating continuous pedestrian circuits with a lattice of lightweight composite structural components.  While internal lattices exploit maximum surface area for load bearing & storage purposes, external membranes utilize surface area to maximize climate control functions and the incorporation of future energy harvesting technology.

At Institutional Scale:

Greenpoint is one of several historically industrialized neighborhoods undergoing transformation within the larger contexts of local, national and global economic shifts.  The waterfront district in this community has been recently rezoned and as a consequence is slated to be developed as a high-rise residential complex housing 40,000 new residents.  The integration of a local media archive with this specific dynamic context aspires to create an anchored yet flexible, nonhierarchical institution that can modulate extensive changes to the surrounding community.  Rather than overrunning the local scale of the community, perhaps multiple scales of economic and social interaction could be facilitated by such an institution, one that is able to inflect and to be inflected by fluctuating socioeconomic forces.

Site:  Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Block 2562, Lot 1

50 Greenpoint Avenue (West Street)

[Gross Volume:  32’ W x 190’ L x 60’ H]

[Gross Area:  20,000 SF]

Building Type:  Media Archive / Community Center

Program Description:

Community media/ research library with public auditorium & outdoor café area

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