9_Kig Veerasunthorn and Stephanie Tager: Interim Urbanism
Atelier Stig
Studio Name: Interim Urbanism ( Advanced V Fall Studio)
Professor: Nahyun Hwang and David Moon
Team members: Stephanie Tager (USA), Kig Veerasunthorn (Thailand)
Studio Brief: our studio is a research-based studio focusing on 'Interim Urbanism' or temporality of habitation. The wide range of exploring the definition of 'Interim Urbanism' opens opportunities for students to pick their sites and test their thoughts either in small, medium, large architectural typologies or in the master plan design.
Statement of Project: Based on our research, we are interested in revitalize the Red Hook area in Brooklyn as it has multiple layers of 'Interim Urbanism'. In our thoughts, 'Interim' could be interpreted as 'being in transition stage', we think that Red Hook has a strong potential to be developed but because of the annual flooding, it prevents Red Hook to get developed and be pending for its future. Along side with contemporary trend of work, the living and working space becomes more and more popular. As we can see from Manhattan, the model of WeWork & WeLive gains a lot of attention from the publicity. As well as us, we would like to counter-propose the same idea of rethinking about working and living space 'as new interventions that superimpose on top of existing area', in order to create a confrontation between local business and new start-up business in Red Hook.
Design Concept: The flooding is the main constrain for our design. The elevated scaffolding structure plays a big role in our design. Each new interventions have a different interaction with existing city, which are divided into four typologies based on their configuration and program for example, a new housing and working space is hanging over the underutilized basin or a new transportation terminal is penetrating through the abandoned tower. The open grid system of the design not just only gives a flexible impact to a disaster resiliency, but also suggest as a blank space for people to fill up their habitation by themselves. We provide just only the minimum structure and infrastructure to the city as a start point for Red Hook to develop as its own way.
