Year 3

Semester 1: Refugee Cohousing

Refugio

The studio began with two preliminary research phases. The first was an analysis of existing co-housing buildings with the ultimate intention of creating a catalog of references for students to return to for design inspiration. The second was one in which each student had to research, analyze, and discuss certain topics related to Buffalo, NY. The most relevant of which was, ultimately, the demographics research and, more specifically, the information pertaining to the growing refugee community in Buffalo. The given program was to create a building that would house four co-housing units that were intended to be short-term homes for incoming refugees as well as a public marketplace that would serve as an extension of the WestSide Bazaar, a local "business incubator" that offers refugees and immigrants the opportunity to start their own small businesses before they have the financial stability to acquire their own retail, restaurant, or office space. After being given the program description and visiting the neighborhood the current Bazaar resides in, students chose their sites from a list of nine possibilities in the neighborhood, each with their own unique dimensions and advantages.

Professor: Ryan Ludwig

Semester 2: Colosseum Exhibition Pavilion

Twisted Arch

The design project this semester came to fruition as part of Cornell Architecture’s abroad opportunity in Rome, Italy. Each student was tasked with choosing an interesting building or moment they had found within the city which featured some sort of pattern or intriguing construction typology that could be analyzed. They then created their own motifs that were drawn from certain architectural phenomena they had observed. Soon after this initial pattern analysis, the students were given the program and site. They were to design an exhibition space that would showcase roughly ten artifacts of each student’s choosing that were uncovered during the excavation of Rome’s unfinished subway line C and that would be located in the general vicinity of Rome’s most iconic landmark: the Colosseum. The students were then divided into pairs and asked to analyze their potential sites. The final designs were then intended to combine the initial patterning extrapolations with certain observations the student drew upon from the chosen site.

Professors: Jenny Sabin and Giorgio Martocchia