Expressway-Adjacent Housing
Renovation Strategies
Urban Valley
This project, located on the part of Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) used to be social housing (NYCHA) in 19 century. Since the BQE has had a capacity for large vehicles for decades producing a large proportion of pollution.It has been regarded as a beast by the citizens.
Instructor: Jonas Coersmeier
It is proposed to embrace more possibilities in addition to its residential functions. Meanwhile, the vision for this part of BQE near the site has been planned to be a city park. The selected chonk is presented as how the city park is extending into each existing building and how the extended tower and mat building densifies the site and add more events and programs here. It is aimed to rewrite the narrative of NYCHA-BQE a “beast” into that of a “beauty”.
At the urban level, the project aims to bring people back to the area and promote the quality of life for residents, providing more housing units for future residents. One idea to achieve this is, like blood vessels, to invite more green areas from the expressway into the community, creating a direct and convenient pathway to the city park for residents.
In foster-care and grand-family housing programs, both prioritize kitchen and play areas to allow caregivers to oversee children’s activities, even outdoors. Foster-care facilities focus more on communal play spaces than private ones, with smaller bedrooms and larger patios for children’s play. Caregivers benefit from larger kitchens for meal preparation and expansive bathrooms for easier maintenance. Living rooms, bedrooms, and checkrooms are minimal, and partitions in children’s bedrooms are interchangeable for flexibility, accommodating siblings or close-aged children.
Approach 2
Horizontal Volume-Mat
Approach 1
Another approach is to add more living space by incorporating both vertical and horizontal volume, ensuring that each unit receives equal amounts of sunlight. Expressway, as part of this project, is going to be a city park which is planned near the site. The chosen design shows how the city park is extending into each existing building, and how the extended tower and mat building densify the site and add more events and programs.