Re-Imagining the Middle Landscape

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Date
2013-08-20
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Publisher
Virginia Tech
Abstract

This thesis seeks to tie into the underlying ideology of the middle landscape that has shaped housing development in the United States up to this point, and re-imagine its physical manifestation. An incremental approach is taken in imagining what housing might be in America, considering our myths surrounding the single family house, micro and macro community creation, density, sustainability (regarding the economics of the home and country, as well as our place in an ecosystem), emerging timber construction of tall buildings, and industrialized methods of building.  

A mix of passive and active green building strategies are employed in making an expanded or "inhabited envelope", which surrounds a 22-story mass timber modular mid-rise residential tower in Red Hook Brooklyn. The base of the tower and development of the city block include a cooperative factory for wood based production, innovative bike storage, bike repair shop, shared use digital fabrication lab, shared use shops (wood, metal, and upholstery),  loading dock, laundry, gym, shared use office space, and café.

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Keywords
Timber, Redevelopment, Green, Mixed-use, Envelope
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