Environment and Form Housing
a housing facility based on the Hemeroscopium House

Sharpsburg, PA

environment, form, feedback

The EFF Housing project is an urban housing proposal that integrates environmental systems into Six-Mile Island in Sharpsburg, PA. The focus was on designing a rule-based logic that allows the aggregation of the housing unit morphology into a larger landscape-embedded system. The goal is to understand the larger urban, ecological, and structural forces as criteria for developing specific aggregate urban form.

hemeroscopium house

The project started with a precedent study of the Hemeroscopium House. Through the precedent study I analyzed, drew, and transformed the Hemeroscopium House by ENSAMBLE STUDIO to become familiar with housing concept and strategies. I studied the typology, layout, geometry, occupation, logics, and passive strategies related to the climactic context.

eco-machines

In this phase I researched, documented, and diagrammed the functionality, parameters, and opeerative logic of bioswales. Through the analysis, I studied the system's metrics, performative paramters, and its potential for integration into a proposal.

This eco-machine based housing complex, located on the Six Mile Island in Pittsburgh, PA, focuses on controlling the water flow through both the site and the architecture through a system based on wetlands, bioswales, and gutters.

The two systems explore the opposition between impermanence and permanence as well as the stark contrast between organic and man-made flows. Allowing the stacking of the architecture to peel away from the base modules allows certain gutters to be exposed which provide an experiential view of water flowing down the complex.

All in all, this project focuses in combining eco-machinic systems with formal systems to create both functional and experiential housing on this unique island.