Final Thesis Prep Book

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5SPYeR_pQKrNmQyMTZhMWUtODc3YS00MjgzLWFhMWQtODZiNDMyYjllYWQz&hl=en

The Capabilities of Place

The Meadowlands site is a place that has a developed meaning. Time has allowed millions of people to experience the events hosted within each of it's structures. Through association with the functions of these buildings and the interactions of people, the surrounding landscape has become something more than a paved tundra. On game day, it becomes an intense fervor of social activity, where shared interests bring people together even though the forum for their interaction is a desolate parking lot. However, for the majority of the time, this space is ignored as people pass through it on the way to shows or the racetrack unaware of the social significance it once held.

Most recently the site came back into focus for new purposes as a revenue generator, a job creator, and and an economic stimulus. The problem has become a struggling economy in the midst of a recession and the proposed solution is a building of commerce. Yet, plans have faced issues of contingency. The program relies on a site where occupancy depends on a schedule of events. For the most part, the public has been opposed to the new building as its design appears to reject the meaning that the site has taken. The design process undertaken thus far has been objectively oriented towards solving the issues at hand through internal methods that determine content. However, this process doesn't allow for a flexibility in design that is necessary to accomplish a project in coordination with the history of a place, appropriate for the present state of a place, and adaptable to the future of a place. There exists a certain contingency that ties together the content and context of a project. Thus building on the Meadowlands requires a shift in focus from what are the problems to what are the capabilities of the place, that starts with recalibrating what is already there.

Contextualization

A first pass at understanding site:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5SPYeR_pQKrZWE4MWZkMjItMjM5ZC00YjgyLWI0ZWMtOWI3MmU2NDkzOTAw&hl=en&authkey=CKWQwbkM

Extension of Methodology

What It Should Be...

Currently, as we are pulling ourselves out of economic depression, a new emphasis has been placed on balancing content and context. People have become less optimistic about the state of the world leading to a decline in consumption. Where the shopping mall of the 20th century had relied on encapsulating a perfect world within a box, it now must appeal to an audience that no longer embraces such idealist circumstances. It has become impossible to remove the consumer from a context that prevails in every aspect of our life and contributes to a generally pessimistic attitude. Instead, we must begin to create a shopping mall that through design encourages connections and understanding of the surrounding context. The big box should open up and assume a supporting role in the midst of the 21st century issues of reviving the downtown, sustainable transportation, accommodation of public needs, networking within the immediate context, and minimizing environmental impact.

Presentation Slides

ReFoc

Architecture and Recession: A study of the fluctuating factors that affect architectural proposals throughout periods of drastic change.

Architectural proposals are born out of the analysis of context and content. These factors are inherently interdependent as well as constantly fluctuating, especially in times of recessions. Careful consideration must be given to both context and content throughout the project, in order to ensure that the relationships of a piece of architecture can withstand the effects of a looming recession. In the case of Xanadu, a 2 billion dollar commercial project, developers focused solely on content.

Xanadu was conceived of at a time when threats of a recession were looming. The proposal was a winning entry of a competition where projects were assessed based on bottom line numbers. Programs were developed with an emphasis on bringing people to Xanadu and keeping them there through the integration of hotels, business, shopping, entertainment, and recreation. Meanwhile, there was no consideration given to the larger elements of context. Neighboring downtowns, needs for transportation, requirements of affordable public housing, buildings on the immediate site, and environmental concerns were all ignored. Furthermore the public as well as government officials and other public figures were constantly kept in the dark. These injustices were not limited to this specific project, but rather symptoms of ideals that represent the general approach to building in the late 20th century. Ultimately this disregard of context in favor of content led to the collapse of projects like Xanadu. Currently, as we are pulling ourselves out of economic depression, a new emphasis has been placed on balancing the content and context. Now we must evaluate these failed projects and adapt already developed content so that it may respond to context as well.