Brownsville Public Housing Development

In their book, refabricating ARCHITECTURE, Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake discuss the implications of the prefabrication of modular components to architecture. They argue that through the realigning of the construction industry from an atomized state to a tiered organization similar to that of the aerospace and automobile industries architects will be able to design higher quality and greater scope buildings faster and cheaper. To build modular pieces of buildings one must move away from a purely systems approach and to a more integrated idea of building. A new spatial alignment of these systems is crucial.

On an urban scale a similar spatial realignment is called for. Spatial mismatch is a term used by urban planners to describe a situation where a population is physically or culturally separated from resources that can help them advance economically or socially. Brownsville is one such community, where spatial mismatches are extreme. The services that exist in Brownsville are geared toward the ‘helping’ of the population in their day to day existence. Very little is provided to help them improve their lives, in fact such improvement would preclude them from the social and economic networks which they need to sustain themselves. Their advancement leaves them at a disadvantage. Because of this circumstance, poverty has become institutionalized in Brownsville.

Laminates are a class of materials that produce composite performances by layering lamina or sheets together. The composite performance is only produced through the difference between the lamina. This model of productive difference through lamination is not one of forming boundaries or thresholds between the sheets but rather of connecting the sheets forming conductivity between the lamina. Conductivity is the quality of the connection between the lamina and is what forms the composite performance.

Laminates are a way of spatially organizing materials, both physical materials and cultural materials, and can provide a model for redistributing the services of Brownsville and the production of housing in the service and under the direction of the residents so as to not just help, not just prevent but to form composite performance of progression and changes.

RESEARCH.services
Common Ground
A New York based non-profit housing and community development organization whose mission is to solve homelessness

Community Service Society
New York City based community support services, programs and research.

Urban Institute
A nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization

RESEARCH.material
Hexcel
Honeycomb sandwich panel manufacturer

Kennedy & Violich Architecture

Material System Organization
Master’s Thesis Project for the Architecture Association’s Emergent Technology Program

Panelite
Light translucent honeycomb panel manufacturer.

Priva-lite
Electrified liquid crystal laminated glass

Transmaterial
Material index of innovative materials

Transalpin
Wood.e: electrified bent plywood furniture