2023 Concrete Masonry Competition

Mechanica serves as a refuge and community space for the people of residential Buffalo. The sense of community within the area is tested every year by severe winter weather that reshapes the city’s landscape, creates dangerous drift, decimates local infrastructure, and severs all connections between the community. Buffalo’s geographical location adjacent to Lake Erie makes the area a catalyst for lake effect storms. This leads to storms dramatically escalating in severity as packed snow atop the frozen lake is brought into the city. Due to the conditions of these storms, many happen without enough warning for evacuations or proper preparations. This leads to low-income areas such as Schiller Park far more susceptible to severe devastation. The park’s location in the heart of residential Buffalo creates a direct connection between the community and the architecture of Mechanica. Community is about creating spaces that each person can see themselves in, have a sense of pride in, and feel a sense of belonging in. The architecture of Mechanica strives to create spaces that respond to the needs of its community through the use of adaptable, modular, and reliable building systems. Similarly to a community, CMU at its core is versatile, reliable, adaptable, and modular in its responsiveness to the built environment. It has the ability to change its form and function to become what is needed of it within a given moment. Symbolically CMU represents the strength and resilience of the people of Buffalo as they weather storms year by year. CMU alone cannot meet the needs of the community to quickly adapt and change in the blink of a moment. The severity of these storms requires that adaptability not only be a trait of the materiality but the spaces themselves within the architecture. The implementation of simple machines allows for the expansion, connection, adaptation, and redefinition of the interior spaces of Mechanica. This simple nature connects and binds simple machines and CMU in their usability. The ability to modulate or adapt a space to the needs of a community is crucial in the moments of a severe winter storm. This becomes present in how Mechanica works as a compound machine to house those seeking shelter in a severe winter storm through the connection of the two buildings and interior transformations that create a responsive architectural machine. Simple machines present throughout the project provide the occupant the ability to visually witness their impact in the transformation of the space around them as they rotate a wheel, push a wall, flip a latch, pivot a door, or lift a door. This further illustrates the impact each individual has, not only on the architecture but on the larger community around them in hopes to foster a sense of belonging among each person. Community is not solely the interactions we have with each other but those we have around each other that foster a sense of belonging we feel in the architecture, culture, and people around us.

Nova Commons is a community center, train station, and food bank located in Kenner, Louisiana below the New Orleans International Airport. As a resource for the people, the Commons offers a place of refuge from the stress of travel along with a place for the community to gather. The rectilinear plan was derived from creating a grid from the surrounding streets and boundaries that define the site. Juxtaposing the original grid inspiration, the roof and building structure curves and challenges the limits of typical Concrete Masonry Unit (CMU) blocks while creating an interesting form that draws the attention of commuters and the local community of Kenner, Louisiana by creating a landmark amongst the city.
The Commons is the intersection between train, tram, car, and pedestrian, where commuters and the local people of Kenner and New Orleans arrive. As such the form of the building engages with all the users of the building through a linear approach from entrance to departure to ensure an intuitive and worry-free travel experience. Amenities and train station services are located to either side of the waiting room to branch off from the main waiting area. Moving through the remainder of the Commons, a variety of nooks and seating allows for both gathering and individual places in a temporary space between destinations.

Nova Commons is not only a train station that provides the community and commuters transportation from Kenner, LA to New Orleans and Baton Rouge, but also programs and services, such as a Food Bank and a Community Center. The Food Bank feeds both hungry, waiting commuters and locals who do not have food resources nearby by distributing groceries and is also able to act as a soup kitchen in times of need. In an attempt to be more self-sufficient and sustainable the Commons includes a water collection system that utilizes the dynamic shape of the roof. The collected rainwater is not only used for irrigating usable plumbing, but also the urban farming system integrated in the outdoor community spaces. Visible farming areas within the building supplies the Food Bank and creates opportunities of agricultural education that is becoming more rare within the urban landscape.