GSD 1101 / Introduction to Design and Visual Studies in Architecture / Fall 2014

Nerea Calvillo, Mariana Ibanez (coordinator), Kiel Moe (coordinator), Megan Panzano, Cameron Wu
Project #2: Site/Building Reciprocity
The second project introduces the site in the conceptualization of architecture. It involves the design of
the space between buildings and the effects of their relationship on the urban fabric and the architectural
object. Usually, the relationship between a site and a building is assumed to work one way: the site
precedes the building. As such, the architect responds to the site and typically assumes control of the
building only. The site, in this case, is not a fixed and stable precondition. We only know the elements
from which it is made: two existing houses, topography, site limits, a rear access driveway or alley, a
passageway between the two buildings and streets. Reciprocity will be developed by means of the
manipulation of the relationship between these elements.
The project is organized in two stages, the first one begins with the arrangement of a pair of houses
constrained by a set of geometric relationships that appear to be determined by the city. In turn, the
disposition of these houses serves as the basis for imagining an urban context that could have motivated
the arrangement. The problem is to represent the city as an urban pattern within which these two houses,
independently or together, belong to a larger field of repetitive houses, topography, streets and
walkways.
To think architecturally is to understand the relationship between site and building. The objective of this
project is to develop the two simultaneously, producing discernable architectural and urban relationships
that are calibrated, interdependent, inextricable, and irreducible.
Site Definition and Constraints
The project begins by establishing a (3D) relationship between two houses. This arrangement of the two
houses will serve as the origin for designing the larger urban pattern that contains them. The project is
required to include only as many houses and streets as are necessary to represent the urban pattern
characterized by two conditions: one which can be recognized as a repeating arrangement of typical
houses and streets and another that can be recognized as singular, incidental, and exceptional.
The houses are to be arranged on urban blocks bounded by streets, with an exceptional pedestrian
passageway serving as a short cut from one side of the block to the other along lot lines of the block
interior. The result is a fictional city conceived as an allegory of a neighborhood hypothetically located in
Cambridge or Somerville.
The main engine used to produce the origin for the site design will be a series of formulas which will
create variable three dimensional relationships between the two typical houses. Streets and topography
are not included in the site mechanism; they will need to be added to the design. The designed streets
must be parallel or tangent to at least one of the gable ends of the two given houses. If this is not
possible, parallel and tangent relationships to the street must exist with at least one longitudinal side
elevation of one of the two houses.
The streets and their intersections will be designed to follow typical arrangements similar to those found
in Cambridge or Somerville. Straight, curved, and T-shaped intersections are possible. Rear access
driveways are somewhat atypical for Cambridge and Somerville, though there are occasions in which
driveways penetrate deep into blocks between houses to reach other houses whose lots are embedded in
the block interior, or to reach the back of a house on the other side of the block.
The maximum slope of the street is 15%. The maximum distance from the nearest house faade to the
outer edge of sidewalk is 10. The streets can be one or two way. Street dimensions: each lane for driving

is 15 and the parallel parking lanes add 8 to either side. For two way streets the driving lanes can be 12
each.
The second stage of the project will focus on developing the envelope of the original pair of houses as a
means to speculate about the tectonic consequences of the urban project.
The envelope shape of each of the two houses should remain unaltered, though each will be further
articulated by the addition of the following elements: windows (equal to 20-25% of the total exterior), a
front and secondary door, a porch, a parking space or carport, dormers, roof eaves and chimney all of
which may vary in response to the two basic conditions, typical and exceptional.
Requirements:
Rhino model of site and houses
Site plan
Site sections (two minimum): 1/8 = 1
Site Axonometric
Perspective view of the block-through passageway
Physical Model of pair of houses 1/8=1
Elevations (two of a typical house, two of one of the houses sited atypically): 1/8=1

Required Readings:
Allen, Stan From Object to Field (PDF available on Course iSite)
Anderson, Phillip Warren More is Different, 1972
Project Schedule:
Project given: Wednesday September 24th
Final review: Wednesday October 8th