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urban

architecture

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urban
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︎simon needham︎

︎ needhasw@mail.uc.edu
Mark

covington_[re]hatched_

 
prof. de_peter_yi
summer_2023
covington_kentucky
partners jacob_mackin + isaiah_zuercher

daapcares best in show graduate said award [2024]

This proposal reimagines 23 acres of the levee-impeded Covington riverfront as an athletic campus which brings recreation in conjunction with bright, exciting environmental graphics. The monotonous rectangular blocks of the immediate context are exchanged for circular forms, creating a more open, wandering, and varied pedestrian experience as a relief from the typical repeating city grid. A thread-like path dynamically wraps through the site, connecting each building. Repeated circular buildings serve as housing and define activity zones within each courtyard. We have called these community activators. Atop each community activator are public spaces that provide arena-like seating and elevated vantage points to spectate activities across the site. A large multipurpose arena, a cluster of three residential towers, and an administrative building also occupy the site. The ground surface hatches are both porous and literal colors, offering an optimistic alternative to the typical urban context. Unlike the activity spaces within the building courtyards, these zones and surfaces only imply activities, giving back control to occupants of the space.


photographs of 1” = 80’ physical model︎︎︎





This site model was constructed using cast glycerin to deemphasize the building volumes in favor of highlighting the environmental graphics. 3D printed rings sit atop the cast buildings bearing the form of stadium-like seating to observe the surrounding activities.


photographs of 1/8” = 1’-0” physical model︎︎︎




overall site plan︎︎︎



This proposal aims to break its 23 acre parcel down into smaller, programmed communities. It does this through the use of circular, interior-focused building forms scattered across the site. Circular building forms create more varied and engaging interstitial spaces that is populated with less formalized activities and bright environmental graphics.



perspectives︎︎︎



increasing water level diagrams︎︎︎



This proposal was, in part, designed as a response to the inevitable rising of the Ohio River. All buildings are lifted above the ground plane to provide safety from potential flood waters. Ground hatches within the project are not only representative of their vibrant surface condition but also of their varied porosities to respond to potentially destructive rising waters.







kit-of-parts matrix diagram︎︎︎



Due to the large scale of the site, a 'kit of parts' design strategy was implemented. Individual components were designed and subsequently arrayed across the site to form the final configuration. Components varied in scale and typology from the large, multipurpose arena, to small, site objects used to bring more life to the open site.


group process sketches︎︎︎


Early studies of this proposal investigated breaking the large site into smaller community zones while maintaining connectivity and architectural unity. Though the architectural language changed between these studies and the final proposal, many major concepts and ideas remained.
Mark