unCommon ground

Brooklyn's urban fabric is a redundant array of perimeter residential blocks, built out over the last 200 years as a layered accretion. Within each block is a core that is spatially unified yet distinct from the public front of the street. These spaces are defined by their enclosure yet this barrier is not entirely impenetrable. Each block possesses a few unique moments of slippage in which the perimeter mass opens up to reveal a slivered view into the depths, and potentials, of this internalized world. To the vast majority, including residents, these slivers and cores remain a visual phenomenon. The near-universal practice of extruding backyard parcel lines has created an architecture of division, namely the fence, closing off the yard from the block and the block from the neighborhood. This thesis proposes an alternative scenario, in which rear fences are removed and a thin line of public space is inserted into the mosaic of existing yards. The line, activated through a set of calibrated relationships with the ground and floating infrastructure, stitches together people within the open core and works against the detritus of old divisions. Through this intervention, a new grain emerges which connects Brooklyn's blocks and transforms the residual slivers into a network of spaces that open to an engaging, and unexpected, rendering of the pre-existing.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Miranowski, David (David Kelly)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Rafael (Rafi) Segal.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/97367

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/97367