Somatic Collaborative

(News) Lecture: Somatic Collaborative in Montevideo

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 21:08:48 +0000

[[Felipe Correa]] presented recent work by Somatic Collaborative at Universidad de La República in Montevideo (Uruguay). Correa’s visit also marked the launch of the South America Project workshops at the Taller Danza , an academic unit within La República’s School of Architecture.

(News) Publication: Somatic Collaborative published Elective Affinities

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 15:11:12 +0000

Elective Affinities is a brief catalog that documents recent work by Somatic Collaborative. The publication brings together a multiplicity of scales and scenarios the studio has engaged throughout the past 5 years, ranging from installation pieces to open territory plans.

(News) Conference: Somatic Collaborative featured in Princeton / UCLA Watershed Conference

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:36:33 +0000

[[Anthony Acciavatti]] and [[Felipe Correa]] presented work at the Princeton / UCLA watershed conference in Los Angeles. Both presentations examined the role of water in the organizational structures of diverse urban scenarios.

(Project) Residual Sites: La Floresta residential complex

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:45:24 +0000

The “Floresta apartments” is a 16 unit residential complex that occupies a residual site on the northeastern edge of the city of Quito (Ecuador), overlooking the Guapulo valley. Conceived as an “L” shape in plan, the building is sighted on the two edges adjacent to the streets capitalizing on the stronger soil within the site and defining a clear urban edge. The ground level is defined by a courtyard containing a swimming pool that cantilevers towards the abyss, and encloses a sunken garden that brings light to the underground parking. The units, varying in size from 160m2 to 240m2 are organized as thin linear strips punctuated by generous terraces that separate the bedrooms from the living and dinning areas.

(Project) Plaza Republica: a new fine grain open space

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:12:50 +0000

The project proposes to transform a derelict urban surface into a new cultural landscape that provides the city with a new high quality fine grain open space, complimentary to the adjacent Alameda Park; a new urban piece that can act as a catalyzer for future urban transformations in the Alameda district. The project transforms the old plaza into three new interconnected spaces, an open lawn that faces the existing park, a new courtyard and gallery space that redefine the entry to the existing underground theater and an elevated platform that hold a small botanical garden made up of endemic Andean species. These three elements act as anchors for a multiplicity of social and cultural activities to unfold within the spaces of the project.

(Project) Arizona Report: Frameworks for a well-tempered urbanism in the American Southwest

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:57:02 +0000

Phoenix and Tucson, commonly known as America’s “desert cities” have established a bipolar relationship with its immediate environment of the Sonoran Desert. Sitting a top of some of the largest non-replenishable aquifers in North America, the Phoenix-Tucson mega region has evolved from an accretion of diverse infrastructures tasked primarily with the laborious manipulation of water. These infrastructural projects have throughout the twentieth century generated an inconspicuous yet extensive public works system that transformed the terrain from arid ground into an arable Eden, and later into an overextended urban oasis.

This funded research project investigates the role of the territorial grid and water infrastructure as the two primary organizational systems for urbanization in the region. Furthermore, the project explores ways in which a re-conceptualization of these two constructs can proffer more integral and well-tempered models of urbanization for the region.

The work will be documented in a publication to be released in the summer of 2011.

(Project) Elastic Footprints: Altos de Santa Rosa Residential Complex (version 2)

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:10:34 +0000

This 16 unit residential project is conceived as two long bands that make up a zipper configuration. The project’s built mass and its varying degrees of transparency create a nuanced relationship between the public street front and the more secluded private gardens. Each unit is conceived as two volumes tied by a thin circulation gallery; one of them contains the social areas flanked by a service core while the other one has the sleeping quarters that expand or contract based on programmatic requirements. A two meter sectional difference in the site is negotiated through minor vertical shifts that inform the geometries of the ground and roof plane. While each unit is perceived as a single-family home, the construction logic responds to that of one continuous building.

(Project) Green & Gray: Rethinking the Suburb Through Compact Residential Space

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:58:02 +0000

This project proposes a denser alternative to the neighborhood’s suburban densities by introducing a pilot senior citizen housing project.

Composed of 30 units of varying types and dimensions, the project thickens the edge of the parcel reducing the amount of new roadways and leaving the majority of the parcel open for recreational agriculture and a Blue Oak reforestation strategy.

Furthermore, the project mixes senior citizen units with free market rentals, which serve as an additional source of income for seniors.

(Publication) Anthony Acciavatti: Trojan Horse. RISD, Dept. of Architecture Publication Series

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:39:38 +0000

[[Anthony Acciavatti]] published “Trojan Horse” as part of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) department of architecture publication series. The book documents the work of a traveling advanced architecture research studio at RISD that focused on a new vocational school in the Himalayas. The project, sponsored by the Bon Shen Ling Education Fund explored how an academic campus could act as the generator and model of a new architectural and urban identity for the foundation.

Trojan Horse

(Publication) Anthony Acciavatti: Changes of State: Slow Motion-Trauma in the Gangetic Plains of India. Architectural Design Magazine

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:31:59 +0000

In recent years, the vicissitudes wrought by harsh weather patterns and natural disasters have resulted in hurricanes and earthquakes and had a catastrophic impact on people’s lives. The Ganges River Corridor in northern India is a region that perennially undergoes extreme changes in weather and climate with the onslaught of the monsoon season. [[Anthony Acciavatti]], in his Dynamic Atlas series of drawings, has measured the effects of rainfall and agrarian processes in relation to the fast-paced modes of urbanisation in the area.

(Publication) Felipe Correa (with Jorge Silvetti): Invention / Transformation: Strategies for the Qattara / Jimi Oases in Al Ain. Harvard Design School

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:47:16 +0000

The work presented in this publication documents a one year investigation, through design studios at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, of the Qattara / Jimi Oases in Al Ain (United Arab Emirates). This research initiative, sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), explores the time-honored tradition of the oases as facilitators of settlement in the region, and examines their inherent potential to act as new forms of collective space for present day Al Ain. Through the compilation of drawings, data, and text the material presented here-in cuts across multiple scales, morphologies, and historical layers of this rich territory, constructing a visual profile that clearly singles out the most significant drivers that have shaped urbanization in the region. Furthermore, through a broad range of design hypotheses, the book captures a projective view on the oasis, and how it can once again be conceived as a key organizational device to reformat the city.

(Press) Alison Furuto: Plaza Republica / Somatic Collaborative. ArchDaly

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:23:26 +0000

ArchDaly

(Press) Saunders, Bill: Idea - Driven Projects . Harvard Design Magazine

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:38:08 +0000

Somatic Collaborative featured in Harvard Design Magazine (# 32 “Design Practices Now Vol 1”)

(Press) Ana Maria Duran: Sobre Somatic Collaborative. Post, Post, Post, Nueva Arquitectura Iberoamericana

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:44:58 +0000