5. Public Condenser



2021, University of Tennessee              
Professor Yojiro Lomeli              
Individual Work              


Axonometric View


This project was inspired by extensive research on the parallels between national highways and displacement. The paradoxical idea of the highway is that it is a physical device for moving people from one place to another, creating areas of land deemed unusable or unwanted, invoking its authority to divide cities. The product of this research is a public condenser which acts to displace people through the underpass. This project resists excess formalism, in favor of architecture that stages ‘open public structure’. This project uses geometric operations with a reduced palette of architectural and urban techniques. While simple, this architecture is sufficient to effect the maximum transformations both spatially and behaviorally. This is not to be confused with minimal architecture, but rather a minimum as a way to respect the density existing within the site.


Highway Displacement Map




Floor Plan



Model Photos