anna kueck

LifeScape

In partnership with FEMA, the NYPD, The FDNY high school for Fire and Life safety, and the Science Resiliency Institute, this school functions as a base for emergency disaster relief and community organizing. Through the integration of vocational training and aquaculture studies, the curriculum frames disaster response as inseparable forms of social and ecological exchange with both immediate and long-term strategies, while providing young students opportunities to become leaders in their communities.

Utilizing GIS to identify at risk populations, a spatial analysis of communities led to the sighting of the project. The elderly, those affected by poverty, and families with young children are most likely to be cut off from supply chains, live in homes that are in disrepair, or simply not have access to vital information. This project is sited in Floyd Bennet Field, where it is centrally accessible by road and by water.

The site in Jamaica bay is part of the only national park in New York City. Deep enough for boat passage and yet protected from storm surges by a shallow region, this area already contains a marina, beaches, and hiking trails. The proposal seeks to take advantage of this location while preserving existing activities and wildlife, and activating the area for more social interaction, recreation, and education. GIS data was used as a base for landform modeling to conduct this analysis.

The landscape, consisting of ponds that host fish hatcheries as well as absorb storm water, was modeled parametrically in a voronoi pattern and then allowed to deform. Topographic points from regional geographic data provided the frame from which to model points at natural low points and cleared areas for buildings at natural high points. The organic shape of the ponds preserves the pristine nature of the site as well as controls wave attenuation.

The proposed plan includes a network of ponds, accessible from
boardwalks, with three main campus buildings and several small “outpost” classrooms.

Culture Bank

The culture bank is a local manufacturing incubator in downtown Brooklyn. The building hosts a bank, which invests in new manufacturing, and an exhibition center that connects the neighborhoods shifting present with its industrial past. The
site is currently host to a shoe district, made up of various units types of storage and display.

Abidjan Refit

Abidjan, Cote D’iviore, is a rapidly densifying city. Tall buildings must accommodate the growing population of urban dwellers to prevent urban sprawl. A visit to Abidjan revealed a multitude of formally vacant tall buildings, awaiting revitalization. This project seeks simple answers to reactivating existing structures with locally sourced materials. It looks to history for answers regarding high performing facades in this tropical climate, using a series of theoretical programs to test their potential.

The Plateau, in Abidjan, houses the cities most iconic buildings, including those represented here. Citing the project in this district allows prototypes to be showcased in the context of progress and desire. Much new construction in tropical west Africa adopts the glazed, curtain wall facades developed for cold climates, high winds, and impermeable social structures. This project re-introduces traditional tropical interventions, modifying them for a modern city and arguing their validity in the modern world.

This building was selected for system testing. Built in the 1950’s and surrounded by public park space, it once housed apartments. Operable windows allowed for cross ventilation from the south to north facades, and the east and west remained opaque.

The sun-path in Abidjan tilts only slightly to the south, causing most of the suns radiation to be blocked by the roof and protruding floor-plates. Deep set facades need not screen heavily to avoid the sun.

Study conducted with ladybug climate analysis for grasshopper.

Hotel du District
1954
Henri Chommette and A. Laget

Imeuble Postel
1973
Pierre Fakhoura and N’Douba Amon

The Caistab Building
1980
Bernard Nivet and Robert Boy

La Pyramide (section)
1973
Rinaldo Olivieri

Final south elevation of rennovated builting, with programs.

The gallery makes use of a shading system to filter light, and advertise a cultural arts program.

The clinic uses a thinner outer facade, to allow for a veranda between outer and inner skins. Fixed louvers are arrayed in various gradients to shade shared spaces and more private spaces from outside views.

The school houses another thickened facade, this one occupiable for storage and seating. Lateral shading makes up for the closeness to the perimeter of the buildings, while preserving views.

The public market space on the first two floors creates a socially permeable space, open to the outside for natural ventilation. The panels compress the natural breeze, accelerating it so that it can be experienced more intensely inside than out.

The office space utilizes a similar system, adding a second skin of window wall. This scheme allows for a sealed, air-conditioned interior, with optional natural ventilation to lower the cooling load.

Worm’s eye Axonometric Section from interior

Rendering of the veranda on clinic floors.

Upcycle Housing

Created in collaboration with Emily Mohr.

Located in the south Bronx, across from Manhattan, up cycle
housing allows residents to dwell in the building before construction
is complete, and contribute to the building process by recycling their waste. Materials are collected through separate waste streams
within the building as well as from the surrounding neighborhood to build the brick-like structure.

Voids are left in the building’s design
to act as programmatic lobbies and open views from the Bronx, to the river, and the Harlem neighborhood beyond. Units range from micro to three bedroom options, each floor containing multiple types, and aggregating for shared terrace space
in between.

Units are constructed using a simple, prefabricated system, with walls made of an aggregate of recycled material.

Initial studies for floor plans explore household waste, and it’s disposal in different rooms.

Childrens' Hospital

Research suggests a direct link between an increase in sedentary, socially-isolated activities, and the growth in childhood stress, anxiety disorders, and obesity. This project seeks to challenge the standards of hospital efficiency with a more active program of play. Hospital circulation, specifically ADA standards, are applied as a way to make the building both absurdly efficient and inefficient

This concept utilizes ADA ramp standards as a form driver that allows the building to unfold as it rises above the neighboring structure. This creates interstitial spaces for play, exercise, and interaction, as well as catches natural light that does not reach within the lot’s footprint, while remaining within the allowable FAR. The design was achieved parametrically, using grasshopper to span distances seemingly haphazardly, but strictly within slope, length and landing requirements of ADA ramps.

Diagrammed in layers, the ramps define the form of the buildings
upper half, play spaces occur in between ramps, and patient rooms are accessible from the ramps.

Plan of the guestroom floors.

Curtain Wall

Technical Analyses

Tamedia office building
This analysis of Shigeru Ban’s cross laminated timber structure was undertaken as an independent study, out of interest in emerging timber technologies and passive building envelope strategies. The Tamedia office building demonstrates the strength of CLT in an arguably exuberant application of the material, blending the ancient with the highly technological.