Phuong Vu (Comfort Caves)
Keith Benes (Topobliqueness)

Miguel Guitart

ARC 501
Fall 2019

BS Arch

The Good Neighbors studio is the first in the sequence of the 3.5 year MArch program. Students from diverse academic backgrounds examine the house as the principle manifestation of the domestic space, where privacy meets the urban condition as a way to develop a better understanding of the built environment.

Buffalo is known as the City of Good Neighbors. Such a title coexists with others like the Queen City or the Electric City. These names highlight very particular conditions of the City of Buffalo within the American urban, architectural, and social scene. The focus of this studio was to explore space at the domestic scale in Buffalo. 

Understanding the scale of the domestic space, where privacy meets the urban condition, will help students facilitate a better understanding of the built environment. While the home is the ultimate private space for people, it is also one of the most experimental spaces, a first testing-place for all architecturerelated aspects.

This graduate studio focused on domestic space, as well as space for creation and coexistence. By reflecting on the house as the space for intimacy, creation, relation, and coexistence, it becomes the very first unit of mankind’s largest and most complex construction: the city.

The project required three detached units for three families and three types of creative activities: writing, composing, and painting. Each family had unique spatial needs for both their craft and their very different lifestyles. As all three families share a single property, the goal was to create private, independent space while encouraging neighborly relations through shared open space.

Students were given hypothetical backgrounds for the three families: an older couple who are both musicians, enjoy baking, and require a music studio; a large family of seven, the mother of which is a Pulitzer-prize winner who needs a writing studio; and a single painter who desires a bright studio where she can paint and display large 6’x6’ pieces.

In response to these scenarios, students generated proposals that tell the story of each of the occupants and reflect their lives in the way their spaces are organized. 

Vu’s Comfort Caves was influenced by the complicated feelings of neighbors sharing a site together. The project mainly focuses on a parametric roof that connects the three houses and three studios together. This overarching structure provides shelter and daylight, as well as a unifying feature to physically bring the occupants together. The design encourages neighborly interaction by providing shared exterior spaces that fall under the parametric canopy.

Josef Albers’s painting, Homage to The Square: Ascending, helps to inspire the decisions of lights and boundaries throughout the buildings. The roof structure, which is mostly made of metal, is interspersed with strategically-placed glass panels to bring natural light into the living and workspaces. 

The proposal takes shape as natural cavelike forms with the intention of providing spaces where the occupants feel both comfortable and secure. The design, which is meant to be more organic and atypical, aims to inspire creative work in the studios.

Benes’ proposal integrates the three houses and three studios into their topographic surroundings. Similar to the remnants of ancient volcanos in the American South-West, the homes rise from the landscape as clear masses, but are firmly connected to the ground by earthen embankments. An ambiguous relationship develops between house and ground.

The proposal also explored how an oblique condition would affect the spatial experience of a street and a home. Benes rotated the traditional lot, perpendicular to the street, by 30 degrees to create diagonal striations across the site. By emphasizing strong diagonal elements in both plan and section, soft barriers promote privacy for families while presenting a green façade to the street. In addition to providing a separation from the neighbors, the inclined lawn can be used for a variety of activities, including sledding, reading, lounging, and picnicking.

Extruding walls from the ground plane create an artificial landscape. The faces are inclined 30 degrees towards the street and 15 degrees towards the rear neighbors. These retaining walls support earthen embankments and green roofs, further blurring the line between house and landscape.