The Building Envelope
Samantha Massey
Professor: Jaime Sanz
Semester: Spring 2021
Type: Half Semester Project
The Visiting Faculty Housing project challenged students to design temporary housing for faculty to live while working at either Virginia Commonwealth University or University of Richmond. The site was located at the intersection between W Broad St. and N Robinson St. and across from the Science Museum of Virginia. Within close distance to cultural districts such as the Museum District, Scott’s Addition Historic District and the Fan District, this building needed to acknowledge a growing community around it while trying to maintain community within its residents.
Using the site of 17,000 SF that once was just a parking lot, I began by creating a coagulation of shapes that would help dictate floor plans and orientation of each unit.
In order to maintain unity of the smaller community within my housing project apart from that of Richmond, I designed a skin-like cover to encase my building. This allowed for hybridized interior and exterior space and air circulation to all units. In addition, a transitional quality was added to this skin to create a dynamic façade element revealing information about the interior intentionally. Moving elements allow for many changing spaces and compromise between being within the building and the context of Richmond.
The ground floor doubles as a grocery both for the residents and for the surrounding community to incorporate the housing into the existing fabric of the neighborhood. Lots of opportunity of relationship between indoor and outdoor space are explored in the project. The skin is an important element in maintaining hierarchy between the inner and outer communities of the complex.
The result is a communicative environment among the residents as well as with the urban environment while still creating private spaces for each resident to enjoy their own manipulated choice of living condition.
