We all have to live together in this world. We interact, form tribes, fall in love. We are social animals. Technology may connect our digital selves, but it isolates our physical selves. Social spaces create the stage where we can be our selves in public. The built environment represents our attitudes and needs for social interaction in spaces, and architects have a responsibility to see social spaces as integral to our health and quality of our lives.
A beautiful city does more than efficiently house individuals and plan for their movement and circulation. It needs public space. Free space. Democratic and communal space. Parks and squares to wander and daydream. Spaces to sit under a tree on a bench with a coffee and someone you may be falling in love with. Spaces where you’ll feel the light on your face and have a front row seat to the drama of the city. Spaces that say “This is why I live here.” They can be modest or grand, but they are necessary.
680 Hamilton
Unlike LOHA in a previous post, I’m not working with a network of institutions that are tackling the problems of homelessness or supportive housing. Though I would readily embrace it, as Atlanta has its own issues in handling growth, neighborhood gentrification and social equity. I am working on one project that fronts the Beltline here in Atlanta, which is fast becoming a great equalizer as it continues to complete its loop , connecting neighborhoods in a new way with social space.
The site is in southeast Atlanta on what once was an industrial site along the railroad line that has since become part of the Beltline trail. What once would have been the rear of a site becomes a new front, an additional front, and my project of apartment flats and commercial space has to acknowledge this new pedestrian trail.
680 Hamilton site plan, with the city street to the bottom of the image, and the Beltline at the top. Both become active, public entries to the project. Everyone benefits from inclusion. Rendered Image by HGOR
I envisioned buildings that were carved up, notched, sliced to let the light in, sculpted from space into forms.
Aerial Study: Beltline in the foreground, with a central piazza incorporating elements of existing structures into commercial ‘follies.’
Aerial Study: An internal street that feels like part of the city, connecting to the Beltline. Hide the parking. Scale the buildings appropriately.
Pedestrian View Study: Architecture makes room for social space and becomes the stage for everyone’s lives.
Design inevitably has a hierarchy: a big idea permeates all the little ones. The melody line threads through the entire song, and if the emotion is strong enough, you feel it without needing to know what it’s ‘about.’ What stands out? What fits in? The big idea here is the figure-ground, the open vs. closed, the act of making room for public space in recognizable forms: piazzas, streets, pedestrian lanes, lawns, arbors, and pass-throughs. The architecture of the apartment buildings supports and frames a community stage. The buildings themselves: just context and home.
“That’s my window there, with the balcony.”
“We can meet for a drink downstairs and figure something out.”
“A bunch of us meet here for a run at 6:30.”
An architect needs to understand that sometimes the best part of a project happens in places where you didn’t place the building. Space carved out to let the light in.