Project Description
This student project was completed in Good Grids, a studio course at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York’s School of Architecture and Planning which won a 2016 ARCHITECT Studio Prize.
FROM THE PROJECT TEAM:
Three pure geometries, the reflecting circle, the square grove, and the urban strip, juxtaposed against the rigidity of the grid iron. Rather than forsaking the typical, (re)proun embraces what has grown to be the vernacular Chicago block. Single family homes line the streets, oriented towards the long edge of the rectilinear block, these houses pack tightly throughout the quarter section forming a density that very much defines urban living. Street trees on running on the edge of the vertical streets provide a grain to the plan, while spatially defining the front yards and sidewalks of the residential section.
(re)Proun, seeks to differentiate itself from the typical by the re-appropriation of an idea of form from El Lissitzky. Lissitzky’s “Proun” forms stood as, “projects for the affirmation of the new.” Here these three geometries form archipelagos in the sea of the typical Chicago block.