In-progress Thesis

For my thesis i wanted to address the issue of housing in san francisco, the issue of there not being enough of it. my theoretical solution is to transform some of the almost 1 million square feet of vacant industrial space in the city into mixed income housing, along with retail to give those areas a boost. i am manifesting this solution in the form of the design project you see on these two pages: an industrial factory dating from 1897 that i’m adapting for a ground level retail hall with 3 stories of housing above.

I want to preserve the character and soul of the existing building, and at the same time i want my new additions to contrast and have their own voice, but still part of the larger identity of the building.

Because I strongly believe that all of the built environment should be responsive and respectful of the natural environment, I’m aiming for this project to be net-zero energy, to collect and reuse as much of its water as possible, to compost and grow as much of the food used by the occupants as possible, and of course to be as affordable as possible. I also want to explore the possibilities of the occupants having an on-going relationship with the architecture, meaning that as a community the people who lived here would actively design, create, build, fix, and maintain their homes and businesses, because a community is never static and the best way to tie a community together is through the improvement and investment in ones village.