PGH Community Safety Center

This project, with Professors Jozef Petrak and Utkarsh Ghildyal at the University of Pittsburgh in 2011, was for a multi-function safety center in a lower income neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Beginning with a guided study in site forces to create a high density of lines specific to the site, these lines were used to create any cuts and folds in the model.

I applied the concept of “Bypass” to the organization of spaces. A three dimensional diagram of public to private spaces within the site created a hierarchy of public to private. Independently, I assigned each space in the program a degree of privacy. Creating spaces within the correct privacy zones using the prescribed modeling techniques guided my production of study models, and tied together the various studies conducted as part of this introductory studio.

Access to the more private spaces was developed through overlapping entrances and circulation patterns allowing one to bypass levels of public exposure depending on the need of the user.