ENGAGED MATERIAL/
PHENOMENAL URBANISM


                                       

East Harlem exists as a critical example of environmental inequality and its tie to the urban landscape of today. Rising temperatures, exposure to air pollution, and  urges a reconsideration of architecture's role as a metabolic system within nature as a combative concept to modernism’s model as exploitive and wasteful.



To begin, one must understand the place with its histories, communities, needs, and environmental patterns to reveal relationships with the people of the neighborood and the forces shaping their lives and health.

 



Materials growth and development are subject to research and cultivation as apart of the process of investigation.  

The relationship between us and the material becoming essential to understanding its future relationship to the community it wishes to help.


Experimentation is critical to the development, as testing and results begin to shape the form of the architecture. We can test the efficency, the constraints, and more through posing questions and testing for answers. 

As we learn more of the the capabilities and limits of the material, we can begin to make design decisions.




Using the findings of the experimentation and the cultivated/prepared materials, assembly systems are designed and subsequently construct to present and evaluate applications. 

Constructed models are built at 1/2 or 1/1 scales in order to better understand the constructability and realtionship to the community. 

Series of fabrication techniques such as CNC, vacuum-forming, 3D printing, and more are used as key methods of development in order for higher efficency of production.




The case studies become interventions shaped by the material, tending to the needsestablished by the experimentation stage, as well as tending to the site, established upon the needs of the community for spaces of gathering, exercise, and more.
Programs such as CFD and Ladybug simulations become essential tools to establish form finding techniques.


Research gains meaning through conversation. Returning proposals to East Harlem creates an opportunity to reflect on how material innovation, environmental performance, and architectural speculation might contribute to healthier and more equitable urban futures.

IG

Mycellium
Algae Terracotta



Darrick Borowski
Visiting Associate Professor

dborow64@pratt.edu
darrick@dba.nyc
718.399.4305

http://darrickborowski.com
http://are-a.net
http://materialphenomenal.com

IG:

Mycoshield:
Mycellium

 Sarah Cawley
Brianna Martinez-Burns
Saahir Lakhani

Algenosphere:
Algae

 Aarav Schroff
Nicolas Gotzev
Mehek Usman Terraflow:
Terracotta

 Brynn Lucky
Vaughn Carson
Olivia Su

Urban Osmosis:
Hydrogel

 Zophia Li
Tia Thomspon
Kyle Fish