For the first nine weeks of the 2015-2016 school year, the CCE Practicum Architecture students were tasked with designing a temporary recovery center in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit.
My intent with this project was to create a transition from the negative aspects of the hurricane to the positive opportunities the future holds. In order to do this, I needed to design a temporary shelter for those who were beginning to rebuild the city. To make my building temporary, flexible, and rapidly deployable, I designed Ten Fold Engineering styled buildings which start out as shipping containers that can be brought in on large trucks and expand out into full-sized buildings. My design includes three buildings: the smallest being the working/resting space for recovery teams; the middle being a health center; and the largest (with the curved wall) functioning as a community gathering space. The curved wall paired with the curved bench creates a sacred space around a large "survivor tree" in the middle of my site. The colors of my walls are both bases for community art and graffiti, and a way to give off the bright and lively culture of New Orleans.