School of Architecture

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Commoning on the Ring Road
(2021-01-28) Carr, Brendan; Vassallo, Jesus; Finley, Dawn
This thesis synthesizes two decaying typologies on the periphery of Houston, the office block and low-rise mass housing, with the ambition to distill different uses and scales of space into a multivalent collective form. The outer edges of Houston house an unexpected degree of density. Largely built during the first oil boom of the late 1960s and 70s, a patchwork of low-rise high-density developments are the naturally-occurring affordable housing stock of the city. However, these developments are reaching the end of their useful life at a time when the city faces a critical need for housing. Contemporaneous to these mid-century low-rise housing projects, the suburban office block faces a different kind of decay. Though physically durable, these sites face increasingly high vacancy rates, only exacerbated by the on-going pandemic. Rather than continue a model of development predicated on unlimited availability of land, these under-utilized sites can be given a new life through the expansion of their use and spatial composition. Operating on a scale somewhere between city and building, the mega-parcels that constitute the exurban environment offer a unique opportunity to reimagine the privatized landscape of the urban periphery.