Architecture

Throughout Poland, especially Wesola, it is not uncommon to support smaller, local businesses and give back to the community. Similarly to the United States, third spaces are gradually losing their prevalence in Wesola in addition to housing for a growing media collection. This proposal is an opportunity to fulfil both of those needs by providing a third space for families to check out local materials, gather with friends after work or school, and have a place to learn.

Compositionally, this proposal consists of programmatic zones that have the opportunity to fluctuate with the inclusion of movable walls around the fixed structural system. Outside the Mediatheque is a grand statue sculpted in a sculptural course. What started as a literal depiction of a father daughter relationship, later molded into an abstract form resting outside the Mediatheque.

This proposal serves as the representation of ideas crafted alongside group members Natalie Cooper and Nyla Dean. We shared the desire to design housing for young families to establish a sense of community in an age of isolation. As a means of supporting young families both socially and financially, we sought to create affordable housing and provide an on-site daycare. With that, both the parents and the children would get the support they’d need. The environment would be a fun one, with colorful elements implemented throughout the housing and the daycare to provide an added layer of playfulness to everyday life in this community.

Author Joel Chandler Harris is most known for his publications of the Uncle Remus stories, documenting African American Folktales that were previously passed down orally. He first heard these stories from enslaved peoples while working at a Newspaper Plantation in Georgia, and used them as a source of inspiration for his published works. He wrote them on the front porch of his home which, since his passing, has become a museum.

The museum, “The Wren’s Nest”, seeks to continue telling African American stories Harris documented as they were originally told, but face capacity-based limitations. For this, "Resonance" is a proposal as a means to add more space to host storytelling events on the property, and introduce a maker space to the community to attract more visitors to the museum. A multistory space houses a large maker space that can be transformed into a storytelling space using projections onto the workspaces.