SUGARCOATED
AN URBAN ORCHARD & CONFECTIONARY
Semester: Spring ‘23 | Instructor: Nate Hume | Partner: Grace Infante
This project explores the main program of an interwoven urban orchard as an integrated food bank on the Lower East Side. This follows the site’s rich history of Orchard Street—what once was a field of trees and crops is now just known as a commerce street. These interplays of rural vs. urban, or natural vs. man-made, that are already present through the site, are now reflected through the project’s program of synthesizing and condensing the Rural Orchard into a controlled setting. By doing so, we hope that new ways of social engagement will unravel through space by breaking the boundaries of public and private. This can create new opportunities for community engagement through the integrated activity of fruit picking amongst engageable confectionery spaces. How can we transform the modern-day grocery store aisle into an engaging, interactive food bank? Alongside programmatically blurring the boundaries of the typical atrium, the project seeks to break up and reconfigure the thresholds of enclosures. With its open ground floor and suspended programs, this “spilling” orchard renders itself visible and engageable from the outside. We further explore the possibilities of frame and enclosure, looking to stuff our structure with loose forms of massing and envelope strategies.
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