Title: Plastic Population
Authors: Kendra Wan, Edward Parker
 

This project is a strategy for a new idea of an institution. It is about
teaching, exploring and producing within the realm of the "practical arts"
(photography, graphic design, fashon etc.). The project covers a little over
20 acres, and is a meeting, working and living place for the arts, education
and residents of Pittsburgh. The south side of the project makes a
connection to the strip district with a wall which acts as a physical
filter. Most public communication and connection take place within it. On
the opposite side of the river, the campus is bounded by a hill. This side
of campus dives and folds into the landscape.  As the buildings move from
one end of this spectrum to the other (north to south), the forms gradually
change, though program (commercial, residential, information exchange, etc.)
is fairly diverse within the whole campus and even within structures
themselves. The final stages of the project were spent exploring two
distinct parts of the project; 1. Kendra developed a library on the North
side which expressed the idea of folding the land. It is enveloping, soft
and integrated with the landscape. 2. Edward developed a piece of the "wall"
on the south side of the site which expressed its self with ideas about the
face of the institution and discreet pieces directly relating to the
existing city grid. Through these small pieces we bring a level of human
scale, understanding and reality to the abstraction of the flexible site
planning strategies.