URBANbuild: local/ global

URBANbuild Local Global--is primarily a documentation of the work of URBANbuild--a comprehensive program launched to be a unique multi-scaled laboratory for city research as well as a vehicle to generate innovative design strategies and site-specific interventions to aid in New Orleans's revitalization and future urban development. The program primarily focused its investigations on culturally significant neighborhoods central to the core of the city that had been severely damaged, not only by Hurricane Katrina, but also by a long history of neglect and urban decay. One of the critical intentions of the program was to tactically operate across a wide range of distinct scales: from the macro-scale of the city and its constituent districts and neighborhoods, to the micro-scales of individuated buildings acting as architectural components inserted within the urban field. The term "URBANbuild" signifies the compression of this broad spectrum, referring to a progression that spans from urban design to design build and the range of disciplinary areas and differently scaled studios that comprised this program. In addition, the term alludes to the complex enfolding of design research with material practices--the interweaving of analytical urban investigations and speculative architectural design research concurrent with the construction of real built artifacts. The scalar superimposition that characterizes URBANbuild's multi-layered nature thus emerges as a method for collaborative cross-disciplinary dialog, as a resistance to either overly local and ad hoc, or overly global and generic solutions for the city's future.URBANbuild: local_global is, quite literally, a double-sided book. Its intention--to simultaneously look inward toward the city of New Orleans, and outward toward a larger global context--emerged from the desire to reconnect local research, analysis, and design with a broader framework that embraces external knowledge and experience. The two sides of this book are conceptually distinct yet continuous. On one side are laid out the local operations of URBANbuild, divided into seven distinct sections differentiated by scale and approach that together constitute a continuum of interrelated research systems, methodologies, and design strategies: (1) City Datascapes, (2) Urban Cartography, (3) Urban Strategies, (4) Megablock Housing+, (5) Portable + Mobile Infill, (6) Prototype Inventory, and (7) Microbuild. These are also preceded by a set of theoretical texts that elaborate the conceptual foundation underpinning each of these sections. On the other side of the book, there unfolds a compilation of global research divided into an additional seven sections containing mega-scaled metropolitan statistical data, urban morphologies, and an analytical inventory of architectural precedents drawn from a network of comparable world watercities, that collectively inform and contextualize local URBANbuild research and practice. These sections include: (1) Global Matrix, (2) City Scan, (3) Urban Imprint, (4) Block Morphology, (5) Block Typologies, (6) Housing Inventory, and (7) Unit Assemblies. The creation of this local-global matrix was intended to expand New Orleans's potential future urban scenarios by mining the intellectual capital of other watercities challenged by related issues and to establish an inventory of linked models at multiple scales that can be both provocative and educational for this city. The URBANbuild program and its products, including four built prototypical houses, was extremely successful as evidenced by the extended coverage that it received in the media. Components of the project were published in Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Domus and Cityscapes among others; and the work was exhibited internationally in many venues, including the Ogden Museum in New Orleans and the Venice Biennale in 2006, the latter of which was toured internationally for one year. In addition, the last URBANbuild house, which was completed in the spring of 2008, was the subject of a documentary series on the Sundance Channel that aired in August of 2008. Although the audience for the publication is primarily in the professional domain of architecture, urbanism, and related disciplines, the book was also intended for a global audience interested in housing, urban and environmental issues. URBANbuild Local Global documents the work of a unique multi-scaled laboratory for city research, innovative design strategies, and site-specific interventions created to investigate culturally significant neighborhoods central to the core of New Orleans that had been severely damaged by a history of neglect, urban decay, and Hurricane Katrina, and aid the city's revitalization and future urban development.