ABSTRACT

The design process of altering a framework in an urban context, can be enhanced by new development reacting to an older existing fabric. The old and new can have the affect of mediating separate individual actions, bringing them together to create a new whole. Contextualism creates an abstract response to the perceived character and proportions of the surrounding buildings, taking into account the human act of inhabiting. Mixing ‘new’ and old alters the perception of the urban center.

Old cities have existing layers and overlaid patterns of spatial and conceptual order. There exists within these layers an urban fabric, a more intimate scale of complexity that’s serves as a point of origin for a new urban fabric.

At 9th and Callowhill Streets, it has disintegrating structures which creates a scar for this area. This area is unique with its history from building upon the remembrance of past forces, injuries and adaptations. These structures within the fabric bring about new ways of thinking and inventing. They create a new condition of inhabitation because cities are places of density, potential, and movement. It moves at a fast pace and by catalyzing and nourishing it, the inhabitants are able to keep up with it.

Surgery is a technique that can provide a better understanding for the solution of this site. It identifies the actions of cutting and slicing away decaying elements and stitching together a new layer overtop of it connecting different networks that intertwine amongst the users in the site. (i.e. living, movement, travel, and potential) It adheres to the site and melds with the history of it and provides a sense of stability of the site showing how to unclog blocked routes and areas in the site that have been damaged or driven down.

This thesis will show the process of creating a new framework through the needs and concerns of the users. It will develop a set of networks that will create a treatment for the clogged and decaying areas. The need of physical therapy will be proceeded through the amount of elements in the networks being intertwined in this intervention.