Project Description
This project is a formal, spatial, and typological investigation into affordable housing in Milwaukee. Starting from the premise that solving the housing question requires local solutions not only institutionally but also formally, spatially, and typologically, this project documents the contemporary state of housing in Milwaukee via archival and public records research, site visits, mapping, interviews, field measurements, and drawing, in an effort to identify contemporary and locally sensitive strategies for densification and to define new or hybrid housing typologies for the present and future of the city. This research is part of a longer-term project. This first phase, which took place over the summer of 2024, documented a wide range of housing types in Milwaukee (to be expanded as the research continues), collected zoning and building data, and identified opportunities for intervention or invention via adaptive reuse and new construction. The research will move from research into design, focusing on proposing paradigmatic adaptations of existing typologies and proposals for hybrid or new typologies and developing specific proposals located on a handful of Milwaukee sites selected through the extensive research and site visits conducted this past summer.
Tasks and Responsibilites
The student’s tasks include:
1. Research (documentation): Using Google Earth, zoning maps, and GIS tools to catalog (in the forms of maps, diagrams, and timelines) current and historic zoning data that influence housing development in Milwaukee; working with the Wisconsin Architecture Archive and other archival and public record sources to locate architectural drawings that document the slight variations in housing typologies around Milwaukee.
2. Documentation (continued): Visiting the neighborhoods that were identified during the preliminary part of this research to obtain photographic documentation and take field measurements to aid in the creation of detailed drawings of existing conditions.
3. Design: Producing diagrams outlining the nature of the proposed interventions and to develop and document specific architectural interventions into the existing Milwaukee housing fabric.
Desired Qualifications
None Listed.