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spring garden hostel
This project is an adaptive reuse of an existing brick shell in Pittsburgh’s spring garden neighborhood. This area is known for its post-industrial building types, and rapidly changing topography that situate it within a valley, which provides a bowl-like architectural condition of the landscape. I focused heavily on celebrating the existing brick shell while creating a unique experience for hostel-goers and community members alike.
existing conditions
spring garden neighborhood
existing shell: interior view
existing shell: aerial view
This project seeks to redefine the building type of hostel through creating spaces of connection and interaction both on the scale of the hostel community, and also with the larger Spring Garden community as well. The project consists of a celebration and strengthening of the existing brick shell with minimal destruction to it, and three cross-laminated timber framed vertical voids that punctuate this interior space. This creates two types of spaces: those directly within the wooden structures which provide atmospheres of calm, quiet, and reflection, and those which exist with liminality between the wood framing and the brick shell, which push individuals towards the public spaces of the hostel for communal interaction. Preserving the existing brick shell complements the neighborhood and provides a facade that is consistent with the context. The neighboring parcel also seeks to forge community connection through providing opportunities for outdoor seating, hanging out, renting bikes, and also gardening with the community. The exterior of the project seeks to connect with the neighborhood and enrich the lives of everyone in the community. On the interior of the project, however, a completely different experience arises as one ambulates about the exterior of the semi-permeable voids, and passes within them in order to achieve privacy.
roof plan
exterior rendering
spring garden hostel drawings
floor 1
floor 2
floor 3
section a
section b