Wall Housing/Mask Type, Edgewater Housing, The Edgewater Mall, Biloxi, Mississippi, 1994-95


W. Jude LeBlanc, in association with Brian D. Andrews (Andrews/LeBlanc)

The gallerias of France and Europe as well as the linear bazaars of the Middle East developed as organic pedestrian links within larger networks of urban passages. The contemporary shopping mall operates internally as such a pedestrian network. It differs from the European model in that it is usually cut off from the city because of the scale of the parking lot, and because all of the programmed interior spaces turn exclusively to this internal system.

The logic of shopping mall configurations result in a characteristic typical to much of today's large buildings, long mute facades. The wall housing prototype exploits the blank wall as an enclosure for a semi-private linear mews. The linear space of this green belt is repeated in an adjacent layer of thin contiguous dwelling units. The facade which fronts the parking lot is composed of relatively small punch windows while the facade which faces the green "lungs" of the garden is composed of large expanses of glazing.

THE DWELLINGS

Construction. A poured in place platform on columns supports frame construction above. The front facade and the penthouse roofs are finished in copper while the garden facade is sheathed in galvanized steal.

Parking. Parking is accommodated at the base of the building. A steel ivy-covered trellis located at the rear wall both secures and screens the garden beyond.

Section. The principal dwellings are duplexes, one and one-half rooms deep. They are organized to accommodate a number of use scenarios. Spatial precedents for these unit configurations include the Narkomfin Apartments by Ginzburg and Milinis, the Unite d'Habitation by Le Corbusier, and the vernacular dog trot house.

Home/Office Each duplex apartment has three entries that allow various use scenarios. These include a major entry to a foyer leading to the main living spaces, an entry leading to a room which could serve as a home office, and a service entrance to the kitchen.

Housing for the Elderly. The penthouse units are designed in response to a growing elderly population. The dwellings are conceived and would be experienced as aerial iterations of detached houses. These flats are accessible by elevator. They are organized along a rooftop linear sidewalk that connects the private garden terraces of each dwelling.

Housing communities designed for the unique desires and needs of the elderly is a new development type that is currently being tested in the market. Such new communities for retirement age residents include recreation and health care facilities. Unfortunately as with the current phenomenon of "gated" suburban housing proposals, such communities for the elderly often result in isolated homogenized constituencies.

This proposal can accommodate the particular needs of the elderly without the social impoverishment of total segregation. The mall itself offers a social outlet and a place for walking and exercise. Health care facilities located in or near the mall could serve the elderly as well as the larger community.

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ARCHITECTURE


Casita Garcia

Ellis House

Twentieth Century Veterans Memorial

Iceland House

Baton Rouge Cimetiere

Two More Scupper Houses

Dogtrot Scupper House

Shotgun Scupper House

Wall-Highway

Wall-Mask

Wall-Perimeter

Public Space In The New American City

Free Bridge

Goldstein Studio

Another Glass House Competition

Louisiana House

Origlio/Vanderbilt Condominium