THE COMPOUND BLOCK
Research, ongoing

“The Compound Block” is an ongoing research project that combines research in three cities - Syracuse (NY), Houston (TX) and Tucson (AZ). It proposes a fresh look at the conditions of the block in mid-rise neighborhoods of the American city. Beyond categories of ‘infrastructure’, ‘architecture’ and ‘landscape’, a deliberate ‘mis’reading emphasizes formal and figural relationships and overlays between these categories. The focus on compound figural relationships between surface, mass, program, and vegetation uncovers potentials for latent relationships and architectural strategies – a speculative template for an urbanism based on architectural form rather than infrastructure.