FinalReview_Miranda

FinalReview_Miranda

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Throughout history, the biggest threat to humanity has been the diseases we extract from our environment. Proposal for an Office of  Environmental Studies for the Center of Disease Control  + Prevention would bring collaboration among health authorities, researchers, students, doctors, etc. Design of our habitat is more often prescribed by health authorities than by architects.  At the cross-sections of two major pedestrian routes, the Portland Green Loop and Waterfront Path, I wanted the building to open up and engage with the public and other facilities. Because lifestyle choices are creating diseases, I wanted the environment to encourage movement in order to activate spaces and people, in hopes, to create social engagements among workers and visitors.  The building has several means for entering depending on one’s choice for transitioning to the site, whether by foot, kayak, bicycle, MAX, streetcar, bus, or vehicle. Ground floor retail and second and third floor educational services, encourages the public and surrounding collaborating facilities to gather at the waterfront. The central bioswale creates a continuation from the OHSU campus to the water front encouraging research and monitoring of local habitat and water supply on and off site.

The health industry is constantly evolving and adapting according to new knowledge and the demands of society, therefore I wanted the building to have the ability to adapt within its structure . I chose to expose the CLT and Glu-lam column grid behind a double skin facade to mitigate toxic materials and pollution, celebrate local industry, create transparency, and generate a comfortable environment. Four structural cores within the form generate a space for  functional services including, solar towers, restrooms and other plumbing, HVAC returns Beginning to think about the interior spaces as volumes with various functions in which the circulation enters into and around created a parallel between architecture and the human systems.

The overlapping of systems which generate architecture and the built environment parallel with the intake of our human systems meaning our environment has an effect on us. Generating an architecture which embodies a healthy environment and encourages those inhabiting it to continue to create a healthy habitats is a unique way in which people can help make a healthier future for all.