![From left] Harlan Cleveland, Paul Ehrlich, and George Mitchell at the Third Woodlands Conference, 1979. Schmandt, v.](https://d33dlv5jzgs7pp.cloudfront.net/api/file/jgmEsR1zToCmPLEZ2gQq/convert?fit=max&format=jpg&h=&quality=95&w=408&compress=true&fit=max)
Student Work
1∕9
Title
[Ground] Up
Project Description
Challenging the typical notion of ground up construction, the skyline of Hong Kong becomes a new ground zero. With no room to expand outwards, [Ground] Up seeks to remedy the housing crisis by building atop the current tower blocks. The addition is made feasible by the robust concrete shear walls and allows the additions to redefine the urban fabric. The cruciform block type is transformed into an objectified courtyard bound by a double “L” of housing. Amenity space occupies the courtyard and weaves between two blocks to produce a cross block cadence and to link two communities into one. The original scale of the punched openings transforms into a double skin at the upper levels to obscure the conventional reading of a housing tower. As [Ground] Up forms a new terrain in the sky, it latches onto the existing block and re-originates the housing estate at large.