Wolf Pack
Architecture
The myth that labor is culture is perpetuated by the architectural style of Accelerature. The myth is broken down by the implementation of Wolf Pack Architecture, which seeks to repair and rebuild the community on which culture is built that has been lost to industry. Learning from the Ojibwe cultural tradition of looking to the wolf for guidance and seeing the ma’iingan (Ojibwe word used to refer to a wolf), which translates to “brother,” as one’s kin we can reassign the roles of people in a society to promote a greater level of collective responsibility and care.
Collage Series
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Implementation
By reimagining neighborhoods as vibrant and inclusive habitats where individuals thrive through the strength and protection of their communities, Wolf Pack Architecture reclaims the teachings of the wolf. It pushes us to begin living in harmony with each other and nature again, not with oppressive ordering systems. Wolf Pack Architecture seeks to repair a fractured social bond through physical changes. The social assets of community spaces like benches, gardens, and spaces of rest and play should be acknowledged more in the modern city but ignored as they serve no monetary benefit or function. However, implementing these systems plays a crucial role in nurturing a sense of belonging and collective identity amongst community residents. The investments made into social infrastructures can empower people to become active participants in their local communities and, in the long term, the greater human community. As it exists today, people feel no ownership and responsibility for preserving and developing the towns they live in. There is no sense of a shared public; instead, they feel a public owned and operated by larger economic forces and systems. Wolf Pack Architecture works to counteract this narrative and encourage a sense of belonging to enable people to think about how they can help support their local community.
Wolf Pack Architecture will manifest itself in Polish Hill through a series of community action interventions and a challenge to the home structure. It will empower individuals to take roles and cultivate a sense of collective responsibility that will allow a pack to form within a neighborhood.
Material Palette
Using the material of language and taking reference from post World War II American housing advertising the collection of postings seeks to use the teachings of the wolf pack to make statements of social resistance against the current cultural landscape of housing and urban planning that promotes social division.
Phased Implementation of Wolf Pack Architecture
Collectors Map of the Polish Hill
The axonometric view of the Polish Hill and perspective scene call-outs incorporating the proposed implementations explores how these new additions and revisions to the current urban planning would work together to promote and develop a sense of community and multi-generational relationships.
![Collector Map [Converted] copy.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/879d4e_ba6e67d882394be09dfa6393c660969e~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_143,y_99,w_10569,h_6968/fill/w_980,h_647,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Collector%20Map%20%5BConverted%5D%20copy.jpg)
Wolf Pack Architecture Storybook
The propaganda of economic institutions that promote capitalist agendas and divisive social hierarchies can only be combated through storytelling which seeks to repair and protect communities through the dispersion of ideas and information.
Perspective Plans of Revised Row House Typology
Here the revised housing typology is viewed with an emphasis on highlighting the individuality and human spirit present in ones home through the development of in-action scenes that take place within the home.
Exploded Axonometric of Revised Row House Typology
The Pittsburgh Row House has a deep seated relationship to labor and the industrial era. Home construction in the Polish Hill and other working neighborhoods were standardized and made with the intention of packing individuals into cost-effective housing solutions that compromised community development and individual expression.
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Model of Revised Row House Typology
The model, which can be taken a part by each floor plate, is used to highlight the spatial experience of key components of the revised home layout. For example the “indoor courtyard” experience created through the double height space and the first floor that leads into the outdoor community gathering and discussion den space.
Collection of Objects: Promoting Social Connection through Ritual Practices
These were objects selected to speak to the ability of tangible objects to act as social technologies. Through the ability of these devices to connect people in a way that transends space and time they are renamed to reference the social rituals they enable. The rich cultural experiences these objects provide, reflected in their renaming, are contrasted against the simple physical descriptions they are catalogued by to emphasize the idea that simple interventions can result in profound social experiences. These tools become the currency of social exchange that communities are built upon.