A ‘mobile pin-up’ at the Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, New Mexico. Here our class presented the semester’s initial ideas to the Navajo Nation housing authority and head of engineering. The projects were well-received, and I think we have influenced thought on the city’s future growth even at this early stage…
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work by thomas grant macdonald, 2015, all rights reserved
A quick first pass at an ‘incremental courtyard’ housing typology that helps constitute an urban development system for the Navajo community at Crownpoint, New Mexico. It’s basically a duplex-density synthesis of the courtyard housing I experienced in Santa Fe, NM and the incremental housing model put forth by Elemental in their entry for Make It Right. I really dig incremental development concepts, and am particularly interested in their applications at scales beyond the architectural unit…
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work by thomas grant macdonald, 2015, all right reserved
Photos from a recent studio trip to NavajoLand…
from top: Ancient Anasazi City @ Canyon de Chelly, NM. Navajo traditional weaver @ Hubble Trading Post, Ganado, New Mexico. Ancient Pueblo City, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
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work by thomas grant macdonald, 2015, all rights reserved
Intervening in the plaza… mountain/valley complex as public space…?
work by thomas grant macdonald, 2015, all rights reserved
The treatment of urban creeks is an important and under-considered issue, and there seems to be little study on how to deal with them from an landscape/urban design standpoint. The city fabric turns its back to these creeks, encouraging their appropriation as areas of crime, environmental damage and missed socio-economic opportunity. It can be argued that the insertion of public amenity and light circulation within these creeks can provide a framework for economic attraction, which will underpin architectural reorientation. More of this project to come…
work by thomas grant macdonald, 2015, all rights reserved
Revisiting and reconceptualizing a project from last semester. My aim is to reinvigorate this outdoor mall in Gaborone through the provision of a shade-giving, topographically interesting landscape intervention that also provides support for the wifi-generation and start-up businesses. Ideally this can all be accomplished through a move that “brings the mountain to the plaza,” however this first pass doesn’t feel right to me… I think it’s too much of a one-liner. Perhaps the trick is adjusting the the plaza’s ground plane to create a field vs. a set of objects, while managing not to rip apart the plaza’s beautifully interpretive flatness…
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work by thomas grant macdonald, 2015, all rights reserved
landscape – the big picture
Taken during a studio visit to the Navajo Reservation at Crownpoint, New Mexico
work by thomas grant macdonald, 2015, all rights reserved
Initial concepts for a new urban development on the Navajo Reservation in Crownpoint, New Mexico…
work by thomas grant macdonald, 2015, all rights reserved
Colombia comes to the Rez…
work by thomas grant macdonald, 2015, all rights reserved
