aperiodic living

Downtown Houston must feel like a strange and intimidating place to take up permanent residence. A half-world of towering skyscrapers inhabited by cowboy commuters and asphalt pens for their motorized steeds, it is a space of total impermanence - a fever dream for any architect. The conditions presented offer something very real to push back against. Demand for spontaneous event space is being fulfilled by peripheral neighborhoods, driving would-be residents out of the downtown area. This proposal is both an answer to this peculiar phenomena and an investigation into what defines public and private domain. Elevated from the streetscape, the construction offers sidewalk goers retreat from the Texas sun and a dynamic event space for weekly farmers markets, festivals, and craft fairs. Organization of the units is based on an aperiodic tessellation, allowing either ends of the units to taper into one another. Studio apartments are one geometric unit,  single bedrooms are two, and so on. A single utility wall provides access to the kitchen or bathroom on either side. The wall also serves as the divider between the intra-unit public and private realm. Shared patio spaces and communal courts offer residents opportunities for recreation and interaction. In another iteration there would have even been a bagel shop.

1611 Rusk St, Houston, TX 77003