Fall 2018, Foundation Studio III
Collaborative Project with Chloe Nagraj. Work executed by myself unless otherwise noted.
Elizabeth Meyer and Emma Mendel
2019 VA ASLA Commendation Award in the Residential Design Category
Collaborative Project with Chloe Nagraj. Work executed by myself unless otherwise noted.
Elizabeth Meyer and Emma Mendel
2019 VA ASLA Commendation Award in the Residential Design Category
Beginning in 2019, the non-profit Piedmont Housing Alliance will begin redeveloping Friendship Court, an affordable housing development in Charlottesville, Virginia, tripling the number of residents with a commitment to zero displacement. Our project proposes a design for the landscape that connects current and future Friendship Court residents to the social fabric of adjacent neighborhoods by orienting lived space around trajectories into and out of the site. Countering the coarse-grain, isolated condition of the superblock, we envision these trajectories as fine-grain, richly layered spaces that hold flows and pauses of daily life. Food sovereignty is an integral element of the new landscape: going beyond the current coarse-grain community garden run by an off-site non-profit, we propose edible gardens woven into the site at multiple scales and offering many levels of buy-in from residents: from edible ornamental trees to a small urban farm. Corridors of circulation are expanded into rich multi-use landscapes, providing opportunities for encountering both friends and strangers, ground for pursuing food sovereignty, and space for gathering together.