Arch: StarcHouse

Cornell/S2/Y1/1011

This is another first-year project I did during the tail end of the hurricane, which is first-year architecture. The prompt: “Design a 3,000 sqft kitchen to cook your favorite cuisine” and.... now I know that tater tots are not a cuisine.... but they are delicious. After debating for weeks with my professor, I finally sold the idea that a tater tot-only cookhouse is a thing that people want and designed this. Derived from the idea that a potato grows into the void it leaves behind and negotiates the ground plane, this structure does the same. Each cylindrical cut into the ground has its own program, all meeting in the middle kitchen area. The protrusions are coded to primary wind directions and sun angles, allowing shafts of light to penetrate into the ground, bringing light and fresh air down into the deep, much like the stem of a potato plant brings nutrients to the potato. Some initial studies are at the end of this page as drawings, models, and diagrams. 

Studio Professor: Jennifer Newsom