FRONTIER VETERANS RESIDENCE

The Frontier Veterans Residential Community is a 3 week group project curated for IDEC student competition 2020 collaboratively as a team to designed a “socially sustainable” adaptive reuse proposal for a veteran living community by reusing a former brick warehouse in the local community. I have involved extensively in different phases of the design project including research and concept development, space planning, material selection, and 3-D visualization during the execution of this collaborative project.

Veterans Residence

Project type: Group

Shu Yee Chin,

Alex Tsung,

Saki Yamamoto,

Elsie Judy

Fall 2020

IDEC Veterans' Community - Blocking floo

BLOCKING DIAGRAM

FLOOR PLAN

D E S I G N S T A T E M E N T

Located in the Cultural Arts District of downtown Fresno, FRNTR (Frontier) is a residential community for veterans that is designed to cultivate cathartic experiences through bonding with others who have shared histories, as well as encouraging veterans to reconnect with friends, family, and the surrounding community. Interior finishes reflect earthy tones and textures, while also integrating lasting infectious-control materials considering the COVID-19 pandemic. Natural light streaming in through the warehouse windows and skylights illuminate the open floor plan and corridors, which attunes to veterans’ needs for openness for maintaining sight lines and orientation. Organic forms are a recurring theme throughout the design, from the suspended acoustical installations to the curvilinear lines delineating spaces. FRNTR is designed to support veterans’ needs and experiences, as well as improving social cohesion and forming lasting relationships.

PRESENTATION BOARDS

OUTDOOR DINING

INTERIOR FACADE

RENDERINGS

Gallery

RECEPTION

THE WAR AFTER THE WAR

The ripples of wartime can be felt deeply, long after it happens, and for some veterans it seems to be incessant and severely interferes with their daily lives. Veterans commonly su!er from PTSD and social isolation, it has an e!ect on all those touched by war, including their families and friends. Deborah Gregor recounts the long-awaited moment her father opened up with her since returning from WWII, in her poem,

“The War After the War” (1949, Excerpt)—
Fifty years from then, one evening,
from the drawer where he kept
the TV remote, next to his flint-knapping tools,
he’d take out a small gray notebook
and show his eldest daughter
how, in pencil, and tiny hurried script,
he kept the names of those who died around him.

A frontier is a border between the known and the unknown. The FRNTR helps expand horizons for veterans in a supportive
environment designed to improve mental health and social wellbeing. By providing a healing space that addresses their needs,
veterans will be able to cross that frontier into a renewed dimension surrounded by friends, family, and support systems.

LOBBY

KITCHEN & DINING

PUBLIC SPACE

SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

In the spirit of fostering social sustainability, the space incorporates multiple public spaces spread evenly throughout the building programmed to help build neighborhood connections, encourage social interactions and community cohesion in the veterans community. A wide variety of amenities are available to individuals living in the veteran residential building on the foundation of recreational therapy and creative therapy.

Adopting the notion of creative art therapies as part of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Recreation Therapy Service, the Frontier Veterans Residence aims to promote wellness and rehabilitation through exercise, art, dance and movement, drama, and music therapies. Recreation and the creative arts o!er a holistic approach to physical, mental, and emotional well-being, improve physical rehabilitation, engage in social communications and skill development, providing outlets for self-expression and motivate veterans with physical and mental abilities to engage in treatments (VA Careers, 2018).

FLEX SPACE & ADMIN OFFICES

PUBLIC SPACE

INTERIOR FACADE

The interior facade is designed as a corridor of connection integrating an array of interactive activities that aim to foster social connections and engagement. Activities area include a TV station, games, an arcade, easel and painting equipment to allow veterans connect with art through creative therapy, as well as ample amount of seatings. The Facade will bring the eye upwards towards the acoustical installations on the ceilings. Acoustical properties are vital considerations for veterans with PTSD because excessive
echo and carried sound can be disorienting and triggering.

OUTDOOR DINING

M A T E R I A L S E L E C T I O N S

Materials for frequently touched surfaces are carefully chosen including anti-adhesive or self cleaning surface coatings that provide continuous disinfection, hard, nonporous surfaces that are easy to clean and resistant to cleaning chemicals, and antimicrobial paint throughout the public spaces for better control of the spread of infectious microorganisms. To promote e!ective cleaning, we have proposed Fabricut Contract Bleach Cleanable Fabrics and Mitchell Performance Stakleen Performance Fabric as the materials
used for soft seating and surfaces. Stakleen Performance Fabric can be disinfected with a 5:1 ratio of water to bleach solution. Adapting to the conditions, we have designed the outdoor dining spaces with curved wooden slats around the tables and curved walls around the patio. Designated seating areas as measures of physical barriers for disease protection. Some germs can live on hard surfaces for hours and sometimes even days (CDC). The concrete and oak hardwood flooring are both treated with microbial antimicrobial technology coatings.