Studio Life: Tackling Affordable Housing at NYCHA

Our class project for this semester is a a little different than your traditional urban design studio set up. Instead of creating a hypothetical master plan for a neighborhood or site, we are working with WXY Studio to develop a tool for the New York City Housing Authority to use in engagement.

The Context

NYCHA is the largest provider of affordable and public housing in the country, but currently faces a number of budgetary and maintenance challenges.

Here is a graphic I made depicting NYCHA's proportion of federal funding in relation to how much the agency spends per resident.
Here is a graphic I made depicting NYCHA’s proportion of federal funding in relation to how much the agency spends per resident.

A combination of ‘what-if’ scenario planning and dialogue-based community engagement, our goal this semester is to create an online simulation platform for future engagement with various stakeholders – such as developers, NYCHA, tenants, neighbors and political leaders – to imagine opportunities for Baruch Houses on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Using a European gaming software called Tygron, our class will be one of the first American student groups to test the platform for a development project.

 

Netherlands based Florian Witsenburg, CEO Tygron Engine, leads a software training session for our class. Tygron is an online, 3-D multi-player gaming platform to design and engage urban communities.
Netherlands based Florian Witsenburg, CEO Tygron Engine, leads a software training session for our class. Tygron is an online, 3-D multi-player gaming platform to design and engage urban communities.Netherlands based Florian Witsenburg, CEO Tygron Engine, leads a software training session for our class. Tygron is an online, 3-D multi-player gaming platform to design and engage urban communities.

Real-Life Sim City

After an initial research phase at the building, neighborhood and policy scale, we are currently setting up both our ‘virtual game’ and ‘physical model-based game’ with stakeholders, actions, financial budgets, indicators, and performance metrics for a variety of real estate development options, including:

Residential
Commercial
Mixed Use
Open Space

At the end of the day, planning and development can be likened to a game with many players and many agendas. We hope our engagement tool can foster a well-informed dialogue between the various stakeholders in the development community in and around the Baruch community. The final semester will conclude in a book that compiles our methodology, findings and site models.

Welcome to Tygron Engine

Published by:

Akshali

I am a second-year MRP student participating in the AAPNYC program. A Midwestern native and first-generation American, I'm fascinated by the intersection of urban design, sustainable transportation and community health. This is also my first time living in a large city like New York, so bear with me as I get a handle on this city. Follow my blog to read up on our semester here in NYC - some of the topics I cover include our studio coursework, internships, field trips and living. Be sure to also check out blogs.cornell.edu/akshali, where I document my life as a Cornell graduate CRP student. Have fun exploring!

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