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Aaron
Kang
Smithson


ARCHITECTURE︎︎︎
  1. Hinge House
  2. Lakeside Grove
  3. Forgotten Fort Kongenstein
  4. 1.5-Loaded Corridor
  5. Walnut Park Place
  6. Out of Office
  7. Constructed Nostalgia
  8. Two Blocks
  9. Elsewheres
  10. Ordinary, Except
  11. Sketches

PLANNING︎︎︎
  1. Lynntercept
  2. Housing Lynn
  3. Roxbury Planning Ideas
  4. NYC Urban Design Principles
  5. Ancel Plaza

WRITING & PUBLICATIONS︎︎︎
  1. Journalistic
  2. MoMA
  3. Academic
  4. Graphics/Editing

INFO︎︎︎
 Aaron is a designer, planner, and writer based between NYC and the Boston area. He is most interested in affordable and multifamily housing design, public architecture, urban design, and participatory planning practices.
Mark

3. Roxbury Planning Ideas


Harvard GSD
Urban Planning Core 1 Studio, Fall 2022
Critic: Ann Forsyth, Hannah Teicher, Anne-Marie Lubenau
Research Partners: Juliana Beekenkamp, Yvonne He
**Graphic design work completed independently



For the first semester core urban planning studio, we were tasked with conducting extensive research on Boston's Roxbury neighborhood and laying out various

Part 1: Constituencies Research

First, we researched constituencies and stakeholders in Roxbury. Who are the public, private, and non-profit actors that hold influence in the neighborhood? I diagrammed these constituencies using a color scheme from a local mural, then played out two potential scenarios--one describing how multiple constituencies from different focus areas contributed to a single neighborhood project, and the other demonstrating how a household may come into contact with various constituencies (as both aids and impediments) during a hypothetical search for an affordable apartment.


Part 2: Home Improvement Program


The second stage involved proposing a program or policy that might fill existing gaps in Roxbury's social service infrastructure and improve health outcomes in the neighborhood. Responding to Roxbury's plethora of physically deteriorating housing units and the inherent difficulty of renovation, we chose to focus on a government-subsidized program to help lower-income home-owners and property owners with low-income tenants fund home improvement projects to bring more of the neighborhood's housing stock up to health and sustainability standards. Two posters describe the program visually.


Part 3: Roxbury Community Microgrids



The third stage of the studio centered on the implementation of a program or policy to increase neighborhood resilience in the face of mounting climate challenges. Using prior research and Boston Chinatown's microgrid program as a model, we proposed the funding and implementation of a community microgrid for the Roxbury area to form a community-centered bulwark against extreme heat events and power failures. The proposal relies on a variety of existing and new infrastructural elements throughout the neighborhood, distributed to ensure that implementation is feasible and serves residents most in need. Because microgrids are often hindered by the innate difficulty of educating stakeholders about their benefits, the program is described through a digital and physical pamphlet that addresses this complexity in accessible and engaging ways.

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