Ankur Moolky - Portfolio

HIP-HOP HOUSING

ARCHITECTURE

HOUSING

Syracuse, NY | Individual Work | Advisor: Roger Hubeli

Tech stack: Rhino, Grasshopper, Illustrator, Photoshop, V-Ray

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THE BRIEF

The construction of the Interstate 81 through Syracuse reshaped the city’s urban fabric, displacing thousands of Black residents, severing long-established neighborhoods, and reinforcing patterns of racial and economic segregation. As the city advances plans for the removal and redevelopment of the I-81 corridor, questions of housing, community restoration, equity, and cultural continuity have become central to Syracuse’s future. This project positions housing as a vehicle for addressing the social and spatial consequences of urban renewal while exploring new models of collective living within a historically fragmented landscape. The project must:

Investigate the historical, social, political, and spatial impacts of I-81 on Syracuse’s communities, with particular attention to displacement, segregation, and neighborhood transformation;
Analyze existing housing conditions, demographic trends, and community needs to inform a residential strategy that responds to contemporary social, economic, and cultural challenges;
Design a multi-family housing proposal that integrates private dwelling units with shared spaces, community amenities, and public-facing programs;
Explore housing as an urban intervention capable of fostering social interaction, strengthening community networks, and contributing to the long-term redevelopment of the surrounding neighborhood;
Develop an architectural response that addresses issues of density, accessibility, sustainability, and adaptability while engaging the broader urban context of Syracuse.

CONCEPT

The construction of I-81 shattered the lives of thousands of Black families, uprooting generations of stories, dreams, and livelihoods. It carved a brutal line of segregation, forcing communities to bear the weight of displacement and division. Yet, beneath the concrete, each individual, each home, each neighborhood clung to its unique identity—one shaped both by the looming presence of the highway as a scar of the past and by the strength of its people, who resisted and rebuilt their lives with dignity and hope.

Hip-Hop Housing seeks to honor that resilience by shifting the paradigm of housing from the monotonous developments so often imposed on marginalized communities toward a place of vibrancy, culture, and unyielding transformation - a physical manifestation of the idea of hip-hop architecture.

The project is characterized by fragments - moments of material and space that recall a distant memory. Framed by the salvaged I-beams of the dismantled highway, the space behind the facade of each volume becomes a canvas for expression. Flexible spaces offer residents the chance to shape public areas to their own desires, weaving together a tapestry of stories and identities.

As one moves through these spaces, they are embraced by a collage of cultures, a celebration of what “home” means to each household.

BUILDING DRAWINGS

UNIT SCALE

The units are laid out on a simple mass-timber grid, with scales of units ranging from apartments for individuals to larger families. Each unit opens directly into the shared corridor, fostering an intimate connection between neighboring households.

The building intends to house three main constituent groups, with the intent of focusing on those affected by the highway's desecration of the 15th Ward: working couples early in their careers, households of 4-5 people, and grassroots activists and entrepreneurs who are looking to make a positive impact on the community of marginalized individuals in Syracuse. Together, these three groups of people will come together to create a neighborhood that is constantly evolving to meet the changing conditions of the city.

BUILDING SCALE

Building Floor Plans

A depiction of the layered public/private gradient in each hallway. The spaces at the back are bedrooms and unit balconies, and as one moves forward, the spaces gradually become more public: the kitchen and dining room, the front entrance, the hallway, and the multiple typologies of space in the corridor, shared by all residents.

Building Sections

URBAN SCALE

At an urban scale, the project aims to project the flexible, transformative spaces designed by the residents towards the city, drawing pedestrians and other local residents into the project. A fragment of the highway in front of the site will be transformed into a linear urban park, minimizing demolition effort and radically revitalizing the urban fabric. The courtyard is simply designed, eliminating a single predetermined notion of how users could occupy the space. One could imagine the central elevated space being used as a podium, a space for performance, or just a place to sit, surrounded by views of the shared corridor. Three enclosed spaces on the ground floor offer flexible areas for program such as a workshop or a gathering space for members of the city and the community to actively discuss the redevelopment of Syracuse.

PERPSECTIVES

A collective sampling of programs, identities, and cultures

A simply defined public space for residents and community to gather

A community hub for creativity and advocacy

View from the dining room into the rest of the unit

A reimagined strip of the highway as an urban park

Private spaces reserved for the residents

POSTSCRIPT

Hip-Hop Housing is more than just housing - it’s a memorial and a provocation. Despite its radical ideas, it does not impose on the residents. Rather, it invites them to question the ways in which a discriminatory history has impacted the neighborhood while allowing them to reclaim the space as their own. Through this act of reclamation, the neighborhood takes back not just land but its soul, renewing a community once torn apart by the very structure that now empowers its rejuvenation.

Final project review

Modular Matrices

Albina Mosaic

CONTENTS