01 · New Orleans Therapy + Emergency Support Center
ANCHOR
ANCHOR is a community therapy and emergency support center in New Orleans that explores healing as both a temporal and spatial condition. Located beside Basin Street Station, at the intersection of Congo Square, the Lafitte Greenway, and the French Quarter, the project responds to a site shaped by displacement, flooding, and recurring cycles of disruption.
Drawing from traditions of cyclical rebuilding, the design treats continuity not as permanence, but as the capacity to adapt and return. Through the contrast between permanent concrete cores and reversible timber structures, ANCHOR transforms annually between a porous community center and a protective emergency shelter, proposing architecture as a shared framework for care, preparedness, and collective resilience.
- Location
- 501 Basin St, New Orleans, LA 70112
- Year
- Fall 2025
- Role
- Individual Work
- Instructor
- Meriem Chabani, Harvard GSD
A Dynamic System
The building undergoes a seasonal transformation between two modes of occupation, with an intermediate period of disassembly and reconfiguration.
- Regular State (Dec.–May): Reversible timber pavilions create shaded gathering spaces between permanent concrete cores, supporting counseling, informal circulation, and community activities.
- Transitional State: As hurricane season approaches, the timber pavilions are dismantled. Their standardized components are stored or reassembled inside the concrete cores, preparing the building for shelter use.
- Crisis State (Jun.–Nov.): The permanent concrete cores serve as the primary protective enclosure, while the relocated timber components provide interior partitions, beds, and supporting furniture.
- The disappearance of the outdoor timber pavilions makes this seasonal transition visible from the city, allowing the building itself to register a state of heightened preparedness.
Material Strategy: Permanence vs. Adaptability
The architecture brings together two material systems with different lifespans, establishing a relationship between structural continuity and reversible construction.
- Permanent Concrete Cores: Incorporate locally abundant Mississippi River sediment, exploring the reuse of regional resources while providing structural stability, thermal mass, and protected enclosure.
- Reversible Timber Structures: Small, standardized modules sourced from local woodshop offcuts are joined through dry connections, allowing repeated assembly and disassembly as outdoor pavilions, interior partitions, beds, and furniture.
- Together, these systems explore resource-conscious construction, where locally sourced materials support both architectural permanence and seasonal adaptability.
From Healing to Shelter
- A space for therapy and reflection becomes a place of collective refuge. Through its annual transformation, Anchor accommodates the changing rhythms of everyday life and seasonal vulnerability, positioning architecture as a framework for care, dignity, and resilience.
Permanence lies not in what remains unchanged, but in what continues to provide care through change.