TEAM:
Austin Sheehan (Concept development, Ecosystem services, biodiversity, and microhabitats diagram. Movement, circulation, and sequence of space diagram, Plan View Render, Perspective 1, and Perspective 2.)
Maylin Gomez (Concept development, Design Goals/Program Model, Perspective 2, and Poster design/layout)
Isabella Blauert (Concept development, Activity, performance, and intimacy diagram, and Section 1)
Paige Heisz (Concept development, Health, Well-being, and Sensory Systems diagram and Section 2)
COURSE: Landscape Architecture 562: Urban Design and Open Space Systems
MEDIUM: Digital Illustration, Digital Collage, Poster, Physical Model
DESCRIPTION:
Studio Square reimagines a one-block site along Frances St. in downtown Madison as a mixed-use infill project focused on creating a more active and equitable urban space through biophilic design. Developed through an iterative process, the project explores how housing, public space, and commercial uses can be layered to support everyday life and community gathering. The design introduces new housing with a focus on affordability, expands green space and tree canopy, and creates a network of public zones including an urban plaza, flexible lawn, stage, and linear stormwater greenway. Green roofs and increased planting are used to manage stormwater and improve comfort at the ground level. The goal was to create a dense urban space that still feels open, social, and easy to move through.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
This project was developed through an iterative process that began with individual exploration and evolved into a collaborative group proposal. Early stages focused on testing ideas through physical modeling, using clay to study form, scale, and spatial relationships. We also worked in 3D modeling and VR to move through the site and better understand how people might experience it. Moving between these tools helped us refine how buildings, public space, and landscape systems could work together. As a landscape architecture student, my interests have shifted from a focus on design alone to a stronger focus on how landscapes perform and respond over time. Through both studio and field experience, I have become interested in how planting systems, stormwater strategies, and urban space can be integrated to address larger environmental challenges while still creating spaces people want to use. In this project, that thinking shows up in how open space is used to organize the site and how systems like green roofs and stormwater management are treated as part of the design, not separate from it. I am interested in continuing to push this approach forward by combining design with research and observation and by contributing to a field that is actively evolving in response to environmental and social pressures.
