Design Portfolio by Patrick McAndrews

PORTFOLIO OF WORK:

CONTENT:

Vertical Farm:

A hydroponic farm designed to feed 50,000 people in the Harlem area of New York City. The design is derived from minimum surface and skyscraper explorations and research. The minimum surface is intended to maximize efficiency in sunlight and capacity. - Spring 2011, Group Project.

Student Dormitory:

A critical re-imagination of a quad at Edward Stone's SUNY ALBANY campus, The concept is derived from the windswept sands of the indigenous pine bush landscape. The project intends to unify typical tower and block housing types in a single language. - Fall 2008, Group Project

Al Rostamani Headquarters:

Al Rostamani Headquarters in Dubai, UAE is a new conception of the office tower. A single monolithic block hovers above the water front, providing a view for employees and the public within the tower. The headquarters utilizes tubes as both structural and circulation elements. When the tubes intersect the main block of the building, the leave openings for program variation. - Spring 2011, Group Project

Illusion of Reality:

Developed in two stages, Research then design, this project attempts to find solutions to the extreme social and economic poverty in a major slum of Ahmedabad, India. The project forms as a delamination of an existing slum fabric, pushing a new commercial program space underneath. The structure allows for programmatic flexibility for advancement of knowledge and well being. - Fall 2009, Individual Project

The Socio-Ecological Network:

FOLD: chair:

This chair project was undertaken with a specific interest in the term fold or folding and unfolding with the understanding of its root in the work and philosophy of Peter Eisenman in the lineage of philosophy from Gilles Deleuze. It is responding to the specific conditions of a design brief for new Battery Park Green lawn seats in New York, New York and was undertaken as part of a final project during my first semester at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. - Fall 2012, Individual Competition

Peconic Ballet Theatre:

Francis Bitonti Studio developed this Interior for the Peconic Ballet Theater in Riverhead, New York. White walls hover between the floor and ceiling, pulling you across, around and in. The lighting is situated to create diffuse space, one without shadows, time or solid ground, leaving us with only the dancers to provide us with a sense of time and place. - September 2012 to January 2013, Design Team Intern

VERTICAL FARM: A hydroponic farm designed to feed 50,000 people in the Harlem area of New York City. The design is derived from minimum surface and skyscraper explorations and research. The minimum surface is intended to maximize efficiency in sunlight and capacity. The design studio brief included a methodology of self-sustaining hydroponic systems in continuous flow. The vertical farm would support the nutritional needs of New York City residents by optimizing the amount of nutrition in particular plants and animals with the amount of space needed to grow and maintain the food. This optimization was achieved through the use of an atypical floor plate in the form of a minimum surface, which provided more usable space will also increasing daylight penetration.

This hydroponic bases skyscraper utilizes the advantages of a minimal surfaces to increase the surface area exposed to sunlight. Additional consideration is given to the maximum capacities on each floor related to the necessary quantities of each source of nutrition.

Section of Vertical Farm Viewing towards North

Mid-Tower Detail

Each nutrition category is represented by its own unit type within the tower, based on the assessed needs for temperature regulation and lighting which begins to inform the design: Base Unit:

Solar Unit:

With consideration for the amount of light and space needed for proper nutrition, a basic layout is created which allows for variations based on the sunâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s position throughout the day and year. These variations are coordinated into a vertical spiral in the tower which allows for optimal exposure levels for the various units and corresponding plants and animals. Each nutrition category is given the proportion of space that it requires for optimal growth. These categories include warm season crops (lime green), cool season crops (green), shaded and warm season crops (dark green, and chicken (red) and fish (blue). Additional space is programmed for public programs and private plots for personal growing (yellow).

The tower is organized into four towers that have programmatic distinctions. The most notable is the one which starts on the north side and contains the animals, as they require little direct sunlight, while most plants require significant light. The exception to this is the egg-laying chickens, requiring southern light. Rather than dispersing the functions vertically, a twist occurs that allows for this necessary sun access. This also shades the plants that require either less heat or less light throughout the day.

Volumetric Unit:

Indoor Area, Shaded Cool-Weather Plants

Vertical and horizontal circulation is centered through the entire building with access on each floor.

The fish tank unit has to support the most weight. In order to counter this stress, the structure compresses under each of these units.

The first two levels are publicly accessible for educational classes, promoting sustainable thinking and practices.

Typical Floor Plan, Fourth Floor

Each floor consists of 5 parts, each of 4 sections allotted for specific produce categories as well as a central circulation core. Instead of inserting traditional hydroponic systems into the space, the surface area of each floor, walls, and ceiling are covered with a parametrically distributed system of walkways and hydroponic systems.

Each Hydroponic matrix has its own benefits in contrast to the others. In many cases, they are particularly suited for a small range of plants. Their ability to help a particular plant grow is based on its shape, location, and orientation. Each is therefore placed in a specific region of the tower were they are best suited to help the plants and animals in the agriculture of the tower. Three of the units are:

The Multi-Use Matrix Structure: This matrix-unit is designed to accommodate a variety of plants and their growth needs. It provides a surface for exterior growth for rootbased plants and plenty of area for low rooted plants. This unit makes up the greatest amount of the tower.

Pouch-Grid Matrix: This is specially designed to grow lettuce and other shallow root plants in such a way that makes the plant easy to harvest.

Braided Multi-Use Matrix: This unit is designed to be able to grow multiple plant types that are easiest to harvest in rows. It subdivides spaces, allowing for large, compartmentalized variations in lighting.

Public Area, Mid-Tower

The indoor spaces make up the climate controlled areas of the structure that are restricted (for the most part) to employees. Interstitial spaces between these private floors are open to the outdoors. These areas can be occupied by the public. The tower has enough of this space to allow individuals to rent space to plant their own gardens. This is an attractive offer to the city dweller. The private levels may be accessible to the public in conjunction with the educational sessions. The way the hydroponic matrix units are created allows for intimate interactions between people and the plant and animal life in the skyscraper.

Ground Level View

STUDENT DORMITORY: A critical re-imagination of a quad at Edward Stone's SUNY ALBANY campus, The concept is derived from the windswept sands of the indigenous pine bush landscape. The project intends to unify typical tower and block housing types in a single language. The ultimate result of an intervention at any of the dormitory quadrangles could not overlook the Stone factors of design and design consequence. We see rather blunt inspirations and architectural genius in much of the layout and general design. For example, we look to the location of each quadrangle tower placed in the corners closest to the podium. In the Dutch quadrangle in particular this allows the courtyard space to be free of shadow for most of the day. We see also the execution of further circulation development as it occurs in this same corner. Rather than place entrances to the quadrangle on all sides, they are set in the corners, allowing easy and equal access to both the tower and the bar style dormitories. It is therefore these two particular concepts we have incorporated into our design. As a consequence of the sun angle and location for much of the school year, it became pertinent to have the taller components located on the northern corner. The circulation is best suited also for this corner and therefore must be kept open enough to allow entry.

Ground Level View

Windswept sand like that found in the rare Albany-Pine Bush environment is the basis for the design and strategy.

The approach adopts a general linearity with many connections, both void and elemental within the banding. However, we do not dependent on the visual cues presented by the pattern, rather the actual conceptualization of the logic embedded not only in the frozen frame but also in the time lapse differentiation.

Project typologies including the tower and bar types as well as the Open systems diagram, demonstrating a logic of circulation through void and mass. It is from this singular linearity that divergent paths are created.

A series of voids and masses indicate movement under bridges, into and through buildings and aloft to the towers.

Circulation

Structure

There is no set understanding of void and mass, the mass may not be the destination to which we reach through the void and vice versa. The emphasis is placed on connections and interceptions of these voids and masses. It is conceivable than that the path becomes the destination and the destination becomes the path. That the paths are as important as the destinations and further, can and perhaps should form the destinations.

A Focal Cantilever and subsequent sheltering roof evokes a hierarchy of movement.

Exploded Program Axonometric

Dorm Rooms

Common Area

Exits

Gyms

Cafes and Cafeterias

Third Floor Plan

The masses of towers and chains create spaces, both rigid and elusive that serve as parallel and intersecting experiences, converging people with similar or dissimilar intents and destinations indiscriminately. This comes from the nature of the structure. The deformation of the basic component, driven primarily by composition, generates intersections of both the massing and the voids.

Type 2

Type 1

Type 3

Longitudinal Section through towers and Bars.

Dorm Room Typologies for a variety of living arrangements

Overall View

AL ROSTAMANI HQ: Al Rostamani Headquarters in Dubai, UAE is a new conception of the office tower. A single monolithic block hovers above the water front, providing a view for employees and the public within the tower. The headquarters utilizes tubes as both structural and circulation elements. When the tubes intersect the main block of the building, the leave openings for program variation. This project includes several programs including offices, conference rooms, cafes, and a lobby. It seeks to preserve openness both physically and visually towards the desirable view and space of the water-front. In order to maintain openness, the building floats above the site while remaining grounded to the landscape through circulation and structural elements. This connection is tempered for a smooth transition from landscape to building. The building is located in an ideal site along the waterfront of the Business Center area of Dubai, allowing fro visual and physical movements out onto the water. The Headquarters utilizes tubes as both structural and circulation elements to support the idea of synthesis. These tubes generate the form of both the landscape and building while also creating a visual distinction. These tubes are utilized as vertical columns rotated to allow for open space from under the building towards the waterfront. The Al Rastamani project highlights the importance of openness through the reorganization of mass, which lowers the visual footprint.

Roadside View of Tower

This project seeks to preserve openness both physically and visually towards the desirable view and space of the waterfront, the building floats above the site while remaining grounded to the landscape through circulation and structure. Design Development Standard office building on the waterfront

Footprint of building disrupts public access to water-front Maximize Building view of water-front

New shape maximizes indirect daylight exposure Move building off the ground

Allows access

public

water-front

Move structure to side and combine with circulation

Public park program within the Tower

Typical Plan, Floor 15

The Tower utilizes tubes for structure and circulation which generate the form of both the landscape and facade. This provides a low visual and physical footprint.

Longitudinal Section

View from Circulation Tube to Public Park

The basis for the design is based on the stability of every-day objects which do not have a direct vertical structure. Here, this is visualized with the comparison of a CRT computer monitor and a LCD monitor with a traditional open-plan office building and a section of the concept tower.

The Public Park area within the Tower Exploded Axonometric Glass Facade

Structure

Park Floor-to-Floor Ramp

The Park area cuts through the office block in a similar way as circulation tubes. The cylinder tempers interaction with the occupants of office block and the public occupation of the Park. Detail Model of Park area

Project Model

Night Perspective From The Water

The facade system is a reflection of the interaction CCbetween the tube systems and the office block. The result recalls water ripples, becoming a diagram of circulation on the buildings exterior.

AA AA

DD DD

EE EE

Each floor is designed for program flexibility. The Al Rostamani company is hierarchically organized with several separate consumer and service based companies whose needs vary from each other and over time. The office block is intended to promote a more comfortable work environment with plenty of day light and employee interaction.

The Park space is designed to be integrated into the building, with access at 4 different floors. Each level has great views of the waterfront and city. The Park is covered with grass cells for comfort and realization for employees and the public alike.

Design Development Detail

View From River Walk

In order to maximize the office space, the tower was conceived to be structured by a large load bearing wall which supports each floor through a system of cantilevering floor plates supported by suspension structures that direct forces to the bearing wall and through the structural tubes.

Bearing Wall Corner Detail

Night View Wthin Tube

Transverse Section

This tower is intended to stand as a symbol of private and public equality. In a city which finds itself between new technology and globalization and cultural and religious tradition, equality becomes a relatively monumental pursuit. Here, the tower attempts to stand as a monolithic object as well as actor within this context while housing a large corporation. It attempts to bridge the contradiction and become a duality.

ILLUSION OF REALITY: The city of Ahmedabad is on the verge of a massive population boom. However, as it stands, this growth will occur in the slums. Like in most major cities of India, these slums have been growing rapidly. Businesses and, in fact, the economy of these urban centers respond by using the influx of people who are looking for any work that they are given as cheap labor. And in a government and bureaucracy that works effectively only for those with money or connections, it is near impossible for the low waged workers to obtain better jobs. In fact many barely make enough to survive, requiring their children to work in order to make ends meet. The problem still exists, though, when the slum dwellers are moved from their shanty towns to high- density, low-income, and high-rise housings; the slum dwellers are stuck in a "Culture of Poverty" as Oscar Lewis would phrase it. Within the core of this concept is the idea that those that exist in a culture of poverty do not contribute back to their environment. Here, the slum dwellers are forced to work at low wages in order to survive. Lewis seems to suggest that as a result, they are not able or willing to contribute to the development of the cities culture and society because of their economic status (creating a sort of illusion). However, the choice is not between illusion and reality. In fact, reality is what the individual or society makes of it. The illusion behind the reality of these dwellers needs to be understood. The illusion suggests that some dwellers view themselves (whether known or not) as being in a different place and / or time then they actually are. The solution seems to be desire. Most desire a better life, whether it is more money, more food, or a better job.

Ahmedabad...

A City of over 4.5 million people…

…A city on

... A city on the verge of a massive population boom.

...A city of over 4.5 million people

...The slums.

However, this increase will likely occur areas of However, this increase will in thethepoorest city… likely occur in the poorest areas of the city...

...City Population Density

Slums in Ahmedabad…

BUT What Are SLUMS?

> 800 ppha 400 - 800 ppha

Are they Temporary Structures?

10 - 800 ppha

Ho Unhealth

< 10 - 800 ppha

...City Hindu 84.6%

Religions

Jain 2.9% Muslim 11.4% Christianity 0.7%

...Slum

Maybe...

Population

456,000 (16%) 1991 2001 900,000 (25.77%)

In Vadaj, the Largest Slum in Ahmedabad… They are “The But what are slums? The UN Culture of Poverty” 1952 Temporary Structures?

Unhealthy Conditions? Maybe...

Ahmedabad Utilities

Perhaps...

The AUDA

Oscar Lewis saw slums as “The culture of poverty” in fact. Many residents of these areas have lost all hope of social mobility or participate in any major Oscar institute Lewis of larger society. So, while many Oscar Lewis saw Slums as “The slums exist Culture Of Poverty”; In Fact, Man Of Social Mobility as ortemporary Participation in any “Major Institution of temporary structures and can have Unhealthy Conditions, w structures andoften lem: An Illusion Held between The Slum Dwellers and the non-sl reality: They are very connected.

can often have unhealthy conditions. We can see these as symptoms of the problem. An illusion held between the slum dwellers and the non-slum city dwellers that they live separate lives. The reality- They are very connected!

Slums have...

... and Culture

...Family

...Businesses â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Matrixâ&#x20AC;? (1999)

The choice is not between illusion and reality. In fact, reality is what the individual makes it. The red pill is a look behind the curtain, truth and reality.

The blue pill is the suggestion of the illusion created to fool humans.

Slavoj Zizek

Now, how and what can we do to create the potential for Kahns IIM interactions between the slum-dwellers and the rest of the city? Two programs are legible...

...Unplanned Markets These programs have a potential to create a new interaction that does not already exist, especially in schools and universities. Institutions such as IIM and CEPT help to create a network between the economic classes. The suggestion than is to develop a place these interactions are prominent.

CEPT

... and Commercial ...The street becomes the place of interaction.

The place continuity, duality, reality, and illusion... The terracing concept begins to create a connection with the existing slum and the homes on the opposite side of the street. The slums give form to a change in elevation on the existing fabric. The road side derives a separate logic to relate with the higher income housing.

The process...

Site Forces...

... Resultant Edge

Edge Mutation... The illusion behind the reality of these dwellers needs to be understood. The illusion suggests that some dwellers view themselves (whether known or not) as being in a different place or time then they actually are. The solution seems to be desire. Most desire a better life, whether it is more money, more food, or a better job.

Surface with steps...

... And paths.

... And Site Fabric Integration

Sky walk...

Tesselation for Buildings...

The Mutation...

The Overall Project

Sky Walk Interior Apartments

Housing with urban fabric Continuity

Street Entry

A Park-like Walk way exists to pr promotes a wide variety of people urban fabric rather then just the plemented by a network of opening and semi-private activity on the exp

Market and Commercial Space

Market area

The building unit...

Expanded Housing

This Project is conceived as a method to introduce the concept of an in between space into a highly divided community. The Slum fabric was conceived as a programmatic layer that could be propped up by new programs. The Market area and Commercial space are the core of the intervention, creating a new flow of income for the project without losing valuable space. As an additional support, Higher-income housing is available within the project to help bridge the existing social gap.

Housing

Religious

Market area

Temple

Mosque

Church

Institutions

Hospital

Storefront

The surface of the project is conceived with a similar notion as the sub-level market and commercial space. It Includes a wide range of programs in-

School

Project Plan

Project Section

Commercial Face

Housing with Urban Fabric continuity

The buildings have a range of programs including religious institutions, schools, stores, markets, and housing. The schools would integrate students regardless of religion or economic status. Project Site Plan

A park-like walk way exists to promote social heterogeneity.

The market area and commercial space are the core of the intervention, creating a new flow of capital without losing valuable space. Higher-income housing is mixed in to bridge the social gap.

Private interior walk-ways are kept cool with shade and ventilation. This space is the catalyst for occupant-to-occupant interaction regardless of social, cultural, or economic status.

Common space becomes common interest and goal.

Public Entrance

The market exists to serve both the poor and wealthy. This is the basis of the project, the interactions between the haves and the have-nots begin to occur on a regular basis allowing individuals to see how they can help and be helped in the community.

SOCIO ECOLOGICAL NETWORK: The Socio-Ecological Network is the establishment of a symbiotic relationship between the components of a social network and an ecologic network. The social network is the society and hierarchy that develops codes of conduct for member and context interactions. The ecological network is the context for the social interaction. It is an interface for decision making processes. The Socio-Ecological Network is the establishment of a symbiotic relationship between the components of a social network and an ecologic network. The social network is the society and hierarchy that develops codes of conduct for member and context interactions. The ecological network is the context for the social network and has the ability to affect the efficiency and health of the social network and its members. Objects and correlations that are already related to each of these networks (Social networkfriends, family, etc. Ecologic network- ecosystems, air quality) have significant roles in the other (friends and family certainly play a role in the histories and futures of the ecosystems and air qualities of their environments). The Socio-Ecological Network is intended to adapt over time, thereby maintaining its usefulness. The network works because it adheres itself to the ambitions, intelligence, and experience of its members. These perspectives are aligned with user-selected non-government organizations that collect relevant information for decision-making processes. The resultant subjective perspective of the surrounding environment is based on the value sets of the member and their subscribed NGO's. Each of three systems works to accomplish this adaptation. 1. Time Compression (Visualization): The convergence of time in space, the condensation of a time-line into a moment or image. This particularly represents specific sets of events or actions, which link the past, present, and future. The linkage is based on causality with as much accuracy as is available (an intentional departure from Chris Anderson's "End of Theory"). The momentum of the decision / event provides the 'Larger picture' of intensified futures. 2. Navigation (Map of Actions); While the visualization of compressed time seeks to provide the larger picture of the Socio-Ecological Networks, Navigation seeks to provide detailed if not direct moment-to-moment analysis of possible choices and subsequent actions. Navigation exists as the causal connection to Time Compression. Here "levels" exist to allow for a wide range of experience between members. 3. Score (Reward Culmination): In both Time Compression and Navigation, actions are analyzed with comparison to projective and optimized possible outcomes. A subjective tone is necessary to reduce indecision and latency. The score mechanism is introduced as a metric for the subjective association roles and rules for which the member has adopted for them.

The Idealized Media Event

Social Shift Occasion of State

Political Shift

Occasion

Symbol

Emotion

Major Holiday

Effect Media Event

Historic

Contest

Discrete Sports High Holiday

News

Heroic Mission Institutional

Sports

Dramatic Elements

Politics

Paradigmatic Media Event

Living Documentary

Conflict High Drama Spontaneous

High Ritual

Law War Man-made

Natural

Mid - Late 19th Century Journalism

Travel Individual

Coverage

News

Space & Time Media Event

Travel Late 19th / Early 20th Century Journalism Telegraph / Radio

Mid / Late 20th Century Journalism Radio / Television / Early Internet

Individual

Space Without Time

Travel Individual

Media Event Coverage

Travel Individual

Coverage

Media Event

Space

Augmented Time Early 21st Century Journalism Internet / Television

Coverage Media Event

Individual

Augmented Space Augmented Time

Coverage

The Idealized MediaRelationship event can be conceptualized as a massive occasion Absence of Differenciationin respect to both Individual Media Event in Space & Time time and space. These events tend to revolve around news events but are intensified through a period of speculation, coverage, and post event analysis. Sports journalism finds itself in the midst of the "media event" as an apparatus for effecting both time and space. Most newsworthy events fall into two general categories' News and Media Events. News events are those events which can be represented as a set of information. These events can be represented as points in time. A media event is the coverage and narrative surrounding an occasion. A Media event tends to fit in one of five categories’ Occasion of State, Contest, Heroic Mission, High Holiday, and the “occasion” The Contest and Heroic Mission is of particular interest in sports journalism.

Interface Conceptualization

EM Sensor

Sight

Smell

Hearing Perceive

Touch

Taste

EM Sensor

Sight

EM Sensor

Hearing

Smell Perceive

Touch

Taste

The integration of sensors (sensation) and perception into provides an opportunity for “...an architecture that can only exist in time, an architecture that is a choreography of sensations, an architecture that both changes overtime and responds to changes in time.” Here, Usman Haque pushes for an architecture encourage understanding and participation. In Haque's Sky Ear, “Electromagnetic Waves are understood or sensed” using stimuli of sight and hearing. The significant step would then become the inclusion of an EM sensor (at least in this example) into a new sense which would transcend perceived limitations of perception.

Augmented Reality Research

Google GLASS Project

Site Specific Augmented Performance

Secret Garden Application

Current Augmented Reality Application Significant use of Augmented Reality is slowly progressing as digital cameras and connectivity are growing in popularity and decreasing in cost. In Augmented Reality, the engagement is unidirectional, thus while allowing the user / operator to obtain information through a viewport, it does not operate in away which actively engages the user as part of the augmented view. There is always a viewer and the viewed object.

The interactions of groups or communities of people have been of particular interest of this proposal from the onset. It is clear that this association between people can be a strong motivation for action in the everyday as well as the extraordinary choices and implications of global proportions. The development of these group constructs have been primarily of geographic and social interactions along with political and governmental divisions. This has a specific set of its own consequences (nationalism, political parties, election districts, state lines, etc.). However, new social interactions have brought about a shift in which relationships begin to set the basis for these interactions and communal organizations. The internet itself has been a significant catalyst for this shift. With social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace, Craigs List, and LinkedIn, the ability to connect with people and organizations with specific and / or broad connections with the individual's own interests, beliefs, education, aspirations, and ideals. It becomes especially apparent that these groups and communities have specific purpose and are governed by inherent values (whether specified or not). It becomes clear that these typologies have the ability to insight significant change on the level of the individual as well as the social, cultural, governmental, and even global levels.

Augmented Group Interaction

Stelarc Projects

Stelarc Project Analysis

In the specific context of post-humanism, the understanding of the self is of particular interest. Especially in the work of artist, Stelarc, the accessory is an important component of the self. These attachments are controlled through a variety of methodologies. His use of crowd sourced connections and remote control sensing is of particular interest for this proposal. This includes 'Ear on Arm’ which was intended to be a third ‘ear’ which could be remotely accessed through the internet. The intent was to allow internet users to hear what Stelarc heard at all times.

Time Compression Envelope

This third ear attachment extends the understanding of the individual and the self through perception and the movement of what Serra called the point of the ‘soul’. Much of this discussion can also be associated with another of his projects, the ‘Third Arm’ in which he attached a robotic arm to his existing right arm and used the accessory in a variety of experiments and work. 9 There exists a possible connection which would allow others to control the arm attached to Stelarc. This outside involvement with his ‘self’ or body extension begins to address the ambiguity of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ in a highly connected context. Certainly the ‘self’ extends beyond the immediate context of the event (the result of the host-connected user interchange).

Extension of the Self through Time

The Man that was Used Up Story By Edgar Allan Poe

The Truth is, that the introduction was attended, upon my part, with a degree of anxious embarrassment which operates to prevent any definite impressions of either time or place.

Pompey, bring me that leg!

Here Pompey handed the bundle a very capital cork leg, already dressed, which screwed on in a trice and then it stood upright before my eyes.

Pompey, I'll thank you now for that arm.

Thomas is decidedly the best hand at a cork leg, but if you should ever want an arm, my dear fellow, I must really recommend you to Bishop.

Here Pompey screwed on an arm.

Now, you dog, slip on my shoulders and bosom. Pettit makes the best shoulders, but for a bosom you will have to go to Ducrow.

Pompey, will you never be ready with that wig?...you can procure such a capital scratch at de L'Orme's

Now, you.... my teeth! For a good set of these you had better go to Parmly's at once high prices, but excellent work.

O yes, by the way, my eye-here, Pompey, you scamp, screw it in!...That Dr. Williams, after all, you can't imagine how well the eyes of his make.

Pompey, you... rascal...I really do believe you would let me go out without my palate. When he again spoke, his voice had resumed all the rich melody which I had noticed upon our original introduction.

...It was evident. It was a clear case. Brevet Brigadier General John A.B.C. Smith was the man - the man that was used up.

"The Soul resides at the point where the 'I' is decided." - Michel Serra

Extension of the Self Through Space

Augmented Group Interaction

Edgar Allan Poe's short-story, 'The Man That Was Used Up', describes an American war veteran and hero who, from the initial perspective of the narrator, seems to be in peak physical shape. As the story progresses, it is revealed that the veteran is very damaged from his many battles. He is barely recognizable as living, let alone human without his artificial attachments. As the hero composes himself, we become aware of his history as well as the composition and history of each of his artificial limbs. Each element has a specific history of how it was lost (a leg in battle, teeth from torture, etc) as well as a specific history of how the attachment was procured. 7 The new limbs in which the veteran adopts as his own become associated with their makers. Part of this connection is geographical, the hero identifies specific locations from which he procured the items in his town. While he does not seem to identify explicitly with the previous histories of the material or the replacement makers, he betrays a substantial bias in his decision making process.

Socio-Ecological Network Interface

Project Concept Ti

Codes of Conduct

lity

food

for

Oven

Brick

Pizza

produc

aphica

Brick Oven Pizzaria

l Linkag

Regularly visited by members of your vernacular social community. Aquires food from Upstate, Hudson Valley Region. Dinner has left establishment Estimated Wait Time: 15 minutes

The effects of this network are global and universal. Each individual and each component are capable of significant impact throughout.

Activities Determine

1 of

Geogr

Air

Me m

NY:

Sarato

tion

Affects Capability

ers

ga,

a ig

Nav Events / Actions Affect

Representation in

twork

Affec ts Habitability

Works Within

Ecol og ic

k or

s io n

Social N etw

e Comp

s re

Project Strategies:

S ard yst

Affects Health

Grave

em le

Grave

d ra C

The Disjunctions

Data Spike Interface Overlay

The Socio-Ecological Network initiates as an embedded application among web-based devices. This is inclusive of smartphones, tablet computers, and laptop computers. The ubiquity of these tools will allow the application to thrive in a context and input rich environment. The initial goal beyond individual accountability within a community is the evaluation of existing devices. This evaluation accounts for Cradle to Grave assessments of the devices on which the application has been embedded. This initial feedback mechanism works to initiate a cycle of iterations which allow the devices to be accountable for their own socio-ecological effects. Ultimately, the long-term goals of this project are to develop the understanding and implications of the socio-ecological network. The development of an infra-network is significant to this understanding as a means of reinforcement and grounds for future development. This project anticipates the moment of the conceptualization of understanding and decision as significant in every process and relation within and between the socio-ecological networks. At that moment, technological development can step forward in combination with the socio-ecological network to develop the socio-ecological infra-network.

Individual Progress Infinity Interface

Depending on the membership affiliations, the augmentation will simplify the interface as much as possible. In several organizational alignments, the context will appear in black and white, allowing the host-member to concentrate on specific components of their view. In this scenario, the augmented view is gray scaled with the exception of the data spikes and specific elements in the foreground. Here, the interface seeks to illustrate the importance of the traffic cone and street lights and signs. The data spikes take a more immediate background to the issues for which the host-member is already assigned (in this case, navigation through the context to a particular predetermined destination before this particular context was observed by the host-member.

Peer-to-Peer Network Interface

Intermediate Network Interface

Time Compression Conceptualization

Navigation Interface Connections

The Navigation typology for a local and visible vicinity is the Decision-Space Envelope. It is the buildup of possible and likely decisions based on the host-members association and membership in participating organization groups. Possible options are illustrated in levels of opacity, which allow for the organizational biases to limit the blase effect of the decision space. Specificity of the individual decision components are detailed by the articulation and manifestation of the polygonal elementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s size, shape, and orientation in three-dimensional space. The envelope is developed to bring opportunities with high statistical outcomes and beneficially forecasted decision to a better view for the host-member. The polygons rotated toward the perpendicular view of the host-member (that is to say, in the direct line of sight), tend to be more beneficial in the perspective of the affiliated biases. Those polygons which are not in a similarly easy line-of-sight are among the options with the least benefit as calibrated by the member / organizational bias relationship. The size and shape of the component polygon surfaces are designed to demonstrate a similar level of decision specificity.

Navigation Interface Possibilities

Navigation Section

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The Navigation component of the Socio-Ecological Network is understood to be taken in two perspectives near vicinity and distance interactions. The vicinity oriented Navigation is particularly important because it is the decision-point node which to this point has been called the decision-space envelop. The Navigation typology is the source of the host-member's intentionality. The envelop ensures that the host-member has a specific purpose by presenting a set of options that the host-member most choose from.

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The Navigation is intended to move beyond existing conceptions of GPS directions or Orientation. It is more concerned with the methods used in the decision-space itself. The host-member is to select their path based on the information they have or can find in that moment. For this reason, the decision-point moves into a 3 dimensional space which relays the possible choices with subsequent consequences. This develops the decision-point into the decision-space, the ability to formally visualize several dimensions of a decision process in a single moment and space (although not to be confused with the previous TimeCompression).

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Liquid Arrow Navigation

Memberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Liquid Arrow visible

Memberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Liquid Arrow visible to other members

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Rewards Network Map The Liquid Arrow is the distance based mechanism for the Navigation Typology. It represents a loose suggestion which is open to possible changes as seen fit by the host-member. While it represents a specific decision made within the reference of the bias based organization, it retains the autonomy of choice. The conception of a water-like substance is related to movement through time, representing simultaneously the present decision while also illustrating other options (embedded on the liquid arrow itself). The arrow utilizes the esthetic quality of reflectivity in liquids to develop an interface of reflections ( not only of the past but of the present and future). These reflections illustrate a significantly less binding or dominant view of parallel options and decisions. The hostmember will have walked through the enlarged polygon structure which represented his choice in the decision-space envelope, in doing so, the liquid arrow manifests itself at the heart of the 'self' or as Serra calls it, the 'point of the soul'. The liquid becomes an extension of the host-member, representing his intensions from the moment of the choice. As such, the liquid arrow is an important indicator to other members. The Bias alignments between organizations and their members becomes the determining factor for visualizing a specific member's liquid arrow. The Reward component of the Socio-Ecological Network is the result of the relationship between the Time-compression and Navigation typologies in action with the alignment of membership with NGOs. As the Socio-Ecological Network propagates, the histories of actions and decisions are embedded as temporal and spatial articulations of a specific context (regarding culture, government, society, values, interests, etc). Specific regions (of ever changing density and magnitude) evolve to fulfill particular decision sets. Over time, specific spaces obtain prominence throughout the network for particular goal, aspiration, and method accomplishment. This reward system would be present across the globe, as widely ubiquitous as the Socio-Ecological Network itself.

Host Memberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Liquid Arrow appears once a choice is made

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Socio-Ecological Network Interface

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The Socio-Ecological Network is the establishment of a symbiotic relationship between the components of a social network and an ecologic network. The social network is the society and hierarchy that develops codes of conduct for member and context interactions. The ecological network is the context for the social network and has the ability to affect the efficiency and health of the social network and its members. Objects and correlations that are already related to each of these networks (Social networkfriends, family, etc. Ecologic network- ecosystems, air quality) have significant roles in the other (friends and family certainly play a role in the histories and futures of the ecosystems and air qualities of their environments). The Socio-Ecological Network is intended to adapt over time, thereby maintaining its usefulness. The network works because it adheres itself to the ambitions, intelligence, and experience of its members. These perspectives are aligned with user-selected non-government organizations that collect relevant information for decision-making processes. The resultant subjective perspective of the surrounding environment is based on the value sets of the member and their subscribed NGOs. Each of three systems works to accomplish this adaptation.

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FOLD CHAIR: This chair project was undertaken with a specific interest in the term fold or folding and unfolding with the understanding of its root in the work and philosophy of Peter Eisenman in the lineage of philosophy from Gilles Deleuze. It is responding to the specific conditions of a design brief for new Battery Park Green lawn seats in New York, New York and was undertaken as part of a final project during my first semester at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Proposed Chair Design

Chair Positions: a

This competition entry was undertaken with a specific interest in the term 'fold’ or ‘folding’ and ‘unfolding’ with the understanding of its root in the work and philosophy of Peter Eisenman in the lineage of philosophy from Gilles Deleuze. The Competition Brief for a new space in Downtown Manhattan, the Battery Park Green, was especially well suited as a context for a design investigation of the ‘fold’. Deleuze saw Eisenman’s work as incorporating knowledge and mastery over historical architectural types as well as integrating them into the contemporary condition. For the competition, a chair unit was to be developed which maintained a variety of uses while still remaining respectful and unobtrusive to the existing conditions. Furthermore, it was to integrate an RFID chip as an anti-theft mechanism. The winning entry will be manufactured with 300 units. The chairs will be spread across the Battery Park Green each day and gathered and secured each evening.

Chair Positions on Horizontal Axis

‘Position a’ corresponds to the most common position the chair takes in the day, creating the basic chair with back. ‘Position b’ forms a bench in order to allow groups of people, comfortably seating two adults. Throughout the day, there will be a need to allow use by children. This introduces the ‘Play Toy’ of ‘Position c’, one of several positions programed for children. ‘Position d’ allows ‘FOLD’ chair to become a table for eating or working and a play tunnel which can be aligned with other chairs in the same position to create tunnels for children to play in, on, and through. ‘Position e’ allows the chair to become a second chair (different proportions than ‘Position a’) as well as a small play slide for toddlers. In another position, the chair can be utilized to provide a vertical surface to post ads and fliers. This surface will not touch the ground in any position (‘Position f’). And ultimately, the tunnel-like nature of the form allows the chair a seventh state, ‘Position g’ for stacking, securing, and storing the chairs.

Sensor Network associated with each Chair

For ‘FOLD: chair’, I invoked the ‘senses’ through the integration of sensor technologies. The RFID chip becomes an active component in interpreting and storing the information from the sensors. Instead of acting as a static code (like a barcode) that only has utility outside of itself (and not in and of itself), the chair now has a dynamic relationship with its environment. It is constantly recording its GPS location, occupation position, motion within the tunnel-form, temperature, humidity, and sound. The chair is invoked with the capacity to understand its own position (GPS as well as each of the seven purpose-based positions), as well as the conditions of the immediate environment that it inhabits. These dynamic data points make it difficult for the chair to operate solely as a pointer to an outside database. Instead the chair feeds the network that lies outside of itself with information that it collected and interpreted.

Gathering Site Range The interaction between the chair and the exterior network is build upon the previous utility of the components. Where the network traditionally scans the RFID chip for a static code and utilizes this code to find a specific element of information within a larger framework (a database of food products and prices, for example), this network integrates a more autonomous interpretation for the chair and its component parts. The network scans an area of the park green for the presence of autonomous chairs, receiving back the only static code that is embedded within the Chair’s structure, its name or signifier for the network. From there, the network collects the information stored in each chair into a central server. Given the limited range of affordable RFID chips, this network is broken up into approximately ten ‘gathering sites’ for the network. These are identified as white standalone columns that protect an interior Antennae. These columns also double as locations to secure the chairs at night. The ‘gathering sites’ then transmit the information to the central server to be utilized in a number of ways.

Site Use Diagram

Event and Concert Zone of Use

The purpose of the central computer server is to gather information from all the chairs to interpret and formulate implications for particular patterns. One of the most basic formulations is that of ‘zones of use’ derived from usage patterns. Here, the network establishes reasonable associations (based on experience of historical occurrences as well as established protocols from its genesis) for the entire site, which is constantly changing throughout the day. In each moment, a specific ‘zone of use' is established based on commonalities (see examples 01 and 11 taken from Site Use Diagram). The Battery Park Green is explicitly meant to deal with concert and event (held beyond the lower edge of the park) seating. On days with concerts, these ‘zones of use’ become evident within the network because of the amassing of chairs within a specific area and orientation, as well as their common sensor readings. In the case of a concert or stage event, the zone would incorporate chairs in the lower end if the field that are within range of sound from the event and whose position orientation suggest they are being used to view the event. (Example 11) These ‘zones of use’ may also be established through direct data collection. Each chair’s edges are surfaced with a series of electro-magnetic contact plates which, when aligned with another chair, establish a direct connection and sub-network. This is especially helpful in tracking the formation of the play-tunnels utilized with ‘Position d’. These sub-networks establish ‘zones of use’ in and of themselves. (Example 01)

Playground Zone of Use

The accumulation of this information is utilized for immediate enactment as well as more long-term planning and extrapolation. In the long run, the network is established to accommodate change. The system recognizes that these chairs will not always be here, or that future iterations of the chair may be needed to accommodate the accumulation of purposes that moved beyond the original intention (what Rossi calls an imagination). This may mean the addition or subtraction of sensors or even chair positions. In this sense, the chair brings the ‘fold’ conception beyond the present condition of the form, allowing it to have a dialectic relationship with all three states (past, present, future).

Battery Park Green Chair Smartphone Application To bring the production and interpretation of the data into immediate and actionable means, the network is extended into Internet accessed user interfaces such as an 'App’ for smartphones and tablets or a website widget for desktops and laptops. On such devices, the interface would allow a user to interact with the content gathered from the chair network. The user may find out the location and number of open chairs in the park or an approximate wait time if there are none. They have easy access to the sensors onboard the chairs for temperature, humidity, and even sound. Furthermore, regular visitors to the park can become registered users of the app-chair network, accessing and editing their own usage patterns and preferences. In the scope of an architectural project, we can be reasonably assured, as long as the folded yet still further foldable form is adapted into the formal system with momentary solidifications (like the ‘FOLD: chair’ or even the ‘zones of use’), that the system will continue to propagate itself ad nauseam in the infinite approach towards the objective.

In the spirit of the infinite propagation of ‘FOLD: chair', I saw a need to work beyond the limitations of the competition brief. While the brief was a significant help as a

Chair Elevation

Kevin Stearnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Self-Replicating Robots

formal logic and framework for the investigation that I took on, it proved a limiting factor based on the specific nature of the program. These limitations are amplified based on the technological, economic, cultural, and legal interjections into the project. In this section, I wish to establish the ability of the proposal to maintain and adjust itself throughout time. Specifically, I look towards a transcendence of economic and technological limitations with the introduction of motors and moveable and self-replicating chair-units as well as the legal and cultural implications of unauthorized access to individuals personal data stored on Internet connected devices such as smartphones and laptops. In the case for future iterations of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;FOLD: chair' with adaptations of movability and self-replication, I invoke the experimental work of Kevin Stearns of Cornell University. In 2005, he developed a robot (which in fact was a series of robots) that could replicate itself by taking itself apart while at one position and reassembling itself at another position. While the project still has a ways to go in development, the implications of this project and others like it are very interesting to connect, even directly with the 'FOLD: chair' proposal. In a very basic but drastic move, I suggested that the form of the chair as it was proposed for the completion be cut nearly in half, with a motorized capability to rotate the two components about each other. This motorized unit combines with others through electromagnetic plates (like those in the Stearns robots, a much stronger and more structural version of the ones proposed for the competition), and can form long chains or arms which can move along the site, dropping off chairs as required by users or for particular events. This becomes an active way to use the information gathered through the network (including individual usage as well as the 'zones of usage') to allow the green to predictively establish certain patterns based on historical precedence.

Semi-Autonomous Chair

USER: 00026a Approx Location: 1047 Amsterdam Ave New York, NY 10025 Chair Mode: Position b Last charged phone in chair 274: Aug 5 2013

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USER: 000346d Approx Location: 23 St Subway (E) Train Towards WTC Chair Mode: Position a Last charged phone in chair 0047: Aug 9 2013

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The App-Chair Network

Expected Arrival: 3hr

Another possibility I explore here is the integration of a USB power port on each chair. This would allow users to charge cellphones and similar devices but would also serve as a method of dissemination of a background program that would beneficently send relevant user information from the phone, to the Battery Park Green chair-network. The program would remain on the users phone even after they disconnect from the chair, thereby syncing the phoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s GPS and other capabilities (picture taking, voice recording, internet usage, etc) with the network through the phoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s data plan. Ultimately, this allows the network to predict activity within the park and make long-term and immediate changes the software and hardware of the network. Certainly, there exists many methods of iteration for the 'FOLD: chair' network system. The purpose is for the project to remain relevant by adjusting its programs and purpose. While I spent an extensive part of the process creating and describing a single manifestation of the iterative process, it is only a beginning point, to which, by its nature, should be considered relatively infinite.

User-Tracking Mechanism

PECONIC BALLET THEATRE:

Francis Bitonti Studio developed this Interior for the Peconic Ballet Theater in Riverhead, New York. White walls hover between the floor and ceiling, pulling you across, around and in. The lighting is situated to create diffuse space, one without shadows, time or solid ground, leaving us with only the dancers to provide us with a sense of time and place. This project was complete while interning as part of the design team of Francis Bitonti Studio in Brooklyn, NY from August 2012 to March 2013.

It was with an interest in disruption and continuity that Francis Bitonti Studio developed this Interior for the Peconic Ballet Theater in Riverhead, New York. This 2000sqft facility features reception area changing rooms and a 1000sqft performance and rehearsal space with a sprung floor system. White walls hover between the floor and ceiling, pulling you across, around and in. Black accents punctuate the space stretching across the horizon, tearing at the static stark white field. The reception area sets the space in motion as you enter. A long shelf element pierces through the wall, unfolding and bifurcating becoming the front desk. The solid black finish absorbs the shadows, creating a phantasmal floating threedimensional object. The cantilevered edge pulls the eye around and through an arrangement of black magnetic strips. The sharp magnetized elements hoover somewhere off the wall and gradually taper as you slide around the corner, into the rehearsal and performance space. The simple elegance of the performance space reestablishes the continuities of the horizontal and vertical planes. The lighting is situated to create diffuse space, one without shadows, time or solid ground, leaving us with only the dancers to provide us with a sense of time and place.

Front Entry Lobby

Practice and Performance Space

Reception Desk