Brice Aarrestad
Portfolio
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Personal Statment
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Mto Moyoni Youth Retreat Center Jinja, Uganda
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Duluth Crafted Lincoln Park Neighborhood, Duluth, MN
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Market Site Development North Loop Neighborhood, Minneapolis, Minnesota
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Minneapolis Farmers Market North Loop Neighborhood, Minneapolis, Minnesota
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Tuamkeni Primary School Arusha, Tanzania
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The Whole Learning School Saint Louis Park, Minnesota
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Pumpkin Catapult UMN Landscape Arboretum, Chanhassen, Minnesota
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Help Desk Furniture Company Jinja, Uganda / Minneapolis, Minnesota
Personal Statement The contemporary world is full of grand challenges and architects have an important role to play in resolving to these pressing issues. While architecture on its own cannot answer the all of the questions facing humankind, its impact should extend beyond delineating space and keeping the rain out. Through my education and training for architectural practice, I have come to understand that architects can and must play a pivotal role in shifting the experience of the human condition towards dignity and hope. The projects in my portfolio present an assortment of possible solutions to some of these grand challenges. The designs within this collection provide iterative responses to important questions: How do we equip people to escape poverty’s grip and experience the dignifying joy of achieving the highest hopes for their future? How can we use design to create dynamic neighborhoods centered on the pedestrian experience rather than the car? How can we design learning environments that enable students on the Autism spectrum to better navigate the world around them? How can we design an economically sustainable framework for improving underequipped schools in the Global South? How can we craft culture in a way that encourages us to believe the world is a better place because of our differences? As much as my portfolio is a series of responses to difficult issues, it is also a representation of my personality and my values. It exhibits my aesthetic style developed through diligence. It is a reflection of the empathy I’ve garnered by being immersed in vastly different cultures. It is an unapologetic display of the things I’m concerned about and things I will continue to pursue for my entire career. Above all it highlights my optimism for the future.
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Design and Construction Management | Completed Prior to M.Arch July 2012 Juba
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Lake Victoria
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Section through entry canopy
Jinja, Uganda Mto Moyoni Youth Retreat Center High on a bluff overlooking the River Nile is the Mto Moyoni Youth Retreat Center. This is the gateway building for the site and houses the administration offices and kitchen facilities. The roof design of the entryway mimics the proximate rapids with a series of compressions and releases. I was responsible for architectural design and onsite construction management while volunteering with Engineering Ministries International. Construction was achieved with local labor and materials.
1 1. Kitchen 2. Pantry 3. Entry 4. Reception 5. Office
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Architectural Design | Full Semester Design Studio, Fall 2014
Lincoln Park Neighborhood, Duluth, MN Duluth Crafted Design Duluth is an interdisciplinary studio collaboration between the UMN landscape architecture and architecture departments. MLA candidates A.J. Evert, Nathan Gandrud, and I developed a masterplan for a craft district in West Duluth. After an extensive asset mapping exercise we found the neighborhood has all of the physical resources necessary to reinvent itself as the center of craft in Duluth. The intent for the Live/Make space is to be a catalyst for community improvement and economic development.
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Third Floor - 6 Residential Units
Second Floor - Community Shop Space
First Floor - Pop-up Retail Space, Teaching Spaces, Cafe
Topsoil Drainage/Protection Mat Calendered Polymeric RooďŹ ng, 2 Layers Thermal Insulation Sloped For Drainage Roof Drain Vapor Barrier Composite Concrete Decking Steel Structure Gypsum Ceiling Fire Suppression System Air Duct
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Urban Design | Full Semester Design Studio, Fall 2013
North Loop Neighborhood, Minneapolis Market Site Development With it’s disconnected industrial condition, the north loop neighborhood in Minneapolis is lacking in community identity and density. The goal of this semester-long project was to create a pedestrian centric neighborhood experience through cross programming and distributing retail, housing, and market spaces along pathways. Parks, a gallery and Light Rail Transit services were also incorporated to the site development.
The major parti is to divide the traditional market and array the stalls along the street. This move activates the street by intermixing the market vendors with more traditional retailers.
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Rendering of light rail station, bandshell, and park
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1. Market Stall 2. Retail Space 3. Administration 4. Gallery 5. Residential Lobby
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Architectural Design | Full Semester Design Studio, Fall 2013
North Loop Neighborhood, Minneapolis Minneapolis Farmers Market Designed simultaneously with the North Loop Market Neighborhood, the concept of the Minneapolis Farmers Market is to create a more spontaneous and surprising environment for the community. Sinking the producer’s trucks so loading can occur at street level attains the rich and varied street experience for the passerby.
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Soil/ Growth Media Seperation Fabric Drainage Plate Protection Mat SBS 180 Flame Torch-On Waterproof Membrane Rigid Insulation Vapor Barrier Steel Plate Cor-Ten Steel Fascia Concrete Waffle Slab Double Insulated Glass Facade Tread Plate Heat Radiator Flooring Material Flooring Substrate Concrete Slab Vapor Barrier Concrete Sidewalk
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Architectural Design | 7 Week Design Studio, Spring 2013
Arusha, Tanzania Tuamkeni Primary School This is a primary school developed in a graduate design module. The design process was highly collaborative drawing on the skills and experience of students who have been working on this project for over a year. Spaces include classrooms, ofďŹ ces, a kitchen, teacher housing, student housing, a librbary and and a community gathering place. I was responsible for designing the overall tectonic language, designing the water and waste water systems, and creating computer models used for renderings, diagrams, and drawings. Teammates: Claire Lonsbury, Jessica Horstkotte, Young Sam Kim, Fiona Wholey
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The context-appropriate water and waste water system is an innovative combination of wind power, rain water collection, and aqua privy technologies resulting in environmentally and economically sound solution . Carry From Well
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Irrigation
Clean Water
Water Delivery
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Pressure Tank
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Clean Water Storage Tank
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Rain Catchment
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Clean Water Storage Tank
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Scale 1mm : 200mm
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Clean Water
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Grey Water Storage Tank
Pressure Tank
Pressure Tank Barrel Sand Filter
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Pure Tank
Carry From Well
Water Delivery
Potable Water
Municipal Water
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Grease Pit
Clean Water Storage Tank
1. Administration Multipurpose 2. School Building 3. Latrine Block 4. Staff Housing 5. Student Housing 6. Kitchen
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Latrine with rainwater collection
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TTuamkeni Primary School Arusha, TTanzania
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Water storage and puriďŹ cation structure
Grease Pit
Irrigation
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Architectural Design | 7 Week Design Studio, Spring 2014
St. Louis Park, MN The Whole Learning School The Whole Learning School (TWLS) is speciďŹ cally designed for students with Autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disabilities, ADHD and other executive functioning difďŹ culties. Offering a complete school program, TWLS helps students succeed in a positive and unique educational environment that understands and supports their neurological, physical, social and emotional needs. The design principle is to make crossing transitions a normal activity in the school day. Section changes throughout the school encourage children to navigate change. A range of instructional environments from classrooms to tree houses to a model home allow lessons to be tailored to the needs of each child.
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Places to Calm Independent Learning
1. Classrooms 2. Library 3. Assembly 4. Tree House 5. Model Home 6. Administration Space 7. Therapy Space 8. Flexible Teaching Space
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Architectural Design | 7 Week Design Studio, Spring 2014
Chanhassen, MN Pumpkin Catapult The design project began by identifying an apparatus that could attract people to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Leonardo Da Vinci’s leaf-spring catapult design was chosen for its clever mechanics and sinister beauty. The catapult can be wheeled inside the encasement for storage, which sits at one end of the ďŹ ring platform. The maximum range of the catapult generates the radial form. The design was developed to detail level allowing in-depth material and tectonic exploration. Gabion walls integrate the building with the earth-work and lend a playfully modern language to the project.
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1. Catapult 2. Catapult storage 3. Firing Platform
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Building Plan
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Social Venture Design and Development | Currently in Start-up Phase
Jinja, Uganda / Minneapolis, MN Help Desk | Furnishing Better Futures Help Desk aims to make beautiful furniture using sustainably sourced East African hard woods and use the profits to help under-equipped Ugandan schools by furnishing classrooms with new desks and better infrastructure.Ugandan communities are struggling with inadequate school facilities, extreme unemployment and widespread deforestation. Help Desk is a unique organization that helps to solve these problems by exporting high-quality furniture while providing jobs, sourcing materials responsibly and using profits to help Ugandan schools in need. During the summer of 2014 I spent 5 weeks in Uganda prototyping designs, meeting with potential partners and gaining insights on the venture’s feasability. I am currently searching for retail and investment partners.
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During my work in Uganda carpenters were introduced to mid-modern design by building a replica of Jens Risom’s web chair. The Strap Bench prototypes were designed to fold at to minimize shipping costs.
www.briceaarrestad.com