I have always enjoyed art, its beauty and the way that it captures raw emotion or an idea that cannot be formulated into words. Architecture is the virtual manifestation of these ideaologies. “Building art is a synthesis of life in materialised form. We should try to bring in under the same hat not a splintered way of thinking, but all in harmony together.� - Alvar Aalto
STATEMENT Architecture is embodied in the experience of the viewer. It becomes more than a simple building when the space is perceived and internalized, as it guides and moves you through a synchronization of moments. There is a symbiotic relationship between the viewer and his surroundings, one acts and the other responds in turn. Architecture is an art form that may push a radical idea, or simply be sensitive in its response to context.
CONTACT INFORMATION E-mail: mbaumann602@gmail.com Phone: (913) 702-6275
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CASE STUDY: GIOVANNITTI HOUSE Fall 2012 (In collaboration with Torrence Campbell)
THE PROW HOUSE Fall 2012
FLINT HILLS CENTER FOR CRAFT Fall 2013 (Design Competition Submission)
MANHATTAN COMMUNITY LIBRARY Fall 2013
ROMAN LINK: LONDON PAVILION Spring 2014
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10 - 15
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24 - 27
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CASE STUDY: GIOVANNITTI HOUSE This analysis was a partnered case study of the Giovannitti House, designed by renowned architect Richard Meier. The residential project was a diagram of intersecting cubic volumes, within which Meier is able to afford the owners smaller personalized spaces within a grand gesture. The main cube is an elevated three story volume off of the main level, and houses much of the program in a vertical breadth. The secondary volume provides the necessary service functions of the kitchen and garage, and is cut right into the sloping site. All of the residential spaces within their respective volumes fall along an organizational grid known as a tartan plaid. This approach delegates between circulation and inhabited zones, providing a dialogue of contrasts with open and closed space. Richard Meier’s design expertly addresses the balance between private and public realms, and uses an organizational approach that works with his architectural diagram.
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Organizational ‘tartan plaid’ delegates between circulation and inhabited zones.
Subtractive cubic volumes create enclosing interior and exterior spaces.
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Above: Section Axonometric of vertical programmatic integration. Right: Lower, Main, and Upper plans in ascending order. Below: Section Axonometric of main living and exterior connectivity.
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North Elevation
East Elevation
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West Elevation
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South Elevation
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Site Plan, demonstrating juncture on an East-West Axis.
THE PROW HOUSE The proposal serves as a vacation retreat for conservationists, a house set on a plinth that overlooks the Pottawatomie State Park in Manhattan, KS. The split-level approach following a grid aspires to Richard Meier’s residential design methods. Visitors enter at grade along an east-west axis, which helps to mediate between the served spaces on the upper level and the service spaces adjacent. Vertical circulation occurs at the end of the axis, with views directed outwards to the Pottawatomie Lake.
SITE INTEGRATION
The architectural intent for the design is to prow out from the landscape, carving into the sloping terrain and taking advantage of expansive views with a split-level vantage. The entry axis acts almost as a channel splitting the design so as to make the programmatic diagram more perceptible to viewers. Sustainable methods were also taken into consideration with the thermal integration on the lower level, particularly beneath the viewing plinth, and the well-lighted living and dining spaces.
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Arrangement of Served and Service spaces along entry axis.
Summer Solstice
Winter Solstice
Passive solar heating and cooling methods implemented with the prowed roof.
Spatial overlap of the split-level approach offers differing vantages.
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Above: Main and Lower Plans (Left to Right) Left: The entry core follows an east-west axis, and assists in differentiating between service and served spaces, indicated in bolded line weight.
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South Elevation
North Elevation
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East Elevation
West Elevation
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B’ - B”
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Preliminary design sketches exploring formal adjacency.
FLINT HILLS CENTER FOR CRAFT The design of the Flint Hills Center for Craft was inspired by the dynamism of its site location in the prairie reserves near Wildcat Creek, Manhattan KS. It would serve as an institute for the crafts, with studios equipped for the instruction of glass-blowing, metalworking, and ceramics. Program also required a showroom for finished work. A strong relationship between the studio spaces and the display of completed work was a key concern.
WORK AS DESIGN FOCUS
The studios are housed in a singular timber unit, distinguished by space dividers so that the separate crafts are given their own sense of place. When work is ready for display, it can simply be walked over to the gallery space via an open-air green roof. In the case of inclement weather, it can be taken down to the main level, through reception, and up a secondary elevator near the public gathering. This way, visitors may also participate in the moving of the work. This relationship between the making and showcasing helps to symbolize the process that the craftsman goes through with his work.
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Early design sketch of entry sequence passing under the cantilevering craft gallery.
MATERIAL SENSITIVITY AND IDENTITY
To help the center claim itself in the landscape, I began looking at distinctive patterns that occur in nature. I studied these patterns by creating a phenomical shading device (left). This led to the application of a kinetic wind veil consisting of thousands of ‘flappers’ on the facade of the gallery (as seen in the above rendering). These flappers designed by sculptor Ned Kahn, react to the wind currents and create a very dynamic and poetic expression. When this facade reacts in adjacency with the prairie grass of the green roof below, the gallery appears to mimic the natural surrounding landscape.
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Conceptual aesthetic mimicry of the prairie in the application of a wind veil inspired by Ned Kahn.
Interior view of the exhibition gallery with the craft studios in the background.
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East Elevation
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MANHATTAN COMMUNITY LIBRARY This design proposal is a branch library for Manhattan, Kansas in anticipation of westward city expansion. The site location falls within CiCo Park and across from the Manhattan Area Technical College, zoned as Single-Family Residential. The programmatic requirements were to be handled as conditional use, and response to the surroundings delicately. The design attempts to connect to the street condition and establish a sense of identity with the area. It makes a wrapping gestural move in plan, representative of a U, where the facility engages itself and the various program. The node in the U creates a more private realm, and terraced steps carve into the sloping landscape and into the lobby space. The lobby space is at the juncture between the two ‘arms.’ One arm services the adult library and stacks while the other services the youth. The adult stacks are reached by an entry ramp that leads into a cantilevered timber unit. The unit houses two floors and creates a suspended reading atmosphere. The youth stacks are found on the other end of the facility, under an expansive green roof. Children are able to browse the stacks and may go
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outside on top of the green scape. Here they can sit down to read in the sun and fresh air, while being actively engaged with the surrounding CiCo Park. Below the lobby is a research laboratory, with public computers and resources. Here students and residents can come to study in a quiet realm.
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Left: Exploded axonometric revealing structural diagram, including a truss-spanning system in the cantilevered unit. Right: Lower, Main and Upper Plans (Left to Right) Below: Cross-section detailing reveals the library facility engaging the slope of the site.
Automated Louvre Track
Steel and Reinforcing Cable Frame
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ROMAN LINK: LONDON PAVILION The design proposal serves as a viewing pavilion set in London’s historic district. The site follows Noble Street until it meets up with One London Wall by Norman Foster and Partners, and spans over a major thoroughfare. Along Noble Street and across the thoroughfare exists ruins of an ancient Roman wall that had once encircled the entire city. As a result of the great fire of London and the Blitz during the War, the wall now exists as a World Heritage site. The pavilion design acts as a bridging gestural move that attempts to reconstitute the Roman wall. An expansive steel space frame supports a viewing platform of the ruins for pedestrians along Noble Street. The space frame emerges from the ground to supports program that spans above the thoroughfare, with a secondary viewing platform for where the ruins appear on the other side. The encapsulating space frame of the program not only serves as structural stability, but a visual ‘linking’ element. Much like a strand of DNA or a ribbon, the space frame takes on a dynamic expression, drawing attention to the ending and the beginning of a historic vestige. Because the space frame is made of steel, the pavilion has a mechanized pres-
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ence, much like the modern buildings that now exist in the site location of the city. It preserves the material pallet, while providing a suggestive and almost precarious gesture, as it hovers over the many cars and trolleys passing underneath. The narrow program of the pavilion, coupled with the dynamic gesture of the space frame, make for a visitors center that calls attention to the historic relevance of the site. It not only provides safe passage across a busy thoroughfare for pedestrians, but captures unique views of the heart of London. Right: Structural space frame as a conceptual ‘linking’ element between the two sites of Roman ruins.
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Street Level
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East Elevation
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Upper Level
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