Bethesda Art Partnership Arch402, Fall 08_ Lecturer Beyhan Trock
A small building situated in an active urban environment, The Bethesda Art Partnership is intended to nurture the creative outlets of a culturally affluent community. Functioning as a veritable incubator for local artists, both visual and performing, the Partnership is formally split into two main spaces—a main gallery with Café and classroom spaces with attached studio pods.
Throughout the process there was several formal experiments where space was scripted through algorithmic fabrication of regular geometric patterns. By crafting tactile models from these patterns I could simultaneously address parti, promenade, and massing. Iteratively, the design was simplified to contribute to the character of the street, and since this urban intervention was through infill, the restrictive lot required a more pragmatic spatial organization. However, the malleable nature of the façade and wrapping features of the final design pay homage to the materials used to conceptualize the design in its early stages.
Considering the reputation of the area as a place where pedestrian and vehicular traffic coexist safely, it was appropriate to play with the scale of the buildings to respectfully acknowledge the street and provide a sense of enclosure, passage, and promenade. The gallery and classrooms face inward towards the interstitial space, known as the concourse. The void allowed for the inclusion of more surface area to frame a dialogue between interior and exterior space. The ample aperture of the classrooms creates a condition of transparency and exposé, while allowing for more visual connections with the street level. The generous overhang of the upstairs studio pods provides a protective loggia corridor, shading pedestrians from the sun or precipitation, and a sunken portion with oversized steps provides an area of repose.
Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
Geometric Algorithms eat
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Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
Existing Conditions
Bethesda Avenue, Watercolor 18� x 24�
Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
Response
street level
second level
Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
extension
Concourse Esplanade
Bethesda Performing Arts Center Arch403, Spring 09_Lecturer Frank Durkin
Located on a 105,000 square foot site in Bethesda, MD, The “Mstislav Rostopovich Concert Hall� was an introduction to the mixed-use development. The program called for a multiplicity of public venues including retail, office space, housing, an amphitheater, and a concert hall. The pedalogical challenges presented by this assignment called for solutions regarding the organization of front of house/back of house functions, the development of a compelling and coherent promenade, as well as integrating these programs into a successful place for public gathering. Limited by a strict F.A.R., the percentage of certain functions established by zoning requirements would have to be resolved with their strategic placement, while creating respectable building masses and appropriate edge conditions. Two levels of retail were placed along the street with the intent of engaging a highly transient edge of the site, and served as a plinth to place the office building atop. The six story office building helps define the street edge, and becomes a substantial symbol of the site’s importance. A four story apartment building and parking garage anchors the opposite end of the site and defines the edge of the capital crescent trail, a heavily travled pedestrian and bike path that extends from Georgetown to Silver Spring. The concert hall is then located underground with adequate space for a restaurant, gift shop, a large rehersal room, several practice rooms, green room, dressing rooms, control room, and storage. The heirarchal element of the developments is the public plaza which ties everything together. In the vicinity of the site, there is a dearth of public gathering space that facilitates a variety of activities and place of repose.
Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
Algorithmic Procedure 14
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Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
Urban Context
oďŹƒce retail concert hall upper lobby lower lobby
Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
Programmatic Stratum typical residential
new ground
street level
lower level 1
cocert hall receital halls parking garage
new ground
lower level 2
cocert hall storage/oďŹƒces parking garage
Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
collective
Capital Crescent Trail Proposed Lofts
Rockville Civic Center Car Museum Arch403, Spring 09_Lecturer Ron Schneck
The Thomas L. Schumacher Memorial Car Museum, located at the Rockville Civic Center in suburban Rockville, MD, focused primarily on methods in which the built environment could influence the experiential quality of viewing art. In choosing a specific theme, the variables remained constant, wherein the resolution could focus on enhancing the ritual of celebrating a particular type of art, rather than creating spaces of unscripted potential. With the sight being generously large and a requirement to fit nearly 40 vehicles, the building could sprawl, however, this required a solution to provide convenient organization and circulation through ideal adjacencies for a multitude of programmatic spaces. The building would exude a candor respective to its interior spaces and the site to successfully establish physical and visual extension. Striving to achieve a simplicity that would not overshadow the content of the spaces or even encumber the format for which they are displayed, the museum is organized in a simple linear fashion—the parti resembles basic anthropomorphic principles resembling the head and spine (circulation). Simple techniques alternating major and minor axis are used to guide visitors through a logical procession, and careful placement of program provide opportunistic overlap of functions.
Learning from local precedent, the museum utilizes familiar tectonics with an added level of complexity in order to enhance the quality of interior spaces and give character to assign hierarchy. The lateral variations in the structure offer subtle cues, which define the location, prominence, and requirements of formal spaces within the museum. Transitional trusses work efficiently to give emphasis on the entrance and lobby, expose the gallery spaces to natural light, and shade the building from harsh glare.
Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
Tectonic Precedent
Butterfly roof and pratt truss
Curtain wall with brise-soleil
site plan
Surface and Volume Evaluation by Anthony Maiolatesi and Sandra Schwartz
Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
Site Evaluation
volume of earth
surface analysis and section
Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
Implementation
first level
second level
Design Studio | Anthony Maiolatesi
composite
Hybrid: Section Perspective of Gallery
Explorations in Digital Media
Arch479, Fall 08_Assistant Prof. Michael Ambrose The intent of this course was to suggest an alternative approach towards analyzing precedents in architecture through the combination of conventional theory and the introduction of digital media as a generative process to aid in the derivation of form. The implicit objective was to expose the fundamental theories and concepts of digital discourse in order to synthesize this information into a design education and cross implement techniques and strategies to enrich the design methodology and process. The course developed into an analysis of precedent through hyper-real representations with digital media and digital fabrication. The focus of the digital fabrication was on particular features of Luigi Moretti’s Il Girasole in Rome, more specifically, the entrance stairs and a corner façade detail. By analyzing photographs of the subject it became possible to generate a representation of the original thing, and because the medium allows for the inclusion of minute detail, a dialogue about the implications of architecture and hyper-reality were established. The representation of the stairs with such accuracy now suggest that the image is intended to remove the need for a distinction of the real thing and the symbolic reference. With the inclusion of digital fabrication, where three-dimensional printing produces an exact likeness of the digital model, it was established that the completely real now becomes synonymous with the completely fake As stated by theorist Umberto Eco, “We are giving you the reproduction so you will no longer feel the need for the original.” The pedagogy provided structured explorations of the advantages and liabilities of digital modeling that will provide new perspectives from that of conventional rendering methods.
Research | Anthony Maiolatesi
Research
Il Girasole Stairs, 3d Printed 12” x 4” x 8”
Research | Anthony Maiolatesi
hyper-reality
Lobby Stairs, Il Girasole, Luigi Moretti
Parametric Surface Sculpture Arch470, Fall 09_Lecturer Carl Lostritto
This assignment implemented parametric modeling tools as a means to evaluate the formal and spatial implications of regular geometric patterns into non-Euclidean forms. This methodology raised a recurring philosophical question regarding the role of digital media to address the patterns of the past without an acknowledgement that all fundamental limitations on the conception of form in our entire design history are now lifted. The process of digital media must be thought of a tectonic procedure of operations to construct form of define space, just as their two-dimensional counterparts. The completion of this assignment was intentionally conceived strictly through an algorithmic process. The original Turkish pattern was simplified into a single module and evaluated for its spatial implications. To create a sense of depth from the flatness of the pattern, the newly evaluated pattern represented its most basic principles. The geometric pattern was given a regular gradient and from this image the Rhino software could create a height-field surface. The physical fabrication of the digital model represented the last operation among the established set of parameters. The cut sheets used to digitally fabricate the model were required to be used as process artifacts within the presentation. This suggests a correlation between the procedural layering of creating a two-dimensional pattern and its three dimensional translation. Each sheet of acrylic represents the operation of contouring the digital model, meaning a section was cut at regular intervals. The dramatic visual phenomenon created by aligning the sections of the model taken at succeeding planes evokes movement and depth. The repetition/deletion of dots between layers is a qualitative expression for the inputted visual data from the original interpretations of the original Turkish pattern.
Digital Media/Fabrication | Anthony Maiolatesi
Fabrication
circle radii=varies
input y=6 scale (x/y)+z)
distance x=varies
cylinder section 8 planes
input z=0
grid 1 x=54 vertical lines y=54 grid 2 x=54 y=54
heightfield surface
bounding box
translation reference operand audit measurement
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Digital Media/Fabrication | Anthony Maiolatesi
parametric
Parametric Sculpture, Lasercut Acrylic 18” x 18” x 6”
Interactive Wall
Arch470_Fall 09_ Lecturer Carl Lostritto This proposed installation evolved from the conceptual analysis of two events: conventional advertising vs. unconventional advertising. Open to interpretation, the comparison between graffiti and the business card successfully established a healthy juxtaposition of their formal implications. This overlap between these two events would yield the catalyst to design a formal system. Architectural theorist, Sanford Kwinter stated that “all successful monuments that address serious themes have in common this particular approach: they evacuate information from the landscape rather than introduce more into it.” Counterintuitively, this proposal of a veritable wall of information does the opposite, representing our society’s dependence on the instantaneous retrieval of information, whether it be historic, corporal, or cultural. This particular monument in which we worship would have the opposite effect on the landscape, introducing a saturation of images. Traditional monuments use subtle symbolism to convey sentiments or fabricate a memory intended to inuence an increasingly detached society. Static references to historic details are easily forgotten when they are not relevant to daily life. However, Kwinter states that architecture is following the path of art and media to create a “site of public debate. In fact, a monument only remains relevant as long as information is continuously introduced, or we are constantly reminded the purpose for which it stands. The idea of a wall as symbol exploits a form that surrounds and contains us in a physical built environment, now a virtual, depthless surface, it contributes to the collective experience. The wall would make use of a system of mechanically projecting spurs, or diode/fiber optic fixtures and proximity sensors that respond to the movement of passers-by. The wall would track the movement of the person for several second in a dissipating fashion, where the lights or spurs would dim or retract after several seconds of being activated.
Digital Media/Fabrication | Anthony Maiolatesi
Development
Critical Analysis Matrix
Rhino/Grasshopper Parametric Modeling
Digital Media/Fabrication | Anthony Maiolatesi
Function
Digital Media/Fabrication | Anthony Maiolatesi
memory
Memory Wall, Rhino/Grasshopper Model
Livable Communities Competition AIAS, Spring 09_Lecturer Mark Ramirez
Team Members: Anthony Maiolatesi, Daniel Reed, Alice Chiang, Sandra Schwartz Won: Second Place This winning entry, titled “A Model For Aging In Place,” was originally submitted for the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) Livable Communities Design Competition, held in the spring of 2009.
According to the U.S. Cencus, by the year 2030, approximately half of all Americans will be over the age of 50 and one in every five persons will be 65 or older. It is imperitive to address this paradigm shift in order to develop a typology of an architecture of “universal design” which will accomodate the requirements of a multi-generational society. The model of a community in a greater urban context emphasizes a lifestlye that symbolizes a solution for many challenges young designers face today and in their future, including environmental ethics, sustainiblity, and the state of society during flux.
This project, titled “A Model For Aging In Place,” was originally submitted for the AIAS Livable Communities Design Competition, held in the spring of 2009. Our intent was to create a mixed-use community for occupants of all ages, but with an emphasis on accommodating senior citizens. Not only did we have to reconcile the competing building requirements of retail, residential, and public uses, but the requirements of different generations of people as well. Program requirements included Housing (30 residential units varying from 1-3 bedrooms, 100% of the residential units were to be designed to be ADA, accessible), 5-10 residential units for assisted living with 24 hour health care providers, 10,000 sq.ft. for retail, exercise room, wellness center, and a shared community lounge. The site needed to be an urban area with nearby access to public transportation, and development should consider views, daylighting, orientation, and access.
Competition | Anthony Maiolatesi
Epicenter
existing retail
new retail/community
living
rooftop terrace green roof
fitness center
pool
Competition | Anthony Maiolatesi
Urban Context The site is located at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Bonifant Street in Silver Spring, Maryland, a thriving, diverse community whose revitalized downtown is attracting people in all age groups who seek an urban lifestyle. Georgia Avenue, the main street, is lined with shops, offices and apartments, and the mixed-use zone on our site encourages a large residential component. The residents will find every necessity within a ten-minute walk, including supermarkets, schools, parks and pharmacies. Within two blocks of our site are dozens of bus routes, the Red Line of the Washington Metro, and a proposed light-rail train that if built would pass by the building.
typical unit
one, two, and three-bedroom arrangements
Competition | Anthony Maiolatesi
Social Responsibility Each of the public spaces is designed to accommodate multiple age groups. Residents telecommute or do homework in a business center with computers and fax machines. A “Flex Room” can be set up for parties, workshops or art exhibitions, while 12,000 square feet of locally-owned retail provides job opportunities for residents. A 10,000 square foot fitness center and adjacent Community Wellness Center open to the public offers more amenities than available in most apartment complexes.
community gym
rooftop terrace and garden
Each of the thirty apartments is fully accessible. A shelf at wheelchair height is placed outside each front door for residents to set things down before going inside. Interior doors have thresholds flush with the floor, and sliding pocket doors are utilized wherever possible to keep doorways unobstructed. In the kitchen, voids beneath the stovetop and sink allow wheelchair-bound residents to cook without assistance. California-style closets with drawers and kitchen cabinets placed 18” above the ground make storage easily accessible from a wheelchair. In the bathrooms, there is space for a wheelchair to turn around and tubs with a seat and grab bars.
To create an environmentallyconscoius design, passive solar techniques were implemented. A green roof nearly one-third the size of the site insulates the building and absorbs sunlight, reducing the building’s contribution to the urban “heat island” effect. On the other side of the building, a rooftop garden space provides residents a relaxing hobby and fresh, locallygrown produce.
Competition | Anthony Maiolatesi
Georgia Avenue and Bonifant Street w/ proposed light rail