Adam John Williams
table of contents
YEAR
SKETCHES NOMAD SHELTER PHOTOGRAPHY RESUME
FOUR
THREE
TWO
ONE
democratic theater democratic platform DHS visitor center
artist housing connective tissue
yoga studio
cubist object
democratic theater summer 2012 project duration: 5 weeks Kennedy Center, Washington DC Studio led by Ben Gilmartin,
landscape reflection/absorbtion
The democratic theater, as it exists in its island condition between the Kennedy Center and surrounding highways, cannot hope to become a desirable, visitable space without shaking its identity as “residual space”. Thus, the project identity is one of reconciliation, by simultaneously bringing in, and pushing out towards, the site’s exterior. The site is democratized by reestablishing a meaningful site connection to the public while providing a unique stacked performance space to encourage democratic dialogue.
Pub
Pri
Public Access to Stage
Pub
Pri
Private Access to Stage
The stage, built on hydraulics, is shared between the private/enclosed and public/ exterior. When one stage is in operation, the other is inaccessible.
democratic platform summer 2012 project duration: 1 week Studio led by Ben Gilmartin,
site/platform interaction
To build a siteless platform to support democratic function, it became important to design is executed. This is achieved through perimeter, but allowing organic permutations of the landscape by these elements in response to a variety of site conditions. What results is a mesh of playful, casual volume useful for traditional debate and demonstration.
DHS visitor’s center spring 2013 project duration: 3 months St. Elizabeth’s Campus, Washington DC Final Scheme Combining our two intitial schemes, a path is established tying the building’s security program to the center’s institutional and educational function.
Comprehensive Building Design Studio in conjunction with students Adrian Gittens, Joshua Jacques, Claudia Jean and Sumedha Barua
The Department of Homeland Security’s visitor’s center allows a public glimpse of the walled, high-security institution. Given the
The visitor’s path leads them through security processes before folding back, permitting
An elevated viewing corridor provides access to the 9/11 memorial garden, historic views of St. Elizabeth’s campus and downtown DC.
in a historic neighborhood, and a widespread distaste for DHS security functions, an opportunity presented itself in the center’s obligatory security programming. The process is turned into public spectacle, complete with elevated seating. A freeform path connects this to a garden housing 9/11 artifacts, inspiring meditative, walking contemplation between the two spaces.
Ground level
Mezzanine/walkway level
walkway structure opens to security
Garden focus centers on iconic WTC beam
walkway structure/interaction with building
artist housing spring 2012 project duration: 2 weeks El Born, Barcelona, Spain
spatial compartmentalization
Located in the busy Born district of Gothic Barcelona, the site provides ample privacy. The building’s reaction was to separate program into areas to be “present” and areas to be “absent”, using a spatial membrane. This scheme is repeated within the living quarters to further seclude and
connective tissue spring 2012 project duration: 4 weeks
Arc de Triomf, Barcelona, Spain
fabric reconnection
The site of this mixed-use residential project was a residual plot resting at the seam between the Gothic Quarter and the modern Eixample. The location and boundaries of the site lie along the border of a large public plaza, and at the terminus of two older streets. Thus, this project becomes one of connection and reconcilliation, restoring and adapting the use of these leftover streets while continuing the datum of the public space.
1:200 1m
5m
1:200 1m
5m
public/private spaces, facade study
Sejima Wing summer 2011 project duration: 4 weeks
Gifu Prefecture, Japan 1994-2000 Kazuyo Sejima Public
Public
Private
Private
The Wing was designed with open, townlike circulation in mind, where every resident would have “their own front door�. Thus each apartment consists of a collection of one standard room, repeated
Circulation Public Private
Room Extrusion
Visual/Spatial
multi-unit housing summer 2011 project duration: 2 weeks
14th Street NW, Washington, DC
A mixed-use housing project attempt to take advantage of the relative height uniformity of the surrounding town houses. A modular cube is formed elevations, giving shape to the gallery below while permitting a diverse set of views for the occupants above.
level 3/roof
level 4/roof
yoga studio spring 2010 project duration: 5 weeks H Street, Washington DC
The spatial “wedge” creates a polarity and balance of spaces where, despite their similarity, each volume represents a distinct and opposite relationship to nature and its surroundings. By dividing these spaces, a dialogue is created between the ceiling and the ground of the site, where an intermediary space mitigates and interprets the conversation.
A Bikram, or “hot yoga” studio, the two programmed yoga spaces take advantage of the site’s environmental heating opportunities; one is raised to collect sunlight, the other lowered for thermal mass gains. Personal practice is then made subject to the surroundings, and therefore conscious to an important aspect of yogic practice.
upper studio, summer solstice
basement studio
entrance to basement
Shaw Library
spring 2009 project duration: 3 weeks Shaw, Washington, DC 2009 Davis Brody Bond Aedas
The library makes use of its awkward yet prominent triangular plot by embracing the diagonal. A geometrically standard building, a perforated rain screen divides what would expectedly have been a rectangular form, terminating at a prominent column. The building allows its character to become dominated by the presence of the wide diagonal avenue.
cubist object spring 2009 project duration: 3 weeks Nude Descending a Staircase No. 3, Marcel Duchamps
Study of Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase” involving the creation of an analytical model based on the construction of the painting. I found the major elements of the piece to be time and on the depth, fragmentation and position of
time
movement
SKETCHES spring 2012 Barcelona, Spain Berlin, Germany Various 30-60 minute studies of buildings and locations throughout Europe. Emphasis was placed on clarity and composition, given the short amount of time per drawing.
NOMAD SHELTER fall 2012 project duration: 5 weeks Fabrication wood 2x4s (6), 2x2s (3) polyethelene tubing painter’s tarp
With a budget of $75, we were to construct a shelter to be used by a nomadic person. Given this prompt, the design goals became to minimize construction materials and weight, provide a tool-free assembly, remove the occupant from the ground and provide rainwater collection for the inhabitant. The solution was one of North American Native housing, the other from tensegrity structures, and how their combined structural and formal characteristics could achieve the project goals.
PHOTOGRAPHY 2006-recent
Works using 35mm and
“Triptych” September 2007
digital photograph, retouched May 2008