PORTFOLIO Selected Architectural Studies 2013-2017
Alexandra Kurek Columbia University GSAPP Masters of Science in Advanced Architectural Design Virginia Tech A+D Bachelor of Architecture
ALEXANDRA N. KUREK EDUCATION
80 Lafayette Ave Tamaqua, PA 18252 (570)778-9195 - ank2143@columbia.edu
Columbia University, New York, NY Masters of Science in Advanced Architectural Design Study Abroad Mexico City, Mexico October 2015 Geneva, Switzerland / Paris, France Dhaka, Bangladesh / Chandigarh + Ahmedabad, India
October 2016 March 2017
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA Bachelor of Architecture Recognitions: Pella Prize - Thesis Excellence Award Finalist
Dean’s List: Fall 2012 - Spring 2015 Graduated Cum Laude
Semester Abroad Riva San Vitale, Switzerland Work-Study Program Chicago Studio, Chicago
PROFESSIONAL
January 2013 – May 2013 August 2013 - December 2013
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Wilkes-Barre, PA Architectural Intern
January 2016 - September 2016 Worked on various scale projects including residential and academic through analysis, predesign, and schematic phases (competition + ongoing projects) -site visits, drawings, renders, models, client meetings, office critiques
GSAPP Output Shop New York City, NY Student Employee of Columbia University
June 2015 - May 2017 Maintained + managed plotters and laser cutters for work of student body at GSAPP
The Drawing Board Inc. Annapolis, MD Architectural Intern
May 2014 - June 2014 Designed the office brochure pages with Adobe InDesign Created and edited drawings of commercial + residential sites in AutoCAD and Revit
Adobe
Student Representative
June 2014 - August 2015 Gave the Virginia Tech campus awareness of Adobe Creative Cloud provided through online marketing, individual tutorials, class workshops, and product giveaway
Von Weise Associates, Chicago, IL Chicago Studio Collaboration
August 2013 - November 2013 Cooperated in a group design project based in Uptown, Chicago Assisted VWA employees on current office projects
Harry Connor Portraits, Lehighton, PA Photography Assistant May 2013 - August 2013
SKILLS
Studied + assisted with photography lighting, set design, and professional techniques
Experience using following software applications: Adobe Suites Rhino 3D
SketchUp Revit 2017 3dsMax AutoCad
Experience with the following design skills: Photography Watercolors Graphic Printing
Writing Variations CNC modeling Book Binding Model Making (Hand & Laser) Hand Drawing (Sketching & Technical)
Crosshatched Interactions
One
2017 - The City and The City
Community Design Typology
2013 - Riva San Vitale
Degrees of Interaction 2015 - Mediterranean
Uptown Market 2013 - Chicago Studio
Growth through Connections 2014 - Newport News
Architectural Patterns I
Thirteen Seventeen Twenty Six Thirty Six Fifty
2014 - Commodity Details
Architectural Patterns II
Fifty Eight
Analytical Photography
Sixty Eight
2015 - A Meditative Voyage
Europe/Asia/Mexico/New York City
Crosshatched Interactions
The City and The City (Novel)
Professor: Stephen Cassell + Annie Barrett Advanced Arch Design Studio III
“Pass through Copula Hall and she or he might leave Beszel, and at the end of the hall come back to exactly (corporeally) where they had just been, but in another country, a tourist, a marveling visitor, to a street that shared the latitude longitude of their own address, a street they had never visited before, whose architecture they had always unseen.” “I crossed Wahid Bridge, trains passing to my left. I watched the river, that was here the Shach Ein. Water does it crosshatch with itself? If I were is Beszel, as these unseen passersby were, I would be looking at River Colinin.” -- The City & The City, China Mieville
An abstracted project of intertwined urban fabrics based upon the novel The City and The City by China Mieville. The fictional police procedural creates a scenario of two oppositional city states, Beszel and Ul Qoma, interwoven within the same geographic territory occupying partially joint lands. The citizens of both nations coexist in the same adjacent locations; however, they are forbidden to come into contact with each other based upon histories of treacherous conflict. The two cities were further developed in an overlapping relationship creating zones of both modernist and antique architecture. Yet, the cities have consistent access to one another through a strategic “gateway” and governing architecture described as Copula Hall. Through dense analysis of the overlapping crosshatch fabrics found within and between the membranes of the two cities my project researches and develops relationships between the interplay of conflicting yet coexisting entities. One
Two
“But the ashy daylight illuminated more and more vivid colours than in my old Beszel. The Old Town of Ul Qoma was at least half transmuted these days into a financial district, curlicued wooden roof lines next to mirrored steel.” -pg.135
Ul Qoma
“I walked. I walked by the brick arches: at the top, where the lines were, they were elsewhere [Ul Qoma], but not all of them were foreign at their bases. The ones I could see contained little shops and squats decorated in art graffiti.” - pg.25
Beszel
“Cathedral spires were lit by glass skyscrapers. Recurved and crescent neoned architecture across the border.” -pg.38 “As the two cities had grown together, places, spaces had opened between the, or failed to be claimed, or been those controversial dissensi. Breach lived there.”pg.257
Combination
Three
Four
Rail tracks Ul Qoma Bowden
Sear + Core
Ban Yi Way
Wahid Bridge
Bol Ye’an
ECS Ungir Hall Finn Square
Yozhef Park
Hilton
Old Town Ul Qoma
Downtown Beszel Topolgranger Square
Asyan
Copula Hall
Mashlin
Vyevus
Rail Tracks
Shach-Ein River
Mahalia
King Val
Yolanda Bisham Ko Housing Projects
Old Town Beszel Kaing She
Byatsialic
Dhatt Majdlyna Green Kwaidso Park Borlu Vulkovstrasz
UNI HQ Kordvenna
Lestov
Essentially, the two cities Beszel and Ul Qoma are tightly interwoven together to form an urban density that would appear as one city. My analysis for the design project was a series of mapping exercises focusing on defining locations narrated in depth throughout the novel. These diagrammatic locations were transformed into a crosshatched map of the two cities in relationship to one another. The process involved analyzing the city map of Rome before disassembling it into specified areas based on Beszel and Ul Qoma requirements. A study done before reconfiguring the map to create an urban setting for the interwoven cities. Black represents the city of Beszel while the white represents Ul Qoma. The roads, city blocks, and waterways are infilled with various styles of crosshatch as I contemplated how the city functionally operates. Finally, a detailed site map of Copula Hall’s surroundings in the Old Towns was designed based upon Beszel’s “constructed ruins” and Ul Qoma’s glamorous and upscale lifestyle and architecture.
Bundalia
Orchidarium Xhincis Kann Stadium Downtown Ul Qoma Gunterstrasz
Ascension Church Kyezov
Funicular Park
Pocost
Topisza
Ul Qomatown River Colinin
Ul Qoma Airport Bulkya Sound
MAHALIA
BESZEL HALVIC AIRPORT
SHACH-EIN
BAN YI WAY WAHID BRIDGE
BOL YE’AN
SEAR AND CORE
RAILWAY RAILWAY
HILTON
BOWDEN
YOZHEF PARK ECS CENTRE
SQUARE FINN SQAURE
ERMANNSTRASZ
SAQ UMIR WAY
KING VAL STATUE
ASYAN
ORCHIDARIUM AND THE XHINCIS KANN STADIUM KARNSTRASZ GYEDAR BOROUGH
UL MAIDIN AVENUE
BESZEL DOWNTOWN
KAING SHE UL QOMA OLD TOWN BESZEL OLD TOWN
COPULA HALL
VULKOVSTRASZ
ZSARTSVOKLUV
MASHLIN
BUDAPESTSTRASZ
KYEZOV
TOPISZA
ZSARTSTSEPADUB
UROPASTRASZ
VYEVUS
BISHAM KO YOLANDA
YOVIC BRIDGE
GUNTERSTRASZ GUNTERSTRASZ
YAHUDSTRASZ
BYATSIALIC
HOUSING PROJECTS
UNI HQ
TRUE CITIZENS
UL QOMA DOWNTOWN
BREACH HEADQUARTERS
BORLU
DHATT
BUNDALIA
MAJDLYNA GREEN KWAIDSO PARK
LESTOV FUNICULAR PARK ASCENSION CHURCH
UL QOMA RAILWAY
RIVER COLININ
POCOST VILLAGE UL QOMATOWN ROSIDSTRASZ
TEERTS YOI
KORDVENNA
BULKYA SOUND
UL QOMA AIRPORT
Five
Six
Level 4
Nine
Level 6
Level 8
Twelve
Community Design Typology
Riva San Vitale, Switzerland
Professor: Hunter Pittman Architecture III
“A neighborhood architect”
Architecture for the Masses, Arts Desk
A design exploration focused on a community based center in the heart of Riva San Vitale. The program of a library was situated within the same site as a local grocery store. A study using community based concepts and aesthetic thinking in combination to create a design more relevant to the culture of people’s lives in this area. “More than just books and banks of computers, libraries are still places where individuals gather to explore, interact, and imagine... (1) Libraries as community builders, (2) Libraries as community centers for diverse populations, (3) Libraries as centers for the arts, (4) Libraries as universities, (5) Libraries as champions of youth.
Community Centered: 23 Reasons Why Your Library Is the Most Important Place in Town, Julie Biando Edwards, Melissa S. Rauseo, & Kelley Ray Unger
Thirteen
Fourteen
Sixteen
Degrees of Interaction Mediterranean
Professor: Yannis Aesopos Advanced Arch Design Studio
Through focused designed implications of a built environment the architect intends to prescript the human experience within an inhabitable space. This project investigates techniques of an architectural interaction within a predetermined landscape. A series of Interactions conceptually designed with a focus on how they could provide environments for dictated tourist interaction collectively and within the landscape. My post-crisis studies focus upon the parallel relationship between the built structural environment and associated amenities. On three separate islands I introduce a concept of interface, inhabitation, and landscape, intentionally removing built aspects from each island based upon programmatic necessities. As there is more interaction with nature the collective experience is enhanced through joint amenities.
Seventeen
Eighteen
Five Star “Honeymoon Getaway” Inhabitation Interface Landscape The design transforms dry Mediterranean landscape into the five star island resort, an alternative to the typical luxurious ideas of a “honeymoon getaway”. The enclosed space allows for no views other than the rocky terrain in which the residents are intruding. A complete privacy for the newly married couple. With a built environment interfering with the cliche views required in most hotels, I have additionally designed every other movement interface to hold the collective areas where they can enjoy the views as well as movement throughout the largest island. The densely built environment fills the boxed spaces with every cliche luxury possible. The temporary tenant has an individualized full bathroom, kitchen, and living space. The couples would not have to leave their own room unless they are looking for a collective experience.
Nineteen
Three Star “Family Adventure” Inhabitation Interface Landscape Next you would arrive by boat to the island for the “family adventure”. Joining rooms allows for your neighbors to become your “family” for the week. A stairwell becomes the main spine of connection between the series of stacked boxes allowing for a consistent movement between collective and singular spaces. Each inhabitation also has their own “balcony” as they are able to obtain their own personalized views from the rooms. However, their amenities start to slowly disappear compared to the 5 star. In their own rooms they will be provided with a half bathroom and sleeping quarters which they can open or close throughout the day with sliding walls. To receive their other amenities such as showers, food, etc, they would have to go to the other side of the small island to a collective space also acting as the gateway to the three star resort.
Twenty
One Star “Backpacking Oasis” Inhabitation Interface Landscape The remaining island has obtained the status of a one star resort for the excitingly exhausted backpacker. They are looking for adventure; therefore, they are provided with the direct experience of interacting with nature in a series of caves along the island façade. Through the built floor within the steep terrain they are provided with a pure shelter from the winds, heat, etc. With no furniture or amenities provided they make of this space what they need. Where their collective amenities are provided. Their experience of collective interaction is the greatest since they will have to use the “street of showers” or can relax in the pools or on the beach where they are able to see the rest of the resort. The third island has become the only primary location where there is an opportunity for visual interaction between the three different islands.
Twenty Two
Twenty Four
Uptown Market Uptown, Chicago
Professor: Andrew Balster Architecture IV “And yet Allen, a native of Jamaica who lives in Roger Park, still doesn’t think of it as a bad corner, or a bad neighborhood, just a neighborhood whose problems deserve more attention.”
Watching the Good and the Bad on an Uptown Street Corner Chicago Tribune
Touch
Smell
Material Light Air People
Auditory
Visual
Train People Transit Mechanical
Area People Kitchen Products Waste Mechanical
View Perspective Frame Transparency Rhythm Shadow/light
Atmosphere
Enclosure
Level of Activity
People Columns Stations
Dispo se Merchan ts
Connecting people to a sustainable food system
Eat
Arcade Ramp Promenade Plaza
tional Emo
Pathway
Doors Stairs Elevators
Se rv Tou ris ts
e
P
ers ut
Egress
Enclosure Walls Columns Density Windows
p re
Static
Residents
Proximity
Ha rve st
Sup p l y cess Pro dents Stu Co m m
Men Circula tal tion
t an Pl
Density
Pace Publicity
Grow
Ph ys ic Seating Handles Bar Stations
Columns Glass Steel Wood Structural Functions
Openings Windows Doors Hallways
Material Wood Steel Stone Glass
Sensory
al
Cook Furnishings
Understanding Surprise Clarity Detail Atmosphere
Behavior Communication
Signage
Advertisement Interaction
Train Street Interior Moving Static Exchange Converse
The Uptown Market is the design result of a combined effort of three architecture students, Alexandra Kurek, Nicholas Coates and Laura Escobar, and one landscape architecture student, William Serge, through the Virginia Tech Chicago Studio and von Weise Associates. To get a better understanding of the site and neighborhood we were working with, we closely collaborated with multiple members of the Uptown community through interviews, critiques, site visits, and presentations. Our analysis aided us in gaining a stronger understanding of Chicago, Uptown, and the various transportation methods found within the area. This project specifically investigates the renovation and adaptive reuse of the former Uptown Station. In 1922, Arthur Gerber designed the Uptown Station within the design approach of classical revival. During this time the ‘El’ brought tremendous growth to Uptown through its direct connection with Downtown, and as a result The Gerber Building became a central focus point for the thriving entertainment district. Because of its placement under the tracks and ignorance of the community, the Gerber Building degraded with time. It currently lays vacant, aside from the still active Wilson Station taking up only a small portion of the overall square footage. Our intent is to bring this site back to its former glory, becoming a catalyst for growth in the Uptown neighborhood. By analyzing the site through our multidisciplinary lens, we realized the inherent opportunity within The Gerber Building and its surrounding block by creating an innovative program, The Uptown Market. The enclosed spaces are enlarged to house areas for a mixed market, restaurant, and cafe. Two vertical farm towers rise above the existing building height as well as the metro tracks to frame the site as well as provide for the Uptown Market. While the central plaza becomes the area of constant movement, which begins to connect these varying programs. The design of The Uptown Market becomes a study of establishing connections: people will have the opportunity to connect with the growing process and food, the existing Gerber Building, and the Uptown community. Through intensive analytic studies and design approach we are attempting to create a space and program that will become the beacon of growth that connects Uptown with the rest of Chicago.
Twenty Six
Twenty Seven
The Uptown Area of Chicago once stood as the “Hollywood� of the United States allowing for a boom in production of theaters, jobs, residents, and unique architectural styles. However, with the movement of the film industry to California the area slowly became a shell of what was once a vibrant neighborhood. Decaying buildings and ignored collective spaces became hotspots of crime for restless teenagers and local gangs. The Uptown Market project focuses on the removal of crime ridden spaces to allow for an architectural beacon of what the neighborhood could become. Through an adaptive reuse of the existing historical Gerber Building and the addition of two vertical transparent growing towers, the architecture and the several programmatic spaces become visible to the residents as well as to passengers of the metro including tourist groups to Chicago.
Twenty Eight
Twenty Nine
Thirty
Thirty One
The project studies a development of typologies working with one another in a cyclical procession. These various programs include a restaurant, an open market, a cafe, and a series of growing towers built under and around the metro line. The vertical farming towers are used to aid in the production of goods for the ground floor’s public programmatic level. In addition the product waste of the various other programmatic spaces are decomposed and used within the nutritional system for the vertical farms. The various programs are strategically designed within their placements to attract local college students, metro passengers, local residents, and various tourists of the main boulevards. With carefully designed entrances, street level openings, and varied viewpoints the architecture and landscape lend to an understanding and utilization of contemporary farming production and sales methods.
Thirty Three
Circulation
Structure
CTA
Enclosure
Program
Existing Facade
Thirty Four
Thirty Five
Concentrated Interactions
United Nations of Geneva, Switzerland
Professor: Jorge Otero-Pailos + Mark Rakatansky Advanced Arch Design Studio II
Since the end of the First World War the United Nations has formed to create a place for stability, assembly, interaction, and unity amongst nations around the world. The constantly growing and evolving organization has created footholds in a vast majority of different countries allowing for spaces to shelter their purpose and benefit the member states of the UN. The United Nations building in Geneva, Switzerland is the primary example of using collaborative programmatic entities to foster a sense of charity and unity. The original League of Nations building is undergoing an intensive restoration, adaptive reuse, and renovation project headed by the firm SOM (construction begins in 2017). The prompt of our research into the UNOG campus was to foster the ideas of collaboration in the Information Services and Human Rights Departments while also focusing on an addition project interwoven within the original structure. Whether in the main assembly halls, multiple conference rooms, or grand lobbies, the United Nations of Geneva is fulfilling the notion of gathering. This important set of interactions takes place yearly throughout the campus varying in levels of size, publicness, and formality. The currently existing programmatic functions are overwhelmed by thick opacity and the lengthy labyrinth of passageways. Through my proposed addition I intend to define and redefine spatial qualities of the multiple and primary assembly halls while also determining the conditions of programmatic courtyards as zones of concentrated interactions. However, the design will also explore the use of a carefully exposed ramping system to both physically and visually connect varying assembly interactions throughout the 7 story original and addition structure. Beginning amongst the material confines of the extended path a series of publics can openly investigate the facilities of the United Nations’ Human Rights facilities as well as the inner functions of their information services programs. As an individual passes through the interaction zones (entry, information services, education, research, UNOG staff, and public assembly) their exposure to programmatic interplay, publicness, and materiality reinforces the understanding of spatial configurations of redefined “courtyards�. The idea of connecting interactions is to create a more apparent environment for open interaction and multicultural understanding within the United Nations. The visitors, delegates, and staff engage the programmatic functions and one another through a complete exposure of daily routines and intentions. Thirty Seven
Through in-depth research of the current site plan of the United Nations in Geneva there was a discovery of two primary access paths dictating the movement of both staff and delegates through and around the site. The NorthSouth axis is a set of parallel lines working their way through the original assembly hall and the 1970s addition of four large conference halls. While on the other hand the East-West axis running through the site is meant for personnel staff working within the building’s various departments. The staff path has remained an important procession through every addition to the United Nations building. The two hierarchical pathways of movement have remained a constant in my proposal for a renovation and addition to the 1970s structure of UNOG. The concept parallels with maintaining the framed “courtyard” or lawn spaces apparent throughout the old structure. An idea of never enclosing public spaces to allow for an open interaction amongst the various publics interacting within the building and UNOG.
Thirty Eight
Thirty Nine
Forty
Forty One
The project proposal for an addition and renovation of the existing 1970s structure on the Eastern portion of the campus is intended to reintroduce primary pathways throughout the space breaking the large spaces into a series of varying collaborative zones. The primary relationship is between the existing asLevel 4 sembly halls and the addition of a series of courtyard or lawn spaces. The two zones are then connected by the length of a continuous ramping system dictating movement from one level to the next and in between various programmatic assembly types. The floor plates decrease in size as the public moves throughout the space densifying the relationships between the assembly types. The Level 3 two main programs of Human Rights and Information Technology are intertwined throughout each floor allowing for constant passage and accessibility to both. The procession moves from open programs such as Information Technology lobbies and public classrooms to the more dense and opaque spaces such as research and staffed Level 2 program areas.
Forty Two
Level 1
Forty Three
Level 0
Forty Four
Forty Five
Growth through Connections
Newport News, Virginia
Professor: Hilary Bryon Architecture V_AIAVA Prize Competition
Connection, n. 1.a. The action of connecting or joining together 1.b. of immaterial union or joining together 2.b. Consecutiveness, continuity or coherence of ideas
Oxford English Dictionary
Through the use of a walking bridge, held by a series of columns, the idea of connection becomes more intimate with the human body. The columns’ locations are based on the previous bridge structures penetrating the ground surface only at points around the existing infrastructure. These metal supports will elevate multiple wooden and concrete spaces, and connect various programs which could include: restaurants, apartments, stores, hotels, markets, as well as other necessities for Newport News. Through this specific construction the growth can span multiple bridges and ramps as well as start to become integrated into the existing urban fabric. Connections can be found with the human and the programmatic space through the means of a slower movement by walking, as well as using this bridge to connect neighborhoods and cultures found within the Newport News City limits.
Forty Seven
Forty Eight
Forty Nine
Architectural Patterns I Commodity Details
Professor: Frank Weiner Architecture IV
Pattern, n. and adj. 1. a. 5. b. 7. 9. b.
Something shaped or designed to serve as a model from which a thing is to be made; a design, an outline; an original. A sample; a part presented as an example of a larger set or group A precedent; that which may be appealed or referred to as a prior example A natural or chance arrangement of shapes or markings having a decorative or striking effect.
Oxford English Dictionary
“From a sequence of these individual patterns, whole buildings with the character of nature will form themselves within your thoughts, as easily as sentences.”
Christopher Alexander
“In short, no pattern is an isolated entity. Each pattern can exist in the world only to the extent that is supported by other patterns: the larger patterns in which it is embedded, the patterns of the same size that surround it, and the smaller patterns which are embedded in it.”
Christopher Alexander
Fifty One
With no programmatic or site requirements, the architectural patterns project is a prethesis study focusing on architectural details and elements found within every designed space. The elements include features such as skylights, stairwells, entrances, bathrooms, elevators, doors, etc. The project shown studies a series of potential elevators through arbitrary pattern, light, and abstraction of time ridden materials. With a specific approach of unfolding the spaces into flat drawings there was enough freedom to comparatively explore light patterns and material. Through a strong use of design iteration, self critical practices, and a detail oriented focus the project was able to accomplish an architectural design represented in experimental drawing and modeling techniques. A project that has since remained a precedent for thesis explorations of pattern, drawing styles, and merging the two into unique physical “flat� models.
Fifty Two
Fifty Three
Fifty Four
Fifty Five
Fifty Six
Fifty Seven
Architectural Patterns II A Meditative Voyage
Professor: Hilary Bryon Architecture V
Consent of solitude is unknown within the confines of chaos Sought patience burdens a restless mind fixating an revolving sky Controlled consistency originates attentive curiosity of escape Delicate steel disables visual interactions enlisting desired reprieve Veiled sereneness rests firmly within the discovered moments of choice The depths of marked earth bare a weighted calm within a fixed hysteria Ironic gestures of unmasked stone engage a meditative control Dense rigidity cleanses the disillusion of expanded physical perspectives While proposed filtrations of light greet exposed walls with warm relief Designed contrast evokes contemplative perceptions exposed to body Thirty feet below modest murmurs echo against concrete patterns As potent scents fill the lungs with a thin layer of stained earth Chills of rushing wind emesh the knowledgeably subtracted form As architectural tension dances to the persistent hums of movement Premeditated control evokes subtle intuitions sensationally enlightened Sixty feet below circumstantial relief battles turmoil of visual knowledge A /grave/ heartbeat contained within the depth is the release of chaos Consent of solitude is known within the extension of relief Fifty Eight
Fifty Nine
Through the development of material placement in fictional hallways I was able to start expanding my conceptual understanding of what could be considered an architectural pattern. Once again using a process of physical removal from a series of drawings focuses the eye on how light also interacts with space to allow for another layer of the arbitrary pattern. After designing a series of iterative hallways including different materials and configurations I created my own definition of what a pattern could mean in an architectural design. A definition spanning the areas of proportion, scale, site, form, detail, and an arbitrary placement of imposed decorative elements. Pattern therefore become a method of design within a human scale and no longer the outcome of arbitrary aesthetical preferences.
Sixty
Sixty One
Sixty Two
Sixty Three
Meditation is a continuous thought or mental contemplation of varying truths and ideals. However, it is often noted that a full meditative experience is not understood with the mind, but with the experiential use of the body. My thesis studies how the architectural ideas, elements, and conditions of light, earth, sky, movement, seclusion, reprieve, reflection, and pattern can heighten the awareness of the meditative body through contemplative spatial interactions. The idea of distracting chaos has become the circumstantial site in which my project begins. A series of interconnected spaces step in ten foot increments below ground level. A design approach intended to disconnect chaotic distractions from the meditating body. Each level of the sequenced spaces interacts directly within the ideas relating to the meditative body. For instance, after a chaotic ground level, the ten feet below defines action within the mind, thirty feet below reveals mindfulness described as meditation of heart, and finally sixty feet below is a sense of clarity or the core of body. Circumstantial rooms based upon architectural ideas are patterned in order to situate experiential contemplation. A patterning of scale, proportion, material, light, and sound becomes the critical architectural tool in articulating the spatial environments. Each room is ordered along a path of moving brick or unsteady gravel based upon ideas of recalibrating body and space. High architectural contrast is proposed to support a bodily awareness of spatial exploration. For instance, an understanding of light is unknown without the knowledge of darkness. Writing sparks the start of a creative experiential space, while also acting as the tool which regulates self analysis of designs. Ekphrasis of poetic beauty enhances awareness of underlying meanings of material and design moves. While a storybook poem interacts directly with a meditative experience through the project. Text placement and physical paper portray furthermore, within the process of design, an encompassing meditative experience. No music or movies play as each line of a drawing experiences concentrated meditation. As a meditative body journeys throughout the series of architectural spaces, the intention is an awareness of these contemplative patterns.
Sixty Four
Sixty Five
Can the ego disconnect from a physical consciousness in an architectural meditation?
The thesis exploration is focused on building within the earth to allow for a series of meditative acts at various depth levels. The actions include chaos at the ground level, to the set of initial actions, to a journey of mindfulness, and finally to a bodily meditative clarity. To further examine the impact of built spaces within the exposed earth a series of one hundred section drawings were negatively cut, water colored, and layered horizontally to form a physical site model.
“My work is more about your seeing than it is about my seeing, although it is a product of my seeing. I’m also interested in the sense of presence of space, that is space where you feel a presence, almost an entity - that physical feeling and power that space can give.” James Turrell
Sixty Six
Sixty Seven
Riva San Vitale
Seventy
2013 - Switzerland
Mexico City 2015 - Mexico
Paris + Poissy 2016 - France
Dhaka 2017 - Bangladesh
Chandigarh 2017 - India
Ahmedabad 2017 - India
New York City
2015 - New York
Seventy Two Seventy Four Seventy Six Seventy Eight Seventy Nine Eighty
“It was drawing that led me to architecture, the search for light and astonishing forms.”
Oscar Niemeyer
“The kind of drawing which is taught, or supposed to be taught, in our schools, in a term or two, perhaps at the rate of an hour’s practice a week, is not drawing at all. It is the performance of a few dexterous (not always even that) evolutions on paper with a black-lead pencil; profitless alike to performer and beholder, unless as a matter of vanity, and that the smallest possible vanity.
The Element of Drawing John Ruskin
“The key to learning to draw, therefore, is to set up conditions that cause you to make a mental shift to a different mode of information processing - the slightly altered state of consciousness - that enables you to see well. In this drawing mode you will be able to draw you perceptions even though you may never have studied drawing.” Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Betty Edwards
“Drawing is the medium through which the investigation will be carried out. How the investigation is conducted is equally important to subject of the investigation, using fundamental tools to explore, study, and document fundamental architectural ideas in scale...”
Denis Schofield
Santa Croce - Riva San Vitale, Switzerland
Seventy One
Louvre - Paris, France
Villa Savoye - Poissy, France
Eifel Tower - Paris, France
Seventy Three
Frieda Kahlo’s and Diego Rivera’s home/studio - Mexico City, Mexico
National Autonomous University of Mexico, Coyoacan, Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico
Frieda Kahlo’s and Diego Rivera’s home/studio - Mexico City, Mexico
Seventy Five
National Assembly Building- Dhaka, Bangladesh
National Assembly Building- Dhaka, Bangladesh
Museum of Independence, Suhrawardy Udyan - Dhaka, Bangladesh
Seventy Seven
Palace of Assembly - Chandigarh, India
Ghandi Bhavan - Chandigarh, India
Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad, India
Rock Gardens - Chandigarh, India
Adalaj Wav step well - Ahmedabad, India
Seventy Eight
Seventy Nine
Highline - New York City, NY
Highline - New York City, NY
World Trade Center Oculus - New York City, NY
Eighty
Four Freedoms Park- New York City, NY
Eighty One