Pratt Institute : Architecture Portfolio

PRATT INSTITUTE

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

FALL 2011 - SPRING 2015

ODYSSEY

Alexander Mailloux 86 Madison Ave. New Providence, NJ 07974 908.451.4154 [m] alexander.j.mailloux@gmail.com

EDUCATION 08/200905/2010

Roger Williams University bristol, ri

08/201110/2015

Pratt Institute School of Architecture brooklyn, ny

american institute of architecture students

bachelor of architecture

AWARDS + RECOGNITION President’s List fa. 2011 fa. 2012 fa. 2013

Dean’s List fa. 2014 sp. 2012

Pratt Institute Archival [selected works] fa. 2011 fa. 2012 sp. 2013 fa. 2013

design 101 design 301 design 302 design 401

Distinguished Project Award sp. 2014-15

[degree project // thesis]

EXPERIENCE 07/2013present

ASSETS

Intern - Avoid Obvious Architects new york, ny

Hands on in many facets of the firm from modeling to render post-processing, fabrication. Involved in design and development for expositions and competitions. Advancing clean accurate 3D models from construction documents to the specificity of the rendering on task.

05/201208/2012

Intern - Core.Form-ula brooklyn, ny 3d modeling, physical model making, visualization

Asia Study Abroad beijing, cn kanagawa, jp kyoto, jp osaka, jp

advanced modeling diagramming grasshopper

AutoCAD Adobe

drafting laser cutting photoshop illustrator indesign aftereffects

Developing precise 3D models to specifications for 3D print fabrication, and physical modeling.

06/201407/2014

Rhinoceros 3D

rendering, schematic design, design development, 3d modeling, visualization, competitions

sendai, jp tokyo, jp yokohoma, jp

Looking at specific case studies of historical craft in both China and Japan, the studio reassessed urban occupation by issuing new proposals for alternative spatial programmatic interventions in one of the two host locations. Our experience and proposal was driven by our focus locally on productions of culture such as food, music, and entertainment that transcend the boundaries of verbal communication.

Render

vray maxwell studio

Professional Modelmaking CNC certified clean physical craft laser cutting wood working

Microsoft Office Artistic Mediums oils acrylics gouache charcoal pen + ink clay

WELCOME TO MACHINE SPRING 2013

7 - 17

THREAD THE EASEL

Alexander Mailloux

FALL 2013

19 - 29

EAST RIVER MONSTER SPRING 2014

31 - 41

DAY OLD COFFEE FALL 2012

43 - 47

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Alexander Mailloux

WELCOME TO MACHINE SPRING 2013

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SPRING 2013

COLUMBIA BOATHOUSE Columbia University has decided to upgrade and modernize its boathouse facility on the Harlem River, adjacent to Baker Field sports complex and Inwood Hill Park. The community Boathouse will extend Columbia’s commitment to innovative and sustainable design. The University wants to continue to grow its neighborhood outreach initiatives. As part of this plan, the new boathouse facility will incorporate rowing education and training programs for inner-city youth in tandem with its varsity collegiate rowing program.

The outreach program is dedicated to the belief that the sport of rowing provides unique abilities that promote personal and community growth through teamwork, discipline, and physical fitness.

CRITIC: RICHARD SARRACH SPRING 2013 Pratt Archival

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SHED STRUCTURE DERIVATIVES

THE SHED

Alexander Mailloux

The investigation for the project began by developing prototype enclosures to house boat racks and oars for a specified quantity and type of rowing shell. The goal was to create a “tailored” shed that is informed by the parameters of shell/oar storage, access, and the movement of the body in space. The provocation became about how the generic typology of the shed was to be responsive to the interior and exterior pressures of program and site.

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Program is distributed and arranged facilitating members of the community and University athletes to co-occupy the building without interfering with each other’s activities.

The spiral staircase at the core of the building acts as the joint where the two systems collide.

Necessity and Leisure, Athletes and Community, Complexity and Simplicity. The circulation creates a continuous loop that folds throughout the building, creating a circuit which simultaneously links community spaces and shelters private programs of locker rooms and training facilities reserved for the Columbia rowing team.

SPRING 2013

CHOREOGRAPHY

Alexander Mailloux

Critical analysis involved understanding the programmatic components and developing a massing strategy that accounts for the importance of shed choreography. The boathouse proposal also includes a banquet hall for public events, video room, classrooms and training spaces as part of the outreach program. Integrating a long ramp as a delayed method of circulation acts as a procession and allowing the elongated space to be used as a gallery, or “timeline”, displaying the history and awards of the Columbia rowing team.

This formal gesture caters to a higher awareness within younger rowers about the lineage and camaraderie of the sport. Along with providing limited parking for cars and boat trailers, the design of the outdoor spaces surrounding the building provide a public observation area of the crew training.

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PUBLIC ARTERY PPRIMARY CIRCULATION: STAFF/ATHLETE SECNDARY CIRCULATION: STAFF/ATHLETE BOAT ACCESS/STORAGE/LAUNCH

DETAIL ASSEMBLY MODEL: 1/2” = 1’-0”

SPRING 2013

TRANSPARENT PHOTOVOLTAIC PANALS @ ZONES OF LEAST SOLAR GAIN

PHOTOVOLTAIC PANALS @ ZONES OF OPTIMUM SOLAR GAIN

TRANSLUCENT PHOTOVOLTAIC PANALS @ ZONES OF MEDIUM SOLAR GAIN

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

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Alexander Mailloux 14

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SECOND FLOOR PLAN

SPRING 2013

THE MECHANICS As the machine proved its efficiency in the production of capital, society turned to technological advancement for the production of leisure machines. Taking the principles of the industrial revolution out of the realm of work and into the realm of play has produced a profusion in the amounts of “machines” we spatially and intimately interact with on a daily basis. Today the machine allows continuous oscillation through the boundary of necessity and leisure, and this occurs in such a harmonic way that we do not even notice the difference between the two.

That in mind how do we produce an architecture that both acts and assists in combining the two?

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THE MECHANICS SECTIONAL MODEL: 1/8” = 1’-0”

If we take the phone as an example, we can agree that it is one of the greatest machines developed by man, yet it no longer serves the sole purpose of facilitating communication. This boathouse simplifies the relationship between the vessel as a tool originally designed for “work” as a means of conveyance, and its translation into a vehicle for leisure and sport. All the while maintaining the integrity and structure of collegiate athletics, yet building a broader recreational exchange with the community through “play”.

SECOND FLOOR

Alexander Mailloux

GROUND FLOOR

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We can argue that the machine’s modern purpose is to blend necessity and leisure. If we understand the machine and this seamless connection, it can be deduced that today’s society demands that necessity and leisure co-exist in every new design. This is amplified thru the scale of architecture that is engaged as both tool and toy. In the end the true intention is to design a well-oiled machine that maximizes production and work of sport with leisure and play of community water activities and public amenity.

SPRING 2013

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Alexander Mailloux

THREAD THE EASEL SPRING 2013

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PRATT GRADUATE DORMITORY FALL 2012

This project acts as the first instructive stage of fusing theoretical architectural practice with that of the material practice. The design challenge is a university graduate dormitory for Pratt Institute located a block from Pratt’s main campus in Brooklyn, NY. The 15,000 s.f. infill site is situated between Grand Ave. and Steuben St. and is to house, 110 graduate students within 55 two bedroom one bathroom apartments.

CRITIC: SAL TRANCHINA FALL 2013 Pratt Archival

CANVAS

MPUS

MAIN CA

G TRAIN

BY AVE

WILLOUGH

MYRTLE

AVE

Involved throughout the design phase was the expertise of consulting engineers ranging in disciplines of structure, MEP, and façade. Between meeting logistical goals and criteria for the dormitory housing typology, this project will challenge a larger critique in spatial characteristics suitable for urban dwelling as a graduate art student in New York. This agenda is played out largely through the scales of an individual unit, overall circulation among clusters, and the artist community as a whole. In doing so the final design performs not just as a tectonic invention, but as a critical investigation of social culture.

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D AVE

GRAN

FORMAL STRATEGIES

ZONING

CLUSTERING

SHADING + EXT. SPACE

ATRIUM

PART + WHOLE

CORE ARTERIES

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A

Alexander Mailloux

400

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A

100

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

MIDDLE BAY PLAN

“WAREHOUSE” CONNECTIVITY

“UNIVERSITY” CLUSTERS

CIRCULATORY WELD

PUBLIC WEDGING

BALCONY DISPLACENT

PRIVACY OFFSET

Alexander Mailloux

STANDARD CORRIDOR

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UNIT MEDLEY

UNIT PLAN “UNIVERSITY” CATALYST

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BALCONY KITCHEN ENTRANCE BATHROOM BEDROOM BEDROOM BALCONY

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5 BELOW

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BEDROOM BATHROOM COMMONS KITCHEN CORE BATHROOM BEDROOM BEDROOM ENTRY LIVING RM

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Considering individualities of the introvert and the extrovert is essential to designing a symbiotic artist community. The intention is to produce an architecture that, by sympathizing both eccentricities, encourages a larger collective display of work and critique between graduate students.

Begin at the smallest spatial scale; the unit. As the graduate student does not spend four years growing with their fellow colleagues, the unit layout affords each student an individual bedroom.

However, to provoke work based conversation and congregation, the units are then clustered into “universities” in groups of 4, 6, or 8. In doing so, each student has the privacy appropriate for strong working environment, yet shares their public amenities, studio workspace, kitchen, and living room with their respective university.

FALL 2012

LEFT

UNIT SECTION

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“WAREHOUSE” ACTIVATION

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INTERNAL WELD

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MIDDLE BAY SECTION 25

FINAL MODEL: 1/8” = 1’-0”

WAREHOUSE

Alexander Mailloux

Ultimate engagement of the inhabitants occurs when the universities are fully activated as an artist gallery, or the “Warehouse” phase. When the artist community breaths as a one, students can maximize the capacity of their work and dwelling experience. This is achieved through spatial detail, but only at the comfort of the occupants.

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SECOND FLOOR PLAN

The architectural solution to simulating the “Warehouse” effect is to back each university’s kitchen space to that of their neighboring university, dividing them by sliding partition wall. When all partitions remain open, as is encouraged, any student from university “A” can traverse B, C, D, and E into F, without ever entering the primary atrium corridor, through tertiary networks of circulation internal only to the universities. As each university is also encouraged to develop theme, whether it be through student work, lighting, wall color, or any other display of its occupants eccentric personalities the dormitory and its community has the opportunity to come to life as one single entity. In doing so the unique personalities of each university are put on display and perform as one seamless warhouse gallery.

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GRAND ST ELEVATION

FALL 2012 27

ENAMEL

Alexander Mailloux

As the interior conditions of each “university” are a reflection and celebration of the individualatity of the students residing within it, similar articulation is used to design the exterior cladding. Each residents unit offers a personal level of controllled encloseure giving the artist choice of being intirely revealed to the outside community or completely encapsulated in their own workspace. This is achieved through an operable frittted panal ingsystem. The porosity and fenestration control of the facade acts to showcase the identity of the “warehouse” and the assemblage of its residents as a single body of work with a differnt style of performance occuring between day and night.

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GRAND ST ELEVATION

The ideology integral to each step in the design process is the overall comfort of each artists personal and comunal environment, and the spatial affect on one’s ability to author the most productive outcomes in their work and passions.

These concepts and architectural solutions pursue the test and transformation of the current paradigm of graduate student interaction at Pratt Institute.

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Alexander Mailloux

EAST RIVER MONSTER FALL 2013

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FALL 2013

PIER 17 The intervention of project pier 17 investigates the question of what is monumental, and how it can be achieved through the lens of architecture and landscape. What is it that makes a moment memorable? A place? A space? An action? While moment and memory are bonded by character, they are parted by the tissues of time and space. One for a lifetime, and the other for an instant. Moment and Monument. Objects or occurences one deems monumental are captured in a moment, but stowed in their memory.

CRITIC: DRAGANA ZORIC FALL 2014 Pratt Archival

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THE RIFF Monuments often serve as focal points for what a culture aspires to and values, while simultaneously reaffirming foundational narratives of a place, a moment, a movement, signifying who we are and what we are about. However what a monument stands for is truly subjective to its viewer, challenging the importance of meaning and legibility in architecture. Through history this is often times compensated for through scale as well as icon.

Alexander Mailloux

Considering the notion of monumentality in a great city such as New York isn’t necessarily an easy task. Although a larger critique could be fashioned that, while New York City has many monuments, it does not possess one that identifies or expresses the true character and culture of its inhabitants today. This project serves to define its current cultures, but more importantly retain the ability to evolve with the ever changing social exchange within NYC and its external pressures of oceanic fluctuation. There are plenty that revere capital and economy, however this intervention intends to mediate local and tourist through the celebration of its people and their melting pot of local initiatives; arts, music, and cuisines.

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ACTIVATIONS

BANDSHELL FALL 2013

SPECTATOR DECK

CONCERT VENUE OUTBOUND

BANDSTAND

FLOATING MARKET SQ.

FERRY

TERMINAL

RESTAURANT FOOD TRUCK PROMINADE

INBOUND

BIERGARTEN OCCUPANT ARTERY

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ENSEMBLE 1

SEAPLANE DROPOFF

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ARTIST FERRY LANDING

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COCKTAIL TERRACE

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VIP LOUNGE

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VIP BAR

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DRESSING ROOMS

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VIP VIEWING DECK

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MAIN STAGE

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GENERAL ADMISSION

10 RESERVED SEATING

Alexander Mailloux

BACKSTAGE

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Accompanying that critique is another that characterizes the failure of the previous structure that occupied this site. Pier 17 fizzled out simply because, it lacked locality both in its logic of program and public connectivity. In hindsight the new design taps into the NYC 2030 Plan of “greenbelting” Manhattan and serves as an extension to both the framework confronting sea level rise, as well its leisure component tethering a social-infrastructural landscape around the city.

Both the boathouse and pier 17 projects act as leisure machines that foster the growth of public engagement.

Also, pier 17 addresses the impact of development in creating underground linkages from the waterfront thru Fulton Center, to the PATH hub, and World Financial Center. Serving as another pinnacle gesture in the connective lineage drawn east to west in downtown Manhattan.

This becomes just another node that engages the string of object buildings along that trajectory which have been perceived as both public space and monumental infrastructure. The pier operates in a similar multi modal fashion but challenges new means of conveyance that network water taxi routes to Brooklyn and Queens, as well as seaplanes stitching communities external to the city. The vision of this intervention is to produce a true illustration of New York’s values as they are today while even more importantly designing an artifact that could stand the test of time via material and program. It must retain the ability to acclimate the ever changing culture and people of the city. This project embodies the concrete foundation that Pier 17 lacked, which is to invest itself, first and foremost, in the people of its city.

FALL 2013

R D F

VE I DR

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FALL 2013

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Alexander Mailloux

FALL 2013 41

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Alexander Mailloux

D.O.C. DAY OLD COFFEE FALL 2011

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Alexander Mailloux

NARRATIVE OF JOINTS

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This project exists as an understanding of technical drafting and craftsmanship as well as the vehicle to test intuitive thinking and spatial construct. Analysis of Japanese joinery nurtures knowledge in craft and material connection. Then the integration of language serves as a catalyst to drive performative joinery, and thus terminology that originally represented material junction is translated and adapted into a spatial quality.

The terms “interlocking” and “slippage” are used to produce a set of two dimensional drawings which then antagonize the three dimensional construction of 3” x 3” basswood cubes. The process cultivated the discovery of the simple “G’ joint which allows the cube to expand from a 3” x 3” profile to 9” x 9”, creating implicit spatial conditions accessed between the cubes resting and activated states.

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Alexander Mailloux

G JOINT

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The happy accident along the road of intuitive hand modeling is the uncovering of the “G” joint. This physical joinery facilitates the activation of a system of moving parts, that served as a way for, not only me to produce different conditions with ever pull and slide, but more importantly for anyone who interacts with it. As the models expand they expose new potentials to challenge our perception of what one might originally characterize as exterior or interior. What we view as internal circulation can then expand into an atrium or a courtyard, and with every new arrangement we redefine the interstitial tissue that bonds the physical and the implied. And, most excitingly, from person to person, the variety of outcomes and conceived organizations that are achievable are limited only to the imagination.

FALL 2011x

ASSEMBLY A series of representational activators [ line, plane, mass ] are used with the intention to delineate spatial zones without fully describing them through the arrangement of physical material.

These tests are played out through the second exercise which is to construct three 12” x 12” modules under the umbrella of concept however, engineered using different formal techniques.

Therefor the ruleset for deriving implied space is first accomplished by the individual articulation of each activator, one uses specifically line, and the next plane, and finally the third module incorporates all three as an orchestra of applied components. While the construction using just line or (thickness of one basswood member) opens observations pertaining to implied geometry and interstitial volume, the construction using

just plane affords new conversations that begin to suggest and question occupiable territories. At this point the scale-less nature of these as objects enters the realm of architectural space at a human scale.

The Final design accentuates the terms “slippage” and “interlocking” and operates in tandem with the techniques acquired from the original studies. By applying that framework to the concept of program, “slippage” becomes a conceptual approach to circulation producing moments where privatized program has the ability to shift away from public. “Interlocking” mediates the interaction between programs, whether it be the hard collision of zones or softer nestling of one space within another.

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Alexander Mailloux