alexis porten
contact alexisporten@gmail.com 931.349.1271
content | bio || selected projects ||| travel
bio There are moments that imprint and settle in the mind, becoming recallable and solitary memories and there is the space between. I live within the solace of such a rhythm, in the anticipation of those pointed moments that bring congruence to the blurred glances out the window of my family’s volvo station wagon. The countless days spent in a beauty shop, finding comfort in the heavy aroma of perm rods, and those evenings around a campfire, playing Scarlett in a round of Clue, all weave together like some sort of eclectic textile, the space between. The seams are different. The seams are the distinct memories that draw all frayed edges together. The seams are necessary to understand the world around me and, quite simply, to grow.
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selected projects
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thesis year ||||| 2015-2016 | self directed project stein glacier, switzerland
recipient | tau sigma delta bronze medal recipient | 2016 faculty letter of excellence exhibited | utk honors exhibition, ewing gallery, knoxville, tn published | http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1988/
measuring rapid stillness | this self directed thesis project is the culmination of my undergraduate education. in it, i find the landscape as a series of striation, veils that have edges and edges that are disappearing. my architectural intervention, my earthwork, chooses to act as the antithesis of a border. because it is temporary, both in existence and purpose. the ideas of border and separation and edges led me to topography, to the alps, to the marked landscape of avalanche shelves and snow drift measurements.
stitches | the first diagram i made of my thesis project was a study in thread. a study in the ability for thread to define and redefine an edge and how easy it might be to unravel. to remove all evidence and begin again.
pinhole camera | on my journey through the swiss alps, i took with me handmade matchbox cameras that work without modern technology to capture the residual light, sounds and atmosphere onto the revealed film. here is an example of one such imprint, developed in a photolab, becoming the textile/fabric of my thesis.
visible striations | glaciers grow in layers just like the rings of a tree. through this growth pattern, glacial ice collects the surrounding atmosphere and air. if glaciers are drilled, ice-cores result in vessels of time that can be used to study paleo-climatology. this information is formed slowly, in a rapidly still pattern of freeze and thaw.
time scales | the national swiss topomaps are redrawn every six years. the glacier will be monitored along this strict time scale. the map on the previous page shows the glacier as it recedes every twentyfour years, marked in a darkness of blue. the annual cycle of ice-core collecting will result in a line of columns along the edge of the disappearing glacier for each year that it is measured. these columns are eventually revealed out of the ice and become a structure for the substructure of cloth and wire which will build into a monument for this disappearing piece of the landscape.
collection | the physical samples i collected on my trip to the swiss alps are reorganized into a measuring device that catalogs the samples in the order that i picked them up off the ground. on the vertical string, the objects are then denoted with the elevation above sea level of their origin. this became a system that shortens inaccessible distances.
AY ACROSS ATRIUM
integrations year |||| fall 2014 | partner project knoxville, tennessee
first place | a.i.a. middle tennessee fourth year design review honorable mention | brewer ingram fuller sustainable design award
l.e.a.p. office and market | the landscape architect, engineer, architecture and planning firm is a design firm to be located in downtown knoxville, tn that focuses on sustainable design practices. as such, the building needed to become a tool for the designers themselves and a connector between client, designer and implementation. this project was guided by the principles of the a.i.a. committee on the environment. for example, we implemented long life, loose fit with the decision to design a structural system of cross-laminated timber and glu-laminated beams, a system that can be disassembled and reused with relative ease.
central atrium | the building opens up to the person at street level as they slip through the copper wrapper into an enclosed atrium. the atrium is a physical connection with greater knoxville. visitors are meant to circulate through this space on the ground floor. at the highest level, this is crossed as a connector for the largest conference room.
layered entry | the entry to both the market and office spaces are revealed through a layered system of materials. the outer skin is perforated copper sheets that allow selected light to pass through by means of a developed pattern of holes. beyond the copper paneling, the building envelope is made of charred wood that has turned black through a process meant to keep it from weathering as fast as the untreated wood found surrounding the front entries into the interior spaces. this layered sense of materials is meant to reinforce the idea of using the building as a teaching tool.
kartin maneesi year |||| summer 2014 | solo project helsinki, finland
first place | hnedak bobo study abroad award
kaartin maneesi | the kaartin maneesi building has served many purposes since it’s construction in the late ninteenth century. situated near the design district of helsinki, observatory park and the harbor, the imprint of this relic of time will become an exhibit hall and make shop for the community that is helsinki. [14.07.14] my mind wanders back, as it often does, to kiljava. to the week we spent among the pine trees, deep within the finnish forest. this was my first introduction to this culture that i now inhabit, like a soft, warm handshake i was welcomed to finland. i will hold on to that connection to the tree and to the finnish balance of nature to everyday life.
the resurrection chapel | through our travels in finland, i became inspired by the connection to nature of the chapel by erik bryggman, shown here on the right compared to my original parti for the kartin maneesi museum.
building as a filter | the exterior brick walls of the kaartin maneesi structure are intact. this envelope of material is maintaining a barrier between the interior and the city. introducing a separation of walls will ignite a new layering, not of brick and mortar, but of nature, silence and time. the wall will be pulled apart from itself, allowing experiences through, between and within it, exposing views and filtering helsinki. kaartin maneesi sits in between two important realms of the finnish culture, the appreciation for the design and the respect for nature.
QUILT CENTER year ||| spring 2014 | partner project manchester, kentucky
appalachian quilt center | the town of manchester, kentucky relies on quilting for a piece of its heritage. with this knowledge, we created a quilt center that would be an offering to those in search of the appalachian culture. visitors enter through a large courtyard and are introduced to the quilting process through windows into each part of the process. there is a gallery which uses the wood structural elements to hold the delicate quilts within the larger concrete volume. a portion of the building is used as a teaching space for people to learn the steps in making a quilt in detail. this type of center becomes integral in preserving a forgotten skill in the appalachian culture.
exposed threadwork | the quilt center's main structure is that of concrete with intermediate members made of wood stretching through the building like the intersecting threads in a piece of cloth. the horizontal beams are evident in the interior and translate vertically to the double height windows seen on the exterior.
brewery year ||| fall 2014 | solo project townsend, tennessee
the little river brewery | in the fall of my third year, our studio centered around learning how to program a site based on research and a keen understanding of the existing cultural striations. i worked in townsend, tennessee, a gateway to the great smokey mountains national park that is a small by-pass town in search of a unique identity. through an analysis of the beer and cider brewing process, i decided to brand townsend with a purpose, to brew. the resulting bottles of beer would identify townsend as a place to pause en route to the national park and as a place that could keep track of time based on the seasonal of growth of many fields of barley, apples, hops, wheat and wildflowers that would populate both the ten mile stretch of highway and the site of the brewery, along the little river. this project became as much about site as it did about teaching the steps in a process through design.
the apple shed and honey house | here shown connected through section and landscape, are built with materials that signify the process as well as the storage of the results of these processes. wood, a fragile material, holds the apple pressing machines and honey combs. solid stone protects the stored apple juice and collected honey.
design build year |||| spring 2015 | group project knoxville, tennessee
published | http://dbei.utk.edu/portfolio/beardsley-community-farm/
beardsley community farm | an urban farming co-op, beardsley farm was in need of office space for its employees as well as a place to teach the community at large about healthy eating practices, cooking, and growing the food that goes into a meal. this project centered around the decision to build almost entirely out of brick making the course just as much about perfecting construction documents as it was about learning to lay brick and cmu block. from the daily lessons in mortar mixing and properly using a trough to meetings with professionals on brick laying and construction, the beardsley project is a total effort of design. the project was officially completed in the summer of 2016.
travel I wish to never settle on preconceived definitions. There will always be another culture to confront, always another person to put my own world into perspective. With this inkling comes the ever present desire to travel. Studying abroad in Helsinki, Finland, winter months spent in the Swiss Alps and walks through ancient Italian cities are at the core of who I am as a designer.
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finland summer 2014 | study abroad aalto university, helsinki
my summer spent in helsinki, finland was one of midsummer parties and finnish culture. as a studio, we hand-measured the rural rajamaaki chapel and we translated these measurements into a wood model and drafted drawing set at our studios at aalto university. this impacted my ideas of how to define a measuring tool and translated into the initial inspiration for my thesis project. this was my first attempt at studying culture through design. a practice that i count as a guiding principle in my space-making as a young designer.
switzerland winter 2015 | thesis research the swiss alps
my thesis project is a landscape oriented earthwork that will measure the recession of the stein glacier in the swiss alps. while the space will one day be blank, a residual piece of design will exist in its place. my site research included the collection of physical samples, cataloging these artifacts, and creating pin-hole cameras in order to capture the residual light of the site on film. the collection technique developed further in the studio and acted as a catalyst for creating my own measuring device based off the swiss culture and my travels.