portfolio
2 0 1 2 2 0 1 4 Alistair Benckenstein
Concert Venue | Design I A venue for an array of different musical performances. This project addresses the corner condition of its location by opening up to it and allowing for the user’s descent down into the venue. Intent was to design a venue that is public in its contact with the city that surrounds it but still allows for a more private experience of the shows that it hosts. Formal inspiration was drawn from rock formations and caves, resulting in the triangulated roof that encloses and shades the venue during the day. Audience members have a variety of viewing experiences to choose from including on the lower floor level next to the stage, further back at sidewalk level, and at any place along the upper levels. The upper levels provide for viewing from any direction around the performer. The venue also includes a ticketing booth at the sidewalk level ramp entry, bathrooms below it, and concessions just opposite the stage on the lower floor level. 3
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Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center Pavilion Design II Project began with research and mapping of the Thelocactus. Abstraction of the plant’s form led to the overall shape of the structure, and further manipulation of this abstraction generated the modules of the pattern wall.
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Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center Design II
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Design for a building for education and information at the wildflower center. The project began with wind, solar, and water diagrams and culminated in two buildings unified by one trangulated roof. This roof collects all rainfall into one point and directs it toward a pool on the main walking trail. Each building places emphasis on a different view into the trees, one horizontal (focusing on canopy) and one vertical (focusing on trunks). Additionally each building houses a different kind of program, one private and the other public. The main educational and technological programs are housed in the publicly-focused building and the bathrooms, staff, and storage areas are housed in the more privatelyfocused one.
Pool Project | Design III Collaborator: Kelsey Matteson Renovation and conversion of St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop on South Congress into an indoor pool facility. The intent was to provide a wide variety of experiences as well as to address the wider context of the S Congress area. It includes a lap pool, a sloping beach-entry pool, and a stepped-entry pool. 12
The lounge and changing rooms are located below pool level and are accessed using a long central staircase. Surrounded by the glass walls that contain the water, this entry evokes a dreamlike feeling as the descent is made. The fingering floor detailing reaches out of the interior toward the sidewalk, eventually transitioning into grass that provides a peak at what is to come. On the interior, the fingering detail on the floor transitions into shallow pools of water only a few inches deep later leading to the main pool itself. The ceiling reflects the shapes of these pools in the form of apertures that let in natural light.At the far end of the building, the ceiling bends up allowing for diffuse light to illuminate the interior. The roof is accessible and covered in vegetation, providing a spot for relaxing and tanning. 13
Austin Green Center | Design III Intent was to create a green center that connects the bustling commercial and business dimensions of S Congress and the residential neighborhood behind it. This is accomplished partially through the upper floor armature which provides a visual relationship between the two environments: at the ends of each of the axes is a wall of glazing that provide views toward the downtown skyline and the more secluded neighborhood, respectively. This upper floor contains programs such as offices, a cafe, community rooms, and a library. This upper mass is cladded in a series of louvers that block western sunlight and let in northern. This upper mass is floated above the first floor with a space in between that provides room for air flow into the enclosed outdoor space. The lower floor is a bermed mass that pulls up from the ground into a hill and houses programs such as offices, a cafe, a lecture hall, a gallery space, and a computer room. All lower floor rooms are accessed from an inner courtyard that is cut away from the berm and allows for outdoor exhibitions and outdoor seating for the cafe. The upper mass accesses the roof of the lower mass in several areas making room for more cafe seating above. The offices also have access to the roof in several areas. 15
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Parametric Shading Structure An intersection of masses created in Revit. The shading planes were then converted into parametrically designed repeating forms.
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Digital Fabrication Formal exploration through the design of a digital model. This model was then contoured and laser cut resulting in the physical model made of thin cardboard.
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South Lamar Multifamily Housing | Design IV Intent was to design a multifamily housing complex near the corner of S Lamar and Kinney that would provide living spaces for the artistic and craft studios of the surrounding neighborhood. It features a line of smaller exhibition galleries facing out to a park lined with trees that extends to the far corner of the site. Above these smaller galleries are a collection of two-story living spaces that might be rented by those exhibiting their work below. Extending back from the smaller galleries is a larger one that provides for larger-scale exhibits. The third leg of the mass contains the primary living quarters that include a mixture of one and two-level apartments. The levels below include spaces for retail and dining on the ground level as well as offices just above. The interior courtyard engages the sidewalk by providing non-residents with a quieter route from Kinney to S Lamar.
mixed multi-level retail/dining offices residential units art galleries community rooms
Digital Form Generation + Fabrication Design V Evolution of a form through the lens of object-oriented ontology. The project began with a catalogue of masses randomly generated through the manipulation of simple forms. This manipulation was then contoured and laser cut into a physical mass of stacked chipboard. A second form was then generated as a response to the first. Where the emergeant form was monolithic and massive, the second form is a wireframe of bent glass, a lighter, more delicate material. This tectonic form provides a counterpoint to the stereotomic nature of the first. The third form is a series of sandblasted plexiglass shells. These shells respond to the first form by their locations; each occurs along a major contour in the interior of the first form. They also follow the same construction technique of stacked layers. The shells respond to the second form based on material qualities. Each shell is filled with LED lights, and near each shell, the glass wireframe densifies allowing for the glow of the shells to reflect and refract through the glass.
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180º
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150º
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120º
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90º
Luminaire Design/Build Environmental Controls I
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0º units: candelas 7
Existing Conditions: The site chosen for our light fixture is a picnic table at East Woods Neighborhood Park. There is only existing electric lighting on the surrounding basketball court, tennis, court, and bathroom. These lights are most likely halogen flood lights. While these spaces are all well-lit, they are all forty-plus yards away so any light that reaches the picnic table is indirect and diffuse. The lighting in the existing space creates an atmosphere that feels dark, eerie, lonely, and unsafe.
Design Goals: To combat the darkness around the picnic table luminaire that creates ambient light around the table and projects direct light onto the table’s surface. In order to allow people to use the table for activities at night, half of the project will light up the greater table area and half will provide more direct light to the individuals that need it. A light fixture will be secured on each of the tables in the park.
3.9e+02 1.5e+02 56 21 8.2 3.1 1.2
bottom + middle lights | nov 18th 9:38 pm
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