Allison Patrick
I II III
Columbia GSAPP
IV V VI VS T
Master of Architecture
2010
I II III IV V VI VS T
Climatology Lab 125th Street and the Hudson River Core I - Fall 2007 Toshihiro Oki, Critic
I began the semester exploring how a person senses space, versus how they actually view it. From these explorations I moved on to create a wall system for an office, using glass tubes of varying sizes. When the climatologist was working at their computer, they would see the smaller glass rods blurring the view, and they wouldn’t sense any distractions. Therefore, the rods got smaller, and therefore the system became more opaque, at the height of a person’s eye level, while working at a computer. However, when the climatologist was ready to take a break they could lean back and look out through the larger glass tubes at the top and bottom of the wall, which would allow for clearer views out to the exterior world. Therefore the climatologists sense enclosure while working, but they can visually see the openness when they take a break.
The climatologists sense enclosure while working, but they can visually see the openness when they take a break.
Layers Create Opacity: Opacity Declares Privacy
Site Plan
Ground Floor Plan
Second Floor Plan
Longitudinal Section
I used the techniques of my wall system to create an entire building.
When designing the full Climatology Lab, I used the techniques of my wall system to create an entire building which would function in a similar way. The two strips of building would peel away at the ends, to create more transparent sections for the more public program. Likewise, the more private programs would be located near the center where the two strips of the building joined and created greater opacity. Through a careful study of the properties of glass, I was able to create a building where every single wall, except for the three bathrooms, was constructed solely out of glass. By employing my wall system and other techniques such as double walls, I
was able to create a building entirely out of glass while still providing the privacy needed for a functioning lab and office building. Additionally, while the building was meant to create a statement on the site, drawing the public in when need be, I wanted to make sure that the waterfront view was not overly blocked by a massive and solid structure. While the building isn’t transparent enough to see through, it would dissolve at the edges and in the more public area, allowing some hazy views through to the river. Additionally the back half of the building is supported on pilotis, so that it can be raised above the water level, allowing views under the structure to the river.
The Drawing Center Howard Street between Lafayette and Centre Streets Core II - Spring 2008 Alice Min-Soo Chun, Critic
I began the semester with site analysis through various photo collages which explore both the architectural context of the site, as well as general visual cues that I picked up from the city around our site. Through one specific roulage of a street grate, I explored the idea of making the functional beautiful, especially in a possible facade system. This facade could function as a structural envelope, as opposed to a standard curtain wall. In this system the vertical mullions would be structural members such as steel tubes, which would be used to support the ramp system, at the points where the ramps protrude through the facade, especially along the Howard Street elevation at the end of each ramp.
I explored the idea of making the functional beautiful, especially in a possible facade system.
The function of water collection, storage and re-use is one of the central design theses for my building.
I knew that the collection and re-use of water was going to be an important feature of my building, so in my material studies I explored water flow, through the study of both glycerine and copper. With the glycerine studies I focused on overall water flow, and how to begin to map that flow, whereas with the copper I focused more on water’s effect on another material and how that effect could be mapped. Therefore, instead of designing a building that merely included a sustainable water collection and filtration system, I decided that the function of water collection and storage is one of the central design theses for my building.
Bubbles of program within the continuous circulation of the public.
After conducting material studies, I began to explore how these studies could influence my design. These diagrams are when I began exploring the idea of bubbles of program within the continuous circulation of the public, up and down the ramps
which run throughout the building. These diagram also incorporate the other two key concepts that I designed around, green space elevated above the
city streets, and a system of collection tanks which would store rain water for use throughout the building. At this stage I worked with theoretical diagrams, circulation diagrams, and early physical study models, in order to begin to explore my design for the building.
This collage, functioning in both plan and section, begins to diagram the different program spaces and their specific required square footages. I then began to think about the relationship between each program element, as well as their relationship to the three different groups of people
using the space, Staff (blue), Visitors (red), and Service/Installation Crew
(yellow). This allowed me to explore which program spaces needed to be near each other, and which spaces needed access for which group of people. The collage was created with plexiglas, images and electrical tape.
Circulation Diagram
These are the drawings for my final design. The facade is a design derived from the first site study collages, and embodies the idea of making the functional beautiful. It is not only a glass facade, but a main structural element in the building. Each vertical mullion is actually a 3x8 rectangular steel tube which supports the ramps and landings that cut through the facade. Additionally, these drawings show the functional circulation path of water which flows down the ramp system into the large storage tank in the basement of the building. The water travels through three systems, each visible on the plans and North section drawings. Selected ramps are reserved solely for water, a few ramps contain hydroponic plants growing between the two panes of glass, and the remainder of the ramps contain sheets of copper which will slowly patina over time, allowing the functional collection of water to physically “draw� on the copper creating something quite beautiful. This copper facing is also visible on the North, Howard Street, facade, and along the party wall on the northern edge of the site.
These final drawings show the functional circulation path of water from rain to the basement storage tank.
Virtual Dwelling - Housing Studio with Megan Lynch Journal Square - Jersey City, NJ Core III - Fall 2008 Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla with Thomas de Monchaux, Critics
We began the semester by researching the standard telecom systems used in a typical apartment. By studying these typical systems we not only learned how they worked, but also their range of influence on any surrounding individuals. We learned that systems tend to be focused, and location specific, with small to medium spheres of influence on the surrounding architecture. These systems, while appearing to serve to connect us to our surroundings, in fact tend to isolate us even further. Younger generations especially will email or text message a close friend as opposed to calling them or walking to talk to them face to face.
Our advances in technology are creating a world of people who are isolated from each other but surrounded by complex machines and virtual worlds.
Our advances in technology, and telecom systems specifically, are creating a world of people who are isolated from each other but surrounded by complex machines and virtual worlds. We decided that when designing our housing project we would work within these new technological advances to connect people more fully with their surroundings and other human beings. Therefore, while embracing the technology available to us, we are choosing to alter the standard method with which it is used, in order to create a more cohesive world.
Final Building Design
Our building uses virtual technologies to their greatest potential in order to re-establish physical connections. Our building design is based on the infrastructure of Telecommunication. Telecom is a complex system that unites people who are physically distant from one another, while often isolating us from face-to-face interaction. Our building uses those virtual technologies to their greatest potential in order to re-establish physical connections between people. This was realized in a design which includes a large wall of LCD screen allowing for the virtual expansion of space as well as virtual connections between units.
Our building consists of 13 towers, each 27 stories high, spread along either side of the PATH train cut. This allows for the creation of 2,136 units of housing with minimal impact on the existing site. These towers are connected through a network of pedestrian bridges which contain public program for both the building residents and the greater public of Jersey City. Amongst these programs are Parks, Green Markets, Gyms and Mail rooms, as well as a Bus Depot, Path Station, and Internet Cafes which are all at ground level.
1 Bedroom Apartment
2 Bedroom Apartment
3 Bedroom Apartment
Our unit design includes a large wall of LCD screen, which allows for the virtual expansion of space.
Virtual Expansion of the Physical Park Each public program has been rethought surrounding the idea of telecom. For example, in the Green Market we are virtually combining the journey the farmers make to bring fresh produce to the city along with the journey one might make to pick your own apples in the orchard. You are now able to pick apples from the virtual apple orchard, and all from the comfort of your own building.
In the Virtual Green Market you are now able to pick real apples from the virtual apple orchard.
Design-Build Playground Playground 1 - Stuyvesant Town, NYC Advanced Studio IV - Spring 2009 Alice Min-Soo Chun, Critic
Scheme #1:
Scheme #2:
Site Plan
Section
Solo Design - Two Weeks
Woodscape Group Design with Annie Coombs and Julian Pancoast
Playscape Group Design with Annie Coombs and Christian Prasch
Kids Climb-It
is an alien all-rubber environment open to exploration through hidden spaces, courses, items and interactive features. As such, the playground provides a basis for children of all ages to create their own games in a system that responds to their movement and connects them to one another. The groundscape and structure act together to promote healthy, open-ended connections and competition. Electricity generators are incorporated throughout the structure so that children learn about energy while transversing their own invented courses to see who can make the most of their movement.
Kid’s Climb-It Group Design with Annie Coombs, Lena Fan, Christo Logan, Megan Lynch, Reihaneh Mozaffari, Christian Prasch and Julian Pancoast
New Arts District Medellin, Colombia Advanced Studio V - Fall 2009 Craig Konyk, Critic
I began the semester by creating this diagrammatic map of the city of Medellin, in order to familiarize myself with the city and its culture. The map shows the different districts, as well as the metro lines and their stops, and then focuses on the many new cultural institutions which the city has been building in the last 10 years. The images show each institution and the size of the bubble begins to explore their individual importance to the city and to my project. Our site is in the southern half of the city, in the northern section of the El Poblado district, and is centered on the new location for the Modern Art Museum of Medellin, MAMM.
Our site is centered on the new location for the Modern Art Museum of Medellin, MAMM.
After studying the city as a whole I zoomed in to focus more on our site, and study what elements I felt our site might be missing. The first thing I noticed was the extremely long distance between the two metro nearest metro stations, which was at least double the standard distance between most of the other stations in the city. The second thing I found to be missing was a bridge across the river to connect both the East and West banks, and more specifically MAMM and the future location for a new Library Park. The area directly to the North of our site features four bridges in a span of less than half the distance between the two bridges by our site, a noticeable disparity which I felt needed to be corrected.
The first thing I noticed was the distance between the two nearest metro stations, which was at least double the standard distance.
The second thing I found to be missing was a bridge across the river to connect MAMM and the location of a future Library Park.
When it came time to lay out my master plan, I felt that the most important connection was the line between MAMM and the location for the future Library Park. I chose an axis that was perpendicular to the lines of the River, the Metro tracks and the two highways that run parallel to the river. Then, being influenced by the strong mosaic qualities of the street pavers all around the city, I chose to create a grid based on a 100ft x 20ft rectangle, which gave me a base within to design. I then laid out which rectangles would be park, which would be sidewalk, and which would be buildings. The general master plan to the left shows the overall design of the area, where as the more focused master plan on the right also shows the location of each program element, within my master plan structure.
Master Plan, along an axis that is perpendicular to the River, Metro Tracks, and the main Highways.
Master Plan with Program Locations
Skate Park
Auditorium
Metro Station
Cafe
Highway Underpass and Store
Museum of the Textile Arts
Community Space in the Flooded Forest Acre River, Brazil Advanced Studio VI - Spring 2010 Leslie Gill and Mike Jacobs, Critics
The site I chose to work in this semester is the flooded forest, on the Acre River in Brazil. Throughout the year the Amazon River and its tributaries flood up to 40 feet, from the months of November through May. This dramatic change in river height creates a highly dynamic space which is entirely under utilized. I decided to base my site on an existing rubber tapper community, working within the assumption that the community contained housing, trails, etc but was in need of additional program such as a school, medical clinic and meeting rooms. I located my program on a site where during 3 months of the year it would be completely flooded, during another 3 months it would be completely dry, and for the remaining 6 months it would be
partially covered in water. Based on these continually changing water levels I could create a dynamic space which moved and changed with the floods, at times becoming more or less accessible based on the water level. The structure is a system of wood docks which float when the site is flooded, and as the water recedes they drop down creating occupiable spaces. Due to the tensile roof system, at times of high water some spaces would become completely inaccessible as the docks and the roof flattened together. Additionally, there would be some program spaces, nearest to the river, that were primarily meant to be accessed from the river via boat, so they would become unusable during the lowest flood periods.
The school rooms would become inaccessible when the river fully flooded, from April through June.
As the river water recedes, the roof and the docks pull apart, and the space becomes occupiable.
6” Diameter Support Pole
Dock Facing Wood 2x4’s
Float Drums 12”
Dock Structure Wood 2x6’s
3”
1.25”
20”
1” Treaded Rod at Pivot Points 24”
24”
24”
10” 1.25”
94.83”
18.83”
Visual Studies Various Semesters Various Critics
Architectural Drawing, Fall 2007 Alice Min Soo Chun, Critic
In drawing class I chose to explore the identity of a sneaker through the process of changing from a sneaker to a stiletto. Technically, the semester was spent exploring the construction line and how it could be used as a drawing tool. However the semester was really spent exploring how new techniques, such as laser cutting, could be used to create drawings. The drawing in the center is my final section drawing, which was then etched into plexi with the laser cutter, as seen on the far left. The piece to the right is a mapping exercise where I traced my section drawing, giving different lines greater weight, and then mapped the different locations that the sneaker and stiletto come from, a section from the physical collage drawing is seen in the photo below the drawing, on the right.
The semester was spent exploring how new techniques, such as laser cutting and collage, could be used to create drawings.
Intro to Digital Fabrication, Spring 2009 Josh Draper and Joe Vidich, Critics
Amoebic Light Plexi Slumping Project
Intro to Digital Fabrication, Spring 2009 Josh Draper and Joe Vidich, Critics
Glueless Duck Wood Contour Milling Project
Intro to Digital Fabrication, Spring 2009 Josh Draper and Joe Vidich, Critics
Pyramidal Contraption Final Project - Milled Sintra and Latex
Techniques of the UltraReal, Spring 2010 Daniel Vos, Critic
Architectural Photography, Spring 2010 Erieta Attali, Critic
Building Technologies Various Semesters Various Critics
This was a section that I drew for our first group project where we had to design a facade for a hotel with a given plan. We chose to design a brick facade hung off of the given concrete structure with extruded aluminum windows
Enclosures + Environments 1, Spring 2008 Mayine Yu and Areta Pawlynsky, Critics
Group Project #1 with Melissa E. Goldman, Dominic Barth, Talya Kahane and Julian Pancoast
For this group project we designed a wood frame building with an open floor plan for a single occupant. Our design was about expressing the standard wood frame structure, with frosted glass infill panels that hide three different conditions; operable windows, solid insulation-filled walls, and fixed windows which have rotatable horizontal or vertical louvers for additional sun shading.
Group Project #2 - Silhouette House with Melissa E. Goldman, Dominic Barth, Talya Kahane and Julian Pancoast
Enclosures + Environments 2, Fall 2008 Fiona Cousins, Critic
Group Lamp Project with Melissa E. Goldman, Talya Kahane and Julian Pancoast
Building Systems 1, Spring 2009 Robert Condon, Critic
For this group project we were given the assignment of studying and presenting a building of our choice, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, by architects Diller + Scofidio. I studied the building through both a visit, and through the act of re-drawing all of the plans and the mechanical plans for the building. The building included an Absorption Chiller which, being a somewhat unusual system, we spent time studying so that we could not only learn how it worked but would be able to explain it to the critics.
Group Project with Katie Atwater, Melissa E. Goldman, and Talya Kahane
The building has three primary programmatic objectives: to accommodate artists with a livework space, to provide a communal artists workshop on each floor and to house a ground floor exhibition space. Thus, due to the resulting necessity for different conditions in each space, the thermal, acoustical and mechanical separation will occur in the walls and ceilings, allowing for individual loft control per unit. Open floor plans provide natural ventilation during swing seasons through operable façade windows. The building is divided into lofts that can accommodate both working and living necessities and communal workshops; the usage of each space will be at the discretion of the owner of each loft. Because the building’s concept grants owners freedom to utilize and configure each space according to their own needs, lighting as experienced through the façade is also a condition that the user maintains a certain amount of control over. A louvered window wall operated with BMS maintains optimal day lighting, while a usercontrolled override allows different workshops to create specific lighting conditions necessary to their work, from complete darkness on all four sides, to maximum natural light.
Building Systems 2, Fall 2009 James Sinks and Leo Argiris, Critics
Due to different conditions in each space, the thermal, acoustical and mechanical separation will occur in the walls and ceilings, allowing for individual loft control.
Group Project with Katie Atwater, Melissa T. Goldman, and Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong