ANDRE EA MICU A R C H I T E CT U R E PORTFOLIO
andreeamicu.com
INTRODUCTION Master of Architecture Taubman College, University of Michigan Bachelor of Science in Architecture University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign andreeamicu.com
The exploration of narrative in architecture is something that drives my projects. This portfolio is an investigation between shapes, voids, and landscapes, and how it creates chaos and order that results in something engaging and provoking. By guiding experiences through the use of space, I respond to the mission, context and history and then expand the project into a complete story.
Contents 1. Building Blocks 2. The Path Center 3. UNI Park Detroit 4. Plug In Market 5. Music Forms Center 6. Competition 7. Yellow Boot Urbanism
Andreea Micu amicu@umich.edu andreeamicu.com
ANDREEA MICU EDUCATION
(708) 237-9327 amicu@umich.edu
Spring 17
University of Michigan - Taubman College of Architecture
Spring 15
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Fall 14-15
UPC - Escuela Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura del Vallès
EXPERIENCE
Master of Architecture
Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies Illinois Architecture Study Abroad Program At the Technical University of Catalunya
Spring 16
Wheeler Kearns Architects
Fall 12-13
Krannert Art Museum
COMPETITIONS
University Externship Studied early childhood pedagogies and implemented the research on an existing building Created programmatic schemes for an early education language provider Security Personnel in Champaign, IL Patrolled museum’s facility to ensure safety and security of the building and its contents
Spring 17
ULI Hines Student Competition
Spring 14
Transformation 2030
ACHIEVEMENTS
Participated in an urban design and development challenge with a multidisciplinary team Devised a comprehensive development program for a large-scale site in Chicago Designed the North Branch Industrial Corridor and produced market-feasible financial data Participated in a global design competition to design a high performance, multi-use building Worked in a team of four to create a project in the South Bronx of New York Urban retrofitted a previous juvenile detention center to become an educational center
Spring 14
Building Performance Analysis (BPA) Certificate
Fall 13-14
BIEN (Business International Exchange Network)
Studied the application of Revit-based tools (including Vasari and Green Building Studio) Gained skills required to transition industry to performance based sustainable architecture Project Manager & Student Ambassador Led a group of international members to organize diverse events Communicated effectively with the executive committee to provide progress updates
AWARDS
SKILLS
Gaylord and Roberta Watts Architectural Scholarship Frank B. and Jeanie M. Long Travelling Award Edward C. Earl Prize Nomination Advanced proficiency in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit, Rhinoceros, Microsoft Office Suite, Model and Craft based skill Fluent in Romanian
BUILDING BLOCKS
Carolineskolen -School Graduate Studio Work Copenhagen, Denmark Spring 2016 (Individual Work)
Spatial thinking and mentally manipulating information about the structure of the shapes and spaces in one’s environment is a skill we begin to develop very early in life. Building blocks refer to components that are part of a larger construction. These modules or “rational toys” are intended to teach children about gravity and physics, as well as spatial relationships that allow them to see how many different parts become a whole. The objective of this project was to image and create innovative and creative learning environments where pupils are provided with opportunities to develop and thrive. My “toy” are these primitive shapes that inform the buildings design in both plan and section.
Section A
Section B
THE PATH CENTER
Presidential Center Graduate Studio Work Interior, South Dakota Fall 2015 (Individual Work)
Located in such a sparsely populated area, the presidential center gave me the opportunity to create it as a path of production and culture. This denotes the area as an artistic and musical neighborhood, and raises questions of density, public accessibility and the identity of an area. The infrastructure of the city continues through the buildings and winds itself with multiple programming. Unusually starting the project as the building shaping its surroundings rather than the other way around allowed me to fully push the limits of the architecture, and explore schemes and concepts that would otherwise have been inappropriate for the site. The expansion of the center into the neighborhood reiterates this connection of space and resources.
Site Plan
Illustration of The Center
Illustration of The Center
Section A
THE PATH SITE PLAN
Section B
Auditorium
Street Appropriation
Market
UNI PARK DETROIT
Affordable Housing Graduate Studio Work University Park, Detroit Fall 2016 (Team of Three)
By responding to the needs of the residents of Detroit, we proposed cost-effective delivery and construction that can provide “the missing middle” in our new housing stock that is affordable without government subsidies. With the variety of housing typologies, a walkable environment, and access to transit and food, this proposal will create a tighter, interconnected community. Uni-Park is located south of University of Detroit Mercy, as the City smooths the path for small business owners, developers, and entrepreneurs seeking to bring vitality back to Detroit’s neighborhoods. Enhancing the relationship with the university, our site aims to activate the area through the movement of recent graduates and young professionals filtering into the neighborhood.
Model Photo
Model Photo
Livernois Street Rendering
UNI-PARK LOPEZ-MARIN-MICU
South Side: 4.2 acres Units: 103 Unit per Acre: 25 Parking: 186 Parking Ratio: 1.8
Puritan Avenue Rendering
Site Plan
Street Section
Street Elevation
PLUG IN MARKET
Exterior Market Undergraduate Work (ETSAV) Barcelona, Spain Spring 2015 (Individual Work)
Located on the edge of the Eixample in Barcelona, this market blends in the concepts of a modular, sustainable, prefabricated system, into the historical Spanish origin of a market as a temporary tent structure. It is designed to accommodate both permanent and transitory programs, with the one break in the canopy that allows views to the Arc de Triomf and the landscape of canopies beneath them. The intention was to create a market where most of the components will be manufactured and transported to the site. The columns have the lighting and drainage already embedded within it, and it will just have to be plugged into the grid. The market stalls are also designed in this manner where the lighting, refrigeration, air conditioning, and plumbing is all contained within the prefabricated concrete object.
Market Renderings
Site Plan
Section A
Section B
Modulation and Transportation
MUSIC FORMS CENTER
Library Undergraduate Work Old Town, Chicago Spring 2014 (Individual Work)
The main characteristics of the library are the uses of interlocking pieces in order to create spaces using it’s forms and voids. As the main program of this space is music related, the required spaces would be for music performance, education and collection. The three main pieces dictate programs, circulation, and sense of scale. The main void on the ground floor created by the lifted forms becomes the main reading space, while the sloped forms become seating areas in the performance centers. This way the main concepts and plans become dependent on these forms. The spaces allow a sense of progression through the building and also, symbolically, a progression of skills. While winding their way up through the building, the viewer witnesses the relationship of performance and practice through the use of the architecture itself.
Model Photos
Exterior Rendering
Sections
Elevations Exterior Rendering
COMPETITION
The City of Green Shoulders ULI HINES Competition Chicago, Illinois Winter 2017 (Multidisciplinary Team of 5)
Working with a multidisciplinary team of five, we participated in an urban design and development challenge. The team represented three disciplines (Architecture, Urban Planning, and Landscape Architecture) and in two weeks we developed a project that include drawings, site plans, tables, and market-feasible financial data. My role in the team consisted of the primary urban design and overall project concept, as well as creating the renderings and the site plan. In 1914, the poet Carl Sandburg famously described Chicago as the “City of the Big Shoulders”. In 2017, City of the Green Shoulders embraces that iconic image and recasts it in the 21st century. Through a series of greenways and adaptive streetscapes connecting high-density, mixed-use developments to an ecologically-designed riverside park system, City of the Green Shoulders seeks to reconnect Chicagoans with the wonder of their place. Industrial factories critically shaped this area’s economic past. Tomorrow’s employment sector, however, will be nonmanufacturing industries such as vertical farming and higher education. A new urban agriculture center and riverside vocational school, built using the salvaged facade of the existing Fleet and Facility Management site, leverage these trends.
Site Plan
Site Research Aerial Rendering
YELLOW BOOT URBANISM
Thesis 2017 (Urban Plaza) Graduate Work Wilmington, N.C. Spring 2017 (Individual Work)
This plaza calibrates the design of a public space with an environment in flux and aims to create a landscape that changes the perception of nuisance flooding. The system itself pulls the flood water from underneath it to pool within the tiles, and depending on the amount of water, it spreads to define certain paths and programming. It uses play as a means of engagement in order to highlight this temporary context. Rather than solving a problem, it focuses on human scaled affects will shift the conversation from catastrophic damages and large-scale interventions into an everyday management of water, and a focus on tactile, tangible work. Faced with the scenario of living with water, coastal inhabitants have shown an adaptive response. The project is tapping into this Yellow Boot Urbanism, to accentuate and celebrate the absurdity of this scenario. It removes the infrastructure from the realm of the invisible, and creates active participation to rehumanize infrastructure and connect us back to the spaces that we inhabit.
Perspective
Thesis Collage
Individual Tile Detail
Flooding 0”
Flooding 2”
Individual Tile Detail
Flooding 4”
Flooding 6”
Individual Tile Detail
Tile Contouring & Catalog
ANDREEA MICU amicu@umich.edu andreeamicu.com