Portfolio Andrew MacMillan
Contents INTRODUCTION
CURRICULUM VITAE
DISORDER
INFINITE FOREST
DISORDER
DOVERCOURT STATION
PHILOSOPHER’S WALK
ESSAY: CONCRETE THOUGHTS
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Introduction AGENCY: ARCHITECTURE AFTER MANFREDO TAFURI
What makes architecture so integral is its consequentiality. It acts as frame of reference from which we gain identity as a people, between one another, and between our environments. It is an awareness of and a willingness to craft our past, present, and future histories through a spatial dimension. When the ambitions of architecture change, it is a reorientation of that frame of reference through which we understand our place in the world, and how we look backward and forward at ourselves as a people. Manfredo Tafuri is in many ways correct about architecture: There is no escape from capitalism, and architecture is an extension of that project. As architecture has moved away from the the universalizing ideology of progress, to the tenuous ideology of meaning, and finally toward an ideology of critical reflection and enterprising resistance which is uneasy and critical, necessary but disruptive. As architecture affirms human experience and engenders its own performative capacity, it begins to stand defiant in the face of an uncertain future. I have both written about and designed for dynamic built works, whose formal or in-formal qualities are not expressions of universalizing ideals, but rather are reflections of the inconsistent, fractured, and localized landscape of human experience over time. This is the escape - a certain building against the metropolis, a retreat from capitalism - that recentres architecture on community and the individual, on expressing the values of a people rather than the totalizing universals of the late capitalism which Tafuri warned against This portfolio is my journey through recognizing design as a conscious critical project, recognizing that architecture must respond to the city, to the everyday experience of people, and to the systemic issues which define the contemporary condition of the metropolis. It is my recognition of architecture's imperfect ambition which is often chaotic and incoherent, and yet vitally important. These projects are the beginning of my own project: the hope for an architecture which is defined, rather than defeated by its own uncertainty.
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Curriculum Vitae EDUCATION 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2019
University of Toronto (Hon. B.A.) GPA: 3.41/4.0 Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design Graduated with Distinction Majors in Architectural Design and Architectural History, Theory & Criticism.
AWARDS & ACTIVITIES 2012
Works exhibited at the Eyeball Art & Architecture Show, University of Toronto
2009
William Waters Academic Bridging Award for Academic Excellence
2009
Evelyn Cotter Essay Prize in Contemporary Canadian Studies
2009
Lead Volunteer of CHF-Partners 2012-2013
2009
Canada World Youth Participant : Indonesia/Manitoba
2012 – Study Abroad Program at Oxford University - British Architecture: Utopian Models and Contemporary Currents
DESIGN EMPLOYMENT 2014 2013
Freelance Toronto, ON & Montreal, QC Produced drawings and renderings for a retail clothing store. Produced plans for two houses and renovation drawings for another home for an ongoing project. Designed print and digital media including brand identities, websites, and brochures.
2014
WORKshop Inc. Toronto, ON Assistant coordinator for the House 2020 architecture competition. Designed competition identity, print media, and website. Promoted to schools and firms of architecture. Designed in house graphics for the WORKshop concept retail store, including signage and promotional materials. Produced plans and 3D model for an apartment renovation in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and renderings for the facade renovation of 80 Bloor St. West.
2012 2011 2010
archiTEXT Inc. Toronto, ON Led a community charrette and consultation on sustainable design and collaborative workplaces for a mid-size Toronto non-profit. Designed and co-authored a report based on the findings. Designed an uncompleted legacy project for TEDxKids@TheHill based around shipping container studios including project conception, research, and 3D model.
WORDS ON WORK 2014 2013 2012
Send It Courier Cooperative Inc. Toronto, ON
LANGUAGES From Birth English American Sign Language
Casual Proficiency French Spanish
INTERESTS
NON-DIGITAL SKILLS Model building Hand drafting Sketching Page layout Basic carpentry/construction Soldering (metal and glass) Project management Teaching and training Group facilitation Research and report writing Grant writing
SOFTWARE SKILLS Proficient Adobe CS Illustrator Adobe CS Photoshop Google/Trimble Sketchup Google/Trimble Layout Kerkythea Rendering Microsoft Office Suite Squarespace Web Building
Working Knowledge ESRI ArcGIS Rhino 5 Autodesk Autocad Adobe InDesign
Road Cycling Pictograms Interrogating Modern Architecture Algonquin Park Tension Systems Semiotics Landscape Urbanism Technology
Co-owned a cooperative bicycle courier company. Helped to lead project management. Designed brand identity in web and print formats, including a cycling kit, corporate website, and event posters. Through strategic branding, acquisitions, and focused growth, the company now generates over $500,000/yr. with a staff of 30.
I have also been all of the following; Dispatcher, courier, barista, tree planter, educator, bike mechanic, sales person, server, coffee program manager, drive-thru leader, cashier, dishwasher, and construction worker.
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Disorder A SOUND INSTALLATION AT 1 SPADINA CRESCENT, IN COLLABORATION WITH JUNE LEE. ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO II, FALL 2012, MATTHEW SPREMULLI.
This project is an attempt to define the ambiguous space which exists in between two disparate environments. Inserted into the quiet setting of the staircase at 1 Spadina Cresent, Disorder creates an atmosphere of physical and acoustic disorientation. The tubes disrupt the circulation of the staircase with a maze-like obstruction. The channeling of sound bites from the outside creates a discomforting acoustic experience which in effect obscures the sense of being inside the stairwell at all, and begins to dissolve the barrier between inside and outside through. This is achieved through a disordering of spatial and sensory experience.
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NOT EVERYTHING IS WHAT IT APPEARS TO BE.
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The series of images on the adjacent page reveal the movement path through the tubes by an individual interacting with the installation. Each image shows a tube in sequential order as the individual reaches it and is drawn to listen to the sounds on the other side of the wall. These conceptual diagrams illustrate the disruption of movement and the filtering of sound which occurs with the insertion of the device. The first sectional diagram provides the context for the last two drawings. The last diagram abstracts the circulation of the stairs to reveal the difference in the once regularized flow of moving through the stairs.
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The Infinite Forest AN ANALYSIS OF CONTRADICTION AND HETEROTOPIA AT JOHN CLAUDIUS LOUDON’S 1840 DERBY ARBORETUM LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE HISTORY, THEORY, CRITICISM II, WINTER 2014, GEORGES FARHAT.
Infinite Forest is an interrogation of John Claudius Loudon's Gardenesque theories, and the role of the arboretum. His moralistic conviction of the scientific and instructive capacity of the Gardensque is optimistic, and the succession from the picturesque at Derby is neither abstract nor total enough to truly actualize the arboretum in the way Loudon had achieved in the Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum. At Derby, Loudon failed to achieve the dense and naturalistic vibrancy of the picturesque, which the Gardensque did not allow for, yet was also unable to achieve the perfect didactic space which he so heavily advocated. Existing between both possible landscapes, the Derby Arboretum became heterotopic, lending itself to co-option by external forces and fluctuations which eventually would turn Derby into a public space which was neither picturesque park nor a Gardenesque arboretum. Infinite Forest is a diorama in the sense that it acts as a miniature version of the Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum. The ellipsoidal walk and picturesque rules of perspective, perception, association, and movement of Derby are all dissolved into linear paths in serial rows demarcated by the trees planted on mounds in the Loudonian style. Mirrored walls recursively reflect the scene, to create an arboretum which continues to the horizon, the expansion of which does not shy away from suggesting infinity. Completely immersed in this space, there is a maximization of Loudon's stated aims for the arboretum, subjecting the viewer into a fully immersive experience along the series of linear and infinite walks, allowing each tree to be considered carefully. The weight of the endlessness of the experience brings a Sisyphean hopelessness to an end of the instruction. The experience of the Infinite Forest is total, akin to flipping through the utopic space of the Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum.
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Borrowing from Archizoom's maximization of speculative realities in No-Stop City, and the contradictory, but fecund discussion of utopia and heterotopia suggested by Michel Foucault in Of Other Spaces, the Infinite Forest uses both allegory and narrative to express the impossible environment of the Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum. The choice of the encyclopedia over Derby itself is important to exploring the contradictions of the actualized arboretum. As Beryl Hartley describes in Sites of Knowledge and Instruction, “an arboretum large enough to contain a complete collection of every species must have appeared unattainable to Loudon, it seems likely that he came to regard his Arboretum Britannicum as an adequate substitute�. Through the recursive seriality of the Infinite Forest, the limited identities of the physicalized arboretum are made apparent. Derby's ambitions of providing a space for both pleasure and instruction seem at first to be mutually conciliatory, but the final result is one of shared sabotage where neither identity fully compliments the aims of the other, and
both languish as possible solutions, creating a sort of unsuccessful heterotopia. 12
The same recursion which reveals the mutually limiting identities of the arboretum, also exaggerates the arboretum as a landscape of contradiction. The physicalized arboretum neglects its internal multivalence between the natural and the artificial; its own role as a living museum in which its trees, meant to be instructive of their natural behaviours, are in reality manufactured artifacts. curated under watchful eyes. However, the mirror too is a contradiction, which distorts as much as it reflects the image which it receives.
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Blindfolded AN ACOUSTIC UNDERGROUND EXPLORATION BETWEEN UNION STATION AND FIRST CANADIAN PLACE, IN COLLABORATION WITH JUNE LEE. ARCHITECTURAL REPRESENTATION STUDIO II, FALL 2012, KRISTINA LJUBANOVIC.
Blindfolded is a critical analysis of a 9:26 minute walk in through the underground Toronto Path network betwen Toronto’s central Train Station, Union Station, and Toronto’s largest office tower, First Canadian Place. The walk is done by thousanxds of people everyday, and as a result is an integral place to analyze and interpret acoustic information. This project maps specific sound data in order to discover those parts of the route which have the greatest acoustic richness, measured by spectral coverage both laterally and longitudinally. Blinfdolded is a both a conclusive project in its own right, but also a departure point for looking at architecture acoustically instead of spatially. By collecting data on, and analyzing the strength of an audio frequency it becomes possible to imagine existing spaces in terms of psychoacoustic richness, and future buildings in terms of experiements in engaging more directly with sound and psychoacoustic experience.
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SPECTRAL RICHNESS OVER TIME
Map of the spectral richness in 20 second segments (circle). Spectral richness is based on a weighted criteria which attributes higher scores to those frequencies which have higher amplitudes in a given segment. Those segments with the most high scoring frequencies are determined to be spectrally rich due to amplification across the frequency range.
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A CONSTRUCTION WORKER DROPS SOME SCAFFOLDING
A WOMAN SAYS, “...SO I’M RUNNING...” A WOMAN SAYS, “...UH...”
A WOMAN TRIPS OVER SOME SCAFFOLDING
DOORS OPEN ONTO ADELAIDE STREET AT GRADE TWO MEN WALK UP THE STAIRS
A MAN DISCUSSES BASEBALL WITH A COLLEAGUE SQUEAKY SHOES WALK PAST
MUSIC IS OVERHEARD
ESCALATOR STEPS RISE AND FALL LOUD FOOTSTEPS WALK ACROSS THE CONCOURSE
DOORS OPEN ONTO FIRST CANADIAN PLACE CONCOURSE A WOMAN APOLOGIZES
DOORS OPEN ONTO KING STREET CONCOURSE
A BABY CRIES IN THE DISTANCE A WOMAN SAYS, “...WHEN DOES SHE OPEN...”
A WOMAN CACKLES
TWO WOMEN SPEAK TO ONE ANOTHER A WOMAN LAUGHS, ANOTHER COUGHS
A MAN SAYS, “....VERY GOOD....”
A MAN STEPS ONTO THE ESCALATOR A MAN SAYS, “...YEAH... YOU KNOW WHAT?...”
A WOMAN SAYS, “...I USED TO WORK HERE...”
A WOMAN SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN EXTERIOR DOORS OPEN ONTO TD CENTRE CONCOURSE INTERIOR DOORS OPEN ONTO TD CENTRE CONCOURSE
A WOMAN SAYS, “....ALL YOUR MAKE UP...” A BRACELET IS HEARD JINGLING
A CHILD AND MOTHER EXCHANGE WORDS
LOUD FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING A MAN IN LOUD DRESS SHOES WALKS BY A CONVERSATION IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE IS OVERHEAD
A WOMAN EXPRESSES A MOMENT OF SURPRISE
DOORS OPEN ONTO ROYAL BANK PLAZA CONCOURSE TWO GIRLS SAY GOODBYE TO ONE ANOTHER
SOUND OF TTC TURNSTILES
EXTERIOR DOORS OPEN ONTO THE TTC CONCOURSE
EXTEROR DOORS OPEN FROM GO CONCOURSE
A GROUP OF CHILDREN SPEAK TO ONE ANOTHER
A TROLLY ROLLS BY
A MAN SPEAKS
ANNOUNCEMENT, “...GRAND CENTRAL STATION”
A DOOR SHUTS
LAUGH
FREQUENCY STRENGTH OVER TIME A M P L I F I CAT I ON
D U R AT I O N
F R EQ U E N CY
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Map of the strength of an audio frequency in terms of amplitude over time. Also known as the spectral envelope. Each segment (circle) represents 20 seconds in time. Ovals denote continuous amplification.
PEAK AMPLITUDE CONSISTENCY OVER TIME Graph of the consistency of an audio frequency in terms of peak amplitude over time. This could also be described in terms of Each segment (circle) represents 20 seconds.
A MPL IF ICAT IO N CH A NG E
F R EQ UENCY
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A COMMUNITY CENTRE FOR URBAN ECOLOGY, IN COLLABORATION WITH JUNE LEE. ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO III, WINTER 2013, MARIA DENEGRI.
Regional Network
Dovercourt Station is a project which exists in Toronto’s near, yet speculative future where rail has begun to fade as a priority method of transportation. The amorphous spread that is the urbanized condition and its continuous laying down of new roads and highways have displaced the train as the favoured method of shipping goods across the country. Rail has become obsolete; its interest was nostalgic, but we have forgotten the beauty of travelling by train in the automation of traveling by road. Yet, when we look down the old rail corridors, we see an opportunity to reconnect the city with the infrastructure of the past.
National Network
The Green Line
Edmonton
Winnipe g
Vancouver
M ontreal
Toro nto
National Transfer Cities N ational R ail Net wor k (Ac tive S e r vice Lin e s + Gre e n line Use)
Westo n D o nl ands
D overcour t J u nc t ion
Yonge
Eto bi co k e
Un ion
R ive rd al e
R e gi o nal Transfer Stations M ixed Use R ail Net wor k (ac tive ser vice lines and the Greenline) Greenline R ail Net wo r k Ac tive S er vice Line
B ay v iew
Black Cree k
Summer hill
R og e rs
Yo nge Annex
Local Network
Prospe c t
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Ju nc tion Humb e r
B loo r
M ixed Us e R ail N e t wor k
Smal l Transfe r Station
Gre e nline R ail N et wor k Ac tive S er vi ce L in e M ajor Ar ter ie s Conn e c tive Gre e n Space
M aintenance S he d L arge Transfe r Stat ion S e aso nal Transfe r St ation
D ove rcour t
D on
The Beginning
Duck and Cover
The First Growth
Stoop Low to Reach High
Elevate
Laying Down the Tracks
Cutting Back
Transfer Station
The cross-walk at Dovercourt and Geary Avenues poses a number of safety problems for pedestrians and cyclists. The underpass currently provides access for vehicular traffic providing an informal route to the Allan Expressway. Visibility from the bottom of the underpass to the crosswalk is very poor. The proposal at Dovercourt Station will add three additional tracks to the existing rail infrastructure and run a series of programmed shipping carts which will be activated as a mobile community centre for urban agriculture education and research.
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Open Plan Car: Cafe Configuration
Bathroom Car
Library Car
Grenhouse Car
Open Plan Car: Lecture Hall Configuration
Kitchen Car
Seedbank Car
Open Plan Car: Research Lab Configuration
The carts will configure themselves to form larger programs and events. Their flexibility will meet contextual changes such as seasonality and public interests, and involve a great deal of user participation. These programmatic diagrams do not suggest the limited scope of configurations but predict the possibilities: the potentials of which are limitless.
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seed bank library
office
greenhouse
open plan
storage
lounge
early germination
gardening workshops
bathroom
kitchen
volunteer meetings
community dinners
power/utility rooms
lobby
lecture halls/ research labs
cooking class
cafe
local plant research
auditorium
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By positioning what is at first a detached string of park spaces in a variety of conditions, a connective tissue can be sewn across the city. Along the length of the corridor, the layering of a variety of new programmatic conditions, impregnates the corridor with a self-sufficient flow of goods and services between nodal connections, the adjacent neighbourhoods, and the city at large turning the park into a truly regional mechanism.
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Local flow of goods and services Regional flow of goods and services Existing programs New programs Dovercourt Station 23
The Transfer Station will contain programs which are necessary for the maintenance of a busy train station. The programs are arranged with special consideration to boundary conditions, which will affect a synergetic relationship between the interior and exterior; the activities occurring indoors will spill out onto the open space surrounding the Transfer Station.
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The building’s structure is informed by the existing trussing system of the underpass to create an impression that it has always been part of the landscape, Ultimately, the purpose of the building is to highlight existing conditions, and to emphasize the most crucial elements of the project: the proliferation, flexibility and dispersal of programs.
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Philosopher’s Walk A PATH NETWORK AND PAVILLION IN PHILOSOPHER’S WALK.
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO II, FALL 2012, MATTHEW SPREMULLI
The Philosopher’s walk is a scenic footpath in Toronto which runs along the ravine landscape created by the now buried Taddle Creek. The project called for a linear intervention which would take the form of a path and small gathering place design with the intention of altering ones experience of place. The project was divided into three component parts, mapping, the design of a path, and the design of the pavillion. The maps revealed selective information which became the basis of the resulting public space intervention. The project places great importance on the topological elements of the site by using the path to emphasize the contours left over by the now buried waterway, while preserving the layers of past attempts to shape the park. The new path connects with the existing path, which itself is a myriad collection of many different paths from different times. Rather than attempting to provide a uniform experience of Philosopher's walk, the emergent path becomes a part of a network of many paths.
C o n t o u r s O n e M e t r e
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The path and pavillion utilize an architecture of square wooden planks which articulate in response to the elevation changes in their immediate vicinity. Those planks which cover the walkway are topped with a vegetative layer. The more dramatic elevation changes are fully covered, whereas more soft elevation changes are responded to with only partial, or no coverage. The result is a dynamic morphological response to the existing topology of the site, which impacts the experience of the walkway through the an archaeology of topology. The feeling of entering into the landscape, rather than walking over it, introduces a dramatic shift in the experience of the landscape. Likewise, the greening of the top of those sections which cover the path introduces a secondary topology of valleys and hills giving more greenspace to the park itself.
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The introduction of the pavillion and pond at the lowest elevation with shifting seasonal and emergent programatic occupations, reconnects the history of the now buried Taddle Creek to the current Philosopher's Walk. Just as the the historical occupation on the beds of the former Taddle Creek would have been informal, the new network embraces a casual occupation of site and the chance for a multitude of programmatic possibilities, generating valuable and changing experiences with the site. The new network solves a variety of issues which currently distress the site. The haphazard nature of the current path system is embraced for the autonomy it provides the user as much of the former system stays in place. The urban nature of the park, amidst tall buildings and with poor arboreal coverage is resolved with portions of the path which are underground, or fully covered. There is currently a small, and disused bandshell in the park, which remains in the new network, but also the introduction of a large pavillion adjacent to the pond becomes a new space of occupation for activities of all scales and fully open to public occupation.
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The central horseshoe where multiple paths meet and diverge, is poised to become an ice-rink in the winter and pond in the summer, reintroducing the memory of the buried Taddle Creek waterway, and bring a sense of place to what previously was an ambiguous and haphazard throughway from one street to another. The pavillion as a deprogrammed space can act as a shelter for various impromtu activities or as a temporary space to support the seasonal activities which take place around the pond area.
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Concrete Thoughts EXPLORING THE TENUOUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MODERNITY AND MEMORY IN FELIX CANDELA’S LOS MANANTIELES RESTAURANT IN XOCHIMILICO, MEXICO. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE, FALL 2012, ZEYNEP ÇELIK ALEXANDER.
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Templehof Airport, 2012 38
Thank You Mom & Dad Larry Wayne Richards Jeannie Kim Zeynep Çelik Alexander June Lee Julia Hainer-Violand & Hank Mesias