[ Andy Magner ] Andy Magner’s undergraduate architecture portfolio is contained within. The selected works illustrate his developing interest in the abilities of complex architectural form to create elegant spaces that offer new opportunities of blended programmatic experiences and contextual urban integration.
M.ARCH PORTFOLIO
page number
year.semester
005 033 053 067 081 089
04 CHC
03 Salient Excision 06 BTVC
3.1 Professor Greg Luhan 2014 UK/CoD
01 Verdant Collective 1.0 02 Verdant Collective 2.0 00 [ selected works ]
05 extrapolations
3.2 Professor Martin Summers
These projects best represent my ability to define architectural problems, develop archictural concepts accordingly, and clearly represent a holistic finished product as a result of my architectural process.
4.1 Professor John Morrison
2014/2015 UK/CoD
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Professor Brent Sturlaugson 2015 UK/CoD
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01 verdant collective 1.0
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The Verdant Collective exists as a response to the crises of a post-present context. In this extrapolation, heavy population swings have left most of the world heavily underpopulated. The lessened effects of mankind on the environment has led to rapid natural reclamation. The structure houses a diverse community of researchers whose goal is to document and archive the emerging flora, and their properties that may be beneficial to society.
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VERDANT COLLECTIVE
[ balloon sag ] The project began with small group material explorations aimed at representing networks of relationships among workers. I was interested in allowing a series of tensioned points determine the form of a mold that would later be cast. The points were placed parametrically, and the form of the mold responded.
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[ じせい 爆弾 ] Jisei Bakudan, or tensile bomb, is a continued exploration of the use of tensioned molds for form finding purposes, however I expanded this into a technique that could be used to conceptualize a structure’s relationship between skin, structure, and interior void.
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The skin of abstracted structure is a result of tensional forces caused by internal structure. This internal structure is removed after the casting, allowing the points of tension to be connected through interior void spaces. These spaces and their connecting tunnels conceptually represent programmatic adjancies, and their effect on the skin and form of the structure.
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ANDY MAGNER
[ sectional iteration ]
[ surface studies ] textures by artist Bridget Riley were used to reveal new readings of the skin, and possible material properties.
[ section plates ] exploration of a technique for representing sectional depth using engraved clear acrylic plates.
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Directly applying forms, concepts, and techniques from the previous material exercises, early conceptions of a research facility were developed through sectional drawings. Monocoque structural strategies, and programatic adjacencies emerged from the Jisei Bakudan exercise’s results.
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[ panzer ] Reappropriation of an old 1990 panzerschreck model tank kit. Once again expirimenting with analog modeling to inform digital concepts.
[ data.bent ridley ] Using an early conceptual screenprint ink painting, I imagined how I might reappropriate the products recieved from the analog using abstract, but expressive tools. Audio software was used to interpret the jpegs as waves, which were then echoed, bent, bitcrushed, amplified, etc.
[ process paintings ] these paintings were done at points in the process where I allowed the digital process to feed into the analog in order to allow myself to more expressively work through design challenges such as the building’s relationship to the landscape. This analog process was then fed back into the digital as a more refined concept that could take physical form.
[ digital > analog > digital ]
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[ final proposal ] The studio was structured in a way that allowed me to completely design the site, program, and context in accordance to a problem that I developed. The final proposal came in form of a deep field research and development facility, that was designed around the laboratory and the daily lives of a scientific collective group.
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[ operational diagrams ] these diagrams looked to explain the complex formal moves that generated the final social atria. Operations such as cuts were made in accordance to direct programatic requirements, including circulation, view, social space enclosure, etc.
[ social atria render ] render of the social atria that bridge the programmatic and spatial gap from the main social area, to the laboratory.
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The conversation between network and worker evolved into a formal relationship between the different programs of the facility. Spaces designed for scientific work were more regulated and scaled for the human worker, while those spaces oriented towards social engagement had the formal focus shift from the human space to a scaleless object oriented space.
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The program is distributed in a way to inform the daily lives of the inhabitants based on labor vs. leisure activities. The relationships, contrasts, and adjencies that arise are reinforced in the formal strategy of the specific space. The lobby and acclimation spaces are on the ground floor, along with plant archival and storage. Social and personal spaces are located along the social atria, and laboratory spaces are on the top level across the boundary made by the atria.
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[ final model ]
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The final model was produced using a combination of each 3d print, CNC milling, lasercut, and hand-craft techniques. The model is a sectional model, so that it may reveal the interior relationship between the central circulation core, the social atria, and the lab space.
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02 verdant collective 2.0 The second half of the studio offered an opportunity to refine the problem I was looking to solve with Verdant Collective 1.0, and recontextualize the project through intensive site research. I focused in on issues regarding loss of biodiversity, urban densification, and urban sustainability.
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VERDANT COLLECTIVE biodiversity graphics test
[ ridley ]
u.s. urban density
early 3D printed massing studies, with collage explorations.
u.s. leaf coverage GIS map showing: urban sites of +750k pop. biodiversity leaf coverage earth’s night light
u.s. woody biomass
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The project differed from the first half, in that the site was no longer imagined, but chosen instead. GIS data was used to create a global site plan that would allow local sites to be picked. I investigated overlays of varying biodiversity data, with urban densities, contrasted by leaf coverage to identify areas of high urban density, with little presence of natural landscape. This site research led me to focus in on more specfic sustainable goals for the structure.
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[ culvers + washington ] the chosen site is a wedege on the boundary of the social strip of Culvers Boulevard.
Based on the global analysis, Los Angeles was chosen as the city that would best exemplify the urban proposal strategy. Using GIS data regarding land use, zoning, transit, bike paths, and future development, I identified 6 sites of varying scale and urban environment that could host my proposal.
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The final proposal investigated the value of introducing the once private laboratory to the pulbic realm, and the sunstainably beneficial crossovers that resulted. The result came in form of a public park woven into the urban fabric, with a subterranean natural exhibition.
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The instersection of the exhibition space with this concrete form is condusive of the collision between the public park and the private laboratory. The interior of the concrete form houses exotic flora for the exhibtion, while filtering light into the subterranean laboratory space.
The exhibition is wedged into the site between two thick concrete walls. These walls block the sun’s heat during the day in order to cool the space, while the thermal mass of the concrete walls is able to radiate heat into the space at night in order to passively heat it. The western wall is skinned by a photovoltaic/co2 scrubbing skin that stores energy, while removing carbon from the air.
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By weaving the proposal into Culvers Boulevard, a strip of daily activity, I looked to investigate the role that built form plays in the daily lives of those who may wander into it. Specfically, I hoped to influence guests to make more sustainable choices, given the natural landscape intervention, exo-cultural exhibition, and sustainable workshops that take place within.
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These drawings explore the concept of the split park/exhibition spaces. The right form houses the entrance that takes guests underground while the left houses the exhibition. Japanese monikers representing exhbition (left) and plaza (right) start to hint at the foreign nature and cultural blending that takes place by experiencing the exhibition that will share plants from around the globe.
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[ final pinup ] individually printed components on lenox 100
The final model is an abstract representation of the project. It is a 3d printed composite of the entire geometry that formed the building. It is submerged in a clear cast resin to illustrate the relationship between the visible built form, the subterranean spaces, and the unbuilt geometry that influences the shape of the building.
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03 salient excision Salient Excision was an abstracted 3D print oriented exercise that drove early progress into Martin Summer’s studio. It was used to advance the digital processes in which I used to explore new concepts regarding the architectural problem solving abilities of complex geometry.
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SALIENT EXCISION
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The exercise involved creating complex form by operating in digital space with three elements: object, surface, and grid. In order to quickly gain an understanding of the complex digital processes, we were given a mix of which element would be most and least prominant in the operative process in order to generate rapid iterations. Along the progression, I attemtped to document these operations with expirimental and hybrid drawing techniques.
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[ mix 3 render studies ] I documented the scaleless spaces that emerged through the digital operations, and used it as an exercise to practice new rendering techniques.
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[ alpha studies ] These alpha studies represented solid/ void relationships, and represented the entirety of the operations in a non spatial flattened image. I used these to evaluate the geometry and formal language of various iterations.
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[ salient excision ] final
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the above diagrams illustrate the way in which the forms are operated upon, in order to generate relationships either with each other, or the boundary condition (blue box) upong being clipped by it.
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[ final model ] The digital tools and formal language that I developed during this exercise work as a platform for my approach to later projects. This process allows me to investigate opportunities that come up throughout the design process, and integrate solutions to multiple problems into elegant built form.
The final model was entirely 3D printed. This model was chosen by professor Martins Summers to be displayed among his exhibition at the ACADIA 2015 international conference.
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nametag andy magner
translating sound into space. This waveform was generated from speaking my name “Andy Magner.� The waveform was analyzed for pronunciation based on the opening and closing of the mouth. The lines show inflection points where the mouth shifts from an open to closed position.
proliferate.
The idea of creating a temporal experience meant that an agent of change must be introduced to the project. Allowing organic matter to take the form over yeilded this dynamism. This modular-organic pattern was designed to give structure to the parasitic vines that would consume the pavilion. It was designed to be tiled.
fabricate.
04 CHC
The framework is to be 3d printed in four parts that are able to break away from each other. This was done in order to cut down on structural material required to print, as well as allow for a three dimmensional understanding of the structure in both plan and section. The model will be placed onto a bed organic material in order to allow it to be slowly over taken and developed.
The CHC (cultural heritage center) was a multi-use gallery proposal for a site in West Liberty, KY. This small town had lost many structures to a recent tornado, and the studio defined several typologies that we propsed would aid the town in their redevelopment. The CHC was of the cultural museum typology.
experience. Ultimately the organic
structure generates a processional experience of rapid compression and expansion. The spaces are meant to speed and slow movement, and allow for flexible gathering areas. The framework is less dense in the larger spaces allowing less organic matter to grow. This will differentiate the spaces visually and enhance the expansion effect.
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CHC
[ central atrium render ] the central atrium is a triple height space that extends from each the exterior amphitheater below, interior auditorium, and exhibition space above.
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In order to help West Liberty regain what had been lost, I propsed a center that would document and exhibit the heritage of the town, as well as house flexible auditorium and exhibition space that would allow the town to facilitate events that would increase tourism. The site was chosen to increase pedestrian traffic into the city, as the highway at the edge of the town allowed it to be too easily circumvented.
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[ structural bones ] grasshopper allowed basic vertical structural input to be translated into 3d cells of space. T-splines for Rhino was used to generate the bones from the cellular structure output.
The building floats above a city corner on bone like structures, allowing the urban carpet to flow beneath it, therefore giving the city valuable 24/7 community space. The bone structures dynamically inform the interior of the building, forming gallery space, seating, atria, and skylights.
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[ exterior corner render ] The building hovers above the city corner, in order to allow flexible public use of the exterior space below throughout the day.
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[ midterm structure and flow analysis ] the first diagram illustrates the entrance sequence, while the second shows an early understanding of the hung structure
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The final model consisted of a 3d printed structure that sat upon a CNC milled foam base. Lasercut glazing skinned the exterior. The model was a sectional model, showing the relationship between the public space main flexible auditorium space, exterior public space below, and gallery space above.
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I directed the graphic design and branding of the studio, in order to be presented to the planning committee of West Liberty, KY. I designed a site model that allowed the individual projects to be plugged in, which lit up the small scale models in color accordance with the typology branding I had developed. With the help of a partner, we CNC milled the 4’ x 8’ site, along with model stand and base.
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05 extrapolations
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Extrapolations is a series of drawings that I did during the summer that followed my BTVC project, while working at alt32 architects. After my final review for the BTVC project ( 07 ), I was left feeling as though I did not yet have a complete ability to represent the complex relationships that I had generated in the studio. This drawing series is my daily attempt to iterate and explore analog representational tools for complex formal relationships.
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EXTRAPOLATIONS
[ early series ] I have selected these drawings to represent the early stages of the exploration. The conception of form and its relationships had started to take on 3 dimensions, and become more spatial. Hatches and lineweights emerge as a way to explain either revealed edges, or solid surfaces.
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[ spatial series ] Among the temporal morphology, this middle series exemplifies a more geometric and spatial understanding of the relationships that works with solid objects. Typography has become more than a tagging method, and instead represent spatial ideas.
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[ geobomb/wrinkletrinkets ] This series is the final set among the morphology. Complex surface intersections begin to be rendered with materiality, and solid v. void conversations begin between solid objects. Elements such as surface and grid begin to integrate, allowing myself to revisit and further my understanding of the operations that I had performed digitally in the prior studio.
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06 BTVC The end of Martin Summer’s studio involved the synthesization of the digital processes that I had gained with Salient Excision into a building that could respond to, and redefine a landscape that is heavily contextual in regards to both physical traits (circulation, topography), and metaphysical traits (heritage, culture).
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BTVC [ v1 ]
[ v2 ]
[ v3 ]
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The goal of the project was to design a structure that could act as a visitor’s center for the Bourbon Trail of Kentucky that would be located in the heart of Lexington’s derelict distiller district. This task was imbued with questions of heritage, culture, and authenticity, and what it meant to create a building that was authentic, and novel within the culture of downtown Lexington, KY, as well as questions regarding urban rejuvination of the distillery district.
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[ v1 ]
[ wax process models ] In order to further develop my understanding of the formal site strategy, I used analog processes such as wax model making to explore opportunities more quickly than I would be able to in digital space. Microcrstalline wax was used to replicate site conditions, and as a form finding exercise prior to the conception of the final structure.
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[ BTVC ]
early starch 3D print showing the BTVC bridging a roadway in order to allow the natural connectivity of the adjacent landscape to flow into the building’s interior.
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The Bourbon Trail Visitor Center finds its meaning in the generative program combinations that take place within. This hybrid program genesis uses Kentucky’s Bourbon heritage as a backdrop to a bring visitors into a greater understanding of Kentucky’s culture as a whole. Overlaps of both Kentucky Bourbon and arts galleries, and Bourbon tasting and Kentucky food culture offer a new understanding of Kentucky’s greater culture through the heritage of Bourbon.
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The footprints in red represent points along a defined urban nightlife walkway. The site for the BTVC was chosen as the cross axis of this path and the main highway that carries visitors into Lexington. The BTVC will recieve visitors of the city at a point where they will be able to traverse the city by foot, allowing them to engage the urban context more meaningfully and efficiently.
BTVC as urban nightlife attractor; encouraging economically beneficial pedestrian traffic
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The Cultural Hub’s siting within the historic Distillery District looks to maximize its potential for combining cultural experiences. It sits on the convergance of 3 main axes of Lexington [ Campus, Downtown, and Newtown Pike ]. The Cultural Hub aims to invite guests travelling along these axes into and through the Distillery District on foot. The context from which each axis projects is understood, and the entrance to the building from each of these axes is programmed with the corresponding context in mind.
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The BTVC gave me my first insight into the practical application of the process in which form is a natural outcome of operational problem solving within the building. The project also began my interest in a structure’s ability to integrate into an urban context physically, and programmatically, therefore being able to solve urban problems of sustainable transport, economic growth, edge conditions, social blending, and cultural heritage.
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[ Andy Magner ] 859.940.8157 andrew.magner9@uky.edu 222 Bolivar St. APT 215 Lexington, KY 40508
Fourth year architecture student at the University of Kentucky College of Design. My focus on digital tools allows an exploration of architecture’s ability to solve complex problems. I have a background in computer design, mechanical tinkering, and carprentry , and an affinity for graphic design.
WORK EXPERIENCE [ ALT32 ] Mike Sparkman, and Matthew Brooks. Lexington, KY. June 2015 - August 2015
SOFTWARE
[ DIGITAL DESIGN ] Rhinoceros 3D Revit Grasshopper
[ BROOKS + SCARPA ] Lawrence Scarpa, and Angela Brooks. Los Angeles, CA. Practice Preview Internship: March 2015-April 2015
REFERENCES
[ MIKE SPARKMAN ] Principle Architect alt32, AIA, LEED AP mike@alt32.com 859.806.8472
[ MARTIN SUMMERS ] [ RENDERING ] V Ray Render Maxwell Render Adobe Photoshop
[ GRAPHIC DESIGN ] Adobe Illustrator Adobe InDesign Microsoft Office
EDUCATION [ PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR HIGH SCHOOL ] Lexington KY. Graduated May 2012.
Assistant Professor of Architecture, UK/CoD martinsummers@uky.edu 310.428.5988
[ GREGORY A. LUHAN ] The John Russel Groves Endowed professor of Architecture, UK/CoD gregory.luhan@uky.edu 859.257.6568
[ WEB DESIGN ]
[ GOVERNOR’S SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS ] Lexington, KY Summer 2010. [ BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ARCHITECTURE ]
Adobe Muse Adobe Dreamweaver
[ COMPUTER DESIGN ] JAVA SCRIPT (BASIC)
University of Kentucky College of Design Lexington, KY August 2012- May 2016 (expected graduation)
[ GEOSPATIAL DESIGN ] ARCGIS QGIS
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Through the process of developing these projects, personal interests regarding sustainability, urban ecology, formal performance, materiality, social blending through programmatic blending, and urban ecology have been derived. I wish to further my architectural abilities along these interests, and develop more analytical and technical means of engaging them.
M.ARCH PORTFOLIO