ANNA KUCHERA
CORNELL UNIVERSITY | PORTFOLIO
CURRICULUM VITAE
Anna Kuchera atk48@cornell.edu +1 607 768 2108 21 Alpine Drive, Apalachin, NY 13732
EDUCATION Aug 2013 - Present
Cornell University, College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Ithaca New York Candidate for Bachelor of Architecture | Business Minor GPA: 3.86 | Expected Graduation Date May 2018
WORK EXPERIENCE Sept 2017 - Nov 2017
Diller Scofidio + Renfro Intern | New York, New York // Cataloged and responded to RFIs and submittals // Updated construction drawings, created ASKs, and verified and revised complex 3d geometries as per supplier changes // Constructed a 1:1 mock-up of a lounge chair for an in-home screening room; developed multiple iterations of foam inserts based on ergonomic research in order to test for comfort and sight lines
June 2017 - Aug 2017
Robert A. M. Stern Architects Intern | New York, New York // Assisted in the creation of a concept design package for a mixed-use waterfront master plan in Wilmington, Delaware // Compiled precedent research, built physical models, formatted presentations, attended client meetings // Developed a digital model of site context and massing iterations and used this to create aerial and street-level visualizations
June 2016 - Aug 2016
Design Republic Partners Architects Architecture Intern | New York, New York // Created and edited construction drawing sets and design development presentations for high-end fashion stores such as Fendi, workspace interiors such as the xAd offices at 1 WTC, and interiors for NBC at 30 Rockefeller Plaza // Surveyed construction sites and attended meetings between architects, contractors, and developers
May 2015 – Aug 2015
Binghamton University Design Team Intern | Vestal, New York // Attended bid meetings with suppliers and gained familiarity with negotiations between designers and sales representatives // Documented and analyzed site conditions for a campus planting inventory, for the re-purposing of spaces on campus, and for the creation of detailed records for future campus construction
ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE Aug 2013 - Present
Cornell Commitment Hunter R. Rawlings III Cornell Presidential Research Scholar // Conduct independent research funded by Cornell University every semester // Research urban design and city planning throughout history and maintain a digital metadata library with a focus on unrealized cities and their 2D representations // Construct visual and data-based comparisons between collected architecture projects and art, film, and science fiction
Sept 2015 - Present
Thumbnail: An Open Forum for the Exchange of Ideas Active Member, Vice President 2016-2017 // Collaborate with other students to organize a multiple-speaker event based on the model of Pecha Kucha where both faculty and students give visually-based presentations relating to a given theme // As Vice President, oversaw graphic output including poster design, advertisements, memorabilia, and event programs
Feb 2017 - Present
AAP Ambassadors Student Ambassador // Advocate for Cornell Architecture by giving tours and acting as a point of contact for prospective and incoming students
Feb 2017 – May 2017
Cornell University Library Digital Media Group Cataloging Assistant | Ithaca, New York // Digitized metadata for a collection of photographs of Icelandic architecture built in the 20th and 21st centuries
SKILLS Software: Rhino 3D, VRay, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, AutoCAD, Microsoft Excel, Grasshopper Fabrication + Representation: Digital and analog modeling, laser cutting, 3d printing, hand drawing, watercolor rendering 02
CONTENTS
01
MARCO ISLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS
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Mixed-Use Art Center | Marco Island, Florida Spring 2017
02
MAKER-SPACE LIC
03
MUSEO DIFFUSO
04
MADE IN NEW YORK: TYPE-B CITY
05
OVERCAST
06
SELECTED ARTWORKS + DESIGN
12
New-Age Factory| Long Island City, NY Fall 2017
20
Museum of the Vatican Walls | Rome, Italy Spring 2016
28
Manifesto for a New City Fall 2016
36
Museum for Casts | Ithaca, NY Spring 2015
Graphic Design | Spring 2014 - Spring 2017 Gouache Paintings | Spring 2013 Sculpture | Spring 2014
40
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 03
01
MARCO ISLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS
SITE: MARCO ISLAND, FLORIDA SEMESTER: SPRING 2017 PROFESSORS: KENT HUBBELL AND NIC GOLDSMITH IN COLLABORATION WITH: BRAD NATHANSON, SAM KIM, AND DI WANG Prompt: Design an addition to and renovation of the existing Marco Island Center for the Arts building, providing new classrooms, exhibition space, an auditorium, a convention center, and outdoor public space while employing a tensile fabric structure. Solution: Four individual fabric canopies supported by curved steel members cover enclosed programs along the site and take inspiration from the native mangroves of Marco Island and Southwest Florida. ‘Push-up’ and ‘pulldown’ points on the membrane create the tension and form of the canopy and acts as programmatic nodes for both private and public activity. The original white stucco Arts Center to the east is integrated under the canopy and remains a ceremonial entrance point and the highest point of the structure.
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MARCO ISLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS | SPRING 2017
View of main entrance looking northeast
Southern elevation
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 05
PLANS, DIAGRAMS, AND LONG SECTION
Site Plan
PHASES I TO IV
IV
III
II
I
ENCLOSURE
OPEN AIR
HIGH POINTS LOW POINTS
SOLID WALLS GLASS PANELS GREEN WALLS
BANQUET HALL
PORCH
PORCH
BANQUET HALL
THEATRE
PORCH
PORCH CLASSROOMS
THEATRE
CLASSROOMS
CLASSROOMS GALLERY RECEPTION ADMINISTRATION PARKING PORCHES
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RECEPTION ADMIN
GALLERY
PARKING
MARCO ISLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS | SPRING 2017
Roof Plan
Ground Floor Plan
Long Section ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 07
SHORT SECTIONS
Sections A, B, C, and D show cuts through the existing Marco Island Center for the Arts, the new east classrooms and gallery, the auditorium, and the convention center, respectively. Large arched metal columns create heightened ceilings and allow light to enter into the space through ETFE domes at the top of each column opening.
D
C
B
A
Section A
Section B
08
MARCO ISLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS | SPRING 2017
STRUCTURE DIAGRAMS
Column support structure: rendered, model photo, plan and section
Section C
Section D
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 09
MODEL VIEWS
Second floor of east classroom
View looking west towards gallery and central gathering courtyard. 10
MARCO ISLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS | SPRING 2017
Aerial view of auditorium.
View of 2nd floor footbridge between classroom buildings ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO
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02
MAKER-SPACE LIC: A LAB FOR LIGHT + LABOR
SITE: LONG ISLAND CITY, NY SEMESTER: FALL 2017 PROFESSORS: STELLA BETTS OF LEVENBETTS
Prompt: Create a light manufacturing space sited on a through-lot in Long Island City, focusing on the way that natural light can be manipulated to create a range of conditions for working. Solution: Evolving material studies focused on the process of model-making to develop conditions with desirable light qualities. A maker-space program allows for a variety of light manufacturing uses and engages the community. A pneumatic ‘cloud’ contains the maker-space program and ‘floats’ above a public courtyard. Four main circulation cores support staggered floor plates while the pneumatic shell rests on a net of steel ties and is secured at interior points. Inflated plastic and concrete interact to create a variety of lighting conditions that each appeal to different uses within the maker-space. Rockite studies
12
MAKER-SPACE LIC | FALL 2017
Paper studies
Plastic studies
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO
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INTERMEDIATE PROCESS MODELS AND DRAWINGS
Intermediary process and massing model
Penultimate process and massing model
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MAKER-SPACE LIC | FALL 2017
FINAL DIAGRAMMATIC MODEL
Final model plan view
Final model west elevation
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO
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PLANS
N
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
2ND FLOOR PLAN
1’ = 1/16”
4TH FLOOR PLAN
1’ = 1/16”
0
5
15
30
50
0
5
15
30
50
N 3RD FLOOR PLAN
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1’ = 1/16”
0
5
15
30
50
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MAKER-SPACE LIC | FALL 2017
PERSPECTIVE SECTION AND HAND RENDERINGS
Perspective Section facing west
Southern elevation
Isometric view
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO
17
EXTERIOR VIEWS - MODEL IN SITE
Aerial view looking southwest, afternoon light
Aerial view looking northwest, evening
18
MAKER-SPACE LIC | FALL 2017
INTERIOR VIEWS - MODEL PHOTOS
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO
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Rome, Italy
03
MUSEO DIFFUSO: MUSEUM OF THE VATICAN WALLS
PORTA PORTESE, ROME, ITALY SPRING 2016 The Museum of the Vatican Walls links several museum spaces together through an elevated passageway attached to the Vatican Walls between the Porta Portese gate and Trastevere. This passageway provides a new way for visitors to experience the site and learn about the history of the walls. Open piazzas expand between the 4 main diffused spaces: a tower for viewing the site with a roof-top terrace, the Museum of Cinema, the Museum of the Vatican Walls, and a parking garage with retail space above. Frames support transparent programmatic volumes, mimicking the latent metal frames of the old airplane hangar on the site and the gasometro, a nineteenth century cylindrical metal frame that was once used for storing gas, which lies to the south of the site. The land west of the Tiber and south of the Vatican walls is striated from north to south, parallel to the river and Via Portuense, due to its history as the site for a the Trastevere railroad station. During and after the process of the railroads removal, construction of apartments and other buildings occurred along these parallel lines, creating a barrier between Viale di Trastevere to the west and Via Portuense to the east. Although these streets are active on Sundays for a weekly flea market, they remain inactive as public space the rest of the time and are only used for transportation.
Aerial photo.
The Museo Diffuso creates an active public space that laterally connects Trastevere to the Tiber and creates a connection across the Vatican Walls. On a larger scale, it curates a path along the Vatican Walls all the way from Villa Sciarra to the west to Aventine Hill in the east. The Museo Diffuso takes advantage of two structures on the site, the Trastevere bus station and an unused airplane hangar, and creates two new structures the Museum of the Vatican Walls, which sits withing a rectangular turn in the walls, and the Museum Tower, which rises from the bastion where the walls terminate.
Map of Rome, 1925 , showing Trastevere Train Station adjacent to site. 20
MUSEO DIFFUSO: MUSEUM OF THE VATICAN WALLS | FALL 2016
Site plan and aerial view of site. Museum interventions in red. 21
SITE DIAGRAMS AND PLANS
Relevant on-site and surrounding buildings
22
Green space in relation to Vatican Wall and street structure
Striated street structure and areas of intervention
MUSEO DIFFUSO: MUSEUM OF THE VATICAN WALLS | FALL 2016
Plan level 2
Plan level 0 ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 23
PLAN AND SECTIONS
Section through Cinema Museum and outdoor plaza 24
MUSEO DIFFUSO: MUSEUM OF THE VATICAN WALLS | FALL 2016
Plan level 1
Section through Museum of the Vatican Walls and parking garage with retail space. ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 25
EXPLODED ISOMETRIC
26
MUSEO DIFFUSO: MUSEUM OF THE VATICAN WALLS | FALL 2016
RENDERED VIEWS
Top: View of Museum of the Vatican Walls and Cinema Museum Bottom: View of reflecting pool in main piazza surrounded by museum buildings and car park.
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 27
04
MADE IN NEW YORK: TYPE-B CITY
MANIFESTO FOR A NEW CITY FALL 2016
Type-B City uses Atelier Bow-Wow’s Made in Tokyo as a precedent for a derivative manifesto that imagines a new form of interaction between the high culture, ‘Architecture of Architects’ and the vernacular buildings that develop out of necessity rather than a specific analysis of culture and context. Whereas Made in Tokyo acts as a guidebook that documents the ‘da-me’ (no good) architecture of Tokyo and tries to reveal the value in its qualities of ‘off-ness’, Type-B City imagines opportunistic, shameless, architecture that takes advantage of islands of ‘Type-A’ architecture to create new architectures. These methods of intervention are then applied to the architecture of New York City and understood in an urban context.
05 SIMMONS HALL FILLED
15
03 VILLA SAVOYE CAR-WASH
Type-B City Manifesto: Type-A architecture is ‘The Magnificent Architecture of Architects’. It is pure white. It is moral architecture, its aim is to benefit society and act as a piece of art. Type-B architecture is shameless. It uses all available spaces to adapt to all available needs and it disregards culture and context.
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WALT DISNEY SOLAR PANELS
All architecture can be organized within different orders of understanding. Type-A architecture: exists in the ‘on’ position, under three orders of understanding: it is inherently inefficient, it rationalizes physical structure, and it is iconic. In contrast, Type-B architecture has a certain sense of ‘off-ness’. It contains multiple programs that may not share the same function, structure, or use. Type-A and Type-B architecture live in two separate worlds. They avoid each other. Type-A architecture looks down on Type-B.
TYPE-B CITY | FALL 2016
02
01
CCTV PUBLIC HOUSING
NEUE CAR PARK
06
04 PORTLAND BILLBOARDS
But what if Type-B architecture mixes with Type-A? What if we disregard culture and are indifferent to history? From the chaos of combination, freedom of production ensues. With globalization, technological advances, and overpopulation as a backdrop, ‘da-me’ becomes a resource, and there is an opportunity for the purposeful use of wasted spaces, public spaces that develop from previously private programs, and the coexistence of multiple functions using one structure.
VITRAHAUS-HOUSE
A parking lot uses the empty roof of the Neue Nationalgalerie to service the museum, and one can lay in the sand on the plinth or take a dip in the sculpture garden pool. The CCTV tower lets its negative space be filled in, seemingly absorbing the apartment towers surrounding it. Sun reflecting off of the Walt Disney Concert Hall is re-purposed by a Type-B installation; solar panels take advantage of the sunlight and power the building. Type-B architecture is opportunistic.
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 29
DESIGN MATRIX: TYPE-A ARCHITECTURE + TYPE-B ARCHITECTURE This design matrix defines Type-A architecture, Type B-Architecture, and the way that these types can interact to create new architectures. The example from the matrix below shows how these Type-A architectures are explicitly defined and how their qualities create opportunities for Type-B architecture to occur. Type-A Architecture Qualities: An image of the Type-A building is shown as an underlay. Each blue rectangle demarcates a different Type-A Architecture Qualities: An aspect image of of theType-A Type-Aarchitecture building is that to theEach building. shownisasinherent an underlay. blue rectangle demarcates a different aspect of Type-A architecture that is inherent to the building.
Type-A Buildings: the progam of the structure and its name listed. Type-Aare Buildings: the progam of the structure and its name are listed.
Icon: each A+B architecture is represented with the Type-A architecture white and Icon: eachinA+B the Type-Bisarchitecture architecture representedin darkType-A grey. with the architecture in white and the Type-B architecture in dark grey.
Type - B Architectur Qualities: Each blu rectangle demarcates different of Typ Type - Baspect Architecture architecture inhe Qualities: that Eachisblue to the new,demarcates A+B build rectangle different aspect of Type architecture that is inher to the new, A+B buildin
Type - B Intervention: the program/type of the structure is listed. Type - B Intervention: the program/type of the structure is listed.
car park
museum NEUE NATIONALGALERIE
1
1 architecture sometimes A Type-A has the qualities of being:
Numbers 1 - 16 show examples of A+B architectures around the world, while 17 - 33 show A+B architectures in New York City. The architecture in New York City are shown in their locations in the aerial view.
museum A Type-A architecture always has NEUEtheNATIONALGALERIE qualities of being:
Private: A Type-A architecture sometimes It is only usable by certain people hasorthethere qualities being: is paidofentry.
Inefficient: A Type-A architecture always has Architecture that produces by-product the qualities of being: spaces or surfaces.
Private: It isSingle-Use: only usable by certain people Thereisispaid onlyentry. one program or function or there that the building performs.
Inefficient: Rationalizes Physical Structure: Architecture that produces by-product Architecture that imposes a pre-conceived spaces or surfaces. use or program onto a structure.
Single-Use: By-Product: There is only one program or function The form of the building creates spaces or that the building performs. surfaces that do not perform any function.
Rationalizes Physical Structure: Iconic: Architecture that imposes a pre-conceived Architecture that exists as ‘starchitecture’; it is use or program onto a structure. iconic or monumental.
By-Product: The form of the building creates spaces or surfaces that do not perform any function.
Iconic: Architecture that exists as ‘starchitecture’; it is iconic or monumental.
car park
A Type-B architecture always has at least one of the qualities of:
Category: A Type-B architecture always has at The different elements of the architecture belong to different least one of the qualities include of: categories. Categories enclosed structures, open-air
structures, sport fields, environmental systems, and signage. Category: The different elements of the architecture belong to different Structure: categories. Categories include enclosed structures, open-air The different functions or elements of the architecture use structures, sport fields, environmental systems, and signage. different structures. In contrast, for example, the car park does use the structure of the roof to support it. Structure:
The different functions or elements of the architecture use Use: different structures. In contrast, for example, the car to park The different elements of the architecture contribute does use the structureInofcontrast, the roof to it. the car park different programs. forsupport example, does contribute to the function of the museum by acting as Use: parking for elements the visitors. The different of the architecture contribute to different programs. In contrast, for example, the car park does contribute to the function of the museum by acting as parking for the visitors.
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18 23
21
20 22
24
19
23
30
29
29 31
31
32
33
30 33
25
18
26
26
28
32
22
24 2728
30
25 21 20
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TYPE-B CITY | FALL 2016
TYPE-B QUALITIES
re ue sa pe-B e eerent ding. a e-B rent ng.
TYPE-A QUALITIES
TYPE-A BUILDINGS
ICON
TYPE-B INTERVENTION
1 NO.
TYPE-A QUALITIES
museum TYPE-A BUILDINGS NEUE NATIONALGALERIE
ICON
TYPE-B INTERVENTION
2 1
Intervention Method: The way that the Type-B architecture intervens in Type-A Method: is listed. The Intervention way that the Type-B architecture intervens in Type-A is listed.
BY-PRODUCT/URBANITY Intervention method is the way in BY-PRODUCT/URBANITY which Type-B architecture takes advantage of Type-A. Sometimes unused surfaces like iswalls or roofs Intervention method the way in are used for new architecture programs, spaces which Type-B takes are made into of urban dwellings to reduce advantage Type-A. Sometimes need ofsurfaces transportation, andorsingle-use unused like walls roofs are buildings findprograms, another purpose used for new spaceswhen are they are in use. Possible made intonot urban dwellings to reduce intervention methods are: need of transportation, andby-product, single-use urbanity, find fill-in, urban purpose dwelling,when buildings another environmental, cross-category, they are not in use. Possible sportive, and absent-use. intervention methods are: by-product,
urbanity, fill-in, urban dwelling, environmental, cross-category, sportive, and absent-use. 17
NO.
3 2 4 3 5 4 6 5 7 6 8 7 9 8 10 9 11 10 12 11 13
12 14
13 15
14 16
15 17
17
16 18 17 19 18 20 19 21 20 22 21 23 22 24 23 25 24 26 25 27 26 28 27 29 28 30 29 31 30 32 31 33 32 33
commercial high rise museum CCTV TOWER NEUE NATIONALGALERIE concert hall commercial rise GUGGENHEIMhigh BILBAO CCTV TOWER government building concert hall PORTLAND BUILDING GUGGENHEIM BILBAO student housing government building SIMMONS HALL - MIT PORTLAND BUILDING gallery VITRA HAUS student housing
SIMMONS HALL - MIT stadium BEIJING gallery NATIONAL STADIUM VITRA HAUS government building BOSTON stadium CITY HALL BEIJING NATIONAL STADIUM museum GUGGENHEIM BILBAO government building BOSTON CITY HALL high-end fashion store PRADA STORE TOKYO museum
INTERVENTION METHOD TYPE-B QUALITIES
car park
INTERVENTION BY-PRODUCT/URBANITY METHOD
low-income housing car park solar panels low-income housing billboards solar panels tennis courts + multi-use space billboards apartment housing tennis courts + multi-use space aviary apartment housing open-air market aviary sports fields open-air market
432 PARK AVENUE high-end residential VIA 57 WEST high-rise commercial
laundromat sports fields public park laundromat bleachers public park food trucks bleachers skate park food trucks car wash skate park storage units car wash open-air market storage units public pool open-air market roller coaster public pool low-income housing roller coaster tv screens
TRUMP TOWER residential high-rise 432 PARK AVENUE commercial high-rise
low-income housing fill-in
HEARST TOWER commercial high-rise TRUMP TOWER commericial high-rise
tv screens motel
CITIGROUP CENTER commercial high-rise HEARST museumTOWER
fill-in tennis courts
GUGGENHEIM BILBAO embassy U.S. EMBASSY CUBA high-end fashion store PRADA STORE TOKYO church CATHEDRAL embassy OF CHRIST THE LIGHT U.S. EMBASSY CUBA commercial high-rise 20 FENCHURCH ST church CATHEDRAL OF CHRIST THE LIGHT government building 3commercial POWERS PLAZA high-rise 20 FENCHURCH private home ST VILLA SAVOYEbuilding government 3 POWERS PLAZA public monument METROPOL PARASOL private home VILLA SAVOYE stadium YANKEE STADIUM public monument METROPOL PARASOL museum SWIMMING POOL stadium YANKEE high-endSTADIUM residential VIA 57 WEST museum SWIMMING POOL residential high-rise
MOMA commericial high-rise church CITIGROUP CENTER ST PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL museum government building MOMA UNITED NATIONS church public monument ST PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL ROCKEFELLER CENTER government building residential high-rise UNITED NATIONS EMPIRE STATE BUILDING public monument monument ROCKEFELLER CENTER FLATIRON BUILDING residential high-rise public EMPIREpark STATE BUILDING THE HIGH-LINE monument museum FLATIRON BUILDING NEW MUSEUM public park monument THE HIGH-LINE WTC TRANSPORTATION HUB museum monument NEW MUSEUM THE STATUE OF LIBERTY monument WTC TRANSPORTATION HUB
monument THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
motel theatre tennis courts sports fields theatre sports fields neon signs neon signs fill-in + public art concert stage
-
-
fill-in + public art hotel concert stage hotel
FILL-IN/URBAN DWELLING BY-PRODUCT/URBANITY BY-PRODUCT/ENVIRONMENTAL FILL-IN/URBAN DWELLING BY-PRODUCT BY-PRODUCT/ENVIRONMENTAL FILL-IN/SPORTIVE BY-PRODUCT FILL-IN/URBAN DWELLING FILL-IN/SPORTIVE BY-PRODUCT FILL-IN/URBAN DWELLING CROSS-CATEGORY BY-PRODUCT FILL-IN/SPORTIVE CROSS-CATEGORY CROSS-CATEGORY FILL-IN/SPORTIVE BY-PRODUCT/SPORTIVE CROSS-CATEGORY BY-PRODUCT BY-PRODUCT/SPORTIVE BY-PRODUCT/ENVIRONMENTAL
BY-PRODUCT BY-PRODUCT/SPORTIVE
BY-PRODUCT/ENVIRONMENTAL BY-PRODUCT
BY-PRODUCT/SPORTIVE FILL-IN
BY-PRODUCT ABSENT-USE FILL-IN BY-PRODUCT/SPORTIVE
ABSENT-USE CROSS-CATEGORY
BY-PRODUCT/SPORTIVE URBAN-DWELLING CROSS-CATEGORY BY-PRODUCT URBAN-DWELLING FILL-IN BY-PRODUCT FILL-IN FILL-IN SPORTIVE FILL-IN ABSENT USE SPORTIVE SPORTIVE ABSENT USE SPORTIVE BY-PRODUCT -
-
BY-PRODUCT BY-PRODUCT FILL-IN BY-PRODUCT BY-PRODUCT/CROSS-CATEGORY FILL-IN
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BY-PRODUCT/CROSS-CATEGORY
NEW YORK CITY INTERVENTIONS Type-B architecture applies itself to Manhattan’s gridded streets and happily adapts its islands of monuments and skyscrapers. In a city where rent is high and land is scare, Type-B architecture takes advantage of what is readily available and exploits Type-A. Nothing is sacred - the Statue of Liberty is a hotel to service its many visitors, and Calatrava’s transportation hub becomes a concert stage. Type-B architecture can begin to grow on and around Manhattan’s existing monuments. It fills into empty gaps as it needs, using roofs as floor plates and any readily available walls. The New Museum is surrounded by Type-B growth. Its white facade becomes a surface for murals and public art.
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This imposition of Type-B architecture can fill interiors, latch onto exteriors, or connect two buildings. With the co-existence of new functions and structures, a new connective infrastructure can also start to develop. While Type-A architecture creates a city of islands, Type-B architecture encourages fluidity; environmental units exist without front or back, without shallowness or depth.
20 EMPIRE STATE SIGNS
32
Architecture is dematerialized and we produce the ‘environmental unit’. Inefficiencies may be made efficient, structure will be created for a need, private spaces may become public, one use may become multiple, and high culture may become anyone’s culture.
432 PARK PUBLIC HOUSING
TYPE-B CITY | FALL 2016
Liberty Hotel 19 VIA COASTER
33 EMPIRE STATE HOTEL
31
32
NEW MUSEUM X PUBLIC ART
WTC CONCERT STAGE
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 33
URBAN VIEW Within a city fabric, islands of Type-A become surrounded with opportunistic Type-B. Billboards and neon signs take advantage of ‘empty’ building facades. Political television screens adorn the folds of Trump Tower. The gapping space below Citicorp Center is filled with a motel, and 432 Park Avenue is made dense with public housing. Type-B architecture also addresses time. It appears as it needs and can be destroyed just as easily. It takes advantage of spaces used for one program, but not used 24 hours a day, such as St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
34
Living space is constituted by connections between various adjacent environmental conditions. A network of public facilities can be distributed through the city and interlap with adjacent environments. A city forms from variable happenings. Type-A architecture dissolves. What was once scale-less in its monumentality becomes scale-less again in a city fabric of chaos and freedom.
TYPE-B CITY | FALL 2016
URBAN VIEW DETAILS
21 TRUMP TOWER NEWS SCREENS
25 ST. PATRICK’S MOVIE THEATER
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 35
05
OVERCAST: A MUSEUM FOR PLASTER CASTS
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, NY SPRING 2015
Separation between elements - a plaster hand, removed at the wrist but still indicating the whole arm - served as inspiration for this museum for a collection of plaster casts of ancient sculptures. The slightly damaged nature of the plaster casts speaks to a language of separation and levitation, while still indicating the clear existence of a whole. The entire museum is lifted up on six columns, allowing for an open public ground plane with punctures through to the floor below giving diffused light to the restoration and storage space on level -1. The southern wall of the museum is pulled from the levitating block that it encloses, creating a space for vertical circulation and views east towards the Fuertes Observatory. A four foot square grid, manifest through a waffle slab structure, dictates everything from cast display and spatial organization to the structure of the ‘cloud’ made of glulam beams that rests on top of the concrete box. Covered with ETFE panels to create a seal from the elements and allow light to filter through the space, this structure also stores the plaster casts, which can be lowered into the main space for display. Restoration storage space occurs in the basement (level -1), where there is also loading zone access and restrooms. The main entrance is on the ground floor (level 0). Visitors can experience the floating mass of the museum above them, and then enter up the staircase into the main space of the museum. A secondary entrance into the museum occurs on this level from the southern side of the building. Visitors can view the casts set into the walls of the museum and see casts suspended from the glulam cloud structure above. Elevations top to bottom: southern, western, northern, eastern
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OVERRCAST | SPRING 2015
View from southwest
View from northwest
PLANS, SECTIONS, AND PERSPECTIVE SECTION
Plan level -1
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Plan level 0
OVERRCAST | SPRING 2015
Plan level 1
Plan level 2
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 39
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GRAPHIC DESIGN AND SELECTED ARTWORKS
POSTER DESIGN: STRETCH EVENT | SPRING 2017 Dual ‘Call for Submissions’ posters for the Thumbnail event ‘Stretch’ visualize movement and yet are contrasting in their execution. Pertinent information is concisely listed at the bottom of the poster in a line that anchors the posters visually and ties them together in relation to one another.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS AN OPEN FORUM FOR THE
EXCHANGE OF IDEAS PECHA KUCHA FORMAT
20 SLIDES X 20 SECONDS
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Thumbnail is an open forum for the exchange of creative spirit, based on the model of Pecha Kucha. Share with us your thoughts, ideas, photos, experiences- the only rule is 20x20. 20 slides; 20 seconds each.This semester, the theme is stretch. How does stretch manifest itself in your life? How do you experience it? INSTAGRAM:@THUMBNAIL_CORNELL
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SUBMISSION DUE: 03.05.17
Please submit 5 slides and a short summary of your presentation to thumbnailcu@gmail.com by Sunday, March 5th. The event will be held on Friday, April 14th at 6:30PM in Milstein Auditorium.
FACEBOOK.COM/THUMBNAILCU
EVENT DATE: 04.14.17
Thumbnail is an open forum for the exchange of creative spirit, based on the model of Pecha Kucha. Share with us your thoughts, ideas, photos, experiences--the only rule is 20x20. 20 slides; 20 seconds each.This semester, the theme is stretch. How does stretch manifest itself in your life? How do you experience it? Please submit 5 slides and a short summary of your presentation to thumbnailcu@gmail.com by Sunday, March 5th. The event will be held on Friday, April 14th at 6:30PM in Milstein Auditorium. INSTAGRAM:@THUMBNAIL_CORNELL
SUBMISSION DUE: 03.05.17
EVENT DATE: 04.14.17
evan mcdowell
-knotsSELECTED ARTWORKS AND DESIGN Knots can be beautiful, useful, and thought provoking, but not necessarily all of these at the same time.
evan
Knots useful, a ing, but of these
POSTER DESIGN: LOOP EVENT | FALL 2015 For a Fall 2015 event, speakers gave short, design based presentations on the topic ‘Loop’. The programs for the event are a double-sided, printed strip, which was then glued together on the ends to create a möbius strip, allowing the program to be continuously readable. An individual icon represents each presenter, and the Loop and Thumbnail logo are incorporated into the design. To the right are two samples from the long strip that is the final program design.
tamara jamil + lucia lee
tam +
-deja vu-
An anomaly of memory; a sensation already experienced; being caught in the idea that we are, in fact, in a loop.
edbert Chang
-fFried Lloops// Hhomemade Hhappiness"Fried Loops/Homemade Happiness” explores the relationship between architecture and doughnuts. The quest for fried dough is the search for the joy of making.
mardelle shepley -art and science-
The world’s challenges are so complex that problem sol ving must rely on both art and science to be successful. Are we sophisticated machines or something less tangible? Is the hypothesized Singularity, when artificial intelligence is achieved, a real possibility?
edbert Chang
-fFried Lloops// Hhomemade Hhappiness-
An anom sensati enced; b idea tha
edbe
-fFried Lloops//
"Fried Loops/Homemade Happiness” explores the relationship between architecture and doughnuts. The quest for fried dough is aaof nNnNeew -azone: xploiting w the-azone: searchEeEexploiting for the joy Curatorial Curatorial latformmaking.PpPplatformInvestigating Investigating Architecture Architecture and and Digital Digital Initiatives Initiatives at at the the Guggenheim Guggenheim Museum. Museum. The The institution's institution's first first online online exhibition exhibition provides provides aa public public testing testing ground ground to to learn learn about about and and experiment experiment w with ith the the potential potential effects effects of of aa mardelle shepley world shaped world increasingly increasingly shaped -art and scienceby by emerging emerging technologies. technologies. The world’s challenges are so complex that problem sol ving must rely on both art and science to be successful. Are we sophisticated machines or something less tangible? Is the hypothesized Singularity, when artificial intelligence is achieved, a real possibility?
"Fried Lo Happine relation architectur The quest -azon the-azone sear Cura Cura m Investig Investi and andDig Dig Guggen Gugge institu instit exhibitio exhibiti testin testin about aboutaa the thepo po marde world worldin i -art by byeme em The world so comp solving m art and succe sophistica somethin Is the Singulari intelligen real
ashley ashley mendelsohn mendelsohn
nick parker -open loop-
nick parker -open loop-
What is a HyperLoop anyways? OpenLoop is here to answer that, continuing the research of Elon Musk for a competition and, hopefully, a really fast train.
What is a HyperLoop anyways? OpenLoop is here to answer that, continuing the research of Elon Musk for a competition and, hopefully, -gifing outa really fast train.
ashley ashle
nick -o
What i anyways? to answer the researc a competit a rea
ana penalba
an
I will share my concerns about how GIFS -an infinite loop of finite images- is challenging my way of representing, producing and reading Architecture.
evan mcdowell
evan mcdowell
Knots can be beautiful, useful, and thought provoking, but not necessarily all of these at the same time.
Knots can be beautiful, useful, and thought provoking, but not necessarily all of these at the same time.
-knots-
I will s about h loop o chall represen read
evan
-knots-
daniel toretsky ANNArituali KUCHERA -nuovi fun PORTFOLIO golesNuovi Rituali fun Goles, a new diasporic ritual in
Knots ca useful, and ing, but n of these a
41
dani -nuov
Nuovi new
GOUACHE PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE | SPRING 2013 - SPRING 2014
Timothy, 2013
42
Vladmir, 2013
SELECTED ARTWORKS AND DESIGN
Mask, 2014
Thought Catalog, 2014
ANNA KUCHERA PORTFOLIO 43
Anna Kuchera atk48@cornell.edu +1 607 768 2108 44