Portfolio K. Alexandra Krippner M.Arch I candidate The University of Texas at Austin
Contents
Architecture Jonestown City Center Spring 2014 | Jonestown, Texas..........................................................................................4-17 Heavy Water & Fault Lines Fall 2013 | Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.............................................................................18-29 An Addition to a House Spring 2013 | Spokane, Washington..................................................................................30-37 Flatbed Press Spring 2012 | Austin, Texas...............................................................................................38-43 Waiting for Rain [a waiting room] Spring 2013 | Austin, Texas...............................................................................................44-47 Palacios Community Center Fall 2012 | Palacios, Texas................................................................................................48-55 West Mall Fountain Competition Spring 2013 | University of Texas campus, Austin, Texas...................................................56-57
Other Works Various drawings and prints Fall 2005 - Spring 2012...................................................................................................58-69 Pinhole Photography [troping ghosts] Fall 2011 | Austin, Texas...................................................................................................62-63 Construction case study Fall 2012..........................................................................................................................70-71 Snap to Grid [a tidal exposition] Fall 2005 | Orr’s Island, Maine..........................................................................................72-75
Jonestown City Center Spring 2014| Professor Cisco Gomes Technical Communication Studio State Highway1431, Jonestown, Texas design team: Claire Edelen, Alexandra Krippner
The city of Jonestown, Texas, Gateway to the Hill Country, was formerly an access point to Lake Travis until lake levels dropped, leaving a dry valley winding through the community. Seeking a new identity in the face of drought and encroaching suburbia, Jonestown has struggled to define itself as a destination. The design aims to draw upon Jonestown’s significant topographical assets as a way to refocus attention on a positive resource. The new city center, comprised of the town’s library, city offices, a dance hall, 11-room hotel, and market space, positions itself along Ranch to Market Road 1431 as it cuts through Jonestown. The project makes its own cut into the topography, revealing a raw limestone wall that visually becomes part of the building itself. The spaces most utilized by the residents of Jonestown are both visible from the road and accessed by this path, embedding themselves into the hillside. A thick masonry wall along RM1431 blocks sound from the road while turning views away from the dry riverbed and up to the hillside, offering glimpses and frames of the surrounding topography. Visitors to Jonestown, however, take advantage of the long-range vistas from the run of hotel rooms suspended off the side of the hill. Tucked away from the road, the hotel allows visitors access to the city center while it remains hidden from the everyday functions of the town. In the rare event of rain, the water that has been so absent in Jonestown is celebrated, filtered through the layers of a green roof and directed through a large scupper. A long swimming pool beneath the hotel takes advantage of this collected water as it parallels the dry riverbed, offering visitors a new kind of waterfront access. 4
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The farmers’ market occurs in the space created between the building and the limestone in which it is embedded.
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market space
dance hall
pool
council chambers library
hotel lobby & bar
city offices
hotel rooms
PROGRAM
LANDSCAPE park landscape
contained water
primarily visitor use
live rock limestone
surface drainage
primarily visitor use with some resident use
blackland prairie grass
subsurface drainage
primarily resident use with some visitor use
new plantings
LANDSCAPE park landscape TRANSPORTATION
WATER & DRAINAGE contained water HIGHLIGHTED VIEWS
NIGHT TIME OCCUPANCY
vehicular live traffic rock limestone
view frames surface drainage
bollard lighting
parkingblackland prairie grass
subsurface far ranging views drainage
fireplaces
hardscape & paths new plantings
close up views
landscape lighting indoor lighting
bus line
WATER & DRAINAGE contained water surface drainage
HIGHLIGHTED VIEWS
subsurface drainage view frames
NIGHT TIME OCCUPANCY bollard lighting
far ranging views
fireplaces
close up views
landscape lighting indoor lighting
NIGHT TIME OCCUPANCY bollard lighting fireplaces landscape lighting indoor lighting
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WATER & DRAINAGE
primarily resident use
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Long section revealing the dance hall, city offics, and library. Western and Southern elevations. Hotel rooms are suspended off the hillside, and the town facilites are embedded into the limestone above State Highway 1431. 10
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SHORT SECTION 1 1/8" = 1'-0"
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SHORT SECTION 2 1/8" = 1'-0"
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The Jonestown library.
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Wall section and North elevation outside city offices.
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ON THE ROAD 1
SHORT SECTION 1 1/8" = 1'-0"
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SHORT SECTION 2 1/8" = 1'-0"
DATE 05/01/14
SCALE
1/8" = 1'-0"
A106 BUILDING SECTIONS
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SHORT SECTION 1 1/8" = 1'-0"
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SHORT SECTION 2 1/8" = 1'-0"
View from the corner overlook. Short sections. 17
Heavy Water Fall 2013 | Professor Coleman Coker Hobart, Tasmania, Australia website: heavywater-mona.com studio design team:
Alexandra Krippner, Shelby Blessing, Danuta Dias, Shelley Evans, Andrew Houston, Lauren Jones, Kye Killian, Jorge Martinez, Morgan Parker, Mitchell Peterson, David Sharratt, Katie Summers The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania is situated on a peninsula surrounded by the Derwent Estuary. Once one of the most contaminated estuaries in the world, its shores are the site of multiple manufacturers who had formerly considered the estuary a dumping ground: Nyrstar Zinc, Cadbury Chocolate, Norske Skog Paper Mill, and the Hobart sewage treatment plant. Residents cannot swim in much of the water along the Derwent, and the government issues regular warnings to prevent people from eating the fish in the estuary due to the heavy metals in the water. MONA’s yearly festival of music and art, MONA FOMA, sought to address the issue of heavy metal contamination, calling artists, architects, scientist, and heavy metal musicians together to create works to address this issue. Heavy Water was designed to reconnect visitors to their environments through multi-sensory experience. A dark zinc box appears to float above the estuary, suspended above walls of water that hide a wooden deck and bench inside. The falling water creates an edge of turbulence, oxygenating the water. As one approaches the curtain of water, sensors part the wall to allow passage into the interior. At only seven feet above the floating deck, the proximity of the box overhead is designed to convey the sense that the estuary is suffocating. An oculus at the center provides a moment of relief, bringing light and air into the room of water walls. The concrete surface of the bench references the 8cm of sediment that currently holds a large percent of the contaminated metal capped at the bottom of the estuary. MONA has plans to build a version of Heavy Water with a projected completion date of late 2014/early 2015. 18
Model: David Sharratt Photograph: Alexandra Krippner Render: Shelley Evans
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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT PRODUCT
Left: Render: Kye Killian Axon: David Sharratt Right: Renders: Shelley Evans 20
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT PRODUCT
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Considerations regarding reframing the estuary. Dripping panes of glass rise out of the water, only accissible at low tide by a platform just below the water’s surface. Initial concept renderings (left): Alexandra Krippner Process renderings: top: Alexandra Krippner middle: Mitchell Peterson + Alexandra Krippner bottom: Alexandra Krippner
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Heavy Water process sketches (8 of mwany)
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Fault Lines Winter Break 2013-2014 | MONA Design/build in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia studio design team:
Alexandra Krippner, Shelby Blessing, Shelley Evans, Kye Killian, Morgan Parker, David Sharratt Fault Lines inserts itself at another point within the context of human behavior and the health of the Derwent Estuary, and the installation serves as an introduction to Heavy Water. Located at four unique sites in highly visible and trafficked areas on the grounds of the Museum of Old and New Art, each metal-edged runnel is capped at the end by a concrete bench inset with an etched glass panel containing the web address to Heavy Water and a related graphic. Filled with either oyster shells or shredded tire, the lines reference the storm water run-off and oyster toxin filtration that affect estuary health in alternate ways. Below: Initial concept drawing for Fault Lines, considering the need to filter contaminated ground water as it flows downhill and into the Derwent Estuary, This process contributes to algae bloom and eutrophication which allows the release of heavy metals from the sediment cap, harming fish, birds, and humans.
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Fault Lines process. Construction occurred on the site of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) between December 18, 2013 and January 7, 2014. 28
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An Addition to a House Spring 2013 | Professor Michael Benedikt Spokane, Washington Olson Kundig’s 2001 Ridge House is located on a peak emerging from the piney forests outside of Spokane, Washington. The program called for the addition of a 1,500 sq. ft. five-person architecture studio. The studio could be integrated into the house through the existing home office or replace it. The design utilizes the existing geometries of the Ridge house throughout, achieving spacing reminiscent of a barn from a farmhouse. The roof slopes up in acknowledgement of the roofs on the existing structures, and the folds rise up on the opposite side to bring in pinetree-filtered Southern light and allow views out to the tops of the trees. Right: In-process concept drawing of ridge-siting and interior structure with partial plan of existing house below. Below: Analysis of geometries as part of the siting strategy. The proportions reappear throughout the new design.
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Above: Eighth-scale model. Extension over ridge recalling historic U.S. cantilevered barns. Below: Animated film of interior in use. Rendering produced from Revit model, films recorded on a green screen, film assembled and crafted in Adobe After Effects. 34
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Left: Site plan with existing house (addition is Southernmost) Below: Section through the entry showing the railings of stairs to the lower level (to the office and fabrication shop), the wall of Northern windows where employee desks are aligned, and the third level library and display space accessible by ladder.
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Flatbed Press Spring 2012 | Professor Joyce Rosner MLK Boulevard, Austin, Texas Flatbed Press printmaking studio and gallery needed new facilities to expand their gallery, workspace, and educational capacity. The design is intended to incorporate concepts of printmaking while maximizing the site through occupation and utilization of outdoor space. The building pulls away from the ground, leaving an imprint of its own on the earth and creating patios for outdoor classrooms. Located in a rapidly urbanizing area of Austin on a major roadway, the building wraps around the site perimeter yet leaves an open green courtyard that doubles as a lawn for outdoor film screenings. Embossed metal clads the two major circulations cores that pull out of the building and gesture to both front and back sidewalks, pulling visitors and community members through the gallery spaces located within these corridors. Additional program includes a cafe along the street-front as well as residences for artists along the more private, Northern side of the Flatbed facilities. Right: Hand-drawing of a traditional intaglio press with hand-constructed geometries. The drawing was processed through Photoshop Illustrator, transferred to a transparency, and sun-etched onto a copper plate, From Illustrator the drawing was also taken into AutoCAD and made into a laser-cutter file, laser-cut, and run through a printing press to emboss various papers with the patterns of the image. This work is visible on the building facade in the model and rendering. 38
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Right: Progression of study models Below: Embossed entry facade along MLK Boulevard Below right: Night film screening in the interior courtyard
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Left: Model depicting embossed facade Above: Emboss detail on Stonehenge Below: Interior perspective
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Waiting for Rain [a waiting room] Spring 2013 | Professor Michael Benedikt Guadalupe Street alley, Austin, TX The program was a “Waiting Room.� The site was anywhere along a two-block strip of urban alleyway. During increasingly frequent heavy rains this particular alley floods, sometimes becoming an impasse. However, most of the time it is dry and hot--Austin drought conditions. The only source of water in these periods is the drip of the many AC units on the roofs of the businesses that back the alley. The design re-directs the many drains and drips that flow into the alley and captures this water before it is contaminated. The cistern holds this water above the buildings, emerging as a glowing billboard at night to highlight local water conditions. Rain and AC condensate both serve as sources, ideally solar still filtered by the glass roof. A row of floats bobs within the interior, visible only when the water level rises. The cistern performs when the water level gets too high and the floats pull out drains along the bottom edge that release a rainshower below. Animated video online at: http://vimeo.com/groups/184459/videos/62715483 44
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Top: Plan of cistern interior. When water lifts the series of buoys to the surface, drains to release the contents. Right: Section showing ladder and top platform to which billboards can be attached. Middle: Frames from “Waiting for Rain.� Green screen video superimposed over site and model photographs. Bottom: Site photographs of ally drains. The designed cistern diverts and collects water from these sources. 46
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Palacios Community Center Fall 2012 | Professor Cisco Gomes Palacios, Texas The town of Palacios (pronounced Pa-la-shus), located off the Gulf of Mexico on Matagorda Bay, was once the thriving “Shrimp Capitol of Texas.� Experiencing steady decline since the mid-20th century, there is significant empty and decaying building stock. The design questioned how the Lighthouse Seafood Shrimp Packaging Facility could be revived and repurposed into a community center that evoked the tradition of waterfront pavilions along the Texas coast. Program includes display of a half-scale replica of the hurricane-sunk La Belle ship, as well as city offices, a restaurant, dance hall, spa, and pool that extends into the bay. The major move of the project is the boardwalk that reaches far into a reinstated marshland. Palacios is centrally located along the Texas Birding Trail and home to such rare birds as the Roseate Spoonbill. The wetland marsh not only restores their habitat but also that of the shrimp and the oyster, depleted by industry along the coast. The boardwalk also sets up an EastWest axis repeated in the moves of the concrete pool and the stone buffer that defines the edge between marsh and bay. Effort was made to re-use the existing concrete foundation footprint of the building and restore the masonry walls in the North-South orientation: in the case of hurricane swells accompanied by prevailing Southern winds the elements would pass through the structure with limited resistance, protecting the major structural elements from destruction. As the major views of the water are also out to the coast, sequences of thin columns provide shade and mediate the bright summer light. Weathered metal wraps from the roofs down the sides of the building, leaving reveals of various heights to expose the interior contents and series of columns along the Southern exposures provide both shade and views of the water. Right: concept process drawing 48
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Above left: Site model Left: Site plan. Both show the new hurricane buffer and boardwalk around the reinstated wetland marsh. Roof and deck planes reach into the landscape. Middle-right: First and second floor plans 51
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Top: Exterior view of La Belle ship display gallery and existing masonry wall punctured for views and seating Right: Interior of the dance hall with existing masonry wall exposed and exterior metal sheathing visible, allowing a low reveal to view dancing feet 54
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West Mall Fountain Competition Spring 2013 | Honorable Mention West Mall, The University of Texas at Austin UTSOA’s Center for American Architecture and Design sponsored a competition to redesign the long-empty West Mall Fountain that sits at one of the busiest entries to the University. Since the 90’s the fountain has not only been dry, but it is also an impediment and blight in an exceptionally visible area. The design seeks to be both beautiful and to serve as a method of encouraging innovation in drought preparedness and resilience. Eight vertical multi-layered glass tubes emerge out of native grasses to collect humidity from the air and visibly display it before the campus. By utilizing the excess cold temperatures drawn out of the air by the existing campus chiller system the glass would be cooled until a layer of condensate emerged within the tubes, taking water from the air and dripping it down into collection tanks below. LED lights embedded at the base would shine up through the glass, emitting a diffuse night light across campus. 56
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Other Works 59
Maine Woods Fall 2005 | Professor Anna Hepler Brunswick, Maine Woodblock print. Plywood and rice paper. 4’x 8’. Exhibits: Senior Art Show | Bowdoin College Visual Arts Center Brunswick, Maine | 2006 Bowdoin Alumni Printmaking Exhibit | Icon Gallery Brunswick, Maine | 2006 Free for All | Space Gallery Portland, Maine | 2008
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Concept and assembly drawings of Alvar Aalto’s Villa Mairea. Spring 2012.
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Troping Ghosts Fall 2011 | Professor Judy Birdsong Design and construction of a pinhole camera. As the theme of the studio was “troping ghosts,” these images seek to capture the unseen. The camera was designed with two apertures, one at the front, and an anamorphic angled one opposite (following page), that utilize both sides of a single large-format film-back simultaneously. Above: “House on Tom Green” Layered time-lapse negatives. Right: “Shadows Ahead, Branches Above” Simultaneous photographs from a single pinhole camera. The first aperture reveals only shadows on a wall, while the second anamorphic aperture captures and distorts the branches above and behind the photographer. 64
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Above: Lumens mapping along Seider’s Springs, Austin, TX Right: Pinhole camera. The camera design explored ideas of discovering and creating beauty from readily available, standard-size, everyday materials. Plywood, sheet brass.
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Life Drawing Fall 2011
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Case Study: Kieran Timberlake Middle School, Sidwell Friends School Washington, DC Fall 2012 | Professor Uli Dangelw Alexandra Krippner, Claire Edelen 70
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Snap to Grid Fall 2005 | Professor Carol Wilson Orr’s Island, Maine Alexandra Krippner, John Hall, & Ted Power 25 red balls, hand-woven netting. rope, bricks.
Snap to Grid was designed during a semester of exploration into the unique landscape of coastal Maine. The installation seeks to call attention to the dynamic nature of the intertidal zone: the character of the place, as well as the way one interacts with the water from the land and the land from the water, changes throughout the cycles of the tides, over the course of the day, the month, the seasons, the year. At low tide twenty five red mooring buoys scatter across the mudflat at the whim of the wind. The sea encroaches upon them as the tide rises, culminating with the emergence of a perfectly square five by five grid of buoys suspended taught across the surface. The red geometry appears in striking contrast to the organic nature of the surroundings, whether viewed from the bridge across the bay, from a fishing or clamming boat, or through the trees from the nearby trail. 72
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