AREN EDWARDS
PORTFOLIO
CONTENTS
STUDIO WORKS FRAMEWORK | KNOXVILLE, TN 4H CAMP | CROSSVILLE, TN KUVIO | HELSINKI, FI STRATA | KNOXVILLE, TN
FREELANCE WORK BURGESS HOUSE BARLEY TO RISE CATERING
FRAMEWORK
| KNOXVILLE
KNOXVILLE | MOTION Knoxville ran off the tracks. Each morning I wake up to the sound of freights hurdling over the steel rails. The site ran adjacent to this movement, allowing for hopeful integration to this motion the city thrives on. We were to design an event space. The project began as a study of the unfamiliar. Driving along patched roads and exploring abandonments allowed for new imaginations. Each day, I’d go out and find a new piece of Knoxville that I found interesting or peculiar and we would model these spaces. After modeling the spaces, we created a catalog, from the catalog we had potentials. The potentials were ways of looking at the buildings and asking questions. There was no definitive answer to any question. A door that might open to a three story drop was not seen as anything more than a new potential of how to move through a space. Graphically each drawing I worked on was meant to portray movement along with the disposition of the spatial elements.
POTENTIALS The project began with modeling and cataloging different structures around Knoxville. Cataloging these structures allowed me to manipulate certain movement potentials and displace modulations throughout the spaces. I began to create a dialogue between the real circulation of the space and the imagined ones. I wanted to design an event space that could lend itself to this sort of dialogue between real and artificial motion.
GEOMETRIC SKETCHES
The barrel vault was chosen as the final structural idea from which to form the event space. Exploring geometries by hand and through 3d modeling techniques helped mold the idea of extending the vaults over long spans with potential overlaps in space. These overlaps created new minor spaces and added hierarchy to the geometry. Once simple geometries were set, scales were changed and spliced to create even more hierarchy in what would be a very diverse program.
mapping of motion
Shrinners
AKA:
Roof Rolls
Drawn By:
DRAWING:
Circulation Diagram
Location:
Taylor Halliburton South Knoxville
AA-00
Shrinners
AKA:
Roof Rolls
Drawn By:
DRAWING:
Heat Wave
Location:
Aren Edwards South Knoxville
AA-00
SCOPE INVERSION | 01
integration of vault geometry
SCOP
O V E R L AY After choosing the barrel vault structure, I reverted back to the sort of mapping done early in the project, looking at different potentials of movement. From here, I overlayed the vault geometries onto the different maps that quantified movement through a barrel vaulted space and could then form a geogetry. The final mapping led to changes in level and scale.
INDUSTRIAL PARK
PRODUCTION
FILM
FILM VENUE
Film became the way for me to represent the dialogue between the real and artificial movements in the space. Projections shot across the side of the trains to the north, while rails of their own made their way into the canopy of the structure. These eventual geometries combined with the dialogue between the real and artificial motion, made way for a new type of film production center and venue. The crossing of the vault geometries eventually posed idea for a rail system. This rail system would run from the ceiling and thicken up at parts to create the actual structure of the venue. This rail system would also allow for cameras to run along them so the structure of the space could then begin to form the film itself, below ground in the production center.
STEADICAM The idea of the steadicam was the driving force behind the rail system. I wanted to create this sort of continuous shot in a new way; one that was manipulated more by how the structure moves rather than how the people move. Making new connections between frames creates new types of spaces. The venue lends itself to new ways of creating as well as new ways of observing, as the projections above in the venue space are free to move around the space based on the installation.
4 - H C A M P, C R O S S V I L L E , T N h | h| h | h
CROSSVILLE Situated amongst vast swaths of hardwood forests atop the Cumberland Plateau, is Crossville, Tennessee, a unique city, rife with biological diversity, abundant natural resources, and a rich heritage. Through the ages, nature has been meticulously shaping the plateau into one of the most ecologically varied places in the world. Here, a range of endemic and endangered species roam the temperate woodlands and inhabit the streams within. Co-existing alongside this unique array of flora and fauna, are a resilient people who, undaunted by the territory’s infertile soil, have always utilized the natural materials, which the land provides them.
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ESCAPE The lodge is a planned escape. It’s a change of setting. Lodges are not the moment before moving to another place, but a destination. Most lodging experiences happen in groups. Escape in the traditional sense is harder to find in this setting. Lodging brings retreat in a sense that there are no outside worries. What is happening is there. Unease turns into comfort. The word induces affiliated memories. The mind is subjected to moments out in nature. Typically the location and exterior qualities are remembered more so than the spatial boundaries of the lodge. The experience of a lodge is dictated greatly by time. Due to the amount of outdoor activity, lodges can take on many different roles throughout seasonal changes..
Lodges hold spaces for gathering, resting, and displacing. Gathering implies something to meet around. This could mean food, fire, or entertainment. Resting may mean a place to sleep or a place to just simply relax and enjoy the escape of outside issues. Displacement seems to be the most important feature. This is the moment of being removed. No matter the level of relation to the group, one should be able to remove themself and easily find moments of self reflection. The intention of the original design was to have the forms mimic the surrounding site, one that is fractur ed and broken up by layers of time, while retaining a sense of removal and seclusion.
Throughout the history of the site and much of Appalachia, deforestation has been a problem. This has led to a lower distribution of local flora, forcing wildlife to evacuate the area. The University of Tennessee Agriculture Department has begun to plant different species of Appalachian plants along the site in hopes of restoring the area to the density it once had. The current tree line is shown to the right with the varying tree densities throughout the site being shown above. With the 4H Camp’s strong focus on agriculture, the goal is to preserve the efforts currently being made to restore this area.
FRACTURE The site is not only fractured by the removal and deforestation of the area but is also broken up into areas defined by periods of time. The most northern section of the site is currently used for agricultural experimentation. South of that lies the 4H camp and the historic remains of the World War II POW camp. Within the remains of the POW camp lies our current site. The site, though currently defined by a chimney stack and hospital once used by the prisoners of war, is isolated enough to serve its own piece of historical significance. The site is more accessible through Taylor Chapel Rd than the rest of the camp, opening up a new entry and shedding new light on a area previously ignored. This more public entrance allows for the project to become a catalyst with a chance of continuing the story of a constantly developing site.
SIGHT
SOUND
REMOVAL Finding removal seems easy in a site so heavily set in a rural landscape, bordered by trees. The site becomes bland without any real sense of engagement. This sense of displacement is played with through the engagement of different senses throughout the project. Programatically, the project is set up with different senses being engaged as the slope of the site steepens. As this slope gets steeper, more private areas are set up, further enforcing the idea of separation.
TASTE
PROCESS The lodging project began as a series of fractured forms all providing pathways into different ecosystems along the site. As the project went on, these fractured forms began to form a piece for gathering within. The project became one about the senses evoked by the program rather than the site.
standard rooms
living space
400 sq ft per room. * 21 rooms total | 8400 sq ft
lofted rooms
1100 sq ft per room. * 3 rooms total | 3300 sq ft
cabins
800 sq ft per room. * 4 rooms total | 2800 sq ft
patio space
230 sq ft per room * 28 rooms total | 6440
horizontal circulation space total | 103500 sq ft
vertical circulation space total | 780 sq ft
mechanical and laundry total | 1170 sq ft
net total | 33400 sq ft * 1.3 grossing factor gross total | 43420 sq ft
utility space
bedroom
Each type of room in the lodge is formed along a concrete wall formed from Crab Orchard Stone aggregate. It carries the progression from the outdoors into the building.These rooms each use the wall differently as a point of progression towards the outdoor and other indoor spaces. Some use the wall as a functional piece with the beds and storage pushed into it, while others use feelings of heat and rays of light as a means of progressing towards a new area within the lodge.
The project intends to be a catalyst for future ones. The focus is not meant to be drawn away from the story of the site but add to it. With the diversity of the project progromatically, the spatial placement of each element is dictated by the topographical changes within the site. Ecological densities begin to distinguish the different aspects of the program as well with the more private areas becoming more dense with forestry. Levels of interaction with the site change throughout the site as well. Each piece of the program evokes a different sense, all progressing to the sense of sight (removal). The restaurant aids scent and taste while the pathways and gathering spaces evoke sound. Sounds resonate until one is completely in their lodging room with their own independent view. This is the moment of retreat.
south elevation
KUVIO | S T U D Y A B R O A D
SUOMI | FINLAND
PATTERN The tendency to rush looms when traveling. Running towards the picture, reaching towards the camera. Experiences are shared through frames without expressing how the moment was found. The temperature, the smell, the relief upon sitting at a park are moments forgotten by the tourist. After visiting a place for a while, a routine is adopted. Views hold the same significance as they do for a local. The moments in between become more important. The students of the Finland program are constantly rushing. This is a place for them to create a routine and remember the smaller moments of traveling. The path into the site works as the spine. Walls break from it forming their own paths. Entering along a concrete wall, the piece draws one through the site as it molds into moments of rest. These moments are illongated through the obstruction of the walls. The walls work as aid for slowing down and allow one to better perserve the memories from the day. The concrete casts the periods of slowness through the day through subtractive transformations. This broken path becomes the framework between the memories of the day. Throughout the summer, students adopt a routine of moving through the site as they do through the day. The project nutures this adopting of routines and gives importance to the everyday experiences.
01.01 We flew in over the country side towards Helsinki. Fields of dandelions distance locals from the austere gloom of the Finnish winter. The unbroken land and succession of birch trees imagined a fractured Finnish landscape, usually drawn in towards a body of water. We move quickly through the terminal,not yet touching Finnish ground. Our bags hum behind us, breaking only for the grout between the egshell colored tiles. We make it through customs, following signs that motion us through corrugated metal tunnel s into the cold northern scenery.
02.01 The white wood siding voids the abiding forest. Boards cast a seasonal reminder at all points of the day. Exterior lighting is non-existent. Time presents itself with each meal. Sentimental reminders of my grandmother’s Swedish cooking finds itself in the dressed lingonberries. Constantly looking ahead to these wistful, fragmented moments with her. We share these stories over a fire built as the sky finally dims. We eat again, this time without coffee. Every component of this place seems interminable and boundless. The lake gives the impression of an ocean and even the camp blends with the innumerable white faces of the birch trees. An endlessness gapped only by the walks back to the dining hall and mid-day sauna beers.
02.02 Days were measured in meters and nights were spent playing cards. Each morning began with a hurried breakfast. Jari was ready to scold anyone without porridge. The church was our only existence. Typical days were cut short by the congregation’s activities. We moved backwards, hitting the paper as if it was our design. Each line measured set new proportions in motion. The architect’s intentions became realized upon leaving. The post-work routine revolved around outings to the supermarket. We grabbed our beers, ciders, and donuts. Cards were played every night as the travel channel played, eagerly waiting for our attention.
03.01
We moved through the wall. A boundary once leaving West Germany stuck in time is passed through every day. Gunshots turned to grafitti, opression turned to expression. Germans pass the wall without questioning. A revered icon turned into routine. The wall still hits me as profound, a concrete framework cast to divide a country and perserve history. Stories were underneath the yellow and red paint. Each day these stories were shed as we made memories of our own. After a week of staying in East Berlin, it became a tourist attraction. We looked past it to see if our favorite beer garden was crowded or if the S-bahn was nearing.
03.02
The Finnish anthem began, we sat on top of stones, roasting Makara. Our aluminum foil grill caught as the fire in the water did. We made our way down to the beach. Flower crowns graced the ground ahead of us as ash hit our eyes. Walking along planks towards the marsh, our feet sank as we gripped our drinks tighter. The music got louder and we were overwhelmed with warmth from the fire. It must have been fifty yards from us. The midsummer sun followed us home hours after the fire dimmed.
03.03
Finland ignores the western hours. Liquor stores closing before fast food restaurants can open. The only darkness I get is from closing my eyes. The corner window above my pillow reminds me where I am. The sun peeks through the blinds throughout the night. The curtains blow in the coastal winds. My sleep has grown dependent on a screen, distracting from the light above me with a light in front of me. Finally my mind fades. The world seems poised, waiting for my return. I wake up to the same light, scattered along the same white walls.
04.01
Walls along the sauna were blackened, each being fixated on the pond behind the sauna. Stuck there, shivering until hearing, “Its okay, we are all naked here.” Looking at the Finnish man in front of me directly in the forehead, I thought, “Its okay, I’m not.” He ushers us towards the dark room, props his leg up on the railing and heaves a pail of water onto the red coals. My eyes fog up as the condensation begins to censor the room. The room was now eighty-five degrees Celsius. The door had a square window framing a wooden dock. The image pulled me out the door, running away from the heat. The water numbed my body. My arms shuddered as I pulled myself out and wrapped my towel.
DOCUMENTATION The first half of our trip in Finland was spent traveling around the country and exploring the rural architecture. We spent our nights in saunas and our days documenting and building fires. Each day we came away with new stories that were later told over cooking food. On this trip, we measured a church by Erkki Huttunen and a parish center designed by Juha Leiviska in 1970. We spent three days in Nakkila, Finland learning the design process in a backward state. Upon returning to Helsinki, we would begin to draft and build models that represented our measurements to an exact quality. The work is now featured in the Museum of Finnish Architecture.
STRATA | KNOXVILLE, TN
SUSTAIN The project began with a very diverse program : sustainability classrooms, a gallery, a restaurant, a design studio, a library, and an office space. With that we had to choose one main objective to focus on, which we made the transitions of the landscape through the space. Our main objective was creating a space that reflected the local material and landscape on the exterior and carried that through the spaces. The materiality includes a pigmented concrete mixed from a Tennessee Marble aggregate. The North wing slopes into the ground to the east in hopes of continuing a park area that runs along the main pedestrian street in downtown Knoxville, while the South wing holds a glass facade that continues a relation to the city. The ramp also allows the second floor to hold an elevated courtyard and secondary public spaces. Angled concrete walls run through the spaces as a way of defining level changes within the space. These level changes happen at all heights including the roof which then slopes to drain into cisterns on both the east and west sides of the site.
east elevation
west elevation
LEVEL CHANGES
The angled walls are where we looked to create the bigger moves within the design. On the exterior, the main angled wall catches water and drops it into the cistern while also being the main point of circulation through the space. Interior uses of the wall are mainly for display and also circulation pieces. The angle carries through the main stair as it illuminates from above through translucent glass, while also creating an interior garden in the gallery space.
section through south wing
The structure changes between a bearing wall and a free plan structure as the north wing is more glazed in hopes of corresponding with the interface of the city while the south wing is heavy bearing walls to work with the natural landscape and hills Knoxville was founded on.
A screen wraps around the building to work not only as a piece of solar shading, but also as display piece and separation between public and private spaces. The screen becomes a billboard for sustainability as the design studio posts its work on the large glass street facade. Again, local materials are used for this.The reclaimed red oak from the Smoky Mountains helps ease the transition to the colder, reddish concrete.
section through north wing
detail section through south facade
detail section through gallery | cafe
FREELANCE
BURGESS HOUSE A house for a friend. The Burgess family owned the lake house about thirty miles east of Nashville, TN. The goal was to transform a hidden, worn down ranch style house into a craftsman piece that fit with the neighborhood. Construction on the facades are currently underway.
BARLEY TO RISE The logo design is for a up and coming catering business in Nashville, TN. The pany specializes as a bakery also, taking beer from local craft breweries making bread from the beer. The client asked for a somewhat formal but ple design. The barley forms around the words like a glass around
comand simbeer.
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