BENJAMIN POLLAK PORTFOLIO by Benjamin Pollak

BENJAMIN POLLAK PORTFOLIO

CONTENTS 01

PHOSPHOROUS GARDENS

Spring 2010 Professors: Clover Lee and David Erdman

IMMERSED IN THE SHIME

Fall 2009 Professors: Mark Wamble

MITCHELL GIURGOLA ARCHITECTS

August 2008 - June 2009

WORLD MUSIC CENTER

Fall 2007 Professors: Carlos Jimenez and Michael Morrow

BOOOM! EXPANDING PLATFORMS FOR THE BOOMERS

Spring 2007 Professors: Dawn Finley

MACHINING MARKETS

Fall 2006 Professors: Christopher Hight and Sean Lally

HOUSTON TRANSIT CENTER

Spring 2006 Professors: Gordon Wittenberg and Michael Morrow

GALVESTON MARINE RESEARCH CENTER

Fall 2005 Professors: Doug Oliver and Clover Lee

LIT: LIBRARY OF INFORMATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Spring 2010 Professors: Mark Wamble

PHOSPHOROUS GARDENS Date: Professors: Program: Location: Partner:

Spring 2010 David Erdman and Clover Lee Residential Housing, 4000 units Tseung Kwan O O, Hong Kong Marcus Roman

Phosphorous Gardens stems from the DNA of Hong Kong housing and proposes a new urban typology. The project name is based on an existing housing complex named Prosperous Gardens which is a courtyard scheme. The proposed project is also a courtyard scheme but with a series of lighting and material effects. All the housing units are placed in a perimeter loop formed by three squares and all the public program hangs from the perimeter housing looking into a large open void. All the units have views projecting outside to the city while the public spaces face each other creating a highly dynamic and dense urban interior. The footprint of the building is thin yet it is thick in material and lighting effects. The outside of the building is a flush crenulated curtain wall similar to channel glass. Behind the glass lies a second skin of fritted glass which reacts to sun conditions. All units have direct access to daylight. It almost feels like a maison de verre at the urban scale. The outside is flush yet a series of theatres, lecture halls, and music spaces make the space alive from inside. It is a dense mass with a dynamic interior, glowing from within and extending out to Hong Kong. Unit variation in Hong Kong is not a priority. The difference between government and private housing is not on the individual apartment but on the public amenities offered by the developer. At Phosphorous Gardens all the units are the same yet variation is achieved in the collective spaces.

01 PHOSPHOROUS GARDENS

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

Phosphorous Gardens is one dense mass with twelve vertical cores. Theatres hang from the housing and are always facing at least one public core. Vertical surgical incisions slice the mass at thirty degrees allowing for light to get into the void. Given the oblique cut, the user from the interior is always looking at architecture (almost like if it were a wall) with only brief glimpses outside. Residential amenities with generous sky lobbies are placed on the cuts creating private networks of small neighborhoods which generate difference amidst a sea of repetition. Floor Plates 1:500

Fourth Instance Floor Plates 1:500

Floors 41 - 44 (no Public Program) Floors 34 - 40 59 Units per Floor Floor Plates 1:500

Second Instance

Floors 19 - 22 (no Public Program) Floors 12 - 18 59 Units per Floor

First Instance

Floors 8 - 11 (no Public Program) Floors 1 - 7 59 Units per Floor

03 PHOSPHOROUS GARDENS

Dense Mass

Incisions

Public Network

Private Network

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

Six Instance

Floors 56 - 66 59 Units per Floor

A series of layers of glass add a sense of lightness and depth within the building. The experience of walking outside the building is different from the inside. In the outside the building is independent from the street and it retains a hard urban edge. Public terraces soften the interior void space. The space is dense and has many hanging public spaces: all of a sudden the city has been brought into the interior. Unit Plan 1:100

Fifth Instance

Floors 45 - 55 59 Units per Floor

Patio

Crenulated Glass Shared Lightwells Shared Structural Curtain Wall by units wall by unit

Structural Wall Transparent glass

Bedroom Dining

Channel glass

Watercloset Kitchen

Fourth Instance Floors 34 - 44 59 Units per Floor

Bedroom

Translucent glass between units Channel glass

Corridor Fritted Glass Crenulated glass curtain wall

Third Instance Floors 23 - 33 62 Units per Floor

Second Instance Floors 12 - 22 59 Units per Floor

First Instance

Floors 1 - 11 59 Units per Floor

05 PHOSPHOROUS GARDENS

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

IMMERSED IN THE SHIME Date: Professors: Program: Location:

Fall 2009 Mark Wamble 20 acre garden and multipurpose buildings. Hempstead, TX

The project begins with the fact that the site is an immense and vast piece of land and as a result how do you organize it? At the bottom of the land there is a creek that provides for abundant plant life but as we rise to 30â&#x20AC;&#x2122; in elevation the site is dry and hostile for any growing material. Hence how do you bring life to higher areas? A series of amps are distributed on the site. The amp is an abstract form with its own inherent intelligence. They are a series of crescent berms arranged as concentric circles that rise in elevation to form dry areas or recede to form moist areas for water collection. These provide zoning for draught or moisture tolerant trees. The orientation of the berms in the amp is related to the shadow projection of trees which allow for a tree understory to develop. The amps form clusters through the site through the connection of moist and dry zones. There are four buildings on the site: one residential building, a multiprogramatic(research, multipurpose, and admin) building, two enclosed greenhouses, and two open green houses. The buildings are treated as deflected prisms around the amps. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve chosen to focus on the multiprogramatic building(multipurpose, administration, and lab space). The mission of the building is to serve as research and tourist hub. The building is a curved rectangular prism and a mirror of the landscape.

07 IMMERSED IN THE SHIME

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

SITE PLAN

DIAGRAMS

Moist wiring: Retention Zone

Arid wiring

Site analysis

Propagated Components

Wiring

Overall circulation and clusters

Building Footprints

MITCHELL GIURGOLA ARCHITECTS Date:

August 2008 - June 2009

At Mitchell Giurgola Architects I had the oportunity to work on different projects in different phases of design. I was part of the team doing Design Development for the Bronx Courthouse renovations and this involved detailed lighting and material selections and studies for a new library and courtrooms. In addition I worked on different laboratories and classrooms in the Columbia Medical Center at Design Development and Construction Documents. I also assisted partners in making drawings for interviews and proposals for different projects like a new engineering building at the NC state campus.

11 MITCHELL GIURGOLA ARCHITECTS

FUTURE PARKING

SER

VIC

FUTURE PARKING

Y I BA E/ H

BRIDGE HUNT LIBRARY

HEARTH

SLOPE THE OVAL

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

LOBBY

street access

WORLD MUSIC CENTER Date: Professors: Program: Location:

Fall 2007 Carlos Jimenez and Michael Morrow World Music Center Houston, TX

The new center for world music is based on the idea of providing a central courtyard and also a pedestrian walkway through downtown. The visitor can approach the building both entrances, and the lobby becomes an anchor point in the program appropriate for the building (archives, auditorium, offices, bookstore, etc). The building is connected by a steel trellis that provides shade.

15â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Library and cofee bar

LOBBY

Bookstore 0â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Auditorium

13 WORLD MUSIC CENTER

Offices

Gallery

Multipurpose

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

B B

women

men

auditorium

multipurpose

C mech

B multipurpose

C underground floor plan scale 1’= 1/32

mech

15 WORLD MUSIC CENTER

ground floor plan scale 1’= 1/32

section AA scale 1’= 1/32

Section AA

section BB scale 1’= 1/32”

Section AA

section CC scale 1’= 1/32”

Section BB

section BB scale 1’= 1/32”

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

BOOOM! EXPANDING SOCIAL PLATFORMS FOR THE BOOMERS Date: Professors: Program: Location:

Spring 2007 Dawn Finley Transgenerational Housing Houston, TX

The retiring baby boomers are the emerging population in the United States. After increasing the birth rates in the country, after living the hippie Woodstook era, they are back and are in search for housing that caters to their diverse and specific needs. Real estate companies (eg. Del Web) have taken advantage of this marketable opportunity and are creating multiple facilities that cater for each type of lifestyle. Located between Dunlavy St. and West Alabama (near the Menil and the University St. Thomas), the project is based on gaining â&#x20AC;&#x153;surfacesâ&#x20AC;? that can be used for social interaction and for semi-public extra programmatic activities (ex. Having yoga on the terrace, or sharing multiple large bar/kitchen, having a BBQ with a few neighbors). Housing is taken as a more rigid condition (shown in grey) while there is a more flexible circulation band (orange) that allows for programmatic flexibility and social interaction. The project was developed in a studio that focused on transgenerational housing. The studio was process-based and organized around different phases.

17 BOOOM! EXPANDING SOCIAL PLATFORMS FOR THE BOOMERS

CASE STUDY AND INSTANCE V78 Housing, Austria Baumschlager and Eberle The project is organized around central staircases that stagger the housing units. The staggering creates grouped units which have the potential of developing localized networks.

1. Basic system

2. Removal of unit to gain outdoor surface

3. Potential void with an expanded unit

4. Potential void

Access

5. Potential surface unit

New operative organizations 19 BOOOM! EXPANDING SOCIAL PLATFORMS FOR THE BOOMERS

SITE STRATEGY

The project is organized as four strips with a main spine connecting N-S (blue). The North is a more urban side locating the parking and dock to a busier street edge. The south retains a residential atmosphere as more housing is planned for that area. The small orange arrows show access to the units with a semi-public band.

SITE STRATEGY + PROGRAM: Operative organization on site In order to create difference and add extra programatic spaces, the project is divided in five different instances. By shifting the housing units, surfaces are gained for public spaces. Micro-communities are created when units share an outdoor porch with a stair on the perimeter.

1 2

3 4 5

Key: Displacement of five different instances or moments

Example of an instance in model

3. Connection between public and semi private zone.(second and third strip)

1. Expanded unit with collective zone shared by both four apartments.

4. Connection between two public zones. (third and fourth strip))

21 BOOOM! EXPANDING SOCIAL PLATFORMS FOR THE BOOMERS

2. Connection between public zone and semi private (first and second strip)

5. Expanded unit with collective zone shared by both four apartments.

PROGRAM: Unit configurations Level 3 Level 3 Level 3

Section Sequence diagram CC

living room

four units sharing a collective space four units sharing a collective spa

living room

Level 3living room

living room living room

additional bedroom

study

additional bedroom bedroom Level 3

bedroom bedroom

additional bedroom

living room

bedroom

Level 3

bedroom

living room

dinning + multipurpose

large kitchen + study bar

bedroom additional bedroom study

Section Sequence diagram BB

Level 2

bedroom study

additional bedroom additional bedroom

living room

bedroom

study

additional bedroom

dinning + multipurpose

study

bedroom

Section Sequence diagram BB

additional bedroom

bedroom

study

bedroom

Level 2

bedroom

living room

bedroom

living room bedroom

Level 2 living room

Level 1 Level 1

Level 2

living room

additional bedroom

living room

Level 1

dinning + multipurpose

living room living room

bedroom

fou

Level 3

living room

Section Sequence Diagram BB

large kitchen + bar

additional bedroom

bedroom additional bedroom living room

living room

Level 2

dinning + multipurpose dinning + multipurpose dinning + multipurpose

living room

additional bedroom

Level 2 Level 2

study study

bedroom

Section Sequence Diagram CC

Section Sequence diagram BB

large kitchen + bar

study

additional bedroom

Section Sequence diagram CC

additional bedroom

Section Sequence diagram CC

living room

four units sharing a collective spa

large kitchen + bar large kitchen + bar large kitchen + bar

study

living room

Levelliving 1 room

bedroom additional bedroom living room

studybedroom laundry living room

laundry

storage/laundry

Section Sequence diagram AA

additional bedroom laundry

storage/laundry

C B

additional bedroombedroom

storage/laundry

living room

bedroom

additional bedroom

bedroom

Level 1 bedroom

storage/laundry

bedroom

living room

B bedroom

Level 1

Section Sequence diagram AA

living room

Section Sequence Diagram AA

C C B B

courtyard

bedroom

courtyard courtyard

Section Sequence diagram AA

additional bedroom

living room storage/laundry

additional bedroom

A A

C B

storage/laundry bedroom

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

bedroom additional bedroom

MACHINING MARKETS Date: Professors: Program: Location: Partner:

Fall 2006 Christopher Hight and Sean Lally Houston. It’s Worth It store Midtown, Houston, TX Jessica Colangelo

The project is a store in midtown. Our client ttweak is known for the “Houston. It’s Worth it.” campaign, showing information through all different kinds of media: t-shirts, banners, a website, postcards, advertising Houston. The proposal is a symbiosis between the farmer’s market and ttweak’s interest in the different facets of information (input/ output from visitors, interactivity, display). It is about integrating ttweak’s need for interactivity with the locality of the site and connecting it to the network of ttweak. It is a garden full of architecture, machines, and social life. The architectural system engages a dialogue between two opposites: the generic and the specific. Part of the Houston landscape deals with a field of machines (cars, highways, perpetual construction driven by the global market). On the other hand, there is specificity to Houston. For instance, the site located at Main St. and Winbern(midtown) is highly dense. It incorporates restaurants, retail space, nightclubs, and a farmer’s market. It also establishes a type of micro-community of social relationships. The project deals with both the global and local aspects of the community. It is a field of interactive and generic vending machines; and at the same time, it is a farmer’s market. Often these distinctions begin to blur. The farmer’s market is a highly mediated environment that establishes social relationships through the act of selling a product. A vending machine is exactly the opposite, catering solely to the individual. The project is organized according to three different aspects: diagramming the site, swatches, and fabrication. The diagrams inform how the formal system should perform based on desired and existing conditions. The second illustrates swatches or moments of how the system will work on site. The third is a proposal of how the interface will be constructed.

23 MACHINING MARKETS

THE CLIENT:

What is “Houston. It’s Worth It.”? “A city must know itself before it can sell itself.” “Houston. It’s Worth It.” is an honest campaign that adresses the true urban condition of Houston. It is an interactive relationship with the city where the citizens explain their love / hate relationship with their community. Their website works as a mediating device, allowing the city to express itself and form connections with other people. Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

DIAGRAMMING THE SITE Pods

Planting

Lighting - Roof Layer

Schematic Plan Ground Layer

Schematic Plan Roof Layer

Swatch Selection 3 5 2 1

Overlay of Pods + Planting

Overlay of Pods + Planting + Roof Layer

Overlay of Surface operations

Mapping Activity Loading dock>>6 am to 8 am

Farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Market>>8 am to 12 pm

1 vending-HIWI merchandise

system opens and closes to allow for planting areas

2 vending-food, drink, iPod, HIWI (cards,small merchandise)

system creates large gap for big planting areas

3 HIWI user interactive interface--info!

system slowly transforms making gaps smaller

4 listening center...headphones + music 5 farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s market vending area

1 turn grain to allow north light in the majority of the site

2 close grain to allow no light in through roof

SWATCHES Swatch 1 Sidewalk condition

Swatch 2 Vending pod

Swatch 3 Farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s market pod

Swatch 4 Loading dock

Swatch 5 Seating

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

ZOOM AT SWATCH 1: Sidewalk Condition

Top layer dips down to allow spot for street-side information display

Grain open to allow north light Combination of planting (height of vegetation) and path to circulate people through space

Plan View

27 MACHINING MARKETS

Component used to create path with variation with smaller openings to work with earth

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

FABRICATION: The Component

a b

5” 36”

c d

Rib construction

Component sections

Ribs for laser cutting

The Strip 8”

8’

Deformed Strips

a b c d

Rib plan

Rib sections

Casting the component and material studies

Plastics 1 Rigid 2 Low flexibility 3 Durable 4 Opaque

Concrete 1 Weather resistant 2 Structural 3 Moldable 4 Rigid

29 MACHINING MARKETS

Rubber 1 Flexible 2 Squishy 3 Non-structural 4 Opaque

Resin 1 Translucent 2 Hard 3 Brittle

Rib connections

Prototype

1/4 scale mock up of ground plane. Plexi glass ribs and plastic components. Strip An area of the swatch was selected for the prototype. Four sections were cut using 3d software through the components. The sections were translated into plexi glass ribs to hold the components. The components were cast out of different materials to test different qualities. Plastic was used for the final. Same process was applied but using chipboard.

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

wheeler

HOUSTON TRANSIT CENTER Date: Professors: Program: Location:

Spring 2006 Gordon Wittenberg and Michael Morrow Houston Transit Center: Intercity buses, local light rail stop, and local buses. Houston, TX fannin

main

Houston’s old Greyhound bus station does not offer any parking. Hence, the car becomes the main premise for generating a new intermodal center in Houston. The building is based on two systems, a rigid and a flexible one. The fixed one is a 1:17 car park platform that follows the perimeter of the site. It is determined by car movement (specific radii) and the constraints of the site such as US-59 rising at 18’ and the metro rail. The whole program is situated under the car platform. Programs such as ticketing, baggage claim, cargo/freight express are located in the center, in the most dynamic areas. Waiting, resting, retail, and adminstration areas are located at the edges of the building. In order to break down the rigidity of the building, a flexible system of ramps, 3 elevators, and 1 escalator follow the two edges of the buildings. In some points, these ramps overlap with the interior creating spaces where people might want to take a break or might want to become like a “flaneaur” circulating through these series of ramps that expand and contract. You might have a two hour waiting period to catch the next bus, but you might as well enjoy it taking a cup of coffee outside looking down at the buses or looking down at landscape. It is important to notice that the facade reflects the nature of the site and program. It is a glass curtain wall that is covered with a paneling system to control light(the center is exposed to east and west). However in the areas of more activity, the skin of the building is more open; and in the areas of more privacy, the skin is closed.

wentworth

31 HOUSTON TRANSIT CENTER

Sections(N-S) N-S1:100 sections 1:100

plans

CVS

cvs

office s

Dry Cleanears and Post Office

Restaurant

offices

local metro buses

ec ting e ch ticke baggag and

de Info

ec ting e ch ticke baggag and

pacakage express

retail

ticeting

offices

Inter city buses

bus maintenance

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

Detail Section Optimized scheme for building climatology

insulated panels panels Insulated panels or panelsor claded cladded with w/ photovoltaics photovoltaics. operable windows

Operable windows for passive for passive cooling cooling

One of the problems with this scheme is its gla insulated panels do provide for shading allowing cool but there could be way to make air flow thr without comprimising the initial design idea. Th to propose a double skin with a buffer. allowing f control of the building. However, how could a str sustainability work with the overall design of the The exterior panels create a visual effect an be enhanced even more using operable windows. air flow and temperature control.

Optimized Scheme for Building Climatology

33 HOUSTON TRANSIT CENTER

West Elevation 0

72â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Detail Elevation

South Elevation

GALVESTON MARINE RESEARCH CENTER Date: Professors: Program: Location:

Fall 2005 Doug Oliver and Clover Lee Research and exhibition with water tank, research ponds, laboratories, offices, and display spaces Galveston, TX

Located in the Texas A&M Mitchell Campus, the marine research center works both as a public educational facility and a scientific laboratory. The building is a 72’ * 72’ *72’ eroded cube composed of a series of volumetric wraps. The different program requirements such as exhibition spaces, administration, and laboratories fold volumetrically around a large cast in situ acrylic aquarium.

35 GALVESTON MARINE RESEARCH CENTER

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

BB Site plan

Sections

1 2 6

1 1 5

AA 3

1. Exhibition and display 2. Lobby and exhibition 3. Aviary 4. Ofﬁces 5. Laboratories: benchwork + ofﬁces 6. Tank loading 7. Fish Hatchery

0’

8’ 16’

32’

shown in blue: ﬁsh tank

37 GALVESTON MARINE RESEARCH CENTER

64’

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

LIT: LIBRARY OF INFORMATIVE TECHNOLGIES Date: Professors: Program: Course: Partner:

Spring 2010 Mark Wamble Proposal for a web interface for making design and technology accesible Independant study Will Garris

The library of informative technologies is a simple platform to communicate to people about accessible technologies. It is geared for people to fabricate as a hobby but are unfamiliar with the advanced tools available. The project showcases tutorials on DYI projects that can range from making a backlight translucent counter top using a laser cutter for the kitchen or a tutorial on 3d printing your favorite toy through the use of outsourcing. To produce content for the database, two different areas of exploration were set up: responsive environments and innovative fabrication. For responsive environments, different tests with arduino, LEDS, and ultrasonic sensors were done. The idea was to create a dimmable interface so that LED resistance would vary smoothly based on the distance of a user, hence being brighter or darker. One of the experiments for innovative fabrication was to use rasterizing on translucent plexi glass sheets using the laser cutter. The process emulates at a primitive level the carving process done by CNC milling. Since Rem Koolhaas had done some photo rasterizing experimentations with Mies van der Rohe in the IIT Chicago campus, Rem Koolhaasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; portrait was used as a starting point.

39 LIBRARY OF INFORMATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Benjamin Pollak I Portfolio

41 LIBRARY OF INFORMATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

BENJAMIN POLLAK I PORTFOLIO