christopherbrooks
graduateportfolio
LINEAR PROGRESSION
niagara falls visitor center
TOLEDO TRANSIT TERMINA
STRUCTURAL CO
AXIAL W
AL
adding the urban divide
ONNECTIONS
WEAVING
steel competition | re-ligare: mind and body
loja saarinen studio and gallery museum
WALL PROJECT
displaying scrupture on a designed wall
LIGHT INCEPTION
cmu design build competition
ADDITIONAL WORK
miscellanous work
LINEAR PROGRESSION
niagara falls visitor center
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The Niagara Fall Visitor Center is a place for tourists from all over the world can come and enjoy. The circulation of the building takes one through a datum of representing the river. The Visitor Center can be located on Goat Island which is on the American side of the river. The building celebrates the features of the river. It has it’s own experience within it that takes the visitor through a journey. The architecture behind the building enforces the falls of both the American and Horseshoe Falls.
TOLEDO TRANSIT TERMINA
AL
adding the urban divide
The Toledo Transit Terminal is a place where people can enter the city, safely park their vehicles and take another alternative route to navigate throughout Downtown Toledo. The Transit Terminal consists of a parking garage to accommodate those service lots that were replaced with different types of parks in the city. It also will include a connection between the Civic Center and the entry point into Downtown Toledo. The building itself will be a park to use for the community. The main purpose of the Transit Terminal is to eliminate the personal use of transportation and to engage the person into the city. Alternative transportations include bus, bicycle, and good old walking on boardwalks. It connects the entry sequence of I-75 and SR 25 with the Maumee River. It moves in and out of the city blocks going over and around existing blocks.
STRUCTURAL CO
ONNECTIONS
steel competition | re-ligare: mind and body
The Wellness Center consists of two buildings that interact with each other. The bridge creates a relationship between the two buildings. Doing this also, creates a courtyard space that the center uses as a garden space. The entrance of the building is pulled back from Michigan Avenue to use the space as a park. This ReLigare Institute is a sheltered meditative place to where one can stimulate a feel of happiness and completeness. The urban distractions of Metropolitan Chicago are lost when one comes across the building. The spaces is designed for the regeneration and recreational relax of spirit, mind, and body. The motions of all these interlock with each other.
Weight Room Social Garden
Yoga Room
AXIAL W
WEAVING
loja saarinen studio and gallery museum
The studio for Loja Saarinen’s studio is directly located across from Eliel and Loja’s house on the other side of the Triton Pools. The house is located west of the proposed site. It also holds the edge condition of the new museum located north of the proposed site. The landscape will be manipulated to make the design of the weave and interlocking into the building. The design statement consists of the interlocking of the repeated datum line. In the design, the use of axis lines can be seen. The repeated lines of the three branches of the house correspond with three vertical branches that represent one of Loja’s designs. The one branch does shift to help emphasize the building interlocking with the campus of Cranbrook. The branches do also interlock within the site. The branches do seem to extrude out of the ground at places. It also seems to go over the ground. The building in one word or another, weaves with the landscape and campus. To emphasize the branches, the use of materials will make the building stronger. Using a glass around the three branches going horizontal, where a solid material for the vertical pieces will present itself.
W
WALL PROJECT
displaying scrupture on a designed wall
This project is a study in SHADOWS and the contrasting positive and negative spaces they create. A Shadow is defined as a dark figure or image cast on the ground or surface by a body intercepting light. The idea of INTERCEPTING LIGHT is created in this design with the use of the voids in concrete blocks. The Concrete blocks are simply stacked into two basic walls to show their structure in a very minimalistic way. These very heavy objects block the light while the holes in them allow light to pass through, playing with ideas of HEAVY VERSES LIGHT, and positive and negative space. One wall faces directly towards the east and west to best capture sunrises and sunsets, while the second wall is turned to catch the more southern angles. These SUN ANGLES at different times of the day and different seasons will change the angles and patterns projected onto the ground creating a constantly changing experience. The first wall is also ROTATED slightly while the second wall LEANS in slightly disorient the structure. Along with the voids present in the concrete blocks, holes are left within the wall to allow for more PATTERN as well as to create a surface to add reflective aluminum sheeting. These REFLECTIVE SURFACES catch and reflect the light onto the other structures or surrounding area as well as create an effect that can be viewed better from Poe road. Also, as a person visits the structure and walks around it, their shadows are added to the patterns, incorporating the viewer in the EXPERIENCE and design. The site for this project is one of the more empty areas of Bowling Green’s campus which allows for plenty of sun exposure and ground space for the shadows. The angles of the walls and the placement of the reflective surfaces make it visually interesting not only from up close, but from a distance while traveling down Poe Road.