PORTFOLIO SELECTED WORKS
Brooks Van Essen
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Project 54
10 Long Acres Visitor Center &
Ranch 20 Dundas Place
30 Chicago Public Library
42 Exploratory School
Project 54
College Station, TX
Project 54 started as a study in parametric design but quickly became more than that. The original goal was to improve a space in the Langford College of Architecture at Texas A&M University. The study began by sitting in on lectures and studying different spaces within the building and how people interacted with them. This resulted in finding a lecture space that was rarely used due to its poor acoustic and architectural qualities.
Professor Mark Clayton Collaboration: Garrett Callen & Brett Lagerberg Undergraduate, Spring 2014
Design
From here we delved into how an installation interacts with the space around it and how humans interact with architecture. We began by studying the acoustic qualities of the space and how they impact the formal qualities of the installation. We eventually decided upon a design that was organic in nature and added a sense of movement and energy to the space. 1. CNC Router
Fabrication
After digitally modeling our design options we began the fabrication process to test out some of our ideas. We created a physical model of our installation similar to how it would be constructed on site. This process allowed us to test both formal and functional aspects of the design.
2. Pieces
Assembly
At a true scale the installation would be assembled in the same manner as our scale model. Each of the pieces would be cut out of wood using a CNC router and then broken up into pieces which would then be fastened to a wall of acoustic paneling. All of this results in a space with better reverberation times which are more suitable for a classroom. 3. Assembly
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Long Acres Visitor Center & Ranch
Richmond, TX
The Long Acres Visitor Center & Ranch sits on a 750+ acre site and is nestled along 3 miles of the Brazos River. This site plays host to a multitude of activities ranging from outdoor recreational activities to educational programs and research. The facilities engage the user with the outdoors and serves as an Ecotourism experiment.
Professor Craig Babe Collaboration: Erin Finley Undergraduate, Fall 2015
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Dundas Place
Toronto, Canada
Dundas Place is a mixed-use facility that is a hub for artists and creative minds alike. It is located in Toronto, Canada on the corner of Dundas and Sheridan Street in an extremely diverse area. Programmatically, this proposal program would potenially be sponsored by ArtScape. The concept is to use the diversity of Toronto to create a design that activates the street and the area surrounding it. The fragmented facade and panels in the residential block only further reinforce this idea of diversity.
Professor Craig Babe Graduate, Fall 2016
Massing
I began by creating a simple mass out of the parameters created by the site. This gave a visual of the footprint and scale of the building.
Setback
While designing this building, care was taken to be sensitive to light and the neighboring residential zones. The city buildings codes of Toronto, CA were analyzed and the initial mass was adjusted as such.
Extrude
From here the parameters created by the building codes were extruded and manipulated in order to incorporate program of the building. The bottom three floors contain offices, live/work space, and a small gallery space. These bottom floors create a plinth in which the residential block is placed. This residential block contains 5 floors.
Carve
This resulted in the final form which treats the plinth and residential block differently. Surrounding context also played a huge role in the design of the facade. The idea of fragmentation and a sense of movement was drawn upon from the eclectic nature of the surrounding buildings. This was ultimately implemented through the use of a louvre system.
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Chinatown Library
Chicago, IL
The common perception of a library is a space that is quiet and full of books. This idea is changing every day with the increase of technology in our daily lives. The Chinatown Library transforms the idea of a common library into a space for shelter, gathering, studying, and learning. With a location a step away from the CTA train stop, this project acts as a community hub and flagship library for the Chicago Public Library system.
Professor Ray Holliday Graduate, Spring 2017
Program
The design process started with an interest in the arrangement of docked train carts and the forms they create while on the tracks. The form generated by this creates staggered blocks which each house part of the building program.
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Expand
These “carts� are then abstracted by expanding each cart according to its programmatic needs and requirements. The Program for this library includes bookstacks, meeting rooms, small office space, circulation desk, theater, and study rooms.
Manipulate
From here these forms were manipulated, pushed and pulled in order to find the proper arrangement and programmatic adjacencies.
Carve
Some of these abstracted carts were then carved into to express the entrance and some of the vertical circulation between floors. All of these moves resulted in this initial massing.
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Materiality
Choices in material were extremely important throughout the entirety of the project. The 3 primary materials throughout the project are zinc cladding, concrete and wood. The volume shown above is wrapped in a zinc cladding. The surrounding volumes (East and West) will be composed of a glass panel system that is suspended from the tapered beams that run throughout the building.
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The Modern Library
As stated previously, the definition of a library is slowly changing from one of a quiet space to one that is more about interaction and community. A central atrium in this library creates this sense of interaction as every floor has a view into the atrium and the terraced reading space below.
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Help Desk
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1. Steel Joist 2. Wood Soffit 3. Rigid Insulation 4. Waterproof Membrane 5. Concrete Decking 6. Flashing 7. Steel Angles 8. Bolts 9. 3/4” Plywood
1. Steel Joist 2. Wood Soffit 3. Glass Fin 4. Concrete Decking 5. Flashing 6. Steel Angles 7. Bolts 8. 3/4” Plywood 9. Steel Beam 10. Welded Steel Plate
1. Steel Joist 2. Wood Soffit 3. Glass Fin 4. Concrete Decking 5. Flashing 6. Steel Angles 7. Bolts 8. 3/4” Plywood 9. Steel Beam 10. Welded Steel Plate
1. Steel Joist 2. Wood Soffit 3. Glass Fin 4. Concrete Decking 5. Flashing 6. Steel Angles 7. Bolts 8. 3/4” Plywood 9. Steel Beam 10. Welded Steel Plate 41
Exploratory School (in-progress)
Austin, TX
The Exploratory school is a proposal for the Austin Independent School District. This study focuses on the notion of school as an atmosphere rather than a place. These ideas are explored through using modularity, allowing these studies to be implemented elsewhere. The primary users of this space will be 800 students in middle school from ages 13-15.
Professor Koichiro Aitani & Brian Gibbs Graduate Final Study, Fall 2017-Present
Mass
The initial mass is placed in the most easily accessible area of the site.
Program
This mass is then broken up into it’s programmatic spaces. In section, the building begins to work with the site and a public volume is placed partially underneath the mass of the school.
Voids
A plane is placed in between some of the program splitting the mass into two different floors. In order for these two floors to interact, light wells and voids are cut into the roof plane, second floor and ground plane.
Interaction
All of the different planes are then carved into in plan and section to create spaces that promote interaction between the different levels. The public spaces become more intertwined within the mass of the building and the two different programs begin to blur into one cohesive space.
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School as Exploration
This study focuses on a non-traditional middle school while using the surrounding space, materiality, and formal qualities to promote independence in learning through the action of exploration. This project combines learning, community, and exploration and melds itself into a building known as an Exploratory Learning Facility, replacing the traditional term of “school”. The proposal de-stigmatizes the term “school” as a location; rather, a school, by this definition, is an atmosphere. Learning is implemented through the use of architecture as an exploratory space. These avant-garde spaces allow for discovery of their own style of learning through interplay of light, sounds, and scale.
The Module
Throughout the development of this proposal, a grid and module were formed. This module allows for the a structure in which flexibility may occur. Each of these “modules” can be interacted with in different ways whether it is a room for class, a laboratory, atrium, or storage. Modularity in this proposal is used to provide a sense of freedom and allow the student and the teacher to explore their own style of learning. In theory, the notion of learning through exploration could be implemented anywhere with this grid and allow for quick and efficient expansion.
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1. Steel Joist 2. Wood Soffit 3. Rigid Insulation 4. Waterproof Membrane 5. Concrete Decking 6. Flashing 7. Steel Angles 8. Bolts 9. 3/4” Plywood
1. Steel Joist 2. Wood Soffit 3. Glass Fin 4. Concrete Decking 5. Steel Angles 6. 3/4” Plywood 7. Steel Beam 8. Welded Steel Plate
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1. Steel Joist 2. Wood Soffit 3. Metal Suspension System 4. Rigid Insulation 5. Waterproof Membrane 6. Concrete Decking 7. Bolts 8. 3/4� Plywood 9. Steel Beam 10. Cant 11. MDF Panel System
1. Glass 2. Soil 3. MDF Panel System 4. Concrete Slab 5. Footing 6. Glass Channel
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Brooks Van Essen
brooksvanessen@gmail.com 637 Westwood Circle, La Marque, TX 77568