Caitlin McCabe
Architectural Portfolio Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Bachelor of Architecture 2014
Architectural Portfolio
Student Work B.ARCH 2014 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Caitlin McCabe
(845)249-8983 Caitlinmccabe12@gmail.com 10 Dwyer Lane Wappingers Falls, New York, 12590 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Bachelor of Architecture 2014 Minor in Psychology
Table of Contents NUK II Plein Air Tower Center of Excellence South Bund Redevelopment Apartment Complex Adaptive Resiliency Creating Space Recycled Materials
Table of Contents
Architectural Portfolio
NUK II
Lujbjana, Slovenia Design Development Spring 2013
Plei Air Tower
New York, New York Center for Architecture Science and Ecology Fall 2011
Center of Excellence
RPI Campus, Troy, New York Design Studio 6 Spring 2013
South Bund Redevelopment
Shanghai, China Design Studio 5 Spring 2012
Apartment Complex
Troy, New York Design Studio 5 Spring 2011
Adaptive Resiliency
Poughkeepsie, New York Thesis Spring 2014
Creating Space
Design Studio 2 Fall 2009
Recycled Materials
Design Studio 1 Fall 2009
NUK II
This was a group project in collaboration with Michael Mancuso and Tatianna Hart. In this studio, we started with the schematic design of Kamvari Architects for the National and University Library in Ljubljana, Slovenia and brought the design through to the design development phase. Our main concept was to extend the horizontal plane by lifting it and wrapping it vertically to hover over and preserve the roman ruins excavated on the site. The circulation strategy is a continuous spiral through the entire building by the use of sloped surfaces. Along these sloped surfaces are the books stacks so that you circulate through the books as you wind up the building. The sloped surfaces create a staggered flooring pattern in section which visually connects all the different spaces with in the library.
NUK II
Lujbjana, Slovenia Design Development Spring 2013
building forms a continuous spiral
sectional visual connectivity across courtyard
public garden circulation
improved pedestrain flow through site and ruins
continuous longitudinal form comprises three distinct, rotated bars
building circulation is orthogonal through slabs and cores
micro/macro spiral circulation utiliizing ramping and slabs
sectional visual discontinuity within building interior
integrated interior physical connectivity and exterior visual connectivity
public urban circulation
optimum (time-saving) public circulation avoids contact with site and ruins
unrolled longitudinal form is primarily flat and consistent
garden as urban extension
improved pedestrian traffic engaged with site and ruins
unrolled longitudinal form is dynamic, expanding, and iconic
TUBE BOTTOM TUBE TOP STRUCTURAL TEE NEAR RAMPs FAR RAMPS FLOOR BAR DIVISION CORE CLEARANCE
NUK II
Lujbjana, Slovenia Design Development Spring 2013
Plein Air Tower
Plei Air Tower
New York, New York Center for Architecture Science and Ecology Fall 2011
COMPUTATIONAL PROCESS
345°
14 m/ s
1 5°
330°
NORTHERN WINTER WINDS 30°
11 m/ s 31 5°
45°
FIXED CONNECTION 8 m/ s 300°
60°
5 m/ s
285°
75°
3 m/ s
INTAKE (CLOSED)
255°
1 05°
240°
1 20°
225°
1 35°
21 0°
SOUTHERN SUMMER WINDS
-AIR TOWER towers twist to access panoramic views, accounting for differences in floor height & size
1 50°
1 95°
1 65°
INTAKE (OPEN)
etfe envelope shrinks to cover program, leaving air gap for updraft air circulation
full system accomodates mixed program while creating a variety of environments tailored to the type of user
etfe mullions mapped to skin. they become more dense at residential areas to simulate glazing
400’
250’ 130’
district exposure
regional exposure
local exposure
This was a group project in callaboration with Jessica Bristo, Elizabeth Walsh, and Josh Gerber. Our design solution looks to optimize In designing a tall building for the site at 8 Spruce Street (New York, NY), We intended to capture the wind and solar energies offered by the site’s relative exposure, in an effort to reduce the need for mechanical systems. Specifically, we will accelerate the already prevalent N-W winter winds into the building envelope to generate power, using the building’s overall torqueing geometry, coupled with a textured façade which will aid in creating surface turbulence during the summer. Additionally, the site occupies a busy pedestrian zone – comingling students, commerce, and residents, as well as relative proximity to City Hall. The site will serve as a confluence of program, with the objective of providing a variety of meeting spaces and means of access between the site and neighboring streets.
PLAN
CLOSED CONDITION
SECTION
PLAN
OPEN CONDITION
15’
10’ 12’
6’
20’
3’
SECTION
Plei Air Tower
New York, New York Center for Architecture Science and Ecology Fall 2011
Center of Excellence
Center of Excellence
RPI Campus, Troy, New York Design Studio 6 Spring 2013
Facade Iterations
Unrolled Facade Elevations Facade Iterations
Facade
This project was a Center of Excellence located on RPI Campus in Troy, New York. The building massing is one curve that is generating from the slope of the site it is on, connecting RPI Campus to the City of Troy. There is one grand curving staircase the leads all the way up the terracing floors of the building. The program switches from the North side of the building, allowing for maxium views looking back on RPI Campus, to the south side of the building, allowing for maximum views overlooking the City of Troy. The facade pattern was designed in Grasshopper, and it responded directly to the program with in the building. The more public the space was, the more open the facade was,and vice versa; the more private the spaces, the more closed the facade was.
SECTION
Section 3
Scale 1:1/16
South Bund Redevelopment
South Bund Redevelopment Urban Circulation Diagram
Large Scale vs Small Scale Diagram
Ferry terminal
Massing Diagram
Shanghai, China Design Studio 5 Spring 2012
nodeE
Hotel Indigo
nodeF
nodeD
JiuShi Tower(Office) Golden Bund(Resicents) Riveerview Hotel Tourists Bus Parking Riverview Apartments
nodeC nodeB：LINKING
nodeA：Prologue
nodeC：CONFLICT
nodeD：CROSSING
nodeE：WEAVING
nodeE：Epilog
large scale landscapes] + programs under the ground
Tourists Bus Parking Tunnel Museum Shanghai Old Street
nodeB
Low-income Residents Area Old Town Art World nodeA
park ing plot
Yuyuan Shopping Mall Yu Garden(HuXin Pavilion) City Temple
4from plaza
Yuyuan small theater PUBLIC -----------more open to the citizens and tourists
Shopping Square
PRIVATE----------less easy to get into
5from waterfront park
Culture Event
4from plaza
5from waterfront park
1from old town
6from ferry
2from cross road
6from ferry
small scale of shops +programs above the ground
3from main road
PLANS AND SECTIONS TERMINALL FOR TOURISTS
WATERFRONT PARK
FERRY TERMINAL
x s s x 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
waterfront park
ferry terminal
plaza2 tourist ship terminal
tower3
plaza3 tower1
tower2
tower4
This project was in collaboration with Xie Jie. This was a redevelopment of the South Bund to create a more public accesible uraban strategy. It was located on the Huangpu River front in Shanghai, China.The concept for this project was creating an urban stratagey that allowed people from all different backrounds to come and interact with each other.One thing that interested us the most was the changing of small to large scale program along Old Shanghai Street, from Yu Yuan leading towards our site. This urban stratagey took on the task of interconnecting these two types of spaces tosee them as one instead of as drastically different entities. From this idea, emerged a wave-like project: a mix of landscape and architecture, where you can be on the ground floor of one building and walk a few steps and be ont the top of another. There is a blurring of what is exterior and what is interior.
Apartment Complex
Apartment Complex
Troy, New York Design Studio 5 Spring 2011
ANALYSIS DIAGRAMS
N
N
Summer Solstice
Spring Equinox Autumn Equinox
Winter Solstice
Natural Light Infiltrating the Crevasse
Expanding from Confined to Free
N N
Moving From the Open to the More Confined back to the Open
Extending the River view from the Street
This project was based off a case study house, the Maison Aho by Alvar Alto. The program of this project was a 24 unit apartment complex for visiting and permanent scholars. The location was on the Hudson River in downtown Tory, New York. I took the idea of the confined breaking away to the open from the prilimanary study on Alvar Aalto’s Maison Aho. It started out as one full massing and then started to break away from eachother and the site. The creavasse between the two buildings is a continuation of one of the main roads in downtown Troy. Not only does the building continue the idea of confined moving to the free but the continuation of the main road through the tight space between the buildings opening back up the the Hudson River holds that idea as well.
STRUCTURAL DIAGRAM
PLANS
Third Floor Scale 1/8
First Floor Scale 1/8
Second Floor Scale 1/8
Third Floor Scale 1/8
Apartment Complex SECTIONS
Troy, New York Design Studio 5 Spring 2011
Adaptive Resiliency
Adaptive Resiliency
ON PROJECTIONS
A lot of buildings are designed with one intenEXCAVATION tion. These buildings often become abandoned because they served out their purpose and are no longer relevant to the community. A huge part of the reason their service is no longer needed is because of the advances in technology; the more advanced we, as a civilization become, the more large industries become irrelevant to the city and therefore become abanCONSTRUCTION doned. PROJECTIONS These abandoned sites start to put a strain on EXCAVATION the city; they become holes in the city fabric. These blighted sites lower the economy of the city and have the potential to make surrounding buildings become abandoned as well leading to a decline of a once thriving city. Designing for the future means designing a reactive and adapting building form. Is there a way to design something that reacts to it’s environment, so that it doesn’t matter if we are no longer here and some other life form comes into existence, the design will be able to react and adapt to become relevant to them. My proposal will be able to assess the changing environment and networks of people in the surrounding city and be able to adapt and change the buildings use and morphology without having it be abandoned. How can we revitalize and redesign the SITE MAPPED WITH POLLUTED SPOTS
POLLUTION MAP ALONG HUDSON RIVER
POLLUTION MAP IN POUGHKEEPSIE
Poughkeepsie, New York Thesis Spring 2014
CONSTRUCTION PROJECTIONS CONSTRUCTION
EXCAVATION
ACCRETIONCONSTRUCTION SITE MAPPED WITH POLLUTED SPOTS
FIRST LAYER OF SCAFFOLDING IMBEDDED IN GROUND
TOXICITY OF SITE
FIRST LAYER OF SCAFFOLDING IMBEDDED IN GROUND
SECOND LAYER OF SCAFFOLDING CONSTRUCTED MOST COVERED AREAS ARE THE MOST POLLUTED
MOST COVERED AREAS ARE THE MOST POLLUTED
SCAFFOLDING IS RAISED UP HIGHER IN THE POLLUTED SPOTS FOR A GREATER POSSIBILITY OF FULL ENCLOSURES
ACCRETION IS FORMED BY USING THE POLLUTANTS IN THE SOIL ALONG WITH THE HELP OF A 3D PRINTER BOT TO CREATE CRYSTAL STRUCTURES THAT ARE ABLE TO GROW IN RESPONSE TO THE INHABITANTS INTERACTIONS.
CONSTRUCTION CONSTRUCTION SITE MAPPED WITH POLLUTED SPOTS
FIRST LAYER OF SCAFFOLDING IMBEDDED IN GROUND SECOND LAYER OF SCAFFOLDING CONSTRUCTED MOST COVERED AREAS ARE THE MOST POLLUTED
SCAFFOLDING IS RAISED UP HIGHER IN THE POLLUTED SPOTS FOR A GREATER POSSIBILITY OF FULL ENCLOSURES
ACCRETION CREATE CR
already abandoned sites to allow them to adapt and keep adapting with the changing networks surrounding it? The cause of this abandonment is because of the failing networks that aren’t resilient enough to withstand when one node fails. We need to design resilient networks so that places won’t fail, but will adapt and reorganize itself to the changing environment. Poughkeepsie was a major hub for industry and commerce which helped it connect with other blossoming cities. During the Industrial Revolution, this site was an iron yard. It was a very important part of the growth of the city. It’s location within the city and it’s large size allows for a greater potential of
community interaction, which is a key factor in a thriving city. I chose this site because the site itself isn’t only a hole, but the surrounding but the surrounding roads are very seldomly traveled. This leads to abandonment of surrounding because there is no traffic flow. Since it is an industrial site, there is certain levels of pollution on the site. This leads to complications when trying to the reuse of the site usually, but for my proposal it creates an opportunity for site adaptation.
PROGRAM PROJECTIONS
SCAFFOLDING DIAGRAMS
DIFFERENT PROGRAMS ON SITE
PARK AREA
LIVING LAB
CAFES
CULTURE LAB EVENT SPACES
SITE PROGRAM
USE OF SPACE THROUGHOUT THE DAY
COLLEGE STUDENTS TOURISTS DAY VISITORS RESIDENTS WORKERS
7AM
9AM
11AM
1PM
3PM
5PM
EXTERIOR SCAFFOLDING
INTERIOR SCAFFOLDING
Because I am looking at specifically old abandoned industrial sites, these sites contain different levels of toxins through out the site. The scaffolding is placed on the site in two steps. Step one is scaffolding that gets imbedded in the ground. The more polluted the area, the more metal scaffolding gets placed on top of that area. The next step, the scaffolding is placed and lifted up, 18 feet where the pollution is the worst and 9 feet where the pollution is less. The raised scaffolding allows the accretion in phase 3 to grow in between and create functioning walls and structure. Depending on how much the accretion grows, people would be able to inhabit or walk on the scaffolding and accretion.
SITE USERS
7PM
9PM
11PM
1AM
As time goes on, and the feedback loop continues, body 2 can start to excavate more soil and more structure based on the maps and projections from body 1. It can also begin to extract parts of what body 3 constructs if it becomes irrelevant again. There are two existing buildings. One of them is programed to be a cultural lab and the other one is programmed to be an innovation lab. These programs will help the city become connected to a larger scale of networks through the innovation in technology it is producing but also is able to strengthen its cultural networks on a local scale.
Adaptive Resiliency
Poughkeepsie, New York Thesis Spring 2014
SITE TIMELINE INITIAL STATE
PHASE 1:PROJECTION
PHASE 2: CONSTRUCTION
PHASE 3:ACCRETION
PHASE 4: ADAPTATION
NO GROWTH
SOME GROWTH (SEATING)
MORE GROWTH (WALLS)
CONTINUAL GROWTH (ENCLOSURES)
The slow forming accretion works and reacts with the sites inhabitants. In the diagram of circulation over time, there are lines that show pure circulation and then larger dark spots, the larger and darker the spot, the more people stop there. This map then informs the accretor to start forming accretion in those spots because there needs to be seating and walls
for people to sit on when they stop. This newly formed accretion brings even more people to these specific spots and over time allows the accretion to form into completely inhabitable, semi-enclosed spaces for other possible programs to take over.
Adaptive Resiliency
Poughkeepsie, New York Thesis Spring 2014
Creating Space
Creating Space
Design Studio 2 Fall 2009
This was a group project in collaboration with Elizabeth Walsh, Michael Stradley, Niraj Patel, and Nicole Christenson. We studied the various structures of architecture: the gridshell, the folded plate, the ruled surface and tensegrity. We were to take two of these structural designs and combined them to create one structural element where both systems were dependant on each other. For our project, we chose the gridshell and the folded plate. The folded plate system is weaved through the gridshell to create very interesting lighting effects. Also, the combination of the two systems gives the feeling of and enclosure.
Recycled Materials
Recycled Materials
Design Studio 1 Fall 2009
This project was designed to create interesting space using recycled materials. I chose to use the bottoms of water bottles for my recycled material. To start to create space, I cut the bottoms of the water bottles into five sections and started to interlock them and tab them for extra support. When I started to interlock multiple water bottle bottoms, the clear, transparent quality of the bottle started to change. The more modules that were interlocked, the more opaque they became. I started to use this quality in creating space. Different spaces were more opaque and other spaces were very transparent. This effect also created very interesting lighting qualities.