(402)320-8225 Cellphone #
Charles We ak Selec ted Work s
cweak@umich.edu email
CHARLES WEAK CONTACT INFORMATION
ARC PREP TEACHING ASSISTANT Instructed Detroit high school students on design, representation and digital modeling skills, and built models for an exhibition to be held in Detroit. University of Michigan Summer 2018 INTERN - BVH ARCHITECTS Participated in commercial and institutional projects from SD’s to the end of DD’s. This included significant participation in the creation of drawing packages for clients, and significant participation in the formation of the design concept Omaha, NE Summer 2017 OBERDICK FELLOWSHIP ASSISTANT Assisted in fabrication of fellowship exhibition for Hans Tursack, this involved working with hand tools and a CNC to route, paint, and finish his work for his exhibition. University of Michigan Winter 2016
2200 Fuller Court Ann Arbor, MI 48105
INTERN - PROVING GROUND Wrote scripts sampling new Grasshopper plugins, contracted to work as a consultant on projects at nearby firm. I worked on writing scripts that simulated d
cweak@umich.edu https://www.instagram.com/ charles_weak/
Omaha, NE Summer 2016
LEADERSHIP/ INVOLVEMENT
(402)320-8225
PROFICIENCIES
STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE ASSOCIATE DEAN SEARCH COMMITTEE I was chosen to represent the students in the college of Architecture to the committee that met to select a new Associate Dean for DEI and Academic Innovation. This involved meeting with members of different committees within the University of Michigan to determine criteria for selection. University of Michigan 2017-2018
Visualization Indesign Illustrator V-Ray Photoshop Blender After Effects Z-Brush
BECOMING DIGITAL EXHIBITION COORDINATION/TECHNICIAN Was chosen to participate in a Fall seminar class which culminated in a symposium that examined the role that software plays in architectural design. The symposium included workshops and an exhibition of students work from the Fall seminar class. University of Michigan Fall 2017
Modeling Rhino Grasshopper Revit AutoCad Sketchup
ASUN SENATOR TO THE COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE I was elected to represent the students at the University of Nebraska at the collegiate scale, while senator, I organized a week long campus Mental Health awareness week, and collaborated with the college of fine art and the college of dramatic acting to host a mental health awareness forum, where students about their experiences with CAPS. University of Nebraska - Lincoln 2015-2016
EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - ANN ARBOR Masters of Architecture - 3.7 GPA May 2018 PARIS STORIES: HISTORY AND THEORY OF DESIGN Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain,
2
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA - LINCOLN Bachelors of Architecture - 3.6 GPA May 2016
PUBLICATIONS PLAT 7.0 SHARING - RICE UNIVERSITY Image_Layer - 7.0 SHARING My article studies the way that designers work after the second digital turn through layering systems embodied in Image creation software. Image_Layer posits that images are assemblies of components, and that architectural models produced in digital software are roughly analagous. KNOT - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Post Becoming Digital- 11 Three Reasons I’m Pretty Out of Shape - 06 The Good with the Bad - 05
4 -11
Thesis: Image_Layer
10 -13
F l a tw a t e r F o l k A r t
16 -21
La Mesa
22 -27
Graphic Middle School
28 -35
Gradual Body
museum
3
Image_Layer
Image_Layer WINTER 2018
4
Layers change how a designer or an illustrator thinks about images. S/he now works with a collection of separate elements. S/he can play with these elements, deleting, creating, importing and modifying them, until s/he is satisfied with the final composition‌ ...An image is thus redefined as a provisional composite of both content elements and various modification operations that are conceptually separate from these elements.� - Lev Manovich
arated into two new categories: Layers that hold content (mass objects). These new ways of working blur the boundaries between physical and digital ontologies, by expressing both the material characteristics of physical objects and the ambient or sensorial qualities of digital environments. The blurring that occurs creates a flickering, where visual augmentations are in competition with the object qualities, creating something new and uncanny.
Layers are an ambiguous category of elements, most commonly associated with planar forms, whose assembly (referred to as layer logics) generates images. This thesis proposes a new understanding of layers in physical space through exploring the role that layer logics have played historically in image creation. A history of layer logics through hand rendering, Cubism, and Photoshop techniques points to the ways that architects now leverage augmentation as a way of affecting perception of objects (color-fields, graphics, gloss, atmospheric lighting, etc.) Layers have therefore been sep-
The architectural proposal for this project is a complex of sculptures and programs, set inside the Art OMI Sculpture park in upstate New York. The complex is an amalgamation of masses and found objects, augmented through effect elements. These effect elements approximate techniques like color fields, gradients, reflective surfaces, texture mapping, and vector graphics. Visitors orbit around the sculptures and programs of the complex through an infrastructural system that structures views onto mass objects, and allows visitors to interact with edit the effects acting on the mass objects.
5
CUBIST PAINTING DIAGRAM
PHOTOSHOP DIAGRAM
LIVING PICTURE DIAGRAM
6
EARLY DESIGN STUDIES
7
SCULPTURE PARK
8
9
B-SIDE
B - SIDE : Image_Inhabitant
10
As part of a forthcoming article, I’ve begun to expand on my thesis through exploring Mass and Augmentation pricinples at the scale of a residence or villa. The housing model plays with ideas of infrastructure, envelope, and color augmenation to create a dynamic housing interior. The housing model would house
a number of residences with shared spaces where residences can mingle. Image_inhabitant seeks to think more about the way that interior and exterior graphics can communicate. The exterior envelope communicates with the interior space through coloring that space, but is transparent connecting inhabitants to the exterior.
11
F L AT WAT E R F O L K ART MUSEUM
FOLK ART MUSEUM
The Folk Art Museum Project was a semester long project done in the Spring of my junior year. The project was focused on understanding the nature of site through historical and cultural landscapes. We began with four weeks of site analysis on our site Brownville, Nebraska. Brownville is small village in Southeastern Nebraska with a decorated cultural heritage I chose to place my site on Main Street in Brownville to be closer to important village programs like the Brownville Historical Society and the cafe, which is adjacent. Adding a building into main street meant that I would have to be especially conscientious of the character of the surrounding buildings, which I took into account when I was developing a massing. Through site research it became apparent that Brownville suffered from a lack of civic program space, which made it difficult for the people of Brownville to come together to discuss issues. Adding the outdoor garden space and forum space on the first floor was an attempt to create spaces formal and informal spaces for the people of Brownville to hangout and discusses
issues facing the village. The building’s facade is made up of rusted corten steel panels that suggest a qualitative connection to the red brick that’s prevalent in Brownville. The front door and door to the forum space are both large barn door type sliding doors made of rusted corten steel, that serve as sign-age to inform patrons when the museum is and is not open. The Folk Art Museum project was immensely influential in discovering my interests in design, because it was the first time I was really able to a project that asked questions about the role culture and heritage play in designing architecture. It was also the first time i saw a project all the way through wall sections. I see this project as an origin point for me as a designer. The form of the building is deeply embeded in the site, while the paneling system acts like a graphic, interacting with vistiors and the site. The rusted material plays on myths associatied with mystery and age, and the myths associated with enigmatic small towns.
WINTER 2015
12
13
14
15
L A
LA MESA Fall 2017
16
M E S A
La Mesa was a semester long group project technical studio, that aimed at understanding the ways that people dwell within space, and experience density. The project took on ideas of barriers as conditions that could do work in bringing people together, rather than separating them. The project is sited in Mexicantown in Detroit, an area that has begun to show growth. The project is an apartment complex of 100 residences in total which is comprised of a variety of types, ranging from townhouse to studio. The apartment buildings are organized around a central corridor, which houses commerical program, and serves as meeting places for the residents of the area. Residents can walk up from the South entrance, and enter into a series of courtyards that connect the two poritions of the site. Residents enter their units from the central courtyard, which they then either enter the elevator, or circulate up on of the sets of fire stairs.
The project borrowed initial inspiration from Landscape Artist Michael Heizer, and the large metal structures of Richard Serra. The exterior of the building is wrapped with a thin GFRC panelling system that gives the illusion of weight, and acts as faux “thick� sytem. Faux thick walls serve both an aeshetic function, and serve fucntions related to the building systems. Faux thick systems map onto the interior of the building, creating a visible material connection from the interior of the building to the exterior, while also holding all of the HVAC and water systems for the apartments. La Mesa attempted to place as many programs within the walls as possible: piping, shelving, daybeds, kitchen program, windows, bathrooms, etc. This allowed the GFRC to act as a material signifier, which tried to create a semantic connection between residents, their bodies in space, and the space they were inhabiting in the building.
17
18
Master Plan
19
5
3
4
2
3
2
4
3
4
3
4
3
2
HEAVY WALL ASSEMBLY SECTION SCALE: 1”=1’-0” 1
Foundation Wall Assembly: (18”)Reinforced Concrete Wall with(3”) Rigid Insulation Foam.
2
Wall Assembly: Metal track Stud Frame (6”/Batt Insulation) with hung exterior metal frame attached to floor slab via beam channel. Exterior of stud frame wrapped with rigid insulation (3”).Finished with GFRC (2”) panels attached to hung metal frame via C-Channel clips. Panels wrapping into housing space as well as the Parapet transition. Interior walls framed with additional metal studs for GFRC. Finished with Gypsum board on other non GFRC treated walls.
3
Window Assembly: (6’x’6) Fixed double-glazed window.
4
Slab Assembly: (8”) Metal Decking with Concrete Filled Slab. Finished with (2”) Acoustic foam board toped with wood flooring and wood finished ceiling.
5
Roof Assembly: Metal Roof Decking with Concrete Filled slab. Topped with Roofing Membrane over (18”) Rigid
4
Foam Insulation.
20
21
G R A PHI C M I D D L E SCHOOL Graphic Middle School was a semester long project that investigated the term “middle�, and suggest new pedagogies through student identity. I began this project with interest in trying to suss out the idea of middle as a form of indeterminacy. I feel that it has particularly important discussion to have about what it means to be a middle schooler. Middle school often represents students first steps into adulthood, and often places students in new environments which leaves them struggling to find themselves.
GRAPHIC MIDDLE SCHOOOL FALL 2016
22
My position in the project is that, becoming comfortable with the strange and awkward nature of adolescents is necessary to finding a clear path to an identity later in life. The school houses is located in center of a Suburb of Ann Arbor, and houses grades Sixth, Seventh and Eighth. The grades are separated into there own zones, which are delineated by pattern, and roof type. In terms of inner workings of the building, the building operates as a series of wings. Sixth grade, which is closest to the main entrance
to the school, seventh grade directly adjacent, and eigth grade on the Northernmost side. The wings are split into sections of four, with one section sheared out to connect to the most central building which houses the lunch room and all the elective classes. These functions are housed in the largest wing that sits on the Southwestern edge of the campus. In addition to the wings, the building also has stamped areas that attempt to reconcile typological systems as a way to create a new dynamic space for which students experience may interpret as awkward, but also connect with due to recognizable geometry. Graphic Middle School attempts to reconcile the awkwardness of the middle school with space that is awkward... but not in a bad way. The school is designed as an oscillation between structured spaces, and unstructured spaces, where structured-ness allows for the playful unstructured nature of giant ducks, and clouds.
23
24
25
“DUCK” LONG BULLETIN B OUTDOOR CLASSROOM
Primary: 6th Grade Secondary: Science elective Classrooms, Shop Space
Primary: 7th Grade Secondary: Blackbox Theatre, Small Elective Class Room “Z” CENTRAL HALLWAY NOOKS & DIRECTIONS
“CLOUD”
Primary: 8th Grade Secondary: Art Studio, Art Elective Classrooms
Profile Diagram | Charles Weak
26
Primary: Library/Media Center Secondary: Auxilary spaces
LONG PERIMETER CENTER SPACE
Topological Diagram| Charles Weak
27
Gradual Body
Gradual Body SUMMER 2018
28
Gradual body is an installation project that was produced for the 2018 Sidewalk Festival in the Old Redford neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan. The Detroit sidewalk festival is an annual arts festival, that brings local artists, performers, and vendors together to celebrate the culture of Detroit. The design and production of the installation occurred over a two-and-a-halfweek period. I served as the primary designer of the installation and oversaw a team of three other students throughout the construction process.
out into the street and form lounges, where foam seats allow festival goers to sit and play.
Gradual body seeks to work with forms that suggest the body without signifying a specific, identifiable object or body. The original form was generated inside the computer using T-spline modeling software. A series of forms were generated, each of which with a central body, and legs that protrude from that central body. A body with legs can suggest several forms, and from those interpretations visitors to the festival can read into the installations body the way they see fit. The legs of the body stretch
The installation was constructed using plywood milled out using a 3-axis CNC mill to mill out the contours of the forms. The central body is waffled, large pieces that exceeded the CNC bed are latched together, or gusseted. Threaded rod runs through the leg counters, which connects the legs that stretch out into the street.
Gradual body uses color and perspective to play with the way that visitors interpret the installation. The original form generated using T-splines was contoured in two directions, perpendicularly. This ensures that there isn’t one correct way to the view the installation. Festival-goers were encouraged to orbit around the installation to view it. The color emphasize the body transitions across the body shape.
29
8'-0"
BLU3DK BLU PAINT
ORG3MID OR PAINT
BLU2MID BLU PAINT
ORG2MID OR PAINT
BLU1LT BLU PAINT
ORG1LT OR PAINT
WHTPAINT
1'-0"
1'-6"
3'-6"
4'-0"
4'-6"
ORG4DK OR PAINT
PIECE IS CUT
1'-0"
5'-3"
5'-9"
DETROIT SIDEWALK FESTIVAL
30
31
INSTALL
32 33
34
35
(402)320-8225 Cellphone #
@charles_we ak Inst agr am
cweak@umich.edu email