PORTFOLIO
c. abbott
Christine Abbott Harvard University Graduate School of Design, MLA 2013 UNC Charlotte, MArch 2007 University of Virginia, BS in Architecture 2005
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Analysis of Poetic Structure for Thesis Research Document; Independent Academic Project, Fall 2006; Poems by Anthony Abbott : 1 “Ely Cathedral: Toward Evensong” 2 “That Which Cannot Be Done” 3 “From the Balcony of the Grand Bretagne” 4 “Richard Walking” 5 Come, Lord Jesus.”
c. abbott
[ Architecture & Landscape ] DESIGN:
CONTENTS
[ selected projects ]
l. Jerusalem Studio: At Jaffa’s Edge Urban Design and Planning Option Studio, GSD Jerusalem, Israel
lll. Aquaculture and Sewage Treatment Facility Landscape Architecture Core Studio, GSD South Weymouth Naval Air Station, MA
lV. Sparta Teapot Museum MArch Comprehensive Studio, UNCC Sparta, NC
V. Houston Day Laborer Center Topical Studio: Mobile Studio, UNCC Houston, NC
Vl. Emergency Shelter Topical Studio: Pre-fabrication, UNCC Gulf Region, US
Vll. Central Avenue Housing Complex Topical Studio: Pre-fabrication, UNCC Charlotte, NC
Vlll. Rainwater Filtration Center Undergraduate Architecture Studio, UVA Philadelphia, PA
IX. Vendors of Poetic Phenomena MArch Thesis, UNCC New York City, NY
RESEARCH & ANALYSIS:
X. Drawing Vicenza Drawing Course & Faculty Research Travel Italy, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Barcelona
Xl. Mapping Undergraduate Architecture Studios, UVA Landscape Architecture Core Studio, GSD Architecture Theory, UNCC
Xll. Landscape Technology Ecologies, Techniques and Technologies IV, GSD Phytoremediation Research Seminar, GSD
Xlll. Experimentations in Form & Material Landscape Representation Seminar, GSD Materiality: Hybrid Spatial Tectonics Seminar, UNCC
Design for a Museum Facade, Charlottesville, VA
LANDSCAPE / URBAN DESIGN / ARCHITECTURE
At Jaffa’s Edge
The Jerusalem Studio Professor Alex Krieger, GSD
As part of Jerusalem’s modernization and the establishment of a new Central Business District (CBD), a light rail was recently installed along Jaffa Road. The proposal “At Jaffa’s Edge” addresses discontinuity in the spatial definition of the street, underdeveloped land, a lack of robust vegetation and stuttered connections perpendicular to the Jaffa. An integrated solution of plant walls began to surface, where quick-growing bougainvillea on light, modular structures would occupy several sites along Jaffa Road (Image A). These interventions provide shade, reference the cable structure of the Calatrava Bridge and strategically add color that contrasts with ubiquitous Jerusalem stone A re-developed block of creative program includes a series of buildings and landsdcapes including a terraced garden, artist live-work buildings, tower and wedgeshaped public plaza (Image B). I
Image A : Perspective along Jaffa Road depicting vertical garden modules draped with Bougainvillea and Calatrava’s Jerusalem Chords Bridge in the distance. Image produced with Rhino v4, and Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS5.5.
Vertical Garden Intervention [5]
tower / gallery
Jaffa Wedge
Almond Bosque
live - work
Vertical Garden Intervention [4]
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Terraced Garden
library [3]
school / fabrication
Central Business District
Image B : Aerial Site Plan of Creative Complex; integrated into the new proposal for the Central Business District.
At Jaffa’s Edge l Jerusalem, Israel
NATIVE
TOLERANT | ACCLIMATIZED
REGIONAL CONTEXT
GRASSES +
TREES
Historic Jaffa Road once connected Jaffa Port to Jerusalem, cutting upland against the region’s topography to the ridge line that divides the two major watersheds in Israel. Today, Jaffa road exists only within municipal Jerusalem, but the design proposal means to reference this ancient connection by emphasizing and selecting plants that allude to Tel Aviv as a Garden City. Part of Plant Selection included researching soils, which were found to be a combination of heavy (clay) and light (sandy), but consistenly alkaline.
PLANTS
Image B was produced by extracting data from a survey of the soils in Northern Israel in Photoshop and drawing over the image with Illstrator CS5.5.
FLOWERING COLOR
V. LOW WATER
Plants were chosen based on their suitability in the soil and climate of the site (on the mediterrean side of the watershed line), color and tolerance for pollution and/or drought. The bougainvillea that covers vertical gardens along Jaffa road feeds the color concept, where a deep burgundies and pinks would stand out against the muted greens and browns of Acacia, Olea and the native grasses as well as the shimmering tan of Jerusalem stone.
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TEL AVIV Jaffa Port
JERUSALEM
historic Jaffa Road
Image C [left page] : Regional Map of Northern Israel showing Soils, Watershed line and selected geography. Images D-E [above]: Plant Palette [top] and Section thru Terracing Garden [bottom].
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At Jaffa’s Edge l Jerusalem, Israel
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2m Image B : Line Drawing of Vertical Garden in Section, Elevation and Plan.
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Image A : Perspective on Jaffa Wedge showing Vertical Gardens with Bougainvillea, Live-Work Buildings and Tower beyond.
IMAGES Image A depicts the public wedge-shaped space - ‘Jaffa Wedge’ - along a long vertical garden through the pavilions that front artist in residence live-work spaces. Beyond the tower that grounds one end of the wedge can be seen with a facade that breaks tinted glass with jerusalem stone paneling. Image B shows the vertical garden structural concept where cables that reference Calatrava’s bridge just beyond the creative complex site become the armature for bougainvillea to grow. Image C is another section through wedge and ‘back street’ space where entrances to artist studios would be open. All images where created using Rhino, Illustrator and Photoshop.
Image C : Section thru Jaffa Wedge and Live-Work Studio Spaces with flattened version of a vertical garden in the interstitial space.
LANDSCAPE
Aquaculture Facility
Core Landscape Architecture Studio Professor Pierre BĂŠlanger, Christian Werthman, Niall Kirkwood, GSD
Responding to ecological devastation due to over-fishing and high-demand in the New England market, this decommissioned Naval air station in South Weymouth is conceived as a large scale aquaculture facility. As recently as the 1940’s - just before the naval air station was built - much of the site consisted of wetlands (Image A). Because of these site conditions and the depleted supply and high demand for fish in the Boston region, the proposal introduces more surface water by expanding wetlands, and carving ponds for sewage treatment and aquaculture. Wetlands aid in cleaning headwaters for the French Stream and Old Swamp River, both found on the site. The design includes educational and recreational program to engage community members with food production and regional hydrology. III
Image A : Rendering suggesting layers of history (field, air strips) of South Weymouth Naval Air Station
Aquaculture Facility l South Weymouth, MA IMAGES Drawing From precedents, a secondary sewage treatment system is integrated into aquaculture ponds. Nutrient and food cycles dictate combinations of fish (Image set C). Wetlands restore headwaters of three watersheds converging on the site (Image A). Ponds are strategically placed based on soil and water table (Image set B). Images A-B are constructed independently using Autocad, Adobe Illustrator and watercolor. All images were created in collaboration with teammates Judith Rodriguez and Kenya Endo.
Preserved Hardscape [Sub] Surface Flow Wetlands Aquatic Plants Research Lab
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Waster Water Treatment System
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Meadow Aquaculture Ponds Wet Meadow
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Forest
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Vernal Pools
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Image A : Land Cover Plan
Image Set C : Fish Assemblages
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Image Set B : Sections Showing Relationship of Ponds and Wetlands to Watertable
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Aquaculture Facility l South Weymouth, MA
COMPOST
PLAY MANAGE
GATHER
Image A : Calendars of Program & Maintenance
Image B : Pond Section showing gradient of plants and separation of aquaculture ponds from the watertable. Image C : Hydrology Phasing Diagrams
Image D : Meadow and Wetlands (Summer)
Image E : Rendering of Ponds (Autumn)
ARCHITECTURE / LANDSCAPE
Sparta Teapot Museum
Professors Kelly Carlson-Reddig and Rick Kazbee, UNCC
A 30,000 SF museum for teapots set in the mountains of western North Carolina draws its form from the landscape and an idea about filtering. North of the building, a roughly sculpted landscape suggests falling toward an entry where circulation paths converge. To the south, a set of pale concrete walls cuts into the land creating more temperate micro climates within the landscape and relating to extended balconies on the building’s South facade. The elongated building volume opens to the north with a glass curtain wall extending its length, meant to expose the interior galleries and the transportation of teapots from an adjacent storage building.
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Image A: Working Model at 1’ = 1/16” view from above
Sparta Teapot Museum l Sparta, NC
Images G-H: Working Model at 1’=1/16”
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Image A: Ground Floor Plan
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Image D: Presentation Model at 1’= 1/32” from above
IMAGES To articulate the concept of filtering, handassembled models and digital drawings were employed. Image A-C were digitally drafted and rendered in Adobe Photoshop to explain the arrangement of interior spaces and the thickness and opacity of the building envelope.
Image B: First Floor Plan
Image E: Presentation Model facing the North Facade
see stair detail
In images D-F, a laser cut and handassembled model illustrates the building’s relationship to the land and the nature of the north and south facades. Images G-H show a larger scale working model constructed in service of design development and assembled entirely by hand.
Image C: Second Floor Plan
Image F: Presentation Model facing the South Facade
Sparta Teapot Museum l Sparta, NC Image B: Long Section through Southwest Stair Facing South
IMAGES The south facade depicted in Image A shows museum occupants as they are exposed to the landscape from extending balconies and a south facing stair. Analogous to filtering, the scene shows individuals as they have been filtered through the building; they are reoriented east-west as they encounter the landscape. The digitally drafted image was rendered in Photoshop to make the scale and sense of occupation more clear. Image B shows a section through a stair connecting the entry space at the ground floor with gallery and retail spaces one story up.
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From this view point, the architecture is intentionally light-handed. A single folded sheet of metal defines the stair that is set into the concrete wall. This digitally drafted image was rendered in Photoshop.
Image A: South Elevation
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Sparta Teapot Museum l Sparta, NC
Image G: Axon of Window Detail
Image H: Diagrammatic Plan
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Image B: Long Section through Southwest Stair Facing North
Image A: Cross Section through Southwest Stair Facing West
IMAGES Image A-B show a cable-hung stair, digitally drafted and rendered in Photoshop. Images C-D detail the connections of the cable to ceiling and stair tread. All drawings are significantly reduced in scale from their originals.
Images E-F detail a glass curtain wall that runs the entire length and width of the north facade. Image G shows ribbon window negotiating a vertical concrete column.
Image F: Building Section Facing East
Image C-D: Details Showing Cable Connections at the Ceiling (left) and Stair Treads (right) Image E: Section through Glass Curtainwall
ARCHITECTURE / LANDSCAPE INFRASTRUCTURE
Day Laborer Center
The Mobile Studio: Professor Linda Samuels, UNC Charlotte
An open-ended program for a Day Laborer Center beneath a Houston highway was determined by found remnants on the site, each that suggesting particular activities taking place there. A pavilion for each remnant is constructed as a sweeping metal structure. The design means to call attention to the laborers hidden below the highway as much as it is meant to serve practical needs for the workers. The surface of each pavilion facing inward toward the highway is brillant and reflective to contrast the material of the highway itself - perceived as banal, rough, and weathered.
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Image A : Schematic Drawing for Pavilions in water color
Day Laborer Center l Houston, TX
IMAGES The photographs in Images A-L show the remnants left on the site; one pavilion is designed for each remnant with an associated program (i.e. reading pavilion, smoking pavilion). Image M uses a Maya model rendered in Photoshop to give an idea of how the pavilions would be experienced from the highway above. Image A: Eating
Image B: Walking
Image C: Hanging
The site plan in Image N shows the arrangement of the pavilions along the stretch of highway where day laborers linger. A combination of Maya, Autocad, and Photoshop were used to produce this image.
Image M : Perspective of Pavilions from the Highway
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Image D: Building
Image E: Listening
Image F: Smoking
Image G: Building
Image H: Washing
Image I: Seeing
Image J: Disposal
Image K: Playing
Image L: Reading
Images A - L : Photographs of Site Remnants
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Image N : Site Plan
Day Laborer Center l Houston, TX
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Image A : Exterior Perspective from the Ground Level
IMAGES Image A renders the pavilion and highway similarly as they are materially similar from this view point. The pavilions are tarnished on the exterior to contrast to a reflective interior. Images B-E show section cuts that give a sense of space resulting from the pavilions. The bending surfaces are pronounced by two distinct material qualities. All images were rendered in Photoshop from vector images taken from a Maya model.
Image B : Section Cuts
Image C-E : Sections through Highway
ARCHITECTURE / LANDSCAPE
Emergency Shelter
Professors Heather Duncan and Larry Scarpa, UNC Charlotte
Responding to hurricanes Katrina and Rita which swept through the gulf region in 2005, this emergency shelter means to provide physical and psychological respite in a building that can be efficiently assembled. The shelters are constructed in pairs leaving an elevated semi-public space equipped with a rudimentary rainwater filtration system and a hearth. The shelter is raised because the land that it sits on may be disrupted - torn up, flooded or covered with debris. The exterior public space, can, therefore, be understood as a re-defined ground plane.
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Image A: Section Diagram showing a Re-defined Ground Plane
Image B: Plan Diagram of an Expanding Modular Cistern
Emergency Shelter l Gulf Region, US
IMAGES Using modular S.C.I.P.S. (Structural Concrete Insulated Panels), the shelter was designed to minimize waste using each 4’ x 8’completely. Image A describes every component required to assemble the shelter including the S.C.I.P.S. panels, stairs, hearth, and rainwater filtration system. >> Image B: Plan Diagram of the Re-defined Public Space
Image C-D: Top Views of 1-1/2” = 1’ Model
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IMAGES >> The watercolor diagram in Image B shows two adjacent shelters with a small gathering space in between. Images C-D depict a 1’ = 1-1/2” model of the shelter using chipboard, and corrugated cardboard. The building itself is constructed accurately but the torn cardboard represents a disrupted ground plane. The building section in Image E gives a sense of scale in the shelter as it cuts through main space, cistern and hearth.
Image A: Exploded Axon of Shelter Assembly
Image E: 1/4” = 1’ Building Section
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Emergency Shelter l Gulf Region, US
Image D: Diagram of Levels
Image C: Top View of 1’ = 1-1/2” Model with the Roof Removed
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Image A: Plan Drawing
Image B: Front and Back Elevations
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Image E: Long Sections Facing the Front and Back
ARCHITECTURE / LANDSCAPE
Central Avenue Housing
Professors Heather Duncan and Larry Scarpa, UNC Charlotte
Central Avenue anchors an urban corridor connecting outlying and diverse neighborhoods to uptown Charlotte. Although Central Avenue continues to develop with the density and pedestrian life characteristic of an urban neighborhood, the Plaza-Midwood area to its north is defined by small scale and low-density residences typical of a suburban area. This small housing complex aims to integrate the urban and suburban with two distinct housing typologies and a mediating exterior space between them. Units on the northern edge of the site are conceived as town houses, while the more densely packed units along Central Avenue are exposed to and elevated from the street with a Bubble Tea Cafe as a retail component on the ground floor level. VII
Image A : Working Model at 1’ = 1/16� exploring circulation and sight lines along the Central Avenue approach
Central Housing Complex l Charlotte, NC
Image D : Model of Townhouses at 1’=1/8”
>> The nature of the urban facade and general building mass were explored in versions plugged into the model (Images E-G). Images B-C are digitally drafted drawings showing the north elevation and basic plan. Image E shows shows three townhouses that will sit on the northern edge of the site facing Plaza-Midwood. The piece has been removed from a larger model constructed at 1/8” = 1.’
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Image A : Conceptual Site Model at 1’ = 1/64”
IMAGES The schematic model in Image A looks at the site context topographically and shows one scheme invesigating a re-orientation of building volumes from the urban street front to the more private neighborhood side. >> Image C : First Floor Plan
Image E-G : Schematic Investigations in Conceptual Site Model at 1/64” = 1’ Image B : Elevation Facing Southwest towards Townhouses and Central Avenue
Central Housing Complex l Charlotte, NC
Image A : Diagram showing sight lines
Image D : Front View of 1/8”=1’ Model
Image E : Side View of 1/8”=1’ Model
IMAGES The diagram in Image A illustrates lines of sight from the front plaza to an interior courtyard.
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The model shown in Image B makes clear the two (suburban and urban) portions of the complex in a top view of a final model, while Image C highlights a visual connection between residences walking up to the ‘urban’ units, and the interior porches of the town houses. The circulation is orchestrated such that each resident approaching their Central Avenue aparment must pass a landing facing into the terraced courtyard. Image B : Top View of 1/8”=1’ Model
Image C : Side View of 1/8”=1’ Model
IMAGES The two photographs of a working model shown in Images D-E depict the front plaza and facade where a texturized ground highlights views to the interior courtyard space. Circulation to each of the urban units is exposed on the facade to further activate the street. This model was assembled entirely by hand using chipboard, mahogany sheets of wood, corrugated cardboard and white charcoal pencil. Image F shows the ground floor plan with a scan of a working model included as an underlay. Image was digitally drafted and edited in Photoshop.
Image F : Ground Floor Plan
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ARCHITECTURE
Rainwater Filtration Center
Professor Jason Johnson, UVA
This twenty-four story highrise sits adjacent to the Delaware River and Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia. Its program - the study of rainwater filtration - directly dictates its form. A series of “water bellies” sweep beyond the building in the direction yielding the highest water capture. The bellies are membraneous in the interior of the building, distending with a increase in rainwater capture. Exterior piping and a water channel running the height of the building distribute water throughout the building for laboratory study, and eventually, consumption. The center’s goal is to to sustain itself solely from rainwater. Thus, the center becomes visually and ideologically rhetorical for the case of water conservation. VIII
Image A : Schematic Drawing of illustrating the notion of water being integrated into the building
Rainwater Filtration Center l Philadelphia, PA
Image D : Exterior Perspective in a Thunder Storm
Image E : Exterior Perspective at Night
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Image A : Interior Perspective Into Cafe and Auditorium
IMAGES All design work for this project was a collaboration with UVa student Karen Lui. All images utilized a 3-D digital model constructed in Maya as underlays. The production of Images A-B was independent and consisted of a combination of watercolor, photoshop, and 3-D modeling. While I took responsibility for most of the 3-D digital modeling, Karen Lui exported and digitally rendered Images D, E.
Image B : Interior Perspective Into Typical Lab Adjacent to Water Channel
Image C : Filter Diagram
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ARCHITECTURE / LANDSCAPE / INSTALLATION ART
Vendors of Poetic Phenomena
Professors Linda Samuels and Eric Sauda, Advisers Peter Wong and Kelly Carlson-Reddig, UNC Charlotte
A set of small-scale installations constituted the design portion of a research-focused graduate thesis on poetry and architecture. The project, - Searching for Contemporary Poet[nyc]ism - investigated poetic phenomena in New York drawn out of a set of poems about the city. Designs for a Vendor for Con[de]struction, Vendor for Marching Strangers and Vendor for Asylum respond to specific passages that describe climatic, spatial, and social conditions particular to New York City. Featured here, the Vendor for Con[de]struction pulls largely from Merril’s “Urban Convalescence”hz that speaks about the constant building and rebuilding that occurs in the city. IX
Image A : Photography from Manhattan and Brooklyn captures Poetic Phenomena
Vendors of Poetic Phenomena l New York City, NY
Image A : Conceptual Model - Vendor for Asylum
IMAGES
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The conceptual models photographed in Images A-B were constructed in chipboard, thread, colored pencil, conte crayon, and ribbon. The materials serve as abstractions of implied edges, plants and paths of circulation.
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In the Vendor for Marching Strangers (Image B), the ribbon represents circulation that converges and then stacks in section. The guesture relates to the convergence of the grid in Greenwhich Village where the island of Manhattan begins to taper. The stacking of circulation - where pedestrians walk close to but are seperated from one another - represents the experience of anonymity in walking the streets of Manhattan. This phenomenon is aptly described in Whitman’s Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun. Image C shows iconography developed to visually distill poetic phenomena and poetic devices and label photographs and maps used throughout the project. Image D lays out eight locations for vendors; sound recordings and videos referenced in the map accompanied the original presentation in the Spring of 2007. Images C-D were drawn in Illustrator.
Image B : Conceptual Model - Vendor for Marching Strangers Image D : Site Map for Vendors
Vendors l New York City, NY
CASTING NEGATIVE SPACE
PROJECT Sited in Battery Park - an infill landscape where high-rise buildings typical of Manhattan cannot exist - the Vendor for Con[de]struction is comprised of castings of the negative space between street objects that signify construction on the street: cones, saw horses, and barrels. IMAGES Images A, E are digitally drafted plans and sections of the installation as two iterations of casting negative space. In each, the function of the original cone is subverted in the installation. For example, in Image E the casts are placed directly in one’s path to highlight the cone’s function in creating paths in the street. Images D simply lays out the placement of four different castings within Battery Park.
Image A : Plan and Elevation of the Vendor for Con[de]struction : Detached Cones
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The original street objects and proposals for castings were built in Maya and 3-D printed (Images B-C). In photographs of Images F-G the street objects are shown defining space and circulation patterns on the streets of New York.
Image E : Plan and Elevation of the Vendor for Con[de]struction : Separated Line
Image B Image F : Photographs of Street Objects: Sawhorse, Barrel, and Cones
Image D : Site Plan for the Vendor for Con[de]struction
Image B-C : 3-D Prints of Street Objects (above) and Castings (below) Image G : Photographs in and around Battery Park
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Poetry Matrix
ARCHITECTURE / LANDSCAPE / LITERATURE
The initial stages of the vendors of poetic phenomena project examined a representative sample of poetry about New York City with the intention of extracting contextual insights that were specific to the city. A process of reading, analyzing and sorting all poems published in English about New York City revealed repeated themes or poetic phenomena. The matrix makes visual the process of analysis and selection.
Images Colored Lines represent Poetic Phenomena (i.e. Restlessness, Con[de]struction, Wind) Trends in Structure of Poetry (Along Timeline)
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Image A : Selection from Poetry Matrix scaled at 50% of the Original
Graduate Thesis l Professors Linda Samuels and Eric Sauda, UNC Charlotte
Poetry Matrix
IMAGES Pieces of the Matrix were drawn in Adobe Illustrator and assembled in Adobe Indesign.
RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
Drawings
Faculty Research Trip, UNCC Vicenza Sketching Course Professors Charles Menefee and Natalie Gattegno, UVA
This set of work is comprised of drawings executed by hand with graphite and colored pencil. Drawings are pulled from two projects. In a sketching course taken with Charlie Menefee and Natalie Gattegno, we studied urban conditions, buildings, and landscapes in Vicenza and the surrounding Veneto region of Northern Italy. A research trip taken in the summer of 2008 as part of a teaching fellowship included visits to Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, and Paris. All drawings in this chapter were executed freehand and on-site at each location, with the exception of the abstract fields drawings shown below and on page XV_3.
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“Fields Sketches� No. 1 & 2. Vicenza, Italy.
Research Trip l Continental Europe
PARIS, BERLIN
VIENNA, DRESDEN
Faculty Research Trip, UNC Charlotte
>> The Fields sketches shown in Images E-D followed and were inspired by a drawing and theory class taken with Sanda Iliescu at the University of Virginia. In this course ‘scribbling’ practiced by artists like Cy Twombly was considered an artistic methodology that had the capacity to capture experience. These drawings were executed during novel experiences and places while traveling abroad in Italy for the first time (i.e. train to Venice, balcony on Case de Sabastiano in Vicenza).
Image C : Parliament Building, Vienna, Austria Image A : The Pergamon Museum’s Babylonian Altar, Berlin, Germany
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IMAGES
Image B depicts the Pantheon in Paris drawn from across the street. The sketch attempts to capture its integration of Neo-Gothic and Renaissance vocabularies. The Rodin sculpture drawn in Image B was found in Dresden’s Zwinger Museum in the sculpture gallery. Image A and C are drawn in Berlin and Vienna respectively. Strangely, the original Classical architecture, upon which the Neoclassical Parliament building is based, exists as an artifact preserved inside the Pergamon Museum (A). >> Image E-F : Fields Sketches #3,4, Vicenza, Italy.
Image B : Pantheon, Paris Image D : Rodin Sculpture, Zwinger Museum, Dresden, Germany
Vicenza Sketching Course l Veneto, Italy
VERONA
FLORENCE
Vicenza Sketching Course Professors Charles Menefee and Natalie Gattegno, UVA
Image B : Piazza Republica, Florence
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Image A : Perspective of Gardens at the Palazzo Giusti Giardino, Verona, Italy
IMAGES Image A emphasizes the orthogonal order of the garden; the sketch is drawn just right of of central axis. Images C-D employ a more diagrammatic drawings style to show order in elevation of one gate along the Piazza Republica and in plan within the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, both in Florence, Italy. Images C : Uffizi Plan, Florence Map, Perspective into City
RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
Mapping
GSD, University of Virginia & UNC Charlotte
These representations analyze, sort, and display information. Mapping, here, is not restricted to geospatial information, but includes concepts and ideas with no physical corollary. Mappings include subjects like architectural theory as well as historical and traditional site analysis. Each map adopts a particular graphic language and medium to best denote or connote its meaning. The maps below analyze the context of two buildings studied as precedents: the Asilo Infantile by Giuseppe Terragni and Villa Stein by Corbusier. Watercolor in these diagrams depicts edges as well as fields of relevance.
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Image A-B : Intersections around Asilo Infantile by Giuseppe Terragni (A) and Prominent Infrastructural Lines, Villa Stein, Garches, France (B). Independent academic work, University of Virginia, Professor Chris Cornelius.
ARCHITECTURE THEORY
Ideas Map
The architectural theory elective “Methods and Meaning” concluded the first half of the semester with a design problem for displaying movements in contemporary architectural history from 1968. This “Ideas Map” self consciously references Piet Mondrian’s visual vocabulary as it evolves, from classic modern works like Composition with Red Blue Yellow to later works like Broadway Boogie-Woogie. The two iterations of the map shown here are chronological and the evolution of lines and patches of color represents a change of influence in the world of architectural and cultural theory from late Modernism into Post-Modernism.
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Events Movements Terms People
Image A : Clipped Ideas Map
“Methods & Meaning” Theory Seminar Professor Mark Morris, UNC Charlotte
Mapping Historic Layers l Charlottesville, VA
Undergrad Studios, UVa [left] Landscape Core Studio, GSD [right]
Image A : Analytical Model of the Lawn, Charlottesville, VA. Independent academic work, University of Virginia, Professor Lance Hosey.
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IMAGES The models in Images A-B investigate sites in Charlottesville by layering historic conditions beneath current conditions. The ‘Eidetic Map’ examines non-conventional ecology in Queens, NY. REPRESENTATION Image B: Model with removable layers was constructed in collaboration with Jessica Lane and Abigail Henry out of chipboard, and pine. Image C was drawn in Illustrator.
Image B : Site Model reveals historic layers along West Main Street, Charlottesville, VA. Collaborative academic project, Fall 2003, University of Virginia, Professor John Quale.
Eidetic Map l Queens, NY
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LANDSCAPE
Landscape Technology
Technology Seminars Professors Niall Kirkwood, Katherine Kennen & Pierre BĂŠlanger
This set of drawings accounts for academic study of landscape construction and brownfield remediation technology. Drawings emphasize clarity and thoroughness and are rendered with attention to precise accounting of measurements, notation and lineweight. These assignments are drawn largely from a series of courses on Ecologies, Techniques and Technologies that constitutes part of the landscape architecture core curriculum at the GSD. They also reflect an interest in brownfields and remediation strategies that I pursued as a landscape architecture student and hope to apply in a professional setting.
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Image A: Schematic Drawing showing topography informing stair design for new entry at the School of Architecture, volunteer project as faculty member at UNC Charlotte.
Durability Study l Allston, MA
Ecologies, Techniques & Technologies IV Professors Niall Kirkwood and Pierre BĂŠlanger, GSD
Phytoremediation Proposal l Weston, MA
Phytoremediation Research Seminar Professors Niall Kirkwood & Katherine Kennen, GSD
Image A : Pre-Phase Testing | Analysis
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Image B : Phase 2: Test and [re]-Plant
Image B : Section through Path Edge
PROJECT
PROJECT
These drawings studied an courtyard space at the Harvard’s Business School, looking for symptoms of durability success and durability failure. While the folded benches (Image A) showed little evidence of degradation, the gravel path edge (Image B) was compromised by rain and pedestrian wear.
A short design problem for a Phytoremediation Seminar proposed a phased strategy for mitigating arsenic contamination for a site in Weston, MA. Pre-phase testing (Image A) is analyzed to target the most contaminated areas. Phase 1 partitions and plants Chinese Brake Ferns based on this analysis. Phase 2 (Image B) re-plants after results from 1 season.
REPRESENTATION Image A was created independently using Rhino v.4 and Adobe Illustrator. Image B was drawn by Alexis DelVecchio. All observation and conclusions about the work was completely collaborative.
REPRESENTATION All images were drafted in Rhino v.4 and refined in Adobe Illustrator.
Sugar Creek Pathway l Charlotte, NC
Ecologies, Techniques & Technologies IV Professors Niall Kirkwood and Pierre BĂŠlanger, GSD
PROJECT For a reverse engineering assignment, the deconstruction of this pathway and retaining wall reveals several aspects of the original design that could be revisited and revised.
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Specifically, the wall itself could be narrowed and either raised or lowered to create a more defined space. Concrete footings could also be reduced in size preventing unecessary disturbance to the soil in construction and deconstructing the wall. Overall, the construction was very heavy-handed in its contact with the ground. Another iteration would investigate plants and re-grading to address the steep topographic condition.
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Sugar Creek Pathway l Charlotte, NC
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Ecologies, Techniques & Technologies IV Professors Niall Kirkwood and Pierre BĂŠlanger, GSD
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PROJECT This drawing explores the construction of the same Sugar Creek Greenway pathway by drawing the process of de-constructing it, with associated technology in notes. REPRESENTATION Drawing was drafted in AutoCAD and edited in Illustrator CS5.
LANDSCAPE / ARCHITECTURE
Experimentation in Materiality & Form
‘Making’ Seminars Professors: Andrea Hansen (GSD) and James Reitinger (UNCC)
These investigations foster divergent design thinking by using a particular working method to discover uncanny and unsual spaces. In a course titled “Materiality: Hybrid Spatial Tectonics,” physical models were built within the categories of WEAVE, FOLD and INFLATE and then integrated into montages that imagine the models as occupiable structures (Images A-B below). In a seminar focusing on landform and ecological process, a precedent landscape was constructed and altered in Rhino before being translated, using Vary, Illustrator and Photoshop, into a set of montages that each depict a vivid, idiosyncratic scene.
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Image A [above]: Rendering for MHST Seminar, Weaving model overlaid with landscape image. Image B [below]: Photographs of woven model with steel rods and plywood strips.
Waste Land-Scapes
Professor Andrea Hansen, Harvard GSD
Image A : Sectional Perspective: “Wasteland: The Burial of the Dead”
GSD2241 - Landscape Representation III: Landform and Ecological Process
Image B : Perspective: “Wasteland: What the Thunder Said”
PROJECT The project transformed a precedent into an imagined landscape capitalizing on surface-making tools in Rhinoceros. Final renderings were informed by imagery from sections of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. REPRESENTATION images A-B were created using Rhino v.4, Grasshopper, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.
“Falling towers Jerusalem Athens Alexandria Vienna London Unreal.” - t.s. eliot
Materiality: Hybrid Spatial Tectonics
WEAVE, FOLD
FOLD
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Image B: FOLD mode of bended chipboard imagined as hiding place within a tree-studded lawn.
PROJECT These images represent folded and woven models using a range of materials, figures and background landscapes to bring these small sketch models to life. REPRESENTATION
Image A [above] : WEAVE model of steel rods and plywood strips imagine in a desert landscape
Images A-C were created with various modeling materials (as noted) and using photography and Adobe Photoshop. The model in Image A was made in collaboration with UNCC graduate students including Jermey Roh and Brad Buter; all rendering was completed independently.
Image C [above] : FOLD model of melted acryclic and piano wire Image D [below]: FOLD mode of bended chipboard.