Advanced Design Portfolio

DANIEL HOUGHTON ADVANCED DESIGN PORTFOLIO

2012 2014

DANIEL HOUGHTON ADVANCED DESIGN PORTFOLIO

2012 2014

Completed at the University of South Florida School of Architecture and Community Design Completed by Daniel Andrew Houghton

Table of Contents Advanced Design Studios

8

Design A: Touching History

26

Design B: Hackney Incubator

46

Design C: St. Petersburg Urban

Elective Design Studios

72

Modern Housing: Aguadilla Housing

80

Japanese Architecture: Tea House

84

Care of Making: Bird Feeder

88 Detail Making: Frame

Table

Chair

A

Advanced Design A

B

Advanced Design B

C

Advanced Design C

GROUP

Associate Professor Nancy Sanders Summer 2012 Study Abroad

Adjunct Professor Josue Caraballo Fall 2013

Professor Dr. Vikas Metha Fall 2014 Diana Sanclemente + Chris Weaver

A

Advanced

9

Design A: Study Abroad Associate Professor Nancy Sanders Director and Professor Robert MacLeod This studio focused on the study and application of thoughtfully placing a contemporary piece of architecture within a historical context. The goal while visiting Ljubljana was to understand the complex physical layers of an assigned site through historical research, day-to-day observation and analytical mappings. Collected data was then translated into a meaningful design strategy that reflected the sites needs and potential. The six week residency in Ljubljana was supplemented by weekend trips to the near by countries of Italy and Switzerland – where the juxtaposition and melding of contemporary and historical projects were studied at numerous noteworthy projects.

A

11

A

Places Visited in Europe: • Pula, Croatia • London, England • Paris, France • Berlin, Germany • Budapest, Hungary • Venice, Italy • Verona, Italy • Vicenza, Italy • Ljubljana, Slovenia • Barcelona, Spain • Madrid, Spain • Bellinzona, Switzerland • Vals, Switzerland • Zurich, Switzerland

13

Analyzing ˆ Krizanke Ljubljana Slovenia

To be able to critically intervene in such a historically rich context it’s very important to understand the value and significance of each element placed on the site. Serving as a monastery until 1945, Krizanke was thereafter turned into a festival venue by renowned Slovenian Architect Jože Plečnik. Modern day Krizanke contains a secondary school, offices for Festival Ljubljana, a cafe, a church and the music venue designed by Plečnik. The influence Plečnik had on Krizanke also appears in the small courtyard behind the church, in a series of columns bounding the main courtyard and the small structure on the northwest edge of the block. Contributing multiple buildings and urban schemes to Ljubljana throughout his life, Plečnik is an important figure in the history and culture of Slovenia and can’t be ignored. Currently the secondary school for art and design covers the highest amount of square footage of the remaining monastery structure. As well as bringing the highest head count to the site each day, except on days of large events held in the venue space.

A

15

A

Dissecting a Series of Courtyards

The range of courtyard spaces through out the site held a variety of activity levels, purposes and ranking of historical significance. The two intimate courtyards behind the church proved to be the most interesting to me. The northern most was used during the day by staff of internal offices for coffee and lunch breaks. While on occasions was used as a private venue for small concerts or gatherings. The courtyard to the south was a gathering space for students attending the secondary school. It was a place where students associated, locked up their bikes and transition through between classes.

17

Understanding Surgical Intervention Krizanke Secondary School: Given the chance to develop our own program for this project I decided to address the issues I found embedded in the current state of the school and its image to the community. Invisible from the exterior and disorganized on the interior I was interested in proposing a better approach to organizing the school while respecting the layers of history I discovered while documenting and researching the site. The program evolved into a series of studio rooms, class spaces, a study center and a multipurpose gathering space. In the images below I note the different approaches I took to intervening within the sites varying levels of historical and cultural significance.

A

RESPECTING SIGNIFICANT

B

REPLACING DETERIORATED

C

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS

A

19

Longitudinal and cross sections of the Krizanke secondary school.

A

Interior perspective of the proposed entrance, gathering and study space for the Krizanke secondary school.

21

Promoting an Educated Community The design of school cannot just incorporate the necessary physical conditions for students; it must be designed with its cultural value to the community in mind.

The idea of transparency between the school and the community was the driving forces behind the placement and purpose of the new education wing for Krizanke. Opening up towards the proposed active urban park space the school studios will be in direct view to the local community passing though or inhabiting the space. On the interior the open floor plan allows for students working on a range of projects to collaborate and be exposed to fellow students work.

Section Model Highlighted

A

23

School Courtyard

A

Event Space | Public Park | Schools Addition

25

Forming a Dialogue with the Surrounding Academic Fabric

The surrounding blocks of Krizanke contain a number of schools. The axis leading north contains a variety of primary schools, secondary schools and colleges. To the south east the college of architecture sits just across the street. Heading East a few blocks past the school of architecture leads directly to the rivers edge.

The Krizanke secondary school is located at the cross roads of a much traveled path through the city and is missing the chance to take advantage of its placement. At its original state the venue and resulting park are only accessible from an entrance inside the compound, leaving the area deserted a majority of the time. This scheme allows for pedestrians to flow through the park space, into the venue and continuing on towards the rivers edge. Overlooking this newly activated space is the new studio spaces for the art and design school.

A

second level plan 27

Design B: Hackney Incubator London Borough of Hackney | Fall 2013 Adjunct Professors Josue Caraballo

The image of Hackney has been greatly disturbed by the commencement of the 2012 Olympic Games. Great swaths of the urban landscape have been removed to bring forth the required space for the games to take place. In this area were many valuable community structures, meaningful dwellings and preserved natural landscapes. Despite this foreign entity being placed in the heart of a developed borough, Hackney still contains pockets of communal and creative life pushing against the consumerist driven Olympic project. This can be attributed to the home-grown mentality being promoted by the Hackney Council, coined as “Made in Hackney�. Also due to these new developments land values have risen, making it difficult for displaced residents to find affordable living. This issue requires many residents to look else where in London for living, where they will be far away from people they once held a close connection to. This is the beginning on the gentrification of the Hackney borough.

B

CONTEXT

29

B

The Bartlett Development Planning Unit Summer Lab: Localizing Legacies Artist Alberto Duman | Teaching Fellow William Hunter London, England | University College London

An emphasis on a grass roots approach to community research is what highlighted this studios difference from the traditional architectural design studio. The research concentrated on touring the 2012 London Olympic grounds and receiving numerous lectures from community members effected by the initial construction, hosting and post development of the summer games. The Hackney Borough experienced a large scale displacement of an existing communities, rapid gentrification and a subsequent change in it’s identity. A two day design charrette combined individual and group thoughts with the goal of sketching-out a small scale intervention or policy driven scheme to promote growth within a fractured community. The ideas of multiple groups were presented at a community work space in the Hackney borough following our accelerated work period. All studies and findings were also tied into a semester long design assignment at the University of South Florida during the Advance Design B studio course. The finished collection of work from summer lab and the University of South Florida studio was published by The Bartlett DPU.

31

Uncovering the Past

Sited on the grounds of the Olympics was Clays Lane, the largest purpose-built housing cooperative in Europe. Addressing the lack of housing for young single people the compound boasted 450 residents at its closure. Clays Lane offered numerous social hubs for their tenants, including: a cafe, a community hall and multiple venues for impromptu events. Supplying much needed spaces for the individuals to participate in an active and healthy community lifestyle. This was all lost due to the introduction of the Olympic infrastructure. The shades of red on the mapping represent a variety of other negative impacts the recently added infrastructure has added to the mix of Hackney’s future. Including destroying valuable nature preserves and outsourcing jobs at new local mega mall.

B

33

Communal Interests

Resulting from the 2012 London Olympics the Identity of Hackney is struggling to take center stage amongst all the new profit driven shopping centers and high-end tower projects. Paired with the fact that forty percent of new residents in the borough only stay up to a few years, this makes it difficult for the low end, middle class and students to get a chance in contributing to the growth and resulting image of their community. This population churn can be slowed down by the focus on the young entrepreneurs and college students and their ability to use the borough as a platform for new ideas and exploration of their skill sets. Every circle with a shade of red attached to it ranges from a primary school to a university. There are only three university options in the borough. Two of them located near public transportation, which makes it easy for students to not live in the community they are getting their eduction in.

B

35

B

Conceptual Development Giving the Community a Platform to Interact, Grow and Contribute: Reacting to the issues discovered through my research it seemed appropriate that an additional space combining attributes from the valued Clays Lane housing co-op and a mixture of flexible work spaces be designed for the growing entrepreneurial class. Seeing the benefit of intermingling the two ideas pushes the development of the interstitial space between housing units. Wedging communal and work spaces between affordable living and social housing gives individuals living in the tower, despite their background, common ground to associate on. The circulation in this exploration was such that if you lived in affordable rate housing or social housing you exited the elevator at the same common area, transition through the communal “third space” and either go up or down a set of stairs to your unit. These spaces can be used as spontaneous meetings points, organized events or places to work. At the base of the tower would be located a market to showcase all of the goods created in the tower to promote buying local goods and supporting local business by investing in Hackney’s beginners.

37

Developing Ideas of Verticality

Arising from my conceptual developments it seemed obvious that the tower should reflect a similar nature of that of the diagram created.

Creating a billboard for production the “third space” communal laboratories would be a focal point throughout the rise of the tower. The more specific operations would take place at the base of the tower where the community has the most interaction with it. While the communal, work and multipurpose spaces would be more open ended on higher levels – allowing for new residents to fit in better.

B

39

Bringing Back Identity

A critique on this tower was stated that its adding to the consumerist mind-set that is starting to run rampant in the borough of Hackney. The very thing stealing the identity away from its residents. The idea behind this tower is to give individuals a chance to get their business off the ground. Allowed through the inexpensive live-work scenarios provided for them in hope they reach their goal of producing and selling a product. This combination also address the issues of the fleeting young entrepreneurial class to other parts of the greater London area, by giving them a reason to stay.

B

41

Typical Communal Space

Level

6

Level

5

The sense of community formed in housing cooperatives is one of the biggest returns residents cited when asked about their experiences. The large voids noticeable from the street are the communal areas people would work, congregate and exchange ideas.

Its easy to think of live-work as an independent thing but in this scheme the residents are allowed to work knowing what their neighbors are doing as well.

B

43

The ground level of this tower is undoubtably the most important in allowing the tower function as a place where makers, creative and business people live and work. The towers base offers spaces for individuals with items to sell or promote to set up shop and interact with the community at large. Sited a block away from an underground station makes foot traffic very high and the likely hood of unplanned shopping common. Also located on the ground level is an independent brewery ran by residents of the complex. The rise in the popularity of the craft beer market would make it an easy sell to rent out units to prospective brew masters to experiment and create one of a kind craft beers.

B

G

A) entrance to market B) taxi drop-off C) park space D) market building E) communal work space level F) entrance to building G) circulation

E

D C B A

F

Ground Level

45

B

47

Design C: Urban Design St. Petersburg, Florida | Fall 2014 Professor Dr. Vikas Metha

Team Members: Diana Sanclemente and Chris Weaver

St. Petersburg is possibly the current hot spot for the young and hip in Pinellas County. Offering a wide range of unique restaurants, bars, cafes, breweries, music venues, art galleries and the like. Located right on Tampa Bay the city has a number of water related activities to offer as well. St. Petersburg doesn’t lack any issues though. Abandon buildings litter the surroundings of the downtown core. The population south of interstate 75 is distinctly more poverty stricken than their neighbors to the north. The Tropicana baseball stadium during its inactive states acts as a large wasteland of hot pavement. Combined with the exit ramp of the interstate, they make much of the inland part of St. Petersburg cut off from an enjoyable experience to the city core.

C

49

Green + Blue

Existing vs. Proposed

To begin understanding the urban fabric St. Petersburg we completed a simple ecological map of the main existing features in our area of focus. This helped to reveal numerous amounts of possibilities which we could focus in on and address.

existing

C

proposed 51

Fields of Interests

The initial green and blue diagram was helpful in flushing out all the possibilities and opportunities for green spaces and water additions throughout the scope of our focus. The benefit of limiting ourselves to only addressing the natural aspect of the urban plan really allowed us as a team to step back from the existing organization of the city and get an idea of what things we really believed could be improved, removed or left alone according to the faint natural imprint left on a developed city like St. Petersburg. From that point onward it was easier to add in urban nuances as we experienced them and organize them in our over all view. Breaking down our large diagram into three regions of interest took the simplification a step further.

Region A contains Tropicana Baseball Stadium, Booker creek and an abandoned rail line that headed northwest from the site of Tropicana.

Region B contains Mirror lake and the beginning of a lively downtown core. There are also a number of derelict buildings and abandon lots.

Region C this area of our St. Petersburg is the most firmly entrenched. Its host to many great restaurants, bars, museums, public space and the iconic pier.

C

A

B

C

53

Board Game

As a team we believed that the fields of interest diagram showed a need for development on most inland aspect of our urban scope. This region has the most potential for development and also has some of the forces necessary to drive it. Focusing in on the abandoned rail line and the site of the existing Tropicana stadium we developed a kit of common building types to place in board game fashion. One individual would glue down a selected building type and the next team member would follow. This allowed us to get a general idea of what we all saw happening across the board in a rough manner.

Game Pieces Commercial Residences Park + Community Public Follies Live-Work

C

55

C

Block Density Transit and Green Space Investigation

This investigation takes into account the area we had chosen to develop for our selective master plan for the city of St. Petersburg. A forming factor for this development began with consideration of how transit might fit into our overall scheme. Reworking the abandoned rail line as a functioning street car line; We were able to connect the areas surrounding the track all the way to the waters edge of Tampa Bay. The removal of the interstate 75 spur gave us area and purpose for this street car to activate the surrounding neighborhood and proposed commerce. The density focus of this mapping is most distinct in the Tropicana development where the intention for high amounts of pedestrian only and limited car activity is being proposed, making the extension of the rail line key to it creation.

57

Figure Ground Existing vs. Proposed

existing

C

proposed

59

Land Use Existing vs. Proposed

existing

C

proposed

61

Master Plan

Considering the Tropicana is on the slate for a possible removal we approached our master plan in the projection that this future course would take place and a large amount of land would become available. Considering the growing popularity and development happening in the city’s downtown core this new neighborhood development helps to fill a huge void in the urban fabric. The development along the rail line to the north is focused on reclaiming abandoned buildings through the creation of artist communes and a variety of live work scenarios in them. A park extension leads from the south east of the new neighborhood and trails to the existing Dali Museum, forging a connection with the waters edge and its activity.

C

63

C

Booker Creek Neighborhood

Investing in the beauty that is contained in the existing Booker Creek we wanted to give as much of this amenity to the neighborhood and surrounding communities as possible. A driver in the development of this ideal neighborhood was the interest in making large amounts of the site pedestrian only. The organization of our small community rests on the active public creek edge.

Individual buildings are pulled away from the varying courtyard typologies and are purposed to be filled with restaurants, cafes and art galleries.

65

A

B

C

Block Development

Zooming into the design of Booker Creek further the rough DNA of a block and surrounding urban environment starts to emerge. The living units on an active street are placed on the second floor with commerce on the bottom.

Individuals or families living in these units still would access their units through a street level entrance. Streets with less amount of circulation place the apartments on the first floor. The courtyard would only be accessible by residents. Each unit has its own allotted patio space and garden as well.

67

The importance of parking in a car obsessed culture, especially the St. Petersburg area, is very important to a success of a project. Despite our interest in making most of the development pedestrian only, we still wanted to accommodate our residents daily needs. The two streets paralleling the block exploration are resident only and intended to be equipped with the proper hardware to only allow them access. For visitors a parking garage is located on the west edge of the development and a street car is located on the east side of the creek.

Block Development

C

69

The focal point of the new Booker Creek development is the area surrounding the central pedestrian bridge, offering large public spaces, a museum, music venue and a civic center. The are surrounding the creek was designed so that the person experiencing the space has multiple options to choose from while walking, running, biking or even stopping to relax. In the blocks surrounding this particular one there would be creek side seating for cafes and restaurants.

C

71

Modern Housing Associate Professor Michael Halflants Spring 2013

Japanese Architecture Associate Professor Stanley Russell Fall 2012

Care of Making Associate Professor Steve Cooke Spring 2012

Detail Making Adjunct Professor Giancarlo Giusti Spring 2013

ELECTIVES

73

Aguadilla Housing

Puerto Rico | Spring 2013 Modern Housing Associate Professor Michael Halflants This scheme was organized by a community courtyard that opened up to the beach to the projects west.

The courtyard was punctured on three sides of the block to allow residences to enter and pedestrians to pass through. Each entry point also contained vertical circulation to the second story units. All three variety of unit organizations contain a courtyard facing porch and garden space. The units on the courtyard level have a higher level of enclosure and have trellises dividing each unit space.

75

1

Number of Bedrooms

2

3

Double Unit: This living unit is situated on the walkway level of the proposal. The top level contains the bedrooms which are organized around a double height space the opens up towards the courtyard. The kitchen and living room are placed on the entry level. The stairs to the bedrooms are celebrated in the center of the unit and create more space for the kitchen with the use of minimal structure.

Block Organization: Combination of units allows for the layout of this buildings overall form to be manipulated by removing single units independent of the whole. The breaking up of the corners or the creation of a threshold are achieved by removing one puzzle piece.

77

level one

unit types single bedroom unit double bedroom unit triple bedroom unit

level two

level three

79

Courtyard Level

The housing complex maintains a connection with its surroundings by opening up its courtyard towards the prevailing sea breezes of Augadilla Bay to the west. Respecting the amount of through traffic into the semi-private courtyard space the entrances to the courtyard space are located at mid block.

Stairwells for the raised walk way are also located in these voids. On the north east corner of the site a new urban nook is created that’s offers locals and residents the ability to participate in a game of chess at numerous set in place tables.

81

Elasticity

Material Study | Fall 2012 Japanese Architecture Associate Professor Stanley Russell

The tea house study began with an investigation into uncommon buildings materials to construct a wall system with. My initial thoughts were to choose a single material that allowed for a variety of applications and adjustments. Rubber bands happened to be ideal in the fact that they can stretch a range of lengths, twist and be adjusted once they are set in place by pulling or pushing on them. In this experiment the exterior ground has a number of holes at a set length from the wall that poles can be placed in to and act as a support to hold the band in its new form.

GRAPHIC

83

The tea masters entrance is embedded into the rubber bands passing below and above the frame of the door making it necessary to interact with the rubber bands to enter. The door can either be pushed up and removed or pushed down to create enough space to detach the door from its grasp on the bands.

Tea House

85

Bird Feeder

Care of Making | Spring 2012 Associate Professor Steve Cooke

My mother has always been interested in attracting as many birds to our yard as possible. This project began she started to work at home for her company and had a view out of the front window of our house. We have always had bird feeders in our backyard but never had a purpose to have one in the front until then. Every morning she would fill the feeders with fresh seed. Which she often mentioned to me was difficult with the off the shelf bird feeders she purchased. The resulting bird feeder I designed and made for her took into the account of her daily interaction with the object. The “L� shaped funnel made out of purple heart allows for an easy pour of seed from her seed cup. The container which the seed is held in, also constructed out of purple heart, is removable in the case of it needing to be cleaned.

The long vertical piece of oak is there to symbolize the separation of human interaction and that of the birds.

87

89

Picture Frame

Detail-Making | Spring 2013 Adjunct Professor Giancarlo Giusti

At the beginning of this project we tasked to design an apparatus made of wood and steel to hold a piece of art of our own choosing and creation. Being a hobby photographer the opportunity to advance my skills in shooting portraits seemed like a great idea. The base of the picture mount is a simple steel channel with a two by quarter inch steel flat bar welded on center and a quarter inch off the edge. A steel rod the length of the channel is welded on top of the flat bar and slid through a hole in the back of the wooden block. The steel rod gives support to the wood backing and holds the display at the given level off the channel. A second flat bar is then fed through an eighth inch score along the side of the wooden block to lock in display in place and prevent it from pivoting. At the top of the display a steel angle is welded to the end of the flat bar creating the second lip that holds the picture and the glass cover in place.

91

Coffee Table

Detail Making | Spring 2013 Adjunct Professor Giancarlo Giusti

The most successful detail that was accomplished through the construction of this table was the glass to wood connection. Holding the glass to the wood is a socket head cap screw which holds in place a two inch diameter water jetted circle with a large rubber washer to protect from direct steel to glass connection. The socket is fastened tightly by a bolt that is inset into the top of the wood frame and covered with a wood plug to make a smooth finish.

POSSIBLY RETAKE??

93

Lounge Chair

Detail Making | Spring 2013 Adjunct Professor Giancarlo Giusti

The driving idea behind the creation of this chair began with the challenge of creating an entire chair frame out of one continuous piece of steel rod. This proved to be impossible due to the length of steel rod needed for the design being much longer than what was readily attainable at local steel warehouses. Thus the final frame consisted of three hand bent pieces of five-eighths inch steel rod and two cross bracing at three-eights in the front and rear. Two hand cut pieces of leather wrap the frame and are held together by leather cord. The cord passes through grommets placed every inch on center of the under lapping leather sling.

HEAT

BEND

REPEAT

NO PERSON

95

97

99

Thank you.

Contact Information:

Daniel Houghton E-mail:

dhoughto@mail.usf.edu Phone Number:

813.380.7292 Digital Portfolio:

issuu.com/danielhoughtondesignportfolio