Unrelenting Beauty and an Ever-Shining Sun

Daniel Lutze

b s e-s

Mercury rules over a person’s intelligence, mentality, analytical skills, reaction, learning, grasping power, central nervous system, body language, and impression.

high density housing

I have a fascination with the relationship between architecture and the mind — how design can influence thoughts and human behavior, and vice versa. As such, I took Mercury — a project whose brief tasked me with creating a highdensity housing scheme that not only housed lowincome and luxury units but also included an aspect of the foster care system and responded to an existing urban housing project — as an opportunity to explore and understand this relationship on a deeper level.

Mercury unifies the new and existing constructions as well as its various types of housing by creating a new hybrid housing typology and by mainting a sense of fluidity throughout every part of the project — where fluidity is defined in this context as the sense of continuity and connectedness afforded by maintaining visual consistency through program organization, circulaiton, and materiality. This sense of fluidity aims to foster a sense of community among residents, and manifests at the city scale, the building scale, the detail scale, and the hyper-detail scale.

Site scale

Connecting the urban fabric on the scale of the city, Mercury prioritizes repositioning the site as a new urban pathway between surrounding neighborhoods in order to rejuvinate the site and create more usable greenspace.

existing apartment building

existing apartment building

existing apartment building

new “expressway” walking path

brooklyn-queens expressway

“building-scale” focus area

new “expressway” walking path

brooklyn DUMBO neighborhood

brooklyn navy yard neighborhood

brooklyn DUMBO neighborhood

existing apartment building

landscaping pathways

existing vertical circulation

existing vertical circulation

dormitory-style apartments

existing apartment building

existing apartment building

dormitory-style apartments

new vertical circulation

existing apartment building

brooklyn navy yard neighborhood

existing buildings

The ten unique star-shaped buildings currently on the site are quite well organized on their interiors, but lack interior common spaces. Mercury slides into the “spokes” of the existing buildings by creating pathways and shared spaces.

interwoven public, private, and circulation

above: hybrid typology traditional methods of organizing terrace housing, towers, and openaccess corridors are unable to foster a sense of community because they isolate programs from one another. Mercury hybridizes multiple typologies by interweaving terraces, shared spaces, and circulation and breaking the barries between these.

right: plans and section

Mecrury prioritizes placing people in unique spacial relationship with one another through the hybridization of housing typologies. Vertical and horizontal circulation move people fluidly past one another

level

level 05

level 04

new apartment unit

existing brick wall

brick feature wall

existing apartment unit

steel bar and plate structure allows for hinged brick layout

normal brick construction with modular, altered-face bricks

normal and bar-structure brick hybrid composition experiments

top: brick wall detail the existing brick transitions into the new brick wall through meticulous manipulation of bricks that create an interactive feature.

bottom: brick construction diagrams extensive research on brick composition and diagramming of atypical brick detailing was done to determine a possible composition in Mercury.

outdoor walkway

Brick as Spacial Figure what would it mean for the materiality of the building to become the vessel for engagement between community members? the intersitial spaces along the pathways between units create opportunities to explore this question.

tactile intimacy

at the scale of the hand, intricate brick glazing offers a surprising smoothness to contrast the typically rough brick. the alternating array of angled bricks provides a playscape to entertain and explore — a reaches their hand up to be greeted by an impression of fingers already present in the brick

interactive pavillion

A question I find is often overlooked in architectual education and discourse is the question of agency: who gets to design? For as much as insitutions claim that design is a “right,” I’ve often found that while experiencing design may be a right, designing is a privilege — a privilege typically granted by socioeconomic status and opportunity.

In the case of Nostalgia, I leaned into the theme of “play” to create an opportunity for anyone to design their own version of the pavillion. By designing the form of each peace after the Tangram — a chilhood toy — users approach with an innate yet unexpected familiarity, allowing them to more freely explore the more developed and complex teconic systems of the pavillion.

WEITZMAN PLAZA, PHILADELPHIA, PA

a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.

combining colors

stacking and interlocking

creating transparency

top: formal derivation the pieces of Nostalgia are derived from the Tangram Toy; each of the pieces are formally interrogated with reference to one another.

bottom: methods of play Nostalgia allows users to experimnent with color combinations, stacking and interlocking pieces, and transparency through parts.

Tangram

top: tectonic assembly

A sample assembly of pieces that illustrates how Tangram pieces can be combined in unexpected ways to create a layered, three-dimensional sculpture that takes advantage of both stacking and interlocking pieces

bottom: tectonic interactions through a three-layer composition, the Tangram shapes can be split apart into a new set of parts that can be rejoined into new wholes by sliding and interlocking pieces.

Exploded axonometric diagram illustrating the composition of pieces that was used for presentation. A white base was created in order to allow for more experimentation with volume and to provide users with a jumping-off point.

Community assembly

While on display, passersby were encouraged to play with Nostalgia and rearrange the pieces however they liked. The arrangement shown was put together by participants.

Transfigure aims to reinvent, reinterpret, and even warp elements of the existing building that create an imposing and grand atmosphere into ones that creates a vibrant, colorful, and welcoming one that nestles gently beside the quiet adjacent neighborhood. This goal is ultimately in service of creating a new home for the LGBTQ museum in New York as part of an addition to the New York Historical Society.

Drawing upong queer history in New York – specifically the culture of ballrooms founded by queer people of color wherin contestants are judged on their ability to emulate or create the illusion, often of a lifestyle unjustly kept from them through

racism and social injustice –we can view the NYHS’s as an assemblage of carefully selected aesthetic elements that create a facade or illusion of grandeur, sophistication, and purity.

To expand this parallel into a formal and aesthetic language for our addition, we look to the Vitruvian understanding of the ionic column as an expression of femininity, wherin the fluting of the shaft is seen as resembling the folding fabric of a dress. This imposition or revealing of a gentle nature in an otherwise imposing form becomes the driving motif of the project.

transform into something more beautiful

Above: Re-composition viewing the existing building as a composition of imposing and “pure” architecture elements, as a facade, we start to question of legacy of those such as Stanford White and allow the significance of queer icons and sotires like The Age of Innocence to take center-stage

right: sketched inversions Initial sketches demonstrate possible inversions of existing ornaments and details. Efforts were made to experiement with color, texture, and scale in order to defamiliarize existing elements and create opportunities implement them in the addition

top: elevation

bottom: skin detial

library + research

conference center

molded gfrp spandrel panel

gfrc panel beyond

molded gfrp spandrel panel

interior wood panel detailing interior wood panel detailing

sheer white curtain typ. on south facade

gfrcp panel w/ gradient color stack joint at centerline of building structure

molded gfrp spandrel panel

perimeter diffuser perimeter diffuser

sloped ceiling sloped ceiling

shading system

interior wood panel detailing

smoke seal firesafing

4” conc. deck w/ hardwood floor finish

molded gfrp spandrel panel

ptd. ext. gyp ceiling ext. rater sprinkler soffit lighting

curved cmu wall

stone finish to match existing condition

new sidewalk at main entrance new ext. drainage

exhibition gallery

top: interior atrium

bottom: street view

top: section n/s

bottom: section e/w

This Hebrew term and its translation convey the basic idea that a person (or group) is residing, either temporarily or permanently, in a community and place that is not primarily their own and is dependent on the “good-will” of that community for their continued existence.

As the importance of digital presentation and performance in architecture increases alongside the ease of sharing work online, I’ve begun to find joy in discovering and experimenting with unconventional methods of representation. In the case of Sojourn, I wanted to experiment with creating a tectonic langue of arranging and layering images by blurring the lines between physical and digital presentation. As the project brief asked to design a “streeterie” in a highly trafficed urban intersection, I wanted the presentation to capture the atmosphere of the site by combining digitially crafted renderings and construction details with hand-drawn sketches and my own handwriting.

The result is an unconventional poster that toys with the senses — the smell of rain, the texture of paper, and layers of scribbles and peeling stickers that suggest a palimpsest-like history of changes made by passersby.

Inspired by 448 N 10th Street's original purpose as the home of the Haveford Cycle Company, Sojourn unites eating, viewing, learning, and playing spaces through the use of curved pathways that connect programs – emulating the way chains on bike unite the wheels. Sojourn provides additional outdoor space to the Viaduct secret garden, Love City Brewing, and El Rincon, as well as new mural walls to showcase local artists.

CALLOWHILL, PHILADELPHIA, PA

above: construction detail

Construction of elevated walkway with lighting, structure, and drainage

right: poster design

Blurring digital and physical understandings of architectural representation. The physical properties of the poster and the digital ornament become the tectonic language that situates the information on the page

The Dawn is a new marketplace and urban typology located in Philadelphia’s Callowhill/ Chinatown neighborhood. Through site research that revealed Philadelphia’s past as a verdant wilderness, and the creation of a palimpsest drawing of the neighborhood that layered demolished

buildings, new buildings, and the ghosted outlines of longtorn-down trees, the idea was crafted for a new urban typology that could allow nature to reclaim elements of the built environment that have fallen into disrepair, as well as introduce ample space for community gardening

overgrown discovery rebirth

overgrown discovery rebirth

life float web cracked grid ruined

reconsidered redesigned contrast

overgrown discovery rebirth

overgrowing bursting breaking

existing conditions

The abandoned train tracks and decaying brick illustrate a history unique to urban settings, where technological and societal advancements rapidly leave behind the built environment that’s in plain site.

ai collage

An AI software combines images of existing site conditions with ones of biophilic art. How can new meaning be given to the disuse the site exists in? Each image is described with three terms that communicate its atmosphere or visual qualities. The resulting image is an unexpected reinterpretation of the decaying brick found on the site, and inspired the flourishing and overgrowing aesthetic of the project.

Garden in the city

Dawn prioritizes greating a lush urban green space filled with community gardens and space for community activities, as well as revitalizing the exiting rail park to create a new green pathway through the city.

1. Front Layer of Fibrous Growth Media

2. Back Layer of Fibrous Growth Media

3. Gravel Infill

4. Drainage Mesh

5. Waterproof Backer Board

6. Plywoof Backer

7. Modular Metal Planter

1. I-Beam/Grid Structural System

2. White GUHPC Panel

3. Photovoltaic Panel

4. Moss/Growth Panel

5. Waterproof Membrane

6. In-Wall Irrigation System

7. Double Glaze Insulated Glass

8. Interior Floor Finish

9. Metal Decking