the
(un)INHABITABLE earth
_ITERATION NO.
217
selected works | Danny Jarabek University of Pennsylvania M.Arch 2024
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DANNY JARABEK
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“What did you do? Our answer cannot just be that we did everything we could. It has to be more than that. There is really only one answer: We did everything that was necessary. And in the difference between those two lies humanity's destiny.”
Christiana Figueres Paris Climate Agreement
In 2020, the weight of global anthropogenic mass was calculated to surpass the weight of global biomass. As a result of human activity and (in)activity in responding to the climate crisis and the crossing of this threshold with no return, the planet inches closer to the brink of widespread environmental catastrophe with each passing day. With the construction industry contributing to nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions and a planet moving toward 1.5 degrees of warming, it is not only the responsibility of architects to find design solutions for a cleaner future, it is our imperative. The Uninhabitable Earth contends with the paradox of our simultaneous needs to build space for an ever-increasing urban population and to stop consuming non-renewable resources at exorbitant rates. In the coming years, the architect will find itself at a crossroads, and time is running out (very high confidence). What road will we take?
Weitzman School of Design
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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_CONTENTS
00
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I. (the) HEAT PLAGUE p. / 12
II. (the) CARBON BUDGET p. / 18
III. (the) UNBREATHABLE AIR p. / 22
IV. (the) MASS EXTINCTION p. / 30
V. (the) ENERGY CRISIS p. / 40
VI. (the) FOOD SHORTAGE
University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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I. (the) HEAT PLAGUE manhattan, nyc
Critic Brian DeLuna 01.11.23 - 04.27.23 Typology Theater Academic Graduate Collaboration Sophie Wojtalewicz
Weitzman School of Design
the HEAT PLAGUE acknowledges the notion that global temperatures are approaching inhabitable levels where heat thresholds of 1.5 degrees will launch catastrophic climate events in vulnerable climate zones. The illusion of global warming as an inconsequential existential threat as the planet has heated and cooled throughout history is represented in the act of theater. In the theater, the intentions of its players fixate upon a curated interpretation – perhaps through the believability of reproduced stories and experiences, perhaps through subversive deception – but those that visit always seek refuge behind a fortified boundary of persuasion that it leaves behind. Reminiscent of the fictitious and crafted performances theater visitors come to witness, the façade and interiors of the project employ techniques of curved, tubed, and warped glass positioned in a layered assemblage to create nuanced experiences of illusion, disorientation, and – in the right lighting – a surreal iridescence. The glass assemblage challenges the notion of warming of it relates to interior thermal comfort in a typology that is traditionally a black box. The visible transparency acts to place the audience on stage in confronting the heat both mitigated (and generated) by the built environment.
(1) elevation detail render
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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MEGA STRUCTURE
Glulam primary members frame the massing of the building and support the primary floor plates. The major columns bend to meet the embedded shell cores.
CLT FLOOR PLATE
The main floors of the building are 5-ply CLT panels independent of the curtain wall facade.
TIMBER CAGE
A lightwood timber cage surrounds the glass assemblage with heightened density per localized structural requirements. Horizontal members extend beyond the thermal envelope to hold vertical glass louvers in place.
TIMBER TRUSS
Secondary timber trusses support the mezzanine level balconies between the primary floors. The trusses distribute the floor load to the primary glulam columns.
THEATER BALCONY
A series of intermediate floors act as variable balconies to compose the vertical experience of the theater.
CLT SHELL GLASS FACADE
The facade operates as a composite curtain wall with a curved glass climate envelope and tube glass ornament.
Cross-laminated timber panels act as shear cores that cross-brace between the secondary trusses and primary columns.
GLASS SHINGLES
The interior facing side of the glass assemblage is a shingled glass system that suggests the typical acoustic paneling of a theater. The glass, however, challenges performance requirements and warps the user experience.
(2) structure & facade axon
University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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The layers of glass facade systems disorient the user from a functional perspective while challenging the thermal radiation requirements of its typology.
Weitzman School of Design
(1-2)
(1-2) model photographs
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
(3) site plan
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University of Pennsylvania
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Weitzman School of Design
DANNY JARABEK
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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800
600
400
200
(2)
0
-200
-418 kgCO2e/m3
-608 kgCO2e/m3 -667 kgCO2e/m3
-400
LVL
Mass Timber
-600
CLT
Glulam
-800
(1)
(1) site section (2) parapet green roof detail
University of Pennsylvania
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Weitzman School of Design
DANNY JARABEK
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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With an independent glulam and crosslaminated timber primary structure, the facade operates as a composite curtain wall with a curved glass climate envelope and tube glass ornament. On the interior, wood trusses support a shingled glass assemblage that suggests acoustic performance in the theater space while adding to the disorienting material experience through reflection and refraction of sound and space.
(1) south elevation
University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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II. (the) CARBON BUDGET philadelphia, pa - Philadelphia Museum of Art
Critic Danielle Willems 10/18/21 - 12/14/21 Typology Museum Academic Graduate Collaboration Individual
Weitzman School of Design
the CARBON BUDGET intends to peel back the façade of the museum typology by recalling the articulation of industrial history and deconstructing the narratives underneath the surface of artistic ownership and display. Through introducing a critical inquiry into the role of the universal museum and its global consequences, the extension proposal seeks to erode the western model of privileged artistic consumption that dominates untold narratives in a similar fashion to the disproportionate contribution to the global carbon budget having greater impact on the lower-emitting Global South. In order to destabilize the choreography of this systemic typology, the building utilizes a hyper tectonic construction exploring a grand cantilever to combat potential site flooding and to empower the excessive expression of structure, and therefore, truth. The celebration of industrial articulation highlights the mechanical, the procession, the unspoken in service of liberating the art it houses. This intends to expose a heightened reality of its display and the carbon footprint required to manufacture this setting.
(1-2) model photographs
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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3
1 1 Temporary Installation/Exhibition 2 Education Center 3 Permanent Gallery/Main Entry
The three main program blocks deteriorate from the inside out, create interlocking moments for the masses to slip and glide into and out of place.
Weitzman School of Design
2
(1)
(1) exploded program diagram
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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(2)
(2) site plan
University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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OXIDIZED COPPER INTERIOR FINISH The weather-treated interior finish evolves with the building as the material ages and transforms over time. Rather than remaining static, the interior finish reflects the internal erosion that deconstructs the preconceived notions surrounding the museum experience. T.O. STRUCTURE + 42’-0’
T.O. ROOF + 34’-0’
LEVEL TWO + 20’-0’
T.O. MEZZANINE RAMP + 6’-0’
LEVEL ONE MEZZANINE + 3’-0’
GRADE + 0’-0’
LEVEL ZERO - 12’-0’
B.O. BASEMENT - 26’-0’
Weitzman School of Design
VIGNETTE 1: INSTALLATION SPACE The double-height space serves as a vertical clearing at the peak of the ramp that spans the structure opening to a floating gallery space with an anamorphic ceiling.
EXPOSED MEP SYSTEMS The visibility of the building’s systems forces users into an unnatural and destabilizing museum environment where truth in artwork and truth in building composition/ function coexist.
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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VIGNETTE 2: PRIVATE GALLERY Elevated pockets of space serve as intimate private galleries for specialized temporary installations.
MAIN ENTRANCE AT GRADE A raised main entrance shifts the topography a single level above the landscaped site and amphitheater to heighten the effect under the cantilever.
UNDERGROUND THEATER
An underground theater serves as the structural anchor for the building as well as provides a private programmatic space for an immersive theater viewing.
(1) exploded choisy
University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
p. / 18
III. (the) UNBREATHABLE AIR philadelphia, pa - university of pennsylvania
Critic Danielle Willems 08/10/21 - 10/14/21 Typology Installation Academic Graduate Collaboration Clara Shim Sara Halawani Zihan Li
Weitzman School of Design
the UNBREATHABLE AIR explores the structural properties and fabrication strategies of carbon fiber as an experimental material to engage and interact with polluted air. The project extracts its shape from the boundary of the site subtracting double-curved polysurfaces to mold an undulated form. The selfsufficient structure is fabricated from resin-baked carbon fiber that is woven in various density patterns through a series of modules to reinforce its lightweight structural capacity. The gradient weaving patterns serve as a physical connection between the woven modules and the user perspective guiding views through materiality and allowing for an interactive, unpredictable visual experience. The digital expansion of the chamber also explores the proliferation of suspended solid material between the layers of carbon in order to display the collection of pollution as it accumulates in the network of the structure. This is intended to make tangible the invisible properties of the air we breathe amidst a crisis in global air quality.
(1-2) installation photographs
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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The axon of the installation is exploded by layers of fabrication as the modules of formwork were required to occupy a specific volume in order to bake the carbon fiber in a kiln.
Weitzman School of Design
(1)
(1) exploded axon
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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(2)
(3-6)
(2) plan (3-6) elevation series
University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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IV. (the) MASS EXTINCTION queens, nyc
Critic Gisela Baurmann 08/30/22 - 12/13/22 Typology Multifamily Housing Academic Graduate Collaboration Individual
Weitzman School of Design
the MASS EXTINCTION is a proposal speculating on the cohabitation of humans and bees in an urban housing setting. The project seeks to recontextualize the interface between the human and nonhuman at the scale of high-rise housing in Queens, NY. The human-honey bee relationship is one of great significance for the bee’s responsibility in maintaining the agricultural industry in the face of existential climate threats that have decimated global hives, colonies, and populations. The proposal examines this relationship by adopting a non-anthropocentric position, defining user profiles as fluid roles of pollinator, fertilizer, and germinator. As a result, the building is not a fixed architectural operation, but rather an organism in its own capacity of equal consequence to the human and nonhuman users, leveling the status of the three user profiles to interdependent aspects of the proposal. The human spaces are a surrounding network of interchangeable units with individual urban farming gardens that transform into human composting chambers upon death, recycling all components of the organism’s life cycle and adapting housing into not only a model of life but also of death.
(1) figure ground (2) elevation vignette
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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University of Pennsylvania
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Weitzman School of Design
DANNY JARABEK
(1) hinge axon
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
(2) site section
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University of Pennsylvania
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DANNY JARABEK
(1)
(2)
Weitzman School of Design
(1) floor plan (2) profile studies
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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MESH GREEN WALL FACADE The facade is a double skin system composed of a metal wire mesh that acts as an interface for vertical vegetation growth and allows for pollination to occur. The permeability of the mesh supports the movement of the bees as cohabitants.
HONEYBEE ATRIUM
Throughout the building, zones of crosslaminated timber act as cores to support the building’s construction and allow transportation and living spaces for the inhabitant bees. These zones harvest energy from the wax, honey, and kinetic movement of the bees.
APIARY
The top unit is reserved for the building’s resident beekeeper who maintains an attached public apiary that naturally sustains bee populations on the site.
POD UNIT
The pod units are the core module of the building, collecting solar energy in adaptive louvers and offering unique studio living spaces.
LIGHTWOOD INFRASTRUCTURE COMPOST CHAMBER Each unit contains an attached chamber for personal gardening until the user passes away, and it is then adapted into a bed of organic material for human composting. The user is then returned to the life cycle of the building.
(3) chunk rendering
The in-between spaces between modules are filled with a lightweight infrastructure of wood framing to propagate hanging gardens. These gardens are maintained by the building users to grow edible products for personal cooking.
(3)
University of Pennsylvania
p. / 28
Weitzman School of Design
DANNY JARABEK
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
The facade allows a permeability between interior and exterior encouraging the cohabitation of native honeybees that nest in crevices between units. Over time, the nesting logic will become a component of the architecture itself.
(1-2) model photographs
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(2)
University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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V. (the) ENERGY CRISIS philadelphia, pa - callowhill
Critic Annette Fierro 01/20/22 - 04/27/22 Typology Public Market Academic Graduate Collaboration Individual
Weitzman School of Design
the ENERGY CRISIS explores environmental and ecological mapping by filtering, processing, and re-imagining data sets on pollution, heat stress, and vegetative cover to reveal conflation intensities as a modality for architectural strategy. By the rethinking of elements such as humidity, light, and heat in micro-climatic conditions as spatial dimensions, the amplification of invisible environmental boundaries visualizes the unseen and produces a marketplace that operates cyclically in a constant state of decay and regrowth. Through the active exchange of biomaterials between user and market, the user’s awareness of their intrinsic interconnectivity with the earth and its energy is raised forming a marketplace at the intersection of biology, ecology, physiology, and architecture. The project seeks to regain agency for the environment in this struggle between humanity and Earth by utilizing technology not to exploit and overshadow environmental conditions but rather bring them to the surface for public visualization and awareness.
(1) site plan collage
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
(2) section cutaway axon
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University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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Heterostasis is defined as any device, organ, system or organism capable of multi-state behavior that can be represented by an abstract state machine composed of a characteristic set of related, interconnected states, linked dynamically by change processes allowing transition between states. Operating in this state of heterostasis, hydroponic algae pods fertilize algae production that is converted to biofuel and electrical energy that operates the site and local manufacturing for clean, reusable energy. In addition to harvesting algae, the system recycles glass that is printed through robotic arms throughout the site that are programmed to produce and aggregate glass tubes for photobioreactive distribution of organic biomaterial relative to specific microclimatic conditions of the site at a specific date and time. In this way, bespoke technology becomes a theatrical performance revealing and visualizing climate data through the magnitude and direction of its physical self-sufficient operations.
Weitzman School of Design
(1)
(1) operations diagram
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
(2) site plan
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University of Pennsylvania
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Weitzman School of Design
DANNY JARABEK
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
(1) site section
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University of Pennsylvania
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Weitzman School of Design
DANNY JARABEK
(1) site plan rendering
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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(2)
(2) collage axon
University of Pennsylvania
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Weitzman School of Design
DANNY JARABEK
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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VI. (the) FOOD SHORTAGE sao paulo, brazil
Critic Nate Hume 08/30/23 - 12/13/23 Typology SESC Academic Graduate Collaboration Alexa Rojas
Weitzman School of Design
the FOOD SHORTAGE stands as a beacon of social responsibility, a vital plug connecting the community with a utopian vision in an increasingly dystopian climate. The SESC center of São Paulo hinges on its role in the cycle of materials as well as programmatically within the food cycle. A focus on food and sports as community engagers make it a vital force that not only shoulders the responsibilities of community activation but also embeds the notion of recycling into its architectural DNA. The project manifests these cycles by embracing lo-fi vernacular materials and visualizing the sourcing and transportation of food to the site and vertically through the building. The architectural concept draws inspiration from the ubiquitous ‘plug’ vernacular present throughout São Paulo. From air conditioning units to mechanical components, these elements represent the way in which contemporary visions can seamlessly integrate with an established structure. The SESC Center adopts this metaphor and makes it a tangible part of its design at multiple scales, embodying the idea of a foreign body inserted into an existing framework, highlighting the precarious implant as a force for change against the agricultural crises in Brazil and beyond decimating food storages across the globe.
(1) model photograph (2) massing axon
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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massing
Weitzman School of Design
primary
secondary
tertiary
(1) structure axon (2-5) structure diagrams
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
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In the two-floor axon above, a variety of architectural features are studied in relation to one another in order to detect clashes between circulation and structure, as well as analyze the experiential qualities of the program layout. A core ramp acts as the primary circulation device bisecting the cafe and sports venues within the SESC. By allowing for transparent views across the two spaces, users on the ramp are allowed to engage with the program users, creating a community environment for direct and indirect users vertically throughout the building. Structurally, overscaled timber trusses interject the floor plates aligned to the geometry of the massing with its colliding massings. Offset from the timber cage curtain wall, the primary and secondary glulam members allow the plywood shingle facade to be hung off the edge of the CLT panel floor plates.
(6) two-floor axon
(6)
University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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plugs
Weitzman School of Design
furniture
structure
circulation
(1) floor plan (2-5) plan diagrams
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
(6) section cutaway
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University of Pennsylvania
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Weitzman School of Design
DANNY JARABEK
(1) elevation
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
(2) section
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University of Pennsylvania
DANNY JARABEK
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detail// An essential detail punctuates the facade – a connecting plug. It links shingles, integral to the facade’s language. This unassuming protrusion signifies cohesion, where components converge, forging a practical yet unified design.
Ramps slice through the building, serving as the primary circulation arteries of the project. These functional conduits, strategically positioned, punctuate the structure with expansive framed views of Sao Paulo. The ramps, emerging as deliberate design gestures, not only facilitate circulation but also transform the building into a responsive interface, fostering a symbiotic relationship between the built environment and the energetic city beyond. The deliberate alignment of ramps and framing creates a dynamic interplay between the built environment and the urban panorama. A choreography of movement unfolds, as users traverse the ramps, each frame offering a curated glimpse of the vibrant cityscape, seamlessly integrating the project with its surroundings while providing an immersive experience for occupants.
frame//
Weitzman School of Design
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH
m
at
er
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ial
//
play
//
The e the ssence o scatt structure f play p e e vibra red s , embo rmeates nt in ports die the court d in joy vitation s. peop of re to A conn le conve creation revel in rge, ect. , w c an h atmo The bu ompete, ere beco ilding an sphe m re fos d intera es a cond where ters spirit ction, uit fo play e com of comm pitomiz r socia l in petiti on. unity an g the d frie ndly
rotate// The facade’s framework engages in a captivating dance of rotation, defying conventional angles. Each twist conveys dynamism, an architectural language in motion. Interrupting this rhythmic rotation are programmatic plugs, purposeful disruptions that inject functionality. These twists and interruptions form a choreography of design, where the static meets the kinetic, creating a building that is not just a structure but a narrative unfolding in spatial rotations and programmatic interjections.
University of Pennsylvania
contact@dannyjarabek.com 518-332-9339
the
UNINHABITABLE EARTH. “What did you do?”
