Selected Works
Denise Nugent 2018
Contents Gingerless - 2016
1
Accepted Ruin - 2015
29
Relics - 2017
43
Uncaged Taipei - 2014
57
Gingerless 22-Unit Housing Project Los Angeles, CA Senior Project, 2016
1
To take on a home is to take on all the intimacies of a person’s daily life: their vulnerabilities, guilty pleasures, prides and theatrics. Housing, as the accumulation of homes, multiplies this intimacy and introduces the interaction between many individuals, couples, families and other social dynamics. American housing has lost its consideration and sense of performance and theatre, but there remains some notations of our desire for a shared experience in the curated adaptations that are implemented by their inhabitants. The process of an overlay of formal curves and the regulated grid causes neither layer to dominate over one another. Both exist in portions, forming an enclosed space with segments of each layer merging the conventional room shapes with curvilinear differences that not only provide individuality of space but also begin a dialog with those who inhabit the space. How a resident may choose to interact with a room’s irregularities, either through acceptance, compromise or demolition are all choices worthy of active pursuit. The focus then is with the thresholds of space and how they must be addressed in sequence of each other. By internally eliminating the corridor, spaces within the home can interact directly next to each other, both serving to support each other’s shared programmatic elements as well as allowing circulation to happen as a sequential experience. Without the in-between of the corridor space, the boundaries of each space become distinguished, not by physical separation but by their sense of display so as to provide a more visible occupation and character of the individual as an inherent part of the project.
2
Domestic Wiles Against Los Angeles’ Scenic Industrial Context
Unit 2
Unit 1
Unit 3: 1st Floor
Unit 3: Ground Floor
1/16” = 1’ - 0”
Unit 4: 1st Floor
Unit 4: Ground Floor
Unit 5: 1st Floor
Unit 5: Ground Floor
1/16” = 1’ - 0”
Resident Narratives of Habitation
Urban Romantics to Private Romantics to Unreciprocated Romance
Heedfulness to Gardens to Obliviousness
Shared Courtyard Folly
a+b b+a
b+c c+b
c+d d+c
d+a a+d
26
a+b+c+d
Accepted Ruin Music School Los Angeles, CA Winter, 2015
29
The historic buildings along Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles have experienced a number of transitions, but more recently is seen with grander potential. The focus is on the Bullock’s Department store (now a Burlington’s and parking lot) on the corner of Broadway and Seventh Street, as well as the active back alley of St. Vincent Court. The proposed program of a music academy allows for the building to be revitalized from a commercially interested building to a facility that fosters a creative and educational habitation of such a historically rich yet adaptable space. What remains of the historic building is its ornate façade, original windows and the basic internal structure of floor slabs and 2’x2’ concrete columns. These elements, although minimal, serve as an extension of context to work with. The ornament of the façade becomes the clear element of the past, the internal structure as support for present implementations, and a tertiary element of the central core sphere as a projection of what is desired to be retained in the future. The only opportunities to inhabit the interior of the sphere are in single-occupation practice rooms reserving the inner sphere for personal creative pursuits and reflection. The central column bay along 7th Street is the single location that strips the original façade and imposes two stark concrete walls that clear all 7 stories to suggest a hint of the adapted interior. With the original columns retained, the new circulation moves around them, exposing some to multiple stories. Fragments of the sphere are found through the rest of the building accepting the possibility of the building’s return to ruin before revitalizing it once again.
30
Front Elevation with the Exposed New
New Floors and Threshold Walls
New and Exploded Core
Historic Structure
Historic Ornament
Exploded Layers
Procession into Lobby
Elevated Core above Lobby Entrance
Programmatic Layers with the Core Remaining in Sight
Student Activity Amongst Fragments
Internal Haven for Individual Creative Pursuits
1st Floor
Ground Floor
1/64” = 1’ - 0”
8th Floor
1/64” = 1’ - 0”
7th Floor
Relics Observatory Fremont Peak, CA March, 2017
43
The professions of architecture and astronomy have, for centuries, shared a close relationship. Our endless fascination with the cosmos has fueled our mythology, culture of scientific exploration, and centuries-worth of architectural form. From the Greek and the Roman, to the Renaissance and neoclassical works of Nicolas LeDoux. The architectural form has served as the storyteller of our discoveries, as the realized form of scientific dedication and fascination. The observatory’s common form is geometrically functional, for the telescope and the humans who use it, making its design, on one hand, highly logical and pragmatic. However, the observatory also houses the magnitude of scale between the telescope and the human, both acting as figural elements subjected to the sky. Ultimately embodying a similar sense of grandeur found in a building that holds religious purpose. Added to these implications, the logic of needing to be placed atop a hill to minimize light and other physical obstructions, alternately creates an almost ritualistic procession to the destination. The Fremont Peak Observatory aims to revitalize the mysticism of astronomy. The visitor’s journey up to the peak continues into and through the site. Each programmatic element serves a sequential purpose. Each is allowed to adhere to its topographical context and generate a character on its own, while introducing forms and conditions that will become more familiar as proceeding through the site. Each piece has a distinct roof type, as the existing observatory, to remain in its entirety, possesses its own. Both observatories position the visitor as the only figure between the boundaries of the ground and sky. The observatories are then treated similarly: as stand-alone elements, as monuments to the site, and as relics to their history and profession.
44
Forces and Subsequent Elements of the Proposal
- CAMP SITES (10) (PRIMITIVE BY CAL STATE PARK STANDARDS)
COMBO - PICNIC TABLES (10) AND BBQ AREA (10)
PICNIC & BBQ AREA
CAMPGROUNDS 5/10
PUBLIC BATHROOMS
NEW TELESCOPE ENCLOSURE INDOOR MEETING SPACE OUTDOOR LECTURE SPACE
TELESCOPE PADS
CAMPGROUNDS 5/10
EXISTING TELESCOPE ENCLOSURE INTERPRETIVE ACTIVITY CENTER
CARETAKER QUARTERS VISITING RESEARCHERS QUARTERS
1:40
1:120
CAMP SITES (10) (PRIMITIVE BY CAL STATE PARK STANDARDS)
MBO - PICNIC TABLES (10) AND BBQ AREA (10)
TE PARK STANDARDS)
A (10)
1:60
Site Procession
Uncaged Taipei 12-Unit Housing Project Shida Taipei, Taiwan Fall, 2014
57
Most mid-rise apartment complexes built in the 1970’s in Taipei were built to accommodate the growing population with little consideration to the architectural implications. Due to their monotonous organization of a central vertical circulation, branching off on either side at every level, this results in a total of 6 units per lot with the ground floor open for commercial use. Almost all apartments have since been appropriated with cages over their windows to allow extra space for drying clothes, plants or even full extensions for extra living space. The proposed project sits on two lots with twelve units and maintains the use of the ground floor for commercial and public space. Drawing from more successful housing typologies of the Japanese influenced housing typology of a row-house with courtyard and the local artists’ village with a meandering navigation that celebrates its spontaneity, this project allows for the same adaptation that occurs naturally in housing but provides the space for those extensions through movable walls creating an expandable living or outdoor space.
58
Commercial Ground Floor
1/32” = 1’ - 0”
1st Floor: Option 2
1st Floor: Option 1
2nd Floor: Option 2
2nd Floor: Option 1
1/32” = 1’ - 0”
Hybridized Facade of Textures
Publically Shared, Locally Cared for Courtyard Space
Domestic Affairs on Display
Domestic Affairs in Private
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