Welcome and thank you for reading. My name is Elizabeth Cohn-Martin and I believe that design can be an agent of positive change. We have reached a point in evolution where the design of urban space will play a critical role in determining our health, well experienced unprecedented change. World population is growing at an exponential rate, and both developed and underdeveloped countries are feeling the burden of mass migration to urban centers, dependence on fossil fuels, and growing concern over resource scarcity. Natural disasters throughout the world are causing damage on a scale unseen before and poverty levels continue to deepen in areas often densely populated and
urban inhabitants as well as the natural world. The work, created both in and out of educational environments, displays a growing body of knowledge on what it means to design in this pivotal time. Designing for enhanced resilency and sustenance in the face of continual change is addressed from varying perspectives in each project. Design can, and should, be an agent of change, a tool of sustainable development, a guide to dealing with disaster and environmental shift, and ultimately a vehicle of healing. I believe architecture and design guided by these goals can achieve all this, and more. Design is a gift.
“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.� --Rumi
Water Walls | River Terrace and Fountain Experiment
Pattern radiates from fountain core Fountains pull water from river below Terrace course: Environmental Design 11B | 2007 instructor: Keith Plymale
a. Sweeping fountains weave river water throughout the built landscape. Cutting through the space and returning to the river, walls of water
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and generate pathways that users follow as they move from one end of the terrace to the other. Four hidden posts connect to each of the fountains and are buried in the river bed, yielding structural stability while allowing the hovering just above the water’s surface. Openings in the platform allow the user to look down at the river water as water running through the fountains body help to clean and purify the water
a. Space for stillness, quiet, clarity, and reflection b. Touching water c. Fountain arm flows and dawn/dusk illumination
Building Movement | Touch and Sensation on the Terrace
pulled throughout this space acts a translucent, ephemeral form that is constantly moving. Running beneath, above, and through this built environment, water boundaries act as the true structure of this space.
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The arms of the fountains, displayed as glowing plum and pink tones, change color as the sun moves across the sky. The fountains are fully illuminated in the evenings after the sun goes down. Lights within the fountain arms are powered by solar energy that is collected and stored throughout the day.
Illuminated Night Bridge | Crossing the River at Dusk a. Glowing gathering space for night excursions b. Wood fountain arches embedded in the terrace
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Captured Moment Still Movement | Cranes on the Edge of the Bay
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a. Captured moment: Body and object interaction b. Still movement: Volume within c. Volume massing models: Resin, concrete, chip board d. Crane movement: Up and down, side-to-side, extension course: Environmental Design 11B | 2007 instructor: Keith Plymale
Captured Moment Still Movement began as an investigation of volumetric spaces created by the interaction of a moving body and an object. This system of thought was brought to Jack London Square in Oakland, California. Cranes, both moving and still, dotted the coast line near the site. A study of crane motions proceded. From this study of up/down, side-to-side, and extension gestures, a form embodying both stillness and movement evolved. The structure of this building has been designed to show movement within, similar to that of the crane. The site has been terraformed to connect the building to the ground on which it sits while simultaneously referencing the location and movement of the nearest cranes.
course: Environmental Design 11B | 2007 instructor: Keith Plymale
Captured Moment Still Movement began as an investigation of volumetric spaces created by the interaction of a moving body and an object. This system of thought was brought to Jack London Square in Oakland, California. Cranes, both moving and still, dotted the coast line near the site. A study of crane motions proceded. From this study of up/down, side-to-side, and extension gestures, a form embodying both stillness and movement evolved. The structure of this building has been designed to show movement within, similar to that of the crane. The site has been terraformed to connect the building to the ground on which it sits while simultaneously referencing the location and movement of the nearest cranes.
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a. Stepping down to the bay b. Gestures in form c. Radial shifts, base level d. Mid-level theater e. Roof top pavillion
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Elements of program are woven throughout indoor and outdoor spaces. Indoor zones include an information center, internet cafe, kitchen, indoor theater, and warm water pool.
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Outdoor zones include a roof platform and walkway that lead down to the ground level as well as a terraced outdoor seating area that allows pedestrians to have direct contact with the San Francisco Bay and all of its movement.
The Warped Grid project began as an application of grid structures to malliable surfaces. Each grid was hand drawn onto pieces of acetate which were then bent, warped, and spaced apart from one another to give a sense of volume and subtle transition. In concept, a structured grid contrasts deeply with more natural, curvilinear objects or spaces. In this project, an organic volume emerged when the acetate was bent, allowing the grid to expand and take on a volume of its own. Each warped acetate surface holds a slight variation on the grid being held by the prior surface. Nodal areas where the grid lines are dense and overlap move slightly from surface to surface and create a pathway that the eye follows as one looks deeper into the volume. course: Architecture 100A | 2007 instructor: Amily Huang
Edge Play and the Warped Grid | From Drawing to Space
a. a. The expanding grid: Drawing of a model of a drawing b. Pathways: Wire frame model of original acetate drawings c. Expanding planes: Ink on acetate
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This structure is designed to be a simplified and extended version of the warped grid form that was discovered in the prior phase. Differing slightly, each “pod� shaped module pulls the grid through the entirety of the site. The grid begins as two stright vertical lines (a doorway or an opening) and two stright horizontal lines (representative of pathway height). The grid diverges from this stiff first module as new layers within the space emerge and pathways change in size. The slight variation of the grid throughout the structure is proportional to the size of the module that it is in. As the module grows larger and its surfaces extend, the slight variation or warping of the grid from surface to surface peaks. As the module grows smaller, variation of the grid from surface to surface diminishes.
Warped Light | Moving through Illumination
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c. a. Bunching b. Shifting blades of grass c. The transitioning site of Point Pinole, California: Wind, Water, and Grass
Systems of Fluctuation | Wind and Grass Studies along the Northern California Coast course: Architecture 100B | 2008 instructor: Michael Bogan
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Space for the Wind | Blown Erosion and Carved Earth, Obstruction and Contamination a. Field Conditions: Modular exploration of initial wind & grass studies b. Obstruction and contamination c. Layered site: Carving away at the earth d. Initial structure massing models
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Space for the Wind | From Line to Surface: Stretch, Pull, Shift, Connect
a. Undulating and unfolding: Site plan and circulation b. At dawn, soft light penetrates the glass enclosed structure
PlantLAB | Hydroponic Systems of Food Production for Urban Beings, San Francisco Garden Show 2011 PlantLAB is: Chris DeHenzel, Brian Gillett, Rockne Hanish, Elizabeth Cohn-Martin, Morgan Petrovich, Michael Cook, Darryl Jones *Plant propagation and structure installation completed by the team **Personal project completed outside of educational environment
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PlantLAB is an experiment in hydroponic gardening, designed and built by emerging professionals and graduate students of architecture and landscape architecture at UC Berkeley. Installed at the San Francisco Garden Show, PlantLAB won an award at the show as well as a 2011 ASLA Student Design Award, as highlighted on the cover of LAM.
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the use of water in the "living California garden.� The system demonstrates vegetables produced in an indoor garden that does not rely on traditional methods of planting embedded in the earth. Rather than constructing a new ground, the garden is formed by a cloud of 432 suspended crystalline tubes and water distribution systems that allow visitors to circulate around the garden and inhabit the space beneath it. Each recyclable clear plastic tube contains a plant, an inorganic growing medium, and a connection to a drip irrigation system, which circulates nutrient infused water from a submersible pump in a reservoir. These interconnected systems are suspended from a light steel frame that also supports a custom array of UV lights. The system can be installed for minimal cost and has no need for outdoor growing space, thus
a. Propagation room b. Drip water hydration system, partially built c. Hidden view of the glowing garden
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Weaving in 2-Dimensions Overflowing: Force Interweaving: Pull Fraying: Edge
Water Reclaimation Architecture | Receptive Responsive Structure for the Urban Delta Undergraduate Design Thesis | 2008-2009
Yearly flooding is experienced in Bangladesh due to its geography and location at the confluence of three major river systems: the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna Rivers. These three rivers converge and empty into the Bay of Bengal through the world’s largest river delta, on which the population of Bangladesh sits. Most of the land in the country is less than 40 feet above sea level and as monsoon season arrives each year, the population prepares for yet another six months of destructive weather. When first looking at the country, images of the capital city, Dhaka, functioning under conditions of extreme flood can be shocking. How does such a country function given the living and working conditions that it exists within throughout much of the year? Coupled with cyclones, a rise in sea water levels, and a shallow sea bed, the weather patterns and geography of the region work together to create a continuous water landscape.
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Floating Down the Great River | “the Delta does not have a Flooding problem” Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
My initial delta studies brought me to Bangladesh, the heart of the Ganges River Delta. I traveled to urban and rural areas in both the north and south of the country with Dhaka as the start and end point of the journey. Professors and students from the BRAC University aided me in identifying key destinations and connecting me to local architects. As I traveled, I completed interviews, building studies, and site selections and accrued an ample amount of opinion on the potential program of my design proposal. Homes, community centers, roadways and schools were amoung the most desired infrastructural and architectural components discussed. Building techniques, structures, culture, community, and the environment varied intensely between urban and rural areas as well as the north and south of the county. After studying Dhaka City for a number of days, I traveled north to Rudrapur Village to study NGO building and from there went south by boat to Noakhali, Hatiya, Chittagong, Bandarban, and Rangamati to study the delta, building, and human interaction with the water. a. Interconnected pathways of travel b. Dense, knotted weave of the upper Buriganga c. Expansive open space at the delta mouth
Dhaka Peninsula Site
People | Boats
Pollutants | Waste X | single variable trajectories
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Land | Sediment
f(x) | down-stream force
b. g(f(x)) | flood
c. a. Northern face b. Evening view c. Invisible playground
Drawing Flood and the Dhaka Peninsula Site | Trajectory Overflow Experimentation
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CONFERENCE ROOM ------------------------> CLASSROOM A -----> CLASSROOM B -------> CLASSROOM C-----> CLASSROOM D ------> STUDIO B --------------> STUDIO A PROJECT DEVELOPMENT CORE ----------> BATHROOMS -------> LECTURE HALL C --------------> STUDIO C (LONG) ---------------------> INDEPENDENT DEPARTMENT OFFICES RESOURCE LIBRARY ---------------------> MAIN LIBRARY-----------> MAP LIBRARY -----------------> MATERIALS LIBRARY DEPARTMENT OFFICES WITH CORE OFFICE FOR ALL -----------> OUTREACH OFFICES PORT AND DOCK MANAGERIAL OFFICES -----> COMMUNICATIONS ROOM ----> MAP ROOM NAVIGATION OFFICE ------------> STORAGE FOR DISPATCH
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES -------> DEPARTMENTAL TEACHER OFFICES
MAIN PORT: TICKET AND INFO SPACE
LECTURE HALL A -------------> LECTURE HALL B ------------> SITE AND BUILDING MAINTENANCE -----------> BATHROOMS CAFE WITH INDOOR AND OUTDOOR SEATING -----------> TEA HOUSE AND MARKET
MAIN PORT: BOAT DOCKING AREA
COMMUNITY BULLETIN AND CONNECTION OFFICE -----------> OUTDOOR COMMUNITY STAGE WOOD/METAL SHOP ----------> WORK YARD AND DOCKS ------------> BAIRA PLOTS
Program Strands: Program strands signal where volume needs to be increased, decreased, open, closed, or connected to another program volume. Strands are bent in the center and aligned with planar site lines and surfaces. They are then woven together with lines and surfaces in section forming fused continuous circulation. This fused continuous circluation informs the volumetric mass that results when planar and sectional volumes, as seen in diagram C, are intersected. Through weaving line, surface, and volume a structure is generated that is both receptive to flows that come in (water and people) and responsive to the needs of those flows.
Weaving in 3-Dimensions | Woven Planar, Sectional, and Programmatic Form and Function From slum to site to water: Flood trajectories compiled a. from Point to Line b. from Line to Surface c. from Surface to Volume
Can a building receive and respond to the environment that surrounds it? Can a building ask something out of those who inhabit and move throughout it? Ideas behind both pedagogy and physical form of the Bangladesh School for Water Use were enhanced through the idea of a structure that can both receive its external environment and simulateously respond to the words, desires, and needs of people and the earth surrounding it. The structure, generated through the action of receiving brings volume to the boat, sediment, waste, and inhabitant trajectories passed over the site during flood. Can the structure itself also respond? The physical form of this proposal enganges with the water but does not push back against the flood. Instead detention ponds and lowered basins within the site receive, hold, and drain excess water during peak flood times. Pieces of the structure can detach completely from the peninsula body, doubling as make-shift boats and shelters for the worst of situations. Walkways, piers, market, and baira gardens lead users to the water directing eyes, body, and mind all toards the surrounding environment. These are all examples of space that is being used for water enhancement. This site also contains space used for education, project development, and community activities. Responses to water care, awareness, and use come from the pedagogy of the school, its courses, teachers, and relationship with the urban and rural community. Departments include: Water Purification, Water Transportation, Disaster Mitigation, Water-based Structures, and Water Industries. Additionally, the PDC (Project Development Center) and Outreach Offices work with students and local leaders throughout rural Bangladesh to generate and complete community projects.
Receive: Sky illumination Respond: Cultivate and create Respond: Teach, guide, and organize Receive: Community and students Receive: Water and communal energy
Intersection | Weaving Volumes of Form and Function, Activity and Intention
Thank you.