• ERIC RANDALL MORRIS • PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO
• TABLE OF CONTENTS • 2 • HOME/SICK ART SHOW 4 • KOOZA/RCH INTERVIEW + GRAPHICS 8 • EXHIBITION : RADICAL HETEROGENEITY 10 • VISI MAG INTERVIEW + GRAPHIC DESIGN 14 • JUXTAPOZ MAGAZINE INTERVIEW + GRAPHICS 18 • SOCIAL NATIVE / APEX DROP ADVERTISING 20 • ESSAYS + ILLUSTRATION 24 • ARCHITECTURE COMPETITIONS 24 • EVOLO SKYSCRAPER COMPETITION 28 • FAIRY TALES VOL.3 30 • ARCH OUT LOUD : VERTICAL CEMETERY 32 • MIT M.ARCH THESIS 42 • HARBORVIEW HOUSE 50 • KENDALL SQUARE URBAN FRAMEWORK 56 • GUGGENHEIM HELSINKI PROPOSAL • San Francisco, CA 94114 • • eric.randall.morris@gmail.com • • 404 · 446 · 7000 •
• HOME / SICK : ART EXHIBITION • BEYOND BEYOND ART COLLECTIVE SAN FRANCISCO, CA JANUARY 19 - FEBRUARY 4, 2018 As an invited artist to the East Cut’s January Art show, Home/Sick, I selected a collection of pieces that speak both to the familiar + warm feelings of home, while also distorting + transforming a these visions. In responding to the prompt (shared below), I understand that memories and nostalgia can be warped by the passage of time, and reflected that in these altered realities of surburban and urban contexts. The exhibit itself was 29 framed, inkjet prints ranging in size from 8” x 10” to 24” x 36”. Home/Sick is an exhibition that explores the production of different dimensions of experience through recollection of the past and speculation about the future. The emotional state of homesickness is reflective of the strength of one’s attachment to feelings, experiences, places, or events that are usually associated with the concept of home, and that are longed for in their absence in the present. While the curatorial impetus for Home/Sick is grounded in a particularly intimate mood, this is merely a point of departure for more expansive themes, ranging from concrete realities and lived experiences to reflections on the social imaginary and utopian alternative narratives.
2 • ART / EXHIBITION
Work that addresses the challenges and potentialities of the intersectionality of past, present, and future; socially engaged and political art; use of methods that evoke the ambiguity of homesickness; and art that confronts the context in which it is made are just a few examples of artistic interrogations that are encouraged.
INITIAL PIECE SELECTIONS
DIMENSIONED EXHIBITION LAYOUT
EXHIBITION DESIGN ELEVATION
4 • ART / EXHIBITION
PROMOTIONAL POSTCARD DESIGNS
PROCESS SKETCHES
COMPLETED INSTALLATION
• KOOZA/RCH INTERVIEW : EXPLORING + EDITING THE AMERICAN VERNACULAR • LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM OCTOBER 17, 2017 1. Who influences you graphically? Atelier Bow-Wow and Pezo von Ellrichhausen right off the top of my head. Both firms engage graphics and architecture in such unique and inspiring ways. Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, widely known as Beeple, who renders surreal retro-futuristic scenes, and Polish artist Jakob Rozalski who creates science-fiction inspired works set in rural Eastern European countrysides, both heavily influence my work and imagination with their ideas + compelling imagery. I’m also continually influenced by my peers, friends, and past professors; a colleague of mine Galo Canizares runs a design office, office ca, out of Cincinnati, OH and his aesthetics / graphics push boundaries. 2. What is your work process in terms of idea development from photograph to manipulation? My process begins before I even take a photo, my mind is already categorizing “good” buildings versus “bad” buildings; I look for the shots with the right shadows, opportunities for alignment, minimal amounts of obstacles or interference. In between the shot and the manipulation, there’s usually a sketching phase, where I’ll doodle possibilities for the edit: vectors, diagram reflections, and tessellation techniques, etc.
6 •INTERVIEW
Bringing the image into the computer is where the fun is had. After correcting and straightening the perspective, I play between the drawing, the computer, and the imagined reality. I focus on the process, more so than trying to arrive at an image I’m satisfied with; it’s more of an intuitive process, where the transformations are informed through the architecture’s inherent qualities. I find the most fun is in the making (!)
3. What defines the various manipulations? from repetition to distortion etc. The buildings define the process for sure. While there is a degree of irreverence towards the original photo, the transformations are nearly always informed from the characteristics of the original (e.g. regularized grids become expanded, linear elements bent or kinked). All the parts and systems of the facade come into play when determining the design direction. The uniqueness of certain architectures has also driven me to develop new editing techniques, and other times there may only be one good window or structural bay to play with. But you make it work, and soon you have a new strategy and a new graphic. 4. Where do you see this project going? A next leap for this project would be to travel to more cities. I’ve been titling this project as “An American Hyperreality” but it’s a little disingenuous considering I’ve just hit the East and West coasts. The dream would be to index as many types of vernacular architectures and continue the re-interpretations. This project is about simulacra and simulations, copies and their originals, fact and fiction, and I want to keep blurring the line between real and hyperreal. Other than that - I see this project going and going and going. I’m not looking to end this any time soon, but looking to see where these investigations take me, see what types of dreams and nightmares emerge. 5. How important is the notion of story-telling for the architect? A narrative is crucial to a project, and communicating that is the job of the architect. A building is discussed, drawn, modeled, felt, analyzed, etc. - Without story-telling, the viewer is left to fill in the blanks and inform their own perceptions based on their past and present experiences, and the architect is left forsaking their agency. Story-telling is how we’ve always communicated, and it should be a priority for architects to discover their voice through design.
TITLE : 721 • ARCHITEXTURE PHOTOGRAPHY + PHOTOSHOP 2017
• COLLAGE CITY : RADICAL HETEROGENEITY • FERAL FACTORY LTD (EXHIBITION) DENVER, CO APRIL 1 - 28, 2017 These prints were accepted to an exhibition in Denver, CO. The open call for submissions asked for visual art which explores cities, city life, and urbanism. These pieces were shown under the theme of “Radical Heterogeneity” along side other accepted art works. The ambition of the project was to capture the strangeness of the city and the built world, the building elevations were abstracted and exaggerated to evoke the sensation of being caught in a daydream. The work investigates the seemingly infinite nature of urban life, while testing new techniques of photographic manipulation.
8 • ART / EXHIBITION
All displayed artwork measured 12” x 16”.
1. 680 • UP UP AND AWAY
2. 660 • INFINITE URBANISM
3. 641 • ARCHITEXTURE
4. 612 • ARCHITEXTURE
• VISI MAG INTERVIEW: INSTAGRAM LOVE • CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA NOVEMBER 6, 2016 1. What is your background? - Tell us a bit about yourself. I’m formally trained as an architect, though I have always been a daydreamer. Receiving my B.S. Arch from Georgia Tech and my M. Arch from MIT, I developed a background in visual media and a passion for spatial composition. I grew up and down the East Coast of the United States and every home has left an imprint on me. Born in Annapolis MD and raised on an island in the Chesapeake Bay, the sprawling McMansion suburbs on the Northern edge of Metro Atlanta, and the row houses and walkups of Cambridge MA are all recurrent sources of inspiration for me. Now, newly relocated to San Francisco CA by way of Boston - I’m looking forward to further immersing myself into the art and architecture scene.
All over! I love to travel and take photos everywhere I go. Typically they are to and from my way to work, or while I’m on my lunchbreak, but if there’s ever a nice day with some great sunlight I’ll take a walk around a new neighborhood and go house hunting.
2. Describe your pictures in 3 words.
6. What are you trying to encapsulate though your pieces?
An uncomfortable sense of awe. The notion that what you’re seeing is just a representation of your surroundings, and when read as a collective, are just a curated simulation of things we pass by every day. That what we consider normal is not actually normal; it’s odd, it’s strange, it’s obscure, it’s nonsensical. That normal things deserve to be looked at and dreamt about.
Dystopian / Metaphysical / Dreamlike
3. Explain your work to us. I started this project with homes on my walks around Boston - where I lived after I finished grad school. The different oddities that are found on the facades of homes / houses / buildings interested me and made me question what post-processes are performed to adapt the building to the users needs and wants. So what started as an attempt to catalog an index of the contemporary American Vernacular(s), transformed into a continually evolving visual exercise of the elevation and facades of the cities and suburbs around me. It’s about actualizing my daydreams, and fabricating these surreal new worlds through two dimensions.
10 • INTERVIEW
4. What is the process behind your images? Once I have the photo, I take it right into Photoshop where I start distorting and correcting the image. Editing these photos is different each time; some stay simple while others become much larger undertakings. Transforming these images into orthographic projections can be meticulous but the colors / symmetry / emergent patterns are elements I try and explore and experiment with each time I
compose one. The captions always help tell the story I’m imagining, so sometimes the words help direct me moreso than the material I’m working on. Either way, the idea may not start out distinct, but after a bit of playing around something will always surface. 5. Where do you find your buildings?
7. How has Instagram helped / influenced your work? The creative community on Instagram inspires me every day! I’ve been very fortunate to be surrounded by such a compelling and diverse group of individuals who push boundaries, expose issues, experiment visually, and challenge me to push creatively every day. Having such a digital proximity to these people is something I never expected to have - and meeting them while traveling has given me friends and contemporaries all over the world! On the following pages are a collection of recent graphic design works. FEATURED IMAGE : TITLE : 810 • HOUSE OF A HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHY + PHOTOSHOP 2017
12 • GRAPHIC DESIGN
• JUXTAPOZ MAG INTERVIEW : ON SLIGHTLY DISSOLVING REALITY • SAN FRANCISCO, CA SEPTEMBER 26 , 2017 1. So first off, what’s the deal? These look like photographs, how do you design and render these?
4. Where did you grow up? What was it like growing up and did you grow up making art or designing?
All of these pieces start as an iPhone picture, and are then manipulated in Photoshop. Designing these pieces is different every time, but it always begins with rationalizing the facades, from there the edit either stops or continues farther into wonderland. I’ll typically take the photos and sketch or doodle during the day, to help diagram out what the moves are, and then jump into the computer to see what happens. All of these images suspend reality to some degree, it just depends how far I want to dissolve those realities.
I was born in Annapolis, MD and grew up on Kent Island, which is right in the middle of the Chesapeake, and later moved just north of the Atlanta at 10. Growing up, building things was play for me, and I’ve have wanted to be an architect since I can remember. I came from a home of artists too - my sister, mother, and grandmother all are incredible creatives, and I owe a lot to them. Though - I never thought of myself as being creative as a kid, I do know I was always making something.
2. I feel like there’s a sense of discomfort in the way these look, but they also look so intentional, have you always made work like this? When did you work turn towards making these hyperrealistic designs? Not until recently did these works really jump off. This photo series began about two years ago as a purely documentational exercise of the houses in my neighborhood; making an index of rationalized facades to analyze patterns and features of the surrounding architectures. Through straightening them out, looking at the details, finding oddities - I found the process of manipulating these buildings much more fascinating, and over time they started to take a life of their own. The project became a critique on American architecture - exposing it through a de-contextualization and whimsy. Earlier this year, I really started to experiment with new editing techniques, and that’s when I feel like all this work took on a heightened meaning.
14 • INTERVIEW
3. Have you ever made physical models of these? Not yet! That has definitely been on my mind as I’ve been engaging with these ideas. The 2D format is great for everyday edits I do on my Instagram (@ ericrandall), but there are some that are begging to come out of the screen. I’m an architect by training, so it’s inevitable for these graphics converge in three dimensions.
5. Do you ever dream of things like this? I feel like they border on bizarre, which is kind of like a dream, it feels believable but the more you think about it, the more odd it becomes. It’s funny you ask that, because the answer is a total yes - this series was inspired by my dreams in the first place, and Actualizing the dreams became the challenge. Taking the buildings out of perspective and into orthogonal space was the first step for me, it still resembled the the truth of the photo, but was a slight perversion. And that can be enough to make you question what you think you’re seeing, whether it’s authentic or simulation 6. Where would you like to take your work in the future? I’d love to take it into overdrive. I love making these everydays, and the challenges involved with that, but larger and more spatial projects are something on the horizon. Currently I’m working on my first art-oriented show featuring a broad selection prints from this image series, and collaborating with other artists on pop-up events around the Bay Area. I already notice how much effect this photo series has had on my development as an architect, and to start bringing these experiments into physical space is just a matter of time.
FEATURED IMAGE : TITLE : 716 • ORNAMENTATION PHOTOGRAPHY + PHOTOSHOP 2017
16 • GRAPHIC DESIGN
• SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT STRATEGIST • SOCIAL NATIVE / APEX DROP INFLUENCER MARKETING CAMBRIDGE, MA / ATLANTA, GA SAN FRANCISCO, CA
As an influencer with both Social Native, and Apex Drop Influencer Marketing, I have been contracted to create imagery for various commercial, institutional and non-profit organizations. After recieving prompts and products from both the marketing agency and the clients themselves, I design content to be shared on my various social media platforms. These posts curated under tight deadlines, and very specific visual criteria.
18 • ADVERTISING
Clients I have collaborated with are Coca-Cola, Nissin Ramen Cup o’ Noodles, the ASPCA, DAVID Sunflower Seeds, Artificier Woodworks, Rockport Shoes, Misfit Vapor Smartwatches, UNIQLO, and the Human Rights Campaign.
COCA-COLA HOLIDAY AD : NAUGHTY OR NICE Mixed Media + Illustration Brand Favorite 2015
DAVID SUNFLOWER SEEDS CAMPAIGN 2018
ASCPA ANIMAL ADOPTION WEEK ADVERT 2016
ARTIFICIER WOODWORKS TIMBREFONE AD 2017
HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN : MAKE AMERICA GAY AGAIN 2016
• TEHCONOPOLITICS ESSAY NO.1 • INSTRUCTOR : ARINDUM DUTTA, MIT CAMBRIDGE, MA FALL 2012 Offer, based on our discussions, a workable definition of “technopolitics”. Associating technology and its intimate ties with political advancement, technopolitics can been seen as the co-evolution of these institutions. The intersection of which is neither clearly defined nor narrow in its scope and influence. The conflation of mechanical and technical innovation with how people negotiate power and responsibility is a field where the participation of thought is absolute in its necessity. Technopolitics is the method through which the current state of global affairs as well as the direction of mechanization can be traced, analyzed, and projected. Its strategic practice attempts to reconcile and understand the historic connection of technological and political transformation. The association formed from these partnered systems is just that, a system. A series of tangential connections which govern the trajectory of future development. Technology has no moral affiliation. Effectively having zero agenda. And arguably innocent. Its use and application being entirely reliant on the anonymous user[s]. Invention is formed through the quest for knowledge and the furthering of current condition. Politics situates itself on the opposing pole of operation. Politics are the means to an end, imbued with bias and intent from its conception. The network composed from these polar bodies is the realm where we arrive at the collision of past / present / future. Revolving around episodic and consistent economies of human globalization and revolution.
20 • WRITING
Curiously, as we continue to sprint towards the future, there is resistance. Resistance to the universal network of information and its constantly evolving use and application. Whether it be from some residual fear of change and the unknown or from a motivation to maintain privacy and
exclusivity among an increasingly integrated world, the spread of technology in the contemporary era, the enterprise of information and its progression must be divorced from dogmatic gain and epistemological preservation. If evolution / [re] evolution / revolution are to have a place in our futures, technopolitics must be a priority. Our problem as a people is grappling with a fundamental sense of alienation. An eternal struggle to maintain ownership over what we believe to be ours. That because we identify something as ours, that it becomes no one else’s. This materialistic notion we hold with such high regard stymies the dispersion of information and technologies, and using a force of governance, we attempt to commodify, package, and market these developments. Politicking becomes a coping mechanism, a tool through which we can comfortably operate within this growing population of people’s wants and needs. Technopolitics is an event horizon. Simultaneously involving itself in economic, cultural, and social behavior so very thoroughly, that all merge into a series of composite structures which we find ourselves held. Distinguishing the part becomes obsolete, and that’s where this concept functions. The whole being the field of operation and the source of potential intellectual advance. Defined as a threshold, technopolitics is the congress of technological progression and political exercise. This is where revolution, economy, and society coalesce. And this is where the transformation of every mode of life can be traced.
ALL MY FRIENDS ARE GHOSTS Book Cover Art (Pen + Ink) 2015
22 • ILLUSTRATION
GEOMETRIC GHOST ARRANGEMENT NO. 3 Illustration (Pen + Ink) 2016
How does ‘public art’ potentially discriminate against the idea of a public? Of, pertaining to, or affecting a population or a community as a whole. The public realm is the representation of every individual. The value of a public area is in its embodiment of universal anonymity. The absence of program while providing a venue for anything, and the freedom of a common space is its primary responsibility. Art has an agenda, art commands a sense of authority over space, and art represents the idea of an individual. However, public areas are the universal venue for the exchange of idea, where open debate is welcomed and encouraged. Our country even addresses this idea of forum as a primary human right. So the addition of a ‘public’ art into this realm falls under this umbrella quite comfortably.
ARCHDAILY HOLIDAY CARD SUBMISSION Selected ArchDaily’s Best Holiday Cards 2017 Illustration (Pen + Ink) 2017
Discrimination is something that can arise from such freedom. The intention of the author of the art can be seen and experienced, just as a protester might use a sidewalk as a pulpit, the political, social, and cultural weight of an art object can be felt. Whether the message is perceived as controversial or not, the message is still valid. As opposed to the message, the public is betrayed in a sense. The publicness is taken away, and replaced exactly with it’s opposite. The context is tainted and the interjection of a piece of art chips away at an unfettered occupation of an open arena. The object bears an authority like the individual may, and through introducing art into a zone designated for the every, the space is no longer reserved primarily for the people. Diminishing the power once held by the public.
GEOMETRIC GHOST ARRANGEMENT NO. 4 Illustration (Pen + Ink) 2015
• ARCHITECTURE COMPETITIONS • EVOLO 2015 • HONORABLE MENTION FAIRY TALES VOL. 3 • SELECTED WORK ARCH OUT LOUD : CERTICAL CEMETERY • TOP 50 These next few pages exhibit recent notable work from various architecture competitions I’ve competed in. The following projects have recieved honors and distinctions and have been published online and in print. Our (my partner Galo Canizares of Office CA) collaboration started with the entry into the eVolo Skyscraper Competition in the winter of 2015. The project “The Valley of Giants” emerged and we recieved an honorable mention for the design, which would later be published in the Sept 2016 publication, eVolo Skyscrapers 3. Soon after we re-imagined our project for the architectural storytelling compeition Fairy Tales Vol 3. The new investigation of our project was chosen to appear in the next installment of Blank Space Project’s, Fairy Tales Vol.3, which was printed in August 2016. The next project was a rapidly paced competition in the fall of 2016, Arch Out Loud : Vertical Cemetery. Our submission “EIDOLON” was ranked in the top 50 projects in the first round of the jury and was circulated among websites such as Bustler and Arch Out Loud.
24 • ARCHITECTURE
These projects also received press from the following entities : Archdaily, Dezeen, eVolo.us, and the Blank Space Project.
EVOLO SKYSCRAPERS 3 eVolo Press 2016
26 • ARCHITECTURE
Excerpt from the fairy tale of, “The Valley of Giants” “... The Giants had come, his grandfather would say, during the time of great unrest. His family had fled the chaos in the North and joined the nomadic tribes as they searched for refuge. He was just a boy when they had finished constructing the last one, and by then his family, like many others of the tribe, decided to settle in the Valley of the Giants. He said that before they came, the Valley was a small cluster of oases, utilized by tribes for hundreds—if not thousands of years. Nomads would pass through, gather water, supplies, and keep moving. But that all changed when the Giants appeared. The oases tripled in size and the land became greener. More wildlife appeared. Birds, bugs, creatures of all sorts. Then the rain came. It was a while before tribes noticed the relationship between the Giants and the changing of the Valley. Because they were always moving, the perception of the area was often dismissed. As more and more permanent settlements appeared, the Giants became legend. They became the keepers of the land.
28 • ARCHITECTURE
Besides his grandfather’s tales, Asil had heard other origin stories about the Giants. Some argued that they were old weapons from the people in the North, others believed they were communicative instruments to relay messages across the desert. Asil reckoned they looked like needles. He sometimes agreed with the weapon the-
ory because they did have a menacing demeanor. They towered over the sand at an excessive scale, and were covered with weathered, rusty white stone. A few had been engulfed by the oasis and had vegetation growing on them; one had even become the home to a flock of birds native to the Valley. However, nobody interacted with them. They were not very welcoming. It was when he noticed the birds leaving and returning to that one particular Giant that Asil formulated the idea of entering them. It was common knowledge that they were impossible to penetrate. Their alabaster shell had no doors, and the only visible openings were fifty feet above. Those that did manage to get up to the openings encountered a dead end and came back down, abandoning any further exploration. It was clear these creatures were not meant to be inhabited, they would all say. The majority of attempts were made by rebellious teens, and would involve treacherous climbs with dubious equipment. Some of the kids fell, which led the elders to put up a series of solid fences around the base. They obviously weren’t interested in what was inside. Or perhaps they were hiding something. But Asil could not get the thought out of his head. For a year now, he obsessed over them. He drew sketches, fabricated theories of what could be on the interior, and finally drafted up a plan of attack. He would go underground.
The ground was often taken for granted in the Valley. It supplied everything that the inhabitants needed without any required work. Fields of vegetation would provide food in the summer, die in the winter, and be replenished by the following spring. Water reservoirs would be constantly fresh, and have an endless supply of water. Grandfather would say this was always the case, hence his family’s decision to settle there. The curious thing, Asil considered, was that nobody questioned how it was possible; nobody wondered. In school he was taught that in other parts of the continent the land has to be worked, but in other parts— like in the Valley—the land is perfectly positioned vis-a-vis the sun and migratory patterns, that the land just works. Because there was no evidence of the contrary, that explanation became canon. Nevertheless, Asil was determined to infiltrate the mysterious ground and unearth its secrets. -That morning, he stepped out into the rain, and equipped with a series of make-shift digging equipment, ventured towards the Giants. At the fence, he dug a small ditch and crawled through. Within minutes he stood face to face with the Giant. He picked the one with the bird nest because he figured it had the most potential. If birds were interested in it, there must be something in there, he said to himself. Walking up to the base, he felt insignificant. The Giant loomed over him with commanding force. Like the ancient statues of the Gods, it had an ominous presence; objects to be respected and left alone. With a deep breath, he began his sacrilegious excavation...”
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EIDOLON
1658558327
noun, plural eidola, eidolons. 1. a phantom; apparition. 2. an ideal. On October 15th, 2014, Minoru Tanaka, founder and CEO of Tanaka Electronics Corp. passed away from heart complications. A lifelong technology enthusiast, Mr. Tanaka had stipulated in his will that the family maintain his Facebook and Google+ profiles as memory shrines. Visitors would be allowed to pay their respects by commenting or posting on his virtual walls, and the wide circle of acquaintances he accumulated through his long life would have access to the recorded memories they shared. In 2025, after the opening of the Shinjuku Eidolon, Mr. Tanaka’s memory profiles were migrated to the Eidolon’s servers. The Tanaka family could now not only secure their grandfather’s digital longevity, but could also interact with his memories in a more immersive way. Once a year, they gather to pay their respects, plug themselves into the Eidolon’s interface, and immerse themselves in Mr. Tanaka’s memories... The Eidolon itself is both a data center and a shrine. As a building, it provides physical spaces of mourning and storage of ashes. As an infrastructure, it provides virtual spaces for interacting with the ghostly remnants of the deceased’s digital presence. Memories stored in the Eidolon can be accessed from anywhere, but most choose to visit the site as a gesture of respect for the deceased. Some meander through the wandering vertical paths, while others move directly to a secluded corner of one of the labyrinthine floors. There is little sound in the Eidolon; only the occasional footsteps against the ambient background of whirring machine-ghosts. The Eidolon is a beacon of an infinite presence, both where the dead rest and where they come alive.
Level 1: Great Hall
Level 2: Cross
Level 3: Alley
Level 4: Narrows
Level 5: Centroid
Level 6: Field
Level 7: Twins
Level 8: Basilica
Level 9: Gallery
Level 10: Spiral
Level 11: Fold
Level 12: Landscape
Columbarium Wall: Contains drawers for ashes and memory modules. Data Pebble: Contains terrabyte solid state modules for memory storage.
A system of fiberoptic cables runs through the entire building providing ubiquitous ports for connecting to memorialized data. Its modular structure also allows it to keep growing as the city grows.
30 • ARCHITECTURE
WANDERING PATH
LIGHT COLUMNS
Each floor features a unique layout of columbarium walls. Visitors can reflect in intimately private areas, wide open halls, and meandering labyrinths.
COLUMBARIUM WALLS
DATA PEBBLES
8558327 58558327
vel 2: Cross Level 2: Cross
el 4: Narrows Level 4: Narrows
Level 12 Level 12
Level 11 Level 11
evel 6: Field Level 6: Field
Level 10 Level 10
el 8: Basilica Level 8: Basilica
Level 9 9 Level
vel 10: Spiral Level 10: Spiral
Level 8 8 Level
Level 12: Landscape l 12: Landscape
unique layout que layout of of tors reect cancan reect in in ,dewide open halls, open halls, hs.
Level Level 7 7
Level 6 Level 6
Level 5 Level 5
Level 4 Level 4
DATA PEBBLES PEBBLES
Level 3
Level 3
Level 2
Level 2
Level 1
Level 1
• MIT MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE THESIS • FACULTY ADVISER : SHEILA KENNDY, MIT CAMBRIDGE, MA FEB 2014 HOT+COLD : Physical and Atmospheric Phenomena in the Antarctic ‘...people grow powerfully attached to that kind of life, when they get the chance to live it. It allows you to concentrate your attention on the real work, which means everything that is done to stay alive, or make things, or satisfy one’s curiosity, or play. That is utopia… especially for primitives and scientists, which is to say everybody. So a scientific research station is actually a little model of prehistoric utopia, carved out of international money economy by clever primates who want to live well.’ Kim Stanley Robinson’s “The Martians” Utopias have historically been perceived as instruments of societal change, while prior manifestations have normally been attributed to emerging cultural conditions or evolving ethical views, however one of the most pertinent agendas relevant to our field would be the rapidly shifting state of our environment. Human environmental impact is frequently looked at a local or regional scale, with large international protocol, remaining largely ineffective and mired through process. The summation of this altered climate includes effects like rising surface and atmospheric temperatures, rising sea levels, ozone depletion, and reduced cloud formation. And nowhere are these environmental consequences more seen than in Antarctica. Claimed as a global commons, Antarctica is ungoverned, yet under the international protection and afforded the combined preservatory efforts of these bodies of power. Despite our concerted efforts, its current deterioration is due directly to an individual and universal, detrimental contribution.
32 • ARCHITECTURE
This thesis aims to generate an awareness and visibility to the oscillating physical and atmospheric ephemera of this continent, while using the internal and external extrema of a research installation as a performative bridge between architecture and environment. Through granting a variety of sensorial experiences, this station will help instill strong desires to change decision making processes of individuals and other political bodies, while raising questions of personal and institutional responsibility.
ANTARCTIC FACILITY AT SUNSET || FAR-SHOT
34 • ARCHITECTURE
AERIAL + MARITIME CONNECTIONS || DYMAXION PROJECTION
MCMURDO STATION, AQ : 2012 || CLIMATE INFOGRAPH
36 • ARCHITECTURE
RENEWABLE RESOURCE + ENERGY CYCLE OF FACILITY
INCREASED AWARENESS RESULTS IN ACTIVE CONSERVATION
38 • ARCHITECTURE
FLOOR PLAN OF EXCAVATED FACILITY [-5M GRADE]
40 • ARCHITECTURE
SUBTERRANEAN RESEARCH BAY WITH SCIENTISTS AT WORK
FLAT AND CONCAVE SURFACE OPTIC INTERFACE
HOT + COLD AIR CIRCULATION
EXCAVATOR MACHINE TOOLPATH
CURVED INTERNAL WALL SYSTEM
• HARBORVIEW HOUSE • SANTOS PRESCOTT AND ASSOCIATES GLOUCESTER, MA 2015 - 2017 Situated on a steeply sloped site in the northeast corner of Gloucester Harbor, the Harborview House was created as a two-unit home that capitolizes on environmental factors, orientation, and its unique surroundings. The motion of the house was driven from towards the prominent views of the harbor, which also directed towards the sunsets + prevailing winds. The butterfly roof lifts from the entry of the home and opens up to create a set of clerestory windows that exaggerate these qualities. Containing two, 1,500 SF units over three levels, the home has four (plus one) bedrooms and four full bathrooms. With a sensitive impact on the site and sustainably sourced resources, this house sought to be a responsible addition to the neighborhood.
42 • ARCHITECTURE
Pictured below is the first sketch model of the home. This model became the primary schema for the house, and after the complete development of the project, much of its original character was preserved.
INITIAL STUDY MODEL - WEST ELEVATION
FINAL BUILD - SOUTHWESTERN CORNER
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LEVEL 0 FLOOR PLAN
44 • ARCHITECTURE
1 • Garage 2 • Home Office 3 • Dining 4 • Living 5 • Kitchen 6 • Guest Room 7 • Bath
LEVEL 1 FLOOR PLAN
8 • Master Bedroom 9 • Master Bath 10 • Entry 11 • Patio 12 • Terrace 13 • Photovoltaics
LEVEL 0 AXONOMETRIC
LEVEL 1 AXONOMETRIC
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LEVEL 2 FLOOR PLAN
LEVEL 2 AXONOMETRIC
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LEVEL 3 FLOOR PLAN
LEVEL3 AXONOMETRIC
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LONGITUDINAL SECTION 1
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1• Home Office 2 • Terrace 3 • Dining 4 • Guest Room 5 • Bathroom
6 • Master Bathroom 7 • Living 8 • Kitchen 9 • Backyard 10 • Frontyard
LIVING SPACE WITH WORK LOFT BEYOND
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LIVING SPACES OPEN TOWARDS THE HARBOR, WHILE INTERIOR SPACES ARE CONNECTED THROUGH LIGHT AND THE OPEN FLOOR PLAN
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BRIGHT NATURAL LIGHTING FILLS THE INTERIOR SPACES YEAR ROUND
LIFT AND SLIDE COLLAPSABLE DOORS OPEN UP TOWARDS VIEWS OF THE HARBOR
• KENDALL SQUARE PUBLIC SPACE CENTER PLAN • WITH SANTOS PRESCOTT AND ASSOCIATES AND FRAMEWORK CAMBRIDGE, MA 2015 Kendall Square is where the future is invented. With proximity to MIT and Harvard, large families of biotech and research companies, and a large population of young professionals, Kendall Square deserves a sophisticated urban plan to gather the valuable people and resources of the area, and to propel them forward into new realms of participatory urban life and innovation. The “Public Space Center” was Santos Prescott and Associates’, in collaboration with Seattle urban design frim Framework, entry into an invited competition to determine what the future of Cambridge’s Innovation District could be. Below is the summary of our final proposal. Kendall Square has always been a place for dreaming big, for exploration, research, innovation and taking risks - from early industries built on marsh land, the grand vision of a NASA headquarters of the 50s, to its abundant research facilities and innovative businesses located there today. In developing a new framework for Kendall Square, we questioned : How can this heritage of innovation and ideas be continued and leveraged to address opportunities for Kendall Square today? We need a shift in perspective towards a grand moment of optimism for Kendall Square. People should think of it as a destination in itself, a place to discover, the perfect place to build, to start new ways to participate in public space. Development of a public space framework allows us to ask, “How can we be curious and explore again?” Kendall Square has been on the cutting edge of creating the future, we propose making Kendall Square the Public’s Space Center - bringing in the spirit of experimentation, innovation, and optimism into the public realm. The Public Space Center Framework consists of three layers : The Physical Realm, which incorporates the tangible elements and design of landscapes, buildings, and systems; The Participatory Realm, which includes the ideas made visible and the activities that take place in the stage set by the physical realm; and Beautiful Policy, which lays the groundwork for fueling change towards a better public future.
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This proposal was a Finalist among 5 other architecture and planning firms.
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• GUGGENHEIM HELSKINKI SUBMISSION • WITH SANTOS PRESCOTT AND ASSOCIATES HELSINKI, FINLAND 2014 The prompt for wood suggested a concept: an abstraction of waves against a wooden ship’s hull. A series of “super-ellipse” structural timber rings, clad in wood and zinc, houses the exhibition spaces–conditioned boxes within the protected hull. The massive timber structure is exposed along the circulation and in the multi-level atrium. A wavelike glass wall encloses the harbor-front lobby. The building fits the harbor context and scale of long waterfront buildings. The park is extended into the site with a meandering ramp with landscape. Visitors enter by a porch and museum entry to the north. The lobby will have open access to facilities including retail and dining, while dedicated elevators access the ticketed exhibition floor. A public ice-rink and garden “porch” overlooks the harbor, semi-enclosed within the roof. Our proposal for the new Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki seeks to provide a new world class cultural institution to the city of Helsinki that is at the same time fundamentally a building that responds to its place: site, location, environment, and cultural and economic situation. The desire to maximize and push the envelope of wood as a structural material is a response to the rich timber resources and technology endemic to Finland. What emerged conceptually was an abstraction of the analogy of waves against a wood ship’s hull. The “hull,” a series of “super-ellipse” structural timber rings, clad in wood and metal, houses the exhibition spaces and floats above the public spaces below. A wave-like glass wall encloses the lobby, which faces the harbor and outdoor exhibit and performance spaces.
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The overall form of the building fits the harbor context of long waterfront buildings and responds to the scale of existing structures. The adjacent park landscape is extended to the site with a meandering ramp that connects to the museum at the mezzanine level.
Much of the building is dedicated to public space. A semi-enclosed space embedded in the roof contains a seasonal ice rink and garden; a “porch” overlooking the harbor. The ground floor lobby is proposed to have open public access to exhibits, classrooms, retail and dining. A ferry terminal is included, with a raised terrace above for public dining on the harbor. The staircase to the performance plaza below doubles as an amphitheater. A museum visitor approaching from the city or trolley stop is welcomed by a large lobby on the north end of the building, protected from the elements by the hull above. After purchasing tickets, two dedicated elevators take guests up into the hull where the exhibitions are contained. The spatial experience inside the hull is unique, as the massive timber structure is left exposed along the circulation areas, and completely revealed in the large atrium space that cuts through all levels of the building. The primary exhibition spaces are carefully conditioned boxes within the protective wrapper of the shell, flexible and capable of housing a wide variety of exhibitions. A special large exhibition space occupies the whole of the hull on the north and overlooks the city through a large glass wall. Much of the exhibition level is lit from above by skylights with south-facing operable heliostats. A light slot cuts through the center of the building, lighting the lobby on the ground level. Sustainability plays an important role in the design of this building at all levels. The chosen elliptical form provides an incredibly thermally efficient form, housing all the galleries and mechanical spaces within its protective envelope, acting like a lung providing ventilation to the spaces. Daylighting is enhanced with roof-mounted heliostats and large openings to the south. The wavy glass wall on the ground level is a double wall with glass structure within, providing an efficient thermal separation. A thick stone clad wall on the west braces the building and shields it from the road.
NIGHT VIEW LOOKING UP FROM PUBLIC PLAZA INTO MAIN EXHIBITION SPACE
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EXHIBITION SPACES INTERSECT AND OCCUPY THE MAIN ATRIUM
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DAYLIGHTING STRATEGIES
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ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
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PROGRAMMATIC AXONOMETRIC
ZONES INTERACT BOTH HORIZONTALLY AND VERTICALLY THROUGHOUT THE SCHEME
• Thanks for reading + bye for now! •