Erin Miller Architecture Portfolio by Erin Miller

ERIN MILLER

Architecture Portfolio

Real Facades

City Cemetery

Vault Talk

Meet Me in the Hallway

Loop House

Rec Center

Blasphemy

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Real Facades Instructor: Ashley Schafer Ohio State University F21

The studio started by researching an architectural research project. The project I looked at was the Arsenal of Exclusion & Inclusion by Interboro which catalogs various “weapons” that manifest in the environment through policy and design that either include or most often exclude citizens. For the train station brief, the project critically examined the role of the facade in the Arena District development in Columbus, OH and its relationship to public space. The project investigates the use of facade as a tool of inclusion to generate public space and programs that were missing, or more aptly excluded from the development. The amenities and additional programs in the station attempt to reclaim space for the blue collar workers who make up a large constituency in the Arena District, but have been underserved in the development’s claim of a “Live, Work, Play” neighborhood. The layered facade system breaks from the conventional, hermetic condition seen in the development and expands into public areas to play, gather, and loiter. The station is located in the previously underused McFerson Park; adjacent to the existing train tracks where the station loops into. 4

REAL FACADES

The Arena District in Columbus, Ohio (formerly the location of the Ohio penitentiary) is an entertainment district that was acquired through eminent domain by Nationwide Realty Investments from the city in 1997 with the ambition to restore existing structures in addition to building new development. The district has been developed as a mixed use area with office space, residential, retail, 6

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entertainment venues, parks and parking. The Arena District has been coined the “Billion Dollar Belt” and claims a live, work, play community. The project was completely funded through private investment with an exception of a $16.6 million contribution from the city through Tax Increment Financing: NRI ($450 million), private investment ($40 million), Printing ($10 million). Tax Increment 7

REAL FACADES

Entertainment Entertainment Housing Housing Offices Offices “Mixed” “Mixed”Use Use restaurants, restaurants, offices offices Parking Parking

F21 Allocated Areas 300,000SF Retail, Restaurant, and Entertainment

Building Associated Labor/Wages Protective Services 26.63 Installation 24.53 Building/Grounds Cleaning 14.96

1,000 Residential Units

2.5 Million SF Class A Office Space

300,000SF Retail, Restaurant, and Entertainment

Own 533,000 - 1,229,000 Rent 1,069 - 2,429 Office/Admin Support 20.16 Maintenance and Repair 24.53

Transportation/Material Moving 17.69 18,000 Parking Spaces

1 ADULT 0 Children Living Wage 13.90 Poverty Wage 6.13 Miniumum Wage 8.70

1 Child 29.99 8.29 8.70

2 Children 38.26 10.44 8.70

3 Children 50.29 12.60 8.70

2 ADULTS (1 WORKING) 0 Children Living Wage 22.83 Poverty Wage 8.29 Miniumum Wage 8.70

1 Child 27.07 10.44 8.70

2 Children 30.67 12.60 8.70

3 Children 32.73 14.75 8.70

2 ADULTS (1 WORKING) 0 Children Living Wage 11.02 Poverty Wage 4.14 Miniumum Wage 8.70

1 Child 16.37 5.22 8.70

2 Children 21.14 6.30 8.70

3 Children 25.24 7.38 8.70

Food Prep/Food Service 12.17 Construction/Extraction 25.51

2.916 Million SF (Spaces Only)

Living Wage Calculator (MIT)

Parking Attendant 11.87

Financing is a common funding tool throughout the US used for urban renewal projects, however, because the funding is indirectly privatized, it is worth a closer look in most cases as to how equitably the funds are distributed. Is there affordable housing and how 9

REAL FACADES

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REAL FACADES

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much? Is public transit and transit access considered in the development? The parking infrastructure in the Arena District triples the square feet of any other amenity for a total of 2,209,000 square feet with considerably less attention to public transit spending. The entry fee for the Live Work Play lifestyle in the Arena District excludes many from partaking. Additionally, the service labor required for events, entertainment,

REAL FACADES

F21 dining, etc in most scenarios make less than the calculated living wage based on Columbus’s Bureau of Labor income reports. The dichotomy between the occupations servicing the Arena District and those being served reveals the entry fee for the area has a small demographic for those who are included and those who are not. Urban renewal developments fueled by private funding close the margin of inclusion because there is not an incentive to make accessibility a priority.

City Cemetery Instructor: Ben Wilke Ohio State University F19

Choa Chu Kang Cemetery in Singapore is faced with a large exhumation program, shrinking the physical area of the cemetery by nearly 33% for the Tengah Airbase expansion. Approximately 80,500 Chinese and Muslim graves will be exhumed throughout the entire process. Currently, Choa Chu Kang is under phase 7A which will exhume around 45,000 Chinese graves. The exhumation process is typically done by the locally employed grave diggers. Graves are manually exhumed, typically with the family present. The family has the option to relocate their deceased family members to the crematorium but the physical artifacts (grave stones, platforms, vases) are demolished and discarded. The rituals that surrounded these objects are lost with the disposal of the artifacts. Chinese graves are visited by family members on a weekly, and often daily, basis. Families memorialize their lost loved ones by laying joss paper, burning incense and candles, placing mementos and praying. The Quinming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Festival, is an annual celebration in which families across Singapore will travel to Choa Chu Kang to worship ancestors by offering food, burning joss paper 16

MK17-10911W

MK17-02364L

MK17-03658K

MK02-02174P

MK06-02109N

MK26-07907C

MK01-99241A

MK17-99436K

MK02-02774N

MK02-03776N

MK26-2358X

MK22-03697L

MK18-03248W

MK04-04709A

MK17-01895N

MK27-02600W

MK22-00357N

MK22-05449M

MK17-01158P

MK07-02734K

MK27-02600W

MK11-00314A

MK18-16287M

MK11-01578C

MK25-7647V

CITY CEMETERY

MK25-7647V 20 GUILLEMARD CRESCENT SINGAPORE 399915 591 SF

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and praying. Grave tenders also are a vital component of the cemetery ecosystem at Choa Chu Kang. Often independently employed by families, the grave tenders are responsible for the maintenance of the graves, which can include landscaping, repainting gold lettering on the graves, laying flowers and repairing the tile work on the headstones. By removing these objects in the exhumation process, and entire ecosystem of ritual and tradition is erased. City Cemetery for Choa Chu Kang proposes salvaging these objects and redistributing them throughout Singapore in Mortuary Columns. Land in Singapore is high-cost and limited, which is the initial motivation to exhume Choa Chu Kang. City Cemetery takes advantage of “remnant land” in Singapore to redistribute artifacts from graves throughout Singapore, creating a network of small, localized neighborhood cemetery plots. Remnant land is defined by the Singapore Land Authority as “incapable of independent development by virtue of their small size and/or irregular shape”. Remnant land is sold at a subsidized rate 19

CITY CEMETERY

MK25-7647V

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CITY CEMETERY

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CITY CEMETERY

14.15”

6”

because of its challenging size constraints, generally 50% of its full land value. These overlooked plots become an opportunity for future sites of City Cemeteries for Singapore residents. The Mortuary Columns of the City Cemetery are a totum of consolidated grave stones. Each piece would contain remnants from the physical grave site; family members select the aggregate for the new stones from the grave site objects and would then be broken down and cast into a mold of the appropriate size for the respective column: 6”, 12”, 18” totum disks. Grave tenders could be reemployed to produce these new columns as an extension of the current exhumation process as well as tend the new sites throughout Singapore. Families would have physical artifacts from their loved ones’ grave sites so ritual and tradition, like the Quinming Festival, can still occur as a public and collective activity. By splicing the program of cemetery into the everyday urban fabric, City Cemetery for Chao Chu Kang proposes an alternative solution to burial practices in Singapore that allows 24

F19 18”

1.57”

3.54”

12”

family members to remain physically connected with their loved ones. Parcel information is accessible through the Singapore Land Authority where the current title, size, availability and geographic information can be accessed/purchased. Because of the amount of exhumed graves and the variability of each remnant parcel, each plot would deploy a consistent, orthogonal 3D grid system of scaffolding-like framework that would be populated over time by grave castings forming the mortuary columns.

CITY CEMETERY

MK01-99241A 2 BUKIT PURMEI SINGAPORE 099865 530 SF

MK18-16287M 29 BRIGHTON CRESCENT SINGAPORE 559178 655 SF

MK06-2109N 30 KIAN TECK ROAD SINGAPORE 628778 643 SF 26

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CITY CEMETERY

MK01-99241A

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MK06-2109N

Vault Talk

Instructors: Sandya Kochar & Andrew Cruse Ohio State University S21 Team: Kailtin Baker & Melissa Folzenlogen Vault Talk prompts public discourse through a series of vaulted rooms and a range of furniture, fixtures and equipment. The domestic scale becomes civic through vault type, scale, and height. By generating rooms through the vaulted RCP, the conventional edge is eliminated and the boundary becomes suggestive rather than finite. The overall strategy was to create a spectrum of formal and informal interactions to prompt the public. The formality is driven by the different user groups in the communities and their usage of the space. The type, scale, and height of the vault implies rather than dictates the size and type of gathering. For example, the larger span over the basketball court versus the smaller spans over the drop in space indicate different activities and gathering sizes but are not limiting. The FFE, on the other hand, prompts certain uses. In order to maximize accommodation among various people that have different body sizes, abilities, and backgrounds; furniture, fixtures, and equipment are mapped to a range of dimensions. Also, the public is 30

VAULT TALK

encouraged to bring in their own furniture, rearrange existing furniture, and customize their own experience. The FFE provided by the building is a base condition

S21

that uses accommodation as a tool to maximize social interaction. For example, in the kitchen, different dimensions are cast to more than just the standard

VAULT TALK

S21

VAULT TALK

Interior Garden

S21 dimension to allow more people to not only be comfortable, but also allow different people to share spaces. The vaults mapped to each program create room within a room under that vault condition through the overhead edges that regulate the FFE, fixed or moveable, in plan. Room within a room also happens at the building scale when two vault conditions meet either by joining edges or by the gap created from the alternating levels.Skipped levels and shifting vault types and heights create visual connection between each space. The slipped thresholds between programs encourage casual interaction and unexpected conversations. In the interior garden, custom FFE equipment triples as seating, planters and playground equipment. There is also space for standard benches as well as furniture brought in by the community. The interior garden looks out onto high street, as well as looking into the kitchen and gallery because of the alternating levels. The kitchen space shows how each station is regulated by the vault overhead that the FFE responds to. Each station can host informal gatherings like a group of friends over lunch, up to a formal cooking class. Each program is also mapped with materials that are performance driven but are also another way to imply edge without a conventional boundary. The drop in space acts as an informal office where large groups or individuals can gather. The vault is further modulated by a matrix that has larger openings for groups, and smaller openings for individual stations. 37

VAULT TALK

Kitchen

S21

Drop-In

Meet Me in the Hallway Instructors: Beth Blostein & Erik Hermann Ohio State University F20

Team: Nun Cungbik Meet Me in the Hallway contorts the conventional double loaded corridor to generate public volumes dispersed throughout the hotel tower. Slips, shears, and grafting inverts the double loaded corridor from background to foreground. The threshold from a corridor servicing rooms to the corridor servicing public spaces is oblique, and transforms slowly queued by the warping`, expanding and shrinking “doors” into larger entries and apertures as the corridor slips into the public spaces. Instead of the public spaces concentrating into a single chunk, they are scattered via the distortions encouraging exploration and interaction between guests and guests, and guests and those who are utilizing the public spaces open to the city. The corridors act as grafting material between the rooms and the public spaces becoming aggregate spaces that circulate and gather. The contortions are manipulated to accommodate different programs and unique spatial conditions, but also change the relationship to the guest rooms. In some cases the guest rooms seep into the public volumes while some rooms are more sealed. 40

MEET ME IN THE HALLWAY

F20

MEET ME IN THE HALLWAY

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MEET ME IN THE HALLWAY

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Loop House Instructor: Ben Wilke Ohio State University F19

Loop House is a domestic space for two siblings on West Sunny Dunes Road in Palm Springs, California. One sibling has a spouse and two children and the other sibling is an independent artist. Both dwellings are conjoined and contained within the single loop form, but the different households are separated with a large mass parti wall. The mass parti wall is part of the series of walls that punctuate the various programs in the house. Each wall divides the rooms, but also act as frames to observe the exterior landscape through exquisite materials. Each wall supports its adjacent program with carved out storage and service space. The walls are arrayed to support a continuous circulation by creating uninterrupted thresholds between spaces. The site has a -2° grade change so the loop form bends in sync with the topography changes so that each room is level with the grade. The corridor maintains its continuity with ramps between the rooms at different levels. Garden walls arrayed around the driveway echo the organization of the interior loop to mute the boundary between interior and exterior and connect the two environments. 48

LOOP HOUSE

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LOOP HOUSE

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LOOP HOUSE

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REC Center

Jesse Owens North Instructor: Jackie Gargus Ohio State University S20 Rec Center is a proposal for Jesse Owens North recreational facility on Ohio State University campus. Taking cues from the agricultural context of OSU academics, the project becomes a landscape of buildings, pavilions and courtyards through a grain and cross grain of void and volume. The low profile of the building creates a composition of buildings and courtyards that surrounding campus buildings can gaze upon. Roofs, ceilings and floor plates slip along a grid, generating respective densities required for the specific dimensions of athletic facilities. Facilities are located below grade and each space is connected so students only need to swipe once for access to gym ammenities while separate public pavilions float along the surface at grade for continunity between campus and easy to access lounge and flex space (additional facilities located one level above grade). The grain and cross grain slips each volume apart so that each space receives generous natural light and has access to adjacent courtyards. North/south walls are glazing, while east/west walls are opaque or translucent, taking advantage of sun path and further articulating the grain.

RECREATION CENTER

S20

RECREATION CENTER

S20

Blas Phemy Instructors: Brian Kelly & Dave Stasiuk University of Nebraska-Lincoln F17

Team: Josh Petersen, Mallory Lane, TJ von Reisen & Omar al Mulki Blasphemy describes showing irreverence towards something considered sacred. Using the Palazzetto dello Sport by Nervi as the initial genotype, form was explored by mutating and perverting the original geometry to create a series of phenotypes. Each phenotype is mapped and charted to create an ancestral diagram of the Palazzetto. Open-source design is inherently iterative. It is reworked and refined though various authors in an effort to continually and incrementally make it better. This phase develops a series of phenotypes which adhere to its systemic logic while testing the limits of that system with variable organizational performance-based strategies. Using formal strategies, the project was given program through justified need. Our team explored the issue of climate change, specifically coastal tide rise. Hypothesis: To create a prefab system of cells that 62

Ma te ria ls

on ati lor xp lE tia ni In

Mult iple Ce lls

ls t Cel Spli

Genotype Palazzetto dello Sport

rid nG go xa He

Ca nv as / C ov er in g

BLASPHEMY

inhabit coastal regions as think tanks for scientists to gather, collect and share information regarding the rising tides. Not only do the cells act as space for researchers to gather and practice, but they also act as a monitoring system for the rising (and hypothetically, receding) shore line. The cells multiply or recede proportionately to the growth or resolution of the problem at hand. As cells become submerged, they act as artificial coral for the marine life inhabiting the ocean. In this exploration, ecological consideration was just as valued, if not more, than the programmatic needs of humans. 64

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The final phenotype was developed simultaneously as research was collected. Responding both to the Palazzetto form and the program of coastal think tanks, the form evolved into two and three pod cells that could be clustered within a hexagon grid to provide regularity to an otherwise complex form. 65

BLASPHEMY

CNC cut pink foam was used as the mold to create a model of the final three pod cell.

F16 Custom joints required to assemble one strand. Each joint is mass customized using Grasshopper as every intersection is unique and requires a slightly different joint. STRAND STRAND 01 01

STRAND STRAND 02 02

STRAND STRAND 03 03

STRAND STRAND 04 04

A prototype of the prefab system was explored by 3D printing a mass customization of joints that would connect the diagrid structure.

Small scale 3D printed model 67

that’s it, thank you :)

ERIN MILLER

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