Portfolio Fall 2018

Nathan Garcia M.Arch I Yale School of Archiecture

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.�

-Michael Scott

Table of Contents Undergradute work-Texas A&M Spring 2015: Alien Messy Discrete Fall 2014: Transformative Indexicality Fall 2016: NexTex Highschool

Spring 2016: Pseudo Phenomena Spring 2017: T4T Constructing Intelligence

Graduate work-Yale Fall 2017 Strange Forms and Strange Relationships Spring 2018 Jim Vlock Building Project

Professional work Summer 2015 Gilles Retsin Architecture Summer 2016 Mark Foster Gage Architects Summer 2018: SOFTLab

Instructor: Gilles Retsin Team Leader: Nathan Garcia(U2) Team Members: Stephanie Almandarez (U2), Bobby Nolen (U2), William Richard (U4)

In Architecture there are many different tools that we use to communicate with objects that we happen to be in close proximity to.

These forensic tools come in many different forms and processes, such as drawings, diagrams, and other means of representation. As we communicate with the object, we begin to recognize it appears to be similar to an Indexical project. This object seems to have some of the same qualities of the Eisenman Houses 1, 2, 3, and so on through House 10 due to the appearance of an axonometric representation. This Axonometric is a system of interlocking L’s that were each independently generated by the object. However, this object predates these projects by Eisenman because it is pre-indexical.

It is before any of the parts to whole relationships were understood and diagrammed.

The landscape is an ecology without nature that generates an affective romantic realism. This object exist because it exists, context is irrelevant. The object will exist where it does and our attempts to communicate to it have no effect on it. It is the communication that we have with the object and the affects it generates that solidifies its status as Proto-Indexical.

Tigerman Diagrams

T4T Alien Messy Discrete Nathan Garcia • 5

“L“ Components

Renders and Sections Nathan Garcia • 7

Foormal Development

Instructor: Brian Gibbs The traditional bath house, or hamam in Arabic, was a bath house of subtlety and wonder. Out of respect for those experiencing the bath house and the traditionally conservative culture the exteriors of the bath houses were relatively plain in form and exterior ornament. However their interiors were adorned with intricate patterns and materials meant to evoke mystery and awe for those who experienced the space.

This contemporary interpretation of the bath house utilizes phenomenalism to generate a vast variety of spatial conditions specific to design program.

This is done through the introduction of light to the spaces indirectly through light wells. These light wells have kinetic relationships to the landscape and exterior of the building but on the inside appear delicate and light weight.

The building as a whole is designed to provide the patron with a chance to escape and become consumed in the subterranean world that we have created.

The intricacy of the interior ornamentation is generated by controled scripts. Just as traditional ornamentation was very mathematic and logical, our ornamentation is a modern interperitation of this same style.

Psuedo Phenomena Nathan Garcia • 9

Floor Plan +1

Ground Floor Plan

Floor Plan -1

Instructor: Gabe Esquivel Sidewalk object: Based on Richard Neutras Lovell House, through diagramatic missreading of oddities in the plan, this building creates a part to whole relationship about a dual interstitial space; one solid, one void. Through similar creation methods different “objects� are created within the building and are created within the building by the interstitial space. The object as a whole engages the ground by seeming to slam into it and freezing before settling in a way that makes the ground seem to receive the front half while leaving the back half in cantilver.

Catwalk Object: Based on a dress designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, this building is designed about a strange symmetry. Similar yet not the same forms were created and connected through pleated line-work that envelops the building and dissipates into spiky pompoms to give a notion of explosive verticality. The strange symmetry, explosive verticality, and vibrant colors, make it an alien in the environment.

Transformative Indexicality Nathan Garcia • 11

first floorplan

GroundFloor Plan Scale: 1

Long SEction

4

Section

Scale: 1’-0”=1/4”

Transformative Indexicality: Drawings Nathan Garcia • 13

First Floor

Long SEction

Auditorium Secton

Instructors: Dr. James Halliburton, Shelly Holliday, Dr. Lillian Beltran Design team: Nathan Garcia and Jeremy Harrienger Submission for AIAS Cote Top 10 Student

This STEM magnet highschool for the city of Bryan explores the possibilities of intentful design to accomidate the future of education. The idea of exploration of the sciences defines both the layout and aesthetic characteristics of the design.

The two main goals of the project are to optimize the learning process for students of all learnig types and provide an environment that inspires awe and fosters educational development. The building also serves a conduit for the community with assembly spaces and outdoor seating made available for weekend use.

An emphasis was put on responses to environmental issues and energy use, with the aim of making a building that can operate at net zero energy intake.

Technology such as PV panels, cross laminated timber, mesh screens, and dynamic shading devices were integrated to help achieve this.

Use of a diagrid structural allowed for optimization of natural lighting and a connection with the outdoors. The use of heavy timber as our main structural matieral is exposed wherever possible and gives a natural feel to the space breaking the dreary archetypical affect that schools currently have. This reinforces the duality of what science is a progressive push into the new, but at its core always based on the natural world and acedemia.

Integrated Studio: NexTex Highschool Nathan Garcia • 15

Atrium Render

South Elevation

South Elevation East Elevation

Main Atrium

North Elevation

NorthElevation Elevation West

Elevations

Low-E Glasing Glass coating of low emissivity cuts down on heat gain to the interior.

Heavy Timber Structure The heavy wood beams compos e the structural system while the steel connections transfer much less heat to the interior.

Maximize Daylight By increasing the exposure to natural light, the interior lowers its dependence on electric lighting and its overall energy use.

Connection to the Outdoors Constant sight lines to the outdoors maintain a connection to the natural surroundings.

CLT

Cross streng structu the ne surfac

Parapet Roof Tiling Waterproofing Membrane Fiber Board CLT Panelling Timber Beam Drop Ceiling Slats Timber Beam Section

Roof Detail

F

Cross Section 1

C

to ors

es to the a connecl surround-

Nextex Sections CLT Flooring

PV Cells

Heat Buffers

Cross laminated timber grains strengthen flooring as a structural element and lessen the need for insulation and surface dressing.

The roof is pannelled with Photovoltaics to augment grid energy us e.

Shaded air spaces outside the windows provides a heat buffer zone between the interior and exterior.

Nathan Garcia • 17

CLT Panelling Batt Insulation

fing Membrane

Floor Joist CLT Panelling

ng

Gyp Board

m

Plaster

g Slats

Timber Beam

m Section

Drop Ceiling Slats Timber Beam Section

Floor Detail

Cross Section

Resolving Parallax Instructors: M. Casey Rehm Team Leader: Nathan Garcia(U4) Members: Tiffany Orozco (U2) Brady Preiss (U2) Presented at Interface TAMU

In this project, we sought out to accomplish two goals. The first is to remove the plague of the parallax and the second is to establish an aesthetic strangeness that invokes exploration and a critical response of the viewer.

This project is not exactly the easiest on the eyes. In no traditional sense would someone call it beautiful. However this grotesque quality is not something to be seen as a shortcoming of the project, but rather a strangeness inviting the onlooker to explore deeper.

In aesthetic philosophy there is the onlooker, the world of appearances, and your assumptions of the reality that lies behind these appearances. Now this presents us with a major issue with Humanities receptive cognition is that it is that of a singular cognition. Slavoj Zizek talks about this as the idea of Parallax. Parallax describes the conditions in which the exact same data can be examined by any number of onlookers and completely different conclusions be drawn.

In Benjamin Bratton’s book, The Stack, he talks about how we utilize computational technology to produce models as schema in which we can think about the world in geometric terms.

These models are not simply divined but are rather a collection of an infinite number of stacked understandings from the design process.

In order to remove this parallax, the big data must be filtered through three machine cognitions, each equal in necessity and reliance on the other two. The first is that of the machine cognition (the script). The second is the human cognition, and the third is that of the Aesthetic Agency.

Through filtration, the script generates new in the three dimensional form of the voxel and discrete elements. The discrete is formalized by the over commodification and assimilation into the structure of the building creating a crusty and ruinesque like quality. This aggregation of commodities and advertisements comes as a critique of today’s society where the populous is constantly bombarded with an endless stream of junk from the mediascape the promethean source of our big data.

Through the stacking of many interfaces and processing data upon data constantly we have been able to produce this strange and grotesque building that poses a solution to that of the parallax plague and, in spite of its odd qualities, invites exploration of the onlooker to solve the puzzle of what it truly is.

T4T Constructing intelligence Nathan Garcia • 19

T4T Constructing intelligence Nathan Garcia • 21

Instructor: Gabel Esquivel Design Team: Adam Wells (U3), Matt West (U3), Nathan Garcia (U2), Ricardo Gonzalez (U3), Christian Stiles (U3) Displayed at Laurel House Studio RE-ticulate is a digital fabrication project that focuses on the interaction between various networks of lines distinguishing the surfaces of two faceted objects.

These linear networks all have different objectives and once they are layered or super imposed on the object, each system informs or is informed by a separate system. These lines inevitably create a hierarchy that highlights the form of the object over everything, but still allows for the other linear organizations to fight for the attention of the viewer. This surface forces the viewer to acknowledge the individual characteristics of each network while still viewing the objects as a whole.

Light and shadow also play a role, as the light streams through the large gashes in the object and casts shadows that begin to distort or emphasize certain lines.

RE-ticulate Nathan Garcia • 23

Instructor: Nate Hume

This project explores tensious relationships between dichotomous pairings across visual dimensions.

Utilizing new digital technologies to remove signatures of digital and analogous methods, this project explores how shape and form can exist in a state of “both and“.

By tweaking the standards of architectural representation in the form of the model, photograph, collage, and drawing, a new realm of representation is opened in whcih we can explore these “both and“ conditions.

These relationships are important to understand as we in architecture continue to push through the digital age and find our place in a post digital society. False or tweaked representation can open doors to the reintroduction of the mechanical process in a primarily digital field inviting exploration of the experiencer and posing questions of initial perception. Material standards are bent and redefined “doing things they shouldnt do“ creating a new definition of materiality and use of material.

Strange Forms and Strange Relationships Nathan Garcia • 25

instroctors: Jobe Moore & Marta Caldeira Team: Ruchi Dattani, Nathan Garcia, Katie Lau, Alix Pauchet, Kelsey Rico, Rukshan Vathupola, Darryl Weimer

Our project spatially and materially collages the housing masses of the two units around a shared outdoor space. This positive void of the shared outdoor space both divides and connects the units, negotiating private and collective spaces. The outdoor space is intended to facilitate gathering around meals and to cultivate social relationships embedded in preparing and enjoying food with others.

Additionally, it maintains a sense of privacy for our clients through the separation of the units on the ground floor. The CLT that structurally supports the second floor, frames and defines the outdoor space and mediates connections from each units’ individual kitchen to the shared space.

Worms Eye Axonometric of CLT frame

Top Axonometric of CLT Frame

2018 Jim Vlock Year Building Project Nathan Garcia • 27

Drawings and Model Nathan Garcia • 29

Team: Gilles Retsin, Nathan Garcia, Rahul Mirpuri, and Fernando Cano The Blokhut research project explores an architectural system where discrete, prefabricated, concrete elements are organized on intersecting grid-like construction planes which are joined at the intersections by 3D-Printed components. The end result is a differentiated and complex structure which maintains a high degree of economy with only a small percentage of the total structure requiring customized components. The large scale physical model is 2x1.5x0.3m and is built using 3000+ pre-cast plaster components and a number of 3D-printed elements. To effectively deal with tension forces in the model, a layer of fiber glass reinforces the planes of pre-cast plaster elements. Cheap, relatively weak components with a high-thermal mass become structurally efficient through the addition of a thin layer of strong but expensive composite.

The prototype can be constructed without the need for micro-managing thousands of unique, numbered pieces.

Instead, the 3D printed components set out the different construction planes, effectively becoming an informed building component or communication device which contains the instructions for assembly. ​ Retsin, Gilles. “Discrete Assemblage as Design and Fabrication Strategy.” (2015). Print.

My responsibilities on this project were to over see it from start to finish.

Begining with digital optimization of the design concept, creating the molds for casting all of the bricks, casting all of the bricks, 3D printing all custom joints, welding all interior skeleton and support columns, and creating an assembly process for the model in 6 “chunks“ and carrying this process out.

Initial digital Concept

Gilles Retsin Architecture: Blokhut Nathan Garcia • 31

Final Digital Model

Final Physical Model 1/8 scale

Principal Designer: Mark Gage Senior Designers: Ryan Wilson and Zach Bale Design team members: Nathan Garcia, Arif Javid, James Bradley, Madison Green Submission for the Mali Museum addition Project in Lima, Peru.

This project was unique in that the majority of the museum was required to be below grade in order to respect the existing museum by request of the ministry of culture.

In continuing the offices experimentation with kitbashing, this presented a great opportunity to explore the design typology in a new way through a series of facade treatments and vaults creating a cultural precedential paradox between technology and antiquity.

My responsibilities in this project were varried throughout the design process.

I worked with developing the “kitbashed� vaults which involved a vast variety of digital computational techniques. I was also worked on all site drawings, floorplans, and section drawings.

Mark Foster Gage Architects: Mali Nathan Garcia • 33

Design Team: Principal Designer: Mark Gage Senior Designers: Ryan Wilson Zach Bale Design team members: Nathan Garcia, Arif Javid, James Bradley, Madison Green Submitted for the Science Island competition in Kaunas, Lithuania We believe a science and technology center should open the minds of new generations to the possibility of entirely new forms of curiosity and discovery.

Our proposal for the Science Island Kaunas project not only assumes this is possible but made it the goal of every decision of the design process. This building will function spectacularly—but even more so when we can meet with the client to refine its function further. We do not believe that it is possible for a building to be properly designed without collaboration with the client—and so this proposal is one of ideas rather than set details, with the hopes that you will be as enticed by the possibilities of this project as we are. From a starting point of curiosity and inspiration, as guides all scientific inspiration, we can work together to make something magnificent for not only Kaunas and Lithuania, but the scientific world at large.

My Responsibilities in this project were to develop the digital stratagies necessary to generate the formal qualities of the project. translating 2D point clouds and images into modelable 3D fractals was my main focus.

I also worked on the overall Site Plan and environmental stratagies.

MFGA: Science Island Nathan Garcia • 35

Design Team: Principal Designer: Mike Szivos Project Manager: David Frank Design team members: Nathan Garcia & Jewel Pei Iris was commissioned for Signal Festival in Prague. The installation is an interactive array of responsive mirrors and LEDs that creates a circular enclosure within the Mirror Chapel. The mirrors rotate in response to the movement of people in the circular space, while the LEDs respond to ambient sound. The circular array can be thought of as a lens that reflects both light and sound. The installation is meant to blend or confuse light and sound through its capacity to focus and unfocus these mediums.

As the mirrors rotate, they open the perimeter allowing not only direct views of the Mirror Chapel, but also creating a Mise en abyme, mixing the surrounding chapel, viewers, and light in a vertically fragmented, recursive, and panoramic image.

Both the intricate nature of the Mirror Chapel’s architecture and its use as a classical concert hall drive the design of the installation. A mirrored object in the round reflects the ornate surroundings externally while reflecting the viewer infinitely on the interior of the circular enclosure. This reflective enclosure is disrupted as people approach for a closer look. In this way, it is curiosity and sound that activate the installation. A closer look has the potential to produce a delightful bewilderment as the exterior leaks in while space and sound become multiplied in unexpected ways. In that sense, Iris is not an object, image, or artifact on its own, but relies on the existing space as the medium. As it bends, multiplies, and conflates light and sound it calls into question the lenses (both mechanical and cultural) that limit or expand our spatial experiences.

Iris Nathan Garcia • 37