University of Michigan B.S. Architecture 2020
GIAN PAOLO IRENEO ANOVERT
SELECTED WORKS FOR 2019 Sample Portfolio.
Operations op·er·at· ion | \ ˌä-pə-ˈrā-shən : any of various mathematical or logical processes (such as addition) of deriving one entity from others according to a rule. As I progress throughout my college career the exuberance has begun to escape me. Lending my designs to be informed by operations. By defining these operations I now enter a phase where my exuberance must return and entangle with my operations. This collection is working to define and redefine these operations.
Operations Spaceman (-) Loud Speakers (x)v Planar Interventions (/)
Vectors A Million Shorelines (+) Single-family House in Krumbach (=) The Edmonson Residence (≈)
Scalers Marble on a Hill (“) Context in Context [ ]
Table of Contents.
01
SPACEMAN Fall 2018. Ug1. Instructor: Dawn Gilpin
The invitation of complete darkness for the diurnal relative to the nocturnal is often an inteicement caused by an ultimatum, whether it be a deadline or responsibility. Connotated through a lense of vampires and stalkers, this project works to shed light into the honest nature of the nocturnal and produce a sense of empathy for diurnals. By programming a space where light and darkness are reciprocated from the expected duration of day and night, the user experience is altered to the understanding that morning runners, nine to five workers, vampires and stalkers are one in the same (the allnighter). Formally, loneliness, dormant behavior and self reflection are all things often experienced in the lack of light, for we pursue thoughts and goals that have yet to see the light. What becomes of this, is a superpositioned vessel in which encapsulates these ideas and provides them an oasis in which may provide comfort and closure. (More to say about terrestrials, celestials, extraterrestrials, existentials and a small narrative of going through the space).
Premise.
Physical Model Detail.
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OPERATIONS
The site that we were given for this project was up to our choosing. Although we were all given the same site dimensions, the location that we chose ultimately created the parameters for the project. Within my section we were asked to locate a site where the environment provides for both diurnal and nocturnal observation. With this Normal
in mind I chose a site located in hawaii. This allowed me to utilize the water as a medium for reflection, ultimately helping me design for my premise. Through this study of my site, I took photographs as the sun set and when it rose. I brought them into illustrator to distort new atmospheres. and manipulate new conditions for my site.
Distorted
Location: Maui, Hawaii [Honokalani Beach] (Longitude -156.00, longitude 20.78) Time: January 1st 7:51 a.m. ET.
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OPERATIONS
Richard Serra’s wall installations
Going through my design process, I brought in inspiration from people like Richard Serra and Peter Zumthor, masters of the light and the manipulation of atmospheres within a space. I was inspired by the way they used high walls in their designs to create a well of light. Through this I wanted to use it as a texhnique of juxtopositioning, a vessel within a stereotomic field. Moving through my design I used analogies of whirling dervishes, a ritual dance, and grid-
ed patterns by Mies van der Rohe to guide my design. Ultimately what this led to was a paramteric fold being surrounded by the rest of the building. In this way the user can experience the space during both the day and night. As an archeologist during the day and an astronomer during the night. It goes to encompass my premise as it predetermines the notion that we must explore all angles to understand something fully.
Design Process. An Interpretation of grids and walls.
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Early Study Model. An axon drawing of the paramteric fold and its relationship with the encompassing circulation.
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OPERATIONS
Physical Model. Detailed view.
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The final model for this project brought my ideas to a much larger scale. Instead of utilizing a full envelope for the parametric fold, I experimented with the idea of using the sky and air as the closing panel. This move brought about the discussion of a third oc-
cupant, that of an existential component. With this my final model creates the conversation between the observers as well as the spectators of the project. I think this idea of between the three components creates a sense of drama. Appropriate for discovery.
Final drawings for the project. More focused on the section to show the space under the vessel.
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OPERATIONS
Final Model. Detailed view.
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Ultimately there were a lot of challenges that came along with this project. The biggest being the introduction of the human scale, as well as human behavior. It is very hard to control human behavior, and being in a field where we are guiding people to atmospheres, the question is how do we better do this? How can we better entice occupants to go down our hallways and to look up in our designs. I think for me the answer to this question lies in the human nature’s curiousity. There is a fear to the unknown but there is also excitement. The final proposal of this project demonstrates this. The fear that some-
Detailed views of final Model.
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thing might not belong in a place forces us to askwhy is it there? But at the same time this question also lends itself to ask I wonder...? This initial interaction between why is it there and I wonder is an important moment for this project because it works to untangle the hesitation between the two. This architecture that I have designed creates corners of curiousity, moments where there isn’t enough time to ask why is it there? The only thing not quite resolved however, is how much do we need to know about something to understand it? This is something that needs to be iterated further.
OPERATIONS
Final Model.
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02
LOUD SPEAKERS Fall 2018. Ug1. Instructor: Dawn Gilpin
In the movement of sound, the making of an auditory exchange is enacted and a place is generated by its temporality. For it has no ‘real’ space to be located in, this bureau of advanced geometry investigates how certain formal qualities of architecture may inform this brief, immaterial borderline of sound. From the vibrations of a tapping pencil to the chants of a political assembly, the physical manifestation of this project begins to take on a discourse of architecture that listens, an eavesdropper of its participants. Not so it may invoke claustrophobia, but to better adjust its architecture when it needs to divide, connect, or compromise between those within the academy and the society of Ann Arbor.
Premise.
Physical Model Detail.
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The project’s initial disposition was invested in studying the larger context of Ann arbor- denoting areas of political and educational activity. In doing so, it allowed the project to establish itself as a node for conversational exchange between the two. The conversation offered opportunities to deliver listening as a sensory, analogic and analytic condition and attention as a commodity for speakers. Through iterations, the conversation remained with the academy and society but became emphasized by the architec-
ture. A transition between the exuberant and anechoic, guided by an amplifying inlay throughout the building gives the participants an incredible sense of concentration and connection when suddenly enclosed or open. May we be many or single, the formal proposal conclusively creates an arena for the individual and the public in which they may divide, connect, or compromise.
Site Conditions.
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OPERATIONS
Throughout my design process there were many steps that introduced me to idea of hearing sensibility. Where it began was simply within the definition between the academy and the society. The Society: An organization or club formed for a particular purpose or activity. The Academy: A place of study or training in a special field. Maintains standards in its particular field. These two definitions brought about my curiousity in how these two classes may interact with each other. Where the academy is a place of learning, I was given an opportunity to denote certain hiearchies
that are present within their relationship with the society. Ultimately what was disccused was the idea that the learn should learn from the society and the society should learn from the academy. The issue that we saw with this. was the fact that the relationship between Ann arbor and the University of Michigan can be quite hostile at times due to the economic benefits the university provides the city. My role in this as a designer was to create a place of negotiation and compromise. Because of this I focused on what compromise needs from both parties, the idea of listening and attention.
Study Diagrams.
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The conversation offered opportunities to deliver listening as a sensory, analogic and analytic condition and attention as a commodity for speakers. Through iterations, the conversation remained with the academy and society but became emphasized by the architecture. A transition between the exuberant and anechoic, guided by an amplifying inlay throughout the building gives the participants an incredible sense of concentration and connection when suddenly enclosed or open. This inlay was the core of the design so material choices were considered as well as its visibility from other points in the site.
Acoustic Material
Oscillating Panel
Concrete
Wood Siding
Material Study. Site Perception Study
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OPERATIONS
Listening usually starts as a sensory experience. One responds to the qualities of sound that induce the pleasant physical reactions that are genetically wired into our nervous system. Rhythm of drums ----mother’s womb heartbeat. Next is the analogic mode. One begins to evoke feelings and images based on the patterns of sound. Finally there is the analytic one. Attention shifts to the structural elements of music, instead of the sensory or narrative ones. Because attention determines what will or will not appear in consciousness, and because it is also required to make any other mental events- such as remembering, thinking ,feeling and making decisions- happen there, it is useful to think of it as psychic energy. Attention is like energy in that without it no work can be done, and in doing work, it is dissipated. We create ourselves by how we invest this energy. Memories, thoughts, and feelings are all shaped by how we use it. And it is an energy under our control,to do with as we please; hence, Attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience.
Study Model Diagrams. Green Denoting Society. Orange Denoting Academy.
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First, the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing, second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing. Third and fourth, the concentration is usually possible because the tasks undertaken
has clear goals and provides immediate feedback. Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life. Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control
Section/ Roof Plan
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OPERATIONS
“The project proposes that both processes are means of building personal political knowledge and correlating personal and emotional borderlines, invisible by nature but clearly informed by the geographic affiliations of the listeners“.
over their actions. Seventh, concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over. Finally, the sense of duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem
like hours. The combination of all these elements causes a sense of deep enjoyment that is so rewarding people, feel that expending a great deal of energy is worthwhile simply to be able to feel it.
Section Perspective
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Detailed Model Pictures.
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OPERATIONS
Detailed Model Pictures.
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03
PLANAR INTERVENTIONS Fall 2018. Ug1. Instructor: Dawn Gilpin
When this project was introduced to us we were given the task to take a two dimensional composition and create a three dimensional response. With this idea in mind and the piece that i was given, Three Faces by Fernand Leger, our mission to accomplish this embodied aspects off analysis, implementation, and iteration with the respect that we saw our compositions through the lense of cubism. With analysis, we had to learn how to analyze cubist paintings. With this we were assigned the reading Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal by Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky. Ideas of phenomenal transparency and literal transparency ultimately became the core idea within our studio with a specific focus on the Phenomenal. With my understanding of phenomenal transparency and its numerous amount of layers we were at that point, ready to dissect our paintings. To Implementation, we brought the rules that we learned and made a checklist of things that our projects would check off. Among the many rules within the analysis of cubism, I focused on frontality, orthogonal and oblique grids, and the propensity that my painting had pherperical development.
Premise.
OPERATIONS
Physical Model Detail.
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The piece is composed of what seems to be fractured objects, layered into a logical spatial void. Being a cubist painter, my analysis of Leger’s work, similarly with the rest of the class
Layered Axonometric
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was through the lense of cubism. I analyzed aspects of frontality, rectilinear and oblique grids as well as the notion that 3 Faces had propensities towards peripheric development.
OPERATIONS
Moving away away from the nation that the composition was layered, I experimented with the possibility of a rotating plane that excavated these forms out of a tracing path. This jumpstarted an investigation of of objects are manipulated as they are rotated, and even more so when they pass different mediums.
Study in the manipulation of rotated object. Detailed study models
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Plans/ unfolded plan of rotated experimentation.
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OPERATIONS
The resultant final model. having a relationship of parts to whole. the iteration that successfully translated my idea of tracing rotations brought about pieces that were connected by the fissures of the tracing path. With this, it created opportunities of conceptual spaces.
Detailed final stacked models. As parts to a whole.
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Detailed united model. Disassmebled axonometric.
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OPERATIONS
What began as a study in the two dimensional erected itself into a concept that dealt with the resultant operation of subtraction. In the three dimensional, the trace acted as a space of movement, a space for circulation. In this moment it holds its own identity while tying in objects of specific identity. By retrieving the negative space within a representation of phenomenal transparency, bits and pieces of an apparent
process come into clarity. They define parthoods that relate in compositional monism (moments of intersection) but also provide the evidence of previous notions that were existent within the motifs of whirling dervishes and the networks of mies van der rohe. In its representation, the voids and spaces that we perceive, work to define the middle ground that was not apparent in my previous two dimensional models
Conclusion.
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04
A MILLION SHORELINES Winter 2019. Ug2. Instructor: Jen Maigret
Merging land and water. Trying to create a buffer between the two different mediums was given to us as a task of design. Programatically we were given the opportunity to design a boat house for either the community, as defined, or for a collegiate level team. For this project I focused on creating a space on unity. For both the spectator community and the collegiate level trainee. Formally I precieved a boat house for just being a giant garage for boats so I opted for a design that utilized the landscape. to design a moment of relfection between land and water. With this in mind. the resultant proposal led to an agulmation of a repeated shoreline.
Premise.
Illustrative Rendering.
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Launching into this project, we were seeking scale. Between soliditary objects and kinetic ones. The project asked to used proportional studies to understand how different bodies of mass sit amongst each other and how motion can determine the scale in which they may interming. In relationship with a previous study, we were given a project of designing a path on a slope. Having conquered this project of site contouring, we were led to the descending conditions of the water. Where tectonics are more prominent on the land, this study of water has forced a switchback in which fluid material does not allow for a stable tectonic. In solution,
this project uses a competition rowboat to negotiate these terms. In studying it in full scale to comparing it with other vessels of the water, this project allowed the understanding of how a small space can affect a person in a site of non permanance. In designing this boathouse, the subjects of nature and the boat were the main focus. While trying to connect the path of the rower in the water and the spectator on land, the resultant project encountered moments of cultural parallelisms and reflective forms.
Initial Measurements.
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VECTORS
Full Scale Study.
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Paddle Boat
Gondala
Viking Ship
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VECTORS
Small Sail Boat
8-Person Rowing Shell
Vessel Studies
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The site that we were given for this project is Ford Lake, located in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Being a large recreational lake, there was a lot of opportunities to choose a site of highly compressed activites and more natural rural sites. In due to my interest in the spectator community, it only made sense to choose a site where there were more frequent activity. In this way it allowed me to specifically design the inlet (the chosen site) for the sole purpose of activitating it. Furthermore, having the steepest slope within the lake, the inlet also informed the vertical relationship between my building and the site.
Digrammatic study of cultural, environmental and historical interactions within the site.
Site Conditions.
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VECTORS
Beginning my design process, there was a lot of experimentation between the interaction of walls, hallways and rooms. Because I was dealing with a project that worked to bring two things together, I thought it only made sense to begin by studying formal qualities that separate and connect architecture. Through this there were iterations of enclosed forms and permeable walls. However, while these iterations sparked discussion they never resolved the boat. Pushing foreward, I translated the wall and its permeability into a path. Here sparked a stepping stone into the final design. The walls didn’t have to be inhabitable, they just needed to be divided. (top left) Iterations of how these paths might connect and enable negative spaces.
Design Process.
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Site Map/ Activity Diagram.
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VECTORS
Having my design objective, the next iteration of this project led itself to creating acitvity diagrams. Programs that would be covered within our boat house. With this objective, I was able to create moments where land and water reflect each other in the form. Where the path bisects the building forms, the water does as well. In the larger facility, the building is divided by an upper training floor and the lower being a water training center. In the west bay building, it divides itself into a sand bar and an upper cafe. Lastly the north facility is caught in between an upper viewing lounge and a lower jacuzzi room. With all these cases, the building reflects the land program with its aquatic counterpart.
In this way, the occupant may shuffle between all of these different programs without feeling obstructed to be in a separate site. In due to the enveloping path (reflective of the land path on the peninsula). there is a memory relocation of how one moves throughout the space. Hovering over the larger bays created the path, it allows visitors to engage, spectate and appreciate all the other activities happening in the boat house.
Activity Diagram.
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Site Map/ Activity Diagram.
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VECTORS
As preciously stated, there are many remnants of the natural site within the building itself. Looking at the plan, the docks of the boat house is a direct reflection of the coastal line. where the path shows through the peninusla, the loading and entrance docks are extension of the coastal line. Initially when this project be-
gan, the path had all been at water level, but having introduced a decline and incline it gave opportunity to making the facility more permeable to the the rest of the lake, although it restricted the further design of water docks ( a call out to the initial idea of repeating the coastline over and over again.
Activity Diagram.
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Section Axon.
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VECTORS
Section.
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Atmospheric Render.
VECTORS
Illustrative Render.
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SINGLE FAMILY IN KRUMBACH Fall 2019. Construction. Instructor: Yojairo Lomeli
This project work as a study of construction. Construction methods, ideologies and code. We were task to take a precedent of the Single Family House in Krumbach and decode its site-specific qualities. In this way we took these attributes, studied them, drew them and modeled them.
Premise.
Model Detail.
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Plans.
VECTORS
Section Detail.
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Longitudinal Elevation. Longitudinal Section. [Drawing by Ethan Hop].
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VECTORS
Cross Elevation. Cross Section.
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Sectional Axonometric.
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VECTORS
In designing the construction method for our model. the material choices created the most discussion. Most definitely the most important aspect of the house was the stark contrast between the heavy and cold exterior and the warm insulated interior. We knew that we would have to cut through a skylight and an exterior window to show the thick relationship between the glass framing and the house framing. Having
decided our process we began building. the final construct took about 48 hours. the longest part being the oxidization of the copper. Overall the project was pretty straightforward but it taught me and my team alot in terms of the methodology in construction. Materials: Basswood, Foam, Copper, chipboard, PETG (for glass), Printed Paper.
Final Construction.
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06
THE EDMONDSON RESIDENCE Winter 2018. Pre-arc. Instructor: Jono Bentley Sturt [hand drawing and modeling course]
When we talk about Taliesin, we talk about Wright’s most complete embodiment of his philosophy in organic architecture. This project is relevant in this subject as it is Jones complete embodiment of the same philosophy, but translated differently because of their different origination. Fay Jones is an American architect and designer; an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright and his work. He was born in 1921 in arkansas and died in 2004. His work is relevant and important because as an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright, he not only continued Wright’s concepts after his death, but he also questioned/ contested some of his ideologies. In, this way, his work approaches Wright’s theories in a more efficient way.
Premise.
Atmospheric Rendering.
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The Edmondson residence is located on 3 Ridgewood Lane, in Forrest City Arkansas. Construction began in 1976 and was completed in 1981. The Edmondson like many of Jone’s work consist of materials that are indigenous to Arkansas (Ozark). Creamy stucco walls, red tile roofs, red pavers on walks and patios, and pools. Millwork is red oak. Darker redwood framing major beams. Quiet assurance characterizes the planning and spatial composition. Humility characterizes the subordination of building image to the sites fullness. No sculpture or fountain, walkway or room overshadows the naturalistic unity in this evolving house, a touchstone of jones maturity.
VECTORS
Section. Site Plan. Axonometric.
Plans.
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VECTORS
The big focus in the study of the Edmondson residence was the hearth. The hearth is something that was present in other Taliesin structures that we had studied. The notion is that everything gets designed around the hearth, being the center of the house, this was the area where large family gatherings would happen. Moreover this was also the space that recieved the most light within the house. With the Edmondson Residence the hearth is en-
cased by a triple hieght ceiling, reaching all the way to the roof. Another big focus was the deck extension that reaches all the way to the river. Because the Edmondson Residence sits on a very steep hill (dropping around 40 feet), the implementation of a deck patio into to reach the river was something that I wanted to study but did have the the resources. Meaning it had not been documented in plan, onlyphotographs.
Atmospheric Render.
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07
Marble Perforation Fall 2017. Pre-arc. Instructor: Laura-Anne Wong [digital drafting course]
Marble Perforation was inspired by an old childhood game called marbles. Children would flick marbles into holes and try to get the most into each hole before other opponents can take over. The reason this opening is so important because when we were first introduced this assignment, it had a seemingly gloomy atmosphere. Tracing Piranesi’s Campo Marzio, I couldn’t really imagine where this project was going. Being in an introductory course in digital drafting I sought nothing of this project. However when the last launch of this project began, the task of creating a pavillion park for children and explores alike took my interest. Now knowing the precedent and inspiration of this project, there was an opportunity to take my childhood and renovate it in the field of architecture. Introducing concepts of hiearchy and perforations, this project jumpstarted my interest in material juxtapositions and formal contrasts.
Premise.
Atmospheric Rendering.
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Looking through Campo Marzio, I was looking for forms that were highly contrasted and then looking for forms that were held in between their language. This allowed for the hierarchy of form to read clearly. Translating them into the three-dimensional model, there was focus making sure the hierarchy was clearly legible. generating
Design Process.
practice forms I threw marbles into a bowl and took pictures. using this process, it allowed for a natural arrangement of the marbles. Finally the last portion was denoting the different materials that were going to be put into play. Formally, I used the process of auditory hierarchy to decide their material qualities.
SCALERS
Section.
configuring the potential layering of the three different auditory layers. the cage, the wall and permeable slats.
exploded axonometric. Hierarchy positioning.
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SCALERS
Atmospheric Render.
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08
CONTOURED PATH Winter 2019. Ug2. Instructor: Jen Maigret
This is a site on the Huron River, Ann Arbor, that prioritized the manipulation of the ground to establish an experiential walking path down to the river. Working towards an endeavor of creating a boathouse, this precedent study helps create an understanding of ground conditions as well as how one can change geographic sites to better inform accessibility in steep conditions.
Premise.
Model Detail.
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Design Process
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SCALERS
An Untouched Site.
Approaching the project, it began with the intent of creating an efficient path from point A to point B. In order to create an experience for the user, the confirmation of an accessible path in the steep condition of the site was needed. After having found this path, there were three aspects that the path would embody.
One: Through the interaction of simple geometry, no added planes would be needed for their connection.
An Initial Interaction,
An Occupent Interference,
A Built Environment.
Two. The alignment of the body would be twisted and rotated depending on how the path wanted it to. However it is defined by the parameters of giving an immersive view and remembrance of past landmarks.
Three: the relationship between the path and the landscape had to be interlaced, in a literal sense, to provide tacitility to the user.
Conceptual Ideology.
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coerced path of water.
Diagram.
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SCALERS
Carved out path in the winter.
The path works to alter the experience by taking into account time. As the occupent moves through the articulating path they are met with moments where they must carve their own path or they are coerced by the path’s relationship with the environment,
Conceptual Ideology.
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Views pointing towards the resting area, lying in the major saddle of the site, shows a threee dimensional diagram of the projected lines of sight of the path during the decension of the riverside.
Final Model. Detailed images.
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SCALERS
Final Model.
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09
CONTEXT IN CONTEXT Winter 2017. Pre-Arch. Instructor: Peter Halquist.
Context in Context. Camouflage on camouflage. A disguise in the background. This project is a stop motion animation illustratin the creation of form through the influence of different context. this project asks in what context should we design. In the context of culture, economy, politics? It answers by designing in all of them. Through using the background as a backdrop, the form ultimately consumes and absorbs all of these contexts and emerges into its resultant form. balanced and connected, as all things should be. Link : Http://ganovert.wixsite.com/treelineskyline/ treeline-skyline
Premise.
SCALERS
Animation Screenshot.
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THANK YOU. for your time and consideration.
Conclusion.
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