ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO Harshika Seth
Selected works, Fall ‘21
Negative space is a performative component, not an acquiescent element. 2
Design Formalism
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Digital Site
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The Puzzle
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Society of Rooms
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Light - Space - Matter Modulator
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01 Design Formalism
Manipulating basic geometries Advanced Studio | Fall, 2021 Guide : Kurt Hong
ABSTRACT : The workshop aimes to introduce Grasshopper through a practice of instantiating geometric object compositions. Exploring the digital representation of geometries, the mechanism of transformations and the data structure of Grasshopper for duration of the workshop
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Motif
Extrude
Top view
Top view
Stack
Twist
Scale to a point
Solid difference
Elevation A
Elevation B 6
D ESIGN FOR M AL ISM
Scale to a point
Solid difference
D E S I G N FO R M A LI S M
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D ESIGN FOR M AL ISM
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B D E S I G N FO R M A LI S M
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02 Digital Site
Attractor scripts and reactive geometries Advanced Studio | Fall, 2021 Guide : Kurt Hong
ABSTRACT : The workshop aims to incorporate the concept of site in digital environment. One of the merits of parametric modelling is that the information of context can be effectively introduced to the design process so that design is able to respond to the environment. This workshop introduces skill sets of dealing with surfaces, incorporation of data from the context, and implimenting the algorithms that correspond to the sites.
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01. Develop a hexagon grid with each component reactive to a single attractor point
02. Extrude hexagon grid with each component reactive in the Z direction to a single attractor point. Here the attractor point dictates the factor of extrusion as well as the varied heights.
03. Extrude hexagon grid with each component reactive in the Z direction to a curve. The curve is divided into a set number of points to create reference attractor points. Here the attractor points dictate the factor of extrusion based on proximity, creating varied heights D E S I G N FO R M A LI S M 11
Site and Formal Study This is the first phase of design for our Final Project in Media and Modeling III at Georgia Tech. We have focused on the concept of having a path of travel along the site that effects the form generated. Also, another concept we use is the contouring of the site in order to fit the form to the site. Site A
Site B
Motif
Design Variations
Array
Three different sites and each site has to interact with the consistent system. A horizontal system, and two vertical systems. The geometry is a parasite and the site is a host. The motif latches on to an element in the site and is being carved using the contour tool in grasshopper.
Site A 12 D IGITAL SIT E
Harshika Seth | Matthew McDonald | Jayita Shetty | Mason Burrow
Site C
Twist
Scale to a point
Site B
Site C D I G I TA L S I TE 13
Architectural Fitting The second phase of the design exploration. The focus is on having a park landscape form that provides spatial function to the park. First set of modules create a free space : benches, a skate park and play space for people. Second set of modules have the hollow interior to create a market space. Lastly the theatre is connected to a screen on the desk, creating a seating are expected to be used a performance space and a theater.
Formal operations
Free space
Market
Theater 14 D IGITAL SIT E
Variation 1
Harshika Seth | Matthew McDonald | Jayita Shetty | Mason Burrow
D I G I TA L S I TE 15
Variation 2
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Variation 3
Harshika Seth | Matthew McDonald | Jayita Shetty | Mason Burrow
D I G I TA L S I TE 17
03 The Puzzle
Excercise of planes and volumes Advanced Studio | Fall, 2021 Guide : Mark Cottle
ABSTRACT : The Puzzle is an abstract structure designed within a set of boundaries and a list of rules and constraints. The overall volume, square footage, volumes, and number of rooms have all been specified. Designing an abstract massing study for a hypothetical building. Ignoring the moment considerations of site and program and concentrating on the relationships between rooms, and the patterns they create, as they interlock into a single smooth volume. The built volume is considered as 80’ by 80’ The approach was to create a system of spatial relationships between a set of planes.
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Dimensions
4800 sq.ft
1200 sq.ft
4 Folds
4800 sq.ft
4 Folds
4800 sq.ft
2 Folds
1200 sq.ft
2 Folds
1200 sq.ft
The grid
4800 sq.ft
1200 sq.ft
1 Fold
375 sq.ft 1 Fold
375 sq.ft 2 0 TH E PUZZLE
375 sq.ft
1 Fold
375 sq.ft
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Circulation
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L TH E PUZ Z LE 2 1
Sloped planes that move from room to room
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2 2 TH E PUZZLE
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Volumes as rooms -
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North elevation
East elevation 24 TH E PUZZLE
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EXPLODED AXO TH E PUZ Z LE 2 5
03 Society of Rooms
Municipal Recreation Center Advanced Studio | Fall, 2021 Guide : Mark Cottle
ABSTRACT : An idea Louis Kahn developed at the scale of a room, for a single individual or small group; at the scale of a building, for a family or clan; and at the scale of a city, for a community. Further, he described how a properly designed built body can foster and support the physical and social health of its occupants, at each scale. Kahn draws on this line of thought, both formal and social, when he terms the street “the room of agreement.” The project exploration is also interested in the room, the building, and the city. The site is a corner plot in the Fairlie-Poplar district, directly across Luckie Street from the Rialto Centre for the Arts. It is currently in service as a surface parking lot. With this prompt, program, and site, the project is an opportunity to question a number of accepted norms, such as the relation between outside and inside, between city and building, community and individual. This semester the primary tools were physical models, section sketches, and perspective drawings, paying careful attention to craft, and to the hand’s relation to thought.
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Pixel to 0 to 1 Switching from digital model to a physical model. The aim of the workshop is to use physical techniques to explore space, volumes and planes. The excercise provided learnings in terms if interlocking spaces, occupancy, and structure. Taking the pixel to 0, the digital model into a physical puzzle model
The Puzzle 2 8 S OCIET Y O F ROOM S
Taking the puzzle from 0 to 1, adding structural elements and detailing out spans. It was integral to find the common points of support that could a structural strategy.
S O C I E TY O F RO O M S 2 9
Site introduction
The program brief for a society of rooms will be a municipal gymnasium and health facility in downtown Atlanta, with all the things, including a basketball court, tennis court, swimming pool, yoga studios, exercise equipment together with attendant exterior spaces, such as courtyards, balconies, and alleys.
Fairlie Poplar district and the context
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Transport and movement
Roads Rails Highway
Built and unbuilt
Built Roads
Gardens and connections to each other
Fairlie - Poplar district
Greens Roads Fairlie - Poplar district S O C I E TY O F RO O M S 3 1
Strategies Massing
Approach
Shear Shear wall wall
Shear wall
Shear Shearwall wall
Small Small held held by by Large Large spaces spaces
Overlooking spaces
Small Smallheld heldbybyLarge Largespaces spaces
Street slicing inwards Street slicing inwards Street pulled
inwards
Street slicing inwards
Sunken Sunken Building Building
Overlooking Overlooking spaces spaces MASSING MASSINGSTRATEGY STRATEGY
Sunken SunkenBuilding Building
Overlooking Overlookingspaces spaces MASSING MASSINGSTRATEGY STRATEGY
Sunken structures
Double height spaces
Structure
Opening Opening the streetthe at street at
slope the slope Opening upthethe lower floor to the street Opening the street at the slope
APPROACH FROM THE APPROACH FROM THE STREET
MEDITATION + YOGA
APPROACH FROM THE STREE
Overlooking streetscapes
Program
TENNIS COURT CLINICS + STUDIOS MEDITATION + YOGA GYM
BASKETBALL COURT TENNIS COURT STUDIOS + OFFICES CLINICS + STUDIOS GYM ENTRANCE FOYER BASKETBALL SWIMMINGCOURT POOL STUDIOS + OFFICES ENTRANCE FOYER
Prog
SWIMMING POOL Structural strategy includes using the two party walls as shear walls, the interstitial layer is a Vierendeel truss and the tortion is prevented by the angular colums held in the larger triple height spaces. 32 S OCIET Y O F ROOM S
Here large spaces hold the smaller spaces as an overlay and act of overlooking spaces. Progr The interstitial layers hold the smaller, intimate functions of spas, yoga, dance studios, clinics and offices.
The program is that of a recreation center. There are 4 large spaces to consider the swimming pool, basketball court, tennis court, and gym.
Movement
Circulation
Street space as a positive
S O C I E TY O F RO O M S 33
nnade
Integrating streetscapes
Elements of the street are integrated into the design strategies to develop another layer of detail, the chosen street elements are the alley, the court, the courtyard, the colonnade, the lightwell/crack and the pergola. The physical models help develop the rules for the streetscape elements.
Courts
Alley
Alleys
Court
Colonnade
Alley
Colonnade
Experience strategy
Colonnade
Pergola
Lightwell/Crack
Alley
Ligh
Courtyard
Light well / Crack
Expe
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Design Development
Site at the cross junction of Forsyth and Luckie street
Extruding the mass according to required heights
Dividing up spaces according to required heights and programs
The inbetween trusses become interstitial layers that hold intimate programs.
Shear walls as structural elements and sunken
The inbetween trusses become interstitial layers that hold intimate programs. S O C I E TY O F RO O M S 3 5
Swimming pool
Steps down from the sloping street, sunken space to pull in the street with visual connections.
Entrance Porch
Enter at an angle of 45 at the cross junction with a ramp sloping upwards leading you to the foyer. With cracks piercing downwards from the slab above as the light reflects from the pool underneath 36 S OCIET Y O F ROOM S
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Section A C
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+5’
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-14’
S O C I E TY O F RO O M S 3 7
C B
B’
Section B C
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A’
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B
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C’
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+23’
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+40’6”
The alley for movement
The alley moves parallel with the party wall, the central void acting as a vertical garden.
Basketball court
The triple height space of the basketball court houses the Gym, the overlooking bleachers and the balconies. These are thinner slabs suspended from the truss above. S O C I E TY O F RO O M S 3 9
The overlooking gym
The gym overlooks the basketball court and is suspended from the truss above.
The court
With circulation wrapped around the court, its a central space for gatherings and the piercings in the slab become means of bringing in reflective light. 40 S OCIET Y O F ROOM S
C B
B’
Section C C
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+70’6”
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+88’6”
S O C I E TY O F RO O M S 41
C
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B’
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+106’
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+136’
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+154’
Tennis court
The tennis court is the second of the large triple height spaces.
Courtyard + Yoga and meditation
The courtyard on the terrace level is meant for moment of respite. S O C I E TY O F RO O M S 43
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S O C I E TY O F RO O M S 47
05 Light-Space-Matter Modulator
Exploration of light, scales, shadows and volumes Advanced Studio | Fall, 2021 Guide : Mark Cottle
ABSTRACT : A low stakes, high gain endeavor intended both as review of some basic design conventions and as provocation for design invention working as reminders of the simultaneously material and ephemeral aspects of architecture. Carving a 7.5” x 7.5” x 7.5” dimension -- a 40’ cube at 3/16”, manually fabricated through subtraction of solid materials to achieve relative equilibrium of phisycal mass + spatial void. The excercise is meant to emphasize a dialog between generative processes and descriptive systems.
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L IGHT - SPACE - M AT T E R M OD U L ATO R
L I G H T - S PAC E - M ATTE R M O D ULATO R 5 1
Work included from August 2021 - November 2021 Georgia Institute of Technology, M.Arch School of Architecture hseth6@gatech.edu 52