HARRY MURZYN Selected Work The Cooper Union
ACADEMIC WORK VOLUMES HOUSE THEATER DETAILS SUBURBAN TRANSFORMATION URBAN INTERVENTION THESIS INVESTIGATION
intersection study analysis & design analysis & design construction & structural Aurora, Colorado New York, New York Crown King, Arizona
PROFESSIONAL WORK MODEL CONSTRUCTION
architectural & exhibition
ACADEMIC WORK Bachelor of Architecture 2008 - 2014 The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
A STUDY IN MATERIAL AND DESCRIPTIVE GEOMETRY Cube / Cylinder / Pyramid / Cone
The Intersection of Ideal Volumes First Year Design Studio Spring 2009
The qualities of each volume are investigated through model and drawing. Upon completing these studies, an intersection is proposed. Conceptual clarity through material expression is key to articulating the complexity and fundamental dynamism of the intersection. Cube - an ideal set of geometrical relationships, broken into its component pieces. Cylinder - an expression of two infinite axis: linear and rotational, forming a column of plaster. Pyramid - a tensile volume created by the force of gravity, its orientation a matter of balance. Cone - a relationship between circle and vanishing point, stabilized by deliberate effort. Intersection - the physically manifested overlap of four void volumes, resting on a ground.
PETER EISENMAN’S HOUSE VI - CORNWALL, CONNECTICUT The Genealogical Origins of an Architecture
Modern House Analysis Second Year Design Studio Spring 2010
Following the production of a full set of documentation drawings and a physical model, an intensive series of analytical studies were produced in an attempt reveal the generative potential of existing spatial relationships in Peter Eisenman’s House VI. The house is unique in that the final object already exists as a record of post-rationalized self-analysis on the part of the architect. Thus a major component of this analysis was the investigation of Eisenman’s implied genealogical process: producing iterations of a potential sequence by which the final form can be ‘derived’ from an ideal origin (in this case, a cube.) The other components of the analysis explored the creative possibilities of spatial and material reinvention inherent in the analytical process.
The drawing series at bottom depicts the transformation of a single space defined by four walls to an inverted condition: four distinct spaces implied by the intersection of four walls. Further transformations and projections delineate the interior and exterior spaces present the final iteration of the house. These projections are expressed in model form (above right) and expanded on through a second series of models (below).
SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENCE - UPSTATE NEW YORK Horizon & Light: Balance expressed through Structure
House Design Third Year Design Studio Fall 2010
The house is divided into two halves. One half embraces the horizon (and its association with viewing), while the other half negates it (embracing instead the ethereal qualities of light from above). The half of the house dedicated to the horizontal expanse is marked only by the concrete plane of the ceiling and of the floor. An unobstructed view of the surrounding valley is visible here. The more public aspects of domestic life are located in this half: the living area and the kitchen. The half of the house dedicated to the vertical is marked by a concrete plane that wraps around it, shielding any views. The ceilings and floors of rooms in this half move up and down past the enclosure to emphasize subtle qualities of light. The more private aspects of domestic life are located in this half: reading, sleeping, and bathing.
Four beams, on heavy piers, run the length of the house. The weight of the concrete wall wrapping the rear half counterbalances the weight of the ceiling plane suspended over the other. Neither concrete plane touches the ground.
PALLADIO’S TEATRO OLIMPICO - VICENZA, ITALY The City within a City: An Act of Perspective
Historic Theater Analysis Third Year Design Studio Spring 2011
Constructed within the shell of an old fortress, the Teatro Olimpico opened with a performance of Oedipus the King after it was completed in 1585. The stage scenery built for this occasion, representing the ancient city of Thebes, still stands today as one of the most striking aspects of the theater. Designed by architect Vincenzo Scamozzi, the scenery consists of seven trompe-l’œil perspectival streets which extend behind the arched doorways of the scaenae frons. This representation of Thebes is an idealized space embedded in the fabric of the very real city of Vicenza, and thus this ‘city within a city’ provides a means for its citizens to project the recurring themes of human existence represented within dramatic performance onto the actual city beyond the walls.
Comparison of the seating plan and scaenae frons to those of the Teatro Berga, the ruins of a Roman Theater in Vicenza.
THEATER AT LINCOLN CENTER - NEW YORK CITY A Superblock Isolated from the City: Theater as Reconnection
Theater Design Third Year Design Studio Spring 2011
This venue contains two distinct performing spaces: a 650 seat proscenium theater and a 150 seat ‘black box’ experimental theater. The driving intent of the overall design was to reconnect the Lincoln Center superblock to its immediate surroundings, spatially and programmatically. To counterbalance the already existing professional venues for theater, opera, ballet, and orchestra, the new proscenium theater is reserved for community-staged performances. Its entrance faces outwards to the housing projects and to Fordham University rather than following the inward gaze of the plaza’s existing buildings. A full set of architectural plans, elevations, and sections were produced, accompanied by a model and a wall-section detail.
Circulation corridors on the ground floor (left) encompass each of the theaters, distinguishing interior from exterior, public from private, and connecting plaza to performance. The black box theater (above) is accessed through the lower level lobby. Site plan (below). Basement level plan (following page, left). Proscenium theater (following page, right).
LE CORBUSIER’S NOTRE DAME DU HAUTE - RONCHAMP, FRANCE Full-Scale Detail: The Pulpit Fragment
Construction Detail Building Technologies Fall 2010
Working in a group of four students, we built a fragment of the cantilevered concrete stairs and pulpit from the chapel at Ronchamp. The detail is cropped at a 1.5 meter square centered on the structural concrete column. Each of the four sides displays a different constuction technique: masonry wall, cantilevered stair, pulpit floor/walls, and hollow infill wall. The finished walls are covered with shotcrete and whitewashed. The construction methods and measurements were based on Corbusier’s original detail drawings, and photographs were used to match the impressions of the wooden formwork on the finished pulpit.
TOWER IN THE LAKE - PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN
Steel Frame Tower
For this assignment, a structure was taken from design concept to developed structural system complete with element sizes and material specifications. Load conditions were derived from local site codes regarding the type and use of the building. The goal was a structurally efficient expression of concept: in this case, the primacy of the central tower volume. Load from the wooden walkways is carried up through steel tension cables to a steel pipe truss resting on top of the steel frame tower. The tower, made of hollow structural sections, transfers the total load of the building to the concrete foundation columns and mat-footing below.
Structural System Structures IV Fall 2013
LANDSCAPE AND SUB-URBANISM - AURORA, COLORADO The Cut: Reinvention through Linear Infrastructure
Suburban Transformation Fourth Year Design Studio Fall 2011
Suburban sprawl is a homogenous fabric that impartially interrupts crucial natural and human relationships. Here I propose an intervention that operates at an infrastructural scale to initiate reestablished connections between landscape, architecture, and community. Acting on the potential of an intermittent stream bed as line of growth, a check dam is placed to periodically reintroduce water into the arid asphalt landscape. A network of walking paths centered on this point challenges existing automobile usage and personal isolation by cutting across lines of division and by introducing legible order to the maze-like sprawl. Around these paths, the old imprints of suburbia are reimagined as high-density patterns of inhabitation and diversified community spaces. At the center, an elementary school is redesigned in response to these changes.
TEMPLUM: THE ANCIENT IN THE MODERN - LAFAYETTE STREET, NYC The Frieze of Hephaestus: The Forge within which Creative Ideas for the City are Manifested
Urban Intervention Fourth Year Design Studio Spring 2012
The vacated site of LaGrange Terrace is understood through a meditation on the Temple of Hephaestus in the Athenian Agora, dedicated to the crippled blacksmith of the Gods. Found in this temple are questions of ground and frieze; of Earth and Heaven; of entombed body and re-presented spirit. Site - The colonnade and four remaining row-houses of LaGrange Terrace’s original nine. Form - An excavated ground; a platform; a cantilevered frieze. Program - In the ground of the city, a collaborative library for Cooper Union and New York University; resting on bearing walls of the library, a public plinth; held from above, architecture studios for the students of Cooper Union.
The Temple of Hephaestus was dedicated in 415 BC. In the 19th century AD, individuals who gave their lives during the Greek War of Independence were buried beneath the tiles of its plinth. Above this ground, columns rise to support the frieze depicting the Labours of Theseus and of Heracles. To address the LaGrange fragment, these relationships between body, spirit, structure and space are reconsidered in the context of the modern city.
CAUTERIZED TERRAIN - CROWN KING, ARIZONA Wildfire: Death and Rebirth
Thesis Investigation Fifth Year Thesis Studio Fall 2013 - Spring 2014
Wildfire reveals the transition between death and rebirth: its boundary is a spatial threshold delineating that which has been purified by flame and that which has not. This perimeter scar is a fleeting remnant of the radical atmospheric landscape of fire: a complex environmental interplay of weather, topography, fuels, and human intervention. This thesis questions the permanence of architecture by reconsidering its relationship to fire. The target is to reconcile architecture, formally and programmatically, with the cycles of decay and reinvention that characterize the long passage of time rather than allowing it to become an ignorant obsolete: a ruin. And so here I propose a new city form to facilitate and register the continual rebirth of place. At the city perimeter, a new ritual is enacted: a periodic burning - the tempering of the city by fire.
Crown King a former: territory / gold-mining town / ghost town / mountain retreat / recreational town / future ruin
First Row: satellite image of the Gladiator Fire; a tactical firefighting map produced by the Southwest Incident Management Team. Second Row: site plan locating town in relation to fire perimeter; vegetation type map; vegetation cover density map. Third Row: daily fire perimeters and completed fireline; daily growth mapped against fireline construction; ideal vs. actual growth as a measure of acreage.
Sprawled settlement patterns have been transplanted into the forest while assuming detachment from its natural processes. And so with each fire, the settlers inscribe a line on the ground. This line marks the singular human trek through the forest connecting the fire’s origin and end, a ritual of containment, but of that which cannot be contained. Inevitably, a sacrificial loss accompanies this ritual: of resources, of environment, and often of life. We have chosen how to live; nature dictates on what terms. The inscribed line is my site, and it is where our presence in this landscape will be questioned.
PROFESSIONAL WORK Model Construction 2010 - 2014
MUZEIKO CHILDREN’S MUSEUM Sophia, Bulgaria - 2014
Architectural Model Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership
This model was constructed to be exhibited at a conference in Phoenix, after which it was displayed in the New York office of LHSA+DP. The Muzeiko project, located in Bulgaria’s capital city and financed by the America for Bulgaria Foundation, is the country’s first children’s museum. The mountainous sculptural forms reference Bulgaria’s indigenous craft traditions: textiles & embroidery, glazed ceramics, and traditional wood carving. Scale - 1:150 Reference sources - design documents and Revit files Materials - plywood, microlumber, acrylic, paper, paint
MUSIKERHAUS: RAIMUND ABRAHAM
Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery: March 7 - April 6, 2011
Exhibition Model The Cooper Union Architecture Archive
This model, constructed in partnership with Situ Studio in Brooklyn, was the centerpiece of an exhibition mounted to celebrate the work of architect and educator Raimund Abraham, who taught at the Cooper Union for three decades. The Musikerhaus project consists of residences and rehearsal spaces for four musicians in Hombroich, Germany. The model appeared alongside previous design models from Abraham’s studio, as well as construction drawings and photograhps. Scale - 1:50 Reference sources - construction documents and preliminary digital model Materials - cast ultracal (CNC-milled foam formwork), microlumber, plywood
LESSONS FROM MODERNISM: ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS IN 20TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE, 1925 - 1970
Exhibition Models The Institute for Sustainable Design
Siedlung Halen (Atelier 5) - 1:400
Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery: January 29 - March 23, 2013
The four models that I constructed were among a total of twenty-five presented as part of the Lessons From Modernism exhibition, which examined these works of architecture through the lens of sustainability. The four projects, by Alvar Aalto, Jean ProuvĂŠ, Arne Jacobsen, and Atelier 5, appeared alongside works from other 20th century practitioners as well as analytical drawings which set each within a larger framework of evolving environmental consciousness. Scale - 1:100 and 1:400 Reference sources - scanned plans, sections, and elevations Materials - microlumber, paper, CNC-milled foam topography, plywood, white paint
Soholm Housing (Jacobsen) - 1:400
Sunila Mill Housing (Aalto) - 1:100
Maison Tropicale (ProuvĂŠ) - 1:100
HARRY MURZYN hhmurzyn@gmail.com 317.657.4784