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michael man
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RUIN FROM RESIDUUM The Wells-Lamson quarry is a permanent reminder of the enormous impact industry has on the natural world. An architecture situated in this void must also respond to this impact by becoming of the landscape, enhancing the sublime qualities of the massive site and not negating it. Building walls are extensions of the 500’ quarry walls, this quality enhanced by the granite blocks which rise from the quarry to form the exterior of the buildings. The program components necessitate varying degrees of privacy and are organized on the site accordingly. The education pavilion is located on the western edge of the quarry. The visitor enters the pavilion through a passageway lit primarily from above, creating anticipation which is not satisfied until the visitor reaches the overlook. The overlook cantilevers out over the quarry, literally placing the visitor inside the void. On the southern edge are the artists’ studios, created through the sliding and rotating of walls, to form studios and the spaces between them. These spatial connections create opportunities for inter-studio relationships and interaction between visitor and artist.
FALL 2011 Light is allowed into the studios through small recessed windows but primarily through large clerestory windows. On the eastern edge are the artist residences. Each residence is situated separately, yet united through shared roofs and through the extensions of southern facing walls. Lighting is again achieved through clerestory windows of varying sizes. Located on the island in the middle of the site, the memorial is an oversized ladder extending from the landscape, completely surrounded by void. Never physically reached, the memorial is always visible. As one moves through the site, it is a constant reminder of the process of the quarry worker, just as the void is a constant reminder of the consequences of industrial processes.
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SPATIAL INTERLOOPING A vast site surrounded on all sides by a variety of programs oriented towards people of a variety of backgrounds and income levels necessitated an intervention that could both divide the entirety into manageable human-scale volumes while also maintaining both visual and physical connections throughout. The volume of the site then becomes a solid container with an intervention of braided voids that serve to divide the volume and allow for programmatic volumes. This simultaneously provides for circulation throughout the site, as well as visual connectivity from the street to Pudong and across the length of the site. The volume of the site then is a negotiation between a variety of forces inherent in the site. The roof negotiates the Indigo Tower in the north, the Commerce Center in the south, and the Huangpu River to the east. The ground negotiates access to the site from the street, the Bund, the river, the Cool Docks, and the Expo site.
SPRING 2012 A horizontal weaving of void space occurs through the volume, defined by the ramping circulation. This integrates and blurs the definitions of interior and exterior spaces, opening up the massive site physically and visually. The exterior skin is defined by interlooped members, generating a spatial three-dimensional array of inter-looping throughout the volume. The structural interlooped members defining programmatic volumes and voids then disrupt this spatial array creating various layering and densities, which serve to enhance the creation of void at the macro-volume level.
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ramp generation
horizontal void generation
void // circulation
programmatic volumes
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interlooping // braiding
macro-void generation through micro-loop layering 11
NUK II: NARODNA IN UNIVERZITETNA KNJŞNICA Inspired by a design competition by Kamvari Architects, NUK II reframes the public library, not as storage of information, but as an exhibition of knowledge. It is an iconic symbol designed for social interaction, cultural exchange, and a public display of Slovenian experiences and truths. The building rises from the ground, allowing pedestrian access to the excavated Roman ruins below, a public display of the city’s archeological history. The form of the building coils, recalling the dragon which adorns the Ljubljana coat of arms: a new interpretation of the existing city icon. The ground plane of Ljubljana is extended and rolled vertically to actually hover over the city.The form wraps the perimeter of the site, culminating in a long, framed view of the neighboring context, the Ljubljana castle, as well as the city whole.
SPRING 2013
The long form allows for a horizontal divide in program, with library services occupying the enclosed building, and public garden place, accessed from the sidewalk, sits atop the roof. The book stacks of the library locate the perimeter of the form with reading and meeting rooms located to the interior. The central opening in the form contains a courtyard and provides sunlight to the Roman ruins, as well as visual connectivity through the courtyard to the rest of the building. The folded metal skins allows minimal light, denying views to the city exterior but opening to allow views to the ruins and courtyard.
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macro spiraling
micro spiraling
integrated macro/micro spiraling
tube top structural tee near ramps floor far ramps tube bottom core bar division
unrolled section 14
book stacks circulation reading areas meeting areas staff offices
multimedia collection music collection pictorial collection map collection
programmatic integration 16
tube structural tee tension members structural core structural section
structural exploded 18
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INTERSTITIAL INHABITATION Inspired by other discipline’s response to the Anthropocene, including the earthworks movement and the developing sub-genre of science fiction, climate-fiction, Interstitial Inhabitation is a project that looks towards the geologic for guidance and inspiration. Inspired by the aesthetics of post-apocalyptic films and video games, the site of the proposal is an isolated site in Buffalo, New York. Located on the site are abandoned grain elevators, wherein nature has been allowed freedom to reclaim what man had tried to tame and control. The proposal houses a building program dedicating the Silo City, “City of Night” arts event held annually. The abandoned site has already inspired many artists in the surrounding community, and the proposal seeks to draw further visitors to the site on a more continuous basis.
2013-2014 The proposal, which is inspired by designs for the High Line and the Low Line in New York City, would incorporate the existing infrastructure of the site into a public walkway and garden, mixed with architectural programming. The proposal would serve as a developmental anchor for future renovation and real estate development in the surrounding area, while maintaining that future developments respond to the proposal’s allowance of nature to share authorship of the interventions. Over time, the proposal will invite acknowledgment and bring awareness to the ecological and industrial problems that plague the Anthropocene.
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1 // strike-slip fault
2 // reverse fault
3 // reverse fault
4 // normal fault
5 // strike-slip fault
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studio residence
office library // archive
library // archive
restroom gallery auditorium
gallery auditorium
garden
gallery
gallery
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FOR THE LEGACY OF THE SHAKERS
FALL 2010
The project was a museum intended for displaying Shaker artifacts, designed based on the performative aspects gathered from a single artifact, a Shaker electrotherapy machine. The three performance diagrams generated from the artifact examined atomic excitation, electric field generation, and magnetic field intensity. These material affects were then incorporated into the design logic of the museum. The tessellation of the triangular module forming the whole of the museum was based on the logic of an excited atom combined with the performance diagrams for field generation and intensity. The design logic behind the circulation was a translation of the flow of energy in the machine. Relative transparency from the exterior allowed a distinguishing of the program contained in the interior, while also coordinating to the various transparencies of materials used in the artifact.
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N 0’0”
6’6”
electrotherapy machine
0’0”
atomic excitation
6’6”
0’0”
50
10 5
25
0’0”
electric field generation 30
magnetic field intensity
THE DUDLEY OBSERVATORY The Dudley Observatory is an exploration of the concept of gravitational orbit. Gravity is a force that unites every mass in the universe. Gravitational orbit is the idea that an attractive force between two objects can prevent them from ever meeting. Between Earth and Sky is gravity, simultaneously holding them together and separating them. In the Dudley Observatory, the circulation is based upon an orbital relationship. The place one wishes to join, the ‘attractive’ place, is always spatially close, but something prevents one from reaching it immediately. Whether it is a wall, a ramp, or a gap in the floor, something causes one to take an orbital path, along the way bringing attention to other objects and spaces that then also become ‘attractive.’ Framed ‘contours’ of the building recall the ability of the astronomer to trace the movements of the Sky by examining the time and place an object crosses any of a series of parallel lines.
FALL 2011 The building develops a hierarchy of contours. At the sky extreme are the contours of the frames, and the opposite extreme are the terrace contours of the Earth. In between these two extreme contours, are lesser framed contours serving both to unite the form of the building and differentiate between materials.
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copper panels
glass panels
horizontal structure
outer vertical structure
inner vertical structure
gallery // viewing platform
planetarium // offices // garden
21’0”
21’0”
9’0”
21’0”
18’0” 0’0” 24’0”
15’0”
21’0”
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HOUSING COMPLEX(ITY) An X-planned building allows for maximum surface area, and therefore greater exposure to sunlight, a necessity for housing complexes. Units are pushed to the exterior wings of the building, with circulation flowing within the core, uniting the units. Maximum exposure to the exterior allows the window light to zone each individual unit into rooms. Windows are defined by the opposite wall as well as which direction of the wall. Windows on northern facing walls are concave, while windows on southern, eastern, and western walls are convex. This limits the amount of direct solar radiation while maximizing the amount of diffuse northern light. The specific angle of each window is defined by the depth of the space it is defining as well as the length of the opposite wall.
SPRING 2011 The angle of each window shifts downward with each increasingly floor, framing the viewers perspective towards the river, landscape, and surrounding city. Each increasingly steeper angle also allows less light into the window from the summer sun at noon, while still allowing the shallow winter sun. The window height also extends with each successive floor moving upward, creating a sense of rising in the facade.
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N
10’0”
N
30’0”
50’0”
N
N
0’0”
N
20’0”
N
40’0”
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THE MACHINE STARTS The Machine Starts was a new media performance in collaboration with artists Joanna Haigood and Mary Ellen Strom based on the 1909 sci-fi novella The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster. The original novella predicted such technologies as the internet and television, as well as global environmental ruin and was a precautionary tale about the possible impacts of technological advancement on the human experience. The performance took place through multiple spaces and studios in the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) and featured the talents of The Rusty Pipes, an a cappella group from RPI, Ilium Parkour, a parkour group based in Troy, NY, and Center Stage a spoken-word group also based in Troy, NY.
2012-2013 The project featured built designs, filmed video scenes, interactive kiosks utilizing the Xbox Kinect motion capture technology, and choreographed song, dance, acting and parkour. The Machine Starts was a reinterpretation of the themes from The Machine Stops, and as such was entirely rewritten and adapted for the new media performance. Working with a team of other architecture and computer science students, I served as director and editor of all filmed videos, working closely with video artist Mary Ellen Strom.
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MODULAR TRANSPARENCY
FALL 2009
A project examining the various affects created through the layering of a modular translucent material, looks specifically at the implied surfaces created by the changing concavity of the module. Each module was composed of a plastic material with a constant curvature and various degrees of translucency due to differences in thickness. The project was situated within a frame, with the primary interest in the juxtaposition of physical and implied surfaces and the specific lighting and shadowing affects created through the layered translucency.
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WARPED RISING
FALL 2009
A cable net structure which creates space through variations in tensile and compressive forces. The tessellation of bows with varying degrees of compression is held together through the tensile forces of the cable net, allowing an implied space defined by the cables. The bows are rotated in small increments before the introduction of a 180 degree rotation, allowing the implied interior boundary to transform into the exterior boundary, unifying and separating the spaces simultaneously. The project examines the ability of inherent material forces to shape form and create dramatic volumes which can be seen but not occupied.
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