Ivan Kostic portfolio of work MArch | 2013
Architecture I understand architecture as a process, which goes well beyond the built form. Each new project is an opportunity for ideas to come about and develop, for discussions to be had, for collaboration to challenge ones views and understanding of the world, to go from the large and contextual to the small and detailed, to explore texts, drawings, models and installations. But where architecture truly comes to its own is in the relationship that the process establishes with the outside world. It continues long after construction has been finished as life takes over inside and outside the building. It is a never ending cycle of learning and growth to which the architect must be constantly connected. The possibility of being surrounded by people that share the same curiosity for the complexity of life and beauty is a task worth pursuing.
the suburbs of Madrid invaded by a sphere
Contents 4
Resume
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Normal Things? | Exploring Urban Living, Eugene, OR Housing | Urbanism | Theory
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Simple Messiness | Market, Detroit, MI Retail
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Growing Awareness | Boys and Girls Club, Springfield, OR Civic | Educational
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Active Environments | New AAA Building, Eugene, OR Educational
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tiNY Competition | Housing Competition at SO-IL, New York, NY Housing | Microunits
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Phone Booth Project | Digital Fabrication, Eugene, OR Installation
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Details | Enclosures
Ivan Kostic
1585 1st Ave. Apt. 3C; New York, NY 10028 541_510_3587 ikostic8@gmail.com ivankostic.com
languages trilingual
basic
skills Speaks, reads and writes fluently Serbo_Croatian Spanish English Speaking and reading French
computer media Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign Rhinoceros, Grasshopper SketchUp Maxwell, Vray Sony Vegas
architecture experience Aug. 2012_Sep. 2012
Sep.2012_Jan.2013
Intern Solid Objectives SO-IL [New York, NY] I worked on facade design for the adAPT NYC competition by developing a series of alternatives in model and digital form (Rhino and Vray). Collaborated on the final proposal documents, focusing on interior and exterior renderings, as well as plans and sections. I also designed and developed the digital model for the URBASEE Augmented Reality Exhibition. Designer Speranza Architecture [Eugene, OR] I worked with Professor and Architect Philip Speranza and student Brian Nguy on an entry to the Gowanus Water_Works 2012 competition. The work included conceptual design, idea development, drawing and rendering execution, and preparation of final board submission.
Sep.2011_Dec.2011 Technical Assistant | Graduate Teaching Fellow Mar.2012_June.2012 the University of Oregon [Eugene, OR] Mar.2013_June.2013 I collaborated with Professor Philip Speranza on developing the curriculum and technical requirements for the new Digital Media course for graduate and undergraduate students. I developed and recorded software tutorials for Photoshop, Rhinoceros and Grasshopper. I also worked with students in groups and one-on-one to help withe their assignments and media questions, as well as grading. 2011_2013 President, DMC [Digital Media Collaborative] University of Oregon [Eugene, OR] I managed everyday and long term operations of the student group including the application and approval of the group as an official Associated Students of University of Oregon member. I lead the implementation of group built projects, including the design, fabrication and installation of the Phone Booth project (Rhino, Grasshopper, CNC router, Laser cutter, Hand Modeling).
education 2010_2013 University of Oregon [Eugene, OR] Master of Architecture [June 2013] 2008_2010 Universidad San Pablo CEU [Madrid, Spain] Completed 162 credits [2 years] of a 5_year Architecture program before transfering to the University of Oregon. 2003_2007 Occidental College [Los Angeles, CA] B.A in Physics with a minor in Mathematics; Cum Laude. Awarded “Oxy International Student Scholarship� to cover tuition and personal finances.
other experience Nov.2012_Apr.2013 Conference Coordinator HOPES 19 Conference, University of Oregon[Eugene, OR] I was part of the team that organized HOPES 19, the oldest student run ecological conference in the country. The conference was titled Collaborative Futures, in an effort to bring together an array of fields that traditionally stand outside of architecture to generate new visions of sustainability and action. Sep.2012_Jun.2013 Student Representative Architecture Lectures Committee, University of Oregon [Eugene, OR] As part of the architecture lectures committee I acted as a liaison between the students, the faculty and the administration, as well as coordinating HOPES19 lectures with those of the department. The committee worked on establishing a lectures program and calendar, as well as on effectively advertising the events. Sep.2007_Dec.2007 Administrative Assistant Alti-Lacor S.A. [Madrid, Spain] I answered a multi-line phone system in Spanish and English, placed shipment orders and reorganized the storage at the headquarters of this international graphic design supply company. Sep.2006_Dec.2006 Set Technician Occidental College [Los Angeles, CA] I was part of a team that built and set up the set for a university theater performance.
interests
I have played basketball througout High School and College and continue to do so recreationally. Every time I get a chance I love to go out into nature and go hiking, camping, snowboarding or rafting.
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Normal Things?
Housing | Urbanism | Theory
where | Eugene, OR when | Winter_Spring.2013
.a very normal street
what | The terminal studio at the University of Oregon is a two term studio that allows a deeper exploration of architectural concepts. My studio focused on housing and its impact on the community and urban fabric. things | When taking a closer look at our cities we can see that something strange is going on. The word urban has lost its social connotations and now only signifies a mere occupation of the land.
.then a thing appeared
The most direct example of this tendency can be seen on our streets, where nothing happens and only slight traces of humanity can be seen. The street is a vital part of the life of the city, but its function has been diluted to a mere transportation corridor.
.people came to see what it was
.no one knew what normal was any more
In the scenario of lifeless cities, what would happen if a barrier is placed in the customary way we use our environment? If the car can no longer rule the street, what will all that empty space become? The answer to these questions cannot be yet another certainty, but only a series of questions. These questions must look beyond the human in an attempt to integrate cities in the broader ecosystem of the planet.
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west elevation
long section
proposing a question
Science came to the rescue, life was studied, analyzed, measured and ultimately rationalized. 8
Some people thought that all that rationality was rather irrational. why not have some fun?
Still, it was so logical. there was an unquestionable patter, the certain comfort of certainty.
What is an alternative to the clear logic of certainty? The only possible answer is a question, a continuous and messy evaluation of that which becomes certain.
The result can only be illogical since it questions the foundations of logic, the dogmas that legitimize our rationality.
What does a question look like?
occupying the streets of Eugene
things in Los Angeles
The project proposes a continuously critical look at our environment, in a fight against the “a priori�. The sphere has been a symbol of perfection and divinity in philosophy, religion and folklore for centuries. Therefore it has been implied in many of the most influential architectural works, but never completed due to its fundamental inhumanity. It is always interrupted by a cylinder, cut in half, or merely implied by a circle. What would happen if we fill our cities with unadulterated spheres? Our thoroughly manufactured environments would be filled by non-human spaces waiting for an answer. A sphere is the ultimate question to the human body and cannot contain any preestablished uses. It must be continuously interpreted.
non-human surface
@#?!!!
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What would happen if we abandoned the horizontal surface? The flattening of the world has been one of the greatest feats of humanity, it made perfect sense it made things easier for us. The problem is that it made things more difficult for pretty much everyone else around us. What would happen if we let the other back in?
details of site model
human architecture
illogical manipulation
whose architecture?
site plan / ground floor
short section
floor plans
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first floor
project timeline
normal
second floor
things appear
third floor
things take over
the normal comes back
fourth floor
illogical conclusion
unit life
A base studio unit (204ft2) can be expanded vertically or horizontally to generate larger units.
The building is surrounded by a thin structure, which encompasses balconies and circulation.
hole loop hook The structure allows people to take ownership of the building and adapt it to their needs. Life is celebrated by those marks left behind.
the details of a question
.44 units .62 bedrooms .endless fun
unit plans and variations
204 ft2 #15
2
2
3
15
408 ft2 #3
304 ft2 #1
14
1
2
1
612 ft2 #7
612 ft2 #2
612 ft2 #2
1
6
408 ft2 #14
3
1
5
2
elevation detail
why not try it?
After so much speculation, it was time to go out and play. Between 99 and 100 red balloons were let go for an hour, free to occupy the street proposed for the building. The neighbors came out to look at a street they had never seen before and approached us to ask some questions. A few cars turned around, confused by the marching balloons, others stopped for a moment and then decided to just drive through. We don’t know what the future should be, but we want to go out and try some possibilities.
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the market is a display of messiness
Simple Messiness
Retail | Market
where | Detroit, MI when | Fall.2012 what | Food Market The studio worked with a real client in Detroit, that had purchased a small bank building with the intention of turning it into a market that would serve the local community. concepts | The market will establish a relationship of complexity between the consumer, the vendor and the producer and base its logic on the inherent messiness of such a system. Latent values of ethics, equality and health must be exposed and incorporated into the discourse dominated by economics. This requires a reinterpretation of efficiency, where standard spatial relations can no longer be the answer. The market will become integrated in a new culture of ethical efficiency, to fill Detroit’s void and become its symbol of messiness. models of messiness
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the market in context Our cities and of course our markets are symbols of our long quest for simplicity. This is of course just another word for efficiency, measured only in the simplest of terms; money, time, materials. The 20th century in particular has been a champion of such policies and the modern movement’s obsession with functional separation, cleanliness and the freedom of the automobile. Today we live in bastard environments born from the Plan Voisin and Broadacre City, whose logic trickles down to all aspects of our lives. We have built a wall of simplicity around us excluding all those aspects of life that go beyond the immediate and the material. Let’s introduce messiness into the current state of things. Let’s give room to those activities that do not qualify as efficient. Let’s redefine efficiency.
markets are simbols of simplicty
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walled city
messy city
messy program Program is too restrictive a term when it comes to describing the use of space by people. The most successful spatial configurations are usually those with simple names, City, Market, Street, but that have diffuse use characteristics. Once these places were given a specific function, their life slowly came to a halt. The City became a dormitory, or a business center, or industrial area. The Market became a retail location, and the street a transportation corridor. The result of this specificity is the lose of the majority of the purpose of these places, and their ultimate transformation into spaces. We must reverse the trend of simplification of program and go back to the state of messy experience.
market and urban renewal land
spatial
experiential
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
2200
cooking
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teaching preparing showing kitchen
selling storing loitering eating drinking cleaning displaying meeting nothing playing growing caning preserving
messiness normal
market
conceptual plan
.rafter
.steel bracket .steel I rail .adjustable steel bracket .1/8” steel clevis .1/8” steel cable .1/8” steel clevis .steel frame .3/4” Plexiglass
.floor steel rail
material experiments
plexiglass sheet detail
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the market is the center of the community
mix
view from the north
variety
superimposition
complexity
Growing Awareness
Civic | Educational
where | Springfield, OR when | Winter.2012 what | Boys and Girls Club The building is to provide a home to the Springfield Boys and Girls Club. The organization provides support for at risk kids and teenagers, as well as their families. concepts | The Boys and Girls Club gives the opportunity for a growing awareness of the community and the kids. The needs of both the organization and the children are constantly shifting so the building is conceived as a collection of interlocking spaces that can grow, connect and change easily. This is achieved by thinking of the site, not as an aggregation of programmatic elements, but as a collage of environments. The section is designed to provide additional variety, where light and void interact to generate a place of discovery and play.
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clarity
normal
choice
doubt
perception possibility ambiguity
generating awareness
looking
The facade explores ideas of awareness and growth. It is composed of perforated copper panels, which will change from orange to turquois as time passes and leave a patina trail on the surrounding site. The perforations not only shade but display the growth path of the kids in the club.
inward
outward
real
seeing
facade detial
floor plan
east elevation
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flexibility / complexity
floor plan
north elevation
west facade
Active Environments
Educational
where | Eugene, OR when | Spring.2012
spatial engagement and interpretation
what | The school of Architecture and Allied Arts (A&AA) at the University of Oregon is looking for a new home. The A&AA is composed of 7 departments and the goal of the new facility is to promote a spirit of collaboration and forward thinking between the different disciplines. What does it mean to put form to a concepts | building that is pure possibility, a building that is only defined by the activities that are taking place at that moment, and not by predetermined formal conceptions? This questions speaks of AnteFunctional space, a space where meaning is not given in advance but is generated by the multiplicity of relationships between building and occupant. It must be a loose and fundamental building, one that allows interpretation and engagement. This is a free place of environments and relationships where the architecture is a fine-tuned collections of essential elements.
study of basic spatial elements
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exploration of massing to site, and static and dynamic elemts
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ground floor
first floor
second floor
third floor | roof
A building of this size can easily disrupt current campus dynamics. To mitigate this effect, the building is raised from the ground, which also provides protection from the Oregon rain. The concentration of certain elements, such as administration, labs and the library allow for easy way finding. On the other hand the studios are purposefully scattered about to encourage exploration, collaboration and chance encounters.
slightly off
multpile paths
no mix
partial mix
full mix
south facade
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section
south facade
adAPT NYC competition
Housing | Microunits
where | New York City, NY when | Summer.2012 who | Solid Objectives (SO-IL) Summer internship what | The ad APT NYC competition explored the ideas of high density and affordability in the city of New York.
writing desk
bed with a view
facade | Most of my work focused on the design of the facade. The balance between building performance and spatial perception pointed towards a 50% glazed facade. The difficulty was in generating a dynamic facade from the repetition of identical units, while creating a unique identity in the context of rationalist offices. Me and my colleges in the office worked on multiple facade studies both through digital and physical models. presentation | I also worked on renderings and line drawings for the final submission of the competition. In particular I worked on the situation axon, unit render and section through units. tools | Rhino, Vray, Photoshop, Autocad
wall of storage
seating area
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situation axon
facade detail
unit render
section through units
roof garden
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typical residential floor
ground floor
basement
Digital Reality Installation | Digital Fabrication
40 where | Lawrence Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene when | 2011.2012 what | Phone Booth Project who | DMC (Digital Media Collaborative) A student group dedicated to explore the connection between the digital and physical. why | The DMC in general and me in particular are interested in the translation of virtual ideas into physical realities. This transition implies an understanding of material properties, construction techniques and structural limitations that are not always understood as the realm of the digital. The self imposed program was to find an appropriate location for the use of cell phones in a building where people are constantly working. It is not enough to use new and emerging technologies, but we must think of their impact on our environment. me | I was the president of the group and lead designer for this project. The formal considerations were secondary to material and assembly explorations. It was of particular interest to complete the entire digital design / digital fabrication / assembly process, since not many people at the university had experience with such projects. tools | Rhino, Grasshopper, CNC Router
phone booth in Lawrence Hall, Eugene, OR
assembly sequence the assembly of the primary structure starts at the corner
sections fill the gap between the vertical structure to generate the form of the interior bench 42
the assembly of the primary structure starts at the corner
the secondary structure provides lateral stability by compressing the sections in two directions.
a studied sequence of assembly allows for an easy construction
the panels are mounted on the exterior of the Phone Booth for privacy
the vertical structure holds the panels in place and provides the form of the booth
each panel is numbered to ensure proper assembly
Details
Enclosures
what | These are the details for the enclosure of a building which combines a brick facade and a window wall facade around the atrium. Show are the details of the connection of the window wall to the roof and floor plates. The brick wall shows the roof connection detail, as well as a green roof installation.
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