J A CONRAD
ARCHITECTURE 2020
What makes architecture special is its deliberate act to mean something more than its utilitarian value, its the underlying design concept that elevates a building to be architecture. The concept in this portfolio is to outline the basic experiences we all go through as we develop as designers. Observing the world around us, making sketches and learning how to create, and then completing more fullly integrated works based on our own personal design theories and tastes. It is not just a way to showcase my best work at college, but to let the portfolio show you the innate experiences we all have in common as designers, and throughout the process explain why we design.
PART 1
OBSERVE
RECORDING THE ENVIRONMENT
PART 2
MAKE
CREATING AND ORGANISING SPACE
PART3
CONSTRUCT
CREATING HABITABLE SPACES
2 TWO-DIMENSIONAL MEDIUMS Photography Oil Pastel Micron Pens Copic Markers Pencils Color Pencils T-square,drawing board, rulars, triangles Watercolor Paint THREE-DIMENSIONAL MEDIUMS Ipe wood, files, rasps, saws, wood finnishes Concrete Chipboard, glue, basswood Clay COMPUTER MEDIUMS Photoshop Lightroom Indesign Revit Autocad Lazercam LOCATIONS VISITED Boston, MA New York City, NY Albany, NY Schenectady, NY
HIGH SCHOOL ART PROJECT- CLAY TILE Clay, Paint, gloss finnish 5"x5" School Project This is the only piece of art I intend to show from high school. It was done by taking a photo of my face and sketching irregular variations of it, then sculpting a tile based on those drawings.
Observe /ob - serve/ verb Observe is all about analysing the my suroundings, built and unbuilt, and communicating to the viewer not only what I see but how I see it. Here I display the ability to communicate the three dimensional environment in two dimensional mediums. Observe is all about disecting, researching, and studying. UNION COLLEGE FIGURE DRAWING Oil pastel on paper, inverted colors and resized though the use of photoshop. 19"x24" Personal After learning about Picassos figure drawings I attempted to display these womens emotions through the simplest use of line possible. PHOTOSHOP, pg.4 iphoneX Camera, photoshop digital Personal Project This project was done as a series in order to teach myself photoshop.
PART1
O B S E R V E
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HEADLESS VENUS, HORSE AND RIDER Micron pen and paper, photoshop 5"x3" Personal Project These were drawn in my Moleskine notebook, which I usually cary around with me at all times. The colors were inverted through photoshop and the images were resized. The drawings were of some midievel French and German art I researched.
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TWO HULLS HOUSE Mackay-Llyons Sweetapple
TWO - HULLS RENDERING
ruler, copic marker, micron pen, color pencil 8"x11" Personal Project After doing a presentation on Two-Hulls for school, I made this rendering as part of my daily drawing practice. I used a ruler to minimally outline the house and give it a finished look.
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ELEVATION AND FLOOR PLAN T-square and drawing board, pencil, pen, photoshop rendered 3'x4' Class Project/ Personal The photoshop rendering was not part of the original project, but done after class for a design competition for AIAS.
BARCELONA PAVILION
copic marker, micron pen, color pencil 8" x11" Personal Project Barcelona Pavilion was drawn after reading about it in The Iconic House by Dominic Bradbury. A ruler was not used.
PHOTOGRAPHY Albany NY
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NYS CAPITAL PHOTOS Camera, Photoshop 8"x11" Personal Project Architecture is an art form that is meant to be experianced in person. While at architecture school we may use mostly 2d images to convey 3d ideas, here one quicky realises how 2d images are ony abstractions from the real results and emotions that visiting an actual building brings.
I had a conversation with Architect Udo Ammon which inspired me to travel around NY photographing its historical architecture. I then used these photographs in my daily sketching and drawing practices.
Make /make/ verb To make is the driving force behind becoming an architect. It is the ability to take a vision carefuly planned out and manifest it into something real, something tangable. Here I intend to show how I make, how I take a vision in my head, recorded using the methods in part one, and use it to create a functional and beautiful solution. It is by making that we get to see our visions come to life. IPE WOOD STOCK Ipe wood, saws, rasp, files, multiple wood carving tools, sand paper, boiled linseed oil, gloss polyurethane finnish Created out of a 3"x8" wood plank. Personal project Made for my Grandfather, this hand carved Ipe wood gunstock allows the transfer of a rifles blow back force to be spread through the shoulder comfortably.
PART 2
M A K E
ISUKA-TSUGI SPLICE
The Isuka-Tsugi splice is a joint used in ancient Japanese carpentry. Originating over a millennia ago, the Japanese created these joints in order to hold wood beams together without the use of screws, glue, nails, or power tools. Using chipboard and glue I created the formwork for my own splice which I would cast out of concrete. After studying the splices design, I used the sharp angular language as inspiration for a chair. The Isuka-Tsugi Chair, created by hand using chipboard, bass wood, glue, and black faric was inspired by the voided area made when two Isuka-Tsugi splices are held close together, nearly interlocking. MODEL SPLICE chipboard, glue, concrete 1' tall Class Project Created in order to study the Isuka-Tsugi shape. The formwork was created in order to construct the splice from concrete. TRACE marker, pen, photoshop 8.5"x20-30' before photoshop editing class project Trace paper sketches depicting how the concrete formwork was created as well as design ideas for the furnature model.
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FORMWORK DIAGRAM (right) I created a concrete splice using chip board and glue as the formwork. I then studied the splice and formwork as inspiration for a chair. The angular language and natural wood feel inspired many feet of trace paper sketches.
TRACE SAMPLE After disecting the splice, I used several of its aspects I enjoyed to create a series of trace paper sketches for furnature inspired by the splice. GENERATIVE DIAGRAM One of the ideas I liked was to use the voided space between two splices as they came together, while also mirroring the smooth cuves of the woods grain. After many feet of trace I came across a design that I felt did the splice justice.
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TRACE PAPER SKETCHES
Formwork Diagram above
ISUKA-TSUGI CHAIR
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ISUKA-TSUGI CHAIR Hand molded chipboard, black cloth, bass wood. 1'x1'x1' Class Project The chair, hand made after studying the Isuka-Tsugi splice.
Construct /Con-Struct/ verb In part one we disected the built environment and its inhabitants, we found inspiration and potential in a world which inevitably inspires a life of making. Part two was, of course, "make." Producing the visions and dreams that occur when one looks long enough at a city skyline or open plot of land, harnesing materials like concrete, wood, and light against there will. Part three is more than just making small models, it's about building spaces to be inhabited. Part three is the reason I chose architecture school, to construct buildings for the sake of giving people a better life. BOX VARIATIONS (right) pen on trace paper 8.5" x 11" Personal Project Variations of squares and boxes, playng around with three dementional space. EMBRACE (page 18) photophop, watercolor paint, camera, micron, ruler, google maps. 8.5" x 11" Personal Project
PART 3
C O N S T R U C T
EMBRACE
18 After driving up to Boston to do a workshop with architect Mitesh Dixit, I learned about his approach of working within multiple contexts, both physically and philosophicaly. I held onto this idea until visiting NYC in order to take photos of the architecture. Here I show one example of what I see while observing the city skyline, while at the same time I created a way to assist circulation patterns throughout the city.
"Tree" House When local real estate tycoon Gary Keller wanted a custom home, he specifically requested that it give him the feeling of being inside his childhood treehouse. He wanted large open areas to sit in and a home that truly reminds him of being within nature Far away from any forest, this New York City residential provides a Le Corbusie inspired solution to the clients demands. Inspired by the qualities of a tree, this "tree" house is an mechanical, parametric solution to the qualities a tree would typically provide.
"TREE"-HOUSE RENDERINGS pg. 19,23
copic marker, micron pen, color pencil 8"x11" Personal Project The two renderings presented were not part of the origional class project.
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Inspiration from "Tree" like qualities
Tree inspired program elements
Completed Design converges form and function
"Tree" House
"TREE" HOUSE SKETCHES (pg. 20) trace paper, photoshop, pen. 8.5 x 30-40' Class project I edited the 40' of trace paper to show the major ideas.
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BUILDING MODEL Lazer cam, chipboard, wood, trace paper, paper 3'x2' Class Project While visiting NYC, one thing I felt that was missing was the feeling of being amongst the trees, as a result I created a machanical substitute inspired by LeCorbusie.
TROY LIBRARY
30 1st Floor
2nd Floor
TROY LIBRARY Revit, Autocad, Photoshop Class Project The first floor is for relaxation and inspiration, with the second floor being dedicated to intense research. The third floor is made of debate and discussion rooms. The program of the building is meant to mirror the process of an education.
3rd Floor
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As a class we had the task of designing public buildings. We each created trace paper sketches which we then pinned up and voted for our favorites. These favorites were then drawn out in variations by the students individualy and then re-voted for. Out of the three variations done as a class, my design was voted for the last two times. Not only did I extremely heavily influence the buildings shape but as individual students we each got to decide the materials, roof systems, furnature, floors, interior circulation and program, as well as the overal style.
SYNTHESIS PAVILION
After an interview with Professor Katharina Kral, I was motivated to study the relationship between art and engineering in architecture. Here is a sculptural metaphor of my research, in which two linear vertices, one representing structural support, the other to represent a deconstructivist emotion, conjoin into a transformance that is architecture. As the two conjoin at the base, what was once structure becomes ornamental, as what was once ornamental becomes the main forms of the sculpture.
28 SYNTHESIS PAVILION chipboard, poster board, wood, green tarp material, plastic tree, twigs, glue, cork, paint. The diagram below was done with Adobe Illustrator. 3' x 2' Personal Project This Sculptural project was the result of studying the relationship between engineering and art, as well as the relationship between form and function.
CIRCULATION circulation below grade circulation
MODEL
PROGRAM ornamental convergence functional
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HVCC 2018 - 2020