Jacob Stinson | Architecture Portfolio | Cumulative Academic Works

JACOB R. STINSON

CUMULATIVE ACADEMIC WORKS

G RADUATE PROJECTS

CUMULATIVE ACADEMIC WORKS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN

Master of Architecture II

May 2020

ODĀkaibu

mAKing nexT TO FOReST | ACAdemiC PAge | 4 - 15

CONVERGENCE

mAKing nexT TO FOReST | ACAdemiC PAge | 16 - 23

UR -FONTANA

nORmAn - mOORe ViSiTOR CenTeR | COmPeTiTiOn PAge | 24 - 35

HEROIC

ReCASTing The OuTCASTS: neW gROund | ACAdemiC PAge | 36 - 43

POST-WORK

uTOPiA/dySTOPiA: immORTAlizing A memORy | ACAdemiC PAge | 44 - 51

ROSSI

14 ThingS | ACAdemiC PAge | 52 - 55

EQUATING ALTITUDE

The ideA OF enViROnmenT | ACAdemiC PAge | 56 - 61

UNDERGRADUATE PROJECTS

CUMULATIVE ACADEMIC WORKS

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE

Bachelor of Architecture with a Minor in Geography May 2018

CODE.TRAIL

i-235 uRBAn meSh | ACAdemiC PAge |62 - 71

PORTA

muSeO delle mACChine | COmPeTiTiOn

PAge | 72 - 77

SLICE

nORmAn - mOORe ViSiTOR CenTeR | COmPeTiTiOn

PAge | 78 - 85

FLOW

TulSA WeTlAndS BuSineSS diSTRiCT | COmPeTiTiOn PAge | 86 - 91

uniVeRSiT y OF OKlAhOmA BuS TeRminAl | ACAdemiC PAge | 92 - 99

GABLE

mediCine PARK eCO ReSORT | ACAdemiC

PAge | 100 - 105

ILLUSION STOMA

Film ROW OuTdOOR TheATeR | ACAdemiC

PAge | 106 - 111

mAKing nexT TO FOReST

OdA ChAiR COlleCTiOn muSeum | higAShiKAWA, hOKKAidO, JAPAn

ACAdemiC | SPRing 2020

duRATiOn | 6 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Toshiko Mori

The word ODĀkaibu is a portmanteau derived from the two words: Oda, referring to the Oda chair collection, and Ākaibu, which is the Japanese word for archive.

This studio considered a global approach to proposing alternative forest economies, with the goal of promoting increased local wood use ensuring a sustainable, ecological and economical future for Hokkaido, Japan. Ultimately, we designed a chair museum that would house the private chair collection of the Oda family—one of the largest and most prestigious collections of the 20th century in the Higashikawa township. Through exploring the various relationships between materials, crafts, and design, the museum consists of a comprehensive design, from small scale objects, to details, to structure and envelope. The ODĀkaibu will be built solely from locally sourced wood and other materials generated from the region, connecting the design to earlier research on forest ecology and bioeconomy centers.

THE ODA COLLECTION

The Oda Collection is a collection of superbly designed furniture and other everyday items from the 20th century. The pieces have been gathered and researched over many years by chair researcher Noritsugu Oda. Mainly from northern Europe, the diverse collection ranges from chairs and tables to light fittings, dishes and cutlery and even wooden toys. These are accompanied by a collection of resources such as photos, drawings and documents, an extremely valuable set of academic resources that traces each of the changes in modern design history. The Oda Collection is highly acclaimed worldwide for the rarity of its items and the extensiveness of Oda’s research, and there are constant requests to display the items in exhibitions around the world. The various types of furniture and other household objects that comprise the collection vary drastically in scale and therefore offer unique design challenges for exhibition. These different archives spaces could serve different scales of the collections.

1,350 50

70 500

50 100

3,500 150

1,000 50

1,300

20,000

OVERVIEW OF THE ODA COLLECTION

The Oda Chair Collection

Chairs Tables Cabinets Ceramics Glass Vessels Cutlery

Bowls Ornaments Birdhouses Light fittings Candle Holders Etcetera

DISPLAY STRATEGIES

In order to display this collection appropriately, the dimension of each chair was calculated and then the average of the total was used to determine the area needed for the museum. The final average of each chair was a 3’ cube which resulted in approximately 18,000 sq. ft. required to display the entire collection.

Akin to a tree in the forest, the first gallery setting arranged the chairs on an 8’ grid to allow ample room to walk through the individual chairs. This allowed visitors could individually experience each chair and an opportunity to view these chairs as a collective from a different perspective.

The following display strategies all resemble some type of hybrid between an archive and a display space. The first of these focuses on the traditional archive archetype; the chairs are placed in stacks of three directly next to each other with a 12’ viewing corridor so that people could freely move about the space and view the objects easily. The second version abuts the rows of chairs next to one another. In turn this splits the viewing corridor into two 6’ hallways that are located on either side of the displays rather than through the middle like the previous version. The last version of this displayed archive type hybridizes both of the previous styles. On the exterior of the room there is a row of three-stacked displays while in the middle of the room lies two more rows of abutted displays. However, the exhibits in the center of the space are not stacks of three objects but rather only one object. The visitor will experience both stacks of displays and a low horizon of objects that are on a more personal level and can be seen at a human scale.

DISPLAY STRATEGIES

In general, Hokkaido suffers from two extreme seasons, half of year the island survives in a severe winter and is covered in snow while the other half of the year comprises the other three seasons. Our site is part of a managed forest that is located on the side of a hill and is situated between an agricultural valley and other industrially managed forests.

The concept for the ODĀkaibu focused on emphasizing or highlighting the aspects of the site that were unique. For instance, working with the slope to produce a building footprint that cause the least amount of disturbance to this wooded area. In addition to using locally sourced materials, the building needed to be constructed to withstand the severe winter temperatures and snowfall. Ultimately, the museum massing is a series of long and narrow “bar” elements that ter-race along the site and are oriented to the slope. While the scale of the massing allowed the mu-seum to blend into the environment and not overshadow the natural landscape it also matched the scale of the industrial lumber standards. This would allow the building material to be easily sourced from local distributors and manufacturers.

The goal of the program was to create a public pavilion that could be accessed regard-less of museum admission while the majority of the collection would be located further up the slope and towards the back of the museum.

DISPLAY STRATEGIES

This site planning minimizes the site interference and weaves the museum wings into the existing trees. As one approaches the museum, they are encouraged to park off-site and walk through the landscape to enter the archive. Once one enters the museum, they encounter a reception area that will direct them to either a dining area serviced by a small kitchen and cafe or to the gift shop and the beginning of the exhibition. However, there is a loading bay on the northern side of the first floor that could also serve as a drop-off area for visitors that require a more direct entrance. On the second floor, there is a design library and small reading room that precedes the first gallery. This first gallery, the field of chairs, allows the visitor to meander through the exhibit and to examine each chair individually. On the third floor, there is a restoration area which would serve as an exhibit or display area to show how the researchers restore and maintain the collection. Moving from this area, the visitor would cross over the previous gallery and be free to view it from a new perspective, one less focused on the individuality of the chairs but rather focused on the collective. This bridge over the gallery takes the visitor into the main archival wing of the museum. It comprises a series of floors that are each dedicated to showing a different scale of objects and different ways to showcase them to avoid monotony.

The in-between space created by the final two bars serves as the main circulation space for the galleries. This wedge-shaped space is full of light and allows the museum to work with the topography to allow the visitor to easily progress throughout the museum.

There is a blankness to the facades to focus the attention primarily on the ends of the bars. This is the only location, besides the northern elevation, where glazing has been placed. The result is a forced perspective or an attempt to minimize the views toward the exterior and to serve as a circulation tool. The openings are used as a means to pull the visitor through the museum while rewarding them at the end of each floor with a different view towards the landscape. While looking at the northern elevation, this is the only face of the museum that has openings to the actual archival spaces. The allowance of natural light and views to the exterior alert the visitor to know they are approaching the end of the building but it is also used to create a setting akin to how they entered, one among nature and the trees. The museum modulates one’s perception and their awareness of the chairs and the forest.

Vignettes

CONVERGENCE

mAKing nexT TO FOReST

CiRCulAR eCOnOmy mASTeR PlAn| ASAhiKAWA, hOKKAidO, JAPAn

ACAdemiC | SPRing 2020

duRATiOn | 8 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Toshiko Mori

TeAm memBeRS:

Willem Bogardus

Alkiviadis Pyliotis

Jacob Stinson

Located in Japan’s snowy northern island, Asahikawa is a hub for Japanese woodworking, furniture production and interior design. Due to the immense wealth of natural resources, the city has developed this prominent industry and has become one of Japan’s top three furntiture towns. This master plan proposal is for a site that was previoulsy vacated by the Tokai University campus in Asahikawa. The new campus will include areas for bioeconomy research, production and education facilities. As a part of this masterplan, an archive and study center for the history and craft of wood furniture in this region will be included to reflect the recent designation of Asahikawa as a Design city by the UNESCO’s Network of Creative Cities.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY | LOCAL TO GLOBAL

Asahikawa contains a scattered circular economy comprising all stages of wood furniture production. Our project acts as a pedagogical focal point whence education and mentorship can unify disparate elements of the furniture economy; in doing so, we seek to concentrate and amplify Asahikawa’s local expertise towards a more global influence.

CREATING A CORE THROUGH WEAVING THE BOUNDARY

There already exists a local circular economy in Asahikawa but these practices have not been globalized due to the lack of a core element or institution. We propose that only through education can all these different sectors be connected and developed for the global scale while continually evolving. Our fundamental approach to connect the city and forest has contributed to our reduced footprint and reforestation efforts on the barren areas of the site. There is an inherent balance within the campus due to the introverted nature of the educational program and the contrasting extroversion of a public campus. Creating a boundary has allowed to adopt a functional use for the programming and an opportunity to weave the city and forest together.

Weaving the Boundary Between Forest and City Diagram

Core and Proximity Diagram

INFRASTRUCTURAL TYPOLOGY AND SECTIONAL PROGRAMMING

The master plan’s two gestures: Boundary as a tool to connect different levels and serve the functional needs of the campus. Using the sectional qualities of the site, the public and private sectors have been separated appropriately. We used an infrastructural typology to serve as the tool to organize the campus programs. The master plan consists of a series of long “bar” buildings that unfurl within a highly contained area of the site, thereby weaving together the site’s border condition between forest-based and city-based furniture endeavors. By taking advantage of the site’s highly sectional nature, we were able to narrate a transition from the public to private programs as these bars gradually ascend towards a cleared plateau overlooking the city. Overall the program is centered on craft education; therefore, we decided that the bar containing the fabrication center/wood shop would be placed in the middle of the circulatory sequence. While the lower bar, nearest the entry to the site, would house the various public-facing programs including a community center, auditorium, library, and children’s museum and workshop. Lastly, the upper bar would serve as the research and educational center.

Community Center Section

Sectional Program and Public v. Private Diagram

Community Center Plan

UR -FONTANA

gROundleSS

inTeRnATiOnAl AFRiCAn AmeRiCAn muSeum | ChARleSTOn, SC, USA

ACAdemiC | FAll 2019

duRATiOn | 14 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Andrew Zago

The studio considered the progression of increasingly eccentric, atectonic works of architecture over the last fifty years—a progression that put into question the ground as architecture’s stable substrate—and contrasted it to current reactionary formal impulses. The studio then examined these opposing tendencies and proposed that the urge to return to stability is both inevitable and made impossible by our recent past. Working within this paradoxical dilemma we were tasked with seeking out contemporary architectural expressions for a museum in Charleston, South Carolina. This studio, while not looking to explicitly reflect either the meaning of this museum project or of our own fraught times, will, at a minimum, test the consequences of pursuing a disciplinary investigation as it germinates within the study of a charged project. Ultimately, the studio created alternative proposals for the International African American Museum (IAAM) by focusing on the architecture itself as it negotiates between a hallowed ground, whose memorialization is a separate project, and interior content which, like the ground, has its own independent logic. The architectural task is thus narrowly bracketed between the ground/meaning of the site expressed symbolically by the landscape architecture and the program/content of the interior expressed didactically by the exhibition design. Rather than see this as a diminution of architecture’s role, it should be viewed as a crystallized opportunity for architecture to negotiate the interrelationship of site, meaning, and content in the context of this important and evocative project.

INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM (IAAM)

The IAAM mission statement reads: “Located on one of the most important sites in American history, the port of arrival for nearly half of all Africans forced to North America, the IAAM in Charleston will illuminate the influential histories of Africans and their descendants in South Carolina, highlighting their diasporic connections throughout the nation and the world.”

This institution also defines museums as stated: “Museums should inform the way we think, provide us with new perspectives, and play an active role in shaping current dialogues.”

2D BLACK AND WHITE STUDY: FONTANA MONUMENTALE + RED X

Object: Fontana Monumentale, Aldo Rossi, 1963

Irritant: Red X, John Mason, 1966

As an initial formal challenge, we were tasked with creating a simplified collage of an inherently formal architectural work. These 2D black and white images resembled pictographs and could easily be created through block printing. Upon the insertion of the irritant, the once simple and straightforward collage had to rearrange itself in an attempt to return to its past stability and thus become more cubic in nature. This first formal study served as the conceptual foundation for the form of the museum.

Through various studies the original structure has been fractured and brought together again in an attempt to return to a simple cube. To avoid a drastic manipulation of the original geometries, a rectangular volume has been added to the western face of the building in order to achieve a more cubic form. This additive volume is distinctly different from the original massing not only from its materiality but also from its programmatic use. In opposition to the rough concrete of the original, this new volume is a glass box and it serves as the main vertical circulation for the museum’s gallery spaces. The louvered façade on this glass circulation box partially screens any opportunity to look inwards or outwards from this space. This semitransparency obscures the connection between the perceived old concrete massing and the glass box, and only the silhouettes of the original geometries allude to their relationship.

GROUNDLESS IAAM

In order to raise the building above the ground it has been placed onto a plinth that it in turn shelters. The space that was created by the plinth provides an entry courtyard for the museum and creates a processional dialogue between the hallowed grounds of the memorial park and IAAM museum.

Among the lower levels of the museum has been bifurcated to allow two separate entries that would serve different functions. While one wing would serve as the museum entry and gift shop, the other wing would house the museum restaurant and café. The division of these spaces would allow the restaurant and café to operate individually from the museum and activate this space even during museum off-hours.

Similar to many museums today, the circulation throughout the spaces is concentric in nature as a means too always have the visitor experience something new as they move throughout the museum. They would begin with the memorial gallery and orientation theater and then circulate upwards through the multiple galleries. At the corners where the gallery volumes connect, there are small pockets where the visitor is allowed to look inwards to the courtyard and outwards to the city in order to situate themselves spatially in regards not only to the museum but to Charleston at large.

Vignettes

CHANGING EXHIBIT GALLERY

CHANGING EXHIBIT GALLERY

ATLANTIC CONNECTIONS EXHIBITION

CENTER FOR FAMILY HISTORY

SOUTH CAROLINA: POWER OF PLACE EXHIBITION ORIENTATION THEATER

DINING AREA MUSEUM STORE

Interior West Elevation | Model Photo

Interior South Elevation | Model Photo

Interior North Elevation | Model Photo

Interior East Elevation | Model Photo

HEROIC

ReCASTing The OuTCASTS: neW gROund

mARine BiOlOgiCAl lABORATORy | WOOdS hOle, MA , USA

ACAdemiC | SPRing 2019

duRATiOn | 14 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Jeanne

Gang

Claire Cahan

This studio explored the design possibilities for existing mid-20th century concrete structures, or what have come to be known as Brutalist architecture. What changes to these buildings might improve their relevance? How can they be adapted to perform better, environmentally and functionally? What is their inherent formal signature and how can we reconsider them aesthetically so that they might be appreciated once again? If we are to use design to intervene in order to save these buildings (whether in part or in full), how would we conceptualize their transformation?

BRUTALIST V. HEROIC ARCHITECTURE

The design of monumental buildings constructed with unfinished concrete cladding were influenced by the work of pioneering modernist Le Corbusier and his use of béton brut, or raw concrete. However, this name was anglicized as Brutalism, a term which had quickly acquired negative connotations. Currently, Brutalist buildings confront multiple challenges, including real estate values, cost of repair, and ideology, how can we revitalize this building stock, which despite its material solidity, is being treated as throw-away architecture?

More recently, this architectural style has been dubbed Heroic architecture, as more people have come to appreciate these buildings for their honest expression and as a product of their time. Many of the qualities that appeal to people are rooted in the inherent formal characteristics, including their bold, uncompromising shapes and dynamic patterns of light and shadow.

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY VILLAGE CAMPUS

This project is set in New England, where Brutalism has a strong presence yet remains significantly threatened. Subjected to intense seasonality, heat, cold, and humidity, the project site is also exposed to salty marine air and ultimately threatened by sea level rise.

Woods Hole, Massachusetts, was once a fishing and whaling village set atop the granite coast. Today the town serves as one of the world’s most important marine science hubs as home to both the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) and the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL). Since its inception in 1888, the MBL’s fundamental asset has been their convening power, attracting the world’s leading scientists and students to Woods Hole. With research programs, courses and conferences being primarily offered during the summer, the sheer influx of students, scientists, and faculty has caused the institution to adopt an unsustainable economic and educational model. This has caused the MBL to provide facilities that exceed capacity during the summer but fail to be fully utilized for the majority of the year. In addition to the unsustainable facility uses, Woods Hole, being located on the southern point of Cape Cod, will be directly affected by devastating climatic changes such as rising sea levels and extreme weather events.

Concept | Generation Diagrams

Marine Biological Laboratory Campus Map

SWOPE CENTER AS A NEW GROUND

What happens when what we consider the ground today is flooded and no longer accessible; what will be our ‘new ground?’ These questions centered the primary concept around the global issue of rising sea levels and how we could adapt ourselves and building to such a life altering event. Brutalist buildings are notorious for being highly carbon intensive upon construction and are huge carbon sequesters throughout their lifetime. We cannot demolish these existing buildings to adapt to these climatic changes without only worsening the issue. Instead, we must find ways to adapt and preserve these types of buildings for future uses.

By maintaining the majority of the existing Swope Center and only converting the existing roof into an accessible rooftop green space, it creates an opportunity for a new ground to emerge that will not be affected by the issues of climate change. This new area would serve as the bridge between the newly added residential towers to account for the lost program on the first floor and the added demand for more residential units. Stylistically, these towers use a similar architectural language to that of many Brutalist buildings. These characteristics include expressive structure, a truth in the material, the absolute mass, and the icon or landmark status that is often associated with various Brutalist works. Not only will these new tower additions fulfill a programmatic demand, but they will also provide an image for the MBL campus and Woods Hole at large.

In an at tempt to become more resilient and create a dialogue between the existing and new additions, the levels of the tower below the Swope Center’s roof line will be constructed from cast in place and precast concrete. In contrast, the tower structure resting on top of this new ground plane will be mass timber construction. This now considered innovative construction material has many similar characteristic to concrete and Brutalism in general while being a more sustainable alternative that is ultimately better for the environment.

uTOPiA/dySTOPiA: immORTAlizing A memORy

denniSOn mAnuFACTuRing COmPlex | FRAminghAm, MA , USA

ACAdemiC | FAll 2018

duRATiOn | 14 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR:

Annabelle Selldorf

Hanna Tulis

This studio critically re-imagined the organizational forces of the built environment in a future where the structures that define our lives today – labor, education, leisure, dwelling – may look radically different. The conditions of labor and our relationship to it are shifting in dramatic ways. As new technologies and automation continue to reshape our environments, various forms of labor become increasingly displaced and/or obsolete. This phenomenon could challenge current work ethics to produce a world with little to no work, a post-work era. And so, in true utopian and dystopian architectural fashion, we were tasked to project our hopes and fears of a post-work era into a fast-approaching future 30 years from now, in the year 2048.

HOW DOES ONE DEFINE WORK?

Work is the activity which corresponds to the unnaturalness of human existence, which is not embedded in, and whose mortality is not compensated by, the species’ ever-recurring life cycle. It provides an ‘artificial’ world of things, distinctively different from all-natural surroundings.

e United States, work is not only a means to a financial end, but it is inextricable from self-worth. While all kinds of work provide daily structure and purpose, work has become a central organizing feature of both the rationality and the ethics of our society. As an activity, work dictates the use of time in a society that has programmed its rhythms as a function of work and it enables the distinction between normality and deviance. It offers a measure of autonomy and discretion to achieve a certain level of mastery or expertise. herefore, work not only provides financial means, but also indispensable methods of enhancing our individual perceptions of usefulness or belonging. In this society, work stratifies the population such that service and blue-collar work lands at the bottom and licensed, careered professionals land at the top. Inevitably, work serves as the crucible of your character and the source of your income: in sum your individuality.

HOW DOES ONE DEFINE POST-WORK?

Now in 2048 with the everchanging technological advancements and the emerging post-work era, the crucial problem is not about losing work. Instead, it is creating new work that humans can perform better than algorithms. As a result, a majority of the service and blue-collar jobs have succumbed to full automation. Consequently, by 2048 a new class of people will emerge – the useless class. This class of people consists of those who are not just unemployed, but unemployable.

In any case, this end of work will not necessarily mean the end of meaning, because meaning is generated by imagining rather than by working. Work is essential for meaning according only to the ideologies and lifestyles of our already presupposed society.

Process Sketches

City of Framingham | Dennison Manufacturing Complex

THE TRANSITION FROM THE HISTORIC STATUS QUO OF WORKING TO THE FUTURE OF POST-WORK

This Work Memorial Park will allow those visitors that have not adjusted to a post-work society a place of solace or emotional respite. It is a place for people that are still attempting to reconcile their societal and personal values and new collective values and ways of living.

The park is divided into 7 areas that are each dedicated to different aspects of work that were lost to the post-work era. While the follies in the various areas of the park may have been initially inspired by extinct aspects of the work era, the larger idea is that the park is conceived in a transitional moment when people have more time but less purpose. In this moment, a new space emerges for play and contemplation.

It is the immortalization of a kind of work that is often transient in nature and is often a means to an end rather than a goal in itself. This creation of a useless architecture that commemorates use for a “useless class” – Value and Meaning/Contemplation are the primary utilities of this otherwise useless park.

“ODE TO WORK” | RONALD JOE RECORD

Thou annointest me with praise and promotion, Thou favorest me with perk and party, Thy paycheck and thine project are mine.

Oh, how sweet the scent of thy sweatThe blessed perspiration of thy success. Tis from the bosom of thy factories that I drink.

Oh, work, I find myself in thee and thee in me. My days are made full and my nights rest full because of thee. Mine hands are filled with pleasure at thy touch.

Yeah, toil and struggle are rewarded bi-weekly and with bonus, Thou transformest my labor into gaseous vapors vent from volvos, Mine actions into rent offerings unto the Lords of the Land.

Unto thee i come daily and in sleep I dream of thee. Know thee me not?

Hast thou not kept me and fed me lo these years?

Ah, Lord of Labor, know thisTis I that have fattened you, Tis I that spent my soul for thy fortune.

Yet, give me pause this day to thank you. For twas my gift, my labor of love. And i have fathered for you many products.

So let us take our luncheon long and lay beneath the sun. Twas labor in painful pleasure that brought us forth, And we, in labor, bear both sweet and bitter fruit.

Circulation Vignettes

Circulation Vignettes

14 ThingS

hARVARd uniVeRSiT y - gRAduATe SChOOl OF deSign

ACAdemiC | SPRing 2019

duRATiOn | 4 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR:

Jef frey Schnapp

This class, 14 Things, explored the intertwining between design, science, technology, society, art, and culture by means of the “excavation” of fourteen objects from different periods in the history of modern Italian design, from the turn of the 20th century to the present. Combining micro- and macro-perspectives, it approaches design history from a broad aesthetic, historical, and socio-anthropological standpoint. The course was structured around a sequence of case studies of exemplary 20th-century artifacts devised to suit fundamental needs of modern life: sitting, drinking, lighting, walking, moving about, cooling, cooking, writing, calculating, and entertaining

The course’s aims were: to prompt reflection on the complexity of design thinking and processes through the in-depth study of historical examples; to promote insights into how objects shape and are shaped by everyday life; to sift out what is global vs. distinctively Italian about the case histories examined; and to think critically about the object lessons provided by fourteen iconic designs from the history of Italian design with respect to contemporary practices in architecture and design.

Altered Time Period

Af ter the Rossi grandsons took over the company, they decided to start a new ad campaign for the company. The set of advertisements would feature a new cocktail and glass that was as significant for the women of fascist Italy as the Martini cocktail was for the men.

Drawing inspiration from the illustrious Roaring Twenties of New York, the new cocktail would resemble the Manhattan in color but would be known as the Rossi due to the sole use of the Martini & Rossi Rosso Vermouth instead of the usual Extra dry vermouth that is used in a Martini.

Coined as the “Martini for the woman,” the Rossi’s decided to enlist an iconic Italian woman to be the face and spokesperson of this new campaign. The forerunner among many candidates was the illustrious Italian heiress, muse, and patroness of the arts of the early 20th-century Europe, Marchesa Luisa Casati Stampa di Soncino. She was known for her eccentricities that delighted European society for nearly three decades. The Marchesa came to form the archetype of the female dandy, standing at six feet tall in spite of living on a diet of gin and opium. Ultimately, Casati agreed to lead the campaign in an attempt to repay a massive personal debt due to her exuberant lifestyle and attempts to preserve her legend.

The famous American photographer, Man Ray, was often commissioned to photograph the Marchesa numerous times as she assembled a vast collection of portraits of herself. Therfore, Martini & Rossi only thought it right to hire him as the main photographer for their campaign.

Rossi Recipe

Marchesa Luisa Casati portrait by Man Ray

EQUATING ALTITUDE

The ideA OF enViROnmenT: memORy OF AlTiTude

hARVARd uniVeRSiT y - gRAduATe SChOOl OF deSign

ACAdemiC | FAll 2019

duRATiOn | 3 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Dilip da Cunha

TeAm memBeRS:

Juan-Davide Grisales

Nabila Mahdi

Jacob Stinson

This class, The Idea of Environment, explored the environment through six forms by which it is imaged and imagined, defended and critiqued, planned and designed. Ultimately, students were tasked to constitute the ‘environment’ of an object of their choice. It could be anything from a knob to a tree to a street to a dam, etc. Is there a ‘design language’ to this environment; how is it presented; and how does it present the object?

Memory of Altitude

Constructing altitudes from memory

Jacob Stinson

Pursuit of Altitude

Mapping ecological migration on tropical altitudes

Juan-Davide Grisales

Temperament of Altitude

Contrasting the two altitudes of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia

Nabila Mahdi

Memor y of Altitude is a mapping study that focuses on the forced migrations of the Native American Cherokee tribe from their ancestral homelands to areas west of the Mississippi River that had been designated Indian Territory. In 1838 these people were forcibly taken from their homes, forced to walk more than a thousand miles across the country, and removed to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. It is estimated that more than 4,000 died and many are buried in unmarked graves along “The Trail Where They Cried.” Notoriously, these events and the routes that were taken have been collectively known as the Trail of Tears.

Of ten the case in colonial regions, national cultures were considered inferior and were generally marginalized thus not having the chance to quickly modernize and join the universal stage. However, in worse scenarios such as this one, the colonized population would be forced to migrate away from their socio-historical worlds to areas that were deemed less hospitable or out of reach from the universal gaze. Not only were these people overtly discriminated against they were ostracized and forced to sever the relationship between their temporal selves and their historical homelands. In such populations where history is based on memory, forced migratory acts quickly destroy the placerooted memories serving as the cultural heritage for people. This forced placelessness makes them create new identities and adapt their cultural heritage to their new settings.

Top to Bottom: Memory of Altitude | Jacob Stinson, Pursuit of Altitude | Juan-Davide Grisales, Temperament of Altitude | Nabila Mahdi

i-235 uRBAn meSh

eAST SheRidAn AVe | OKlAhOmA CiT y, OK, uSA

ACAdemiC | SPRing 2018

duRATiOn | 14 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Deborah Richards

Not unlike other cities across the United States, the completion of the Centennial Expressway (I-235), was considered a vital element in order to achieve Oklahoma City’s major plan for the revitalization of its central city area. However, the transformation of Oklahoma City (OKC) goes far beyond that which is visible on the landscape. It likewise provides an instructive example to geographers and others of the potential pitfalls associated with trying to discern, only by reading the extant landscape, the nature of the forces that produced it. Since the initial federal approval in 1976 to construct I-235, the remaking of OKC has been underway for more than forty years. This process has involved a complicated series of events linking local, state, and federal scales. It has also been shaped by approaches to urban planning and urban management that reflect the enduring influence of urban renewal and gentrification on the functioning and form of urban places. For this reason, it is not adequate to explain the transformation of many of the districts in OKC as simply an example of the consequences of urban renewal. Nor is it adequate to attempt to explain the distircts as solely an example of gentrification. These two processes have been intricately woven together, which necessitates a consideration of both.

In an at tempt to understand and design for these issues the site is located along I-235 specifically at the Sheridan Ave exit. This area is directly east of two prominent districts, Bricktown and Deep Deuce. This location, not unlike the aforementioned districts, is bounded by railroad tracks. Similar to highways, railroad tracks are another key feature that divide cities into different areas. However, with the decommissioning of the railroad that divides Bricktown and Deep Deuce, it opens up the possibility that this once separative element can be a place of connectivity. Developing along the railroad and highway will increase not only bring these two districts together but also mesh the eastern and western sides of the highway together and promote future development on the eastern side.

In this area, the highway is elevated above the street-scape. But rather than it being suspended by piers, a berm has been created to support the infrastructure of the highway. This feature prompted the concept of displacing the berm across the site to create a cohesive language on both sides of the highway. Instituting subtractive and addictive methods, much like that found in behavior-based algorithmic models, will provide a system for which the site will be reconstructed and circulation paths that connect the divided sides.

OKLAHOMA CITY AND THE CENTENNIAL EXPRESSWAY

Amenities and Program

Concept | Interstate 235

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR THE BEHAVIOR-BASED MODEL OF CODE.TRAIL

The behavioral rules of the system are STOCHASTIC: the behavioral rules for this system are randomly determined; modeled according to random probabilities in order to perform simple elementary actions that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely. The process is MARKOVIAN: the probability of performing a given action is only depending on the current state of the environment around the agent and not on any past states. The model takes into account the geometric constraints: each block of building material occupies a single cell and the activators are represented by agents that also occupy a single cell. These agents move randomly in a three-dimensional discrete cubic lattice with the bounding box of the lattice acting as a border. The agents’ movements are constrained by the structures they build: they cannot walk through the built structures. The system functions on a discrete time step approach. At each step, the system is updated: agents move, then, if they are not already transporting building material, they can pick up a block, else drop it, or simply continue their walk without doing anything. Lastly, each agent can only perceive the first twenty-six neighboring cells that surround where it is located at a given moment.

CODE IMPLEMENTATION AS AN URBAN MESH

The system behaves as a swarm of multiple agents that are stochastic and Markovian. The agents starting locations and directions are randomly determined and they do not act as a collective whole. Each agent is only influenced by its current proximate environment and other agents. The field for which these agents are bound is composed of a three-dimensional discrete cubic lattice that is unitized and represents the site. The agents are limited by the structures existing and cannot occupy or move through an already occupied unit whether that be a solid structure or another agent. The system works with a time step approach. At each step, the system is updated: agents move, then, if they are not already transporting a unit, they can then pick up a unit, else drop it, or simply continue their path without doing anything else. There are three simple rules for which the agents act: every agent is bounded to a solid unit to prevent any agent from flying, every agent is more likely to move a unit if it is surrounded by less units, and every agent is more likely to place a unit near other units. In addition to these simple rules, there were attractor points located throughout the site to provide a focus area for the agents to generate circulation paths. The attractor points were placed at different levels of the site to create overlapping paths that communicated with one another. This method of generating the site formed clear paths throughout the site and the agglomeration of units created prominent structures.

Throughout the site there were three distinct features that could be found repeating throughout the site. The first feature was a simple stacking of the units to create a terraced landscape that mimicked a natural hill. The second feature was an arch. This was formed when two terraced areas were in close proximity to each other to form a roof to connect them together while still preserving the path. The third feature was a tunnel. This was a combination of multiple arches placed alongside each other to create a more enclosed area. This feature allowed the opportunity to place program within the enclosed areas. Once the features were overlaid onto each other more complex and unique areas were produced that allowed optimal structures for placing programmatic spaces.

System Behavior Diagram

MONUMENT

OVERHANGS

ENCLOSED AREA

SKYLIGHTS

OVERHANGS

RIDGES

TERRACES

OVERHANGS

This site is programmed to serve as a discovery center. Similar to monuments in a landscape, the site appears like a set of ruins. Ironically, the structures formed are representative of something that has been degraded, however it was intended to appear that way. The circulation paths are not direct but are rather intriguing and unpredictable as if you were moving through the rubble of a demolished building. Much like the site circulation, the act of reading a book provokes an element of exploration or discovery. This correlation of experiences has influenced the main programmable enclosed space as a library with gallery and archival spaces. While dispersed across the site there will be other programs that include cafes and information centers.

Discovery Center | Program Diagram

muSeO delle mACChine

PiAzzAle PORTuenSe 1 | ROmA, iTAliA

ACSA COmPeTiTiOn SuBmiTTAl | SPRing 2017

duRATiOn | 4 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Anthony Cricchio

TeAm memBeRS:

Kira Collins

Kevin Dobbs

Erika Omae

Jacob Stinson

The design addresses a dense historical infrastructure, deteriorating site, and build potential, by creating a unique green neighborhood, renewing traffic and commerce at the ancient port, and creating a new industrial steel building that imagines the material in a digital future of information, adjustment, and resiliency.

THE PALIMPSEST CITY

Rome is a city of layers of infrastructure that over time has built people out of natural public space. The project addresses the needs of the city by creating a swath of public green space drawing people to the site, in order to create a new landmark and a pause for the inhabitants. The site near the old port gates has become forgotten over time. The park creates an approach to the museum marked with machines to remind visitors of the past use, Porta Portese is remade as an important transit stop for the city, and the museum revives the port as a site of industry and technological advancement. The museum is a teaching building designed to house old technology and showcase new purposes. Its volumes are assembled around the values of the site, and it pushes what a building can be by cloaking itself in a new system of movable, interchangeable, programmable, energy producing steel panels. In so doing, it continues Rome’s history of reinterpretation and restructuring and takes it toward the future.

Existing Urban Fabric

Removing Urban Fabric

Adding Urban Park

Adding Urban Fabric

Perspective

Interchangeable Panel Assembly Diagram

1 | Solar panel addition on east and west facade harvest energy

2 | Steel and glass panels fit into existing open portico skeleton

3 | Structural steel frame

4 | “Bridge” pointing toward Porta Portese structured to float

5 | Glass “Display Box” encases the old Armory 6 | Steel and glass panels fit into existing open Armory

STRUCTURAL REMNANTS

The formal organization of the museum is an irregular grid molded around the existing structures, intersected by a volume angled toward Porta Portese. In addition to providing the hierarchy of the building, this mass creates the spine along which major circulations run. Visitors enter through the existing archway into the inner court of the building, then proceed along the major park axis through the main entry under the volume. Moving to the left on ground level takes you past the cloakroom, bathrooms, auditorium, and classroom. At the end of the axis on the north side of the building is the office and research space and the preservation room, which is glazed on the street facade so passersby can see the work being done. Rising upstairs into the volume lets you enter the gallery space, which you circle through and move south, to the other end of the volume. Stairs from this end let you down into the Armory, which houses temporary exhibitions. The café and gift shop are tucked away under the south end of the volume but are still accessible to the public. The basement under the building contains storage and a large mechanical room, along with the truck loading dock. A specialized elevator runs through the center of the building, intersecting the storage room, entry hall, preservation room, volume, and galleries, making visible the movement of people and machines.

View towards Porta Portese

View inside the “Armory”

nORmAn - mOORe ViSiTOR CenTeR

nORmAn - mOORe, OK, uSA

COTe COmPeTiTiOn SuBmiTTAl | FAll 2016

duRATiOn | 14 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Michael Hof fner

Daniel Butko

Anthony Cricchio

Through this objective, the feeling of emergence has become the driving concept for the visitor centers circulation, organization, and form. This concept pulls from the same feelings similar to that of experiencing a natural disaster. For example, starting in a familiar setting, one’s home, then an unforeseen event causes the need to seek shelter. In this safe zone, one is restricted of knowing and seeing what is happening around them. When the event has finally passed it is safe for everyone to emerge from the secured location. Then, they are thrust into a new setting that is not known to them, but it eerily resembles that of what once was.

Star ting with a pristine cube then using the most prominent wind directions to carve away spaces has led to an interior condition that would be unexpected from the outside. Having to take sharp turns and maneuvering from indoor setting to outdoor settings keeps the visitor in a state of “chaos” while also being fully aware of the visitor center’s mission.

The Norman-Moore Visitor Center will educate people about the effects of natural disasters, inform them about the impact of building resiliency in disaster-prone areas, and minimize future damage by preparing visitors to face such events.

Carving Additional Exits and Paneling

Generation Diagram

Pristine Volume Divided by Prominent Wind Direction

Slicing Exterior Courtyards

Slicing Interior Courtyard and Exterior Views

CHALLENGING SITE

The limitations of the site become advantageous design features.

The Norman-Moore Visitor Center is located in a floodplain, as well as, a notorious tornado alley. To directly respond to these site conditions, the building has been raised 14’ above grade to avoid the potential of flooding. In order to avoid the destructive high winds of Oklahoma, the building will be constructed out of durable and resilient 12” precast concrete sandwich panels with minimal opening to the outside. This allows the building to acquire a FEMA rating. Inside the center, there will be an educational aspect that allows visitors to learn about natural disasters and how to prepare for them. In addition to the building, the site will be landscaped to simulate the path of a tornado. This scarring of the earth will provide space for art installations and serve as a reference to the unique, natural character of the region. This center can also serve as an art exhibition space for surrounding colleges and local artists to further involve the community with this area.

Site Section | 100 Year Floodplain

FEEDBACK LOOPS

With the location of the Norman-Moore Visitor Center in Oklahoma, it provides an opportunity to raise awareness and understanding of natural disasters that frequently afflict the area. This center is meant to educate people about the effects of natural disasters, inform them about the impact of building resiliency in disaster-prone areas, and minimize future damage by preparing visitors to face such events. It achieves its objectives through design, materiality, and function.

Rather than ignore the effects of natural disasters, the design celebrates them through the use of experiential landscaping, durable building materials, and small design features that showcase wind. The visitor center’s spatial organization tends to create an inadvertent experience of a disaster for the individual. Toward the exit, one is fully exposed to the effects and emotions caused from such events through the use of a simulation chamber and the dramatic portrayal of a tornado path through the scarring of the landscape.

View from Entry

View of Gallery and Interior Courtyard

View from Art-walk

FLOW

TulSA WeTl AndS BuSineSS diSTRiCT

WeST ARKAnSAS RiVeR BAnK | TulSA, OK, uSA

ViSiOn FOR WeST RiVeR BAnK COmPeTiTiOn WinneR | SPRing 2016

duRATiOn | 4 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Jay Yowell

David Boeck

TeAm memBeRS: John Brown

Daniel Kleypas

Aubrey Pontious (Landscape Architecture)

Ky Sanderfur

James Spear

Jacob Stinson

Mahsa Yari (Landscape Architecture)

SUSTAINABILITY & COMMUNITY

The west side of the Arkansas River in Tulsa County has been the home to Tulsa’s industrial vein for many decades. As industry left these sites they became neglected, underdeveloped, and lost significance to the life system of Tulsa.

With the development of the Tulsa Wetland Business District, centered on I-44 corridor, life would be rejuvenated into the site once again supplying Tulsa with viable assets.

Af ter taking into account the history of the site and the present condition of underdevelopment, we saw an opportunity to incorporate a more sustainable approach to the water treatment process and drew on this to inspire our vision for this project. Implementing a nature assisted system and converting the old site into residential and business spaces would encourage the community to use more sustainable practices. By integrating aspects of this process throughout the site plan, the new treatment plant will utilize the treated gray water for non-potable and irrigation uses.

DESIGNING A VISION

The new, Tulsa Wetlands Treatment Plant is a multi-functional design strategy that provides water reclamation, habitat, educational opportunity, park restoration, visual enhancement and, above all, site security for a public works facility for future generations. This would be accomplished through a system of collection, primary, secondary, and tertiary treatments that implement natural elements along with mechanical filtration techniques to facilitate the process. In utilizing these practices we help to reduce carbon emissions, infrastructure need, energy needs, and chemical intensive processes.

This in-turn opens up the opportunity to redesign the South-Side Wastewater Treatment Plant providing a modernized infrastructure while also providing our communities with civic spaces that improve quality of life. The new Tulsa Wetlands Treatment Plant would provide treated water to the rest of the site supporting residential, park space, trails, water features, hotel, and office spaces that would otherwise use potable water for nonpotable uses. A supported civic infrastructure project that will update our essential urban infrastructure while simultaneously providing economical practices and promoting community would be a symbol of sustainable living unto the image of Tulsa.

Process Sketches

Water Treatment Process Diagram

Blackwater Collection

Open Aerobic Process

Clarification Process

Circulation/Irrigation

Recreational Distribution

Outflow to River

View of Bike Path and Shading Structure

View of Pedestrian Bridge under the Overpass

View of Office Areas

ILLUSION

uniVeRSiT y OF OKl AhOmA BuS TeRminAl

403 e BROOKS STReeT | nORmAn, OK, USA

ACAdemiC | FAll 2015

duRATiOn | 13 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Jay Yowell

Dr. Khosrow Bozorgi

TeAm memBeRS: Firas Chamas

Jacob Stinson

CART - Cleaveland Area Rapid Transit

The Cleaveland Area Rapid Transit (CART) has been serving Norman, OK since 1980. It transports more than 1 million passengers annually on a fixedroute bus system. CART buses run seven Norman city routes and three University of Oklahoma campus routes on weekdays and most Saturdays.

LAYERED CIRCULATION

The main problem with the existing bus terminal on the University of Oklahoma campus was its inability to adequately regulate the different layers of circulation. The four circulation categories; buses, cars, bicycles, and pedestrians all overlapped uncomfortably and erratically. The concept of manipulating the landscape to separate each circulation category became a driving force for the site development and building design.

Program Placement

Program Concentration

Site Integration / Manipulation

Site / Building Access

Generation Diagram

MISGUIDED IMPRESSION INFLUENCES

When approaching the site from the west, the building gives to the illusion that it is just another bus station with an outdoor waiting area and an adjacent small indoor facility. But when one enters or approaches it from the east, it reveals that it is a subterranean double story building that opens into an expansive lawn that overlooks the pond and maximizes the amount of views toward nature. This lawn is framed by the bus terminal and a newly added classroom that can be used as an interactive lab. It is a much needed amenity for the campus that can be used for outdoor art installations, open-air markets, study areas, etc. to create a larger sense of community.

The bus terminal is arranged in accordance to optimize the sun and wind patterns of the site. The lower level is aligned to increase the amount of natural ventilation in the summer, but is able to be closed off in the winter. The building is oriented so it can filter in the maximum amount of light into the darker underground spaces. Additionally, two thermal masses are present in the complex, providing natural heating to the interior spaces.

Process Sketches

eCO-ReSORT

mediCine PARK, OK, USA

ACAdemiC | SPRing 2016

duRATiOn | 4 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Dr. Stephanie Pilat Jay

Yowell

GABLE

REVITALIZING AN ECLECTIC COMMUNITY

How do you make something that is set in the past new again?

The driving concept for the design was to revitalize a resort town located outside the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge and Fort Sill Military Base. Medicine Park is an eclectic town that is deeply rooted in its past. The city council envisioned the future of the town as a place to connect back to nature due to its close proximity to the wildlife refuge. The eco-resort is directed towards Medicine Park to relate to the past and to further the connection between the building and the people.

CONTRASTING PROTRUSIONS

The portions of the resort that protrude from the earth are composed of a material that highly contrasts the ground, such as Corten steel or polished steel. This increases the contrast between the man-made and the natural to further associate the building with Medicine Park’s past. Upon entering, the material that is visible from the outside transforms into a precast concrete that conveys a comfortable environment and relates back to the earth.

HIDDEN PROCESSION

Venturing into the resort, there is no view of what is ahead and one is compressed deeper into the earth. Then, it dramatically opens into a long 25’ tall hallway that serves as the resort’s lobby and market area. This space is aligned to have direct views toward the lake. Thin skylights run throughout the resort to pull visitors deeper into the resort and wash the walls in a soft light. Directly off the market area the rooms are placed in a row that allow ideal views toward Mt. Scott. They penetrate through the ground and their ends are left hovering above the grade.

REVITALIZING THE “GABLE”

A gable is generally the triangular portion of a wall between the edges of the intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable reflects the climate, material availability, and aesthetic concerns.

The arrangement of the visitor’s rooms is an obvious reinterpretation of the row of shops located in downtown Medicine Park. The eco-resort is intended to create a statement of renewal that contrasts the existing Medicine Park. This resort is one that evokes curiosity and mystery, but once inside it provides a deeper connection to nature that glorifies its beauty through the experience of the inhabitant.

Revitalized

Row of Shops Located in Downtown Medicine Park

Film ROW OuTdOOR TheATeR

701 W SheRidAn AVe | OKlAhOmA CiT y, OK, USA

ACAdemiC| SPRing 2015

duRATiOn | 4 WeeKS

inSTRuCTOR: Deborah Richards

Anthony Cricchio

The Film Row District of Oklahoma City is one of the unique areas and history within the Oklahoma City area. The district holds a monthly block party which provides a family–friendly event for the area for film screenings, live music, art exhibitions and gourmet food trucks. The essence of the proposal is to provide the district with ideas for a more formal outdoor space for movie premieres and events.

The proposal will include the design of a Wall/Building that separates the street from the outdoor space to provide a location for a ticket booth, snack bar, storage, small stage, and screen/speakers. The location for the space is located at approx. 711 W. Sheridan St. in Oklahoma City. It is the parking lot to the west of The Paramount Building. The maximum build-able area for the Wall/Building is from the southwest corner of the Paramount Building on the east, Approx. 130”-0” along the property/building line on the south, and 10’-0” deep into the property to the north.

PERMEABILITY PRECEDENT

The structure and physical makeup of a leaf allows it to be permeable to certain elements of nature. It is composed of numerous spaces inside that are hollow. These voids are called stoma and are used to transfer air in and out of the leaf.

The materiality of the wall’s outer membrane is a translucent sheathing draped over a structure that follows the Lindenmayer system. In addition to the L-system, the Fibonacci series and the golden rectangle provide a proportional rule that creates a “branching” effect.

This tubular structure becomes an artistic element that doubles as an attachment location for the translucent sheathing. It is then anchored to a more stable structure at the back of the wall.

INHABITABLE FACADE

This outdoor movie theater provides parking for local businesses during the day while transforming into a drive-in theater at night. The site parameters prohibited the theater from exceeding a maximum width of 10’ to maximize the amount of parking on site. The outdoor theater adopts the same aspect of the permeability of a leaf and manipulates it in a way that allows people, cars, light, and water to freely travel through it. During the night, the wall emits a subtle glow from inside lighting, attracting people towards the site. Once inside, the visitors are able to move freely throughout the space and fully interact with the wall.