portfolio
james mcdowall
portfolio of work James I. McDowall
Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions about my technical experience to-date: phone: email: website:
+1 626 205 8769 james@jamesmcd.com www.jamesmcd.com
Contents SIGNIFICANT DESIGN PROJECTS .
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4-9
Aquatic Fissure: Storm-water Treatment Facility, Berkeley, CA | 2010
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10 - 13
Artificial Topography: Center for Collaborative Research, Berkeley, CA | 2010
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14 - 17
The Unfolding Fern: Childcare Center, Ipswich, Queensland | 2008 .
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18 - 21
Tidal Flow: Monastery, Bowen Hills, Queensland | 2009
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TECHNICAL PROFICIENCY . . . . . . . . . . ArchiCAD Drawings
22 - 23
Human Figure Sketches
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24 - 25
Technical Hand Drawing . . . . . . . . .
26 - 27
Revit Rendering
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page 4 | james mcdowall | Monastery
Tidal Flow
Lutheran Monastery
Monastery | james mcdowall | page 5
tidal flow: monastery
bowen hills, qld | 2009 The inherent inwardness associated with monasticism sets a disparate relationship between the public (profane) and the individual (sacred). At the same time, however, the monastery has a role in providing service to the community. This project seeks to reconcile an Architecture that must provide for an insular community, whilst serving the wider public. The scheme vertically divides what is public and profane from what is individual and sacred. Between these zones is the realm of the community. Architecturally, a language is set up to coincide with these strata of conceptual spaces. These strata are described in terms of what is underneath and what is above. It can be divided into a tripartite organization of what is ‘subterranean’, what is ‘trunk’ and what is ‘canopy’. Hence, the public become a dynamic measure against the architecture, a ‘waterline’ that can be seen rising and falling from grotto to plateau.
page 6 | james mcdowall | Monastery
Ground Floor Plan
1st Floor and Mezzanine Plan
3rd Floor Plan
Level 4 & 5 Floorplan
14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
7. Chapel 8. Marshalling area & outdoor eating 9. Refectory 10. Scullery 11. Cold store 12. Store room 13. Service Court
4. Library 5. Guest room 6. Choir and organ loft
1. Common meeting lounge 2. Common bathroom 3. Monk cell
Public Thouroughfare Theatre Spill-out Reception Office Public WC Elevator Meeting room Laundry
Monastery | james mcdowall | page 7
page 8 | james mcdowall | Monastery
Monastery | james mcdowall | page 9
page 10 | james mcdowall | Stormwater Treatment Facility
Aquatic Fissure
Stormwater Treatment Facility
Stormwater Treatment Facility | james mcdowall | page 11
AQUATIC FISSURE: STORmwATER TREATmENT berkeley, CA | 2010
The brief was the design of an interweaving exhibition and stormwater treatment facility in which the two programs were integrated Stormwater Treatment process is fully exposed. Users feel like they are a part of the process. Byproducts are expressed. They line the edges of the retention ponds and are visible to the park and highway. The agenda of recycling and harvest ing waste is promoted. Transition spaces between environments, clean to less clean, are the zones of education. The large site is not occupied by the imposing scale of a building but rather ‘land art’. From a distance, the facility is seen as a series of cuts in the lake. Rather than an architecture of addition, it is an architecture of subtraction or negation Section A-A
Section B-B B A
C
C
Section C-C
A
B
page 12 | james mcdowall | Stormwater Treatment Facility
Stormwater Treatment Facility | james mcdowall | page 13
page 14 | james mcdowall | Center for Collaborative Research
ARTIFICIAL TOPOGRAPHY: Centre for Collaborative Research (CCR) Berkeley, CA | 2010
Campus vs. City Terraces vs. Caverns The CCR deals with campus and city boundaries. The architectural language of the two zones was translated into equivalent geological analogies. The city’s narrow service corridors were analagous to caverns. The campus’ open greenspace were seen as terraces. Thus, my building became a constructed landscape that interlocked terraced and cavern spaces. Transparent Veil The skin of the building is treated as walkable ground. As the public congregate in the exteral forum space, they are able to glimpse the goingson of the interior laboratories. The facade also shades the separate interior volumes and casts shadows on inerstitial circulation space and the informal collaborative atria.
Center for Collaborative Research | james mcdowall | page 15
1. Research Studio 2. Entry Lobby 3. Public cafe 4. Reading Library 5. Gathering Atria 6. Delivery Dock 7. Bathrooms 8. Stage
page 16 | james mcdowall | Center for Collaborative Research
Center for Collaborative Research | james mcdowall | page 17
page 18 | james mcdowall | Childcare Center
The Unfolding Fern
UQ Ipswich Childcare Centre The term ‘kindergarten’, which originally derived from the notion of the school as a metaphorical garden, alludes to the idea of children as unfolding plants.
Childcare Center | james mcdowall | page 19
Floor Plan 1. Reception foyer 2. Reception 3. Store room 4. Manager’s office 5. Daytime lunchroom / evening meeting room 6. Staff kitchen 7. Male WC 8. Female WC 9.Universal access WC 10. Shower 11. Staff locker room 12. Pre kindergarten 13. Toilets 14. Common kitchen 15. Pre Kindy external play area 16. Kindergarten 17. Kindy external play area 18. Sandpit 19. Wet weather activity room / Library 20. Nature’s classroom / herb garden
page 20 | james mcdowall | Childcare Center
Childcare Center | james mcdowall | page 21
page 22 | james mcdowall | ArchiCAD
TECHNICAL PROFICIENCY ArchiCAD
ArchiCAD | james mcdowall | page 23
page 24 | james mcdowall | Human Figure Sketches
Graphite Sketches
Human Figure Sketches | james mcdowall | page 25
page 26 | james mcdowall | Technical Hand Drawing
Shadow and Water Study
Side Elevation
Technical Hand Drawing | james mcdowall | page 27
Timber Pavilion Section
Plan projected from section and onsite measuremnts
page 28 | james mcdowall | Revit Rendering
REVIT Modelling study, D House, Donovan Hill