Joseph Chemello :: :: Design Portfolio
Academic work from the University of Michigan :: 2010-2014
“And so Esmeralda’s inhabitants are spared the boredom of following the same streets every day. And that is not all: the network of routes is not arranged on one level, but follows instead an up-and-down course of steps, landings, cambered bridges, hanging streets. Combining segments of the various routes, elevated or on ground level, each inhabitant can enjoy every day the pleasure of a new itinerary to reach such places. The most fixed and clam lives in Esmeralda are spent without any repetition.” Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, 1972
City Stitch Graduate Design Studio I: Networks: (Inter)Change Instructor: Kathy Velikov Term: Fall 2012 The growing campus of the University of Illinois Chicago requires that the university expand beyond its original limits, creating a disjointed learning community scattered throughout the southwest side of Chicago. This has resulted in several buildings being housed north of the I-290 expressway. Bounded by I-290 to the north and I-90/94 to the east, UIC’s campus is barricaded from a large portion of the city and denied easy expansion as the university takes in more and more students. City Stitch seeks to remedy the fragmented campus through the use of a point and line system. Access points stretch out to the site limits, engaging the urban fabric as a means to pull people into the project. Buildings occupy these paths (lines), providing a muchneeded addition to the UIC campus while also acting as a stitch, reconnecting the campus back to the city of Chicago. Buildings merge with the formal language of highway infrastructure, extending out over the expressway, creating a north/south axis for campus expansion and dissolving the city grid into the mega-block of the campus. The bow-shaped paths encourage a sense of wandering through the city, allowing for multiple routes to be enjoyed. The lines are occupied with regular programmatic spaces that lead in and out of social hubs. At these points, the banality of the bar buildings breaks down as programs start to blend into one another in these shared spaces.
city grid vs. derive
infrastructure as a voyeuristic element
fragmented campus
potential housing disconnected campus buildings
dissolving of city grid
commuter campus
parking lots and garages bus routes CTA Blue Line
Original Netsch Plan for UIC
As the University of Illinois Chicago grew, a new site at the Circle Interchange was selected for the master plan by Walter Netsch. Organized with a ring diagram, university buildings spread out from the campus central Circle Forum to academic buildings, offices, student residences, and parking structures. Circulation through the campus was expedited through the employment of a “pedestrian expressway system” that connected the campus on the second floor of the buildings. Netsch’s walkways gave the UIC campus a sense of identity that was lost after their demolition due to maintenance problems. In addition, the loss of the elevated walkways severed a link from the campus to the rest of the city. This resulted in expansion problems as the campus continued to grow.
photos taken from the “Historic Netsch Campus,” UIC
access points to site
blending of program at hubs
theater
gallery CTA Blue Line stop student center
classrooms
housing
housing
parking removed roof plan
paths through site
Speed through Site
faster: level ground and more direct route slower: through buildings or change in elevation
Exterior Gathering Space
exterior theater roof top access and promenade housing court green spaces
Educational Bridge Undergraduate Design Studio II Instructor: Jen Maigret Term: Winter 2011 Libraries today must extend into the community as more than just a resource for knowledge. The library needs to take on an additional role as a community center for public gatherings. Located on Woodward Avenue in Highland Park, Michigan, this site serves both a residential and educational community. The library can be seen as a bridge between these two communities in order to further the accessibility of knowledge in combination with communal learning. In order to do so, the library must take on programs in addition to just being a resource for books. The inclusion of spaces for group projects and quiet studying is an effort to aid the adjacent high school in enhancing the education of the local students. Also, the addition of an auditorium, a multi-purpose space, and public meeting rooms will allow the community to come together for social and educational events. The library bridges out into the community in order to enhance collective education.
8 am in July
11 am in July
2 pm in July
5 pm in July
8 pm in July
ground floor
second floor
Stargazer Bowl: Cassiopeia
In collaboration with Jen Harmon // Working with Lecturer in Architecture Jen Harmon, the line of Stargazer Bowls were seen as an attempt to bring together realms of the celestial and terrestrial in a compelling decorative object. In this example, the constellation Cassiopeia is stamped into a hemisphere made out of plaster. The resulting topography is the 3D manifestation of the relationship of the stars in the constellation to one another. The vessel is then finished with gold leaf.
Lean
Drawing inspiration from the simple, yet elegant Noguchi Akari lamps, this white wire frame lamp casts frosty light out the top while producing ambient light through the shade. A slight light reveal at the base claims its territory from the surface on which it sits. A paper shade wraps the structure on four sides while the seam is finished with a black leather stitch running down the backside. A slit at the back allows for the cord to run out of the lamp’s toppling volume.
Interests and Explorations in Making 2012-2014: Collection of collaborative and individual work from the Architecture of Objects class and non-school related projects.
Slip
Seen as an investigation of the tension between the analogue and the digital, this Ikebana vase brings together methods of mass production with a CNC routed plaster mold and the analogue method of slip casting porcelain. By these means multiples are easily made, but the process also relies on the hand of the maker, as the vase is cut into its final form. Leaving the registration of the machine’s tool paths on the mold, and accentuating the seam in the mold, evidence of the production process is given. A wooden collar helps to support the vase and gives contrast to the white porcelain onto which the shadow of the flower arrangement is cast.
___Anonymous
In collaboration with Courtney Duffey // Looking to the techniques of Hella Jongerius, Courtney and I used these cups as a device to explore the deformations that occur in the process of slip casting. In order to familiarize ourselves with this complex process, we began by attempting to replicate a classic Italian cup used to serve cappuccino and white wine. Once comfortable with the process, we began to deform the cups as sets by means of pinching, stacking, ramming, and compressed air. With a focus on process and mass production, we performed each step of making from the building of formwork to the glazing of the cups.
Central Exterior Space (in high density situation)
Building and Block Edge Conditions
Regularity to Produce Irregularity
Degrees of Public/ Private Space
Light and Air
Typical Irregularity Graduate Design Studio II: Systems Studio: TYP Instructors: Heidi Beebe + Julia McMorrough Term: Winter 2013 Drawing on vernacular spatial qualities of Marrakech and its bazaars such as exterior space, shared building edge conditions, and the importance of light and air, this project seeks a method for planning and designing for dense, irregularly shaped communities. These conditions seen in Marrakech at the scale of the family dwelling are reappropriated to the scale of the community. Deriving the entire design from the dwelling unit, relationships compound upon one another creating spatial relationships that begin to inform the decision making process. Typical elements that can be found in most housing projects are used in specific relationships to one another creating a catalogue of scenarios that at times create irregular, yet compelling aggregations out of these seemingly regular elements. In this way, all design decisions are both locally and globally contextual.
1m
5m
10m
Large L Unit: 3 bed, 2.5 bath 200 SM (total), 44 SM exterior space
Small L Unit: 2 bed, 2 bath + den 150 SM (total), 31 SM exterior space
Large Bar Unit: 3 bed, 2 bath 113 SM
Small Bar Unit: 2 bed, 2 bath 85 SM
concrete wood
stone
core 10 steel
aluminium
Conceived of as a system for planning communities that are able to grow into tight and dense, yet irregular and mid-rise urban situations, the project seeks to create a lively ground plane that is centered around the pedestrian. Retail and dining establishments occupy the ground floor and spill out into the community’s areas, while the more private residences are located above.
Material Wasteland :: Wasteland Material Undergraduate Design Studio IV: Wallenberg Studio: Stuff Instructor: Ellie Abrons Term: Winter 2012 In the throw away society of today, things are not made to last. Consumerism leads to the excessive production of short-lived, disposable items. Instead of focusing on the craft of an object, cost becomes more influential. This type of society has increasingly challenged architecture to deal with the aspect of a material’s lifespan. However this issue can also be seen as an opportunity. The single use lifestyle enables architecture to employ a brand new material palette, utilizing unconventional building materials as a way to define a novel architectural aesthetic. The utilization of reused, unconventional building materials brings about a new occupation of the interior. By foregrounding a new material palette, one is allowed to engage a space in a much different way that focuses on participation. The interior is activated by the things that it is created out of. The pallet, a non-standard building element, brings about an inherent aspect of modularity to the interior. The piecing together of common objects allows for a freedom in the design of spatial qualities that capitalize on excess. Employing a pochÊ of varying thicknesses creates a sense of ambiguity as to what the interior or exterior of a space is. The design of the interior of a children’s museum located in the Bowery of Manhattan gives many opportunities to experiment with the different spatial logics that can be derived from the use of reused materials. Used together, these materials can create a saturated, interactive interior that confuses the participant as to where he is in the project in addition to educating children about the possibilities of conservation.
Approaches to the Architectural Interior
circulation
repetition of an element
excess
sculptural object
Material Tectonics and Surface Treatments
shipping pallet
original state
stacked assembly
surface treatment (lacquer, paint)
glass cullet
original state
packed assembly
cast panel
cardboard
original state
stacked assembly
undulating surface cut
ground floor
second floor
third floor
Systematic Differences Graduate Design Studio III: Propositions Studio: About Face Instructor: Vivian Lee Term: Fall 2013 Beginning with the task of selecting and categorizing 100 building façades based on their smallest repeating unit of aggregation, it was found that most facades fall into one of the following categories: masks, building blocks, horizontal bands, vertical bands, panels, grids, pixels. Seeking other possibilities for façade design, methods of Surrealist art practices are employed as a means of introducing the element of chance into design. This project studies systems of pattern making in an attempt to invent a novel form of aggregation that denies the clear legibility of the system from which the units are compiled. This manifests itself in a façade that is derived from only one two-dimensional unit, but through rotation and reflection creates a scale-less, field-like affect that constantly flickers between poché and void space. The design engages the viewer as it changes as one moves around the façade, and causes the onlooker to pause and contemplate the seemingly random logic of the entire composition.
mask
building blocks
horizontal bands
vertical bands
panel
grid
pixel
Looking to Simon Hantai’s Surrealist technique of pliage (folding as a means to manipulate the canvas before the application of paint) and to some work of Jasper Johns, the project seeks a method of pattern making that allows for some aspect of chance in its aggregation. In doing so, the notion of a discernible pattern is alluded to, but upon further investigation, is hard to discover. The exercise investigates a system of making that lays out the framework for a pattern, but relies on some uncontrollable factor to produce difference between the panels.
Initial Pattern Studies Row 1: 2D pattern investigations using methods of arraying, shifting, and reflecting Rows 2-3: 2D rotation, reflection, and aggregation of 1-3 base units Rows 4-5: 3D model investigations using notching, layering, weaving, extrusions, and skewed extrusions // some material qualities were investigated
1: 2D pattern
2: skewed extrusion
3: rotate
unit skew 1
unit skew 2
corner clips modifications
display modifications
4: 3D arrangement
5: attach
6: hang
Each facade unit consists of rolled metal ribbons. With a matte finish on one side and a shiny, reflective finish on the other, the units are used to manipulate light entering the building. The ribbons are attached to a frame that can be lit up at night.