Jhordan Channer
Selected Works
CONTENTS
Libero Andreotti 04
URBAN HAUNTOLOGY Atlanta, GA
George Johnston 22
SOCIAL FARM Downtown Atlanta, GA
Frederick Pearsall 46
HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH Georgia Tech Campus, Atlanta GA
Mark Cottle 68
AFROFUTURISM
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Project Details
74
Personal Profile
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URBAN HAUNTOLOGY Downtown Atlanta, Georgia
Traditionally the United States has glorified its capitalist means of production through the use of the Exposition. The Cotton Exposition most famously in Atlanta sought to identify the south as a forward moving economy. New Technologies were put on display that would revolutionize systems of production. In direct contrast to this innovation and these promises of the future was the south’s commodification of black bodies. In Post Civil war south, a large scale propaganda campaign dehumanized black people and justified putting them in prison where they were sold as commodities through the practice of convict leasing. Today the specters of the South’s past still lingers in the cities perhaps most painfully in the infrastructure of corporations that directly benefited from the practice. Architecture, in and of itself cannot adequately communicate nuance when it comes to the topic of memory in a memorial. Often the designer or client reinforces some narrative and other perspectives are forgotten. Such memorials become static monuments, that tend to reduce memory to a series of phenomenological punchlines.
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Through problematizing the memorial the proposal suggests that any programme can evoke memory. It takes the market as a solution, intentional in its ostensible antithesis to memorial. It channels the mode of the carnivalesque where death is as important as life, sorrow as important as contentment. It studies juxtapositions between brown and white, rich and poor, immigrant and citizen, life and death through layering in order to reconcile the cohabitation of ostensible paradoxes. Finally it touches on the democratization of space as the Beltline plans the move through the site leaving gentrification in its wake.
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2016 | Advanced Building Studio | URBAN HAUNTOLOGY
To engage memory it is necessary to collapse the spectacle of the monument. This is to move it from an object to a place. Therefore the architecture exists at the intersection of public space and memorial. The two programmes constantly move in and out of phase. The memorial is activated by public engagement and the public space becomes rooted in memory. The exercise of layering the two reveals the connections between space/time, place and perception.
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URBAN HAUNTOLOGY | Advanced Building Studio | 2016
A view under the canopy structure
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2016 | Advanced Building Studio | URBAN HAUNTOLOGY
It is necessary for the architecture to be aware of its context. Memory is therefore inextricably linked to place
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URBAN HAUNTOLOGY | Advanced Building Studio | 2016
Buried on here the railway built by convict labour, their memory persists on this site and haunts the city that developed on their backs.
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2016 | Advanced Building Studio | URBAN HAUNTOLOGY
collapse monuments
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URBAN HAUNTOLOGY | Advanced Building Studio | 2016
The canopies make the most visceral metaphor of specters on the site. Activated by nature they sway in the wind and suggests a presence leaving spots of sunlight dancing on the ground. The grid is envisioned as a dynamic structural system that has recaptured a colonized space on the beltline for the people. The repetition of the columns allude to the death drive convict laborers were forced in. 011
2016 | Advanced Building Studio | URBAN HAUNTOLOGY
EXCAVATING THE GROUND PLANE
The act of excavating the ground plane engages the mode of the archaeologist hoping to reveal some lost history buried deep within the earth.
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URBAN HAUNTOLOGY | Advanced Building Studio | 2016
STORIES IN THE DARK
Excavation also engages the experiences of the convict labourers forced to live and work in the dark.
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When people inhabit the space these spirits seem to walk among them, exchanging culture and memory as they do. When the space is not engaged by the public the architecture takes on a spectral quality, appearing to communicate with lost spirits
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The public space when in habited and when not
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When people inhabit the space these spirits seem to walk among them, exchanging culture and memory as they do. When the space is not engaged by the public the architecture takes on a spectral quality, appearing to communicate with lost spirits
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The public space when in habited and when not
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2016 | Advanced Building Studio | URBAN HAUNTOLOGY
The exercise of layering the two reveals the connections between space/time, place and perception.
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URBAN HAUNTOLOGY | Advanced Building Studio | 2016
The tomb 019
2016 | Advanced Building Studio | URBAN HAUNTOLOGY
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URBAN HAUNTOLOGY | Advanced Building Studio | 2016
Sunken Garden 021
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THE SOCIAL FARM Downtown Atlanta, Georgia
Urban culture was made possible by the agricultural revolution which provided the means of sustaining rising populations. The application of industrial modes of production to agriculture made it possible to mass produce food, but this approach also had detrimental effects on our environment and on society at large. Just as mono-cropping and pesticide run-off have their ecological consequences, the separation of working and living from the land has had social costs measured in the numbers of disenfranchised and homeless. This proposal explores urban farming as a more socially sustainable practice by reinserting food production at a local scale. As an economic system it can utilize an untapped workforce and bolster local economies. As an architecture it can bring new life to blighted communities and new livelihoods to the people they serve.
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2016 | Portman Competition | THE SOCIAL FARM
ATLANTA BEGINS AT THE INTERSECTION OF GEORGIA R.R AND MACON & WESTERN
The morphology of Downtown Atlanta reveals a development pattern that physically disconnects it from the rest of city.
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THE SOCIAL FARM | Portman Competition | 2016
MODERN ATLANTA ADOPTS THE POST-WAR CAR-CENTRIC URBANISM
Racist zoning ordinances, the elimination of important bus routes and the introduction of I-75/85 highway disconnected Downtown Atlanta physically and socially from the rest of the city. Morphology of Atlanta 025
2016 | Portman Competition | THE SOCIAL FARM
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THE SOCIAL FARM | Portman Competition | 2016
THE DIRECT CONSEQUENCES OF THIS DEVELOPMENT MANIFESTS ITSELF IN URBAN BLIGHT AND A VISIBLE HOMELESS POPULATION. THERE IS A CORRELATION BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL VOIDS AND SOCIAL VOIDS IN THE CITY THEREFORE ANY ATTEMPT TO ‘REVITALIZE’ DOWNTOWN ATLANTA MUST BE CONCERNED WITH THE STRUCTURAL ISSUES THAT KEEP THE POOR HOMELESS AND UNEMPLOYED. OUR PROPOSAL BEGINS BY IDENTIFYING THESE DISENFRANCHISED DEMOGRAPHICS.
The ex-con, who no longer qualifies for public housing and cannot find work because of their record. The veteran, who suffers from PTSD and cannot find work. The elderly, who experience ageism in the workforce and are forced into retirement. The immigrant that faces immediate challenges such as securing a job, finding somewhere to live and enrolling their children in school. The mentally ill, who may not have access to proper treatment, cannot maintain a job and faces discrimination.
Homelessness in downtown Atlanta 027
2016 | Portman Competition | THE SOCIAL FARM
IDENTIFYING THE VOIDS ON SITE These are the physical voids that define the blight downtown; parking lots and abandoned buildings
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THE SOCIAL FARM | Portman Competition | 2016
ABSORB THE UN-UTILIZED Unused organic waste from surroundings, unused human workforce unused buildings and landscape.
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2016 | Portman Competition | THE SOCIAL FARM
CULTIVATE THE UN-UTILIZED Unused organic waste used for composting, the unused human workforce given jobs, unused buildings and landscape reintroduced to the city..
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THE SOCIAL FARM | Portman Competition | 2016
HARVEST AND SUPPLY LOCALLY Unused organic waste for composting, unused human workforce for labour, unused buildings and landscape for inhabitation.
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2016 | Portman Competition | THE SOCIAL FARM
THE HOMESTEAD Micro-unit housing, communal garden, root cellar and storage, hydroponic facade, thermal baths in the basement level.
THE SANCTUARY Plaza, Chapel, Sauna, Administration, Rooftop Community Farming.
The programme on the farm is organized into 3 main categories, The Homestead manages the live-work processes, The Sanctuary is responsible for rehabilitation functions and The Burrow handles educational programs. Each work together to create a process that reintroduces disenfranchised populations back into society, and to convert waste from the city into useful agricultural products.
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THE SOCIAL FARM | Portman Competition | 2016
THE BURROW. Dining Hall, Open Market, Dormitories, Seed Lab, Seed Bank, Auditoriums, Hydroponic Vertical Farming
OPEN/CLOSED MARKET.
Site Section through Burrow and Sanctuary 033
2016 | Portman Competition | THE SOCIAL FARM
THE BURROW PERFORMS “DWELL, NURTURE & 34
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CONNECT” FUNCTIONS ON THE FARM. Dining Hall, Open Market, Dormitories, Seed Lab, Seed Bank, Auditoriums, Hydroponic Vertical Farming
THE SOCIAL FARM | Portman Competition | 2016
Communal Dining Hall at the Burrow 035
2016 | Portman Competition | THE SOCIAL FARM
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THE HOMESTEAD PERFORMS THE “DWELL & NURTURE” FUNCTION FOR THE FARM. Micro-unit housing, communal garden, root cellar and storage, hydroponic facade, thermal baths in the basement level.
Communal gardens at Homestead 037
2016 | Portman Competition | THE SOCIAL FARM
Thermal Baths in basement of Homestead 038
THE SOCIAL FARM | Portman Competition | 2016
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pump 2016 | Portman Competition | THE SOCIAL FARM
fertilizer
biodigestor
organic waste
ORGANIC WASTE is converted to energy to power processes for the farm, undigested waste is used as fertilizer
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WATER is constantly recycled in the hydroponic system, any loss in the system is supplemented by collected storm-water and greywater.
THE SOCIAL FARM | Portman Competition | 2016
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
Hydroponic infrastructure is able to be attached to existing buildings to add more functionality. The technology has the potential to give purpose to abandoned buildings.
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2016 | Portman Competition | THE SOCIAL FARM
ROOFTOP GREENHOUSE greenhouse provides controlled
HYDROPONIC FACADE growing infrastructure attached to blighted Southern Railway Building
growing environment for crops.
ROOT CELLAR controlled environment for storing BIODIGESTOR converts organic waste into energy for farm processes
sensitive crops over winter seasons. WASTE-WATER CISTERN stores waste-water from farming processes and storm-water for later use
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THE SOCIAL FARM | Portman Competition | 2016
ROOFTOP COMMUNITY GARDEN Green roof infrastructure that provides farming opportunities for communities in the surrounding area.
CHAPEL/ BATHS treated waste-water/stormwater is stored here and becomes part of the rehabilittation program on site.
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Cleanse programs at the social farm give me access to health-care and group therapy sessions.
CLEANSE I am provided with a communal living space and access to food and clean water.
Hi, my name is Alex, I am a chronically homeless war-vet that suffers from PTSD, I have been excluded from a society that I risked my life to protect.
DWELL
THE FARM WITHIN A FARM The idea of “farm within a farm� suggests that embedded in this act of cultivating crops is the act of cultivating human potential. The mechanical and biological cycles that reuse waste to perform farming functions is isomorphic to the social cycle that reintroduces marginalized populations into society.
Through the process of the social farm I feel a sense of purpose. I can lend a helping hand to those who are in the same position I was.
I learn the processes of farming through the tasks assigned to me I can see how my contributions help the farm to function. NURTURE
I am able to connect with people outside of the farm on market weekends. The food I sell is the food that I have worked to cultivate
CONNECT
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3
HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH Downtown Atlanta, Georgia
Hidden Georgia Tech is a photo essay series on the institutes website that tries to highlight the unseen parts of the campus, its mission statement follows: “Across the Georgia Tech campus, hidden spaces and forgotten places await rediscovery. Some are relics of an earlier time, difficult to find and explore. Others are very much in view, but often overlooked. Hidden Georgia Tech is a photo essay series highlighting places on campus that are hidden in plain sight.” This project’s site was highlighted in this photo set, it performs various important service functions for the campus but largely fails to perform in anyway for human social experiences. To truly ‘rediscover’ this hidden part of the campus necessarily entails rethinking our ideas of service spaces. Perhaps they can extend beyond their engineered functions and provide a space where students can socialize, interact and learn.
The site is apart of the “Old Campus� where most of the infrastructure remains unchanged. Though the old campus once handles the entirety of the campus functions it is now largely used for administrative purposes and engineered services. Even though the site is physically hidden most people are unconsciously aware of its processes. The Holland Plant on site handles water for heating and cooling processes for this side of the campus, so it is directly responsible for thermal comfort in buildings. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the whistle blows 5 minutes to the hour, releasing steam from the boiler. This sound 48 can be heard from anywhere on campus.
2017 | D+R Studio I | HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH
SPATIAL DENSITY The generally site area surrounds Bobby Dodd way and is of highly defined and compressive building form both vertically and horizontally.
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HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH | D+R Studio I | 2017
VISIBILITY The spatial density affects the visual connectivity to the site, the area in dark blue shows areas of low visibility in contrast to the areas in orange that show high visibility.
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2017 | D+R Studio I | HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH
DIRECT COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS On site the systems of direct communication suggests a restrictive environment, civilian habitation is generally discouraged.
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HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH | D+R Studio I | 2017
STATE CHANGES The Holland Plant on site is responsible for heating and cooling for a large part of the campus, as such it handles water and exhibits it in different states (liquid + gas)
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2017 | D+R Studio I | HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH
3 MICRO-SITES IN THE GENERAL SITE AREA WAS CHOSEN, EACH HAS ITS OWN UNIQUE CHARACTERISTIC AND PERFORMS IN DIFFERENT WAYS. THE CHALLENGE BECOMES TO ADDRESS THE SPECIFIC ISSUES OF EACH SITE WHILE APPROACHING THE ENTIRE PROPOSAL AS A HOLISTIC SYSTEM.
PARKING LOT; adjacent to the stadium, sheared topography that results in two levels, receives the most sunshine of the 3 microsites HOLLAND PLANT, this is the open area adjacent to the Holland Plant, adjacent to the cooling tower, relatively low temperatures year round BOBBY DODD WAY, the dominant East-West corridor, highly transient, oriented towards the sun.
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HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH | D+R Studio I | 2017
PARKING LOT HOLLAND PLANT
BOBBY DODD WAY
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Natural Ecological Systems
Human Social System
2017 | D+R Studio I | HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH
Public Space
Rain Human
Vegetation
City Utility Building Waste Pond
Engineered Water System
Cistern
Waste Chiller/Boiler
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Stormwater Cistern
HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH | D+R Studio I | 2017
TO ENGAGE THESE THREE MICROSITES BOTH SPECIFICALLY AND HOMOGENEOUSLY IT WAS NECESSARY TO APPLY A SYSTEMS THINKING APPROACH. THREE SYSTEMS WERE IDENTIFIED, HUMAN SOCIAL SYSTEMS, NATURAL ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS AND ENGINEERED WATER SYSTEMS. BY ANALYZING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE ELEMENTS OF EACH SYSTEM I IDENTIFIED A FUNCTION AND A SPACE CONNECTED TO IT. BY ANALYZING THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FEEDBACK LOOPS AN INEFFICIENCY IN THE SYSTEM WAS CLEAR. BY CONSTANTLY RETURNING WATER TO THE CITY UTILITY LOSSES IN ENERGY, TIME AND WATER WOULD PERSIST.
In public spaces, Human Social Systems would interact with Natural Ecological systems and possibly Engineered Water Systems In buildings, Human Social Systems interact with Engineered Water Systems. At the Eco-Commons, Engineered water systems interact with Natural Ecological Systems, and possibly Human Social Systems.
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THIS PROPOSAL QUESTIONS THE FUNCTION THAT SERVICE SPACES PROVIDE, TRADITIONALLY THE ARCHITECTURE OF SERVICE SPACES HOLDS EQUIPMENT THAT SERVES REMOTE FUNCTIONS WITH VERY LITTLE IN THE WAY OF HUMAN-SOCIAL FUNCTIONS. Through the layering of social, ecological and mechanical programmes, this site can be activated to introduce students of the processes of water (its flow behaviours and state changes) as it becomes increasingly politicized in the wider context.
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Looking towards public space at Holland Plant
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2017 | D+R Studio I | HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH
identify existing barriers that prevent free constructal flow
improve flow behaviour by collapsing barriers
improve vertical flow by bridging topographies
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green strips break up dominant Bobby Dodd spine introduces flow behaviour to the site.
HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH | D+R Studio I | 2017
CIRCULATION By improving pedestrian flow behaviour to the site, through improving constructal flow and creating inclusive movement for the disabled we start to reintroduce the campus to this hidden site. RED is able bodied circulation GREEN is disabled
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2017 | D+R Studio I | HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH
SPHERICAL SPHELAR SOLAR CELLS
ROUND STEEL SECTIONS
STEEL MESH FLOORING
RECIPROCATING WETLANDS
HYDROPONIC REACTOR
ALUMINIUM PANELS
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HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH | D+R Studio I | 2017
SPHELAR SOLAR CELLS on the top row to provide energy for lights on bottom row
WASTEWATER from surrounding buildings
STORMWATER to Eco-Commons
WASTEWATER split from city TREATED WATER to Holland Plant
WASTEWATER pipe to the city
UNDERDRAIN flow to Holland Plant
STORMWATER to Eco-Commons
ECOSYSTEM MOVES How water flows and interacts with the different systems on the site is important in unifying the chosen microsites. Water flows both natural and man-made are layered into the human social experiences.
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2017 | D+R Studio I | HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH
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HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH | D+R Studio I | 2017
Section Along Bobby Dodd Way 065
2017 | D+R Studio I | HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH
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HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH | D+R Studio I | 2017
Possibly Tailgaiting on site 067
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AFROFUTURISM Downtown Atlanta, Georgia
PLACE
Speculations on the development of place in Africa beyond colonization. Traditional architecture from Mali characterized by organic forms from natural materials is juxtaposed against abstracted forms in steel typical of the hegemonic perceptions of science fiction
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AFROFUTURISM | Theory of Architecture II | 2016
POWER
Speculations of a return to power of Mansa Musa from the Mali empire. African monarchs would often contact ancestral spirits for counsel, this scene depicts that ritual as occurring beyond the Earth.
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2016 | Theory of Architecture II | AFROFUTURISM
BEAUTY
In pop culture African aesthetics in music, dance and fashion are becoming increasingly more marketable, despite this beauty standards remain expressly Euro-centric. This collage explores beauty as not just a marketable aesthetic but as a form of expression.
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AFROFUTURISM | Theory of Architecture II | 2016
SPACE IS THE PLACE
In his 1972 opus Sun Ra explores the idea of space as the new frontier for Africa and its diaspora. It is in response to the systematic oppression faced by African peoples on Earth. This collage explores Africa finding a new home on the moon, in so doing re-establishes its culture outside of the global hegemonic systems.
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PROJECT DETAILS
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URBAN HAUNTOLOGY Downtown Atlanta, Georgia School of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology Year: Fall 2016 Studio: Advanced Building Studio I Professor :Libero Andreotti Team Research: Jhordan Channer, Lauren Wells, Michele Vitulo, Tarique Patel, Steven Saunders, Jordanna Ebanks, Alyssa McKay Technology: Rhino/Grasshopper, Sketchup, Autocad, Photoshop, Illustrator
THE SOCIAL FARM Downtown Atlanta, Georgia School of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology Year: Spring 2017 Studio: Advanced Building Studio II Competition : Portman Prize (awarded 2nd place) Professor :George Johnston Team : Jhordan Channer, Lauren Wells, Jordanna Ebanks Technology: Revit (collaboratively), Photoshop, Illustrator Responsibilities: Research 80% Concept 70%, Design 33.3%,
Drawings 33.3% Model-Making 80%, Presentation 80%
AFROFUTURISM Downtown Atlanta, Georgia School of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology Year: Spring 2017 Course: Theory of Architecture II Professor : Mark Cottle Technology: Photoshop, Paper-craft
HIDDEN AT GEORGIA TECH Georgia Tech Campus, Atlanta GA School of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology Year: Fall 2017 Studio: D+R Studio Professor :Frederick Pearsall Team : Jhordan Channer, Qi Tian Technology: Camsol, Flo-2d, Isovist, Rhino (collaboratively), Photoshop, Illustrator Responsibilities: Research 75% Concept 100%, Design 50%, Drawings 50%, Presentation 80%
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JHORDAN RUUD BEKILA CHANNER I was raised in a lower-middle class family in Kingston, Jamaica. My perspectives are largely connected to this experience. I have struggled with personal and structural issues around rich and poor, access and exclusion, public and private and so my ideas about architecture are largely viewed through a social lens. I am interested in an opportunity to be engaged with the processes that determine our built environment and all that entails collectively and subjectively. I hope to work on projects that challenge attitudes about how we inhabit space. (770) 882-8816 | jhordan.channer@gmail.com | 19 Holly Downs Court, NW Atlanta GA 30318