jplucasi@syr.edu 317.603.1593
JOHN LUCAS II
contents 01Scuola + Citta: evaluating the italian piazza 02House for an Artist: forming an concept through painting 03Firenze Map Archive: designing an antinomous structure 04deConstruction: creating a waste neutral facility 05Lyman Library: questioning traditional circulations 06Onondaga Lake Laboratory: filtering building systems
“After you see something work, then you realize that it’s not so complicated after all.” -J. Franklin Hyde
[ Incisa Piazza School
Incisa, Italy
]
SCUOLA + CITTA` A multi-purpose civic school built upon the ruins of a city’s heritage.
OLD LD LD
OLD LD D
OLD LD D
NEW EW
NEW
NEW
A GROWING CITTA In central Italy there is a small city stuck at a crossroads. At one end is its heritage as an industrial region and at the other is a push to modernize from new residents. The influx of residents puts a strain on the existing infrastructure. Unlike other cities which had time to prepare for a population boom, Incisa was not ready. Therefore, new arrivals have created a safety problem for pedestrian and vehicular travel. Forced onto streets, residents are in dire need of new public sidewalks and piazzas. However, this singular need cannot be solved so easily. More residents mean other needs; therefore, it is only appropriate for new piazzas to serve a dual purpose.
INCISA | CURRENT
INCISA | EXPECTED
INCISA | RELIEF
Diagrams in collaboration with Lina B., Carol V., Pasradis D.
PIAZZA NUOVA
AutoCAD | Illustrator
Italian piazze are popular because of their ability to be flexible. Unlike buildings which are purposed, the open space allows flexibility of program: one day it can be a market, the next a performance space. Creating a new space for Incisa means bridging the gap between heritage and modernization. Utilizing the abandoned Saaci factory walls, a new piazza becomes a transistional space for public and private. Placing a school on the upper regions of the site promotes security for the children while simultaneously allowing more active zones like a gymnasium to be open to the public.
NEW / OLD SPLIT
PIAZZA TRANSITION
NEW
OLD
PIAZZA ENVELOPE
NEW
OLD
NEW
OLD
Rhino | V-Ray
AutoCAD | Illustrator
In order to provide security for the new population of students the school must utilize the Saaci Factory as a barrier. The classrooms and administration center are secured above the wall. Down below is left to the gymnasium and fields. This allows the public the possibility to utilize school resouces whenever it is not in session.
Rhino | V-Ray | Photoshop
Designing a School The mirrored-S design offers the school a dual sense of privacy. Meeting the needs of Incisa, the design is split into three parts: classrooms, administration, recreation. The upper region serves to secure the students in a more private piazza while the lower region accomodates the gymnasium and recreational programs. Situated near a more public piazza the gymnasium can be opened up on weekends to allow more access to the residents of Incisa. Between the polar ends of the project, the administration zone becomes a security checkpoint. Becoming a buffer, the administration zone continues the separation between people and vehicles. Thus safety becomes almost as essential to the design as the programmed areas themselves.
AutoCAD | Illustrator
TOPOGRAPHIC DATUM Incisa is steeped in the hills of Tuscany. Such vertical terraign requires terracing. Using this to the advantage of the school, the design places more horizontal programs on the upper terraces while vertical programs are separated downhill. This in effect creates a datum in which private oversees public populations.
AutoCAD | Illustrator | Photoshop
Rhino | V-Ray | Photoshop
[ Villa Phidias
Finger Lakes, New York
]
House for an Artist Architectural concepts derived from painting analysis.
Painting a Landscape The first part of the design was dedicated to the landscape. In order to form a dramatic and meaningful site, it was necessary to look futher into the structure of painting as a medium of ideas. Analysis of Diebenkorn’s painting showed strong axes of development as well as a hidden concept of rotation.
“Figure on a Porch” Richard Diebenkorn
FIGURE’S VIEW
BRUSH STROKES
LANDSCAPE LINES
LANDSCAPE SLOPES
The conversion of Diebenkorn’s painting into a three-dimensional representation shows the rotational axis surrounding the railing. Much like a cyclone, the objects in the painting begin to twist around the railing. Furthermore, the directionality of the brushstrokes creates a a landscape that overlooks trivial shapes like the chairs and shadows.
Hand sketches Museum Board Model
Focusing on the railing and view of the figure, the regulating lines of the painting split the landscape into three zones: the forest, field, and lake. The concept of rotation thus forms the house.
Revit | Photoshop
Hand Drawn Sections Dual Wood Section Model
As the house follows its axis it begins to rotate between higher and lower spaces. Sometimes service spaces are lowered to accomodate use while other times they are raised to promote community below.
FIGURE IN A LANDSCAPE In order to connect the buildings together, the house is built with a series of courtyards that push and pull around the axis of rotation. As the building rises from the landscape its courtyard pushes into it. However to maintain the importance of this axis residents are not revealed its presence until the final approach. Therefore as people move through the landscape they are shielded from the final view of the project until the last moment when they are on axis and looking down to the water. At that final moment the project becomes more than a house; it becomes an experience.
Chipboard | Museum Board
Revit | Photoshop
[ Studio Abroad
Florence, Italy
]
FIRENZE MAP ARCHIVE Urban design that both forms and is formed by light and shadow.
URBAN INFLUENCE Unlike the United States, European cities have dealt with centuries of urbanity and reconstruction. New designs must be in tune with both modern techniques and historical meanings of older buildings. Such a dilemma, alternatively affords architecture the ability to draw from a variety precedents.
AutoCAD | Illustrator
SketchUp | Photoshop
Framing the Arno Florence, Italy has historically grown around the Arno River. Palaces of past kings and prestigious galleries line the waters edge. With so many buildings taking up the landscape there is less and less space left for public space. Thus the design of an archive offers a place where visitors can halt and see the historical gems of the city.
AutoCAD | Illustrator | Photoshop
Revit | Photoshop
SketchUp | Photoshop
ANTIMONY Can an object create without itself being created? The paradox that this deals with can be defined more closely in the ideas of form and shadow. Shadow does not exist without form, but form itself does not exist without shadow. Both concepts must exist together or not at all. Using this principle, the archive is designed so as to cast shadow on interior programs while simultaneously allowing the form to be generated from exterior shadows. Thereby allowing the design to produce and be a production of other elements.
REST AND RESEARCH Being a map archive for the city of Florence, the design must be able to mitigate the polars of public and private. Like many of the other buildings around the city, the bottom floor is reserved for the cafe and visitors seaching refuge from the street. The upper floors are dedicated to the preservation and display of the buildings contents. Having a gradation of envelope materials allows shadow to be formed on a scale. Solid materials protect the map contents from solar exposure while fenestrations open the interior to more public realms of awareness.
Revit | Photoshop
[ Inner Harbor E-Waste Center
Syracuse, New York
]
deCONSTRUCTION
A building that not only deconstructs the evolution of our technology, but also repurposes into new building materials.
SketchUp| Photoshop
INNER WORKINGS The creation of new technology is extremely fast-paced. However, many of the components are actually quite simple. In order to raise awareness about e-waste, it becomes necessary to show the public exactly what lies inside of their appliances. The most important aspect to generated awareness is to display not only the pieces, but also the method in which certain technologies are created. Thus as visitors arrive they will be shown how their old appliances are broken down on the assembly line an repurposed into new products.
Bridging the City Syracuse, New York is a city divided. Brought into the twentieth century with interstates, the city has become disconnected. Areas of wealth are removed from those without by the smallest of barriers. In order to correct this, Syracuse Harbor Recycling must provide for both the industry and the public. Becoming museum-esque, the design becomes a central figure in the routines of city residents. With no blank facade, the interior is revealed not as a waste dump, but a manufacturing facility.
AutoCAD | Illustrator | Photoshop
Breaking from the standard warehouse assembly, the design reveals its actual purpose to those walking by. No longer are the residents of Syracuse blinded from the action in their city. The best way to promote awareness is to show how things work. After all, once the complexity is broken down its revealed as something simple.
Wood | Foam Model
AXES OF PRODUCTION Aligned axially to the different user groups, the design is an intersection of the industrial and natural regions of the city. Blending to the large warehouse on its southern edge the design reinforces the need to refurbish old techology as something new. Countered to the industrial is the natural axis. Along this path visitors are given a visual experience that shows their everyday appliances broken apart into simple components. At the end of this journey new products are sold at the store using materials gathered from the recycling process.
[ University Library Collections
Syracuse, New York
LYMAN LIBRARY
]
Redefining modern circulation as an counter-experience to the seditary nature of library programming.
CAMPUS CONNECTION Current difficulties with the Syracuse Libraries has revealed a need for more space and easier use. Designing a small library that holds the information a specific college holds helps to alleviate the problem of not defining the actual user group. At a crossroad on campus the Lyman Library becomes a node for one of the university’s many quads.
Illustrator Final Foam Model
INVERTED CIRCULATION Traditional methods for locating circulation paths are to place them towards the interior. This opens more space for stacks, however if the circulation is removed to the exterior then space is almost unlimited. Visitors are led around the design rather than being hidden from it.
Revit
FILLING THE VOID Lyman Hall was once in a fire. Upon its reconstruction the campus saw different plans for its interior. Becoming a suppport structure for the rest of campus, the building was only partially restored to its former glory. The U-shape of the plan remains, but vertically the building was never restored. Thus by designing the new library Lyman not only regains some prestige, but it also replaces its form. The void that was left is filled to become the university’s newest place of learning. With more areas for studying, the students are to spread out in more intimate spaces for education.
AutoCAD
Hand Sketch | Photoshop AutoCAD | Photoshop
PROTECTED INTERIOR By removing the circulation to the exterior of the building, the interior has a better ability to protect itself from the elements. Using the stairways and reading areas as buffer zones, the stacks are able to regulate their exposure to sunlight and wind. After all, the design is meant to house periodicals and if if doesn’t protect them then what is the point of housing them.
Revit | Photoshop
BEACON OF THE NIGHT Syracuse University is a research campus. In order to accomodate the students that are working at all hours of the night the design must allow itself to be seen. Showing the work ethic of the students the design reflects both transperancy during the day as well as at night.
Revit | Photoshop
[ Lake Education Research Center
Syracuse, New York
]
Onondaga Lake Laboratory Utilizing the process of water cleaning as a means to suggest another opportunities for filtration.
LAKE BACKGROUND The industrial history of Syracuse has left its scars upon all aspects of the city. Onondaga Lake was once a fresh lake in Upstate New York, however the success of the industrial revolution has lef tthe lake in a state of disrepair. Polluted by nearby companies, the lake became unsuitable for recreation. A renewed effort to clean up the hazardous waste has begun, however knowledge is the only thing stopping this disaster from happening again.
Sketch Models
AutoCAD | Photoshop
OPERATION FILTRATION The design is modeled on the concept of filtration. Filtering light, water, and people, the building becomes a metaphor for its own existence.
AutoCAD
The chamfered box design allows the project to reach into the lake while still presenting an edge to the park. Primarily meant for research, the building houses its workers in a central core. Around the core visitors experience the design much like the water that is being filtered. Starting with no knowledge about the lake, visitors walk around the building slowly becoming educated. Experiencing the process from beginning to end, the public becomes more aware of the issues surrounding their city.
Revit | Photoshop=
Rising from the landscape, the building partially blends into the trees behind it. Angled so as not to disturb the sunlight from reaching the trees behind it, the design is concieved to preserve the natural setting. Cleaning up the lake is only part of the issue. The rest of the project’s goal is to provide a place where the residents of Syracuse can escape their urban roots. Causing as little disturbance as possible to the natural landscape promotes further awareness of our impact on the ecosystem.
Exploded Wood Model
AutoCAD | Photoshop
PERFORMANCE EDUCATION A part of the awareness campaign is to teach the public about water cleanliness. After visitors have seen the archive and laboratories involved in research they are brought into the a social space. Having a space large enough to perform experiments or other interactions helps to relate the issues on a more human level. Social interactions make the issues seem more real and promote the awareness that researchers hope to achieve.
Revit | Photoshop
Revit | Photoshop
SU Abroad Japan
“If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.� - Jim Rohn