Joon Ma
Portfolio
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Joon Ma
Portfolio
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Joon Ma
Portfolio
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Selected Academic Work How the Field[s] Meet
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M.ARCH Thesis. advisor: Guy Nordenson Princeton University, 2020.
Princeton Junction Food Port
09
ARC504. studio instructor: Alejandro Zaera Polo. Princeton University, 2019.
Selected Professional Work Der Januskopf
14
OPS!, Competition, Europan 15, Vienna 2019. 2nd place
Korea Pavillion Dubai World Expo
17
Sungsoo Wineshop
20
The Light Hearth
21
(in) between
22
Graduation Tent in Bali
23
Datacenter in Russia
25
Joon Ma + Supersptial, Competition, Dubia 2018. shortlisted
ONE-AFTR, Commission, 2020, built
ONE-AFTR, Competition, Toronto 2020, pending result
ONE-AFTR, Competition, Quebec 2020, pending result
Joon Ma + Ibuku, Comission, Lead Designer, Bali, 2014, Built
(with OMA/AMO), Comission, Designer, Russia, 2018.
Selected Publication Jamaica Bay Tree Ring: an afforestation handbook
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Contemporary Vernacular: casa 1413
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Observing the Field
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authored with Guy Nordenson, Paul Lewis, Catherine Seavitt, Andrew Mcamillan.
Rumor, Princeton University, 2020
Paprika!, Yale University, 2020
Joon Ma
Portfolio
0
Human Edge Plot Ownership Defined Tangible Static Closed
HOW THE FIELD[S] MEET
Nature Tone Biomes Transferal Dynamic Liminal Mimetic Open
FLOYD BENNETT FIELD, NY M.ARCH THESIS, 2020 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY _LINK (WEB PRESENTATION) ADVISOR:GUY NORDENSON
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Academic
How the Field[s] Meet
1
Located in Floyd Bennett Field, the following projects - The Building Edge, The Forest Ring, and The Coastal Lines - situate the scientists along the ecological zones on-site while functioning as ecological proxies by subjecting architecture to become part of the ecological cycle, measuring the station’s weathering by and into nature over time. 2
Academic
How the Field[s] Meet
2
The Building Edge When nature takes over [web] The Building Edge is a station dedicated to the study of an industrial building weathering into nature. In 2020, the average age of U.S commercial building was approximately 50 years old while mixed-used buildings had an average of 75 years. According to the US Department of Energy, the lifespan of office buildings made of concrete, steel, and wood is on average 73 years. Buildings are aging and they need repair or demolition. While our understanding of a building's life has been simply associated with function, a building's footprint and its elements are very much integrated into the life of the urban ecosystem. Despite the high levels of disturbance and habitat modification, urban ecosystems still host substantial levels of biodiversity. The processes that maintain existing levels of diversity, however, remain understudied (Anna Johnson, 451). Hangar B was built on Floyd Bennett Field in 1944, making 76th year of its construction in 2020. The weathering of the surface materials are visible and will need to be repaired to continue its life. Rather than renovating the hangar, the hangar will be conserved and partially exposed to study vegetation dispersal traits into the building. The hangar will be conserved and decomposed in three different degrees. The two cranes that hover over and under the hanger provides specific vantage points for scientists to observe the "hangar ecology" untouched.
material culture
Space for public programming and science is woven and blurred throughout the station. The annex which facilitates the movement of the apparatus and humans, have varying degrees of flexible and defined spaces to enable both the scientific and educational programs on site.
field condition
field intervention
field transformation
Abandoned buildings on site have already been taken over by vegetation. Hangar B, located on the edge between Verrazzano soil and asphalt pavement, is positioned to weather the ecological transformations in and around the site.
The Hangar is exposed to three varying levels to observe different rates of vegetation germination in varying conditions. Two gantry crane systems, one that hovers above and one under, are placed to provide the scientists with specific vantage points
Weathering of the hangar into nature not only becomes a field for the scientists but also a spectacle for the public.
vegetation growth in a hangar on site
Urs Fischer - You
3
ecology as a spectacle
section through the hangar and the annex
Academic
How the Field[s] Meet
3
view from the annex to the hangar
4
view from the gantry pods into the hangar
Academic
How the Field[s] Meet
4
The Forest Ring Filling the dots [web] Forest Ring is a station dedicated to the study of urban natural corridors and afforestation. The positive impact of mature urban trees has brought attention to urban afforestation as a possible solution to weather climate change. However, little data exist on whether patches of juvenile trees can mature into an urban forest. Urban afforestation is especially challenging due to fragmentation from the roads and other built environments. Lack of biodiversity due to fragmentation results in lower seed germination, and contaminated soils are untenable for the growth of native trees. Roads do fragment and destroy the natural habitation; however, plants have found ways to grow under the cracks of asphalt pavements over time. To build a successful mature urban forest, we not only need to understand how to construct a network of ecological corridors to germinate the seeds. In the 20th century, most of the sciences around vegetation in asphalt surfaces has been on eradicating those species and preventing such growth. While better asphalt mixtures and road oil do prevent vegetation growth, cracks in asphalt are inevitable due to the weathering of asphalt and geological shifts. Recent studies found that curbside cracks play an important role in offering habitat for plants in urban areas as it functions as a depository of seeds of urban habitations.
material culture
The geometry of the tower, a square inscribed in a circle, facilitates the intersection of public programming, scientific labs, and the field. Often open completely as polyvalent space and fully enclosed for experimentation.
field condition
field intervention
field transformation
The airplane runways have fragmented the ecology of Floyd Bennett Field since it was built. The airbase has been decommissioned for over three decades, but the width of the runway and layers of asphalt poured on-site makes it difficult for the disparate zones to be connected.
The station is built in two parts, the irrigation ring and the nursery tower. To facilitate vegetation growth, and afforestation, carbon, nitrogen, ph, and humidity level needs to be monitored to germinate seeds across the fragmented paths.
From the nexus of the station, vegetation grows on to create new natural corridors and create optimal conditions for the juvenile trees to grow into a mature forest.
aerial view of the site, 1931
ecological apparatus
5
ecological corridor
section through the tower and the field
Academic
How the Field[s] Meet
5
view from the spiral ramp
6
view from the field
Academic
How the Field[s] Meet
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The Coastal Line Crossing the line [web] The Coastal line is a station dedicated to the study of coastal transformation from sea level rise. In Jamaica Bay, in between the sub-aquatic zones and the maritime forest, there are buffer zones (tidal flat, low marsh, high marsh, transition slope, dune, upland perennial ground cover, upland shrub, grassland, and ridgeline) that protect the forest from saltwater. But now, due to sea level rise, fringe habitats, and the coastal lines are thinning. With the sea-level rise projection of the site, most of the maritime forest will be destroyed due to the shifting of the zones. The transformation of the coast in Jamaica Bay is unavoidable and has been changing for centuries. The coastal lines are built perpendicular to coast to register the changing ecology from the sea level rise and thinning of the fringe habitats. Two lines that intersect in the maritime forest zone branch outwards to intersect with the varying zones, ultimately reaching the sub-aquatic zone. The linear station has two levels, one for the public on the upper level, and the other for the scientists. The tower station not only holds the pathway but provides scientists access to the ground. Two linear stations are extended out from the forest to the bay to study the changing coastal ecology. Tower stations are placed 40m apart to function as reference markers for the shifting tides.
material culture
The public walkway swerves around the scientists’ linear path to provide the public with a view of the fieldwork in action. The long bar placed on the lower edge of the two lines anchors the station with lab and public programming facilities.
field condition
field intervention
field transformation
The coastal edge of Floyd Bennett Field is shifting inwards due to sea level rise. As a result, submarine, intertidal, and coastal fringe habitats move inwards, but at the same time destroys the inland vegetation from it.
To study the changing coastal ecology, two linear stations are extended from the maritime forest to the subaquatic zone. Coastal ecology is difficult to calibrate due to the constantly changing tidal shift.
The towers along the linear walk way placed 40m apart not only structurally support the walkway but also function as markers of the tidal shift.
coast of floyd bennett field
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coastal monitor installation
ecological proxy
section through the forest to the low marsh
Academic
How the Field[s] Meet
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scientist pathway - fieldwork in action
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public pathway - view of fieldwork
Academic
How the Field[s] Meet
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TECHNICAL REPORT- DOMAINS OF INVESTIGATION link to full report - 1 week self initiated research trip to Westland,NL (funded by Princeton University)
PRINCETON JUNCTION FOODPORT PRINCETON, NJ ARC504, 2019 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTOR:ALEJANDRO ZAERA POLO
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Academic
Princeton Junction Foodport
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farm
control
post process
food hub (store & distribute)
distribution access
office
food hub market
train station
Princeton Junction Foodport combines food production and distribution as part of the transit-oriented design development that converts a brownfield into a productive public foodhub
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Academic
GRID & OFF GRID
Princeton Junction Foodport
PERMANENT & TEMPORARY
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office
Owner Name County Block Number Lot Number Acreage Value
AMTRAK Mercer 6 14 12.7 N/A
Owner Name County Block Number Lot Number Acreage Value
W. WINDSOR Mercer 6 17.01 7.41 $1,787,300
office determine the grid
prep & control
produce
post process
food hub
train
prep & control
produce
post process
food hub
train
specialized facilities Owner Name W. WINDSOR County Mercer Block Number 6 Lot Number 16.02 Acreage 7.41 Value $1,337,600
Owner Name County Block Number Lot Number Acreage Value
AMTRAK Mercer 6 67 2.96 N/A
specialized facilities typical greenhouse system determine site strategy
office
Owner Name County Block Number Lot Number Acreage Value
AMTRAK Mercer 6 66 5.7 N/A
Owner Name County Block Number Lot Number Acreage Value
office
NJDPOT Mercer 6 33 8.72 $1,168,500
diagonal grid and its adjacency
prep & control
farm
post process
food hub
train station
prep & control
farm
post process
food hub
train station
specialized facilities
specialized facilities Owner Name County Block Number Lot Number Acreage Value
NJDPOT Mercer 6 88 4.89 $1,048,400
Owner Name W. WINDSOR County Mercer Block Number 6 Lot Number 69 Acreage 5.99 Value $873,700
site analysis: ownership and property value evaluation
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parti proposed programmatic strategy
external formation
Academic
Princeton Junction Foodport
11
3.9
1.6 0.8
7.8
1.7 2.6
3.9
1.1
7.8
7.9
1.8
2.6
4.1 5.3
4.6
7.0 3.9
5.8
7.0
7.8
7.8
1.8
2.3
0.8
0.8
0.8
3.6
3.2
5.0
7.0
7.8
7.8
5.0
7.8
4.6
0.9
3.2
3.2
3.2
3.2
3.2
7.8
7.8
7.8
7.8
5.0
3.2
3.2
index of facades and edges
internal formation
12
Academic
Princeton Junction Foodport
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13
Academic
Princeton Junction Foodport
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AMAZON
IKEA
INNERE STADT
3km
Rennweg
8.5km
LOGISTIC HUB POST PARCEL
TNT
FedEx DHL
logistics network
Der Januskopf a two-faced strategy for Rennweg
Rennweg is optimally located to be an intermediary logistical centre between the intercity and the suburban warehouse and wholesale facilities around Vienna. Traditional market halls which functioned as logistical nodes for cities have moved out due to densification and expansion of flow of goods. In order to address the last mile issue, the material hub redistributes larger chunks into smaller shipments using delivery vehicles as, bikes, scooters, and drones. Incorporating movement of materials as a key component of the proposal, the project expands the scope of the work and live typology. No longer is makerspace purely a space to use equipment but a space where people, materials, and ideas congregate to make new things.
Competition/Personal, OPS!, 2019, 2nd place Europan 15 Site: Rennweg, Vienna Der Januskopf is a design proposal for a system that integrates housing, productive spaces and public areas with the ambition to resolve the missing puzzle piece of Neu Marx neighbourhood, linking and framing different scales from urban to interior. Like the two-faced Roman god, Januskopf expresses itself through 2
production hub
opposite façades, responding to site’s idiosyncrasies: a translucent and semi-open winter garden stands out against the busy and
overlap
vertical system
PEDESTRIAN PATH
polluted Rennweg, while a system of wide and gently-sloped ROOFTOP GARDEN
terraces stretches out to the adjacent residential tissue in the south.
PLAYGROUND
URBAN FARM
PRODUCTIVE POCKET
Januskopf expresses most of its relation to the city at the ground
ND
level, convergence of commercial, transportation, and logistical
A
Y TER AR FFIC0m
TR
AY ILW RA 0m 1
A NB
EE 0m 2
GR
2
2032
2028
2024
2019
nodes in local, urban, and regional scale.
phasing strategy
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Professional
Der Januskopf
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+ 17.00 m
view of the terrace as workspace
+ 13.80 m
4th - 5th floors - subsidised housing
productive residential public LOGISTIC HUB
+ 10.60 m
MATERIAL HUB
3rd floor - experimental housing
MULTIPURPOSE HALL
OVERLAP 02 OVERLAP 01
In the overlaps of the horizontal (terraces) and vertical (tower) systems the public flows are enhanced.
structural system The simplicity of the structural grid, a square of 9x9m, allows an high flexibility in terms of space layout.
+ 7.40 m
2nd floor - productive spaces
underground floor required: Housing > 60 parking places Productive > 110 parking places project: 150 parking places +10 charging points for electrical vehicles
last mile The material hub consolidates material from various wholesalers and material producers around the region. It redistributes larger chunks into smaller shipments using delivery vehicles as, bikes, scooters, and drones.
+ 4.20 m
1st floor - productive spaces interior view of the airgap buffer
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Professional
Der Januskopf
15
phase 1
phase 2 SECTION AA SECTION BB
two-faced strategy Convergence of highway, roads, bus route, and trams causes heavy traffic and noise pollution from the vehicles. The NE side of the project is shielded with a translucent and semi open buffer space that not only functions as a buffer to the surrounding traffic but also house HVAC and other building infrastructures.
A
A
terraces The south-west side of the project is terraced and faces Wildganshof, one of Vienna’s successful socialist housing projects. The terrace engages Wildganshof through its connectivity and display of various public activities by makers, residents, and visitors. The building mass takes advantage of natural light and air ventilation.
urban plazas The design of the building allows transversal connections between Rennweg, Leberstraße and the train station. On the NW edge of the site where train, bus, and tram stations are located, a pedestrian passage opens to a public square facing the station. Another square is located on the Southern part of the site and a spiral pedestrian ramp functions as access to the building and opens to a public terrace.
STUDENT ACCOMODATION SERVICE APARTEMENTS HOTEL
ROOFTOP
SUBSIDISED HOUSING
PRIVATELY FINANCED UNITS EXPERIMENTAL HOUSING
CO-WORKING SPEED FACTORIES CREATIVE SPACES
LOGISTIC & DISTRIBUTION
LABORATORIES COMMERCIAL SPACES CREATIVE SPACES
0
16
5
10
20 m
Professional
Der Januskopf
16
2020 Dubai World Expo Korea Pavilion Design proposal for the Dubai World Expo using E-waste as a platform to display 5G technology.
geosphere - 4.5 billion years
biosphere - 3.5 billion years
noosphere - 10.000 years
any of the almost spherical concentric regions of matter that make up the earth and its atmosphere, as the lithosphere and hydrosphere.
worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also be termed the zone of life on Earth, a closed system and largely self-regulating.
topography made of e-waste
public space embedded in the electronic landscape
highway junction
internet cables
a sphere of evolutionary development dominated by consciousness, the mind, and interpersonal relationships.
Ultimate manifestation of physical mobility. The road infrastructure enabled us to be efficiently mobile within the physical domain of the highway system.
The physical manifestation of our endlessly evolving digital sphere. The new web of infrastructure installed transcend beyond the dimension of time and space.
exhibition spaces
a pattern of individual and personalized paths
the pavilion as a vessel for convergence
Professional/Personal, Seoul, 2018, shortlisted Team: Joon Ma + SuperSpatial Site: Dubai World Expo The proposal is a physical manifestation of the digital and the mechanical infrastructures that enable our Noosphere, the sphere of human consciousness and mental activity, to connect and to communicate. Our ability to innovate how we mobilize our goods and communicate our ideas allowed us to reach beyond our regional and national boundaries. It’s no news that we can now mobilize our thoughts and ideas instantly all over the world. However, unlike the rails, roads, and airports that allow us to be physically mobile through trains, cars, and airplanes, the infrastructure and the hardware that enable our digital mobility are buried, hidden, and often invisible. How do we spatialize the invisible infrastructure that allows us to be connected more than we ever could have imagined? The expo is an opportunity to display the interconnectivity between both the digital and the physical engineering that allows for our future reality to come. The idea is to investigate the contrast between hardware and software, the intangible lightness of the cloud and the invisible hardware behind it.
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Professional
Korean Pavilion: Dubai World Expo
17
flexible amphitheater space used as exhibitiion, concert, and event space
multifunctional auditorium
exploded axonometric multifunctional auditorium
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Professional
Korean Pavilion: Dubai World Expo
18
18
10.50
5.50
11
10.50
5.50
5.20
11
5.20
28.30
7.50
28.30
7.50 15
17.50 7.50
40
17.50
3.40
40
3.40
27.50
5
10.75
10.75
24.15
24.15
15
6
6 1
7.50
4
27.50
18
27.20
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
5
12.35
12.35 5.15
4
3
1
5.15
19.70
19.70
27.20
40
39.85
4
39.85
1
40
3
5.15
5.15 5.15
5.15
2
5.15
5.15
7
40
40
40
1. pop-up stores / 2. kitchen / 3. restaurant / 4. resting space / 5. nursery / 6. reception
1. kotra office / 2. conference room / 3. vip lounge / 4. restaurant / 5. staff office / 6. praying area / 7. conference room
plan 1.2 m level
plan 5.2 mt level
15
15
7.50
7.50
17.50
40
17.50
40
3.40
40
40
7.50
7.50
32.85
32.85
5.60
5.60
3.40
2 A’
A 5
27.50
1 Exterior Front View
40
40
40
40 40
2 40
40
40
3
2
12.35
4
5.15
1
40
19
40
7.50
7.50
1. entrance / 2. exit / 3. digital monitors and vr experience / 4. amphitheatre / 5. exhibition trailer
1. main exhibition room / 2. special exhibition
plan 8 m level
plan 9.2 mt level
32.85
32.85
5.60
5.60
Section AA’
Professional
Korean Pavilion: Dubai World Expo
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Sungsoo Wineshop rennovation of a commercial building into a wineshop
Commission, 2020, in construction/built Team: ONE-AFTR Contractor: Full Design Site: Seoul, Korea The project was on a tight budget and a tight schedule. Over the course of examining the building, the project had to be reimagined from a rennovation to a repair. The wall assembly and the shelving units were integrated into a single assembly with added insulation. OSB panels and studs were the two materials used for building up all of the interior. The exterior of the building was designed through series of delamination and demolition, revealing many of the bizzare details that were hidden under the canopy.
before
interior corridor
20
wine shelving
Professional
Sungsoo Wineshop
after
entry
20
The Light Hearth Use of ready-made materials to bring warmth through light transmittance and heat containment.
hearth
light hearth
Competition, Winter 2020 Team: ONE-AFTR Site: Toronto The genesis of architecture began from our need to preserve heat source. Now, walls have lost their primary function as thermal insulators and became a symbol of barriers towards individuals, ethnic groups, and even nations. The Light Hearth returns to architecture’s elemental qualities of providing thermal comfort. Polycarbonate and vinyl strips clad the pavilion to allow light to transmit through while effectively retaining the heat. Seven wooden cubes wrapped in reflective mylar film are used as seats and planters while increasing the heat level through their reflections. The use of sunlight as the primary source of heat and varying degrees of transparency of the two materials provides visitors with layers of thermal comfort and chromatic shadow and light both inside and outside. The materials used can be easily disassembled and upcycled to a greenhouse for Toronto’s urban farm.
station
steel frame
frp grate polycarbonate reflective mylar film
vinyl strip
axonometric: assembly sequence
frp grate
polycarbonate
vinyl strip
reflective mylar
0°C
12°C
5°C
12°C
0°C
section perspective: zones defined by containment of light and heat
21
Professional
Light Hearth
21
(in) between (in) between soils is a framework for an ecosystem that uses loam clay earth from the site to build a planter that forms the soil for plants to grow while being connected to its adjacent plant life.
conventional
(in) between
Competition, Winter 2020, shortlisted Team: ONE-AFTR Site: Quebec, Jardin de Metis COVID-19 has revealed our appreciation for the outdoors and plant life, but most importantly a need for a renewed understanding among nature, built environment and humans. Yet, most of our exposure to plant life in urban settings are defined by planters and pots that isolate plants from the greater ecological network below ground level. (in) between soils recalibrates the relationship among nature, built environment, and humans by subjecting architecture to become part of the ecological cycle.
west elevation
The garden is framed around rammed earth walls made from loam, sand, and gavel from the site. The three components form the landscape of the garden: the west of the wall is adjacent to the forest, padded with loam to form a solid mound, the east is adjacent to the garden’s walkway, loosely formed with sand to allow for movement, and the central path is formed with gravel. Visitors can contemplate our placement in the world as they walk in, on, around, and between the paths defined by the rammed earth wall that extends the natural habitation into the built environment.
north elevation
wall assembly diagram
22
Professional
(in) between
22
GRADUATION TENT IN BALI A temporary pavilion employing techniques that leave construction materials completely reusable.
Professional, Bali, Indonesia, 2014 Position: Lead Designer Role: Design, Model Making, Construction Management Executed by: Ibuku Structure Consultant: Putra Wiarsa Dimension: 44m x 15m x 13m Client: Green School, Bali This bamboo tent was commissioned by Green School, Bali to be used for the graduation ceremony and the Conservation Conference Weekend that featured Dr. Jane Goodall as the honorary speaker. The client asked for a tent-like structure that could accommodate 500 people, would not destroy the site (soccer field) or the structural bamboo poles so that it could be re-used, and could be built in 10 days to be used for 10 days.
23
Professional
Graduation Tent in Bali
23
24
frame installation
klangsa (woven palm leaf) installation
frame installation
interior view
Professional
Graduation Tent in Bali
24
MODULARIZED DATA CENTER Creating a modularized autonomous cube units that can systematically proliferate over time.
Professional, OMA/AMO, Rotterdam, 2018 Position: Intern Architect Team: Laurence Bolhaar, Miguel Taborda, Antonio Lamarca, Anton Anikeev, Alexander Joksimovic, Partners: Rem Koolhaas, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli Consultants: Arup Conventional datacenters, contained in massive volumes, are built and function as a whole. Due to its footprint and interdependency of the technical systems, these datacenters are physically and technologically constrained once built. This strategy dictates a long term phasing strategy on financial and resource investement. The Incremental challenges such limitations, and excessive consumption of natural resources, by using autonomous cube units (24 w * 24 l * 24 h) that can systematically proliferate over time. Each autonomous unit contains all the technical services required to operate the white space. Such configuration allows it to be adaptable to both physical contexts and technological advancements, and answer to a desire for capacity on demand, and through copy and paste has the ability to function in the context of a city, as well as in the countryside; as a global strategy. The proposed Incremental scheme is optimized to the given site and brief. Six cubes are placed with 12 meter interval from one another, creating a central spine that binds all six cubes. The implemented grid-system allows each cube and the spine to be built incrementally. The central spine, located on the same level as the whitespace, contains service and operational space for humans to operate the datacenter. Interlacing of human space and machine space -the cubes- within the grid creates an optimal and congenial workspace.
25
Professional
OMA/AMO
25
POWER & STORAGE
WHITE SPACE
114000 12000 12000
12000
24000
12000
12000
12000
12000
24000
12000
12000
6000 12000
6000
6000
6000
6000
12000
6000
12000
24000
CROSS CONNECT
CROSS CONNECT
12000
CRAH UNITS
CRAH UNITS FIBER OUTPUT
AIR LOCK
CRAH UNITS
CRAH UNITS FIBER OUTPUT
AIR LOCK
CRAH UNITS
COOLING RECREATION
12000
WORKSHOP
LOUNGE / MEETING
SHOWERS
12000
CRAH UNITS
CRAH UNITS
CRAH UNITS
CRAH UNITS
CRAH UNITS
CROSS CONNECT
CROSS CONNECT
6000
CROSS CONNECT
6000
6000
6000
6000
CRAH UNITS
24000
6000
12000
FIBER OUTPUT
CHANGING ROOMS
TOILETS
TOILETS
CANTEEN
AIR LOCK
FIBER OUTPUT
AHU
AIR LOCK
UTILITIES
SECURITY POST
MEETING ROOM
GENERAL OFFICES
FIBER OUTPUT
TOILETS
AIR LOCK
MANTRAP
TOILETS
6000 6000
COOLING + SUPLEMENT SPACE
WAITING AREA & ENTRANCE HALL
RECEPTION LOUNGE
6000
72000
12000
FIBER OUTPUT
6000
AIR LOCK
6000
CRAH UNITS
24000
6000
12000
CROSS CONNECT
12000
12000
12000
12000
12000
12000
12000
12000
12000
6000
114000
FACADE white space plan
Composition Single 1.2MW DC Unit
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Professional
OMA/AMO
26
Jamaica Bay Tree Ring an afforestation handbook _link
Publication, 2020, Princeton University, NSF Authors: Guy Nordenson, Paul Lewis, Catherine Seavitt, Joon Ma, Andrew Macmillan Site: Jamaica Bay, NY Perhaps more than any other region of New York, the changing climate is most visible along the shores of Jamaica Bay. There have already been worsening and higher storm surges. High tide events are now accompanied by sunny-day flooding, damaging infrastructure and housing without the presence of a storm. Flood maps bleakly erase the entire Rockaway Peninsula by the close of the century. The future of the coastal communities of Jamaica Bay is an increasingly wet and uncertain one, where the escalating costs of shoring those regions against temporary and permanent forms of flooding is becoming an ever greater reality. Climate change will also have dramatic events on the Bay’s already fragile and complex maritime ecosystem where each ecotone is tightly pressed against the other, threatening always to collapse, but persisting. This proposal seeks to stabilize this ecosystem, through the widespread planting of a coastal forest around the entire Bay and along the seaward side of the Peninsula to provide additional benefits to the region and to assist in coastal resiliency.
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Publication
Jamaica Bay Tree Ring
27
CONTEMPORARY Contemporary VERNACULAR By Joon Ma Vernacular: casa 1413
RUMOR
Issue 16 December ‘20
This building demonstrates a belief in indispensability, accessibility to resources, and knowledge readily available to all. These are the values that I propose to gain wider disciplinary adoption. Within their methodical investigation of local materials, construction logics, and passive climatization, H Arquitectes have provided a new template for contemporary architecture. This template extends beyond architecture in service of designing a new home, but as a framework to advance the architectural discourse on form, structure, boundaries, and material culture. The modest yet thoroughly measured project, Casa 1413, carries a powerful and humbling message to us all: with what remains from the past and available in the present, we can do more with less in imagining the future of our built environment.
review of casa 1413 published on Rumor _link
I am searching to recalibrate my architectural value judgment. These values, which inform the way we practice architecture, become most apparent during times of economic and social duress. For example, in 2008, the economic crash curbed values that had encouraged formal exploration through rapid development, growth, and excess established during the 1980s. The COVID-19 pandemic, whose shock to our values mirrors the economic crash of 2008, forces a confrontation of design values that are codependent on the market and reveal a need for degrowth. Perhaps this revelation is indicative of my shift in values throughout the pandemic. Our conception of growth needs a new framework to prevent further exacerbating the environmental and economic problems we face today. To this end, I am becoming increasingly anxious about making sense of such large shifts in my architectural thinking and practice. After failing to find a resonant reference point in contemporary disciplinary literature and discourse, I am returning to looking at buildings that reflect a sensibility to these pressing realities.
If this ethos arose from their situation within the economic crisis of 2008, then I believe it is possible to adopt a similar mentality in 2020.
Casa 1413 H Arquitectes Ullastret, Girona, Spain 2017
Joon Ma received his M.Arch from the Princeton University School of Architecture. His research is concerned with the existing built and natural environment, as well as archtiecture’s potential to serve as an apparatus for scientific inquiry. Front: Photo inside Casa 1413 across the enfilade of spaces programed throughout the length of the stone wall. Below: Photo of the stone wall from the street view. Photography by Adriá Goula.
I direct my gaze towards Ullastret, Spain, an hour drive away from Barcelona, to a wall wrapping the edge of a property cradled by Carrer Firal and Carrer Notaria, which stands unassumingly among the homogenous stone that characterizes the town. This wall, a reconstruction of a pre-existing stone assemblage, is the facade of H Arquitectes’ project Casa 1413. H Arquitectes have infilled the wall with three varying stone densities, satisfying structural and thermal performance requirements. The stones and aggregates were sourced on-site and filled with insulating particles of recycled expanded glass, cement, and lime for strength and insulation. The wall is not an imitation of the past, but an evolution of vernacular elements adapted to contemporary construction standards that generate new forms of domesticity. The house fully embraces the ‘fatness’ of the wall, expressed through deep apertures, and carved out private spaces. The adjusted depth for solar radiation and ventilation provides year-round thermal comfort, which combines the walls’ thermal conductivity with the building’s orientation. Its operations on the existing wall is a reinterpretation of vernacular construction practice; the vernacular is made contemporary.
Princeton University School of Architecture
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This method of articulation speaks to the humble yet defiant ambition of H Arquitectes. The studio seeks to design space that we can all identify as ‘nice’ using the inherent behaviors of materials to perform as an agent to mediate the environment. For the architects, the ‘niceness’ is neither an aesthetic nor an artistic gesture but an architectural quality driven by the site’s environmental, economic, and material qualities. Although the financial crisis in 2008 forced many European architects to seek work in different parts of the world, H Arquitectes remained in Spain and worked with what was left behind. The founding partners, David, Josep, Xavier, and Roger, established H Arquitectes in 2000, within a year of their graduation from ETSAV (Valles School of Architecture).
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Publication
Contemporary Vernacular: Casa 1413
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In November of 2019, still unclear about what to do for my thesis, I read a New Yorker article that trees communicate with one another1 . Trees had nothing to do with what I had been thinking about, but I emailed Dr. Richard Karban, the scientist mentioned in The New Yorker, to ask if I could talk to him about his work. In preparing for my call with Dr. Karban, reading his books and publications, I noticed that ecological studies lend themselves well to architectural solutions. Scientists have to manipulate the environment for their studies. They excavate land to study roots, build tall structures to study trees, construct long networks of pipe to study water levels, and do all of this while having to be conscious about their footprint. I had formulated what I would ask him and how I could potentially turn this into a thesis project, but the conversation that ensued was far more impactful than I had expected.
Observing the Field architectural potentials in interdisciplinary research. _link
After discussing his research and clarifying my interest in his work, we started to talk about the state of ecological studies in the United States. The efficacy of sensors and algorithms is a much-needed advancement to our understanding of the world, but this overemphasis on data-driven scientific studies is driving young ecologists away from conducting fieldwork. While sensors can register information far beyond what humans are capable of, using these devices as a proxy for understanding our environments runs the risk of missing the anomalies and narrowing the scientific scope to what everyone already believes is important. He emphasized that the best contemporary ecological research methodology combines observations, models, and manipulative experiments to arrive at a more complete explanation than any single approach could provide.
Paprika!, Publication, 2020, Yale University Vol.6 Issue 05 Luck, Fate, or Happy Accident?
Architecture, much like this present trajectory of ecological studies that Dr. Karban presents, is often built on a pre-existing set of self-referential agendas without observing the economic, cultural, ecological, and material realities that confront our lives. Such practice has created a large gap between the discipline and the practical reality in which it is embedded. For architects to engage in larger issues that directly deal with the built environment, we need to expand our methodology beyond the insular disciplinary boundaries. Such an expanded and interdisciplinary work takes time and requires a series of ‘connecting the dot moments’ to make it work — not only to digest information that we are not familiar with but also to depend on other fields’ expertise in framing an architectural argument. My conversation with Dr. Karban changed the way I approached my thesis. In some ways, I was looking to find a topic and a typology that I was familiar with, something that I would be comfortable making arguments around. Yet his comments on a ‘best ecological process’ made me realize that architecture, too, can benefit from expanding our modes of knowledge production. For my thesis, inspired by this personal overture into a new discipline, I designed a field station, home and lab for scientists conducting fieldwork. The project is sited in a decommissioned naval base airport in Jamaica Bay, New York, where the coastal habitation is thinning due to sea-level rise, the maritime forest is struggling to survive due to forest fragmentation, and the abandoned facilities have formed their own ecosystems from decades without maintenance. The stations are designed to observe and facilitate these transformations on and along the different edges of the site, functioning as ecological proxies by subjecting architecture to become part of the ecological cycle while measuring the stations’ weathering by and into nature over time. Dr. Karban’s work encouraged me to look at ecological transformation through the subjective viewpoint of plant life and to visit the research stations to experience how the trees were now being studied. Unfortunately, three days before my scheduled trip to one such site, COVID-19 shut down all university facilities, including my intended site. My luck had perhaps run out, but my conversation with Dr. Karban and other scientists, anthropologists, and engineers gave me confidence that there is a place in architecture to be part of a bigger discussion, in this case, to elevate the study of ecological studies. Since then, I’ve decided to take fate into my own hands, and look to local sites of study where I could continue to push this discussion. This venture into a relative unknown started with a New Yorker article, some books, and a phone call, but a few months later, I am out in the Pinelands National Reserve in NJ, wondering how we can study how trees talk to one another. 29
Publication
Observing the Field
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Joon Ma
Portfolio
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Joon Ma
Portfolio
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