JORDAN SHEFTEL SELECTED WORKS ( 2009-2014)
Buying the Farm THESIS ADVISOR: SNEHA PATEL This project begins with a man stumbling upon an abandoned farmstead. It picks up after he has settled there with the intention of converting it into his home and workspace. He combs the site in search of left behind artifacts that give insight into the site’s previous occupation. The insight gained and the artifacts themselves are used by the man as references from which to draw inspiration in the way of form, material, construction and embedded memory. With this information the man is able to conceive, design, and construct spaces that facilitate his life and work as an inventor, maker and hoarder. By piecing together the physical fragments and incomplete layers of past use, the man and, ultimately this thesis, creates a setting for discovery as it explores architecture’s ability to tell the story of its life as an ever-evolving construct.
Objects found on site are removed from their original locations to be analyzed as artifacts with clues into their past life
Models made from artifacts used as inspiration for new spaces in the way of form, material, construction technique, and embedded memory
Drawings detailing artifacts past usage on site and potential future function
Physical models of spaces informed by artifacts
A large desk designed and built to aid in workflow and organization It functions as both a workspace and a catalogue for the evolution of the project
Completed thesis as presented on Saturday April 26, 2014
ADJUST VERTICAL STUDIO CRITIC : ROBERT TREMPE
This project is a study in designing architecture that must adjust to its site. The first part of the project uses the human body as its site and exists as a wearable device that records movement. The second part of the project exists in Icelandic folklore via drawings informed by Ancient Icelandic sagas. The third step is informed by the first two by adjusting to a tectonically active site and creating a narrative from Icelandic folklore. The resulting architecture is a hospice for Icelanders suffering from dementia.
drawings produced from wearable device
drawings detailing Icelandic saga
facilities for dementia patients
A PATH FOR VETERANS URBAN DESIGN STUDIO CRITIC : JASON AUSTIN
This project is a memorial structured as a path from one end of the site to the other. The naval vessels on the east end serve as a threshold for incoming veterans from the civilian life to the path. The path its self is composed of artifacts of war; physical pieces the represent experiences understood fully by servicemen. The artifacts are placed in a dynamic relationship with the site around them shifting scale and representation. In the beginning the artifacts provide support for the path and its mourners, as the artifacts grow they create a field that must be confronted and navigated by the mourner. At their largest they mitigate between the world of the mourner and the world of the civilian, offering a glimpse from one world to the other.
mixed media drawing describing site conditions
detail views of the mourners path
site model
SORTED BOARDING URBAN DESIGN STUDIO CRITIC : JASON AUSTIN Sorted Boarding expands on A Path for Veteran’s use of architecture as a revealer and suppressor of information by implementing a system of seating arrangements derived from the luggage carried by travelers. In this project the luggage of each traveler is seen as an artifact that is revealing of the trip that they are about to embark on. After each piece of luggage is evaluated and organized travelers are assigned a seat that places them with other travelers whose luggage has met a similar criteria. Through the placement of travelers via the sorting of their luggage social situations are set up that would have never developed other wise.
sketchs of sorting mechanism
concept models of bus stop sorting mechanism
drawing of bus stop layout
SUSTAINABLE HOTEL SUSTAINABLE STUDIO CRITIC : JOHN JAMES PRON
The proposal flips the hotel from its role as a provider to its new role as a dependant, demanding sustained attention from its guests in order to maintain its services. This flip places the hotel in the precarious situation that the earth currently exists in, at the mercy of those who occupy it. A central axis splits the hotel into two opposing sides, one of production and one of consumption. The production side houses water treatment, a wind turbine and a specialized gym connected to an onsite power plant. The consumption side houses the guests.
sustainable machine collage
plan and elevation of guest rooms
section through dividing wall
early elevational sketch
interior views of the hotel showing production side (bottom) and linkage from gym to powerplant (top)
hotel model
HOUSE FOR A JEWELER ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN II CRITIC : JIM FAIRCLOTH
This house was designed for a jeweler as part of an artist’s colony. The house had to provide space for the jeweler to live in as well as studio and gallery space for him to work and teach in. Situated in Philadelphia’s Penn Treaty Park along the Delaware river the house takes full advantage of the views afforded by the site while still providing enough privacy to work and live comfortably. The intimate relationship between a jeweler’s hands and his tools, as well as the tactile and intricate nature of jewelry were the driving forces of inspiration for this project. basement plan
east elevation
v floor plan
north elevation
second floor plan
south elevation
west elevation
jeweler’s house model
OTHER PROJECTS My interests in design extend past architecture to include all aspects whether it be product design, industrial design, or anything else that involves making. While designing my motivation lies in creating a well crafted object and finding the most appropriate design solution and material for the task at hand. I am passionate about crafting objects with my hands and feel that a tactile understanding of how materials are shaped and joined at the scale of a detail transfers into a well informed vision for how materials and space can be utilized at full scale. The following pages represent a small sample of various projects that I designed and built. They include book layout and binding, a book end, a book shelf, a picture frame, desk risers, drawer inserts, a pedestal, and a gift for an old friend.
c< One sided book end to support itself under the weight of its contents * leather, brass, oak block
>c Large picture frame to house 36”x36” drawing * 1/4” glass, pine, particle board, paint
topographical site model to show rural Iceland for the Adjust studio. To ease mobility the 4’x8’ model was built in two pieces and mounted to a folding ping pong table * CNC’d foam insulation, OSB, ping pong table base, paint (not pictured)
Tool box * 20 ga steel, oak, paint
Old school sling shot for a childhood friends 25th birthday * branch, latex tubing, leather, waxed twine, brass rivets
Ceremonial pedestal for a vintage Murano glass clown * 1/4â&#x20AC;? MDF, glass
Drawer organizers modeled after the lines of a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;57 Chevy * drawer out of a pastors desk, bass wood