justin nguyen
PORTFOLIO
ACADEMIC WORK
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CENTER IN ABUJA, NIGERIA
Lyceum Fellowship 2010 Competition Merit Award Advisor: Dr. Carlos Rueda (McGill University) Year: 2010 The necessity of sheltered outdoor public spaces in Africa imagined the community center as a field of vaults that would adapt to the assignment’s formal needs and site’s informal behavior. In this sense, the Catalan vaults cluster together and branch out within its various permutations of geometry (number of sides, concavity), scale, base, edges, porosity density and tectonics. This building unit suggests a light social and commercial infrastructure that could provide a cultural civic space within its microclimatic performance. At a micro level, the earth tile vaults inherently combine both a material saving structure with the benefits of using of local materials and traditional construction. Socially and economically, the required workforce for an already established structural system will generate the needed labor in the local communities. At a macro level, the project reinterprets the typically static masonry in both shape and behavior as an organism; the amalgamation of vaults resonate a new idea of a growing landscape as both a landscaped roof and ceiling. The structural system redefines masonry construction as a light and rhythmic fabric. Inspired by the informal market sprawl, the landscape becomes a loosely defined active environment. The project draws from traditional materials and its construction to create this contemporary as well local architecture. The idea of an open canopy introduces a bioclimatic interest where responsive strategies, such as courtyards and pools, infiltrate the landscaped canopy as tectonic, formal and performative links. The program divides itself in respect to the prevailing winds during the humid and dry season; the more humid South-West wind recalls the pools, kitchen and restroom services, while the drier Hammattan wind mainly caters the galleries, library and offices. Space becomes almost instinctively familiarized in the seemingly informal weaving of vaults.
FLOOR PLAN
pools
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outdoor amphitheater lecture hall theater for dances/plays support for theaters loading for theater/amphitheater ceremeonial drop off lobby restrooms lockers
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multi-purpose room cyber cafe kitchen culture and art gallery library adminstrative officess meeting rooms back of house service parking for up to 100 cars
pools
ROOF PLAN
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lecture hall restroom
cafe/kitchen/multi-purpose
theatre
administration/backdoor services
gallery/library
dry TEMPERATURE HOT
win
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courtyard courtyard pool
courtyard
COLD
STEEL WEB Bibliothèque Marc-Favreau Advisor: Prof. Martin Bressani (McGill University) Year: 2009
Steel Web interprets the inner world of a library as the nesting of this steel web or cocoon to create an inner industrial claustrophobia or density. Much like Constant’s New Babylonian network, the web becomes a macrostructure in which an environment itself is constructed by playing with what makes it up.1 This playful constructivist reconfiguration of this dense structural disorder or disorientation engages and sensitizes the use of its active environment. Steel Web suggests the familiar in the unfamiliar; the Constant ritual embeds different models of narratives and purposes within its fabric. The web engages the user with different scenarios and intensities of enclosure in the form of scale, density, mobility, light. Although the structure may present itself as alien, the emergence of these personal narratives is fed from the intimacy and exploration of the library itself. At the same time a constraining and mechanical mass, the web becomes organic within the permutation of its malleable and dynamic space. Nieuwenhuis, Constant. “Constant Nieuwenhuis: New Babylon”. The Hague, 1974. Haags Gemeetenmuseum. <http://www.notbored.org/new-babylon. html>. 1
01 PHOTOGRAPHIC VISION
The development of this project materialized in three stages. A first photographic assignment envisioned a scenario of this long invasive structure that anchors itself to the site. The second exercise travels within the structure and suggests the potent inhabiting of this machine. The steel structure becomes a space frame where the scaffolding-like chaos gets appropriated. The length of the space is emphasized. The roof and ground are concaving. There is a mechanical disorder and layering that generates degrees of densities and atmospheres. The final phase translated these elements into a library with particular notions of enclosure and interaction.
02 INTERIOR VISION
SITE PLAN
The library is a massive, partially inhabitable roof structure floating over smaller supporting structure. At the ground, the configuration is minimal: it contains the reception and administrative spaces, and a central circulation core with a ramp that ascends into the space frame. Here, the web emerges; the living space embeds itself within the framework of a large, cantilevering canopy, where the edges slope and taper in. Within the space frame, the main components of the library arrange themselves around the triangulated grid weaving the first glazed roof and floor together. There is a structural and conceptual logic, where the main density of book stacks and trusses thickens relative to the supporting volume below. The book stacks between the concaving floors and roof exemplify the dense web where the relationship between the stacks, the ceiling and the floor are articulated. The roof-suspended scaffolding system also introduces the capacity of expansion and creation within the environment. The central density creates an intermediary between the two separate cantilevering wings: the structural density of the double roof lessens along the public fabric of the city, whereas this layering thickens in the other more private wing. The cantilevers open up to embody the main reading spaces and rooms, where suggested spatial divisions become the trusses within the space frame that are literally navigated in between. The tapering edges beyond the occupancy create a canopy and visual connection for the space below. The library is understood and organized such that it operates as a structure and a sensorium, so the living experience can ultimately take shape within the opportunities of conscious creation and use of space.
FIRST FLOOR
SECOND FLOOR WITH DELAUNAY GRID
SPACE FRAME
BOOK STACKS
FIRSTST GLAZED ROOF
SECOND GLAZED ROOF
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
2ND FLOOR PLAN
JAPANESE COBRA LILY Introduction to digital research, design and communication Advisor: Prof. Aaron Sprecher (McGill University) Year: 2008 Team: Nicole Reckziegel, Justin Nguyen
Contribution: Shown drawings, animation and digital model.
Arisaema sikokianum is recognizable for its spathe or hood that sweeps up to a point. This flower is more commonly known as the Japanese Cobra Lily because of its resemblance to the cobra. The cobra, which normally looks similar to most other snakes, rears up and flattens its head when it feels threatened. This distinct trait, which is reflected in the hood of the Japanese Cobra Lily, was extracted and subsequently abstracted into a material component system. The component consists of a leaf-shaped solid whose surface in divided into three parts. When replicated, the material system forms an oscillating surface. An animation applied to the system attempts to simulate the movement of the snake as it assumes its warning posture. Peter Galison, writing in reference to the use of algorithms, in his article Images Scatter into Data, Data Gathers into Images, states, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The impulse to draw the world in particularity never seems to be able to shed itself of the impulse to abstract, and that search for abstraction is forever pulling back into the material-particular.â&#x20AC;? This brings to light the possibility of the manipulation of algorithms in abstracting certain tactile forms or ideas. However, it recalls the fact that the particular and the conceptual are forever connected; in order to fully understand an abstraction, we must first be familiar with its pictorial representation. Thus, while an algorithm might be employed to model this flower and later modified to abstract it into a material component system, it must always link back to the original pictorial image of the flower so as to be grasped to its fullest extent.
ANIMATION
PROTOTYPING SIMULATION
BRIDGE Montreal Centre for Urban Agriculture Advisor: Prof. Robert Mellin (McGill University) Year: 2008
This project is based on creating a bridge between the industrial character of Griffintown and the socially dense areas of downtown Montreal. Located on a block that can be essentially outlined as a void, this concept responds to the site as an urban hub for a growing community, similar to the system of bridges over the canal. The complex challenges this site by establishing a continuity between industrial and social through the creation of pedestrian oriented spaces in an area dominated by vehicular traffic. By moderating the buffer dividing the two conflicting activities (William Street), this project invites students and workers to a wide variety of communal points of interest. In this case, the facility offers an interactive experience between the various public spaces: accessible circulation passages, shared intermediate gardens, hydroponic growing areas, vast fish farms, courtyards, a marketplace and communal kitchen, flexible housing spaces, office rooms and student areas. The complex’s key feature is its predominant circulation axis: a permanently accessible and uninterrupted path for pedestrians. In this case, this bridge embodies two converging paths radiating from an axis connecting to Griffintown’s Fire Hall. The main walkway emanates from the active sidewalk along Peel, and travels adjacent to a series of skylights and views over the intensive aquaculture and research facilities. On the second floor, the second intervention introduces a bridge between the complex and the ÉTS school, branching out the public by offering educational farming possibilities, a student lobby and a complementary courtyard. Upon framing a view of the fire station, the now singular path moves in between the greenhouses of the facility while looking through the changing and reflective views of the hydroponic production, housing units’ green screen and the communal garden. The residence area in this project is composed of a studio/ mezzanine configuration and higher density on the upper floors. All functions of this project share a mutual reliance generated by the wastewater treatment facilities. At corner of Young/Ottawa, the bridge ends with the product of this urban network: a communal kitchen and market with its extending outdoor plaza.
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18 x 0.172 = 3.100 m
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
18 x 0.172 = 3.100 m
18 x 0.172 = 3.100 m
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1ST FLOOR PLAN
18 x 0.172 = 3.100 m
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2ND FLOOR PLAN
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rooftop farming
hydroponic greenhouses
fish farms
fish farms
URBAN LOOK-OUT Urban Lookout at Place-Des-Arts Advisor: Dana Margalith (McGill University) Year: 2008 7.12m
The Urban Lookout located on the Place-DesArts esplanade interprets a simple flight of stairs as a conscious transition from spectator to prospect.
23°
3.90m
28°
EAST ELEVATION
Coiling from the existing geometry of the esplanade, the look-out starts with a series of steps echoing the existing stairs on the main plaza. In this sense, they extend the seating function below that is often overcrowded during the festive periods. With this shallow slope and significant width, the role of the lookout’s users is that of the spectator. Their action is to observe the different sights in their perspective: the street shows on the lower ground, the temporary stages that accompany festivals or the ongoing parades on the street. The first landing introduces a generous observation platform at about four meters from the base. The next flight of stairs, thinner and steeper, marks the ascension to the acme of the lookout. Deprived of views, the user is directed to the extent of the stairs. At the apogee, a smaller platform overlooking the esplanade divulges the bystander. This immersive spotlight incites the role of the performer, free from their duties as a witness. The lookout reconciles the roles of the spectator and the performer, the act of sitting and standing, the passive and the active.
ECDYSIS 2008-2009 ACSA Concrete Student Design Competition Advisor: Prof. Aaron Sprecher (McGill University) Year: 2009 Team: Venessa Heddle, Justin Nguyen
Contribution: Digital model and shown renders, diagrams and drawings excluding detailed section. Fabrication (physical model and prototype) produced in group.
Architecture is theatre.1 One could even say hypertheater, or metatheater. At once allied and opposed, architecture and the city fuel a web of narratives. They engage in a fluctuating role-play as both simultaneously act as set, theme, lead, script and prop. These narratives, the hypertext of the city, exist, shift and fade, layering upon each other, at best embedding their history in the fabric of the city or diluting, only to exist in memory, if that. The city is a fluid performance, reflexive, speaking of and to itself in its production and shedding of narratives in an environment of contextual flux. Ecdysis, meaning literally the shedding of skin, speaks to the dynamism of the city’s constant ebb and flow of transformation. The project arrives self-conscious of its introduction into the haze of narrative, aware that each new addition ripples with the potential for catalysis. Ecdysis presents itself as something alien and yet familiar. Consisting of a ‘scale and bone’ 3d diagrid module with the capacity to build on itself infinitely in any direction, Ecdysis sprawls, its scales morphing to the constraints of its surroundings. It seeks to tap into the kinetic energy of the city and harness it; creating within and around itself a new node of potential. It strives to facilitate motion with motion. Although Ecydsis envelops and channels, it does not seek to control or dictate, there is no agenda or ego. At the same time it is not a passive architecture. One does not mistakenly or haphazardly find oneself within. To enter is to actively engage, and that conscious choice is recognition of the project’s true performance; to create opportunity for further narrative. 1 Wigley, Mark., “The Atmosphere of Architecture.” Daidalos 68, 18-27.
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DETAIL SECTION
SECTION
DETAIL SECTION
1. Multiple stacked 250W fiber optic illuminator light sources embedded in the scale and protected by 1a metal plate power the entire fiber optic grid. 2. Fiber optic ribbon consists of 2500 Ultra high side glow cables with 0.75mm optical fibers 1. Multiple stacked 250W fiber optic illuminator light sources embedded 3. A metal frame unit serves the in the scale and protected 1afiber dual purpose of a) securingby the metal plate power the entire fiber optic ribbon to the concrete scale opticb)grid. and supporting the fiber optic
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2. Fiber optic ribbon consists of 2500 connector unit. Ultra high side glow cables with 0.75mm optical fibers 4. Each slab in re-inforced with 2mm
diameter for support 3. A metalspider framerebar unit serves the in two directions. rebar is dual purpose ofExtruding a) securing the fiber used for connection betweenscale the optic ribbon to the concrete slabs. and b) supporting the fiber optic connector unit. 5. Tram ticket dispenser (.15mx.20mx1.2m) inset in concrete, secured withinmetal plate 5a. 4. Each slab re-inforced with 2mm diameter spider for support in 6. Concrete seam;rebar jointless two directions. Extruding rebar connection. Slabs are are cast onis usedtofor connection between site pre-cast pieces, joined the slabs. through rebar.
SECTIONS
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5. Tram ticket dispenser (.15mx.20mx1.2m) inset in concrete, secured with metal plate 5a.
URBAN FURNITURE
6. Concrete seam; jointless connection. Slabs are are cast on site to pre-cast pieces, joined through rebar.
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1 - Fiber Optic Illuminator light source 2 - Fiber Optic connector element 3 - Fiber Optic Cables 4 - Double layer spider rebar 5 - Embedded ticket dispenser 6 - Glued concrete seams 1 - Fiber Optic Illuminator light source 2 - Fiber Optic connector element 3 - Fiber Optic Cables 4 - Double layer spider rebar 5 - Embedded ticket dispenser 6 - Glued concrete seams
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URBAN FURNITURE
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SECTION D-D
EXPOSURE GROWTH
VIEW C2 VIEW C1 15f
VIEW C
VIEW C2 PARALLAX INSTANCES
VIEW A2
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PARALLAX -06
-08
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37.2°
54.8°
72.4°
90.0°
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19.6°
PARALLAX 05
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19.6°
37.2°
54.8°
72.4°
90.0°
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FABRICATION
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RE-CREATING DOMESTI-CITY
Counter proposal for housing on the MIT campus. Advisor: Dr. Carlos Rueda (McGill University) Year: 2010 The paradigm of consumerism that drives today’s contemporary culture has created an unproductive condition of abundance. In essence, capitalist societies’ planned needs of having more commodities have transformed everything into a quantitative homogeneity empty of experiential sensitivity and quality. This homogenization has reached products, buildings, technology, art and has consequently affected the social and cultural sphere of living. In 1967, Guy Debord culminated similar ideas of commodity fetishism and its resulting alienation in his Situationist work Society of the Spectacle. Guy Debord argues in a Marxist perspective that the power of the relations between commodities has generated pseudocommunities in where individuals become merely spectators of the commodity, and thus alienated from any form of social life. The work continues that “the commodity form reduces everything to quantitative equivalence”; as it can develop only within this quantitative, it excludes quality (of life) while evolving in its abundance. Living is replaced by having and contemplating. In architecture, the Japanese metabolists movement envisioned infinitely expanding megastructures that reduced urbanism to systems of plug-in capsules that comprised the dwelling units. This pod living transforms living spaces into the ultimate commodity: the experience of living becomes a quantitative and homogenous material product that fundamentally holds the social power over how one lives. Eating, recreation and sleeping are abstracted into a single appliance, while the living room disappears entirely. The counter proposal is a reaction to the assignment’s constraints and compromises which ultimately lead to a homogenized and repetitious scheme for housing on the MIT campus. This response therefore calls for a new mode for housing to preserve and promote the inherently pluralist student sphere. In the country’s current recession, the low density prototype will investigate a system that would radically engage society’s state of abundance and homogeneity. The product is the culmination of research and experiments that attempt to challenge architectural dogmas within the influence of the authoritative phenomena of society, economy and politics.
LIVING AS A COMMODITY
In architecture, the Japanese metabolists movement envisioned infinitely expanding megastructures that reduced urbanism to systems of plug-in capsules that comprised the dwelling units. This pod living transforms living spaces into the ultimate commodity: the experience of living becomes a quantitative and homogenous material product that fundamentally holds the social power over how one lives. Eating, recreation and sleeping are abstracted into a single appliance, while the living room disappears entirely.
military production
WAR AS A COMMODITY
technological appliances
INNOVATION AS A COMMODITY WORK AS A COMMODITY
DECOMPOSING SYSTEM
metabolist pod living
The prototype is conceived as that decomposes in its spaces socially and programmatically ultimately reducing itself to desired shared program.
a structure that become unnecessary, the minimal
Housing becomes a pluralist environment instigated by the permutations within the decomposing nature of the components that make up the system. Adaptability is conceived as a subtractive process.
A distressed condition, suggested in a form of scarcity in the building environment, is introduced to reconcile urbanism and its needs. Disfunction integrates the dweller in their presence within the non-optimal and the unprescribed.
COMMODITY EXPIRATION
The MIT housing calls for a new mode for housing to preserve and promote the inherently pluralist student sphere. In the country’s current recession, the low density prototype will investigate a system that would radically engage society’s state of abundance and homogeneity.
In 1967, Guy Debord culminated similar ideas of commodity fetishism and its resulting alienation in his Situationist work Society of the Spectacle. Guy Debord argues in a Marxist perspective that the power of the relations between commodities has generated pseudocommunities in where individuals become merely spectators of the commodity, and thus alienated from any form of social life. The work continues that “the commodity form reduces everything to quantitative equivalence”; as it can develop only within this quantitative, it excludes quality (of life) while evolving in its abundance. Living is replaced by having and contemplating.
SCARCITY
RECREATING DOMESTICITY
The paradigm of consumerism that drives today’s contemporary culture has created an unproductive condition of abundance. In essence, capitalist societies’ planned needs of having more commodities have transformed everything into a quantitative homogeneity empty of experiential sensitivity and quality. This homogenization has reached products, buildings, technology, art and has consequently affected the social and cultural sphere of living.
Consumerism casually replaces and disposes of economically outdated commodities in the form of transport and appliances.
Appropriation of what is economically outdated eliminates the commodity fuse
Interior space is embedded with personal narratives or situations within its exploration and appropriation. ‘Play’ exerts the active user rather than simply subduing the passive spectator
The decomposing/subtractiv introduces itself in socia or expendable spaces. Dwellers self-consciously the living environment acc their social desires and q living.
During 1941-1945, the United States Army produced a total of 297,199 aircrafts. Surplus have been retired in scrap yards or dumped into the ocean after the conflict’s resolution. In 2006, 633 F14 jet fighters were retired. To avoid surplus sales to the bad guys, most of these $38 million machines were shredded to scraps by hired contractors, while others were stripped for museums.
Inhabiting military surplus gives these often outdated machines further use value on their otherwise unprocured investment.
appropriation of military surplus
NARRATIVE
a train wagon is appropriated as a public sphere
ve process ally unused
manipulate cording to qualitative
cockpit reduces the private sphere of dwellers to the bedroom
physical extraction of expendable components
nature occupation propogates in unused peripheral spaces
local substraction of elements
RESPONSE
MILITARY SURPLUS
After World War II, Ed Sard said that capitalism’s structure would not survive without primarily military economy. The country would enter what he called a “permanent war economy”, as to establish the state’s power over the working class. Arguably, with the United States’ current military measures and operations combined with the endless technological race, the state has entered this war economy. with military spending comprising 54% ($1,449 billion) of the total Federal Funds in 2009.
Dwelling is saturated with excessive living spaces and expenses are at a maximum.
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Upper public components are unused and unmaintained out of inconvenience
Public component is vacant because of limited daylight exposure
Dwellers desire a form of personal green space
Superior social quality is conceived in strictly shared public spaces
Social life becomes nomadic within the student sphere
Dwelling is reduced to the provisional spaces for sleeping.
State of ruin, abandon or exhaustion
Removal of upper floor components introduces an outdoor roof space
Removal of second floor component introduces a mid-level outdoor space
Removal of a first floor component opens up entry and allows growth of local greenery
Minimal shared program is achieved: dwellers share the essential public spaces
Further reduction of public spaces within housing
Removal of public sphere within housing shifts social life and human relations to the MIT campus.
Removal of ownership assimilates the project into the landscape and public sphere
PROFESSIONAL WORK
DIY LIL CNC
Team: Open Form Architecture (Maurice Martel, Maxime Moreau, Darrel Ronald) Year: 2010 Contribution: Assembly and installation of an open source do-ityourself cnc milling machine
RECURSION
Team: Open Form Architecture (Maurice Martel, Maxime Moreau, Darrel Ronald) Year: 2010 Contribution: Revisiting a prototyping project by exploring possible flexible mounting systems
NOTRE-DAME-DE-GRÂCE CUTURAL CENTER
Team: Atelier Big City (Howard Davies, Randy Cohen, Anne Cormier) Year: 2010 Contribution: Three-dimensional progression and communication of concepts for the new cultural center in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce competition winning entry
TROIS-RIVIÈRES AMPHITHEATER
Team: Atelier Big City (Howard Davies, Randy Cohen) Year: 2010 Contribution: Three-dimensional progression and communication of concepts for the Trois-Rivières amphitheater competition entry