Justin Nguyen by Justin Nguyen

JUSTIN NGUYEN

Flat Volumes 005

CASIS Headquarters & Museum

Stack City 021

Rezoning Coney Island

Medusa 039

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Carapace 057

Connecticut River Dam and Lock

Building Project 073

Double Unit 2400sqft House

Steel Web 093

Bibliothèque Marc-Favreau

Vaults 105

International Community Center

Disheveled Geometries 115

Towards a New Rustication

Patternism 123

Computation and Continuity

Professional Work 139

Atelier Big City, Open Form Architecture, Plan B Architecture & Urbanism, Michel Pérusse Architecte

Flat Volumes CASIS Headquarters & Museum, New York City Critic: Mark Foster Gage (Yale University), Fall 2012 Published in Retrospecta 2012-2013 Featured in Big Plans exhibition 2012

This project creates a series of different volumes and environments for exhibition that are stacked, using a language of continuity linking them together, so that they’re neither separated or pixelated, neither uniform or enfilade. In other words, program weaves itself between exhibition spaces that spiral through a language of surfaces; while this language of continuity sustains the main exhibition areas, it bifurcates to become poche and to become program. The residual space from this bisection is similar to Kahn’s servant space, but rather than service between program, it is program between exhibition. For the users, to occupy programmed poche is to access correlated functions; for the visitors, it allows one to be simultaneously aware of both the exhibition space and the different programmatic adjacencies that support this building. While the spaces are continuous, there is a hierarchy produced by layering that avoids an evenness of spatiality; space becomes both differentiated and connected. To further emphasize its relationship to the exhibition space, certain enclosed elements of program become voluminous or object-like, while the exhibition surface involutes to create an armature or casing for these volumes within the exhibition. This involution creates a phenomenal transparency between exhibition and either education, conference or research that suggests different environments from one exhibition space to another.

[00] Detail render Involution creates surface(2d) to volume(3d). [01] Sectional study model 3d-printed study model at 1/16” = 1’-0” highlights central circulation moving through a language of surfaces. [02] Sectional study model Facade of 3d-printed study model shows relief and creases following the interior organization and apertures following the central circulation.

Flat Volumes

[03] Interior study render Study showing a language of surfaces and volumes connecting different floors. [04] Program concept diagram Program diagram comparing the scale of each requirements and their relationship with CASISâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s space program. The greater the connection, the more spectacular its expression.

Flat Volumes

[05] Interior rendering View down circulation and exhibition spaces shows nearby program becoming part of the exhibition as volume and poche.

[06] Sectional perspective Central ramps and staircases connecting exhibition spaces are woven through surfaces and volumes. In between exhibition spaces from bottom to top: services, educational center, conference facilities, workshop, offices and research lab, exhibition storage, and chandelier a enclosing Destiny Capsule. [07] Floor plans From top to bottom: basement, ground level, level 1A

Flat Volumes

[08] Floor plans From top to bottom: level 1, level 2A, level 2 [09] 1st Avenue elevation [10] E 40th Street elevation

Flat Volumes

[11] Unfolded diagram From top to bottom: unfolded elevations showing relationship between exterior aperture and interior volumes, unfolded section showing relationship between galleries, program poche and program volumes, unfolded circulation showing continuous surface of circulation and galleries.

Flat Volumes

[10] Interior rendering View from highest gallery with Destiny Capsule suspended chandelier-like volume.

Flat Volumes

Stack City Rezoning Coney Island, Brooklyn with Jon Swendris Critic: Aniket Shahane (Yale University), Spring 2013 Published in Retrospecta 2012-2013 Featured in Big Plans exhibition 2012

Responding to Coney Island’s urban crisis escalated by projected rising sea levels, this proposal is an interpretation of the decay of the island; the main hypothesis of this project creatively uses the notion of sacrifice in favor of contributing to a new ideal and enlivened type of city. By relocating and adding programmatic necessities, condemning certain parts of the city and even erasing urbanistically awkward fabric, we encourage denser reconfigurations in what ultimately remains as significant architectural and social complexes. What eventually becomes vacant and replaced by the continuously expanding body of water is sought as at the same time as programmed poche, figural structure and ecological space that supports these future configurations on a new terra firma above rising sea levels. We are not “designing” a city as much as we are controlling and cultivating its natural growth. In this way, we seek to understand how successful cities grow and prosper and how Coney Island has come to fruition. We cannot expect a top-down, heavy-handed drastic reformation of the Island to be ultimately successful; Coney Island has an identity that has been developed for hundreds of years and regardless of imminent sea level rise this identity is not something to be forgotten. By working through rigorous, positivist scientific methods, minimizing unnecessary variables and understanding the problems at hand we will be able to arrive at a phased plan for development. Using the building types and respective ratios of Coney’s existing fabric and reconfiguring density, built/open space ratios, and the height of the ground plane a flood resistant Coney will develop over time… naturally.

[00] Sectional diagram Series of sections through master plan explores the Nolli plan’s qualities in section. [01] Model Model at 1”=100’-0” at with 2080 flood levels.

Stack City

[02] Plan Strategic yet arbitrary aggregation of different programs (residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, mixed use, recreation) to concentrate and intensify interaction. [03] Sectional Perspective

Stack City

[04] Rendering Interior view from interstitial space. [05] Phasing plans 2020-Buildings lying in the +2’ 2050 flood zone within the site are relocated within the +6’ 2080 flood zone. Buildings are organized along the city grid 20’ apart from each other. Infrastructure is sustained through existing roads. / 2035-All buildings outside of 2080 +6’ sea level rise within the site are relocated. Buildings are organized along the city grid 20’ apart from each other. Stillwell ave, as well as other roads branching off Surf ave within the site, are lifted +30’, anticipating the next ground level. / 2050-Buildings outside of the site begin to relocate. Retail, amusement and commercial enterprises take advantage of new, safer real estate and are less hesitant to move. Secondary connections branch off previously lifted roads to create vertical connections with buildings that are not directly connected to the +30’ roads to accommodate density and establish adjacencies. / 2080-Buildings outside of the site continue to relocate. Housing begins to move. The primary arteries (Stillwell ave, Surf ave & the Boardwalk) are elevated +60ft. A secondary road crosses the new Stillwell ave. [06] Phasing models Phasing for 2020, 2035, 2050 and 2080 flood levels.

Stack City

[07] Building prototypes diagram Aggregation of different programs create denser social complexes.

Stack City

[08] Model [09] Model [10] Model [11] Model [12] Model [13] Plan diagram Series of figure ground plans explores the Nolli planâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s qualities in a denser Coney Island.

[14] Rendering Interior view from residential tower.

Stack City

Medusa AMOMP: Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles Critics: Marcelo Spina (Sci-Arc), Georgina Huljich (UCLA) & Nathan Hume (Yale University), Fall 2013 Published in Retrospecta 2013-2014

But in Ovid’s text it is not Medusa’s ‘head,’ or even her gaze, that petrifies. Rather, it is primarily her silenced ‘face’ or ‘mouth (os, oris) that does its enigmatic work. — Enterline on Ovid’s Metamorphoses Considering the incongruous formal relationship between cohesive wholes and random piles, this project is interested in the possibility of multiple and paradoxical readings within the monolith. Rather than assuming the mute iconicity of the architectural monolith as a lack of articulation, blankness is defined in terms of multiple and contradictory part to whole relationships as described by Kipnis’ concept of Intensive Coherence— further recalling his account of Frank Gehry’s Vitra Design museum. The monolithic arrangement is additive rather than subtractive, such that a heterogeneous yet cohesive whole suggests no single dominant in either the organization of the initial massing, the internal volumes, the wrapping of the envelope or the dematerialization from the texture. Multiplicity through layering produces an unstable and ambiguous dialogue between inside and outside, background and foreground, vertical and horizontal. The Medusalike form distorts and dislocates elements which “seek to engender shifting affiliations that nevertheless resist entering into stable alignments.” (Kipnis, Towards a New Architecture). While these elements keep the reading of a theatre at each elevation, they are otherwise contradictory; this explores the idea of a consistent yet heterogeneous interior and exterior. The misalignment and miscoupling of the original organization of primitives attempt to create a reading that is both and neither part (pile) or whole (monolith).

[00] Primitives elevations The layering of the misaligned exterior primitives, textured primitives and interior primitives challenge the perception of the monolith. [01] Sectional model 3d-printed model at 3’-0”=3/32” showing relationship between exterior and interior.

Medusa

[02] Massing study [03] Site plan [04] Site model Massing holds the corner of S. Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, opening a large public plaza that aligns with the BP grand entrance and walkway.

Medusa

[05] Sectional model 3d-printed model at 3’-0”=3/32” showing section cut running laterally to the interior primitives and theater halls suspended over the lobby. [06] Sectional model 3d-printed model at 3’-0”=3/32” showing interior spaces of galleries above theaters with views into adjacent spaces from interior texture.

Medusa

[07] Sectional diagram Relationship between poche and void flips when massing is cut through the lobby (base) or skylight (top). Intersection of interior geometry creates interstitial void that leaks into the main upper and lower voids providing views and light into neighboring volumes. [08] Plans From top to bottom: Lobby plan and theater level plan

Medusa

[09] Diagram Exploded axonometric showing relationship between an unraveled interior and its corresponding elevation. From interior primitives, to exterior massing, to projected textured primitives, the persistent face in each elevation highlights a theater that engages either Wilshire Boulevard, S Fairfax avenue, the interior courtyard or the LACMA campus.

Medusa

[10] Elevations Elevations at 1’-0”=1/16” explore how texture and shadows is used to blur the reading of the building’s volume, edges and openings. From left to right: Wilshire elevation, Fairfax elevation, LACMA elevation, internal elevation [11] Texture rendering Close up of texture shows how pixelated emboss and depth layers ‘fake’ shadows on to the exterior surface. These shadows also conceal the pixelated apertures at the greatest depth of texture.

Medusa

[12] Sectional model Elevation side of 3d-printed model at 3’-0”=3/32” [13] Sectional model Close up of model shows resolution of texture and aperture. Overall fabric-like effect alleviates a singular monolithic reading.

Medusa

Carapace Connecticut River Dam and Lock, Newtown Critics: Greg Lynn (Yale University) & Brennan Buck (Yale University), Spring 2014 Published in Retrospecta 2013-2014 Featured in Outlook exhibition 2014

The civic character of typical dams is defined by two problems: 1) its elements are either underground or highly internalized 2) its elements are experienced as disparate parts. This project uses the lock to reveal what would otherwise be underground or internalized functions – the penstocks, the spillways, the powerhouse and the turbine hall – by exposing them throughout the internal façade of the lock, similar to the Pompidou Center. Translating underground into underwater, the dam dramatizes this experience by submerging and revealing its elements within the space between the upstream and downstream of the river. This dam then unifies all these parts with a formal language of interiority and transparency that folds them into the wall of the dam; while this interiority is expressive, the rest of the dam’s wall is muted. These elements become figure and relief along the wall of the lock, creating a new space that is both exterior and interior.

[01] Exterior render View from upstream [01] Concept diagram Typical dams are 1) formally disparate parts and 2) almost entirely private or concealed. This dam explores a unified and transparent experience. [02] Model Model at 1=250 showing view from upstream

Carapace

[03] Site plan [04] Section Interior elevation explores figure and relief expressing mechanics of a dam. [05] Section Section through the wall revealing programmatic poche. [06] Model Model at 1=250 showing interior elevation

Carapace

[07] Site plan [08] Floor plan [09] Stop motion animation Stop motion showing boat moving through lock, revealing and submerging interior elevation. [10] Model Model at 1=250 showing view from downstream with closed door. [11] Model Model at 1=250 showing view from downstream with open door.

Carapace

[12] Model Model at 1=250 [13] Model Model at 1=250

Carapace

Building Project Double Unit 2400sqft House, New Haven with Mary Burr, Julie Kim, Nick McAdoo, Mohamed Nazmy, Matt White, Evan Wiskup Critic: Jennifer Leung, Joel Sanders (Yale University), Spring 2012 Published in Retrospecta 2012-2013 Featured in Big Plans exhibition 2012

This project questions the paradigm of the American housing typology by claiming the entirety of the site, which in effect, creates two separate edge conditions. The first is the outer urban edge facing the neighborhood of Newhallville, where the home is situated. The second is the inner heterotopic condition, manifested through a large privatized backyard. While the backyard delineates property ownership between the owner and tenant through the use of retaining walls and planters, the space is collectively utilized by the tenant and owner through the use of borrowed views. Portals are punctured through the house creating a porous membrane between the outer urban condition, and the inner heterotopic space. An undulating trellis navigates the largest opening, linking the interior and exterior faces of the building while creating a sense of arrival. The portal also separates the units, while doubling as a car park with space for two vehicles.

[00] Exterior render [01] Exterior render View from Starr Street [02] Sectional study model Facade of 3d-printed study model shows relief and creases following the interior organization and apertures following the central circulation.

Building Project

[07] Interior render View from tenant’s living room. [08] Exterior view View from tenant’s courtyard into owner’s courtyard. [09] Exterior view View from tenant’s courtyard into owner’s courtyard.

Building Project

[10] Ground floor plan [11] Second floor plan

Building Project

13 [12] Section [13] Cross-section Cross-section through owner’s unit. [14] Cross-section Cross-section through drive-way. [15] Cross-section Cross-section through tenant’s unit.

Building Project

[16] Elevations From top to bottom, left to right: North elevation, South elevation, East elevation, West elevation

Building Project

[17] Building frame model [18] Model [19] Model [20] Model

Building Project

[21] Exterior render View from trellis. [22] Interior render View from ownerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s living room.

Building Project

Steel Web BibliothĂ¨que Marc-Favreau, Montreal, Canada Critics: Martin Bressani (McGill University), Fall 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 Constantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New Babylonian network, the web becomes a macro-structure 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. 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 roofsuspended 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.

[00] Interior render [01] Exterior render Birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye view.

Steel Web

[02] Collage 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. [03] Collages 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. [04] Interior rendering View from inside the library, inspired by original collages.

Steel Web

[05] Interior rendering View from interior looking into book stacks. [06] Interior rendering View from interior looking into up ramp into the main reading area. [07] Plans From top to bottom: site plan, first floor lobby, second floor book stacks and reading area. [08] Section Long section showing ramp ascending into inner web containing reading areas and book stacks. [09] Section Cross section [10] Exterior rendering

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Vaults International Community Center, Abuja, Nigeria Critic: Carlos Rueda (McGill University), Spring 2010 Lyceum Fellowship 2010 Competition Merit Award

The necessity of sheltered outdoor public spaces in Africa imagined the community center as a field of vaults that would adapt to the assignmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s formal needs and siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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.

[00] Roof plan [01] Plan

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Vaults

[02] Sections Sections showing differentiated variations of landscaped ground (floor, seating, pools) and vaulted canopy (closed, open, lifted, grounded, large scale, small scale, shaded, unshaded).

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07 [03] Interior render [04] Model Vacuum formed model. [05] Model Vacuum formed model. [06] Exterior render View from outdoor amphitheater. [07] Exterior render View from ceremonial drop off. [08] Interior render

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Vaults

Disheveled Geometries Towards a New Rustication in Architecture Critic: Mark Foster Gage (Yale University), Spring 2012 Published in Disheveled Geometries II

This project explores the repositioning of weaving as a contemporary surface articulation deployed within a facade system. Following a tectonic behavior in which form converges structure and envelope, figure and void, material and visual effect, this study attempts to translate textile strategy to building system; if fabric is thread and relief, the latter becomes surface and volume. Taking this direction, weaving is expressed as a composition of faceted steel segments that create both gradient effects and emergent conditions of scale, color, transparency and weaving patterns. As its textile counterpart, this system suggests no single hierarchy between tessellation and weave, foreground and background or hard and fluid.

[00] Elevation [01] Full scale prototype 24â&#x20AC;? x 36â&#x20AC;? CNC plasma cut stainless steel panel.

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Disheveled Geometries

[02] Full scale prototype [03] Full scale prototype [04] Full scale prototype

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Disheveled Geometries

[05] Renderings Color studies following the weaving pattern.

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Disheveled Geometries

Patternism Final project with Nick McAdoo Critics: Brennan Buck (Yale University), Spring 2014 Published in Retrospecta 2013-2014

This projects looks at the relationship between exterior and interior by reconciling the diverging part to whole relationships among computational and compositional themes in digital form. If computation generates a field of self-similar parts that lacks an overall external figure and if composition produces a monolithic figure that is spatially uniform, this project creates internal organization from external figure. By subdividing the figure into recursive scales of figures and voids, the external figure â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a bunny in this case â&#x20AC;&#x201C; challenges homogeneity by organizing both internally and externally a series of linked, non-intersecting, irregular tetrahedra. These linked volumes create a continuous poche that generates cellular voids within the bunny â&#x20AC;&#x201C; each autonomous yet connected to its neighbors. The result is a porous network of cells that allows light and shadow to define the quality of the interior space.

[00] Assignment 1 drawing [01] Isometric [02] Subdivision diagram

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Patternism

[03] Section [04] Plans

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Patternism

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[05] Sections Section cuts at every two inches. [06] Plans Plan cuts at every two inches. [07] Model Model view from interior. [08] Model Model view from interior. [09] Model Model view from interior. [10] Model Model elevations. [11] Model Model view from interior. [12] Assignment 3 render [13] Assignment 4 render [14] Assignment 1 drawing

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Patternism

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Professional Work Atelier Big City, 2010-2011 Open Form Architecture, 2010-2011 Plan B Architecture & Urbanism, 2013 Michel Pérusse Architecte, 2008

[01] Cultural Centre for Notre-Dame-deGrâce Architect: Atelier Big City Status: Winners of Montreal’s NotreDame-de-Grâce Cultural Centre Competition, 2010 (under construction) Site: Montreal, Canada Role: Responsible for the three dimensional progression and communication of exterior and interior spaces during schematic design and design development for the new cultural center in Notre-Dame-deGrâce competition winning entry. Drawings by Howard Davies and Randy Cohen.

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Professional Work

[02] Soccer Complex for CESM Architect: Atelier Big City Status: Soccer Complex for CESM competition entry, 2011 Site: Montreal, Canada Role: Responsible for the three dimensional progression and communication of exterior and interior spaces during schematic design for the new soccer complex for CESM competition entry. Drawings by Howard Davies and Randy Cohen.

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[03] WeSC Montreal Concept Store Architect: Open Form Architecture Status: Completed, 2011 Site: Montreal, Canada Role: Responsible for design of faĂ§ade for WeSCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first concept store in Montreal, including 3d modeling and presentation renderings. [04] Agrandissement Valiquette Architect: Open Form Architecture Status: Completed, 2011 Site: Montreal, Canada Role: Responsible for schematic design, including digital modeling and rendering, for the expansion of a semi-detached duplex, which was later constructed and completed.

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[05] Réinventons la ruelle Architect: Open Form Architecture Status: Exhibition at la Maison de l’architecture du Québec from the 27th May to 20th December 2011 Site: Montreal, Canada Role: Responsible for preliminary and schematic design, including digital and physical modeling, for Open Form Architecture’s entry for an exhibition that investigated the use of the space behind Montreal’s most common housing typology and its relationship to the building. [06] DIY Lil CNC / Recursion Architect: Open Form Architecture Status: Completed, 2010 Site: n/a Role: Responsible for assembly and testing of an open source do-it-yourself CNC milling machine, as well as developing a mounting system for a prototyping project. [07] City of 7 Billion Architect: Plan B Architecture & Urbanism Status: Winner of the 2013 Latrobe Prize Site: n/a Role: Responsible for digital modeling, 3d printing preparation and assembly of 3d printed parts for the physical model of 2013 Latrobe Prize-winning ‘City of 7 Billion’ research project.

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[08] Amén. Bureau Ultragen-50 de Lauzon Architect: Michel Pérusse Architecte Status: Complete, 2008 Site: Boucherville, Canada Role: Responsible for construction documents of Ultragen’s office, including roof plan, floor plans and details.

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JUSTIN NGUYEN nguyen.just@gmail.com 917.257.9231 www.jgnuyen.ca