YSoA 2011-2014 by Justin Nguyen

JUSTIN NGUYEN

Under Pressure 005

Surface Translations

Rock Lobster 017

Peabody Museum Extension

Dance Machine 023

Dance Performance Center

Compression Test 035

14ft x 14ft Double Unit Dwelling

Live Work 045

Livings and Working spaces

Building Project 057

Double Unit 2400sqft House

Flat Volumes 079

CASIS Headquarters & Museum

Stack City 095

Rezoning Coney Island

Medusa 113

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Dam 131

Connecticut River Dam and Lock

147

Visualization

167

Formal Analysis

171

Disheveled Geometries

179

Graphic Inquiry

185

Squished Assemblies

191

Parts is Parts

195

Rome

201

Parrallel Moderns

205

Patternism

Under Pressure Surface Translations Critic: Ben Pell (Yale University), Fall 2011

This project explores the folded pleat as a topological datum to maximize effect and structure. The primitive geometry was a closed loop that captures three basic morphologies: the . The ground wants to span greater lengths; the wall requires compression for structure; the canopy allows the most surface area coverage and the most light modulation. From the original pleated tessellation, the form was unapologetically distorted to achieve pure effect. Responding to the structural limitations of the pleat, the distorted geometry was gradually tamed to achieve most effect while remaining structurally sound. The resulting exercise was a back and forth study of the hypothetical ambitions and the physical limitations of the pleat; the concluding ‘breaking’ point being the state of equilibrium in which its integral effect and structure are unified.

[00] Model Phyisical model at 1/2” = 1’-0” [01] Plan

Under Pressure

[02] Model Phyisical model at 1/2” = 1’-0” [03] Section [04] Cross section

Under Pressure

[05] Unfolded diagram Unfolded plan showing assembly and folding of ground, the wall and the canopy. [06] Model [07] Model [08] Model

Under Pressure

Rock Lobster Peabody Museum Extension, New Haven Critic: Ben Pell (Yale University), Fall 2011

The Peabodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collection is unique in the range of scales in which it operates; from the microscopic (insects), to human scale (birds, mammals) to the macroscopic (dinosaurs), the Peabody museum includes all possible sizes of exhibits. However, the spaces themselves are extremely rigid: they are limited to typical single and double story ceiling heights. The Peabody extension tries to capitalize on this unique exhibition condition by intensifying the relationship between the scale of the exhibit and the space that contains it. This project explores the concept of scale both in section and in plan by developing variegated landscape that understands three experiential rules of scale. Surface area and ceiling height is derived from the museum typology. Additionally, this project recognizes the Science Hillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s slope as the third condition: a shallower slope eases travelling for larger exhibits while a steeper slope cautions the viewer towards smaller exhibits. The resulting landscape is recursive: surface area divides itself, ceiling heights shrink and the slope of the circulation between gets steeper as the exhibit gets smaller.

[00] Topographic diagram Topography showing gradient of different scales of area and slope. [01] Plan

Rock Lobster

[02] Model Model at 1/8” = 1’-0” showing interior exhibition space. [03] Cross-sections Cross-sections showing gradient in exhibition scales. [04] Model Phyisical model at 1/2” = 1’-0”

Rock Lobster

Dance Machine Dance Performance Center, New York City Critic: Prof. Ben Pell (Yale University), Fall 2011 Published in Retrospecta 2011-2012 Featured in Big Plans exhibition 2012

Extending from the bridge, Dance Machine echoes its parent by defying the static; the aerial structure celebrates the reciprocal experience of lightness and motion expressed by free bodies in space. The dance performance center becomes a living infrastructure, floating above terra firma, where machine and user actively intersect. Two vertical masses, the fly tower and the bridge pier, are the structural and circulatory anchors to the ground, while the bridge becomes the lateral framework. The fly tower embeds layers of public and private circulation, revealing a vertical arrangement of programmatic supports and facilities of the theatre. Public and private also divides itself programmatically by this core; the theatre and the café cantilever over the 1st Avenue side creating a public front, while the rehearsal studios and offices are suspended between the tower and pier. The former is rigid in its constraint by the structural rhythm of the bridge, while the latter suggests a looser environment where program and circulation become floating bodies caught within a structural web. Subjects of the web are at the same time autonomous and connected, stable and unstable, intimate and unfamiliar; the aerial resists and disturbs the static as motion, sound, wind reverberate through sensation.

[00] Exterior render Exterior view of suspended rehearsal studios. [01] Model Model at 11/16” = 1’-0” showing mass of performance space [02] Model Model at 11/16” = 1’-0” showing suspended rehearsal studios.

Dance Machine

[03] Section [04] Interior render Interview from the fly tower looking up into adjacent rooms supported structurally, programmatically and visually by the flower tower. [05] Organizational diagram Diagram comparing the single mass of the performance space versus the irregular floating rehearsal spaces.

Dance Machine

[06] Plans From left to right: ground level, level 1, level 2, level 3

Dance Machine

Compression Test 14ft x 14ft Double Unit Dwelling Critic: Prof. Alan Organschi (Yale University), Spring 2012

Compression test explores the relationship between two excessively small and neighboring dwellings that are most opposed in their inhabitation. One is sedentary, rigid and permanent, while the other is nomadic, light and temporary. The sedentary dwelling is a fixed ring that cycles through the daily routine of its user. The main spaces that push or pull towards the center provides a framework for the second dwelling: it provides surface area, structure and support for the nomadic dwelling’s inhabitation, circulation and function. Here, circulation is vertical rather than looping, describing its entry from below on terra firma, and its exit above to the field of primary dwelling units that collectively form a hypergrid.

[00] Exterior render View contrasting the two dwellings: nomadic vs. sedentary. [01] Model Model at 1/2”=1’-0”

Compression Test

[02] Assembly diagram Diagram showing nomadic dwelling inhabiting sedentary dwelling.

Compression Test

[03] Section perspective Section contrastic the rigid frame versus the light core. [04] Model Model at 1/2”=1’-0” show elevations.

Compression Test

Live Work Living and Working spaces, New Haven Critic: Prof. Alan Organschi (Yale University), Spring 2012

This project distinguishes live and work conditions by their spatial needs: living is an edge condition that requires a wall for single furnishing and appliances, while working is a void condition that requires an open ground for collective gatherings and activities. Live space can also be described as compressed, where poche is carved out for the minimal requirements of a human body. On the other hand, work space is expanded, where the void dominates the edge of poche. A gradient is then created from a central void that runs diagonally through the building. At the first story, living and working start independent of each other as single housing units and boutique-like commercial spaces, whereas at the last story, collective housing mixes itself with open office spaces. The central void also differentiates public (work) from private (live) circulation: the atrium contains the main public stairway, while the south opaque wall accommodates private circulation to each living unit.

[00] Sectionall Model 3d-printed study model at 1/16â&#x20AC;? = 1â&#x20AC;&#x2122;-0â&#x20AC;?. Carving of poche creating small scale voids (furniture) and large scale voids (atirum). [01] Section

Live Work

[03] Concept diagram From left to right, top to bottom: working voids, living poche, live/work overlap and circulation. [04] Programmtic axonometric

Live Work

[05] Sectional model 3d-printed study model at 1/16” = 1’-0” [06] Model Model at 1/16” = 1’-0” [07] Model Model at 1/16” = 1’-0” [08] Live/Work diagram Diagram showing gradient between living and working spaces from lowest to highest level.

Live Work

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 te 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.

01 59

Building Project

[02] Study section Sections from individual pre-building project exercise. [03] Study plans Plans from individual pre-building project exercise. [04] Concept diagram [05] Study model

Pre-Building Project Double Unit 2400sqft House, New Haven Critic: Jennifer Leung, Joel Sanders (Yale University), Spring 2012

This house explores the carving out of a simple housing volume to create private exterior spaces for gathering, light and view. Such open spaces are derived from existing building fabric, orientation and urban context to create semi-private spaces in the form of street-side balconies and second floor courtyards that accordingly benefit living rooms, kitchens or bedrooms. In this way, exterior private space is not limited to either the lawn or backyard, which is especially significant to benefit both owner and tenant with the qualities of such spaces.

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 trhough owner’s unit. [14] Cross-section Cross-section through drive-way. [15] Cross-section Cross-section trhough 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

Flat Volumes CASIS Headquarters & Museum, New York City Critic: Prof. 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: Prof. 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

101

Stack City

103

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.

105

Stack City

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

107

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.

02 13

109

[14] Rendering Interior view from residential tower.

Stack City

111

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’ Intensive Coherence. The monolithic arrangement is additive rather than subtractive, such that a heterogeneous yet cohesive whole suggests no single dominant in either the organization of internal primitives or the wrapping of the envelope. Multiplicity produces an unstable and ambiguous dialogue between inside and outside, background and foreground, vertical and horizontal. Furthermore, these distorted and dislocated of the Medusa-like form “seek to engender shifting affiliations that nevertheless resist entering into stable alignments.” (Kipnis, Towards a New Architecture). In this way, the misalignment and miscoupling of the original arrangement of primitives attempt to create a reading that is both and neither part (pile) or whole (monolith). Simultaneously solid and hollow, uniform and heterogeneous, impregnable and permeable, foreign and familiar, the monolith that is not one stands out as glitch, a disturbance within the dialectical logic and the corollary axiological dichotomies that continue to regulate the theoretical discourse in architecture and persistently sanction the emancipatory virtues of the formless as opposed to the totalizing and repressive authority of the “formed,” the small to the big, the fragmented to the coherent, the transparent to the opaque, the irregular to the orthogonal.

— Rodolfo Machado, Monolithic Architecture

[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.

115

Medusa

117

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.

119

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.

121

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

123

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.

125

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.

127

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.

129

Medusa

Dam Connecticut River Dam and Lock Critics: Greg Lynn (Yale University) & Brennan Buck (Yale University), Spring 2014

The civic character of the dam is defined by two problems: 2) its elements are experienced as disparate parts 1) its elements are either underground or private. This dam unifies all these parts with a formal language of interiority and transparency that folds them into the wall of the dam. The dam reveals within this space what is underground or private by exposing the mechanics throughout the facade similar to the Pompidou Center. Translating underground into underwater, the dam uses the lock to submerge and reveal its mechanics between the upstream and downstream of the river. These elements become figure and relief within a new space that is both exterior and interior.

[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 shnowing view from upstream

133

Dam

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

135

Dam

137

Dam

139

Dam

141

Dam

[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.

143

Dam

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

145

Dam

Visualization Critics: Sunil Bald, Kent Bloomer (Yale University), Fall 2011 Ben Pell, John Eberhart (Yale University), Spring 2012 George Knight, John Eberhart (Yale University), Summer 2012 Published in Retrospecta 2011-2012 Published in Retrospecta 2012-2013 Featured in Big Plans exhibition 2012 Featured in drawing exhibition 2012

[00] Visualization II Drawing 17 x 22”, graphite. [01] Visualization II Drawing 17 x 22”, graphite. [02] Visualization II Drawing 17 x 22”, charcoal over print.

149

Visualization

151

Visualization

04 [03] Visualization II Drawing 17 x 22”, render. [04] Visualization II Drawing 17 x 22”, graphite over print. [05] Visualization II Drawing 17 x 22”, graphite over print.

153

Visualization

[06] Visualization III Model with Jon Swendris [07] Visualization III Drawing with Jon Swendris

155

Visualization

[08] Visualization III Render Final project with Henry Chan, Daniel Jacobs, Evan Wiskup [09] Visualization III Diagram Final project with Henry Chan, Daniel Jacobs, Evan Wiskup [10] Visualization III Section Final project with Henry Chan, Daniel Jacobs, Evan Wiskup

157

Visualization

[11] Visualization III Section Final project with Henry Chan, Daniel Jacobs, Evan Wiskup [12] Visualization III Prototype Final project with Henry Chan, Daniel Jacobs, Evan Wiskup [13] Visualization III Prototype Final project with Henry Chan, Daniel Jacobs, Evan Wiskup

159

Visualization

14 [14] Visualization IV Peabody studies 17 x 22”, graphite. [15] Visualization IV Peabody studies 17 x 22”, graphite. [16] Visualization IV Peabody studies 17 x 22”, graphite. [17] Visualization IV Peabody studies 17 x 22”, graphite.

[18] Visualization IV final animation 90 second animation short collapsiing the different axis of Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute, with Elisa Iturbe, Jon Swendris, Sheena Zhang [19] Visualization IV final drawing 4 x 6’ dystopic drawing of the ground splitting underneath Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute, mixed media over gypsum board, with Elisa Iturbe, Jon Swendris, Sheena Zhang

161

Visualization

163

Visualization

165

Visualization

Formal Analysis Critics: Peter Eisenman (Yale University), Fall 2011 Featured in Is Drawing Dead? exhibition 2012

It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t until the fifteenth century that two of the most important ideas for the discipline of architecture were defined: the human subject and his or her space of occupation. The course will attempt to outline through lectures, readings, drawings, and critiques the evolution of these two terms in the period of time from 1450-1750, the time of the rise and fall of Western Humanism and the advent of the Enlightenment. The course will attempt to familiarize the student with the theoretical implications for todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s architect as they appeared in Italy in this time period.

[00] Piranesi drawing [01] Borromini drawing [02] Serlio drawing

169

Formal Analysis

Disheveled Geometries Towards a New Rustication in Architecture Critic: Prof. Mark Foster Gage (Yale University) Year: 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.

173

Disheveled Geometries

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

175

Disheveled Geometries

[05] Renderings Color studies following the weaving pattern.

177

Disheveled Geometries

Graphic Inquiry Critic: Luke Bulman (Yale University), Fall 2012 Published in Retrospecta 2012-2013

The subject of inquiry is camouflage. The importance of this subject has been studied for at least two hundred years, starting with the father of evolution, Charles Darwin, leading to the artistic endeavors of Abbott Thayer and Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola, and contributing to its current notorious uses in military and fashion. To maybe oversimplify, camouflage can be defined as “the property of an object that renders it difficult to detect or recognize by virtue of its similarity to its environment.” In this definition, camouflage has taken the form of familiar concepts and themes that are concerned with imitation, coloration, patterning, shape-shifting, optical illusion and at its most extreme, invisibility. However, leaving out the precise details of its extensive historical development and its practical and cultural deployment, this inquiry was more interested in evaluating camouflage as a catalog of effects concerned with relationship between foreground and background, subject and surroundings, figure and ground, organism and milieu, etc. In this sense, camouflage is a phenomenon of immersive concealment through mechanisms of convergence such as layering, blending, blurring, fragmenting, disrupting, etc. Of particular interest were several terms that have been used to describe and classify various types of camouflage in various studies over the past two centuries by scientist and artists: blending, disruptive, coincident disruption, self-shadow concealment, obliterative shading, flicker-fusion camouflage, distractive markings, motion dazzle, motion camouflage, transparency, silvering, masquerade and mimicry. In this inquiry, each of these terms have attempted to be defined and differentiated through their particular effects as surface treatment. Beyond its familiar associations with protective coloration, this phenomenon becomes a model for a spatial representation that aims to confuse notions of form and depth predominantly through perception. The examples emerging from this inquiry also begin to suggest in the viewer a sense of awareness with a different kind of relationship than what was the original theme of inquiry: it appears almost as a relationship of the background to the background or the foreground to the foreground. In other words, in the processes of camouflage that ultimately bring the background to the foreground and vice versa, the subject itself ceases to perform its distinctive function and characteristics, while the observer is re-oriented and cautioned towards specific information pertaining to context; on one hand, there is the obliteration of the subject, on the other, there is the emergence of its surroundings. In this inversion, camouflage operates visually in what may seem to be opposite ways, flickering between being seen and at the same time resembling something else. 1 Stevens, Martin, and Sami Merilaita. Animal Camouflage: Mechanisms and Function. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print. 2 Forbes, Peter. Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Print.

[00] Text/Images pamphlet [01] Text pamphlet [02] Animated gif

181

Graphic Inquiry

183

Graphic Inquiry

Squished Assemblies with Ryan Connolly, Isaiah Miller Critics: Prof. Tom Wiscombe (Sci-Arc), Nate Hume (Yale University), Fall 2012

This seminar studied how composite, multi-material, and multi-layer surfaces can exceed the polarity between technology and ornament. Conventional assemblies, characterized by trabeated systems and hardware, were questioned in favor of meta-assemblies produced by squishing, embedding, inlaying, gluing, and melting. Super-thin and low-profile energy, lighting, thermal, and composite structural systems were blended with systems of formal and graphic articulation (a.k.a. tattoos), to produce as architecture of all skin, no bones, and no body. Through delamination and re-lamination, these architectural skins are able to vary from razor thin to thick, creating internal figuration, voids, and poche space that is unattainable with conventional construction. Apertures were also be considered, in terms of the mediation and figuration of views through and into squished assemblies.

[00] Detail render [01] Elevation render

187

Squished Assemblies

[02] Fabrication [03] Exploded Diagram Axonometric showing different layers of panel. [04] Fabrication [05] Perspective renderings

189

Squished Assemblies

Parts Is Parts Component Production in Contemporary Architecture with Mohamed Nazmy Critics: Ben Pell (Yale University), Spring 2013 Published in Retrospecta 2012-2013

This seminar examines the component nature of architectural production, specifically at the interface between the customarily distinct practices of fabrication and construction. Looking at a range of historical and contemporary examples, the seminar explores ways in which constructional techniques and typologies have been both restricted and propelled by limitations of scaleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;often provoking new directions in design technique and production technology. Readings and case studies in the first half of the term are used to outline the history and theories of modern production practices, from 1851 to the present, and serve as the basis for a series of material studies to be produced at full scale.

[00] Curve milling study [01] Final project [02] Curve milling study cast [03] Final project [04] Folding study

193

Parts Is Parts

Rome Continuity and Change Critics: Stephen Harby, Alexander Purves, Bimal Mendis (Yale University), Summer 2013 Featured in Rome exhibition 2013

This intensive four-week summer workshop took place in Rome and provided a broad overview of that cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s major architectural sites, topography, and systems of urban organization. Examples from antiquity to the twentieth century were studied as a sequence of layered accretions. Joined by knowledgeable archeologists and historians of Rome, students were given in-depth lectures and on site guided tours. The seminar examines historical continuity and change as well as the ways in which and the reasons why some elements and approaches were maintained over time and others abandoned. Drawing was used as a primary tool of discovery during explorations of buildings, landscapes, and gardens, both within and outside the city. The course is guided by the conviction that an essential part of an architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s formation is the first hand experience of a broad range of buildings and places of all periods and styles. True possession of them comes about not only through the intellect but equally critically, through the body by inhabiting and measuring them and through the hand by drawing them.

[00] Final drawing [01] Final drawing

197

Rome

[02] Sketches [03] Sketches [04] Sketches [05] Sketches -

199

Rome

Parallel Moderns Gardella Critics: Dean Robert A.M. Stern (Yale University), Fall 2013 Published in Retrospecta 2013-2014 Featured in Outlook exhibition 2014

Modern and ancient are really always relative terms. The hour in which we are living was the future of the hour preceding it, becomes past for the hour that follows. Frankly, I am not interested in whether an architect considers himself Modern, Ancient or Post-Modern.

— Gardella, 1986 Throughout the course of his career, Ignazio Gardella played an active role in challenging the major currents in the history of Italian modern architecture. Against the strict rationalist orthodoxy of the twentieth century, Gardella, alongside his fellow peers in Italy, advocated a dialectical relationship between the extremes of tradition and of innovation that characterized the Modern Movement. [...] This essay will study the contributions Ignazio Gardella put forward during these two periods by seeing how in the span of 20 years, efforts were made to reconcile vernacular and historical references with the contemporary principles of modern architecture. Although Gardella visibly adhered to the accepted spirit of rationalism as Modernism began its course, going back as early as 1934 with his Tuberculosis Clinic at Allessandria, he carefully introduced his own traditional scheme into the more orthodox gridded frame. It was only until after the interwar years, at a time when Wright’s architecture was promoted by the Association for Organic Architecture (APAO) and Le Corbusier’s ‘International Style’ was dominating the rest of Europe, that a range of his masterpieces were built, with the Casa al Parco in Milan (19471948), the Apartment House for the Borsalino Employees at Allessandria (1950-1952), the Church at Cesate (1957) and the Casa alle Zattere (1953-1958). During this period, Gardella suggested the same opposition he made to Italian Rationalism to either streams of Modernism in a more integral response by paying closer attention to history, context and construction. Finally, in the 1970s and 1980s, the last years of his work moved on to larger scale projects that still answered to the formal and contextual clarity of this critical attitude. That same process of recollecting vernacular tradition to challenge orthodox Modernism can be traced back to the youngest point of Gardella’s career in the 1930s. And while it found its most success as he became an exponent of the Italian Modern Movement in the 1950s, it carried out through the later stages of his career.

[01] “Strada Vecchia” elevation [01] “Strada Vecchia” model

203

Parallel Moderns

Patternism Final project with Nick McAdoo Critics: Brennan Buck (Yale University), Spring 2014

Over the last two decades, digital form has energized Modernismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s neutral field to produce undulating surfaces tense with potential energy. Topological surfaces, deployed at an architectural scale, define spaces of constantly shifting size, proportion, and orientation. These surfaces are enabled by calculus rather than geometry and are characterized by vectors and flows more than stable points and planes. This seminar proposes that a formalism combining the continuity of topological surfaces and the articulation of tectonics, enabled by the precise modulation of computation, might catalyze a more diverse mode of formal continuity: pattern. After briefly establishing a theoretical foundation, the seminar focuses on exploiting the full potential of Grasshopper software. First through the lens of material flow (structural loads) and then through spatial experience, poles of repetition/redundancy/ continuity on one hand and stocasticity/variation on the other hand are explored. By modulating the relationships between objects and spaces, the seminar investigates multilevel structural and spatial hierarchiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;hierarchies of position, scale, and connectionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;while maintaining what Gregory Bateson called the great aesthetic unity that patterns produce.

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

207

Patternism

[03] Section [04] Plans

209

Patternism

211

Patternism

[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] Assignemnt 3 render [13] Assignemnt 4 render [14] Assignment 1 drawing

213

Patternism

215

Patternism

217

Patternism

219

Patternism

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