Kurt A Marsh | design portfolio

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M A R S H

M.ARCH + M.L.A. | UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

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c l i m a t i c f a b r i c s - soft surface operations

2009 2010

o b s c u r e d p e r c e p t i o n s - digital fabrication

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[ Lucia Phinney ]

[ Jeff Ponitz + David Malda ]

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2 3 K U R T

C ONTE NTS OF TABLE

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2011 2012

s t r i a t e d p a s s a g e - independent study | fabrication

p o p l a r w a r d r o b e - work done for Dripps + Phinney Studio

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l a b y r i n t h i n e v o l u m e s - competition entry

2010

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2008

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[ Robin Dripps ]

2009 2009

h e r e f o r d a c a d e m i c e d g e - studio arch601

t h e f a r m e r i n t h e d e l l s c h o o l - studio arch602

n o l a s c h o o l f o r t h e a r t s - studio arch701

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2010

1 0

[ Robin Dripps ]

[ Peter Waldman ]

[ William Williams ]

p o t o m a c s c i e n c e c e n t e r - studio arch801 [ Phoebe Crisman ] e x o s k e l e t a l u r b a n i s m - work done for Dripps + Phinney Studio

2010-11

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2011

t e r r a n o v a : building a new venetian ground -

studio lar702 [ Jorg Sieweke ]

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2011

charlottesville city market studio lar801 [ Beth Meyer ]

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2012

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2012

h u b s t e p : a new way to move in c’ville - competition entry

the anti-turf : an alternative nursery planted form + function [ Julie Bargman +

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2012

1 6

2012

resume

a s l o w | w e t d i a g o n a l - studio alar802

b m o r e p u b l i c w a t e r - thesis

[ Robin Dripps ]

Colston Burrell ] [ Margarita Jover ]

The canopies of trees that provide shaded spaces in the summer lose their leaves to allow sunlight to penetrate to the ground in winter when it is needed for warmth. Likewise, in order to maintain a relatively consistent level of comfort, a constructed microclimatic space must be flexible to accommodate changes in the surrounding environment. The modular form of the triangle used in our construction can be reconfigured to allow for more or less penetration by the elements of sun and wind: a denser, more solid, configuration offers fuller protection from the elements, while a loser configuration has minimal impact, perhaps only shading the inhabitants face from the direct light.

The project demonstrates that with an economy of inexpensive materials, a light, portable, intervention can succeed in creating beautiful spaces that can be manipulated by their inhabitants to adapt to a multitude of shifting environments.

design | construction photomontage - white and aluminet shade fabrics, aluminum conduit, steel hardware, plastic zip-ties, wire study model

Advisor : Lucia Phinney Collaborators : Jie Huang + Erin Root S o f t S u r f a c e O p e r a t i o n s | Fa l l 2 0 0 9

C L I M AT I C FA B R I C S

The perception of a change in climatic conditions can mark a soft, flexible, boundary between different spaces. Using fabric surfaces to manipulate the flow of sunlight and wind, our group has articulated spaces with their own microclimates similar to those created by shading tree canopies or a sheltering hedgerow in the landscape.

modules assembled in looser configuration (permeable enclosure)

modules assembled in tighter configuration (dense shelter)

Collaborator : Jie Huang

REVISITED

C L I M AT I C FA B R I C S :

NARRATIVE | Dust blows in saffron curls around bandaged feet. The tendrils whip at their burnt cheeks, lashing them onward. The wind is picking up, and the sun is getting high. The people must reach a valley and assemble shelter before the heat of the day: there are children in the group, and their faces have yet to leather enough to survive midday exposure.

The distinct sparkles below signal an afternoon settlement. They have found a low spot, maybe even low enough to sustain a filmy puddle.

Their shelters reflect the sun away, and have come to be the sole cheerful beacons in a rarely articulated expanse.

The aluminet fabric was once used in the hill towns of Italy to extend the growing season of succulent tomatoes. The tomato plants stopped producing flesh long ago – now seeds are dispersed in shriveled satchels, bleached a milky pastel pink.

The fabric has become our livelihood. We sewed it in layers and stretched it across lightweight frames to create modules that are assembled and dissembled, incessantly. We make patterns with them, configurations that we shift and move about to block the sun, to stop the dust, and to focus idle hands. Then we strap them to our backs and move on, like herds of ragged dragonflies crawling across the dirt.

night encampment

desert migration

We drag down the hill toward the prospect of lazy afternoon company. Perhaps they have an old chessboard, or stories to tell. Maybe there is someone among them who remembers, who can conjure images of emerald palaces dripping cool shadows.

Night presents very different threats. The wind brings not only dust, but a dry frost that bites.

Without the sun’s beating, the earth cools and the sky opens. The stars are bright, but they offer no warmth, and their appearance starts a short countdown to temperatures too low to sustain the trek. Again the people must find a suitable place to erect their shelters, and again we have the fortune of spotting familiar shimmers.

In the night their constructions look like ghostly cocoons dotting the desert floor. Through cracks you can see the burning hearts of hibernating creatures, the orange glow of embers reflected.

night - reflected warmth

The fabric modules are turned inward, so that their reflective sides bounce the heat of the fires onto the backs of huddled masses. On cold nights we assemble tighter configurations to block more wind and trap more warmth from fires and radiating bodies.

It is good to camp in clusters: the morning offers a short window for uncovered recreation, and having other groups around makes for better sport. But now is not a social time: we remain in small, tight, clusters around the fire.

day - protective shade

I look out across the encampment. The slender triangles of fabric chain around the fires and glow. They look like I imagine a sumac leaf would have, as it turned blazing red in the autumn chill - but those times are gone. In the morning I will once again don shimmering wings, and walk.

urban inhabitation

material + fabrication

Advisors : Jeff Ponitz + David Malda Collaborator : Jie Huang D i g i t a l Fa b r i c a t i o n | S p r i n g 2 0 1 0

OBSCURED PERCEPTIONS

This investigation began with a desire to use the parametric modeling program, Grasshopper, to create a gradient threedimensional surface that might lend itself to fabrication using the school’s new CNC Router. The Grasshopper software allowed us to develop a consistent geometric logic that could then be disrupted with an adjustable curve of influence to produce multiple iterations of the surface. Various methods of screening were then tested in attempts to create an effect that would change the viewer’s perception of the surface as they moved around it. This shifting perception is created by partially obscuring the surface and using light and shadow to enhance the irregular depths of the contours. The parallel striations were developed as a geometry that could create the desired effect while providing a simple means of joinery through splicing.

These long contoured cuts were also relatively fast and easy for the CNC router to perform.

Furthermore, it was important that these spliced joints be operable to produce the corrugated assembly method that allowed for stable vertical stacking. This also makes the installation adaptable to any number of locations or uses.

S T R I AT E D PA S S AG E

Advisor : Robin Dripps Collaborator : Jie Huang I n d e p e n d e n t S t u d y : Fa b r i c a t i o n | S p r i n g 2 0 1 1

Striated Passage takes inspiration from the infrastructural spaces of an abandoned weather station and a basement steam tunnel to create an ephemeral installation along the 2nd floor gallery of the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture at Campbell Hall. Existing spaces of extreme exposure and enclosure were photographed, sketched, collaged and analyzed for their spatial character. Donated materials commonly seen in boat yards - plastic boat-wrap, rope, and rigging hardware - were fastened together with zip-ties to create a striated passage that stretches along the hallway, drawing visitors from the entrance of the building to the school’s gallery display spaces. Overlapping networks of rope and plastic form a gradient condition along the length of the gallery that creates a forced perspective and juxtaposes against the solidity of the gallery wall.

conceptual collage | tunnel + tower

Collaborators : Robin Dripps, Lucia Phinney + Sarah Cancienne work done for Dripps + Phinney Studio | Summer 2012

tuplic poplar pattern routed into the wardrobe’s sliding doors

stainless steel hardware and sliding track

Poplar Wardrobe is a CNC fabricated project constructed at the home/office/research laboratory of Dripps + Phinney Studio in Batesville, Va. The side wall of the wardrobe consists of clear acrylic fins cut to reflect the constructed and natural topography of the office and its landscape. The front wall is four large sliding doors each made of four CNC routed acrylite panels mounted on welded steal frames that slide along a steal track attached to the ceiling trusses. The pattern routed into the doors was derived by parametrically sampling photos of the overlapping branching and leafing patterns of the Tulip Poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera) that meter the office’s view out toward the Blue Ridge Mountains.

material + fabrication

POPL AR WARDROBE

clear acrylic fins form one side of the wardrobe

Collaborator : Jie Huang DesCours competition entry : 2010

positive volumes

The typology of small courtyards that exists in New Orlean’s French Quarter constitutes a labyrinthine network of niches of various spatial and experiential qualities. This proposal takes the unique character of this network as the inspiration for creating a maze-like construction that displays a similar level of spatial variety and irregularity within the confines of a smaller outdoor space.

negative spaces

positive volumes + negative spaces

accentuated passages + positive volumes + negative spaces

diagram of volumes + paths | prototypical configuration

The assembly of overlapping rectangular volumes of drastically differing dimensions creates a variety of spaces within the courtyard: spaces of passage, spaces to pause, spaces for gathering, and more intimate spaces.

The rectangles and the articulated passages between them would have an outer skin of black shade fabric that would give the initial outward appearance of an ephemeral dark presence within the courtyard. The interior skins would consist largely of aluminet shade fabric, which would give the inside a shimmering appearance as light is reflected about the spaces.

Participants would be given small LED lights that would be used to illuminate the way as they navigate the spaces. The light from these would shine through the different fabrics to throw web-like shadows on the interior surfaces, and allow one to trace the activities of other individuals as they move through the installation. From the exterior, the dark volumes will illuminate with activity.

kagricultural shade fabric - black 60% + aluminet 40%; LED lights - red + white

kee klamp system; black galvanized conduit;

L ABYRINTHINE VOLUMES

French Quarter diagram : buildings + courtyards

pavilion entrance | prototypical configuration

interior perspective | prototypical configuration

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city + university + nature

3 - hydrology field disturbance

Fa l l 2 0 0 8

Advisor : Rboin Dripps

C H A R LO T T E S V I L L E , VA

HEREFORD ACADEMIC EDGE

conceptual model |

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topography

4-

articulated edges + seams

Hereford Academic Edge is an academic facility at the edge of Hereford College at the University of Virginia. Library stacks, computer facilities, and both indoor and outdoor study and auditorium spaces are situated along the site’s steep topography following a field strategy of overlapping grids. The grids reflect the orientation of Jefferson’s University as it meets the Charlottesville city grid here at the edge of Grounds. They intersect on site and are altered by a seasonal stream and the welcome intrusion of the forest ecology that abuts the site to the West. Planes terrace down the slopes creating spaces for gathering and sharing information, while a central corridor is given over to the flow of water and supported vegetation. A system of stairs, ramps, and catwalks connects the two sides and allow people to filter though the facility and out to the University, the neighborhood, or the forests of Observatory Hill. The topographic edge is articulated on both of its sides by earthwork and supported architectural spaces that house social and intellectual activities engaging the University, the City, and their natural surroundings. plan view | earthwork + structure

porous edges | study spaces + library

landscape corridor | seasonal stream, vegetation + circulation displaced topography | rooftop, balcony + catwalk network

Spring 2009

A d v i s o r : Pe t e r Wa l d m a n

C H A R LO T T E S V I L L E , VA

T H E FA R M E R I N T H E D E L L S C H O O L

site plan

classroom / orchard edge

overall perspective | classrooms + main bldg

circulation + layered construction

The Farmer in the Dell School is an elementary school by day and local culinary institute by night. The school is located on Emmet Rd between the UVA Dell stormwater retention landscape and the Curry School of Education. It takes the geometries and programs of these adjacencies as cues for the development of a learning landscape of classrooms, productive gardens, orchards, and large cooking, dinning and picnic areas. The spaces are organized along a long ramp/walkway that runs diagonally along the site with a central geometric collision as the main kitchen, dinning and library space. This is a large and layered construction of intersecting volumes of glass and scaffolding that creates several open stories overlooking a main atrium with a view to the dell. Classrooms face the pond and are elevated above the floodplane to maximize view and create sheltered outdoor classrooms below. A recreational parkscape of striating stone walls and large floodplane trees adds to the functioning public space of the dell and buffers the school grounds from the busy road. This school creates a didactic and productive landscape populated with indoor and outdoor spaces for education, agriculture, the culinary arts, and social gathering around food.

1st floor plan

2nd floor plan

3rd floor plan

main bldg model

parkscape | night

diagonal EW looking South

parkscape | day

sections :

diagonal EW looking North

Fa l l 2 0 0 9

Advisor : William Williams

NEW ORLEANS, LA

N O L A S C H O O L F O R T H E A RT S

The New Orleans School for the Arts is an arts high school and dormitory located on the edge of the historic French Quarter, along an earthen levee and a concrete floodwall, in a neighborhood badly affected by flooding during Hurricane Katrina. The building geometries mediate between the orthogonal grid of the mixed industrial/residential neighborhood to the North and the slight curve of the Mississippi river to the South, so that building components meet at oblique angles to create a variety of nuanced indoor and outdoor spaces within the trapezoidal site. In section, the building steps up from the street to create terraces with northern exposure and provide visual access over the floodwall to the river and downtown New Orleans. The overlap of two geometric orientations allows for different programs to occupy distinct spaces while remaining connected through non-orthogonal courtyards and rooftop terraces. This way spaces for fine arts, theatre, dance, music, and dormitories can be shifted and stacked along the site drawing students and visitors through their shared outdoor spaces and connecting neighborhood to river via intellectual and creative activity.

3rd floor plan

library with view over floodwall

2nd floor plan

sidewalk view into courtyard

1st floor plan

ground floor + site plan

courtyard interior

rectangular volume

2.

terraced

3. courtyard subtracted to create floating field station

longitudinal section

exterior metal wall construction

1.

courtyard glass wall + balcony construction

Fa l l 2 0 1 0

Advisor : Phoebe Crisman

W O O D B R I D G E , VA

GMU PEREC SCIENCE CENTER

POTOMAC SCIENCE CENTER :

massing diagram sequence :

exploded axon (bldg layers) : 3rd floor plan

5. metal screens

4. grassland roofscape 2nd floor plan

3. glazing + metal walls 1st floor plan

2. circulation + vertical cores

ground floor + site plan

1. concrete base + vertical cores

courtyard rendering

W O O D B R I D G E , VA

F L O AT I N G L E A R N I N G L A B

POTOMAC SCIENCE CENTER :

Belmont Bay is in need of a node of activity within the community, one that will simultaneously invigorate the harbor’s street life and allow members and visitors to understand the bay’s place within its larger social and ecological context.

George Mason University’s (GMU) Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC) laboratory building and its harbor-side site can fill this need in a way that showcases the education and environmental stewardship inherent in the PEREC program.

The site’s central location within the Belmont Bay community and its immediate adjacency to the community’s most attractive amenity, the Occoquan River, makes it a potential catalyst for the construction of a more lively and connected social and ecological community: As a social and ecological hub, the building is designed to be porous and penetrable; light-weight, and able to allow for the passage of different social and environmental systems. The building is conceived as a four story rectangular volume that takes up the entirety of the site. The volume is divided into rectangular modules that can be shifted and removed to allow for the fluid entrance of sun from above and social activity on the ground floor. The resulting courtyard space is open to street and sky and functions as the center of circulation and social interaction for the building’s regular occupants and its many visitors.

floating field station model (plan view)

floating field station rendering

The scientists at PEREC want a small field station on the Occoquan River for closer, hands on, research and learning of the freshwater tidal ecosystem. The same layered construction method is utilized to create several sheltered research labs and classrooms. A network of smaller wooden walkways and floating wetlands aggregates around these research platforms and creates a series of mesocosms of different types and sizes for more controlled analysis of the local ecosystem. A skeletal lookout tower/weather station anchors this matrix of platforms, mesocosms, and floating wetlands to the shore, and marks the entrance with a visible vertical element.

This project demonstrates that a building need not be a place for human activity alone, but can foster meaningful, didactic, interaction between community and environment.

floating field station plan + sections

observation tower + entrance - fisheye perspective

Collaborators : Robin Dripps, Lucia Phinney + Sarah Cancienne work done for Dripps + Phinney Studio | Summer 2010+11

B A LT I M O R E , M D

E XO S K E L E TA L U R B A N I S M

parametric scaffolding : block infill based on parameters of orientation and geometry

map of areas of high vacancy

scaffolding | night

1-

existing green space few large parks and cemetaries

2 - productive green networks start to infiltrate areas of high property vacancy

3-

decentralized, emergent, networks create a new connectivity diagram for Baltimore

Exoskeletal Urbanism sees the proliferation of abandoned lots, alley networks, and vacant homes that exist in the US post-industrial city as spaces of opportunity, where a logic of light-weight, flexible, infrastructure can accrete over time to support myriad urban ecological systems. The city was examined at several scales - from urban scale, to the Charles-North neighborhood, down to a single block - to develope a parametric logic for how a scaffolding construction might infill vacant lots, block interiors, and alley networks, creating a new connective network through the neighborhood. This scaffolding would support networks of progressive farms and markets; salvage and construction operations; grey water catchement and public laundromats; roofwater catchement and underground cisterns; and stormwater catchement and bioswales and healing street trees. The project was completed over two summers at Dripps + Phinney Studio using parametric research and analysis, process and systems design, and visualization. I was involved in all aspects of the project but focused the first summer on parametric research and design with Grasshopper and the second summer on the design, fabrication, and construction of a CNC routed and lasercut model made entirely of cast acrylic and steal hardware.

axon | street intersection systems sketch

E XO S K E L E TA L U R B A N I S M :

B A LT I M O R E , M D

SYSTEMS MODEL

M o d e l Ke y :

Pedestrian Path Network Sidewalks and alleyways traverse streets and blocks creating myriad options for pedestrian movement around the city.

Water Flows Clean water is collected from rooftops and stored underground in cisterns. Contaminated surface flows are directed through filtration beds and cleaning basins for use in the neighborhood laundromat.

Scaffolding Lightweight, modular, scaffolding structures support urban infrastructures, allowing the city’s social, economic, and ecological activity to extend vertically.

Row House Party Walls Strong party walls support scaffolding infrastructure.

Socioeconomic Nodes Each block has at least one hub of activity that acts as a scocial and economic interface for the block (i.e. food/beverage shops, markets, salvage/recycling operations, laundromats, etc.).

Extruded Streets The existing street grid is reinvigorated with layers of social, ecological, and hydrological activity.

Cistern Networks Chains of concrete cisterns burried underneath impermeable alleyways collect and store roofwater for each block.

Socioeconomic Connectivity The base geometry is a triangulated web connecting the the neighborhoods’ socioeconomic nodes.

Spring 2011

Advisor : Jorg Sieweke Collaborators : Erin Root + Julie Price

T H E V E N E T I A N L A G O O N , I T A LY

Venice symbolizes the strange beauty that is possible when human habitation adapts itself to extreme environmental surroundings. Sea level rise and climate change place the Venetian lagoon at a critical juncture in its existence and necessitate new techniques of adaptation.

Terra Nova proposes a new, more flexible set of methods to build ground, improve biodiversity, and permit human access to these critical processes in order to allow this unique city and ecosystem to survive.

current lagoon : erosion, islands, boat traffic, salt marshes + mudflats

GROUNDBUILDING LACE | Terra Nova proposes an aquatic geotextile that could be employed throughout the lagoon as part of a new groundbuilding regime of incremental sediment accretion and supplementation. The geotextile uses patterns of perforations that open and expand like gills to capture and hold sediment. This would encourage a slow and varied buildup of ground and the shifting emergence of a diversity of lagoon morphologies and interdependent ecosystems.

FLOATING WETLANDS / PATH NETWORK | To protect against erosion and pollution from boat traffic, the edge between channel and newly accreting ground would be thickened by a network of floating treatment wetland islands. These islands are made of a matrix of recycled plastic curls that supports plant growth and provides habitat for marine invertebrates. The network is a voronoi pattern that is parametrically derived along curve geometries that thicken and thin to create more or less biomass for varying protection and habitat needs.

TIDAL STAIR | In places, the voronoi pattern tightens and regularizes to create a floating walkway that allows residents and visitors to occupy this emerging world of ecological activity. The walkway would be accessed through a new typology of stairs that would attach at key places along the hard vertical edges of the city. These large terracing stairs would retract and extend as an evocative new register of tidal flux that allows for constant access to the water. The pathways would provide new publically accessible waterfronts in emerging residential zones and allow pedestrian access to some of the city’s mysterious and beautiful peripheral islands that are currently marginalized and underused.

TERRA NOVA :

BUILDING A NEW VENETIAN GROUND

day render : groundbuilding lace + lagoon floating wetland/walkway network

night render : tidal stairs + urban floating wetland/walkway network

This multifunctional operation of ground building lace, floating wetland/walkway networks, and tidal stairs would bring the richness of the lagoon’s ecology into closer proximity with the city of Venice and give it a more evocative and accessible presence within the lagoon. By diversifying and protecting the ecological activity within the lagoon, and allowing people to experience these processes, the project aims to change the perception of Venice from that of a postcard image of narrow alleys and gondola-filled canals to a fantastic city in which the urban fabric, history, and practices are inextricably connected to the processes that constitute this unique lagoon environment.

T H E V E N E T I A N L A G O O N , I T A LY

occupying and traversing Venice’s hard edges via terraces that retract and extend with the tide.

GROUNDBUILDING LACE :

FLOATING WETLANDS | PATH NETWORK :

gradients of perfortating and weaving

adaptive geometries create an occupiable erosion

encourage varied land accretion over time.

50cm 40cm 30cm 20cm 10cm above msl

Inula crithmoides

Puccinellia palustris “puccinellia”

Aster tripolium “aea aster”

Limonium narbonense “sea lavendar”

Sarcocornia fruticosa “glasswort”

Suaeda maritima “annual seablithe”

Juncus maritimus “sea rush”

Sarcocornia fruticosa “glasswort”

Inula crithmoides

Puccinellia palustris “puccinellia”

Sarcocornia fruticosa “glasswort”

spartima maritima “common cordgrass”

Limonium narbonense “sea lavendar”

Aster Tripolium “aea aster”

Sarcocornia fruticosa “glasswort”

Suaeda maritima “annual seablithe”

Juncus maritimus “sea rush”

Sarcocornia fruticosa “glasswort”

Puccinellia palustris “puccinellia”

Inula crithmoides

TERRA NOVA :

buffers and a thickened ecotone for new ground.

Inula crithmoides

BUILDING A NEW VENETIAN GROUND

TIDAL STAIR :

Larus michahellis “Gabbiano reale” Haematopus ostralegus “Beccaccia di mare” Haematopus haematopus “Cavaliere d’Italia” Recurvirostra avosetta “Avocetta” Tringa totamus “Pettegola” Tadorna tadorna “Valpoca” Anas platyrynchos “Germano reale” Charadrius alexandrinus “Fratino”

barene elevation above mean sea level: 0.24-0.50m

periwinkles barnacles

tidal creeks

avg. tidal range: 0.6-1.1m

0.10-1m deep

mussels mud worms grey crab green crab oysters

lagoon mean depth: 1.5m

PROTOTYPICAL PLAN : giudecca | isola la grazia

ECOLOGICAL SECTION :

mudflat

high marsh

medium marsh

low marsh salinity=25-35%

groundbuilding lace

buffering floating wetland

Fa l l 2 0 1 1

Advisor : Beth Meyer

C H A R LO T T E S V I L L E , VA

CHARLOTTESVILLE CITY MARKET

conceptual models :

model 1 - bathtub topography

urban context | site diagram

This project reimagines the edge of an urban stream valley as a two story line of market clusters linked to a daylit stream and an urban playground. This 500’ constructed edge will act as a shared front porch joining the residential neighborhoods around the downtown mall across a corridor of heightened social and ecological activity. This corridor will draw social activity from the downtown Mall to the North and connect this to the ecological, hydrological, and recreational activities of the Rivanna River and its associated trail network via Pollocks Run and Moore’s Creek to the South.

urban framework plan

- social and ecological flows interact along the length of the site

model 2 - explosive intersections

- lines, edges and adjacencies

model 3 - figured edges

C H A R LO T T E S V I L L E , VA

CHARLOTTESVILLE CITY MARKET

The 6th St. edge is constructed as a two-story market porch that is fragmented to accommodate various scales of activity, from the full Saturday market, to smaller weekday market clusters. The edge is covered by an undulating canopy structure that sets up a meter for vendor clusters and individual stalls and provides simple tables and benches. When not operating as a full market, the structure will provide an armature for social gathering such as community meetings, bbqs, picnics, street sports and general frontporch activities.

plan :

sections :

FA L L

The construction of this edge is closely linked to the daylighting of Pollocks run, a culverted stream that runs underneath the site. The streambed is constructed as a series of gently tilted planes that encourage slow filtering sheet flow and support verdant wetland vegetation. The stream leads residents and visitors along the market edge and under Monticello Ave to the former IX factory site, where postindustrial expanses will be the backdrop for an urban playground of basketball courts, and pavilions.

SUMMER

SPRING

WINTER

stream corridor + market edge section model

IX industrial playground + canopy curvature studies

C H A R LO T T E S V I L L E , VA

CHARLOTTESVILLE CITY MARKET

The site is poised at the intersection of several distinct communities and processes, each crucially involved in the physical and social shaping of downtown Charlottesville. Figuring this important edge as a shared front porch, market and playground for the adjacent communities will change this site from a problematic divide to a connective element for downtown Charlottesville. The varied scales and qualities of this constructed edge and the temporal nature of the various programs of market, stream corridor, linear park, and playground will support rhythmic occupations by all of the site’s adjacent influences in spaces that are distinct yet connected.

Advisor : Margarita Jover 8 s t u d e n t t e a m l e d b y Ku r t M a r s h a n d M a u re e n M c G e e Belmont Bridge competition | Spring 2012

C H A R LO T T E S V I L L E , VA

A N E W WAY T O M OV E I N C ’ V I L L E

HUB STEP :

We understand the new Belmont bridge as a surface of collective experience - an activated public space that builds upon the ideology of the Halprin’s vision for the Charlottesville Downtown Mall. The bridge is envisioned as an extension of the public space of the mall – a continuous urban surface supporting fluid connections across the railroad as well as creating spaces of exchange above and below. This landscape supports a non-hierarchical experience where pedestrians, bikes, cars and public transportation move across a shared surface. The co-existence of different modes of circulation thus becomes a public act, one which engenders new connections and relationships across the City of Charlottesville and the greater region.

The local and regional transportation networks of Charlottesville are currently egregiously disjointed.

Centralizing the various transit modes that connect and support the citizens of Charlottesville provides the opportunity for the bridge to act as an intermodal transit hub for the city. This will be the new threshold to the city, sited at a crucial juncture in the urban fabric, where one arrives via regional transportation and immediately accesses local networks of buses, trolleys, bikes and pedestrian paths.

As a continuation of the Mall the surface bridge peels up to become a landscape of native grassland hillocks crisscrossed by local transport routes. This landscape also wraps in on itself, sheltering spaces below for a larger regional transit terminal and its associated social and commercial activities. The lifted urban crust is punctured by large elliptical apertures that foster vertical exchanges between transport modes, social activity, light. These connect the experience of the sunny grassland above to that of the shaded forest below. The spaces therefore emerge from the folded surface, engage one another, and provide a collective experience of movement. The resulting landscape is one of multiplicity, where our quotidian activities are

section perspective | N-S

section perspective | E-W

presentation model

Spring 2012

Advisor : Margarita Jover

B A RC E LO N A , S PA I N

U R B A N WAT E R M A N A G E M E N T A S P U B L I C L A N D S C A P E G E N E R AT O R

A SLOW | WET DIAGONAL

A Slow / Wet Diagonal proposes connecting Parc de la Segrerra to Parc de Ciutadella and the Mediterranean via a diagonal that slows and stores Barcelona’s seasonally large levels of stormwater and uses this water to support diverging dry and wet public landscapes and sustainable transportation infrastructures. This proposal would alleviate the seasonal flooding that occurs in the low elevation land along the coast of east Barcelona via a new public stormwater infrastructure that sustains connective landscapes for public recreation and circulation across Barcelona’s vast Eixample.

The large elevated surface of the Avenguda Meridiana is transformed into a sponge of sand and gravel that stores and filters stormwater runoff. The water is captured through a perforated concrete surface pattern that both directs it and provides a surface for public activities and circulation. This high sandy corridor fosters a dry, scrubby, landscape of arid plants that is typical to Catalonia.

The hard, dry, surfaces allow for bicycle networks and tramways above and protect an existing metro line from seasonal flooding below. The stormwater slowly moves through the sand and is filtered before seeping out to an existing, partially exposed, metro track that diverges and reconnects to the diagonal as a low elevation trace through the city. The space of this metro track is enlarged and repurposed as a series of retention ponds surrounded by terraced park spaces where the partially filtered water is used to maintain a more mesic environment that creates a cool, lush, and quiet public landscape. At the diagonal’s southern terminus the Zoological Park is redesigned as an urban park striped with small cafes, bars, picnic pavilions, and sports fields as well as public lockers and restrooms.

The grand structure of French Station is repurposed to shelter a water park with various indoor/outdoor pools and saunas, and paths that connect the old city to the new diagonal. The urban park bridges across Ronda Litoral to create a physical connection between Parc de la Ciutadella, the beach, and the Sea. This project proposes a new, public, stormwater infrastructure to capture and use east Barcelona’s stormwater before it creates flooding problems in the low elevation neighborhoods along the coast and in the Besos River delta. This stormwater infrastructure shapes varying public landscapes and ecosystems for recreation, transportation, and small-scale commerce that extends the public landscape of Parc de la Segrerra to downtown Barcelona and the Sea.

storage capacity : 3,600,000 cubic feet / 1,000,000 cubic meters

B A RC E LO N A , S PA I N

A SLOW | WET DIAGONAL

Upper landscape : the storage sponge

( 1,951,563 sq.ft. area x 5 ft. avg. depth x 30% for course sand matrix))

Lower landscape : the wetland microclimate storage capacity : 1,300,000 cubic feet / 35,000 cubic meters

Upper Site - existing

410,963 sq.ft. area x 3 ft. avg.

Lower Site - existing

stormwater retention/detention streetscape possibilities - plans + sections

E-W section | perspective looking North

Phoenix dactylifera - Date Palm

Aloe sp. (variety) low to high dense succulent large showy seasonal blooms

Olea europea - Olive silvery foliage, gnarled form

Pinus pinea - Stone Pine scrubby shrub to tree

Celtis australis - European Hackberry

Platanus hispanica - Plane Tree

Quercus faginea - Little-Leafed Oak

Tilia tomentosa - Silver Linden

plant palette two distinct landscape types

Charmaerops humilis - Dwarf Fan Palm palm shrub to stout ttree

Yucca sp. (variety) low to high dense succulent large showy seasonal blooms

Pistacia lentiscus - Pistacio

Pinus halepensis - Alapo Pine

Salix sp. - Willow (variety) from loose shrubs to large wide trees

Acacia saligna (sp.) - Acacia yellow blooming dense waterbank shrub

Populus nigra - Lombardy Poplar

water cycle diagrams rainfall data + seasonal diagrams

kurt a. marsh

T h e J o n e s Fa l l s Corridor :

1773

This project redesigns the space of a culverted river and an elevated highway as a multifunctional infrastructural public corridor connecting downtown Baltimore through hydrological and social activity.

1600

Creating a corridor for visible stormwater management introduces an alternative spatial logic into the urban fabric of downtown Baltimore – a field strategy that is gradient and flexible so as to fit within and respond to varying site geometries and conditions. This responsive organizational logic informs 1700 the structures for alternative social and ecological occupations of the site.

The underutilized artery through the center of Baltimore is thus transformed into a vibrant intensified space where the intersection of transportation and hydrological infrastructures breeds new spatial typologies for hybrid public spaces.

1801

1661 - David Jones settles on the East Bank; Jonestown is formed

1869

1729 - Baltimore Town forms on the West Bank; river provides transportation, drinking water, food, & recreation

1745 - Towns unite to form the City of Baltimore

Baltimore is a city founded on a river, the Jones Falls River. Its urban fabric grew as a response to the infrastructural services provided by the river corridor – transportation, energy for mills, and drainage – so that 800 major streets radiate from 1the corridor, and urban grids shift with the river’s bends. Unfortunately, as Baltimore grew and modernized the street grid was prioritized, and the city began encroaching on the river’s floodplane.

To accommodate this shift in attitude, the lower Jones Falls was adjusted to follow a straight path, and in 1915 it was burried in three large box culverts that run unnoticed through downtown before spilling into the Inner Harbor.

Soon after, the Jones Falls Expressway (JFX) was constructed alongside the buried river to efficiently connect Baltimore’s downtown business districts 1 9 0 0 bypassing to the expanding suburbs by much of the city fabric via this partially elevated highway.

1766 - Harrison Marsh is filled in & the lower river is diverted and channelized

1786 - first recorded flood submerges business district

1805 - the Jones Falls channel is deepened

1804 - a stone & gravel turnpike was built in the Jones Falls valley to connect downtown to the county

2002

1837 - flood wipes-out all bridges; 19 deaths

1868 - flood kills 50 people and causes over $1 million in damage

1910 - lower Jones Falls declared “an odorous, poisonous, water hole” 1915 - Jones Falls buried; construction completed on a 3-bay underground box culvert

1945 - Jones Falls Expressway (JFX) first conceived as a collaboration between Baltimore City officials and Robert Moses 1956 - city approves construction of JFX; mayor D’Alesandro breaks ground 1961 - 1st and 2nd sections open [Charles St. - Jones Falls Rd] 1962 - 3rd section opens [downtown to Beltway]

1983 - EPA names Baltimore stormwater most contaminated in a 28 metropolitan region sampling 1997 - Jones Falls Watershed Association forms

2000

1977 - 1st elevated section completed [Gay to Monument Sts]

1983 - 2nd elevated section completed [to Pleasant St]

1987 - final sections completed [connection to

Presidents St + Inner Harbor]

2010 - Watershed Associations unite; Jones Falls Watershed Association, Herring Run WSA, Gwyns Falls WSA, Baltimore Harbor WSA, & Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper

2005 - first plans proposed to remove portion of elevated expressway 2009 - viaduct study published with proposal to convert JFX to an on-grade green boulevard

A River and a Road : History of the Jones Falls

T h e s i s | Fa l l 2 0 1 2

Advisor : Robin Dripps

B A LT I M O R E , M D

B M O R E P U B L I C WAT E R

river to road a history of Baltimore

B A LT I M O R E , M D

P U B L I C WAT E R

The large linear space of the Jones Falls corridor is naturally situated to treat and retain a significant portion of this urban runoff if the site were organized and designed to accommodate stormwater hydrology through the parameters of purity and volume. By analyzing the topography that surrounds and creates the Jones Falls corridor one can begin to subdivide the watershed area into smaller urban drainage basins that topographically direct surface runoff toward the Jones Falls River. Computational analysis of the topography allows one to get the precise areas of each sub-watershed, and thus the total volume of stormwater that would fall on each during any given design storm. Assuming, conservatively, that Baltimore is completely impervious, and all of the stormwater runoff from the sub-watersheds surrounding the lower Jones Falls River would be dealt with within the space of the Jones Falls/JFX corridor, it is possible to computationally locate and design stormwater basins along the corridor that are each sized according to their maximum needed retention volume. These basins are located at the points where the street grid intersects the edge of the Jones Falls territory, and they are sized ambitiously to handle their portion of the total volume of the 100yr/24hr storm event.

topographic analysis : how topography defines a corridor

1 . c o n t i n u o u s c o n t o u r s d ef i n e t h e J o n es Fa l l s c o rr i d o r

topographic analysis : finding drainage basins, slope, and high/low pts using graph theory [grasshopper + spiderweb]

3 . h ei g h t f i el d s h o w s s t eep v s . s h a l l o w s l o p es

2 . h a t c h er s w i t h mea s u r a b l e s l o p e a n g l e

4. contours & hatchers + circles indicating density of vacant properties

B A LT I M O R E , M D

B M O R E P U B L I C WAT E R

a

b

b a

a

The ground of the corridor is divided to create a parametrically informed field pattern that can accommodate a multitude of flows and programs along the length of the lower Jones Falls.

The ultimate field is a voronoi pattern based on an irregular grid of points that radiates in a gradient from the curvature of the river. These points were shifted, added to, and subtracted from in response to flows of transportation and hydrology entering and crossing the site. The resulting voronoi pattern reflects the site’s physical geometries, as well as the various social, infrastructural, and hydrological forces acting along the corridor. The voronoi cells allow for the shaping of retention basins based on the parameters of volume, site geometry, and spatial constraint. The basins terrace down from the street toward the river to create a filtration sequence for the polluted urban runoff.

Existing roads cross the corridor on grade and bring water and street life to the terraces of the retention basins, and the underside of the JFX is activated as a public space sheltered by the expressway and serviced by transportation, energy, and water infrastructure. The edges of this covered space are populated by thin branching structures that derive their form from the edges of the voronoi field pattern. These branching structures bridge from the ground to the JFX and support occupation and movement between the two. The curvilinear scaffolds plug into the underside of the JFX as the high-speed movement of the expressway is seen as an opportunity to generate electricity. Small wind turbines are embedded in a screen that runs vertically alongside the highway and twists to become canopy in places where bus stops and drop-off points are added. The bus stops would allow people to take buses into the city and switch at points along the highway to other local bus routes, or to bicycle or foot transportation.

The underside of the highway would have a robust bicycle and pedestrian network weaving alongside existing roads and new program.

pt / voronoi manipulation : abstracted study

b

1 -

reg u l ar g ri d of p oi n t s

2 -

g ri d warp s i n resp on se t o t h e J on es Fal l s cu rv e

3 -

J on es Fal l s cu rv e d i st u rb s t h e f i el d

4 -

cross-st reet s d i st u rb t h e f i el d

5 -

ex i st i n g b u i l d i n g s d i st u rb t h e f i el d

6 -

J F X h i g h way d i st u rb s t h e f i el d

plan :

basic flo w diagram (4 part s) :

I - inflo w

II - pre t re at me nt

III - filt rat io n

I V - ou tflow

- controls, directs, slows inflow rates

- removes course sediment

- removes fine sediment and pollutants

- controls outflow; redirects to conveyance system or exfiltrates into ground

treated water

stormwater runoff

B M O R E P U B L I C WAT E R

stormwater filtration systems :

section :

J o n e s Fa l l s s t o r m w a t e r f i l t r a t i o n s y s t e m

landscape of urban hydrology :

stormwater filtration/retention basins as temporal public space

riparia zone

- remnant culvert

- expanded flood zone

section :

(4 part s)

buffer zone

sediment catchment chambers

:

filtration medium

drainage medium

gravel filter beds / retention chambers

fine sand filter

course sand filter

flow dispersement + sediment / garbage catchment

street / sidewalk inflow

plan : - at the street edge is a band of small cells that act as a large comb that slows the flow of water, forces it to drop its sediment content, and catches trash and other solid waste. On dry days, these concrete extrusions can be used as a field of irregular platforms and benches for public gatherings and activities.

- next, the water moves down to cells filled with course sand medium for the removal of larger toxins and chemicals in the water.

- after a series of finer sand filtration beds the water enters large gravel and rock beds where some remaining toxins are biologically processed by the microbiota living on the stone surfaces.

- the final, largest, beds are at the lowest elevation and are designed to pool in storm events and allow for slow infiltration into the ground.

- some beds will host pioneer species of vegetation from seeds deposited by alluvial overflow from the newly exposed Jones Falls River.

- other beds will be maintained as platforms with climbing and seating walls for social and athletic activities.

- the maintenance of this stormwater filtration landscape becomes a public spectacle as machines dredge sediment and debris from the street edge after every storm event, and remove and replace filtration media on regular schedules based on the bed’s place in the filtration sequence and subsequent toxicity buildups (beds closest to the street edge, and most easily accessed, require the most frequent cleaning).

design for volume : 1yr / 24hr 2yr / 24hr 10yr / 24hr

50yr / 24hr 100yr / 24hr

20'-1"

20'-1"

16'-5"

17'-4"

17'-4"

20'-4"

19'-2"

I V - ou t f l ow ( i n f i l t r a t i on ) 52'-1" 61'-7"

96'-1"

21'-1"

8'-11"

I I I - f i l t r a t i on 26'-7"

5'-10"

I I - p re t re a t m e n t 37'-1"

173'-6"

9'-11"

3'-11"

I - inflow

57'-9" 42'-11"

B A LT I M O R E , M D

B M O R E P U B L I C WAT E R

elevation :

the jones falls expressway :

di v e rsi fy i n g v e hi cu l a r i n f r a s tr u c tu re

vertical circulation : stair/elevator scaffolds infrastructural scaffold :

- one lane of the JFX is given up to bus and carpool, creating the need for bus stops/drop-off points along the highway.

- the high-speed traffic and exposed condition of the highway are seen as possibilities for generating power.

- parametric scaffolds connect the ground to the highway, physically and infrastructurally, and support emerging small-scale program.

under the JFX - the pedestrian/bike way

1 - ground works

the ground is broken up to accomodate storm water and move runoff from the elevated highway to larger retention basins along the corridor

2 - vertical infrastructure

the cracked ground along the sides of the JFX gives rise to infrastructural scaffolds that provide power and water to small scale program and public spaces under the highway

3 - power conduits

a strip of electric generators are held in skeletal conduits along the underside of the highway

the JFX bus stop edge

4 - vertical circulation

scaffolds supporting large stairways and elevators connect the ground to a second level of occupation, support spaces for new ground-level program, and to new bus stops positioned along the elevated highway

5 - power canopy

a ribbon of gradient apatures twists along the sides of the highway, closing to become a canopy for newly established bus stops, and opening to create a screen of wind turbines and/or solar panels

process model - JFX as infrastructural armature

EDU CAT I ON

:

2008 - 2012 University of Virginia School of Architecture Charlottesville, VA M.Arch + M.L.A., December 2012 (Faculty Award for Design Excellence) Summer 2011 European Masters in Landscape Architecture (EMILA) (Summer Workshop) The Netherlands Summer 2007 Columbia University GSAPP (Intensive Intro to Architecture) New York, NY 2005 - 2006 Seoul Korean Academy (서울한국어아카데미) (Korean Language) Seoul, South Korea 2001 - 2005 Georgetown University Washington, DC B.A. in English and Studio Art, May 2005 Spring 2004 University of New South Wales + UNSW College of Fine Arts Sydney, Australia Great Barrier Reef, Australia January 2004 UNSW Lady Elliot Island Program (Marine Science) Summer 2002 Universidad de Deusto (Spanish Language + Culture) Bilbao, Spain

WOR K

EX P ERI EN C E

:

July 2013 - present

Supermass Studio : landscape, urbanism & ecology

Fall 2012

UVA | Design Center (Margarita Jover)

Summer 2010 + 2011 + 2012

Dripps + Phinney Studio

Landscape + Urban Design: Research, Concept, Representation Design, Representation + Presentation

New York, NY

Charlottesville,

Design, Research, Fabrication + Construction (http://explodebreps.wordpress.com + http://dataanimal.wordpress.com)

VA

Batesville, VA

2008 - 2012 UVA | Graduate Teaching Assistantships : Charlottesville, VA

Winter 2011 Sorkin Studios | Terreform

New York, NY

Concept Rendering

Summer 2009

MOS Architects | P.S.1 MoMA - Afterparty Pavilion

Winter 2008

Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Construction

Graphic Design, Editing + Layout

Long Island City, NY New York, NY

2007 - 2008 Austin Patterson Disston Architects Southport, CT CAD Technitian + Intern

2005 - 2007 Pagoda Foreign Language Academy (파고다외국어학원) English Teacher

Summers 1998 - 2004

Greenfield Animal Hospital

655 Macon Street Brooklyn, NY 11233

PU BL I C ATI O N 2013 2013 2012 2011 2011 2011 2010

|

AWARD S

Veterinary Technitian + Receptionist

(203) 260 - 3800

kurt.marsh@gmail.com

K U R T

A

M A R S H

Drawing and Composition Pam Black Architectural Theory + Analysis Phoebe Crisman Graphics Workshop Robin Dripps Digital Fabrication Jeff Ponitz Shops Short Courses | FabLab Melissa Goldman Arch 601 Graduate Foundation Studio Robin Dripps Arch 701/801 Graduate Studio Robin Dripps

Seoul, South Korea Fairfield, CT

:

Faculty Award for Design Excellence Master of Architecture UVA, Charlottesville, LUNCH 8_Futures for Sites Unknown Bmore Public Water : Urban Infrastructure as Public Landscape Generator UVA, Charlottesville, LUNCH 7_CONVERSATIONS Terra Nova : Building a New Venetian Ground UVA, Charlottesville, ASLA Student Honor Awards - collaboration Terra Nova : Building a New Venetian Ground ASLA Adobe Design Achievement Awards - semifinalist Climatic Fabrics Adobe Systems Inc. LUNCH 6_SYSTEMS Projects from HuangMarshWorkshop UVA, Charlottesville, Fabric[ated] Atmospheres UVA, Charlottesville, LUNCH 5_FLUX

S KILL S

:

Representation | Fabrication Adobe Creative Suite, Rhino, V-ray, Grasshopper, MasterCAM, ArchiCAD, AutoCAD, ArchGIS Painting, Drawing, Collage, CNC and Analog Model Making + Fabrication Language Proficient in Spanish and Korean | Extensive English writing and editing experience

VA VA VA VA VA