erik m. larson architecture portfolio b. arch, 2016
Table of Contents 6
Ecology of Industry
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the Material of Wine
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Remembering a Ruin
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Nature of Discovery
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Draw Art Downtown
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Light Outside the Box
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Mapping a Memory
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About Erik
Ecology of Industry
thesis project, fall 2015 - spring 2016 Spending a summer working in London gave me a glimpse of the city’s rich industrial past. Returning to Oregon for my final year of school, I jumped at the opportunity to re-imagine Gillett Square within London’s Borough of Hackney, especially due to the site’s disused factory building. My thesis explores the issue of industrial uprooting: the tendency of gentrification to force centers of production to the fringe, thereby promoting an imbalance between the mass consumption occurring within the city and the unnoticed production of the landscape supporting it. Professor John Bellamy Foster of the University of Oregon named this destabilization phenomenon “metabolic rift.” My project delivers industry to its historical center, revealing the manufacturing process as integral to a population and necessary for socio-economic stability. In doing so, the design focuses on the relationship between the manufacturers and industrial laborers: celebrating their role and fostering public space among their place of production. Gillett Square is transformed into a complex biome of production and people: An Ecology of Industry.
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Ecology of Industry
1a. prokaryotic cell (bacteria)
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1b. manufacturing facility massing
2a. eukaryotic cell (plant)
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2b. cottage industry design
3a. eukaryotic cell (animal).
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3b. proposed “modern guild�
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second floor plan
first floor plan
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ground floor plan
5. industrial ecology
1. purchase raw material
5. industrial ecology 5. industrial ecology
6. purchase raw material
4. material by-product
Ecology of Industry
5. disposal
CURRENT MANUFACTURING MODEL: CURRENT MANUFACTURING MODEL: 3. point of sale CURRENT MANUFACTURING MODEL: current industrial model
PROPOSED MANUFACTURING MODEL: industrial ecology model
closed-loop production
3. point of sale 5. industrial ecology
3. point of sale 3. point of sale
CURRENT MANUFACTURING MODEL:
2. production process 2. production process 2. production process
3. point of sale
2. production process
2. production process
1. purchase raw material
2a. production process
4. material by-product
6. purchase raw material 5. disposal
PROPOSED MANUFACTURING MODEL:
1. purchase raw material 4. material 1. purchase raw by-product material raw 1. purchase 4. material material by-product 4. material by-product
6. purchase raw material 6. purchase 5. disposal raw material 6. purchase 5. disposal raw material 5. disposal
3. point of sale
1. receive raw material
2. production process
1a. receive raw 2a. production process material
PROPOSED MANUFACTURING MODEL: PROPOSED ExistingMANUFACTURING production methodsMODEL: require material 3. point of MODEL: sale PROPOSED MANUFACTURING purchased from an external source and the 3. pointlike of sale use of “instruments of labor,” factories 3. point ofthe salematerial. and assembly models, to process In implementing the linear progression of production known as industrial ecology, each 2. production 2a. production process relies upon the production of the process method before it, forming the understanding process 2. production 2a. production that waste will return as input. process process 2. production 2a. production process
1. receive raw material 1. receive raw materialraw 1. receive material
process
1a. receive raw material 1a. receive raw materialraw 1a. receive material
1. receive raw material
1a. receive raw material
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section perspective looking east through the storage facility & cafe
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Ecology of Industry
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Ecology of Industry
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Ecology of Industry
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The Material of Wine
vineyard & winery design, fall 2014 Vintner Jay McDonald of Carlton, Oregon wanted more than a vineyard; he wanted a landmark. Together, Jay and my studio professor created a design prompt that allowed us to generate a landscape, a production building, and tasting facility that made a visit to his site an experience of both architecture and fine wine. The geometrical implications of the rows of grapes fascinated me, forming the basis of an ordering system I devised and applied to each of the site’s designs. Implementing one of five mathematical ordering logics to each architectural language helped visitors and employees to quickly comprehend its organization. But being a rural site, the assigning of entirely man-made logic would detract from its natural beauty. So, I co-assigned a number of accompanying organic arrays--geometry derived from the landscape. The presence of a raw arrangement within the designs allowed for co-existence with nature. Designing the vineyard and the buildings among it was an exciting chance to close the gap between two structurally varied (but beautifully similar) worlds.
“SCIENCE IS ORGANIZED KNOWLEDGE. WISDOM IS ORGANIZED LIFE.” -Immanuel Kant
EVOLUTION:
ENTROPY:
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requires & generates the highest levels of energy to structure the landscape under this geometry. only an ecosystem can design at this level of order...humans cannot.
the lowest level of energy for an ordering geometry, needing only the most basic observation to understand and orient oneself among the landscape.
the Material of Wine
HUMAN SYSTEMS OF GEOMETRY:
NATURAL SYSTEMS OF GEOMETRY:
allows forms to be recognized as familiar to a human comprehension as we have evolved through a history of civilization.
ensures forms are harmonious with a natural context and encourages organic methods of growth and expansion.
[-5] POINT:
[+1] FIBONACCI:
the least complex system of order. a single element deemed somehow worthy of being marked as a notable point in space-a destination. distilling a landscape to a simple component of interest.
often found in organic structural forms, the golden ratio has been a resource for designers seeking to replicate organic geometry for millenia--acting as an early foray into organic geometrical order.
[-4] NODAL:
[+2] PROXIMAL:
notable point elements arranged into a logical network system. travel is still a process of moving from one destination to the next by the most efficient means.may ignore other features of lesser note.
proximal geometry radiates from an outward source in response to the form’s self-imposed patterns and rules of growth. settlements and cities are an example of human design exhibiting proximal order.
[-3] LINEAR:
[+3] RELATIONAL: (fractal, parametric)
a one-way hierarchy suggesting a directional movement trend. the arrangement exists entirely along the plane of a single dimension, and generates a logical structure capable of laying over any geometry.
a more complex manner of proximal geometry, where order forms through parameters both inherent to the structure as well as in response to external conditions. forms the basis of parametric design.
[-2] GRIDDED:
[+4] BIOLOGICAL:
cartesian system of orthogonal spacing. often used as a first response in trying to create logical structure to understand a complex landscape. as a result this geometry seen in most modern cities.
relational geometry over multiple lifetimes. darwinian principles ensure only the most efficient & beneficial forms of a geometry are passed through a species. biomimicry is a growing design trend.
[-1] QUADRATIC:
[+5] ECOLOGICAL:
the geometrical elements are--for the first time--in a ratio to one another rather than serving as mere replications. more mathematically complex than the grid, thus being implemented less often.
biological geometry at a macro scale. millions of individual biological ordering systems interacting to form a landscape structured by microcosmal influences. this geometry is beyond human design.
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Production facility diagrammatic spatial model: the linear geometry of the grape plantings are stretched across the programmatic underlay.
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the Material of Wine
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Tasting facility sectional model. A layer of ETFE is stretched across thin, upright copper members.
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the Material of Wine
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Remembering a Ruin memorial design, spring 2015
Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay has a troubled past. Now a beloved state park, the island once served as the West Coast counterpart to Ellis Island--though far less accepting. During the early 20th century, at a time of heightened anti-Asian xenophobia, the immigration center and its staff detained, interrogated, and deported thousands of qualified Chinese and Japanese citizens yearning to earn their stake in the American Dream. The naked distrust and discrimination being practiced at the facility ended in a mysterious fire, but its checkered past remains a warning to our society of succumbing to fear and hate. I saw the opportunity of the telling of such a shameful story through a lasting memorial as an opportunity to contribute to a larger good: rebuilding the ecosystem of the site while remaining a testament to a dark stain on the history of our country. I harnessed the estuarine saltwater marshes of the Bay (an ecosystem built upon decomposition) to serve as a metaphor that commemorated the struggle and successes of Asian immigrants in the face of deplorable conditions.
The ghost of a building past: how does one appropriately commemorate the essence of an architecture while simultaneously condemning its intolerant program?
Remembering a Ruin
The design for the memorial recognized that, while the site had been altered by the immigration facility, it was only a dark moment in a long, bright history. It must serve as a warning of the bad while espousing the good.
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Nature of Discovery
Coastal Outdoor School, fall 2013 Oregon’s Museum of Science and Industry intends to design an education center located in Newport, Oregon. The outdoor school will introduce students to the field of marine study through the architectural adjacency of a coastal forest and wetland site. The studio prompt urged us to move beyond mere proximity and instead design towards coexistence with such a unique landscape. Planning the architecture of a year-long outdoor school and summer camp was an exercise in blending buildings among their environment; integrating systems into a network to create an overall positive interchange between built design & nature. It’s a balance between creating a small footprint with a large, healthy impact on the welfare of the natural coastal wetlands. It’s also about building up the ecosystems around the architecture rather than placing designs onto the horizon. The camp exists to make humans feel at home in the wilderness, and I sought to design such that the wilderness welcomed our presence.
Below, a view of the interior of the welcome lodge which was used during mealtimes and as a communal space for camp-wide events.
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Nature of Discovery
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Site section looking north, spanning from the welcome lodge on the site’s eastern edge to the wetlands bordering to the west. Interventions are described in detail.
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Nature of Discovery
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Cast concrete massing model
Draw Art Downtown
live/work artist housing, winter 2014 With the majority of Eugene’s residents living in suburbs at the city’s edges, any effort at revitalization needed to focus on designing housing for the type of people best suited to breathe life back into downtown: craftsmen and women. A modern artist hamlet designed for collaborative work studios, civic amenities, daycare services, and a contemporary urban aesthetic made an artful solution. Being located adjacent to the Saturday market the housing is uniquely suited for local craftsmanship with an integrated retail outlet. Combating the lure of suburbia required creative solutions: accommodating low-income units to help starving artists find their footing living among their own kind, promoting smart growth in the downtown area by the strategic inclusion of desirable retail, and the creation of loft spaces designed to emulate the craftsman-mindset of its users. An architecture of such aspirations not only houses artists downtown but is meant to redefine the urban center of Eugene into a viable location to live, work, and create.
The project works to create connections at all scales of context. The space uses localized art context to craft Eugene’s downtown into a place to live, work, and play. Dense, resident-exclusive community spaces are implemented within the complex to maximize artist-to-artist (and neighbor-to neighbor) interaction.
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Draw Art Downtown
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plan view, closed & extended
section view, closed & extended
elevation view, closed & extended
Light Outside the Box luminaire fabrication, spring 2013
The University of Oregon’s HEDCO Education Building is an asset to campus; both aesthetically and programmatically. Our second term of Environmental Control Systems called for the study of acoustic and interior lighting conditions of a building and HEDCO was an obvious choice. The term culminated in the fabrication of a luminaire representative of our selected space. My group designed our luminaire not to improve the interior lighting conditions (it didn’t need our help) but as an operable beacon of the space’s activity levels. The pull-apart panels that slid away from a cube of glowing light gave students and faculty the ability to select a desirable level of light responsive to their changing tasks. The materials used in the luminaire’s construction were selected for their contextual appropriateness and efficiency: pegboard, a common sight in classrooms, made up our shading panels in addition to up-cycled metal dowels, sanded Plexiglas, and powersipping electrical components. In collaboration w/ Wyatt Innins, Garrett Watkins, & Kyle Stuart-Willis.
Closed, the light offers company to individuals choosing to work independently.
With its panels extended, the light serves as a beacon to students signifying where their group members are gathering to work on projects.
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Each of the panels can be extended individually to allow users to specify the degree and direction of their light.
Light Outside the Box
A process shot taken during the luminaire’s fabrication.
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Mapping a Memory the house on Emerald, 2014
I loved the house my three best friends and I shared during our junior year of college. We took over the lease of four awesome girls— one of whom I would also fall in love with the following summer. But that’s another story. The house had once served as a barn for the apple orchard that had covered the area some 80 years ago before being converted piecemeal into a home treasured by decades of student renters. When our landlord told us that she was retiring and would have to unfortunately sell the house, I took measurements and drew up floor plans in order to commemorate the time my roommates and I had shared there. The following drawings, done independently of school, were a chance to “play” at architecture using the skills I was developing. It was also an opportunity to preserve the memory of all the laughs, parties, dinners, model-making marathons, game nights, sick days, winter evenings, and summer afternoons my roommates and I have from our time living among the walls of the house on Emerald Street.
first level plan
The house, for all its quirks, was especially successful in its designation of unique spatial zones that flowed among its rooms. It was a pleasant experience to decide between spaces to meet one’s needs: reading in the bright living room, for instance, or the moody kitchen. Each of us had a favorite zone that we moved between, at times alone but more often all together.
ground level plan
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Mapping a Memory
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About Erik
statement of architectural standards Architecture + Philosophy. A building goes beyond shelter. Architecture can convey cultures, unite us through shared purpose, and allow us to form memories surrounded by shaped space. How incredible is that? I find fulfillment when I channel this greater potential, invoking the extraordinary among the places I design. Architecture + Poetry. I believe a complete space adds to the narrative of its environment. Thorough architecture contributes to a site’s dialogue while integrating into existing systems. Architecture has so much to say, and I strive to add to the conversation as best I can translate. /EML Erik M. Larson University of Oregon B. Arch 2016 School of Architecture & Allied Arts minors in Philosophy & Business Administration
Exploded room axon, Ecology of Industry