Work Michelangelo LaTona
Work . Michelangelo LaTona . | University of Michigan | 2014
latonami@gmail.com Permanent address: 210 Enid Lane Northfield, Illinois 60093 Temporary address: 508 N. Fourth Avenue Apartment 2 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
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1. Case Study 1 Miller House . Eero Saarinen . Columbus, IN . 1952
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2. Situational Mutations Pittsburg, PA . 2013
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3. Resourcing Inscrutables Detroit, MI . 2013
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4. Case Study 2 House with One Wall . Christian Kerez . Zurich, Switzerland . 2007
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5. Stage for Daily Life Villa Moller . Adolf Loos . Vienna, Austria . 1928
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6. Representational Experiments 2013 A B C D E
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1. Case Study 1
Miller House . Eero Saarinen . Columbus, IN . 1952 Instructor: Craig Borum
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Sited on 9 acres, this project offered Saarinen and landscape architect Dan Kiley the chance to experiment. Together they attempted to bring the outside into the center of the building. The building consists of four private volumes that pinwheel around a central public living space. Saarinen emphasizes the center of the house through his use of several different architectural aspects. The following work documents, analyzes and proposes further investigations into the work that Saarinen accomplished in this house. The major element I focus on is emphasizing the central living space in the house.
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Case Study 1
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{Left: Model Shots; Right: Miller house site plan}
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Case Study 1
{Opposite Above: Floor plan; Opposite Below: Section facing North} {Above: Circulation diagram; Far Right: Pinwheel diagram; Below: Skylight diagram}
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These three elements all serve to highlight the central space of the house.
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Case Study 1
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{Opposite: 3-dimensional diagram of the principles of the house} {Top: Plans looking down; Middle: Plans looking up; Bottom: Sections}
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Miller House . Re-Do . 2012 Given an abstract site, with a party wall and a gentle slope, I redesigned the house in an attempt to further develop the principles with which Saarinen was experimenting. The main focus here was to emphasize the central, living space of the house in a solid/void relationship rather than a figure/ground relationship as in the original.
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Case Study 1
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{Above: Exploded Isometric of final design; Below: Study model shots} {Opposite: Aerial view looking Southwest}
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{First floor plan}
{Section A} University of Michigan
{Ground floor plan}
{Section B}
Case Study 1
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{Section C}
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{Second floor plan}
{Section D} Michelangelo LaTona
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{Aerial view into Northwest corner}
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Attack from without
Representational Experiment A
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6A. Representational Experiment Promiscuous Plan Instructor: Perry Kulper
Promiscuous plan was a project founded in the method of appropriation. This drawing is the result of finding, splicing and combing existing plans of buildings constructed or not as a means of testing the importance of authorship and the bounds of agency.
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2. Situational Mutations Instructor: Teman Evans
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This section of work is defined by the combination of seemingly clashing programs. These clashes form situational mutations and new programmatic environments. The images immediately following show models of the programs of swimming pool and performance space combined and museum and performance space combined. The final project of this section, the Cultural Center in Pittsburg, was an attempt to reverse this method. In this project, instead of brings disparate programs together, I brought two different formal languages together to see what programs would arise.
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Situational Mutations
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{Model of pool performance space} {In collaboration with Katherine Giglio}
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{Model of library performance space} {In collaboration with Katherine Giglio}
University of Michigan
Situational Mutations
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Cultural Center . Pittsburg, PA . 2013 Given a site in the Strip District of Pittsburg, I attempted to continue the situational mutational thinking. This time though, instead of allowing program to exert itself on form; I designed formally in order to see what supplemental programs might be suggested by the forms created. The site is currently a parking lot. The strip district is a long avenue of pedestrian shops, bars and restaurants. I wanted to keep the pedestrian aspect of the site intact. University of Michigan
Situational Mutations
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{Opposite Above: Site Isometric; Opposite Below: Isometric of edited ground plan} {Right: Building form diagram; Far Right: Atrium form diagram}
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{First floor plan}
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{Ground floor plan}
{Section A}
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Situational Mutations
{Third floor plan}
{Second floor plan}
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{Section B}
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{Site Isometric drawing showing the project and its ability to uphold the pedestrian population}
University of Michigan
Situational Mutations
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{Above and Opposite: Section model shots}
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Situational Mutations
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6B. Representational Experiment Mappae Mundi Instructor: Perry Kulper This was a project about literacy. The first map (the legible map) is of a region in Detroit and notes building heights, percentage of foreign born citizens per tract and densities of annual income below $30000. The second map (not so legible) is a representational experiment based on the first map and tries to open up the possibilities of what the construction lines of the first map can offer.
University of Michigan
Representational Experiment B
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{Opposite: Map 1; Right: Map 2}
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3. Resourcing Inscrutables Instructor: Neal Robinson
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The work in this section relates mostly to the city of Detroit, MI. It attempts to find, represent and use the unseen or inscrutable resources that the city has to offer. The early works are first attempts into the world of inscrutability. The final project recognizes the slow decline of the city and its population not as a negative occurrence, nor qualitative in any way. It is just happening and can be thought of as a type of urbanism. The project not only aims to register this slow decline, without attempting to halt or curb it, but also offers a strategy for capitalizing on the decline. Capitalizing on the decline is possible thanks to the discovery of specific inscrutable resources.
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Resourcing Inscrutables
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{Metropolitan Building in Detroit, MI}
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Resourcing Inscrutables
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{Right and Opposite: Constructs made in response to site visit to Belle Isle in the Detroit River}
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{Above: Belle Isle map from NOAA’s website} {Opposite: Map of the inscrutable resources within the city of Detroit}
{excerpt from 11.11.13 Belle Isle Lease}
2.2 Rent Consideration: The Parties acknowledge that the value of the management, operation and maintenance services (Lessee Service) provided by the Lessee during any term of this Lease is fair and adequate consideration for this Lease. Lessee will not pay monetary consideration during the term of this Lease or any extension.
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This rent consideration in the lease of Belle Isle from the city of Detroit to the state of Michigan served as a type of strategy for working within Detroit.
Resourcing Inscrutables
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The resources this map shows include the Detroit Thermal LLC steam pipe network under the city for the heating and cooling of buildings, Detroit Renewable Power’s steam-from-waste boilers that produce the steam for DT from the city’s solid waste, and vacant buildings owned by the city that can be used.
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{Above: Vacant Metropolitan Building in Detroit} {Opposite: View of the interior of the building courtesy of www.detroiturbex.com}
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Resourcing Inscrutables
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{Above: Plans of the metro building across time as steam exhaust begins to support the growth of the Chantarelle} {Opposite: Views of the interior as steam and mushrooms flourish}
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Releasing the excess steam into the vacant building causes a specific type of mushroom, native to Detroit, to begin to populate the interior of the building, especially in areas with a lot of steam and detritus for spores to take root in. DT and DRP recognize the growth of these Chantarelle mushrooms as a potential for profit and open the doors to the Metro building to both tourists and a team of employees who harvest the mushrooms when they reach maturity. Harvesting only the mature fruiting bodies ensures no over harvesting will take place. Tourists, interested in a new more surreal Detroit “ruin porn� scene, also bring in a large share of the profits.
Resourcing Inscrutables
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{Above: Plan of the sauna on the 7th floor} {Opposite: Perspectival section}
As profits increase, DT and DRP decide to harness the steamed environment in another way; as a benefit to employees in the form of a sauna / spa on the 7th floor of the building.
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Resourcing Inscrutables
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University of Michigan
Representational Experiment C
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6C. Representational Experiment Possible Architectures Instructor: Perry Kulper Possible Architectures was a project about both appropriation and freeing myself up from normal programmatic restraints of typical architectural production in order to explore what materials and forms might arise. Sited in an Edward Burtynsky quarry photograph the possible architectural being splices together many different elements and materials.
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4. Case Study 2
House with One Wall . Christian Kerez . Switzerland . 2007
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Instructor: Jen Maigret
House with One Wall is a two-family residential building with only wall that divides the entire building. Its is the only wall in the entirety of the building and cannot be crossed once a side is chosen. The wall must fulfill many functions including the bearing of loads and definition of different spaces within apartments on either side. In this case study I study both the structure of the building and its circulatory aspects.
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Case Study 2
{The wall has been conceptually cut and folded to define spaces. The folds on each level allow it to stand on end like a piece of paper.}
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{The wall is load-bearing and fits into three floor plates, which cantilever out from it.}
{The wall completely divides the building into two separate apartments. Because there is only one wall, each level of the apartments consists of one, long room.} Michelangelo LaTona
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{Plan overlay of all three plans with circulation highlighted. Vertical circulation follows the wall, which creates a cascading effect apparently giving a feeling of expansiveness}
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{Isometric Section A-A. The path up the stairs turns slightly on each level in order to follow the wall, but still allows for a view to the top level from the bottom.}
{The punctures in the floor plates created by the stairs allow for the legibility of all three floors as one continuous space.}
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Case Study 2
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5 1. 4mm Aluminum Sheet 2. 50/50/2 mm stainless-steel profile, polished 3. Parapet, 2~8 mm laminated safety glass 4. 10 mm Impregnated hard aggregated screed, load-distributing slab of 70 mm hard aggregate screed with underfloor heating, polythene sheet separation layer, 30 mm footstep-sound insulation, 300 mm reinforced concrete floor 5. Fixed low-E glazing: 8 mm float + 12 mm cavity + 13 mm laminated safety glass: U value = 1.1 W/m^2K g value = 56% 3597/2534 mm panels in aluminum frame 6. Bituminous seal sheeting, 160 mm extruded polystyrene thermal insulation, vapor barrier, 265 mm reinforced concrete
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6D. Representational Experiment Crossbreeds Instructor: Perry Kulper Crossbreeds was a project targeting the rift between digital and manual representations in architecture. This project was a working and thinking drawing which focused on my concurrent studio project as well as issues of representations of both digital and manual types. This piece began digitally, was printed and worked on by hand, scanned back into the computer for more digital work, printed once more for manual work and finally rescanned for this printing. University of Michigan
Representational Experiment D
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5. Stage for Daily Life
Villa Moller . Adolf Loos . Vienna, Austria . 1928 Instructor: Dawn Gilpin
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In the Villa Moller, arguably Loos’ first Raumplan house, there exists a very interesting spatial device that Loos used to enhance concepts he was interested in at the time, specifically the theatrical nature of daily life. The music room, dining room and threshold between the two are the spaces studied for this spatial device. Loos created a stage for everyday life by elevating the dining room floor, placing built-in seating in the music room facing the “stage”, and hiding circulation between the two rooms by placing a removable stair in a niche in the dining room floor.
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Stage for Daily Life
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{Right Above: Moller house facade; Right Below: View of dining room from music room}
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{Process drawings} {Opposite: Exploded isometric of the music room and dining room}
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Stage for Daily Life
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6” 2’-0” 1’-6”
1’-0”
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6”
2’-9 7/8”
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5’-7 3/4”
2’-0”
4’-0”
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Stage for Daily Life
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{Opposite: Drawings for the proposal of a spatial device based on Loos’ stair} {Right: Images of the final construct in situ}
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6E. Representational Experiment Concept Mapping Concept Mapping was a self-led series of work in which I attempted to put concepts for a design project on paper. These were attempts at showing relationships between ideas and thoughts that were too complex to understand in my head. The three pieces of work were manually created and pencil, pen and ink, found materials, and coffee stains among other things.
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{Above: Map 1} {Opposite: Map 2}
Representational Experiment E
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{Above: Map 3}
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Representational Experiment E
Thank you.
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