Lauralee Williams Work Samples 2021
LAURALEE WILLIAMS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE WORK SAMPLES 2021
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This document is a small sample from the work I have done throughout my studies in Architecture and Landscape Architecture. It is a representation of my process of observing, learning, experimenting, experiencing, creating.
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Contents Academic Work Samples Tending to Ground: Infrastructure for Care and Connectedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04 Permeated Field: Florida Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08 Firefly Village: BioInspired Architecture for Healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Deployable Play: Transformable Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Washington Common: Elevation A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Lost Horizons: A Void ReEnchanted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Architectural Occupying a Seam: Desert Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Vertical
Datum
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Vortex: Kinetic Prototype. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Construction Exploration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Personal Work
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Tending To Ground South Boston, MA
Team: Lauralee Williams, Natalie Khoo, Eric VanDreason The current Green New Deal recognizes improvements to transit strictly according to carbon-emission, energy-efficiency and vehicular modernization, allowing current modes of capital accumulation by private actors to continue unabated. We are proposing a societal shift away from existing, single-use transit infrastructure and towards a set of multifunctional spaces where we prioritize the collective, and in that, the recognition of labor done by all living things in socio-ecological solidarity.
PROJECT | TENDING TO GROUND
TERM | SPRING 2020
CORE STUDIO IV
PROFESSOR | ROSALEA MONACELLA
TEAM | NATALIE KHOO, ERIC VANDREASON, LAURALEE WILLIAMS
This project finds it’s foundation in a Manifesto for five essential Forms of Care: Growth, Production, Efficiency, Commodity, and Resource.. We designed five (5) assemblages in five selected areas of South Boston, which we will call Gardens. The Gardens: Home, Depot, Conservatory, Esplanade, and Nursery. For each garden we created an information pamphlet to encourage and educate residents and offer unique ways to get involved with the long-term development of the Gardens.
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Each information pamphlet includes a Deployment and Transition Strategy timeline to help residents understand the Garden proposal. The Forms of Care are expanded to specifically address the characteristics of each Garden, such as the type of maintenance that will be needed over time, and the long-lasting benefits of caring for
Samples of maintenance details from Conservatory and Nursery Gardens.
the gardens and the larger urban network they will form. Below is an example from the Home Garden pamphlet. To the right are samples of maintenance details in the Conservatory and Nursery Gardens showing the projects in multilple phases of deployment.
A Glimpse into the Home Garden
PROJECT | TENDING TO GROUND
TERM | SPRING 2020
CORE STUDIO IV
PROFESSOR | ROSALEA MONACELLA
TEAM | NATALIE KHOO, ERIC VANDREASON, LAURALEE WILLIAMS
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Samples of maintenance details from the Home Garden.
PROJECT | TENDING PERMEATED TOFIELD: GROUND FLORIDA LANDSCAPE TERM | SPRING 2020 TERM | FALL 2015 CORE STUDIO IV DESIGN STUDIOPROFESSOR |5 | ROSALEA PROFESSOR MONACELLA |CHARLIE HAILEY TEAM | NATALIE KHOO, ERIC VANDREASON, LAURALEE WILLIAMS
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View from within the collective space of the Home Garden, connecting the previously enclosed back-yards
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Permeated Field: Florida Landscape
Shell Mound, Cedar Key, FL The story of moving through the Florida landscape can be followed in the conditions of Shell Mound. Around noon, the journey begins, with a path leading into a shallow, marshy landscape. Mud is more than a foot deep, including reeds, broken shells and microscopic animals. The layers of the saturated landscape are complex and historical, and immediately apparent through sight, touch, even smell and sound. Within a few hours, the kayak floats into deeper water, sandbanks have disappeared, and the grasses dance beneath the deep water as the high tide rolls in. The Florida landscape presents itself in a wide variety of manifestations. In the vast fields of Paynes Prairie, the depths of Blue Springs and the cyclical tides of Shell Mound, the human body coincides with forces of nature in dynamic and delicate ways that inform how thoughtful architecture might be imagined within these various conditions.
Site Plan Travelling with a kayak, one becomes a part of the vessel itself. It is an extension of the human body that allows us to move through sacred spaces such as the threshold between the mainland and the field of the Shell Mound site. Intentional constructs within the landscape can allow us to use these vessels to navigate through and experience being in nature in a way that leaves minimal traces in the landscape.
Plan of shell mound site, with markings for potential intervention, and travel paths.
Paper-making Through the process of making our own paper, we were able to observing how elements of water, pulp, dust and other natural objects change: levels of saturation, the process of desiccation, evaporation, turgidity, and adaptation.
Paper, mesh and plaster: ‘knitted’ horizontal layer and system study
PROJECT | PERMEATED FIELD: FLORIDA LANDSCAPE TERM | FALL 2015
DESIGN STUDIO |5
PROFESSOR |CHARLIE HAILEY
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Can we inhabit a fluctuating horizon?
Section of bridge from mainland into open water. The different levels of the bridge are a response to the changing tides, with high points always visible, floating platforms, and Kayak ramps
PROJECT | PERMEATED FIELD: FLORIDA LANDSCAPE TERM | FALL 2015
DESIGN STUDIO |5
PROFESSOR |CHARLIE HAILEY
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Resting place and bird blind
“To-day I reached the sea. While I was yet many miles back in the palmy woods, I caught the scent of the salt sea breeze...and my whole childhood, that seemed to have utterly vanished in the New World, was now restored amid the Florida woods by that one breath from the sea.”
Paper relief models exploring thin section
-John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf
PROJECT | PERMEATED FIELD: FLORIDA LANDSCAPE TERM | FALL 2015
DESIGN STUDIO |5
PROFESSOR |CHARLIE HAILEY
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Destination and Ascension The journey comes to a rest at the vertical datum of the tower. From a gentle entrance into the landscape, to a moment of pause, or several, to the final resting spot within the tower. An experience of the landscape can be enjoyed from different physical levels as one ascends the tower. At the highest point, the traveler is in a retreat: within the calm but ever-moving field around, until the return journey.
PROJECT | PERMEATED FIELD: FLORIDA LANDSCAPE TERM | FALL 2015
DESIGN STUDIO |5
PROFESSOR |CHARLIE HAILEY
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Firefly Village
Bio-inspired Architecture for Healing Smoky Mountains National Park Team: Lauralee WIlliams and Liza DeAngelis The Firefly Village is a fresh take on the expanded needs of the National Parks Visitor Centers. It is an homage to the living, it is a place that seeks to learn from nature and to embody and promote healing of people, plants, animals and all inhabitants of the land making up the nature to which we all belong and are responsible for protecting. Inspired by the Smoky Mountains firefly display that draws visitors from far and wide, the Fireflies are a collection of lightweight, transformable buildings that expand and contract, responding to the needs and seasons, to provide shade, shelter, and connection between indoor and outdoor, unfurling their wings in pace with simultaneous natural phenomena occurring in the park.
The Village is site specific to the Sugarland’s Visitor’s Center area, but we believe that it’s conceptual framework speaks to the essential needs of public engagement centers throughout the National Parks. The goals of the Green New Deal help us to center and begin to address issues of Decarbonization, Jobs, and Justice in context. We add layers of our own: Play, Discovery, Retreat, and Engagement, drawn from research in existing trauma therapies. Our strategies are applied in the architecture of each of seven (7) firefly buildings (Bug), two (2) retreat pavilions, an extensive Accessible loop and integrated programming,
Programming for Park Phenomena
PROJECT | FIREFLY VILLAGE
TERM | FALL 2020
OPTION STUDIO
PROFESSOR | JEANNE GANG AND CLAIRE CAHAN
TEAM | LAURALEE WILLIAMS, LIZA DEANGELIS
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Responsible Material Use The Fiberglass folding wings of each Bug are supported by charred reclaimed logs.
Locally sourced stone
Reclaimed Wormy Chestnut
Charred reclaimed logs
WNC Smoky Mountain Land Management, Marshall, TN
Barnwood Bricks: God’s Country, TN
Reclaimed Designworks: Nashville, TN
Fiberglass Wings Resolite: Moscow, TN
Glimpse into one of 3 main Firefly buildings: the Adaptable Play Bug
Transformable Design
Ascribed therapy framework and Architectural touchpoints
Proposed buildings expand to meet park visitation needs in the summer and contract to minimize footprint in the off season. Walls and shading devices move mechanically by manual human operation, leading to lower operating costs and opportunities for employee training and community engagement.
Play and fantasy : Play environments Sensation : Tactility and material variety Engagament : Memorial and narrative design
PROJECT | FIREFLY VILLAGE
TERM | FALL 2020
OPTION STUDIO
PROFESSOR | JEANNE GANG AND CLAIRE CAHAN
TEAM | LAURALEE WILLIAMS, LIZA DEANGELIS
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Right: Compact and Expanded plans of Orientation Bug Sustainable energy is created through renewable solar and rainwater collection systems.
Below: Trained park employees offer workshops in backcountry skills and promote environmental stewardship. Like all of the buildings, the Orientation Bug’s walls fold and swing to expand orientation spaces in response to park visitation needs, adaptively minimizing each structure’s footprint and operating costs. The Firefly Village lights up with activity as visitors, community members and staff interact with eachother, the architecture and the environment.
PROJECT | FIREFLY VILLAGE
TERM | FALL 2020
OPTION STUDIO
PROFESSOR | JEANNE GANG AND CLAIRE CAHAN
TEAM | LAURALEE WILLIAMS, LIZA DEANGELIS
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Deployable Play
Transformable Design Team: Lauralee Williams, Liza DeAngelis, Ana Loayza This project was developed under the Guidance of Professor Chuck Hoberman for the class ‘Transformable Design Methods.’ Team: Liza DeAngelis, Ana Loayza, Lauralee Williams Throughout the semester students studied mechanisms theory and digital simulation of transformable structures. For our end-ofsemester project, our team of three chose to research trauma therapies, healing practices and their underlying principles for insight into applying these principles to design.
We discovered that many therapies such as yoga, EMDR, TRE, and play therapies, promote healing through play and somatic engagement. In response, our project is a transformable soothing playscape which uses a series of sectional slices, attached to a center pivot and supported by a shaft of cams to simulate wave-like undulation. Each of these sectional slices varies from the next and creates a spatially diverse play environment that is easily stored and deployed.
Detail of Playscape sections (occupied) for mechanical simulation using Grasshopper
Playscape deployed in a park environment
Alternate tested forms PROJECT | DEPLOYABLE PLAY TERM | FALL 2020
Conceptual view of Playscape interior, occupied SEMINAR |TRANSFORMABLE DESIGN METHODS
PROFESSOR | CHUCK HOBERMAN
TEAM | LIZA DEANGELIS, ANA LOAYZA, LAURALEE WILLIAMS
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GRASSHOPPER CONTROL CAM SIZE
Details of Cam shaft and affected sections
PROJECT | DEPLOYABLE PLAY TERM | FALL 2020
SEMINAR |TRANSFORMABLE DESIGN METHODS
PROFESSOR | CHUCK HOBERMAN
TEAM | LIZA DEANGELIS, ANA LOAYZA, LAURALEE WILLIAMS
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Washington Common: Elevation A
An Unmonumental Core for Our Capital City In the 20th century, Martin Luther King Jr chose the Lincoln Memorial as the powerful stage for his renowned speech ‘I have a dream.’ The memorial landscape has been used time and time again by Americans of all colors and beliefs to rally and counter-rally for civil rights, against war, for reflection and debate, and most recently in the summer of 2020 to protest the same systemic racism and police brutality that MLK spoke against. Today, we reckon with the vulnerabilities of the Mall not only in it’s fractured public identity, but also in the face of climate change. In 2020 we witnessed the American people use the nation’s historic setting for political assembly and protest to react to
tragedy in the nation’s public realm. Streets behind Lafayette Square, on axis with the White House, were transformed into Black Lives Matter plaza, a new space claimed in the face of a threatened public realm. The mound at Elevation A will be a place whose principles are defined by the citizens who occupy it. By way of elevation, it will serve to protect the historic monumental landscape from flood inundation, and emphasise a change in hierarchy on the axis with BLM plaza, the executive, the ‘moral superiority’ and ideals of national identity expected from the ‘founding fathers’, and the powerful and rising Potomac.
PROJECT | WASHINGTON COMMON: ELEVATION A
TERM | FALL 2020
Unprogrammed and undedicated, it engages public access in potential confrontation with symbols of power. An underhanded nod to monumental high-points becomes a platform as needed- for address, celebration, petition, gathering, reflection and demonstration. It is a grounded public space that belongs to all Americans.
OPTION STUDIO
PROFESSOR | GARY HILDERBRAND
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Earthwork as flood infrasatructure The High Tide is expected to be at 5.5’ higher by the year 2060. The project proposes that the 18’ contour line be the guide for an elevated berm, tied back to Lincoln Memorial to the west and around to Elevation A mound. The earthwork will protect the Mall from flooding and over 12’ of sea level rise. People’s relationship with the water and the Monumental landscape will be protected and enhanced thorugh new social and civic space. The long landform will be the Cherry Walk, a home for new, existing and relocated cherry trees of various species that are so historically and culturally important to the area.
Left: Sections with elevation marks through the Cherry Walk landform Below: Key views along the axis with Elevation Afrom the Ellipse, Washington Monument lawn, Jefferson Memorial and BLM plaza.
PROJECT | WASHINGTON COMMON: ELEVATION A
TERM | FALL 2020
OPTION STUDIO
PROFESSOR | GARY HILDERBRAND
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Can we design for free speech? Unprogrammed and undedicated, Elevation A engages public access in potential confrontation with symbols of power. An underhanded nod to monumental high-points becomes a platform as needed- for address, celebration, petition, gathering, reflection and demonstration. It is a grounded public space that belongs to all Americans.
Below and right: View of Elevation A and Cherry Walk in the distance. Crowds gathered at Elevation A.
Paving pattern near edge of seating and pathways
PROJECT | WASHINGTON COMMON: ELEVATION A
TERM | FALL 2020
OPTION STUDIO
PROFESSOR | GARY HILDERBRAND
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Lost Horizons
Can a barren post-extraction mining landscape be reenchanted? Aggregate mining is one of Santiago’s largest industries. Deep, open mining pits can be found in and around the edges of the city, in areas that are constantly being more urbanised.
In this site, the Andes are no longer a source of orientation for someone inside. It can become a place where familiarity is lost, but also noise, the bustle of the city, and the horizon.
In Santiago Central Valley between the Andes and the Chilean Coastal Range from up to 2500m in elevation, down to 520m above sea level, the lofty Andes are seen from everywhere in Santiago- while the rest of the city ranges between 0 and 5% slope.
Here one may experience the unique landscape, the notion of time through material, erosion, and microclimate. It is a place that can become a refuge rather than a void. In it’s post-labor life, could this anthropogenic topography be enchanted for the benefit and enjoyment of people nearby and across the city?
Melon Aridos is an active mining site that is approximately 100 metres deep. It offers a special condition of being one of the only places in the city where one can become completely immersed in the quarry’s own anthropogenic topographical condition.
Visual Manifesto of the Lost Horizon Santiago Central Valley, Chile.
Section showing that sightlines to the Andes Mountains are obstructed within the deep concave condition of the gravel pit.
PROJECT | LOST HORIZONS
TERM | SPRING 2021
OPTION STUDIO
PROFESSOR | DANILO MARTIC
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Can a barren post-extraction mining landscape be reenchanted? The project focuses on the first two phases of the rehabilitation of the pit. Phase one includes topographical analysis, grading, and strategic laying down of footings for structures. Phase two introduces Core-ten steel bridges supported by angled trestles 30m on center In the manner of large-scale rock and gravel conveyor structures used in the industry. Plazas are created using combination of poured concrete, compacted soil, and gravel.
The topography of the site creates many zones of shade and sunlight and valley conditions that support a wide range of plant and animal species from the Bosque Esclerofilo of Chile’s mediterranean region. The next phase will include necessary soil rehabilitation, with native species seeded for grund cover. Shade loving plant species such as the Peumo and Bollen will be grown on the south-facing zones and sheltered areas.
At this point in the construction, most of the site will be accessible to visitors through the constructed paths.
Model of constructed elements including circulation ground paths, plazas, and Core-ten steel bridges.
View to Hero Mountain
PROJECT | LOST HORIZONS
Shade loving plant species such as the Peumo and Bollen will be grown on the south-facing zones and sheltered areas.
TERM | SPRING 2021
OPTION STUDIO
PROFESSOR | DANILO MARTIC
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Sun-loving species such as the beloved Chagual and the red Quisco will be strategically introduced to north-facing and exposed zones.
As visitor’s discover the pit, look-out points, plazas, stages and pathways can be interpreted at various scales. As a community or as individuals, we can explore and re-negotiate the relationship between horizons and orientation that is normally so clear for the residents of Santiago.
PROJECT | LOST HORIZONS
TERM | SPRING 2021
OPTION STUDIO
PROFESSOR | DANILO MARTIC
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PLAN
PROJECT | PERMEATED FIELD: FLORIDA LANDSCAPE TERM | FALL 2015
DESIGN STUDIO |5
PROFESSOR |CHARLIE HAILEY
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Undergraduate Architecture Work
Occupying a Seam Desert Landscape
The desert landscape can be understood as a vast, delicate environment. It’s surface can be a volatile expanse of ephemeral dunes, and also a palimpsest with seams, incisions and edges formed over millions of years. The precedent of this project lies in the special morphological structure of the Judean desert, a harsh landscape marked by long, deep ravines with cliffs made of limestone. It’s canyons branch down from 1000m above sea level, to -421m at the Dead Sea. In the model, components of the shelter are constructed with the intention of chanelling wind-flow and ventilation through occupied spaces. Roof planes are tilted and slit, and above the level of the high ground, exploring ideas of guiding the wind, and also blocking unwanted sands from the surrounding planes.
PROJECT | DESERT LANDSCAPE
TERM |SPRING 2015
DESIGN STUDIO |4
PROFESSOR | JOHN MAZE
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The site chosen is an incision within a low sloping landscape: a seam, a pause, between large exposed expanses of land. The mass and depth of the gorge walls offer opportunites for carving and constructing. Using rammed earth is a consideration in the intervention, to aid in thermal regulation of spaces in response to the diurnal temperature variation in the desert. As heat and cold are major factors to consider in the desert climate, there are also two wind towers for ventilation, placed strategically, puncturing two main occupiable spaces on the canyon floor. Considering the approach to the intervention, major slopes in the landscape lead up to the thresholds of the construct. At these points, above the horizon, the protruding wind towers also act as landmarks for approaching people. The intervention is realised as a collection of carved and extruded elements, structured with the intention of engaging with the wind, ground, sky and heat.
PROJECT | DESERT LANDSCAPE
TERM |SPRING 2015
DESIGN STUDIO |4
PROFESSOR | JOHN MAZE
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Vertical Datum
Performance, Gathering, Practice, Solitude This project began with a viewing of the romantic ballet, Giselle. The goal was to contemplate the ballet through different perspectives, and observe the depth and spatial qualities that such a complex production achieves. The ballet was annotated both horizontally across linear time, and then interpreted as a vertical journey.
PROJECT | VERTICAL DATUM
Elements of time, module, rhythm, and emotion can be drawn from the ballet and generate systems of marks that begin to etch spacial conditions that extend beyond the form of a physical stage on which the ballet is performed. The drawing is very intentionally generated through the interpretation of data gathered by watching the ballet and specific scenes several times over.
TERM | SPRING 2015
DESIGN STUDIO |4
PROFESSOR |JOHN MAZE
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Ideas of plan and section were simultaneously explored through the movement of characters, whether it be the strong, fluid movements of ballet dancers, or the overwhelming ghostliness and ephemerality of the Wilis.
PROJECT | VERTICAL DATUM
In model form, I found that the story and experience described by the movements of dancers on stage produced a variety of spaces that included transitions between dark, hidden spaces to lively, public, even chaotic spaces. They all lead towards an eventual space of lofty, wispy, solitude.
TERM | SPRING 2015
DESIGN STUDIO |4
PROFESSOR |JOHN MAZE
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LAURALEE WILLIAMS + DANIELA GOMEZ
Vortex: Fabrication, micro-controllers, Grasshopper Kinetic module design
Final prototype
This project was inspired by the geometry of the Morning Glory flower. The flower opens and closes every morning with the appearance of the sun.
The final model was made fully functional with a motion-sensing micro-controller, and turns on the custom built acrylic sheet gears. It successfully responds to motion as a hand or object is inserted.
The model is an exploration of elastic tension, micro-controllers, light filtration and interactive installation. Maintaining translucency in the model as well as structural integrity, produced an interesting set of issues to solve with materiality and construction.
As the prototype progressed, the use of the acrylic sheet allowed us opportunities to experiment with adding other shading elements such as elastic string, perforations in the frame, and tint, to add layers within the module that might affect the turning motion, and also filter light differently.
Several prototypes were made, testing fabric, tensions, structure, apertures
PROJECT | VORTEX: KINETIC PROTOTYPE
TERM | SPRING 2017
DESIGN STUDIO |8
PROFESSOR |LEE-SU HUANG
TEAM | LAURALEE WILLIAMS + DANIELA GOMEZ
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LAURALEE WILLIAMS + DANIELA GOMEZ
Construction Exploration Pt. I+II: Pt. 1: Concrete Component: Design and Test
Concrete may be the most widely used construction material in the world, so understanding it is crucial. The aim of this project is to experience and experiment with how materials like concrete can be manipulated, the process of constructing an effective form-work, and understanding the material interaction with elements such as air, water and other materials. This concrete unit is the first phase product of an architectural joint study. The unit is designed with features allowing for the attachment or joining with a complimentary material.
My partner and I felt that we would challenge ourselves by designing a curved mass. This required us to think of an uncommon approach to building a mold. The final mold brings together series of stacked wooden shelves, covered with thin, coated wooden sheets. A sheet of wire mesh is placed in the space to be cast into the concrete, folded metal flashing and a series of threaded rods are carefully inserted. The two halves of the mold are compressed within a box to encapsulate the negative space in the shape of our concrete unit.
Pt. 2: Resin Component: Translucency and extension In Part 2, the fasteners cast into the concrete unit are an intermediate system that allow for a joint with another material. Using some similar techniques as with the concrete, we created a mold that would allow us to cast layers of resin, with reinforcement, to form a curved sheet. The lightness and translucency of the resin compliments the mass and opacity of the concrete. The form of the concrete piece is extended by the resin sheet, creating a continuous ‘exterior’ surface. The unit is a conceptual but structural design of a wall component containing apertures exploring light, texture and structure of the material.
PROJECT | CONSTRUCTION EXPLORATION
TERM | FALL 2017
DESIGN STUDIO |8
PROFESSOR |LISA HUANG
TEAM: LAURALEE WILLIAMS + DANIELA GOMEZ
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Personal Work
Pen and archival ink on drawing paper
Pen and archival ink on drawing paper
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India ink on Watercolor
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Thank you.
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