QUIET: IN THE CITY
LINDSEY CURREY Thesis Portfolio
Virginia Tech | Spring 2015 Advisor: Frank Weiner
CONTENTS Quiet | A Human Need that Demands a Place
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Compression | Section Impressions
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Question | A City Block Considered Over Time
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Urban Chair as a Room | A Place for Quiet
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Rational Frame + Romantic Mass | Wrestle for Hierarchy
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Toward a Spatial Tectonic | Isometric Constructions
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Quiet: in the City | Project Documentation
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Oxford English Dictionary Definition Excerpts Grey Water color on paper 8” x 10” 2014
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QUIET, n. Freedom from mental or emotional agi-
tation; Inner tranquility; Peace of mind; Quiet, adj. Free from excess; not extreme; moderate, modest, restrained, understated.
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Alley View Venice, Italy Photograph 2013
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COMPRESSION: Preserve a place of sanctuary for the human. Offer boundaries.
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Impressions of a Quiet Place Charcoal, graphite, water color, and ink on newsprint. 18”x 24”, 18” x 12”
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Impressions Reconfigured
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Section of Solitude Charcoal, graphite, water color, and ink on newsprint. 18”x 24”
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Section of Solitude II Graphite on Vellum 18�x 24�
Generations pass. Remnants hold fast. New is imposed. The old refined, Erased. Time elapsed.
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Model Comprised of Sections Chipboard 6” x 8” x 4”
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“As I was walking up the stairs...” Photograph Andrea Kennard 2009 1.
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QUESTION: What is the power of architecture amidst the palimpsest of the built environment?
Will it fall in place as a mere increment of the chaos?
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Courtyard in Como, Italy Digital Diagram and Photograph
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Richmond, Virginia Block in The Fan Digital Diagrams 33
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Is the quiet space a serendipitous remnant of surrounding buildings? Not entirely.
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bench next to buildings
quality of a bench as a room
Room filters the city
URBAN CHAIR AS ROOM: This place for sitting is re-
moved from the street. It filters the chaos of the city, offering privacy and safety. All the while, it fulfills the same function as a bench: a place to stop, sit, read, observe, eat, and tie a shoe.
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Previous: Plan Perspective of Mass Graphite and Watercolor on Charcoal Paper 18” x 24” Current: 1/16” = 1’ Articulated Mass Model Chipboard 4” x 2” x 2”
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Slices of thought.
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Chapel at Ronchamp Le Corbusier Ronchamp, France Maquette 2015 3.
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RATIONAL FRAME + ROMANTIC MASS are in tension,
wrestle for hierarchy. In this struggle, they better each other.
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1/4” Frame Model Laser-Cut Basswood and Trace paper 10” x 15” x 3”
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1/2”= 1’ Mass Model Chipboard 20” x 30” x 4”
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Plaza de Fueros Vitoria- Gasteiz, Spain Eduardo Chillida 1980 2.
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TOWARDS A SPATIAL TECTONIC: Eduardo Chillida
sculpts not steel or alabaster, but its interspace. Likewise, the architect primarily considers the space between the black lines on her page. The tension arises when the architect awakes to the reality that these lines are her only tool in influencing the experience of the in between. The poetics of those lines, the tectonic, concerns its bearing of the space.
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Tectonic Proposal I: Orthogonal Concrete Block System Digital Isometric 20� x 30�
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Tectonic Proposal I: Orthogonal Concrete Block System Plywood and Hardboard Model 11” x 6” x 30” 63
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Tectonic Proposal II: Four Wall System Digital Isometric 20” x 30”
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4”
8’-0”
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Section 76 Perspective Graphite on Charcoal with Digital Coloring 36” x 72”
QUIET: IN THE CITY Project Documentation
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1’ Floor Plan
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N +1’ -0”
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F A B
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G
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A B
1’ D
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Floor Plan
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N +5’ -0”
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1’ Roof Plan
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N +12’ -0”
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Section A-A
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Section B-B
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Section C-C
QUIET, n. Freedom from mental or emotional agi-
tation; Inner tranquility; Peace of mind; Quiet, adj. Free from excess; not extreme; moderate, modest, restrained, understated.
bench next to buildings
TECTONIC CONCERNING THE VOID: Eduardo Chillida sculpts not steel or alabaster, but the void held by it. Likewise, the architect primarily considers the space between the black lines on her page. The tension arises when the architect awakes to the reality that the black lines are her only tool in influencing the experience of the void. The poetics of those lines, the tectonic, does not only concern the structural integrity or interior efficiency of a construct, but their effect and influence in bearing the void.
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quality of a bench as a room
Room filters the city
URBAN CHAIR AS ROOM: This place for sitting is removed from the patterns of the city. It filters what from the street is sensed. It offers a sense of privacy and safety. All the while, it fulfills the same function as a bench: a place to stop, sit, read, observe, eat, and tie a shoe.
Section D-D
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SECTIONS QUIET, n. Freedom from mental or emotional agi-
TECTONIC CONCERNING THE V
tation; Inner tranquility; Peace of mind; Quiet, adj. Free from excess; not extreme; moderate, modest, restrained, understated.
G bench next to buildings
quality of a bench as a room
Room filters the city
Section E-E
URBAN CHAIR AS ROOM: This place for sitting is removed from the patterns of the city. It filters what from the street is sensed. It offers a sense of privacy and safety. All the while, it fulfills the same function as a bench: a place to stop, sit, read, observe, eat, and tie a shoe.
lida sculpts not steel or alabast by it. Likewise, the architect pri space between the black lines on arises when the architect awak the black lines are her only tool perience of the void. The poetics tonic, does not only concern the s interior efficiency of a construct influence in bearing the void.
Concrete forms seat surface.
Turf
Detail F
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Gravel
Four levels of narrow terraces offer seating and additional vegetated surface. This form breaks from the heavily patterned elements in the space.
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Detail G
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Water is pumped up through the concrete panels, across steel channels and poured into shallow pool below.
Lighting above the fountain, curved in section, reflects artificial light into pool.
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Detail H Tectonic III: Terra Cotta Module Digital Isometric 20” x 30”
Flora plays a large role in the sensory experience of the space. In warm months, the leaves filter and mottle some sunlight. The rustling sound of the leaves, offer a calming effect over the city noise. In the colder months, leaves disappear, letting more warm light into the room. Year-round, the garden offers a natural landscape to apartments above. The volume of soil in the planter system is adequate to support a smaller variety of the Japanese Maple, Acer palmatum ‘Coonara Pygmy’ in addition to other small plants. A steel bracing system supports and elevates the beam above the wall unit. Glue laminated Douglas Fir beams, perched above the wall modules, support the overhead plane. Terra cotta baguette units reveal a narrow vertical profile at the edge of the wall. Vertical concrete and steel panels define each of the modules. They provides the framework and lateral support for the masonry unites. Pre-cast concrete units continue the lines of the wall through the rest of the courtyard. Pragmatically, they help retain the gravel and aid in storm water management within the site. Fine gravel, four inches in section, makes up most of the courtyard floor. When stepped on or moved, the material makes
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The terra cotta units are extruded from a trapezoidal section, with its narrower side closer to the interior of the courtyard. When the units are repeated over a wall assembly, a one inch gap is left between the units. The units touch at their widest point, thus closing the gap at the interior of the wall.
The extruded terra cotta baguettes have one inch diameter holes placed four inches apart in the rear portion of each unit. Steel rods pass through the units an attach to the concrete panels.
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Each glue laminated Douglas Fir beam is supported by a steel assembly. 2� channels perch the beam just above the wall unit. 99
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Detail I
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An accordion style folding gate tucks into the first wall module. When open at night, it extends across the front of the room.
The narrower segment is locked separately to allow limited access into the space when the gate is closed.
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Detail J
P.1 Juniperus horizontalis ‘Bar Harbor’, a ground cover variety of the Juniper, planted in intensive raised planter. Soil depth is 2’-0”. Species chosen for drought tolerance and evergreen character.
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P.2 Acer palmatum “Coonara Pygmy,” a variety of the Japanese Maple, planted in intensive raised planter. Soil depth is 2’-0”. Species chosen for small size and efficient soil volume use as well as color.
P.3 Sedum varieties planted in extensive green roof system.
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Detail K
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The glue laminated Douglas Fir beams support a wooden frame canopy and five extensive green roof units. The units drain excess water through a scuppers on the north side of the structure.
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CITED REFERENCES 1. Kennard, A. (2009, August 12). As I was walking up the stairs I met a man who wasn’t there. Retrieved November 16, 2014. 2. Seltz, P. (1982). Chillida. New York City, New York: Harry N. Abrams. 3. Petit, J. (1961). The book of Ronchamp. (Place not given): Les Cahiers Forces Vives.
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Lindsey Currey Undergraduate Thesis Documentation August 2014- May 2015 College of Architecture + Urban Studies Virginia Tech Advised by Frank Weiner Digital Copy Title font: Mission Gothic, thin Text font: Klinic Slab, book