Meghan Hawkins
To be truly successful, I believe each architectural work must reach beyond the project footprint and into the landscape, community and minds of passerby and generations to come. Architecture should serve as an integral part of the local ecology, help to build communities both during and after construction, and seek to deepen user’s understanding of the world. It is my goal to stitch these elements together into a unified and cohesive whole, and my conviction that doing so will intensify people’s experience of their everyday lives. I hope to build upon my knowledge of architecture, landscapes, business, and architectural history to provide meaningful, responsible and context driven projects to groups both large and small.
The Hillside Collaborative
Masieri Foundation
Turkish Carpet Museum
Visiting Scholars Academy
Outdoor Recreation Center
Sketches
The Hillside Collaborative: Process
As the preliminary attempt at my final school design, I strove to create a community within the larger community, one in which the child’s role was both citizen and student. In this environment, the children are encouraged to develop social and leadership skills in addition to traditional academic learning. Like the Outdoor Recreation Center design, it is intended to be a demonstration site, run by the students and teachers, portraying what may be achieved at the larger community level, and preparing students for the active role they might take in community building. Somewhat reminiscent of medieval towns, the idea was to create outdoor learning courtyards which would function as play areas, classrooms andsocial gathering spaces. Over the course of the project, these became less like paved piazzas, and more focused on the landscape and the exploration and study of ecological microsystems.
The Hillside Collaborative Location: Springfield, Oregon Program: K-8 School Focus: Interior Exploration Development of Communal Spaces Access to Nature Contextual Response to Landscape Holistic Education and Design
Process Sketch
“Nature, rather than the machine, should serve as the model for architecture.� -Alvar Aalto
Site Plan
ECOLOGY
-Fostering connection to and stewardship of natural resources -Understand student role as active citizens striving for a more sustainable future -Increase ecological literacy and understanding of larger natural systems -Work towards “decriminalization of nature�
COLLABORATION -Providing a sense of responsibility, purpose and community; a familial atmosphere -Uniting all students through whole school activities -Fostering Mentor-relationships between students, teachers and community members
FOOD PRODUCTION -Increasing awareness of good nutrition and healthy lifestyles -Demonstrating understanding of where food comes from, and its value -Teaching life skills of growing food, preparing and cooking it, and waste/reuse cycles -Interacting with the community and making meaningful, tangible contributions
GLOBAL LEARNING -Exploration of how local issues and natural systems apply to larger world. -Increasing awareness of other cultures, and understanding relationships between them -Demonstrating importance of creative learning, in music, art and languages
COMMUNITY discussions -Application of learning to real community issues; Creating sense of purpose for students -Creating spaces for after-hours use by community groups
“Organic means intrinsic-in the philosophic sense, entity-wherever the whole is to the part as the part is to the whole and where the nature of the materials, the nature of the purpose, the nature of the entire performance, becomes clear as a necessity. Out of that nature comes what character in any particular situation you can give to the building as a creative artist. Frank Lloyd Wright, Future of architecture
Common Courtyard and School Garden
“[We must] make each one of our schools an embryonic community life, active with types of occupations that reflect the life of the larger society, and permeated throughout with the spirit of art, history and science.� Dewey
Shared Space: Assembly Area Demonstration Kitchen Multipurpose Zone
Plan: Classroom Pod
Carlo Scarpa Villa Ottolenghi
Alvar Aalto Teacher Training College
Process Sketch Learning Courtyard
Elementary Classroom
“The school of tomorrow will be a garden city of children; that is to say a place of many shelters-a township…of small schools built as one community but with every shelter organized as a separate unit designed to meet the needs of children of specific age or stage of life…every shelter is in effect a small school, it is also a self contained unit or school home…” –Margaret MacMillan
Classroom Perspective
School “Neighborhoods” Kindergarten Elementary Middle School Special Education
Outdoor Learning Courtyards
Extension of the School to Wider Community
Masieri Foundation Location: Venice, Italy Program: Architecture Academy Focus: Flexibility of Spaces Shared Access to Canal Living/Learning Cohesion
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This project was approached as an experiment in the layering of programmatic elements. With the unique triangular footprint and high density that comes with 15 architecture students living, working and socializing within 6,000sq. feet, I chose to carefully assemble a variety of elements within one large space. Rather than creating separate rooms for separate functions, this approach mimics the creative process of the students. Students are free to move from the Grand Canal terraces, where they might seek inspiration, to their workstations, library resources, and a social area within which they may exchange ideas or sit for a lecture. The mezzanine, containing the dormitories, also serves as a quiet place to read and take a break from the action below.
Concept: To confront the challenges associated with multiple people living and working in a small space.
Living Room & Studio Space
Grand Canal
Levels 2 & 4 LEVEL TWO . VENICE, ITALY . MEGHAN HAWKINS . 2011
Level 0 LEVEL ONE . VENICE, ITALY . MEGHAN HAWKINS . 2011
Levels 3 & 4 LEVEL THREE . VENICE, ITALY . MEGHAN HAWKINS . 2011
Process Sketch
Layering of Program along Canal Facade
“An approach is favored in which individual human activities are enhanced by the articulation of spaces of different character, in which a building’s unity of form and idea is considered paramount, and in which technique is made the servant of the controlling form.” Curtis, W.J.R., Denys Lasdun Architecture
Living Room & Library
Gallery, Exhibition Space and Dining Hall
Privacy Gradient
Filtering
Circulation
Gallery Concept Sketch
Prospect & Refuge
Turkish Carpet Museum Location: Portland, Oregon Program: Museum and Research Center Focus: Museum as Theater Architecture as Educational Tool Contributing to Urban Fabric
Longitudinal Section
The goal of this effort was to create a museum that increased the visitor’s understanding of the material through the architecture. I set out to translate the qualities inherent in ancient Turkish prayer rugs into the tectonics of the structure itself. Some of these qualities included percieved symmetry, the void, boundaries, and the interock of pattern. The building has a dense structural grid to provide an intimate room in which to view the works, and create a sense of mystery. Screened enclosures hold special exhibits and become sources of light within the darkened gallery space. The gallery takes on a theatrical quality as museumgoers catch glimpses of other visitors through the layered floorplates above and below.
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Site Plan
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Level Three
South Section: Entrance & Research Facility
North Section: Gallery & Lecture Hall
Visiting Scholars Academy Location: Rome, Italy Program: Live/Work Center for Visiting Scholars and Artists Focus: Response to Historic Structure Interior Design Linking Landscape and Built Spaces
THis project was a result of a collaboration between an Interior Architecture student and I. Challenged with the prospect of situating a new building within the confines of a medieval monastery, the new structure both completes 3 existing courtyards, and continues the original monastery’s interlocking with the landscape to the south. We developed a modular design for the live/work studio units that would maximize light and continue the studio space toward the orchard. While interaction with the landscape was a major focus of the design, it was perimount that the small studios and apartments catered to the flexible needs of the artists in residence, with built in shelving, workspace, supply storage, and bathrooms. Great focus was also applied to materials and details.
Process and Diagrams
Studio Perspective
Live/Work Studio Axon
South Elevation [Facing Orchard]
Site Plan: New & Existing Structures
Outdoor Recreation Center Location: Springfield, Oregon Program: After School and Excursion Center for Springfield Youth Focus: Contextual Response to River Playful, Youth Focus Directing & Framing Views
Lower Level [Stream Access]
Upper Level [Entry]
Vegetated Roof Solar Panels North Clerestory Daylighting
Stack Ventilation
Earth Berm Heat Sink
South Facing Clerestory
Vegetated Shading Device
Stream-Cooled Breeze Access Thermal Mass
Mill Race Stream
This design emerged from both its immediate context and the use of sustainable design strategies. Situated along the man-made Mill Race stream, and along a south facing bank, it provided an opportunity to teach young Springfield residents how natural systems might be harnessed to heat and cool buildings. A variety of sustainable design strategies are demonstrated and complement the students explorations of the environment and natures cycles. The fan shaped form is intended to propel students outside and onto the terraces along the river, and direct views from within towards a waterfall, the mouth of the stream, and a small island in the center of the stream. The terraces provide instructional space and also a gear preparation area before excursions.
Passive Heating and Cooling Study
Strategies: -North/South Orientation -Cross Ventlation -Stack Effect -Bermed Lower Level Heat Sink -Thermal Mass and Abundant South Glazing -Vegetated Shading Devices
Calculations were completed to achieve an optimum indoor temperature range throughout the year. I also experimented with the effects of cooltowers, Night Flush Ventilation, Trombe walls, Water Walls, and Sun Spaces
Brion Cemetary Piazza Navona
Castelvecchio Brion Cemetary
Manarola Oslo
Avignon Assissi
Manarola
Venice
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Meghan Hawkins http://issuu.com/meghanhawkins hawkins.meghan@gmail.com (414) 333-9163