STUFF I ’ V E M A D E [AND A FEW THINGS I’VE SEEN]
MITCHELL J. LAWRENCE
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EVOLVE
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DECIPHER
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WITNESS
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REHEARSE
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一 EVOLVE
To exist is to change. Time propels even the static forward into new forms. These projects examine the potential for the historically static objects of architecture to evolve in form, and in turn evolve the society in which they exist. Time will force the architecture to change regardless of the design; how can form anticipate evolution?
m e t a /m o r p h o /s i s
ARCH 3 2 2, Melissa Harris | F 2018 The ambiguous borders found in Morandi’s paintings suggest a force that bends space and time, translating through spatial and temporal metamorphosis. Such phenomena form these objects, collapsing three forms into one with three branches. As each mass evolves, interiors ripple into new spatial possibilities.
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Herein is a proposal that each iteration can be made of the same physical fabric, but also be reshaped into simultaneously independent yet convergent forms. Through a shift in material and formal language, from the stacked and carved to the solid and poured, further variations raise supplementary interests in the relationship of organic and geometric Metabolist forms.
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Merging Morandi
ARCH 3 2 2, Melissa Harris | F 2018 This structure houses a collection of Morandi’s art and artifacts as a public museum. Cellular spaces house each category of art while maintaining connection with others through the atmospheric transparency of the skin and spatial continuity of the ramp. The public is invited to use the space as a means of circulation between the two streets. In defining the spatial experience with this circulatory route in mind, the museum strives to expose a new public to the art of Morandi.
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Gradating Identity ARCH 3 2 2, Melissa Harris | F 2018
It is impossible to judge one’s allegiance purely to the University or the city because everybody is inherently a participant in both. Students are also citizens of Ann Arbor; the public serves as faculty, staff, audiences, and fans of the University.
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Located on an urban infill site on the boundary of the University of Michigan’s campus and city property, this proposal for a community design center interprets the inherited binary of “city and university � as ignorant to this reality. Thus, this project reexamines this binary as a gradated spectrum.
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The building becomes an interface for moving along this binary. A mixed-use program includes “public� spaces of the city [diagrammed in red], such as an art supply store, day care, and office space, as well as traditionally private University spaces like lecture halls, classrooms, and library facilities [in blue]. The purple denotes the shared spaces of circulation and occupancy.
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The book stacks become an opportunity for chance encounter. A ramping circulatory system moves users through the membrane of book shelves into their own respective spaces, while the dynamic shuffle of books allows for new apertures that provide light and view into the daily lives of those traditionally segregated behind a brick wall. This aspires to facilitate interaction across groups and disciplines, while accommodating the reality that most users exist on both sides of the spectrum.
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The façade creates a double membrane with the bookshelves that wraps the ramps in a skin of atmospheric transparency. Perforations in the façade’s standardized panel system allow for a gradation of light and view exposure depending on the nature of the program of a given space. Additionally, light wells in the floor allow for additional transmission of light to the otherwise dark areas. This also provides additional opportunities to glimpse the activity of different programing, encouraging further exploration and social connection that further blurs the binary.
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DECIPHER
That which is inherited shapes your experience of the world. To make sense of oneself, one must first decipher that which surrounds them: their world, their precedents, their body. These projects draw upon the inherited context in which my design work exists to create meaning and orientation in a tumultuous world.
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ARCH 218, Michael Jefferson | W 2018 While exploring the relationship between existing topographical conditions and designed spaces, this model proposes an environment that accommodates sitting, standing, and laying bodies. Serving as an exploration of form and plan, this project employs the folded surface as a route to creating occupiable space.
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Mingling Manors
ARCH 218, Michael Jefferson | W 2018 Through a study of organizing grids, this project examines the underlying relation of Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein de Monzie to Palladio’s Villa Malcontenta as proposed by Colin Rowe in “ The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa.” Acrylic volumes intercalate into the grid of Villa Stein following the massing of Villa Malcontenta, linking Le Corbusier’s supposedly original modernism to a greater architectural discourse. Made in collaboration with Courtney Klee.
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Elevating Campus ARCH 202, Dawn Gilpin | W 201 7 A R T D E S 1 96 , S u s a n H o g e | F 2 0 1 7
This close examination of Morphosis’ 41 Cooper Square reveals the building ’s use of the central atrium, grand stairs, and skip-stop elevators to produce a vertically contained campus space. The study includes examination through vertical section, axonometric, and perspective views.
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Drawing upon the previous examination of 41 Cooper Square, this copper model studies the formal qualities of the architecture as well as the conversation between interior and surface.
Campus of the Future Initiative for Inclusive Design | S 2017
Produced collaboratively in response to a study of the University of Michigan’s campus, this project “strives to promote equitable spatial experiences as a standard of design” (Initiative for Inclusive Design, 201 7). The project illuminates the various scales of physical space that impact the individual and the collective through architectural barriers. The proposal includes speculative designs from the scale of the campus to the classroom that may serve as precedents in rethinking the structure of our educational environment. Roles: Project Management, Research and Documentation, Poster Design, Design of lecture hall
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P A T H S T r a v e l AbleBodied Person
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Person in a Wheelchair
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E D U C A T I O N
The Journey to Opportunity
T i m e :
In this trial, the person in an electric wheelchair had to travel more than double the distance to reach the same learning space.
1:45 MIN 6:30 MIN
Educational buildings such as the University of Michigan's Art + Architecture Building are designed in ways that limit the navigation of people with disabilities. Buildings like these limit the opportunities available for people with disablilites, despite being defined as "accessible,” and segregate people with disabilites from the paths and spaces of able-bodied people.
1:45 min 6:30 min
5:30 min
1:00 min 4:45 min
3:00 min 1:00 min
0:00 min 0:00 min
4:00 min
University of Michigan Art + Architecture Building
Common Barriers to Education: Limited Automatic Doors / Limited Elevators / Narrow Passageways / Limited Routes
Model Collaborators: Leah Hong, Ellis Wills-Begley, Courtney Klee | Poster Research Collaborator: Celeste Adams | Additional Tea
am Members: Aimee Wolf, Mieko Preston, Jake Gondek, Antonela Sallaku, Brenna Thompson, Rachel Wittenberg, + Michelle Bonin.
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三 WITNESS
To view and to know are not the same. The world is experienced commonly through views of the interface which in turn orients. However, knowing requires a different type of perception which involves examination. Through sustained and repeated witnessing, one can come to know that which they inhabit. These projects document the process of seeking such knowledge of a place, thing, or process through documentation and deconstruction.
Reflected/Projected ARCH 201, Melissa Harris | F 2016
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This project studies the conversation between interior and exterior spaces separated by a glazing activated by shifts in illumination. The space was studied between 8 am until 2 am, revealing the range of conditions throughout the 24-hour cycle.
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As the lighting conditions transition, the boundary between the interior and the exterior is blurred through reflections that project an alternate reality on the other side of the glass. This reflected space profoundly changes the experience of the interior and replaces the exterior conditions with those that were imagined.
C u b i c Ya r d
ARCH 201, Melissa Harris | F 2016 Through freehand drawing, this study dissects the interiors of a collection of objects and the varying structures and densities that lie within.
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Consumption
A R C H 4 0 9, M e l i s s a H a r r i s | W 2 0 1 9 Through freehand drawing, this study dissects the interiors of a collection of objects and the varying structures and densities that lie within.
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S e e k i n g “ To k y o � Independent | S 2018
Tokyo is a city of continual renewal from destruction. Tokyo is home to 3 7,83 2,89 2+ moving parts. Tokyo is a place where centuries of tradition inform the creative practice of living and evolving.
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REHEARSE
Practice anticipates unknown scenarios. No matter how many times one may rehearse, the ultimate performance is still subject to its own variables. The practice of rehearsal equips one with the ability to respond to unknown futures. The following work documents my process of rehearsal through professional practice, setting the stage, and ultimately, performance.
Te c t o n i c s I
A R C H 3 1 7, J o n R u l e | F 2 0 1 8 Through the production of a full set of construction drawings and a 3/4”=1’-0” sectional model, this project examines the tectonics of residential construction. The design was developed from studying Fuhrimann Hächler’s House in Vnà. Model produced with assistance from Emily Cole, Juan Muñoz and Bilal Fawaz.
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Keiji Ashizawa Design Keiji Ashizawa Design | S 2018
While working in the Keiji Ashizawa Design office, responsibilities included iterative physical and digital model making, rendering, and gallery layout development + installation of “Architect Meets Karimoku� [right], an exhibition in Design Koishikawa of furniture designed by Torafu Architects, Norm Architects, and Keiji Ashizawa Design [produced by K arimoku]. Deliverables produced were used by the office in design development, client presentations, and competition entries for international brands. Site visit and documentation additionally informed the development of 3D models and gallery layout design. The following designs were developed by the Keiji Ashizawa Design team. Images courtesy of Keiji Ashizawa Desgn.
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1800
1:50
A3 SIZE FRAME
Photograph by Masaki Ogawa 56
Photograph by Masaki Ogawa
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団子
氷
どら焼き
抹茶
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i(ID) Initiative for Inclusive Design
CrĂŞSpimeples! $2 x $4 D-Lu
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Wednesday, March 20 | 11 am - 1 pm | Tables @ Media Center
Crepes!
Initiative for Inclusive Design | W 2019 Advertisement produced for Initiative for Inclusive Design Fundraiser at Taubman College.
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UMINDS580: Disability + Design Invites you to
A GARDEN PARTY Thursday, April 12, 2018 | 3 - 5 pm | Room: G463 Mason Hall
A Garden Party
A R C H 6 0 9, R o b e r t A d a m s | W 2 0 1 8
Invitation produced for ARCH 609: Disability + Design’s end of semester conversation. Collage is employed to combine the voices of artists and activists studied throughout the term while subverting the themes artistic and architectural precedents. The image was distributed electronically via an accessible, interactive PDF and physically with braille captioning.
Moist Frida
Wo r k S e s s i o n N o. 8 , A n d r e s J a q u e | W 2 0 1 9 This “archi-political design experiment” consisted of performing the themes of Frida K ahlo’s “Self Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States” (193 2) and “Henry Ford Hospital” (193 2) [each based in K ahlo’s time in Detroit], over the course of a 3 day workshop.
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Director: Andrés Jaque [Office for Political Innovation] | Act 1: Myself, Kay Wright, Qing yang Xie | Act 2: Jordan Laurila, An
Through research, writing, design, and performance, the project explored “the way buildings, institutions, resources, borders, gender, sex, blood, oil, bodies, territory, earth, bones, data, industries, finances, toxicity comes together to produce and accommodate life” both in Frida’s era and today (Jaque 2019). Involvement in Act 1: Atmosphere included research, co-writing, designing and constructing props, editing Audio recordings, and performing the final piece.
na Tang, Liam Li, Ibiayi Briggs | Act 3: Adithi Vellimana, Sara Alsawafy, Nan Cao | Act 4: Yixin Miao, Lyse Messmer, Ye Wang
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THANK YOU.
WILLEKE PORTFOLIO COMPETITION V . I I I | 4 . 0 1 . 2 0 1 9