12 & 13 by Michael Miller

12 &13

MICHAEL C. MILLER

This compilation contains my academic work (with a great deal of guidance & help from professors & colleges) dating from 2012 to 2013 at Yale University & The Georgia Institute of Technology.

Contact Information Michael.Miller117@gmail.com 404-309-5297 mmillerarch.com

Table of Contents 2 - Windfleet 16 - Meninas Stereoscope 24 - ‘2 Spaces’ 32 - Peabody Data Cafe 40 - Visualizations 48 - Fragmented Panopicon 62 - Formal Analysis 76 - Reef House 92 - Assembly Pavilion 102 - Courtyard House 116 - Double Perspective Bench 122 - Vlock Building Project 130 - Constructed Drawings 138 - CASIS Headquarters 158 - Formation Mosaic

Windfleet Course: Senior Undergraduate Studio, Critic Fred Pearsall, Spring 2012 Location: Freshkills Park, Staten Island, New York Client: Land Art Generator Initiative Program: Create beautiful & functional sustainable infrastructure for the former garbage dumb, Freshkills Park. Description: WINDFLEET Harvesting eco-social horizons We find at Freshkills a windswept landscape of big skies & uncanny constructs whose isolation & not-yet-connected socio-ecological systems provide unique challenges & opportunities, making our question how to develop heightened connectivity & perception of its ground-to-sky ecologies across space-time scales. This proposal works across scales to connect the imaginations & bodies of participants to Freshkills’ diverse spatio-temporal ‘horizons’ with site-specific interrelationships waiting to be discovered between those of its extended human & natural ecosystems, & its histories & futures. The Approach Prelude. WINDFLEET operates as a socio-historic progression of the New York paradigm. The construction boom of the ‘20s brought about the skyscraper as a new vertical horizon. The frontier exploded with the post-war space-race. Energy consumption becomes the global conflict of the 21st century. The high-altitude wind harvesters propose a new horizon of energy production. They provide both a physical & figurative flicker of light in the smog-filled cities of today’s fossil energy production. The helium-filled wind turbines of WINDFLEET propose a new global dynamic of power production, redefining New York as again the forerunner.

extending radial-array-grid, projecting past the physical barriers of the site, operate to connect the neighborhoods, once victims of social refuse, become portals of Freshkill’s rebirth as a park. The projection from one earthen mound to the next establishes a unified landscape, punctured only by the kayakers & ducks that operate at the fulcrum of the occluded horizons. The Imagination The massive skies of Freshkills are indicative of one of the most wind rich regions in the United States. The constantly shifting Jet-streams dancing invisibly above the site have been estimated to contain within them over ten times the energy the world currently consumes per year. The turbines operate by counterbalancing the electrical generation mechanism with helium, creating a fantastical combination of the buoyancy of the hot air balloon or the dirigible with the efficacy of a turbine. By combining lobed mixers: a concept appropriated from high performance jet engines, & stators: a stationary pre-vortex mixer from the biological precedent of flagellum; the sky-ship toggles the cutting edge with the absolutely primitive. The basal qualities of the delicately floating orb counterbalance the highly technical specifications. The fleet operates in unison, dancing as one, tethered both to the ground & to each to create a network, a shifting cloud. They flex & move about the fixed air-ground poles, orienting themselves towards the optimal wind direction, shifting up or down vertically with seasonal shifts in wind patterns. This system provides sufficient flexibility to service individual units as necessary, or allow the entire fleet to be docked in the most severe weather conditions. The translucent balloons, constructed of a lightweight laminated nylon shell, glow with shifting conditions of thermochromism. The turbine’s bioluminescent illuminations shift in colour across time. Higher energy production, created by stronger wind conditions, triggers a stronger illumination.

The Site. Years of reinforcing the boundaries of the landfill have left the site especially isolated. WINDFLEET 2operates as a shifting space-time construct, breaking down The 37 sky-ships, produce 14.9 MW per month, enough socially conditioned & physically reinforced boundaries. electricity to power approximately 1600 to 2200 homes. At the scale of the Manhattan skyline the white points of light form a cloud on the horizon, instigating a visual Partner: Patrick DiRito inquiry & establishing curiosity in place of animosity. The

The Immersion Horizontally, WINDFLEET awaits the sinking topography of the landfill mounds & the rising waters of the eastern seaboard to an elevationally aligned moment in the future. The project accepts the devolving ecological conditions & opportunistically maps the rising tides, instilling curiosity across disjointed visits of larger time scales. The massive anchoring counterweights are precast concrete with a recycled aggregate (at cumulative load of 60 lbs/cu ft), lightening both the physical & metaphorical load on the landscape. Requiring minimal site work, the inverted sky-piles sit gently on the landscape, diffused their weight across a horizontal support beam (staying under the 500 lbs/sq ft ground requirement) to counterweight updrafts. At the boundary condition, the opposing fields house a higher density of anchors which then gradient out into an untouched center. This center creates a quiet place in the park where the participant can sense the peripheral containment of the energy harvesting & read the gateway framing the Manhattan skyline in one direction & the Confluence in the other. The acoustical reverberations on the concrete act to magnify the slight shifts of the sky poles, allowing for both an ocular framing of the sky & an acoustical mapping of the slow processional dance of the wind patterns above.

birdwatcher investigate the same space-times at different focal depths. Progressing from the periphery to the central core, the occluding horizon of the berm suddenly collapses into the distant horizon of the first mound. The linear progressions from the single point of entry project into the horizon of the hill itself, collapses as the hill forms the boundary of vision. The framed stems draw the eye down towards the anchoring base. The arrangement of the anchors focuses on diffusing the periphery condition, beckoning the local pedestrian through the perceived arrayed alignments that are uniformly distinguishable only at the entrance ways. From the expansive suburban fabric the shopper or resident has a compressed view towards the horizon forcing the projection into compression, lessening the perceived distance & drawing them in. Once engrossed within, the boundaries exceed normal perception, delaying the return to reality; the exiting of the dream sequence. Future Horizons

From the high-altitude turbine, brought down through the connecting stem, & anchored by the oculi to a truly contemporary site, humanity is confronted with a physical & mental moment of The Investigation conflict: the effects of consumerism on ecological systems. At the pivotal null point between these The 215 concrete sky-piles are arranged in a radial pattern conditions, WINDFLEET creates a quiet space of with two portals on the western neighborhood side & three contemplation of this dialectical relationship of on the eastern mall side. socio-ecosystems, manifest in physical entities. The participant reaches out & touches the manifestation As the anchors gradient towards the center, their heights of conflict, the gently swaying tensioned bridge of shorten, their radii widen, & the oculi-like angle of their ideals, & comes to imagine, with heart & mind, the inverted cone become increasingly shallow, more condupotentials of brave new horizons. cive to laying & sky-gazing. The scaling piles become occupiable along the order of the imposed radial-grid, & the Team: Patrick DiRito & Professor Fred Pearsall viewing reveals on axis open up to allow physical access. Computational Programs: Rhinoceros 4, Vray The participant, wandering through the site, experiences the cross-section ecological bands of the master plan, magnifying the richness of occupancy, promoting a higher density of both plant & animal life. The botanist & the

Windfleet Daytime rendering showing the two site mounds & two main high-altitude wind harvesting clusters, intersected by wetlands creek. New York City’s skyline is seen beyond establishing the proposal’s ‘duplicate’ nature.

Michael C. Miller

Windfleet Above: Plan of anchoring unit arrangement & construction lines with varying ground plantings & paths. Middle: Site section series over time. The garbage piles below ground will settle over time & eventually reach a state where the anchors horizontally align.

Michael C. Miller Below: Spectrum of anchor types with varying heights & radii resulting in varying programmatic uses.

Windfleet Diagrammat series of perception scales. From top to bottom: Long range view of open site from New York City, Mid range view from a highway or ferry, Mid range view of Windfleet as beacon, Close range view of perspectival anchor arrangements, Interior view from within an anchor unit.

Michael C. Miller Site Plan: The plan is made to privilege the pedestrian who enters the park from the adjacent neighborhoods & not by car. At these pedestrian entrances, the visitor is positioned at a perspectival moment of perfection. At other entrances to the park, the plan seems to be in chaos.

Windfleet Wind harvesting turbine. The outer volume contains helium & is made of translucent material. Its shape creates a vacuum effect creating greater wind speeds for the turbine unit.

Michael C. Miller Anchor unit for the wind turbine which attaches the turbine to the ground & houses electrical infrastructure. The anchor is occupiable like a small temple where a visitor can sit & contemplate the wind harvesting above & the garbage pile below.

Windfleet Winter Rendering.

Michael C. Miller Left: Rendering of turbine units Right: Rendering looking up from an anchoring unit towards turbines above

Meninas Stereoscope Course: Visual Practice, Professor Fred Pearsall, Spring 2012 Location: Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Architecture Building & Courtyard

the Meninas Stereoscope stage may exit the frame & enter the viewer’s space.

The participant may easily alternate between the several parallel space times of the: courtyard, window to the courtyard, iPhone screens projecting the courtyard, & lensProgram: Create a device to perceive multiple realities. es which merge the screens into a digital representation of the courtyard’s space & time. A possible conclusion of Description: The project engages the mind/body/cognitive the cognitive mind to the situation may be the tremendous relationship of the real & the digital. Specifically how the ability of human perception to easily & simultaneously mind accepts the varying degrees into & out of the digital, occupy multiple space/time conditions & its ability to & the smoothness of how one moves through the various move seamlessly between these conditions. Man does not parallel space/times. The key issue is of ‘space’ & the realize this ability that their mind has & thusly may not multiple projections/occupations of it. understand the ways in which this ability is being manipulated by those creating the visual space/time mediums. The Stereoscope presented the first moment in history in which the human mind encountered true digital space, The investigation began with the assumption that the real defined as the perception of actual space/time with the & the digital were two exclusive realms. Somehow they potential of mental human occupancy. were perfect opposites, as if the real was waiting for the digital to exist so that it could finally have its counterpart. The discovery of perspective was a step in the direction But this polar distinction proved to be short sighted. The of creating digital space. Paintings set up, in perspective, crux is the human mind & the infinite space/times which rules which gave viewers a seductive realism through it has the ability to occupy. The digital is merely an espewhich their minds began to leave their bodies & enter cially seductive medium which the mind has adapted itself more deeply into the painting. Where perspective fell to. The mode of occupation is no different than when one short was in the representation of depth. A flat surface sits with a book & imagines/embodies its world or when could not duplicate this mechanical device of perception. an architect draws a plan representing a building. The representation of physical space is an especially easy thing The stereoscope duplicated the eye’s mechanical overlay for the mind to willingly embody due to its familiarity & of two images with slightly different perspectives, digital- comfort. This embodiment can & does seduce to the point ly simulating & eerily ‘real’ image. The device cuts off of the willful relinquishing of self. the viewer from any sort of external reference point making its focus the only point that the mind can occupy when Compuational Programs: iOS 5 for iPhone 4, Camera viewing. So the machine grabs the eyes of the viewer & Application leaves the body behind, adjacent in space, elsewhere in mind. The stereoscope treats the human as a machine of perception, patiently waiting man’s binocular vision to bring the stereoscope’s purpose to fruition. This mechanization of the human is where the stereoscope falls short. The Meninas Stereoscope presents the participant with the power to interact with the visual mechanism of the device, & its mentally occupied digital space as a real time/space 16 projection. This device allows the participation of several bodies (even the viewer’s own disembodied flesh) to move simultaneously through the real & digital space. Like Velasquez’s painting Las Meninas, the frame of participation is extended outside of the work. An actor viewed in

Meninas Stereoscope Above: Photograph of device from afar, as it is approached. Below: Photograph from the perspective of a user interacting with the device. A conventional camera cannot replicate the effect of the device. Only the human brain can merge the focused images of the two iPhone screens with slightly different perspectives.

Michael C. Miller Diagram of classical stereoscope. Credit etc.usf.edu

self projection space/time series

Meninas Stereoscope Above: Canonical Painting â&#x20AC;&#x153;Las Meninasâ&#x20AC;? by Velazquez Below: Diagram of the spectrum of the experience of duplicated self. From left to right: A picture of the self, the self in real space/time, the self projected on a flat surface in real space/time, the self mirrored, & the self seen by the self in stereoscopic real space/time dislocated from the body.

Michael C. Miller The user perceives themselves in one space, looking at another space: a person through a window. Simultaneously, the user is seeing a stereoscopic representation of the space beyond the window, & flipping back & forth (while adjusting focus) between the real & the digital.

Meninas Stereoscope Stereoscopic Perception: Outside - Window - Lense - Camera - Screen Focal Length - Magnifying Glasses - Contact Lense - Retina - Neurological Construction of Outside - Inside.

Michael C. Miller

‘2 Spaces’ Course: First Year Studio, Critic Brennan Buck, Fall 2012 Location: Generic sloped site Program: Create two spaces & negotiate a generic sloping site Description: The project is based on a study of ‘Twilight Epiphany’ by James Turrell. The project’s two spaces are the spaces one is in, created by the intersection of conical shapes, & the space framed beyond by a conical projection. The spaces where the cones intersect create local interest in the strange edges. The spaces beyond can be seen out without obstruction in any direction a cone points. The pink interior color illustrates gradients & edges to make evident how much one color can change with only light & surface. Computational Programs: Rhinoceros 4

‘2 Spaces’ Model photograph of front & top.

Michael C. Miller Above: Short section cut through front space Below Left: Plan Below Right: Long section cut through main cone intersections

‘2 Spaces’ Model photograph of ‘beyond space’ & various interior colors.

Michael C. Miller Model photograph of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;beyond spaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; with color contrasts at edge.

Peabody Data Cafe Course: First Year Studio, Critic Brennan Buck, Fall 2012 Location: Science Hill on Yale Campus, New Haven, Connecticut Client: The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History Program: Cafe, interior & exterior seating spaces, & a rotating exhibit to display portions of the vast Peabody Museum collection. Description: The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History maintains an enormous archive of specimens & artifacts which act essential as units of data. The physical presence of these specimens limits their ability to transition into the meta-structure of Big Data & so the curation of specimens to study or display always tell only part of a story. The paradigm of the limited nature of data based research & representation is shown in the initial study model of the project where wind, temperature, & squirrel movements were observed & measured across the site. Squirrels were chosen as data-gatherers as they scurried about executing a very basic mental program. They acted essentially as data drones. The layering of this information gave a vague notion of the micro conditions on the site (like warmth or the spatial security of a tree) which influence behavior. The cafe similarly conveys the paradigm of data points in traditional & non-traditional displays. Each of the pixel like squares houses one of Peabodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s specimens. They are arranged to create a unique exterior garden of data which conveys the partial stories of the data curation. Across the site, the pixels transition to hold living specimens of plants & animals, juxtaposing the ongoing natural systems with the study of its objectified remnants. The interior of the cafe is a long rectangular room that completes the formal courtyard of the Yale Science Hill Building Complex. This cafe straddles the gap between the formal courtyard & the informal hill-park as a moment between active nature & active study. Computational Programs: Rhinoceros 4

Peabody Cafe Model photograph of layered data from a site study. Layers from back to front include topography, wind direction & speed, spot temperature readings, & squirrel burying, nibbling, scanning, & climbing

Michael C. Miller Model photograph of site study with superimposed data layers

Peabody Cafe Section perspective view through the cafe with view towards the more formal Science Hill courtyard beyond.

Michael C. Miller The cafe sits as a space between the observation of live natural specimens & preserved display specimens

Visualizations Course: Visualizations II, Professors Sunil Bald & Kent Bloomer, Fall 2012 Description: These exercises investigate drawing as a means of architectural communication & as a generative instrument of formal, spatial, & tectonic discovery. They delve into principles of two- & three-dimensional geometry are extensively studied through freehand & constructive techniques. Drawings: ‘Bricks’ ‘Gourd & Faucet’ ‘Merging Topographies’ ‘Infinite Periodic Minimal Surface w/ Dancers Passing By’

Visualizations â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Bricksâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;: patterns on a flat composition with apparent depth.

Michael C. Miller

Visualizations â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Gourd & Faucetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;: A strange merger of an interlocking tile system that transitions into a weaving system while a gourd transitions into a faucet.

Michael C. Miller â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Merging Topographiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;: An exploration into the ambiguous forms defined by vague topographies.

Fragmented Panopticon Course: First Year Studio, Critic Brennan Buck, Fall 2012 Location: 862 Washington St. New York, USA Program: Dance studio & recital hall. A more private side of the building houses 3 daily use practice rooms & break areas for dancer training & rehearsal. The public from the street level & the level of the Highline are invited in to access a cafe at any time. A lobby & recital hall invite the more formal use of the building while the cafe doubles as a reception area for after the performance. Description: The site is located in a particularly voyeuristic neighborhood of New York City at a merger of high end shops, the Highline, & the infamous Standard Hotel. However this voyeuristic looking is no longer a power structure like the panopticon once was. Each participant in the space, local, tourist, dancer, shopper, flaneur or other, plays both the watcher & the watched. The culture of the geographic location points to a post-paranoid society where access to personal information is no longer feared & all participate in a capitalist spatial stage. Within this play is the acknowledgment of inevitable public security cameras which coalesce a virtual & spatial memory of the city parallel to that of the collective folds of the subjectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s participation. The building is a manifestation of this contemporary phenomenon. Instead of one subject objectifying another subject, each participant acts subjectively & objectively, thus fragmenting the panopticon. Each tube represents one of the infinite multi-directional visual interactions within the site. The interiors of the tubes are lined with lit & pixelated images of the exterior to create a continuity between what is near & what is beyond, like the exterior spaces warped through the building in every direction. Computational Programs: Rhinoceros 4

Fragmented Panopticon 3 model photographs of visual splices of the site with the images of what is seen beyond.

Michael C. Miller 2 photographs of a concept model which turns the 3 dimensional visual lines into physical entities.

Fragmented Panopticon Concept model photographs illustrating fragmenting & fragmented spaces.

Michael C. Miller Programmatic spaces shown by dowel material.

Fragmented Panopticon Cafe level accessible from the Highline.

Michael C. Miller Lobby & theater level with views to rehearsal rooms below.

Highline Patio and Cafe Entrance

Performance Space

Cafe/Reception

Office

Dancer Lobby

Patron Lobby

Rehearsal Studio

Fragmented Panopticon Exploded axonometric of site dynamics & program.

Michael C. Miller Above: Long section from street level path up to Highline Below: Lobby space & escalator up to cafe as well as view down to rehearsal the spaces.

Fragmented Panopticon Above: Model photograph of roof. Below: Model photograph of main lobby entrance.

Michael C. Miller Model photograph of street elevation.

Formal Analysis Course: Formal Analysis, Professor Peter Eisenman, Fall 2012 Location: Renaissance Italy Description: A series of analytical drawings investigates the metaphysical implications of architectural elements & the Subject at the birth of Western Humanism.

Formal Analysis Palladioâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Rethinking Roman Space Compare the compositional elements of the plan & facades of Il Redentore & San Giorgio Maggiore.

Michael C. Miller Palladio, in both San Giorgio Maggiore & II Redentore, uses repetition, imperfection, & mirroring to create two different types of nave-to-transept organizations. In II Redentore, the rhythm of the column is maintained even through a function of mirroring & turning disconnects the nave from the transept. In San Giorgio Maggiore, the column rhythm is disrupted by the transept so that the nave & the transept become one

continuous space. This is typical of how Palladio always hints at perfection or idealized geometries & creates compositions that seemingly achieve this, however, the arrangements of plan & faรงade elements is consistently ambiguous in near perfection.

Formal Analysis A critical comparison of the facades of Sanmicheli’s Palazzo Bevilacqua in Verona & Romano’s Palazzo del Te in Mantua.Romano’s work is said to contain a fundamental Raphaelian trait of the “inseparability of structure & decoration”. In this pursuit, particularly in the Palazzo del Te, Romano creates a conflict “between order & chaos” where “the relationship of supporting &

supported members is one of frozen movement”. At once members are rising up, slipping down, becoming rusticated against shining finishes. Ornament, rather than being separate from the purpose of structure, calls out structure by being-in-explicit-slipping. Sanmicheli, basing his work primarily as an evolution of Bramante, separates structure & ornament more explicitly by using sculptural ornament. Difference in the formal

Michael C. Miller patterning occurs when a figure is set among structure. These differences can be seen fundamentally & critically in the juxtaposition of the ‘singular bay’ & its column, wall, aperture, entablature, & pedestal relationship. With Romano, there is rusticated contrast & structural play with internal component variation (slipped triglyph). With Sanmicheli there is overt separation of structure but play in slippages of component adjacency (col-

umn rising, window falling). Ultimately, I argue that they play the same game of adapting a “formal repertory used to express something utterly unclassical”: the disruption of the static state of the high renaissance towards a condition of movement/instability. I then perform my own exercise by combining the two concepts into a structure & ornament inconsistency.

Formal Analysis Borrominiâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Surface Continuity Analyze the difference in the underlying geometries of Santâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Ivo & San Carlo.

Michael C. Miller Borromini’s Sant' Ivo as a composite space governed primarily by its triangle/square geometry carving away at the space & a column condition that conforms to the curve of the carve. Here the poché is illustrated in a hash & the column’s flat engagement is emphasized to show the dominance of the geometry carving away from the solid. Sant' Carlo performs a different Baroque treatment of its internal space. It is less rigidly

governed by is geometric base & creates a more fluid wall condition. This idea can be seen in the compression of the rounded column into the wall at varying degrees of engagement. Both organizations wrap their logics up onto the logic of the domes above.

Formal Analysis Bernini & Rainaldiâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Superposition, Layering, & Plasticity Draw the critical difference between the two churches at the Piazza del Popolo in Rome.

Michael C. Miller This drawing addresses how the two churches at the triad of streets in the Piazza del Popolo mirror or rotate against each other. The central axis is defined by the central street & the obelisk marker in the Piazza. If mirrored across this line, the churches miss align with their counterpart. This is largely due to the angle at which the central axis of each church is slightly different as they address the Piazza. However, in a rotational

function, the facades of the churches line up in a consistent manner. Thus it is clear that the primary objective of the architects was to create a consistent face to be viewed from the Piazza & once this was achieved the central church axis & nave shapes shifts systems in the gasket space of the church threshold, representing the differences of the twins.

Formal Analysis Nolli & Piranesi—The Breakdown of Ideality Analyze the critical differences between Nolli’s Map of Rome & Piranesi’s Campo Marzio.

The critical difference of the two maps is seen in each of the author’s choices of abstraction & representation in the act of ‘map-making’ & their treatment of the ideas of the Enlightenment. The Nolli map is a more true representation of the Enlightenment ideals because it assumes that everything in the world can be known & measured. However, this is limited by what the map maker can see & what is currently present &

Michael C. Miller accessible. Thus the Nolli map conveys pure measurements of building perimeters & publicly accessible interior & exterior spaces while leaving private interiors represented the same way as wall poché. Nolli’s map stopped when he attempted to map the ruins of Rome, the edges & thus the limits. Piranesi’s Campo Marzio notices the limits of the Nolli map as the limits of the actual & the current. Piranesi maps based on memory,

literature, current buildings & future possibilities. These forms float in space where ruins currently exist as possibilities & also overlap with actual Nolli figure ground creating a third reading of superposition.

Reef House Course: Building Project Studio, Critic Peter de Brettville, Spring 2013 Location: Dixwell Avenue, New Haven, Connecticut Client: Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven Program: Single family house, 3 bedrooms, 1500sqft Description: The House, conceived of as a volume like a bowl of water, utilizes the extents of its small cubage with multi functional floors, walls, stairs, shelfs, seats, & cabinets. The proposal reimagines these defined entities as ‘cabinet-floor’, ‘seat-shelf’, or ‘stair-nook’ creating dynamic Loosian volumetric adjacencies which do more with less space. The inhabitant can live with a volumetric freedom akin to a fish in a coral reef, floating throughout the volume. An adaptable shingle skin wraps the volume with variable apertures & bulges to mediate the interior programmatic spaces with exterior program & environment.

Reef House A monstrous combination of Giancarlo do Carloâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s workerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s housing, Villaggio Matteotti, with a typical suburban house. An even rhythm of concrete walls supports wooden homes with structure & circulation.

Michael C. Miller Each wall seems to separate units but in fact one living unit weaves back & forth across walls & up & down half levels. Four units are shown in this model. A central courtyard provides light & air to the interior of the block & a through breeze to the garages on the ground level.

Reef House This exploded axonometic is a study of Glenn Murcottâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Marika Alderton House. The system shows a basic frame in which infrastructural furniture & walls fit. The houseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s operable panels allow the user to adjust to different times of the day & changing seasons.

Michael C. Miller Model photograph of a conceptually represented Marika Alderton House showing basic structure & paneling system with built in infrastructure & furniture systems.

Reef House Initial design concept for house competition proposal separates the house into an external thermal barrier & void interior space. The shell is a variable & operable window system. The interior is a variable massive furniture system that combines rooms, walls, shelves, stairs, seating, & cabinetry.

Michael C. Miller Massive furniture variations

Reef House Massive furniture compounds upon itself to create a 3 dimensional living space which fully utilizes the entire cubage of the small volume allowed by zoning on the site. The house is not conceived of as floors but as an entire environment within allowable space.

Michael C. Miller Above: The New England Shingle reimaged as variable skin system. Below: several study models of massive infrastructural furniture.

Reef House 48 Sections.

Michael C. Miller

Reef House Model photograph showing depth & sectional qualities of spatial system.

Michael C. Miller Model photograph of variable exterior shingle system.

Assembly Pavilion Course: Assembly Seminar coordinated by Brennan Buck, Spring 2013. Location: Various Festival Sites in New Haven, Connecticut, USA Client: Arts & Ideas Festival Committee Program: The pavilionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s objective is to create communication across various New Haven neighborhoods through space & sound. The pavilion had to easily pop-up & be taken down so it could travel to several neighborhoods around New Haven. It is sized to stack in a truck & could be put together in under one hour. The pods break down into wedges to be easily stacked for transit & cost efficient storage. Description: Each pod houses a different type of sound program. One pod records stories from locals & their neighborhoods, gathered as the pavilion traveled around. Other pods play back these local sounds in different locations. Still other pods have musical device plug-in ports for real-time user curation. The objective is to give local control to these temporary spaces to share & celebrate cultures of New Haven. The pavilion is then a collection of these pods, designed to be a form of interest which can draw festival-goers to it in a crowded environment. The interiors of the pods are painted several shades of red/pink & their ceilings are carved with baroque-like ornamental forms which convey the character of the podâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s program. Fabrication: The pods were constructed out of low density foam & cut with a precision hot-wire foam cutter. Finished with fiberglass, resin, & paint. The interior domes were made with low density foam milled by a seven axis Kuka robot Team: Hiba Bhatty, Dionysus Cho, Suhni Chung, Stephen Dinnen, Neil Flanagan, Chenxi Gong, Noah Morganstern, Boris Morin-Defoy, Craig Rosman, Jay Tsai & Dinah Zhang with Teaching Assistant Teoman Ayas Computational Programs: Rhinoceros 4 with Grasshop& Kangaroo, Zbrush 4R3, PowerMill 2013

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Michael C. Miller Above: Photograph taken by Craig Rosman on May 31st, 2013 at the first festival location, 232 Dixwell Avenue, New Haven, Connecticut Below: Pavilion elevation showing side-oculus

Assembly Pavilion Above: Cloth form designed for a southing, story-telling environment. Below: Veiny & explosive form designed for contemporary local music.

Michael C. Miller Above: Experimental design iteration with more traditional inner ring. Below: Experimental design iteration with over-detailing.

Assembly Pavilion Oval swirl form designed for a curated remixed track of local stories.

Michael C. Miller Finishing of oval swirl with paint after milling.

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Courtyard House Course: Building Project Studio, Critics Peter de Brettville, Alan Organschi, & Trattie Davies, Spring 2013 Location: 32 Lilac Street, New Haven, Connecticut Client: Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven Program: Competition entry for the Vlock Building Project. Single family home for a mother & two children with consideration for a potential grandparent with limited mobility. 1500 sqft. Description: The proposal reimagines the layout of a typical suburban home into an unfolded single story house. The traditional New England house is a cluster of rooms around a central fireplace for warmth, but this model is long outdated with the advent of modern technologies. This single story proposal has great potential in prototype variability, ADA accessibility, & spatial nuance in a small house. The site zoning allows for a maximum width of 17’. The scheme maximizes the width of the site by using bay windows & patios so a 17’ wide house can turn into a 26’ wide space. The urban structure of this neighborhood makes long & skinny backyards that are not typically used by the residence. The neighborhood street is very active with children playing & mothers conversing in a vibrant front-porch-culture. This proposal extends the house into this unused space & takes advantage of the expansive views not blocked by the neighbors’ houses. Each room has visual or physical access to a courtyard space, creating spaces for the family to come together or for a resident to enjoy alone. The long roof inverts the typical suburban pitched roof & allows for a more even rain water distribution across the site. The single story house maintains the cornice line of its neighbors to maintain a visual continuity on the street. The front facade incorporates elements from the eclectic street into a cohesive contributing member. The house provides & aesthetic order & a new spatial paradigm to a forgotten & often violent street of New Haven. Team: Boris Morin-Defoy, Leah Abrams, Nicholas Muraglia, Jeanette Penniman, Lauren Raab, Jonathan Sun 102

Computational Programs: Rhinoceros 5, Autodesk Revit 2013

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Courtyard House Site plan showing expansive block & back yard spaces.

Michael C. Miller Model photograph of front porch & facade.

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Courtyard House Plan: The house is formally entered through the front porch & into the living room. Upon entry the visitor can see the assembly of the public portion of the house with large glass walls onto the communal patio & through to the kitchen. The everyday entrance the family would use is in the middle â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;knuckleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of the house, a mud room that joins the public & private spaces. This is entered

through the continuing vector of the driveway & up the ADA accessible ramp into the middle bay window. The back of the house begins with two children or grandparent bedrooms with interior walls that double as closets. The grandparent bedroom as access to the private back courtyard. The master bedroom is has a cozy study in its bay window & looks out onto the back yard through a thickened cabinet wall & porch.

Michael C. Miller Section: The sloping roof allows for a slow variation between compressed & more open spaces. The slope allows the front room to have an expansive ceiling for a grand entrance & continuity with neighboring cornice lines. The house rhythmically oscillates between indoor & outdoor spaces.

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Courtyard House Above: Elevation Showing bay windows with privacy from neighboring windows & the ADA ramp into the mudroom. Middle: Long street elevation showing the eclectic nature of the facades on the street. Rectangular flat roof composition seems to fit in this neighborhood.

Michael C. Miller Below: Elevation showing the several private courtyard spaces & how the building scale relates to the street & its neighbors.

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Courtyard House Interior rendering, view from living room into dining room, kitchen, & side courtyard. Two men sit in the built-in bench in the bay window dining room while watching children play in the private courtyard. Living room ceiling expands to a double height space with ample light and grandeur.

Michael C. Miller Interior rendering, view from kitchen into dining room, living room, front door & side courtyard.

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Courtyard House Model photograph with an aerial view.

Michael C. Miller Above: Model photograph of front facade and bay window side. Below: Model photograph of back facade and courtyard side.

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Double Perspective Bench Course: Visualizations III, Critic Ben Pell, Spring 2013 Location: Rudolph Hall, 7th Floor Roof Patio, New Haven, Connecticut Program: Spatial reorganization through a digitally fabricated installation Description: The site for the installation is a point where two theatrical moments converge. The first moment is a view from the 7th floor review space out a full glass wall onto the roof patio & to New Havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skyline beyond. The second moment is the opening of the entrance onto the roof patio (where social gatherings often occur) from the side. From the first moment, the installation acts as a member of the skyline, a massive solid with small square holes at the same scale as the distant windows. These holes are punched in an array converging on a perspectival point in the review space. As the installation blends into the skyline, people standing on the roof patio appear to be playing amongst the towers. From the second moment, the bench becomes almost invisible. All the planar construction components are angled to show only their edges from the perspectival convergence point at the entrance door. Entering the roof patio, the new visitor is able to see all the people already out on the benches. The benches create a dynamic theater between personal & urban visual interactions. Team: Thomas Friddle, Meghan Lewis, & Hank Mezza Computational Programs: Rhinoceros 4

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Double Perspective Bench Axonometic drawing of panel angles. The flat edges of the panels seen from the perspective of the entrance door make the installation nearly disappear. The punched squares through the panels are governed by a perspective geometry from the point of view of the woman inside the review space.

Michael C. Miller

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Double Perspective Bench View from entrance onto roof patio.

Michael C. Miller View from review space with aligning punched holes.

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Vlock Building Project Course: Vlock Building Project Summer Construction, Project Architect Adam Hopfner, Site Manager Avi Forman, Summer 2013 Location: 118 Greenwood St, New Haven, Connecticut Client: Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven Description: The competition winning house was built by the Yale School of Architecture Class of 2015. The winning team’s house design re-conceptualized ‘the hearth’ as a central domestic element into a cabinet wall & lightwell. All building details & construction documents were made & executed by the students with the guidance of professional architects & contractors. The walls, stairs & floor beams of the house were prefabricated in a nearby warehouse & then brought to the site after the foundations were put in. Team: Yale School of Architecture Class of 2015 Computational Programs: Autodesk Revit 2013

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Vlock Building Project Construction photos taken by various YSoA class of 2015 members.

Michael C. Miller Photography of finished kitchen looking into the living room with a deck on the side & the backyard beyond. Photo by Neil Alexander

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Vlock Building Project Wall section of foundation, first floor wall & second floor window, drawn by various YSoA class of 2015 members. Physical construction completed by myself and others.

Michael C. Miller Wall section of foundation, side deck, kitchen sliding door & second floor cantilever bay, drawn by various YSoA class of 2015 members. Physical construction completed by myself and others.

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Constructed Drawings Course: Drawing & Architectural Form, Critic Victor Agran, Fall 2013 Description: The most productive moments in the act of physically drawing space, objects, & projections are the opportunities to invent. In the space of the mind, one is able to represent the ambiguous, play with incomplete form, & layer perceptions of time & depth one could never perceive, all executed in mere lines. Computation methods of representing form are typically pre-programmed & have definitive conceptual attributes like closed surface, nurb, polycount, mesh, Cartesian point, etc. Drawing enables a freedom from these restraints.

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Constructed Drawings â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Unrolled Coneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; - The drawing begins with a large cone drawing in elevation with its top cut at an angle. A series a points are plotted around the cut portion of the cone. The unrolling operation is scaled down with perspectival construction lines. The unrolled cone is then reconstructed into a smaller cone sharing the same radius center.

Michael C. Miller â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Warped Cubesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; - From a basic square in plan & elevation, three dimensional cubes are formed through an intersection of construction lines. This same operation is performed around the page with curved & projected construction lines, experimenting with the resulting distorted forms.

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Constructed Drawings â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Ambiguous Form Constructionsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; - The repetitive nature of multiple cube constructions begins to function as a computer program with Cartesian 3 dimensional coding. To escape this fate, the drawing began to create forms with the imagination through incorrect construction lines, shadow formation & conceptual plane depth.

Michael C. Miller â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Twisted Projectionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; - An overlapping form is constructed through the Piero and the Brook Taylor Methods, & is then warped with exaggerated perspectives & foreshortening

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CASIS Headquarters Course: Second Year Studio, Critic Sunil Bald, Fall 2013 Location: 339 E 39th Street, New York, New York Client: Center for the Advancements of Science in Space Program: The CASIS headquarters houses four primary functions: conference & meeting spaces, office spaces, visitors exhibition, & education spaces. The conference program includes a large theater & the exhibition spaces include displays for the space objects: Destiny Module, Dragon Capsule, & Cupola Pod. The payload control center is proposed to be relocated to this location to communicate with the International Space Station. Description: The project is initially composed of a public gesture which conceptually draws the ground through the building & up to a roof patio looking out over the East River. The facade is both split & combined, uncomfortably but spectacularly, representing the conflict but necessity of the publicly funded private organization, ‘CASIS’. Around the gesture, the building frames the sky, a foreign concept to a phone-centric culture. This dramatic frame ‘looking up’ begins to re-instill the former imagination associated with outer-space & prepares visitors to encounter the program housed within; an organization for the past & future of space experimentation. The visitor then journeys down from the roof patio, through the conceptually uprooted ground. The lobby directs visitors towards the conference or exhibit program zones, physically split by the diagonal to the sky. The exhibit path spirals through a sequence of discoveries, around a variety of spaces, & then towards the subterranean payload control center. Finally, the visitor reemerges from below the true ground back into the public realm. Computational Programs: Rhinoceros 5 & Vray, Autodesk Maya 2014, Zbrush 4R3

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CASIS Headquarters Conceptual drawing of the Phaeno Science Center. The ground & ceiling truss bend & fold together with varying programmatic spaces.

Michael C. Miller Gratuitous render of conceptual vision as ‘space-cube’

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CASIS Headquarters Above: Conceptual rendering of Taurus space Below: Study models of formal implications of the building being pulled through itself or the ground being pulled through the building.

Lobby Theater Office Office

Roof Patio

Education

Conference

Education Payload Office

Exhibition

Payload Control Plaza

Michael C. Miller Above: Program Diagram showing two main programmatic spaces in purple, split & offset from each other. Then the spaces are flanked by stacked of floor plates. Middle: Diagram Series: Beginning with a standard rectangular form, a public pathway is pulled upward & diagonally through the building. This space creates a strong framed view of the sky beyond.

Below: Once the visitor reaches the top, they are welcomed by a large roof patio overlooking the East River. The diagonal gesture splits the interior program of the building into two main volumes based around exhibit & conference spaces. The lobby, also on the roof, directs the visitor towards the desired spaces.

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CASIS Headquarters Gratuitous section perspective inspired by John Soane . The public enters on the roof patio then filters down through a series of exhibit spaces.

Michael C. Miller

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CASIS Headquarters Study model with diagonal section cut that follows the interior diagonal cut of the public entrance.

Michael C. Miller Study model of floor plate & poche exterior aesthetic.

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CASIS Headquarters Plan of roof patio, lobby, theater & breakout spaces.

Mechanical

Workshop

Exhibit Storage Exhibit Staff Lockers

Michael C. Miller Plans & elevations.

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CASIS Headquarters Interior render of exhibit space . The destiny module hangs from a warped ceiling & is wrapped by a descending circulation ramp.

Michael C. Miller

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CASIS Headquarters Facade & plaza render. The facade is both split & combined, uncomfortably but spectacularly, representing the conflict but necessity of the publicly funded private organization, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;CASISâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Michael C. Miller

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CASIS Headquarters Hinged section model

Michael C. Miller

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Formation Mosaic Course: Material Formation in Design, Professor Kevin Rotheroe, Spring 2013 Description: The study examines the interplay between physical data extraction, data interpretation, fabrication, & mis-registering. The project began by simulating the weathering of wood with a sandblaster. The softer, summer growth wood was blasted away & left a rippling pattern while the harder, winter growth wood remained as sharp ridges. The data from this physical artifact was digitized & turned into a 3D model by measuring darker tones as deeper topographic surfaces & light tones as shallower. The project then set out to create a pattern from this data that is uniquely designed based on the data itself. Through a process of layering, the wood pattern looses its original & direct reference but maintains a somehow familiar form. The pattern is not regular but continues to change but with similar recurring moments. The re-fabrication of this type was accomplished in tiled topographic 3D prints where regular seams of the tile play against the irregular seams of the pattern. The finished fabrication is painted a metalic silver so that the object takes on different colors from its environment; a play on the earlier tone based modeling and data extration method. Computational Programs: Z Brush 4R3, Rhinoceros 5, Makerbot Replicator 2

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Formation Mosaic 3D print samples of extracted data from a virtually weathered wood block, studying various scales, densities, & unit thicknesses.

Michael C. Miller Close-up Model photograph of 3D printed study model

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Formation Mosaic A vector pattering proposal based on topographical lines taken from the 3D model information & varied with color across repetition.

Michael C. Miller

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Formation Mosaic Rendering of a layering pattern based on the nature of the wood grain information. Information block models are layer at two different scales onto of one another to create the similar repeating notes but always unique moments.

Michael C. Miller

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Formation Mosaic Detail model photographs of 3D printed tiles painted in metalic silver, catching various colors of the surroundings.

Michael C. Miller Model photographs of finished frieze 36â&#x20AC;? x 18â&#x20AC;?

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