I envision myself as a generalist architect of sorts, an easy going guy with a good sense of humor and a strong interest in building construction and the urban environment...believing that an architect’s role is first and foremost a problem solver, forever in search of smart and beautiful solutions. People and cultures are defined by the balance they make between the general and the particular. Aspring to merge nature and culture, I believe the most successful buildings combine the universal need to maintain contact with the cycles of nature with specific characteristics of a place and its community...in the end a sensitive manifestation of it’s needs. Architecture allows for explorations in the direct esthetic experience of the real, those moments when one senses the importance and beauty in a place or the chance connection with nature: be it topography, the movement of light, the changing of the seasons, or some tangible aspect of a local culture. Nature as a muse, greater than a landscape to compliment a structure, instead a system by which to inform a structure allowing it to productively insert itself into that system. With an eye to the vernacular language of regional buildings so often inspired by an innate cultural knowledge of the environment, my design process is a search for manifestations of these natural forces in an architectural form. I hope to empower people to feel both integrated with and in constant dialogue with their particular places. My design process has often lead to an exploration of an architectural element that utilizes a mechanism to regulate the barrier between the interior and the exterior, these moments are ripe for experimentation and can often implore a kinetic response. If a building is to respond to its environment and connect its inhabitants to the natral world, some mediation of its envelope allows that opportunity; here design is employed to conjure beautiful solutions employing poetic motion to adapt a dwelling to its inhabitant’s comforts. Sustainable design naturally stems from an approach that seeks to understand the essential nature of the site itself; the orientation of a building to topography and the sun, minimizing construction waste, and making appropriate choices for building systems and materiality. I hope to create buildings that are tactile and modern, environmentally responsible and artfully crafted. Architects are tasked with being both stewards of the environment as well as their client’s resources, and must shape every project with a desire to understand the user, utilizing empirical research and technology to cunningly respond to each projects needs and each site’s unique context...I’m excited to respond to the challenge.
IDEASLAB - THE PORTLAND MEDIATHEQUE (OLDTOWN) PORTLAND, OREGON
FALL 2011 - GERRY GAST & SUENN HO
ART YARD - A SPACE FOR ARTISTS (GRANVILLE ISLAND) VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
SPRING 2012 - STEVEN DUFF
KINETIC DESIGN - HURRICANE SHUTTER (THE ATLANTIC COAST) MARTINIQUE, THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS
SPRING 2012 - STEVEN DUFF
MUNCH - THE MULTNOMAH NUTRITIONAL COMMUNITY HUB (MULTNOMAH VILLAGE) PORTLAND, OREGON
FALL 2012 - BECCA CAVELL & ANDREW SCHILLING
ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 2009-2011
LS3P ASSOCIATES LTD. - IMAGE STUDIO CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 2006-2011
IDEASLAB - THE PORTLAND MEDIATHEQUE (OLDTOWN) PORTLAND, OREGON
FALL 2011 - GERRY GAST & SUENN HO
“Ignoring the physical, technological underpinnings for now, we assert that the library is, at root, a collection of information selected for use of, and made useable for, a particular community. That is, proverbially like politics, all collections are local.” The PDX:ideaslab was my first studio project at the U of O, and is intended to be an innovative forum built around one mission: “take the world of data, combine it with the people in this community and create value.” The mediatheque will serve as the setting where the combination of access to data and connections to peers is the entire point, a place where people come together to do coworking and coordinate and invent projects worth working on together. Inspired by the community response to changes in the neighborhood’s historical signage, the mediatheque takes cues from that signage to create a forum where its citizens can tell Portland’s story. A theme of data entering the mediatheque is expressed through materiality. The entry paths (representing the people as the move through the site) and the structure share a common language of wood that is meant to express the organic nature of the community’s data coming in and creating the collection that is the Portland Mediatheque. Community projects and films can be projected on the facade that is tilted to address the amphitheatre like plaza that slopes up and away from the mediatheque. Respecting the scale of its historic neighborhood, the form of the building is inspired by the shift of the city grid that occurs at the site. Utilizing this shift, the PDX:ideaslab aims to be a public link that creates an east/ west connection from downtown to Waterfront Park, funneling people towards Ankeny Alley and its inviting picnic tables.
“SHIFT” DIAGRAMS
OND SEC
AVE
.
FIRST AVE.
BURNSIDE
ANKENEY
BURNSIDE
SUSTAINABILITY DIAGRAM
SATURDAY MARKET OFFICES
STORAGE
GALLERY
EXHIBIT/EVENT SPACE
MECH. SYSTEMS & BLDG. MGMT. PLAZA
CAFE
LAWN
entry level
BURNSIDE ST
00 FLOOR
FIRST AVENU
BIKE VALET
TEXT ARCHIVES
P RAM UP
RECEPTION READING ROOM
FORUM
COMMUNITY ROOM
INCUBATOR OFFICE SPACE
INCUBATOR OFFICES
01 FLOOR
02 FLOOR
MUSIC ARCHIVES
THEATRE A/V ROOM
SCREENING THEATRE BELOW CHILDREN’S LIBRARY
TEEN ZONE
STUDIO AND LISTENING ROOMS
INCUBATOR OFFICES
03 FLOOR
CONF. ROOM
ADMIN. OFFICES
CHILD CARE
COFFEE KIOSK
ROOF TERRACE
VEGETATED ROOF
04 FLOOR
ART YARD - A SPACE FOR ARTISTS (GRANVILLE ISLAND) VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
SPRING 2012 - STEVEN DUFF
I had the opprtunity to spend the spring term of 2012 studying in Vancouver, British Columbia. The program allowed me to study a city of rare density amidst its North American compatriots, having grown to a population of over 2 million in just 100 years. This density is situated within glass condo towers, forming a unique urban fabric of skinny towers placed on top of dense podiums to preserve views of the mountains bordering the cities northern edge. The program had us housed downtown, biking over the Burrard Street Bridge everyday to Granville Island, one of the “world’s great public spaces,” which served as the site for both the architecture design project, as well as the location of the academic and studio facilities. This studio project, a building meant to meet the current need of artists studios and living space on the island, as well as the following kinetic architecture project are the products of that term. The site of Art Yard is situated inside a drastically polar context than the dense urban fabric of the city. Granville Island is the former industrial center of Vancouver’s shipping and manufacturing industry. The man made island is home to historic timber truss industrial buildings, originally created for shipbuilding and other industries. In its current form, Granville Island is a tourist hub in the city, home to artist markets, food markets, street performers and an art and design school. The Art Yard responds to its industrial site and the need for more artists’ space by repurposing the port’s abundant shipping containers to create housing and studio spaces for the artists currently being pushed off the island by ever increasing rents. Using the landmark yellow crane as a focal point; visitors are invited into the central gallery that makes the spine of the building allowing visitors to view down into the community workshop space. Second level studio spaces are shifted to address the newly defined plaza. Upper level residential units shift back towards the dense glass towers of downtown Vancouver. Concrete silos cap the end of the building, creating a beacon for the island at night, while respecting the industrial shoreline of the island. The stacked containers fit comfortably in the industrial context, and their subtle shifts create a visual dialogue that encourages the interaction of visitor and artist that has created the unique public space that is now Granville Island.
SITE PLAN
GALLERY SPACE
GRANVILLE ISLAND
parking and workshop
FLOOR PLANS
parking and gallery
studios and day care
studios and event space
student housing and studios
market rate apartments
KINETIC DESIGN - HURRICANE SHUTTER (THE ATLANTIC COAST) MARTINIQUE, THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS
SPRING 2012 - STEVEN DUFF
The hurrican shutter is a kinetic design proposal for a vacation home on the coast of Martinique. The design was driven by an effort to provide a seasonal home with a protective envelope that could transform into an elegent shading device. We worked with engineers at Turner Exhibits out of Seattle to develop a counterweighted pulley system that could be operated by human power to lift the shutters with 25 rotations of a hand wheel located on the adjacent porch wall.
MUNCH - THE MULTNOMAH NUTRITIONAL COMMUNITY HUB (MULTNOMAH VILLAGE) PORTLAND, OREGON
FALL 2012 - BECCA CAVELL & ANDREW SHILLING
Neither the USDA nor the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies has been able to establish a causal link between food deserts and dietary health. In fact, both agree that merely improving access to healthy food does not change consumer behavior. The unpalatable truth seems to be that some Americans simply do not care to eat a balanced diet, while others, increasingly, cannot afford to. Over the last four years, the price of the healthiest foods has increased at around twice the rate of energydense junk food.
MuNCH is a conceptual branch library that provides educational opportunities, access to fresh and healthy food and a place of gathering for both school children as well as the community. This project gave me an opportunity to eplore and develop a unique program for a conceptual branch library typology.
- The Economist, “If you build it, they may not come: A shortage of healthy food is not the only problem.” 2011 | SEATTLE
With the understanding that you can’t force the individual prioritization of health, and arguably shouldn’t, Munch is an idea to harness the power and civic philosophy of public libraries to empower individuals to acquire knowledge to improve themselves; and in that vein, this project aims to encourage community participation in the production, creation and consumption of healthy, affordable foods.
In Cuba, the local community gardens only flourished with the creation of Seed Houses, agriculture stores that provided resources and, more importantly, information on farming techniques. Gardens as “community hubs” could similarly provide educational initiatives and community outreach to help make farming a ubiquitous part of urban life. Urban Agriculture can’t force the individual prioritization of health; it can encourage community participation in the production of healthy, affordable foods.
The site for the library was Multnomah Village, a unique area of Portland that once served as a train stop on the inter-urban railway. The new library plugs itself into the fabric of the neighborhood, creating a new apex to the historic little village, a site that presented challenging topographic issues as the street to the north of the site is ten feet higher that the street to the south.
- Quirk , Vanessa . “Urban Agriculture Part II: Designing Out the Distance” 2012. ArchDaily
Obesity has risen as the income gap has widened: more than a third of U.S. adults and 17 percent of children are obese, and the problem is acute among the poor … Nationwide, 36 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds are overweight or obese. Lower-income families choose sugary, fat, and processed foods because they’re cheaper—and because they taste good. While food prices overall rose about 25 percent, the most nutritious foods (red peppers, raw oysters, spinach, mustard greens, romaine lettuce) rose 29 percent, while the least nutritious foods (white sugar, hard candy, jelly beans, and cola) rose just 16 percent. When asked “What is eating well?” Americans generally answer in the language of daily allowances: they talk about calories and carbs, fats, and sugars. They don’t see eating as a social activity, and they don’t see food—as it has been seen for millennia—as a shared resource, like a loaf of bread passed around the table. When asked “What is eating well?” the French inevitably answer in terms of “conviviality”: togetherness, intimacy, and good tastes unfolding in a predictable way ... In surveys, Fischler has found no single time of day (or night) when Americans predictably sit together and eat. By contrast, 54 percent of the French dine at 12:30 each day. Only 9.5 percent of the French are obese.
The building utilizes the site to create a downtown entry plaza to program elements that include a gallery/community room, a resource library, a demonstration kitchen and food pantry. The upper level, accessed via the north street, gives access to a large classroom with an educational garden, group meeting rooms, a conference room, administrative spaces, as well as a seed library and tea hut with an associated herb and vegetable garden.
LEARNING CENTERS
N ha he do th ot of de
- Miller, Lisa . “Divided We Eat” 2011. Newsweek-
COLLECTIONS COLLECTIONS
X *
*
* *
*
*
X
* *
* *
*
*
* * * *
* *
X
X X X X X
-Q
X X
SOUTH ELEVATION
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
X X
books, reports, periodicals, do-it-yourself pamphlets, and DVD and VHS videos
X X
Subjects
Toxins Renewable Energy Permaculture Gardening
Globalization Recycling Enviromental Education Recipe Books
O U. ac ar
Lo th ov ra w an
X X X X X
*best transplanted into garden after starting in flats or individual containers
Resource Library
In of im hu ou
Ur ca af
X X
X
X X
* *
X
*
*
*
X
* * * * *
* *
* * * * * * *
* * * *
X
* *
* * *
*
*
* * *
* *
* * * * * * *
*
* *
* *
* *
*
* *
*
*
*
* * * *
* *
* * *
* * * * * *
*
*
* *
* *
* * *
* *
* *
* * *
* * *
*
X
X
*
*
X
X X
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
X X X
*
X
NORTH ELEVATION
X X X X
*
* *
*
* * *
* * * *
* * * *
* *
* *
* *
X
- Th SEA
X
X X *
*
* *
*
* *
* * * * *
*
* *
* *
* *
* *
X X X
* * *
* * * *
* * * * * *
* * * *
* * *
* * *
OCT NOV DEC
Shallow
AUG SEP
*
MAY JUN JUL
*
MAR APR *
FEB
Medium
Root Depth JAN
Deep
Seed Library
Watermelons Turnips Tomatoes* Sweet Potato Squash, Winter Squash, Summer Spinach, New Zealand Spinach Shallot Salsify Rutabagas Radishes Potatoes Peppers Peas, Black-eyed Peas Parsnips Onions, Bunching Onions, Bulb Okra Mustard Lettuce Leeks Kohirabi Kale Jicama Herbs Garlic Endive Eggplant* Dandelion Cucumbers Corn Collards Chicory Chard Celery Cauliflower* Carrots Canteloupe Cabbage* Broccoli* Beets Beans, Lima Beans, Snap Asparagus
Sustainable Development Climate Change Enviromental Justice Nutrition
PARTII DIAGRAM
BUILDING SECTION
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
W la an fo of th in Fis
THE FLOOR PLAN WAS DEVELOPED TO PROVIDE A PUBLIC SPACE WITH MULTIPLE CONFIGURATIONS AROUND A PLAZA OFF THE VILLAGES MAIN ARTERY, ALLOWING THE COMMUNITY TO SHAPE THE SPACE TO ACCOMODATE A MULTITUDE OF FUNCTIONS.
LAN
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
SECOND FLOOR PLAN
LAN
N
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
CAFE & SEED LIBRARY CLASS ROOM MEETING ROOM CONFERENCE ROOM KITCHENETTE ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF ROOF TOP EQUIPMENT
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. CAFE7. &
CAFE & SEED LIBRARY CLASS ROOM MEETING ROOM CONFERENCE ROOM KITCHENETTE ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF ROOF TOP EQUIPMENT SEED LIBRARY
CLASS ROOM MEETING ROOM CONFERENCE ROOM KITCHENETTE ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF ROOF TOP EQUIPMENT
GALLERY MECHANICAL ROOM 1. GALLERY RAINWATER CISTERNS 2. MECHANICAL ROOM ENTRY 3. LOBBY RAINWATER CISTERNS 4. ENTRY LOBBY LIBRARY/LOUNGE 5. LIBRARY/LOUNGE DEMO. 6. KITCHEN DEMO. KITCHEN PREP. KITCHEN PREP.7. KITCHEN A/V ROOM A/V 8. ROOM 9. FOOD PANTRY FOOD PANTRY
NORTH ELEVATION
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
BUILDING SECTION SOUTH ELEVATION
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
PARTII DIAGRAM
standing-seam BUILDING metal roof SECTION system (1/8” = 1’-0”)
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
sliding window system
painted wood rain screen
BUILDING SECTION
concealed sliding window louvers
(1/8” = 1’-0”)
sliding window system
WALL SECTION BUILDING SECTION (3/4” = 1’-0”)
MATERIALS MATERIALS
DETAILED WALL BUILDING SECTION SECTION (3/4” = 1’-0”)SECTION DETAIL WALL
ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 2009-2011
LS3P ASSOCIATES LTD.
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 2006-2011
Nate Wood nategwood@gmail.com 2248 NW Glisan St. Portland, OR 97210 803.230.6133