The Southern California Institute of Architecture - Undergraduate Portfolio

Portfolio NICHOLAS CONRIQUE

NICHOLAS CONRIQUE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE spring 2018-spring 2020

nicholas_conrique@sciarc.edu @trickyynicky

ON THE SUBJECT OF ARCHITECTURE

INTRO

...the study of space, the study of interaction, and the study of material all intertwined with the study of people...architecture is absolutely necessary to the well-being of all living things. architecture of emotion, of survival, of the simple dwelling all derived from a single line. a single point. through the study of spatial relationships, we begin to understand that buildings are not as simple and brick and mortar, but as complex as dovetail versus miter. the difference between the beautiful, yet isolated designs in hillsides and the iconic jungles of the cityscape. macro versus micro. relative to this study of dwelling and community, there is equal design for the ideal, but also an allowance for that which we cannot always predict. we act on principles which have evolved over time, but modify techniques to inspire innovative solutions to how people can or should live. the field has grown beyond just simple timber framing. it is more than just building code realized as a square, so we should always be careful to let the design of space be as fluid and as ever changing as nature would suggest it to be...

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Contents.

DESIGN STUDIO

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DS 3B STUDIO ASSEMBLIES II DESIGN STUDIO

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DS 3A STUDIO ASSEMBLIES I DESIGN STUDIO

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DS 2B STUDIO DESIGN STUDIO

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APPLIED STUDIES

VISUAL STUDIES

LIBERAL ARTS (ESSAY)

AS ADVANCED CONST. VS BUILDING IMAGES PROJ. DELIVERY TELLING STORIES

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LA CONTEMPORARY CIVILIZATION

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AS ADVANCED CONST. VS 2B VISUAL STUDIES LA FILM II PROJ. DELIVERY II LIBERAL ARTS (ESSAY) APPLIED STUDIES

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AS DESIGN DEVELOPMENT APPLIED STUDIES

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AS ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS II APPLIED STUDIES

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AS TECTONICS AND MATERIALITY APPLIED STUDIES

VISUAL STUDIES

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LA ART HISTORY I LIBERAL ARTS (ESSAY)

DS VERTICAL STUDIO SPRING - OYLER Spring 2020 / Dwayne Oyler Partner: Antonio Mora

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Puzzles, and in particular, complex 3-dimensional puzzles, exemplify a type of formal assembly that defies immediate understanding. In fact, they are intentionally designed to delay that understanding, to compel engagement with the nuances of their formal qualities, and to provoke an intense investigation of their dialogue between parts.

This studio looked closely at a range of three-dimensional puzzles in order to interrogate them, understand their limits, modify them based on that understanding, and consider ways of extracting formal, spatial, and programmatic ideas from them.

We approached the puzzle as something with the ability to exist at multiple scales, as we moved in non-sequential ways through a range of architectural issues.

final physical model for an art museum in Los Angeles

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DS Vertical Studio Spring - Oyler

original hanayama puzzle

The assembly of a puzzle and its pieces is typically form-dependent - meaning their ability to fit together cannot be separated from the nuances of their shape and character. Additionally, the character of their shape, and its proliferation throughout all of the pieces, serves as a key element in suggesting other possible forms of assembly, therby increasing their level of difficulty. Assembly supersedes form.

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puzzle pieces split apart

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puzzle split into chunks of two and

hand placement to solve puzzle

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catalog of parts

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transformed + reinterpreted puzzle

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details of material change

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details of continuous seaming

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2d puzzle NICHOLAS CONRIQUE

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Having modeled the three-dimesional puzzle we wanted to move into twodimensional space and flatten the puzzle completely. In order to do so we took an oblique view and completely disassembled the puzzle into components to create a field of objects. We then applied a graphic hatch to distinguish the top sides allowing a visual representation of threedimensionality. Enhancing the idea of spacial depth in the puzzle, we used the bottom half of the board pieces to create a gradient of extrusions to flatness as well as a transverse gradient of three dimensional voids from top to bottom.

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detail for a handrail (2 versions)

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stair detail

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AS ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION PROJECT DELIVERY Spring 2020 / Pavel Getov x Kerenza Harris

Team: Nicholas Conrique, Aditya Jagdale, Riya Patel, Grigori Khachatryan

FOURTH

The course focused on advanced methods of project delivery and construction documents, incorporating digital technologies and investigating new models for linking design and construction processes.

It introduced Building Information Modeling as one of the tools for realignment of the traditional relationships between the project stakeholders. Using a single unit residential building located in Los Angles, we analyzed and developed the architecture by creating a detailed 3d digital model and a set of 2d construction documents specifically tailored for the design challenges of a single unit residential project.

Lectures and site visits to fabricators and construction sites further informed us, students, of technical documentation methods for projects that are operating on the forefront of design and construction technologies to date.

street entrance to ground floor promenade NICHOLAS CONRIQUE

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AS Advanced Construction Project Delivery

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ground floor promenade NICHOLAS_CONRIQUE@SCIARC.EDU

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AS Advanced Construction Project Delivery

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AS Advanced Construction Project Delivery

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AS Advanced Construction Project Delivery

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AS Advanced Construction Project Delivery

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LA CONTEMPORARY CIVILIZATION Spring 2020 / Daniel Tovar

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It is often stated—to the point of cliche—that we are at a pivotal moment in history. Technology is developing at such a pace that it no longer seems to be fully under our control. Automation has left many jobless and is continually threatening to eliminate more jobs, destabilizing our economic, social, and political institutions. The internet has fundamentally altered—for better and ill—how we relate to each other. And significant changes in the Earth’s temperature, caused by our technologies, threaten the existence of humanity itself.

In this course, we will survey a series of texts that offer a theoretical framework for how to understand this current moment—our contemporary civilization. These texts will offer us ways of reevaluating our past to understand our present, they will analyze the individual’s relationship with society, and look toward the future to predict the consequences of our current actions so that we might alter them.

form-finding study model

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ARE IDENTITY POLITICS WEAPONIZED? Essay on Identity

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Attempting to create the world over again, this time in the tone of tolerance and equity, has proved to be an exhaustive exercise of its own. It is one that requires a nuanced understanding of societal balance— knowing where the line is and how to reshape constructs in a manner that is beneficial to all and not simply those in power. Humanity has always dug around to find that line. People subjugate, people submit, people assert, and people react, but each individual cares most of all that their own voice is heard loud and clear.

Tolerance requires validation on behalf of those entrusted with this cultural power over the general public. Celebrities, public figures, and government officials are all asked to validate experiences in order to empower those seeking to have their identity acknowledged and recognized. In a world of influencers and bloggers, it has become all too easy to allow for the general population to become influenced.

Make no mistake: it is by our own control that we allow these good-for-nothing teens and young adults to prosper and spread all kinds of judgment, misinformation, and targeted ads.

Influence is a tricky power to yield and as we have come to see, populism can be a slippery slope. Too many voices without consolidation can ultimately lead to friendly fire. Identities NICHOLAS_CONRIQUE@SCIARC.EDU

LA Contemporary Civilization

“Some of these problems affect certain groups more than others, but there are many things that bring us together much more than serve to separate us from each other” -Andrew Yang

are the casualty.

After reading a rather short article on Andrew Yang of the Democratic Party, it resonated with me mostly for the comment, “But I think that identity politics, as it’s used in many contexts, serves to highlight differences and separate Americans from each other and does so in a way that’s not very productive.” I identify as a member of the Democratic Party as well, and I think it is fair to say that Yang is making a good point here. At a certain point, it seems like those that partake in the extremes of identity politics are, essentially, committing friendly fire. At the end of the day, all of the liberals are on the same team, as all of the conservatives are on the same team. However, as Americans and human beings on planet Earth, we are all on the same team. There are issues and policies that are bigger than any individual. Bigger than any one niche. Identity politics seems to be dividing more than it is uniting, so it is absolutely necessary to critique the strategy when the strategy seems to be working counterproductively to what Democrats should be aiming for: choosing a candidate from the primary, and, ultimately, putting someone in the White House to enact policy. Instead, what seems to happen is an almost infinite number of spin-offs, until

there just aren’t enough people left in any one group to effectively argue for anyone. Issues like climate change, student loan debt piling up, and our complicated healthcare system require nationwide effort. Disregarding those that try to fight alongside you because they haven’t experienced all that you have shouldn’t be a strategy. “Some of these problems affect certain groups more than others, but there are many things that bring us together much more than serve to separate us from each other” (Fisher).

Identity is what can unite a population.

Nationalism is strong, but globalism would be stronger. In either case, though, one needs to win over the majority of the public in order to make any waves at all. The situation we find ourselves in currently is one in which our society and its “caste system” are on the verge of a tipping point. One that is sure to consolidate power and opinions into a shortlist while being able to effectively and efficiently manage all competing interests. Identity is not inherently political. It is not accurate to deem our world an environment of binaries, but rather an ever-complicated web of relationships and interests that are interwoven at select intersections and, at others, stand on their own, aware of their particularity. Nagle’s writing in Chapter Five of the book Kill All Normies pushes this investigation into Internet culture further and dissects what we have come to know as political correctness. Built into the system, however, is a heightened level of fragility that threatens to divide further and further. Thus, enabling such a system to be run by, “Pushing fringe ideas into the mainstream,” also builds in weaknesses every step of the way (Nagle 68). Political correctness, as it is coined, may have started with the intention

of accurately representing subcultures and complicated histories, but has exploded into a weapon used by both the far right and the far left to further their own political agendas.

The priority, then, is neither of the party’s individual members, but rather a never-ending game of who can excel at a game riddled with technicalities.

Identity operates only at a scale larger than the individual. It emanates only with connection amongst others. The attitude of the others is a misunderstanding of what actually unites people. If we were to look closely at groups that seem to exist only because of their bond of hatred towards a similar “enemy”, it would become rather clear that the enemy does not actually exist, but is entirely fabricated in the minds. Political correctness, then, should be centered around this principle idea of accurate representation/portrayal rather than what is has festered into which is a society of countless minorities that are the only ones able to speak “correctly”. If society is fractured endlessly into factions of specificities, the divided house can no longer stand. This is where I feel we are today.

We are on the verge of a breakthrough in which larger communal and global issues snap us out of the walled-off houses-of-one we have become entrenched in in order to reach a higher goal.

Nagle makes this point rather clear, similar to the article by Anthony Fisher of Business Insider, that divisions within parties themselves have been more prominent than ever. “In particular, the animosity and deeper philosophical diftferences between the liberal left and the materialist left,” has been on full display as individuals within party lines have gone after one another (Nagle 68). The result is a game of undermining and degradation

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of mutual benefit for all means drawing less lines in the sand and taking on more inclusive attitudes towards groups that are ever so slightly different from us. Andrew Yang, while he was still running, ran on a platform like this and, while this is not an endorsement of the candidate himself, it is a powerful stance to take in which policy and action is of the utmost importance rather than squabbling over back stories and an unfair life.

In regards to the current political climate, identity and politics could serve as an absolutely beneficial combination to provide a system that is equal and fair, while retaining proper acknowledgment of minority groups and subcultures within our various bodies of government. Nobody has a problem with old white men in all of our bureaucratic agencies and governmental affairs. It only becomes a problem when those bodies are composed entirely of old white men entrenched in conservatism. At its worst, it is discriminatory and near-sighted; at its best, it is one sided and tasteless. It is no secret that our country has divided politics—we are a very opinionated group of individuals—and this multiplicity of interests almost always ensures that some groups are left out. However, when the same groups are forgotten and left behind, younger generations notice and, alas, we have arrived at a point in history where precedence is no longer a viable crutch. Issues and political leanings have to be tested today. Grandfathering in misconstrued interpretations of the Constitution and injecting them into modern day life is proving to draw that line even darker between the more antiquated aspects of our country and its potential to evolve and adapt to an ever-changing world. Angela Nagle, 40

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in Kill All Normies, rightfully dissects this culture of countless identities and identifies when the divisions border on or cross the seemingly ridiculous. With no disrespect to the individuals within those groups, categorizing people under an impossibly small microscope and judging them worthy of a platform to speak is simply inefficient and counterproductive. In essence, what we create is a system with such minutely specific prerequisites that the average person can no longer identify with any one group, since most can be scrutinized to the level that they are eventually disqualified. Our identities are a wonderfully intricate snapshot of each one of us, acting as our proxy in all matters that concern us. And true to the metaphor using information technology: too many proxies will eventually crash the server.

“[They] don’t believe in actual politics any more, just ‘bearing witness to suffering.”

-Angela Nagle

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DS 4A STUDIO POSITIONS Fall 2019 / Tom Wiscombe

FOURTH

The final studio in the core sequence introduced us to independent thinking and integrative design through a small scale project. With one foot in core and one pointed towards thesis, the pedagogy was based on culminating all previous core studios by charging the students with taking a disciplinary position on the role of mass, interiority, ground, aperture, or surface articulation (AMIGAA), or possibly relations across all five.

The studio, as a whole, works on the same project and site with different trajectories according to the framework laid out by each instructor. This provides a platform for students to see how the same problem can be seen through different lenses, from the conceptual to the phenomenological.

Precedence research is used as a vehicle for understanding their latent diagrams in relation to AMIGAA as well as cultivating a genealogy-based ethos.

final physical model for a 5-plex in Boyle Heights

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DS 4A Studio POSITIONS

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LA TOURETTE HOUSE

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inspired by LE CORBUSIER

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single family residence (midterm)

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inner courtyard

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DS 4A Studio POSITIONS

POOL TO BELOW

UNIT 01

UNIT 03

UP

COURTYARD

DOWN

TO BELOW CARPORT UP

UNIT 02

N GROUND SCALE: 0ʼ-1/8” = 1ʼ-0”

5-plex housing complex (final)

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TO BELOW

UNIT 04 UNIT 05

DOWN

UP

DOWN

N

N

FIRST

SECOND

SCALE: 0ʼ-1/8” = 1ʼ-0”

SCALE: 0ʼ-1/8” = 1ʼ-0”

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5-plex housing complex (final)

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AS DESIGN DEVELOPMENT Fall 2019 / Pavel Getov x Scott Uriu

Team: Nicholas Conrique, Malvin Wibowo, Lynn Hahm, Andrew DePew, Jonathan Ong, Takin Daneshmir, Yizhan Zhong

FOURTH

This course focused on the ability to produce a comprehensive architectural project that demonstrates each student’s capacity to make design decisions across scales while integrating the following Student Performance Criteria: Design, Thinking Skills, Technical Documentation, Investigative Skills, Ordering Systems, Accessibility, Sustainability, Site Design, Environmental Systems, Structural Systems, Mechanical Systems, Building Envelope Systems and Panelization, Insulation and Water-tightness, Fire and Life Safety Systems and Egress, Materials and Methods, Construction Techniques, Documentation Techniques, Detail Development, Cost Estimating, Project Delivery Methods, NAAB SPCs: B.3 Codes and Regulations (X) Ability to design sites, facilities, and systems that are responsive to relevant codes and regulations, and include the principles of life-safety and accessibility standards. ADA access diagrams, plan details of ADA compliant components - stair, toilets, etc‌ B.4 Technical Documentation (X) Ability to make technically clear drawings, prepare outline specifications, and construct models illustrating and identifying the assembly of materials, systems, and component.

bunker hill towers designed by Jonathan Ong (3A)

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AS Design Development

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floor casings

catwalks

glass curtain wall

facade structure

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exterior shell (cont.)

living wall

flower petals

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exterior shell

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steel shell grid

shell grid

catwalk structure

steel catwalk

aluminum tubular mullion

ENVELOPE ASSEMBLY DETAIL aluminum clips for GFRC panels

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eggcrate frame

corner welding

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gussets welding

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nut to gussets welding

FRP panels

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stainless steel long bolt

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AS ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS II Fall 2019 / Jamey Lyzun

Team: Nicholas Conrique, Grigori Khachatryan, Bianca Hernandez, Abeeha Abid, Borja Lopez, Takin Daneshmir

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This course focused on advanced building systems and technologies with a special emphasis on environmental systems, sustainability, performative architecture, and integration of building systems.

The content included generative and active building environmental systems and design strategies and their integration and optimization with the building site, orientation, and envelope/faรงade, in relationship to renewable natural resources and occupant needs. The seminar also covered building systems and services such as plumbing, electrical, fire protection, vertical transportation, security and building management systems; focusing on architectural considerations and overall systems integration.

Through a series of lectures, software tutorials, assignments, student presentations, quizzes and exams, advanced systems, design strategies and architectural precedents will be explored and critically analyzed using various qualitative and quantitative techniques including benchmarks/rule-of-thumbs, prescriptive (building codes and standards), and dynamic building performance simulations.

proposal for an extension to SCI-Arc campus

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ground floor plan NICHOLAS_CONRIQUE@SCIARC.EDU

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ground floor HVAC plan NICHOLAS_CONRIQUE@SCIARC.EDU

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HVAC section NICHOLAS_CONRIQUE@SCIARC.EDU

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DS 3B STUDIO ASSEMBLIES II Spring 2019 / Russell Thomsen Partner: Mauricio Torres

The second studio in the core sequence introduced students to the comprehensive design and development of a large scale, institutional building in an urban site.

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Advancing on the pedagogy established in previous studios (AMIGAA: architecture as mass, interiority, ground, aperture and articulation), this studio focuses on the design, development and tectonic of the building envelope and its ability to articulate contemporary formal organizations.

Neither vertical tower nor flat mat, a more ‘spherical’ building typology is explored using a methodology of aggregated assembly, pursuing issues of part to whole relationships and the notion of an awkward or less coherent whole. Assemblage vs. monolithic form, surface vs. mass, iconicity and image, the intentional obscuring of hierarchical mass, layered and graphic assemblies, tectonics and materiality constitute a range of concerns in the work.

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LA FILM II Spring 2019 / Michael Stock What is the logic of the architectural elements in Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?

THIRD

Are there any rules to the madness that you noticed?

Exaggerated height of furniture?

What is the emotional effect the filmmakers are looking for here? What is the architecture of humanity, juxtaposed with the setting of the town?

Glasgow on film in Ratcatcher NICHOLAS CONRIQUE

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LEAVE IT TO THE KIDS

Essay on Ratcatcher (1999) and Turtles Can Fly (2004)

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In the eyes of children, the world is filled with possibilities at every turn, fostering the most creative of imaginations, and also the most innovative of solutions. Not that the world for a child is already filled with innumerable problems for them to solve on their own, but, instead, something as simple as how to eat or get from point A to point B becomes necessary in everyday life. In the modern lifestyle we are accustomed to in the United States, and in our own state and counties in particular, children are seldom left with tasks more difficult than learning to walk or ride a bike. In the not-so-distant world of Glasgow, Scotland, and a refugee camp on the border of Iraq, children live entirely different lives. Lives in which they are not asked to, but required, to act beyond traditional juvenile and adolescent roles and take on that of a caretaker, leader, and so on. Roles that we would not dare burden children with in our own privileged area. Ratcatcher and Turtles Can Fly display worlds in which children have matured beyond the traditional and societal roles we are used to in America. They are forced into adulthood at a much earlier age.

Ratcatcher, directed by Lynne Ramsay in 1999, takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, and depicts a world much like the refugee NICHOLAS_CONRIQUE@SCIARC.EDU

LA Film II

“Ratcatcher and Turtles Can Fly display worlds in which children have matured beyond the traditional and societal roles we are used to in America. They are forced into adulthood at a much earlier age.”

camp of Turtles Can Fly; A world in which the children do not look to the adults for guidance, but, instead, to one another. In the film, we follow the events of our protagonist, James, as he sets about his normal day-to-day life with his friends and family, although they are much different from the loving and nurturing nuclear family we are so inclined to believe exists everywhere because we have managed to make this our standard. Instead, from the very beginning, we see one of James’ most traumatizing experiences: the accidental death of his friend Ryan Quinn. Normally, this kind of event is something that would completely derail our protagonist and their ideas of how the world operates. However, in this case, we are introduced to a characteristic of children that is not usually present in romanticized portrayals of our early years: desensitization.

It is uncommon to see a child so apathetic to the death of what we presume to be one of his best friends. It becomes quite clear, then, that this world of James’ is one that is chock full of hardships and despair and very little relief.

As the story continues, this neighborhood of his reveals more obstacles than solutions.

Ironically, it seems that the canal in which James and Ryan Quinn played in before Ryan died is their refuge from the realities of a not

Children are rarely left to their own in the society we are accustomed to. The adults usually provide for shelter, food, and well-being and it is our task simply to “be a kid” and enjoy the innocence of the world before the pressures of the real world take hold. In Ratcatcher more so than Turtles Can Fly, we see this attempt realized in the protagonist’s efforts to create their own world. Whether in the canals or in the new city development, James always seeks to find that place that exists outside of the problems his life is so riddled with. For the most part, his attempt seems rather successful when he stumbles on the new, unfinished houses outside of Glasgow. On the other hand, Satellite does not necessarily seek out an escape from his camp in the form of a specific location, but rather in the form of liberation by the American army. His attempt at a better life rests primarily on the chance of falling in love and sharing his life with someone, instead. And for the entire film, he never quite finds that place where all of his problems are behind him. This is one main difference between the two. On the other hand, though, Satellite has more influence in the adult world, since he serves as the translator and messenger for the rest of the refugee camp, whereas James is simply shrugged off due to his young age and presumably his lack of mature qualities that would benefit the adults. The two characters also have drastically different personalities. James is extremely quiet and very reserved. He pokes around only in business that would involve him and is not as proactive about creating his better life as Satellite is. He is a not a leader, but is not necessarily a follower either.

Instead, he remains aloof, for this is where his curiosity and wonder is allowed to prosper. This is in stark contrast to our protagonist, Satellite, who is entirely active in the creation

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-so-perfect neighborhood and family life. Later on, this escape is found in the land of new housing developments that James runs away to while trying to find his sister’s hideaway.

In Ratcatcher, James encounters a bully and his gang, while also dealing with the frustrations of his parents at the situation their family seems to be stuck in, and it seems that we finally see relief is his newfound friend, Margaret Anne. She seems well beyond her years simply because of all that she has had to handle, much like James. In James’ case, he is a rather quiet, yet curious child, whereas Margaret Anne appears more mature, but also more troubled. She is already dealing with the quite adolescent problem of insecurity and finding her own identity, which seems very clouded in her attempts to take control of her own life, while being harassed and manipulated by the local gang. In each other’s company, there is finally a semblance of a true childhood—a childhood in which imagination and curiosity are the sole drivers for their choices and, if only in these moments, their world is youthful and fun.

In Turtles Can Fly, Satellite is the boygenius and leader of the children of his refugee camp. He serves as the liaison to the adults in this world because he speaks the most English, so this makes him the most sought after individual in this small community. He gets the nickname from his role as the handyman who installs satellite dishes for the people of his camp, but it is soon clear to us that his role reaches far beyond this menial task. In the world of children, Satellite appears both as the town strongman, and the judge. He employs hundreds of kids in his business in which they remove mines from neighborhood fields, but we also see him as a figure that is in charge.

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of his better life. Watching the two sideby-side, it is clear that they approach their situations in entirely different ways. Their situation, though, is still a common thread as both are waiting for this liberation. In James’ story, it is more of a metaphorical liberation from the life that has been plagued with so much despair; in Satellite’s, it’s the liberation of his people from the refugee camp. The children in Glasgow are displayed on either spectrum as misbehaving and troubled or more confused and desensitized. Those in Turtles Can Fly are spirited, optimistic and hard working and are all pushing on despite horrible injuries or loss of life around them.

In either case, the world of children in these two films is a world that demands more at a much earlier age. They do not grow up in the same supportive cradle of households overseas, but are required to step up and take on responsibilities that we would not dare entrust those younger than us to take on. And in either case, we see a world of children that are more than capable of rising up to the challenges in their path and leaving us surprised at the true perseverance of the human spirit, in those old and young.

LA Film II

“The children in Glasgow are displayed on either spectrum as misbehaving and troubled or more confused and desensitized. Those in Turtles Can Fly are spirited, optimistic and hard working”

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DS 3A STUDIO ASSEMBLIES Fall 2018 / Margaret Griffin Partner: Leo Wan

The first studio of the third year core studio sequence locates the idea of architecture at the intersection of various systems of information: from technical to cultural, from visual to tactile.

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Students consider the uses of precedent and antecedent in their work, while the main investigation examines the particular impact of the building envelope and its material and geometrical determinations on site and a Tall Building form, and the capacity to use transformation as a methodological tool to guide a rigorous approach to decision making.

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ground floor plan

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proposal for bunker hill mixed-use towers (final)

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proposal for bunker hill mixed-use towers (final)

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proposal for bunker hill mixed-use towers (final)

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AS TECTONICS Fall 2018 / Maximiliano Spina x Randy Jefferson Team: Nicholas Conrique, Takin Daneshmir, Tianao Xu, Liu Lu

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This courses focuses on tectonics (predominantly building envelopes) and performance (largely consisting of technical, technological, cultural, and environmental dimensions).

Working in groups throughout the semester, students analyze and document a precedent in order to formulate a series of hypotheses in an attempt to construct a number of interrelated tectonic conjectures. In scrutinizing building assemblies, the class will attempt to position construction analysis so as to produce both technical knowledge and critical awareness of embedded cultural habits.

The class will thus seek out an alternative understanding of the tectonics, one that not only mirrors the realm of construction – materials, methods, sequences, tolerances, etc.- but also embraces architectural processes of expression, encompassing issues of geometry and technique; posture and character.

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VS BUILDING IMAGES TELLING STORIES Fall 2018 / Natasha Sandmeier

Team: Nicholas Conrique, Borja Lopez, Andrew DePew, German Diaz, Kevin Arambula

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Our project is focused on the disconnect between expectation and reality, where a delusion of grandeur projected through propagandistic imagery falls short in the real world. The stadium was built in 1989, and then massively renovated in 2015 in the hopes it could attract an international audience and help to legitimize North Korea on the world stage. This is most apparent in the FIFA logo in the image, placed on the wall in the hopes that if they built it, they would come.

Our aim is to create a portrayal of success for the stadium through the lens of an administration that is insecure and desperate for acknowledgement. Subtle impossibilities will tease the image’s impossibility before the façade is finally peeled away, revealing a neglected, empty lounge.

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iteration 01 of model replication

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model props

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final model staging

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LA ART HISTORY I Spring 2019 / Kavior Moon Art History I surveys the visual arts from antiquity to the Renaissance to modern art during the interwar period in the 20th century.

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Artistic styles, art movements, and methods of art production will be contextualized within larger societal, intellectual, and ideological shifts.

Students will learn to conduct formal analysis of individual works of art as well as critically engage with key primary and secondary art historical texts through short writing assignments and rigorous in-class discussions.

left: Tree in Flower near Vetheuil 1879, Monet right: The Mulberry Tree, Vincent van Gogh

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THE LONELY TREE Essay on The Mulberry Tree and Tree in Flower near Vetheuil 1879

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The Mulberry Tree, by Vincent van Gogh, 1889, caught my attention not only because of the trademark van Gogh look of long brush strokes that suggest movement that I have come to love from paintings like the Sunflowers or Cafe Terrace, but also because of a new experience that came from seeing the painting in real life: texture. Along with rich, vibrant colors and a rather lively subject, the painting as a whole emanates life and energy.

Although it was not absent in his other works, the dynamic texture was the single most striking feature to me and had me staring at the painting from different angles for quite some time. Other oil paintings on canvas share this similar characteristic, but where van Gogh’s technical ability really shines through is in the degree to which this is exaggerated.

Layering helps produce a three dimensional effect with that is anchored to the canvas but brings the scene that much closer to you because its tactile nature inherently suggests at an interaction with the piece, even if it is safely behind a glass frame. It is as if this layering provides a step-by-step record of how the painting was constructed, and in this process, we also get this element of movement.

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LA Art History I

“Everything from the textured finish to the brash color application suggests a movement within art that refocuses its attention on disrupting traditional preconceptions of how the senses should be harnessed and then put onto a canvas.” dynamism to what would normally appear as a rather static figure in other paintings. The mulberry tree in his work comes alive not only because it is the subject of this work, but because of this energy van Gogh creates that allows for the tree to be seen in a kind of time lapse style that shows how its branches and leaves and color might transform during the time it took to capture it. This effect is doubled with the kind of record that is also captured while the piece was still a work in progress.

For example, some strokes double-up, or triple-up, and so on, and it is as if you can trace each movement to read the story of what elements were emphasized and how they were articulated. In a clean screen print, or regular paper print, this even blend of pigment across the page ultimately flattens the final product, and allows for it to wrap on most surfaces.

Here, The Mulberry Tree was captured specifically for this canvas, using these exact colors, and blending it in a very particular way.

While the subject remains rather static, it is this visual effect that breathes life into every branch. It is quite evident in the landscape behind, as the hills and surrounding ground all share in this same spiraling effect that drags our eyes across the canvas in a smooth path that follows the energy of this life force,

elements. Much like Starry Night, each element of the work blends into each other through the path of his brush strokes.

Compositionally, the painting is very balanced, as its subject is centered and takes up most of the frame. In addition, this sense of a balanced work also comes from his use of color.

Van Gogh captures the mulberry tree in rich and vibrant colors that work in conjunction with his long, curving brush strokes to imitate a force of wind that brings life through the scene. Warmer, lighter colors take up most of the painting and he relies heavily on yellows to bring this warmth. To balance out this heavy use, though, the sky rests in the top third of the painting and is in stark contrast to the rest of the ground and tree because of its usually dark and cool color palette. If the painting is washed purely in warm colors, as is his painting of sunflowers, it would be harder to distinguish hierarchy in regards to color, and it would rely solely on scale.

Another painting I found to be strikingly similar against The Mulberry Tree is Tree in Flower near Vetheuil 1879, by Claude Monet.

Although done 10 years earlier, it is hard to imagine that these two works were not completed at the same time. Especially within the time span of art culture, a decade is long enough for significant stylistic changes, and it is quite true when looking at these two side by side. In Monet’s rendition of the lonely tree, he goes with the choice of a mimetic color palette. Natural blues and greens fill the page with cool colors that mimic the shade of this large tree, while still offering a glimpse of the beautiful blue-sky background upon which it is framed. In contrast, the grassland and the path behind the tree are rendered with warmer colors, introducing yellows and reds to capture the warmth of the sun coming in

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so that the spectator does not get caught up in just one area of the painting, but rather you keep following these strokes around and around to every corner of the canvas. I would compare this style to the architectural style of Zaha Hadid. Known as the “Queen of the Curve”, she was able to capture movement in otherwise static, tethered objects. If you study the project of Harbin Opera House or Galaxy Soho, it is quite obvious that, formally, the building is personified with its own kind of actions and intentions. Walls twist and jump across large spans, while the roof undulates and bellows like the masses of concrete are formed by the wind itself. Buildings are inherently static objects, but Zaha injects vitality in its floor plans and structure, and the same is true about the mulberry tree of Van Gogh’s painting. Yes, trees are alive, and so is the rest of the landscape, but relative to more animate objects, such as birds and livestock, trees are never going anywhere.

However, this mulberry tree does not need to. It dances and whips around, curving back onto itself infinitely. The long brush strokes allow for this movement to be read quite easily, since continuous lines are more easily associated with one singular and fluid motion.

Now, multiply that one effect by the number of swirls that grow off of The Mulberry Tree and it is clear that this one isolated tree has a life of its own. This remarkable difference in Van Gogh’s paintings is one of the reasons why his work always captivates our attention more than other landscape painters. On the other end of the spectrum, artists such as Picasso and Seurat fragment their scenes in such a way that they may still read holistically as one entity, but our eyes and brain have to do a lot more work to try and piece them together and make sense of the synthesis and juxtaposition of varying

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from the left side of the scene. Short brush strokes imitate the long, flowing grass, with short and patchy swatches dancing around with reflectance and taking up the majority of the frame. The compelling moment of this work is how Monet actually captures this subject in both light and dark. On both sides, the tree is colored with mostly greens, some pale while others are very saturated.

However, on the left, he highlights the leaves with yellows and yellow-greens along with whites and pinks to suggest the warmth of the sun’s rays favoring this side specifically.

On the other side, blues and purples take effect and work opposite from the sunlit side.

Similar to Van Gogh’s The Mulberry Tree, Monet’s Flower in Tree centers on a large tree that takes up the entire painting, with a slight top third of the canvas displaying a blue sky, and the bottom third showing us the very ground the tree had sprung from. That vivid animation of life is displayed mostly with the color palette in Monet’s version, but it is the stylized brush strokes that set Van Gogh’s apart. Categorized as a Post Impressionist, it is quite clear that there are more differences in their creative choices, and that the similarities really only fall within the subject matter.

The traditional landscape scene is rendered entirely different and the decade of time difference makes for an interesting contrast to the beautiful, more realistic scenes capture by the Impressionist painters. The Mulberry Tree is equally compelling, but entirely in its own way. Everything from the textured finish to the brash color application suggests a movement within art that refocuses its attention on disrupting traditional preconceptions of how the senses should be harnessed and then put onto a canvas.

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Vincent Van Gogh’s The Mulberry Tree is a painting that showcases the artist’s signature style of post-impressionism and is able to convey a message of life and energy even after a century later.

“ That vivid animation of life is displayed mostly with the color palette in Monet’s version, but it is the stylized brush strokes that set Van Gogh’s apart.”

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DS 2B DESIGN STUDIO II Spring 2018 / Jackilin Hah Bloom

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This studio presents the students with the problem of the architectural interior: its spatial and material qualities. It centers on a room and builds outwards to construct the room’s armature and relationship to the building’s perimeter and the physical world beyond.

The representational format used to describe this interior will be the developed surface-- a drawing of the interior elevations of a room unfolded and positioned along the perimeter of the floor or the reflected ceiling plan.

Throughout this process we will take a detailed look at the representation of materials.

final physical model for a film school in Los Angeles

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DS 2B Design Studio II

broken box transformation

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broken box with new interior texture

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exterior unroll with new structure

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DS 2B Design Studio II

material sample - concrete

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material sample - wooden slats

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final developed surface exterior drawing

final developed surface interior drawing NICHOLAS CONRIQUE

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ground floor plan

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first floor plan NICHOLAS_CONRIQUE@SCIARC.EDU

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second floor plan

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final physical model of proposal for a film school in Los Angeles

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VS 2B VISUAL STUDIES II Spring 2018 / Mira Henry x Jenny Wu

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The luscious realism of Dutch and Spanish still lives, the disjunctive abstraction of Cubism, the stark comedic graphics of Pop Art show us a range of techniques for ‘rendering’ the banal subject. Drawing from these traditions, this course considers the process of carefully rendering quotidian form.

Concepts native to the genre such as composition, color, tone, texture and pattern are addressed as students are asked to consider the construction and representation of a scene within a contemporary discourse of image making.

The course focuses technically on advanced surface modeling and methods of digital rendering. Working from physical arrangements as the point of departure, an emphasis is placed on the ability to identify and translate critical characteristics and details into a digital environment. Tropes of the still life genre, namely the subject of plump fruit and loosely draped cloth are mined for their technical challenges as well as their visual accessibility and playfulness.

Close attention is paid to the process of mapping colors, textures and patterns within the scene in order to engage in problems of surface articulation and the specificity of atmosphere.

color study on bell pepper

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still-life photo of bell pepper composition

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still-life photo of bell pepper with napkin

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texture map samples for final composition

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bell pepper with napkin and frame modeled in MAYA

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