All content in this portfolio was created by myself for the purpose of academia.
I II III IV V VI
Genesis Nomos Augmented Difference Hypersection The Hive Aggregative Figure
I Genesis
CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM
Genesis sits across from Klyde Warren park and is a continuation of the museum promenade that occupies downtown Dallas. The aim of Genesis was to solve the issue of nesting 3 individual typologies, hotel, office, and contemporary museum, into one plot. The result was 2 towers interconnected with a podium. On the ground floor there are 5 commercial entrances and 1 security entrance for all employees of Genesis. The ground floor also has access to Klyde Warren which facilitates the ability to continue on the excursion of downtown Dallas. The podium houses all of the museum as well as the lobby’s of the Hotel and Office towers. The podium is the arc of the entire project, containing all authoritative objects. A series of 5 node objects interact with the podium causing the only apertures to exist and function as the primary exhibit and circulation space for the podium. Accomplice: James Hardt Contributions: The Design, Drawings, Renderings, Structural Analysis
In order for these nodes to occur a mediator, between the space frame system and concrete system, existed as a series of steel frames that would allow the nodes to be plugged in and complete the load circuit. The nodes were the key architectural cultural object of this project. Operating in exhibitionism of both the artwork and the human, to both the inside and outside. Complete resolution between form of structure and figure of the facade. Absolute tolerance of the surrounding context allowing the building itself to be seen as an artistic expression without overwhelming the area with the foreign. Genesis was made to solve all programmatic problems as well as become the launching point for the new aesthetic agenda by being the political mediator between new wave architecture and corporate curtain wall structure.
Texas A&M University
Fall 2018
Prof. Ko Aitani
Back
3
left
Front
Right
4
Framing plans
Structural Detail
Arrangement 5
Ground Floor
Parallel Section 6
II Nomos
AUTONOMOUS HOUSING
3 Tiers of typologies were established using different parameters of a script. The outcome of each typology would contain the same inherent aesthetic quality but yield different forms each time. Through the interfacing of these typologies, a totemic order of differences was established thus resulting in a horizontal hierarchy where one typology does not supersede the next. The totemic order of differences can be explained through the misunderstanding of Kinship. Inherently we believed that kin identified with an animal because it believes it has characteristics of said animal. However, in a totemic order of differences kin identify as an animal because it is not the same as the other kin. For example, the Smith kin identifies as a whale because it is not the Lewis kin that identifies as a wombat because they are not the Smith kin. Introducing another kin, the Gutierrez kin, The Smith kin now identifies as a kangaroo because it is not the Gutierrez or Lewis kin, and the Lewis kin is now a Gorilla and the Gutierrez is now a newt.
Accomplices: Jeremy Harrienger, Jonathan Gonzalez Contributions: The Design, Drawings, Renderings, Argument, Concept
The same way these kin interact with one another is the same way our typologies interact with one another on a circumstantial basis of autonomy. The Horizontal hierarchy is a result of the relationships between the typologies outputted during the interfacing. The meshing of these relationships with one another creates the mereological object that now contains the relationships outputted during the interfacing being simultaneously expressed. Had one of these tiers not existed, the mereological object produced would not represent itself the same way since the totemic order would not produce the same differences. Thus the Nomos, or law, is born. This time the relationships that occur between the Object, Nomos, and User are not aesthetic as they were in the creation of the mereological object, rather the roles and agency are the direct output of the interfacing of Object, Nomos, and User. Each of the three new tiers can begin to interchange between roles where the nomos can become the new user and the user can become the nomos. The nomos can become object and object can become nomos. This can all occur because of the understanding of the Totemic order of differences. The system then becomes ontologically complex in which the relationship that occurs between the Object and the User provides agency to the NOMOS, and the NOMOS provides agency to the Object and User because they are all simultaneously working within the autonomous horizontal hierarchy of the totemic order established.
Texas A&M University
Spring 2017
Prof. Casey Rehm & Gabriel Esquivel
South Elevation
Division 1
Manifest
9
Division 2
Oblique
Hydroponic 10
III Augmented Difference
Casted Module
This wall enveloping tessellation system is a demonstration of how to produce low cost efficient building block with almost infinite combinations. These blocks can be arranged in anyway next to one another and still match the cube on all sides. Each cube contains 6 faces. Each face has a possible orientation of 4 ways. Thus giving one cube 24 possible orientations viewed from one point. For every cube added to the system the possible ways of arrangement increase exponentially. 2 cubes gives you 576 possible combinations. (24^2) 3 cubes gives you 13,824 possible combinations (24^3) The example on the left is 9 cubes (24^9) This makes for a total possible combinations to be: 2,641,807,540,224 The system is casted out of concrete using a form-work consisting of interlocking pieces. The form-work is designed to be cnc’d on a 3 axis machine, therefore contains no undercuts. Accomplices: Benjamin Hergert Contributions: The Design, Drawings, Renderings, Argument, Concept
Texas A&M University
This system can be scaled to any size, as long as the form-work can be produced for it.
Spring 2016
Prof. Alireza Borhani
Face 1 13
Face 2
Face 3
Face 4
Face 5
Face 6
1 / 2,641,807,540,224 combinations
2 / 2,641,807,540,224 combinations
3 / 2,641,807,540,224 combinations
4 / 2,641,807,540,224 combinations
Module
Envelope Application 14
IV Hypersection
BUILT PROJECT
Hypersection is a theoretical project concerned with the progression of digital fabrication, moving away from the heavily parametric era into a boolean dominated one. The Hypersection is a creation through the arrival of multiple objects intersecting. The intersection of theses objects not only allows them to retain their own original identities but create new moments of identity. A Hypersection acts in such a way that no objects are altered or catered to one another, showing the moments of absolute transition and making mediation obsolete. Our design was created using 1 site object, 3 volume objects, 2 line objects, and 1 discrete object. Through the intersection of the volume, line, and discrete objects with the site object, Hypersection was created. Accomplices: Garrett Farmer, Oswaldo Veliz, Ian Saenz, Cody Sonnier Contributions: The Design, Drawings, Renderings, Argument, Construction
Due to the nature of the process, the design is an autonomous output of the objects, but the object placement is deliberate. Variables are no longer data driven (eg. Parametric), but rather volumetric. The simple rotation or translation in a Cartesian system will yield a completely new design. After designing, the project was then constructed and fabricated out of 2”x2” studs and drywall panels. Each volume required a geometric net to be constructed. Here is where the ontology of solid and void were revealed seeing as how the boolean moments of the volumes required a separate geometric net to be made for stenciling. Once construction was finished, a laser was used to create the intersection of the 2 line objects. This was then stenciled and painted. Hypersection occupies a space of 60’x12’x18’ and was built in 1 month by 5 students with a budget of $4,000.
Texas A&M University
Fall 2018
Prof. Niccolo Casas & Gabriel Esquivel
Elevation
Entities
Object 1
Object 2
Object 3
Flattened 17
18
19
20
V The HIve
ARTISIAN STUDIO LIVE SPACE
Barcelona's exponential growth after the Olympics of 92, created many social and economical consequences good and bad. The Raval area was a primary target for immigrants due to it's undesirable urban layout as well as the historical context of the area being primarily Industrial, which provided the foundation for places of low rent to exist, attracting people of lower socio economic class. Due to the city’s increase in gentrification of the area to reverse these effects, the Hive is designed to promote further gentrification while still adhering to the historical context. The Hive is a live-workspace for artisans, product designers, etc. This artisinal hub is an extension of the ideology of the Poble Nou's Urban District, offering classes and resources to the community as well, not to only residents. The bottom floor operates as a market twice a month where residents are required to show their work, thus ensuring that goods will be produced. The next two floor above the market function as varied studio workspaces ranging from large scale fabrication projects to personal computer graphic work. The upper 3 floors contain the resident pods, a total of 69 personal pods all per-fabricated containing a bed, desk, kitchenette, and bathroom. Each pod is can operate as an open or closed system regarding the cooling or heating of air. The nodes that cap the pods cause the heating up of air by using solar energy. This air either exits the system creating a vacuum to pull in cool air from the large thermal masses or can be transferred into the pod itself for heating.
Texas A&M University
Fall 2017
Prof. Miquel Rodriguez
Wood Reside
Conference
Studio
Market
23
Concrete
24
VI Aggrgative Figure
ONTOLOGICAL AMBIGUITY
Aggregative figure is a process study regarding the parametric role in the changing of ontologies. Using the seemingly infinite digital library, a pig and a silo were chosen because of their similar topology. Using a grasshopper script I devised, the two entities were assigned a start and an end point. The script would then display the transitioning geometries that would take place between the start and end point. The ground became the least pig while the top was the most pig. New figures began to appear, similar to that of a blue whale mouth or something that might be found in an adult shop. It was through the parametric that the in between ontologies were revealed. It creates the issue of ontological ambiguity, to where as an everyday object could be referred to as the between of two ontologies. Inexplicit objects that can exist at that point and every point in between a set of 2 given data points in the representation of a new figure or form that adheres itself to guidelines that we already understand, thus creating the ontological ambiguity. They are something, yet not quite something else. They are born through the use of a script that is simply moving corresponding vertex from one point to the next, unaware of the creation it is displaying. As the project began to show correlation to one another without resolved connections, discrete elements and a patterning of another digital library element occupied the aggregation of figural ontologies in order to maintain coherence.
Texas A&M University
Spring 2018
Prof. Vahid Vahdat
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