0 PORTFOLIO
NICHOLAS SHEKERJIAN ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY BSD in Architectural Studies + Master in Architecture 2014 + 2017
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
FALL 2013
CO+HOOTS OFFICES
p. 03
SPRING 2014
C R E AT E A C A D E M Y
p. 13
DESIGN SCHOOL
p. 27
SPRING 2016
1 5 PAV I L IO N
p. 41
SPRING 2017
IN_COLLISION
p. 51
SUMMER 2017
F O R u M : O B S E R VAT O R Y H O U S I N G
p. 71
FALL 2015
A N A LY T I Q U E S
p. 85
FALL 2015
1 CO+HOOTS OFFICES As a coworking office, Co+Hoots attracts numerous startups and businesses mainly pertaining to public relations and marketing, that seek collaboration in a non-traditional office setting. In meeting with the clients and evaluating the site and building conditions, three things became important: increasing contact with the outdoors, visibility between coworkers and the public, and providing flexible space. These interventions are subtle. The design improves these three factors through the use of a courtyard functioning as circulation, cross ventilation, a source of natural light, and providing flexible space with the outdoors. This courtyard divides the building between work and play, private and public ammenity. By bisecting the building, the original bow trusses become exposed to the exterior. The exposed areas are treated then covered in a wood lathe, shading the new courtyard.
OFFICE led by JOHN MEUNIER 2014
4
“People don’t really know it, but there is an entrepreneurial epicenter here. We want to expose people to that.” Jenny Poon, Co+Hoots founder
“Downtown Phoenix has been closed off from local businesses... We need to reconnect with them. Not only for the community, but for us too.” Keith Mulvin, Co+Hoots Director of Community Management
The existing building is cherished by the community and yet is so physically disconnected from the context it’s often difficult to interpret its entrance. The site was thus given an entrance sequence and visibile porosity to it’s interior and new courtyard in order to provide it with a basic and economical sense of connection. This building can then continue to grow and develop tangentially with Downtown Phoenix, endowing it with an “epicenter” infrastructure to match its coloquial regard.
EXISTING
PROGRAM
1 COURTYARD
PUBLIC
SHADE
6
NEW LATH SYSTEM
EXISTING TRUSSES + FRAMING
NEW INFRASTRUCTURE
EXISTING BUILDING + NEW COURTYARD
8
10
12
2 C R E AT E A C A D E M Y The clients of this project stressed the need to integrate their school within the community which it serves, on older industrial district in Phoenix. This project is an exploration of this integration through the study of textures and materials. By mapping the composition and proportions of these textures, the section of a wall can then be determined to provide innovations in natural lighting and function for the school. The integration of the school is enforced by the circulation, where the outdoor spaces of the ground floor are continued and transformed into the outdoor circulation for the upper floors. This provides a more natural transition from the neighborhood to the school and provides transition between classes as well as interaction with the outdoors: a feature of particular importance to the students.
EDUCATION led by ELENA ROCCHI DESIGN EXCELLENCE 2014
14
Stool
1:1 texture studies of various interior and architecutral artefacts helped to generate a series of analytical drawings on materiality; mapping through proportion their compositions in section. This is a process for determining material DNA as is done with traditional genetic mapping.
Stair
Masonry
Concrete
16
1. acid bath 2. water 3. pure oxygen 4. limestone 5. iron ore 6. coke 7. recycled steel 8. chromium 9. nickel 10. molybdenum 11. stamped material
Steel
EXISTING
REMOVE: COURTYARD
Site Plan
PROGRAM : NEW + OLD INFRASTRUCTURE
SITE PLAN 1"”= 50'” N
PERFORATE
CONNECT
Each material DNA is then translated in plan according to the corresponding construction type of that room.
18
The project-based curriculum requires different approaches to studio configurations. Two distinct approaches, one based on separate but flexible “project rooms”, and another as an open “project field.” One provides for individual based projects and the other for collaborative work or cross-polinating between individual projects.
“FIELD”
“ROOMS”
20
Services Circulation
Classrooms Project Rooms Administration
Through the intesection of textures, new inventions at the intersection of an architecture and learning are discovered.
22
Washington St.
Performance
24
26
3 DESIGN NORTH + SOUTH The future development of Arizona State Univeristy is dependent upon the “New American University” initiative. The existing Design School lacks social embeddedness and is therefore not in-line with this initiative. Light + energy are conducive to developing social embeddedness in the desert and for ASU. Energy use and production, heat sinks, and available shade were mapped in relation to speed of travel, and existing building occupancy on the ASU’s Tempe Campus.
EDUCATION led by DIEGO GARCIA-SETIEN DESIGN EXCELLENCE 2015
28
site model
If light and energy are so important to this new social embededness then the most critical intervention is one of a new roof as a new environmental interface with the fifth facade and it’s corresponding new interior structure to generate and ameliorate the building’s current energy conditions.
conceptual
e
images of sit
the nnection with Preexisting co + main street blic campus’s pu ronger through st en ev e ad is m een ections betw nn co uncanny ent em se ba e th d the street an level
hibition Preexisting ex structural t en spaces pres tic m m ra og and pr for “core” opportunities inging in br n, tio interven light and air.
e
an
br
c
m Me
sti
Pla
re
ctu
y
ar nd
u Str
Studios
o ec
S
“HIDA Labs” Review
re
ctu
y
ar
im Pr
u Str
Computer Lab Review + Exhibition
cy en rg r e Em vato Ele
ir +
Sta
Core
+ ion lat u c m Cir gra o Pr
nfr
I ing
lt
su
Re
e
tur
uc
tr as
ce
lan
Ba
+ gs nin am e Op ogr Pr
ls
ve Le
d
de
an
p Ex
re
Co
Office Studio
STUDENT
PUBLIC
STUDENTPUBLIC
Review Maker Exhibition Cafe Event Performance
Existing
Proposed
Lab
“The Machine”: New roof with communal
studios for shared production of school works and energy
Air circulates from basement level / new public entrance through the porous infrastructure, cooling existing concrete interior.
New entrance from University Drive connects to public, providing ammenities.
ios
ud
St
s”
ab AL ID
PR
“H
IVA TE
s ab t en rL Ev ute n itio mp hib Co x +E iew v Re
PR
IVA TE
Program as circulation
30
EXISTING
CREATE COURTYARDS
PHASE 1 INFRASTRUCTURE: Existing Issues
PHASE 2 INFRASTRUCTURE: Future Occupancy
3RD FLOOR PLAN
ROOF PLAN
32
Section of new core
34
Cost is a major issue in higher education thus this project supposes the future of education as free and democratic. It explores this through a new circulation infrastructure, “the core�, as a tool for ammending present, existing issues, and a new roof infrastructure as a means of providing highly efficient space for the future, freely educated design school.
x10 existing occupancy
w
ne
re
ctu
tru
s fra
in
34 36
From University Dr.
38 36
CORE INTERIOR
40
4 1 5 PAV I L L IO N Event is a natural phenomena of Downtown Phoenix. It is a characteristic which defines the creative culture of the site’s context particularly along Roosevelt Row. As of late, this defining characteristic is changing: the artist culture, and event makers are moving from Roosevelt Row as a result of new housing marketed and designed for young professionals working in the southern downtown region. This new housing is more costly and does not provide amenities for these artists. Given this Student Pavilion’s need for a large event space, there is an understanding that an opportunity exists to give and share with the public this sense of event they have supported for so many years. This is the main perogative of the project.
COMMUNITY + EDUCATION led by PHIL HARTMAN DESIGN EXCELLENCE 2016
42
v er ts en ud st
Four different scales of event within the context and their characteristics were studied as a means of incorporating the character of the city within the project.
SCALE 2
10 - 30 PEOPLE
ES T.
SCALE 3
LT ST .
OR
50 - 100 PEOPLE
VE
LL M
SCALE 1
RO OS E
4 - 6 PEOPLE
FI
.
A
VE A L
CE
R NT
+
s ce fi of
t+ en ev
on cti n efu pr
500 - 1,200 PEOPLE s ce vi
SCALE 4
m m ra og al
pr ic ph ys
od
el
SITE
CIVIC PARK
a or ag
44
cro
nky
te s
cho
ol
eve
nt
event
civi
c sp
1. event program
ace
par
k
2. turn towards park
ce
fi of
event
3. insert offices + lift event
6. result
Given that the site neighbors the Phoenix Civic Space Park, the project uses the park to heighten this quality of event as well as heighten it within the park.
4. insert informal event infrastructure
5. void spaces + circulation
event space
46
48
50
5 IN_COLLISION In the Phoenix Metropolitan Area our lives are largely spent traveling, always in transition from one place to another. Within our freeway system, observed absences reveal that the moment of a collision is where our mental-absence is interrupted. People are made aware, not only of themselves and their mortality, but also of the absence of the freeway and the absence that defines Phoenix’s urban environment. The freeway is the most existential space in our urban environment. Every time we drive on the freeway we risk death, but it is a necessary infrastructure for living. A colliding architecture is designed to keep us alive, engaged, and living in Phoenix’s most scenographic and existential locations: the freeway.
URBAN led by ELENA ROCCHI Featured on KooZArch DESIGN EXCELLENCE 2017
52
Not only do most traveling in the Phoenix Metropolitan area require the use of the freeway, but some spend hours a day on it. The existing communication infrastructure is a means of interrupting the mental absence of driving at high speeds for great lengths of time. This infrastructural form is used a base for the device’s construction.
conceptual image
54
Programs intended for cars collide and create new uses. Users of the device are never to leave their vehicles, but certain characters and people will use the device differently according to their relative use of the freeway and place within the community. Through this collision, the new infrastructure informs connections between the urban environment, the identified characters, and their personal relationships between each other and the potential for a culture developing around “the colliders�. Maintenance
Living
Performance
Drive-In
PROGRAM: Maintenance , Living, Performance, Drive-In
56
58
1
2
3
Maintenance
Living
Performance
Mechanic
Rehabilitation
Meditation
Rehabilitation
Reunion
Party !
Meditation
Party !
Festival
Academic + Classrooms
Intimate Gathering
Multi-Media Exhibition
1 Maintenance
2 Living
3 Performance
4 Drive-In
4 Drive-In
the project manager
the project manager
COLLISION PROGRAM Academic + Classrooms
the corporate executive the coorporate executive
the director
the director Intimate Gathering
the student the student
the retiree the retiree
the mother the mother Multi-Media Exhibition
the lovers
Myths tell us that roads, these places of ritualized movement, are scenographies for creating contrasts between extreme mundaniety and the supernatural. It is a place for heightening a supernatural intervention. The program is developed through this heightening. 4 different program types were created according to the user, cars and subsequently people: a maintenance (vehicular and human body maintenance, living, performance, and a drive-in or media experience infrastructure. Through the physical collision of these 4 infrastructures, the project creates new programmatic relationships which work to take the ritualized movement of the freeway and the mental absence it creates and disturb it. We can use the freeway as a scenography for creating supernatural experiences as we’ve seen in the myth of the road.
the lovers
the art collector the art collector Double Feature
60
plan of device
living: work + sleep
maintenance: car + body
360° drive-In
performance
62
64
longitudinal section
66
The project creates a new typology of architecture and urban intervention based on speed and the collision of infrastructures: Speed is registered / felt in the change from one to the other: an acceleration. Architecture must begin to accelerate to make itself known in culture , technology , and space.
68
maintenance infrastructure
performance infrastructure
interior of sleeping infrastructure
70
6 F O R u M : O B S E R VAT O R Y H O U S I N G Observation and architecture intersect at form. Form is architecture’s tool for informing observation through perspective. In the 21st century, we are confronted with a growing trend in the vertical perspective. Most no longer rely on the horizontal perspective to understand a site or to protect ourselves from harm: survival . We now live above. Constantly observing numerous contexts outside of our own and geolocating back to ourselves instantaneously. This project proposes to enforce not just the observation of the Roccascalegna’s generous night sky through the vertical perspective, but also it’s incredible historical, linear formal arrangement in enforcing the horizontal perspective: the perspective which gives meaning to observing the sky. The project is constructed around the relationship of three bodies: 1. a research center above the fortress containing didactic facilities (didactic observation). 2. highly public programs within the church as non-intrusive, recontextualization interventions (existing structure observation). 3. and a submerged “house” containing the observational housing (phenomenological observation).
HOUSING COMPETITION via YAC RESULTS TBA 2017
72
The sphere and cube inform these perspectives. Through the deformation of these forms, a range of perspectival architectural tools which provide different observational experiences are created as structures and objects across the site. Some provide total vertical or horizontal perspectival submersion for the reading of the site or the sky, and others blur the two to create experiences for digital mapping/synthetic observation for labs and research. They are also pure, man-made forms which, in observation of their purity, become framed by and simultaneously frame the natural environment.
site observation
research center
didactic observation
sky pool site observation observatory house
reflective panels interior observation objects church corner merges with site
74
research center
N
76
rocascalegna + the
e research center
observatory house
78
the church
80
view under research center
research center
82
view on top of housing
84
Drawing and model for Herzog and De Mueron’s Ricola Storage Building
86
Drawing and model for cloud 9’s Media-TIC Building
88
EDUCATION Arizona State University Civil + Bio Engineering Architectural Studies (BSD) Masters of Architecture (MArch)
2009 - 2010 2010 - 2014 2015 - 2017
SOFTWARE AutoCAD, Rhino, Revit, SketchUp, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere, Fusion 360.
SKILLS Sketching, model building, hand drafting, emulsion black and white photography, mixed media rendering, concrete fabrication, basic tool and shop competence.
HONORS AND AWARDS Golden Key Honor Society Member
2009 - 2014
Herberger School of Design Design Excellence Dean’s List Scholar
2012 + 2014 + 2016 + 2017 2010 - 2014
National Society of Collegiate Scholars Member
2009 - 2014
Golden Key Honor Society Member
2009 - 2014
Sean Murphy Prize / Class of ‘77 Scholarship Nominee, Finalist (winner TBD)
2016
EXPERIENCE 2013
Architekton 2016 Arch. Intern / Tempe, AZ Farmer Studios II Maricopa County Southwest Justice Center
2015
Gould Evans Arch. Intern / Phoenix, AZ UA McClelland Hall Renovation ASU Stadium Renovation
2016
Kaiserworks Arch. Intern > Architect + Innovation Officer / Phoenix, AZ
2014
Herberger Design School Senior Show Creator + Designer + Arch. Rep.
2014 + 2017
Arizona State University Faculty ALA 121 + 122 Studio Instructor / TA
2014
MicroDwell / Phoenix, AZ “Modern Pallet” Designer + Builder
2014
2014
2016
“Depth of a Skin” Exhibition / Phoenix, AZ Under direction and in collaboration with Elena Rocchi, former director of EMBT Architects. Artist + Exhibition designer “Lapsus Imaginis” I Exhibition / Tempe, AZ Under direction and in collaboration with Elena Rocchi. Artist + Exhibition designer “SUGO” I + II Exhibition / Scottsdale, AZ Under direction and in collaboration with Elena Rocchi. Artist + Exhibition designer
Venice Biennale “Ecotechnohub” video entry for exhibition of ‘Unifinished Competition Projects’ in Spanish Pavilion Under direction and in collaboration with Diego Garcia-Setien Video + Audio Editor
Interspaceoffice Design business Products sold at For The People GrowOp Phoenix General Owner + designer + fabricator
REFERENCES Diego Garcia-Setien Architect + ASU Design School Faculty ASU Studio Instructor diego.garcia-setien@asu.edu Elena Rocchi Former Director + Architect at EMBT Architects ASU Studio Instructor elena.rocchi@asu.edu Catherine Spellman Architect + ASU Design School Faculty ASU Studio Instructor catherine.spellman@asu.edu Claudio Vekstein Architect + ASU Design School Faculty ASU Instructor claudio.vekstein@asu.edu Christoph Kaiser Owner of Christoph Kaiser LLC Principal Architect Designer Boss + Mentor chrsitoph@christophkaiser.com
90
nickshekerjian@gmail.com +1 480.459.9829 1301 E. Myrna Ln. Tempe, AZ, 85284