NICHOLAS OUEllette graduate design portfolio 2014 - 2015
contents rio olympic legacy park fall 2014
prefabricating the seattle waterfront graduate thesis | spring 2015 - current
Furniture design spring 2015
graduate research assistantship august 2014 - may 2015
NICHOLAS OUEllette Profile 1539 Indian Springs Dr O’Fallon, MO 63366 636.614.5359 : P nickouel@siu.edu : E nicholassouellette.com linkedin.com/in/ nicholassouellette
Interests Music Bowling Video Games Model Making Wood Working
Education Southern Illinois University - Carbondale
Master’s Degree in Architecture - Expected Aug 2015
June 2014-Current
Current GPA : 4.0
Southern Illinois University - Carbondale Bachelor’s of Science in Architecture
Aug 2009-May 2014
Cumulative GPA : 3.0 Dean’s List : Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014
Professional Experience Graduate Research Assistant
Aug 2014-May 2015
Papa Murphy’s Pizza - O’Fallon MO
Aug 2008-Aug 2009 Dec 2009-Feb 2010 May 2010-Aug 2010
Researched key buildings and designed diagrammatic representations of their tectonic makeup.
Created satisfied customer relations involving prompt service for making pizzas, answering telephones, and working the cash register.
volunteer service Architecture Student Peer Mentor
Helped to aid underclassmates with studio projects and technical drawings as well as helped to improve their skills with computer based programs.
software skills AutoCAD Revit Architecture Google SketchUp Adobe Illustrator Adobe InDesign Adobe PhotoShop
Jan 2013-May 2013 Jan 2014-May 2014 Jan 2015-May 2015
RIO OLYMPIC LEGACY PARK COURSE | ARC551 - Comprehensive Architectural Design Studio
ARC541 - Architecture Systems and Environment
DURATION | Twelve Weeks
LOCATION | Barra de Tijuca, Rio de Janerio, Brazil
LINKS | http://www.nicholassouellette.com/#/rio-olympic-legacy-park-arc551/ http://issuu.com/nouellette/docs/final_panel_set_12.12.14 PROJECT DESCRIPTION | The second and final gradate studio before thesis began included a design
of the Legacy Park for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The project was split into two parts, group and individual. The master-plan for the entire site was developed as a group, while we designed one building[s] as an individual. Although we were not required to design the buildings within the masterplan, careful
consideration needed to be taken developing the layout and overall scheme. As a class, we worked off
the existing Legacy Park design completed by AECOM and focused on the small southern tip of the peninsula for our group master-plans. The image below illustrates the area that our site was focused on within the existing plan.
This studio also collaborated with an architecture systems course we took where we looked at codes, systems, and structure and were asked to incorporate them into our individual design. Systems included HVAC, fire suppression, and means of egress.
http://www.rio2016.org.br/en/news/news/olympic-park-get-to-know-the-winning-project-of-the-urban-general-plan
Barra de Tijuca Geographic Factors: - Northern solar path
- Hot humid climatic zone Fortaleza
- Poor water sanitation
- Winds coming off from the ocean to the south
- Natural Ventilation prominent over HVAC systems in this region
The city of Barra de Tijuca located within
the region of Rio de Janeiro will be home
Brasilia
to the Summer Olympics in 2016. After the Olympics have concluded, a legacy
park will be left behind converting the old Olympic grounds into new habitable
Barra de Tijuca Sao Paulo
Rio de Janeiro
spaces for residents and visitors.
Curitiba
One of the major factors that plagues
this region is the state of the water and it played a pivotal role in the creation
The image below shows the current state of the water in the Rio de Janiero region.
of my group’s master-plan. There are limited sanitation facilities to clean the
water and the residents of this area do not utilize them. Instead, they get rid
of their waste on the streets, fields, and canals that all lead straight to the water and it has suffered in the process.
Public transportation also plays a major
role in this area so with our master-plan we wanted to ensure that it would be
a prominent feature by limited access roads to the area and within our site boundaries.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/01/shockingphotos-from-the-water-sports-site-of-the-rioolympics/
Early concept sketches illustrating how the water would influence the site design.
Master-plan Site Layout and Program Breakdown
Individual Residential Site Location
PROGRAM Child Care Clean Usable Water Health Care Hotel
Parking Garage Police Station
Public School
Jacarepagua Lagoon
Residential Housing Retail Developed Green Space
The residents of the Rio de Janeiro area have
Master-plan Pedestrian Zones and Green Spaces
a long outdoor culture. During our class we interviewed a couple from the Barra
area and they spoke to us about how the
residents enjoy being outside at any chance they can get and do not spend much time
indoors. With our masterplan, we wanted
to develop green space throughout the site and make it accessible from anywhere in
the area for people to interact with and inhabit.
Developed Green Space Public Transit Routes
Special thanks to other group members Arius Hounwanou and Ryan Kinports.
My individual design focused on creating
Site Design Progression
a series of multifamily housing complexes
along the shoreline of the newly created
waterways. Through the design I wanted to link the building, site, and people together
creating a unique environment within
the overall master-plan. The basis for this
link was taken from a 20’x40’ grid that I
translated into the site design and building design.
Site Plan
First Floor Plan
2nd, 4th, and 6th Floor Plans
3rd, 5th, and 7th Floor Plans
Building Spacial Analysis
One of the things I took away from my research on Rio is
that they enjoy the outdoors and the interactions between
people is quite strong. I wanted to take both of those factors and implement them into the building design. Instead of
having the normal double loaded corridor with no light and plenty of dead space, I opened it up and expanded it to
create large areas for people to meet and enjoy the outside. The two central units were pushed out so that the balconies on the end of each unit would have more privacy and the
entire building was lifted up one level to create a public zone on grade and private above.
Building Design Progression
The facade of each building was composed of
metal panels attached to a concrete structural grid. Each window of the apartments units
was connected to a sliding metal screen that
could be used to allow for large amounts
of sunlight to enter the unit or closed off completely. These screens along with the
balconies were colored with a complementary
color scheme for each building that could be used for a way-finding device for someone visiting the area.
North-South Building Section
prefabricating the seattle waterfront COURSE | Master’s of Architecture Thesis Project DURATION | Twenty-four Weeks
LOCATION | Seattle, Washington
LINK | http://www.nicholassouellette.com/#/prefabricating-the-seattle-waterfront-graduate-thesis/ PROJECT DESCRIPTION | This thesis proposes the use of a vacant, infill lot as the new site for a
prefabricated residential complex in Seattle, Washington. Seattle was chosen for its growing economy as well as being a leader in the manufacturing industry. The site is located just south of downtown adjacent
to the historical district of Pioneer Square. Pioneer Square is a highly pedestrian oriented part of Seattle
with many shops, restaurants and markets for people to interact with. This thesis will build off those ideas creating a new extension of Pioneer Square while promoting prefabricated design in the process.
Downtown Seattle
Elliott Bay
Site Location
Pioneer Square Historical District
Industrial Shipping Ports
Sports and Entertainment
One of the main focuses with this thesis is the construction assembly of the modular units. Determining how a structure is built through its construction and intricate detailing is the most
intriguing aspect of architecture to me. Throughout this thesis I have been researching ways to assemble these units on an individ-
ual basis as well as a group basis when they are joined with one another into one structure.
The diagram below illustrates how two stacked units will connect to each other. On each of the four corners of the unit a metal pin
will be slotted through the HSS structural steel and be clipped in place by a steel fastener. Other bolted connections will be added in various locations adding structural strength to the entire system.
The diagram at the right shows the early stages of my detailing of
the unit construction. Through this sequence you can see how the
unit is assembled starting with the structural steel and concrete floor to the interior metal stud framing and the exterior cladding details to complete the unit.
Furniture design COURSE | ARC500 Independent Study DURATION | Sixteen Weeks
LINK | http://www.nicholassouellette.com/#/test-project-2/ PROJECT DESCRIPTION | During my graduate studies, I elected to take a furniture design course
for one semester. The course would be split up into two projects, the first was given to us by our professor, and the second was a thesis driven design of our choosing. For the first project, we were instructed to
recreate the classic Red and Blue Chair designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1917. We were encouraged to come up with a new design but still keep in mind the main attributes of the chair and its unique look.
For my design of the Red and Blue chair, I
took the original rigidity of the horizontal and
vertical lines and contrasted it with a new fluid
design for the seat and back. My original design for the chair swapped out the square dowels for circular ones that were grooved to allow for
more surface area to bind them together. After
working with the design and testing a number of connections, I realized that the grooved
circular dowel would not accomplish what I
intended them to do and had to rethink the design.
I decided to go with a square dowel similar
to the original chair which also helped to
achieve the contrast that I was looking
for. To make sure that the string used
for the seat would stay in position along the horizontal supports, I used a lathe to cut out a 3/8� groove for each support to
ensure that the string would not flow freely
along it. I chose to keep the poplar wood unstained to bring out the color of the light wood in contrast to the black nylon rope.
I slightly modified the original design of
the chair to allow for the rope to be strung through the chair without collapsing under the tension.
graduate research assistantship SUPERVISOR | Assistant Professor Chad Schwartz DURATION | Thirty-Two Weeks
LINK | http://www.nicholassouellette.com/graduate-research/ PROJECT DESCRIPTION | During my tenure as a graduate at Southern Illinois University, I was given the privilege to work as a graduate assistant under one of the assistant professors in the architecture
program, Chad Schwartz. Chad is currently in the process of writing a book focusing on the tectonic
and stereotomic relationships of key buildings throughout the world. For each building in the collection, there are a number of factors such as representation, space, anatomy, and place to name a few that his
research is based on. My duties as a graduate assistant focused on creating key diagrams that illustrated each of factors using AutoCAD, Illustrator, and SketchUp.
The first project I was asked to work on was the
Swiss Sound Box designed by Peter Zumthor for the Hanover Expo in 2000. The pavilion was a designed as a change of pace from the other pavilions in the expo, a place where you can rest, have a drink, and listen to live music being played. The structure of the Sound Box
was composed of wood timber, a concrete base, and steel for the connection elements. Zumthor
designed the pavilion to be recycled when the expo concluded so all of the wood members
were held in place by tension rods that could Swiss Sound Box Steel Base Connection
be easily removed without harming the wood.
Swiss Sound Box Anatomy Diagram