Preston Smith Undergraduate Portfolio by Preston Smith

Preston Smith

Undergraduate Portfolio

816 - 529 - 3272 pms0014@auburn.edu

8370 N. Donnelly Avenue #7211 Kansas City, MO 64158

Preston Smith

Undergraduate Portfolio

Preston Smith

816 - 529 - 3272 pms0014@auburn.edu

Education Auburn University

2015 - 2020

Bachelor of Architecture

Bachelor of Interior Architecture

Experience KEM Studio

Summer 2018

Kansas City, Missouri

Collaborated with a small design team of one or two architects in conceptualizing a range of projects including multi-family housing, private residences, and a large scale master plan. Created diagrams, graphics, sketches, and extensive renderings; subsequently compiling these artifacts into presentations for client meetings and competitions.

Hoefer Wysocki

Summer 2017

Kansas City, Missouri

Was independently tasked to conceptualize large scale spaces such as a rooftop bar, an outdoor gathering space between office buildings, and an urban master plan. Provided sketches, drawings, and renderings to present these concepts to clients. Also, filmed and edited a promotional video about the firm.

Blue Springs â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Downtown Alive!â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Summer 2016

Blue Springs, Missouri

Served as a designer in the effort to revitalize historic downtown Blue Springs. Proposed and presented ideas and conceptual sketches/renderings.

Skills Software

Craft

Rhinoceros, SketchUp

Sketching, drawing, painting

V-Ray

Hand drafting, hand rendering

AutoCAD

Model Building

Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Woodworking

Ultimaker 3D printing

Photography (digital + film)

8370 N. Donnelly Avenue #7211 Kansas City, MO 64158

Honors, Awards, Activities Auburn University Honors College

2020

Magna Cum Laude

2020

University Honors Scholar (highest honor)

Bachelor of Architecture

Bachelor of Interior Architecture

CADC Deanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s List

2015 - 2020

7 out of 11 semesters

Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC)

2020

King Student Medal for Excellence in Architecture Research (Thesis)

Auburn CADC Japan Program

Spring 2020

Studied history, vernacular, and culture in Tokyo + Kyoto

National Organization of Minority Architecture Students

2018 - 2020

(NOMAS)

American Institute of Architecture Students

2015 - 2019

(AIAS)

NOMAS National Student Design Competition

2018

Auburn University SHOWCASE 2018

2018

Honorable Mention

Outstanding Achievement Team Award (Dudley Hall Gallery Installation)

Rural Studio

Spring 2018

Reeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home

Auburn University Presidential Scholarship

2015

Contents

Thesis Projects

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

Sculpting a New Pedagogy

Sensory Disruption

Atlanta Contemporary

New Vantages: A Reframing of Experience

sustainable elementary school

office for co-working

contemporary art museum + artist studios

adaptive reuse in historic Selma

Studies

Standard Chair No. 4

Urban Housing in Chattanooga

crafting a classic by hand

multifamily residential

102

Ree’s Home

114

Dudley Hall Gallery Installation

116

Presenting the Banal

120

From ‘Things’ to ‘Flesh’

122

Plan Abstraction

124

Grids!

Rural Studio 20K home

Thesis

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

Thesis

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives Instructor Il Kim Fall 2019 This thesis focuses on how space is experienced through films, and the possibility of the translation of these experiences into the medium of architecture. Contrary to the experience of a building, a film is an intrinsically linear experience; each moment’s placement within the narrative is paramount to achieving the desired perception. The aggregation of each of these constructed moments amounts to a narrative greater than the sum of its parts, with any given shot not able to be fully appreciated without the understanding of its context within the story. The study is comprised of two elements: analyzation and application. To analyze, five films are watched, dissected, and the methods of spatial construction within scenes diagrammed. To apply, the newly compiled diagrammatic methods are reinterpreted into an architectural space, and placed on the timeline of a new narrative within the proposed project. The films are: Metropolis by Fritz Lang, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, Stranger Than Paradise by Jim Jarmusch, Russian Ark by Alexander Sokurov, and Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders. There is an inherent disconnect between how to represent space two-dimensionally and the qualities it would possess in our four-dimensional existence. Through the process of analyzing and application, the similarities from the films to the final proposal sometimes become abstracted and inscrutable. In some instances, the purity of the exercise is tainted by instinctive formal and compositional decisions in order to create a cohesive ‘building’ or ‘thing’. However, the emerging spaces are the result of a rigorous aggregation of the moments diagrammed into a new architectural context. To design for the fourth dimension is not to design a container for program, but to contrive distinct manners of movement/sequence, which when stacked or intersected, generate an architecture of overlapping narratives.

Preston Smith

Thesis

00:09:19

00:11:24

00:42:31 - 00:56:53

01:01:29

Point of view from above the city; sense of watchfulness and overseeing. This gives power to the observer. It is yet to be shown whether this power is benevolent or malevolent.

This power/responsibility comes at the price of the possibility to be overwhelmed. The radio tower emitting all of its broadcasts layered on top of one another.

“When the child was a child, it was the time of these questions: Why am I me, and why not you? Why am I here, and why not there? When did time begin, and where does space end? Isn’t life under the sun just a dream? Isn’t what I see and hear and smell just an illusion of a world in front of the world?” The ‘observer’ has many opportunities for introspection. Eventually he will try to relate what he observes to his own psyche. He wonders what his true purpose is.

Two ‘observers’ listing/recalling events to one another. These events are listed with unequal/juxtaposing importance between one another (or it would appear that way to the ‘subjects’). Because of the power they possess, the ‘observers’ have a database of all that has occurred since the beginning of time. To them, no one moment is of greater value than another; they reject emotion. Their knowledge is strictly quantitative.

While the ‘observers’ are bombarded with content, at the end of the day, it is their choice what they watch. One chooses to go to the circus, the other follows a man reminiscing the days of Germany before the war and destruction.

Remembering the “time before”. Before there were humans there was just the natural world. There was nothing to observe, this was the closest that the ‘observers’ got to ‘being’ in the world.

01:09:53 - 01:10:11

01:24:10

Sensory overload. Even the most capable ‘observer’, one who has not questioned his existential placement into the role, is overwhelmed. Proves an over-saturation of content can overwhelm anyone.

Similar to the swing, it is uncomfortable to see someone unknowingly observed so closely while they are dancing. It is unsettling to see someone so unaware and oblivious while in a vulnerable state. The ‘observer’ is continuing to overstep bounds and invade the privacy of the ‘subject’.

When an ‘observer’ is inattentive or neglecting the ‘subjects’ it is noticed by his fellow observers and, even though they cannot see him, the ‘subjects’ feel his absence. His role as an ‘observer’ is considered a duty, not something he can choose to participate in. He is beginning to challenge what the society of fellow ‘observers’ expects of him.

00:25:02 - 00:25:40

00:35:06 - 00:35:56

00:37:15

Swinging above the dirt of the ground would make one feel free; as if the air space belongs to them, that their personal space has grown and they now have the power that comes with vantage point. However, there is always someone watching, always someone with a higher vantage point. The ‘observers’ can be voyeurs.

“To be close to the colors. The colors. Neon lights in the evening sky… the red-and-yellow train.” ‘Subjects’ experience the world in color, a world they aren’t happy in. They want more color, more vibrancy, more stimuli; the current amount is never enough. The internal dialogue of the ‘subject’ displays what the ‘observer’ is feeling as well. However, color to him means anything except the mundane world he sees now. ‘Subjects’ want more highs and less lows. The ‘observer’ wants to experience the journey of both. His current world of observance and impartiality is black and white (or shades of gray, depending on how you look at it).

The ‘observer’ has a vast understanding of what the world of color consists of. He lists all its qualities in an effort to remind a ‘subject’ why the world of color is worth living for (none of which he has ever experienced for himself). This strengthens his desire to reject his role and duty.

Preston Smith

analyzation

00:18:23 - 00:20:36

Directed by Wim Wenders

- gaze - subject/observer - prospect - the desire of something other than now - disorienting immensity

The study is comprised of two elements: analyzation and application. To analyze, the following five (5) films are watched, dissected, and diagrammed.* To apply, the newly compiled diagrammatic methods are reinterpreted into an architectural space, and placed on the timeline of a new narrative within the proposed project. *Wings of Desire is not diagrammed, the narrative in totality serves as a single diagram and stance on spatial organization

01:33:32 - 01:33:34

01:41:10 - 01:41:16

“When the child was a child, it lived on apples and bread, and that was enough, and it’s still that way. When the child was a child, berries filled its hand as only berries do, and it’s still the same today. […] Atop every mountain it longed for a higher mountain… and in every city it longed for a larger city… and it still does.” The ‘observer’ is born again as a child (a ‘subject’) first experiencing the world of color. Having experienced all of ‘time’ up to this point, the concrete understanding of ‘time’ only becomes apparent now that he has senses. How could he have had the duty of observing yet be so ignorant to what life is actually like for the ‘subjects’? As he came to desire more than his current state, how long until he desires more than the world of color, like the other ‘subjects’?

Only when one experiences life as both ‘observer’ and ‘subject’ can they fully understand what it means to ‘be’. Both of these vantage points frame life in different ways.

Preston Smith

analyzation

00:05:43

wenders

00:02:36 - 00:02:52

wenders

Wings of Desire (1987)

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

“You should dress like people dress here.” She tries on the unfamiliar style over her sweater. Clothing is our first layer of protection. It acts as a second skin. It’s scary to have both an unfamiliar environment and unfamiliar clothing.

This unfamiliarity brought a vibrancy to an otherwise plain, grimy, and empty space. Until now, the size of the apartment was inscrutable. Each function or programmatic element was framed as its own room. Because of the frame and vantage point, an apartment with no walls became one divided.

00:49:00

01:08:40

By simply shuffling what would be a normal seating arrangement (people sitting next to those they know) it makes the entire experience unbearable for some individuals. Even though they would not otherwise speak during a movie, being unwillingly placed next to a stranger is unsettling.

The three people in the motel room are all sleeping on something that isn’t a bed. A room with a singular purpose does not have the appropriate (or preconceived notion of appropriate) furniture.

see “FLATNESS / DEPTH”

The sound of the TV provides a security blanket to both people. It acts as a mutual friend uniting strangers. No one can refuse to watch it when it is on (even someone who doesn’t understand the show or program) because it is better than the alternative of the pressure to interact with the other person.

00:21:31

The first moment the strangers become amicable, the space gains depth. Before, they were constrained to living in 2-dimensional space. Now, there’s room to breathe.

00:33:27

00:43:10

The vantage point emphasizes their nervousness. It was as if they were under surveillance. Being a three-way intersection with only two people to ‘defend’ it makes them vulnerable.

Just as the girl was a stranger in the man’s home, his friend is a stranger in his grandmother’s home. As the stranger/intruder, he must eat whatever is in front of him. The idea of being rude is too terrifying to have free will.

Preston Smith

jarmusch

00:28:03 - 00:28:22

00:16:12

analyzation

00:24:24

see “CROPPING OF FRAMES”

Everything becomes a surface in the domestic. Few things above datum of table height. Aside from one or two trinkets on the wall. The apartment is purely functionalist.

00:07:52 - 00:12:30

see “VANTAGE POINT”

00:06:06

see “CROPPING OF FRAMES” & “DOMESTIC DATUM”

see “DOMESTIC DATUM”

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

FOREGROUND

FLATNESS / DEPTH Preston Smith

spatial depth determined by frame, occurs according to sequence

jarmusch

Preston Smith

analyzation

CROPPING OF FRAMES Preston Smith

VANTAGE POINT

The duality between ‘visitor’ and ‘native’ is displayed with an implied line down the middle of the shot dividing the two. Despite being in the same space, it feels like there are two separate frames put together. Two very different people are forced to be close to each other. The shallowness of the depth of field makes the space seem cramped. The sound of the TV provides a security blanket to both people. It acts as a mutual friend uniting strangers. No one can refuse to watch it when it is on (even someone who doesn’t understand the show or program) because it is better than the alternative of the pressure to interact with the other person.

diptych condition, redrawing of plan through cropping 47

jarmusch

analyzation

MIDDLEGROUND

analyzation

BACKGROUND

The vantage point in this scene emphasizes their nervousness. This feeling is then passed on to the observer. It is as if they are under surveillance. Being a three-way intersection with only two people to ‘defend’ it makes them vulnerable. The path from which they came is the brightest, conversely leaving the unexplored routes to be dark. The decision of which way to go is not an educated one, but a guess. They must rely on senses other than vision to give clues to what lies in each direction.

vulnerability at an intersection of paths, obliviousness 45

Everything becomes a surface in this domestic setting. Few things exist above datum of table height. Aside from one or two trinkets on the wall. The apartment is purely functionalist. The top surface of one object becomes the table for another. Things are stacked vertically, rather than arranged horizontally. In a space for residing, the ceiling height becomes inconsequential to the way the space functions. Spatially, one room can be vastly different than another, but if the ‘things’ that are interacted with remain the same, so does the purpose. A room can be defined by what objects are within it.

jarmusch

FOREGROUND

analyzation

The first moment the strangers become amicable, the space gains depth. Before, they were constrained to living in 2-dimensional space. Now, there’s room to breathe. This depth was always there, it just wasn’t shown to the viewer until this specific moment. The way a space is framed/shown is the way it is experienced.

jarmusch

- subtle discomfort - framing of environment - personal space - lack of direction/plan (meandering)

DOMESTIC DATUM Preston Smith

objects as surfaces, stacking/layering, accessible heights 49

Preston Smith

Thesis

00:42:45

01:25:02 - 01:27:05

01:51:32 - 01:52:34

The first monolith to appear. The apes understand this “thing” to be foreign to the natural world. Its flat surface and even black coloring amidst the rocks and vegetation is disturbing/alarming.

The warped grid of the ceiling and floor implies first, the mastery of grids and straight lines (a stark contrast to the apes); second, the mastery of the controlled curving/warping of these edges. The overlay of both of these geometries at once is significant.

The wash of red light is so strong it acts as pint. Anything that enters the room gets painted red. The slow lowering of the ship shows the transition from beyond the threshold of the red room (where its color is ‘normal’) to being engulfed by the blanket of red.

Every vertical surface that encloses the room is a plane of emitting light. In a conference room this is strange, as every person would be backlit and difficult to see. A direct contradiction to the function of the space.

Using the same technique of revealing HAL’s point of view, we can see he is indeed watching their lips to determine what they are saying. In this moment we see the computer become aware of the humans’ plots against him.

Every surface (not just ‘walls’ as there is no distinction between wall, floor and ceiling in zero gravity) holds or displays objects/information. Spatial conventions are blurred by the oversaturation and aggregation of these objects. The room becomes what it holds.

The excavation of the moon is displayed as an intervention of man’s technology. The datum is the surface of the moon with the intersection only appearing below that datum.

As he runs around the circular space, at any given instance the tangent point that was once his floor becomes the wall and eventually the ceiling. The space is perpetually fluid and dynamic.

01:07:39 - 01:07:53

01:11:25

01:12:09

01:12:11

This scene establishes HAL as a living entity that speaks, listens, and looks. Seeing the space from ‘his’ point of view gives sentience.

Relative to the viewer, they are moving from a static space to a dynamic space. Relative to the characters, the space they are currently in is always static.

The characters in the scene are watching the transmission, but the viewer is drawn to look at HAL because of the spotlight on him and the knowledge of his sentience. His gaze is palpable and perpetual.

The combination of scale, perspective lines, and rings exaggerate the depth of the space, the character blocking the terminus of the perspective gives the illusion that the space goes on indefinitely.

Preston Smith

02:03:30 - 02:11:27

The journey to another dimension. This scene is meant to display what is incomprehensible to humans. It is shown as a bombardment of color and patterns, an overwhelming sensory overload. It eventually turns into what seem to be familiar landscapes but posterized with vivid unnatural tones. What starts as a completely unfamiliar experience turns more two dimensional. The color and sound are the only things tweaked.

analyzation

The scene goes from a wash of light and sounds compacted into an intimate space to a juxtaposition of the ship placed within the infinite and silent vacuum of space.

00:56:30 - 00:56:58

see “FAMILIAR / UNFAMILIAR”

00:51:51

analyzation

00:47:45 - 00:49:30

kubrick

00:40:31

see “JOURNEY TO THE UNCANNY”

00:27:07

kubrick

00:13:08

see “FLUID SPACE”

see “SCALE JUXTAPOSITION”

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

02:12:47 - 02:18:30

The final scene acts as a disturbing artificial human habitat seemingly created by the aliens. It is a space which is an incorrect attempt at replicating French architecture. The space is just familiar enough to be profoundly uncanny.

Preston Smith

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

pervasion of light and sound vs. the vacuum of space, intimate vs. distant

FLUID SPACE

distortion of convention, adjustment of sensory perceptions (one or multiple) 35

kubrick

FLOOR

analyzation

L WA

wall becomes floor, floor becomes wall, wall becomes ceiling 33

kubrick

The previous scene transitions into this final scene. When the eye of the protagonist shifts back to its “natural” colorway, it signals arrival. The setting at first is a conventional French baroque interior, but a distilled, distorted version. The space is so recognizable, so powerfully altered, it is acutely and profoundly disturbing. The only light source is the entire ground plane emitting a diffuse, ambient light. This subtle adjustment puts light in the one place it would never come from otherwise, which pervasively subverts the concrete, primal understanding of light. The pairing of this inhuman light source and (almost) human architecture shell creates a severely warped phenomenological perception of the room. The space feels like an attempt to recreate a human environment by something non-human. The pairing of the enclosed and inescapable husk with the eerie stage set of supposedly familiar furniture props floating within the primally ‘incorrect’ atmosphere of light generates a space which feels like a prison or (more accurately) like a zoo.

analyzation

kubrick

FAMILIARITY

PERCEPTION / RESPONSE

Preston Smith

The scene shows the protagonist jogging in a larger ship (the ship in which the majority of the plot takes place). This scene employs a perversion of the audience’s orientation plane in two distinct ways. The first occurs in a wider angle shot, establishing the extent of the ‘room’ in which the scene takes place. As it is a cylindrical space, he is running in a circle; relative to the audience, he is running on the walls. This shot is necessary to have the earthly understanding of gravity thrown away, and to perceive the space as a whole. The next shot serves as an inverse to the first. The camera is now locked onto the protagonist, meaning as he runs, he does not move but rather the space around him does. The vantage point from which the character is seen is more familiar, however the immediate surrounding environment is constantly/ instantaneously distorted. By virtue of the circle shape, there is only a single point where his environment is ‘accessible’ from the audience’s understanding of planar space. He is tangent to the earthly ground plane only at one point. The moment he passes by what is understood as ‘benches, chairs, and tables’, they immediately shift into ‘wall’ and ‘ceiling’; losing their concrete meaning and becoming an abstract object within the space. Throughout the scene, the sound of footsteps and breathing adds a temporal rhythm that the audience can grasp onto, isolating the spatial phenomena.

JOURNEY TO THE UNCANNY

analyzation

SPACE

Preston Smith

SPACE

UN SO

SCALE JUXTAPOSITION

This scene is another transition scene, this one representing the interstitial passage from one dimension to the other. This scene is the most rudimentary altering of perception, though the most apparent and potent. The vantage point is of the protagonist, the subject being a zoomed in shot of his blinking eye, the setting representing a journey to a new state of consciousness and ‘being’. The journey is facilitated by more intelligent beings that exist without form, only energy. Thus, the first shot is meant to abstractly represent the start of the journey, a display of knowledge and information that that is incomprehensible to mortal humans. Next, a series of flyover shots of seemingly familiar and earthly landscapes. The only thing altered is the color. Each shot is posterized and filtered using unnatural, vibrantly saturated colors, abstracting the instantly recognizable. This abstraction only holds a narrative because of the subject matter. The landscapes are innately understandable, yet the simple one dimensional distortion of them through color makes them uncannily hostile. The sequence prompts the viewer to question the magnitude their sense of sight holds in their sensorial understanding of their environment. The scene shouts “You think you know this place… but you don’t! How does this feel?”

FRAME

LIG

WA L

FRAME

analyzation

This is a transitional scene in which the protagonists are traveling in a space ship to their next mission point. This scene takes place at two vastly different scales, jumping from one to the other multiple times. Each scale utilizes the juxtaposition of saturation/vacuum of sensorial qualities to orient and disorient. The smaller scale takes place from inside of the ship. With the subjects having casual human conversations about the mission. A relaxed tone permeates the scene, with a background of rustling of objects, footsteps, the chewing of ham sandwiches, the ambient noise of a fan or vent system, and the beeping of ship controls. The saturated soundscape is also paired with a wash of deep blue and red light, which clearly could only be emitted from something created by man, furthering the sense of human-ness. The scale jarringly shifts to large, a shot of the ship, which is now appearing as a small insignificant vessel, floating through the vacuum of space. The lack of sound is perceived more powerfully than the sounds from inside the ship, which only become apparent in retrospect. The only sound now is a low voice ambience, not even the hum of the ship is present.

kubrick

- visceral journey to new reality - true subversion of familiar experience - saturation of the artificial - addresses fourth dimension

FAMILIAR / UNFAMILIAR Preston Smith

unexpected light sources, pairing of baroque furniture/ornament with modern grid 37

01:51:32 - 01:52:34

kubrick

01:25:02 - 01:27:05

02:03:30 - 02:11:27

analyzation

see “FAMILIAR / UNFAMILIAR”

see “JOURNEY TO THE UNCANNY”

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

02:12:47 - 02:18:30

Preston Smith

analyzation

kubrick

FAMILIAR / UNFAMILIAR Preston Smith

unexpected light sources, pairing of baroque furniture/ornament with modern grid 37

Preston Smith

Thesis

This transition between shifts is presented as a diptych with the frame split down the middle. The start of one thing means the end of another. The two shifts must pass by one another moving as individual bodies.

Too often the minds which plan are completely disparate from the hands that build. This condition creates tension.

The vantage point of observation allows the viewer to remain anonymous. The subject is being violated but is unaware. His actions are candid.

00:06:36 - 00:07:04

00:08:47

00:10:35

The underground city is a grouping of building within an enclosed space. The ‘sky’ is a built ceiling plane. In turn, the ceiling of one social class is the floor for another. The sun is replaced by artificial office lights.

This scene is a clue to the illusion of a natural ‘garden’: it is enclosed by shiny metal walls and doors. The sky in this world is a commodity. All romance, happiness, bliss happens on a stage set. “Look, these are out brothers and sisters.” The difference in classes has become so great that the meeting of the two resembles a discovery of a hidden tribe or a new species.

The workers are synchronized with the rhythm of the machines. They have been dehumanized and become part of the machines themselves.

Just as the workers are dehumanized, the machines are personified and the workers are sacrificed to them.

00:12:15

00:20:38

00:22:38

00:27:03

Famous shot of the city. Instead of conventional urban fabric which can be understood in plan, the world has progressed to more resemble a Piranesi drawing (which is only understood in perspective).

A simple old house (more familiar to us than the radical city) becomes quite remarkable because of its stark contrast with the context. Its age comes with an association of a magical lore/aura that has helped it survive the progression which surrounds it.

Even in such an advanced society, the complete merging between man and machine is troubling/disturbing.

The shot frames the subjects between light and dark thresholds. They have left the light and are moving to the dark. The space they are in is an interstitial moment between these two extremes.

Preston Smith

00:36:30 - 00:36:35

A spotlight acts as a physically recognizable gaze. It can grab someone from a distance away. Surroundings dissipate and the edges of the space are removed. In this instance, darkness becomes solace. Light becomes an extension of the wielders arm.

00:49:40

The seduction of a thing is heightened by being veiled behind a translucent screen. The shape is still readable but obscured by mesh and backlit. The thing is more desirable if there is a layer between it and observer. A sense of unattainability.

see “CENTRALITY”

00:04:05

00:40:52 - 00:40:55

00:47:12

A series of vestibules. As one door opens another closes. This is a forced sequence with each door located obliquely from the other. When sequence is forced and experienced as a series of sealed rooms, it’s unnerving. It is one of the only sequences of the movie where sound effects added are a direct reflection of what is happening on screen to emphasize the instance of the doors sealing themselves.

Interstitial space is the overlap between two or more other spaces. This time that overlap is shown visually with color. The meeting of the underground world with the elite class which lives above the surface.

01:01:41 - 01:03:26

01:05:10 - 01:10:48

The pervasion of water (both physically and audibly) where it isn’t supposed to be changes the space into a place that is no longer inhabitable. What were previously familiar city streets and homes now belong to this element. It is a primal-y understood unstoppable force. The people that were displaced by the water now act as a flood moving through surface world. They act as a singular fluid body when grouped.

Preston Smith

lang

Bombardment of machines. The Inner workings of the city layered on top of one another visually while an audible metal clanging provides cadence.

analyzation

00:32:57 - 00:33:02

see “A SERIES OF VESTIBULES”

00:29:27 - 00:30:48

see “SPOTLIGHT”

00:03:01 - 00:03:18

lang

00:02:09 - 00:02:34

analyzation

see “UNDERGROUND CITY”

Metropolis (1927)*

Directed by Fritz Lang

- no dialogue, visual storytelling - perception of space dependent on differing quotidian conditions - spaces only understood in perspective - if Piranesi made a movie... *this thesis studies the reconstructed edition by Georgio Moroder (1984)

rooms/buildings within rooms, ceiling becomes sky, layers of chaos

lang

2 1 3

A SERIES OF VESTIBULES Preston Smith

forced sequence, one threshold at a time 21

lang Preston Smith

analyzation

This scene takes place as a series of vestibules. As one door opens another closes. This is a forced sequence with each door located obliquely from the other. When sequence is forced and experienced as a series of sealed rooms, it’s unnerving. It is one of the only sequences of the movie where sound effects added are a direct reflection of what is happening on screen to emphasize the instance of the doors sealing themselves. This sequential condition can be traced to its more benevolent application in picturesque theory. Instead of sealed rooms, the visitor experiences the space in frames set up by path orientation, vegetation, and structures revealing or concealing specific views. As one meanders along a picturesque path, to go forward, pause for reprieve, or turn back is up to the will of the visitor. The scene displays the removal of this free will, making the subject vulnerable to the will of the path.

SPOTLIGHT

light personified, darkness as solace, disappearance of edges 19

The centrality of any given object or space is defined by the orientation/organization of its surroundings. In this case the object is surrounded by thresholds that lead to different unseen interiors. The central object (in this case a bell) has the ability to unite these separate spaces through sound. Centrality is not only defined by the surrounding objects/buildings, but is also created by the paths around these objects. The ‘central-ness’ of the bell in this scene would stand as valid even if the buildings were removed (given the paths were defined with a difference in material, pattern, finish, grade, etc.) In this instance, there is no hierarchy between objects, paths or thresholds, but it is possible to implement one. The hierarchy around a central space may be formed radially, along an axis, or according to a grid. The formation of a hierarchy is greatly affected by the purpose of the central space. Is the central space meant for an object? Meant to be a void? Is it the primary organizing factor or the resultant of the arrangement of its surroundings?

lang

Preston Smith

analyzation

UNDERGROUND CITY

A spotlight acts as a physically recognizable gaze. It can grab someone from a distance away. Light becomes an extension of the wielders arm. The wielder could have an active presence (person) or a passive presence (building). The figures to the left represent possible spotlight conditions. The conditions (thus, effects) of the spotlight depend greater on the lighting of the surroundings than the spotlight itself. The top figure shows a condition more closely resembling the one in the film, where the space around the light is black, without light, causing the surroundings to dissipate and the edges of the space to be inscrutable. In this instance, darkness becomes solace. The bottom figure shows a condition in which the room itself has ample enough light for the edges of the space to still be perceptible, the architectural moves and motives still having an influence on the spatial condition. The spotlight here is a highlighter, bringing attention to something within an existing environment.

analyzation

lang

The underground city is a grouping of buildings within an enclosed space. The ‘sky’ is a built ceiling plane. In turn, the ceiling of one social class is the floor for another. The sun is replaced by artificial office lights. The surface world sits on top of the underground condition unknowingly. Instead of conventional urban fabric which can be understood in plan, this world has progressed to more resemble a Piranesi drawing (which is only understood in perspective). The relationship between these two conditions is difficult to represent with only orthogonal drawings. The key to understanding the complexity of this space is attempting to pull apart the layers which construct the space. The layering of mega-structure, structure, infrastructure, circulation, and people creates these chaotic and malevolent urban conditions.

CENTRALITY Preston Smith

paths both through and around objects, layers, residual space created by object placement 23

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

A subtle moment where the subject is blocked by over-scaled object within space.

Wandering into somewhere one shouldn’t be… storage, mechanical, things strewn about, not to be seen. The ugly inner workings of a palace. Everything is a stage set!

Small human scale domestic objects are scattered in a non-human scale space. Makes the objects, and thus the space, feel unusable.

00:53:56 - 00:54:57

This transition juxtaposes the warm, bustling space filled with the hum of muffled voices to the cold and empty space where a singular voice echoes throughout.

00:25:38 - 00:27:21

00:40:42

00:44:18

In rooms where natural light is the only thing lighting the space, material choice provides what the light interacts with, thus defining the qualities of the space. Darker rooms use white blue and gray monochrome materials, paired with the sumptuous forms of the sculptures to create a feeling of melancholy. The lighter rooms use bright, warm materials paired with the vibrant and colorful paintings. Depending on what types of work is to be displayed determines the materials chosen. The rooms with paintings focus on 2-dimensional, planar vibrancy. The rooms with sculptures let the light bounce off the forms with a more subdued application of color.

The doors go from floor to (nearly) ceiling and are operable by a single person. The visitor directly interacts with the scale of the scene/room. Normally all cuts and thresholds at this scale are predetermined and not operable.

The threshold to another space is literally spilling light onto the floor of this large and dark space. In this instance light becomes a material that signals the presence of a different space.

Preston Smith

Subjects being followed suddenly speed up, fading into the distance. It leaves a feeling of wondering what the rest of their story will be, but a closure in the decision made at that moment to not follow them anymore. Once can decide to speed up to arrive with them, or turn to choose a different path and follow another narrative.

00:57:09 - 00:57:22

A crowd of people pushed to the edges of a large space in orderly lines. What options does a new arriver have? Squeeze past them to find a spot in line or move to another space. All of the people are looking toward the empty space in the middle of the room. This organization forces these awkward encounters.

01:11:15 - 01:13:17

01:21:13 - 01:27:18

After going through the public domain and public program of the palace it seems intrusive to watch an intimate family dinner. We broke from the single vantage point of the narrator to now gazing. This transition is marked by fluttering giggling fairies running down the hallway. We chased them, and left our story/ narrative to view others.

The auditory sequence of this scene alone would tell the story of what’s happening without visuals. The orchestra playing, to the group clapping, to the ambient hum of collective debriefing about the event. We went from hearing the echoes and creaks of single footsteps to hearing not a single step from a room full of dancing people. The only sound is the orchestra.

Preston Smith

Directed by Alexander Sokurov

01:29:45 - 01:30:55

01:32:49 - 01:33:16

What began with a staircase ends with a staircase that contrast each other in every way. This sequence, instead of a dark, suffocating space is a wide open breathable space with intense perspective of a destination clearly in view. The exit transition is a wide thoroughfare with even places to step aside for respite.

The last shot ends the movie with a return to the awe of natural phenomena. A lengthy sequence of artificial luxury, stage sets, hierarchies, systems, scales… all trumped by a horizon line. Unquestionably more powerful. Destroys validity of narrative that was just built.

analyzation

- one shot; no cuts - moving through historic architectural space - a blurring of architectural vs. cinematic - non-linear storylines

analyzation

00:17:57 - 00:22:51

sokurov

see “FORMAL vs. PLANAR”

The vantage point slowly moves from perceiving the whole space (where the aggregation of all the works takes over/makes the space), to zooming in on individual elements of an individual piece. The perception of works is not constrained to any scale. They perform differently depending on vantage point.

00:52:03

see “OCCUPATION OF THE EDGES”

00:19:55 - 00:20:51

00:49:26

see “SCALE OF CIRCULATION”

It is eerie for such an extravagant performance with a live orchestra to only be viewed by a few people scattered across an auditorium (no individual seats, just rows of bench seating).

00:47:44 - 00:47:51

sokurov

00:15:29 - 00:15:48

analyzation

00:12:39 - 00:13:08

see “CORRIDOR THRESHOLDS”

00:09:10

see “FORMAL vs. PLANAR”

see “SCALE OF CIRCULATION”

Russian Ark (2002)

Preston Smith

sounds, touch, light, views, sense of commencement and climax

Preston Smith

analyzation interaction of material and light, temperature & vibrancy, hardness vs. softness 63

sokurov instantaneous, lack of transition, an axis with no terminus or hierarchy

Preston Smith

sokurov

This scene juxtaposes the warm, bustling space filled with the hum of muffled voices to the cold and empty space where a singular voice echoes throughout. In rooms where natural light is the only thing lighting the space, material choice provides what the light interacts with, thus defining the qualities of the space. Darker rooms use white blue and gray monochrome materials, paired with the sumptuous forms of the sculptures to create a feeling of melancholy. The lighter rooms use bright, warm materials paired with the vibrant and colorful paintings. Depending on what types of work is to be displayed determines the materials chosen. The rooms with paintings focus on 2-dimensional, planar vibrancy. The rooms with sculptures let the light bounce off the forms with a more subdued application of color. Each of these types of work also inherently encourages a certain method of circulation to view them, which is shown in the figures to the right. Two-dimensional work that is hung tends to be viewed sequentially, with viewers moving from one to the next around the edges of the space. Conversely, sculptures (or works with some kind of form) are viewed with less serially, with viewers meandering through/around the work.

FORMAL vs. PLANAR

CORRIDOR THRESHOLDS

This scene shows a crowd of people pushed to the edges of a large space in orderly lines. What options does a new arriver have? Squeeze past them to find a spot in line or move to another space. All of the people are looking toward the empty space in the middle of the room. This organization forces these awkward encounters. The gazes of all observers becomes palpable as soon as something to observe enters the space. Unlike the grand hallway shown previously, this space has a strong terminus at the end of its axis that implies a direction for ‘things’ to move. It is the movement towards the terminus that is the show. The space behaves like a catwalk at a fashion show.

sokurov

Preston Smith

analyzation

SCALE OF CIRCULATION

A single simple plane with unremarkable doors is the only division/transition to the grandeur of the gilded ‘hallway’. Each salon connected to the space is of equal opulence and importance. There is no sense of hierarchy. The figure to the left shows the scale of the transition from vestibule to hallway. The view is terminated by the unassuming doors yet the view corridor which is revealed deepens the depth of field at least five fold. The planar division means this jarring change in depth happens instantaneously; there is no transitional period, no corner to turn, no stairs to climb or descend, etc. The lack of hierarchy means any space connected perpendicularly to the hallway is free to be arranged in whatever order is most effective in achieving conditions outside of the reach of the hallway. This space is a junction able to connect asymmetrical parts to a whole. A platform from which there can be departures heading in any direction. What is yet to be determined is a breadth of methods used to achieve a motivation of a non-hierarchical axis. The terminus is either of enough importance or it is not.

analyzation

sokurov

The film starts with a sequence of moving up a tight stair well with purposefully denied views other than the landing of the current run. What is known: whether one is going up or down, how the people in front react to turning the corner. What is not known: the destination, or how many more steps there are. People are not likely to quit once they’ve started. In fact, the longer it goes on, the less likely they are to turn back. The space is dark while the creakiness of each step provides an auditory influence on the speed at which people move. A creaky stair makes people move slower because it adds a precariousness. What began with a staircase ends with a staircase that contrast each other in every way. This sequence, instead of a dark, suffocating space is a wide open breathable space with intense perspective of a destination clearly in view. The exit transition is a wide thoroughfare with even places to step aside for respite.

OCCUPATION OF THE EDGES Preston Smith

structured arrangement of observers, strong hierarchy along axis 65

Preston Smith

Thesis

A MEDIA ARCHIVE IN TOKYO

The project designed is a media archive building sited in Tokyo’s Omotesandō area. This area is heavily saturated with high fashion retail boutiques and similarly to the rest of Tokyo, a plastering of signage and billboard advertisements. The choice of a media archive as the proposed program is a sort of tongue-in-cheek statement on the current pervasion of image based media perpetually flashed at Tokyo’s population, providing an opportunity to reflect on notable past media of merit (photographs, records, newspapers, film). Simultaneously, the program itself of a media archive is an allegorical representation of the parti diagram of the building, that of the relationship between ‘subject’ and ‘observer’ as illustrated in Wings of Desire. Through one lens, the media is the ‘subject’ and the visitor the ‘observer’; while through a deeper lens, the characters of one narrative are put on display as the ‘subjects’, while the characters of a different narrative are positioned to be ‘observers’. The narratives in this case are told simply through modes of circulation, each mode representing different speeds or ‘tempos’ of moving through the project. The slowest mode (ramps) are placed on the edge of the building servicing the main program masses, then moderate (stairs) placed as interstitial interjections between the program masses, and finally elevator and egress cores placed centrally to access all levels of the building quickly. The concept is that each tempo of circulation chosen presents a different and unique narrative, orchestrating both the sequence and saturation of sensory perceptions of the space. The slowest tempo provides time to establish a present-mindedness of these characters which become purely ‘subjects’ to the other visitors. The moderate tempo leads characters around masses and through the central space, making them simultaneously ‘subject’ and ‘observer’. The fastest tempo shoots through the central space, passing by/through each program, providing shots of every character in the building. This tempo invokes an overwhelming absent-mindedness; a desire to slow down and experience narratives more saturated than the presently shallow. 10

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

Preston Smith

Thesis

TEMPO OF SEQUENCE (or, narratives 1, 2, and 3)

slow / saturated

fast / desirous 12

medium / interstitial

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

FAST/DESIROUS

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The fastest tempo shoots through the central space, passing by/through each program, providing shots of every character in the building. This tempo invokes an overwhelming absent-mindedness; a desire to slow down and experience narratives more saturated than the presently shallow.â&#x20AC;?

Preston Smith

Thesis

STAGE SETS

individual study

exhibition

archive system

forum

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

Preston Smith

Thesis

APPLICATION OF FILM DIAGRAMS individual study

ceiling becomes sky, layers of chaos, darkness as solace, flatness/depth, vantage point, cropping of frames, scale of circulation, occupation of the edges,

archive system

rooms within rooms, ceiling becomes sky, forced sequence, scale juxtaposition, fluid space, journey to the uncanny, familiar/unfamiliar, cropping of frames, scale of circulation, corridor threshold, an axis with no terminus or hierarchy, formal vs. planar, interaction of material and light,

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

exhibition

centrality, paths both through and around objects, layers, intimate vs. distant, flatness/depth, vantage point, sense of commencement and climax, formal vs. planar, occupation of the edges, structured arrangement of observers,

forum

spotlight, light personified, centrality, scale juxtaposition, pervasion of light and sound vs. the vacuum of space, vantage point, instantaneous, lack of transition,

Preston Smith

Thesis

SECTION A

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

B C

Preston Smith

SECTION B

Thesis

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

SECTION C

Preston Smith

Thesis

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

archive

open entry/reception

Preston Smith

Thesis

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

archive

individual study

forum

Preston Smith

Thesis

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

archive

forum

Preston Smith

Thesis

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

study

archive

study

Projects

Sculpting a New Pedagogy

Sensory Disruption

Atlanta Contemporary

New Vantages: A Reframing of Experience

sustainable elementary school

office for co-working

contemporary art museum + artist studios

adaptive reuse in historic Selma

Standard Chair No. 4

Urban Housing in Chattanooga

102

crafting a classic by hand

multifamily residential

Reeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home

Rural Studio 20K home

Project 1

Sculpting a New Pedagogy Instructor Rebecca Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neal Dagg Fall 2017

An elementary school can play a pivotal roll in the attitude towards energy conservation if the students are educated along the way. This project is meant to teach kids how to be energy efficient and why it matters. The operating costs of the building are designed to be as low as possible, with a significant amount of energy produced on site and an efficient system of water management and usage in place. The sculpted landscape zones between the submerged classroom blocks are meant as a platform to have direct interactions with the subject matter of the lessons, and an opportunity for students to get outside of the classroom. The school is meant to be a community amenity, so the students can tend to the produce garden and learn about the importance of farm to plate food production, or walk the track around the school and learn about the different ecosystems on the site. A positive feedback loop is created when kids are educated about the best practices in all aspects of sustainability, and this project seeks to spark that conversation.

Preston Smith

Project 1

MAIN FLOOR PLAN

A 2

2 2

1 library 2 administrative 3 cafeteria 4 kitchen

SUBGRADE FLOOR PLAN

1 3

1 special classrooms (art, music, etc.) 2 third grade 3 fourth grade 4 fifth grade 36

Sculpting a New Pedagogy

MAIN PARTI

SUB-GRADE PARTI

MASS

GROUP

SEPARATE

SMOOTH

SUBMERGE

SHAPE

REMOVE

STACK

ROTATE

Preston Smith

Project 1

Sculpting a New Pedagogy

Preston Smith

Project 1

83% of storm water is managed on site. The water runoff from the parking cover goes into either the rain garden or the constructed wetland. The sidewalk, parking, and road leading up to the school is all pervious paving allowing water to percolate slowly. Water on top of the classroom masses drains through the green roof and is captured in multiple cisterns each holding 3,000 cubic feet of water. Water that is captured is used for the radiant heating system in the floor, irrigation for the crops in the produce garden, and only used for blackwater after greywater usage.

66%

of the conditioned floor area has views to the outdoors

SECTION A

SECTION B

83%

of storm water is managed on site with cisterns and constructed wetlands

73%

of the conditioned floor area is daylit

77%

of the site area is designed to support vegetation

Sculpting a New Pedagogy

LANDSCAPE ZONES

Multi-Use Gathering Space Playscape

Student Maintained Produce Garden

SKYLIGHT

GREEN ROOFS

LINES OF PRESENCE

Preston Smith

Project 1

SOLAR PARKING + RETENTION POND

The project is sited in an undeveloped suburban area outside a small city in Alabama of 60,000 people. The average walk score of the city is 27, while the walk score of the specific site is 0. In an effort to provide an easily accessible community amenity, the school is surrounded by a running/walking/biking track over two thirds of a mile long. There is also a garden and an outdoor gathering space that can be used for community events. All of these amenities are accessible after school hours by an exterior staircase that travels under the library mass.

The daylighting problem created by submerging the classrooms is solved by scooping out the ground between the masses. This way, the classrooms have a view out onto the landscape zones and access to natural light. These landscape zones provide opportunities for students to play, gather, and learn outside often. The easy accessibility encourages instructors to incorporate outdoor lessons and projects into the curriculum. The layout of the school provides many covered but not conditioned transition areas (as well as the ability to open up classrooms), meaning students will be in contact with natural air frequently.

Sculpting a New Pedagogy

80 noon jun 21

39 noon dec 21

Preston Smith

Project 1

ECOLOGY

1 1

WETLAND

Consisting of water pennyworts, spider lilys, maidencanes, and water clovers.

TALL GRASSES

Consisting of blueweed grass, indiangrass, and switchgrass.

FOREST

Consisting of pines, oaks, hickorys, silky dogwood shrubs, and elderberry shrubs.

77% of the site area is designed to support vegetation. The program that takes up the most space in a school is naturally the classrooms, so putting all of the classrooms underground (along with their respective circulation), the above-ground roof area is reduced to one third of its original square footage. The design creates three distinct ecosystems: a constructed wetland, tall grasslands on top of the classrooms and the immediate surrounding area, and a dense forest. The walking track journeys through each of these ecosystems and educates visitors about the flora/fauna of their immediate surroundings through informative plaques.

The school utilizes natural light in all facets of its energy efficiency. The classrooms are daylit well enough to not use artificial light except for in the morning, evening, and cloudy days. The glass walls of the classrooms can completely open to the courtyard/landscape zones eliminating the need to condition those spaces. An interactive screen is placed in each classroom to educate the students as well as the instructors on how much energy is being used/saved. There is 17,882 square feet of solar roof space covering the parking lot which provides 338,000 kW/h annually ready to be used when needed.

Sculpting a New Pedagogy

Project 2

Sensory Disruption Instructors Madelyn Willey + Matt Hall + Kevin Moore Summer 2019

The typical static office landscape is disrupted by white hanging shrouds that grow from the ceiling plane and clash with furniture, introducing a sensual yet tense relationship between objects of the floor (desks, chairs, inhabitants) and objects of the ceiling. The transparency of the fabric allows for an even diffusion of light which creates a surrealistic atmosphere, while the arched openings in the object â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;roomsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; provide brief moments of clarity through enfilade as one circulates an otherwise disorienting environment.

Preston Smith

Project 2

ESTCODE

Sensory Disruption

ITERATIVE EXPLORATION THROUGH MODELS

Preston Smith

Project 2

The diagram of the upper three f loor plans place the service core and a transition “corridor” on one edge of the f loor plate, with the ‘rooms’ occupying the remainder. This separation allows for perception of the entire f loor only when using the main circulation artery. When walking parallel to the forest of hanging fabric, views through the ‘rooms’ align in certain positions yet are denied only a few steps later. This neighborhood of sinuous objects offers a variant spatial and visual experience among a monotonous field of tables and chairs.

Sensory Disruption

WORMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S EYE PLAN

TYPICAL FLOOR PLAN ESTCODE

Preston Smith

Project 2

FLOOR OBJECTS vs CEILING OBJECTS

WORM’S EYE MATERIAL SWATCH

conventional field of furniture

primary ‘rooms’ within shrouds

secondary ‘rooms’ created by interstitial/residual space

SHROUD ALIGNMENT 1 2

layers of translucency

enfilade condition

Sensory Disruption

Project 3

Atlanta Contemporary Instructor Il Kim Fall 2019

The project seeks to provide the city with a building that challenged the conventional connection to the ground plane of the site, while maintaining a dialogue with the existing Marta station. The public program begins on the second floor, acting as an elevated plinth, creating underpasses and thresholds on the ground plane which serve as spatial dividers and juxtapose the scale of the upper building masses to the scale of the moments of intersection between building and ground. This allows a grandeur of the entrance transition between the delicate ground floor to the second floor. The project is about contradictions: in material, form, program, and circulation. It is constantly turning in on itself, formally with the sweeping forms of the two masses, and materially with the jarring swatch of opaque concrete, forcing views and movement along the surface of these walls depriving visitors of views. This turning action is most tightly bound in the circulation tower, where the visitor is oriented towards the city, then back towards the building, repeating this sequence the entirety of the climb to the top of one of the towers. The two tower masses themselves house the contradicting program, the taller being almost entirely gallery space, while the shorter holding the auditorium, classrooms, administration offices, and crating/receiving. The gestural moves from the ground floor of each mass create the powerful entrance transition in the larger mass, and the auditorium space for the other. The sweeping formal moves allow for opportunities for the floor plates to be stepped back in order to experience the full height of the spaces.

Preston Smith

Project 3

Atlanta Contemporary

Preston Smith

Project 3

Atlanta Contemporary

floor 2

floors 7-9

ground floor

floor 4

floor -1

floor 3 63

Preston Smith

Project 3

Atlanta Contemporary

Project 4

New Vantages: A Reframing of Experience Instructor Kevin Moore Spring 2019

The project is an adaptive reuse of the Sullivan Building in Downtown Selma, adding a Cooperative restaurant, a demonstration kitchen, a café/bar, and temporary housing on the top floor. An exterior garden in the adjacent plot serves as additional seating for the restaurant, a community garden, and a space for performance and gathering. The project seeks to retain and respect the vibrant history of its site and context, while introducing intricate new spatial and visual experiences. On the interior, the historic brick is celebrated by a washing of light that lines the perimeter of each space. The introduction of ‘new’ materials is constrained to white and glass components in juxtaposition to the rich palette of the existing shell.

Preston Smith

Project 4

CONCEPTUAL SKETCHES

Early parti sketch exploring the idea of an existing orthogonal mass ‘infected’ with an amorphous growth

“celebrated scar”

growing to the exterior

Early sketch exploring the relationship of an interjected mass to the existing infrastructure by establishing a buffer zone between the two languages

giving form to ‘growth’

opening roof plane for light

New Vantages: A Reframing of Experience

Preston Smith

Project 4

New Vantages: A Reframing of Experience

Preston Smith

Project 4

The stair element is a dramatic introduction of a formalism that contrasts its context. This creates an inscrutable, episodic sequence. It is connected delicately to the existing building with bridges that pass through the facade, and land at floor plates that have been stepped back. By stepping the floor plates back, an interstitial triple height space is created that serves as a visceral moment of transition from the old to the new.

New Vantages: A Reframing of Experience

Preston Smith

Project 4

LANDINGS AS SPACES

HORIZONTAL vs VERTICAL SEPARATION

space for transient residents

T IEN NS G A TR IVIN L

view of stage

PARTI DIAGRAM

shifting of orientation

The requirement of an additional egress stair was taken as an opportunity to provide not only circulation, but to utilize this element as: additional seating for the restaurant, a landmark, an orienting device, a theater from which to watch performances, a lounge for residents, a lighting element which activates the garden at night, and a symbol that represents the catalysis of the revitalization of Downtown Selma.

NEW

BUFFER

sidewalk overhang encourages interaction with street

OLD

New Vantages: A Reframing of Experience

Project 5

Standard Chair No. 4 Instructor

Team

Stephen Long

Preston Smith Owen Railey

Spring 2018

A collaborative project between two students, a replica of a Jean Prouve chair was built using the wood shop at Auburn University Rural Studio. The chair was meticulously studied using old sketches, shop drawings, and photos to determine the precise dimensions of each piece as well as how it may have been constructed. In figuring out how the chair was constructed, it was also essential to design multiple jigs to ensure the preciseness and replicability of the pieces. Each joint is a mortise and tenon joint that is friction fit (with wood glue added for extra stability). The frame of the chair is made of white oak while the seat and seat back are oak plywood. The seat and seat back were steam bent using a basic steamer box and affixed to a jig to achieve the correct downturn and contours for comfort.

Preston Smith

Project 5

ARCHIVAL IMAGES

POWER + HAND TOOLS

Router Table

Table Saw

Band Saw

Drill Press

Planer

Jointer

Orbital Sander

Mallet

Chop Saw

Router

Steamer

Clamp

Rasp

Wood Glue

Drafting Utensils

Hand Saw

Sand Paper

Chisel

Standard Chair No. 4

FRONT ELEVATION

SIDE ELEVATION

1 ‘ 1 3/8 “

9 1/2 “

1’ 3 7/16”

1 ‘ 2 7/8 “

1 ‘ 3 5/16 “ 1 ‘ 1 9/16 “ 2“ 4“ 3/8 “

1 7/8 “ 4 1/4 “ 1“

1 1/2 “

1 15/16 “

13/16 “

1 ‘ 2 7/8 “

1 ‘ 1 5/8 “

1 1/4 “ 1 13/16 “ 1 ‘ 5 13/16 “

1 ’ 6 1/4 “

JIGS

Table Saw Angle Sled

Router Jig

Seat Bottom Clamp Jig

Seat Back Clamp Jig

Preston Smith

Project 5

PIECE CREATION

2 3 7

8 4

1 8

Standard Chair No. 4

plane and join to dimension

cut angles

round top of piece

cut bottom angle

trim plywood

drill pilot holes for mortise

steam wood, bend and clamp

trim plywood

trim piece

steam wood, bend and clamp

cut angles

plane and join to dimension

round back of piece with router table

chisle / rasp inside mortise

route edges of mortise

route mortises

cut front angle

trim / round top edge

plane and join to dimension

cut angles

cut angle on bottom face

route mortises

round front edge with router table

plane and join to dimension

cut angles with japanese saw

route mortises

cut angle on ends of piece

plane and join to dimension

trim to width

route mortises

cut angle on ends of piece

plane and join to correct tenon dimension

trim to correct tenon width

round all edges with router table

cut to correct tenon length

Preston Smith

Project 5

ASSEMBLY PROCESS

glue tenons for lateral supports

glue tenons for front legs

glue front leg

glue bottom seat to assembly

A chairâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s construction must meet the highest physical demands. For the frame of a seat must not only withstand the pressure exerted by vertical weight, but a variety of dynamic stresses as well. Rocking, turning, tipping motions and other asymmetrical pressures challenge the static strength of a chair. Its structural stability is measured in terms of the resilience with which its actual form counters the effects of usage and the resulting wear and tear. Prouve focused on using only the necessary structural materials both in form and quantity in order to keep the cost as low as possible. The chair clearly communicates how it functions, with visible tenonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and each leg sized to the load it is carrying. 86

assemble tenon, back leg, and horizontal support

glue horizontal supports to side assembly

glue seat back to assembly

glue horizontal supports to side assembly

sand and finish completed chair

Standard Chair No. 4

Preston Smith

Project 5

Standard Chair No. 4

Project 6

Urban Housing in Chattanooga Instructors Mark Blumberg + Kevin Moore Fall 2018

A driving factor for this project was to utilize the constraint of the irregular topographical conditions of the site as an opportunity to create a rich circulation experience. The commercial podium emerges from the ground as a sculpted negotiation of the landscape that encourages pedestrian traffic that flows like a river, and in turn creates eddies of activity in three distinct plazas / courtyards. Conversely, the residential program is delicately placed on top of this form, acting as a filigerous landmark in the innovation district. The familiar commercial elevations relate to the existing elevations of Patten Parkway, while the organic metal screen of the residential introduces a new typology to the context of Chattanooga.

Preston Smith

Project 6

FORM AND MATERIAL EXPLORATION

The form of the building is a direct response to the surrounding urban conditions of the site. The commercial podium steps back to take the pedestrian traffic from patten parkway and continue it through the site and provide a throughway for pedestrians coming from the UTC Campus to the northeast. The two residential buildings are separated by a courtyard. This courtyard acts as an urban knot, an epicenter where all activity on the site intersects.

Urban Housing in Chattanooga

Preston Smith

Project 6

SECTION PERSPECTIVE + SITE PLAN

Urban Housing in Chattanooga

Preston Smith

Project 6

MATERIAL WEIGHT RELATIONSHIP + GROUND FLOOR CIRCULATION

TYPICAL RESIDENTIAL PLAN

Urban Housing in Chattanooga

SCREEN LANGUAGE GENERATION

shown earlier and at left

final

FLOOR OBJECTS vs CEILING OBJECTS

Preston Smith

Project 6

Urban Housing in Chattanooga

Project 7

Ree’s Home Instructors

Team (Fall)

Team (Spring)

Emily McGlohn + Alex Therrien

Kyle Anderson Livia Barrett Ashley Bucher Regan Eiland Andrew Frese Zoey Gerstner Will Hall Kevin Jeon Conner Quinn Marlyn Rivera Henry Savoie Jonathan Schneider Kyra Stark Cory Subasic Lauren Wertz

Preston Smith Nicole Brown Zak Channell Xuerui Chen Liz Clark Sarah Livings Camron Lynch Ryan Kolowich Dana McFarland Rowe Price Owen Railey Jake Schirmer Emily Shirah Ingrid Stahl Conner Tomasello

Spring 2018

“The 20K Home Project has a goal of creating reproducible model homes to make affordable to the low income public.” The project was a collaboration between 32 students; 16 in the fall and 16 in the spring. Completed in 2018, Ree’s Home joined a lineage of 20K homes that has over twenty iterations. Each new version of a 20K strives to make improvements to the last version, through material choice, method of construction, or detailing. Ree’s Home was the first 20K to use an elevated concrete slab as opposed to a slab on grade or a pier foundation. Sited in the exact same spot at which Ree lived in a trailer for over 40 years, her sister Geraldine lives just a few feet away. With family visiting them often, a large porch with steps to help seat visitors was incorporated, as well as a ramp to accommodate Ree’s limited mobility. Every detail of Ree’s Home was studied, scheduled, and built by students. The experience of building a home for someone who needs it, and seeing how happy they are when it is completed is invaluable, perspective changing, and unforgettable.

Preston Smith

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Project 7

Reeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home

photos by Jake Schirmer 105

Preston Smith

Project 7

CUSTOM LIGHT FIN

yellow pine ceiling joist yellow pine blocking 0.5” ceiling drywall 4.75” carriage bolt 1” spacer (x2) nut ALPOLIC® aluminum composite (cut and bent at 30 degrees using jig) off the shelf lighting bar unit

In an effort to reduce the punctures in the ceiling plane from can lighting, an alternative lighting solution was designed and fabricated along with three other students. This light fin was built with an aluminum composite sheet material that was scored and folded to add structural integrity. The fin hangs two inches below the ceiling plane to allow for adequate light to wash the wall as well as the ceiling. Every dimension and placement of the light fin was meticulously tested with full scale mock-ups in order to ensure the quality of light was exactly as intended. The ambient, indirect light emitted from the fin provides a soft atmospheric condition perfect for reading or conversation. 106

Reeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home

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Project 7

Reeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home

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Project 7

photo by Jake Schirmer 110

Reeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home

photo by Tim Hursley 111

Studies

114

Dudley Hall Gallery Installation

116

Presenting the Banal

120

From ‘Things’ to ‘Flesh’

122

Plan Abstraction

124

Grids!

Preston Smith

Study 1

Dudley Hall Gallery Installation Team Preston Smith Eilis Finnegan Aubrey Harrold Conner Tomasello

The installation in the Gallery of Dudley Hall was a collaboration between four students. It was intended to supplement an exhibit of projects that would hang from the ceiling. Therefore, the motivation behind the installation was to alter the ceiling plane in such a way that the Gallery would take on a new identity. When conceptualizing the project, a large factor in discussions was the hierarchy of importance between the space, and the objects. The space being the field of atmosphere one would step into when entering the exhibit, and the objects being the actual artifacts on display. The relationship between the two was not a linear one, as it was unclear how to make the objects prominent, while also utilizing the field in such a way as an amplifier. The installation consisted of around two thousand strips of paper, each measuring three inches in width by three feet in length. The paper was harvested from the many recycling bins around Dudley Hall. Each group of recently harvested paper was manually cut to width, trimmed to length, and folded and taped at the top. Each strip of paper holds its own fragment of a studio project in progress, beckoning visitors to piece together the strips through words or images. When they quickly give up on this, they move towards the objects, trying to piece together the ideas within them. People want the ceiling installation to mean something. It doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. Instead, and more importantly, it does something. The same goes for the artifacts on display. 114

Studies

harvest

trim

sort

fold

cut

array

hang

115

Preston Smith

Study 2

Presenting the Banal

(all images shot on Ilford 35mm HP5+ B&W film)

The sensory landscape we live in today is saturated with the artificial. Text, lights, graphics, and advertisements are inescapable. This series focuses on these elements that are typically overlooked and serve as background noise and frames them in a way that highlights their visual and spatial effects. The banality and familiarity of the subjects is obscured by the removal of color and context (sometimes completely, cropping the space to an abstract field of artificiality, other times the subjects are recognizable as objects in space, but it is indeterminable their location, standing alone and celebrated as the true American vernacular).

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Studies

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Study 3

From ‘Objects’ to ‘Thing’ to ‘Flesh’ Team Preston Smith Aaron Neal Jake Schirmer Conner Tomasello

From Bill Brown’s “Thing Theory”, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 28, No. 1, Things (Autumn, 2001), p. 4: “As they circulate through our lives, we look through objects, [...] but we only catch a glimpse of things. We look through objects because there are codes by which our interpretive attention makes them meaningful, because there is a discourse of objectivity that allows us to use them as facts. A thing in contrast, can hardly function [this way]. We begin to confront the thingness of objects when they stop working for us: when the drill breaks, when the car stalls, [...]. The story of objects asserting themselves as things, then, is the story of a changed relation to the human subject.” In this study, four ‘objects’ (a funnel, baster, spatula, and book) were united by spray foam insulation into a single ‘thing’. The foam acted as a reactive organism, growing though and around the objects, in some cases (the funnel) recalling their previous use value in the ways the ‘concrete’ materials directed the movement of the organism. This new ‘thing’ was then spray painted a flesh tone. This single alteration of the surface color flips a switch in the viewer’s brain, and now the previously understood ‘objects’ are organs united by a homogeneous ‘flesh’ into one body. ‘It’ is constantly flickering between these three states “seeing triple”: what it were, what is was, what it is. Form, Use, Color, and Texture; each have different projections depending on the state of the others. 120

Studies

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Study 4

Plan Abstraction Team Preston Smith Jake Schirmer Conner Tomasello

This simple but powerful exercise challenged the reading of classical and conventionally understood plans. Michelangeloâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposal for St. Peterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basilica was divided symmetrically into eight pieces. Each pizza slice had different poche toppings which were abstracted once they were taken out of the context of the plan as a whole. The pieces were rearranged (the vertical axis symmetry was preserved) into a new floor plan. The new positions and relationships between the poche masses help to display the complexity of geometries at play. Even though the plan elements are familiar to us, a simple rearranging transforms these elements into something foreign. To construct the rest of the proposal three dimensionally, the new plan geometries were swept or extruded and rearranged asymmetrically to juxtapose the existing symmetry of the public square.

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Study 5

Grids!

This individual study was motivated by a single image of an Agnes Martin piece (above left). The rigid grid seems to become distorted in a profound way just by the imperfections of the way the image of the piece was created (whether the piece was scanned or photographed is undetermined). Each lineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weight is altered by just a small amount but the aggregation of all these difference compound into an entirely different reading of the grid. This study attempts to recreate this effect. Three grids were layered together, each offset from the other. The geometry of the alterations was determined by images of ink dispersing in water, as they function as snowflakes, one never the same as another. These images were converted to vector graphics using three colors, then the outline of each shape was used to cut the grid of the respective color. Since the new gridsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; distortions were created using images of three dimensional entities, (as well as the grids being layered) there is an inherent depth they create, with magenta peeking through at the deepest of cuts, then cyan, then blue. The distortions hold a physical weight within the grid, as if the grid is a fabric and the ink sits within the now non-planar canvas, much like metal beads as pictured top right.

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Thank You

References Brad Satterwhite (bsatterwhite@kemstudio.com)

Co-Founder and Principal, KEM Studio

Mitch Hoefer (mitch.hoefer@hoeferwysocki.com)

CEO and Founding Partner, Hoefer Wysocki

Il Kim, Ph.D (izk0011@auburn.edu)

Assistant Professor, Auburn University

Kevin Moore (khm0002@auburn.edu)

Associate Professor and Chair of Interior Architecture Auburn University

816 - 529 - 3272 pms0014@auburn.edu

8370 N. Donnelly Avenue #7211 Kansas City, MO 64158

Contents

Thesis Projects

Designing for the Fourth Dimension: Architecture of Overlapping Narratives

Sculpting a New Pedagogy

Sensory Disruption

Atlanta Contemporary

New Vantages: A Reframing of Experience

sustainable elementary school

office for co-working

contemporary art museum + artist studios

adaptive reuse in historic Selma

Studies

Standard Chair No. 4

Urban Housing in Chattanooga

crafting a classic by hand

multifamily residential

102

Ree’s Home

114

Dudley Hall Gallery Installation

116

Presenting the Banal

120

From ‘Things’ to ‘Flesh’

122

Plan Abstraction

124

Grids!

Rural Studio 20K home