Rachel Ghindea Portfolio 2019 by Rachel Ghindea

PORTFOLIO RACHEL GHINDEA

CONTENTS

01 02 03 04

05 06 07 08

21 DAY ARCHITECTURE FORMAL GENERATORS OF SPACE MIGRATION FROM NOSPACE FRAMEWORK

NOODLE SOUP FASHION SCHAU ARCHITECTURE OF THE ABSURD #WIPS

01 21 DAY ARCHITECTURE SPRING 2018 // SANDHYA KOCHAR HONORS RESEARCH STUDIO OBJECTS VS. THINGS

The contemporary architect is increasingly interested in a single architectural drawing or graphic image being used to represent a complex project. These appear to have static narrative, and are contributing to the boredom plaguing the 21st century. By becoming image producers, architects are giving up their agency as space makers. This project aims to reassert the agency that has been lost through generations of architectural education and practice. Boredom, or the formation of an experience into a habit, is developed after having the same experience for 21 days in a row. To provide relief from the monotony of habitual life, we are speculating a new kind of architecture. A 21 Day Thing Architecture. An architecture comprised of a series of things which can be reimagined and replaced periodically, suspending our expectations and disrupting our assumptions every 21 days. Similar to Hejduk s Victims, 21 Day Architecture is a proposal which will manifest as a series of distinct characters (things) creating diďŹ&#x20AC;erent spatial experiences. This architecture originates in drawings and images produced by contemporary architects. We consider these to be objects, or the easily replicable. We aim to turn these objects into things. Things are that which shed socially encoded values and become present to us in new ways through suspension of habit. An object can become a thing through careful and thoughtful design.

Questioning lifespan and permanence, these things counter the status quo of boredom in the 21st century. Contemporary architects create rich, complex works that need to be unpacked beyond their static narrative. One does not have to create an entirely new project to create a new experience. Each project can become a kit of parts to address one or many or inďŹ nite diďŹ&#x20AC;erent program(s) by injecting a new narrative that uses the existing information to defy expectations and suspend habits.

21 Day Thing Architecture begins with four ďŹ&#x201A;at images; Pool Party by Bureau Spectacular, Archeograph by Sam Jacob, Detroit Reassembly Plant by TEAM, and Flatbed Junk by NemeStudio. The encoded values of these projects are evaluated as they are presented in the original narratives, as well as what can be understood from a surface reading of the image. This initial reading is the control with which one can test diďŹ&#x20AC;erence from, it is the understanding derived from habit, practice and assumptions. Each of the projects or things are created in an attempt to question lifespan and permanence, using methods such as: hybridizing program, creating new context and narratives, appropriating project techniques, questioning scale, and exaggerating/exploiting the original intentions of the projects as methods for making new things from found objects.

(below) Re-interpreting NEMESTUDIO s Flatbed Junk through the lens of First OďŹ&#x192;ce s Blocks of blabla, this thing explores ideas of intentionally poor construction and re-introducing space to an image that represents a continuous (seemingly ďŹ&#x201A;at) exterior.

02 FORMAL GENERATORS OF SPACE FALL 2017 // KAREN LEWIS 1ST PLACE IN GUI COMPETITION A US EMBASSY IN MEXICO CITY

Given the current relationship between the US and Mexico, this project is an investigation of the border between two countries not as something that divides, but something that enables interaction. The expected function of the border is inverted into a wrapper that collects. However, this wrapper is not a tangible thing - the box that encases the collected objects is only read where it defines the limits of the building, and its cleaving of the objects leaves behind transparent glass faces. This is not only meant to recall the fact that most borders are not physical elements, but also to indicate the increasing obsolescence of borders. The objects collected by this wrapper are forced to intersect and overlap and ultimately create space. Much like territories of one country existing within another (as the embassy is often considered) the walls and floors begin to behave like borders between different offices and levels of security. By mapping a typical office diagram to the pyramidal forms, each plane of offices remain intact and introduce opportunities for interaction between cascading nested spaces of different program.

LENOX

A series of formal studies revealed a pyramidal shape to be the most effective for creating cascading nested spaces that allow a higher security or private space to exist within a public area. This is not unlike territories of one country existing within another â&#x20AC;&#x2019; much like the embassy could be considered a US territory within Mexico.

DESIGN BY SECTION A typical office building section, with the most hierarchically important spaces at the top, is mapped to these space generating pyramidal forms. Thus allowing each plane of office space to remain intact, but providing opportunities for interaction between various adjacent levels that did not exist previously. Sometimes offices are tethered back to their region of origin with only a thin walkway, once again recalling the idea of territories of one country existing within another.

03 MIGRATION FROM NOSPACE 2019 // FAIRY TALES COMPETITION ENTRY WIPSTUDIO AN ILLUSTRATED NARRATIVE

Once inhabiting a world experienced through the occupation of three dimensions, humans of planet earth had been subject to living in a new plane of existence for many generations. Nospace as it was called, was a very confusing world, a reality divorced from space and compressed into only two dimensions. Everyone was so consumed with screens, they failed to notice the world around them changing. Their faces flattened into these surfaces, until they finally looked up to find...nothing... the space around them had disappeared. It was as if the world had existed between two planes and they suddenly came crashing together, flattening everything. Tourists of the flatness became inhabitants, and the two dimensional quickly lost its charm.

Terra and her grandmother, Mémé, would visit the city archives, studying drawings and images of a world that no longer existed. Unable to perceive depth, they looked at these artifacts with frustration. The information they needed was right in front of them, but they couldn't understand it. Unbeknownst to the archivists, Mémé would secretly trim out small pieces from ancient drawings. These, she said, would help uncover The Behind, a fabled place which Mémé believed could answer all their questions. "If the world was once three dimensions and ﬂattened into two," Mémé said, "the surface on which we live would have a back, this is The Behind." As they headed back from the archive, Mémé and Terra passed through an area most citizens avoided, "The Blanklands". These areas caused immense disorientation, the skewing of minds and bodies.

“Push and you will go through.”

Gazing upon The Blanklands, Mémé experienced a sudden jolt of clarity. She pulled out her notebook and made an expressive drawing, labeling it at the top "NOT FLAT". Once she finished, they were on their way. That evening, Mémé came to Terra s room with an urgent message. She pushed a drawing into Terra s hands. It was a collection of archive clippings collaged into a beautiful map. She bade Terra follow the map and seek the answers that plagued them. Mémé insisted Terra travel alone, as she was too old for an adventure of this magnitude. She left Terra with these final words of encouragement: "Push and you will go through." Within just a few days of traveling Terra arrived at the edge of The Blanklands. People avoided these regions because they were so difficult to perceive. Immediately after stepping into The Blanklands, Terra was overwhelmed with confusion. Her mind seemed stretched out, her body skewed across the plane of existence. Terra was disoriented, unable to comprehend her movements. She did as Mémé once instructed and followed only her intuition. 21

Comforted by these memories of her last trip here, she remembered her grandmother s moment of clarity. "Not flat" Terra said to herself, "Mémé labeled The Blanklands 'not flat'...but why?" After traversing the landscape for some time, Terra finally emerged from The Blanklands. Able to see clearly again, she stood before an old temple she had seen images of in the archives. She had reached the end of the journey as her grandmother intended it, but still had no answers. Thinking back to the disorienting blanklands, she repeated, "Not flat" over and over again, then something suddenly clicked. As she stared at the temple front she heard her grandmother s voice saying "push and you will go through."

Terra intuitively reached her hands up, placing them on the facade. With steady pressure, she pushed against the fabric of her world, not knowing what to expect. The surface before her gave way, extruding into three dimensions, forming a portal and breaking reality as she knew it. Terra approached the aperture, and for the ďŹ rst time, she went through.

She looked back at the world she emerged from to see the backside of Nospace, The Behind. To her surprise, she found the flat world laid out before her, resembling the map Mémé had made. The plane on which she had lived her entire life was an infinitely thin surface, 3D space had always existed around it, but those living on the plane were incapable of seeing it. The Blanklands were now revealed to her as the places where the surface warped in three dimensions, people's bodies being stretched and warped along with it. "Not flat!" she shouted. Triumphantly, she returned to the flatness, spreading the word of the third dimension and opening portals throughout the plane, thus starting the migration from Nospace.

The doorways were always there, people had just forgotten how to open them.

04 FRAMEWORK 2018 // ARCH OUT LOUD COMPETITION ENTRY WIPSTUDIO WASTE: A MULTI-PURPOSE STADIUM

Waste is a global issue common to all urban areas. The world now creates more than a billion tons of garbage a year, which it incinerates, buries, exports, and recycles. As major cities expand so must their ability to reverse wasteful tendencies and begin living more eďŹ&#x192;ciently and sustainably. Until recently in Lagos, the Nigerian megalopolis handled its waste by relocation, driving waste outside of town to the 100acre Olusosun dump site beginning in 1992. Since then, Lagos is estimated to be the fastest growing metropolis in the world, expanding from a population of 7 million to over 21 million. The landďŹ ll that was once far from any urban activity is now surrounded by it. A massive structure, usually known to be wasteful in its resources, limited lifespan and inconsistent use, a stadium proposal for this site has the opportunity to be more and do more for this community. Rather than conforming to making an object in a landscape, this proposal creates a landscape that holds object(s). Incremental housing organizes these objects, acting as a datum that collects the radical geometry of the stadium and community pavilions. The stadium, in turn, provides a framework for a climate-aware community market. As more of the community is drawn into the neighborhood, the grid expands beyond the limits of the site. This proposal creates an iconic destination for sporting events while providing a more sustainable model for urban sprawl and community development.

STADIUM COOLING

Cooling systems respond to the Lagos climate. Bioswales collect flood waters and are used to cool the community buildings, and the stadium s slotted skin both shades and encourages windflow. HOUSING

COMMUNITY BUILDING COOLING

Framework provides an adaptable, user-influenced housing system. Inhabitants are provided a baseline living space (based on number of tenants, accessibility needs, etc.) and the structural framework to add spaces of their own creation as needed. Studies show that providing a framework for creative user intervention and addition, not just a standard solution, yields and retains a happy community. Tenants need not look far for housing materials either. One of the community buildings recycles waste into not only energy but also building materials. Users can expand their own homes out of the waste they and others produce.

The housing creates a datum, a system against which difference, or the geometry of the stadium and community buildings, is read. Sharing formal similarities to the stadium these buildings act not only as wayfinding devices for inhabitants and visitors, but also provide much needed amenities to the site. These include a library, a community center, a recycling facility and a facility that processes recycled goods and converts them into energy and building materials. 29

05 NOODLE SOUP 2018 RAGDALE RING IN COLLABORATION WITH OFFICECA INSTALLATION - LAKE FOREST, IL

Noodle Soup is an architectural scale interface. Conceived as an interactive playscape, it is flexible enough for a range of outdoor performances, and picturesque enough for it to seamlessly integrate into the wooded scenery of Lake Forest. It features a set of fuzzy, fixed structures (walls) around which are soft, linear, pliable pieces of furniture (noodles). The soft elements can interact with the hard structures to serve functional purposes such as seating, but they can also act as oversized toys, freely configurable in a variety of ways. Conceptually, Noodle Soup seeks to empower the individual s artistic agency as well as blend whimsy, playfulness, and interaction into a transformable constructed landscape with both predictable and unpredictable results .

Made of traditional wood framing, the walls and the stage are the only fixed elements in the composition. They are conceived as having been peeled up from the ground on one side and sculpted into seating on the other. This contrast between natural and artificial is further articulated by having the concave side clad in a green shade of synthetic turf, blending it into the ground. The convex side is clad in a neon shade of turf so as to reinforce its artificial qualities. As the viewer makes their way around the composition, some walls recede into the greenery of the landscape, while others emerge to the foreground as geometric objects in a picturesque forest. The noodles are waterproof bean bags arranged throughout the composition in various lengths. They are made primarily of PVC coated polyester mesh fabric (which provides weatherproofing for extended exterior use) filled with recycled foam peanuts. Typically used for covering outdoor stage electronics, this fabric material is durable and lightweight.

The fill is carefully customized so as to give the noodle enough weight to withstand wind, but light enough so individual users can reposition them as they wish. Noodles can be looped, knotted, slumped over, and piled up. They can interact with the walls in various ways, by threading them through openings or simply laying them on the steps. The different lengths cater to different uses. For example, looped ones can be used for small gatherings, long ones can be coiled in an S-shape for stage seating, and short ones can be knotted to form a recliner. If necessary, noodles can be hooked onto walls for added security.

// NOODLE SOUP RECEIVED HONORABLE MENTION IN THE 2018 ARCHITECT S NEWSPAPER BEST OF DESIGN AWARDS, YOUNG ARCHITECT S CATEGORY. // PHOTO CREDIT: ZANE SHAFFER

06 (DE)CONSTRUCT 2018 // FASHION SCHAU 7 COMPETITION 1ST PLACE & PEOPLES’ CHOICE UNCONVENTIONAL FASHION DESIGN

The annual Fashion Schau is an unconventional fashion design competition hosted by a student organization, SERVitecture, in order to raise money for Dress for Success Columbus. Each year, a theme is announced and designers are encouraged to use recycled and found materials to create avant-garde garments. Inspired by the theme [De]Construct these outﬁts use pieces of destroyed bridges from a Structures lab assignment. The pieces of the deconstructed bridges are reconstructed into rigid cage-like elements. Contrasting this hard structural appearance, a soft material is introduced - recycled plastic bags. The bags were treated to give them a pleated tulle-like texture. When layered, the bags create a diaphanous fabric that ﬂows with each step as the models make their way down the runway. The construction of the hoop skirt allows for further movement as it swings while the model turns.

// THESE DESIGNS WERE PLACED ON DISPLAY IN THE DRESS FOR SUCCESS STOREFRONT IN DOWNTOWN

07 ARCHITECTURE OF THE ABSURD 2019 // EAHN CONFERENCE - BRUSSELS, BE IN COLLABORATION WITH MATTHEW TEISMANN VISUALIZATIONS OF ALBERT CAMUS’S (NOT)ARCHITECTURE

Growing up Albert Camus believed that an Algerian-born Frenchman could live peacefully in Algeria. Later in life, following the Algerian Revolution, Camus refused to admit that not only was he not welcome, his ideology that the pied noirs could call Algeria home was not shared by others neither French nor Algerians. What Camus had once thought of his home was no longer. It is likely that the overwhelming disagreement with Camus s stance may have shocked him coming to the self-realization that he may have never been home in Algeria all along. Unwilling or unable to accept his position as a colonizer, Camus, and the characters of his novels, are forced to construct myths about their world to combat the Absurd. Detached from his world and unwilling to accept his reality, Camus s status as a colonizer and colonized stripped him of all notions of domesticity and home. Unsure of his true nationality, Camus is forced to navigate between a society for which he was promised a sentiment of home, and a society whose structure he rejects. As such, he is left in the abstract, caught somewhere between. Likewise, his architecture is also unidentifiable. Light and sound affect his characters through raw, visceral circumstances, however, the architecture itself remains ubiquitous. Its location is anywhere, its style unidentifiable. His characters, a biographical parallel of Camus, are likewise exiled where abstraction is a necessity. Instances of nondescript architecture in his novels, therefore, result from a need to create myths in an Absurd reality.

The silent city was no more than an assemblage of huge, inert cubes, between which only the mute effigies of great men, carapaced in bronze, with their blank stone or metal faces, conjured up a sorry semblance of what the man had been. Albert Camus, The Plague, trans. M. Ward (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 172

The man barely took time to notice that he was in a whitewashed kitchen with a sink of red ceramic tile, an old sideboard, and a sodden calendar on the wall. Stairs finished with the same red tiles led to the second floor. Albert Camus, The First Man, trans. D. Hapgood (New York: Vintage Books, 1996), 8-9

A few days later I was put in a cell by myself, where I slept on wooden boards suspended from the wall. I had a bucket for a toilet and a tin washbasin. The prison was on heights above the town, and through a small window I could see the sea. One day as I was gripping the bars, my face straining toward the light, a guard came in and told me I had a visitor. Albert Camus, The Stranger, trans. M. Ward (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 72-73

The utter pointlessness of whatever I was doing there seized me by the throat, and all I wanted was to get it over with and get back to my cell to sleep. Albert Camus, The Stranger, trans. M. Ward (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 105

In that hall with bare walls, its floor littered with peanut shells, the smell of cresyl mingled with a strong odor of humanity Albert Camus, The Stranger, trans. M. Ward (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 95

08 #WIPs 2016 - PRESENT WORKS IN PROGRESS ASSORTED GRAPHICS, IMAGES, WORKS

#wip is a byproduct of the increasing speed at which our culture operates, fulﬁlling a collective demand for content. While this medium is not a ﬁnished drawing, it is just as important in architectural discourse. It is part of a shift in the dissemination of architecture, in which the #wip is a valid and valuable means of studying and making. Despite its origin in a fast-paced, scrolling culture, the true potential of the #wip lies in slowing down and re-evaluating the design process as something that produces not only an idealized product, but also a series of thoughtful artifacts. This kind of close reading encourages the circulation and examination of our own work and that of others. Who s to say exactly how a #wip can or should be used, but what a waste it would be to simply double tap and keep scrolling. // EXCERPT FROM 1:12 KNOWLTON SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE PUBLICATION

#wip

culture provides not only a method of sharing, but a new medium through which to study architecture. Drawings, images, and other works identified as a #wip have been intentionally presented as unfinished, demanding the viewer s imaginative investment to explore and uncover perhaps otherwise hidden aspects of the work. In many cases, the interpretation of a #wip is left to guesswork, producing readings (and misreadings) that lead to new paths of exploration. A #wip, whether it be a MOS screenshot or a half-finished portrait, rejects representational finality and carries with it a narrative different than that of a polished artifact. Studying others #wips offers a multitude of end results--whether it be representational inspiration, a concept worth exploring, or insight into different modes of thinking--but the #wip additionally provides a viable lens through which to study one s own work.

// SEE MORE PERSONAL WORK ON INSTAGRAM: @RACHELGHINDEA AND MORE COLLABORATIVE WORK FROM WIPSTUDIO: @WIPSTUDIO_