REBECCA SIBLEY PORTFOLIO
REBECCA SIBLEY Master of Architecture Rice University School of Architecture, 2011
Graphic: Presentation boards
OBJECTS
FRAME
FIELD
AMPLIFIED ENCOUNTERS AT HIGH SPEED A THESIS FOR EXPANDED FORMS OF URBAN LEGIBILITY Florida’s Proposed High Speed Rail Corridor
Expanding upon the dialogue between speed and architecture, this thesis investigates how architecture reinterprets the continuous linear city, originally defined by the continuous fabric of the freeway, and more recently reconfigured by the high speed rail line. The introduction of the high speed rail into the freeway city requires a redefinition of architecture’s intersections between speed and city, using high speed rail as a ground to test new typolgoies of architectural insertions at amplified speed.
Combining a series of performance and commercial programs, this new typology will make the obscured visual experience along the extended territory of the rail line legible, through a sequencing of specific architectural intersections, exploring how monumental civic space will be made and occupied in the sprawl of the American city.
FILM STRIP OF LEGIBLE FORMS: OBJECT, FRAME, AND FIELD AT HIGH SPEED
OBJECT
INTERSECTIONS OF ARCHITECTURAL SPACE AND SPEED IN THE LINEAR CITY, OR EXPLORATIONS IN EXPANDED MONUMENTALITY A new type of civic space is extended along the proposed high speed rail line connecting Tampa and Orlando, two cities quickly merging into one continuous linear urbanized area. Performance spaces (traditionally condensed) and commercial spaces (replacing traditional municipal programming as the site of contemporary publicness) are distributed as a series of specific architectural objects in the form of the serial object, the frame, and field. These typologies are calibrated to the high speed of the rail and urban condition: Objects / Slow / Small Scale Grid, Frame / Fast / Medium Scale Super Block, and Field / Fastest / Extra Large Scale Landscape.
The new cultural corridor becomes legible through shifts in perceivable scale in relation to amplified speed, and the sequencing and difference of momentarily being within each object. The collection of architectural objects intersecting the rail corridor act as visual markers at the scale of territory, redefining civic space through serial moments of linear collectivity, and establishing a visual and physical continuity in the linear city.
FRAME
FIELD
OBJECTS Serial objects are distributed in pairs along the high speed rail line within the urban grid, revealing a curated visual experience occuring as a repetitive set that exists as a new spatial typology existing along the corridor. As sets of cubes, primary performance programs are differentiated from secondary commercial uses by the design of spatial and occupiable “apertures,� unique materiality, and punctures and openings in each envelope.
FRAME The frame inverts the traditional diagram of the box store / parking lot relationship to reveal a new typology that exists at the intersection of speed and the suburban landscape: space defined by the intersection of infrastructure and building in both plan and section.
FIELD The field is experienced at the fastest speed, where the scale of building looses its legibility to blur. Horizontal and vertical extrusions mark the landscape, as ground becomes the platform for large scale event and agriculture programs, and vertical insertions create constnantly shifting visual patterns and rhythms that mark rapidly bypassed space.
LOBBY / RR / LOADING / STORAGE
REHEARSAL STUDIOS
PARKING
PROMENADE
PROMENADE
SMALL THEATRE
COFFEE SHOP
MUSIC LIBRARY
PARKING
DANCE STUDIO
PROMENADE
PROMENADE
BLACK BOX THEATRE
BIKE RENTAL / SHOP
LOBBY / RR / LOADING / STORAGE
OFFICES
RESTAURANT
RESTAURANT ENTRANCE
OUTDOOR THEATRE
OPEN SEATING
PROMENADE
RECORD SHOP
PROMENADE
MUSIC EDUCATION
PRIMARY PROGRAM: Performance enclosure as visual aperture SUPPORTING PROGRAM: Occupying the thickened space between performance and envelope
BLACK BOX AND DANCE STUDIO Each set’s relationship to immediate context, and the resulting visual continuity within each pair, and physical continuity along the rail corridor.
SMALL THEATRE AND REHEARSAL SPACES
OUTDOOR THEATRE AND EDUCATION SPACES
Framed and void conditions in both plan and section
Multiplicity of large scale uses in plan: Plaza Void, Public, Performance Void, and Music School
PUBLIC AND VOID
PERFORMANCE AND INTERNAL VOID
LARGE CONCERTS SMALL CONCERTS Varying programmatic uses are temporal and shift depending on event, occupation, and density.
SOLAR PANELS
MUSIC SCHOOL
Expanded programmatic distribution
MARKED TERRITORY
ADDED DENSITY
VERTICAL Marked Territory
RAIL BYPASS
HORIZONTAL Ground Manipulation CAMPING, ORCHARDS, INTERSTITAL
CONCERT, SEATING, CAMPING
AGRICULTURAL FIELDS, PARKING, CAMPING, ORCHARD
LAMINATED COLLECTIVITY BANDING THE ESSEX STREET MARKET New York City
The Essex Street Market is located on three linear blocks in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The longitudinal site results from the north / south continuity of Manhattan, inherant and embedded in the grid. The existing market, subject to a lack of continuity across the three blocks, operates from only one of two buildings onsite. In order to re-establish this continuity across the street and within the block structure itself, the site is organized by a series of programmatic microbands. Programs are laminated along the dominant grain of the site, allowing for the activity of the street to find its way into the market, offices, studios, and hotel through a series of soft thresholds and open public spaces.
Programmatic bands across the site intersect with larger programs that act as anchors within the buildings: the market hall (existing on each block), galleries and a large auditorium, and a capsule hotel.
Local Scale Local Public
Large Scale Co-op / Bridge Large Public
Horizontal Void
SCALAR SHIFT
Vertical Void
ENTERING THE BANDED MARKET
DOWN ESSEX STREET
AT ESSEX AND DELANCY
BAND MODEL
EXPANDED SITE
CROSS SECTION 01 Thinned and Laminated Office Band
Vertical Circulation and Expressed Continuity
CROSS SECTION 02 Interruption by Circulation and Public Bands
Art
Expanded Banding and Large Programs
Large Programs and Implied Connectivity
Capsulte Hotel
Distributed Banding of Small and Aggregate Programs: Market and Office
Public
Delancy Street
Long Section through Market
01
02
Collapsed Programs
MOVING UP URBAN HOUSING IN HOUSTON’S FIFTH WARD Fifth Ward, Houston
Two Scales: Highway 59 and the Fifth Ward
FIFTH WARD
Spatial Void: The Wall
Spatial Void: Under Highway 59
Existing Fabric
Spatial Void: Openness
Interruption and Isolation
Deletions in the Fabric
The urban fabric of the Fifth Ward is subject to increasing fragmentation of its grid organization. Massive transportation infrastructures cut through the area, resulting in the gradual emptying of space, discontinuity, and abrupt shifts in scale. Thus, the horizontal ground plane ceases to function as intended. This project will establish a new means of organization within the Fifth Ward that integrates the scale of the urban fabric with the scale of the freeway, and provides functional space free of the ground plane needed by the Fifth Ward.
URBAN INTERVENTIONS: Distributed ground for a depleted fabric
Internalized outdoor space
Dispersed relationship to freeway
Individual Type: Opened block for group activity
Intersecting Infrastructures: Highway and Railroad
VERTICALITY IN A FRACTURED GROUND PLANE DEFINEDS A NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FREEWAY, INCREASED POINTS OF DENSITY, AND LIBERATION FROM A FRAGMENTED GROUND PLANE.
Group Type: Centralized within the block
FIFTH WARD’S GROUND PLANE: ESTABLISHING TRENDS
Vertical Insertions
Horizontal Insertions
New Fabric
ARCHITECTURAL INSERTIONS: Integrating new grounds into residential space INDIVIDUAL TYPE
Public and Private Spaces
Placement of openings
OPENED PUBLIC SPACES
Typical floor and unit plans
GROUP TYPE
Public and Private Spaces
Placement of openings
SHARED ELEVATED SPACES Typical floor and unit plans
PERFORMATIVE DOMAINS AN INTEGRATED WETLAND ECOLOGY Galveston, Texas
Recognizing the volatility of Galveston’s landscape, we propose an integrated system that synthesizes the built environment with wetland encroachment. Through our suggested strategy, we utilize the performative qualities inherent to the wetlands to create development that performs like the wetland, blurring the boundary between architecture, infrastructure, and landscape.
The current pattern of development on Galveston has aided in the deterioration of wetland ecologies accross the island. By adopting the typical program of a large scale development, we are able to apply our performative strategy to the center of Galveston, encouraging wetland growth and reconnecting interrupted habitats through the design of surfaces that act as both landscape and building.
Wetland Loss
Site Analysis
Re-establishing Wetland Ecology
EXPANDED TERRITORY AND ENCOURAGED WETLAND GROWTH
Ecological Diversity
Surface Operations for Maximizing Wetland Growth
Engravings
Multiple Densities, Differing Sectional Relationships
Embossings
Development Across the Site
Site Notation
THREE SCHOOLS IN ONE SCHOOL OF GRAPHIC ARTS AND COMMUNICATIONS Houston, Texas
The development of the School of Graphic Arts and Communication is based upon the formality of specific programmatic patterns necessary for the school, and its relationship to a figurative shear. The resulting juxtaposition produces both an implicit and explicit study of program and
Light Rail Stop
enclosure.
The internal composition of the school is organized according to programmatic adjacencies transformed by
Local Street Connectivity
the figurative shear. This organization is then divided and re-connected by the shear, which is manifested in diagonal circulatory or divisional patterns that fluctuate in size, materiality and condition, yet remain an intuitive way-finding device for students, faculty and visitors. Thus, the exterior
Parking and Drop off Relationship
shell and massing become a result of the insular shifts, hinting to the casual observer the dynamics of the school’s organizational strategy. Light Rail Relationship
Site Plan
This initial comprehensive study of the program and site begin to formulate a series of potential solutions to the complex demands of the School of Graphic Arts and Communication.
Interior spatial organization and movement is the result of the shear disrupting the site.
Shear Development - Across the Site
Shear at the classroom scale
ENTRANCE TO SCHOOL FROM LIGHT RAIL
SECTIONS
PROGRAMMATIC ORGANIZATION
CIRCULATORY PATTERN
HVAC SYSTEM
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIES
The Zerow House adopts the row-house typology, specific to the urban fabric of Houston’s Third Ward community as a primary precedent. Our design addresses the small size and limited budget of typical row houses through prefabrication, replication, innovative use of current technologies, local materiality, and an understanding of life-cycle costs. The Zerow House is a re-imagining of the single-family bungalow which will be able to produce all the energy needed for its operation on-site.
The most integral component and soul of of this project lies in its ultimate home. Following the competition, our house was transported back to Houston’s Third Ward community, where it is operated as affodable housing in the neighborhood by Project Row Houses. Project Row Houses
ZEROW HOUSE ZERO ENERGY ROW HOUSE Washington, D.C. / Third Ward, Houston
ZEROW HOUSE ON THE WASHINGTON MALL
is a community-based public art project in Houston’s Third Ward. It encompasses art and cultural activities, education, social services, historic preservation, and community development.
In addition to construction on site, I developed construction documents and multiple sets of publications for the local community and the Department of Energy. As part of the team’s leadership, I coordinated logistics for both Houston and Washington D.C., design, scheduling, touring, and graphic communication. I have also been involved in procuring sponsorship, and promoting the ZEROW off-campus. I have also authored a paper with the core team on the Zerow House for an engineering journal, and was part of the interview team for the house’s inclusion in Design Like You Give a Damn II.
PORCH, GREEN WALL, AND SUN SHADE
LIVING ROOM
LIVING ROOM
KITCHEN
SOLAR PANELS
DRAWING FIGURE DRAWING AND TRAVEL SKETCHES
REBECCA SIBLEY rmrsibley@gmail.com rsibley.com
EDUCATION Master of Architecture Rice University School of Architecture, May 2011 Morris R. Pitman Award in Architecture Travel Grant, May 2010 Bachelor of Environmental Design Texas A&M University, Cum laude, May 2008; Minor in Art and Architectural History Santa Chiara Study Center, Italy, Spring 2007 Portfolio Award, First Prize, 2006
WORK Wonder Works Architecture Program - University of Houston, Summer 2010 One of the primary studio instructors for a sixty student architecture program. Facilitated discussions, pinups, and critiques. HEB Planning and Design, San Antonio Texas, Summer 2008 Involved with both the Graphic Design and Architecture offices to produce computer models to explore environmental and experiential effects within stores. Assisted with interior and graphic design. Overland Partners|Architects, San Antonio Texas, Summers 2006 and 2007 Involved in schematic design and drawings for a number of projects, including master planning for a college campus. Produced multiple computer and physical models, and researched sustainable building techniques.
ASSOCIATIONS LEED Accredited Professional Rice Design Alliance: Board Member, Graduate Student Representative, 2009 - 2010 PLAT Staff, Rice University School of Architecture Student Journal
PUBLICATIONS Cover Image, PLAT 1.0, Rice University School of Architecture Student Journal “ZeRow: Design, Energy Performance, and Cost Analysis of a Solar Powered Row House,” in the International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering. With Roque Sanchez, Allison Elliott, Nonya Grenader, Brent Houchens, and Danny Samuels. Fall 2010. “Green City Growth Initiatives and Recommendations,” for the Urban Planning Program at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. WIth Sherry Bame, et al. Fall 2007.
DESIGN / BUILD Zerow House, Rice Building Workshop for Project Row Houses and Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, 2009 groHome, Texas A&M University for Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, 2007
WORKSHOPS, INSTALLATIONS, AND EXHIBITS “Wormholes Through the Curtain Wall,” design workshop with Sarah Oppenheimer, Rice Art Gallery, June 2010 “D-17” Installation Assistant, Sarah Oppenheimer, Rice Art Gallery, August 2010 “Zerow House: Zero Energy Row House,” Exhibition with the Rice Building Workshop, Small Gallery at the Rice Art Gallery, Spring 2009
LECTURE “ZEROW HOUSE: Houston’s Zero Energy Row House,” AIAS South Quad Conference, Spring 2010
SKILLS Proficient in AutoCAD, Rhino, VRay, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, SketchUp, Digital and Physical Model Making Experience with Revit, Flash, Grasshopper, and Dreamweaver
REFERENCES Troy Schaum, Schaum / Shieh and Rice University, tschaum@gmail.com Albert Pope, Rice University, ahp@rice.edu