PORTFOLIO rob sutherland
1 LIBERTY STATE PARK VISCERAL ARCHITECTURE
Exploration of Visc R. Sutherland Ambition & Strategy
My ambition is to investigate architecture through a visceral le understand and remember spaces and experiences based on other than just what one sees.
To do this, I am going to enhance the focus on specific qualitie (like tactile and auditory effects), in order to trigger a recognitio and their effect on how one understands the place around the
I am going to enhance the focus on these qualities and trigge steps: 1. Reduction of sensory input and scale
Inspired by Juhani Pallasmaa’s The Eyes of the Skin
2. Introduction of the unexpected, to prompt awareness ness of oth
A foreign object:
Looks room temperature chalky, porous
Program Technique
I am testing these ideas through a reinterpreted program. The located deep in the woodlands of the park, which studies the w through the park’s interior.
The program is broken into three stages:
1. Removal from the world (A primary path that isolates the ob woods and the introduction of an unexpected object that enco
2. Isolation of the sensory (A secondary path used by the rese almost completely reducing their sensory palette)
3. Introspection and awareness via the unexpected (The lab, area)
A Research Lab in the Park This project is a small scale river analysis lab. A major objective was to design through “visceral” (in this case, emotional and nonvisual) experience.
Design Method
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Technique: Design through Narrative To achieve this design prospect, a C C process had to be invented. A first-person story of moving through the lab was written, and then used as a means of evaluating a design.
In order to understand and design this lab through emotions a am using a narrative. Basically, I made myself the researcher and I approached this things, touched them, heard the river, and reacted internally.
This is useful because it allows me to establish distances and sensory. It also generated the program order. I went through a figured out where I needed things to be and where opportuniti challenge the sensory experience.
John Hejduk used a similar technique in his Cemetery for the A stead to understand concept, rather than sense and program.
ceral Architecture
Exit...
I’m on the path to work, firmly entrenched in the world and my morning cup of coffee. Thoughts of today’s research float in and out of my mind as I enter the woods. All seems normal, but slowly, the curving path and the trees prevent me from seeing too far ahead or behind. I’m leaving reality and entering another world. Gradually, as I continue, I begin to slowly see something. An object that is slowly revealing itself in slices through the trees. These glimpses, with the sound of flowing water, guide me to this scaleless, unexpected object, and I investigate.
ens. I want people to input from things
es of an experience on of these qualities em.
I enter a small vestibule with a lo ocker. I notice that adjacent to the ocker are two doors; on the left, a lo glass door, and on the right, a simple, textureless door of indeterminate m material.
I deposit my jacket and bag ag into the b overcoat locker, and remove the lab d open the and waders. I change and simple, textureless door.
This is my office. In front of me lie a simple desk and chair, which sit adjacent to two rain cisterns made of a smooth plastic. Across the way I can see a softly lit, translucent pane. I am reminded that it is a catchment surface, as it is my only interface to the weather outside.
The pane is slightly obscured by a mist rising from below, accompanied very faintly by the sound of rushing water. I walk to my desk and look down. The waterfall lies below, shifting quickly through a grate before coming to a platform.
I’m next to the object. I place my hands on the wall, and close my eyes, knowing they won’t help me. As I drift forward, my hands slide across the expectedly cool, finely textured metal plate. Ah. A small, virtually undetectable patch of wall. Its color and seam blend perfectly into the metal, but its material is different. Its smoothness causes my hands to squeak across its surface. A forceful shove and a familiar click slide the door open. The wooden planks beneath my feet dematerialize as they lose their color and texture. They grow larger, becoming a solid slab of materialess mass as I traverse this dark corridor. The walls absorb my sound and I feel as though I am in a sensory vaccuum. My thoughts turn inward as there is little to stimulate me. I come to a threshold and turn the bend.
N
er recognition in two
The door handle is unexpectedly cold and damp today, coated in a fine condensation. I pause for a moment, having a vague memory of the chilly weather before coming to work, but it escapes me. I focus ont he peculiar coolness and smoothness of the metal handle as my hand slides over it slowly, and then I push.
her senses Feels strikingly cold, smooth. I think of time and the drying process of plaster
I finish up, place e a few paperss into a case, and exitt to t the vestibule.
I slow down, paying more attention to the unusua ual “music” I’m mak kiing b byy per performing tasks, with glass, stone and metal clanging at different timb be ers and pitchess. The walls reverberate the sounds harshly, emp phasizing each step. I begin pondering my own noises as I work, taking note of my breath h and the rustling of my sleeves as I mix and titrate.... and before I know it, my task is complete. I record the resu ults and d exit.
e focal point of the project is a lab water purity of a river that snakes
I walk down to the crest of the waterfall and reach a metal grate to my left, and a small platform shielded by a bearing wall down ahead.
I move to the h b back k off the h llab b to get b beakers k and other testing apparatuses I need, and suddenly notice it’s quite bright, as I see my shadow softly formed on the cabinet.I look to my left and see the cisterns of my office through a small ttransparent port in the wall. I recall writing work that needs my attention, so I hasten.
I remove my b boots, take a change g of clothes from my locker, er and grasp the h ha handle of the glass door. The e shower floor iss porous, and sits above another th floor. There re e is no steam, water does not ggather around d my feet before i rolling into a drain.
Returning to the bench, I divide the sample and begin testing. The tininess of the table becomes more pronounced as I move empty glassware on its surface.
I briefly handle some clerical work and head down. These walls are textured. Panels, with actual texture greet my hand. I can’t tell for sure what they’re made of.
On my left is a solid wall of what feels like concrete. Soaked through perhaps, it’s courseness catches my fingers unexpectedly. I’m now thinking of the task at hand, and anticipate the cold water to come. I com me to the landing, and remove a sampling kit from the wall cabinets to come my rig ght. The panelling is definitely wood now. It’s warm, hard to the knock. Un right. Un-usual. I figure that this peculiar warmness is what is keeping this area of the lab a tolerable temperature.
I take my results to o my d desk and begin to analyze, hypothesize, and write. The darkening of the translucent pane opposite my desk implies that it’s getting late, so I wrap up my writing and consult a book in my collection.
Primary Woodland
bserver from reality, and into the ourages investigation)
I dry up, change, gather my belongings in the vestibule, and head back to reality.
earcher to access the lab which
, office, and sample collection
and thoughts and many senses, I
object and went inside and I saw
relationships that are spacial and a day of work as a researcher and ies arose where I could unexpectly
Ashes of Still Life Painters, but in-
Relevance This project is a unique opportunity to design through a mode not traditionally used. The archis. For intecture produced for this studio is merely an interpretation, one of countless variations. stance, not only can countless variables and perspectives be applied to this narrative (a day in the life of a researcher, or simply a passer-by), but one can also interpret this sotry materially terially and gn through spacially in an infinite number of ways. That is one of the compelling reasons to design narrative. Another reason is that it provides the opportunity to design (i.e. write) without out an overbearing concern for programmatic and organizational rigor. Instead, it lets oneself gett lost in experience, which ultimately was my ambition (albeit through different means) to begin with.
Placing the heavy glass jar on the desk causes something I still haven’t gotten n used to yet; it produces a resonating, hollow sound, and vibrates until I silencce it with my hand. Because of this, I can tell that the desk is, through intuition, a hollow shell. the top surface might be some sort of stone, judging by its cool, smooth touch, but I suspect there may be metal inside, because of the qualityy of sound it makes.
Value
Oh right. I need to get back to work, so, container in hand, I trod carefully across the river grate.
As a way of developing architecture, this thought system has enabled me to think about ut both sual. The fine-grain detail and about the way place is perceived without relying entirely on the visual. visual is obviously the way all architecture, including this one, is ultimately developed and repreblems can sented. But as a generator, I have come to the conclusion that non-visual design problems drive a project’s overall design when grounded in some value system (in this case, a written narrative).
I sense, only subtly, the expected rustling and chill as the water rushes across the soles of my boots. Instead, I the sound of crashing water dominates my sensory palette. I crouch down, collect a sample, and return to my kit. My wet boots sqeak against the floor, which I now notice as smooth and quite hard. Concrete, perhaps. I track back out of the lab, across the water, and up the walkways, results in hand. I notice it’s darker out, because light is no longer streaming from the window above.
I go left, across a bridge of steel mesh. A short rt walk later, r, I fold fold behind a wall into the laboratory. ory. The air is cold, dry, sterile. It is darker, being ing mostly illuminated lluminated through t g byy ligh ght diffused by the other room. The waterfall is a faint memory behind a translucent wall of corrugated plastic, which emanates a faint glow into the lab against the back wall. The container of water is in my hands as I approach the main work bench.
Section 2. Presentation Pieces.
>. The Falls
>>. Lab
Collection Platform
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Analysis Lab
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Section 2. Presentation Pieces.
>. Lab (cont’d)
>>. Catwalk (return)
Return to Office & Cistern
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The Falls
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Early Studies Initial attempts to understand architecture through non-visual cues A New Program The site, Liberty State Park, is undergoing revitalization under a new master plan. This planned site was taken, and then given context (landscape, vegetation, etc.) around which a design be evaluated
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2 NEWARK, NJ
Lot >> D Wat
er Co
nnec
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APARTMENT SYSTEM
Master Plan C Our team developed a cohesive master plan to revitalize downtown Newark through the design of an inter-linking arcade, programmed public space and the riverside, as well as its adjacencies (like Penn Station) The New View of Penn Station and the City
CC
Form is generated as a response to the city fabric, both in plan and section. All buildings in this new master plan orient themselves to allow for views of New York, and this design also allows for optimal lighting in the maximum number of units Plan is developed from contextual cues as well as a careful coordination of program and the master plan
Ground
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Typical
Duplex
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Model Composite of Building D, documenting the massing relationship of building to fabric from three vantages
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The Waterfront The redesign of Penn Station allows for passengers to experience the qualities of water, from the Passaic on train and foot, to rainwater falling from the new walkway’s roof. The new Penn Station and Building D have a unified exterior articulation, inspired by the historic lift bridge shown below
C
The Roof acts as a means of differentiating one’s place between the Ironbound neighborhood to the east, and Downtown. Its alignment allows for the control of views above the neighboring buildings, orienting them towards the New York City skyline
3 NEWARK, NJ MASTER PLAN
in conjunction with studio section_006
The New Downtown ink on rag paper edited in Photoshop The new downtown would boast a new transit loop, integration of the Red Bull Stadium, and a new, dramatic skyline adjacent to the new Riverside Park. This park would tie into the nowabbreviated Penn Station and a recreational link to the Ironbound neighborhood would be established
NE t N arke E E ym GR Ha to LI
y a B ck
Ba
ve ts A
uset
sach
Mas GREEN LIN E to Kenmore
Boston’s Back Bay A study showing how fabric, the rail system, and significant buildings and landmarks inform each other and how this might apply to Newark
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Pasanella’s Twin Parks no. 8 (Bronx) This study was useful in demonstrating how built residential masses, including their forms, might be organized based on immediate context
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o
N 8 243 units/acre
Twin Parks o
N 8
105 units/acre
Twin Parks o
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FAR: 4
(
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114,000 SF Built 29,000 SF Lot
A New Face For Newark As a studio, we believed that the downtown could be reactivated by increasing residential density, creating an exciting skyline, and creating physical relationships between major thoroughfares
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site plan
0’
150’
300’
4 JAMES STREET TOWN HOUSE ON
Existing Conditions C James St. is known for its historic townhouses, which surround an empty lot. The objective of this project was to serve a doctor’s office while maintaining a sense of character that did justice to the surrounding neighborhood Study: Chareau’s Maison de Verre A close look at how one might move through a house and how this communicates ideas of structure and axiality
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The use of a simple, carefully chosen material palette and modular bay system allows this design to cooperate with the attractive adjacent townhouses
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Subtraction and Intimacy By pulling volume from the core of the house, a doctors office can be placed in the rear, away from the street and city
thanks