Ryan Clement Undergraduate Portfolio 2017

RYAN CLEMENT selected works

02 SUBURBAN SWELL

07 ROCKY FLATS MUSEUM

12 BOULDER GREENHOUSE

17 RAILYARD HOUSE

20 RESEARCH BUILDING

24 OTHER EXPLORATIONS

30 THE MESS OF MAKING

SUBURBAN SWELL

SECOND PLACE

LAKA COMPETITION ‘16 ARCHITECTURE THAT REACTS

2016, ENVD 4100: Marianne Holbert completed with Eric Dell’Orco contributions: creation of digital model, physical models, drawings and diagrams; worked together on conceptual framework, and design

“YES! Let’s densify and not in a bad way, but in a great way. Let’s combine the density of Manhattan with the comfortable life of the American Suburb.

Pluck your own apples 5 minutes from the opera house.”

NATHALIE De VRIES, JUDGING COMMENT

LAKA 2016 judge, founding director MVRDV

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Suburbia is the expired perception of the American dream; it is shaped by the desire for land, green space, privacy, and safety. Whereas, the metropolis is shaped by economics, business, culture, and the exchange of ideas.

These different environments create separate lifestyles that seldom overlap. Dense urban centers are naturally more sustainable than a low density suburb as they consume less energy, are less dependent on automobiles, have greater access to economic opportunities, and have more cultural amenities. With future population growth, communities must respond to the increasing housing demand. In the United States, metropolitan growth does not increase density, it increases sprawl. Why does the U.S. expand through sprawl? Land ownership, privacy, and refuge are the driving cultural values that encourage sprawl and contribute to the “American� fear of density. The fear that giving up land ownership takes away one’s independence, individuality, and control. Contemporary forms of density do not acknowledge these ingrained cultural values. Failing to recognize these values will lead to indefinite sprawl.

Suburban Swell reacts to fears of density by using the lifestyle of the suburbs as a framework for a new vertical morphology of density that embraces light, community, land ownership, individuality, and the American dream.

Suburban Swell is based on the form of the cul-de-sac, an urban form that is ubiquitous in American suburbs.

Suburban Swell is a structure designed to be built above any cul-de-sac; it vertically extends the cul-de-sac, transforming any given neighborhood into a denser and more urban version of itself. As such, removing the necessity of the automobile, and encouraging the use of alternate modes of transportation. The intimacy, community, and greenspace found in a cul-de-sac is preserved, while the density is increased.

Suburban Swell does not provide a finished living space; instead, it provides a base for a vertical neighborhood.

There are unbuilt plots of land, where each person can build to suit their needs and preferences. With this land ownership, the ideas of the American dream are not lost but rather embraced. There is still a backyard, there is still a place for the children to play, there is still the single family home. If architecture integrates density and the American dream, density is no longer scary. If density becomes desirable suburban sprawl can be eliminated.

FEARS OF DENSITY

I want nature, not concrete

It’s too crowded

Where will my kids play?

I want my own backyard

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suburban cul-de-sac

growth

density comparison

SITE, GROWTH, + DENSITY The cul-de-sac is the both the framework and the physical site for Suburban Swell. It informs the building’s structural and spatial organization. Since this suburban typology is ubiquitous and consistent, there is a vast network of potential sites to increase density within the suburbs.

Suburban Swell is a framework for growth, comprised of a vertical assemblage of buildable plots interspersed with public voids. The plots are built out according to housing demand, and as the plots are built out, more plots are added.

Every five floors, the building is broken to provide open public space.

One building with a footprint the size of a cul-de-sac can hold as many houses as a neighborhood. Each floor can hold up to 15 houses. Each five floor module can hold up to 75 houses.

model of typical interior landscape; cnc milled plywood, acrylic, travertine 4

interior view

multiply cul-de-sac

cut out cul-de-sac

create green space

connect levels

subdivid

de plots

create structure

plant vegetation

enclose with brise soleil

create openings for views

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section model

details of coloumn to slab transitions

INTEGRATED SYSTEMS The massive columns in the structure are reinforced, hollow concrete tubes designed to carry the gravity and lateral loads of the building. They also house mechanical shafts for all services needed in a suburban neighborhood: electric, cable, water, sewer, irrigation, as well as centralized services, such as steam and chilled water for heating and cooling. The floor plates are constructed of pre-stressed, post-tensioned concrete with embedded anchoring locations for individual houses; services extend from the mechanical shafts to the individual houses.

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main gallery

rocky flats nuclear weapons production facility

ROCKY FLATS MUSEUM JEFFERSON COUNTY, CO 2017, ENVD 4300: Alexander Worden The Rocky Flats Museum is intended to present the history of Rocky Flats, a decommissioned nuclear weapons production facility located west of Denver. Much of the information surrounding Rocky Flats was withheld from the public until recently. The goal of the museum is to reveal the truths about the Cold War and Rocky Flats, and to highlight the facility’s accidents, hazards to public health, impacts on Rocky Flats workers, and frequent fires. The museum will also describe how, if one of these frequent fires had gotten out of control, the entire Denver area could have been so heavily contaminated that it would have been uninhabitable for hundreds of years. The museum also hopes to highlight the widespread environmental contamination and the cleanup process after the facility closed 1992.

parti

spatial organization

overlap of vaults

subtraction of space

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concept model - testing light and spatial experience

concept model investigating arrangement of broken vaults and resulting spatial conditions; pigmented, cast plaster

CONCEPT The Rocky Flats Museum is designed to evoke the aura and secretiveness surrounding the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production facility. The building would be almost entirely underground to conceal it from the immediate public recognition, just as the facts about Rocky Flats were concealed from the public for decades. Its design also suggests an underground bomb shelter of the Cold War era.

The museum is designed around the seemingly contrary concepts of the subterranean and light. The resolution of these two conditions is an architecture that diffuses light into underground spaces, using only the geometry of its monolithic structure. Cantilevered, broken vaults overlap to create openings for natural light and the gallery spaces below.

The curved surfaces bounce and diffuse the natural light into the interior. The organization of these cantilevered vaults creates volumes and spaces that guide the visitor through the exhibits, allows for the display of artifacts and information, all while invoking an appreciation of the scope and secrecy of Rocky Flats.

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spatial organization (view from below)

circulation through main gallery spaces

secondary gallery spaces

interaction between secondary and main gallery spaces

cleresotry windows

exhibition space with view of main staircase above

lobby; staircase descending to exhibit

section model

section model; cnc milled oak and acrylic

plans and section

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secondary gallery space

INTEGRATED SYSTEMS The broken cantilevered masses are constructed as reinforced concrete shell walls. The void spaces between these shell walls house mechanical, electrical, and other building systems.

clerestory windows green roof skylight irrigation for green roof void for mechanical concrete reinforcing

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GREENHOUSE

BOULDER, COLORADO 2015, ENVD 2100: Kimberly Drennan The project is designed as a multi-use greenhouse and education facility operated by the University of Colorado, Boulder. Its flexible space would allow for different greenhouse conditions, a variety of classes, and events. The project is located in a riparian zone along Boulder Creek.

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fabric study model of catenary vault

study model of intersecting catenary arches

proposed material - 3d-printed glass - MIT

CONCEPT + MATERIAL The greenhouse structure is based on a catenary curve. The natural form of draped fabric informed the idea of a catenary vault, which acts in perfect compression. This structural system allows for a sinuous, self-supporting enclosure. The building’s spaces and programs were explored using string models. The volumes that resulted from overlapping and intersecting separate catenary vaults, expressed in sweeps of draped string, became the programs of the building.

The greenhouse structure would be 3D printed from glass.

MIT’s advancements in extrusion-printed glass have led to an optically clear 3D-printed glass that researchers hope can be used in architectural applications in the future. The 3D-printed glass was selected to create a sinuous, lighttransmitting surface suited for a greenhouse. Because the structure is a catenary vault acting only in compression, the glass can be self-supporting and make up the entire structure of the greenhouse.

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SITE The site for the greenhouse is a riparian zone adjacent to Boulder Creek. The greenhouse is situated north of the cottonwoods and willows lining the creek, to remove it from any shade, and to ensure full sun year-round. The site lies within a floodplain. For this reason, the ground around the greenhouse is raised and manipulated to remove the building from the threat of flooding. The terrain is further manipulated to flow into the insets of the greenhouse to fully integrate the greenhouse into the land. The greenhouse informs and sculpts the land, as if the land had blown in and grown around it.

site section

site plan

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north elevation

air

light

integration into land

spatial organization

structure

circulation

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plan

long section

detailed section

SPATIAL INTERACTIONS The intersecting catenary vaults create visual connections between small classroom spaces, the greenhouses, and the outside. In this way, the classrooms are surrounded by the earth on the sides, by the greenhouses to the south, and by protected outdoor spaces to the north. Views to each are softened by the 3D-printed glass vaults.

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RAILYARD HOUSE DENVER, COLORADO

2015, AREN 1027: Alex Gore, Lance Cayko The railyard house is a case study in making an undesirable and seeming unusable location livable. The house is sited between railroad tracks in a railyard outside of Denver. The question is, how is this house physically removed from the noise, pollution, and grittiness of the railyard?

denver county

globeville neighborhood

railyards

gap between tracks and building footprint

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ground floor

first floor

second floor

third floor

lower staircase

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second floor

staircase and first floor

LIGHT AND PROTECTION The living spaces of the house are physically removed and isolated from the noise, industry, and pollution of the railyards.

These spaces are elevated above the tops of the railcars and are shielded on three of four sides by unpunctured concrete walls. The fourth, glazed side, while transparent, is guarded by two concrete wings to deflect noise and direct views. To experientially remove the living space from the industrial landscape, an atrium extends over the railroad tracks, channeling light from a skylight to the three living levels below.

cross section

entry bridge

RESEARCH BUILDING UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO

2017, ARCH 4010: Shawhin Roudbari completed with: Stavros Roditis, Angelique Fathy, and Kelly Sheeran contributions: creation of digital models, physical models, renderings, and drawings; worked together on conceptual framework, and design This building is designed as a research and collaboration center between civil, environmental, and architectural engineering students and environmental design students at the University of Colorado, Boulder; it is intended to encourage interaction among the disciplines. Free, unprogrammed spaces are required to allow for flexible use, as the types of research and projects constantly change.

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spatial model of exhibition space; concrete, gold leaf, and acrylic

conceptual model exploring the intersections of ellipsoids; pigmented plaster cast around water balloons

INVERTED DECORATED SHED The research and collaboration building is conceived as an “inverted” decorated shed. Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi’s concept of a decorated shed were applied. In their concept, external symbolism, imagery, and ornament are used to provoke attention and to convey meaning to the public and potential users of the building. However, in this research and collaboration building, symbolism, imagery, and ornament are turned inward to convey meaning to the internal users. The goal of the center is to promote interdisciplinary interactions and to connect the different aspects of the design process. To symbolize these connections, intersecting ellipsoids represent and physically create connections between different users and different steps in the design process. In this inversion of the decorated shed, the symbolism itself becomes space, human experience, and function.

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LIGHT AND PROTECTION The building’s exterior does not reveal its function or use; instead, it conceals and protects the building. The cuboid exterior is veiled in a brise soleil that obscures views into the interior and protects the building from excess heat gain and glare. In the places that require more natural light, ellipsoids are subtracted from the brise soleil, making the fins narrower and creating more space between them. From the exterior, these subtractions hint at the building’s uses, but their existence and placing do not reveal these functions until the building is experienced from the interior.

The skylight system is designed to bock direct light and to allow only northern light to enter. Where the ellipsoids puncture the floor below the skylights, light enters the spaces below.

north

west

east south

second floor collaboration space and skylights

section through exhibition space

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exhibition space

open collaboration space

MONOLITHIC ORNAMENT The ornament symbolizing the interactions of disciplines comprises the entire spatial structure of the spaces, and is in the form of intersecting ellipsoids. These ellipsoids are independent of the main structure of the building, and are applied to a secondary space frame that interpolates the form of the intersecting ellipsoids. The mechanical, electrical, and other building systems are housed in the voids between the main and secondary structures.

space frame supporting intersecting ellipsoids in exhibition space

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STALAGMITE LAMP DIGITAL FABRICATION

2016, ENVD 4352: Justin Bellucci completed with: Preston Reed, Jonathan Stuckenschneider contributions: design concept, creation of digital model, and fabrication

The stalagmite lamp reinterprets and reorganizes the natural phenomenon of stalagmites to create a functional lighting installation. In cave formations, stalagmites seamlessly emerge from the cave floor and transition to other stalagmites to create a composition from individual spires. Digital modeling and scripting took the place of the natural forces of dripping water and calcification as the creator of form and transition. Hundeds of layers of cardboard took the place of thousands of layers of deposited minerals. The act of breaking the layers of cardboard with a single layer of light illuminates the transitions between the spires and the gallery floor, and turns the spires into silhouettes.

contour map 24

CASE STUDY

CLYFFORD STILL MUSEUM 2015, ENVD 2100: Kimberly Drennan In this exploration of the Clyfford Still Museum, spatial organization and movement of light on each level of the museum, and in the museum as a whole, were investigated through a model. The spaces are chambers of light, defined by the mass around them. The chambers of light are represented with acrylic, and the defining masses of these chambers are represented with concrete.

The vault level, the gallery level, and the skylight level disassembeled

DENSITY STUDY

FORGOTTEN PARKING LOTS 2016, ENVD 4100: Marianne Holbert Throughout the built environment, awkward and underutilized spaces often exist because of inefficient and irregular building siting. These spaces often serve as parking lots; but what if there were a common model to fill and densify these forgotten places? In this study, a form that could universally fill any space was examined – a form that bulges and inflates to fill existing space and to accommodate density.

site boundary and constraints

low-, medium-, and high-density infill compared

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CASE STUDY THERME VALS

2015, ENVD 2100: Kimberly Drennan By diagramming the architectural concepts of Therme Vals, an understanding of the building was developed that was used to develop a drawing that encapsulated all of the architectural concepts and represented the parti of the building.

parti

spatial organization

light

structure

circulation

prospect and refuge

painting abstracting the concepts of Therme Vals; graphite and acrylic on canvas 26

SKETCHES OF ROME UNCOVERING THE LAYERS 2015 By sketching what appeared before me in the concealed corners of Rome, I began to discover the layers of Rome – the remains of the Roman Empire, the evolution of vernacular buildings, and the theatrics of baroque interventions.

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DEEP PATTERNING LAYERED COLORED PAPER 2017, ENVD 4300: Alexander Worden The brief for this exercise was to create an abstract pattern that is neither geometric nor organic, that is infinitely repeatable, and that can be rotated or mirrored without breaking the pattern. The pattern is conceived as a network of flowing waves originating from, and reconvening at, central points.

Panels of the pattern are crafted from layers of cut colored paper, adding a third dimension to this infinite pattern.

LAKE BAIKAL

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 2015 Each winter on Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake, a curious phenomenon occurs. From the extreme cold temperatures and fierce winds, the ice begins to flow, and then begins to break from the flat surface of the lake to create monolithic turquoise shards of ice.

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INCAN FOLLY

STRUCTURAL INCAN STONEWORK 2017, ENVD 4300: Alexander Worden Incan stonework creates a perfect fit out of the irregular.

On the face of the stonework, irregular stones fit together perfectly into a “quilted� wall structure. Behind the face of the stones, however, the space is irregular and filled with rubble. This folly reinterprets this ancient masonry technique. In ancient times, it was used only on walls, but in this reimagining, it is used in a compression-only structural vault. On the underside of the vault, the smooth yet irregular stones fit seamlessly, while on the outside of the vault, the troughs between the stones allow for an area to add adhesives to bind the structural components together.

plaster model of incan stonework. Individual stones meet perfectly on the front side.

troughs between the individual stones on the back side allow for an area to add adhesive to bind the stones together.

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THE MESS OF MAKING

BATTLE OF ARTISTRY + TECHNOLOGY 2015-until I die On my battlefield, the weapons of technology and artistry are pitted against each other. I feel like a wartime negotiator trying to forge an unnatural resolution to the conflict, trying to make engineering and technology empathetic to human needs, and trying to make artistry and human-focused design respect efficiency and precision. And yet I do not have control. The ego of technology and the ego of artistry are still present and still fighting each other, and through this continuing clash, a worthy creation arises.

casting plaster around water baloons

cnc milling plywood for topography

bonus photo: advanced mechanics of materials final

casting plaster

making plywood butcher blocks to cnc

pattern form finding using elatic bands

wiring stalagmite lamp

casting concrete around cnc milled foam

studio desk

removing plaster from cardboard molds

assembling incan style stonework 30