street :: tel :: email :: EDUCATION
Master of Architecture
University of Cincinnati College of DAAP, Cincinnati Ohio // anticipated completion June 2012
Bachelor of Fine Arts May 2007
Calvin College, Grand Rapids Michigan Major in Asian Studies // concentration: chinese Major in Studio Art AIAS Calvin Chapter // president 2006 - 2007
Academic Exchange >> China Fall 2006
Six months abroad studying Chinese language and culture Capital Normal University, Beijing China
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Elite Graduate Assistant
Fall 2010 - present School of Architecture and Interior Design, University of Cincinnati
Awarded a competitive Graduate Assistantship for the remaining two years of my degree. Responsibilities include teaching classes of 20+ students, organizing software and analogue demonstrations, and grading.
Graduate Assistant Summer 2009 - Spring 2010 School of Architecture and Interior Design, University of Cincinnati Worked with Assistant Professor Karl Wallick producing a monograph of the work of KieranTimberlake. Release September 2011 // Rizzoli Publishers
3xSAID // president Summer 2010 - Present
Student Society of the School of Architecture and Interior Design, University of Cincinnati
Organized and secured funds for lectures as well as entertain guest lecturers of the School of Architecture and Interior Design .
Design Evolution Workshop [ DEW ] // intern Summer 2010
Detroit, Michigan
Volunteered to begin preliminary measures of homes slated for deconstruction.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Kieran Timberlake // intern
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Spring & Summer 2011
Worked closely with a team on mostly institutional projects throughout the design development and construction document phases using Revit, Rhino, and the Adobe Creative Suite
KohnPedersenFox Architects (KPF) // intern New York, New York
Fall 2009
Worked with numerous teams on a variety of projects throughout the design development and construction document phases mostly using AutoCAD and the Adobe Creative Suite.
4-Most Group Architects // intern Spring 2009
Butler, Pennsylvania
Worked at the firm doing schematic design, site planning, construction documents, and presentations for clients using Microstation software.
COMPUTER SKILLS WORK EXHIBITED
Experienced with Rhinoceros 4, V-ray, Revit, AutoCAD, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Sketch-up. Working knowledge of Grasshopper, Form Z, and 3DS Max FormZ Joint Study Journal 2007-2998, “Digitial Iteration: Defining a Synthesis between Manual and Digital Craft� by James Eckler // Work featured Calvin College Center Gallery // Senior show, May 2007 106 South Division Gallery // Artist book display, January 2006 Calvin College Library // Ceramics show, Summer 2006
3770 Green Hill Ave Cincinnati, OH 45220 616.292.4985 michaelwestrate @ gmail.com
fall 2010
b r a n d i n g a n at i o n Pavilion Studio Instructor :: Edson Cabalfin Location :: Milan Italy, 2015 Program :: United States Pavilion Proposal :: Micronutrient Factory
The exhibition theme “feeding the planet, energy for life,� requires the designer to take a solid position on food, finding a balance between criticism and nation branding. How does a designer criticize a broken system while portraying a sense of positivity? The UN Millennium Goals, agreed upon by nearly two hundred nations in the year 2000, aimed to half the number of chronically hungry by the year 2015. In the past ten years the number of hungry people has actually risen. Rather than dwelling on the failure of the developed world, my design for the US Pavilion embraces the industrial processes which made the US a wealthy nation by proposing a vertically integrated supplement factory.
can indust r i a l i z at i o n b e u s e d to h e l p s o lv e a food crisis?
milan, italy
pav i l i o n as fac to ry -
F(ood)actory With the UN Millennium Goals quickly approaching, new solutions to the global food crisis are needed. Lessons from industrialization can be used by developing nations to quickly and effectively tackle this epidemic. The U.S. Pavilion at Milan is designed as an all inclusive food factory, raw material entering at one end and supplements or mineral rich food produced at the other. This method, unlike the model used by Henry Ford, can be easily adapted to the changing needs of a community. When food sources are secure and chronic hunger can be managed with local crops, the factory can be appropriated for regular food production or moved to another location where vitamin and mineral rich foods are still in short supply.
importance
::
deficiencies
::
sources
::
iodine
iron
v i ta m i n a
Fundamental for intelligence and brain development.
Essential for material & fetal health, learning, and productivity.
Vital for sight and the immune system.
North Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia,
Worldwide deficiencies with over 2 billion people affected by anaemia.
Central Africa, South America, Southast Asia, Middle East
Iodized salt, sea vegetables, yogurt, milk, strawberries
Seeds, spinach, white beans, meats
Tomatoes, spinach, turnips, starches, eggs, meat
source :: World Health Organization
DISTRIBUTION
PRODUCT ASSEMBLy
MATERIAL PROCESSINg
RAW MATERIAL INPUT
post-fordism as formal arrangment
Shortly after the turn of the century, Henry Ford introduced vertical integration to the industrial process. Raw materials, delivered at one end of the factory are fully refined, processed, and then transformed into componants for the final product; an automobile. Ford imagined the producer, the factory worker, to be the consumer, a closed loop, a self propagating process of endless production and consumption.
vertic al i n t e g r at i o n
product
::
pills/supplements/shipping pods
processing
::
manufactoriing/factory
view toward production plant on farm level
program a. entry
// queue area b. park space
c. salt field observation deck d. processing facility e. product storage racks f. reflecting pool raw material
::
salt/crops/water
01
reflecting reservoir water is stored in a reservoir below the farm
//
02
farm
+
park
//
plants rich in vitamin a and iron are grown in planters organized as a park for visitors
03
canopy roof
//
salt water is pumped atop the pavilion where it evaporates leaving only salt.
c. b. a.
d. f.
e.
a pav i l i o n with moves The components of the pavilion are designed to be manufactured off site and to fit into standard shipping containers. Planting beds and structural columns can be folded and stacked atop one another in a 6060 mm x 2440 mm container. At the end of the expo these same components can be repacked and sent to another site.
columns arrive assembled inside 6 meter shipping containers
f reservoir
roo
y line suppl
for
reservoir
column g
arms
y suppl
for
extendin
lockable pin connection
pump
motor
winter 2011
drawing from the landsc ape lyceum competition Instructor :: Lucie Fontein Location :: Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah Program :: Rest Stop Proposal :: Occupy The Line
Absent of civilization’s markers and void of obvious forms of life, the Bonneville Salt Flats occupy a space outside of the normal human experience. This experience is highlighted by the site, which is at once both a seemingly infinite field and in a state of perceived stasis. This skewed perception is distorted by the usual clutter of everyday life. Discovered through mapping the dynamic flows inherent to the place, the Rest Stop emerges at a knuckle of natural occurrence and human intervention. The formal and constructed strategies directly correlate to the dynamic nature of the place capturing and augmenting that which is already there.
is there n ot h i n g here
?
The Lyceum Competition prompt is for a zero energy rest stop at the intersection of the Bonneville Salt Flats and Interstate 80. The competition calls for the rest stop to engage with a proposed land art installation called “Earth Curvature�, a series of 341 logarithmically spaced poles stretching the full length of the flats while also providing spaces for overnight visitors and weary travelers. My proposal for the competition engages directly with the art installation, the building stretching the distance between the two center-most poles. Visitors enter from between the two lanes of traffic through a portico below the west bound lanes. Ramps stretch from this underground space between six evaporative fields and disappear into the flats.
b)
building form
providing the rest
// parallel threshold The building stretches more than 300’ along Interstate 80 connecting the center 3’ pole of the competition’s proposed installation piece with the next pole.
A ramp carries visitors
from just below the 3’ pole along this parallel threshold to grade at the next pole.
| perpendicular threshold A portico connects the parking in the middle of the two highways with the rest stop on the north end of the road.
The
portico bisects the road and art installation by slipping below the road, guest rooms, and evaporative salt fields and emerging from the ground onto the flats.
g)
f)
e) d)
b)
a) parking
a)
b) portico c) installation d) open air atrium e) restrooms & showers f) evaporative fields g) salt flats
the pipe
the quadrant Sailing north or south, sailers use the quadrant to identify their latitude relative to the sun and stars.
They then steer the
ship to the east or west based upon this reading.
In
the same way, the guest rooms frame the site and the sky, giving visitors a frame of reference in an infinite field.
a knuckle Purified water drips down into the storage pipe which provides clean water for drinking and bathing. Heating elements are embedded in the concrete cylinder keeping the water from freezing and heating the rooms through radient heat transfer.
In the summer
heating elements
months, the pipe will work
glass canopy
as a thermal mass, insulating
evaporation basin
the occupants with thermal mass.
evaporative water basins
Winter: The glass canopy is left open and water from the seasonally high aquifer is collected in large concrete cisterns near the surface.
Early Spring/Summer: The glass canopy is closed and the rays from the sun warm the chamber causing the water to evaporate, leaving only salt deposits within the basin.
As
the water evaporates, it collects on the underside of the glass canopy and is funneled towards the pipe where it will be tempered and stored for bathing and drinking.
Autumn: When Autumn rolls around much of the water that was once in the basin has been completely evaporated and stored within the pipe. The pipe is sealed and the canopy again opened in anticipation for the rising winter aquifer.
winter // canopy left open, allowing water from the rising water table to fill the reservoir summer // glass canopy remains closed, trapping water and encouraging evaporation
board formed concrete // cedar boards reused for ramp and overnight rooms
d)
e)
c)
flapping in the wind Attached to generators, louvers along the edge of I80 flap from air displaced by passing vehicles.
The
kinetic energy is captured and stored in the form of electricty.
a)
b)
f)
a) b) c) d) e) f)
highway I80 rooms open air atrium cafe plaza evaporative fields
the rising tidestop
year round.
hidden shelters Sprouting from below the pipe, ramps reach up into the landscape out to personal shelters.
During
the winter months these paths are hidden below the rising water table.
cafe plaza The plaza cantilevers off the pipe above the water line.
During the dry summer months the horizon is
obscured by the platform.
In the winter months the
plaza acts like a deck where visitors can hang their toes down toward the refreshing water.
fall 2008
order
&
t e c to n i c s
Tectonic Studio Instructor :: Karl Wallick Location :: Miami, Ohio Program :: University Field Station Proposal :: Expressed Forces
Once a Shaker farm, this site is structured with rich dualisms, ripe for exploration. In addition to the built organization, this site offers subtle complexities within the natural landscape. Using Semper’s definition of Tectonics these subtle and more overt relationships are exploited in order to generate forms which amplify and reproduce the desirable qualities of the place. The crop rows across the site were one of the organizing strategies which during certain times of the year bring both the built tectonic forms and landscape into harmony.
mass
frame
plane
hearth
semper’s t e c to n i c s t r at e g i e s 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
The studio was structured around the continuous production of iterative models and drawings abstracting the qualities of the site into Gottfried Semper’s tectonic elements. Through these iterations, a building form was generated marrying the abstracted site qualities, building form, and construction joinery.
greenhouse courtyard residence administration library bridge
1.
residence
green house
4.
6. 2.
5.
2.
3.
Using Form Z renderings, hand drawings, and Photoshop collage this hybrid drawing explores the relationship of site, building, and the flow between space. The model, constructed of MDF, recycled black board, and basswood expresses the form of the building, but also the site forces integral in the process.
winter / spring 2010
o f f s e t pat h s SEC Studio Instructor :: Terry Boling Location :: Cranbrook Acadamy, Michigan Program :: Wellness Center Proposal :: Contextual Continuity
Designed by Eliel Saarinen, the Cranbrook campus is made of a series of courtyards connected by paths and tunnels. By offsetting these paths and adding subtle visual cues, Saarinen pulls visitors from one courtyard to another. Respecting these relationships. This project proposes a Wellness Center positioned along the far edge of the Grand Allee, capping a soft edge and creating new courtyards. The building program is organized along a line parallel to the Grand Allee. Perpendicular cuts as well as vertical slices create physical and implied separations for privacy. The layered building envelope and other exterior elements further this hierarchy of privacy by creating distinct space for visitors, students of the academy, and Wellness Center patrons.
The dry programs and wet programs are split for comfort and environmental reasons by a shared mechanical plinth
existing and newly formed courtyards.
lee grand al
Respecting the linear nature of the site and importance of the Grand Allee as an open space, the building program was pushed to the far end of the field, capping the road and creating opportunities for new courtyards which extend the existing relationships.
site model // 1/16Ó CNC milled, laser cut, hand constructed
g.
f. E. C.
B. A.
program A. RECEPTION
// 900 Sf ADMINISTRATION + LOBBy // 500 Sf STACKS + READINg ROOM C. CHANgINg ROOMS // 1200 Sf MEN + WOMEN D. THERAPy POOLS // 2000 Sf HyDROTHERAPy POOLS + SAUNA + STEAM E. ALCOVES // 600 Sf MEDITATION + MASSAgE f. gROUP THERAPy // 1500 Sf yOgA + OUTDOOR STUDIO g. RESIDENCES // 2000 Sf COMMUNAL KITCHEN + OUTDOOR DINNINg + gUEST B. LIBRARy
ROOMS (X5)
D.
Lightwells connect the upper and lower floors bringing sunshine to the pools buried below as well as creating meditation and massage alcoves.
D.
B.
A.
C.
A. MURPHy BED
guest room
B. BATHROOM C. SITTNg AREA D. EXTERIOR VERANDA
7.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
7.
STEAM ROOM SAUNA PLUNgE POOL AROMA THERAPy HOT POOL OUTDOOR HOT POOL
7.
7.
7. gUEST ROOM 8. COMMUNAL KITCHEN 9. RESIDENTIAL COURTyARD 10. STUDIO COURTyARD 11. yOgA STUDIO 12. ELEVATOR CORE
7.
13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
8.
MASSAgE ALCOVE MEDITATION ALCOVE CHANgINg ROOM COURTyARD LIBRARy RECEPTION
9.
10.
11.
1.
2.
6. 4. 3.
5.
5.
3.
4.
2.
16.
1.
18.
6.
lower level 15. 12.
13.
13. 14.
13. 14.
16.
18.
15.
upper level
north e l e vat i o n
01 natural
ventilation
02 humidity capture
03 lighting
strategy
i n t e g r at e d systems
Almost all mechanical systems are hidden between the wet and dry floors. Mechanical strips, wedged between the c-shaped channel structure will be the only place where people inside the building will experience these systems. Operable vents and skylights will allow these strips to integrate active and passive strategies to effectively and efficiently condition the building.
a.
b.
c.
A wooden screen helps to define space and provide privacy while also protecting the building envelope from solar heat gain.
Lights, operable skylights, and ventilation ducts are all contained in mechanical strips between the structural columns creating a clean expression of construction.
The changing rooms are wrapped in blue ceramic strips defining the duality of the two rectangular spaces as well as their relationship to the therapy pools below.
1/4�
b.
a.
c.
bay model
fall 2011 - ongoing
mapping thesis studio chair :: aarati kanekar Location :: centralia, pennsylvania Program :: mortuary Proposal :: architecture augmenting landscape
Contemporary planning and architecture is at odds with its environment. When catastrophe befalls a place the brittle relationship between the built form and nature is revealed, human interventions becoming remnants of the past. Centralia, Pennsylvania has become a scar of this tumultuous relationship. Once a bustling borough the town is now abandoned. Threatened by a coal fire burning just below the surface of the earth, the residents have been forced to leave their homes, street signs and light posts the only remnants of what was once there. Can a more dexterous architecture exist within such a ravaged place, one that both compliments and shifts within the restless landscape? The hope of this thesis is that through an exploration of the relationship between cartography and design a more adroit architecture will emerge, elegantly adapted and adapting to its environment. Using a Deleuzian definition of mapping as a performative act, the line between what is map and what is design can be blurred together for both substantiate the imagined world into the tangible. By first cataloguing a variety of maps and understanding their bias and performative value through landscape architect Christophe Girot’s Four Trace Concept, this thesis will create a framework of possible operational systems for engaging with the site. Through this process an architectural intervention will emerge both wedded to the current conditions but also formally and programmatically assimilating to the shifting disposition of the place.
a work in progress
mapping a s a g e n e r ato r of place
Throughout the thesis process I have produced a series of maps relating to both real and perceived qualities of Centralia. The choice of representational method as well as what is selected for representation forms what Centralia is beyond it’s physical form. The hope is by acting in a way conscious of this reality a well moored architecture will emerge in the place attune to its environment.
tracing the landscape
a moving bridge
The program for the site is broken into a series of architectural follies imitating and augmenting the conditions of the place. The first of these follies is a bridge spanning from the edge of a cemetery across a quickly developing sink hole. Pin connections tie hydraulic structural columns to footings deep in the earth. As the footings shift the columns can be adjusted to level the structure. Resting across the bridge will be a second bar. This bar will be set into the sinkhole so as the ground continues to shift the bar will fall acting as a measure in the landscape.
winter 2009
kohn pederson fox
{kpf}
internship Supervisors :: Greg Waugh & Li Lei Location :: New York, New York Duration :: 9/2009 - 12/2009 Role :: Learn Quickly & Stay Late
I worked on a team using AutoCAD, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Rhino to create design development and construction documents for a variety of projects in the US, Canada, and Singapore. The projects ranged in scale from a small pavilion expansion to a fifty storey skyscraper. Most of my time was spent making renderings and drawing construction details.
100 Adelaide, Toronto Floor plate schemes used for design proposal packets.
Overall building form by KPF Rendering by renderer Mike Klausmeier
Queuing Pavilion For this pavilion I worked on site measurements, client presentations, renderings, and a design development set.
fall / winter / spring 2010
inquiry graduate assistantship P r o f e s s o r - :: Karl Wallick Location :: University of Cincinnati Duration :: 9/2009 - 6/2010 Role :: Graphic layouts, iteration
As a graduate student I Worked for Assistant Professor Karl Wallick helping to produce a monograph of the work of Kieran Timberlake Associates. The work included creating page layouts, image selection, and text editing. Released September 2011 // Rizzoli Publishers