stephanie s baker
PORTFOLIO
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2017_AEC Studio Fort Blakely Elementary School
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2016_Heavy Timber Studio UW Wood Innovation Center
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2012_Undergrad Thesis Phenomenal Virtuality
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2012-16_Competitions AIA Atlanta YAF 48Hr Competition
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2005-11_Fine Arts Various works in pencil, pen and gouche
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This AEC Studio focused on BIM-based collaboration between architecture, engineering and construction. Design teams within the undergrad architecture studio included graduate ‘consultants’ that assisted in developing design proposals for cost, constructibility, energy, daylighting and value. The studio tackled the design of a replacement for Blakely Elementary School in the Bainbridge Island school district. A recently completed school in the same district, Wilkes Elementary, provides the detailed program and sets the bar for performance in the categories of site/environmental design, spatial ingenuity, structural economy, program distribution, energy efficiency, and cost. The challenge will be to design for different site conditions and to consider different materials (even innovative ones) and systems to try to attain a better performance value in as many ways as possible.
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Role: Graduate Energy Consultant to undergrad studio design team
2017_AEC Studio Fort Blakely Elementary School
In working with the studio design team the first steps in guiding the schematic design phase involved site analysis and massing studies. Running sun path studies and solar radiation analysis on the Bainbridge island site determined the building orientation and location on the site. It was critical for the school to receive as much annual daylight as possible to reduce electric lighting and thermal loads. The massing of the school building was separated into classroom “bars� by grade level for program and also to achieve equity in spatial experience. Grasshopper scripts helped to quickly determine minimum distaces between each classroom bar to eliminate any overshadowing throughout the school year. This ensures as much daylighting into the classrooms as possible. Whole building daylighting studies were performed throughout the design process to aid in glazing, shading, and building geometry choices to maximize natural lighting from Septmebr through June months. Underlit and overlit simulations are shown to the right in an early design phase.
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Similarly, thermal analysis studies were done early on to ensure that material selections and building geometries work to achieve low thermal energy loads. Psychrometric charts to the right illustrate the comparison between Seattle annual outdoor climate compared to the internal climate of the building without heating or air conditioning.
A later exterior sketch of the North facade of one of the classroom bars is shown to the left. These north walls are designed to be much thicker with less glazing to keep the building insulated while still capturing the consistency of northern lighting into the classrooms. To the right show a sample of studies of dayligthing of classrooms to determine shading device designs and glazingg sizes on the northern and southern facades. Using DIVA software provides a quick view of interior spaces at specific times of year to ensure adequate design decisions. The daylighting objective was to achieve illuminance values within the space at desk height so that minimal electric lighting would be necessary. During winter months when the sun angle is much lower there is an increase in glare potential which requires shading of the classrooms.
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In the end design, the design team was able to achieve UDIs above 70% during the school year. This means that more than 70% of annual occupied hours meet lighting targets, reducing electric lighting load use to less than 30% during the school year.
Timber studio focused on the design and structure of cross laminated timber (CLT). Through researching the regional origins, production and manufacturing of timber in the Pacific Northwest the studio was tasked with the design of a new Wood Innovation Center on the University of Washington campus. This new UW interdisciplinary center focusing on research to move mass timber into the forefront of urban design and construction, rural economies and sustainable forestry was to be reflected in the design of the building.
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The site location was selected between two options - a location at the south end of campus near Winkenwerder Hall and overlooking Rainier Vista. This site provided a unique opportunity for public exposure and a direct connection with UW’s Forestry Department in Winkenwerder and Anderson Halls just to the North.
2016_Heavy Timber Studio UW Wood Innovation Center
One of the first exercises was to study the building code to determine the llimits required to design within and also to compare current code requirments to the proposed heavy timber restriction to be released in the 2020 IBC edition. A graphical representation of Type IV construction is shown to the left.
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The design concept is the play of intersections - the intersection of student and instructor, education sector and industry, consumer and producer. This interplay of segments that don’t often intertwine come together in new and innovative ways in the new research center. At its basic roots, the building’s structure represents this intersection through an integration of two axes of structural grids (shown right). Every level of the building carves spaces for innovation research and design or for visual connections between public and private; a constant interplay between elements.
Working with CLT as the primary structural material presented many challenges when laying out HVAC and electrical. In order to achieve a clean interior aesthetic and maximum exposure of CLT material the core common areas of each floor level are designed with a soffit that hides the distribution of HVAC and electrical lines to each space. A 1:1 model of a connection detail was built to experiment with different techniques for assembling CLT panels. This exercise created a unique experience for understanding the materiality and componentry of heavy timber construction.
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Upon final design completion an analysis of carbon production was calculated on the structure compared to that of an equivalent building using steel and concrete in place of CLT. The comparison is shown to the left with an illustration of the number of trees required to produce the structure by element (one graphic tree represents 10 trees used).
A dissection into the pathologies of modernity and their societal and artisic trends has led to the research of their resulting production and design of spaces and ultimately the way in which our current society has shaped the way we interact phenomenally. What would our physical environment look like, how would it be inhabited if the same qualities and characteriistics of digital and technological interaction and communication were implemented? What would be the result if we were to replicate characteristics of interaction through digital filters into built form? The proposal to engage the voyeuristic nature of society aims to answer the question of how phenomenal space could replicate the digital nature of interaction and inhabitation within our current society.
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Southern Polytechnic State University B.Arch degree program
2012_Undergrad Thesis Phenomenal Virtuality
Slavoj Zizek defines ‘virtual’ within the categories of imaginary-virtual, symbolic-virtual and real-virtual. Imaginary-virtual is defined as an “image which determines how we interact with people. [We] erase, we bahave as if whole strata of the other person are not there.” The situation of interacting with an individual and consciously removing fromt he mind the knowledge that he or she performs actions reasoned socially unsuitable becomes part of a virtual image that “has reality in the sense that it nonetheless structures the way [we deal with one another].” Symbolic-virtual is similarly real in its effect on an individual or society. It is only operative at symbolic level. The example used is that of a father-figure and the power of his authority through the use of a virtual threat upon a child: in order for parental authority to be operative and to be experienced as actual, effective authority it has to remain virtual in the sense of a threat. If it is fully actualized as a realized threat it undermines iteself as authority and experienced as a sign of impotence.
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Zizek goes on to define real-virtual as “something you do out of an inner urge. You have to invent something new when you cannot do it otherwise. Do what appears within the given symbolic coordinates as impossible. Take the risk; change the coordinates.” It is this idea that has spawed the question of what digital and thenological dependency will invent phenomenally as the coordinates of the nature of a digital-virtual would have to be changed to create a physical-virtual world. The constant within the system of coordinates that remains is the experience of virtual conciousness.
On Some Motifs in Baudelaire Walter Benjamin
Medaman Medaman
Improvisation Group [Tokyo]
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Contemporary Flaneur
Interaction Through Technological Filter
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HUMAN SCALE AND VIEW | Using the angles of view from a perforated vertical wall without alteration studies were done maintaining the original views as a constant and the wall a variable. The first iteration of studies manipulates the wall by thickening its dimensions in areas and segmenting the wall where the perforations are located. PLAYING WITH VIEWS | A series of models explores the range or possible perforations or manipulation of wall sections that may engage a viewer. Models are studied on the engineering of views based on specific angles, heights and measurements. Others are modeled without constraints, created solely through playful manipulation. STUDY OF THE BODY IN SPACE | Investigations are done to research how the human body might interact with or inhabit a wall installation. How could an installation be designed to encourage the use or interaction with a subject for the purpose of exposing a moment of view to the opposite side of the installation. Positions of ‘comfort’ are predetermined by human proportions and positions of the body during moments of private leisure. How easily can a person be enticed to predetermined position of comfort in order to gain a sense of power over knowledge or sight?
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THE INSTALLATION | This installation proposes a similar voyeuristic experience to interacting with the private lives of people technologically. The one being viewed on one side is generally aware that they are being viewed. The person viewing them is unknown, the actual point in which they are being viewed is unknown and it is unknown if an opportunity to view their viewer from a different angle is available. This game of shifting view, positions, people and scenes mimicks the parameters we live within in our virtually conscious minds.
STRING FOREST | The String Forest is an ephemeral barrier that shifts and changes in the wind and light. This project creates a community area that would visually, experientially and spatially dilute the new Mercedes Benz Stadium’s potency as an object. The Forest is constructed using reclaimed telephone poles, metal fittings and recycled soccer nets which, when overlapped generate complex and shifting patterns. Using reclaimed materials helps keep cost low and durability high. The poles also serve as a forum which could benefit anyone looking to serve or be served within the community. Work featured in Atlanta’s Design Equilibrium 2013 publication. Team submission [with John Valentine]
2012_Awards | 1st Place AIA Atlanta YAF 48Hr Competition
THE COLLECTOR | The gesture of a sunken cube responds to the idea of placing a person, peoples or ideas into a box. A fluid movement along a narrow path that is slowly submerged into water gestures the death of ignorance and suppression while breaking the formal grid of the proposed landscape. From the water’s edge one would have only a glimpse of the submerged cube keeping the water’s palne continuous. Work featured in Atlanta’s Design Equilibrium 2015 publication. Team submission [with John Valentine]
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2014_Awards | Finalist AIA Atlanta YAF 48Hr Competition
DESIGN PROMPT | The Atlanta Public Library aims to engage current and future library users through connecting to the surrounding city environment. The design intent is left to the designers as to how the library engages the public with restrictions on the size of the project. Designers must make their proposals transportable and able to be pulled by a standard pick-up truck. PROPOSAL | The Network is made up of a system of “sub-hives” that communicate with one another through their physicality and the integrated system of technology implemented within each compartment’s interconnecting walls. Each group of sub-hives is connected to the others and displays messages or images when physically engaged. These connection trigger a link back to the Central Library where any individual or group can participate in information sharing or engage in an impromptu person-to-person video game while waiting for their train or for their phone to charge. Work featured in Atlanta’s Design Equilibrium 2017 publication. Individual submission.
2016_Awards | 2nd Place AIA Atlanta YAF 48 Hr Competition
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Throughout high school and undergrad I pursued an investigation into the female form; transforming, reshaping or conforming it to the built environment. Other various drawings completed by commission or assignment.
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GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY SOUTHERN POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY
2005-11_Fine Arts Various works in pencil, pen and gouche
Over the course of a study abroad trip in Dessau, Germany I was taken with the architecture and landscape. Studying the Bauhaus school of design and taking trips through the country propelled a love for capturing these moments. Daniel Libeskind’s works were of particular interest. Photographs to the right are while visiting the Jewish Museum in Berlin.
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SOUTHERN POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY DESSAU STUDY ABROAD 2011
2005-11_Fine Arts Various works in pencil, pen and gouche