works steven lees
butterfly house.
(lab)yrinth.
material duality.
handcraft.
lowline park.
butterfly house.summer 2013
Design-Build with Alpha Rho Chi As part of our petition to become an established chapter of Alpha Rho Chi, we began leading design challenge sessions for groups of children at YMCA Day Camp Streefland. Working closely with the arts coordinator Madi, we began talking about the possibility of designing and building a structure at camp to raise and release monarch butterflies. The completed project provides an open, airy sanctuary for the endangered monarchs while serving as a demonstrative garden. The children can learn everything about the monarch’s life-cycle from caterpilar to butterfly to migration while overcoming fears of insects. Meanwhile, the structure serves as a large DIY model for anyone interested in lepidopterology.
1/4” = 1’0”
plants.usda.go Blackeyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta
Scarlet Beebalm Monarda didyma
Spreading Dogbane Apocynum androsaemifolium
Common Yarrow Achillea millefolium
Swamp Milkweed Asclepias incarnata
Butterfly Milkweed Asclepias tuberosa
Purple Coneflower Echinacea purpurea
Plastic ridge cap clamps screened roof panels into place and a metal clip secures the base.
In order to raise monarchs, the garden needs to have a combination of specific larva host plants and nectar-rich flowering plants. The smaller planters in the corners contain Butterfly Milkweed and Swamp Milkweed which act as host plants for monarch caterpilars. The two larger planters near the center hold the nectar-bearing plants that feed the monarch butterfly. The following native Minnesota plants were chosen for their range of color and bloom season: Common Yarrow, Spreading Dogbane, Scarlet Beebalm, Purple Coneflower, and Blackeyed Susan. An important part of operating a monarch butterfly garden is releasing them into their natural migration. The panalized roof system allows camp councilors to remove each panel simultaneously creating a grand annual event for the children. The panels remain unhinged until the following spring.
(lab)yrinth.in progress
Professor Neal Robinson Partners Reid Mauti + Momo Wei With housing as the focus of the studio, my team chose to create a mixed-use housing complex with diverse forms of dwelling. The (lab)yrinth houses a monastery, brewery, hotel, dormitories and monk dwellings. Traditionally monasteries spread horizontally across a pastoral landscape, but our project proposes a vertical shift in thinking that brings monastic life into contemporary times. Aside from their time spent in contemplation, study, and prayer, the monks operate three micro-brewery communities spread throughout the high-riser. Students interested in learning the process of crafting beer live in the tower and work with the monks to produce three distinct brews.
Aggregation
Housing
Brewery
Monastic
Structure
The main monastic programming consists of a central cloister, large and small chapels, , and monk dwellings. The traditional spanning cloister is compressed and forced upward in a central open shaft in the tower. This chasm, flanked by two massive concrete shear walls contains a perimeter steel catwalk and dynamic chapels. These chapels are individual use elevator rooms that travel through the chasm to the monk cells. After passing through the chasm, the monk enters his solitary dwelling. A stark contrast from the contemplative industrial atmosphere, the unit lightens up with natural material. Using cross-laminated timber, the container becomes the furniture becomes the dwelling. Branching out from the shear wall, timber beams create shelving, a desk, and a bed. Opposite the monk cells on the front facade of the tower, three breweries are read from the facade. Each brewery contains separate floors for milling, mashing, separating, boiling, and fermenting.
Brewery
Chasm
Housing
Cross Section
Monk Dwelling 1/32” = 1’0”
material duality.spring 2010 Professor Leslie Van Duzer
Looking to architectural precedents often leads to insights and inspiration. Charged with a project of crafting a wearable jacket using only one type of paper, I looked to Seattle Central Library by OMA Rem Koolhaas. I chose this iconic structure for its modular faรงade of highly reflective glass.
The faรงade of the library shows intentional variation of transparencies depending on the programs contained within. During the day, the glass curtain wall masks the interior completely from the street due to its high reflectivity. At night, the levels of opacity become apparent with interior lights shining through open areas and structural members. These night and day representations of masking and transparency become a driver for the design of the jacket and are inherently expressed through the joinery. The effect of the paper as a material, however, acts in the opposite way of the reflective glass. Instead, the transparencies of the jacket become apparent with light, while they dissipate with darkness.
value.fall 2012
Professor Brad Agee All too often one becomes dependent on sight and photographs to articulate mood, feeling, essence, and insight. The art of hand craft, however, breaks out of the lens of a camera and becomes an informative tool for both existing and conceptual ideas. Where contrast of value literally shows depth and tangibility, it also creates a depth of ideas, feelings, and intent.
Technique study of Odilon Redon’s Le Buddha, 1895.
hand-rendered perspective.fall 2012 Professor Brad Agee
The ability to capture the essence of a space the way the body experiences it is a powerful tool for representation. Drawing in perspective forces the viewer to observe a space from a carefully chosen station point to illuminate a set of ideas. Rendering the drawing further with value and materiality shows the character of inhabitation.
Rapson Hall central stair basement transition
lowline park.fall 2012
Professor John Comazzi Partner Brian Yang The Midtown Greenway is a uniquely linear space 20 feet below city grade in Minneapolis that was at one point a rail line. The project assumes that the city, along with the local Tree Trust organization, wants to develop the space for pedestrian interaction. Working collaboratively on all aspects of the design process, my partner and I decided that creating a linear park would not only bring people into the Greenway, but also promote a healthy habitat link with the surrounding park system. The development forms a system of Ribbons, Twists, and Knots.
NICOLLET AVE. SOUTH
PILSBURY AVE. SOUTH
PLEASANT AVE. SOUTH
GRAND AVE. SOUTH
HARRIET AVE. SOUTH
GARFIELD AVE. SOUTH
LYNDALE AVE. SOUTH
ALDRICH AVE. SOUTH
BLAISDALE AVE.
EDIBLE wintergreen common sunflower MEDICINAL gumweed sage BEAUTIFUL snow trillium sundial lupine AROMATIC wild rose pearly everlasting HABITAT wild plum bottle gentian prairiefire crabapple pin cherry black cherry quaking aspen cottonwood sugar maple hackberry jack pine eastern red cedar ginkgo honeycrisp apple river birch ironwood northern red oak red elm silver maple black spruce balsam fir
The ribbon portion of the Greenway is an experiential boardwalk that ties all the architectural and landscape interventions together. A series of light footprint structures house public restrooms, drinking fountains, information kiosks, and storage for maintenance. Portions of the ribbon that are perpendicular to existing parks are tree nurseries for private and public transplanting. All tree species grown are native Minnesota species. The other portions are native prairies that are planted for their experiential qualities. For instance, aromatic prairie species are planted together and can be picked and pressed to make perfume in the accompanying pavilion.
The largest architectural intervention occurs within the Tree Trust Knot. In this area, the urban planting group runs an office space, auditorium, and demonstration nursery. Across the Greenway on the north side, public programming includes a large seating steps plaza that integrates with a cafe, library, and outdoor projection area. The library acts in a non-traditional way combining a seed bank and ecological and sustainable technologies primers. Also, the plan redesigns an existing carwash suspending it five feet above street grade. Underneath it lies a constructed wetland with the purpose of cleaning the soapy wastewater produced.
The Bath House falls under the twist category. The programs contained within the structure all relate to the connection of water and leisure. The ground level consists of an exterior screened knee-pool, bike stalls, and interior dry and wet saunas. Moving up to the middle level the user finds men’s and women’s locker rooms and an exterior hot bath. A skylight cut into the floor of the bath shines natural light through to the saunas below. The roof acts as the top-most occupiable level. Lightwells cut through the slab to pull sunlight down to the locker rooms. The concrete walls below push up through the roof to create benched seating areas.
Ground Floor
Second Floor
Rooftop