Thomas Schalnat Architectural Portfolio
Personal Statement To challenge what is; to build what is not I’ve heard many students, instructors, and practitioners speak of the loftiness of the field. However, over the past few years studying architecture, I have come to a greater understanding of what architecture is and what it can and cannot do. Architecture, can represent what we are capable of at our best. However, there are also plenty of examples where architecture represents where we have come up short of our capabilities. In architecture I see how great we can be, and also how much work there is to be done, both of which I find motivating. Architecture has an ability to impact people’s daily lives, whether it’s a more vibrant work environment, more engaging social and recreational places, or a more comforting home to begin and end each day. It has a significant, yet subtle power. It represents what makes humans distinctively unique; we not only have an ability to change our surroundings and circumstances, but how and why something should be changed. There is a strength and beauty to the act of designing and building. Architecture, in its most rudimentary form, is a subtle message to the rest of humanity, that it should not forget, or even worse ignore, its capabilities to alter its surroundings. While architecture posses great capabilities, it also has its limitations. Architecture can’t solve many of our society’s pressing issues. Bad things can still happen in our most noble of designs. It took me a while not only to accept this, but also to understand that not only does this not detract from architectures meaning, but it actually adds to it. Architecture critic, Alain De Botton explains in his book, Architecture of Happiness. “When we are moved by a building, we allude to a bittersweet feeling of contrast between the noble qualities written into a structure and the sadder wider reality within which we know it exists. A lump rises in our throats at the sight of something beautiful from the implicit knowledge that the happiness it hints to is the exception.” What architecture means to me is that there is beauty and hope in an otherwise be a bleak backdrop. While we see many instances of edifices of greed and insatiable egos, we can also see testaments of intimacy, community, and humility. In architecture, we can see strength and beauty, and even a sense of pride, in the carrying of a burden.
“Here, then, is what I wanted to tell you of my architecture. I created it with courage and idealism, but also with an awareness of the fact that what is important is life, friends, and attempting to make this unjust world a better place in which to live.” - Oscar Niemeyer
Thomas Schalnat email
thomas.schalnat@gmail.com
mobile
775.762.4252
web
http://archinect.com/thomas_schalnat
Table Of Contents
Ataraxia Wellness Center
1-9
Astera Science Museum
10 - 19
MOD_Park
20 - 29
Dalain Cultural Center
30 - 37
Ataraxia Wellness Center Type Date Program Location
Studio Project Winter 2013 Wellness Center Chula Vista Nature Reserve
Ataraxia's aim is to provide an area for nature and man to intersect and reconnect. The site offers a vast canvas of textures and colors that engages observers to become more in tune with their senses. The concept was derived from the significance that different types of interactions can have on our reality.
1
Site Analysis “Nature and Man Intersect and Reconnect�
0
0
5
10
15
N
10 25
50
Ataraxia Wellness Center The Chula Vista National Wildlife Refuge is one of the few remaining marshlands along the West Coast of the United States. It is rich with inhabitants and is a natural relief in an over developed urban setting. It offers a vast canvas of textures and colors that engages observers to become more in tune with their senses.
San Diego
20 5
10
Downtown San Diego
15
Chula Vista Nature Reserve
Building Site
3
Concept Development
Intersecting and Interacting
Ataraxia Wellness Center Intersections are most commonly conceptualized as lines, however, they describe the interactions of many other things. The concept was an investigation into defining different types of intersection of different things; lines, pictures, and even as people on individual paths intersecting and interacting with other people, sometimes being influenced and sometimes not.
The visual path they follow over the bridge also frames a specific view to remind them that they are temporarily disconnected from the busy lives that we can so easily develop.
5
Building Drawings
4
2 2 2
1 N
Level 1
10
25
50
3
Ataraxia Wellness Center
6
1. Lobby 2. Classrooms 3. Health Library 4. Seminar Room 5. Cardio Exercise Area 6. Yoga Studio 7. Patio 8. Observatory 9. Cafe/Nutrition Bar 10. Fire Pits
5
7
9 8
10
Level 2
Level 3
7
Interior Development
Ataraxia Wellness Center
9
Astra Science Museum Type Date Program Location
Studio Project Spring 2013 Museum Downtown Los Angeles
The main thrust of the museum is not to educate society on sciences, but to transform society with sciences. The sciences and the arts come to work together in the museum to promote a feeling of unity for the users and advance human curiosity. The museum helps science break out of its dry data and gives it vitality.
11
Concept Development The idea for the shell is used to grab passersby attention and help the museum stand out in the myriad of buildings that make up LA. The form underneath the shell represents the substance of the building. These Apollonian and Dioyneses characters are the antithesis of each other, similar to the sciences and the arts. Both of which come to work together in the museum to promote a feeling of unity for the users an advance humanities curiosity.
Astra Science Museum
The shell gives the museum its personality
The pure form represents the substance of the building
NT
A AUR T S E
R
EXHIBIT PRE-FUNCTION OFFICES RE
P
O KSH
R
WO
TAIL
13
Plan Development
Site Lines
Pedestrian Access
Little Tokyo
Matching Plaza
Site Characteristics
Vehicular Access
The site has a great opportunity to contribute to the cultural and educational atmosphere around it. Its neighbors are Little Tokyo to the West and the Japanese American National Museum to the North. Both of which attract high pedestrian traffic. The site is located where First St. bends and has high visibility from the West and Northeast.
Astra Science Museum Japanese American National Museum
First S
South Alameda Street
South Ce
ntral Aven
ue
treet
Se
co
nd
Str
ee
t
N 0 10
25
50
15
Interior Development
Astra Science Museum This space greets the user immediately after passing thorough the lobby and must be traveled through to reach the other programs of the museum. As the users travel up the stairs they pass under the perforated skin that connects from the floor level to the roof level and intersects the double height ceiling. As the users pass under the skin and follow it up, they will see that the atrium above is open and reveals the night sky.
17
Form Development
2
3
7
1 4 2 5
6 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Glazing Aluminum Fixing Profile Silicone Edge Profile Perforated Steeel Plate Steel Stud Silicone Compression Strip Tubular Steel Column
The hierarchy between the free form and the pure form is won in different moments. The relationship between the two objects creates unique spaces. The views from the exterior reveal some of the programs but also retains mystery and provokes curiosity.
Astra Science Museum The front of the house programs function in a open floorplan to increase connectivity between the users and to increase the level of interaction between them. The exhibit space is linear to represent a journey; a process.
Level 2
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
7 8
6
Lobby Workshop Ticket Sales Retail Offices Exhibition Entrance Patio Restaurant Exhibit Exit
Level 1
2 1
4 3 5 9
N
0 10 25
50
19
MOD_Park Type Date Program Location
Studio Group Project Fall 2013 Residential Masterplan San Diego, California
Similar to R.M. Schindler’s Pueblo Ribera, the relationship of indoor and outdoor is the primary focus. For the master plan we focused on different levels of interaction defining when a space switches between public and private.
21
Site Analysis The first zoning was based on the site’s topography. The second was based on the idea that the upper and lower levels should have mixed programs. The third scenario represents a complete mixture of program and better represents the many types of gradients of the site.
50 0
N
10 25
50
MOD_Park The site’s defining characteristics were used as attractors for the organization of the masterplan.
Attractors
Loose
Intense
Results
Views
Pedestrian Access
Noise
Privacy
23
Modular Development
“L“ Shape Provides Opportunities
Outdoor Space Shifted to Front
Outdoor Space Below
Outdoor Space Above
Mirrored “L”s With Exterior Communal Space In Between
Mirrored “L“s Interlocked
Shared Outdoor Space
Double Heights
Separated Outdoor Space We started developing a modular system that focused on open/private indoor and outdoor space. External Room
Interlocking Sides
Resulting Module Mass With Two Separate Outdoor Spaces
Internal Room
Upper Lever Privacy/Openness and Indoor/Outdoor Section Diagram
Private Indoor Space
Open Outdoor Space
Open Indoor Space
Private Outdoor Space
MOD_Park
Vertical Privacy/Openness
SEMI-PUBLIC
PRIVATE
SEMI-PUBLIC
PUBLIC
SEMI-PUBLIC
PRIVATE
Horizontal Privacy/Openness
PRIVACY WITHIN PUBLIC VIEW
PRIVACY
Lower Level Privacy/Openness and Indoor/Outdoor Section Diagram
Open Indoor Space
Private Outdoor Space
Open Outdoor Space
Private Indoor Space
25
Building Drawings Level 2
Level 1
MOD_Park Level 2
Level 1
27
Masterplan
3
1
1
Resident Parking
2
Community Garden
3
Amphitheater
4
Playground
5
Fire Pits
6
Upper Residences
7
Lower Residences
8 9
Picnic Tables Playground Parking
10
Residency Paths
11
Secluded Space
12
Open Field
2 12 7
6
8 11 5
8 12
7
6 8
4
MOD_Park The materiality selection and placement was determined by the materialities attibutres relating to openness and privacy and indoor and outdoor. Concrete was chosen for its feeling of security, wood for its strong connection to nature and
Exposed Architectural Grade Concrete Fixed Glazing
SunShade Overhang
18’
Post Tension Concrete Structure
8’ Rotating Glass Facade
0’ Slab on Grade Construction 29
Dalian Cultural Center Type Date Program Location
Group Competition Entry Fall 2013 Cultural Center Dalian, China
Much can be taken away from the dichotomy between man and nature. Man has often seen himself separate from nature. This fosters an all too abundant perspective that we are a different entity and sometimes even evolves into the idea that it is man vs. nature. The story, however, is much more dramatic. The story isn’t about one entity opposing another but one entity understanding itself. We are of nature. We are rooted in and an extension of nature. We are nature becoming aware of itself.
31
Ground Plane Development
Central Park 1
1 2 3 4 5
4
Public Entrance Picnic Meadows Children’s Garden Walking Trails Green Roof
Tower 6
Information Center
Communal Space 7 Auditorium 8 Classrooms 9 Conference Room 10 Shops 11 Offices 12 Storage 13 Mechanical 14 Restroom
2
5 11
14 8
6 8 9
3
12 13
6
7
Public Entrance
10
14
Primary Path
Secondary Path
Dalian Cultural Center Liaong Province
Northeast China
Tertiary Path
Northern Dalian
Green Scape
Building Placement
33
Tower Development
Simple Geometry
Vertical Extrusion
Bioclimatic Gesture
Mass Extrusion
Dalain Cultural Center The methodical spiraling gesture embodies the concept of man being a part of and an extension of nature. The design combines bioclimatic architectural elements and complex geometry to create a landmark destination where man’s endeavors are exhibited with a close connection to man’s roots in nature.
Primary Structure
Secondary Structure
Skin Facade
Skin Composition South skin = 80% sun exposure East skin = 60% sun exposure West skin = 10% sun exposure North skin = 20% sun exposure N
Vertical Circulation The main path punches through the skin and the through the two structures to give hierarchy to the path itself.
35
Building Development
Dalian Cultural Center
Eleventh Floor
Tenth Floor
Ninth Floor
Fourth - Eighth Floor
37