Tim O’Sullivan
Architecture Portfolio B.Arch 2018
Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
Curriculum Vitae Tim O’Sullivan (14.12.1993) e. tim141293@gmail.com t. (089) 4016372
Education - Bachelor of Architecture
2012 - 2018
Dublin School of Architecture (DIT) - Leaving Certificate
2011 - 2012
Institute of Education - Castleknock College
2006 - 2011
Skills - Proficient in Vectorworks, Sketchup, Full Adobe Suite and Microsoft Office programs - Basic experience with AutoCAD and Revit - Excellent model making skills in a variety of materials - Hand sketching
Additional Information - Part of the editorial team for the DSA fifth year publication ‘Utilitas’ - a collection of booklets explaining and displaying the work of the final year students
2018
| Introduction
Professional Experience - McCullough Mulvin Architects
September 2015 - May 2016
Molesworth Street, Dublin 2, Ireland - Architectural Assistant - I worked on a variety of projects ranging from small scale domestic buildings to large scale public buildings. - I gained experience in a variety of work methods including digital and physical model making, conceptual rendering, competition entries, early stage design drawings, planning preparations and magazine publications. - I was given a lot of responsibility and entrusted to work on several projects on my own from the initial design stage up until tender. I took part in client and design team meetings, made various models and produced tender drawing sets.
- Tayto Park Ashbourne, County Meath, Ireland - Assistant Manager - I worked in Tayto Park throughout my time studying in college. I was responsible for 150+ staff in the summer months and had daily interactions with customers. My time in Tayto Park taught me excellent time management skills, problem solving and greatly improved my communication skills.
March 2015 - May 2017
Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
| Contents
Contents
Selected Projects - Constructing Ground: Connecting the Physical & Cultural landscape
01 - 18
Final year thesis project - i. Making Ground
19 - 24
- ii.Dynamic Ground
25 - 30
- iii.Cultural Ground
31 - 36
Three 3 week long test projects exploring the thesis intention
Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
Constructing Ground
Connecting the Physical & Cultural landscape
Repairing the landscape The project aimed to reconnect the site to its cultural setting by providing both public and private layers of inhabitation within this abandoned landscape. Therefore, the brief became a two-part approach, connected by an overall landscape strategy. The first part of the brief created new public aspects for the site. A boat docking and servicing point, a cafĂŠ and shop, fishing pier and ancillary recreational spaces and a water treatment and hydroelectric production centre were all provided along the Barrow, adding new value to this post-industrial landscape to connect the site and the river. The second part of the brief consists of a new typology of housing, with the aim of providing new layers of long-term human activity within this landscape. The two parts of the brief are connected through a constructed wetland for wastewater treatment of the immediate site and the town of Goresbridge. The brief adds new cultural, economic and environmental value to this wasteland.
01 |
| Constructing Ground
above | Map of significant active quarries in Ireland
| 02
Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
above | Ballyelle quarry location in relation to the town of Goresbridge
03 |
| Constructing Ground
Common Ground The housing became important from the perspective of providing new inhabitation within this derelict landscape. As the project developed, the spaces between the houses became as important in constructing a new ground for this site as the houses themselves. By separating the houses, a series of spaces were created, offering either circulation down into the quarry or framed views of the site and to the wider landscape. These spaces became places themselves and offered moments of reprieve within this landscape for visitors and residents to stop and enjoy this reclaimed place. These spaces were knitted together by a fabric of common ground. Constructed of the ground, crushed limestone surfaces create a new layer of circulation through the site while fitting into the existing material character of the site. above | Topographical model of Ballyellen Quarry
| 04
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above | Site strategy plan showing new housing and public amenities
05|
| Constructing Ground
above | Section studies of new public amenities
| 06
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07 |
| Constructing Ground
above | Study plan of the proposed houses
| 08
Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
Walls carved from and made of the ground create channels through this landscape for circulation and form the foundations for inhabitation. The walls create a readable datum within the landscape that connects the internal and external spaces and form a close physical relationship with the ground. The physical landscape stores the layers of human history. These layers can be read over time and provide an important insight into the cultural landscape of a place. This site contained many layers of human activity within the ground. Retaining the existing character of the place formed a deeper connection between architecture and the ground. The attitude developed towards this specific site aimed to create a strong sense of place. However, the ideas and principles behind the project have the potential to be expanded and manipulated to regenerate more of these lost landscapes at a national level.
09 |
| Constructing Ground
above | Section study of the proposed houses
| 10
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above | Detail section exploring the relationship between room and landscape
11 |
| Constructing Ground
above | Detail section exploring the relationship between room and garden
| 12
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above | Approach to the houses from the wetlands
13 |
| Constructing Ground
top | View from the living room to the wetlands
bottom | View from a bedroom to shared public space
| 14
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above | 1:100 Topographical model, making ground
15 |
| Constructing Ground
top | 1:20 Sectional model of the living room
bottom | Topographical study model of housing proposal
| 16
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17 |
| Constructing Ground
above | Process sketches exploring the scheme at different scales
| 18
Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
i. Making Ground
Connecting the Physical & Cultural landscape
The Idea “To me, the presence of certain buildings has something secret about it. They seem to simply be there. We do not pay any special attention to them. And yet it is virtually impossible to imagine the place where they stand without them. These buildings appear to be anchored firmly in the ground. They make the impression of being a self-evident part of their surroundings and they seem to be saying ‘I am as you see me and I belong here’.” Zumthor, 1998, p.17-18 To test my thesis, the first project aimed to explore a specific aspect of the relationship between building and ground. I looked at how context can determine the appropriate response and how the building either forms a connection with the site or abstractly places itself there as an artefact. The aim of the project was to test two specific types of relationship between architecture and the ground; a permanent relationship with the ground and an ephemeral structure that provides for the current needs but is constructed to allow for a sense of flexibility.
19 |
| Making Ground
above | Site plan showing the relationship to Custom House
| 20
Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
top | Café plan
bottom | Section exploring relationship with ground and water
21 |
| Making Ground
The Test The test was to create a permanent physical relationship between the foundations and the ground. To form a sense of permanence, the foundations appear to cut back the ground and retain the space around them, creating the architecture. The foundations are a permanent change to the ground but the structure is ephemeral – it can decay or be removed, even redesigned or reused – but the foundations remains as a scar on the Earth. They leave behind an eternal connection between the building and the ground.
The merging of the foundations with the river wall creates a clear, continuous datum line that can be read throughout the building, making the inhabitants aware of the fusion of the two elements. The ground material of the site continues through into the more public parts of the building, forming a sense of continuity between inside and outside.
The foundations and the wall essentially become fused together, acting as both the foundations for the café and the retaining wall for the river. The approach comes from the context – the retaining wall being the predominant feature of the site. The wall and the building then act almost as a new ground, mediating and retaining two types of ground – the solid on one side and the liquid on the other.
above | View towards Liberty Hall
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23 |
| Making Ground
above | Axonometric study of the structural composition
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Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
ii. Dynamic Ground
Connecting the Physical & Cultural landscape
The Idea “Architecture is bound to situation. Unlike music, painting, sculpture, film, and literature, a construction (non-mobile) is intertwined with the experience of a place. The site of a building is more than a mere ingredient in its conception. It is its physical and metaphysical foundation.” Holl, 1989, p.9 The second project aimed to test a new aspect of the thesis idea: a dynamic relationship between building and ground. To do this, I first had to understand what I was implying when I referred to a dynamic relationship and how that would manifest itself architecturally. A dynamic relationship, to me, implied creating a building that allows for the natural landscape to change and flow around it – this creates a changing condition, a different experience every time.
25 |
| Dynamic Ground
above | Site plan showing human movement through the sand dunes
| 26
Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
above | Approach to the building from the car park
27 |
| Dynamic Ground
The Test The spaces that were deemed less important are buried into the dunes – the bathrooms, the offices etc. The L-shaped wall is an anchor for the building, retaining the sand on one side and holding the building in place. The walls continue out past the edges of the building, as a device to catch sand, encouraging change, and also expressing the building as two solid masses rising up from the ground. The important spaces are lifted off the ground – community room, exhibition space and viewing platform. The skeletal frame of the building is revealed, highlighting the second condition of architecture touching the ground. The juxtaposition of the two conditions encourages the landscape to change, thus creating a dynamic relationship. A datum line exists on the columns as a measuring device for the change, constructed at eye level from the interior of the building, it is constantly within your line of sight, reminding you of the changing relationship.
The structure is revealed internally, the columns continue up through the spaces, reminding the users of the relationship with the ground. The spaces are lined with black burlap, highlighting the natural landscape outside and the structure, so the focus is on the relationship of building and ground. The material character is concrete. The concrete is poured in layers to create the appearance of stratification, as if the building is constructed of the ground.
“...architecture in space, finds a crucial moment in the way in which the building touches the ground… this unavoidable encounter constitutes an integral part of the design and is intimately connected to the attitude one holds with regard to the site and with the relationship between artefact and nature.” Berlanda, 2014, p.1
above | Section study of the structural composition
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top | Dynamic relationship - initial construction compared to future condition
bottom | View towards the sea
29 |
| Dynamic Ground
above | Main gallery space
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Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
iii. Cultural Ground
Connecting the Physical & Cultural landscape
The Idea The third project aimed to further test the ideas from project 01 and 02. Bringing forward ideas regarding the relationship between building and ground, challenging what permanence means in architecture and how it can be used to create a stronger connection between architecture and its cultural and physical landscapes. Something that has been discussed in my previous test projects is how to create a more profound connection between architecture and place – through these tests and through my research on the subject, it has become clear that several factors can influence a building’s permanence and connection with its landscapes – time, history, tradition, culture and use. I started the project by looking at the Vitruvian Triad more critically and how an understanding of these three principles can be used to create a sense of permanence and a more profound connection between architecture and the ground. For this test, I broke Firmitas down into two modes of permanence, static and dynamic. Static permanence relates very closely to standard understandings of permanence – a durability of construction, something that doesn’t change over time.
31 |
| Cultural Ground
above | Site plan showing the relationship to the main routes of the park
| 32
Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
The Test Dynamic permanence implies a sense of flexibility – a possibility for a change of function or location but the change is not essential – although it allows for change, it equally creates a sense of permanence through its durable construction and usefulness in serving the needs of its inhabitants. If broken down further, it could also be said that Firmitas forms the static mode of permanence and Utilitas forms the dynamic.
The use of concrete attempts to link the architecture to the solid character of these buildings, standing in their place for an indefinite period of time. Through these links with the history and tradition of the existing architecture, the new building forms a greater connection between the past, present and future. It could be said that this creates a cultural permanence within the architecture.
The architectural form of the building takes reference from the existing buildings of the park. A series of follies are scattered close to the site, taking their aesthetic form from classical architecture. The follies provide a man-made order to the natural landscape, the new sports club seeks to follow suit, creating a structural rhythm and order.
above | Ground floor plan showing permanent and temporal structures
33 |
| Cultural Ground
above | Sectional study of the relationship with ground
| 34
Portfolio | Tim O’Sullivan
above | Approach from the pitches
35 |
| Cultural Ground
above | Axonometric study of the structural composition
| 36
Thank you for your consideration. References available upon request.
Architecture Portfolio Tim O’Sullivan B.Arch e. tim141293@gmail.com t. (089) 4016372