vanessa vanderhoof d e s i g n
w o r k
p o r t f o l i o
STATEMENT OF INTENT I believe in the innovation and creativity of architectural design. Through my education I was able to explore the possibilities of expanding my design intent into subjects of community engagement, sustainability, place-making, and the intersection of architecture with various disciplines. I believe the role of the architect should be more prevalent and necessary in everyday life, rather than a luxury or commodity. Architecture envelopes our lives; therefore it should be thoughtfully, creatively, and responsibly designed in effort to enhance the built environment for everyone.
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THE FOG CENTER THESIS: GARMENT-ARCHITECTURE
FOLDING CUBE A PARAMETRIC SCREEN THE HYBRID LIBRARY PERSONAL ART WORK
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GRADUATE WORK 2013-2015
THE FOG CENTER weather research station studio 9 . spring-fall 2014 This project spanned over two terms, and fulfilled one third of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Architecture. During the first term we were to select a weather phenomenon to study, and design a weather research facility centered around that particular weather choice. The second term, after finalizing the building design and research, we focused on taking our project through design development. This required us to produce drawings and understandings of everything from accessibility to life safety, and MEP; while referencing the related building code. The weather phenomenon I selected was fog. The site I selected from the given options is located around 4904-4968 SW Landing Dr, Portland, Oregon. This site consisted of two plots that were divided by rail tracks that are planned to become part of the streetcar line in the future. Planning for a streetcar stop at this site, I wanted to create a small destination center that housed both scientific and artistic studies of fog. One of the concepts of the building is lighthouse; a beacon in the fog rather. To create this notion, there is a large central space that houses the main vertical circulation of the building. In this atrium-like space through mechanical systems, fog is created. This allows for the scientific and artistic works done at the center to be tested and showcased in fog, while also offering an experiential aspect to the center.
“THE FOG COMES, ON LITTLE CAT FEET. IT SITS LOOKING, OVER HARBOR AND CITY, ON SILENT HAUNCHES, AND THEN MOVES ON.� - CARL SANDBURG
(project cover photo: http://mlartsource.com/blog/62/feelings-are-facts-ma-yansong)
GARMENT ARCHITECTURE: a symbiotic design approach
thesis design project fall 2014 - spring 2015 Architecture and garment design share many deeply rooted territories that drive each field. One of the most basic shared territories is sheltering the body, although they operate at vastly different scales. This difference in scale leads to the assumption that architecture and garment design are incompatible at large scales. There are a number of smallscale works, usually a garment influenced by architecture, that represent a convergence of architecture and garment-making. There has yet to be a larger-scale work, such as a building, that integrates the design and making-techniques of both fields. This thesis focuses on how garment-making can influence the architectural design process, in an effort to create a building design that embodies both fields. In Portland, the garment industry is sparse, leaving a sort of placelessness to the industry. This project proposes a garment center that would house different elements of Portland’s garment industry, becoming a focal point to cinch the elements together. Through research and explorations, a design process and a building concept emerge to showcase the convergence of architecture and garment design.
“FASHION IS ARCHITECTURE: IT IS A MATTER OF PROPORTIONS.” - COCO CHANEL
How can the design + making of garments inform building design + the surrounding urban fabric?
DiaGRaMMinG MY PRocess
More often than not, garment designers take inspiration from something architectural, and interpret that into a garment design or collection. Yet they still end up with a garment, and do not take the design any further. I want to expose a way to create a building design concept, by taking inspiration of techniques and typologies of both architecture and garment design processes into one symbiotic design approach. To achieve this I started with listing the design process of a garment designer as well as an architect, and began to compare the phases and their characteristics. This diagram revealed how part of an architectural design phase was repeatable to one or more garment design phases, therefore mapping areas of connection between the two processes. In both fields of design, there is an instance when a concept or a physical aspect or entity of the project elicits a response. This was the most intriguing connection of architecture and garment design. I began to analyze a small sample of the typologies and tectonics of both fields while starting to compare the designs.
MaPPinG
I studied Portland’s garment industry by plotting the industry onto a map, this revealed how sparse the industry is in Portland. I wanted to create some sort of connection to cinch the industry together, I then started to group concentrated areas while layering each round of groupings on the same map. I also wanted to create a network that connect all of the groupings across Portland to further tether the industry together. Studying garment-making I noticed that the groupings began to resemble pattern pieces. I extracted the groupings out of the map along with the network lines connecting the groupings. I began to create fabric pieces of different areas of the mapping and began to sew the edges together, creating a Portland industry garment in a way.
site: 10th + oak st.
Through the mappings, I was able to select a site located in the most concentrated area of the industry in downtown Portland. Currently the site is surface parking, but the site is optimally positioned in good proximity to the densest setting of garment designers and shops, as well as pedestrian traffic and accessibility to the site. The zoning is a Central Commercial zone with a Design Overlay. This zoning allows for taller building heights, adding vertical potential to the design. To allow for ties to educational programming, the site is located very close to the Art Institute of Portland, and will allow for collaboration between the facilities.
GaRMent-aRchitectuRe: MaPPinG
As previously explored through the mappings of Portland, the theme of connection became vitally important to the idea of cinching the widespread-industry together. For the design of this garment, I developed patterns from the various groupings derived from the various map groupings. I connected the garment into one long garment by stitching the ends of each pattern piece together. As designers work mostly with their arms, I selected the arms to be the main part of the body that would connect the garment to the body of the wearer. The wearer wraps the garment around their body, while placing their arms through the simple openings. The result is that the wearer can wrap the garment differently, thus producing various amounts of ways to wear the garment.
GaRMent-aRchitectuRe: stRuctuRe
Structure is comprised of a number of elements which come together to create a rigid and sometimes pliable system. The themes of tension, compression, primary structural members, and secondary structural members were selected as the architectural instances to form this garment design. By studying and exploring techniques of garment construction, I discovered a way to embed the architectural instances into garment design techniques. For example, using a knit-like strategy, I was able to sew the structural member of the garment together. Ornamentation was part of the knitted elements placed strategically on the parts of the body which many of the garment-architecture design focused on such as: over the shoulders, and around the waist. The overall look of the garment also began to inform structure design for a building by creating a language of a knit-tension structure.
GaRMent-aRchitectuRe: PRoGRaM
One of the major design instances architects resolve, is program or uses for the building. Recalling the research I have done involving Portland’s need for a garment district, I decided to utilize this need and created a program for a building design proposal. By researching the different elements to garment design and making, I was able to list the relative programmatic needs for a building design located at the selected site in downtown. I determined three main divisions of program were needed for building: education, designers (and their industry needs), and the Portland Fashion Week/ Council. After refining the program to these three sectors or uses, I determined that the garment would be a threeperson garment. I developed concepts for each “character� of program which I then design connecting factors of the garment, making them fuse into one shared garment between the three wearers. By extracting design language from the previous garments, this program-garment takes on a design that is easily translated into a site-garment and building design proposal.
GaRMent-aRchitectuRe: clothinG the site
The process of “clothing the site� began as adding different layers of fabrics to represent different functions of the program. I was unable to complete a full building design proposal; however I created a starting point in a concept model for the site. This concept model begins to inform how spaces and program begin to inhabit the site or structure of the model through the fabric. I then began to overlay sketching of potential spatial qualities within the model. Certain aspects such as circulation, and spatial volumes began to take form as I manipulated the fabric more and more. The fabric that is inserted, weaved, and pinned into the model creates both positive and negative spatial volumes.
conclusion
While the scope of the project changed quite a bit over the course of this past school year, I feel that this design thesis has a lot to offer in the education of a merged design process. Learning a new field of design was both an interesting yet daunting task while constantly having to move forward with the thesis research and design production. I feel that if I had arrived at my final thesis question and project earlier, I would have been able to complete a schematic design of a building rather than the conceptual design. In hindsight, this sort of topic needed more time than one year. Though this process seems more like a personal process, I believe that there is still relevancy to the field of architectural design as well as garment design. In speaking with Noriko Kikuchi, she helped me realize how relevant my thesis work was; as the designs reminded Noriko of her time in design school for fashion. This brings more footing for my thesis and its stance in the design realm. I feel that the process of moving back and forth between one design instance responded to by another design field is the most intriguing thing about my thesis exploration. The heart of my project was to find a way to explore a new architectural design process garment-making. This topic is rich with research and design potential, and this thesis was just the starting point of a longer journey of exploration.
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UNDERGRADUATE WORK 2011-2013
FOLDING CUBE ranger trailhead station studio 1 . fall 2011 This is a relatively abstract, 2 week project developed in the first semester of my undergraduate program. The project called for a small shelter for a ranger located at a trail-head in the mountains of Utah. Due to snow, the shelter is closedup during winter. During the summer months, the shelter is opened up from the closed cube form to provide program for the 3 main human postures: standing, sitting, and laying down. The material originates from the cube itself, with nothing added or subtracted. The acts of opening the shelter involve cutting, folding, and sliding the surfaces of the cube to reveal habitable space. The concept of my design began with the folding of a flat shape into a cube form. The fewest possible number of folds to achieve a cube form is 5. This was reflected in the design of my shelter as the number of moves it would take the ranger to open up the cube, and reveal the three areas of program.
“A BREAKDOWN OF PHYSICAL WELL-BEING IS ALARMING; IT TURNS OUR ATTENTION TO FUNCTIONS THAT, ON GOOD DAYS, WE TAKE FOR GRANTED.” – ERWIN STRAUS, PHENOMENOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
A PARAMETRIC SCREEN print-making storefront studio 2 . spring 2012 PROJECT PARTNERS: Peter Gabert, Hangfei Zhang MY DUTIES: All graphics, presentation boards, frame
construction of full scale section model, small scale concept model This project explored parametric design through the production of a storefront screen of a vacant building in downtown Salt Lake City. This vacant store was assumed to become a letterpress shop, and the design was to express relations between the letterpress industry in a storefront screen that would enhance both pedestrian views and daylighting. Our project design expressed the figure/ground relationship of letterpress type. We created a module design that is layered, and held up by tension cable. The screen creates an exterior foyer as an entrance. The pattern of openings provides an open view to the pedestrian while walking by the store; but looking straight on to the store, there is almost complete privacy provided by the screen. The lighting changes throughout the day creating a different patterns, while blocking evening sun from directly entering the space. This project was my first chance at creating renderings as means of showing a design.
THE HYBRID LIBRARY hybrid library design studio 4 . spring 2013 At the beginning of this semester-long project, we were to conduct a group precedent study of a particular library located in Phoenix, Arizona. My group studied the South Mountain Community College (SMCC) Library designed by Rich채rd+Bauer. We were to analyze the library and develop our own concept of the design, then re-draw the building through the lens of our group-developed concept. Following a class trip to Phoenix, we were assigned a new group based on the site we were interested in designing our project. The selected site was the Gateway Community College Campus which only occupied one entire block, but offered 3 potential locations for a project. We studied the site, and as a group produced drawings and a site model for us to use in our personal project designs. The location I selected on the site was noted as prime real-estate for large urban, and metropolitan growth and development. This was suitable for my design concept of a hybrid library. My design sought to cater to the metropolitan feel on the ground level, while the more traditional library program was raised onto the second level with a few spaces that touch down to the ground level for connection and integration. The library was intended to be shared by the college, and the community such as the SMCC Library. With high influences of technology infiltrating libraries today, I designed the program of the building to be susceptible and integrative in regards of technology. This was to create a new urban library typology for the campus and community that could offer more than a traditional library.
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OTHER WORK 2008-2014
PERSONAL ART WORK mixed media + photography ranging from 2008-2014 Many of my hobbies and interests include that of drawing and sketching with different medias. I also love photography, of all types of subject matter. Images are a sample of a variety of my mixed media work, and photography. Below are the listings of: material of mixed media; and the subject or type of photography. More can be seen on my website, these are simply samplings of various subject matters and materials. KEY OF IMAGES: Mixed Media 1. Watercolor with Graphite, 2014 2. Charcoal, 2008 3. Watercolor with Ink, 2014 4. Ink, 2014 5. Graphite, 2014 6. Charcoal, 2008 Photography 7. Architectural, 2013 8. Light, 2008 9. Portrait/Person, 2011 10. Moment/Story, 2014 11. Nature/Landscape, 2012
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vanderhoof.vanessa@gmail.com