VERITY BLEVINS University of Florida School of Architecture 2015-2017
Cultural Joint | Fall 2017
Pg. 4-9
Embedded Literature | Fall 2015
Pg. 10-11
Textile Cultivation | Fall 2016
Pg. 12-17
Transaction | Fall 2017
Pg. 18-21
Marine Edge | Spring 2015
Pg. 22-23
Analytical Sketching | Fall 2017
Pg. 24-25
Projection | Spring 2017
Pg. 26-33
vblevins@ufl.edu 248.835.2503
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Cultural Joint
CULTURAL JOINT DESIGN 7 [FALL 2017] BARCELONA, SPAIN IN COLLABORATION WITH ALEX HENCINSKI PROFESSOR: JAMES LEACH In the El Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, sustainable housing was created for the community on a site that is marked by medieval ruins. The educational and cultural centers of El Raval were analyzed in order to create spaces that would reflect the needs of the residents. A series of spaces were created to activate the connection between the park and the street: a café above the ruins and an underground sculpture gallery.
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In order to create shared residential spaces within the apartments, garden balconies were created on the park faรงade to engender social interaction. At the scale of an individual apartment, the shared garden balconies allow for not only social interaction but also ventilation, botanical respiration, and additional sunlight. The gardens have a visual connection between not only the set of residents that share it but the rest of the building because the main vertical circulation moves through them.
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Cultural Joint
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Cultural Joint
The purpose for the main incision into the building is for direct access from the street to the park, allowing people to move between the cafĂŠ and gallery spaces, prompting entry into the building. The cafĂŠ and gallery spaces provide parallel linkages to the park but do not meet physically.
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EMBEDDED LITERATURE DESIGN 3 [FALL 2015] PROFESSOR: NANCY CLARK This project was generated from the imagery of the works of Jules Verne, particulary 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The primary component of the space itself are the conditions that hold books, which are transparent volumes that not only allow moments for pause as one peruses through the novels but a form of ascension through the space. The moment of realization occurs in the interstitial space that occupants reach once they have experienced the realm of Jules Verne’s literature. The amalgamation of the knowledge gained culminates in a space that is submerged below the rest of the reading room.
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Embedded Literature
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TEXTILE CULTIVATION DESIGN 5 [FALL 2016] IN COLLABORATION WITH CAROL-ANNE RODRIGUES PROFESSOR: MARTHA KOHEN In rural Madison, Florida, this project blends existing context with the vastness of the Floridian landscape. Situated on the site is a warehouse that was utilized by an electric company over a hundred years ago. The prompt included devising a method for occupants to revitalize the warehouse. The site itself is also on the national quilting trail, which informed the program of our intervention; a space for quilting.
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Textile Cultivation
The existing warehouse space transformed into a digital fabrication center so that occupants could produce quilts of larger quantities and scales in addition to smaller scale textiles by hand. Within the digital fabrication there are opportunities for education through viewing areas that allow for reflection upon the process of quiltmaking.
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Textile Cultivation
A series of interventions evolved from the singular programmatic idea of quilting: a space for display, a space for making, and a space for respite. The space for display is a permeable gallery that leads people through the landscape and alows them to interact with the work being produced. A space for quilting is a series of moments that provide different scales of experience based on the progression of the quilt. The larger space allows for quilters to work on several different pieces of a quilt individually whereas the smaller space suggests a collective working session on a single quilt.
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The spaces in between the interventions formed by the itineraries of visitors and quilters. A textile screen filters light and provides a sense of approach from the street. The change in ground provides for different view of the primary garden space, which contains low edge conditions for seating that are derived from the proportions of a Housetop quilt.
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Textile Cultivation
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Transaction
TRANSACTION DESIGN 7 [FALL 2017] BARCELONA, SPAIN IN COLLABORATION WITH LISA RYZHIKOV PROFESSOR: JAMES LEACH The project constructs informal and formal modes of interaction within the Gracia neighborhood of Barcelona through two vegetative atria spaces. These atria are derived from ideas about vegetation as a moment of pause between active spaces. The active spaces provide for market stalls that create a sense of community between residents and tourists of Barcelona.
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Transaction
The skin, made of perforated metal, encloses the main volumes of the market and community space. It is held by a tensioned rod system that pulls the panel away from the building to allow air and light to penetrate. On an individual scale, the exterior conditions of the apartments are permeable in that the vertical edges fold to allow the plants to grow into the balcony space.
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Marine Edge
MARINE EDGE DESIGN 4 [SPRING 2016] PROFESSOR: KRISTIN NELSON
From initial studies of the Namibian desert and its wildlife inhabitants, a space for scientific observation was created. The African Penguin and its cycles of breeding and hunting became the programmatic driver for the ideas of carved and submerged spaces. A transparent concave volume directly engages the ocean to observe the penguins as they are hunting in the water. A tower for scientfic observation levitates high above the dunes, allowing for a moment of respite amongst the active and charged ground condition. The interventions are constructed to circumvent the migration patterns of the penguins.
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Analytical Sketching
ANALYTICAL SKETCHING [FALL 2017] PROFESSOR: KRISTIN NELSON Throughout the semester in Vicenza, Italy, we worked on analyzing historical and architecturally significant sites through sketching. The focus of my analysis was based on architectural impurities and imperfections as experienced in spaces after construction. There have been many instances that I had found in my travels where human occupation and touch had eroded away the layer that the architect intended for people to see and revealed the layers of construction beneath.
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PROJECTION DESIGN 6 [SPRING 2017] PROFESSOR: BRADLEY WALTERS
Set in the historic infrastructure of Charleston, a space for a new learning typology was requested for the local college. A space for projecting and producing sculptures through holographic means became the overall programmatic driver for the project. The primary architectural element that was generated was a large wall condition that became a light aperture and surface for projecting sculptures.
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Projection
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Projection
The rhythm and measure of Charleston’s urban fabric was analyzed in drawing and a collective site model. The significant scalar shifts between the commercial and residential zones were impacted by the shift in the grid of the city. It became evident that the central corridor between King and Meeting Street is the most active zone with more quiet moments embedded throughout. As a group of five we studied these ideas about the city in the large scale model.
Individual
Group
Down
Up
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Projection
The projection and fabrication of sculptures is an active set of experiences that requires a buffer between the building and its context. The garden space, a continuation of Rivers Green, (the field adjacent to Addlestone Library) blends exterior and interior spaces to allow occupants to take respite under a vegetative overhead condition and enjoy spontaneous educational experiences. The facade of the projection and garden spaces reflect the auditory conditions of each. The garden space has a permeable edge with screening that filters light whereas the volume for projection has a more enclosed edge condition that folds to create another layer of insulation.
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The moment of transition from the quiet zone of the residential block to the institutional scale of the building is softened by the constructed landscape that has depressions in the ground to preserve the gravesites underneath.
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Projection
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VERITY BLEVINS Cell: (248)-835-2503 Email: verityblevins@gmail.com
EDUCATION University of Florida
Major in Architecture Minor in Sustainability & the Built Environment 3.92 GPA Vicenza Institute of Architecture
Somerset Academy High School
Fall 2014-present Fall 2017
National Honor Society, Science National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, Key Club 3.96 GPA
2010-2014
Gave tours of college for prospective students and hosted events for alumni as well as current students. Interviewed guest lecturing architects and wrote for student-led publication. Inducted based on GPA and academic standing at University of Florida. Recruitment Director (2015) and Worthy Clerk (2016) of co-ed professional fraternity that provides student body with professional, service, and social opportunities.
Spring 2016-present
INVOLVEMENT College of Design, Construction, and Planning Ambassadors Architrave Writing Team Golden Key Honor Society Alpha Rho Chi
Fall-Spring 2016 Spring 2015-present Spring 2015-present
RECOGNITION Writing in Architrave 24 Designs in Architrave 24 Florida Academic Scholar University of Florida Dean’s List Somerset Academy Valedictorian
Work titled Vernacular Architecture in student-led publication. Works titled Urban Movement and Textile Garden in student-led publication. Scholarship (full tuition) awarded based on GPA and SAT scores. Awarded based on GPA per semester. Awarded based on GPA and academic standing in high school.
Spring 2016 Spring 2016 2014-present Spring 2015-present Spring 2014
EXPERIENCE Arquitectonica | Intern Worked in a team on schematic design drawings. Created presentations for client meetings. Coordinated schematic design development with interior design, landscape design and other parties.
Summer 2017
Tijuana Flats | Cashier Assisted customers by providing exceptional service. Handled forms of payment when carrying out transactions. Worked in a team environment in order to achieve efficiency throughout the store.
Summer 2016
SKILLS Hand Sketching Hand Drafting Model Making Microsoft Office Revit
SketchUp AutoCAD 3DS Max Rhinocerous Maxwell for Rhino
Brazil for Rhino Grasshopper Adobe Photoshop Adobe InDesign Adobe Illustrator
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