SELECT WORKS FALL 2010 - SPRING 2012
N A G R O D R M WILLIA
FALL 2010 EARTH ARCHITECTURE INSTRUCTOR: BETH TAUKE
THE EARTH-SKY CHAMBER (Phase III of IV) Objectives: Using land surveyed by a previously developed tool, make an incision into the earth and develop a space which will house three sacred bodies and reference the horizon.
DESIGN PROPOSAL The basic idea of the chamber is to challenge the standard conventions of observing the dead. The earthworks become a place where the user engages the sacred bodies and is essentially a space of play, where the user can do anything he or she wishes.
The form of the Earth-Sky chamber is based on a relationship with the Earth. Two of its three paths follow the most notable feature of the site, a depression in the landscape. The third path serves to bisect the other two, avoiding linearity and creating the potential for continuity in circulation through the space. All three mimic the landscape they occupy, allowing the user to experience walking over the same terrain at their side.
The sacred bodies housed within the incision are actual deceased bodies encased in stone caskets. Their varying positions within the site serve as both obstacles and enabling objects to movement, to be climbed under and over, to be both avoided and engaged.
SPRING 2011 THE LIVING WALL INSTRUCTORS: BRUSCIA, HUME, NAZARIAN, ROMANO
THE LIVING WALL Objectives: Transform a 6" x 6" x 8" cube, removing internal mass in order to accomodate six sleeping spaces and circulation, while providing for the existence of neighboring structures on either side. Design transitions from massing, to programming, culminating in a final full-scale wooden structure.
DESIGN PROPOSAL The driving concept of this single unit of the living wall becomes to create a space within the "interior" of the original mass, which functions as an exterior space. Circulation functions cyclically, where one may move in either directon through the project around the aforementioned exterior space.
FALL 2011 TRANSFORMING PRECEDENT INSTRUCTOR: RHONA VOGT
HEALTH HOUSE TRANSFORMED (PHASE III of III) Objectives: Moving forward from previous research and analyses of the precedent (Richard Neutra's Health House), develop a family home located on Oquaga Lake with ADA access.
DESIGN PROPOSAL
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Through many analyses of the Lovell Health House, a focus on light was established. As a result of lighting diagrams, light wells are established to neutralize the cores of darkness they occupy. Designed to slice through the structure, they allow light to permeate each floor of the residence, at the same time integrating indoor and outdoor environments.
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Sections of the light well overlook outdoor areas of the home, while the presence of a raised light well "atrium" above the third floor with openable windows allows for a stack ventilation effect. Thus the light wells become not just an instrument of light, but of air flow and vision as well.
BEDROOM
BATH BEDROOM
STUDY
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BATH BEDROOM
PORCH
During development of the final structure, a particular set of circumstances were noted (highlighted) in which the spread of natural light was desired, but a high level of privacy was required as well. In response to this, several wall study models were created in order to develop a barrier which would allow for the permeation of light without compromising privacy. This was achieved by layering transparent and opaque materials at an angle (in this case, plexiglass and chipboard).
SPRING 2012 FORT NIAGARA THEATER INSTRUCTOR: MATT ZINSKI
THEATER & VISITOR CENTER (PHASE II of II) Objectives: Develop a proposal for a theater and visitor center located at Fort Niagara in New York using a previously constructed bundle and resulting analyses as inspiration. Proposal should be framed as a continuation of bundle analysis and contain an artifact display room, rare book room, map room, service space, ticketing space, and bathrooms.
DESIGN PROPOSAL A diagrammatic analysis of the previous figureground calls out two distinct circulations which intersect and integrate into one another at various points. This dual circulation becomes the focus of the Fort Niagara design proposal. In the steel site model, "poche" is defined as anything man-made within the fort and recreated out of wood. The Visitor Center design proposal creates two seperate circulations which deal with this poche. The Theater design works through a circulation entitled as "Inhabiting the Poche", while circulation throughout the rest of the fort is entitled "Observing the Poche."
The site plan identifies and categorizes three different typologies of interaction between the two circulations. Intersection occurs where the two circulations meet or cross but do not interact beyond visual connections. Integration occurs where the two circulations meet and the opportunity to exit the fort and integrate into a larger system is present. Porosity occurs where the two circulations intersect and the opportunity is present for them to leak into one another.
Site plan representing design proposal in black over lighter pre-existing poche.
The Theater circulation, entitled "Inhabiting the Poche", follows the preexisting poche of Fort Niagara. New instances of poche conglomerate onto the old poche, pushing into existing structures and opening up new viewpoints and perspectives into them. The pre-existing structures then become individual stages for re-enactments to be viewed from the new structures conglomerating around them.
Plaster is cast in fabric over the existing structures to create the massing for new structures.
THEATER - INHABITING THE POCHE FRENCH CASTLE INTERVENTION
THEATER - INHABITING THE POCHE BUNKER INTERVENTION
VISITOR CENTER EARTHWORKS
Plaster study models were cast to explore interior conditions of the new forms. Framework mimicking an important linear model from the bundle phase is used to cast concrete, creating a distinct interior texture upon removal. This study in materiality originates in the poche texture used to illustrate plans and sections and explores the potential for that texture to generate an actual material condition within the final design.