Michael Willhoit Graduate/Undergraduate Works Spring 2021
This portfolio represents my interest in the collective experience of architecture. The work showcased deals with issues of program, tectonics, and human experience, and contributes to my overall vision of creating spaces of gathering and engagement.
Table of Contents Folded Infinity: 4-13 Artificial Heart(h)s: 14-21 Spelunk’d: 22-27 Bismuth Dragon: 28-33
Folding Infinity “Sections of Time and Place” ARCH 502: Arch Design Studio I, Fall 2020 Studio Critic: Danielle Willems Site: Penn Museum, Philadelphia, PA Selected for Pressing Matters 10
The Penn Museum archive, formerly tucked away from the public eye in the bowels of the Museum, becomes a focal point. At the same time, the museums is a temporary holding space for artifacts. Though it is full now, the spaces are ever changing, and reprogram when the goal of repatriation is met. Archives shrink to leave more space for education, or a rotating gallery. Formally, this is represented as a section of infinity, a period of time that has a beginning and end but alludes to something beyond its boundaries. Wrapping this structure, a reflection and refraction of color, swelling and contracting to fill the gaps of what was once held within the museum.
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Split Plan and Interior The importance of the triply periodic minimal surface is such that a continuum is created between media spaces and archives. Someone experiencing the media space will pass through the archive without being awarre, seeing only echos of the artifacts just out of reach
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Choisy The choisy shows the extension’s relationship with the exisiting structure, how sections have been refitted to accomodate new functions like server rooms, digital archive space, and circulation.
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Long Section In section, the museum extension stacks and folds on top of itself, suggesting infinity in its continuity and repetition. Spaces typically inaccessible to the public, the archive and back-of-house, become accessible at the edge, where one steps away from the system and observes from outseide.
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Elevations & Cladding Detail The hybrid material undulates and casts dancing shadows on the interior. This light play is coupled with the projection space within, completing the experience of the extension.
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Artificial Heart(h)s “ What Brings Family Together?” ARCH 4332: Arch Design V, Spring 2019 Studio Critic: Andrew Wit Site: 2070 Temple Architecture Capstone Award
Artificial Heart(h)s imagines a dwelling for two, where one can escape from the outside world, yet still be connected through a central space; a chimney-shaped drone port, used for receiving and sending mail, observation of the surrounding city, or even home security. This home experiments with domesticity, paring down human needs to make room for technological needs. The dwelling comes to life in section, where the dichotomy between machine space and human space becomes clear. The home is divided around its core, creating clearly defined spaces with fuzzy edges.
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Massing Studies & Floor Plans The Split between drone space and human space was conceived of as a horizontal layering, combined with vertical circulation for the drones. This also becomes a kind of replacement for the traditional hearth, around which a family can gather.
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Sections Cut longitudinally, the poche of the home is an active space. It is a place mostly inaccessible to humans, but fully inhabited by a fleet of drones, with circulation, storage, and an interface in the workshop. Transversely, the relationship between floors is highlighted. There is connected intimacy across levels, reflecting the lifestyle of the clients.
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Spelunk’d “ A Monument Challenging Conquest” ARCH 4332: Arch Design V, Spring 2019 Studio Critic: Andrew Wit Site: The Top Temple Architecture Capstone Award
This project is imagined as a high adventure playground perched atop a rocky outcropping, standing like a surreal monolith. Spelunk’d was inspired by cavernous vaults and folding tunnels, allowing for small nooks and expansive pockets. It is a monument challenging conquest.
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Concept & Synthesis Two systems, climbing and spelunking, create an interior-exterior condition ready for exploring. Catenary domes and punctures clad an orthogonal, labyrinth inside.
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Siting Placing the monument atop a boulder creates a bonus challenge for the intrepid explorer. A piece of artifice in nature, beckoning one more endeavor.
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Bismuth Dragon “Dueling Follies” Digiblast, Summer 2020 Studio Critic: Danielle Willems, Ezio Blasetti Site: Schuylkill River Trail, Philadelphia, PA
The bismuth dragon folly sits heavy on its site, among undulating pillars of rough-hewn stone. A canyon runs through its mass, revealing an irridescent, irresistable challenge; climbing. Tunnels, crags, and peaks leave much to be uncovered. Sited near the Philadelphia Art Museum, it activates a typically overlooked and underused space, somewhere liminal, but very public.
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Parti & Siting Digiblast was about understanding digital tools at our disposal to create something unique, challenging us to design fully in 3D while masking this fact. The site, on top of a small hill and flanked by walking and cycling paths, becomes a volcanic staging ground for the sculptures, morphing and invading the landscape.
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Dialogue Once the initial object was conceived, it became important for them to communicate. Through simple translation and rotation, the same object takes on a new stance and an almost adversarial relationship. They invite exploration, and challenge passersby.
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Thank You