William Tran 2009 - 2012
Lehman College Dormitory
William Tran Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture
Thread : Artisan Community Center In Collaboration with Melinda Siew and Susan Wu
Greenpoint : Mapping the Territory
2009 - 2012
Critics : Nandini Bagchee Antonio Di Oronzo Elisabetta Terragni Adam Hayes Timothy Collins
In Collaboration with Melinda Siew, Susan Wu
J. Max Bond Center In Collaboration with Cindy Diaz, Jasmine Ibrahim, Sue Liu, Caroll Patino, Melinda Siew, Jessica Tseng
Double House in Greenpoint
BURST House In Collaboration with Chrisoula Kapelonis
William Tran 2009 - 2012
917-293-0664 wlmtran@gmail.com
Patio for a Couch Potato In Collaboration with Paige Rittenhouse
New York Public Library
Material Analysis In Collaboration with Seung Min Lee
Chelsea Residential In Collaboration with Seung Min Lee, Mitchell Hagedorn
Slow House In Collaboration with Chrisoula Kapelonis
Weather Station
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Spatial Sequence
Convent of La Tourette In Collaboration with Melinda Cardona, Melinda Siew, Jessica Tseng
Path
Pastel Compositions Finding Form in Nature, Drawing New York
Analog Renderings Advanced Presentation Techniques
William Tran 2009 - 2012
Lehman College Dormitory Fall 2012 | Professor Collins
Lehman College, a branch off of New York’s CUNY system is a campus located within the Bronx. Like other CUNY colleges, Lehman specifically caters to commuter students, being framed within the MTA’s transit. At a closer glance, sections of the campus are stitched together through niched spaces and activities while adjacent to a main axial walkway which cycles around the small college. Despite its size, it is growing at a rate where its own student housing cannot sustain future admittance. Programs dedicated to student life are reshuffled around as the infrastructure of the campus is modified to better suit these changes. In the midst of this, a dormitory is proposed to both alleviate the change and tighten the area.
Lehman College Dormitory Fall 2012 | Professor Collins
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- Communal Areas open out to field - Units pushed and roof angles in solar response
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- Students - Communal - Faculty - Public
3. Circulation - Public Entry - Vertical Cores
3. Transform
- Public Terminal - Defining Residential & Communal
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- Expansion - Structural Grid
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The proposed dormitory is located at the south edge of the campus, residing upon the location of the now defunct student life and services building. Through moving the student services to the central portion of the college, much activity will be shifting away from the sout portion, creating an imbalance as each other cross section of campus has some form of activity that creates occupancy of the area. The process begins as a volume of what has existed and responds to its surrounding site in various ways, such as passive solar gain, circulation and activities, controlling distribution of program. The volume is split up based upon a structural grid which allows pre-existing units to slide in and meld together. a. Site Plan b. Axonometric
Lehman College Dormitory Fall 2012 | Professor Collins
The units of the dormitory were a result of prior analyses and transformations and have been further modified to fit within the framework of the structure of the project. Further variations became a result of introducing other necessary systems such as vertical circulation, the people that each unit will serve (students and faculty) and environmental factors. These units soon began to push and pull upon the envelope of the dormitory in response to both the site’s forces and how the new proposal is transforming the adjacent area. a. One Student Unit Vertical Stair Variation b. One Student Unit c. Two Student Unit Corner Variation d. Two Faculty Unit Corner Variation e. One Faculty Unit f. One Faculty Unit Vertical Stair Variation
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Lehman College Dormitory Fall 2012 | Professor Collins
The end result became a protoype of one entire variation with programs distributed equally for public and communal interactions and private living conditions. These public spaces create a dialogue with its adjacent site, looking out into the field and the rest of the campus while simultaneously cultivating interior spaces and units that promote self reflection and intimacy with the building’s inhabitants.
A. Ground Floor Plan B. South Elevation C. Typical Floor Plan D. North Elevation
Thread : An Artisan Community Center Spring 2012 | Professor Hayes
As mass production is reaching its near peak, those who both look ahead of time and cling to the past have found a niche in the art ofcraftsmanship that seems to now exist within both primitive and contemporary era. Sites such as Etsy, provide a network that allows unique hand created items to be sold halfway around the world. While the digital realm provides a space for such practice, the physicality of the art is now influencing areas to adaptively re-use existing spaces to spread this phenomenon. Among them is Greenpoint, which through exploration, embraces what is taboo. Areas littered with grafitti, warehouses that have now become workshops and studios as opposed to offices. What stood out the most was the interactions of the street, areas normally avoided become nexuses of culture.
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Thread : An Artisan Community Center Spring 2012 | Professor Hayes
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The street become our inspiration, merging the interaction of the people, the culture, both old and new to create a space that is fitting for an art that seems to exist on the boundary of antiquity and modernity. Dubbed as Thread, this artisan community center works as an interactive mix of studios and commercial space to allow craftsman, artisans, artists to display their work, their process of creation, retail and pass on their teachings to those who are interested. The street has always been a place where ideals are shared but as time went on, our current contemporary culture favors the speed in which information is relayed, not unintentionally finding it in a collective space. We want our project to both process the speed of our time but also embrace the art of finding through collected interest.
Thread : An Artisan Community Center Spring 2012 | Professor Hayes
Thread : An Artisan Community Center Spring 2012 | Professor Hayes
Greenpoint : Mapping the Territory Spring 2012 | Professor Hayes
“The Map is not the territory.” A quote from Robert De Niro in Ronin which not just applies to the context of the movie but as well as the different scopes of how sites are analyzed. When viewing a map of an area, only the physical measurement of the site is really accurately portrayed. What isn’t portrayed are the literal, sensual experiences that a person feels when inhabiting the area. Perhaps what may have started as a almost life threatening experience garnered much more information than general demographics or online statistics would ever detail. Information upon how both our body sensed on the site and recorded into ‘data’ is filtered through a series of interaction with other groups resulted in a diverse representation of each sense.
Greenpoint : Mapping the Territory Spring 2012 | Professor Hayes
Tasked with layering both ours and other groups perception of the site through a visual lens soon interlocked with niches and nuances of the site, bleeding culture that is unique to that region. Our map became an installation, projecting gathered information while simultaneously collecting interactive experiences of individuals who pass by. It doesn’t necessarily matter what physically came out of our exploration but rather, how it changed our perception and ceased all preconceptions of the area, allowing us to design as if we were living and breathing on the territory.
a. Sensory Collage : Sight b. Installation | Pin Up
J. Max Bond Center Spring 2012 | Professor Hayes
Work is fun, right? Well, I hope so. Stereotypically, office work and the spaces utilized through static configurations set a general tone of the architecture. At least that’s how it was expressed to us by Toni Griffin, our first actual (yet theoretical) client when given the task of redesigning the now new, J. Max Bond Center. The intent was to mitigate the monotony given through the prior existing office layout through actual spatial experimentation. What we saw was static, was soon associated with boring, why work in the same space for hours, days, weeks on end? Use color, move around, tamper, re-use existing elements in new ways, collaborate, and have fun. And that’s what we did.
Interactive Office and Reception
Open Dance Floor
J. Max Bond Center Spring 2012 | Professor Hayes
Exhibition
Our proposal for the J. Max Bond Center revolved around re-opening up a once tight space and applying multiple layers of spatial scenarios. Is there going to be a meeting? Party? Lecture? Collaborative work? Exhibition? Through exploiting one space to fit all criteria needs for the office to both produce work while enjoying the ever shifting workscape of an interactive centtral space. Work hard, have fun.
Multimedia Presentation
Meeting
Double House in Greenpoint Fall 2011 | Professor Terragni
In melding several key concepts extracted from precedent analyses and explorationa of the human scale, the Double House in Greenpoint sought to create a dialogue between the inhabitants, the construction, and interaction of the twin counterparts. Crossing into the threshold of customization allowed by prefabrication, both houses were designed with the intent of coming from the same base framework while adapting to unique conditions of the site and the inhabitants. Despite the result, it is only a fragment of the many possiblities through the flexibility of its customizable nexus. Inhabitants of both houses are a contrast of a married couple living on the left while a group of researchers and a professor reside on the right.
Double House in Greenpoint Fall 2011 | Professor Terragni
Taking into consideration of the necessities of both families, this main framework was split into two, almost interactive houses. A result of changes in one soon reflected in the other, creating a symbiosis of optimized living. Roofs were angled and manipulated to reflect passive solar lighting into one another while window placement were both modest and generous to respect both families while sharing an open alley. These interactions soon resulted in unique configurations of private and communal living within each other. In taking the dialogue of the inhabitants into the customzation process, the goal was to humanize an almost robotic, flexible framework. A. Site Map B. Axonometric
Double House in Greenpoint Fall 2011 | Professor Terragni
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BURST House Fall 2011 | Professor Terragni
BURST 008, one of the few built prototypes of a prefabricated housing system, was designed by architect Jeremy Edmiston, seeking to expand the standardization of more efficient construction, customization and ultimately, living. The intent behind such interlocking structures was seen to be like mesh, able to form to any site and living condition through series of formulas. Through analyses, the interlocking structure was understood to guide every detail in the project, from its maleable geometry, to the placement of columns and footings, where windows would open upand form. Even micro details such as lights and wiring are a result of an X meets Y intersect.
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A. X + Y Connection B. Program Transition C. Geometry + Columns and footings D. Roof Plan
Patio for a Couch Potato Fall 2011 | Professor Terragni
The human body is the measure of every thing, from the macro standardization of the furniture that frames our living spaces to the ergonomics of our hand flushed against the contours of a computer mouse. The movement of our bodies create the boundaries of our constructed physical environment. Why not the other way? Culminating studies of human proportions through the lens of an inhabitant who refuses to move, the Patio for the Couch Potato explores gestural use of puzzles at a life sized scale seeking to reverse the extremities; The architecture moves around us. The couch being the focal point of the patio, three walls pivot around a 3x3 grid and further open up to function as everyday furniture. Physically static, Mentally stimulating.
New York Public Library Spring 2011 | Professor Bagchee
Information is a valuable resource, often spanning the generations in which it was conceived. To internalize an archival of books, this SoHo library proposal seeks to create a world of its own within the concrete mass which radially cycles into itself. Taking spatial experiments from prior material analyses, sections of the library create thresholds of archives, public and private reading zones.
A. Material Study Spatial Models B. West and North Elevations
New York Public Library Spring 2011 | Professor Bagchee
A. Ground Floor B. Second Floor C. Cross Section D. Long Section
Material Analysis Spring 2011 | Professor Bagchee
Concrete’s formation exists between the threshold of solid and void, allowing any interaction within this frame to be recorded and leave a oermanent imprint. Exploring concrete as a medium of time, our analyses of the material records stills and sections of the movement of our hands.
A. Process Stills B. Sliver Sections C. Study Models
Chelsea Residential Fall 2010 | Professor Di Oronzo
Gazing upon the city scape of Chelsea, lower downtown Manhattan, we were immediately captivated by the spaces between and along the skyline. Our proposal for a residential building in response to this context is situated along the coast of the newly renovated Highline , projecting towards those thresholds, emphasizing those views.
A. West Chelsea Rendering B. View from within C. Perspective
A. North Rendering B. Partial Model C. Projection Diagrams D. Solar Analysis
Chelsea Residential Fall 2010 | Professor Di Oronzo
Chelsea Residential Fall 2010 | Professor Di Oronzo
A. West Elevation B. Long Section C. South Elevation D. Cross Section A E. Cross Section B F. 10th Floor Plan Ground Floor Plan
Slow House Fall 2010 | Professor Di Oronzo
The Slow House, designed by Diller and Scofidio defined its spaces through a threshold of progression, slowly expanding as one circulates through. The analyses began as an exploration of the intricate process that conceived the project. By reviewing means of the manipulation of sight, the building was unfolded from three dimensionality into a two dimensional diagram.
A. Light Study B. Circulation
Weather Station Spring 2010 | Professor Bagchee
Spaces are often defined by the way light is filtered through volumetrically and reflected. Taking thresholds already established in analyses of Corbusier’s Convent of La Tourette, another layer of natural forces are taken into context, culminating into the weather station.
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Weather Station Spring 2010 | Professor Bagchee
A. Ground Floor B. Second Floor C. Cross Section D. Long Section
A. Plans B. Section C. Perspectives D. Study Sections
Spatial Sequence Spring 2010| Professor Bagchee
Corbusier’s Convent of La Tourette plays upon color and light conditions within the spiritual areas. Through analyzing the transitions of specific moments of light conditions, this diagram materializes these spatial sequences into one continuous moment split into slivers of time.
A, Perspective B. Lightwell Studies C. Sequence Stills
Convent of La Tourette Spring 2010 | Professor Bagchee
Beginning as the very first of many precedent studies, the goal behind the recreation of Corbusier’s Convent of La Tourette was to work in a precise manner to understand the intraccies behind the lines of a drawing, the tectonics of the physical spatial qualities and interpret the building in both two and three dimensional means of production. The precedent study soon became the base to draw ideas, form concepts and relationships for the upcoming projects of the semester.
A. Ground Floor Plan B. First Floor Plan
Convent of La Tourette Spring 2010 | Professor Bagchee
A. Ground Floor B. Second Floor C. Cross Section D. Long Section
A. West Elevation B. Cross Section A C. Cross Section B
D. Long Section A E. Long Section B
F. Section through Churches
Path Fall 2009 | Professor Bagchee
Path is defined as a series of moments that is interwoven into another, a process of experience. Vertical and horizontal units are seemingly seperate but slowly converge and dissipate into each other.
Path Fall 2009 | Professor Bagchee
A. Ground Floor B. Second Floor C. Cross Section D. Long Section
A. Plan B. Long Section C. Sliver Sections D. Perspective E. Axonometric
Pastel Compositions Summer 2012 | Professor Ofstrof
Pastel Compositions Summer 2012 | Professor Hauben
Analog Renderings Fall 2012 | Professor Iglehart
Thank You