CHAPTER1
CHAPTER1
Project Type Location
Affiliation
WOOD MATTER(S)
Case Study, Adaptive Reuse
Barcelona, Spain
IE University, Design Studio V
Prof. Santiago Pradilla Hosie Fall 2023
RICHARD PINCH, VALENTINA ORTIZ, & THOMAS DE CAMPOS.
As a part of IE University’s Design Studio V, students analyze and reconstruct sections of wooden construction case studies around the world.
After the earth tremors that hit Catalonia in the 1500s, one of the faces of the watchtower from Merola’s Castle fell apart, hence the need to guarantee the preservation of the monument. Carles Enrich Studio designed a supporting structure to preserve the ruin and reinstate its previous program.
MEROLA TOWER
WHAT
IS IT MADE OF?
Timber Construction Technique
Merola’s Tower construction consists of spruce and douglas fir bilaminated glulam scaffolding modules stacked and connected together via a variety of steel knife plate connections. These modules are constructed off-site and then placed atop one another via crane. Like scaffolding, it structurally stabilizes and refills the volume of the pre-existing construction.
The 1:4 replicated detail model displays the dense wooden joinery and bolt fastenings. This particular corner includes eight wood components and two steel knife plates.
HOW IS IT CONSTRUCTED?
Process Inventory of Module Construction
Merola’s Tower construction process involves (first) fabricating the tower modules off-site and (second) stacking each module atop each other with a crane. This sequence displays one pre-fabricated module, and the order in which each lumber component attaches to the module construction. Assembly begins with the columns, followed by bottom diagonals and beams, then the upper diagonals and beams.
Process Inventory of Module Stacking
This sequence displays the consecutive stacking of pre-fabricated modules atop each other. Including the base module, there are five in total, as well as a stairway core added once all modules have been stacked.
From left-to-right and up-to-down: horizontal single-branch, horizontal triple-branch, horiztonal triple-branch (foundation), vertical single-branch, vertical double-branch, vertical triple-branch (foundation), vertical triple-branch, vertical double-branch (diagonals), vertical quadruple-branch.
HOW CAN WE RECYCLE THESE MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES?
Project Type
Location
Affiliation Awards
STRUCTURING HISTORY
Pavilion Segovia, Spain
IE University, Design Studio V
Prof. Santiago Pradilla Hosie Fall 2023
Design Excellence Award 2023-24
HOW DO WE BRING THE MOUNTAIN TO THE TOWN?
The Roman Aqueduct in Segovia spans over 16 kilometers, carrying water from the deltas of the nearby mountain to the historic town on a hill.
Our team tasked ourselves with designing a structure that reveals the path of the mountain to the Old Town of Segovia. We sought to design an elegant solution that celebrates the history of the aqueduct and the techniques and materials of Merola’s Tower.
The aqueduct reaches its tallest depth at the main plaza of Segovia. It is the first plaza you see when entering the Old Town and the first you see of the aqueduct. Naturally, shops, restaurants, cafes, and small businesses cluster around this central point to cater to the dense amount of people bustling in the plaza. Upon analyzing the site at different times during the day, our team found that the point at which the aqueduct turns (A) is not nearly as busy as the main plaza.
Through observing activity and different demographics of people throughout the day in the surrounding area, we mapped this discrepancy of life and movement between the main plaza and our site. By choosing to build our project at the corner, we attract movement, activity, and economic growth to stimulate the surrounding businesses, institutions, and bring people closer to the point where the mountain connects with the city.
HOW DO WE SHAPE THE HISTORY?
Topographical Parti
TO LIFT WATER, PEOPLE, WOOD
Celebrating the History and Journey
The journey of the intervention follows the same topographical points of the mountain at which significant historical structures are located. At these “moments,” the user experiences different views of Segovia, new relationships between themselves and the aqueduct, and the construction techniques that create the scaffolding.
In essence, the physical climb in the design is a scaled-down recreation of the Roman journey from Segovia to the mountain. The user experiences a 16 kilometer journey in only a few minutes.
Longitudinal Section
Transversal Section
Section Fragment
Fragment
The second platform the arch, establishing relationship between
Section
TOUCH, WOOD, & STONE
Site Plan
Celebrating Structure and Technique
The modularity of the case studied is applied to the structure’s construction. To climb up the aqueduct, modules consisting of trussed arches and platforms alternate all the way to the top of the aquedcut.
Project
Type
Location
Affiliation
ANIMAL
RESCUE LEAGUE
Veterinary
South End
Boston, MA
United States
JGE Architecture + Design
Located at the corner of the South End’s historical landmark district, The Animal Rescue League’s Boston facilities was due for a redesign. Working in collaboration with Animal Arts Design Studios, the design team created a new vision for this historic South End institution while preserving the neighborhood character. From conceptual parti to schematic design, the design team faced challenges of multiple edge conditions, site preservation, and material identity.
The team at JGE Architecture + Design was particularly challenged with designing a building that serves not just humans, but a variety of animals and their caretakers.
Due to the site being located at the edge of the South End historical landmark district, the question of neighborhood identity drove facade and massing concepts.
Initial Massing Sketch
Boston’s South End Neighborhood
WHAT DEFINES BOSTON’S SOUTH END?
Initial Parti Sketch
HOW CAN WE EXPRESS THE BAY WINDOW?
Corner Facade Study
Project
Type
Location
Affiliation
77 TERRACE
Mixed-use
Mission Hill
Boston, MA
United States
JGE Architecture + Design
77 Terrace is a 5-story, mixed-use, affordable homeownership project in the heart of Mission Hill, MA. Located between Parker and Terrace St near Roxbury Crossing, the site presents an interesting topographical challenge. Questions of how to reconcile with the steep grade change, offer welcoming facades on both streets, and how to activate a public program while maintaining privacy were at the forefront of the design team’s minds.
77 Terrace was an exercise in parti, public circulation, site activation, and facade/ massing design.
Site Context
BOSTON BUILDING RESOURCES
PARKER STREET
BROTHERHOOD OF HOPE
HOW DO WE MAKE A STAIR FUN?
Initial Stair Sketch
ERODE, LIFT, CARVE
Project Type
Location
Affiliation
BOSTON WATER SEWER COMMISSION PROPOSAL
Mixed-use
Roxbury Boston, MA United States
JGE Architecture + Design
In response to the BPDA RFP for the transformation of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission parking lots, JGE collaborated with Sasaki and Bruner/Cott Architects to create a unified approach to the site’s redevelopment. This vision stems from a deep understanding of the placethe physical, cultural, and socio-economic dynamics at play.
Weaving the community together at this critical juncture while also providing proven pathways of advancing intergenerational wealth through homeownership were paramount. This proposal sought to enable the Roxbury community, amplifying their voice, and ensuring the outcome is a true reflection of its vibrancy and rich cultural history. This is a collection of street elevation studies, illustrating the diversity of materials, facades, and edge conditions throughout the five BWSC parking lots.
BLOCK
LENOX ST
BLOCK B
REED ST BLOCK D
Project Type
Location
Affiliation
CANOPY GROVE
Pavilion Chinatown Boston, MA
United States
Northeastern University, ARCH 2130 Prof. Gloria Chang Fall 2022
Situated next to the Mary Soo Hoo Park in Boston’s Chinatown, Canopy Grove is a forest of wooden canopies and public restrooms that bridge Hudston Street and the Surface Artery.
Benches, shower stalls, and toilet stalls supplement the rows of canopies, creating a subtle, meandering path diagonally across the site, while allowing transversal circulation and exploration.
Canopy Grove does not act as a destination itself, but rather gently guides wanderers and Chinatown residents to enjoy a more unexplored side of Mary Soo Hoo Park, hidden behind the MFA Tower Installation. While this pavilion focuses on the journey, the winding path, occasional bench, and ambient sound of running water offer moments of respite as if one were roaming through a forest trail.
Canopy Typology
Certain canopies provide seating, toilet stalls, and shower stalls for passerby to use. These stalls aid the wanderer in their path, while providing points of rest.
Northeastern Axon
Ordered rows of rising canopies create a hectic grove, guiding the wanderer through a meandering journey across the pavillion.
Forest Canopy
Multi-dimensional Acclivity
The canopy heights slowly slope upwards just as their density increases, easing the wanderer into the grove until the view of Surface Artery is revealed.
The rotated rows of canopies challenge the established urban grid while respecting the surrounding site. The rise of canopy heights imply a directionality, enticing the wanderer to keep moving.
Urban Forest
CHAPTER2
CHAPTER2
SEQUENCES OF SPACES
Spring 2023
Prof. Humbi Song
As a part of ARCH 3450, students analyzed various art museums in the Boston area. The Harvard Art Museums is a consortium of three separate museums located on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. The museums include the Fogg Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum. Together, they have over 250,000 objects in their collections, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, and decorative arts.
The central courtyard of the Harvard Art Museums is a notable architectural feature that connects the three buildings. Designed by architect Renzo Piano, the courtyard is a four-story atrium covered by a glass roof. The roof is supported by steel trusses that allow natural light to flood the space, while also providing protection from the elements. The bottom two floors are constructed from limestone arches of an Italian Palazzo, while the top four of the courtyard are simple floor-to-ceiling glass panels.
Materiality Gradient
The Harvard Art Museums’ materiality is its most prominent and immediately apparent feature. The exterior combines two wings of classic Boston brick and the renovated modern addition of concrete, wood, steel, and glass.
This marriage of old and new continues within the Calderwood Courtyard, with a rising gradient of limestone Italian arches to thin glass panes and barely noticeable aluminum mullions. This juxtaposition roots the viewer into an overarching materiality motif.
This model abstracts the Harvard Art Museums’ interior courtyard into a fantastical cacophony of classical arches and clean glass panels. Four of the five floors are represented, each becoming more abstract and irrational than the last, showing how the way one experiences the museum’s courtyard transcends conventional delineations of height and space.
Poured concrete, chipboard, and acrylic make up the main materials of this diagrammatic model. Each material abstracts the building materials of the Calderwood Courtyard, emphasizing the gradation from heavy solids to almostfloating panes of glass.
The intentional offsetting, lifting, and shifting of arches and glass panes reflects the ever-changing ambience created by these disparate materials and forms. The courtyard’s transparency also allows the musueum visitors to define the encompassing pace, energy, and viscosity of the space. The model’s scale figures appear to float, unencumbered by floors. The model emphasizes the courtyard’s verticality with thin acrylic dowels, giving the floating effect that the courtyard elicits.
The sculptural nature of this model points to the courtyard’s exhibit-like quality in and of itself. The museums’ architecture is revered regardless of the art inside; even just the courtyard is a destination to behold.
“ARCHITECTURE IS AMAZING—IT IS ART, FED DAILY
Arched Views
The Harvard Art Museums central courtyard transcends galleries and floors, putting both the art and visitors on display from any vantage point within the corridor. This analytique displays the implied web of vision and sight that connects art and people between floors and across the courtyard, hence expanding the dimensions of the typical art museum experience.
The transparency of the courtyard, mezzanine circulation, and natural light allow visitors to both admire art from different floors and across the courtyard, but also observe other visitors themselves.
Renzo Piano
The courtyard’s masterful grasp on materiality and construction enables the visitor to play a crucial role in the total musuem experience. Specifically, the arches frame both artwork and the people walking through the corridors. One may find themselves more enthralled in the people-watching experience offered by these arched views than the actual art itself.
While the exhibitions can be seen through glass walls and Italian arches in the central courtyard, this diagram highlights the dynamism and intrigue of the peoplewatching experience offered by the museum’s architecture. The distance between you and other people, the glass muffling any conversation, and the nearly illegible facial expressions and body language makes the other visitors a meta, animated, and multi-dimensional exhibition themselves.
CHAPTER3
CHAPTER3
ARCH 1120 THICK - THIN HOUSE PARTI
Boston Chinatown Saga Site analysis and iterative design.
Barcelona Architecture Saga Site, program, and structural analysis.