PORTFOLIO
Jeff Maeshiro
Hello, my name is Jeff Maeshiro. The following is a representation of my professional and non-professional design ideology, laying out the formulations for an architecture that concerns itself not just with form but with the exigencies of creating for the human experience, a tactile humanism.
Undergraduate
|SUBURBAN CORRIDORS Kalaeloa, Hawai’i |NATURE, CENTER Waimea, Hawai’i |SUSTAIN, ABILITY Kaka’ako, Hawai’i
|WALTERS, KIMURA, MOTODA, INC. Honolulu, Hawai’i |ACUP JAPAN Tokyo, Japan Professional
|SOU FUJIMOTO ARCHITECTS Tokyo, Japan
Personal
|DRAWING AS LEARNING Milan+Florence+Venice+Vienna, Italy
|FLOATOGRAPHY Akihabara+Shibuya, Japan
|UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
|SUBURBAN CORRIDORS Kalaeloa, Hawai’i
undergraduate
WHAT does one do with 24,000,000 square feet of land? The goal of this urban redevelopment project on the sparsely populated but gradually prospering East coast of the island of Oahu was to re-characterize a 4,400 acre former military base. Far removed from the urban-scapes of Honolulu the
area known formerly as “Barbers Point”, now “Kalaeloa”, has a differentiated sense of location. It’s remote, dirty, rotten, old and littered with the decaying remains of rows of military housing. These dense residential areas are cast against the vast, barren airfields and the tiny sliver of sand that constitutes the beach’s transition from sea to land. This project is an opportunity to reinforce man’s bonds. The bonds between man and nature, between man and his community, between man and his fellow man. Yet, first, how to draw residents and visitors to this deserted site? By simultaneously building up the commerce with the population. This means simple access to neighborhoods robust with life and economic activity, namely mixed-use commercial and
Site Photo
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residential areas. And rather than overwrite the history of the site by blanketing it with such areas, looking for ways to incorporate the old military airfield into the planning produced an unusual but wonderful solution: keep the airstrip. By shrinking the airfield to accommodate only smaller aircraft it remains the dominant symbol of the site but is now tightly integrated into the everyday life of it’s surroundings, by allowing for commercial flight ventures. Now it acts as an attraction and economic generator.
Initial research into the sustainable energy producing possibilities on site introduced the idea of utilizing sea water air conditioning (SWAC) to supply coolant across the project. As the distribution system was beginning to be thought through it resulted in the preliminary design sketch below. Here, the SWAC supply lines begin to define the first hints of areas designated for specific functions.
Industrial Agricultural Residential Commercial Sea Water Distribution Line 0’ Preliminary SWAC Layout Study
2,000’
Sea Water Pipe (supply & return) Cooling Station
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Viewing Corridor
The end solution is an adventure in nonpoints. Areas are developed with an absence of focalization while simultaneously creating recognizable zones. However, where there are zones there are boundaries. In order to blur these boundaries and facilitate a heterogeneous mix Site Features
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Community Center 1 Elementary School Sculpture Garden High School Community Center 2 Sculpture Garden Art Gallery Amphitheater Adventure Park Bamboo Nursery
of uses within individual zones they are carefully appropriated specific percentages of usage types per zone. This mix of use within a specific zone is meant to be reflected vertically as well, creating commercial/residential synergies in plan and section. The “zones“ are initially separate entities within a sea of
Zone Key
Corridor Key
Business / Parking Residential Industrial
HOMER Station LISA (Service Roads) HOMER Rail Line Viewing Corridor
Commercial Green Space Tourism Airstrip
5
Agriculture
4 3 1 2 6
9
10
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7
0’
8
2,000’
Site Zoning Plan
Zoning Distribution Charts
Vertical Zoning Sections
Business / Parking
Business
Green Space Parking Office Residential
Public Space
Parking
Residential Heavy Industrial Industrial
Light Industrial
Two-Story Residential
Airstrip Agriculture Storage
Commercial
Lagoon
Four-Story Residential
Retail Restaurant Entertainment Tourist
Hotel
Industrial
Airstrip Commercial
green space but as the project grows over time the zones will spread into these spaces and into each other Oahu’s Ahupua’a organically. The only definite spaces this growth cannot intrude upon are the “Viewing Corridors”, 100 foot wide green lanes that extend from the mountain to the ocean sides of the site, echoing back to the traditional Hawaiian practice of “ahupua’a”, where land was parceled to each chief so they had resources from the highest to lowest parts of the island. This is one of the strategies employed to reconnect man with nature. Similar to these corridors are the long agriculture zones that extend from the paths of the airstrip. These agricultural zones, used for the planting of hearty, low maintenance, edible varieties of crops, will reach across the site, as the vast taro and sugar cane plains once did across Oahu. The viewing corridors are one of three types of north-south striations, including the service roads and light rail lines, that stretch across the site. These striations give users an overall sense of the scale of the area and
of it’s location on the island. As one moves through a viewing corridor, the visual impact of being able to see from mountain to ocean imparts a sense of place within the ecology of Hawai’i.
Furthermore, sustainably speaking, there are a number of ways to holistically improve the everyday lives of occupants on site, but none more significant than removing vehicles completely from it, especially in the car-centric community of Hawaii. With the exception of emergency vehicles all automobiles are left in a number of parking garages at the periphery of the site and transportation within the community is handled by a light rail system. Taking a queue from San Francisco, the service road system is named LISA (low impact service access) and the rail system dubbed HOMER (human oriented moving energy railroad). Through this system the connection between man and man is reinforced, as without cars public transportation becomes the “great equalizer” where all people must travel in the same manner.
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CORRIDOR LIGHT RAIL
Parking
Four-Story Residential
Two-Story Residential
Residential Layout
Commercial
CORRIDOR
Light Rail Corridor
Commercial Layout
LIGHT RAIL
Commercial and residential planning layouts carve out public spaces while also negotiating with the differing types of “corridors”. Building “styles” are not explicitly delineated, however roof gardens and photovoltaics are mandatory.
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Z E R
Site Section Model
TU L U
IC R G
A
Light Rail Corridor
E N O
The connection between man and his community is emphasized by walking and biking paths along grasspaved pedestrian streets and lowdensity two-to-four story residences. This forced interaction of walking, shopping and living amidst a forest/ residential hybrid atmosphere will reengage users’ feeling of community on a person-to-person basis. This sample of a section across the site illustrates the vertical and horizontal striations in the design. Massive swaths reach across different axes and spatially root the everyday occupant experience with an understanding and appreciation of the overall scale of the surrounding buildings, ocean and mountains.
Through encouraging man’s interactions with nature and his community and his fellow man this project seeks to reestablish a powerful sense of place and strengthen the bonds that will improve everyday life at Kalaeloa.
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|NATURE, CENTER Waimea, Hawai’i
undergraduate
A STUDY
in dichotomies. The amusing contrast of a conservationist group hoping to interrupt a green haven preserved amongst a suburban surrounding was the first of a number of dualities that inadvertently became the focus of this project. Nature vs. preserver.
Site Photograph Public Entrance Wind Path Foot Bridges
Amphitheater Contemplation Zone
Location Map
The Outdoor Circle of Waimea on the Big Island of Hawai’i sought to create a community center that would act as a gathering and teaching place focused on the green principles they expounded. With an average 45 mph winds constantly barrelling across the site this design’s response was to maximize the sustainability of the construction while minimizing the impact of the wind and cold temperatures. The project was sited so as to shelter a natural slope towards the river and capture it as an outdoor amphitheater.
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Site Plan
Concept Model
Parking
Study Model
Open/Public Functions Tensile Structure Extrospective Directly Lit In Tension
Closed/Private Functions Concrete “Arm� Introspective Low Light In Compression
Photovoltaic Panels
Final Rendering
Photovoltaic Panels
Natural lighting and cooling are the primary drivers of the final form. A linear, solid office block places the enclosed program into the wind and reflects this rigidity in shape, while the open-air func-
tions are lightly embraced by a tensile structure. This duality of tension and compression give shape to the constant play of the kinetic and the static within the park.
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WC
Offices / Reading Room
Greenhouse Kitchen
Outdoor Meeting
Offices
Indoor Meeting
Gift Shop
Gallery/ Reception Floor Plan
0’
10’
20’
Interpreting the inward-turned, oasis-like atmosphere of the park the rooms of the floor plan are partitioned so as to radiate around the Indoor Meeting space, acknowledging the importance of this space within the center. However, a second motion of radiation points towards the park, opening up to the tensile structure, which was inspired
Indoor Meeting
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by elements found on the site. The circulation is meant to lead visitors along a prescribed learning path, starting from an overview of generalized knowledge and narrowing towards more focused information, specifically from the entry Gallery through to the Greenhouse, finally leading users out into the park to explore it’s wonders.
South Elevation
North Elevation
East Elevation
West Elevation
0’
5’
10’
Long Section
Short Section
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The central feature of the community center is the Indoor Meeting space. Designed to be an uplifting spatial experience it is indirectly lit through louvers in the roof while the speaking dais sits below a semi-circular light well, illuminating and accumulating the focus of the room.
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Gallery/Reception
Tensile Structure Detail
Tensile Structure Detail
View To Park
Outdoor Meeting Space
Tensile Structure Detail
As a center of learning, the public meeting spaces must also be balanced by areas for private, interior dialogue - a parity between intermingling and introspection. Placed opposite from the commercial side of the site and toward the residential portion is the Contemplation Zone, which is accessible by two lightweight footbridges. Strewn about are easy-to-move private or multi-person use outdoor seating, which park goers are allowed to appropriate as they see fit, in their effort to find oneness with the beauty of the park around them. Footbridge Details
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ARCHITECT
Site Photograph
and environmental thinker William McDonough asks us to move beyond the recycling and reducing of waste to not producing any at all. The world is a closed loop, except human beings have forgotten their place within it.
|SUSTAIN, ABILITY Kaka’ako, Hawai’i
undergraduate
Conceived as part of a design seminar on designing to LEED standards, this environmental research and learning center’s programmatic and spatial layout is formulated to address the closed loop predicament. The circulation orders the program into a learning loop, where visitors begin their journey in an introduction space filled with information about the basics of green building principles. They then progress to the renewable energy display areas and receive a targeted overview of energy issues, then proceeding into the focused display areas where they discover methods of applying the earlier generalized ideas within whole systems. Visitors then progress twoward the interactive, hands-on areas where they can gain experience applying what they’ve learned. From this point they can choose to either re-enter the loop or move on to the resource areas for individualized learning or see actual, occupied examples of spaces where these sustainable design principles are in use. Massing Study
example
resource Landscaping Diagram
interactive specific display
introduction
general
entry
Programmatic Learning Loop Underground Bicycle Parking
Daylighting Area
“Get Dirty” Area
Locker/Shower Facility
Commercial Offices
Lighting Design Lab Mock-up Green Lab Computer Lab/ Hotel Library Green Office Green Home
HVAC Demonstration Room
Seminar Rooms
Reflecting Pool
Lighting Display
Kitchen
Reception Renewable Energy Displays
Floor Plan
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By utilizing passive cooling coupled with an absorption cooling system, photovoltaic and solar thermal panels, grey water irrigation, sod roofs, bicycle storage areas, locally produced CMU blocks and recycled bamboo timber, this project was developed intending to obtain 57 LEED points, or a Platinum rating. Heating/Cooling Zones
Photovoltaic Panels
Solar Thermal Panels
Sod Roofs
Exterior Blinds Over CMU Insulated Structural Walls
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|PROFESSIONAL APPLICATION
|WALTERS, KIMURA, MOTODA, INC. Honolulu, Hawai’i
professional
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WORK at one of the top landscape architecture
firms in Hawai’i granted me the opportunity to take on a wide range of tasks, including project management and graphic design. <<<This landscape proposal for a supermarket in
Honolulu forced me to translate my architectural design philosophy to landscape design, a palette that was less permeable and more colorful. Seeking to express the neighborhood’s Japanese historical and cultural roots, the design interprets Japanese landscape principles through a selection of native and non-indigenous “Hawaiian” tropicals. <<<
This proposal for an Italian themed hotel in Taiwan allowed for the synthesis of planting influences from two disparate cultures and climates, utilizing stock landscape photography to illustrate the hand drawn design’s palette.
TEACHING
English is a separate matter from teaching. It requires focus on the four foundations of language: reading, writing, speaking and listening. As an educator in Japan I approached each lesson as a holistic experience: from the time class started until it ended the students were
engaged in an interactive audio/ visual learning performance, each step of the presentation meaningful and each transition fluid. Illustrated below is a typical 50 minute class for 9th graders, which utilized available textbooks and flash and picture cards. The accompanying worksheets were
|ACUP JAPAN Tokyo, Japan
designed bilingually for slower and/or less interested students as a quick way into or back into the lesson. Keeping the entire session brisk and exciting while punctuated with humor and monumental gestures made every class a one-man educational stand-up routine.
professional
Step 1 - New Words: The new words for the chapter are introduced and student volunteers help by writing their meanings on the blackboard.
Step 3 - True or False: Students are then asked simple true or false questions about the contents of the chapter. The true/false method allows every student, fast or slow learners, a 50/50 chance of getting the answer right, while also indirectly reinforcing their understanding of the chapter thus far. This is all done verbally and completely in English, even before they have opened their textbooks for the day.
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Listening Worksheet - Side 1
Step 2 - Memo Listening: The chapter is read aloud as students attempt to jot down as many words as they can catch without looking at the textbook. As the text is being read aloud picture cards related to the conversation are placed on the blackboard to give students a broad, surfacelevel understanding of the content. Volunteers then suggest vocabulary words they were able to pick out and are written on the board for other students to utilize themselves.
Step 6 - 10 mins.
Step 5 - 10 mins.
Step 4 - 10 mins.
Step 3 - 5 mins.
Writing
Step 2 - 10 mins.
Reading
Step 1 - 5 mins.
50 Minutes
Speaking Listening
Closed Book Listening Worksheet - Side 2
Open Book
Step 4 - Dictation: With this initial layer of understanding of the chapter the students then form groups and listen to the chapter again while trying to fill in the gaps in the written conversation and confirm the English they had heard in the first three parts while looking at the written sentences in front of them, all as they compete with their classmates for who can score higher points for prizes. Step 5 - Q&A: Only at this point will the students finally open their textbooks to check their answers and more thoroughly go over the meaning of each sentence in the chapter. This is finished with the most complex portion, Question and Answer, where students not only have to understand the question in English but also need to be able to answer using correct English grammar.
Step 6 - Grammar Games: Finally, the particular grammar point being emphasized that lesson is reviewed using a mix of word puzzles, writing activities and speaking games.
Make it Fun: My favorite method of motivating students was to utilize characters from the shows and comic books they (and frankly, I) loved in the study materials and games. This particular card set was designed in the style of Yu-gi-oh cards and were used in games about comparatives and superlatives, where each card has attributes about a character and students challenge each other using ~er and ~est sentences.
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AT
the office of Sou Fujimoto Architects, I had the incredible opportunity to contribute in many different capacities to a wide range of project types.
|SOU FUJIMOTO ARCHITECTS Tokyo, Japan
professional
T-SHIRT: The NPO Heartful Japan asked for designs for their promotional T-shirts for Tokyo Design Week and each of us in the
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office were tasked with coming up with designs that incorporated ideas of peace and love. Below are two interpretations of this directive.
Rendered Plan View
Final Wooden House
MUSEUM: During the design development phase of this museum a physical model sculpted from polystyrene was rendered in digital form to investigate the possibilities and challenges of the excavated interior spaces. Fujimoto-sans’s conception of “primitive” buildings preordains that people live in service to the architecture, as humans once did to
caves. Once a physical construct has been determined finding ways for users to inhabit or utilize or nest in it was the next step the design’s progress. At this point of the development the information garnered by exposing the inner cavities of the coral-shaped form was then used to reconfigure the physical foam model for another round of iterations and variations.
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16 m
10m 16m
ROKKOU TOWER COMPETITION: This competition for an observation tower in Kobe, Japan presented two issues: 360 degree views and envelope restrictions. Sitting atop the peak of a small mountain the structure could not exceed an area 16 meters square and 10 meters high. Fujimoto-san asked us to explore as many ideas as possible and surprise him.
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Defy Gravity, Shock & Awe: This scheme aligned with the desire to shock by erecting an object that was visually arresting, reinforced by incorporating a pixelated sculptural motif.
Obstructing/Enhancing Views, Layers of Space: The user’s goal of obtaining that single, perfect view or snapshot of their surroundings should somehow be influenced by the architecture they view it from. Each view should be unique and should perceivably shift as one moves through it as the observation tower embeds itself in the viewing experience.
Defy Gravity, Give Flight, Origami Architecture, Extend the Ground Plane: The initial concept of this scheme was as an exercise in absurdity, viewing architecture as sculpture entity. This evolved into the idea of taking a single sheet of material and manipulating it to create a structure and space that folds in on itself and views that shrink and expand and circulation that flows seamlessly from the ground to the sky.
Connection vs. Disconnection, Inhabiting the Scenery, People as Frames, Living Views: Incorporating the previous concepts, such as creating a seamless transition from the ground plane to the top, this final idea was explored the furthest, testing it’s feasibility. In this scheme the users become part of the landscape as other people are framed by walkways and platforms, becoming the foreground for the views beyond. The tower acts as an ever-shifting performance, so that any visitor’s snapshot will always be unique, no one will never have the same visual experience as another.
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|ARTING AROUND
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|DRAWING AS LEARNING Milan+Florence+Venice+Vienna, Italy
personal
TWO weeks were engaged
in a self-directed study tour of piazzas across Italy. Epiphany: there is no more thorough method of investigating a thing than to meticulously detail every millimeter of it with pencil and paper.
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|FLOATOGRAPHY Akihabara+Shibuya, Japan
personal
PHYSICALITY and performance are passions of mine.
The combination of these two obsessions are illustrated in this series of photo shoots where we attempted to take the concepts of photographer Natsumi Hayashi and infuse our own (in)sensibilities.
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“Jumping” photographs are often employed to elicit the most joy possible from a subject, as the jump’s spontaneous burst of energy so often manifests itself acutely in the jumper’s expression. But our goal here was to find the posture and, oddly enough, muscular rigidity necessary for us to create the visual dissonance of a person aloft in what would, on it’s face, seem a relaxed mien. At left are various test poses to judge camera angle and foot positioning.
<ISO 1600> <18mm> <f/3.5> <1/80sec>
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<ISO 1600> <21.25mm> <f/27> <1/180sec>
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We shot wielding a Pentax K-5, a beautiful camera that captures amazing images even at high ISO levels. This allowed us to shoot even at night, with situational lighting, from across the street, while in motion. <ISO 3200> <50mm> <f/3.5> <1/160sec>
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Thank you for your consideration.
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