Stephen C. Durham Architecture + Interior Architecture Auburn University | 2008 - 2012
Fall 2011
Children’s Hospital Chicago, IL
Spring 2011
Ludateca di Trastevere Rome, Italy
Spring 2010
Auburn Arboretum Center Auburn, AL
Fall 2009 Spring 2011 Summer 2011
Dwelling on Lake Martin Alexander City, AL Drawings | Paintings Europe and America Adams Gerndt Design Group Birmingham, AL Resume
Children’s Hospital Fall 2011 Studio Moore Chicago, Illinois
Sited in Chicago’s Printer’s Row neighborhood, the Children’s Hospital distinguishes itself from its context, performing in ways that acknowledge existing conditions while enhancing them. I believe that a building does not have to mimic the forms and language of surrounding buildings to fit into context. The form of the Children’s Hospital creates ambiguity so to lose its singularity and become part of a continuity of experience that is the urban environment.
I believe that buildings have a cultural role as both aesthetic objects and as functional solutions. Inspired by a Charles Waldheim’s lecture, I designed my hospital to be a form within the city that performed an ecological intervention that can be seen clearly by the public. The building will then be able to inform the public of the importance of ecological interventions within our society. The building breaks up its form by pushing and pulling a series terraces where native plants can grow. I was interested in enhancing a visual interaction between levels of the city.
The plan of my typical patient floor is a result of my investigation in form but it accommodates the program. Using bookshelves to create a screen, I used the triangular spaces between patient rooms as family lounges. The plan also allows for a there to be a private hallway for doctors and nurses. This private zone contains storage for medical supplies, waste and separate elevators for doctors and nurses.
The banded windows on the facade are broken up by a unique floor to ceiling window that is located on the bedside of the patient room. On the exterior of the building this window has a small gap that extends the height of the window. Inside the room this window is equiped with a small vent on the side that can be opened allowing the patient to control natural ventilation in the room. This window is pushed into the room and with a raised ceiling condition it creates an intimate zone for family seating.
structure
egress
mechanical
Ludateca di Trastevere Spring 2011 Studio Finn Rome, Italy
While studying abroad in Rome, our studio was challenged with the design of a Ludateca or an educational play center for young children. Sited next to the small Piazza Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, the site allows for a few peeking views of the distant Victor Emmanuel monument and orange groves of the Aventine. Within the long narrow site, I pulled out certain parts of the program to allow for these controlled views. The interior contains two courtyards and a path between that creates an interesting sequence of spaces creates rhythmic succession and progressive revelation.
stair
voids path
The organized sequence of the approach into the Ludateca. Enter from the piazza, pass through a corten steel screen that wraps the building into a compressed foyer that reveals the path ahead and some distant steps as an intermediate goal. Recurrent filled arches of the existing wall mark one’s forward progress, and the steps develop into a double flight. Moving into the first courtyard and up the steps past a solid and void element, the final goal (gymnasium)appears obliquely once more.
screen
solid
Auburn Arboretumm Center Spring 2010 Studio Miller Auburn, Alabama
Located on the south side of Auburn University campus, the Donald E. Davis Arboretum is dedicated to the display of native woody plants. Serving as an entrance into the arboretum, the Arboretum Center allowed for expansive views of the wooded site, intimate spaces for learning, and a flexible gallery space. The large overarching roof and a series of screens helps the building embed itself in the sloping landscape and creates a shelter for learning.
The project was designed for the Alabama Forestry Association’s Annual Wood Design Competition and calls for the befitting use of wood in construction. The use of heavy timber columns sets up a rhythm that is followed by a series of mullions and smaller columns within the space. These screen of columns create a space within a space. The glass pushes back under the roof on the southwest corner to allow visitors an intimate view of the gallery even when the building is locked. The large low slopped roof inhances the sheltering quality of the building and helps ground it in the site.
roof
structure
partitions
The building steps down at different rates to create unique paths with varied experiences. At the highest elevation the central reception space compresses visitors and offers views beyond. To the right, a ramp descends down a long hallway that terminates in a pool of light. The building allows for an expanding of settings as it extended into the landscape with cascading terraces.
topography
Dwelling on Lake Martin Fall 2009 Studio Sauza Alexander City, Alabama
Designed for a handicap cook and a blind musician, this home mimics the landscape of the steeply sloped site. The interior spaces are focused toward the lake and pull back to allow for a double height kitchen that opens up to a large outdoor gathering space. From the lake, the large windows on the south facade allow the building to act as a beacon.
Using Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House as a precedent, the house was divided into a public and private vessel that slip past each other. The public vessel is pierced by the vertical circulation zone that includes a large elevator platform and a stair and is capped with a skylight on three sides. A wooden wall begins at this skylight and follows the stairs all the way to the bottom level and is mirrored by a screen of wooden shelves that face the living spaces.
Within the private vessle, rooms are placed at the end of a narrow hallway to increase privacy. The musicians workspace has a large floor to ceiling window that will cast a single beam of light into the space. So even though the muscian is blind he will still be able to feel the heat from the beam of light as it moves throughout the day. The guest quarters, located on the bottom level is a flexible space that opens up onto its own covered outdoor space. This space would serve idealy as a sleeping porch if the guests desire.
Drawings | Paintings Studio Finn |Studio Stewart Spring 2011 Summer 2010
While studying abroad in Rome and while traveling throughout Europe, I recorded my excusions through a series of travel sketches. Whether in haste or while relaxing at a cafe, these drawings are a visual account of my experiences through many of Europe’s cities.
Top: Sagrata Familia, Barcelona Holocaust Memorial, Berlin Pallazo Spada, Rome Piazza San Marco, Venezia Bottom: Campidolio, Rome Rue De Vangirad, Paris Pallazo Spada, Rome Overleaf: Santa Maria Maggiore and adjacent San Giovanni Laterano
Left: Boat. Iain Stewart Study City Block. Behnisch Architeken Salk Institute, Louis Kahn Right: Storefront. Boston, MA Ross Harper. Auburn, AL
Professional Experience Summer 2011 Adams Gerndt Design Group Birmingham, Alabama
As an intern for a regional design firm with a focus in residential architecture, whether onsite or in the office, I worked under the close supervision of Auburn Alumni Tom Adams and Adam Gerndt on a range of projects and tasks including hand rendering presentation drawings, model making and Computer-Aided Design. This internship helped me better understand the details and techniques of construction documents, it also allowded me to realize how a project becomes full circle.
Above: Krouse Residence Left: Krouse Residence Robinson Residence Overleaf: Krouse Residence
Above: Hollbrook Residence interior renovation Left: Hollbrook Residence pool house addition
Stephen C. Durham 103 E. Magnolia Ave. Apt 203 Auburn, Alabama 36830 404.663.0586 scd0005@tigermail.auburn.edu
Education
Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture Bachelor of Architecture, May 2013 Bachelor of Interior Architecture, May 2013 Honorable Mention, Alagasco Design Competition. December 2011 Study Abroad Program, Auburn University, Rome, Italy. January- May 2011 Faculty Book Award, Studio Miller. 2010 Dean’s List, 2008, 2010 American Institute of Architecture Students, Member 2009-2012 Mentor Chair, 2010. Internship Fair Committee, 2012 Teaching Assistant, Careers in Design and Construction, Tarik Orgen. 2010, 2011 “Rising Currents” Lewis.Tsurmaki.Lewis, Space 301, Mobile, Alabama, 2010 Exhibition of workshop charett drawings and models. Sigma Nu Fraternity 2007- 2011, Auburn University Pledge Class President, 2007. Assistant Social Chair, 2009. Social Chair, 2010
Experience
Adams Gerndt Design Group, Birmingham, Alabama Summer 2011. Intern Schematic design, drafting and hand rendering presentation drawings and model making for a range of projects including lake houses, mountain houses, retail and primary residence. Native Excavating, Inc. Steamboat Springs, Colorado Summer 2007 and 2008. General Laborer Construction projects including foundation excavating, sewer line installation, compacting, backfilling, perferated pipe installation and surveying for a range of projects including private homes, hotels, condominiums, commercial buildings, and public park facilities. Perdue for a New Georgia. Atlanta, Georgia Summer 2006. Political Intern Planning, organizing and carrying out campaign events around the state for the Georgia Governor’s Race. Responsibilities included soliciting campain funds from county representatives. All Three Sports, Inc. Atlanta, Georgia Summer 2005. Triathlon Retail
Refences
Christian Dagg, Associate Professor, Auburn University. 334.844.4519, daggchr@auburn.edu Justin Miller, Assistant Professor, Auburn University. 334.844.5171, justin.miller@auburn.edu Tom Adams, Partner, Adams Gerndt Design Group. 205.939.1113, tom@adams-gerndt.com Adam Gerndt, Partner, Adams Gerndt Design Group. 205.939.1113, adam@adams-gerndt.com Ed MacArthur, President, Native Excavating Inc. 970.879.6231, ed.macarthur@nativeexcavating.com