Alex Gauthier Portfolio Spring 2023

selected works.

Blurring Boundaries | Los-Angeles Community Center

3-10

Icon Homes | Sunnyside, Portland

11-14

Fluid House | ADU Mini Project

15-18

The Multi-Functional Dwelling | Mini Project

19-20

Twist | Champaign, IL

21-26

Personal Work | Watercolor, Colored Pencil, Scratchboard

27-28

BLURRING BOUNDARIES | LOS-ANGELES COMMUNITY CENTER FALL 2021

South Park, an area located just outside of downtown Los Angeles, is home to apartment complexes, a hospital campus, and numerous retail establishments. However, one thing that the area lacks is a connection to LA’s natural environment. The response is a community center that works to provide a variety of different natural spaces for an otherwise desolate site.

The center blurs the boundaries between the built and natural environment by integrating these natural spaces directly into the building program. Community rooms reside on the rooftop terrace, providing community members with a more intimate connection to nature. The building becomes the landscape and fully fuses with the program, just as we too should comprise our everyday lives with a blended system of work and leisure.

Raise Stack More Intimate Spaces

Entrance Lobby/Exhibition Gallery .... 2634 sq.ft.

Cafe .... 1312 sq.ft.

Multipurpose Hall .... 9672 sq.ft.

Computer Lab .... 1522 sq.ft.

Childrens Playroom .... 763 sq.ft.

Administrative Office Suite .... 1090 sq.ft.

Public Toilet Rooms .... 500 sq.ft.

Support Spaces .... 1955 sq.ft.

Circulation .... as needed

Exterior Courtyard/Plaza/Garden

Accessible Passenger Drop Off Area

Service Entrance/Garbage Pick Up Area

Bicycle Parking

Car Parking

Pre-Grown Vegetation Mat

Soil Growing Medium

Waterproof Membrane

Rigid Insulation

Vapor Control Membrane

Bracket

Timber Roof Deck

Vertical Wood Cladding Structure

Glulam Beam (8.75 x 51)

Horizontal Wood Louver System

5” Mullion (Aluminum)

Triple Pane Insulating Glass

Timber and Steel Structural System

Concrete Slab with Foundation Wall and Footing

Elevator / Egress Core

Elevator / Egress Core

4’-0” Glulam Typ.

1’-0” Glulam Typ.

12” Shear Wall Typ.

2’-0” Glulam Typ.

W30X90 Steel Typ.

2’-4” Glulam Typ.

W12X14 Steel Typ.

Green Roof and Meeting Rooms

Icon Homes | Sunnyside, Portland

ACSA National Concrete Competition

| Spring 2022

Portland, Oregon is an up-and-coming city for young families but, due to its high price point and lack of affordable housing options, many young families are deterred from living there. Portland’s neighborhood houses are unique; no house is uniform and everything has its own personality. Thus, this was the multi-family housing project’s inspiration. Sample houses in town were reduced to their basic forms, combined, and used as inspiration for the forms of each multi-family “cluster”. Clusters were placed in empty lots iterspersed in the single-family residential area of Sunnyside, increasing the density of the existing neighborhood while providing an affordable housing option.

Each “unit” within each cluster is unique with its own spaces. Additionally, CMU construction was used for its durable and energy reducing properties and its contribution to achieve the passive housing standard, therefore reducing utility costs for its residents. Portland’s moderate climate allows for more experimentation within CMU construction and exploration of how it is better at reducing utility costs than typical wood-framed construction.

Airtightness

Ventilation

Siding Panels with Tiebacks

Latex Paint

Gypsum Board

Concrete Masonry Units (8”)

Vapor Barrier

Air Barrier

Rigid Insulation

Foundation Slab and Footing

1. Roof Cladding

2. EPDM Layer

3. Rigid Insulation

4. Vapor Control Barrier

5. Plywood Beam with Insulation

6. Plaster Ceiling

Kids Room

Fluid House | ADU Mini Project

USC M.ARCH +2 | Fall 2022

The Fluid House seeks to explore how a residential proram and its spaces can be re-thought when it comes to smaller square footage. By combining elements of the original house on the site such as an expansive public porch and an entrance that faces our site, new kinds of spaces are unlocked. A living room and outdoor patio can be one and the same. A sink can work as a transitional sapce between other functions such as the bathroom or the kitchen. By condensing the footprint and the spaces inside, program elements start to spill into one another, embracing the fluidity of space.

How do we represent this spilling and combining of spacesthrough architectural elements? The use of “soft boundaries”, in this case porous boundaries (rotating wooden fin system), allow for spaces to be opened up or closed off as the user wishes. The ability to open all spaces up into each other is how architecture works to provide more freedom and fluidity to users, giving them a new way of living.

The Multi-Functional Dwelling explores what it truly means to be alone with yourself. Alone time provides us needs. Large south-faing windows allow maximum sunlight into the space, bringing the calmness of nature into privacy, better-promoting wellness and mental clarity.

TWIST, REPRESENTATION AND ABSTRACTION | CHAMPAIGN, IL

SPRING 2020

This project worked through the different stages of the design process, through different programs and applications, to arrive at a final abstraction of a pavilion. Conceptual sketches were then converted to physical models, experimenting with different materials and forms. Rhino and Grasshopper were used to analyze the amount of sun hours and views on our abstraction.

Modifications were made accordingly to maximize daylighting and views while providing moments of shading. After arriving at a final shape, exploration of artistic styles were conducted through programs such as Illustrator and Photoshop. Environmental analysis, materiality, and representation were the focus of this final pavilion.

Personal Artwork

Watercolor + Scratchboard + Colored Pencil

alexandra gauthier

alexj.gauthier@gmail.com

www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrajgauthier