Portfolio_For_Website_2016

7 - ratio PORTFOLIO OF ACADEMIC WORK PRODUCED AT THE HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN

Text, design, models and photographs produced by Arion Kocani

7 - ratio PORTFOLIO OF ACADEMIC WORK PRODUCED AT THE HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN

Text, design, models and photographs produced

by Arion Kocani (otherwise stated.) No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author. © 2016 by Arion Kocani. All rights reserved. www.arionkocani.com

Arion

The poet of the vague, is the poet of precision.

- Italo Calvino

Arion Kocani [b. 1987] is an Albanian/American designer holding a Master of Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Pursuing an undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland in College Park, earned Arion a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Architecture.

Professional experience includes internships conducted with Sou Fujimoto Architects in Tokyo, Collective LOK in Cambridge, as well as independent consultancy for KieranTimberlake based in Philadelphia.

Past experience also involves in-depth research on a territorial scale with Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, and Martino Tattara for the Olten Region in Basel Land and as part of Harvard University’s ZOFNASS Program for Sustainable Infrastructure.

Student work has been exhibited and displayed in Gallery A4 in Tokyo, published in “Achtung: die landschaft” and appeared in multiple “GSD Platform” publications from Harvard University.

7 - ratio

Building On Restitution Indexical Lasagna mobius greenography Metabolic Code The Shared Un-Built Hexallate Crease

table of contents

Curriculum vitae

graduate education 2016 harvard university cambridge, usa 4 years graduate school of design

Master of Architecture 1 (3.5 year Professional Degree Program)

arion@alumni.harvard.edu 240.461.8907 DOB: 04/11/1987 Nationality: USA/ALB

Independent Thesis Title “Building on Restitution” Revitalization of the Dinamo Stadium, Tirana, Albania Thesis Advisors Preston Scott Cohen, Cameron Wu 2014 Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule 5 months eth basel

zürich, ch

Research Studio Achtung die Landschaft III Large scale urban design research of the Olten Region Professors Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Martino Tattara published work & exhibitions “achtung: die Landschaft, Lasst sich die Stadt anders denken? Ein erster Versuch,” ETH Studio Basel, [Lars Muller Publishers], pp 118-121

“GSD PLATFORM 8” HARVARD GSD BBSMS Option Studio. Project title: Indexical Lasagne

Exhibited in the Harvard design school lobby [March - May 2016]

“GSD PLATFORM 7” HARVARD GSD [ACTAR, January 15, 2015] M.Arch 1 Fourth Semester Core. Project title: Metabolic

Work exhibited in the Harvard design school lobby [March - May 2016] and published in annual publication.

“GSD PLATFORM 6” HARVARD GSD Projective Geometry. Project title: Complex Surface Panelization

Work exhibited in the Harvard design school lobby [March - May 2016] and published in annual publication..

GALLERY A4, “TAKENAKA KOMUTEN,” TOKYO [SUMMER 2013] Projective Geometry. Project title: Complex Surface Panelization

Work exhibited.

undergraduate education 2011 University of Maryland college park, usa 5 years department of economics

Bachelor of Arts in Economics. gpa 3.6

School of Architecture Planning and Preservation Bachelor of Science in Architecture. gpa 3.8 contact Hooman Koliji 2006 montgomery college . rockville, usa 6 months in satisfaction of b.s. and b.a. degrees.

calculus and government

experience 6 months KieranTimberlake philadelphia jun. 2015 Independent Consultant. Survey Team Member. jun. 2014

Projects Adams House dormitory and Elliot House dormitory Duties

6 months Municipality of himara dec. 2011 department of urbanism

himara, al

intern

Projects Albanian Riviera Transformation

Consulting services and compilation of a comprehensive visual

Duties

record of the existing conditions to be used in the design phase.

Conducted research and visualizations for new developments on sites

On-site measurements and documentation. Auto-cad drawings and

of potential.

Rhino3d model of existing conditions.

6 months NOA Architecture Planning Interiors dec. 2011 design intern

supervisors Chris Macneal, AIA jan. 2014 Collective LOK

mit, cambridge, usa Design Team Member Projects “Mirror Mirror” Moma PS1 competition entry Duties Schematic development. Produced final visualizations for

competition deliverables.

Projects Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Baku Duties Design development. Produced 3D model and 2d auto-cad drawings.

supervisor yavuz anahtar academic research & teaching

supervisors william o’brien jr, michael kubo jan. 2014 Para-Project

nyc, usa Design Team Member Projects “Mirror Mirror” Moma PS1 competition entry Duties Schematic development. Produced final physical model for MoMA

exhibition.

harvard graduate school of design Economic Tool Research Associate for the Harvard University ZOFNASS Program for Sustainable Infrastructure. [Feb. - Jun 2014] Guest Juror. Career Discovery Program [2015,2016]

Univeristy of maryland Guest Juror. Fourth Year Final Reviews [2015] Teaching Assistant, ARTT208c with Tadeusz Lapinski [Sept.-Dec. 2011] Research Associate. Restoring Ancient Stabiae [supervised by Robert.

L. Vann, PhD] [May - Aug. 2008]

Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador Guest Juror. [July 2016]

supervisor jon lott 3 months Sou Fujimoto Architects jun. 2013 Design Intern

bethesda, usa

proficiency tokyo, japan

Projects & duties Outlook tower. Doha, Qatar Schematic development. Produced Rhino 3D model and final deliverables.

Taiwan Tower. Taiwan Design development. Configuration of programmatic layouts and

circulations studies in auto-cad.

Serpentine Pavilion. London, UK

Design Software Rhino, Grasshopper, 3ds max, Vray, Auto-cad, ArcGIS, SketchUp, FormZ, MathCAD, Mastercam, DIVA, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Bridge, Lightroom), Microsoft Office.

Fabrication Tools Rapid Prototyping, 3D Printing, Laser cutting, CNC Milling (3-axis), Physical Modeling, Wood shop Certified Analytical Software stata, sas

Curatorial work. Produced drawings for publication.

supervisors axel clissen, yibei l.

Languages English (proficient), Albanian (proficient), Greek (proficient), German (intermediate)

BUILDING ON RESTITUTION Independent Thesis in Architecture Harvard Graduate School Of Design Advisors: Preston Scott Cohen, Cameron Wu

NOMINATED. GSD PLATFORM 9

BUILDING ON RESTITUTION

CONFISCATION RESTITUTION FRAGMENTATION This thesis interrogates the post-communist property restitution process in Albania.

In 1945 all private property in Albania was confiscated by the dictatorship. In 1990, after the regime collapsed, the country underwent a restitution process where all land property was returned to pre-1945 owners. Research conducted on various scales of Albanian cities concluded that the urbanism had been heavily dictated by size of the restituted land lot. In this context, architecture has lost its vehicle and become merely the material indicator of the restitution process in Albania.

Post 1990 trends in zoning and set-back laws have been incompatible with restitution laws and as such have produced congealed lot sizes that are often undevelopable. As a result, land amalgamations that host assemblages of discretized architectures have been the paradigmatic means of development. This method has produced fragmentation and lack of unity at the urban scale, demonstrated through indelible idiosyncratic architecture.

In order for architecture to regain its agency in this context, it must unify the urbanism.

This thesis identifies critical restitution conditions and activates them in order to achieve this. It searches for an alibi to coalesce discreet elements and generate a totalizing and cohesive urbanism.

paradigmatic lot developments and ownership condition of land

BUILDING ON RESTITUTION

After 1990 and the collapse of communism apartment units within prefabricated buildings were privatized. An unprepared system with underdeveloped regulations could not protect from parasitic extension operations upon existing structures resulting in mass idiosyncrasy throughout the cities of Albania.

Pre-1945. Feudal System. The only prominent architecture in the towns of Albania were lavish villas for the lords.

1945-1990. Communism. Alternatively the country began mass production of prefabricated equal housing with standard 1br units per household.

post-1990. capitalism. The system change came with a higher demand for square footage. Such demand was initially met with parasitic extension operations within the privatized housing left from communism.

Those who had been restituted land built single family homes on undersized lots. Brothers joined forces to plan stacked or adjacent units on subdivided land lots. Developers built high-rise towers and dispersed 30% to land owners.

Chronological Taxonomy | architecture of Tirane pre & post Communism

Skyscraper collectives, landscape canvases residential villas, office enclaves, mixed-use developments, street markets, thematic parks, landscape canvases: The new Dinamo Tirana stadium has the potential to act as an alibi to coalesce discrete elements and generate a totalizing and cohesive urban condition. A tensile surface unifies the urban fabric by sheltering a semi-exterior space that is in fact the continuation of the street. The shifting of the stadium concourse underneath, allows for two public streets simultaneously. The rotation of the pitch for optimal solar orientation, generates a productive intersection between public street and stadium concourse.

Although the restitution process has produced congealed lot shapes and sizes, the resulting amalgamation is a cohesive collection of idiosyncrasy. This means that although landowners can develop property idiosyncratically, the typical fragmentation that results from idiosyncratic development has already been accounted for in this proposal.

BUILDING ON RESTITUTION

Pre-1945. Feudal System. Confiscation from 6 0wners 1990. capitalism restitution if 6 owners were alive 1990. capitalism. Proposed restitution to 34 decedents set-back laws develop-able land proposed

site restitution condition | exploded proposal

BUILDING ON RESTITUTION

2 scaling

4 scaling

site plan | stadium as an impetus to coalesce discretized urban fabric

BUILDING ON RESITUTION

section

BUILDING ON RESITUTION

section model

BUILDING ON RESITUTION

full research and proposal as exhibited in piper auditorium, harvard graduate school of design

INDEXICAL LASAGNA HELSINKI FERRY TERMINAL option studio | blob block slab mat slat harvard graduate school of design critic: george l. legendre collaboration: jee hyung park

EXHIBITED. GSD PLATFORM 8

BBSMS | INDEXICAL LASAGNA

Halfway between a socially responsive discourse of programmatic use and the alleged futility of form-giving, we pursue architecture’s critical return to form. Our interest in the topic of form is neither aesthetic nor ideological. Contrary to the notion of shape (with which it is often confused), form is a syntactic, procedural (and, increasingly, technical) problem, like the study of language in the 1970s – or the more recent emergence of Object Orientated Programming in the software industry.

Previous briefs systematically explored the architectural potential of the variable parametric surface, a vehicle chosen for its abstraction, its resistance to traditional means of analysis and representation, and the difficulty of giving it physical form without extensive reinterpretations – three constraints that predate the problem of architectural design and hence come first in the food chain of concepts and ideas. This year the chain begins with the problem of type.

The Blob. A hybrid. On the one hand, it hails back to Robert Venturi’s Duck, a monolithic building overwhelmed by a single formal and symbolic gesture. Unlike the Duck, however, which in its original Long Island Duckling incarnation harbored a roadside business selling poultry and eggs, the form of the Blob is irrelevant and symbolizes nothing but itself. In this sense it also constitutes what Rem Koolhaas called an Auto-Monument, a quality it shares with the Block. Functionally speaking there is a disconnect between the image of the Blob and the activities taking place inside.

Examples include Peter Cook’s and Colin Fournier’s Graz Kunsthaus (2004). Due to its opaque image, the Blob has an unspecified number of floors –but no more than 18, the accepted legal cut-off point for a building to be classified as low-rise.

partial model studying tectonics of indexical threads

BBSMS | INDEXICAL LASAGNA

blob research taxonomies 2,3

biosphere max res. space 8.9

kunsthaus 10,11

prague national library 18.19

The book is a highly stylized type text, imparting a predigested clump of knowledge in sequential and discrete steps.

Purposefully utilitarian, the book supplements and counterbalances the demands of Indexical Modeling. The initial criteria of comparison between projects includes siting, program, circulation and structure. Its main purpose is to consolidate empirical evidence of 4 commonly accepted typologies and one exceptional class which is notated as Nf.

BBSMS | INDEXICAL LASAGNA

sage gateshead 20,21

kresge auditorium 38,39

pompidou metz 66,67

metropol parasol 70.71

Functionally, there is a misalignment between the image of the Blob and the activities taking place inside.

_Surface Threads

M  100

_Surface dimensions

Width  60

_General variables

smoothness  50

N  100

m  0 1  M Length  90

n  0 1  N

Height  20

periods_1  1

Legs  10 periods_2  1

gaps  1

_Antecedents

jThreadm  n 

m M n N

 Width

Def_Mm  n 

 m  Def_Nm  n  2 asin cos   1  π  M 

10n M

smoothness  50

iThreadm  n 

 Length

N  100

m  0 1  M Length  90

n  0 1  N

Height  20

periods_1  2

Legs  10 periods_2  1

gaps  1

jThreadm  n 

_trough deforms m M n N

 n  2 m 2π      N  M 1 

 Width

 m  Def_Nm  n  2 asin cos   1  π  M 

Def_Mm  n  2 sin 

 Length

_simple

  m  shapeSm  n  cos   periods_1  π   M 

smoothness

_depressed

  m   shapem  n  cos   periods_1  π  Def_Mm  n   M  

 n   cos   periods_2  π  N 

smoothness

_Surface Threads

M  100

_Surface dimensions

Width  60

_General variables

smoothness  50

N  100

smoothness

   1Height  ( Height  Legs) 

Length  90

   gapsHeight  ( Height  Legs) 

m  n

 0 0 ( shapeS)

  m  shapeSm  n  cos   periods_1  π   M 

m  n 

variableLegsm  n  if ( shape) m  n  0 0 ( shape) m  n





smoothness

 n   cos   periods_2  π  N 

smoothness

gaps  1

_Antecedents

_Surface Threads

M  100

_Surface dimensions

Width  60

_General variables

smoothness  50

N  100

smoothness

   1Height  ( Height  Legs) 

 n     0 cos   periods_2  π  ( 0Def_N)  m  n   N  

( iThread jThread variableLegsS) ( iThread jThread Ground)

Legs  10 periods_2  1

  m   shapem  n  cos   periods_1  π  Def_Mm  n   M  

m  0 1  M Length  90



   gapsHeight  ( Height  Legs) 

m  n

 0 0 ( shapeS)

m  n 

variableLegsm  n  if ( shape) m  n  0 0 ( shape) m  n





shape

n  0 1  N

Height  20

periods_1  3

variableLegsSm  n  if ( shapeS)

smoothness

( iThread jThread variableLegs) ( iThread jThread Ground)

shape

n  0 1  N

Height  20

periods_1  1



smoothness

( iThread jThread variableLegs) ( iThread jThread Ground)

m  0 1  M

variableLegsSm  n  if ( shapeS)

_depressed

 n     0 cos   periods_2  π  ( 0Def_N)  m  n   N  

( iThread jThread variableLegsS) ( iThread jThread Ground)

Legs  10 periods_2  1

gaps  1

_Antecedents

Groundm  n  0

jThreadm  n 

Width  60

_General variables

Groundm  n  0

_trough deforms

_simple

iThreadm  n 

M  100

_Surface dimensions

_Antecedents

Groundm  n  0 iThreadm  n 

_Surface Threads

Groundm  n  0

_trough deforms m M n N

 n  m   2  π    N M  

 Width

 m  Def_Nm  n  2 asin cos   1  π  M 

Def_Mm  n  2 sin 

iThreadm  n 

 Length

jThreadm  n 

_simple

_trough deforms m M n N

 n  2 m 2π      N  M 1 

 Width

 m  Def_Nm  n  2 asin cos   1  π  M 

Def_Mm  n  2 sin 

 Length

_simple

  m  shapeSm  n  cos   periods_1  π   M 

smoothness

_depressed

  m   shapem  n  cos   periods_1  π  Def_Mm  n   M  

 n   cos   periods_2  π  N 

smoothness

smoothness

   1Height  ( Height  Legs) 



m  n

 0 0 ( shapeS)

  m  shapeSm  n  cos   periods_1  π   M 

m  n 

_depressed

 n     0 cos   periods_2  π  ( 0Def_N)  m  n   N  

( iThread jThread variableLegsS) ( iThread jThread Ground)

variableLegsSm  n  if ( shapeS)

smoothness

smoothness

   gapsHeight  ( Height  Legs) 

( iThread jThread variableLegs) ( iThread jThread Ground)

variableLegsm  n  if ( shape) m  n  0 0 ( shape) m  n





  m   shapem  n  cos   periods_1  π  Def_Mm  n   M  

 n   cos   periods_2  π  N 

smoothness

smoothness

   1Height  ( Height  Legs) 

 n     0 cos   periods_2  π  ( 0Def_N)  m  n   N  

( iThread jThread variableLegsS) ( iThread jThread Ground)



   gapsHeight  ( Height  Legs) 

( iThread jThread variableLegs) ( iThread jThread Ground)

shape

variableLegsSm  n  if ( shapeS)

m  n

 0 0 ( shapeS)

m  n 

smoothness

variableLegsm  n  if ( shape) m  n  0 0 ( shape) m  n





shape

asymptotic box mathcad exp.

120,121

_Surface Threads

M  100

_Surface dimensions

Width  60

_General variables

smoothness  50

N  100

m  0 1  M Length  90

Height  20

periods_1  1

n  0 1  N Legs  10 periods_2  1

gaps  1

_Antecedents

jThreadm  n 

m M n N

 Width

Def_Mm  n 

 m  Def_Nm  n  2 asin cos   1  π  M 

15n

mn

jThreadm  n 

smoothness

  m   shapem  n  cos   periods_1  π  Def_Mm  n   M  

 n   cos   periods_2  π  N 

smoothness

_Surface Threads

M  100

_Surface dimensions

Width  60

_General variables

smoothness  50

N  100

smoothness

   1Height  ( Height  Legs) 

m  0 1  M Length  90

n  0 1  N

Height  20

periods_1  3

Legs  10 periods_2  1

gaps  1

_trough deforms m M n N

 n  2 m 2π      N  M 1 

 Width

 m  Def_Nm  n  2 asin cos   1  π  M 

Def_Mm  n  2 sin 

 Length

Height  20

periods_1  1





smoothness

   gapsHeight  ( Height  Legs) 

( iThread jThread variableLegs) ( iThread jThread Ground)

m  0 1  M Length  90

  m  shapeSm  n  cos   periods_1  π   M 

variableLegsSm  n  if ( shapeS) m  n  0 0 ( shapeS) m  n

smoothness

_depressed

 n     0 cos   periods_2  π  ( 0Def_N) m  n   N  

( iThread jThread variableLegsS) ( iThread jThread Ground)

BBSMS | INDEXICAL LASAGNA

N  100

_simple

  m  shapeSm  n  cos   periods_1  π   M 

variableLegsm  n  if ( shape)



m  n

 0 0 ( shape)

m  n 

gaps  1

_Surface Threads

M  100

_Surface dimensions

Width  60

_General variables

smoothness  50

N  100

smoothness

   1Height  ( Height  Legs) 

 n     0 cos   periods_2  π  ( 0Def_N) m  n   N  

( iThread jThread variableLegsS) ( iThread jThread Ground)

Legs  10 periods_2  1

  m   shapem  n  cos   periods_1  π  Def_Mm  n   M  

 n   cos   periods_2  π  N 

smoothness

m  0 1  M Length  90

Height  20

periods_1  1

variableLegsSm  n  if ( shapeS) m  n  0 0 ( shapeS) m  n





smoothness

   gapsHeight  ( Height  Legs) 

( iThread jThread variableLegs) ( iThread jThread Ground)

shape

n  0 1  N

_Antecedents

variableLegsm  n  if ( shape)



m  n

 0 0 ( shape)

m  n 

shape

n  0 1  N Legs  10 periods_2  1

gaps  1

_Antecedents

Groundm  n  0

Groundm  n  0

_trough deforms m M n N

 Width

Def_Mm  n 

2

 m  Def_Nm  n  2 asin cos   1  π  M 

n

3( 2m  n)

iThreadm  n 

 Length

jThreadm  n 

_simple

  m  shapeSm  n  cos   periods_1  π   M 

_depressed

smoothness  2

iThreadm  n 

 Length

_depressed

jThreadm  n 

Width  60

_General variables

Groundm  n  0

_trough deforms

_simple

iThreadm  n 

M  100

_Surface dimensions

_Antecedents

Groundm  n  0 iThreadm  n 

_Surface Threads

_trough deforms m M n N

 Width

 

 n  π  cos  m π 6      N    M 

 m  Def_Nm  n  2 asin cos   1  π  M 

Def_Mm  n  sin 

 Length

_simple smoothness

 n   cos   periods_2  π  N 

smoothness

   1Height  ( Height  Legs) 

( iThread jThread variableLegsS) ( iThread jThread Ground)

( iThread jThread variableLegs) ( iThread jThread Ground)

  m  shapeSm  n  cos   periods_1  π   M 

variableLegsSm  n  if ( shapeS) m  n  0 0 ( shapeS) m  n





_depressed

smoothness smoothness   m   n      shapem  n  cos   periods_1  π  Def_Mm  n  0 cos   periods_2  π  ( 0Def_N) m  n   gapsHeight  ( Height  Legs)   M     N   

variableLegsm  n  if ( shape) m  n  0 0 ( shape) m  n





smoothness

 n   cos   periods_2  π  N 

( iThread jThread variableLegsS) ( iThread jThread Ground) shape

smoothness

   1Height  ( Height  Legs) 

variableLegsSm  n  if ( shapeS) m  n  0 0 ( shapeS) m  n



smoothness smoothness   m   n      shapem  n  cos   periods_1  π  Def_Mm  n  0 cos   periods_2  π  ( 0Def_N) m  n   gapsHeight  ( Height  Legs)   M     N   

( iThread jThread variableLegs) ( iThread jThread Ground)

Def_M



variableLegsm  n  if ( shape) m  n  0 0 ( shape) m  n





asymptotic box mathcad exp.

130,131

_Surface Threads

M  45

_Surface dimensions

Width  90

N  135

m  0 1  Length  270

_trough deforms Def_Mm  n 

 20n     N 

Def_Nm  n 

M

n  0 1 

N

Height_01  7

Legs_01  0

Height_02  14

Legs_02  0

Height_03  56

Legs_03   35

_General variables

periods_1  1

smoothness_01  50 smoothness_02  200

periods_2  1

gapsm  n  1 

 ( 6n  m)     sin  M 2  1

_Antecedents Groundm  n  0

T  3 3N  2

     1 π  4

iThreadm  n  jThreadm  n 

smoothness_03  300000

 1m M





gaps_01_am  n  gapsm  n



_depressed

4

4

m M n N

 Width  Length

1

gaps_02m  n  gapsm  n  0.5



 ( 1.8n  m)  8π    1.8N  M  

shape_01 m  n  cos 

 

 ( 1.8n  m)  8π    1.8N  M  

shape_02 m  n  cos 

 

 ( 1.8n  m)  8π    1.8N  M  

shape_03 m  n  cos 



smoothness_01



  gaps_01_am  n  Height_01  ( Height_01  Legs_01)





gaps_03m  n  gapsm  n

4

 0.1



smoothness_02

   gaps_02m  nHeight_02  ( Height_02  Legs_02) 

smoothness_03

   gaps_03m  nHeight_03  ( Height_03  Legs_03) 

variableLegs_01m  n  if ( shape_01 )



m  n

 0 0 ( shape_01 )

m  n 

variableLegs_02m  n  if ( shape_02 ) m  n  0 0 ( shape_02 ) m  n





variableLegs_03m  n  if ( shape_03 ) m  n  0 0 ( shape_03 ) m  n





gaps ( iThread jThread variableLegs_01) ( iThread jThread Ground)

( iThread jThread variableLegs_01) ( iThread jThread variableLegs_03) ( iThread jThread variableLegs_02)

lasagna final exp.

164,165

lasagna final exp.

172,173

instead of designing intuitively, we write form, which allows us to begin at the top the design pyramid. this method strips out the back-end processes of typical modeling tools, allowing for a one-to-one relationship between intent and form. while the intuitive designer operates after the surface, we operate before the surface.

BBSMS | INDEXICAL LASAGNA

ground level plan

BBSMS | INDEXICAL LASAGNA

main terminal plan

BBSMS | INDEXICAL LASAGNA

Helsinki ferry terminal final proposal as presented

MOBIUS GREENOGRAPHY WELLESLEY GREENHOUSE core ii | situate harvard graduate school of design critic: katy barkan, preston scott cohen

NOMINATED, GSD PLATFORM 6

MOBIUS GREENOGRAPHY

Wellesley College, founded in 1870, serves as the site for new greenhouse facilities which will replace the original botanical garden. The college is renowned for the picturesque beauty of its 700-acre campus which includes Lake Waban, evergreen and deciduous woodlands and open meadows. A master plan for Wellesley’s campus landscape was developed by Olmsted, Arthur Shurcliff, and Ralph Adam Cram in 1921. The campus has complex topography, meadows, and native plan communities shaped original layout of the campus, resulting in a campus architecture that is integrated into its landscape.

Historically, Wellesley maintained one of the premier botany departments in the country. The siting for the new facilities presents an incredible challenge due to the adjacency with an oversized Campus Science Center. Furthermore, the Science Center building, a conglomeration of three distinct buildings constructed over several interventions has lost its identity and the architectural monumentality it once presented. As such, the role of the greenhouse is twofold.

section (top left) and plan (Bottom right)

MOBIUS GREENOGRAPHY

The proposed greenhouse intervention concieved as a critique to both the Science Center and the landscape of Wellesley as a whole. The new intervention, penetrates the east facade of the Campus Science Center and separates new from old, allowing for the conglomeration of buildings to stand distinctively and in harmony, simultaneously. The intervention stitches the existing context, while allowing the residual space between the two to breathe.

As a critique to the campus, the parti of the greenhouse, is conceived as an internalized experience of the Wellesley campus as a whole. It facilitates the perceived endless experience of the campus through a mobius scheme | a Mobius Greenography.

southern elevation

MOBIUS GREENOGRAPHY

METABOLIC CODE HANDLING AN URBAN CONTAINMENT core iv | urbanism, brooklyn, NY harvard graduate school of design critic: florian iden, ingeborg rocker collaboration: majda almarzouqi, royce perez

EXHIBITED AND PUBLISHED, GSD PLATFORM 7

METABOLIC CODE

The history of urbanization is, in a true sense, the history of sanitation. Upon community cleanliness depends man’s ability to live in close contact with his fellow men, without endangering their health, comfort and nicety of living with ac-cumulations of the wastes of his life and living processes.

Similarly, the history of sanitation is the history of sewer systems. The symbols of today’s social and economic progress are the tangible superstructures that have been built by the ingenuity and the art of man. The symbols of today’s community cleanliness are the subsurface “veins” which carry away wastes- and do it unseen, and often unsung.

In order to “sing” the praises of sewers and to place them in their proper historical perspective in the story of community progress, it is necessary to go back into history to trace the beginnings of sewer systems and record today’s practices.

The past may not be filled with early sewer construction achievements; the future will, however, be shaped by the conduits of civilization which we design and build today.

Perhaps one of the most revealing descriptions of sewer and water conduits and other municipal utilities gains its understandibility by comparing these facilities to parts of the human system. It compares the street system of a community with the skeletal structure of the body... the traffic control system - with the brain... the sewers - with the veins.... the sewage treatment plant - with the kidneys... the water mains with the arteries... the water purification plant - with the lungs.... and the water pumping station - with the heart.

4,5

16,17

code book

24,25

26.27

METABOLIC CODE

85,86

132,133

highly graphic, the book puts graphics in place of words, in effort to amplify awareness about the extensive waste projected to be produced by 39,000 people on the site.

METABOLIC CODE

Whether these parallels are far-fetched is beside the point. They serve their purpose by giving the public an insight into the importance of these facilities to their survival.

is essential, in an era of space, that we solve the problems of the planet before we go o to explore and exploit other elements of the universe. To this end, it is necessary to know what lies beneath the surface of the earth as well as what lies above it. In short, it is important for the people who depend on sewers - the conduits of civilization - to know how their health, comfort, safety and convenience of living are dictated by the e ectiveness of the unseen utilities which thread through the subsurface area of the communities, often linking one community with another and with inter-community facilities.

- ‘Sewers for Growing America’ Morris M. Cohn

residential archetypes

resident circulation

water runoff surfaces

existing infrastructure

flooding

adapted canal

systems composite

apparatuses of the metabolism

METABOLIC CODE

quadrant plan

THE SHARED UN-BUILT VISIONS FOR THE SWISS COUNTRYSIDE option studio | achtung: die landschaft eth zurich | harvard graduate school of design critic: jacques herzog, pierre de meuron, martino tattara collaboration: chong ying pai

PUBLISHED: achtung: die Landschaft, ETH Studio Basel, Lars Muller Publishers

THE SHARED UN-BUILT

In 1955 Max Frisch, Lucius Burckhardt, and Markus Kutter published achtung: die Schweiz, a warning about the increasing level of sprawl throughout the Swiss landscape and a plea for a new and better controlled urbanity in the form of high density settlements. Sixty years later, the level of alarm against the increasing levels of urban sprawl has not diminished and yet single-family houses and low-density settlements still unabatedly continue to threaten the Swiss landscape.

Openly alluding to the book of 1955, achtung: die Landschaft suggests a different yet radical point of view.

Reclaiming a central role of Landschaft– land, landscape, and the entire un-built territory–as a remedy to current urban conditions, the understanding of the Swiss Un-built territory becomes the lens through which alternative strategies and visions for the future can now advance.

Similarly to the rest of the Swiss territory, the Olten region has not been able to elude from such sprawl. It is dominated and dictated by infrastructure - highways and tracks connecting one point to another across Switzerland, slicing through the landscape. Unfortunately, everything else in between is ignored. The dominance of the infrastructure is especially problematic within communes at the human scale, often acting as physical barriers, reducing cross grain connections and producing incoherent programmatic juxtapositions.

As a result, both sides of the same town are split by infrastructure with little interaction.

This physical division is coupled with insular developments in the communes of this particular region. The communes have clusters of built area independent of each other, relying on the same highway and railway systems to connect with one another.

aerial view of local network

THE SHARED UN-BUILT

regional proposal. using the the rivers as the main connecting spine, and the perimeters of built areas to determine the local network

THE SHARED UN-BUILT

Our site has very little predicted growth. This is due to their inherent nature of the towns they are satellites of Olten and Aarau. There is very little travel between these small towns but commuters mostly travel to Olten or Aarau and back. Because of this, in addition to the illusion of ample suburban land in Switzerland, the lack of identity in these areas, as well as the relentless pursuit of the Swiss dream, people who seek to move to this region are not particularly attracted to any of the existing clusters, but would prefer to spread out, creating new pockets of sprawl developments around the area.

tryptich | taxonomies of adjacencies

THE SHARED UN-BUILT

As an alternative to the major infrastructure on site, The Shared Un-Built proposes that the un-built of Olten should be the common infrastructure.

unrolled diagram of local proposal. protecting the unbuilt. establishing a rhythm. determining sites of potential

THE SHARED UN-BUILT

the Shared Un-Built is a network that is local and slow. It allows for pauses. It treats the built and the unbuilt equally. It is not about connecting one built zone to another, but about experiencing the different conditions.

The network takes advantage of the existing infrastructure. It connects to them, and stitches them together. It is holistic, porous and accessible.

THE SHARED UN-BUILT

The juxtaposition of infrastructures

HEXALLATE STRUCTURAL MODULATION core ii | situate harvard graduate school of design critic: katy barkan, cameron wu

NOMINATED, GSD PLATFORM 6

HEXALLATE

From the grandest cathedrals to the most quotidian dwellings, architecture is typically comprised of repeated structural bays.

Simple geometric transformations of the irreducible bay can quickly produce a great a variety of spatial arrangements, including a vast catalog of architectural types. These simple operations include, but are not limited to scaling, mirroring, translating, rotating, racking, and tapering.

In this exercise structural bays that capitalize on the packing qualities of hexagons are conceived and deployed in order to produce an arrangement of contiguous covered spaces. A coherent idea which succinctly describes or motivates the hierarchy of the heterogeneous spaces may be understood in the relationship with known architectural types - basilicas, markets, arenas, centralized churches, office towers warehouses, etc. Since the number of bays is limited, the geometric economy and structural performance of bilateral and rotational arrangements requires the engagement of symmetry and seriality.

rotation 0°

60°

120°

180°

240°

300°

module a

module b

variation research. all variations are produced from the tessellation and aggregation of one module. difference is generated from rotation and sequence.

HEXALLATE

While in the geometric studies, all variations produced were a result of the aggregation of only one module, here the final product is a combination of three.

Although its construction technique relies upon repetition for efficiency, it is understood that the repeated unit is composed of multiple parts. As such, it is a compound assembly and not a component a molecule and not an atom. The dialectic of part to whole relationships is the subject of investigation, as characteristics of the global figuration and hierarchy are intelligently embedded within the unit geometries, and vice versa. Dialectics such as figure vs. field, nested vs. contiguous , radial vs. rectilinear bilateral vs. rotational symmetries and convex vs. concave are tackled through the tessellation of the module. Through iterative development of spatial, tectonic, and material logics, the resulting system produces an environment that embodies multiple ideas of organization and sensorial experience.

final aggregation as presented

CREASE PASSAGES IN THE FOLD core ii | situate harvard graduate school of design critic: katy barkan, cameron wu

NOMINATED, GSD PLATFORM 6

CREASE

The most intelligent ordering systems which define rich architectural space must negotiate the complexities of material and programmatic demands, as well as the geometric logic(s) of pure dimension. The process of bringing order and rationality to a set of heterogeneous parts which form a whole, whether coherent, diffuse, or idiosyncratic, is a primary directive of architectural design. In this project, we were asked to integrate architectural elements from different proportional scales ranging from building/envelope scale to the more intimate human/furniture scale while navigating a specifically shaped residual space.

site plan

CREASE

The task was to design an infill project that will host the expansion and consolidation of a new academic department being formed at a small liberal arts college. The site in which we operate is the interstitial space between two campus buildings.

These two buildings will provide much of the required classroom and general office space, but additional program areas are required to expand and consolidate the growing department. This connection links the two buildings at all floors and provides a cohesive and recognizable physical identity on campus.

plan | fold and circulation

CREASE

This particular gap between the two buildings is centrally located on the campus, and has traditionally been used as a primary pedestrian thoroughfare linking exterior campus quadrangles. Therefore the function and qualities of this critical pedestrian passage have been maintained.

The proposal simultaneously serves as the new entrance, connective tissue, and symbolic center of the department, but also exhibits material transparency and adequate spatial agility to allow exterior campus circulation to flow unimpeded as before. Specifically, the use of glazing systems to define significant portions of the envelope is understood to be instrumental in achieving this goal.

view from northeast

CREASE

View from southwest

7 - ratio PORTFOLIO OF ACADEMIC WORK PRODUCED AT THE HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN

Text, design, models and photographs produced

by Arion Kocani (otherwise stated.) No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author. © 2016 by Arion Kocani. All rights reserved. www.arionkocani.com

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