Axel Olson - Metropolis Future 100 - Portfolio

Axel Olson Master of Architecture University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

Projects Self-Storage

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That’s a Wrap

5

Before the Bright Shadow

11

Some of This is That

15

Signs of Life

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Designed Objects

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Self-Storage Selected for Exhibition in the 2022 Taubman College Student Show Temporary Dwelling / Object Library Ann Arbor, MI Form Studio - Instructor Adam Fure Taubman College of Architecture, 2021

Self-Storage is a temporary dwelling made for the

Two living spaces for obsessive organizers stack

reclamation and dispersal of domestic things. In

and sort objects as they come and go, constantly

dialogue with the detritus of modernism, the project

rearranging the building’s layout to accommodate an

suggests a Maison Dom-Ino of stuff caught within the

uncertain supply chain. Just like its nomadic residents,

contemporary problem of ownership.

the things and architecture they construct are not necessarily here to stay…

Rather than going straight from someone’s home (“my” things) into a landfill (“nobody’s” things), objects are rerouted to this facility and reused in the community (“our” things), confusing the typical cycle of consumerism and diffusing the private/public dichotomy of ownership.

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Three renderings portray the aggregation and assembly of domestic things into architecture

Plan Perspective - Operable doors blur ownership of the objects beyond the interior and into the community

Section Perspective - Shipping, packing, sending, and recieving become the tectonics of the architecture

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Self-Storage

Physical Model - Folded and stacked boxes are sandwiched between removable slabs of CLT

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That’s a Wrap Selected for Exhibition in the 2023 Taubman College Student Show Adaptive Reuse / Media Production Center Ann Arbor, MI Situation Studio - Instructor Catherine Griffiths Taubman College of Architecture, 2022

Facing their impending demolition, the buildings at

Salvageable concrete columns, OSB panels, bricks,

415 W. Washington street are restructured into an

and CMU blocks are intermixed with their green digital

exquisite corpse that resurrects the location’s short

doubles, as locals create and contest their ideas of what

life as a film basecamp. New bones stitch together the

the site could be. A two-level storage space props-

remaining facades into a temporary media studio where

up the wall where materials are stored. Architectural

the pre and post production of the architectural site is

fragments are reassembled into sets in a sound stage

visualized. As building elements are deconstructed and

that stands-in for what was once a parking lot. The

rearranged they are patched with greenscreen home

media produced on site is projected within the shell of

wrap to simultaneously preserve their failing materials

a building that performs as a screening room where the

and introduce new opportunities for imaging the future

future of the lot is publicly viewed and reviewed.

of the industrial warehouse.

5

Situational Plan Oblique - A sprawling staging grounds guides vistors through the production of homewrap

Knolled Isometric - Building parts, greenscreen homewrap, and filmmaking equipment combine into architectural props and sets

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That’s a Wrap

Fire! - A conceptual rendering distorts and entangles the scales of oil extraction, homewrap production, and architecture

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Wrapped materials are superimposed with images of the original site, allowing a multiplicity of visions for the future of the lot

Site Isometric - The former industrial warehouse is restructured into an architectural staging ground and temporary new media studio

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That’s a Wrap

A short film overlays the digital model on the physical site as props are disassembled

10

Before the Bright Shadow Selected Winner of the 2023 Taubman College Student Show Adaptive Reuse / Embassy Havana, Cuba Institutions Studio - Instructor Ana Morcillo Pallares Taubman College of Architecture, 2023

In an era of Havana Syndrome paranoia, the US Embassy

city blocks. These spaces - often located in the ruins of

in Cuba is reimagined as a black box of communications

former buildings or public parks - are heavily controlled

that contests the opacity of government and civilian

by digital and financial access thresholds, yet become

relations in the US and Cuba. Portions of the original

a silent space of communications between Cubans

building are redacted to create new pockets of on and

and their families in the US. Other communications are

offline connections. A plaque in the Anti-Imperialist

pushed under-the-table by these surveillance systems,

Plaza across the street describes the presence of the

and are exchanged between Cubans through shadow-

US as a “bright shadow” - the project embodies this

economies like El Paquete Semanal.

through an architecture in guarded retreat, opening itself to certain public activities while turning inwards to

With thickening physical and digital walls between

guard what might be left of its original program.

nations, Before the Bright Shadow entangles US/Cuban relations through known/unknowns, censors/sensors,

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Urbanistically, the project acts as a foil to existing wifi

media/mediums in a space of increasing communication

infrastructure located on redacted corners of Havana’s

and decreasing physical occupation.

Physical Model - A section model of the entrance establishes didactic spaces, layering the known and unknown

Split Perspective - The modernist facade remains on one side of the structure, veiling the presence of shadowy programs on the other

Ambassador’s Office Perspective - Soft soundproofing creates sharp surfaces within the former US Ambassador’s office

13

Before the Bright Shadow

Level 1 Plan - The former plinth is excavated into a plaza where public and private access is mediated by internet connectivity

Isometric Section - Portions of the original embassy interlock with redacted spaces to form a complex of government relations

14

Some of This is That Selected for Exhibition in the 2024 Taubman College Student Show Collective Housing / Planning Detroit, MI Collectives Studio - Instructors Craig Borum + Claudia Wigger Taubman College of Architecture, 2023

Some of This is That brings together three similar

Edge Collective engages the neighborhood’s single-

architectures to propose atypical models of collective

family residential fabric along the northern block of the

dwelling in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood of

project, stepping over and around existing backyards

Detroit. Throughout the site, residents with different

and lot lines while creating a collective green alleyway.

living needs are brought together through common

The Roof Collective gathers varying domestic programs

spaces. While the buildings and their ownership

beneath common roof structures to offer alternatives to

models vary, programmatic and material details of their

the typical single-family dwelling. The project nourishes

collective and private spaces share a language that

the existing urban prairie condition created by lot

provides individuality within a larger organization.

vacancy to expand habitat for native plants and animals.

Thickened facades and structural systems allow bats

Situated along the historic Jefferson Street commercial

and birds to live throughout the site. Their presence

corridor, the site is fronted by the Tower Collective

among human inhabitants allows for a flourishing urban

that relates in scale to nearby towers and acts as an

prairie environment to serve as collective greenspace for

identifier for the “entrance” of the connected sites. The

recreation and food cultivation. *Project Team: Axel Olson, Caroline Stahl, Jiabao Zhu

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C

The Edge Collective (A)

B

A

The Roof Collective (B)

Site Plan - Three collectives distributed through a prairie

The Tower Collective (C)

The Edge Collective - Private activity is organized around the hearth, and a shared exterior walkway connects units across the alley

The Roof Collective - Large roofs span over multiple units, collecting people and prairie into a shared ecosystem

17

Some of This is That

The Tower Collective - Balconies perch behind a perforated metal screen

Physical Model with offset brick-pattern screen

18

Signs of Life Exhibited in “Built to Scale” at the Liberty Research Annex Physical + Digital Platform Design Ann Arbor, MI Architecture Student Research Grant Taubman College of Architecture, 2023

The image of ongoing maintenance is so ubiquitous

a scalable system that communicates maintenance

it can be mistaken as pre-aesthetic, undesigned, or

efforts between staff and visitors. Using standardized

simply “just there.” This latent visual language is one

products like steel sign posts in combination with

many can see, but few can read - its particular meaning

custom-fabricated elements, the project explores high/

obscured to the realm of specialized labor. In contrast

low visibility aesthetics in temporary architectures at

to their ubiquity on city streets, these markers become

the scale of the marker, the post, the sign, and the web

the “signs of life” of a larger ecology at work within

platform. The system was developed in collaboration

Ann Arbor’s Nichols Arboretum, offering a glimpse at

with the Arboretum staff to meet their evolving needs

how the human hand has assisted in staging what many

as the park varies in capacity throughout the seasons.

would consider to be a natural (or nonhuman) setting.

Guests who encounter these unusual prototypes may or may not take note of them, allowing both the critical eye

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With funding from the 2022 Architecture Student

and the casual glance a momentary relationship to the

Research Grants, Signs of Life was developed into

caretakers of their “natural” experience.

A digital model assembles stock steel posts, custom 3d-printed joints, and camoflauge made from 3d scans

A fieldbook documents the project in more detail and includes drawings, diagrams, and a short essay

Post-Platform (www.post-platform.com) is a functional website developed for digitally maintaining physical signage in the park

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Signs of Life

An assembled “outpost” brings the project to full-scale at the Built to Scale exhibition

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Designed Objects Mixed Media Chicago, IL Independent + School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2015-2020

Throughout my architecture education I have designed

1. Roma - Clock

and produced a series of objects - from furniture, to

2. Penumbra - Console

clothing, to footwear - that extend my design thinking

3. Lux - Lamp

beyond the scale of a building or master plan. Working

4. Norma - Footwear

at this scale also allows me to combine digital and analog craftsmanship throughout the design process, giving me an intuitive sense of material properties and assembly methods. Woodworking, hand-tooling, lasercutting, 3d printing, and more come together to form objects that are functionally nuanced and aesthetically refined.

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