Design Portfolio: selected works

alex

yoon

design portfolio

8 SELECTED WORKS 1

AIRPORT

2

CATIA

3

HARVARD

4

HOT AIR BALLOON

payne’s prairie, florida

5

NYC SUPERBLOCK

con-edison site, nyc

6

PARKING GARAGE

7

DESERT CENTER

8

NYCity HOTEL

bucharest, romania digital space cambridge, ma

anywhere black rock desert astor place, nyc

alex yoon ayoon86@gmail.com

B.Design in Architecture 2008

summa cum laude

University of Florida Master in Architecture 2011

candidate with advanced placement

Harvard GSD

AIRPORT BUCHAREST: RETICULATED FORM

Can one cellular module create architecture? Can it be differentiated in a system that is flexibile and robust?

This goal of the studio was to explore the formal potential of a reticulated cell, a modular geometry that could give rise to sectional and planar differentiation at an architectural level. The challenge was to find a cell that could be differentiated three-dimensionally, not simply deployed across a twodimensional surface.

AIRPORT

CAIRO pattern: geometry

The cairo pattern is found as pavers in the streets of Cairo.

These irregular hexagons are subdivided into regular pentagons, giving the pattern a robust set of lines and geometric rules that can be bent planometrically and sectionally

CAIRO differentiation: planar

midpoint

CATIA: Sketch tool: point manipulation With the internal geometry of one cell defined, the cell was deployed across a plane and subsequently manipulated by adjusting the ratio points of the attached cells. At this point, the differentiation was speculative, exploring circulation and spatial opportunities that could occur once section came into play.

01

CAIRO differentiation: sectional

By adjusting the corner points of the pentagonal subdivisions, the surface cell warps into curved surfaces; and by combining multiple surfaces sectionally, a kit-of-parts of formal operations is created from the sectional differentiation.

AIRPORT TYPOLOGY: direct vs leisurely DIRECT ROUTE TO GATE LEISURELY ROUTE TO GATE

RETAIL

GATE

PLAN GATE

RETAIL

SECTION 1.

RETAIL

GATE

GATE

GATE

GATE

RETAIL

RETAIL

RETAIL

GATE

GATE

RETAIL

There are two paths that passengers usually take, the quick direct path to the gate or the leisurely path; strolling from store to store. In plan, these two paths are drastically different; while in typical airport sections, the paths are the same experientally.

2.

RETAIL

RETAIL

3.

RECREATION

GATE RECREATION

GATE

RETAIL

4.

By vertically shifting retail and recreation and placing them on top of one another; extra program space is created in the same planar dimensions while the leisurely route is activated sectionally to give an altogether different spatial and circulatory experience.

AIRPORT 02

AIRPORTS ARE FLOW MACHINES: SEQUENCES OF PROCESS AND HOLD GATE

SECURITY

CHECK-IN

DROP-OFF

PROCESS

LINEAR FLOW

HOLD

INDETERMINANT FLOW Landside: check-in counter

rail station

underground parking

car drop-off

check-in

security

security

to immigration VIP lounge restaurant restaurant cafe

yoga

bus to stand

garden

convenience sleep pods duty-free garden

apron

AIRPORT

03

DEPARTURES DROP-OFF CHECK-IN SECURITY AIRSIDE CONCOURSE RETAIL & RECREATION IMMIGRATION BAGGAGE ARRIVALS PICK-UP

AIRPORT

04

CATIA:

GENERATIVE SHAPE DESIGN

CATIA was the medium through which several form finding investigations were undertaken. The robust software enabled accurate surfacing and parametric control of line, surface, and volume. The primary exercise was to find a cell could be differentiated and then deployed across a three-dimensional system. The use of the PowerCopy tool, as well as design tables and light scripting, created a variety of products that were differentiated and conformed to the conditions/armature in which they were placed.

CATIA STUDIES

03

Planar manipulations of the cairo cell were then extruded with a structural cell system to investigate spatial and circulatory possibilites generated from solely planar manipulation.

Catia was used as the primary modeling software for the airport project, in which the planar and sectional layout of the airport was translated into an armature for the cell geometry to be deployed across. The armature accomodated both planar and sectional differentiation, creating different spatial typologies in both plan and section, which was necessary in order to provide the architectural robustness of an airport proposal.

HARVARD HOUSE: Undergraduate Dormitory Harvard University’s plan to build new undergraduate houses in Allston was an opportunity to evaluate and reconsider student housing typology. The brief was to consider how to house a community of 300, evluating new student life-styles and methods of interaction, creating architecture that fosters social interaction while still considering the privacy and well-being of the individual.

HARVARD HOUSE

01

The project separates the public from the private, giving students their privacy in the solace of their rooms while public spaces foster social interaction, placing programs centrally in the dormitory, creating planar and sectional adjacencies, surrounded by green spaces.

Green spaces do not simply “fill� the spaces between the building components. They engage sectionally the buildings they are adjacent to, extending interior into exterior, creating a variety of intimate outdoor spaces that are just as vital to students as the enclosed spaces.

CAFE, REC ROOM DORM ROOMS GREEN SPACES LIBRARY THEATER

UNIT 1 STAIRWELL COMMON ROOM BEDROOM BATHROOM

HARVARD HOUSE

02

HOT-AIR BALLOON FACILITY & ARTIST’S RETREAT

HOT AIR BALLOON

01

PREMISE The program activities revolve around capturing the qualities of the Payne’s Prairie nature reserve.

The quality of spaces reflect the focus on viewing and capturing the phenomenological elements of the landscape, enhancing the qualities of the site by either providing stark contrast to its context or exaggerating the experiential qualities of site and program.

balloon launch field

stairwell to gallery

balloon repair

sculpture studio

HOT AIR BALLOON

The model was not simply used as a presentation piece, but as a vehicle for exploring and refining the experiential qualities of the artists’ gallery. Previous iterations of light study models culminated in the finalization and documentation of natural lighting techniques in this 3/16� section model. The gallery istelf becomes an exhibited piece, as the shifting daylight creates altogether different environments inside the gallery. The gallery, though white and neutral in color, becomes an active participant in the exhibition.

02

3/16� section model

HOT AIR BALLOON

03

NYC SUPERBLOCK: Con-Edison site, UN Secretariat

Next to the UN Secretariat in Tudor City, the former Con-Edison power supply depot lies abandoned and unused. The project was to speculate on what could take place in this prime location, with adjacencies to a quaint neighborhood district, the UN, and the waterfront. The program requirements required the intregration of residential, office, and hotel towers. The primary premise of this project was the importance of reactivating the two edges of the site, the street and waterfront, by creating a nodes of program activities that would bridge the two edges.

TURTLE BAY

UN

site

NYC SUPERBLOCK

01

1st Ave in this particular area was severely underused, neglected, due to the lack of street level activity caused by the vacancy of the site. The waterfront was also an eyesore, blocked by Roosevelt Drive and inaccessible from the street. The first move was to bury the highway, making a walkable connection from the street to water. Section and model studies explored the possibilites in which this connection occurred, with a particular emphasis on landscape and recreation to draw New Yorkers back to the site.

With such a highly charged site, it would be neglectful to ignore contextual elements and opportunities that surround this site, yet to be considered and fully realized.

NYC SUPERBLOCK

02

GRAFTING ONTO A SYSTEM: Cinematheque for Film-makers

IN/ON a Parking Garage

The objective of this project was to activate an edge. The infrastructural aesthetic of the garage was to be activated and transformed by adding new program. By adding onto the edge and at times intervening into the existing system, the functional quality of the infrastructure would be preserved while a fresh, new “skin” of program would be grafted onto the facade.

TO INSERT AN INTERVENTION EXTRUDING FROM THE FACADE, GRAFTING INTO/ONTO A SYSTEM

NYCity HOTEL

01

DESERT CENTER FOR ARCHEOLOGISTS AND ARTISTS

This project focuses on the IDEA of desert. To understand and identify the idea of the desert. When one imagines the desert, one thinks of the neverending flat land that meets with sky, two totally overwhelmingly large and scaleless fields that stretch from eye to eye. It is this landscape/context in which an intervention is placed, where a place emerges.

The first exercise was to explore horizontality and the “CRITICAL CRACK,� the thin band of white between land and sky. With these studies, the conceptual studies were applied along a field, the desert, planometrically. From the initial studies and marking lines, a place emerges planometrically and perspectivally, the convergence and emergence of plan, section, elevation on the horizon of the context.

Once a place emerged, an intervention was inserted into that place, building upon and explaining the idea of desert.

DESERT CENTER

01

“Architecture does not so much intrude on a landscape as it serves to explain it.” - S. Holl

DESERT CENTER

“Architecture does not so much intrude on a landscape as it serves to explain it.” - S. Holl

02

NYCity HOTEL & Cooper Union/NYU Student Center

Astor Place, located in East Village at the intersection of Astor Pl, Broadway, and Lafayette, has been owned by the adjacent Cooper Union. Right in the heart of East Village and neighboring St. Mark’s Place. A hotspot for NYU and Cooper Union Students as well as counter-culture , this space has been severely underutilized in an area of high-density pedestrian and street activity.

In addition to the hotel, Cooper-Union program would be mixed in. Taking this one step further, recognizing the adjacency of the NYU campus and trying to integrate the two schools into one space would best be solved by creating a student center; where students from both schools could interact in a relaxed environment. Study centers, reading niches, lounges and vertical green spaces would create several situations where interactions could occur.

Vertical Green Space Study & Computer Areas Hotel Amenities Fitness Center Hotel Block

NYCity HOTEL

01

Counter-culture is heavily prevalent in this area, from skateboarders to indie music/theatre. Creating a public space that would recognize and enhance the presence of this type and others is resolved by the public sleeve that slides in beneath the student center, providing a small amphitheatre for the indie scene and giving ample ground for skateboarders and the many street vendors that enhance the pedestrian/ street experience.