Brandon Kroger: Architecture and Design 2022

br a n d o n kroger c ra t ih ectur e e \d sin g 2 22

Brandon Kroger 2018-2022 Cincinnati, OH (513)-833-6103 Ohio State University, Knowlton School of Architecture University of Cincinnati, DAAP SAID

Academic Work Los Álamos Cooperativa Deus_Ex_Machina Secrets: Columbus, IN Fulton Place Urban Plan

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Housing on the Fringes San Miguel Teotongo, Mexico City, MX Spring 2020 Gregory Marinic, Alican YIldIz, Shou Qin Simpson Urban Futures Travel Program Featured in Hopeful Rebar by Gregory Marinic

21 ST Century urbanism is characterized by the rapid growth of populations; nearly two thirds of the world will live in urbanized areas by the middle of the century. This is true in North America, especially within its largest metropolis, Mexico City. The city continues to densify the center of a compact volcanic valley; many have thus been forced into informal settlements on the periphery of the city, often at the base of a mountain or volcano; one of these many neighborhoods is San Miguel Teotongo. Just before the global pandemic, we visited the site, and spoke with residents, trying to understand what architects could do to improve housing in the neighborhood; unsurprisingly, the Coronavirus pandemic spread rapidly throughout the highly densified settlement. What could architectures do to fulfill basic needs of the locals, set a flexible structure that can change with time, and, most importantly, maintain resident agency? Residents typically employ self-reliant and ad hoc principles; construction techniques are based upon accessible, found materials. As time progresses, many often augment their own homes; therefore, the ability for residents to build is paramount, especially given their urban isolation and the socio-economic stigmatization they face. The questions this projects asks is: how can architects, urbanists and builders, who operate formally and from positions of power, intercede on behalf of these communities?

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Central Mexico City

Nezahualcóyotl

Bioreserva Tetlamanche + Vulcan Guadalupe

San Miguel Teotongo

Heavily Urbanized Residential Zones

1x

c. 1400

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c. 1500

3x

c. 1650

c. 1700

30x

c. 1700

c. 1850

c. 1950

c. 2020

San Miguel Teotongo

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Terrain vague

Parkspace

Bioreserve

Open Space

Proposed Transit Network/Housing Locations

Territory Visit, February 2020 8

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Composite

Build

Form

Found

Structure

Formal Elements (prefabricated)

Alternate Balcony

Infill Material (Brick + Drywall)

Complete Multifamily

Brick "Rain Wall" Formal Elements Stucco Finish

Communal Living

Foyer (Laundry/Storage)

Stucco Finish Pumice Foundation

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2 Floor

3 Floor

4 Floor

5 Floor

6 Floor

Deck

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1a

1a

1

2 4

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2 4

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LOCALS:

1a 1 4

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1. PAINTED STUCCO + BRICK 2. BRICK

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ARCHITECT/MUNICIPALITY

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2 VARIES

4 TYP.

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1 3

±5

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±20

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3. OPERABLE WINDOWS 4. PUMICE FOUNDATION

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Deus Ex Machina THREE FOLLIES IN (WASHINGTON, D.C.) Washington, D.C. Spring 2021 Michael McInturf, Liz Riorden

Americans love their history, and they certainly love their historical architecture. Architecture has always operated in between reality and fiction; the original and the copy, a precedent and an antecedent; history and future. Architect, and architectural representation, would seem to tend towards representations of truth, representations of the time in which they were produced. Architects are engrossed by notions of truth; truth in material, truth in form, etc. But what happens when truth is relative? What if the meanings of symbols, and their associations with time and history, do not matter - in fact, are not allowed to matter? What happens when our digital mechanisms fold multiple readings of history into one, without a beginning or end?

What happens when real things are fake, fake things real, history rewritten for the appropriate audience?

While Postmodern architecture is critically ironic in its resurrection of historic precedent, it reaches a point today where the mechanisms of design simply replicate what we see as historical, without critical intervention; it is Postmodernism, but taken as fact. What happens when the joke’s not funny? Design operates now within this new modality where architectural production forfeits itself to algorithmic thinking - the Internet, its conduit. In a new order, architecture has become nationalized, beauty redefined based on what is most common, and design forfeited to machine.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. 18

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Columbus Athenaeum for Art and Architecture Columbus, IN Fall 2018 William Williams

Columbus, Indiana is rich in architectural history, enthused about design and which eagerly allows architects to use the city as a testing ground. When tasked with building an archival art library, one has to approach the site cognizant of the loaded context. It was also important to take note of the project’s significance to the local population, and think about their daily interaction with design. The theme of “Secrets”; attempts to accentuate surprise and serendipity in architecture through discrete ways. Formally, the project exists as two bars, creating an urban courtyard/alleyway space. One bar moves up and around interlocking with the other, just barely peeking over to address the street-side, and to hint at some architectural possibility beyond what is witnessed at street-level. Inside, sudden drops in section via ramping and double-height spaces diverge from the humble exterior façade. Clad in a semi-opaque curtain wall system, views out to the exterior give only hints to the conditions outside, and hidden ghosts of program inside. As one meanders through, just around the corner lies many other surprises. Sited immediately adjacent to a parking garage on an almost impossibly thin parcel, smaller exterior spaces are created, creating reading gardens and an outdoor theater on the southwest façade.

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A 0° -3 θ=

) θ=

60

°

θ=

10

°

2(A

EXTERIOR WALK

A

READING ROOM

ARCHIVES

z

y

ART STUDIOS

x

EXHIBITS (BASEMENT LEVEL)

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Scale: 1/8”=1’-0”

Ground Floor

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C

B

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CUSTOM COPING

EXTENSIVE GREEN ROOF

ENGAGED DRAIN

SOIL MATERIAL

CUSTOM COPING

DRAINAGE LAYER

BLOCKING TILT-UP CONCRETE PANEL

MEMBRANE CONCRETE DECK METAL CEILING

EXTERIOR BAFFLE SYSTEM RIGID FOAM INSULATION GFRC PANEL TYPE B1 JOINT

METAL ANGLE HANGER CONDUIT CAVITY TILT-UP CONCRETE PANEL SURFACE MOUNTED LIGHT

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CONCERETE DECK WIDE FLANGE BEAM SURFACE MOUNTED LIGHTING CUSTOM CONDUIT MOUNTING

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Urban Plan Cincinnati, OH Summer 2019 Andrew Tetràult

The urban core of Cincinnati is continuously growing, and is geographically challenged by its two most characteristic features: hills and water. Fulton Landing, on the far eastern edge of the core, presents a particularly unique condition between a hill and river. The site is approached respectfully; the site floods, and high density was desired on the site, so a simple diagram was developed in order to unite these two contradictory problems. A large weaving path cuts through the site, running neither laterally or longitudinally, but rather diagonally. Uniting two parks on either side of the property, the path divides Fulton into separate parcels, called “docks”. The individual docks slope in order to create park like spaces that mediate between a lower pedestrian path along the river’s edge, with denser build-up along the northern road and existing railroad. In order to address flooding concerns, the river path is cushioned with wild gardens along its southern edges: this creates a riparian zone, where wild flowers are allowed to grow, but can also flood and potentially clean the river water as it moves west towards the city center. This whimsical form emphasizes the divergent qualities of the site. The design at once ties directly into the site, and therefore the larger urban network; but it also promotes a new, dynamic potential for the future of the Ohio River, and the City of Cincinnati.

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URBAN FABRIC

TOPOGRAPHY

LANDSCAPE 36

FU LTO N FU LTO N

DENSITY CENTERS

TRANSPORT UNIFICATION

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