DeHenzel Branner portfolio by Chris DeHenzel

STOCKING THE CITY

2011-12 JOHN K. BRANNER FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION

DESIGN PORTFOLIO

Stocking the City. 2011-12 John K. Branner Fellowship Application

EPIGENETIC LANDSCAPE Trat Province, Thailand ARCH 201, Fall 2009 Instructor: Raveevarn Choksombatchai This studio was focused on experimental research methods that inform design for augmenting the landscape as a way to generate energy and facilitate new modes of inhabitation. The site is 300 acres in southeast Thailand, the ecology of which is characterised by a series of natural confluences and mangrove forests that cohabitate with the cultivated landscape of rice fields, salt farms and shrimp farms. Thailand is the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest producer of rice, with 55% of land dedicated to rice agriculture. In 2007, the US EPA released a report identifying rice agriculture as a major source of methane emissions, a dangerous and highly potent greenhous gas. The conceptual foundation of this proposal is focused on turning the emissions liability into an energy resource for Thailand through the implementation of a temporal system of collection networks that follow the seasonal and diurnal cycle of methane emissions during the rice growing period.

Stocking the City. 2011-12 John K. Branner Fellowship Application

canopy frame

canopy surface

density gradient network

connection between nodes

dyke intersections

methane bladders (top) water cisterns (bottom) perimeter foundations

methane canopy axon

The Ă&#x201E;nal proposal consists of an operable canopy for capturing methane during the times when it is emitted from the rice paddies. The structure of the canopy is deĂ&#x201E;ned by an increased density and depth of the hexagon grid where it touches the ground at the intersection of the existing dyke system.

According to a 1995 report in Current Science journal, “There is considerable variation in methane release during the growth period [of rice plants]. ...The peak emission value remains for a period of 10-15 days in the crop duration of 90100 days. This period accounts for 90% of total methane release during the whole crop cycle.” Additionally, a 1997 article in Plant and Soil journal reports “a distinct diurnal pattern [in rice methane emissions] especially at tillerin, panicle initiation and maturity stages of a field-grown rice crop, with maximum emissions in the early afternoon followed by a decline to a minimum around midnight.” The above graphic illustrates these temporal modulations in relation to the average monthly rainfall in Bangkok and Trat. The final proposal consists of an operable canopy for capturing methane during the times when it is emitted from the rice paddies. The structure of the canopy is defined by an increased density and depth of the hexagon grid where it touches the ground at the intersection of the existing dyke system.

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Stocking the City. 2011-12 John K. Branner Fellowship Application

MUSEO AQUA|CULTURA Lima, Peru ARCH 201, Spring 2010 Instructor: Rene Davids Lima is a city of more than 8 million inhabitants, but it is just a stop-over for most people who visit there on the way to Cuzco. It is a colonial port city that emerged out of the fertile valley of the Rio Rimac near the outlet to the Pacific Ocean. Like many cities, however, Lima grew beyond its dependency on the river, and urbanization has since choked the flow to a fetid trickle. Recent public projects have attempted to bring life and attention back to the riverfront where old industrial buildings are now obsolete and decaying. The Museo Aqua|Cultura responds to this condition with an aggressive yet precise objectives of remediating the Rimac through a series of tiered rhizofiltration gardens, providing access between a disconnected urban grid, and generating a new hybrid program between park/museum, recreation/ culture that will attract both tourists and citizens. The museum consists of a network of pavilions, islands and bridges that utilize traditional methods of cast concrete to create a new dialogue between river and city.

Stocking the City. 2011-12 John K. Branner Fellowship Application

WURSTERSHIRE SAUCE BENCH Berkeley, CA LA 226, Spring 2010 Instructor: Linda Jewell, Yes Duffy The landscape courtyard on the northeast corner of Wurster has served as an outdoor classroom, plant demonstration area, work space, casual lounge and the CED happy hour location. The objective of this project was to design and build a “bench” that would accomodate and enhance these diverse activities. With resources from the Beatriz Farrand foundation (which funds “courtyard maintenance” projects), I lead the two-month design process and assisted in the fabrication and construction of the “bench” through the Spring 2010 semester. The concept applies operative folding, splitting and stretching actions to the generic conception of a bench, and formally responds to the variable positions that one might “sit”. The resulting form creates difference out of this variability, while a repetition of human scale (and material) modules suggest continuity and resourcefulness. The construction method borrows from details of “attachments” to Wurster, and even creates a new habitat for an existing olive vine. The Wurstershire Sauce Bench received a 2011 ASLA National Student Honor Award for “Collaborative Design”.

Stocking the City. 2011-12 John K. Branner Fellowship Application

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Stocking the City. 2011-12 John K. Branner Fellowship Application

WALNUT CREEK: RESILIENT URBAN ECOLOGY Walnut Creek, CA LA 201, Fall 2010 Instructor: Karl Kullman This proposal attempts to address issues of urban reslience in Walnut Creek through modifications to the existing hydrological system that expose and augment the creek to create a new civic urban park. My chosen site is downtown Walnut Creek, where the creek itself is currently routed under a generic new urbanist retail center and adjacent derelict single story parking structure. This scheme prioritizes the legibility of the creek by replacing the parking structure with a subsurface garage, daylighting the creek and threading it back into the existing overflow channel that currently runs in a concrete box parallel to Broadway. The creek edges are terraced in a triangulated pattern to allow access in certain areas, where others are planted with wetland vegetation. These planted terrances hold water during seasonal floods and collect irrigation, runoff and greywater from the big box store in dry seasons.

Stocking the City. 2011-12 John K. Branner Fellowship Application

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Stocking the City. 2011-12 John K. Branner Fellowship Application

PROSTHETIC ECOLOGIES Los Cerritos Wetland, Seal Beach (LA County), CA LA 202, Spring 2010 Instructor: Marcel Wilson The Los Cerritos coastal zone is a former delta where the San Gabriel River meets the Pacific Ocean. Urban development in the 20th century destroyed over 95% of Californiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wetland habitat, including 600 acres in Los Cerritos that is currently being used for oil extraction and energy production, bounded by strip malls and residential development. The river has been channelized and bermed for flood control, which has reconfigured a once complex tidal zone into an entirely constructed network of flows, regulated for public safety and energy profits. Through decades of negotiation however, 500 acres of land is under consideration for the creation of wetlands in the current urbanized context of Seal Beach. Prosthetic Ecologies is a wetland restoration proposal that attempts to integrate natural, cultural and technological networks to provide wildlife habitat and an urban ecological park for the community of Seal Beach. Rather than attempting to reconstruct a passive tidal system that would be defenseless in the event of an emergency, a prosthetic system of sensors, pedestrian bridge/sea walls, and a control/viewing tower protect and provide access to certain areas of the wetland.

Stocking the City. 2011-12 John K. Branner Fellowdhip Application

EXTENDED SYSTEM OF PATHWAYS/BRIDGES

EXISTING ROADS

DATA MONITORING SENSOR NETWORK

CONTAMINATED SOIL CAPPED WITH CLAY IN BERMS

FRESHWATER MARSH

INTERTIDAL ZONE

LANDFORMS

PLANT LAB SF Flower and Garden Show, San Mateo, CA Independent Design Build, Spring 2011 Collaboration with Brian Gillett and Rockne Hanish The plantLAB is an experiment in hydroponic gardening and landscape garden design, conceived and constructed by a team of graduate and undergraduate architecture/landscape students for the 2011 San Francisco Garden Show. The project addresses issues of food production and normative definitions of “garden” through an interpretation of hydroponic methods for a temporary gallery exhibition. It consists of a modular steel frame that supports an irrigation system and a volumetric field of hydroponically grown lettuce. Rather than constructing a new ground, the garden is formed by a landscape of 432 suspended crystalline tubes and water distribution systems that allow visitors to circulate around the garden and inhabit the space beneath it. Each recyclable clear plastic tube contains a plant, an inorganic growing medium, and a connection to a drip irrigation system, which circulates nutrient infused water from a submersible pump in a suspended reservoir. These interconnected systems are suspended from a custom steel frame that also supports an array of UV lights. The plantLAB received a 2011 ASLA National Student Honor Award for “Collaborative Design”.

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