c. abbott
CONTENTS
Recipient: Cooper Robertson & Partners, New York Christine Abbott - Spring 2012 Graduate School of Design - MLA 1 AP ‘12
DESIGN
I. Sparta Teapot Museum
01
II. Rainwater Filtration Center III. Emergency Shelter
05
07
IV. Houston Day Laborer Center
09
V. Central Avenue Housing Complex VI. Sketching
13
15
XI. Vendors of Poetic Phenomena VII. Aquaculture Facility VIII. Analytical Drawing RESEARCH and ANALYSIS
X. Waste Land-scape
PRACTICE
XIII. Teaching
17
18 22 24
23
Image A : Little Abstract Sketches #1,2, Vicenza, Italy ‘04
SPARTA TEAPOT MUSEUM l Sparta, NC
Professors Kelly Carlson Reddig, Rick Kazbee, UNC Charlotte
01_i
Image A: Ground Floor Plan
Image B: First Floor Plan see stair detailing, p03-4
Image C: Second Floor Plan
christine abbott l fall 2005 l
independent academic project
ARCH7101 - Comprehensive Graduate Studio
02_I Image G-H: Working Model at 1’=1/16”
Image D: Presentation Model at 1’= 1/32” from Above
project A 30,000 SF museum for teapots set in the mountains of western North Carolina draws its form from the landscape and an idea about filtering.
Image E: Presentation Model facing the North Facade
North of the building, a roughly sculpted landscape suggests falling toward an entry where circulation paths converge. To the south, a set of pale concrete walls cuts into the land creating more temperate micro climates within the landscape and relating to extended balconies on the building’s South facade. representation Plans shown in Images A-C were digitally drafted. The presentation model was laser cut and hand assembled (Images D-F), and the working model (Images G-H) was constructed by hand, serving as an important tool for design development.
Image F: Presentation Model facing the South Facade
christine abbott l fall 2005 l
independent academic project
SPARTA TEAPOT MUSEUM l Sparta, NC
03_i
Professors Kelly Carlson Reddig, Rick Kazbee, UNC Charlotte
Image B: Long Section through Southwest Stair Facing North
Image A: Cross Section through Southwest Stair Facing West
Image E: Building Section Facing East Image C-D: Details Showing Cable Connections at the Ceiling (A) and Stair Treads (B)
christine abbott l 2005-6 l
independent academic project
ARCH7101 - Comprehensive Graduate Studio l Detailing Elective
Image F: Long Section through Southwest Stair Facing South
04_I
Detailing An elective course in detailing sponsored several more in-depth design investigations. Among these, a gallery stair (Image A-D, F) and glass curtainwall along the north facade (Image E) were resolved at enlarged scales.
Image G: South Elevation
christine abbott l 2005-6 l
independent academic project
RAINWATER FILTRATION CENTER l Philadelphia, PA
Professor Jason Johnson, University of Virginia
05_iI
Image A : Interior Perspective Into Cafe and Auditorium
project The program of this twenty-four story highrise - the study of rainwater filtration directly dictates its form. A series of “water bellies� sweep beyond the building, lined with a membraneous material that distends with a increase in rainwater capture. All design work for this project was a collaboration with UVa student Karen Lui. representation All images utilized a 3-D digital model constructed in Maya as underlays. The production of Images A-B was independent and consisted of a combination of watercolor, photoshop, and 3-D modeling. While I took responsibility for most of the 3-D digital modeling, Karen Lui exported and digitally rendered Images C, D. I have made some minor adjustments to Image C in photoshop since 2005.
Image B : Interior Perspective Into Typical Lab Adjacent to Water Channel
christine abbott l spring 2005 l collaborative academic project
ARCH402 - Undergraduate Studio
06_II
Image D : Exterior Perspective Showing Piping
Image E : Diagram of Water Channel
Image C : Building Section
christine abbott l spring 2005 l collaborative academic project
EMERGENCY SHELTER l Gulf Region
Professors Heather Duncan, Larry Scarpa, UNC Charlotte
project Responding to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, this emergency shelter means to provide physical and psychological respite in a building that can be efficiently assembled. Using modular S.C.I.P.S. (Structural Concrete Insulated Panels), the shelter was designed to minimize waste using each 4’ x 8’completely. >>
07_iII
Image A: Exploded Axon of Shelter Assembly
christine abbott l fall 2006 l
independent academic project
ARCH7201 - Topical Graduate Studio
Image B
08_III Image B-C: Plan (above) and Section (below) Diagram showing a Re-defined Ground Plane
Image D-E: Top Views of 1-1/2” = 1’ Model
>> The shelters are constructed in pairs leaving an elevated semi-public space equipped with a rudimentary rainwater filtration system and a hearth (Image B). The shelter is raised because the land that the shelter sits on may be disrupted - torn up, flooded or covered with debris (Image C). The exterior public space, can, therefore, be understood as a redefined ground plane. representation All Drawings (Image A-D) were digitally drafted and watercolored (Images B-C) or rendered in photoshop (Image D). The model was constructed by hand and used torn corrugated cardboard to represent and disrupted landscape and chipboard to described the S.C.I.P.S. panels.
Image F: 1/4” = 1’ Building Section
christine abbott l fall 2006 l
independent academic project
DAY LABORER CENTER l Houston, TX
09_iV
Professor Linda Samuels, UNC Charlotte
Image A: Eating
Image B: Walking
Image C: Hanging
Image D: Building
Image E: Listening
Image F: Smoking
Image G: Building
Image H: Washing
Image I: Seeing
Image J: Disposal
Image K: Playing
Image L: Reading
Images A - L : Photographs of Site Remnants
christine abbott l spring 2006 l independent academic project
ARCH7102 - Topical Graduate Studio
project An open-ended program for a Day Laborer Center beneath a Houston highway was determined by using found remnants on the site as suggestions for particular activities (i.e. reading, smoking, washing). A pavilion for each remnant is constructed as a sweeping metal structure. The design means to call attention to the laborers hidden below the highway as much as it is meant to serve practical needs for the workers. representation All drawings and perspectives drew from a 3-D digital model constructed in Maya. Vector line drawings were then rendered in photoshop with an intentional level of abstraction to highlight disparities of material and communicate basic gestures.
10_IV
Image M : Perspective of Pavilions from the Highway
Image N : Site Plan
christine abbott l spring 2006 l independent academic project
DAY LABORER CENTER l Houston, TX
11_iV
Professor Linda Samuels, UNC Charlotte
Image A : Exterior Perspective from the Ground Level
>> Sections show a bridging of space above and below the highway (Images C-E) with a suggestion of tarnished and reflective sides of each sweeping pavilion. Image F was drafted by hand and watercolored as an initial investigation of the location and articulation of these pavilions.
Image B : Section Cuts
Image C
christine abbott l spring 2006 l independent academic project
ARCH7102 - Topical Graduate Studio
12_IV Image F : Schematic Drawing for Pavilions in Water Color
Image D
Image C-E : Sections through Highway
christine abbott l spring 2006 l independent academic project
CENTRAL AVENUE HOUSING l Charlotte, NC
Professors Heather Duncan, Larry Scarpa, UNC Charlotte
Image A : Diagram showing sight lines
13_V
project This small housing complex aims to integrate the urban and suburban conditions along Central Avenue’s developing corridor connecting outlying and diverse neighborhoods to downtown Charlotte.
Image B : Top View of 1/8”=1’ Model
An exterior courtyard space mediates between two distinct housing typologies. Units on the northern edge of the site are conceived as town houses (Image E), while the more densely packed units along Central Avenue (Image F) are exposed to and elevated from the street with a Bubble Tea Cafe as a retail component on the ground floor level. The circulation is orchestrated such that each resident approaching their Central Avenue aparment must pass a landing facing into the terraced courtyard (Image C).
Image C : Side View of 1/8”=1’ Model
christine abbott l fall 2006 l
independent academic project
ARCH7201 - Topical Graduate Studio
Image E : Model of Townhouses at 1’=1/8”
representation Image D was digitally drafted and rendered in photoshop with an underlay of a scanned process model. The presentation model was constructed entirely by hand (Images B-C, E-G).
14_V Image D : Ground Floor Plan
Image F : Front View of 1/8”=1’ Model
Image G : Side View of 1/8”=1’ Model
christine abbott l fall 2006 l
independent academic project
SKETCHING l Verona, Vienna
Professors Charles Menefee, Natalie Gattegno, University of Virginia
15_VI
Image A : Perspective of Gardens at the Palazzo Giusti Giardino, Verona, Italy
project These drawings are pulled from two projects: a sketching course based in Vicenza, Italy taken with Charlie Menefee and Natalie Gattegno and a research trip. >>
Image B : Vienna’s Parliament Building
christine abbott l summer 2004, 2008 l
independent academic l professional project
SKETCHING l Paris, Dresden
ARCH500 - Vicenza Drawing Course
>> The research trip included visits to Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, and Paris and serviced the seminar elective Information Landscapes where students would engage in researching one of a collection of these cities. representation Aside from the ‘Little Abstract Drawings’ below, all drawings were drawn freehand in graphite and onsite at each location.
16_VI Image C : Pantheon, Paris
Image A : Little Abstract Sketches #3,4, Vicenza, Italy
Image B : Rodin Sculpture, Zwinger Museum, Dresden
christine abbott l summer 2004, 2008 l
independent l professional academic project
VENDORS for POETIC PHENOMENA l New York City, NY
project A graduate thesis project included designing Vendors for Poetic Phenomena that made physical poetic events specific to New York City. One such Vendor (Images A, C)) casts the implied negative space between objects on the street that signify construction (Image B) articulating an implied barrier that dictates how New Yorkers move around the city. representation The casts and derivative street objects were built in Maya and 3-D printed (Images B, C). Drawings were constructed in Autocad (Image A) and Illustrator (Image E).
17_VI
Image A : Plan and Elevation of the Vendor for Con[de]struction : Detached Cones
Image B
Image E : Site Plan for the Vendor for Con[de]struction
Image B-C : 3-D Prints of Street Objects (above) and Castings (below) christine
abbott
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spring
2007
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independent
academic
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Image E : Site Map for Vendors
christine
abbott
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spring
2007
l
independent
academic
project
DURABILITY STUDY l Allston, MA
Professors Niall Kirkwood and Pierre Belanger, Harvard GSD GSD6242 - Ecologies, Techniques and Technologies IV
22_VIII
Image A : Exploded Axon of Folded Bench-to-Ground-Surface
project These drawings studied an outdoor space by Harvard’s Business School housing, looking for symptoms of durability success and durability failure. While the folded benches (Image A) showed little evidence of degradation, the gravel path edge (Image B) was compromised by rain and pedestrian wear. Image B : Section through Path Edge
representation Image A was created independently using Rhino v.4 and Adobe Illustrator. Image B was drawn by Alexis DelVecchio. All observation and conclusions about the work was completely collaborative.
christine abbott l spring 2011 l collaborative academic project
PHYTOREMEDIATION PROPOSAL l Weston, MA
Professors Niall Kirkwood and Kathryn Kennen, Harvard GSD GSD9108 - Phyto: Remediation and Rebuilding Technologies in the Landscape
Image A : Pre-Phase Testing | Analysis
23_VIII
Image B : Phase 2: Test and [re]-Plant
PROJECT A short design problem for a phytoremediation seminar proposed a phased strategy for mitigating arsenic contamination for a site in Weston, MA. Pre-phase testing (Image A) is analyzed to target the most contaminated areas. Phase 1 partitions and plants Chinese Brake Ferns based on this analysis. Phase 2 (Image B) re-plants after results from 1 season. REPRESENTATION All images were drafted in Rhino v.4 and refined in Adobe Illustrator.
christine abbott l march 2012 l independent academic project
AQUACULTURE FACILITY l South Weymouth, MA
Professor Christian Werthmann and Pierre Belanger, Harvard GSD
Preserved Hardscape [Sub] Surface Flow Wetlands
A
Aquatic Plants Research Lab
B
Waster Water Treatment System Meadow
D
Aquaculture Ponds Wet Meadow
C
Forest
E
F
Vernal Pools
18_VII
Image A : Land Cover Plan
A
B
C
Image Set B : Sections Showing Relationship of Ponds and Wetlands to Watertable
christine abbott l fall 2010 l
collaborative academic project
ARCH1211 - Core Landscape Architecture Studio
PROJECT Responding to ecological devastation due to over-fishing and high-demand in the New England market, this decommissioned Naval air station in South Weymouth is conceived as a large scale aquaculture facility. Drawing From precedents, a secondary sewage treatment system is integrated into aquaculture ponds. Nutrient and food cycles dictate combinations of fish (Image set C). Wetlands restore headwaters of three watersheds converging on the site (Image A). Ponds are strategically placed based on soil and water table (Image set B). REPRESENTATION Images A-B are constructed independently using Autocad, Adobe Illustrator and watercolor. Image Set C was created in collaboration with teammate Judith Rodriguez.
19_VII
Image Set C : Fish Assemblages
D
E
F
christine abbott l fall 2010 l
collaborative academic project
AQUACULTURE FACILITY l South Weymouth, MA
HARVEST
MANAGE
Image Set A : Program Calendars
PROJECT The Aquaculture Facility acts as an educational and recreational space as well as a commercial enterprise and an ecologically restorative practice. Year-round programming was considered to integrate different agendas associated with the project. REPRESENTATION
20_VII
Image set A was created independently using Adobe Illustrator and watercolors. Images B-D were created by teammate Kenya Endo using Adobe Photoshop.
Image C : Meadow and Wetlands (Summer)
Professor Christian Werthmann and Pierre Belanger, Harvard GSD
GATHER
ARCH1211 - Core Landscape Architecture Studio
COMPOST
FISH
PLAY
21_VII
Image C [above] : Ponds (Winter) Image D [below] : Ponds (Autumn)
WASTE LAND-SCAPE
Professor Andrea Hansen, Harvard GSD
24_X
Image A : Sectional Perspective: “Wasteland: The Burial of the Dead”
PROJECT The project transformed a precedent into an imagined landscape capitalizing on surface-making tools in Rhinoceros. Final renderings pulled imagery from sections of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. REPRESENTATION images A-B were created using Rhino v.5, Grasshopper, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.
christine abbott l fall 2010 l
independent academic project
GSD2241 - Landscape Representation III: Landform and Ecological Process
25_X
Image B : Perspective: “Wasteland: What the Thunder Said”
“Falling towers Jerusalem Athens Alexandria Vienna London Unreal.” - t.s. eliot
christine abbott l fall 2010 l
independent academic project
practice
Teaching
UNC Charlotte Full-Time Lecturer l DukeTIP Architecture Instructor
A four semester lectureship offered the opportunity to teach foundational architecture design studios to first-year undergraduate and graduate students as well as elective courses in writing, analytical representation and drawing.
UNC Charlotte Teaching Appointments
The position was modeled after a teaching fellowship, and responsibility for course content steadily increased over the two year period. An upper-level elective course in the final semester focused on the graphic communication of information; the content was drawn largely from the texts of Edward Tufte including Beautiful Evidence. Building on graduate research in poetry and architecture, and pulling from teamtaught representation courses, the seminar explored traditional and non-traditional mapping, graphics of text, and collage. Two summers of the fellowship were spent teaching gifted youth in a condensed (3-week) introductory architecture course through the DukeTIP Summer Studies Program at Davidson College, NC and Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
Fall 2007 ARCH 1101 First Year Undergraduate Studio ARCH2601 Second-Year Writing Seminar Spring 2008 ARCH1102 First Year Undergraduate Studio ARCH1602 First Year [Drawing] Seminar Fall 2008 ARCH1101 First Year Undergraduate Studio ARCH6111 Graduate Studio: Representation and Analysis Component Spring 2009 ARCH1102 First Year Undergraduate Studio ARCH4050 Critical Thinking Elective Seminar: Information Landscapes DukeTIP Summer Studies
Summer 2007, 2009 Introduction to Architecture for Gifted Youth
23_iX
Image A : DukeTIP Student Jalen Lewis presents at a mid-review; Texas A&M, Summer 2009. photograph by Elissa Bostain
christine abbott l 2007-2009 l professional practice
UNC Charlotte [ Selected ] Lectures Images
Image A : Mountain Village in Vrin, the Grisons found in The Architect, the Cook and Good Taste. Ed. Petra Hagen Hodgson and Rolf Toyka. Birkhauder, 2007, p82.
24_IX
Image B : Flower Fields. Oceanside, California. found in Taking Measure Across the American Landscape. James Corner and Alex S. MacLean. Yale University Press, 1996, p 112.
Image C : Noa Eshkol and Abraham Wachmann. Movement Notation (London, 1958), 10, 11, 20, 31. in Envisioning Information. Edward R. Tufte. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press LLC, 1990, p116.
Image D : El Lissitzky, Self Portrait, Self Portrait: The Constructor, 1924. in Visual Explanations. Edward R. Tufte. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press LLC, 1997, p140.
christine abbott l 2007-2009 l professional practice
Lectures
UNC Charlotte Full-Time Lecturer l DukeTIP Architecture Instructor
UNC Charlotte [ Selected ] Lectures
ARCH1101 L1 Ways of Seeing_31aug07 L2 Path and Datum_19sept07 L3 The Nature of Boundaries_25oct09 WL4 Circulation_01oct08 WL5 Order in Houses_24oct08 WL6 Diagrams_04nov08 ARCH2601 Second-Year Writing Seminar 01b_Write_Introduction 02_Analysis ARCH1102 L1_Sketchbooks L3.0_Diagramming L3.1_Field Trip L4.0_Site Diagramming L4.2_Palimpsest Perspectives ARCH1602 L7a Fields_04feb09 L7b Frames_06feb09 L8a Figure vs. Field_11feb09 L9a Map + Moments_18feb09 L9b Vignettes_20feb09 L10 Sketchbook_25feb09 ARCH6111 L1 Camera Operations_Kertesz_26aug08 L2 Analysis_02sept08 L3 Sorting_09sept08 L4 Fields_18sept08 ARCH4050 Information Landscapes L1_Site_27jan09 L2_Mapping Cities_02mar09 L3_Collage_24march09 L4_Text_16apr09
images
25_iX
Images A-B were used as examples of field conditions related to building and landscape. Images C-D were shown in lectures for Information Landscapes (see p26-7). Image C was an example of communicating information about movement at the scale of the body, and Image D served as an example of communicating meaning more subjectively through the medium of collage.
DukeTIP Summer Studies [ Selected ] Illustrated Dialogues
ID [Circulation]_21jul09 ID [Palimpsest]_16june09 Folder ID [Diagramming]_28jul09
christine abbott l 2007-2009 l professional practice
Student Work l Information Landscapes
mapping and Collage
Image A : Berlin Map and Time line 1920’s - 1970’s, 3rd year undergraduate student, Patrick McMurry
black four whispering while SHOUTING through the red and brown cobblestones and scorched e l e c t r i c metal tracks and the e n d l e s s restlessness of the spectrum f o o t s t e p s of a million mobius strips clothed in dark wool warm, inviting to the home the smell of the river like the smell of fresh bread, that mystery blue and white TRAM ozones in respiration asking me to get on board.
2. A night visitor c.r.e.a.k.s. open
n
a ra dOM chance as I turn and wake in semi-dark-ness where the shapes of shadows slide be-tween the form and the formless field of receptors. Is it the movement or the awareness that sends it f l e e i n g over
26_IX
1. A mystery blue and white TRAM ROUTE 4 in black and white gigantic boldface larger than any
3. There are women in
erotic knickknacks,
UP
?
cabinets,
for SALE, bathed in red breaths. and lonely, There’s a DIXIELAND trombone laughing
sudden
d
in the istance. With the cameras and the knuckles r.a.p.p.i.n.g. on the windows everybody’s floating on the beat.
Park
people s-t-r-o-l-l 4. In the as 2 grey llamas run circles around a cow asking them to STO . with each new dust cloud revolution. The llamas don’t stop. NO, the llamas don’t stop. er Some guy hands me a FLY for a coffee shop. A beggar says “I AM Dutch, therefore I speak English.” 5. Across an open offwhite RIB CAGE a COLOSSAL hologram in oil paint and the willfully captured light of the eye’s fire
stands
burning from the edisni tuo a center of light that even NOW sends the viewer onto a chromatic bridge between the nuc-l-eus and the Orbit. 6. Sunny is an AUSTRALIA-N musing at THE END of the Heineken Brewery Tour. She b r u s h e s back her long brown hair with a NEWly acquired backpacker’s hand. “We’re ALL convicts you know,” she says, “or descended from convicts.” Her face doesn’t get any whiter
p - a - r - t.
but her lips Luckily, we have beer.
7. At the edge of a canal I FINISH the last of my Northern LIGHTS, rOlled up with some brown shag Drum for which I paid .exact. change. The man be-hind the counter thanked me. Central Street murmured like a h e a r t b e a t . The blood r e a c h e s the lungs and the river r e a c h e s the sea.
Image B-C : Text Map (left) and Collages (right) on Amsterdam, 5th year student, Josh Cannup
christine abbott l spring 2007 l professional practice
ARCH4050 Information Landscapes
UNC Charlotte Full-Time Lecturer Course Independently Developed and Taught
( Syllabus Excerpts ) PREMISE In the process of making places, architects appropriate pieces of their reality from a myriad of sources. They may mine creative works from other disciplines [ i.e. painting, music, poetry ] - to adapt form or infuse meaning into their own work. To understand the larger context into which he or she builds, an architect will examine landscape and infrastructure, social patterning and political or cultural history of that particular site. In addition, an architect must have the ability to process and translate this data into graphic and spatial form in order to successfully analyze and demonstrate the information they take into the design process. CONTENT The course provides a venue for discussing, making, and critiquing cognitive art - graphic or spatial representations that display data. Each of four (4) projects will begin with a different set of input about a particular place, ranging from primary sources (i.e. original photography, on-site observations, found remnants) to secondary sources (i.e. published maps or writings about a place). Each project translates this original data into an integrated visual.
27_IX
images A time line of events during the Third Reich in Germany is mapped onto a street in center city Berlin (Mitte) where Hitler planned to construct enormous Neoclassical buildings (Images A).
METHOD Students will construct and submit a project in the format that corresponds to that unit: relief model and diagrams [UNIT 1], urban-scaled maps [UNIT 2], collage [UNIT 3], and text maps [UNIT 4]. In the first and second unit, data will be mapped in plan, focusing first on the scale of the architectural site, and then on the scale of the city. Discussions in this unit examine the language of maps, the meaning and history of symbols, and the place of site analysis in the generation of initial design concepts.
Images B-C describe the city of Amsterdam as a piece of text translated graphically and a set of collages.
The third unit focuses on image, where photographs and remnants from different sources are collaged together to illustrate ideas about a place. Remnants or reclaimed images as well as photographs constitute the final collages. The fourth unit addresses the problem of exploiting and translating data about place in the form of text. Readings and discussions will address interpretive matters of deriving form from ideas embedded in a text, as well as more objective methods of effectively using typography as part of a graphic layout.
christine abbott l spring 2007 l professional practice
Student Work l First Year Drawing Seminar
Diagramming and sketching
Image A : Diagramming FIeld Compositions including Horizontal Bounding lines and Negative Space
28_IX
Image B : Selected Drawings of the Vietnam and world War II Memorials at the National Mall, UVa’s Lawn, and Monticello, Emmie Huang
Image C : Hand Made Accordion Sketchbook as Artifact, J. Diaz
christine abbott l spring 2008 l professional practice
ARCH1602 First Year Drawing Seminar
UNC Charlotte Full-Time Lecturer
COLLABORATION Responsible for the middle third of the semester, I planned and taught coursework for six weeks preceding a field trip to Charlottesville, VA and Washington D.C. Lectures and Assignments focused on understanding the relationships between figure and field, building and context. Images A-F show assignments from this middle portion of the semester. The first and last sections of the course were taught by Associate Professor Greg Synder and Associate Professor Michael Swisher respectively.
( Syllabus Excerpts ) COURSE DESCRIPTION This course further refines drawing and representation skills including composition, analysis and transformation, diagramming, and elaboration on the principles and the use of color and the medium of watercolor. The development of these skills targets content that describes various architectural concepts related to form and meaning. Projects, lectures, demonstrations, and exercises present the language and conventions of architectural drawings and representations, and the role that such representations play in the design process. Projects, lectures, demonstrations, and exercises introduce the skill of drawing and analysis. The aim (in concert with design studio) is to understand drawing and analysis as a vital means to see, represent, and understand essential aspects of the visual environment.
29_IX
images Image A shows a few examples from a series of diagrams studying field compositions as photographs. The drawings shown in Image B are taken from a student’s field trip sketchbook. They each respond to on-site assignments at the National Mall and at Jefferson’s University and home in Charlottesville. Image C shows one of these sketchbooks students made prior to the trip.
( Assignment Excerpt ) RENDERING FIGURE VS. FIELD Complete two drawings of one of your 16 images discriminatively rendered inside and outside of your chosen frames. In addition, you will re-draw the thumbnail sketches of your contact sheet. Objectives: · To practice adept manipulation of different rendering techniques. · To consider the subtle relationship between figure and field. · To recognize a particular method of analytical drawing through the calling-out of an area of your field composition.
christine abbott l spring 2008 l professional practice
Student Work l First Year Undergraduate Studio
Image A : Iterations Set in Designed Cast Cube, Adrianne Blossom
building and Landscape
Image B : Final Perspective Collage, Zachary Tartlon
30_IX
Image C : Final Orthographic Drawings, Zachary Tartlon
Image D : Final Model beside Water in Site, Adrianne Blossom
Image E : Final Model Set into the Landscape, Zachary Tartlon
Image F : Iterations of Massing Models Painted to Clarify Hierarchy, Adrianne Blossom
christine abbott l spring 2008, 2009 l professional practice
ARCH1102 First Year Undergraduate Studio
UNC Charlotte Full-Time Lecturer
COLLABORATION All course content was developed with Associate Professor Peter Wong, Assistant Professor Jeff Balmer, Full-Time Lecturer Jason Slatinksy (Spring 2008) and Visiting Assistant Professor Nora Wendl (Spring 2009). The writing of project statements and delivering of lectures alternated among the four professors over the course of the semester. In the two years (spring ‘08, ‘09) I taught this course the content evolved to focus more on the building’s relationship to the land, in part, to adapt to changing demands in architectural education and in part as a response the areas of interest and expertise specific to rotating foundational professors (Jason Slatinsky, Nora Wendl and myself).
( Syllabus Excerpt ) PREMISE Architecture Design Studio 2 continues the architectural design sequence by expanding the knowledge and skills in architectural processes, methods, principles, and issues that affect the built environment. Design is presented as a discipline involving conceptual analysis, interpretation, synthesis and transformation of the physical environment. ( Assignment Excerpt ) 2.2 SITE: SPACE DEFINED BY THE EARTH In the next part of the project you will locate and site five of your ten compositions with respect to a hypothetical ground or base situation. Hence, you will embed your volumes into the earth. In so doing you will create space by carving or subtracting from a given ground or base condition. You will need to establish a vertical datum for your spatial compositions and their newfound site. This datum will be designated as a horizontal plane to which all vertical locations can be referenced.
31_IX
images Schematic design investigated in models shown in Images A, F evolved into an articulated building with plan and section drawings (Image C), models set into a context (Images D-E) and collaged perspectives (Image B).
VOCABULARY AND TERMINOLOGY • ground • site • datum • poché • subtraction/subtractive • void • cellular space
christine abbott l spring 2008, 2009 l professional practice
Student Work l Graduate Representation
analysis
Image A : Analysis of Soho Facades, Graduate March Hanin Kasruh
32_IX
Image B : Photographing, Analyzing and Sorting Field Compositions, Elizabeth Unruh
christine abbott l fall 2008 l professional practice
ARCH6111 Graduate Representation
UNC Charlotte Full-Time Lecturer
COLLABORATION This graduate studio taught basic design and representational skills to incoming MArch I students or those without architecture backgrounds. The course content and method was collaboratively developed with Associate Professor Peter Wong. Responsible for the Representation Studio, I wrote all assignments, delivered lectures and taught class for the Tuesday / Thursday portion of the class. Having co-taught this course previously as a graduate student, I adjusted it to focus more on analytical representation meant to tie into an evidence-based design strategy stressed by Professor Wong. ( Syllabus Excerpts ) PREMISE For some, architecture is merely a way of sheltering people from nature and the environment. For others, architecture affords economic and financial prosperity – e.g., as witnessed with developers and real estate agents. However, buildings must also serve to satisfy fundamental human needs, such as comfort, memory, and spiritual well-being. As the contemporary Viennese architect, Hans Hollein once said, “architecture should maintain body temperature and ritual.� This course, and its projects, will engage fundamental design skills as well as the concepts required in the design of architecture. OBJECTIVES ARCH 6111 is the first studio course for those enrolled in the MArch 1 Program. The studio explores the fundamental concepts, processes, and skills required to understand architectural design.
33_IX
images Images A and B demonstrate analytical representation skills emphasized in the Representation Studio. Image A is taken from the facade of storefront in one block in Soho. The Matrix depicted in Image B arranges field compositions analytically based on the source of visual order.
METHOD Design Studio: Course work assigned will be studiobased. Design projects are intended to initiate a range of discussions on architecture and designrelated subjects. The development of a foundation of critical thinking skills and spatial understanding of form are objectives of these assignments. Representation Studio: Tuesday and Thursday class sessions shall focus on representation concepts and analytical techniques. Exercises will specifically address the topics of drawing and image manipulation via observation, analysis, data collecting, and mapping. The exercises for this part of the course shall be coordinated with the projects in design studio.
christine abbott l fall 2008 l professional practice
Student Work l DukeTIP Architecture
fundamentals
Image A : Invitation to the Final Critique, Session II at Texas A&M University, Summer 2009
34_IX
Image B : Final Model for a Nature Pavilion, Mary Schwabe
Image C : Analytical Model; Temperature Along a Path, Nat Fox
Image D : Color Fields Painting, Austin McDonough
christine abbott l summers 2007, 2009 l professional practice
Introduction to Architecture
Architecture Instructor with DukeTIP Summer Studies
COLLABORATION The devlopment of the course including scripting the syllabus and assignments was executed independently. Teaching Assistant Elissa Bostain (4th year architecture student at Clemson) assisted in class planning, classroom management and a handful of assignment presentations. To accomodate an active class constituency, “Illustrated Dialogues” replaced traditional lectures. In these presentations images prompted questions and students engaged in conversation as I presented course material. ( Syllabus Excerpts ) PREMISE Architecture is an interdisciplinary practice requiring a diverse set of skills and drawing from various knowledge sets. These levels of understanding include but are not limited to: 1] skills for recognizing and generating 2 and 3-dimensional compositions 2] analytical skills for considering human occupation and perception of spaces 3] a base of knowledge about the cultural history of buildings 4] a base of knowledge about how buildings are assembled or tectonics In this course, we focus on the first two skills sets – composition and analysis through a series of assignments and qualifying illustrated dialogues. We address and acknowledge the latter two categories of knowledge secondarily as points of discussion.
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images An invitation for a final critique features Student Kerri Thomas’s Final Model for a Music Pavilion in Image A, and a design for a Nature Pavilion by Mary Schwabe in Image B. Nathan Fox maps the change in temperature and its cause along a path studied on the Texas A&M campus (Image C), and a color field painting becomes a schematic plan for Austin McDonough’s Camping Pavilion (Image D).
CONTENT Content for this course is delivered in a variety of ways. As mentioned above, a series of making assignments provide students an opportunity to generate novel examples of visual and architectural concepts. Readings and subsequent group discussions broach major issues in the cultural history of architecture, while illustrated dialogues provide examples of constructed projects (i.e. buildings, landscapes, urban spaces, and paper architecture projects) and other student work of abstract visual principals. The content, therefore, can be broken up into three categories: visual concepts, skills in making, and the development of analytical skills.
christine abbott l summers 2007, 2009 l professional practice