Architecture Portfolio

ChristopherSaunders of Florida 2007-2011 Selected Works University University of Cincinnati 2012-2014

Table of Contents

Selected Works University of Florida 2007-2011 University of Cincinnati 2012-2013

Cleansing Bridge

The Exhibition of Water 4

Door, Window, Stair

Progressive sequence through time

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Public Baths

Social itinerary deriving from spatial nodes

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Desert Intervention Trappist Monastery

Savannah Bar

Modern insertion in a historic context

Repetition with Variation

Manipulating the social boundaries of modular housing 20

Performing Arts Center

Redefining the local porch culture

Urban Retreat: NYC Hotel

Communal assimilation in an unexpected space

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Historical Preservation|TEDWorks

44 Americana nostalgia: reinvigorating tomorrow’s innovation

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Independent Design Proposal

Shifting the framed view

NCCER Headquarters

Spatial seam: the Bridging of Programmatic Umbrellas

Door, Window, Stair

Progressive sequence through time Design 3 - Fall 2007

Critic: Kelly Ard

Breaking down the basic architectural elements of the door, the window, and the stair, their definition can be realized as different levels of threshold relating to spatial experience. While constraining to the limits of a cube, these devices can be explored and translated not into a measure of time, but programmed to control the occupational sequence through circulation.

The inherent nature of stereotomic, tectonic, and linear systems provide for an inward spatial folding that wraps and interlocks while creating interstitial space. The central folding creates spatial joints that become moments of threshold which in turn, defines the occupational experience and creates a rhythm of circulation.

Desert Intervention

Trappist Monastery: occupying above, on, and below the ground Gobi Desert, Asia Design 4 - Spring 2009

Independent Study

In a scaleless context the challenge arises to give an occupiable scale to a built environment. Reacting to the geographical climate of the desert the concerns are directed to filtering sunlight, thermal distribution, and protection from the elements.

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Humans have a tendency to develop in proximity to anominalies when operating in a context without scale. Initial strategies were developed to abstract wind patterns, local circulatory routes, and large scale topography differences that would later inform an overall gesture of the site that would provide for main circulation datums, sectional linkages, and spatial unity.

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This project explores three modes of spatial experience, occupying from above, below, and on the ground within the built environment.

Nestled mostly into the ground, the site is purposed as a trappist monastery where the utilization of programs needs to meet the monastic lifestyle while encouraging visitors to momentarily observe the monks’ habitual routine while giving them the option to stay for an extended period of time. A satellite pavilion offers a separated place of meditation adjacent to the main circulatory datum, blurring the boundary of public and private yet maintaining a sacred place.

Programmatic organization stems off of the main datum, not segregating public and private programs, but responding to the ritualistic behavior of the monastic lifestyle. The sequence of movement from the living quarters to the library is intertwined with secondary circulation; the tectonic nature of construction allows for sectional freedom but is protected from moments of thresholds that prevent unwanted visitors from entering into zones of exclustivity.

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Gardens on the south facade begin to break the distinction of interior and exterior space that extends the gesture leading to the courtyard that serves as the spatial joint leading to the chapel. The outlying satellite is not meant to serve as a final resting but a space of preparation for what lies beyond.

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Cleansing Bridge

The Exhibition of Water: ritualistic renewal

Paynes Prairie State Park, FL Design 5 - Fall 2009 Critic: Professor Rocke Hill

The act of bathing incorporates a subconcious state of ritual embedded within the motions.

This project provides for a pavilion of preparation as one advances towards the public baths situated in Paynes Prairie, and becomes a showcase for water that exhibits and celebrates this everyday material in different ranges of motion.

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Taking cues from the direct circulation of a typical bridge, this project deviates from a standard path of travel without stripping away the functional concept of a bridge. Achieving this through means of using light as an attractor, occupants stumble on a choice of itinerary that can be made during both initial and frequent visits. The dialogue between visual and auditory senses greet the occupant early on and guide inhabitants into a dipping pool that frames a glimpse of moments that lie beyond.

Progressing through the bridge, the water transititions to a more refined state of exhibition.

Water intrinsically evolves into a material of guidance, flowing in direct connection with the prommenade of the occupant. Sectional shifting provides for the vertical travelling of water persuading for the spatial joint to be a momentary pause of progression. A series of overhead ribs encases the visitor while its rhythm suggests a faster pace of movement to the final aquatic showcase. This piece unifies the project as a fragmented tunnel, simultaneously contrasting the stereotomic enclosure of the initial massing.

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Public Baths

Social itinerary deriving from spatial nodes

Paynes Prairie State Park, FL Design 5 - Fall 2009 Critic: Professor Rocke Hill Following the ritualistic sequence of the cleansing bridge, this project serves as the destination of cleansing. The site becomes activated through the progression of the development beginning from the shores of Lake Wauberg to the landmark of the grand live oak, existing at the north end of the site. The occupants’ arrival sequence derives from spatial nodes acting as control valves, filtering patrons by frequency of visitation.

Nodes of social exchange establish a holistic connection, engaging the various programs housed within the complex in overlapping itineraries.

The pavilions articulate the site as to preserve the existing trees and establish figure ground; giving definition to the constructed landscape and developing a sense of phenomenal transparency between the bathing pools through minimal sectional differences. The grand oak stands as a showcased amenity, the sauna houses defining a framed perspective from the central atrium within the main bath house. The close proximity of each programmatic pool supports uninterrupted social interaction, while still allowing for private itineraries to be obtained.

Site perspective of the Cleansing Bridge in progression to the Public Baths.

Section cuts through the interior communal pool in the main pavilion.

Massage and changing rooms branching into the lake establish spaces of tranquility.

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While circulation provides for programmatic unity, sectional continuity is provided through seamless dialogues between pools. Proximities of atypical activities weave a feeling of familiarity while solitary programs offer a sense of temporal space.

The transition from the communal pools to the modularity of the main pavilion extend into the lake, creating subdued levels of private space. Private space begins through the filtering of aquatic programs in relation to the occupancy load, providing spaces of reflection, relaxation, and tranquilty.

Savannah Bar

Modern insertion in a historic context Factor’s Walk, Savannah, GA Design 6 - Spring 2010

Critic: Professor Thomas Smith

The urban planning of Historic Savannah establishes a sense of rhythm and prommenade through the organization of wards, articulated by squares, trustees, and tithing blocks. Bay Street provides a distinct characteristic separation between the urban fabric of the historic wards and Factor’s Walk.

Although breaking away from the established fabric, Factor’s Walk houses a sectional explosion of overlapping circulation. Protecting the integrity of the historic nature ofv River Street is vital to both the sacredness and tourism of Savannah’s historical River Street. Crucial considerations in preserving the historical nature give constraints to the excavation into the existing edifices. This project exemplifies these restraints by primarily wrapping around the existing hotel and ciagr bar.

Rather than impeding and fighting for monumental status, the wine bar serves to supplement the existing programs of retail and hospitality.

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The scalar breakdown of the wards becomes inherent in the organization of structure within the intervention, promoting rhythmic itineraries similar to the city, where the central node based on the town squares promotes higher levels of social exchange.

Glass facades incorporate a sense of nonenclosure and perserve views of the adjacent river and cobblestone service drives.

Transverse Section

Longitudinal Section 19

Performing Arts Center

Social Generator: Redefining the local porch culture Charleston, SC Design 6 - Spring 2010

Exisiting site condition

Critic: Professor Thomas Smith

Exploring the urban fabric of Charleston, the investigative processes led to the formal linkages between landmark and public space, urban edge and residential zones. These connections provide strategies that inform the interweaving of this project to the immediate context of the east side of the historical district.

Residential side porch

Functioning as a large city on a small scale, historic Charleston has become a derivative of zonal patches unified into one woven network. Distinct languages bleed from one district to another forming one cohesive atmosphere that emits a sense of arrival, and generates a culture that relies on a routinal lifestyle. The site of this project is located adjacent to the Waterfront Park on the east side of the peninsula, on Concord and Queen. Sitting juxtaposed from the site the U.S. Customs House, an iconic landmark in itself, sparks influential datums that retains an institutional style which later translates into the language of the performing arts center. Echoing a taste of classical language, this project promotes a grandeur attitude without superseding the monumental stature of the Customs House, and rather compliments than competes for attention.

Focusing on the site’s approach from the city, the garden becomes a folded extension south of the performing arts center, bleeding into the existing waterfront park. Responding to the adjacent residential zones, this park activates a once vacant lot and establishes a place for social dwelling with the ammenities of outdoor civil recreation.

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Discovering the city on the street level, the social implications and lifestyles unique to the city were revealed. One concept of living that became prominent was the residential side porch. Nestled on the sides of shotgun houses, these exterior spaces of relaxation are a staple for the daily lives of local residents. This cultural lifestyle became the spatial organization to link the two main programmatic components of the center, the main theater and black box.

The dialogue between human scale and instutional language gives way to an informal approach.

The skin erodes away to reveal the service loading dock, disappearing into the facade.

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Pulling cues from the classical inspired Customs House, the Performing Arts Center incorporates an institutionalized style that complements and continues the unified language without redefining the urban edge.

From the waterfront, the black box theater gives iconic status to the center without disrupting the city skyline. The glass facades amplify the views to the river within the grand lobby and aides the progression of occupants to the black box and waterside deck. The solar screens not only dissipate solar heat gain but gives an overall coherance to the outer facades, including shading the side porch.

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Spatial nodes of social exchange, activating the porch condition.

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Digital Charette: Repetition with Variation Manipulating the social boundaries of modular housing Gainesville, FL Advanced Digital - Spring 2009

Project Duration: 48 hours Critic: Professor Ruth Ron

Deriving from the stereotypical dormitory, this project focuses on the reinvention of student housing and its response to the collegiate lifestyle. The basic spatialness of a dorm room is modular in nature, so the challenge of creating an environment reacting to the circulation and habitual nature of students led to the juxtaposed orientation of the modules. A solar screen wraps the dorms and reveals framed views of the campus buildings adjacent to the site, its undulation creates interstitial space that provides a sense of privacy while still maintaing a sense of connectivity with the surrounding context.

Connectivity is further established through an armature extending towards campus, enclosing an implied formal approach to the dormitories. However, this entry retains an informality stature to preserve the unique social attitude of the circulatory context, and foster cultural exchanges stemming from the university.

Dorm Room

Parking and Entry

Secondary Exit

Main Entry

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Circulation directs occupational sequencing as spatial itinerary pushes the boundary of public vs. private.

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Design Proposal for Crosswinds at the University of South Florida Shifting the framed view Tampa, FL Fall 2010

Independent Charette

Situated at the east edge of campus Crosswinds functions as a student retreat from the routinal sequence of college students. Also serving as a place of worship, this facility houses a rather inadequate space for their weekly services. The need for a larger cross-programmed space arose to fill in the vacant lot north of the existing building.

Connections between the new and existing had to be carefully considered, keeping a fluid circulation called for an overlapping of exteror communal space that would bleed into a courtyard serving as a point of arrival.

With the promenent space as a place of worship, mainly occupoied in the evenings, priorities laid to capture the warm light from the sun setting. The opportunity then doubled to provide a window that could frame the rest of the campus and signify their religious outreach to the University.

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Urban Retreat: NYC Hotel

Communal assimilation in an unexpected space

11th Ave and W 63rd Street, New York City, NY Design 7 - Fall 2010 Critic: Professor Ruth Ron

11TH AVENUE

Facade and section diagrams

W. 63RD ST.

The dense urban city is often packed with tourists who often stay in hotels, mostly mainstream franchises. However, there are also a vast array of boutique hotels sprinkled throughout New York City; they all have the same amenities, but their only distinction comes from the decor and finishes. This Urban Retreat hotel seeks to break the social conventions of staying in a hotel through changing the spatial program of the room. The site was chosen in its close proximity to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, an epicenter for tourists, locals, dining, and the entertainment.

Exploration focused on the way the occupant dwells, sleeps, and interacts with the building, as well as people. Large multi-level boxes serve as living rooms to transport the occupant away from the city and away from the mundane hotel experience. The hotel rooms become nothing more than a stateroom of a cruise ship.

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Vertical hierarchy is given to the entry that houses the main stair and escalator, but also provides a gradient of translucent views of the city that fade as one progresses further into the hotel, leaving the chaotic urban environment behind them. The lower levels are the living spaces so that the spatial sequence is a tiered transition from private to public with the bedrooms on the upper floors, much like a rural or suburban house. The tinted envelope of the hotel reinforces the transitive nature of the urban retreat, providing very little opacity to the surrounding context. The living rooms provide the only aperatures to the near by landmark of Columbus Circle.

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This project became the product of the first Integrated Project Delivery studio at the University of Florida’s College of Design, Construction, and Planning. Working with a team of architecture students in collaboration with students from the Rinker School of Building Construction, the ultimate goal was to present a new headquarters for NCCER, a perfect professional model of IPD, keeping in mind a true budget while maintaining design innovations geared for LEED certification.

National Center for Construction Education and Research Spatial seam as circulation: the bridging of programmatic umbrellas Gainesville, FL Design 8 - Spring 2011

(In collaboration with Kyle Reed, Jeff Glad, and Anas Chehab) Critic: Professor Charles Hailey

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Consideration of community access and arrival.

Situated south of downtown Gainesville, the proposed site for the NCCER headquarters is located in vicinity of the newly reclaimed Depot Park, home of the future Cade Museum, a center for innovation and invention. Depot Park is initally a brownfield site and is currently under redevelopment, creating a contemporary public greenspace serving as Gainesville’s signature city park. This gateway to the city offers opportunities for local residents to experience the historic train depot, as well as a system of pathways programmed as exercise trails and provides for outdoor family recreation.

Diagrams studying hardscape vs. softscape and public accessibility

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Establishing visual references to amenities of Depot Park.

Right: Circulation vs. programmatic massing: developing a spatial seam becoming infrastructure of connectivity between contrasting programmatic umbrellas.

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Integrating with the programmatic framework and functionality of the project, a gallery and exhibition space would form a linkage between the office and educational facility and the park. Combined with a multi-functional conference room, the exhibition space anchors the corner of the site letting the project become a place of destination.

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The interface between the lake and the educational center unfolded the opportunity to showcase the learning cirrculum as a observed experience for visitors to Depot Park. Acting as a control valve, the hardscape becomes a porous barrier that filters circulation for security and safety, yet invites observers to interact with the students and educational coordinators.

Controlling noise infiltration as well as traffic, a monumental rainscreen wall reinforces the stitching of the spatial seam traversing along the spine of the building. The rainscreen, in addition to collecting and storing rainfall, functions as an interactive wall, increasing the phenomenal transparency of the administrative areas and engages the occupant into a sensory experience.

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Focusing on the celebration of constructability, the design of the center stemmed from a kit of parts. With a need for an on-site construction yard for demonstration and hands-on learning, the opportunity arose to implement construction bays utilitizing modular elements. The application of these modular bays defined an interior datum of circulation for both programmatic umbrellas, aiding in the unity of the site. To meet the crucial need of proximity exchange between management, executives, and educational staff, the overlapping itineraries folded into one another, forming a spatial knot at the heart of the building.

Fabricating the kit of parts.

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Interactive rainscreen wall as sensory experience along circulatory datum. Functioning also as stormwater collector, screens and filters occupants’ itineraries.

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Historical Preservation|TEDWorks Americana nostalgia: reinvigorating tomorrow’s innovation (IN PARTNERSHIP WITH DAVID BURWINKEL) Camp Washington, Cincinnati, OH Graduate Studio - Summer 2013

Diagrams as generator for building morphologies

Critic: Professor Jeff Tilman Guest Critic: BHDP Architecture

As a studio, guided by BHDP Architecture, the chosen context for the site became the neighborhood of Camp Washington through extensive research of development north of downtown Cincinnati. Camp Washington inherently possesses multiple issues ranging from lack of identity to massive industrial abandonment. Motorists on Interstate 75 pass by the neighborhood everyday without even the consideration that it exists. Its character embodies the industrial age, stirring up its historic connotations and dilapidation. As a studio we saw the solution to form groups to produce projects that each would contribute programmatically to aid holistically in the renewal of Camp Washington over the next 50 years. The site for TEDWorks is central to the neighborhood as its program will extend throughout Camp Washington, activating the streets from pedestrian traffic and social itineraries of campus occupants. TEDWorks is a fusion of a fast-paced innovate-build academic curriculum between the University of Cincinnati and TED Talks.

TEDWorks campus within the social context and itinerary of other programmatically linked satellites throughout the neighborhood of Camp Washington.

Through TED Talks’ national recognition, the pursuit of capital investment from Fortune 500 companies would be crucial in financially supporting projects undergoing research or an active fabrication to produce a consumer product. In turn, these company sponsors will receive marketing and publicity, as well as majority ownership of patents developed as well as production rights for those products.

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Works

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Professors from the university campus will guide students from the university alongside with engineers and scientists resourced from major corporations who have an active interest in the developing product. They will develop a curriculum that focuses and fast tracks the concept into a physical manifestation. Students and the public will be welcomed to attend seminars and conferences hosted by TEDWorks and the corresponding corporate sponsors.

Based upon the aforementioned framework of TEDWorks, the challenge would be to incorporate a campus that fosters collaboration, academic research, and conference-oriented programs. Research based on appropriate occupancy levels was broken down into actual square footage ratios based on the diagram to the right. Site studies concluded which buildings were to be preserved, and the framework for new construction was guided by the palimpsest of the condemned structures within the city block.

Rather than following the conventions of a cyclical movement through process, circulation must follow the inherent nature of the design process.

The result would be a web or network of paths, connecting different programmatic typologies seemlessly throughout the campus.

SITE PLAN

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Focusing on contextual awareness, the site’s intrinsic value became the prominent feeling when approaching the city block.

A strategy to build upon the palimpsest of the abandoned and dilapidated buildings allowed for activation throughout the whole block. Circulation paths create a web of networking and communication between various programs.

CIRCULATION

PROGRAMMATIC MASSING

PRESERVED BUILDINGS

ORIGINAL SITE & BUILDINGS

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Memory Drawing: Spatial Sequences, Social Itinerary, Temporality Multiple communal areas line the edge of campus, processions of hardscape act as a means of wayfinding into the site. Programmatic itineraries control the occupant’s spatial sequence through areas of temporality, shaping the experiential interaction of preserved and new.

Connective tissue act as tendons where a plasticity of movement rises creating a visual dialog between visitor and occupant.

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Adit facepro quasperiosam suntem rae sincium, simus preicipsam volent fuga.

Itaturibus reruptati tem re pro te voluptatus explatque accaboreste simus nienihi llessun dissitae la cuptatae esectionesto voluptatur?

Building section through breakout space 50

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At the nucleus of campus, a playground of verticality fosters interaction between disciplines. The social playground emerges out of the palimpsest of the central warehouse, a spatial memorial of the industrial Americana. Nodes of overlapping paths provide academic and professional exchange, and carved out foundations serve as places of refuge.

Circulatory verticies of movement offer framed views of fabrication areas and seminar space, creating attraction to unroutinal spaces of the observer. Atriums embedded within perserved artifacts provide internal disciplinary stimulation through vertical communication.

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“Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.�

-Colossians 3:17

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DEDICATION AND THANKS I would first like to give thanks to God for my gifts and talents, and giving me a passion for Architecture.

Thank you to my family, most importantly Mom and Dad for supporting me both spiritually and financially every step of the way. To my sister for bringing me dinner to my studio; and thank you to my other family, the Bradfords for believing in me and pushing me to pursue my goals.

Thank you to Joshua Strope and Mark Pomarico, for always being there offering me advice and support; for all the great times and many adventures we have shared.

Thank you to David Burwinkel for teaming up with me on TEDWorks, and for being an inspiration to me whether you realize it or not. Your joy for what you do is a constant reminder of why I ever sought out to pursue this career.

Thank you to my friends at the Gator Wesley Foundation, for all of your encouragement and fellowship, I could have never made it to the end without you.

Thank you to Robert K. Ledford, II, for all your words of wisdom and professional knowledge, but most of all for being a great mentor to me.

Finally, thank you to my professors and classmates at the University of Florida and the University of Cincinnati, for your guidance, criticism, and sharing your passion of architecture throughout my higher education.

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ChristopherSaunders 813.335.2852 CSaunders8810@gmail.com