Edgar Claure: Architecture Portfolio 2015-2023

Graduate architecture student at the USC School of Architecture

M.Arch ‘23

Architecture Portfolio

Selected Works 2015-2023

The following portfolio illustrates my creative process through selected undergraduate, graduate and professional projects. The spirit of this portfolio is to show my skills in the professional field during my 3 years of work experience, but most importantly, to show my passion for large infrastructure projects such as airports and skyscrapers. As such, my devotion to architecture lies in questioning to what extent can human activity be shaped and improved by the spaces we inhabit, particularly in the infrastructural spaces that are of essential service to our globalized society.

(Ongoing graduate thesis proposal)

Year: 2023

Once glamorous gateways of freedom, airports have become places of consumerist and protocolar tedium; numerous terminals have largely become obsolete and many operate at full capacity as it is the case with Heathrow and LaGuardia airports. At the same time, airport expansion is ever challenging as these complex infrastructures must run constantly to meet travel demand and many are often situated in heavily urbanized areas, close to major cities.

For my thesis research, the broad question that arises is what will the airport of the future look like?

For this, I want to develop design standards by researching on airport terminal forms and typologies as a way to emphasize the importance of geometry in airport design, accommodating program, and planning with anticipation for long term growth in mind.

Critic: Ryan Tyler Martinez

time"

Development problematic

Case study: TWA Terminal. Eero Saarinen (1962)

The rise, fall, and rebirth of the TWA Terminal is reflected by the timeline of the commercial aviation at large. With the arrival of larger airplanes, smaller terminals like this one were rendered obsolete.

What do all these terminals have in common?

It is difficult to discern the plan shapes as the result of a rather irrational, layered growth that happened over time following an increase in air travel demand.

"Airports are unpredictable places: they grow often haphazardly and they change their function and program over

1.Original TWA Terminal layout built in 1962. Note the smaller departure concourses.

2. New terminal 5 extension adjacent to the original building. 640,000 SF and 27 gates.

Source: Brian Edwards, “The Modern Airport Terminal, 2nd Edition (2005).

The six most common airport terminal configurations

1. Standard linear Zurich-Kloten Airport

2. Pier

Stockholm-Arlanda Airport

3. Satellite terminals

Newark Liberty Airport

4. Curvilinear Rio de Janeiro-Galeão Airport

5. Concourses

Shenzhen Bao’an Airport

6. Star pier Beijing-Daxing Airport

The importance of geometry

Central to the idea of spatial clarity is that of geometry, the simple but harmonious pattern of repeating linear and curved patterns in isolation or in juxtaposition. The use of geometric order allows the functional and spatial to merge. Geometry creates order which helps legibility and sense of place. At airports, like in cities, architects have to find solutions which enhance existing situations. The geometric conception encourages the airport authority to keep the long-term goal in sight while building in small but coherent portions. It also keeps spatial clarity when pressures arise for small scale functional change.

Accommodating growth

To accommodate the growth in demand for air transportation, which has been at 7% per year over the past 25 years, the infrastructure of air travel needs to grow in 5 different ways:

• Larger aircraft with greater passenger-carrying capacity are needed.

• Expansion of airspace and traffic control facilities.

• Expansion of passenger terminals and baggage handling facilities.

• New or additional runways to existing airports.

• New and more efficient ways of reaching the airport such as bus and train stations.

The increase of air travel and the introduction of larger airplanes such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747 has been a continual challenge for airport growth. For example, London Heathrow’s expansion in the late-1990s was curtailed by lack of terminal space and by poor means of reaching the airport by public transport and limited by lack of runway space or by location on heavily urbanized areas. Predicting future demand for air travel and the implications for infrastructure provision is a precise art.

A clear sense of structural and spatial logic is evident in this design for Algiers Airport. Architects: Von Gerkan, Marg & Partner.

Source: Brian Edwards, “The Modern Airport Terminal, 2nd Edition (2005).

Hong Kong's Kai Tak International Airport was closed and decommissioned in 1998 due to the city's rapid growth and the inability of the airport to further expand.

In the image above, a large Boeing 747 is seen landing at the airport at a very low altitude and passing through densely populated areas.

Transport integration

The need for ever larger sites and the noise generated by increasing numbers of aircraft mean that the optimum site for new airports is usually far out of a city.

Modern airports are becoming large and complex transportation interchanges, where you can move freely between car, bus, rail, metro and aircraft. Ideally, this integration should happen within a single building . In fact, such are the level and variety of transport systems at some modern airports that many passengers pass through them or change at them without the intention of using an airport at all. A better mix of transport facilities allows different types of people with different needs and diverse income levels to use the full range of facilities present at modern airports. However, integrating different modes of transportation to airports inherently adds another level of complexity and sometimes difficulty in designing terminals, especially in existing airports, which is often the case.

Graphic Technique

Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport is one of the few international airports with integrated high-speed train services that connect the airport to the city center as well as neighboring French cities.

A terminal layout formed after nodes

Looking at old airline route maps as a way to convert topographical reality into abstract schematics

Preliminary Terminal Floor Plan

Proposed grand terminal at LAX with the airport’s existing four runways configuration. The integration of all procedural programs makes the airport terminal typology a coherent whole

5-MINUTE CITY

Critic: Roland Wahlroos-Ritter

Year: 2022

Program: Walkable park city interweaving businesses, resources, housing and green infrastructure with a re-activated site along the Los Angeles River.

The topic studio focused on the possibility of conceiving a walkable city as a bold vision for new urban planning in the Taylor Yards site north of Downtown Los Angeles, a 42-acre area sitting on the banks of the Los Angeles River with historical importance, as it once was home of bustling railroad networks and manufacturing plants.

The long vacant site was recently acquired by the city, with several urban revitalization plans in the works. The proposal for the five minute city aims to compartmentalize businesses and housing into a largely mixed-use urban typology. It challenges the common standards of scale by proposing tall buildings with relatively low square footage that are densely packed together in order to achieve the five minute walkability.

Taylor Yards, Los Angeles

Existing conditions of the site: A 42-acre parcel along the Los Angeles River. Once the backbone of a rail and manufacturing network. Note the large concrete channel running along the river. The re-integration of the river banks with the natural landscape is a long-standing regional priority.

Vision for the 5-minute city planning on the Taylor Yards site of Los Angeles

3D printed city model at a scale of 1/256” = 1’-0”. This is a proposed vision for the creation of a car-free city on the Taylor Yards site, north of Downtown Los Angeles. Given its central location, the 5-minute city has great potential for urban development and interweaves housing, businesses, green infrastructure and essential facilities to create the ideal conditions for incubating sustainable communities. At the same time, this proposal involves the removal of the existing concrete channel for the re-integration of the river with the natural environment.

COMMUNITY INCUBATOR

Critic: Amanda Ortland

Year: 2022

Program: Type IV-C exposed CLT Social Justice Center in Downtown Los Angeles

The studio program for Spring 2022 included the creation of a new Social Justice Center for the University of Southern California to be located in Downtown Los Angeles, at an important site blocks away from the historic Union Station. Not only did I focus on the design of an innovative structure that would attract the surrounding community but I also paid heavy attention in the properties and construction of CLT buildings. Recently, California building codes were updated to allow for the construction of high-rise mass timber buildings of up to 18 stories tall.

The USC Center for Social Justice aims to unite diverse cultural and social functions and intends to be the gathering force for the surrounding diverse community. Its program include spaces for job-finding, cultural exchange, studying rooms, service areas for the community and numerous public spaces for social gathering. In my project, the idea of an inner public courtyard is a key component of the architectural articulation and the spirit of the formal and functional development for this center for Social Justice, as it’ll be the driver for the gathering of the community.

Massing and ordering systems for exposed CLT construction

Diagrammatic studies of building massing and structural assembly systems for CLT.

Partial view of the northeast façade with exposed CLT floor plates rising gradually Tapered form of the Social Justice Center in to allow more sunlight to reach the ground. The façade features a double-skin facade with adjustable louvers for better sun exposure control and the interior consists of open floor spaces for seamless circulation.

Dimensioned and furnished floor plans

Isometric wall section

EXTERIOR GRADE SHEATHING ABOVE SINGLE PLY ROOF MEMBRANE

2X6 STUDS AT 16”

O.C.

Close-up exposed CLT wall section through louvered façade

2X4 FRAMING AT 16" O.C.

ROOFTOP MECHANICAL UNITS

METAL COPING

WOOD TRIM

EXTERIOR SUN-SHADING ADJUSTABLE LOUVERS

1" PVC CONDUIT REQUIRED FOR EXTERIOR LIGHTING.

2X4 FRAMING AT 16" O.C.

SLOPE

METAL COPING

1X4 TRIM

2X6 STUDS AT 16”

O.C.

CAVITY FOR BATT INSULATION

EXTRUDED MICROLOUVERED ROLLER SHADE

METALLIC ENCASEMENT FOR DUCTING/ ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS

EXTRUDED MICROLOUVERED ROLLER SHADE

CARPET TILE

PRECAST CONCRETE SLAB

BEAM TO BEARING

CONCRETE SLAB CONNECTION WITH CORBELS

ULTRA HIGHPERFORMANCE METAL GRID SHADING ELEMENT

TRIPLE LAMINATED SAFETY GLASS

CLT DECKING

DOUBLE SKIN FACADE METAL SYSTEM

EXTERIOR SUN-SHADING ADJUSTABLE LOUVERS

CONCRETE SLAB ON GRADE SUPPORTING EXTERIOR SKIN FACADE SYSTEM

2X6 STUD FRAMING AT 16" O.C.

1" PVC CONDUIT REQUIRED FOR EXTERIOR LIGHTING.

EXTERIOR GRADE SHEATHING

2X6 STUD FRAMING AT 16" O.C.

EXTEND SINGLE-PLY MEMBRANE ROOFING UP PARAPET WALL

EXTERIOR GRADE SHEATHING

SLOPE

1X10 TRIM

METAL COPING

1'-5"

1X4 TRIM

8" 1'-10"

1X10 TRIM

T.O. FRAMING 194'-7"

LED BAND BELOW 2X6 ROUGH SAWN.

T.O. FRAMING

194'-7"

LED BAND BELOW 2X6 ROUGH SAWN.

GALVANIZED METAL FLASHING.

EXTEND SINGLE-PLY MEMBRANE ROOFING UP PARAPET WALL

SINGLE-PLY MEMBRANE ROOFING ON RIGID INSULATION OVER PLYWOOD DECKING

SINGLE-PLY MEMBRANE ROOFING ON RIGID INSULATION OVER PLYWOOD DECKING

CASING FOR MECHANICAL ELEMENTS (HVAC/ELECTRICAL)

12'-0" T.O. FLOOR TO B.O. CEILING, TYP.

CASING FOR MECHANICAL ELEMENTS (HVAC/ELECTRICAL)

INTERIOR

SUN SHADING DEVICE SYSTEM WITH OVERHANG LOUVER AND ADJUSTABLE FINS.

6" MAX.

EXTERIOR CEILING, TYP.

STEEL TURNBUCKLE AND METALLIC PLATE, METAL LOUVER-WOOD FRAMING JOINT.

GALVANIZED METAL FLASHING.

STEEL TURNBUCKLE AND METALLIC PLATE, METAL LOUVER-WOOD FRAMING JOINT.

8" 1'-10"

ENCASED SUNSHADE ROLLER DEVICE

1'-5"

1'-5"

LAMINATED SAFETY GLASS IN ALUMINUM FRAME SYSTEM

SUN SHADING DEVICE SYSTEM WITH OVERHANG LOUVER AND ADJUSTABLE FINS.

LAMINATED SAFETY GLASS IN ALUMINUM FRAME SYSTEM

SUN SHADING DEVICE SYSTEM WITH OVERHANG LOUVER AND ADJUSTABLE FINS.

(2) COATS STOGUARD AIR/MOISTURE BARRIER, CONTINUOUS.

1' XPS FOAM INSULATION.

EXTERIOR GRADE SHEATHING ON 2x6 WOOD STUDS AT 16" O.C. INFILL WITH 5 1/2" BATT INSULATION.

T.O. FOUNDATION 100'-8"

ENCASED SUNSHADE ROLLER DEVICE

ENCASED SUNSHADE ROLLER DEVICE

USC Social Justice Center

8-story mass timber CLT building. Type IV-C with a double-skin facade system with adjustable louvers for sun exposure control.

SPATIAL NUANCES

This exercise speculated on the potential of non-building forms as a critical dialogue for architectural planning through the modeling and overlaying of 4 main conjunctive elements: A matrix background, linear elements, field conditions and solitaires. By superimposing these together, one can discover new formal relationships, which together, add or subtract elements from the figure. The final form is a 12”x14” 3D printed representational model.

Explorations on the typological and climatic connotations of Haussmann’s urban design for Paris.

CONCRETE TECTONICS

Form vs function:

Concrete tectonic precedents in the urban context

Critic: Wes Jones

Program: 25,000 SF USC Business Extension School Year: 2022

Part of the design intent for the Extension School aims to establish a symbiotic relationship between USC and the surrounding community by bringing a high level of transparency to the traditionally enclosed college building typology. The concrete tectonic expression dictates much of the design and form of the building. As such, there is a strong emphasis in structural analysis, particularly for the hybrid structure using concrete and steel.

Unlike the classrooms of a traditional Business School, the facilities of this extension school shall embrace adaptable spacing, as learning will not only be about classrooms – but will primarily be about the social spaces and the relationships that are formed. The extension school is a comment on the discrepancy between the middle-income neighborhood of University Park and the USC campus. In an effort to bridge these two different landscapes, the extension school detaches from the traditional USC typology and embraces the local community with a robust facility intended for long-term use.

Concrete tectonics

Concrete pier row system supporting a set of concrete “T” channels to achieve a columnless long span system framing the multipurpose room.

CMU blocking around egress staircase, and elevator shafts, compliant with egress and fire code, and for additional structural support where columns are absent.

Palacio da Alvorada by Oscar Nienmeyer Brasilia, Brazil

Typical concrete piers supporting a highway bridge above a river.

Building elevation through front facade

SYMMETRY & COINCIDENCE

Critic: Matthew Conway

Year: 2022

Program: Development of a complex panelized surface using the computational geometric tools of Grasshopper3D.

Being able to control planar and quad surfaces on Grasshopper is pivotal to the understanding of geometric architecture. As part of the descriptive and computational architecture course, In an effort to explore spatial nuances, I developed a complex panelized surface that reinforces the logical qualities of tangencies, symmetries and coincidences. The result, an intricate panelized surface:

18”x18”x18” model developed in Grasshopper3D, surfaces panelized, unrolled and then laser-cut. Assembled together in white Bristol board.

BRINGING PATTERNS TOGETHER

Critic: J.E. Elliott

Program: Community Library in the Clifton neighborhood of Cincinnati, OH. Year: 2016

Much like most of the old neighborhoods in Cincinnati, Clifton has a rich historical value. The various styles of the buildings surrounding the site reflect the diverse background that made Cincinnati their home.

The conception of this library attempts to mirror the cultural and historical richness of Clifton and its architecture, and also promote self-development by being the living room for the neighborhood.

To facilitate learning and enable self-development and foster community engagement. Regarded as the most democratic institution, the library intends to bring people together; its intricate modules reflex the diversity of cultures and neighboring architectural typologies.

Examination

Winter airflow: Preserving internal heat

During the winter, glass louvers and vents at the top of the building remain shut. The air cavity heats up, creating a thermal barrier between the interior and exterior. The inner blinds would prevent low-angled sunlight from entering the building.

Summer airflow: Preventing heat gain

In the summer setting, air is drawn into the double skin cavity through the vents. As heat rises naturally, the warm air escapes from the cavity through the operable vents atop.

of a double-skin façade system with layered gridded mullions and operable air vents atop.

Laminated triple glazing with safety glass

Exterior louvers from thermal insulation system

Outer and inner modular galvanized steel frame system

Cincinnati Community Library

7-story mass timber CLT building. Type IV-C with an actual building height of 72’-0”. It features a double-skin façade system composed of gridded mullions of different sizes that enhance the dynamic nature of the building, borrowing from the proportions of the adjacent tenement buildings with orthogonal grids.

BIOMIMICRY

Corgan - Summer Internship Competition, 2nd Place

Program: Design of an energy-producing self-sustainable device as part of Corgan’s research and innovation division “HUGO”

Team: Nicole Betances, JJ Jin, Lucy Semenova and Thomas Wang

Year: 2022

The sound of running water, natural breezes, rustling leaves and the rays of sunshine peeking through trees are all captivating qualities that immerse us in nature and makes us feel at peace. For this firm-wide design competition, we considered these phenomena to recreate a structure that meets environmental goals.

The Komorebi Cell is inspired by the driving mechanisms that keep trees alive, utilizing sunlight, water, and wind to generate energy. A single canopy unit can be greatly, modular, being isolated as a single unit or multiplied into a collection of units depending on space requirements. This is intended to suit different programs in various settings as it is a highly flexible tool to serve public environments in a sustainable way.

TRANSIENT SPACES

Critic: J.E. Elliott

Program: Temporary exhibition space for Miami University’s Summer Arts Program

Year: 2015

During the undergraduate sophomore year studio, we were tasked to design a small temporary facility on Miami University’s main quad as an exhibition space for the students participating in the Summer Art Program. As such, I designed a modular system consisting of PTFE panels as temporary structures such as the pole marquee, the modular system allows is a durable and programmatic solution which effectively hosts the activities of the Arts Program.

Light modular systems that are easily assembled, similar to a pole marquee structure but with mullions. An ideal, temporary space for summer exhibitions and social gathering. The structure can be easily disassembled into light panels which can be stored and reused the next summer.

Model built at 1/16” = 1’-0” scale using handcut basswood panels and columns. As a nonconditioned temporary space, operable roof vents allow for passive air circulation.

Miami University’s transient exhibition space

Site elevation drawing of the Performing Arts Quad featuring the temporary exhibition space designed with PTFE wall panels.

DRAWINGS

Branch Library at the Audubon Terrace of New York

Located in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, this library vattempts to become a liaison between the rich history of Audubon Terrace, named after the famous naturalist, and the diverse community of the neighborhood, which has changed over the years. Much of the area has fallen prey to urban decay, but such conditions present an opportunity to improve rather than erase and fix. Reviving the Audubon Terrace by providing a community center and a library, aims to establish a democratic institution to the center of Washington Heights. Drawing made on an 11x17 Strathmore drawing paper with charcoal and color pencils.

To The Highest Point

Hand drawing on a 24”x8” board with Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph Ink Pens

PROFESSIONAL WORK Construction

sets

Nelson Worldwide, LLC

Cincinnati, OH - A great portion of my tasks during my three years as a Project Coordinator at Nelson involved developing complete architectural CD sets for a variety of commercial/ retail clients across the U.S. and coordinating work progress with MEP, structural, civil and building department offices.

The beginning

Jim Clemes Associates, S.A.

Luxembourg, - 2017 was a memorable year because I had just started my career as an intern at Jim Clemes Associates, an architectural firm based in Luxembourg. I learned Revit through a month long training program and started producing my first construction drawings for public education and private residential projects.

Furniture and RCP floor plans for a single-family condominium.

Architectural drawings of Le Corbusier’s Einfamilienhaus ,part of Revit training.