MOMENTS - Callum Tinkler Selected Works 2024 (DRAFT)

CALLUM

E TN S T S MMO OM M E N

TINKLER

SELECTED

WORKS

2024

THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT IS A MIRROR. ITS DESIGN IS PRIMARILY REFLECTIVE OF THE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS OF THE ERA. TODAY, THESE CONDITIONS ARE MARKED BY VOLATILITY. WITH THE ADVENT OF ADVANCED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING TECHNOLOGY, AS WELL AS A CHANGING CLIMATE, WE ARE FACED WITH UNCERTAIN FUTURES AND HISTORIES ACCELERATING FURTHER AWAY. ACKNOWLEDGING THESE CONDITIONS, CAN AN ARCHITECTURE EXIST THAT RESPONDS TO THE RAPID CHANGES OF THE CONTEMPORARY BY TAKING OWNERSHIP OF NOT JUST SPACE, BUT ALSO TIME? THE FOLLOWING WORKS AIM TO CONSIDER TIME, STATIC AND DYNAMIC, AS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF THEIR DESIGN. WHETHER IT BE THROUGH PRESERVING HISTORY, DESIGNING FOR RISING SEA LEVELS, OR REIMAGINING THE IDEA OF A MEMORIAL, THESE WORKS EXIST AS SPECULATIVE EXAMPLES ON HOW THE PASSAGE OF TIME, AND THE MOMENTS WITHIN, CAN BE EMBEDDED IN THE DESIGN OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT.

CONTENTS SI NGISED STI .RORRIM A SI TNEMNORIVNE TLIUB EHT DNA LAICOS EHT FO EVITCELFER YLIRAMIRP OF SERVICE ,YADOT .ARE EHT FO SNINTERVENTIONS OITIDNOC LATNE MN ORIVNE 2 HTIW .YTILITALOV YB DEKRAM ERA SNOITIDN0O0C 1E-S0E1HT ECNEGILLETNI LAICIFITRA DECNAVDA FO TNEVDA EHT ADAPTIVE A SA LLEW SA ,YGOLONHCET GNINR AEL ENIHSYSTEMS CAM DNA 0N 1 I3G-N0AH 2C 2 NIATRECNU HTIW DECAF ERA EW ,ETAMILC G REHTRUF GNITARELECCA SEIROTSIH DNA SERUTUF NA NAC ,SNOITIDNOC ESEHT GNIGDELMASKED WONKCAFRAME .YAWA 3I-H0C3 0 DIPAR EHT OT SDNOPSER TAHT TSIXE ERUT0C2ET RA GNIKAT YB YRAROPMETNOC EHT FO SEGNAHC ?EMIT OSLA TUB ,ECAPS TSUJ TON FO PIHSRENWO INTERMISSION CITATS ,EMIT REDISNOC OT MIA SKROW GNIWOLLOF EHT RIEHT FO TNENOPMOC LAITNESSE NA SA ,CIMANYD DNA PATHMAKERS GNIVRESERP HGUORHT EB TI REHTEH W .NGISED 1O -T 0S4IH 0 RO ,SLEVEL AES GNISIR ROF GNINGISED0 ,3YR SKROW ESEHT ,LAIROMEM A FO AEDI EHT GNINIGAMIER ALIVE EHT WOH NO SELPMAXE EVITALUREMNANTS CEPS SA T SIXE 0 EB NAC ,NIHTIW STNEMOM EHT DNA ,EMIT FO0 E4G1A-S0S5AP .TNEMNORIVNE TLIUB EHT FO NGISED EHT NI DEDDEBME

interventions of

service

IN COLLABORATION WITH JOSHUA WEBB

“we are interested in the future of this church... for the children who will someday become the leaders themselves.”

-PASTOR TESFAYE GABISSO, EVANGELICAL CHURCH

ETHIOPIAN BOSTON

This design studio was part of a larger community engagement effort with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church of Boston, involving multiple trips to the site and conversations with community members, guest lecturers, and other consultants over a four-month period. The current church occupies a converted single-story parking garage in the heart of Roxbury, surrounded by residential buildings to the north and south, a busy street to the west, and a 30-foot rocky outcropping to the east. The task was to consider a comprehensive proposal for a reimagined church, from issues of building performance to symbolic identity.

INTERVENTIONS OF SERVICE is a proposal for a partial demolition and redesign of the church, grounded entirely in real input from community members. The proposal imagines a flexible scenario with more intensive intervention as a response to both the community’s present and future needs. By considering every aspect of the church’s identity; as a symbolic object, as an institution of worship, service, and learning, and as a space with building performance requirements, this project aims to address key concerns from the congregation and to foster a current and future sense of place for a vibrant Boston community.

Designed for ARCH 5115 Option Studio at Northeastern University, September-December 2024. Advised by Alpha Yacob Arsano. Featured in Northeastern Global News.

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Separating the field of architecture as an academic discipline from professional practice is the notion that a project ultimately belongs to the client. The role of an architect is akin to that of a translator; one must consider a myriad of different ideas, perspectives, and desires, and synthesize them through the language of design.

INTERVENTIONS OF SERVICE

Preliminary site analysis, documentation of the current floor plan, and conversations with the congregation revealed poor sound insulation as a primary concern for the community, aside from a general lack of available daylight and programmable floor area. The project first attempts to improve spatial efficiency by grouping together blocks of program to enable shared interstitial storage and mechanical space.

These interstitial spaces may act as additional sound insulation between areas of high user volume within the blocks. The resulting three programmatic zones; worship, classroom, and gathering space, are then separated from each other by thickened wall assemblies to provide increased sound insulation where necessary.

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INTERVENTIONS OF SERVICE

The project’s massing is derived both from programmatic logic and the creation of a strong visual identity. The location and typology of each program block govern its shape and size; both the separate classroom wing and main sanctuary require larger volumes of space, yet the gentle curves of the upper roofscape soften the transition between the first and second floors and allow greater daylight availability for the central courtyard. At the ground level, the barrel vaults continue the curved language from above, creating a unique facade language that hints at the program within. This is further accentuated with the expression of the stair core as the symbolic steeple.

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4’ 8’

INTERVENTIONS OF SERVICE

24’

Additional concerns regarding building performance were addressed through various passive and active strategies. Stormwater runoff from the cliff is managed by use of a bioswale located within the courtyard, while skylights in the sanctuary and barrel vaults provide passive daylighting without harsh direct sunlight, a further concern amongst community members.

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An intentionally diverse array of climate control strategies were proposed to generate conversations with the congregation over their preferences. These included active (indicated in red) DOAS and radiant floor systems, and passive (indicated in blue) solar chimney and Trombe wall assemblies on the stair core and southern sanctuary walls, respectively.

INTERVENTIONS OF SERVICE

Tiered floor slabs are designed to follow the slope of the site to minimize excavation costs.

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The barrel vaults act as roof drainage, directing excess stormwater towards the bioswale.

INTERVENTIONS OF SERVICE

Though seemingly overambitious at the present moment, these proposals aim to speculate on an idealized future for the church, as well as to generate the ideas and conversations required to begin the process of transformation, however drastic it may be.

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A DA PT I V E SYS T E M S

I N CO LL A BO RAT I O N W I TH R I CH A R D P I N C H

“ W e h av e a l r e a dy p u s h e d n at u r e s o fa r t h at t h e r e ’ s n ot h i n g fo r u s to d o b u t make a n ot h e r b u i lt s o lu t i o n . ” - E m i ly G r a n o f f , D e p u t y D i r e c to r , C h e l s e a H o u s i n g & Co m m u n i t y D e v e lo p m e n t

A DA PT I V E SYS T E M S is a proposal for modular emergency and temporary housing located beneath the Tobin Bridge in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Drawing inspiration from the structural forms of the iconic landmark, this project utilizes a flexible framework that allows for the insertion of prefabricated shipping container units, which can be delivered directly to the site without additional land transportation. By addressing multiple characteristics of the site in its design, from its location at the border between two communities of differing income and demographic backgrounds, to its proximity to water and the corresponding implications of a changing climate, the project asserts itself as site specific, yet appropriately flexible; contemporary, yet visionary.

Designed for the 2024 Buildner Affordable Housing Challenge, April-May 2024.

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In recent years, the ever-changing economic and geopolitical state of the world has popularized modular and temporary architecture as a means to combat issues such as overpopulation, climate change, and mass displacement.

However, the products of this movement often lack consideration of the subtleties of their surroundings, resulting in a kind of “copy-and-paste” effect that diminishes the reputation of such works. Can these modular structures be considerate of a single site and moment in time, while also maintaining their flexibility to be constructed elsewhere and in a more distant future? Can they take advantage of the potential for adaptability that modular construction holds by utilizing and rejuvenating underdeveloped, undesirable locations?

ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS

Residential units consist of two separate 20-foot shipping containers, which are partially assembled in a factory before being shipped to the site to be fully installed. The units themselves are designed for compatibility within a greater system, utilizing soundproofing membranes and thoughtful programmatic organization for occupant comfort and ease of aggregation.

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Units attach to shear wall cores housing mechanical systems and vertical circulation. As units aggregate, they weave through the grand diagonal beams of the bridge’s substructure, allowing the two systems to read as one while remaining structurally separate. This in turn eliminates additional forces on the bridge’s structural piers and excessive vibration on the units.

ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS

The flexibility of the design enables ease of customization; units may be claimed by single tenants, or grouped together in larger configurations with shared interstitial spaces.

4’

8’

24’

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The dynamic configuration of units creates several moments of these interstitial spaces; a soft intersection between inside and outside, public and private. These can be shared between two units as a means of joining them into one, or between several clusters of units to create pockets of communal co-living between neighbors or larger family groups.

ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS

The project leverages its waterfront location and proximity to Boston’s primary container port to reduce dependency on land transportation for the prefabricated units.

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ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS

Visually, the project aims to soften the divide between the industrial and residential zones bisected by the bridge through the introduction of a playful and vibrant facade language, one that neither attempts to mask its underlying utilitarian nature, nor fully disguise itself within the raw structure.

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MASKED FRAME

IN COLLABORATION WITH ALANA MOON

HOW CAN ONE REIMAGINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRUCTURE AND ARCHITECTURE?

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The implementation of structure with respect to its visibility possesses a core duality: to conceal, or to reveal. Systems of bracing and load bearing are often seen as means to an end, and their role as an experiential element in the built environment is either to be perspicuous, or imperceptible.

MASKED FRAME is a comprehensive design proposal attempting to imagine a more nuanced relationship between structure and architecture; one where the skeleton is neither blatantly revealed nor entirely concealed. The design aims to imitate the interplay between natural order and chaos: biological and chemical patterns and logic govern the smallest scales of life, yet as complexity increases, order is seemingly lost, hidden within the vast, organic chaos of nature.

Taking the form of a simple pavilion for non-denominational reflection, the project considers massing, materiality, structure, and sheathing as symbiotic elements, the amalgamation of which conceal a simple architectural and structural strategy beneath layers of experiential complexity.

Honorable Mention Recipient for ARCH 5230 Structural Systems at Northeastern University, October-December 2024. Advised by Derek Johnson and Michelle Laboy.

MASKED FRAME

The project utilizes a simple scissor truss as its structure. It is then hidden within an additional wooden framework that is hung from the truss at selected joints. To further obfuscate the true structural components, the additional framework is composed of the same wood species as the structure itself.

The line between what is structure and what is superficial becomes blurred, the order concealed within the chaos. As one walks the perimeter of the floor area, the angle in which the framework is viewed may reveal the structural logic, or it may obscure it further.

A

B

2” X 2” REDWOOD HANGING LIGHTWEIGHT MEMBERS

5” X 5” REDWOOD TRUSS MEMBERS

5” X 5” REDWOOD DIAGONAL STRUTS 2” X 6” ALUMINUM MULLIONS

1/8” GLASS

5’5”

1

5’5”

2

5’5”

3

56’7”

5’5”

5

026

5’5”

4

5’5”

6

5’5”

7

5’5”

8 9

5” X 5” REDWOOD CROSS BRACING

1/2” PLYWOOD SHEATHING

2” X 2” REDWOOD LONG-SPAN LIGHTWEIGHT MEMBERS

FACADE SHEAR WALL (5” X 5” REDWOOD JOISTS, 1/2” PLYWOOD SHEATHING)

5’ 4’

8’

24’

5’

5’

5’

39’10”

5’

5’

MASKED FRAME

The lateral systems do not conceal themselves as the trusses do, yet they appear as extensions to the system above, bringing the floating canopy down to its earthen roots.

The two systems are married as one; no longer a separate upper and lower component, but one single being. The project conceals within itself the moment of separation between its structural strategies.

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MASKED FRAME

As sunlight filters in from the glazing above, through a tumult of trusses, beams, and ornamental members, the space beneath the artificial canopy becomes a dynamic interplay of light and shadow, a place of reflection and meditation, removed from the natural environment yet somehow still reminiscent of it.

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I N T E R M I S S I O N

PATHMAKERS

“IF WE ALLOW OUR EFFORTS ON DISARMAMENT TO SLACKEN... THE NUCLEAR SHADOW THAT HANGS OVER US WILL ALL WILL LENGTHEN AND IT WILL DEEPEN.” -MARGARET BECKETT, FORMER UNITED KINGDOM SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

PATHMAKERS is a theoretical interactive landscape intervention, calling for total nuclear disarmament by structuring the idea of a memorial as a call for global cooperative action. It consists of a reservoir covering the entirety of a nuclear test crater, nine small gravel islands with shovels around the perimeter, and an island in the center containing a single tree, a memorial to and symbol of life. The encircling islands contain enough gravel to construct a single walkable path to the center, requiring a coordinated and cooperative effort to make it accessible. Thus, the memorial acts as a thought experiment, presenting itself as a unique opportunity for visitors to utilize their collective agency, free from the usual constraints of power and politics.

Though these conditions may not mirror reality, the notion that the fate of humanity rests upon its own shoulders defines not just this theoretical memorial for disarmament, but our continued survival as a species.

Honorable mention recipient for the 2024 Buildner “Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial” Competition, February-June 2024. Featured in ArchDaily.

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As long as nuclear weapons exist, the chances of them being used is non zero. In turn, if both the amount of weapons and the number of countries with access to them increase, the likelihood of nuclear warfare will only continue to increase as well. Simple remembrance is an insufficient defense against mutually assured destruction.

PATHMAKERS

The interactive and time-based nature of the mem global disarmament do not belong to an assured f at which it can be accomplished, will be determine

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morial reflects the notion that such lofty goals as future. The attainment of this goal, and the speed ed entirely by humanity’s capacity for cooperation.

PATHMAKERS

Given the method by which the path must be created, it will always be theor the underlying message remains the same. Can one rightfully claim to hav

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retically possible to construct two or more walkways to the center. However, ve achieved a pathway to peace if it is barely wide enough to walk upon?

PATHMAKERS

A lasting peace for all of humanity

must be earned by all of humanity.

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PATHMAKERS

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Regardless of the state of the path’s completion, the memorial is designed to reflect humanity’s progress towards global disarmament at any given moment.

REMNANTS ALIVE

"IT'S ABOUT MAKING SURE THAT PEOPLE WHO WERE ERASED IN THE FIRST PLACE ARE NOT ERASED IN THE PROCESS OF UNCOVERING THIS HISTORY.” -ALEX

GREEN,

SENIOR

FELLOW

AND

RESEARCH

ASSOCIATE

AT

HARVARD

UNIVERSITY

042

The abandoned Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center in Waltham, Massachusetts possesses a difficult past filled with stories and memories that are soon to be lost. Founded in 1848, the center was originally a school for children with intellectual disabilities, but grew over the years into a mass asylum. At its peak, conditions within were spartan, with countless accounts of abuse and neglect being reported from former inpatients. In 2014, the center closed its doors, and throughout a further decade of abandonment, the grounds fell into ruin.

Today, the Fernald Center is entering another moment of transition, only this time with the prospect of erasure. Recent plans to level the site of the former asylum and replace it with a recreational park have sparked public controversy, with many viewing the move as disrespectful to the individuals who lived, suffered, and died within the walls of the institution. Various community members in Waltham and beyond have expressed desires for a method to memorialize the history of the scarred site, yet a thoughtful proposition to respond to such concerns is yet to be developed.

REMNANTS ALIVE represents the first half of a year-long research and community engagement driven architectural thesis, inserting itself into the Fernald Center‘s final act to imagine an alternate epilogue; one where the asylum’s troubled past can be preserved in a meaningful way. The first phase of this project, comprised of historical research and preliminary design, aims to memorialize the history of the institution and the many individuals who endured its darkest days; a memorialization that is respectful to the former patients and their families, one that is honest, evocative, uncomfortable but hopeful, concerning not just the mistakes of the past but the development of a progressive future. It will explore how the architecture of a memorial can act as a speculative tool to reawaken and reveal lost voices, places, and moments in time, resurrecting an institution of abandonment and abuse from its dark grave to build for it a brighter legacy.

Thesis in progress at Northeastern University, October-December 2024; to be completed April 2025. Advised by Silvia Illia-Sheldahl.

REMNANTS ALIVE

By the 1920s, Fernald’s growth from a small school to a mass asylum had turned its original mission from providing for disabled children into a coordinated effort to conceal “undesirables” from the rest of society, many of whom did not even possess any mental disabilities. This looming culture of concealment, represented physically by the secluded nature of the grounds, allowed for the continuation of abusive practices for decades. As a response to this system of suppression, the primary mission of this project is to reveal itself to the public eye. This notion of revelation will be explored through strategies at both the architectural scale, and at the scale of the site as a greater whole.

The site, an 186 acre plot off Trapelo Road in Waltham, still houses dozens of the Fernald Center’s abandoned facilities, all in differing stages of decay. While some buildings have been completely demolished, particularly on the northwestern portion of the grounds, many of the oldest buildings still remain, almost frozen in time, providing a persisting memorial to the plague of overcrowding and underfunding that led to their abandonment. Certain historical buildings that were repurposed for storage before Fernald’s closure in 2014 contain a myriad of artifacts in an eerie, museum-like display: medical equipment, custom wheelchairs, patient records, and children’s toys.

The foundation for this research-led design was built upon a survey of both the historic buildings that occupied the grounds, as well as testimonies from former patients and staff members. Using the information gathered through research, as well as the City of Waltham’s current plans for a recreational park, a choreographed procession through and beyond the proposed redevelopment is created, activating the lost, abandoned, and decaying remnants of the Fernald Center.

Beginning at the Trapelo Road entrance, the procession winds through several of the site’s historic buildings, across the land slated for redevelopment, and into the valley to the south.

A sequence of sculptural pavilions are encountered throughout the procession, each placed as a wayfinding device to guide visitors along the path.

Each pavilion houses informational and memorial program that corresponds to both its location on the site and the memories embedded within. Borrowing the form of a smoke stack found on one of the site’s abandoned buildings, the pavilions possess a stoic monumentality; the architectural objects acting as symbolic sentinel towers, making themselves and the remnants they designate plainly visible to all.

Site strategy and processional design are in early preliminary design stages and will be developed.

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REMNANTS ALIVE

At the architectural scale, Fernald’s history of concealment to abandonment is investigated through the interplay between ruin and revelation. This concept is expressed formally by “pulling” on the walls of the architectural object. When one pulls on a wall, what spaces are revealed? What pieces are left behind? This architectural gesture lends a moment of transparency to the once opaque barrier.

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The series of pavilions represent stages of decay, and simultaneously, stages of revelation. It is through this artificial decay, through the pulling apart of layers of history, that this revelation is made.

Their placement along the procession takes visitors through various stages of Fernald’s past, from the peak of its concealed abusive history to its decayed, abandoned, yet finally revealed state.

REMNANTS ALIVE

The preliminary design phase also questioned what a larger, more centralized memorial using these concepts could look like. Using the same concept of pulling on walls to create artificial degeneration, a series of six walls are broken with circular clearings, the walls of which bear the names of Fernald’s many victims.

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REMNANTS ALIVE

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The resulting memorial pavilion is not designed as a labyrinth, as its intention is not to confuse; rather, it is a wandering, a series of barriers made transparent, a crumbling facade that, in its decay, reveals the moments hidden behind itself.

ALL DESIGN, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHY, ETC. WERE PRODUCED BY CALLUM TINKLER UNLESS OTHERWISE CREDITED.