Eduardo Meneses '20 MArch Columbia GSAPP

EDUARDO MENESES

A (N) “DICTIONARY” , “ENCYCLOPEDIA”, “HANDBOOK”, “RETROSPECTIVE”, “MONOGRAPH”, “COLLECTION”, “GUIDE”, “MANUSCRIPT”, “*&%$#!” , “PORT****O”

A chance to reflect on the work that has been done , the porfolio is a format in itself that comes up again and again in architecture school. As a way to evaluate our time here, a way to decide if someone fits entry into the school, something students rehash annually when it comes time to find a job, the portfolio seems absolute in its structure, only changing as the content inside changes.

A “DICTIONARY” AN “ENCYCLOPEDIA” A “HANDBOOK” A “RETROSPECTIVE” A “MONOGRAPH” A “COLLECTION” A “GUIDE” A “MANUSCRIPT” A “*&%$#!”

A “PORT****O”

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By collapsing time between the projects these images come from, I’m forced to acknowledge the past works and maybe even revisit some ideas and how they were represented at the time, even if just at the surface level. I believe in the end, this is an attempt to say that any one of these things could be the other, its just a matter of how its articulated at the time.

This “portfolio” tries to find a way to move past the project, and reconfigure the body of work into a format/ medium to address ideas of representation, informal/formal investigations, and simply what it will be like to become someone who will soon seek to practice in the contemporary landscape of today. To that end, I’ll look to place all the work I’ve done, side by side, to try and unpack the types of representation and interpretation I’ve had my hand at in exploring ideas of scale, urbanism, domesticity, archiving, occupation, intervention, architectural dualities, and programmatic multiplicity.

Besides all that serious stuff (see above) and needing this &%$( or whatever you want to call it to graduate (see https://www.arch.columbia.edu/programs/1-master-ofarchitecture), this collection of work - that has been scrambled without hopes of ever being in proper order - is just a students last ditch effort to have a little fun one last time to cap off three years in this place they call graduate school.

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INTRO

As a opportunity to impart agency on the work, beyond the frameworks of schools and the semesters and the studios, and to unify the works with a single or several threads, this “portfolio” attempts to step around the singularity of the “project” by diving in to the tool box of mediums and formats.

The ideas presented and how they are represented seek to establish differences, similarities, strange moments of happenstance when looking at a home, next to a library, next to a theater, next to a factory.

Note: None of the images/photographs in the 100+ pages to follow will have a label, but each page will note in the lower left corner which studio they belong to. For the sake of this “*&$%@” these are the only notes, with much more fulfilling text to be found at the end in the outro (read: index/ bibliography) section.

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1: INTRO

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2: NEW THINGS

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3: BIG THINGS

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4: OLD THINGS

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5: SMALL THINGS

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6: WRITTEN THINGS

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7: OUTRO

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INTRO

CONTENTS

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Most of the section to follow deals with my interpretation of “new” with regards to representation, the ways program and a project’s idea are conveyed, and ultimately taking risks in an attempt to figure out what these things (the projects) mean for me. To that end, things will inevitably look alike.. but maybe that’s the point.

60’-0”

44’-0”

S18

24’-0”

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Advanced 4 | Core 2

Sandwich Section Oblique Scale: 1/4” = 1’-0”

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Advanced 4 | Core 2

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S18

Advanced 4 | Core 2

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Core 2 | Core 1

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Advanced 4

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Advanced 6

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Advanced 4

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Advanced 6

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SGNIHTGIB

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CUT HERE

BIGTHINGS

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Big blurs the small stuff…

Big needs to step back to understand. What’s the bigger picture? Big is a mess because everything fuses together a little too much. Big is placeless, as it is place in itself.

SGNIHTGIB

Big is a scale that is beyond me. Big is ambitious, it doesn’t shy away from itself or its context. Big is clumsy, maybe dumb. Big tries to do too much all the time, think a one handed tomahawk jam on a fastbreak. Big is tactless, unsophisticated, just doing the bare minimum to be understood…

BIGTHINGS Advanced 6 | Core 3

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SGNIHTGIB

The “big” things in this section will be lots of site plans, obscure diagrams, and things that got really ugly when they grew in scale. No doubt “big” can mean any number of things, these images share similar ideas about what bigness could be.

BIGTHINGS Core 2 | Advanced 4

The Sandwich in the dense block along the street...

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The Sandwich in the dense block along the street...

SGNIHTGIB

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Laundry & Storage

Laundry & Storage

Laundry & Storage

CHAMBERS ST.

LANDER ST.

Future Sandwich #3

MILLER ST.

DUBOIS ST.

Laundry & Storage

JOHNSTON ST.

FARRINGTON ST.

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BIGTHINGS

3RD ST.

Future Sandwich #2 CARTER ST.

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CITY TERRAC

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NORTH - SOUTH SECTION 1 SCALE: 1/16” = 1’-0”

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The NPAA Headquarters...

The start of the project...

The center...

The pivot point...

1ST ST.

LIBERTY ST.

VAN NESS ST.

Core 3 | Advanced 4

BROADWAY

GRAND ST.

DUBOIS ST.

LUTHERAN ST .

F18

ANN ST.

The Screen...

At the waters edge...

Calling to Beacon...

Welcoming Newburgh...

WASHINGTON ST.

PARMENTER ST.

Advanced 6 | Advanced 4

LITTLE MO NUMENT ST .

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ST

ST.

B

CARSON AVE.

WATER ST.

COLDEN ST .

Future Screen #2

MONUMENT

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EDWARD ST .

S. WILLIAM ST.

RENWICK ST.

D RI

ST.

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Potential Future Sites

Site Plan Scale: 1/128” = 1’-0”

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BIGTHINGS

BENKARD AVE.

The Sandwich...

On the south of town... between homes...

A part of the city

LAFAYETTE

JONES ST.

WILLIAM ST .

SPRING ST.

BIGTHINGS

SGNIHTGIB

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Advanced 6

TIMBER DEPOT PLAN_01 SCALE : 1/16” = 1’-0”

BIGTHINGS

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SGNIHTGIB

Core 1 | Advanced 6

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Core 1

ARCHIVE

DROP-OFF

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SGNIHTGIB

BIGTHINGS

RETRIEVAL

BIGTHINGS

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SGNIHTGIB

Core 1

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offices clinic dormitories community space kitchen/cafeteria

Advanced 5 | Core 6

auditorium/performance lab

Farm/Greenhouse

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SGNIHTGIB

BIGTHINGS

classrooms

market stress booth/recording lab library/documentation lab gym/performance lab

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Advanced 5 | Core 6

circulation

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SGNIHTGIB

BIGTHINGS

gym/performance lab

BIGTHINGS

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SGNIHTGIB

Advanced 5 | Core 3

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BIGTHINGS

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SGNIHTGIB

Advanced 5

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Market

Market

PLAY (POOL)

The Gre e

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BIGTHINGS

nhouse

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Retail

central court (open to below) 57

PLAY (COMMUNAL ACTIVITY ROOMS)

Core 3

BLY EM ) ASS EATER ( TH

BIGTHINGS

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SGNIHTGIB

Advanced 6

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BIGTHINGS

SGNIHTGIB

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Core 2

Scale: 0’-1/8” = 1’-0”

SGNIHTGIB

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BIGTHINGS

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SGNIHTGIB

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BIGTHINGS

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ld feels dusty. To be old is be a bit slower, experienced, careful in the decisions that are made. Old refers to character, visible through layers of time.

Old has the answers, it has been through this before. Old can refer to tradition, technique, worldliness. Old recalls the fundamentals... like a proper, no frills layup. Old is about being broken in, fitting right where it needs to be after years of being poked and prodded. Old is another way of saying refined… textured and full of depth rather than the new that is quite flat, but flashy.

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SGNIHT DLO

OLD THINGS

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The “old” things will tend to be precedents, even if they are reinterpreted through “new diagrams”, as well as things I feel/felt comfortable doing aka old (read: bad?) habits.

OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

Advanced 5 | Advanced 6

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OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

Advanced 6 | Core 1

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OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

Core 3

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OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

Core 2

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OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

Advanced 5

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OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

Advanced 6

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OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

Advanced 4

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OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

Advanced 5

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OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

Advanced 4

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OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

Advanced 5

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OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

Advanced 5

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SGNIHT DLO

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OLD THINGS

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SGNIHT DLO

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OLD THINGS

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can identify itself. Small requires finesse, like a euro step. The small is unique, because it is itself and nothing else.

sgniht llams

small things

The small requires you to squint… it’s very specific. The small is zooomed in, focused, not looking at anything else. Small is attached to its place in the world. Small things are leftovers, like the old, weathered by time. Small likes to break things, small likes pieces, small likes connections. The small can go unnoticed, the same way the big can, if there is too much going on, but the small

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I would consider that most of the “small things” in this section could fit in one’s hand. They tend to be models, drawings placed on small squares, and maybe the most precise bits of the work done in school... not to mention they cannot exist without further context... “small” things need a place to call home.

small things

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Advanced 5

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small things

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Core 3

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small things

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Core 2

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small things

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Advanced 5

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small things

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Advanced 5

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small things

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Core 2

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small things

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Adcanced 4

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small things

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Core 3 | Advanced 6

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sgniht llams

small things

in.

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in.

Advanced 6 | Advanced 5

1-0 1+1 6/2

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15/3 2*3 21/3 4+4

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(5*5)*4

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in.

small things

sgniht llams

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PERIMTER UNIT: 3-5 PEOPLE SCALE: 1/4” = 1’-0”

CORRIDOR UNIT: 5+ PEOPLE; UPPER LEVEL SCALE: 1/4” = 1’-0”

PERIMTER UNIT: 5+ PEOPLE; LOWER LEVEL SCALE: 1/4” = 1’-0”

CORRIDOR UNIT: 5+ PEOPLE; LOWER LEVEL SCALE: 1/4” = 1’-0”

PERIMTER UNIT: 1 - 2 PEOPLE SCALE: 1/4” = 1’-0” PERIMTER UNIT: 5+ PEOPLE; UPPER LEVEL SCALE: 1/4” = 1’-0”

Core 3

CORRIDOR UNIT: 3-5 PEOPLE SCALE: 1/4” = 1’-0”

CORRIDOR UNIT: 1 - 2 PEOPLE SCALE: 1/4” = 1’-0”

small things

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Advanced 6

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small things

119 sgniht llams

Advanced 5

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small things

121 sgniht llams

Advanced 6

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small things

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Advanced 5

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small things

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Advanced 6

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small things

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Advanced 5

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small things

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Advanced 6

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small things

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Advanced 5

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sgniht llams

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Written Things

Written Things

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sgnihT nettirW

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sgnihT nettirW

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Written Things

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sgnihT nettirW

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Written Things

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UP: Geo Glider

Core 1, Fall 2017 Critic - Ilias Papagiorgiou

Geo Glider is an exploration in the functions of geometries and how they affect the aerodynamics and perfomance of a gliding device.

Situated at the corner of 14th St. and Avenue A, this proto corner failitates a model or changing how the New York corner is understood and articulated.

This device is constructed to use the basics of gliding to fall in a controlled manner that opposes traditional aerodynamics. The device is constructed so that it falls in a straight line along the z axis rather than in the typical arced trajectory.

The assemblage of the device best reflects this end product of a device that uses established principles to operate in a manner that is seemingly contrary.

The corner works as a lens, a stage, a bridge, a translator, a gateway, a medium. It’s bringing together elements that are disjointed and separated at this intersection into a new urban identity.

The corner highlights what it means to be urban through how it is situated and how it touches the site. It highlights what it means to operate in an urban context.

IN: Subway of the Lost and Found Core 1, Fall 2017 Critic - Ilias Papagiorgiou This Subway of The Lost and Found is an exploration into how an architectural gesture can give provide an experience through program and how they influence each other. Occuring on 14th St. between 1st Ave. and Ave. A, this project works to serve as a bridge between the city and the subway, the underground and the sky, the street and the platform.

This project looks at the city, the street, the ground, and the subway as one entity that can be manipulated to create a cohesive understanding of moving around the city and what it means to move between the different zones.

ON: Meander + Float Core 1, Fall 2017 Critic - Ilias Papagiorgiou Meander + Float is an exploration into the diagrammatic qualities of a pier and the ways in which they can be formalized, spatialized, and made occupiable.

The articulations of Meander + Float unpack the fundamental elements of a pier through architectural gestures of point, line, and plane. to define the surface that acts as a field of interaction, and the points that are occupied at the human scale on the surface.

Meander + Float takes the basic gestures, abstracts them, and articulates them into a 3 dimensional construction that allows for the city and the East River to communicate and establish a relationship.

The Library: Proto Building Core 2, Spring 2018 Critic - Emmett Zeifman

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The protobuilding is the materialization of the forms and elements that were discovered in the previous libraries. The protobuilding builds on the architectural ideas of embedding elements, grafting between thresholds, and ways that matter can be suspended within a mass. The protobuilding looks at ways to introduce specificity within a generic body.

The Library, or Double(Triple) Building Core 2, Spring 2018 Critic - Emmett Zeifman This project conceives the modern library as a triple building, two main volumes with a mediator between the two. This library focuses on becoming an audio visual library where material constrution reflect on the experiences that can occur in each respective space. Although the prompt for this project was that of a library, the program is not what’s most important, it was simply a means to an end. The way the “building” is represented and how those means of representation best depict our intent was the true aim of the studio.

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Core 1, Fall 2017 Critic - Ilias Papagiorgiou

ABOVE: Urban Cavity

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Shoot The Gap, or How To Break The Fourth Wall

Core 3, Fall 2018 Critic - Mario Gooden Partnered with So Jin Kim

Advanced 4, Spring 2019 Critic - Amina Blacksher

As a take on the question of housing, this project can be understood as a collage of typology that aims to fuse the public realm of the city with the gradients of privacy that exist within multifamily housing scenarios.

To Shoot the Gap or Break the Fourth Wall is to explore the margins and vacant space within Newburgh as a way to use the city as both the stage and the classroom. This project is seen as an opportunity to facilitate the spatial needs of the Newburgh Performing Arts Academy and their lack of performance space, as well as a prototype for ways to incorporate performance into the domestic block and as a way to leverage performance as a regional bridge.

To house the public within the confines of the block as well as the different number of familial groupings, this project was a test in understanding domestic configurations and the ways spaces and their elements can go beyond the typical designations of bedrooms, amenities, access, gathering, and ownership.

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South Bronx Housing Domesticity, From Private To The Communal

Who says city hall is only good for marriage licenses? or The Civic Depot

PS188 The DIYLand School

“Today was my first day of school here in New York at PS 188. We just move from North Carolina and this place is SO different. I mean… there is a farm floating in the middle.. But we’ll get to that later. ...

You can see the school glow like a snow globe if you pass by at night, because of the farm, and because they throw concerts sometimes.”

- quote from project film narration The studio took on the problem of how to address and intervene in a school that houses students from many backgrounds, over 50% of which happen to be homeless. The DIYLand school is a strategy for turning a contextually and systemically isolated school into an oasis or home for take over and occupation by the people that actively use the building, leaning into the fact that rules must be broken for them to operate in a way most beneficial to the students. The existing school was cut into, and added to, a farm and informal student housing to turn the already long hours of the existing school into a 24 hour system to further the community and wellness efforts the school is able to provide.

Advanced 6, Spring 2020 Critic - David Benjamin

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The studio took on the question of the future of building for a world that will have to construct 13,000 buildings a day while trying to undo the deterioration of the climate through the lens of mass timber.

To address the growing world and having to build for it, The civic depot is a model for smaller, growing cities, this version of the project sited in the city of College Station, Texas, intervenes and expands the city’s civic center, through the introduction and co-habitation of spaces for the production and storage of food, people, material, and energy.

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Advanced 5, Fall 2019 Critic - Oana Stanescu

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A Final Note

These images were made in the time in between studio, or what we like to call winter(or summer) break.

As a way to kill time, investigate things I’m kind of interested in, and tease out what it would mean to produce work for a practice after school, the images take up space in this ____ without wanting to be cared about... here’s hoping they can become something more in the future.

A pdf that still wants to be a book, but reformated for the computer screen. This document, like much of its context is an experiment, a test run, a work in progress (WIP) if you will.

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Who could have guessed our final hoorah would be limited to a page count and file size limit (In 2020, this is a criminal offense.) 3 years compressed into 32megabytes...

Hope you enjoyed reading.

Thanks for the time.

- Eduardo Meneses

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Various images between sections (Renderings with strange figures and settings)

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Fall 2017 - Spring 2020

A “DICTIONARY” AN “ENCYCLOPEDIA” A “HANDBOOK” A “RETROSPECTIVE” A “MONOGRAPH” A “COLLECTION” A “GUIDE” A “MANUSCRIPT” A “*&%$#!”

A “PORT****O”