WORKING PLANS
Advanced Topics in Design
Instructor : Nat Mason
Spring 2023, Module B
Working Plans centers the role of The Plan in architectural design production and representation engaging with strategies of repetition, scale, hierarchy, thickness, and perimeter. Module progression involved with photographic and video exploration of site, analysis of precedent plans, identification of core spacial and design principals therein and translation of principles to specific program and site.
Site: Bluff Street Park in Minneapolis, MN. A small, urban park whose perimiter includes by the 10th Ave bridge (west), the Mississippi River (north), a small but densely treed region (east), a high-density apartment building (south).
Program: Pre-kindergarten school for 45 children inspired by the teachings of Loris Malaguzzi whose ‘pedagogy of relationships’ posits that the school should be a model of the city.
Amsterdam Orphanage
Aldo van Eyck Amsterdam, 1960
Modularity
Taizhou Contemporary Art Museum
Atelier Deshaus
Taizhou, 2020
The Aldo van Eyck Amsterdam orphanage is comprised of 328 modules (approx 3.3 x 3.3 x 3.9 m) arrayed in varied configurations relative to programmatic needs. Modularity provides continuity across program, efficiency in use of spaces and the sense that spaces can be expanded and reconfigured as needed.
Modular Massing
The orphanage is comprised of 328 modules (approx 3.3 x 3.3 x 3.9 m) connected in various configurations relative to programmatic needs. Modularity provides continuity across program, efficiency in use of spaces and the sense that spaces can be expanded and reconfigured as needed.
Relational Space :
Floor levels in the Atelier Deshaus, Taizhou Contemporary Art Museum increment upward in “half-story” intervals disrupting sensibilities related to seperate or distinct floors.
Interconnected Spatial Experience
Levels increment upward in "half-story" intervals disrupting sensibilities related to separate or distinct floors.
Barrel vault structure spans solid/void spaces and extends beyond the envelope transitioning into exterior detail. Lighting and daylighting are directly connected to barrel vault ceiling details creating connection between interior/exterior, spanning interior solid and void spaces.
Barrel vault structure spans solid/void spaces and extends beyond the envelope transitioning into exterior detail. Lighting and daylighting are directly connected to barrel vault ceiling details creating connection between interior/exterior, spanning interior solid and void spaces and defining spaces for stairs/circulation.
Modularity :
MODULARITY
The school is comprised of modules 6' x 6' 4' stacked and combined to meet programmtic needs, accomodate glazing wall openings and estabilsh datum lines. Modularity provides continuity across program, efficiency in use of spaces and the sense that spaces can be utilized and reconfigured to accomodate changing use /needs.
The school is comprised of 6’ x 6’ x 4’ modules stacked and arrayed to meet programmatic needs and establish datum lines. Modularity provides continuity across program, efficiency in used of space and the sense that spaces can be reconfigured to accomodate changing use / needs.
Relational Spatial :
NEST CHILD
ADULT
MULTISENSORALITY
Datum lines expressed through glazing and interiors establish distinct scales at child, adult and sky / nest level. Benches along the perimeter of glazing and classroom nests disrupt vertical hierarchies creating overlap between scales and providing children with opportunities to explore and engage across scales.
Dataum lines expressed through glazing and interiors establish distinct scales at child, adult and sky / nest level. Benches along the permiter of glazings and classroom nests disrupt vertical hierarcies creating overlap between scales providing children with opportunitie to explore and engage across scales.
RELATIONAL SPACE
Barrel vault structure spans interior programmatic zones establishing a cohesive narrative throughout the school. Barrel vaults extend beyond the envelope connecting interior and exterior space and extends spacial relationships beyond the physical boundaries of the building.
The barrel vault structure creates relational spaces by spanning interior programmatic zones and establishing a cohesive narrative throughout the school. Barrel vaults extend beyond the envelope connecting interior and exterior space extending relationships beyond the physical boundries of the building.
SECTONAL PRACTICES
Advanced Topics in Design
Instructor : Jessica Garcia Fritz
Spring 2023, Module A
Sectional practices examines section as a representation device through detailed study of space in three parts : analyzing section, generating section and situating section. Analyzing section superimpose five sections from a sample of significant precedents spanning history encouraging consideration of how material and social conditions interrelate. Generating section specifically considers space and context through construction lines examining how density of construction lines highlight technics related to material and social conditions. Situating section translates and positions findings into program on a specific site.
Compiled material mass remains constant across time, density elongates into square footage spanned. As technologies and time advance, complexity is increasingly redefined in terms of engineering and science: details in ornamentation become intricacies of structural components. relative efforts to encompass and embody complex ideals in material systems remain constant.
Apparatus I : Toy : Deconstruction + Reconstruction
Exploration of Richard Caillois’s mimicry (role play) and the tension between ludus (structured play with explicit rules) and paidia (spontaneous playfulness). Imagination, imitation, and prescribed elements combine to create expotnential possible habitats and inhabitants. Components and connections imply rules through dimensions and materials / dowels and diameters.
PLAY APPARATUS
Advanced Topics in Design
Instructor : Lisa Hsieh; Dzenita Hadziomerovic
Fall 2022
Four part design exploration situated at the juncture of Richard Caillois’ “play” and Giorgio Agamben’s “apparatus.”
PLAY
Is voluntary separate from daily routine, engaged in without pre-determined results occur without a specified agenda outside defies/suspends social rules/norms affirms possibilities of imagined realities
Has four forms competition chance mimicry / role playing vertigo / a sense of altered perception
And two typologies : ludus / structured activities with explicit rules paidia / spontaneous playfulness
APPARATUS
Is : the network established between social systems / elements located in power
Has “concrete strategic function”
And “appears at the intersection of power relations relations of knowledge”
Apparatus II : Mind Expander No. 4 : Viewfinder
Group consideration and iteration of Haus-Rucker-Co’s Mind Expander Chair
I II III which “aims to explore the inner-space, the space inside man, and to discover and develop psychological -physical forces.”
Filtering stimulus through materiality, viewfinder eliminates peripherals creating focused panes of perception. Identical elements isolate a collective sensory experience.
Apparatus III : Box Houses Deconstruction + Reconstruction : Maison à Bordeaux
Part 1 : Simplified 1/2 inch scale model construction and analysis of Maison à Bordeaux as apparatus emblematic of social systems. In form, Maison à Bordeaux redefines perception of spatial access and occupant mechanics. Co-created with Isaac Gunther, Clayton Paquin, Arshi Abu
Part 2 : Divide along 45° angles and reconstruct Maison à Bordeaux as quadrant. Logical space becomes perceptually inaccessible, suspending structural sensibilities and gravitational forces. This abstraction of space sets the stage for progression of play apparatus and becomes the site for client/player in Apparatus IV.
Apparatus IV : Play Apparatus
Analyze Maison à Bordeaux quadrant as site for player / client “climber.” Active player / client verbs define program. Engage “play” and “apparatus” as architectural characters.
Player/Client : existential / spiritual climber
Program : perch, ascent, balance, traverse, anchor
Part 1 : Visual representation of verb program as site.
Models represent abstractions of verb program and enact actions of verbs on behalf of player / client.
Part 2 : Verb program reconstructed in plans of inhabitable spaces.
Player / client reclaims action as climber of stairs connecting spatial experience. Separation from external stimulus as mitigated by material density decreases as client / players increases altitudinal separation from the ground plane from anchor to perch.
INTERIORS : Prototypes : Chairs
Instructor : Thomas Oliphant
Fall 2021
Chairs Exploration of triangulations found in “standard” side chair dimensions. Fabric tensioned in a continuous loop mimics the sharp lines of angled wood. Narrow, chair side planes create an observed perception of precariousness which is relieved by the physical sense of strength established at the junction of fabric settling into steel rod supports when human places trust in object in the act of sitting.
INTERIORS : Prototypes : Trestles
Instructor : Thomas Oliphant
Fall 2021
Design engages directly with the transparency of the glass, drawing the gaze through the sheet surface as though looking through a window. Load bearing components are anchored in the corners and extend across the length of the sheet creating a contained space beneath the glass. Angled elements provide functional triangulation and structural integrity while encouraging the eye to move throughout this contained area.
INTERIORS : Prototypes : Screen
Instructor : Thomas Oliphant
Fall 2021
This project confronts preconceptions regarding functionality and resistance to screening as a purpose. A desire tolayer on features ( add a drawer, add a light, add a [blank] ) ultimately obscured the screen. Moving through these self-imposedobstacles evolved into reexamination of transparency “as though looking through a window” from the Trestle project, exploring useof a traditional paneled screen to describe private contained space and inspire curiosity and interaction across the panel bisected plane.
INTERIORS : Retail Shelving Commission
Wellness Minneapolis, Minneapolis, MN
Oct 2016 ; expanded Aug 2019
Modular and configurable stylized french cleat retail display system. Display boxes create perimeters around and paths between products, encouraging the eye to move around display wall enhancing client interest in and engagement with visually arid and clinical supplements product inventory. Inherent scalability provides continuity throughout clinic reception, waiting area and treatment rooms.
INTERIORS : Ceramics
14” Tray “catch all” - Apr 2021
Set - Tea (4) and Espresso (6) cups - Nov 2020
Seder Plate - April 2016
Process seeks to explicate the natural surface of the clay. Inlaid line detail and color blocking apportion visible planes. Exteriors are sanded after firing aligning texture with simplicity and precision in thrown form.
