Architecture Portfolio

CHRISTOPHER THAI B. ARCH 2021 FIFTH YEAR CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, POMONA

CONTENTS Excavating Music Auditorium

Heavy Wall Scientist Retreat

Nested Glass Housing Project

Perforated Walls Artist Residency

Communal Cooking Culinary School

EXCAVATING MUSIC Auditorium within LA Historic Park

Location: Los Angeles Historic Park, California Term: Spring Quarter 2017 Program: Concert Hall, Cafe, Library Type: Academic Project, Individual Situated between the nearby Chinatown and affluent Buena Vista, Los Angeles Historic Park highlights the importance of water permeability in the LA area. The building’s form serves as an icon that draws attention to the park whilst its program acts as a mediator between the residents of Buena Vista and less affluent Chinatown. The building challenges the usual demographic who visit auditoriums through an outdoor auditoriums that invite everday park-goers. The entire building is sunken into the ground to reduce its scale and impact whilst the concrete cantilever and sloped earthen seats form a series of open air auditoriums. On the second floor a public library opens its doors to passerby and offers sweeping views over Los Angeles Historic Park, drawing the adventurous ever-upward, through the project.

1

1

2

2

3 3

SECOND FLOOR

GROUND FLOOR

1 PATIO 2 LIBRARY 3 COMMUNITY ROOMS

1 AMPITHEATER 2 SCREENING ROOM 3 AUDITORIUM

1 2

TRIPLE HEIGHT ENTRANCE LIBRARY TERRACE

3

SHADED WALKWAY

4

AUDITORIUM A

3

2

1

4

carved from a single mass.

twice unfolded to create the form and earth.

Heavy Wall

Scientist retreat on Mt. Wilson Location: Mt. Wilson, Los Angeles, California Term: Fall Semester 2018 Studio: Office, Temporary Living Space Type: Academic Project, Individual Mt. Wilson Observatory, a couple hundred meters from our site, was a vital observatory during the first half of the 20th century for astronomy. Scientists like Edwin Hubble have used the facilities in the past yet light pollution in Los Angeles today has made continued observations difficult as the observatory lost its past prestige and fell to the wayside.

The program calls for a two bedroom scientist retreat with space for public tours. Polycarbonate walls flood the interior with light as the surrounding trees cast shadows that are imprinted onto the facade; like a living tattoo that moves with the wind, modulating light.

Wall separates public and private Wall connects two volumes Wall divides inside from outside Wall connects outside with inside Wall separates work and play Wall supports backspan for cantilever

RELAXATION WORK WO R

N O I T A RELAX WOOF FIR CE GR

EE

N O I T A X ER LA E T A V I R P N O I T A L

EB DBED

RESTM ROO

LIVING ROOM

CIRCU

N

K

K

2

1

1 OFFICE 2 BATHROOM 3 PUBLIC DECK

3

0 1

3

5

10’

1 1 2

3

1 BEDROOM 2 BATHROOM 3 DAYROOM AND KITCHENETTE

0 1

3

5

10’

PVC Roofing Membrane Shaped Rigid Insulation Plywood Concrete on Metal Decking

2' x 4' Metal Panels

HSS12 x 12 x 1/2

Bolt Connection

Bracing

Light Gauge Metal Stud

W6 x 25

C12 x 30 Insulation

Metal Grate Decking

W12 x 50 Exterior Grade Fiber Glass Board

Nested Glass Housing Project

Location: West Hollywood, Los Angeles Term: Spring Semester 2019 Program: Commercial Space, Residential Units Type: Academic Project, Individual West Hollywood has a large population of young professionals who often feel alientated from their environment. The entire building is lifted off the ground to make room for a market and set a precedent for the nearby developing art gallery in attempt to make the streets of Los Angeles more walkable. Below, people meander between the glass vendors as they are slowly drawn into the heart of the project where a sunlit park lies. The park serves as a quiet meditative space that offers reprieve from the otherwise noisy urban fabric.

Above this market lies the various housing unit types, strategically placed on the same floor to create opportunities for chance encounters between people during different stages in life.

3

9

15

30’

3

9

15

30’

Rendered Detail Section Perspective

Perforated Walls Artist Residency

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Term: Spring Semester 2020 Program: Open Workshop, Exhibition Space Type: Academic Project, Individual Before mass production in the mid 1800s, clothing woven from surrounding materials served as a second skin that directly tied man to his surroundings.

This tangible connection between man and nature has since been lost due to mechanical outsourcing. An artist residency with a weaving workshop and gallery aims to rekindle the respect for the process of weaving.

Building as loom: floor plates are weaved between five structural walls; providing ample daylight from both above and the two adjacent courtyards. The large aperture showcases a person working on a standing loom while the smaller hole allows curious pedestrians to look into and up the vertical exhibit. The small street that is created between the project and its neighbor provides daylight, ventilation, visual relief and continues the urban fabric into the heart of the site. A new space is revealed as pedestrians walk past each wall, from tall and skinny to compressed and wide; promenade is thus created. The seemingly impermeable wall before is now transparent, like a series of ribs or pages in a book, each layer simultaneously hides and reveals.

LOOM STORAGE

WORKSHOP

MINI CAFE

VERTICAL EXHIBIT

1

2

5m GROUND FLOOR

ARTIST RESIDENCE

SITE ARTIST RESIDENCE

VERTICAL LOOM

FIRST FLOOR

SHARED ATELIER

SKETCHING TABLE

LARGE LOOM

SECOND FLOOR

ATELIER

SKETCHING ROOM

KITCHENETTE WASHROOM

STORAGE

WORKSHOP

CAFE

GALLERY

Communal Cooking Culinary School

Location: Litauens Plads, Copenhagen Term: Fall Semester 2019 Program: Cooking School, Cafe Type: Academic Project, Individual Litauens Plads is run down, and although it was recently renovated in 2016 a certain grimey atmosphere lingers. Despite this, the park is extremely popular with locals as many families barbecue and drink on it during the summer. The nearby school and daycare fill the site with children after school as they run around the site while waiting for their parents. The insertion of a culinary school would take precious green space from locals so the decision to sink the project was made very early in the design process.

Freestanding stone walls and an underground culinary school were the two nodes placed on opposing sides and the task of reconciling the two was created.

Where the walls divide, expand, connect, shrink scale, provide privacy, and direct circulation, the underground school gives back to the community, triggers intrigue, creates quiet spaces, shields from the elements, directs attention and focus, isolates and celebrates the individual in relation to food.

The movie, Laputa Castle in the Sky, involves a grand adventure between two young children exploring ancient ruins. The image of children playing and revitalizing a ruin, the corpse of a long forgotten society ruin moved me.

Children have the innate ability to make the best of what is available and the walls boil down what they need to the bare essential: namely a separation between the known and uknown, a call to adventure.

A conceptual sketch based on the ruins as a series of volumes intersecting and emerging from the ground.

One of the biggest motivating images for this project was the light shining on the basil that sat on my desk while I worked. There is something primal and comforting about working with one’s back to a wall, with a bright light shining on greenery in a dimly lit room. I attempted to capture this feeling and respect for food within the culinary school.

EVENING

MORNING

SUN

SHADE

Walls maximize light into the project and encouraged overall flow. They draw people inward, direct others down, divide up the space, and provide a canvas on which the light from the school can shine onto. By revealing only a part an entire world is implied.

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4

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6 2 1 5 3

7

1 COMMUNITY GARDEN 2 CULINARY SCHOOL 3 OVENS AND FRIDGES 4 STORAGE 5 COFFEE STAND 6 OUTDOOR SEATING 7 INDOOR SEATING 8 BATHROOMS 9 FLEXIBLE DINING ROOM 1 3 5m

Courtyards were placed such that each room had a minimum of two light sources. Moveable kitchen islands free up the central space. Promenade through a rhythm of light and dark as green courtyards are placed just out of reach, drawing the curious ever inward.

CHRISTOPHER THAI B. ARCH 2021 CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, POMONA