The ODE Art Gallery is an exploration into the conditions established between the juxtaposition of organisms (or parts of organisms) and the environment in which they are situated, mirroring the relationship of Russel Wright’s own house to that of the landscape of Manitoga in order to produce a structure which introduces a radical but complementary juxtaposition between new and old. The new gallery at Manitoga will reinvigorate interest in Wright’s life and work and place the Russell Wright Foundation into the emergent unique space occupied by galleries whose exceptional design quality strengthens interest in exhibited work.
The gallery offers an expansion of the existing office space for the Russell Wright foundation as well as including larger exhibition spaces, which would allow the Russell Wright Foundation to expand its operations and scope, hopefully generating more revenue and exposure for the future preservation of Wright’s work more extensive collaboration with other institutions and organisations, such as PennDesign and the current visiting artist’s program.
LOWER FLOOR PLAN
MID FLOOR PLAN
+Fabrication
+Aggregation
+Soft Architecture
Inspired by the sinuos curves and whimsical character embodied in every Russel Wright design, the Marshmapodvilion comes to life. Marshmapods are a proposed biological organsim pushing back against the definition of architecture as static or inaminate.
A fully imagined lifecycle, featuring birth, growth and change over time toward the ultimate maturation into an stable aggregation into a rigidly defined but softly articulated mass. As they do so, they twist, turn, bend and squeeze to emote and imply individual personalities and lives outside their existence as part of a pavilion. They walk by means of rigid members, but their bodies remain soft and malleable to allow a wide range of movement.
Each stage of Marshmapod life comes together in a tumbling, piling, intersecting and intwertwining of bodies which begs inhabitation and engagement; both with the Marshmapod’s tacility, but also their energy as well. The pavilion envelopes one, in a collection of creatures full of life and wonder.
Prospective illustration of a typical adult “Marshmapod” depicting major biological systems contributing to agglomeration logic.
The implications of a fully functioning anatomical model of the Marshmopod is key to the principles on which the aggregation establishes itself, both as structure and organism. In order for the organisms to group and aggregate to form a larger whole, a set of rules and principles governing their interaction must exist. In other words, the system by which the Marshmopodvilion is created is a bottom-up extrapolation of an intrinsic feature - the biological rulesets of each entity inform the final form.
FULLY REALISED “MARSHMAPOD” AGGLOMERATION
Final organization of Marshmapod members creates a whimsical enclosure of soft bodies, simultaneous shelter and comfort.
Models exploring various methods of connection, intersection, shelter and enclosure.
FULL SCALE STRUCTURE
The arrangement of the Marshmapods results in an enclosure that blurs the lines between sculpture and shelter, something that is both object and animate. The material choices allowed a kind of indeterminate interiority, where sightlines appear and disappear, mediated and manipulated by soft bodies actings as enclosing surfaces and occupyable space.
By stretching the ephemeral covering, the “membrane” layer became a screening element, while semidetached ‘Pods allowed users to sit, lay and otherwise rest in the manner they saw fit. The soft mounding and seemingly haphazard placement of the ‘Pods also belied a more rigid understructure of fully attached members, eliciting a playful and questioning engagement by users, a character in line with the whimsical concept of the pavilion.
1:1 Scale mockup of the Marshmapodvilion
Masked Volumes
+IconoGraphic
+Magenta
+Facade versus Interior
Culture and Education go hand in hand in shaping the makeup of society’s landscape, creating Hegel’s nebulous Zeitgeist. This spirit informs the world of the real; the tangible and physical, in one form through our buildings; our primary, secondary and tertiary spaces.
In Masked Volumes, that phenomenon is recognized and actualized by way of a cultural centre which symbolically acknowledges its debt to (and its role in) education and the public sphere.
Utilizing the symbols and icons of education as a means of implicit communication, Volumes modulates its exterior appearance in contrast to its interior experience, creating a dichotomy between the two that invites users to contemplate the literal and metaphorical insterstitial space between and the signifier and the signifiedapproximating the underpinnings of the kinds of performances to which the center plays host. It asks the user to consider the relationships between education, culture and the gaps between each, the factors at play whihch convey direct meaning, and to interrogate their own role in the process of creating and perpetuating that meaning.
Examining and combining ionographic symbols from different vantages through a series of boolean operations introduces ambiguity and possibly deception in the appearance of elements housing the complex’s functions.
DIAGRAMS OF SIGHTLINES AND VIEWPOINTS OF ORGANIZATION
Vistas afforded by the urban fabric inform placement and formal wrapping of programmatic elements within the siteplan.
ELEVATIONS
Laying the various elevations beside one another partially reveals artifice of facade versus function versus opposing views, none quite matchup as would be implied by the other...
Taut Housing
+ Urban Farming
+ Communal Space
+ Public vs. Private
+ Structure
The state of housing in North America is one influenced by a number of complex forces which have driven development into its current paradigm. In some cases, this paradigm has given rise to problematic circumstances. Developers and other primary actors, largely driven by policy and legislation, have attempted to optimize for specific outcomes of said development.
This has lead to anti-social and pseudo segregational practices, like the colloquially termed “poor door”, which only serves to highlight the wealth gaps and inequalities that form the feedback loop which perpetuates the aforementioned status quo.
Taut Housing, as a response to these tense conditions, seeks to explore the ways in which communal space can be utilized and programmed in order to foster connections between users and infuse the urban landscape with a greater sense of community.
MODEL STUDIES
Model explorations establish a formal and theoretical basis to build upon the seed of the idea behind the project; drawing on the motif of defining volume and space through skeins stretched in tension and core elements acting in compression.
STRATEGY DIAGRAMS
Concretizing the concept of the analog model involved a series of strategic operations to mimic the underlying principles which granted its formal characteristics.
Systems within the formed volume allow the structure to enact a series of conditions to allow heightened engagement of users with one another. A central circulation arrangement connects all levels of the living space, with access to embedded community gardens in a corner wing of the building. The circulation path also limitedly connects to the public park space on a raised interior plinth, which sits on a more regular entrance for residents, amenity spaces, and a groundfloor retail space.
1st Floor
Critical and contextual readings of pivotal writings by Jacobs, Gould & Gould and Rybczynski inform the project’s programmatic and organizational underpinnings. The urban environment acts a “chaotic” interplay of systems and localities which combine to create a unique sense of place due to the distinct modalities of operation within the larger framework.
Embracing this multiplicity and interconnectedness on a micro/building-level scale allows for the creation of an a jigsawn piece of the urban fabric, one that seeks to fill select gaps in its immediate environment, leveraging communal space and collective endeavour to knit together its community of users, through the use of a publicly accessible park space, urban gardens and shared work areas to serve their multi-faceted and diverse set of needs, creating the elusive and dwindling “thirs spaces” so lacking in today’s urban environment.
Engine for Santa Monica
+Parametric Design
+Combinatory Urbanism
+Mapping & Research
Engine for Santa Monica arises as a response to an existing call-to-arms by Los Angeles County; to address the current environmental paradigms of the region and seek new modes of sustainable development. The aim of the project involves a total reduction of LA County’s overall footprint through infrastructural-scale interventionvs within its urban centres. The proposed solution is situated within the County’s 20th most populous city, Santa Monica, utilizing the existing airspace above the Interstate 10 Freeway, in effect creating a site “ex nihilo.”
The city was examined under the lens of several mapping operations; seeking to evaluate extant circumstances and incisively address the factors that lead to them. Several prominent threads presented themselves over the course of analysis through the emergence of notable trends in multiple data sets. Paired with municipal directives under the Sustainable City Plan and the Community Energy Independence Initiatitve, responses to
use in renewable energy initiatives.
Waste Mitigation + Energy Generation (1) + (2) Reduction in Tonnage
these trends helped inform design decisions at the macro scale to improve Santa Monica’s already commendable environmental standing. These data sets steered the project towards an solution that could be broken down into strategies under the umbrella of 4 main, interlinked themes: (1) Waste Mitigation + (2) Energy Generation, (3)Water Retention/Reuse + (4) Infrastructural Consolidation.
Analysis of the solar potential for the freeway cap uncovers its viability as a mini solar farm, with the minimum sunlight hours during the Summer + Winter Solstices registering at 10+. Combining this analysis with the programatic, pragmatic and contextual imperatives of the site leads to implementation of a solar park which improves the city’s outdoor recreational areas while simultaneously and sustainably aiding in counteracting its electricity consumption.
Santa Monica disposes of solid waste primarily through removal or transportation to landfill sites, producing increased emissions as a result. The city’s solid waste can be divided into various categories, identifying the potential for
Santa Monica’s energy usage is primarily divided segments defined by its industrial, commercial and institutional sectors, with the remaining percentage dominated by the residential sphere. The freeway cap provides a unique opportunity to utilize aspects of Santa Monica’s climate to offset its environmental impact.
Running parallel to the ongoing analysis of site conditions was the exploration and experimentation with archetypal forms (primitives) generated through manipulation of their individual parameters. This exercise was balanced against the overarching idea of combining a series of self-contained systems.
The juxtaposition and collision of these systems resulted in complex and unpredictable interactions which were then mined for their spatial, organizational and experiential potential in an urbanistic capacity.
PRINCIPLE FORMAL ORGANIZATION
Final organization chosen to act as a guideline for the approach to treatment of the freeway cap.
Guiding principles of the final formal organization give way to a series of interconnected layered systems.
The systems giving rise to these interactions were derived largely from urban conditions themselves, creating a kind of self-referential loop which pushed the “Engine” into a viable intervention, with tangible physical implications for planning and organizing the spaces atop the Freeway Cap.
MIXED-USE SECTION
PUBLIC PARK SECTION
SECTION OF FREEWAY CAP (SOUTH END) | WATER TREATMENT FACILITY
Dewy +Installation +Fabrication
The quaintly nicknamed “Dewy” is an experimental installation designed to combat the ever-growing issue of drought conditions and water scarcity plaguing the Southern California region by proposing a semi-modular, expandable and configurable solution utilizing low-tech, easily reproducible fabrication methods and accessible materials.
Simultaneously, the project seeks to explore the ideas of space and place-making with a nod towards environmental comfort.
SCALE MATERIAL STUDIES
Study models experimenting with texture, viscosity and malleability of poured concrete with minimalist fabric-based formwork.
COMPONENTS OF PROVISIONAL ARRANGEMENT
The component parts of “Dewy” are stacked vertically by material type, and provide adaptable arrangements.
FORMWORK AND FABRICATION PROCESS OF CANOPY SECTION
Formwork and fabrication process of the canopy utilizing fast setting fiber-reinforced concrete
FORMWORK AND FABRICATION PROCESS OF SEATING SECTION
Formwork and fabrication process of the seat utilizing fast setting fiber-reinforced concrete
FORMWORK AND FABRICATION PROCESS OF COLUMNS
Formwork and fabrication process of the columns utilizing pervious concrete of 3 different densities
The final mockup of Dewy as it rests in the CEMEX showroom in the Swiss Canton of Biel. The arrangement also includes a set of arrangeable tiles into which the columnar elements are inserted. The realisation of this mockup is used to demonstrate the feasability of lowtech, atypical construction methods utilizing the speicialised concrete formulations made available by CEMEX for projects of all sizes and scales. It is a testament to the versatility of concrete.
Adjunct House
Residential
Construction
+ Professional Work
Adjunct House proposes a modern addition to a traditional Barbadian family household to accomodate the growth and shift in dynamics from the “nuclear” to the “extended”.
The extension is designed for a young couple who would like to remain close to their parents while maintaining a level of autonomy, calling for a linked interconnected space which can be isolated as needed.
Mini House
+Residential
+Professional Work
Mini House is an incisive intervention on an adverse plot situated in a densely developed, but relatively sparsely populated urban locale. The client’s insistence on simplicity, minimial footprint and a measured, modern aesthetic resulted in a uniquely calibrated solution, implementing heavy use of passive shading and muted formal articulation to produce a comfortable but striking figure which maintains a taut harmony with its surroundings.
Grounded by its core, an open floorplan living/dining/kitchen space (with more private “wings” laid out along its main axis), Steppe House proposes the consummate comfortable living space, with an emphasis on dynamism and flexibility.
Steppe House, an expansive, single-story home nestled in the crook of a new development.
