LUCCA TOWNSEND
1 - Inhabiting and Interaction: A Study of Isolation and Tectonics 2 - Boylston Gallery: Blurring Site, Art, and Architecture 3 - Chaos to Calm: An Investigation of Barragan’s Gilardi House 4 - Freehand and Personal Work 5 - Work Experience 6 - Curriculum Vitae
INHABITING
&
A STUDY OF ISOLATION AND TECTONICS
INTERACTION:
GOAL 1: Isolation Program:
- Space for a walker, a runner, and two people in coversation - Each need privacy as well as points of interaction
This project was primarily an exploration in the feeling of isolation. I considered different places of isolation and chose four that best suited the program. Each space evokes a type of isolation that inspires contemplation within its context (walking, running, talking).
GOAL 2: Tectonics Making my structure tectonically helped to integrate each space. While fixing one problem in my model, I found that its tectonic nature often served to fix another problem simultaneously.
Notching
Puncturing
DESIGN
The design gives inhabitants privacy as well as opportunities to interact with each other. Each space relates to the others as well as the whole, yet
is distinct in order to be specific to its own function. Repetition of one unit kept the design simple and integrated; changing the unit created differentiation between 1/2� Model
1/4� Model
areas.
1/8� Model
A curve acts as a structural element to hold the form upright. Additionally it works aesthetically to vary light and obscure views.
WALKER: Tunnel Isolation The walking inhabitant travels down a long curving tunnel. Slanted walls form a tall diamond that contains and shapes the walker’s thoughts. There is space for only one person so the inhabitant knows that they are alone in the tunnel. The amount of light entering the tunnel varies to accompany changes in thought. Particularly, nearing the bright terminus might encourage an epiphany.
Columns from above come through the floor like stalactites, giving a signal that there is something above.
RUNNER: Mountaintop Isolation
Isolation experienced on a mountaintop best suited the runner. He or she runs up - and ends on top of a thin steep ridge. At the top, the runner is alone, he or she cannot see any of the other inhabitants (although it might be possible to hear them). 1/2� Model
A curving route and gradual incline inspire the runner to daydream. At the acme, the runner can turn around and view his or her path and achievement. 1/8� Model
CONVERSATION: Cave Isolation
A conversation area mimics the feeling of isolation in a cave. Tectonic walls
allow for glimpses of the
runner as he or she goes by, or of the walker beneath their feet. Inhabitants conversing in this area would have visual control of their surrounding, they would know when another person was within earshot.
1/2� Model
1/8� Model
THRESHOLD: Isolation in a crowd
The transition between all three domains is a pathway through human-sized columns. A person moving through this space is supposed to feel as through they are in a crowd or on a city street.
1/8� Model with 3D Movement Diagram
1/4� Study Model
Isolation Diagrams: Darker areas of charcoal indicate spaces where the feeling of isolation is greater.
WHAT I LEARNED • Be inspired to create spaces based on emotions • How to punch holes in cardboard • The usefulness of a scale figure • Charcoal is a quick and expressive medium
WITH FURTHER INVESTIGATION • Concentrate on the end of the walker and runner’s paths • Rework the transition space • Make this design applicable in the real world
BOYLSTON STREET GALLERY BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN ART, ARCHITECTURE AND SITE
Final Model at 1/8”=1’-0” (Roofs on)
Final Model at 1/8”=1’-0” (Roofs removed)
Robert Smithson
Tara Donovan
John Chamberlain
Map of Broken Glass
Transparent Film
Privet
Visitors circulate the site, descending and emerging from a dream-world... Entering from Boylston Street, visitors
Second they enter the viewing room for
first encounter Chamberlain’s Privet and
Donovan’s Transparent film. The room is
walk along its downward sloping path
at 6 feet below grade, following the slope of the site.
Visitors then descend another 6
Finally, visitors return to ground level to
feet to a room in which Smithson’s
view Broken Glass from benches in the shape
Map of Broken Glass sits atop a
of continents around Atlantis (the broken
skylight
glass forms Atlantis)
BLUR SITE, ART, AND ARCHITECTURE
Donovan’s Transparent Film acts as a window through which to view Chamberlain’s Privet
Chamberlain’s Privet works as a hedge to delineate space and direct circulation
Each piece is used as an architectural Smithson’s Map of Broken Glass is a skylight so that the visitor can view it from below and bask in it’s light.
feature.
Form... Move away from the “white box� gallery Curvilinear forms make edges indistinguishable
MATERIALITY
SITE... Asphalt
SITE... Chain Link
SITE... Model of Materiality
Materials from the site were reused in organically shaped structures. This mimicked the way each art piece transformed an industrial material into fluid and natural shapes.
LIGHT
Each art piece had a degree of transparency and therefore was placed in an optimal orientation to the sun.
Light streams through Donovan’s Transparent Film into its dark curvalinear viewing room. The light would dance across the floor throughout the day and year.
Placing Smithson’s Map of Broken Glass above a skylight gives the viewer a new perspective. The light entering the room through the piece would cause the room to change throughout the day and year.
Chamberlain’s Privet is oriented on a North-South axis. In the morning, benches on the west side are striped with shadow. In the evening, the walkway east of the piece is striped in shadow.
WHAT I LEARNED
• Choosing a material early on can be a challenge • Collage is a useful technique for perspectives • Struggle often leads to a more successful end result • To stand up for my ideas and work to convince others of their value through visual and verbal means
WITH FURTHER INVESTIGATION
• Put more thought into the placement of Chamberlain’s Privet • Try making the model out of plaster, or better yet, asphalt • Research how the structure would actually be built in asphalt (or covered in asphalt with an underlying structure)
CHAOS TO CALM AN INVESTIGATION OF BARRAGAN’S GILARDI HOUSE
THE HOUSE Barragan’s Gilardi House is a refuge from chaotic Mexico City. Inside its magenta walls, inhabitants are transported to walled-in sanctuaries open to the sky and heavens. Calmness envelops inhabitants as they travel deeper into the house. Elongated thresholds exaggerate the transition from chaos to calm, giving inhabitants time between the two. Bright colors combined with streaming rays of sunlight displace inhabitants from the city without removing its vibrancy.
SANCTUARIES
Concept Model: Tangled wire indicates the chaos of the city, cotton represents the calmness of the sanctuaries
Color, light, vertical space, and threshold coalesce in four areas of the Gilardi House. Each is
a sanctuary from the city, within the city; removed from everyday life yet connected to the world.
The Central Courtyard: guarded by high walls, shaded by a jacaranda tree, splashed with pink, yellow, and the blue sky. A long threshold leads to this defining part of the house.
The Private Patio: magenta in the morning, blue in the evening, thick tall walls, adjacent to bedrooms
The Public Patio: Low walls connect to the city, view of the central courtyard
The Pool: A slice of light from the raised roof dances across the blue walls and water.
VERTICAL SPACE
Barragan removes volumes from the city plot to create voids of exterior space. Remaining are exterior walled-in areas that open to the sky. These parts of the house integrate outside and in, reminding the inhabitant of the world around their refuge.
Model of Vertical Space: Cotton stuffing erupts from roofless areas, and is contained by the ceiling in other places.
THRESHOLD
Various threshold types in Barragan’s Gilardi house influence the spaces they both divide and connect. Long thresholds between inside and out blur contrast between the two. Many of the thresholds in the Gilardi house depend on a change in vertical space.
SUNLIGHT AND COLOR
Color seems like it would be the most important feature of this brightly painted house, yet it serves a secondary role. Sunlight and color work together to enhance sanctuaries within the house. Bright solid colors displace the inhabitant from the city without removing the vibrancy of city life. Sunlight changes the way colors appear in the house, reconnecting the inhabitant to the world and a sense of time.
WHAT I LEARNED
• How plaster behaves • Smaller scale diagrams have an innate tendency to be more abstract • Scale figures can aid in placing oneself inside a space • Space is difficult to depict, yet I enjoyed using watercolor and cotton stuffing to illustrate aspects of space • All spaces have a deep relationship to human emotion
WITH FURTHER INVESTIGATION
• I would attempt to understand this house from the viewpoint of a resident, I approached my comprehension more as a long-term guest. • Visit the actual house
CANOE FACILITY A Site Analysis and Design Exploring Existence and Nonexistence
THE SITE
800 feet of sloped land along the Cambridge side of the Charles River. Bounded by the BU bridge to the west, busy Memorial Drive to the North, and an esplanade to the east. A graffiti covered railroad bridge bisects the site.
Riverway
Boston University T Stop
Boston Back Bay
Esplanade that is interrupted at the site
The BU Bridge ove
Stair into Site
My first foray into watercolor, I sketched along two routes to the site. Cold weather forced me to quickly capture the essence of the scene.
ershadows the site
Graffiti on R.R. Bridge, a
Geese remind visitors of the silliness of
mark of the community
animal and human interaction
R.R. and BU Bridges
View from Site
SITE THESIS:
The site makes the visitor and the city feel nonexistent, this in turn makes the city and one’s existence even more palpable. Dense boundaries and a general forgottenness isolate the site from the city. However, architectural elements such as the bridges, and views of downtown remind the visitor of urban surroundings. The river reflects existence, yet the reflection itself is not real. It is as if the visitor watches Boston across and through the Charles. I thought of the site as a throne for an exiled queen.
Model of the River’s reflectivity
Dense thicket at the site
Model of the city (wire) surrounding the site (plastic bag). Made with trash from the site.
Model of various sections through the site
Collage of Site
This concept model of the site inspired a design thesis: to intensify the interplay between existence and nonexistence provided by the river, city, and site characteristics.
DESIGN THESIS:
To create a site installation in which visitors felt strangely nonexistent so that existence could be redefined.
Design Concept Models: Wire represents the connections that make us aware of our existence and the disconnections that make us feel nonexistent. In each, an element aids in the experience of existence and nonexistence. Acrylic casting gel on the left and suspension on the right.
THE DESIGN
• Visitors can enter the site from three entrances: the existing walkways to the east and west (previously interrupted by the site), or from across the Railroad Bridge onto which a pedestrian path has been designed. The site begins to exist as people are welcomed into it, yet its dense boundaries are preserved so that it retains an aura of nonexistence. • Paths directing visitors weave over land and water • A gathering area attaches to the Railroad Bridge and gives views of the city • A canoe storage area is nested into the slope, canoers paddle down a canal before entering the Charles
PATHS
Paths over the water have a grated metal floor and high curving walls so that sky and water are isolated. The city is removed from view and replaced with art from its inhabitants. This surreal experience makes both the person and city feel nonexistence.
“Its pure chaos, claiming a territory that doesn’t belong to you to state your own identity. Its like saying, I’ve got no other way to say I exist.” -Barry McGee on Graffiti
1/8� Model of Path Section
Visitors enter underneath the BU Bridge, the only place in the world where a plane can fly over a car, over a train, over a boat... And now over a pedestrian.
“To soften and blur and finally banish The edges you regret I don’t see, To learn the line I called the horizon Does not exist and sky and water, So long apart, are the same state of being.” -From Monet Refuses the Operation by Lisel Mueller
CANOE STORAGE AREA
1/2� Model of Lockers Canoes hang from columns the size of larger trees on the site. Overhead, layers of semitransparent material filters light like a canopy. Lockers are inside the columns so canoers can leave material possessions behind.
1/8� Model of Canoe Launch
Canoers launch into a curving canal in which sensory elements of the city are blocked. Similar to the experience of the paths, canoers are connected to the sky and water before being exposed to the city. The canal acts as a threshold between land and river.
Sketch model of Canopy
Various canal explorations
GATHERING AREA
Columns are arranged in plan based upon the way watercolor dried on a palette. This gives an arbitrary feeling without disorder.
Columns pierce through a semi-transparent floor shaping space for walkers above and canoers below. Groups of columns become seating and are partially contained by the columns around them. In this area, the surreal experience makes one more aware of the city and their own existence
Early explorations of placement and configuration of the gathering area...
Viewing the city from across the river both connects the visitor to Boston, and emphasizes the disconnection due to the Charles.
Columns piercing through the floor unites gatherers and canoers. Both get a similar forest-like threshold before viewing downtown Boston.
1/8� Final Model of Gathering Area
“Water has the strange power to stimulate the imagination and to make us aware of life’s possibilities.” -Tadao Ando
Each model was built to hold water so that reflectivity on the river and water level could be further understood. Looking back, it may not have been necessary in every model. This model would have been more helpful and interactive if it were holdable.
1/32� Final Site Model
WHAT I LEARNED
• Methods to investigate and understand a site qualitatively and quantitatively • Methods for translating complex ideas into a design • To use the CNC machine, glue wood, and caulk • To express ideas in watercolor • How to design with accessibility in mind
WITH FURTHER INVESTIGATION • Iron out details in the design
• Design at more of a human scale • Further explore how the design both connects and disconnects the visitor • Rethink and redesign the use of water in models
FREEHAND AND OTHER PERSONAL WORK
FILM PHOTOGRAPHY
Abandoned Montreal Factory: Selections from a series
Puglia: Selections from a series
CAKES I spent the weekends of my youth and young adulthood working at a bakery in New York City. I began apprenticing, making whimsical cakes for friends and custom orders.
Vanilla cake with buttercream icing
Chocolate cake with a chocolate Conan decoration
Chocolate cake with a chocolate Conan The Barbarian decoration
TENT
Designed in Rhino
Designed to fold up small and set up into several configurations for different weather conditions.
Tent with rainfly closed for cold, windy and possibly rainy climates
Perfect for the coming apocalypse (This is the roof of the BAC)
No rainfly, doors are rolled up to expose mesh for hot and dry climates
WORK EXPERIENCE
Levenson McDavid Architects (Brooklyn, NY) Cicognani Kalla Architects (Manhattan, NY) Peter Townsend Architect (Manhattan, NY)
ONE SHORE DRIVE
Google Sketchup model of an existing job. Levenson McDavid had me learn the program on my own by drawing this house.
BROOKLYN COHOUSING Manhattan Skyline View Roof Deck
Convenience Stair / Elev. Vestibule Game / Craft Room (ping pong etc...) Common Terrace Solarium / Tea Porch
Harbor View
Adult Lounge Future Green Roof
e
8th
nu Ave
Unit Porches
Solar Hot Water Panels
19th
Stre
et
Prospect Park (8 min. walk)
Common Terrace Children’s Room Multipurpose Great Room Café / Community Kitchen
Green-Wood Park Cemetery View
Future Vegetable Garden
Exterior stairs (connecting 4 levels of outdoor common space)
Total Indoor Common Space: 5,000 S.F. Detached Cellar: Bike Storage, Workshop, Music Room
son McDavid Architects P.C.
BROOKLYN COHOUSING 1901 8th Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215
Work on Brooklyn Cohousing, a multi-family housing space in which occupants live and eat together. The design uses Passive House thermal strategies and a green roof.
Total Outdoor Common Space: 6,000 S.F.
June 21
TREEHOUSE
Reclaimed wood and windows
Plan
View from ceiling platform
Designed for 3 areas of occupation: -Laying down with a view of the water -Sitting on a small bench covered by an overhang -Sitting on ceiling platform
Windows strategically frame views
ONE WHITE STREET REDESIGN
Google Sketchup documentation of changes made to a townhouse in lower Manhattan
UPPER EAST SIDE APARTMENT
Drawings and 3D models for Cicognani Kalla Architects (NYC)
LIGHTING STUDY
Models and Mockups of cove lighting for Cicognani Kalla Architects (NYC)
Model with removable roof shows how light washes walls and hits the floor
Full scale foam core mockups of cove lighting shapes. The client could see what each would look like and choose an option.
HAMPTONS HOUSE
Models for Cicognani Kalla Architects (NYC)
Lucca Townsend Lucca.Townsend@the-bac.edu 646-438-3271 Education: McGill University (Montreal, Quebec) Bachelors of Science in Psychology and Art History Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts (Fontainebleau, France) Summer Architecture Program 2010 Boston Architectural College Candidate for Masters of Architecture
Professional Experience: Cicognani Kalla Architects, PLLC (NYC) 2011-2012 Model-making, Autocad work, Sketchup Levenson McDavid Architects (Brooklyn, NY) 2008-2009 Autocad work, Material research, Sketchup Peter Townsend Architect (NYC) 2008-2013 Sketchup, Construction
Skills: Adobe, Animation Autocad, CNC, Drawing, Model Making, Rhino, Sketchup, Watercolor
Interests: Bicycles, Camping and Hiking, Clothing and Furniture Design, Painting, Poetry, Running, Sketching, Vegetable Cultivation and Local Food