architecture
design portfolio
MARK RANDALL MILLER
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“ The task of architecture is to make visible how the world touches us.
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Maurice Merleau-Ponty
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As a designer I strive to make visible the process of people. How they think, how they interact and how they function from both a psychological and physical standpoint. Understanding this intricate process is an ongoing education which excites me and drives the architecture I create. When space becomes place with the introduction of user and interaction, architecture comes alive and the opportunities are endless. Designing with this philosophy demands the definition of space around process, user, and site, a universal ideology.
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CONTENTS pleating the urban fabric architectonics of grief exhibition of intellect culture of urbanism phenomenology of memory: the new world trade center photography \7
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pleating the urban fabric
SOHO, NEW YORK
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UNDERGRADUATE STUDIO III By taking the practical and applied knowledge of two separate design fields with the intention of combining them, one is able to transform their distinctive theories into a practice which parallels each other. It is often plain to see the direct correlation between architecture and fashion design practices. When utilizing commonalities such as proportion, structure and tectonic processes, such as folding, pleating and gathering, architecture and fashion are the fields most directly affecting the daily lives of people. Fashion and architecture are two fields which strive to be recognized on an individual basis. Specifically, in this case, collaborative efforts create the opportunity to combine icons on a corner lot in SoHo.
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noun
PLEAT
To create structure within a fabric by folding excess fabric over itself, doubling the thickness, and proceeding to fasten the fold with a stitch. Used to create directionality, volume, and skin.
CONCEPT Human structure and form is praised and considered a perfect geometry. Jessica Davison’s collection becomes a secondary structure which is directly applied to the human structure. This special skin is used to adorn the pre-existing human structure and skin, in a shell like manner. When analyzing the urban fabric of SoHo, one comes to understand that the people of SoHo are so much a part of that fabric, along with the architectural precedents and built environment. By applying the concept of the pleat to the SoHo district, I proposed to gather the urban fabric of SoHo, in order to create directionality which will ultimately regulate the volumes of people within the fabric of New York City, specifically SoHo into the Jessica Davison Flagship Store. This ‘pleated fabric’ will define the city block in a way that will attract and direct visitors into the store. In fashion, a pleat acts as a solid plate but as it separates, one can see the volume behind it, influencing my structural system with the incorporation of the double structural system with the basis of what we are accustomed to in human structure, versus fashionable structure we apply to ourselves. With the purpose of fashion clearly stated, it is at this point one can begin to understand the site and context as a design element, as an urban fabric that can be pleated.
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PARTI
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SKETCH PROCESS
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STREET PLEAT
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architectonics of grief
TONGUE POINT, OREGON
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UNDERGRADUATE STUDIO I This exploration had its roots in a single object of our choice. Upon selection of an object representing loss and grief, I began struggling with how to represent the process of grieving and remembrance. The resulting architecture was much about one’s journey and path, one’s realization and rehabilitation and about capturing emotion in an architectural sense.
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PROCESS OF GRIEF
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SHOCK
DISBELIEF REGRET CONNECTION CELEBRATION REALIZATION
DESPARATION
CONFIDENCE
REMEMBRANCE
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Translating the process of grieving into a tangible reality of architecture began with the identification of stages. Once identified, architecture was manipulated to inform the user of the process throughout the journey while using the building.
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exhibition of intellect with krista williams (interior design)
ORLANDO, FLORIDA
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UNDERGRADUATE STUDIO VI A modern art museum with an eye to the future. Combining art education and professional exhibition, the Modern Museum for the Intellectual and Physical Study of Art, or MMIPSA, strives to challenge the typical idea of art museums. As user and art combine, circulation becomes exhibition of people and their intellectual nature through the use of a ramp circulation system which displays people as they moved through the museum.
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EXPOSING ART PROCESS WITH TRANSLUCENT STUDIO \ 29
ENTRY COURTYARD
Modern Museum of Intellectual and Physical Study of Art
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SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Lantern-like circulatory system, highlighting user movement and exhibition.
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culture of urbanism with maria valdes (architecture)
ORLANDO, FLORIDA
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UNDERGRADUATE STUDIO V The objective was to develop 214 acres of land in central Florida along Interstate 4. Mostly, the client wanted commercial and retail development with a possible art-based collegiate campus. Beginning with a completely desolate plot of acreage, we questioned what is urbanism? The result was a city that, like any true urban environment, developed and aged progressively over time through appropriate phasing. Each phase of this development is self-sustaining but grows in complexity as each phase is added. Combining collegiate campus, several urban parks and plazas, and several varying neighbor hoods, this development creates a delicate equilibrium and dynamic living environment.
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Parks
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PHASING, DENSITY, CIRCULATION
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THE PLAZA A space to serve as impetus for public interaction and a secondary circulatory spine. Mixed use and residential empty into the plaza along the East and West edges for activation. Civic buildings anchor the North and South periphery to encourage circulation.
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63’
10’
63’
12’
elevated sidewalk
public plaza
active greenway
public plaza
elevated sidewalk
URBAN PARK A space for relaxation. Mostly tree-lined, the Urban Park is a local park for the mid-rise residential development around it. High-end mixed use define this area as sophisticated and the park program reflects that with art exhibition and dining.
12’ sidewalk
10’
370’
10’
sidewalk
central green
sidewalk
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sidewalk
18’
18’
two lane two-way street
two lane two-way street
THE PLAZA
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URBAN PARK
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06 phenomenology of memory: the new world trade center
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
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GRADUATE THESIS
Architecture thesis design and neuroscience that the user will be subtly informed and channeled
are married through intense focus of a specific facet of
by the architecture and landscape, thus transcending
human psychology; the phenomenology of memory.
the psyche’s previous interpretation of phenomenon.
Because memory is considered phenomenal,
Familiar aspects, such as the urban environment
this approach lends itself greatly to the further
and social interaction coupled with an inward
consideration that memory is a psychological device,
understanding of one’s own reality, users are pressed
subconsciously constructed and utilized by the mind
through the mold that is the architecture, resulting
to describe and rationalize everyday phenomenon
in a reverse engineering of memory.
in order to structure the mental landscape, giving meaning to the physical landscape.
Application of this theory serves as impetus
for the informed design of the reconstitution of the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. As a user is subjected to an environment or a phenomenon within that environment, he experiences ‘mental friction.’ The reaction, both physical and mental, produces a pattern of thought or image. Because every phenomenon is experienced in juxtaposition to our existing memory structures, any new phenomenon that is experienced is perceived based on continuity, resulting in an image of reality created by our psyches. Despite our psyche’s struggle to keep our perception of phenomenon in a relative state of continuity, new encounters with this ‘mental friction’ will ultimately alter previous memories, engendering an altered state of reality. It is the purpose of architecture to imply friction on the psyche. The architecture at the WTC must provide a framework, which is studded with cues and references that subject the user to the process of ‘experiencing affect.’ Understanding and applying this ‘friction’ to a body in space suggests 44
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URBAN CONCEPT
While the original World Trade
To reconnect the urban fabric of
Center master plan disregarded the
lower Manhattan, and to accentuate
urban fabric of lower Manhattan, it
a sense of ‘urban
did align the Twin Towers with the
axis of the new urban plan was
true north/south axis. In order to
shifted, to address the hook-
pin the edge of the Hudson River at
like turn of West Broadway,
its completion in 1973, the towers
directing
became monumental and created the
directly into the site, introducing
definitive edge of lower Manhattan.
them to the overall experience.
and
friction,’ the
funneling
users
URBAN CANYON The juxtaposition of the north/ south axis and the vernacular axis of West Broadway created an implied friction and a fraying. A scar of sorts, this process culminated in a unique experience; The Urban Canyon. This condition offers users a ceremonial path down through layers of history into the south pool. 46
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URBAN CONNECTION
In a dense urban environment, the site has the opportunity for a series of view corridors and view blockers. The corridors allow for select views inward which introvert the site.
The World Financial
Center, to the west is a strong view blocker, completely cutting off views to the Hudson shoreline.
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Large screens mark entry to the site. As footage is captured from the beacon tower on the southern edge of the site, it is archived and broadcasted on a series of screens at the north entry of the site, digitally reconnecting the city to the Hudson River and digitally extroverting users within the site.
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SOUTH POOL MEDITATION ISLAND
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MEMORIAL PLAZA
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URBAN DEPOSITORY
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URBAN MEMORIAL
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06 photography
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THE GUGGENHEIM New York, New York
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2009
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MACBA Barcelona, Spain
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2010
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LONDON EYE London, England
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2010
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EIFFEL TOWER Paris, France
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2010
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MARK RANDALL MILLER 24 East Liberty #64 Savannah, Georgia 31401 phone •14144291879 markrandallmiller@me.com