Michael Webb _ Design Portfolio

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MICHAEL WEBB

Design Portfolio 2024

michael webb

EDUCATION

Southern California Institute of Architecture

M.Arch II

Class of 2023

University Of Cincinnati School Of Architecture and Interior Design

B.S. Architecture

Class of 2020

WORK EXPERIENCE

Camp Martini | 2021

Designed residential and commercial interior and exterior spaces throughout the Flathead Valley in Montana. Projects ranged from furnishing and decorating residences to developing the site layout, interior plans, ADA bathroom design, and FF&E for a campground.

Whitefish Mountain Resort | 2020 | 2021

Served as both a Ski Instructor and Aerial Adventure Park Attendant. Both jobs required strong customer service skills and an ability to relate strongly with people of all ages

INC Architecture & Design | 2018 | 2019

Interned for two semesters on designs for hotels and restaurants in New York City and Nashville, TN. Worked through SD to CD to FF&E on various projects.

Marmol-Radziner | 2018

Participated in a semester long internship at a multidisciplinary firm that focused on high-end residential, hospitality, and retail architecture. I assisted in the development of drawings, editing of renders,and material selection.

EXTRACURRICULAR

Kappe Library | 2022 - 2023

Operated the front desk of the Sci-Arc Library where I helped students find relevant research materials, re-shelved books, and managed the online resources.

Oyler-Wu Collaborative | 2022

Worked on a large-scale physical model for an international competition.

Caracole | 2020

Volunteered for a Non-Profit that provided services and aid to un-housed individuals diagnosed with HIV//AIDS in Cincinnati.

Student Technology Lab | 2020

Instructed students who were unfamiliar with the laser-cutting, 3-D printing, and CNC milling equipment.

PROGRAM SKILLS

Professional | Worked in Revit, Rhino, Autocad, BlueBeam, Excel, and Enscape. Educational | Proficient in Maya, Adobe Suite, C4D, Octane, Redshift, Unreal Engine, Blender, Grasshopper, and Z-Brush.

VISUMENTUM

2021 // Studio

2GBX_Karel Klein

Partner_Shuang Chu 005

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ASCOTT HILLS CENTER

2022 // Vertical Studio

Professors_Marcelyn Gow & Richard Mapes

Partner_Peter Rosa

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ATHANASIA

2022 // Design Development

AS322_Herwig Baumgartner

Partners_Felix R., Kristoff F., Shuang C., Amin M., Fang S., Joy C., Sookie M., & Piyush Panchal

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LAX OBSERVATION DECK

2023 // Vertical Studio

Professor_Dwayne Oyler Partner_Charite Carballo

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BARLOW BATHS

2023 // Thesis Semester

Advisor_William Virgil Partner_NA

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PORTALE

2019 // Internship Semester

Firm_INC NYC

Supervisors_Megan McGing, Tyler Kleck, & Adam Rolston

Michael Webb

INSTRUCTOR

PARTNER // SHUANG CHU SOFTWARE // RHINO, UNREAL ENGINE, ADOBE SUITE

Investigations of Kafka in tandem with AI image exploration of hedge mazes and dioramas superimposed on parliaments and laboratories led us down a path full of turns and niches. In Not-Knowing, Donald Barthelme ponders, “How much of being we haven’t encountered yet” – mazes and winding corridors force more spontaneous encounters than the linear path, and why not embrace this? Does it notbehoove someone to experience more in their dailyroutine? In navigating of something so intrinsically puzzling and disorienting, what can we experience that may have otherwise gone unnoticed - When each turn may bring about an interaction with a coworker, a view unseen, or a solution to another issue that has been fumbling around in the back of your mind. A parliament that can at times be so confounding to yourself, yet astonishing in clarity to those around you - who then can shout down directions and input onhow you may go about solving the issue at hand. Youare amid something that someone else has a clear andexternal view of, as Sylvia Lavin has stated, “but this episode in architecture’s long negotiation between inside and outside more productively demonstrates two unprecedented phenomena: architecture’s establishment of a new intimacy in its engagement with the environment and architectures invention of a human subject understood in psychophysiological rather than platonic or mechanical terms.” The niches developed in section serve as dead-ends in a maze – a place to ponder and reevaluate.

To aid the processional and often bureaucratic nature of the scientific process of discovery, the building creates a labyrinth of passageways and endless possibilities for pensive niches developed through section. However, the central parliament attempts to aid in transparency and opportunity for endless input by creating various viewing points from balconies and terminal segments that onlookers can shout and dictate from.

Artificial Explorations

The studio began with investigations in the utility of AI imaging models. The models used were StyleGan and a direct image blending mode. The Style Gan models [examples above and below] were trained on flower bouquets x microscopes and parliament rooms x hedge mazes. The maze like parliamentary images heavily informed the rest of the design, for the images were then used to blend with traditional plan drawings resulting in the image to the right.

The image to the right was a driving influence behind the processes we developed to create the building and images to follow.

LEFT | Plan drawing of the first floor

GRID ON RIGHT | Sequence of images moving from a small meeting area in the labyrinth to other levels of the laboratory compex

Michael Webb

VERTICAL STUDIO // ACCUMULATIONS INSTRUCTOR // MARCELY GOW & RICHARD MAPES PARTNER //

Continued development of Los Angeles has necessitated a control of water on an unprecedented scale; this control has had to change form throughout the lifetime of the city. Aqueducts, canals, and dams have cut, scarred, and reshaped the Southern California landscape in ways previously unimaginable. Each new piece of infrastructure has left its mark on species endemic to the surrounding areas.

Marking of landscapes has remained a constant throughout the history of California; canals and aqueducts cut and wind through deserts and towns, and interstates create islands of habitats in the cradles of their off-ramps. Each marking creates new opportunities for occupation, expression, and existence. One form of expression present on almost every concrete surface in Los Angeles is that of graffiti and tags. In our proposal, we have focused on the transformation of graffiti from a by-product of human activity to an impetus and guide for movement and observation. Through the use of graffiti across various scales and modes of expression on the site, a visual connection is established throughout while each instance is understood to be individually impactful.

Our proposal for the Ascot Hills Environmental Center aims to reinvigorate the Ascot Hills Park by establishing and facilitating a series of interconnected microclimates that aims to providing new opportunities for visitors to learn and interact with the local flora and fauna. Each one of these microclimates or “snow globes” acts as a container for various ecosystems within itself, maintaining its autonomy while crossing into the extents of others, fostering interaction between and throughout each microclimate. As visitors progress through the site, they move between these “snowglobes” encountering a series of interactive hydrodynamic spaces embedded within the accumulations of forms collected from and imprinted back onto the site.

Site Observations

The hills that comprise the Ascot Hills Park are spotted with remnants of industrial equipment and other forms of human activity. Graffiti covers every inch of human made material, and even etches itself into the bark of trees. The markings served as a major driving force behind the site strategy and architecture of the coming interventions of our design.

We focused the designs by looking at how the markings could inform the materiality and form of the proposed project. The interventions also spoke to the manner of presentation - projection of intent onto form.

Michael Webb

LEFT | Site Plan rendered in Unreal Engine

GRID TO THE RIGHT | Various rendered images showcasing the niche areas of interest. [Top to botoom] 1. New interior of the tanks. 2. Auditorium on the south of the site. 3. Burn areas located throughout the site. 4. The former holding tank now meanat to serve as occupiable space. 5. Re-instated reservoir with water tower. 6. One of many lookout areas surrounding the re-instated reservoir

Michael Webb

Final Projection

TOP LEFT | Photo taked of the model being projected upon. the model is representing the new interior of the holding tank

BOTTOM LEFT | Photo of the model of the holding tank’s proposed exterior conditions. Spaces in image include the reservoir behind the tank, the auditorium and entry in the front of the tank, and channels meant for diverting rivulets of water from the reservoir.

RIGHT | Image taken from final presentation showing the model with the top-down projection and the animated projection of the chunk showing part of the retaining wall and reservoir at it’s highest level.

Michael Webb

AS 322_DES, DEVELOPMENT INSTRUCTOR // H. BAUMGARTNER

PARTNER

Design Development focused on the group development of a project designed the previous semester in a studio. The Project that our group was tasked with developing was originally designed by Kristoff Finke and Felix Reyes.

The work on the drawings, animations, and research had to be allocated throughout the group in a way that all members would be able to contribute equally.

Isolating, cutting, and exploding played major roles in the creation of the drawings and animations for this course.

We began by isolating ‘chunks’ that would be used to explain the larger systems at play throughout the project. The ‘chunks’ we chose were able to show the various material systems on the facade, and the different programatic spaces on the interior of the building. Facade systems varied from brick, terracotta extruded tiles, copper panels, and GFRC cladded appertures.

Cutting of the ‘chunks’ allowed for sections to be developed of both the interior programatic systems and the connections between the wide ranging exterior cladding systems. The section cuts were strategically placed in order to illuminate the most intriguing and clarifying moments of the project.

Exploding allowed for the removal of layers that would typicall obscure the underlying information. The pulling apart of the disparate pieces of information presented in the sections and chunks illuminated the unseen work that would need to take place in order to fully develop the project.

Orientation and Structure

LEFT | Rendering showing the exterior of the building we detailed and developed Design Documents for

TOP RIGHT | Axonometric diagram without rendered textures. a simplified and slightly more plausible variation of the large rendering to the left

BOTTOM FOUR | [Moving clockwise in order from top left to bottom right] 1. parking lot structure and begining of primary core structure. 2. the structuring of th efloor plates. 3. the concrete grotto structure. 4. combination of the grotto, floor plates, and core represented at once.

Michael

Component Studies

TOP LEFT | First isolated Chunk of the building showing brick, GFRC, and copper exterior conditions

MIDDLE LEFT | Second isolated Chunk of the building showing the GFRC, grotto, and copper conditions

BOTTOM LEFT | Third isolated Chunk of the building showing the GFRC, and terracotta paneling conditions

TOP CENTER | Rendered detail of brick support system meeting with the GFRC panel system

MIDDLE CENTER | Axonometric rendering of grotto GFRC panel and planter system

BOTTOM CENTER | Rendering of slumped and extruded terracotta paneling system and support structure

TOP RIGHT | Section detail drawing of the GFRC to brick supporting shelf [rendering to the left]

MIDDLE RIGHT | Planar detail of the grotto paneling system [rendering to the left]

BOTTOM RIGHT | Section detail of the slumped and extruded terracotta paneling and support system [image to the left]

Michael Webb

Details & Sections

TOP LEFT | Rendered section detail of GFRC paneling to glazing condition

BOTTOM LEFT | Rendered section detail of copper paneling system to GFRC paneling system

LEFT | Section drawing showing the cooling purpose of the grotto and the use of chilled beams throughout the rest of the building

This studio was derived from an investigation of the movements and parts of marble run sculptures. Initially we focused on the smaller moments of the sculptures that allowed the marbles to change direction and speed. These moments of velocity were inspected through digital modeling and physical recreation. After the component parts were fully flushed out we moved on to the assembly of dynamic parts.

The studio as a whole had created a library of parts, and each of the groups then chose three to four of the parts to create a larger sculpture in the digital and physical space. The physical sculptures were created through cutting, forming, and soldering wire. The resulting marble run, wire sculpture [shown on the following page] involved a motorized rise, a see-saw switch, a multi-ball tipping arm, and a spiral. The marble run served as a continuous circulatory system once initiated.

The next step was to add mass and solid forms to the marble run. The marbles would run through the system – disappearing in one place and reappearing in another. The forms were focused on interacting with the existing wire sculpture devoid of site context. After creating solids that could stand in the physical space, the model was made with 3D printing various parts before final assembly in tandem with newly formed wire parts.

Finally, we were given a site to arrange our wire and solid model upon. Adjustments were made in order to better resolve the ambulatory movements of individuals throughout the site and the design. The solid and wire model was dissected once a compelling posture was found for the building on the site. The section resulting from the dissection allowed us to further implement internal movements and spatial design.

Circulation Studies

LEFT | An exploded, axonometric drawing showing the tracks and tricks from the initial studies of the marble run.

TOP RIGHT | The first iteration of the marble run. It was intitally designed in Rhino, and it was then constructed via wire bending and soldering.

BOTTOM RIGHT | Masses were then added to and made to interact with the intital 3D Rhino model. The masses were meant to both highlight and conceal moments of the marbles moving through the sculpture.

Michael Webb

Model

The images on these two pages show the final model of the semester. Revealing the section in model form was completted through place the model on two free moving site pieces. Each site was placed on rolers that allowed for free movement.

The model is a mix of 3D printed, CNC milled, and hand cut components.

TOP LEFT | Photo of model showing the top of the exterior escalator

BOTTOM LEFT | Photo of the entire site and building on the site

RIGHT | Photo showing the rail of the new LAX transit train moving through the building

INSTRUCTOR // WILLIAM VIRGIL SOFTWARE // RHINO, ZBRUSH, C4D, REDSHIFT, & ADOBE SUITE

Queer assimilation into mainstream culture has meant a decline in the traditional and perceivably ‘obscene’ queer spaces of bathhouses, dark rooms, and cruising grounds. Queerness has moved away from such spaces as a result of normalization and acceptance in the social context of Los Angeles. The gay bars and clubs that dot the Los Angeles landscape serve one main purpose – the sale of alcohol. Bath houses, dark rooms, and cruising grounds, however, focus on the intangible and nonconsumable – the meaningful action.

Meaningful action, according to Hannah Arendt, is any action where actors participate in acts either meant to serve as a spectacle for those around them or acting in a way meant to escape the gaze of spectators. In this way, queer space exists because of these meaningful actions.

The spaces that have disappeared over time have largely been those that worked to conceal actions from the broader public. Bath Houses sit in a strange duality that places actions of the patrons out of the gaze of broader society, yet they also frame and direct the gaze of the patrons.

Bath houses served as the master bedroom for a community who for years had to secretively carry out sexual practices that the majority of the world had been freely able to exercise in the safety of domestic space. The loss of these spaces, spaces that were so closely tied to the identities and sexual practices of a community, prompts me to question what have we lost from winning?

The guise of acceptance can be deceptive and detrimental as it does not extend to every individual identifying as queer. Wealthier and more “palatable” homosexuals, trans, and queer individuals have been granted varying amounts of acceptance in broader society, but the presumably ‘obscene’ individuals have not been extended the same embrace...

The ‘palatable’ queer individual accommodates the heterosexual social mores of domesticated sex, while the ‘obscene’ individual frequents the spaces of cruising grounds, bath houses, dark rooms, and other broadened sexual spaces that have been a refuge for queer individuals throughout history.

Cruising, the act of seeking out companionship in a covert manner – hidden from the gaze of broader, heterosexual society – has been pulled out of quasi-public spaces by apps such as Grindr and semi re-instated by sites such as Sniffies: a site that enables users to find active cruising grounds, dark rooms, and spaces

Michael Webb

of meaningful action.

While the digital may enable queer meaningful action and sexual practice, it separates it from its historic architectural precedents. Precedents that have ultimately been shunned as garish and obscene. The digital concealment of queer cruising and sex has made

it so that spaces solely dedicated to meaningful action are no longer necessary. For past generations of queer individuals, spaces of appearance and concealment played a pivotal role in the curating of sexual and social interactions.

Physical Presence

Prior to reliance on technology, queer and club spaces relied on the banal and miraculous to create a series of fortuitous intersections of occupiable space.

Coincidentally, the normalization of queerness has negated the need for physical places where queer people had to go to define themselves.

In order to semireinstate these physical places so closely tied with queer and homosexual identity, I have designed a bath house set within bungalows that formerly housed both ailing Tuberculosis patients and HIV hospice patients. Morphing these institutional and domestic places into a bath house that serves as a cruising ground required interventions and manipulations that would facilitate aforementioned practices.

Queer space is space of meaningful action. The interventions proposed by this design aid in the implementation of meaningful actions of the patrons in order to revitalize queer space in this new era. What have we lost from winning, and where would we go if we start losing? We have lost space from winning, but through this proposal we hope to reclaim and regain these moments.

LEFT | Image of the final presentation showing full scale model of the lockers shown in renderings, transformable benches, 3D vignette models, and flipping renderings.

TOP RIGHT | Photo of vignette models

BOTTOM RIGHT | Photo of vignette model showing the pool area

ABOVE | Pools are integral to the bath house as a center point. Scattered throughout the design are a pool for cold plunges, a hot tub, and a larger pool dedicated to socializing.

RIGHT | Vignette model of the pool and poolside area - poolside area sits on a hypocaust

ABOVE | The steam room, with its thick air and dim, directional lighting, conceals the movements and gestures of the patrons. This space differs from the locker room in its constant of lighting quality and visibility. The curving walls offer spaces for repose and observation. Space cannot be observed in one glance – allowing for meaningful actions to occur in the periphery and throughout the room.

LEFT | Vignette model of the steam room with another seataing area on a hypocaust

ABOVE | The Locker Room - The space is one that is in constant flux: the shower curtains open and close, the lockers convert to and from lounge space to isolated space, and the air conceals and reveals patrons as it fills and empties with steam from the showers. The changing atmosphere enables varying levels of visibility and concealment.

RIGHT | Vignette model of the locker room

ABOVE | The fire pit operates as an area for gathering in reprieve. It is mainly social and has areas that are meant to tighten the distance between patrons. Navigating the area surrounding it may be slightly more difficult due to the uneven floor and seating, but this same design enables more intimate moments between individuals.

LEFT | Vignette model of the fire pit area

I had the luck of designing with the amazing team at INC NYC on this restaurant in Chelsea. The drive behind the restaurant was Italian Mid-Century design forms and materials. The restaurant, its chef/ owner, and mission inspired us to create a number of custom pieces of seating, millwork, and various other pieces of furniture.

The bar forms were created in Revit through isolating forms and elements from the designs of Gio Ponti. Multiple rounds of manual sketching and digital revising were required to create the final bar design in tandem with coordinating with a bar consultant in order to finalize placement and selection of equipment in the bar.

The bar served as a base point for the rest of the furnishings and pieces of millwork found throughout the rest of the restaurant. Banquets were also designed specifically to fit the extruded geometric motifs present within Gio Ponti’s work, and were finished with leather and mohair.

The main dining room was oriented to highlight the golden wall that contained a window into the kitchen - a way to further immerse the patron in the experience.

I had the opportunity to see the design go through schematic design, construction documentation, and FF&E. The renderings of the space were the last things I had worked on before returning to class. Once construction had finished, the final photos from the install were shared with me.

CUSTOM FURNITURE

LEFT | End of banquette closes to the front of the restaurant

TOP RIGHT | End of banquette closest to the window into the kitchen

MIDDLE RIGHT | Example of drawings made for the furniture maker

BOTTOM RIGHT | image of the smaller of the two banquettes

Michael

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Michael Webb

FINAL INSTALL

GRID TO THE LEFT | Imaages of the final installation and set up of the restaurant. the collection of images is meant to impart a sense of the restaurant as a whole from material selection, lighting, furniture design, and beyond

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RIGHT

Image of the exterior of the resaurant - looking into the main dining area with kithen window in far back of the restaurant.