Mikolaj Wierzbicki Portfolio by mikolaj.wierz

PORTFOLIO MIKOLAJ WIERZBICKI

My name is Mikolaj Wierzbicki, and I am a junior at the University of Illinois studying landscape architecture. My personal journey may have officially begun in choosing my major, so my future career in landscape architecture has seemed pretty recent. However, before college, the interests that led me into landscape architecture started from playing with legos as a kid and making anything I could imagine out of the legos. My love for nature and interest in all forms of it started from camping, hiking, and learning about nature from school or youtube. As a result, I have been continuously learning, trying, and playing with all the skills and knowledge I have learned and putting it into every project. So, progressively, I can improve as a creator, naturalist, designer, artist, urban planner, landscape architect, and person. I hope to create spaces and projects for the future, that change the realtionship people have with their envrionment.

Ethos

Crossing Oceans (p. 4-7)

Dziecko Community Art and Community Center (p. 8-11)

Ecologocial Downtown (p. 12-14)

Chaumont Sur-Loire Garden Competition (p. 15-17)

Alley Re-design (p. 18-20)

Parking Lot Design (p. 21)

Skills (p. 22-24)

Summary

Crossing Oceans Community Park and Center

LocationUrbana, Illinois

YearFall 2022

Goal- The project aimed to create a design that provided a community space for the Orchard Downs neighborhood as plans for future expansion focus on the land south of the community.

Crossing Oceans Design Process

In the space outlined by the Arctic Ocean, the topography was inspired by Maya Lin`s Wavefield as it conveyed the notion of waves and the ocean. So in the design, there is a series of wavy hills that oscillate the land’s topography to create an exciting space for people to interact with and play in.

Using the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans’ outlines, an interesting form was created by having a grass lawn in between the oceans and then having the outlines of the oceans become a space meant for sitting, relaxation, people-watching, and playing.

Using the framework of the Indian Ocean and guided by the ocean theme, it was thought to create a pump track for skaters, bicyclists, and rollerbladers. There is also a basketball and pickleball court added. The programming of this space is mainly aimed at teenagers and older people, as there are activities for both demographics.

The area outlined by the Southern Ocean used the inspiration of a zen garden which has waves in the sand that represent the waves of the ocean. It follows the theme of the ocean to create a tranquil activity space. The zen garden is intended for the older population of the Orchard Downs community to have programming aimed at

After careful site analysis and overlook of the site, the Crossing Oceans Park and Community formed through inspiration firstly brought by Charles Jencks as his creative process of taking an outline of a city gave form to his project. Similarly, I started thinking about the community park’s condition and the community’s diversity in Orchard Downs. How the oceans crossed to get to Urbana could be used to give form to the entirety of the park.

Crossing Oceans Plans and Sections

Section A’-A”

Section B’-B” A’ A” B’ B” 6

East

West

Perspectives in Crossing Oceans Park and Community

Dziecko Community Art Center

Location - Urbana, Illinois

Year- Spring 2022

Goal- Design a outdoor space for a community Art Center using a archetype to guide the form that was developed through research and projects.

Dziecko Community Art Center

The forms and projects of the artist Yuri Suzuki are exceptional; he is an auditory artist from London who has ambitions through his works of art to change the soundscape of the urban environment. So the forms of projects and his intentions inspired the end project.

For this project, an archetype was developed after researching the installation Event of the Thread by Ann Hamilton about the participatory experience supplemented with auditory and tactile stimuli. The best way to represent the archetype through the design process was through instruments because they are both auditory and tactile objects. So looking at forms of public instruments in parks and playgrounds, the tubes children talked through were the most successful at showing the archetype. Artists like Yuri Suzuki and his installations showed how people could interact with each other across a safe distance.

Dziecko Community Art Center

Moving forward with the research into an art installation, I played with the forms of how the park will be organized, and circles brought people to all face each other. Still, with the site’s triangular area, multiple rings of tubes increasing in size from one corner of the triangle to the other fit the space best. The tubes were placed on top of raised platforms, and people would communicate within their circle or to different circles. Still, they would not necessarily know who they were talking to in part of the raised platforms to create more distance in a space that is already constrained. Furthermore, constant sounds of the surrounding environment were placed in the middle of each circle to not directly rely on participants so that if someone were there by themselves, there would be something to interact with at all times.

Dziecko Community Art Center

The Community Art Center was the final project that continued with the archetype of a participatory experience supplemented by tactile and auditory stimuli. The park has a series of tubes connected to the Boneyard Creek natural elements running through the site, wind, and trees and has receiving ends for people to talk into them. The tubes pick up vibrations from each natural element and combine them with the vibrations from people`s voices. Then the vibrations are put into an AI to create an organic flowing symphony that can be heard playing throughout the park.

Ecological Downtown

Location- Urbana, Illinois

Year- Fall 2021

Goal- The downtown of Urbana is looking for space than can tie the identity of the community together, while focusing on ecology.

Ecological Downtown

Concept Models

The concept models are the main concepts that were considered for integration into the design. Ecology and Food were the main concepts that influenced the design, and Art & Music were more directed toward the programs encouraged in the space.

Art and Music Food

Ecology

Ecological Downtown

Image 1 shows a top plan view of the design. Then perspective 2 shows the programable space along the street and the metal retaining walls which would be used as a physical symbol of Boneyard Creek’s past. Perspective 3 shows the northwest of the park to show how the ecology is kept from human contact by creating a lifted grated surface that allows easy drainage and sun to hit the plants, and then the space for solidarity and community gardens.

1 2 3 14

Chaumont-sur-Loire Garden

LocationChaumont-sur-Loire, France

YearFall 2021

Goal- The Chaumont-sur-Loire garden festival had the theme to create the ideal garden.

Chaumont-sur-Loire Garden

The concept for the Chaumont-sur-Loire Garden challenge was to create the ideal garden, and the ideal garden immerses you. These are beginning ideas of the form and elements in the garden using natural processes like salt flats, laminar flow, and bright-colored flowers to influence the final design.

Chaumont-sur-Loire Garden

The final design for the Chaumontsur-Loire garden design is a mesmerizing flower tunnel with bright flowers, garden walls, a water feature, and an infinite mirror salt flat room to create an immersive experience and an ideal garden.

1/8th scale model of the design

Water Feature Infinite Mirror Salt Flat Room Wall Garden

Kaleidescope Flower Tunnel

Alley ReDesign

LocationUniversity of Illinois Campus

YearFall 2021

Goal-

The project is alley between two building on campus, and the aim was to intervene in a space that is underutilized and overlooked.

Pin-up Boards in Enclosure Curved Bench Wall Garden Curved Bench Wall Garden Ramp at 5% Plaza with Tables

Light

Dumpster and Recycling Enclosure Single Pergola Rail Way for Pin-up Boards Tables with Chess Boards Lights on Pergola Movable Tables Recharable

Fixtures Water Retention and Filtration TanksTanks Drain

Alley ReDesign

An alley between David Kinley Hall and the Architecture Building on the University of Illinois campus was analyzed to see what elements and factors were at play in the site. What was identified was constant darkness in the space as the trees and the tight space between buildings created shade throughout the day, and at night inadequate lighting created an unsafe feeling for pedestrians. Also, the area had a lot of interactions between maintenance staff and students. The exchange between staff and students resulted from the dumpsters being placed in the middle of this space and the entrance to the basement.

Alley ReDesign

The perspective faces the Architecture Building, where a double-sided green wall is proposed. The wall is an intervention to create a separation between pedestrians and maintenance.

Pin-up Board’s can be unfolded into “L” shape and create a “room” in the outdoor space for pin-up reviews.

This 3D rendering shows the water retention and filtration tanks taking water from the drain. The drain will collect water from the site and bring it to the tanks to be filtered. Then the water can be used to maintain the wall gardens and any other uses for the site.

This perspective focuses on the central space of the courtyard. It aims to hold multiple programs. For example, architecture students can use pin-up boards during their reviews. There are also tables with embedded chess boards that anyone or the chess club can use.