4th-Year Student Portfolio

Selected Works

Nathan Johnson

Nathan Johnson Kennesaw State University, B.ARCH Program + Honors (404) 984-0535 nate.eric.johnson@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-johnson-98783818b/

portfolio contents

Beltline Perimeter Plaza Mixed-Use Urban Complex

Machine Above The Garden Mid-rise Business Tower

The Bubble Center STEM Education and Research Building

Beltline Perimeter Plaza

Featuring site specific, collage-driven design, the Beltline Perimeter Plaza is a new public center that facilitates WORK, LIVE, and PLAY. WIth three distinct programs, the Beltline Perimeter Plaza makes full use of the Atlanta Beltline and (upcoming) Atlanta Light Rail to accomodate pedestrians and long-distance travelers alike. By pushing the built environment to the perimeter of the site, this development creates a new significant public space for the city of Atlanta.

Residential Section

Restaurant Section

1/32”=1’ Scale Massing Model

Southeast View | 3PM

Northwest View | 3PM

Streetview | 3PM

South View | 3PM

The Machine Above The Garden

In his book “The Machine in the Garden,” Leo Marx examines the literary theme of humanity’s yearning for rural life since the advent of the Industrial Revolution. The “Machine” is the usurper of our pastoral dreams. Our site sits on the beltline in Atlanta. The beltline is a good example of an attempt to reclaim the city for the people as human beings. It produces a space for human beings in the absence of cars. This is dissimilar to a sidewalk, which even though it exclusive to humans shares the same space as the cars. This idea is what inspires my design. The design aims to reclaim space for human beings in the midst of metropolis. Sites in Atlanta are occupied by three entities: humans, cars, and buildings. Because I am unable to move the street and the cars that drive on it, in order to make space for humans I need to negotiate with the building. The solution is to remove the building from the site entirely. I accomplish this by suspending the office floors above the site.

Now the “Machine” is the protector, not the oppressor.

West Elevation

Terrace-Level Gallery

South Elevation

Site Beneath the Machine

Typical Floorplan

The culminating work of this studio semester was a single “Heroic Drawing,” in which students were tasked with exploring unconventional mediums to express their projects in a single piece. For The Machine Above the Garden, I opted to create a dual-medium pen and watercolor section drawing. The building is hand-drafted in pen and plant life is painted and to explore the contrast and symbiosis of the built and natural on my site.

The Bubble Center

The Bubble Center’s design is driven by the need to continuously provide safe and exciting environments for students to immerse themselves in. The “Bubble” encapsulates the site in a lightweight ETFE membrane, increasing the effectiveness of on-site water collection, aquaponics, and thermal regulation.

Grasshopper + Kangaroo

Pressure simulation through the Kangaroo plug-in for Grasshopper allowed me to simulate a catenary-like structure for the irregular border the Bubble would have to follow in order to meet both the new building and the previously existing Engineering Center.

Transverse Section

Longitudinal Section

Wall Detail Section

Site Plan

Selected Works

Nathan Johnson