Nicholas Houser Volume 011

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NICHOLAS G. HOUSER

I VLAD-00 II OBLIQUE SLIPPAGE III POST-COLONIAL OBJECT IV QUEER.OBJ V NOMOS VI AGGREGATIVE FIGURE VII ARK VIII REMNANTS

VLAD-00

I

Two follies, both with intent of use as an outdoor rock gym. Crevasses were constructed through a series of digital methods to provide people with different skill levels to each find it challenging in their own way. The series of discrete elements that protrude, create a jungle gym like-cosm, for beginners, all the way to shallow hand holds of the parametric surface for the experienced boulderer.

OBLIQUE SLIPPAGE

II

As a part of the Penn Museum Exhibition, a task was derived from the necessity to house artifacts that seldom see display time. The objective was completed in this particular “cabinet� by only allowing one of the five artifacts to ever be visibly present. Another objective that was presented at the time was the ability to translate digital materiality to the physical world, and through what methods can this be achieved as well as put into question if the inherent properties remained the same.

POST-COLONIAL OBJECT

III

Following the exhibition, as mentioned in the project prior, a concept for an extension of the museum’s archives was also speculated. In this solution, to further combat the ideas of oppressive colonialism, the artifacts were placed in a hermetically sealed environment, or a new territory for only themselves.

This was done as a means to honor the origins of which they came, but also to understand that a true owner of such artifacts can not be determined in present day.

QUEER.OBJ

IV

Working with procedural modeling revealed questions with issues of existence, or becoming. As time passes, the algorithm showcases a state of flux, and at no point what it was before. Through this exploration of this method of form finding, an idea of queerness in data came about. This project aimed to solidify what could not be solid by understanding the reaction between environments, Raw, Cooked, and Synthetic, and the ties of the ancestral objects that came from each. This idea was furthered by tackling an appropriate manner in with such data, when translated to physical matter, should manifest itself.

AGGREGATIVE FIGURE

V

Aggregative figure is a process study regarding the parametric role in the changing of ontologies. Using the seemingly infinite digital library, a pig and a silo were chosen because of their similar topology. It creates the issue of ontological ambiguity, to where as an everyday object could be referred to as the between of two ontologies. Inexplicit objects that can exist at that point and every point in between a set of 2 given data points in the representation of a new figure or form that adheres itself to guidelines that we already understand, thus creating the ontological ambiguity. As the project began to show correlation to one another without resolved connections, discrete elements and a patterning of another digital library element occupied the aggregation of figural ontologies in order to maintain coherence.

NOMOS

VI

3 Tiers of typologies were established using different parameters of a script. The outcome of each typology would contain the same inherent aesthetic quality but yield different forms each time. Through the interfacing of these typologies, a totemic order of differences was established thus resulting in a horizontal hierarchy where one typology does not supersede the next. The meshing of these relationships with one another creates the mereological object that now contains the relationships outputted during the interfacing being simultaneously expressed. Had one of these tiers not existed, the mereological object produced would not represent itself the same way since the totemic order would not produce the same differences.

Thus the Nomos, or law, is born.

ARK

VII

In an effort to speculate on new methods of construction in extraterrestrial environments for OuterSpace 2019, BlankSpace NYC, ARK was concocted to encourage the use of ecological factors when creating spaces to inhabit on other planets, versus bringing building materials from earth, increasing overall payload and material shortage issues. Drills would extract substrate from whichever planet they are deployed on, and through a small mix of solution (yet to be discovered) would then create terrain-exoskeleton structures that could be fitted with air bladders to sustain human life. The terrain-exoskeleton would not only provided the structure for the system, but also fight the elements unique to that planet.

REMNANTS

VIII

In the following pages are many explorations that either went on to influence a project forementioned, or stopped where they visualize themselves on the page.

The common trait between all images is the use of Design through Parameters.

Nicholas Houser Graduate Architecture Student

Profile

Details

Passionate about the relationship between digital procedures and their ability to manifest themselves in the material world.

+1 512-567-1864 nhouser@upenn.edu

Employment History

Skills Rhino

Design Intern at Xmade Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain June 2019 — August 2019

Grasshopper

Designed a series of facades with computational design methods for flagship stores and other commissions.

Keyshot

Design Intern at MFGA, New York City, New York

Vray

May 2018 — August 2018

Heavily involved with design and production process of 2 commissioned Projects

Design Intern at Atelje Sotamaa, Helsinki, Finland

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator

June 2017 — August 2019

Adobe InDesign

One of Three designers working under Kivi Sotamaa in designing innovative recreational experiences

Agisoft

Architectural Intern at O'connell robertson, Austin, Texas

Blender

June 2016 — August 2016

Worked amongst architects, engineers, and c.a.

Education Masters of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Mandelbulb Maya Meshmixer

August 2019 — May 2022

Reality capture

Bachelors of Environmental Design, Texas A&M Univeristy, College-Station, TX

Revit

August 2015 — May 2019

Unreal Engine

Achievements

Adobe After Effects

Built Works Hypersection - Installation in Bryan Texas

Houdini

HyperCube - Interior renovation of VR world in New York City.

Zbrush

Oblique Slippage - Exhibition at the Penn Museum

Processing

Competitions BlackspaceNYC, Outerspace, 2019 • Honorable Mention Bee Breeders, Thermal hot springs guesthouse, 2019 • Honorable Mention Schenk-Woodman, Pop Up, 2020 • Honorable Mention

Works Featured Arcadia 2019 Texas Architect Magazine Antagonismos V5

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