Academic Architecture portfolio

//Portfolio setup() {(NICHOLAS HOUSER){ SELECTED WORKS{ fall 2017; } Initiate;

Nicholas Grant Houser 2113 maidstone cove Round Rock, TX, 78664 AWARDs

512-567-1864 housernick97@tamu.edu

Eagle Scout

EDUCATION - UNDERGRAD -Texas A&M University, College Station, TX Fall 2015- current -Bachelors of Enviormental design, with minor in Product Design

College of architecture dean's list fall 2016, spring 2017 National society of collegiate scholars College of Architecture Honors

-University Honors, current G.P.A. 3.825

EXPERIENCE

InVolvEMENT

Big Thunder Fireworks, Warehouse Floor-man, Bastrop, Texas

Freedom By Design -Senior Designer

May 2015 - July 2015 -Physical Labor -customer relations

O'connell Robertson, Intern, Austin, Texas June 2016 - August 2016,

American Institute of Architecture Students -Member

December 2016-January 2017

-Worked amongst Architects, Engineers, and Construction administration -Developed system of archiving plans in storage -Held Charettes for large highschool project in RRISD AteljĂŠ Sotamaa, Designer, Helsinki, Finland June 2017 - August 2017 -Worked with a multitude of platforms to produce an array of products -Met with clients to refine design -Participated in design meetings with designers from all over Europe

National Society of Collegiate Scholars -Member

sOFTWARE Rhino Maya Grasshopper Sketchup Photoshop Illustrator Indesign Keyshot Vray Blender Mesh Mixer Microsoft Office Processing

INDE

EX ACADEMIC 001 SURVEYING THE CLIP -Transgressing intent // Issey Miyake Headquarters downtown Houston 010 NOMOS -New order // a look into the future of producing inhabitable forms autonomously 011 AUGMENTED DIFFERENCE -To make greater through less // tessellating module 100 HIVE -Community living // work space for the new age of Barcelona

PERSONAL 101 TOTEMIC REDUNDANCY -Parts to whole relation through a series of differences // Italian resort competition 110 ONTOLOGICAL LIBRARY -Taxonomy of improvement // personal pieces that failed to come to fruition 111 DECOMPOSING DECOMPOSITION -Constructing through breaking down // low level autonomy

PROFESSIONAL 1000 LOW POLY PAVILJONKI -World expo Finnish Pavilion // built project

ACADE

EMIC

001

sURVEYING

THE

CLIP

FALL 2016 Professor GABRIEL ESQUIVEL This project began with the familiarization of formal moves that occur within architecture and indexing them to utilize.

It began with several case studies in which a series of hand drafted diagrams were produced. The case study chosen was the Bordeaux House by OMA architects. A translation of the transgressed floor plan produced a bass wood model which became the precedent for a later digital object. The bass wood model dealt with the understanding of a release of the figure through the formal move of a vortex or centralized point regarding centrifugal or centripetal force.

The analog was then translated into digital and referenced the release of the figure on both the exterior and interior. It wasn't until the introduction of a digital tool, the clipping plane, that my object came to existence.

The cut has been a tool of architectural representation since Mesopotamia. The cut is what gives the privilege to the human to view a building in a new light.

The clipping plane provided a series of cuts on the object that would only be possible to design through the use of machine vision. No analog tool can cut away material then replace the material in its original position.

The machine view of the clipping plane categorized this object into the realm of object oriented ontology(OOO) which stripped the human privilege of viewing the object's complexity and gave it to the machine.

MAISON À BORDEUX FLOOR PLAN

RELEASE OF THE FIGURE

001

PLAN TO OBJECT

OBJECT MEETS GROUND

001

SECTION//META

SECTION//AGENT

001

GROUND

II

IV

V

III

001

010

NOMOs SPRING 2017 Professor GABRIEL ESQUIVEL feat. CASEY REHM 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 totemic order of differences can be explained through the misunderstanding of Kinship.

Inherently we believed that kin identified with an animal because it believes it has characteristics of said animal. However, in a totemic order of differences kin identify as an animal because it is not the same as the other kin. For example, the Smith kin identifies as a whale because it is not the Lewis kin that identifies as a wombat because they are not the Smith kin. Introducing another kin, the Gutierrez kin, The Smith kin now identifies as a kangaroo because it is not the Gutierrez or Lewis kin, and the Lewis kin is now a Gorilla and the Gutierrez is now a newt.

The same way these kin interact with one another is the same way our typologies interact with one another on a circumstantial basis of autonomy.

The Horizontal hierarchy is a result of the relationships between the typologies outputted during the interfacing.

The meshing of these relationships with one another creates the mereological object that now has 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.

The mereological object then called for a need to manifest itself in a medium between user and object. We began to speculate on mechanisms that can make the system of totemic relationships accessible to the user.

Understanding that the mereological object called for a new order, Nomos, a series of totemic scalar relationships began to take place. OBJECT <-> NOMOS <-> USER. This Nomos that was applied was a direct output of the pressure each typology began to put on one another, The Nomos agency is to then interpret the space as being both of Object and User.

The Object, Nomos, and User operate under the same ideology as the totemic order that created the object.

This time the relationships that occur between the Object, Nomos, and User are not aesthetic as they were in the creation of the mereological object, rather the roles and agency are the direct output of the interfacing of Object, Nomos, and User.

Each of the three new tiers can begin to interchange between roles where the nomos can become the new user and the user can become the nomos. The nomos can become object and object can become nomos. This can all occur because of the understanding of the Totemic order of Differences.

The system then becomes ontologically complex in which the relationship that occurs between the Object and the User provides agency to the NOMOS, and the NOMOS provides agency to the building and User because they are all simultaneously working within the horizontal hierarchy of the totemic order established.

MACHINE DRUG 001

MACHINE DRUG 010

MACHINE DRUG 011

MANIFEST IMAGE 3 typologies competing with one another.

The mask, the lag, and the residual, each of which contain aesthetic qualities that interface with one another that provide meaning that can only exist when the other is present.

The mask is the most dominant, these are the white spaces. The lag appears to be the trail that the mask took to arrive there, leaving the residual to remain behind as excess or mistakes. It onlyappears residual due to it's lacking of similar agency.

010

WEST-SIDE

ELEVATION

010

SITE PLAN

OBLIQUE RENDER

010

DIVISION 1

DIVISION 2

REFLECTED AXON

010

NOMOS//THE VESSEL

FRONT

SIDE

010

011

AUGMENTED

DIFFERENCE

SPRING 2016 Professor ALIREZA BORHANI Partner BENJAMIN HERGERT This wall enveloping tessellation system is a demonstration of how to produce a low cost efficient building block with almost infinite combinations. These blocks can be arranged in anyway next to one another and still match the cube on all sides.

Each cube contains 6 faces, each face has a possible orientation of 4 ways, thus giving one cube 24 possible orientations viewed from one point. For every cube added to the system the possible ways of arrangement increase exponentially.

2 cubes gives you 576 possible combinations: (24^2) 3 cubes gives you 13,824 possible combinations: (24^3) The example on the left is 9 cubes (24^9) This makes for a total possible combinations to be: 2,641,807,540,224 The system developed is easily cast-able and form-work can be easily created without any undercuts. Since each side will always match with one another, the cubes will need no instruction as to where to place them.

ROTATION

FACE 1

FACE 2

FACE 3

FACE 4

FACE 5

FACE 6

MODULE

011

1/2,641,807,540,224 combinations

3/2,641,807,540,224 combinations

2/2,641,807,540,224 combinations

4/2,641,807,540,224 combinations

ENVELOPE APPLICATION

011

100

HIVE FALL 2017 Professor MIQUEL RODRIGUEZ Barcelona's exponential growth after the Olympics of 92, created many social and economical consequences, good and bad.

The Raval area was a primary target for immigrants due to it's undesirable urban layout as well as the historical context of the area being primarily Industrial, which provided the foundation for places of low rent to exist, attracting people of lower socio economic class.

Because of the cities increase in gentrification of the area in order to reverse these effects, the Hive is designed to promote further gentrification while still adhering to the historical context.

The Hive is a live-workspace for artisans, product designers, etc. This artisinal hub is an extension of the ideology of the Poble Nou's Urban District, offering classes and resources not only to residents but community as well.

The ground floor operates as a market twice a month where residents are required to show their work, ensuring that goods will be produced. The next two floors above the market function as varied studio workspaces ranging from large scale fabrication projects to personal computer graphic work.

The upper 3 floors contain the resident pods, a total of 69 personal pods, all per-fabricated containing a bed, desk, kitchenette, and bathroom. Each pod can operate as an open or closed system regarding the cooling or heating of air.

The nodes that cap the pods cause the heating of air by using solar energy. This air either exits the system creating a vacuum to pull in cool air from the large thermal masses, or can be transferred for heating into the pod itself.

STUDIO

RESIDENT

FUSTA RESIDENT

CONFERENCE

STUDIO

MAÃ&#x201C;

MARKET

100

SECTION//DIVISION

100

EXCHANGE

BREEZEWAY

BREEZEWAY SYSTEM

100

HOUSING POD

SUMMER

WINTER

PASSIVE SYSTEM DETAIL

100

PERs

sONAL

101

TOTEMIC

REDUNDANCY

SUMMER 2017 Partner GABRIEL ESQUIVEL How to build a complex of modern observatory houses in a picturesque medieval fortress? How to create the most refined national reference for the astronomical observation through architecture?

Through the insertion of contemporary totemic objects into an archaic fortress, a new understanding is achieved.

This competition became a further exploration of my academia regarding the misunderstanding of totems. How is a totem, or object, identified?

A totem was thought to be the link of a similarity between two entities, however LĂŠvi-Strauss concluded that "real" totemism was based not on the similarities of the matrilineal and patrilineal types but on their dissimilarities. Such a pattern was clearly expressed in the basic model of the contrasts of the natural with the cultural.

Overlaying this thought into built forms creates a new totemic order of relation. These relations rely on formal characteristics of the objects, as well as spatial and scalar characteristics.

A wall and a floor could be made of the same material however, due to the orientation in a space and the differences between their correlation with gravity, we begin understanding what they are to one another.

A cup and a lamp shade both contain the same familiar shape, however when orientation and scale is applied meaning changes. The materiality of the cup and the lamp shade are secondary and merely follow their application after they identify with one another.

These relations above regard only the objects self identification with one another. When a viewer is introduced, a hierarchy then occurs.

A bowl and a cup are similar, one might be slightly more stout than the other or have more girth, but nonetheless both contain a floor and a wall. Only when a viewer is introduced do the objects become divided.

The viewer can not relate to the bowl or the cup, but the user can relate the bowl to the cup by its spatial relation to one another.

Along this line of thought, a series of my totemic objects are now placed in relation to one another, already containing relationships of their own, in order to increase the complexity of relationships between Object and Object as well as Viewer to Object.

OBLIQUE

FLOOR PLAN//SCHEMATIC

SECTION// ARCHAIC V. CONTEMPORARY

SECTION// REVEAL

CUT

EXTRACT

110

ONTOLOGICAL

LIBRARY

2017

on·tol·o·gy 1. the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being.

2. a set of concepts and categories in a subject area or domain that shows their properties and the relations between them.

This Exhibition is a field of obsolete objects who failed to come to fruition. Ranging from engines to blobs with hands, each with the same question but a different outcome.

This field serves as a work of research as well as an ode to personal growth.

The homogeneous materiality encourages the form to be the focus point.

THE COLLECTION

111

DECOMPOSING

DECOMPOSITION

SUMMER 2017

Perhaps computational data will one day be dissolved by various colonies of rampant A.i. "insects" Here is a speculative look as into how they might make themselves visible in an ontology we can understand.

A low level A.i. script was run over an image registering dark areas versus light areas. The data of this image was then redistributed in moments of a 2D space based off the A.i.'s desire to move towards and away from light and dark spaces.

The results obtained become trails of trash data. When this data is transfered into a 3d space new figures are created.

The image no longer resembles itself other than tonality, but all the data still exist. Much like the decomposition of a picnic by ants. The energy that is consumed by ants still stays within the system but manifest itself as something else.

POST HUMAN

'Still life with Gilt Cup' (1635) Willem Claesz Heda

POST CONTRIVANCE

DECOMPRESSION

PROFES

SSIONAL

1000

LOW

POL Y

PAVILJONKI

SUMMER 2017 ATELJĂ&#x2030; SOTAMAA For the Astana World Expo of 2017.

5 Large low poly objects constructed out of cross laminated timber.

Each object used it's geometry as the primary structure using creases, allowing the removal of columns.

For the exhibition, the external walls of the objects were covered in white as to contrast with the vibrant inner lighting.

"The Finnish pavilion at the Astana World Expo 2017 tells a story about Finland, a country, which is both technologically advanced and close to nature. It communicates a vision for the future where technology and nature are increasingly interdependent, and in harmony with one another. The pavilion is not only an exhibit of sustainable technologies but it is built using a sustainable method from wood using cutting edge design and manufacturing technologies".

-Kivi Sotamaa The renderings that follow were my part in helping visualize the pavilion brought back from Astana to it's Finnish home.

An old boat house used for the storage of boats during winter when the sea froze, had been burnt down and now the area lays barren. Now the Pavilion will reside there commemorating Finland's 100 year anniversary, and displaying an architectural masterpiece.

2

1

PLAN

1

2

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