Nicholas Houser Volume 100

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Nicholas G. Houser

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SPRING 2021

Nicholas G. Houser email: nhouser@upenn.edu

phone: +1 512 567 1864

portfolio: issuu.com/nicholashouser

Education Masters of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA August 2019 - May 2022 Bachelors of Environmental Design with Honors, Texas A&M University, College-Station, TX August 2015 - May 2019 Minor in Product Design, Texas A&M University, College-Station, TX January 2017- May 2019

Design & Professional Experience

Works Featured

Design Intern at A/p Practice, Brooklyn, New York

Acadia 2019

December 2020 - January 2021 -Worked on exhibition in Anchorage Alaska for Petite Post-Human planets

Texas Architect Magazine

Visual Engineer for Pangissimo, Boston, Massachusetts June 2020 - December 2020 -Created visual content for the Simo Speaker and created Phase II kickstarter campaign

Antagonismos Volume 5 Antagonismos Volume 7 Surface Magazine

Design Intern at Brian Deluna Studio, Brooklyn, New York

Pressing Matters 9

May 2020 - August 2020 -Continued development of house for single man in Vale Colorado

Pressing Matters 10

Design Intern at Xmade Barcelona, Barcelona Spain June 2019 - August 2019 -Designed a series of facades utilizing computational design methods for flagship stores and other commissions.

Design Intern at MFGA, New York City, New York May 2018 - August 2018 -Heavily involved with design and production of 2 commissioned projects

Design Intern at Atelje Sotamaa, Helsinki, Finland June 2017 - August 2017 -One of three designers working under Kivi Sotamaa in designing innovative recreational experiences

Architectural Intern at O’connell Robertson, Austin, Texas June 2016 - August 2016, December 2016 - January 2017 -Worked amongst architects, engineers, and c.a. primarily documenting and archiving 50 years of past projects

Built Works Hypersection - Installation in Bryan Texas, With Niccolo Casas

HyperCube - Interior renovation of VR world in New York City Oblique Slippage - Exhibition at Penn Museum

Simo Speaker - Modular portable Surround Sound

Competitions BlankspaceNYC, OuterSpace, 2019 Honorable Mention

Bee Breeders, Thermal Hot Springs Guesthouse, 2019

Skills 3D Modeling Graphics Fabrication

Honorable Mention Rhino 7 + Grasshopper, Maya, Sketchup, Autocad, ZBrush, Mandelbulb, Agisoft, Reality Capture, Houdini, Unreal Engine, Mesh Mixer, Blender, Revit Keyshot 10, V-Ray for Rhino 7, Arnold for Maya, Substance Painter, Substance Alchemist, Quixel Mixer, Adobe Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere, Lightroom Laser Cutting, CNC, 3D printing (Prusa Slicer, Flash Forge, Ultimaker & Makerbot)

References Gabriel Esquivel | Texas A&M University | email: gabe@theoremas.com Mark Foster Gage | MFGA & Yale University | email: gage@mfga.com Maya Alam | A/P practice & Upenn | email: ma@alamprofeta.com Jonas Coersmeier | Upenn | email: coersmeier@gmail.com 002

Schenk-Woodman, Pop Up, 2020 Honorable Mention

Surface Magazine, Covid Relief, 2020 Honorable Mention

Humankind after Covid, Mobile Testing Center, 2020 4th Place

HOK Design Futures, 2021 1st Place

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I NYX II AMALGAMATE III KURGI IV PROFILED

Social Housing & Hyperloop

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Canonical Drawing Hybridizations

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Observation Tower Monument

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Urban-Fabric Profile Misreading

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V POST-COLONIAL OBJECT Penn Museum Extension 022 VI TRELLACED VII MATRYOSHKA KIT

Creating Visual Augmentations

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Epidemic Testing and Housing

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VIII VISUAL INDETERMINACY Seeing Without Objects 036 IX ENIGMA X SCARRED EARTH XI IKEA ANARCHY

Adaptive Reuse Food Market

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Reductive Exaggerations

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Flexible Communal Living

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All work featured has been completed while attending the University of Pennsylvania

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UPENN

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NYX

Social Housing & Hyperloop

FA 2020 CORE: 602, Jonas Coersmeier

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ocusing on conditions of Hyper-density and infrastructure, The New York X, or NYX, is the result of synergy between the desire to create a high rise while defeating the possibility of gentrification as an outcome.

Situated on NYCHA housing, between the Navy yard and BQE, this project dances with the BQE while remaining respectful of current residents in the social housing of 45 N. Elliott place. The outcome creates a central node of transportation to relieve pressure from the constant use of the BQE as well as create a one stop shop before Brooklyn grows and commuting becomes exceedingly more difficult.

By routing multiple forms of transportation through this hub, stacking infrastructure on pre-existing infrastructure, commerce will commence, globally, locally and internally.

The revenue produced will go directly to the current and new residents by paying for utilities as well as property taxes, creating fixed rent for decades. Since the fear of gentrification is incredibly relevant to the addition of high rises and luxury housing, this economic module can slow down the rates of displacement of socioeconomic classes, so as tax rates inevitably increase as Brooklyn grows, this can be avoided. If this economic model is viable, then a series of these can begin being constructed over current NYCHA housing, ultimately slowing the process of gentrification.

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AMALGAMATE Canonical Drawing Hybridizations

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UPENN

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KURGI

Observation Tower Monument

SU 2020 Competition w/Danny Ortega & Anna Lim

ituated on Kurgi Farm in Latvia, the observation tower aims to bring attention to the surrounding landscape of forests, a primary economic source for the sovereign state, as well as the heavy cultural importance it symbolizes in the development of these forests under the Soviet occupation from 1949-1991. In a negotiation between form and materiality, wood harvested from these forests are used as the primary structure as well as CLT based volumes, consisting of planar surfaces, that not only create a space for the visitor to explore, but also create the primary geometric expression, which becomes the vehicle for influencing the glass paneled skin. The skin being transparent in nature, dissolves the presence of the tower as well as mirrors the surroundings, in order to not distract from what is meant to be viewed. The intertwining of these identities not only pay homage to the forests of Latvia and remain respectful, in materiality, to the ecosystem at hand, but also serves as a dedication to the Latvian people for rising to new heights above a corrupt regime and their acceptance to people of other nationalities, in stark contrast to their treatment for the majority of the 20th century.

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POST-COLONIAL OBJECT

Penn Museum Extension

FA 2019 CORE: 501, Maya Alam

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hen considering the Penn Museum extension, a task was derived from the necessity to house artifacts that seldom see display time. The concept for the extension of the museum’s archives circled around the central idea of “Who does it belong to?”. In this solution, to further combat the ideas of oppressive colonialism, the artifacts are placed in a hermetically sealed environment, or a “new territory”, for only themselves to occupy. 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 cannot be determined in present day, only leading to debates ending in little to no proper outcome. Museums have never been seen as attempting to desecrate the artifacts, rather quite the opposite, by receiving intensive restoration and care, however the original owners of these artifacts were very much so violated. An epistemological question of whether these artifacts are extensions of the cultures today or are they themselves their own thing leads to the creation of this extension which favors the latter, by laying them to rest in a respectful geode of their own.

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TRELLACED

Creating Visual Augmentations

SEMINAR: Brian Deluna

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MATRYOSHKA KIT Epidemic Testing and Housing

SU 2020 Competition w/Danny Ortega, Anna Lim, Hadi Kibbi

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rains of thought have emerged that assumes population density is the greatest driver of where a virus is most likely to spread. Correlation with high rates of COVID are more apparent in neighborhoods that are overcrowded, measured at number of persons per bedroom.

Furthermore, studies within New York City have proven that overcrowded neighborhoods are also communities of color –a metric that directly reflects the history of segregation and inequity in urban planning. In short, it is not population density that is responsible for the impact of a virus –it is a segregated and inequitable city that bears the blame. Although the design is non-site specific, this proposal engages one of the most vulnerable places in America, the Bronx of New York City, to resolve issues of social inequity and affordable housing. By introducing the Matryoshka Kit directly into a backyard setting, it is possible to provide more accessible testing and housing to overcrowded neighborhoods. When a Matryoshka Kit is no longer needed as a Care Center, it may be re-purposed into an affordable housing unit and placed onto an open lot, therefore decreasing rates of overcrowding within households, and now providing relief in its secondary use just as it did in its first.

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SEMINAR: Maya Alam

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ENIGMA

Adaptive Re-use Food Market

SP 2021 HOK Design Futures w/Danny Ortega

asked with the incorporation of a Neighborhood Food Market, Maternal Health Clinic, and Cafe staffed by troubled youths, Enigma redefines the meaning of second chances through adpative reuse of the existing building by designing a minimal intervention with maximum impact for the Mill-Creek Neighborhood community. Two large Monoliths are inserted ino the existing edifice, allowing for Frontage space to be created through engagement by the open air neighborhood food market. Rather than creating a traditional frontage space through building mass, this space needed to always be seen as public to promote interaction with the community. Within the nesting of programs, an entanglement of synergy is created through exploration of spatial conditions, uniting all programs to function as one regardless of programmatic identity. The application of movable follies and walls not only allow for picturesque moments to be shared across social media, but also function as a way to create spatial organizations for a multitude of scenarios. Being respectful of the surrounding context and typologies, Enigma remains intentionally obscure while simultaneously having the ability to be outwardly expressive to create a space for the community.

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SCARRED EARTH Understanding impacts through reduction

FREELANCE

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IKEA ANARCHY

Flexible Communal Living

SP 2020 CORE: 502, Eduardo Rega

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hrough the speculation of future politics within the U.S.A., with Philadelphia being the epicenter of such change, the implementation of an Eco-Feminist New Deal, focusing on design for the people and the environment, is taken into consideration. IKEA Anarchy addresses the first stage of implementation, “Initiate through Acupuncture” where the primary goal is to provide a foundation of communal living in pockets of unused space, typically found in sites of contention, across Philadelphia. Here, a series of basic assemblies can be constructed to fit the needs of the surrounding spaces through the use of basic rule sets that yield growth and spatial qualities that can take on programs of: Assembly, Habitats, Gardens, Entertainment, Health care, or anything best suited for the needs of the people.

Since this is only the first stage, it is also utilized as a testing site for various energy generating methods, water collection and purification systems, basic town hall methodologies, and farming with hydroponics so that as the following stages are implemented, the creation of a self sustaining commune of the people is viable, attempting to leave nothing to chance from the testing conducted in the first stage. The proposal intends to generate the strategic mechanisms as a starting point for the self-reparation of the urban tissue

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