Phillip MacDougall Portfolio

PHILLIP MACDOUGALL

>ON THE COVER

PUBLIC ISOLATION

Image from an independent study supervised by Martin Bressani in 2010. Public Isolation seeks to represent the effects of network culture on public space.

LOCATION United Nations complex, NYC INTERVENTION UN delegate building TUTOR Sinisha Brdar DURATION six weeks Group studio project, winter semester 2010 Turki Gazzaz

THE UN IS HAVING A BALL

THE UNITED NATIONS DELEGATE BUILDING IN NYC The United Nations is in need of a building that will accommodate all UN delegate members and their respective parties, in order to avoid a fragmentation and hierarchy of consulates sprinkled throughout the city. The idea of ONE building for all delegates on international soil is unquestionably utopic. It therefore requires an architectural language that will embody this utopia within the confines of a real democratic--albeit bureaucratic--institution. Like Ledoux, BoullĂŠe and Fuller, The UN is Having a Ball is the pursuit of a pragmatic utopia.

THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM The UN as ONE governing body (the ideal) and should not operate as a fragmented agency (the real)

THE EQUALITY OF A SPHERE

DEFINING THE DIVIDES The world represented through its different socio-economic and political forces

MONEY 50 billion USD in GDP (purchasing power)

PEOPLE

10,000 people or less

Money

RESOURCES 500 USD per Capita

Military

UN CONTRIBUTION 0.1% contribution to UN bugdet in 2009

Resources

MILITARY 5 billion USD or less

People

BREAKING THE HIERARCHY Are delegates to be given preference based on their military strength?

Their population? Their GDP?

TOTAL

Site Plan

NE-SW Section

THE EQUATOR FLOOR

TYPICAL FLOOR

1. The Forum 2. UN museum 3. Delegate pod 4. Communal delegate space 5. Conference rooms

SECOND FLOOR (PUBLIC ENTRANCE)

FIRST FLOOR (DELEGATE ENTRANCE)

Structure and the Pods All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

George Orwell

View from the public access floor

LOCATION Abuja, Nigeria INTERVENTION community/cultural center TUTOR Sinisha Brdar DURATION four weeks Individual project, winter semester 2010

RE:PUBLIC SPACE

A COMMUNITY CULTURAL CENTER FOR THE PEOPLE OF ABUJA A defining element of monumental architecture is its relationship with the public--built by the people, for the people--to use and admire. With this idea of the monumental in mind, re:public space uses platonic forms to become an easily recognizable and identifiable beacon for the community of Abuja. Rather than attempt to address the cultural sensitivities of a city still the the making, this project uses a more universal language understood by all. In doing so, re:public space becomes an infrastructural machine focused on igniting social intercourse in a city without public space.

SW-NE section

The theatre and auditorium serve as versatile spaces, allowing the community to properly adapt their public programs. The auditorium does not have fixed seating, and can therefore have to the floor cleared to serve as a different space. The theatre can be configured in a proscenium and thrust layout for different performance genres.

Site Plan

North-East facing roofs have openings for light and air circulation. These simple, low-tech concrete structures act as the infrastructure that will irrigate the fields of Abuja with public space.

1 lobby/gallery 2 lecture hall 3 theatre 4 multi-purpose 5 library/cafe 6 kitchen 7 meeting rooms 8 administration 9 w/c 10 theatre support 11 parking access 12 loading docks

13 outdoor theatre

LOCATION Venice, Italy INTERVENTION Urban installation COMPETITION cityvision magazine DURATION eight weeks Venessa Heddle + Maya Shopova, spring 2011

Petrified in your gaze Venice longs for sublimation

In this city, you cannot destroy what you cannot see

THE CLOUD AND THE FOG A PROPOSAL FOR THE CITY OF VENICE

THE CLOUD+THE FOG responds to Venice as a petrified city forced into stasis by foreign expectation for historical authenticity. Venice is a city sensationalized and repressed. It sinks under the weight of its historical past: time is stagnant here. Only people pass. Venice demands a relief from this ossification and a reorientation towards the dynamism it is denied. Venice longs for sublimation.

Sensors recognize SIM cards. When the threshold has been reached, location data activates the Cloud and the Fog

location data + identity

Cellular reception caters well to major tourist destinations, while the more residential island of Giudeca remains void of reception and signal towers.

GeoCoordinates of Flickr photos taken in Venice throughout peak tourist season (May-August) of 2011.

Largest photo density occurs near the Rialto Bridge and Piazza San Marco.

GSM signal tower

cellular reception zone major tourist destinations

Flickr photo taken

THE CLOUD+THE FOG explores the potential of two immaterial forces, one technological and one organic, coupled together for and in defense of the city. The intervention harnesses the ability of the immaterial to intervene in a space without the imposition of program, and catalyzes the potential for spontaneous, hyper-local interventions. Accepting tourism as an inevitability, the cloud + the fog encourages a symbiotic relationship between flows of people, atmosphere and culture, and one that serves the renewal of Venice. The fog, triggered by the technology of cloud architecture is a medium for the expression of contemporary Venetian culture.

The city must be equipped with a method of coping with its repression. We propose the addition of 30mm silicon piping to the existing intricate network of pipes lining the walls of Venice. This system of piping is programmed to locally release fog once an area is overpopulated. Though widespread, the physical intervention is intentionally subtle; the new pipes would contribute an infrastructural layer of detail already ubiquitous to the city. Positioned just above human height, the porous new pipes contain fog brewed in heat-exchanging pumps submerged in the canals. Tapping into the cloud of communication networks, receptors housed on the piping are sensitive to the proximity of people through their SIM cards. The cloud + the fog are grounded in the material through their dependence on flows of people.

Once a crowd clustering surpasses the programmed threshold in a particular area, the fog pumps are activated and the fog released.

The production of fog, which also happens to be a natural occurrence in Venice two months of the year, literally masks the city and protects it from the petrifying gaze of those who come to see ‘the city built on water.’ A canopy of fog obscures sight and releases Venice from the eager stares of visitors, pushing monument into the background and fog into the foreground. The release of fog, however, is not intended to incite an antagonistic relationship between the city and those who walk its streets. Rather than produce alienation and discomfort, the fog provides an opportunity to enfold the visitor and divert their attention to the contemporary and immediate reality of the city. This redirection is an act of sublimation that indicates a creative rechanneling of a city’s repressed identity into the platform for public expression.

Whereas cloud architecture has enabled increased possibility for the individual, the cloud + the fog fosters public interventions. Coupled with the cloud, the fog has the ability to serve the entire city with a flexible platform, and one informed by the presence of people. Free of programming, and free to be programmed, the fog becomes an enabler for a myriad of events. With some imagination and initiative an inclined curious inhabitant could harness the fog as a layer of 3d pixels able to augment light and atmosphere. At a given time, the deliberate flooding of a space triggers a rush of fog providing, for instance, the atmospheric backdrop for a local concert. Meanwhile, in another part of the city a film is screened on the densely coated façade of the always populated Saint Mark’s basilica. The city is ornamented with refracted light and colour. Greenery flourishes in the most public of spaces.

The cloud + the fog seeks to transform the longing of a petrified Venice into creative and mutually beneficial relationships between people, culture and the city.

LOCATION Espoo, Finland INTERVENTION Design School / urban intervention COMPETITION Aalto U Campus 2015 DURATION nine weeks project executed for OOZE in Rotterdam summer 2012 -HONOURABLE MENTION-

OTANIEMI IS US!

A GRASSROOTS UNIVERSITY CAMPUS The Anthropocene is the ecological/geological age of today, recognized best by our significant impact on our ecosystems and biodiversity, and although it is unclear when it began, it is marked by a very different relationship between people and their natural environment.

Although the Anthropocene may appear to be some sort environmental Dark Age, it is in fact an opportunity for positive action and change. We must learn to operate with and within nature, and we can do so if we begin to break the explicit divides which exist between us and nature. Ecosystems have no finite limit, and so when they collide or overlap, they create an ecological space of hyper-productivity. If we willingly begin to include ourselves in this system, we can become active agents within our environments/ ecosystems/economies, and we can therefore be a part of these sustainable spaces of heightened production.

Nature, people, learning coming together

NATURE IN!

OTANIEMI IS US!

SHARING THE PIE!

2 LANDMARKS= 1 MONUMENT+ 1 SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY

FLEXIBLE INHABITATION

WELDING TOGETHER OLD AND NEW

GROWING AROUND THE VOID

FIELD OF INTERACTION

Sustainable: able to be maintained at a certain rate or level.

Sustainable as it has been defined is a systems inherent act or ability to maintain aspects of its function at a defined level for a consistent period of time. This ability to maintain lies at the crux of Nature by design. Every ecosystem has an innate ability to be in harmony with its surrounding life forms in a way that they may co-exist, as one interdependent and interconnected web of activities sustaining a natural balance. NATURE by design is SUSTAINABLE!

Site Plan Otaniemi is Us! embraces nature and allows people who inhabit the site to be in-volved in the ecosystem. This means bringing in all the ingredients necessary for an ecosystem—flora, fauna, people and of course water. But how? If we break the threshold between land and water, the brackish water from Laajalahti Bay—once a polluted water source— will flow into the center of the campus into an existing natural depression. Although this depression is currently an urban void, dominated by streets and parking, this void will become the central space, or the Aukio, of Aalto U and Otaniemi. It is here that people, fields, forests and water come together and take root, and it is from here that the ideas the space fosters will propagate outwards. In the Aukio, water and forests, fields of cultivation and saunas, students and teachers, learning and making, consuming and producing criss and cross to create an experimental breeding ground of heightened educational and ecological production.

Sustainable processes become unsustainable only in the presence of our activities.

Our traditional abilities operate outside the natural equilibrium, because we manipulate the natural processes to support our growth and needs, and as a result, the system becomes unsustainable. The supply and demand system must become sustainable and ecological, and the only way this can happen now is by US. Just as we have been a source and a force of destruction, now we can be a catalyst for life and a sustainable future.

Model photos

Ground floor plan

IN THE SAME WAY THAT THE FINNISH SAUNA ONCE SPARKED GROWTH AS THE FIRST BUILDING ON ONE’S LAND, OTANIEMI IS US! ACTS AS A CATALYST FOR A NEW MODEL/ROLE MODEL OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING. THIS BEGINS BY BRINGING NATURE INTO THE SITE. WHILE MUCH OF THE EXISTING CAMPUS IS COVERED WITH NATURE, THERE IS NO ACTIVE PARTICIPATION BETWEEN IT AND THE USERS.

Learning pods plan

Parking plan (half scale)

NW-SE section

NE-SW section

Inside the School

LOCATION Rosemont, Montreal INTERVENTION Public Library TUTOR Carlos Rueda Plata DURATION eight weeks individual project fall semester 2009

LIBRARY CITY

BIBLIOTEQUE MARC-FAVREAU In the spirit of Constant’s New Babylon (1959-1974) and Jorge Luis Borge’s Library of Babel, library-city investigates the particularities of moving through the utopian spaces, and then attempts to concretize them within the industrial vernacular of Rosemont. New Babylon, the first proposed world city, was understood as an infinite network of sectors for migratory living in pleasure and creativity, and the Library of Babel--a limitless, compartmentalized library sprawling both vertically and horizontally without end--are evocative of poolings and billabongs of movement library-city seeks to achieve.

ground floor

floor 1

1

The ground floor, submerged 1.5 metres below grade houses the front desk, a café accessible from the park and the children’s section with a play space, as well as admin-istrative programming. This somewhat subterranean gesture creates vertical motion before the visitor has even entered the library. A large stairway brings the visitor up into double-height space where access is gained to periodicals and audio-visual media. From the first floor, a circulation shaft moves the visitor up to the second floor, for reference, teen and adult book stacks and reading spaces, and then fi nally to the third fl oor where visitors can use the creative output workshops in a lookout space.

1. Lobby and loans desk 2. View into children’s section 3. Model photos

floor 3

floor 4

3

2

LIBRARY CITY’s form is the result of an intention for experience— changing heights and volumes, which cause dynamic movements emphasize the heterogeneity and methods of motion of the surrounding site. The result can be understood as maze-like urban forms expressed within the building, and also in the park, which circulates around and above library city.

The calculated permeability of the park-promenade creates shortcuts through the site, and invites library city to play an active role in both the private and public aspects of the institution.Library city uses both vertical and horizontal displacement to ulti-mately engage the visitor in process that involves a discovery that can yield some sort of creation. The notion of modularity, articulated in both New Babylon and the Library of Babel, resurfaces in plans and the elevations of library city. The use of a strict structural grid for the purpose of program and form is seen again in materiality—library city is clad with brutalist poured-on-site concrete, using 1x1m concrete forms. In doing so, library city’s scale is skewed, and evokes interpretations of Babel, the infi nite city.

LOCATION Montreal, Canada CLIENT West Island Montessori MATERIALS steel and russian plywood DURATION six weeks

iPAD TABLE

BUILT FOR THE WEST ISLAND MONTESSORI SCHOOL Montessori schools advocate a more progressive and hands-on learning environment. Rather than have their students sitting at their respective desks, all facing the teacher in the front of the class, Montessori Schools opt for more engaging and playful setups. The iPad table uses the multi-directionality of the iPad interface, as well as a more communal sitting arrangment to allow for a new educational interaction for both student and teacher.

THE PROCESS

1. The base after it’s been welded together. The 32x32x32 cm seats were assembled and then all connected together in the center.

2. After the back-rests have been attached to the base, the 32x32 cm desk-tops are added.

3. iPad desk cover (upside-down) after CNCing. These covers will sit over the iPads on the desk-top, securing them. The small cicular holes hold earth magnets which stick to the metal structure, and hold the cover in place.

4. Metal frame complete. Electrical wiring can be passed through the hollow tubing.

5. Plywood is inserted in the framce of the desk-top, and sits flush with the metal. The iPad rests on these wood pieces.

Typical classroom setup-- all desk and chairs face the front of the class

Combine desk and chair

iPAD TABLE

Create a multi-directional seating system

LOCATION Karosta, Latvia INTERVENTION Cultural centre / parking COMPETITION Ghost Town Challenge DURATION seven weeks completed with Maya Shopova

THE RIGID AND THE LIVING A NEW CULTURAL CENTER FOR LIEPAJA’S SUBURB

Karosta is a rigid city. Why? Because throughout the past 100 years the Germans and the Russians used it as a War Port. Why? That’s a big question, but military bases are often isolated, and very efficient and utalitarian in design, and this is why Karosta is a rigid city.

Humans are living. Culture is living. Why? Because culture is the intellectual and creative achievement of humans over time, and humans are living.

73% parking + 27% culture

parking excluded from culture

culture integrated in parking

wind animated facade

roof-top wind park open to public

library with mezzanine

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conference rooms foyer and lecture hall

lobby resto/bar info desk exhibition performance space

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LEGEND Tourist sites Bus + # & line ( , % - *+( .bus - / ( 0stop #&(&'"1 2 . $ 3 % - 4 (lot 5"' Parking 6 7 7 # 1 % * /buildings (+#%,/%-4& Occupied 8 0 . - / " - * / ( + #buildings %,/%-4& Abandoned Karosta

Liepaja

Each ring represents 1 minute at walking speed

Map of Karosta

ground floor

first floor

fourth floor

looking at the foyer entrance on floor 2

sixth floor

seventh floor

West facade elevation

DIURNAL WIND CONDITIONS ON THE SITE

facade detail

win

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facade model

Karosta is a windy city.

Why? Because it is located on the Baltic sea (making it an ideal military port), and coastal cities usually experience a strong sea breeze.

Why? Because the warm air on land rises causing the cooler air above the water to move inland, and that movement is call wind.