Architecture Portfolio 2014

Robert Noll portfolio

visual training - collage - 2011

My education and career started with the study of mathematics. To me, mathematics is a language for understanding and interpreting the world. More than theorems and formulas, studying mathematics has provided me a framework for approaching problems thoughtfully and systematically, balancing the need for rigor and logic with a creative spirit.

In a similar way, I believe architecture is about balance - between logic and intuition, between idealism and realism, between a personal aesthetic and the needs of a client and their community. In my course of study, I have tried to maintain balance and flexibility. In addition to architectural design, this portfolio contains other components of my education: photography, furniture design, visual training. Each is included because it represents what I hope is the beginning of a lifetime of exploration of architecture, design, and other disciplines that impact the way in which we interact with the world around us.

The work included in this portfolio represents three years of study in the Master of Architecture Program at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Merit Conservatory of Music, Chicago Structurally Determinate Project - 2012

The concept for this project was based in three components. First is the mission of the existing Merit School of Music. Merit sends its teachers out to schools around Chicago, and also brings students from across Chicago on to its campus for education and performance. Throughout the day, different users of move in and through the building creating an ebb and flow of usage that has the Merit building at its core. The third component is the program of the building. Different aspects of the program have different needs in terms of enclosure and openness, transparency and opacity. Building users flow through out these different areas during the day.

Taken together, these elements form the conceptual basis for the building, specifically the idea that the building should represent the idea that the program of the Merit school extends beyond the walls of the school building and into the city. Through music, it simultaneously reaches out into the community and draws the community into the building.

The plan is arranged radially around an internal atrium. The focal point of the atrium space is the auditorium, and the boundary between the two spaces is allowed to blur. Combined with the democratic arrangement of the seating area, this emphasizes the performance unifying element that both draws people in to the building and reaches out to the community.

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The Merit Conservatory of Music

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visual training - material studies - 2012

International Border Crossing at Grand Portage, MN Comprehensive Building Project - 2013

The concept for this project is rooted in a core American ideal: e pluribus unum – out of many, one. A border crossing station makes an important symbolic first impression on visitors to the United States, and so I sought to create a building form that reflects that ideal. Passing through the building, both its exterior and interior, one realizes that while it appears to be composed of many units, it is indeed one building. The form also responds to the picturesque natural context of northern Minnesota, providing views and taking advantage of passive heating and cooling strategies.

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CANADA

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visual training - material studies - 2012

Digital Photography My study of photography had two focuses. The first was using photography as a framework for understanding architecture – using photography as a medium for developing an architectural narrative based on the qualities of a space: adjacencies, inhabitation, action, light, and form.

The second focus was using photography as a medium for personal expression and exploration. Represented below are images from a photographic installation related to dreams and insomnia

Furniture Design A quick survey of any grocery store shows the extent to which global products are often at our finger tips – coffee from Kenya, apples from Chile, wine from Italy. At the same time, there is a growing movement towards supporting local products – locally grown food, local artists and craftsman, locally owned businesses. Both global and local economies have their merits, and to responsibly enjoy the benefits of both, a balance must be struck.

Conceptually,

this

lamp

embodies

the balance between local and global products both symbolically and literally.

The local element is red oak wood from Reed-Kepler Park in West Chicago. The global element is the Mini Maglite flashlight, an internationally available product.

Functionally, the lamp references West Chicago’s railroad heritage by imitating historical train lanterns which could be removed and used by the conductor as a spot light or affixed to the body of the train.

Retooling Metropolis Fall 2013 - Spring 2014

Retooling Metropolis is a design studio based on exploring the potential impact of personal fabrication and the do-it-yourself movement on the future direction of architecture. A key metaphor to the work of this studio is the idea that the personal dwelling is the pixel in the larger image of the metropolis. In light of current trends in fabrication, cities of the future may be shaped more by the collective decisions of many individuals than by the work of any one designer.

As an introduction to hacking, DIY electronics, robotic tools, and the skills necessary for those activities, we disassembled inkjet printers with the ultimate goal of reassembling and repurposing them in some way. The level of design behind these mass-produced printers was obvious in the careful and spatially economical way the parts fit together, but after a few hours under the attention of an amateur with a screwdriver, the printer came to resemble the image on the left: not quite a completely nonsensical mess, but rather a collection of discrete parts, each with function to itself and a place within a larger constellation of parts.

After deconstructing and modifying tools, we turned to tool construction. We live in a unique moment in time in terms of tools and fabrication. Over the last several decades, 3D printing, laser cutting, CNC milling and related technologies have narrowed the gap between intent and object. But for the first time in their short history, these technologies are priced and sized to be used by the average consumer. Combined with a burgeoning online community of hackers and makers, this means that the average consumer has unprecedented ability to modify their physical environment.

To investigate the impact of this, we built a tool of our own – a computer controlled hot wire foam cutting machine. Our design was based on the Shapeoko – CNC mill that was designed in a Dixon, IL garage, funded by Kickstarter, and is now widely available and a popular tool among the DIY community. In addition to designing and constructing a fully functional robot, we created a script that collects ambient noise from the environment and manipulates it into a form that the machine can cut.

Input

Record

Process

Cut

Output

Work on these pages was completed in collaboration with a fellow student, Wes Kohn.

In the second semester of work, we turned to an examination of the potential ability of a user to modify their environment by the application of surface effects. To do that, we designed a vertical plotting machine that can be applied to various surfaces. V-plotters have a long history in the DIY community, and our design builds on a substantial body of existing work. This established tradition is one of the reasons that we chose to make it the subject of our investigation for this semester. Additionally, V-plotters can be constructed from easy-to-obtain materials, and are easily scalable.

The ultimate goal of the plotter that we designed is to give back to the DIY community. By publishing plans for the machine on the internet, we hope to create an open-source platform where the machine can continue to be modified and improved by all of its users, empowering them to take ownership of their environment by modifying its surface characteristics. proposed application sample sketches

visual training - generative field study - 2011