portfolio.0.3

Portfolio 2016 by. Sixto Cordero Maisonet Co founder @ helloeverything UPRRP BDA // MIT MArch 2016

Submitted for consideration regarding the Faculty Position of the Department of Architecture

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STRUCTURAL RINGS CONFIGURATIONS

*LOADING was the result of a collaboration, with Luisel Zayas, Austin Smith, Rachel Himmelfarb & Enas Alkhudairy The focus of recent research into self-organizational systems within architecture overwhelmingly emphasizes the formal and geometric qualities of complex material systems. The work, is bound to extrinsic geometric qualites, and as such hinders its own scaling out of the microscopic domain into that of people and cities. LOADING argues self-organization is a generated within a social and cultural milieu.

LOADING is a endlessly reconfigurable installation composed of 500 foam units. Presented as stacks with no instruction, the space produced by the interaction of passersby is an index to the latent social flows, and cues of behavioral interaction. Through the simple basis of compounding aggregation, the project explores forms relation to indeterminate social fields.

TYPOLOGIES OF LOADING

One Module Scale

Chain Connection

Branch Connection

Invites user interaction and authorship at all sides

Loop Connection

Connection Combination

Vault /Tunnel Connection Self-Supporting

Allows for a getaway space from Lobby 7

DEPLOYMENT IN LOBBY 7 (MIT)

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DIAGRAM OF 1500 UNIQUE PIECES OVERLAID

Rather than a specific shape this project generated a formwork for discretization that is capable of describing any particular doubly curved surface with a multilayer paneling tensile system. Although partially successful, this installation represented a keystone in my understanding of both parametric and customization and the benefits and disadvantages of both.

This piece was constructed with over 1500 completely custom made pieces which were CNCed out of more than 30 sheets of PVC. This represented many challenges, which included hand sanding all of the pieces and indexing them all as they were being cut.

The biggest impediment however was the low quality of the sourced PVC which limited the construction to only half of the initially designed pavilion.

Regardless through this project I understood the hardships that come with customization of components. No single unit was the same as shown in diagram [a] and this meant the surface was discretized in a very high resolution. However this also presented a very labor intensive post processing process and implied that if a component broke or was missing it had to be recut entirely. There are definitely many ways of making completely custom pieces but this project gave me an appreciation and a critical understanding of the issues that customization carries over to construction, I believe this project was a partial success in terms of its physical realization, however it was a complete success for its pedagogical significance to myself.

*DISCRETIZE was the result of a collaboration, with Carlos Perez

PROJECTED HANGING STRUCTURE

WORM’S EYE VIEW

PARTIALLY COMPLETED STRUCTURE AND PROCESS

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Droneport was collaboration between the Norman Foster Foundation and ODB engineering for the 2016 Venice Biennale curated by Alejandro Aravena.

As a fabrication consultant/ on-site project manager as well as part of the construction team, my role consisted primarily in researching how to translate a form-found design, that responded only to structural parameters, into something buildable when using a method of construction that is centuries of years old.

The research experimented with using custom cut scaffolding to guide fiberglass rods in order to approximate the splines that were created in computer space.

A point cloud scanning of the initial prototype proved to be 96.5% accurate which allowed us to move into the full scale prototype for the Biennale.

helloeverything is an international design studio founded in 2013 by Austin Smith, Julian Ocampo, and Sixto Cordero. Their work emerges from the opportunities of the standard to proliferate the spatial agency of people, objects, and relations which constitute contemporary life. Through design they expand and challenge the functions of the everyday, innovating through convention to achieve a non-standard operative praxis.

*these next four projects represent my professional practice called helloeverything and with the exception of “pack lunch� all have been the direct reult of a collaboration with selgascano. All photos were taken by Iwan Baan

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SECTION OF HOUSE/ MECHANISM

SMALL, LARGE, PARASITE

This project was designed in collaboration with spanish office selgascano for Revolution Precrafted and was exhibited in the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial; The State of the Art of Architecture Casa Antonio is an architectural transformer articulated across a range of climates and conditions as an interplay of color, light, texture, and atmospheric conditions, a formulation of future dwelling. The project exemplifies two parallel veins of design research. The first, an exercise in aggregating structural systems and modular enclosures, the second a generator of material climates.

Casa Antonio demonstrates its versatility by offering a structural framework on which different materials related to both warm and cold climates can be plugged in. Its interchangeable panels can be sampled and mixed, generating a wide range of environmental and atmospheric conditions enabling it to be assembled anywhere around the globe.

Casa Antonio moves. As a series of elevated bays with embedded motion control, the system expands and contracts, opens and closes according to its environment. The result is a highly versatile refuge that uses spatial flexibility and movement to generate the widest possible range of tectonic and atmospheric adaptability.

Casa Antonio, imagines new formats of flexible housing. Operating on its own, or tethered to existing constructions, the house motivates experimentation in the conventions of construction and materiality, generating a playful synthesis of standard and custom design systems instrumental to a new adaptable architecture.

RENDERS

OPERABLE WALLS

PROTOTYPE INTERIOR INHABITED DETAIL

PROTOTYPE AT CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL 2015

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PLAN

In the Spring of 2014, a studio of ten MIT architecture students, called the Unmaterial Studio (led by visiting faculty, Jose Selgas), researched and proposed to design an education and vaccination center for the Turkana people in northwest Kenya. This project was built in the summer of 2014 by who would end up becoming the 3 founding mambers of helloeverything.

The Turkana, with a population of nearly 1 million, are a semi-nomadic people largely untouched by contemporary civilization. They survive through shepherding on the semi-arid land, living pastorally in a way that relies on thousands of years of knowledge and tradition.

As with many regions like Turkana, issues with climate and politics have required varying degrees of developmental aid. Architectural practices for this type of development typically rely on westernized designs and building methodologies that are often executed at a physical and cultural distance from the people who use them.

The Unmaterial Studio, formulated ways of designing within these cultures that re-evaluate our cultural assumptions and use architecture and construction processes to learn from and collaborate with the local community. The process of design was able to turn otherwise conventional or utilitarian pursuits into unique spaces specific to a community, connecting with and providing a meaningful sense of ownership to its people.

PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION

SECTION

EXTERIOR

FINAL INTERIOR

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CONSTRUCTION PROCESS + SIDE VIEW

This project was designed in collaboration with selgascano as a school for Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa, it was initially built and exhibited as a pavillion for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, after the exhibition it was shipped to Nairobi Kenya, where it is currently being rebuilt for its original purpose.

In Kenya, people invent ingenious architecture using common construction materials with means largely overlooked by the architectural profession. Inherent in this collective resourcefulness is a profound intelligence, which inspires and motivates Louisiana Hamlet.

Louisiana Hamlet is an integrated building system, traversing across continents, in its dual role as a school in Kibera, Nairobi, and exhibition pavilion at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark.

Shipped from Denmark to Kenya at the end of the exhibition, the project utilizes generic construction scaffolding components to produce a novel mobile architecture. Like its predecessor, the Konokono Center, in Turkana, Kenya, the project foregrounds creative reapplications of building conventions to create a dynamic space for collectivity – one which prioritizes an intelligent use of simple means.

BASIC STRUCTURAL CONDITION

KIBERA (THE LARGEST SLUM IN AFRICA)

EXISTING CONDITION OF KIBERA HAMLET SCHOOL

NEW KIBERA HAMLET SCHOOL IN LOUISIANA DENMARK

EXTERIOR

KIBERA HAMLET SCHOOL IN KIBERA