Tracey Weisman_Selected Works

TRACEY WEISMAN Selected Works

THE PLUSH ORDERS

Partner: Stephanie Yeow All fabrication done by Tracey Weisman Critic: Sandra Manninger Textiles, according to Gottfried Semper, are one of the four fundamental elements of architecture as the first dividers of space. Beginning from the primitive hut, the weaving of elements has emerged as an essential technique for the creation of shelter in the form of spatial divisions and skins. Through iterations of making and the combinations of diverse materials and colors, emergent patterns imbued these functional objects with cultural signification. Through the incorporation of digital fabrication, this project wishes to advance the historical lineage of textiles in architecture, reinforcing its place in contemporary practice.

There are three main elements to this project. The first is the development of sets of patterns through lines in a textile. The second is the introduction of two yarns with different e moduli – one nylastic, one monofilament plastic – creating a complex composite material. The combination of these materials leads to surface deformation. The third component is creating differentiation within the one continuous surface while allowing very distinct local formations.

The logic of differentiation is driven by the ordering system of classical columns, which is broken down into three main components – the base, shaft, and capital. It also contains characteristics of a column’s fluting and entasis. The goal therefore is to create a new order by which we can critically reframe digital fabrication within the discipline to give new meaning to modes of design and construction within the deep history of architecture.

CORINTHIAN COLUMN ELEMENTS

Capital

Shaft

Base

Translation Operation

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A single form, developed from a sphere, is rotated, mirrored, and morphed to create an increasingly complex set of geometries.

These agglomerations become assembled into ordered configurations with a base, shaft, and capital.

Capital Development Simple Banding Transition

Increasingly Complex Banding Transition

Transition Opaque Banding

Pattern Extraction Process Capital

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Color mapping applied to complex agglomeration creating linear patterns on surface

Lines extracted based on the color mapping

Lines are simplified in order to translate to knit logic

Hall of Infinite Variation

Since the method of design has been developed, an infinite number of columns can be generated to define this new order.

Final Installation

CONCRETE [I]LAND

Installation in Bangkok, Thailand University of Michigan studio in collaboration with Francois Roche This library installation constructed in Bangkok, Thailand was part of a design-build workshop. The site is located in Makkasan, a slum on the outskirts of the city. The main focus was to produce a method of fabrication of a clay panel system through robotic extrusion, so that every panel is slightly different. As a team, we designed the rebar structure and a method of attaching the clay panel system. In order to push the project further, we imagined a scenario of a world in which the project lives and produced a short film depicting this imagined life of the library.

Process Photos

SKIN DEEP

Partners: Kelly Koh and Peter Sepassi Critic: Neal Robinson The transience of student housing and the immutable permanence of the monastery are spliced together in this project in the search of a new way of living in the city. This combination of disparate agents engenders a positive tension as they learn reflexively from each other.

The building’s skin is a thin volume inhabited by students, forming a buffer between the monastery and secular city surroundings. Here, students are organized into communities of varying sizes to cater to individual social tendencies. In each, the kitchen anchors communal space, providing a place for active and convivial interaction. Private space is demarcated by “suitcases” – thin, modular volumes containing all the basic implements necessary for inhabitation. This thinness is recast in the unfolding planes within the suitcase, serving as table, cabinet, bed, door, and shelving.

Ensconced within the skin lies the monastery tower, condensed around a constantly changing vertical circulatory core. A carefully selected set of functional spaces radiate from the solitude of the tower, wherein the two worlds begin to collide. The first of these spaces is the Library, where academic and ecclesiastic learning are mutually informed. The religious world reaches out to the secular in the church, and at the Refectory both students and monks can interact freely, unconstrained by their roles and responsibilities.

The vibrant interaction of conflict and contradiction as both lives unravel create a beauty in the building, which is more than skin deep.

Rear view - Blah blah something about revealing internal logic of building

Street view - Blah blah something about blending into surroundings, shown to the right

Floor 3 1 Monk Library 2 Student Dormitory 3 Student Study Space 4 Student Corridor

Floor 11 1 Monk Unit 2 Student Dormitory 3 Student Study Space 4 Student Corridor

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View from the Monk Library, depicting shifting floor plates resulting in double height space for study

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View down internal “street� of dormitory housing, used as public space for students

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Housing Organization: Two Demographics The plan can be divided into two areas for living: the first, an L-shaped skin of student dormitory housing made up of three unit types, and the second, an internal tower of monk units.

Student Dormitory Unit

Monk Housing Unit

1 Bedroom Unit

2 Bedroom Unit

4 Bedroom Unit

Each dormitory provides each occupant with their own “suitcase”, which is a thickened wall at the edge of each unit that holds all the necessities for living, including a bed, desk and closet. Since the units make up a thin skin of the building, all the furniture folds out from this “suitcase” in order to configure the a range of living activities.

Section detail showing operable louvre facade system and “suitcase� configurability

COCOON

Partner: Ava Farab Critic: Tsz Yan Ng This wearable is designed to be reconfigured and transformed in response to the wearer’s context. It is a sleeved vest that can be worn around, but also takes on three other forms in order to respond to other conditions of the body.

The first form is a pod worn around the head to mute the surrounding context. Since the Cocoon was knit with monofilament plastic yarn, it is both rigid and transparent. By using a gradient knit technique, the outermost portion of the wearable is the most rigid and transparent, while the fabric closest to the shoulder is the most flexible and opaque, so that the knit can be transformed, but will also hold its shape as a pod around the wearer’s head. She is able to see out, but others cannot see in.

The second form is a jacket that encompasses the wearer’s torso and arms, restricting her movements, like a butterfly’s cocoon.

The third form allows the sleeves to open up and form wings. This configuration occurs when the wearer encounters the architectural element of the corner. The wings hook onto the walls that make the corner and allow her to hang on the wall, opening up to the context, due to the strength of the monofilament knit.

LAYERED THRESHOLD Boathouse Critic: Mark McGlothlin

Thinking about the moment in which an oar breaks the surface of the water, the boathouse attempts to create a threshold between the stratified layers of landscape that make up the surrounding context. The approach to the boathouse is marked by an entrance from a compressed path enclosed by trees into the cleared field, which assists in guiding the occupant through the wandering space to the entrance of the boathouse. To create a landmark within the grassy area, the stairs are visible throughout approach are rotated outward to provide a view for the occupants leading them toward the intervention; much like the way an oar acts as a medium to move through the water by rotation, the stairs help direct the occupant into the boathouse.

Nodal

Rhythm

Progression

Shearing

The clubhouse on the first floor, which provides a meeting space for the crew team, is pulled away from the boathouse causing a void to form between the two spaces along the edge of the staircase.

The boathouse is a horizontal space that penetrates the barrier the trees make around the lake, providing views of the lake from the structure. Situating the boathouse within the trees provides a proximity to the lake that makes the process of moving the boats more accessible. The ground condition of the boathouse extends out toward the lake. The sequence of spaces into and through the boathouse allows the occupant to experience the grassy area and transition to the lake.

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Floor 2 7 Deck 8 Club House 9 Office Space Floor 1 1 Boathouse 2 Girls’ Locker Room 3 Boys’ Locker Room 4 Weight Room 5 Rowing Machine Room 6 Dock

View Into Boathouse 2

Framed Views Throughout Itinerary Threshold Into Boathouse

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Approach Framing View Between Clubhouse and Boathouse 1

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The boathouse pieces through the layers of dense trees in the landscape, reaching toward the water. The puncture in the trees allows for views of the activities on the lake to be open to the clubhouse.

Boathouse moves through all layers of landscape leading to the lake

Clubhouse is elevated to separate public and private functions while pushing view out to observe activities on the water

Entrance to boathouse provides threshold into the project, shearing the space between boathouse and locker rooms

SENSORY PLAYSCAPE

Installation at SIU School of Architecture Sean Ahlquist in collaboration with University of Michigan faculty and students This interdisciplinary research brings together faculty from Architecture, Computer Science, Music, Interior Design, and Occupational Therapy to explore textile hybrid structures and interactive projection surfaces with a focus on understanding the behavior of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. A diverse team worked on this installation to complete the various phases. As a member of the architecture team, we programmed and fabricated the knit surfaces and assembled the fiberglass rod structure.

Process Photos

Ahlquist, Sean. Instagram Post. March 12, 2016. https://www.instagram.com/p/BC3Nq_ygVp7/.

sean_ahlquist Southern Illinois University Carbondal

Due to the flexible nature of the knit, any interaction with the textile will result in a varying level of deformation. The interactive projection surface is able to register an entire spectrum of touches, responding differently to each one with a reaction in the graphics of the projection. This can help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder to be aware of their motor skills and understand the position of their body in space in relation to the architecture around them, since they are able to change it through different types of interaction.

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Ahlquist, Sean. Instagram Post. March 14, 2016. https://www.instagram.com/p/BCjcTC6gVh3/.

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