Jeffrey Sipprell
February 3, 2007
More News from Abu Dhabi
Here's a snippet of text from ArchNewsNow that describes the new Guggenheim in Frank's own words.
"Approaching the design of the museum for Abu Dhabi made it possible to consider options for the design of a building that would not be possible in the United States or in Europe. It was clear from the beginning that this had to be a new invention, and in my discussions with Tom Krens, the director of the Guggenheim, we explored what those inventions might be. We did not have a pre-conceived plan or an idea for a building, a museum of contemporary art, in place like Abu Dhabi. The landscape, the opportunity, the requirement to build something that people all over the world would come to, and the possible resources to accomplish it, opened tracks that were not likely to be considered anywhere else. The site itself, virtually on the water or close to the water on all sides, in a desert landscape with the beautiful sea, and the light quality of the place suggested some of the direction.
We started with very basic plan organization. The center core galleries are laid out forming a courtyard. Those galleries, of various height and sizes, are placed one on top of another to create four floors. These will be the more classical contemporary galleries, completely air conditioned with skylights where possible and a sophisticated lighting system. The next ring of galleries surrounding the core then radiating out of the center will be larger galleries in a variety of shapes and less formally constructed. The third ring of larger galleries would be less finished and more like raw industrial space with exposed lighting and systems. These galleries would be spawning homes for a new scale of contemporary art – art that would be, perhaps, made on site and of a scale that could not be achieved in other museums around the world.
This idea is based on the experience that Tom has had visiting artists’ studios in large industrial spaces. They have been able to create works that are way beyond the experience any of us have within the normal museum spaces. So in the end you create a cluster of galleries that allows for a tremendous amount of flexibility in organizing a great variety of shows. The different heights, shapes, and character of the galleries are something that will be studied and refined as the progress of the design continues.
We have been exploring with our consultants, TransSolar, a method of cooling outdoor spaces based on the very old idea of the open-top tepee that draws hot air out of the space. This led to a series of conical shaped tubes that becomes an element of focus for the surrounding galleries, creating an outdoor space. In some cases, the conical shapes are used as entry pavilions: a main entrance to the museum, a boat entry to the museum, and then as walkways out into the desert landscape. The use natural ventilation is inspired by its historical use in the region for many, many generations. Water walls in the main courtyard and other sustainable features now being explored have the intention of making an exemplary energy efficient building.
The exterior walls of the building are now being considered in stone with some variety in color and texture to highlight a particular museum pavilion. The museum will house contemporary art from all over the world, not just Western culture. And as the design progresses, it will be necessary to identify with the architecture and character of the art being shown. Two large Biennale art galleries have been added and brought closer to the main building as an introduction of the future Biennale buildings along the canal. These buildings would form a courtyard entrance from the central transportation routes on Saadiyat Island."
Another commentary from the New York Sun on the entire project can be found here.
Posted by jsipprell at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
February 1, 2007
Gehry's New Guggenheim
The first project I worked on at Frank's office is now public. As part of a larger master plan by SOM in Abu Dhabi, a new Guggenheim museum was unveiled yesterday along with other cultural complexes by Novel, Hadid and Ando. The NY Times has a couple of articles - one covering the press release and one a commentary by Nicolai Ouroussoff.
I worked on the project from my initial hire on Sept 25 to just before Christmas - seeing the project through its final massing stages and then on to the shaping and structuring of the overall form. The picture above is from the smaller model that fit into SOM's master plan model - I cannot begin to tell you how long that model took to put together at that level of detail. I feel like I earned a masters degree in sanding.
So far it's been a very rich experience at the office to have the balance between the initial design of the museum coupled with the refinement and development of the Barclays Center project in Brooklyn. Hopefully as more of that becomes public I'll be able to post more about it.
Posted by jsipprell at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2006
Updated: Synesthesia
Here are some of the professional photos taken in UCLA's DeCafe by Deborah Bird after we finished the space in late May. Amazingly we're still tying up several odds and ends before the new school year starts. Enjoy.
Overall View 01
Overall View 02
Overall View 03
Ceiling Detail
Wall Detail 01
Wall Detail 02
Wall Detail 03
Opening Night
Posted by jsipprell at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
Updated: Manifold Destiny
Here are a series of professional photographs that were taken by the school during the Manifold Destiny Exhibition from this past winter. Sorry for the late post, but I just got my hands on these only recently. Enjoy.
Close Up View 01
Close Up View 02
Close Up View 03
Close Up View 04
Field of Objects
Overall Show Photo 01
Overall Show Photo 02
Posted by jsipprell at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2006
Music Center - Final Design
Well now that I've had time to decompress from the all the end of term/graduation hullabaloo, I figured it was time to spend a little time presenting the final research studio project on the site. I'll use this post to present the project only and I'll follow it up with one that will be more of a wrap-up to my thoughts and ramblings on the UCLA M Arch 2 education in general.
So, for anyone who hasn't follow the project's genesis thus far, it's a very large urban project in Downtown Los Angeles - across from the Disney Concert Hall on the site of the existing Music Center. Our charge is to scrap the existing center and design a new center that will have multiple theaters of various sizes - requiring multiples foyers, lobbies, restaurants, etc. From the beginning, my scheme has revolved around a massing strategy where a large outdoor theater, located on the end facing Disney, would be connected to a large indoor theater with a shared flyloft. This would allow for mulitple types and sizes of performances that would take place inside and/or outside.
Rather than sitting on a plinth as did the previous music center, or facing a plaza as does say Lincoln Center, the building complex is sited longitudinally emphasizing the changing grade and it is embedded into the ground while its major presence is the diagonal section relationship to the ground - making a vast civic
space both at, above and below grade.. The building complex is bundled and smoothed together into a single massing that is approached from below, from the side via switchback ramps and grand stairs and from the Northeast frontally facing the cathedral and the freeway below (plan).
The contemporary baroque ambitions of the project are set up through the (de)formation of a draped surface through a carved faceted mass containing all of the theater and amenity spaces. The three main theaters and the grand hall are connected longitudnally through this continuous draped surface. As the section shows, the drape moves from outdoor theater canopy to become the indoor theater's ceiling. The drape folds over each of the facing theaters, creating an enclosed space on the right, to allow for the drape to slump and spread out over the grand hall to become its ceiling as well as an occupiable roof surface that is accessed from Grand St. The draped surface dives into the smaller indoor theater to become its acoustical ceiling before bubbling out through the mass on the side of Temple St. to form another enclosed space.
The drape is perforated to emphasize areas of tension/compression as well as areas that are occupiable. The interest here being what types of shreds and cuts can be made in a draped surface and how they are impacted by issues of irritation and weight. Although no interior perspectives were constructed, these perforations could allow for a secondary drape of light and shadow that could begin to stitch the disparate masses together that are found below.
A secondary folded language of materials was applied to the faceted volume - glass, soft surfaces, and seating moved across the facets of the main stealth black volume to emphasize the folded geometry of the rusticated mass. The drape was rendered as much lighter in color to contrast with the stealth like mass, with light pouring out of the performance mouth of the building and the perforated apertures at night.
Here are pdfs of the final drawings for those interested:
Siteplan
Building Plans
Building Section
Renderings:
Posted by jsipprell at 8:37 PM | Comments (0)
May 30, 2006
Music Center - Massing Finalization
Here are a couple of pics of the scheme I'm running with towards the final (are mere 13 days and counting!). Three theater spaces arranged longitudinally across the site (a connected indoor and outdoor theater and a smaller individual theater) that are connected by a single draped surface that is pulled taut at the theaters and allowed to bunch and slump to create walkable surfaces and occupiable spaces (on top of the theaters). The rusticated mass is now rendered as stealth-like triangular planes against the smooth curvature of the drape. Currently finalizing the geometry of the two systems (this was a design model that was used to test some interactions) and the material palette. More updates throughout the week.
Site Section
Overall Model 1
Outdoor Theater
Drape Detail 1
Drape Detail 2
Posted by jsipprell at 6:22 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2006
Synesthesia - DeCafe Opening
We've completed the space (well almost - there's always a punchlist) and tonight's the big opening, headlined by a lecture by Liz Diller. Here's a few final photos - the space looks really fantastic.
Wall/Ceiling Connection
Construction
Ceiling Splice Detail 1
Ceiling Splice Detail 2
Pin Up Board Detail
Door Head/Jamb Detail
Manipulating the Felt
Wall From Above
Overall Ceiling
Final Panorama 1
Final Panorama 2
Posted by jsipprell at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2006
Music Center - Sectional Strategies
Here are the two sections that I presented at the midterm review for Greg Lynn's studio. There was also a model, but it's pretty unfinished so I'll leave it out for this posting.
The basic sectional strategy is to introduce two theaters (one indoor and one outdoor) that face each other across a central stage and flyloft. The front of the building, facing the Disney Concert Hall, is a giant opening into the large main spaces of the building, providing a visual connection between the main interior and exterior spaces.
All of the theaters and the other dense parts of the program (rehearsal rooms, offices, etc) are housed in a very dense rusticated mass through which the softer public spaces flow around and through. These soft spaces are defined by a series of draped surfaces which are pulled taut at certain points to allow for walkable floors while at other conditions they are allowed to unfurl to become structure or vertical circulaton. The surfaces fuse the disparate spaces into one conceptually continuous space, seaming with each other to form overhangs, balconies and stairs.
More refinement is needed on their architectual qualities however in the second half of the quarter.
Building Section A
Building Section B
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Synesthesia - Construction Photos 4
New batch of photos that show a ton of progress. We are moving very quickly now in anticipation of our completion date this friday. The acoustics are noticably better and people are quite pleased with the aesthetics.
Ceiling Progress 1
Ceiling Progress 2
Felt Production
Wall/Ceiling Connection 1
Wall/Ceiling Connection 2
Wall Layout 1
Wall Detail 1
Wall Detail 2
Wall Panoramic
Posted by jsipprell at 2:47 PM | Comments (1)
April 27, 2006
Synesthesia - Construction Photos 3
On Tuesday we began the installation of the felt in the space. It's going a bit slowly as we're trying to figure a number of things out - specifically at the connection between wall and ceiling. We eventually realized that we're going to need to drill more plates to support all the weight at the top. So, here's a few photos.
Felt Assembly 1
Felt Assembly 2
Felt Assembly 3
Felt Installation 1
Felt Installation 2
Felt Installation 3
Connection 1
Connection 2
Finished Stair
Posted by jsipprell at 11:22 AM | Comments (2)
April 22, 2006
Synesthesia - Construction Photos 2
Another round of photos from the last couple of weeks. The felt order has arrived and we have put most of the clips on to the walls - a big effort by many, including myself, in hammer drilling - which is basically jack hammering a wall with a drill. Definitely requires some time in the sauna afterwards. Putting the clips into the wall was not a walk in the park either - a lot of tapcon heads were snapped off when the hole wasn't exactly right. All you could do was curse and move on. This weekend hopefully marks the end of the drilling, mounting, placing of conduit and sanding of entry stairs (pretty much everything that makes a mess).
I did a mock up of the door jamb area which was mildly successful - we learned a lot from it to deploy in the final layout. Photos below.
Posted by jsipprell at 5:09 PM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2006
Deltacon - Final Aggregation
So I haven't had a chance to post stuff from my final project last quarter. It certainly wasn't my best work here at UCLA, but some of the drawings and renderings did turn out very nicely. I don't want to repeat anything that I posted in the previous entry on the project, but I'll quickly summarize some of the key points and concepts behinds it's final manifestation.
The project was conceived as a tool to actively engage the existing water networks - both in terms of restoration and obstruction (damming). Through formal studies into several geometries, I choose the modified pentagon as a way to create non-linear growth strategies that would allow different spaces that were dependant upon a multitude of connection types. This would allow the system to form up into lines, for obstruction, or loose networks, for restoration.
Sprawl Aggregation
Dam Aggregation
Other Aggregations
However, the project was driven from within the unit as much as it was from without. After the establishment of the core platform and dam/filtration geometry, there was an attempt to create a family of housing types that would respond to its own internal programmatic organization. That is to say, there was a deliberate attempt to create a flexible living space that would form itself through the constraints of the solid house programs - namely kitchen, bathroom, shower, and laundry - basically all of the services that would require water. As this was a project that was concerned with the water networks of the global delta space, so to was it concerned with the internal water networks of the individual house space.
Each of the four programs was isolated, designed, and placed on the vertical pylons which were driven into the ground when the house was deployed as a dam (more on that later). A potential buyer could then arrange where these programs were distributed and thus create a somewhat custom shell in the middle for their primary living space. While it wasn't an infinite system, it allowed for some variation to occur within the larger aggregations. Ultimately however, the variation was too limited and this method I think worked against the ability of the project to be a true organically grown system.
The flexible shell and water based typologies would slide vertically depending on the type of usage within the system. When the system was based on restoration, the house was raised, allowing the water (and recreational boaters) to pass through the filtration pontoons. When acting as a dam, the system lowers down to the water, it's belly opening to release a bladder system that would absorb the water and become an impervious dam.
The renderings did turn out nice though as I continued playing with Maxwell Render. Here's the rest of the drawings/renderings.
Community Axon Rendering
Community Axon Rendering in Site
Dam Axon Rendering
Dam Axon Rendering in Site
Eye Level on Platform
View from Roof Terrace
Interior View
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April 12, 2006
Synesthesia - Construction Photos 1A
Construction photos taken by a fellow student before we painted it green.
Posted by jsipprell at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)
Music Center - Massing Strategy
As previously blogged, the site for my final project in Greg Lynn's studio is downtown across from the Disney Concert Hall. It's a Music Center that is to contain 2 very sizable opera size theatres, one medium size dance theatre and one small black box theatre. Our initial exercise was to develop a parti and massing strategy that deals with the constraints of the site and program.
The strategy I presented, which was well received, was a hybrid of Millenium Park in Chicago and Yokohama's famous Port Terminal. One of the large opera theatres would become a large outdoor pavilion situated at the end of an urban park - sitting between the large mass of the Disney Concert Hall and the mass I intend to create at the other end of the site with the rest of the assigned program. The intention is to create an anchor on the other end of the site while allowing the conceptual draped form of the building and cascade down into the pavilion/park and reach out to Disney Concert Hall - thus creating an urban campus within the downtown area for the musical arts.
The project is a bit too horizontal right now and needs to get much more pronouned in height - particularly on the tower end of the site. Greg has suggested that I relocate the Hollywood Bowl and drape form over it as a way of beginning to deal with issues of scale and program. Here were some drawings:
Posted by jsipprell at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2006
Synesthesia - Construction Photos 1
Couple of images from the first week of construction on the school's lecture space. We prepped and painted the space the green accent color that will appear behind the felt - it is really saturated in there right now.
Posted by jsipprell at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
March 8, 2006
Synesthesia - Finalization of Ceiling
So we've got the ceiling pretty much worked out for the Lecture space here at the AUD. The wall system is just about worked out and we've got everything under budget it seems. With any luck we'll be submitting a purchase order by the end of the week. Here are a couple of images of our progress from the last few weeks:
Plan of Ceiling
Couple of Renderings
Posted by jsipprell at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)
March 5, 2006
Extreme Porosity Exhibition
The work from the Extreme Porosity studio, held during the Fall 2005 quarter, opened on Friday March 3 here at UCLA. Here's some photos to enjoy.
Exhibition 01
Exhibition 02
Exhibition 03
Exhibition 04
Exhibition 05
Exhibition 06
Exhibition 07
Exhibition 08
Posted by jsipprell at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)
March 2, 2006
Albedo - Reorienting Normals
Greg Lynn is having us develop modeling techniques from our initial studies into contemporary baroque. I chose albedo as my first foray into the investigation through a continued study of the Singapore Esplanade Theater by Michael Wilford
and a Pillow by Ulrika Liljedahl.
My interest was to create an albedo effect (contrast between light and shadow) that was different or shifted from that of the primary geometry. This was to be done through an exploration of sequins as surface normals and what sort of re-orientations could be performed to successfully pull this off. Two studies resulted:
One looking at a subtle smooth surface with a reorientation of the normals to a surface that was much louder and more undulated - giving the appearance that the surface was curving much sharper than it actually was:
Image 01
Image 02
Image 03
Image 04
The other study looked at a more geometrically deformed surface with a normal orientation to that of a much quieter surface. This study was actually physically modeled with painted nails and foam. It is a precursor to a currently evolving study into making the effect work without the foam.
Rendering 01
Rendering 02
Rendering 03
Rendering 04
Model 01
Model 02
Model 03
Model 04
Model 05
Model 06
Posted by jsipprell at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)
February 27, 2006
Deltacon - the object v the network
Here is the long overdue post on the studio project for this quarter - which has manifested itself in the form of a housing project for the Sacramento River Delta area. This area is a highly politicized area of California that lies just south of Sacramento and east of San Francisco. It is the home of many of California's lushest farming grounds - mostly pears, grapes, and asparugus, but it is also where southern California (including myself) gets its drinking water. Throw in a dash of fishermen, hunters, recreational boaters and a pinch of conservationalists and you can imagine the types of clashes this area fosters.
The underlying issue to all of these groups is the levees - a word that is in our contemporary vocabularly after the horrors of Hurricane Katrina. The truth is, the levees in this area are in worse shape than they were in New Orleans, prompting Conan the Barbarian (yes, our governor) to include levee reconstruction in his new billions of dollars infrastructure proposal - now he's Arnold the Empire Builder (and he's up for re-election in November).
Roger Sherman has constructed the studio to examine five core interest groups - developers (which are basically our fictional clients), recreationalists, conservationalists, farmers and water interests (this last one being the people who seek to make money off of selling the abundant water to Los Angeles, San Diego, etc. - in a nutshell many islands are individually owned and if that person is able to flood their island they would create their own reservoir and be able to use their water rights as they see fit (think of the way air rights are traded and sold in New York City)). The success of the project hinges on your ability to adapt to these interest groups as possible market forces will play out over time.
My own personal inclination was to engage the water - the feature within the delta that all of the interest groups have a strong vested interest in. Prelminary research indicated that the water could be broken up into 4 core categories that all had varying degrees of engagement by these parties:
Cleanliness
Flow Rate
Depth
Salinity (or the resistance to the infiltration of salt water from the Pacific which would ruin the natural ecology and farmlands - it has been steadily creeping in through the last 25-30 years).
This chart shows the relative engagement of each interest group with those 4 core properties as well as a grouping of the 3 most important (turned out Depth wasn't such a big deal) into top level generic solutions of flow control and remediation. Archetypes of those solutions are illustrated in the next procedure setting up a library whereby similar forms can be composited to form an adaptive widget - a piece that can either control flows or remediate the water.
The concept here is that a mobile flow control system - here realized in mobile floating housing - could be deployed in such a way that the water network can be dynamically implemented. That is if southern California suffers a drought, more water can be diverted there or if the salinity is creeping in, more water can be pushed towards San Francisco Bay. A myriad of combinations could exist that could allow Calfed to actively engage the water system without relying on new permanent infrastructure - gates, canals, bypasses, etc. Such a project would be subsidized by housing developers who could create the sprawl they so desperately seek is this area of prized real estate - but here it would not be on land, but on water. Homeowners could move around freely or chain themselves together to form streets, communities or other networks that would also server as areas of water treatment. The sprawl therefore is beneficial as the more units that exist, the cleaner the water will become - leading to increased recreational use and money for the area.
The design right now is focused on developing the cell in a much less directional gridded way and to further develop the architecture to allow for a system of difference and public space to emerge within these larger aggregations. This approach was a shift from an earlier design where the project was thought of as more of an object - the first deltacon which was a mobile dam/hovercraft hybrid that would be recreational housing or a construction operations center - depending on how it was deployed by Calfed (the governing body of the delta).
It is so called deltacon since it kind of reminded me of a transformer.
You can see both approaches here:
Deltacon Prototype 2 - Network
Posted by jsipprell at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
February 10, 2006
Synesthesia - Playing with Felt
Synesthesia: Sound and Vision is a unique course that is being taught by Jason Payne and Heather Roberge of GNUForm (who incidentally are an entrant in this year's PS 1 Competition) as a design build project involving the school's, currently derelict, auditorium in which we are to create a visually and auditory pleasing solution. The space is a completely stripped concrete box that is approximately 40' X 65', which gives us a reverberation time of approximately 3 seconds. As you can imagine, lectures in the space are at times unbearable - particulary ones that are less attended (the chairs are cheap hard plastic so they so little acoustically).
Our goal is to get the reverberation time down to one second within a budget of $20,000. Now you can probably imagine why the school is offering this as a design build course - the only thing we can hope to do is pour all of our money into materials and do the labor ourselves. So we've got to design a solution that's cheap and can be installed with not too much professional expertise. Now for the final wrinkle - the fire marshal has demanded that we only use Class A fire rated materials. So anything that's even slightly synthetic is out the window. And we're also limited to what has been tested already by the state of California since the process by which to submit a new material for review would take ages.
So, where does that leave us? Natural Wool Felt. There were two other schemes that also tested a burlap curtain and a perforated hard surface scheme, but ultimately the combination of cost, installation, and natural fiber only left us with one alternative. Now, you've probably got a few pictures in your mind of what this felt looks like - let me stop you right there. We're limited to two colors - slightly off white and medium gray. Not exactly stirring the visual senses here. And we've got no money to do anything electrically, so we can only play with form, scale, and variation.
GNUForm was already working with felt through the summer (it was originally their project) in the form of laser cut squares that were hung to form sunspended flowers. These flowers were then arrayed across the room to form an undulating ceiling, while the walls were treated entirely with homasote.
Unfortunately the scheme didn't work within the budget and the application of hard surfaces to all walls didn't do anything acoustically. So beginning in January, myself and nine other students, began to looks at other ways to use the felt in a more comprehensive scheme that would cover both ceiling and wall. Some of my group's initial studies into the way the material could be manipulated can be seen below:
Study A
Study B
Study C
Study D
Study E
Study F
Study G
This ultimately led to a wall elevation of:
Unfortunately other studies into pinching strips of felt were chosen over the slitting and pinching that our group was interested in. Here's a couple pics of the ceiling system:
And a few pics of the other wall study (the second one is the one we are going with):
This weekend we're trying to meld the schemes together a little bit better in a way that is less homogenous. I'll post some pics of how that goes.
Posted by jsipprell at 3:29 PM | Comments (0)
February 2, 2006
Manifold Destiny - Exhibition
The Manifold Destiny show opened last Friday to a very good reviews and a healthy turnout. Here are some images and drawings presented in the show that represent a compendium of the best work done in the two years the course has been given. If you're in the Los Angeles area, it is open until the end of February.(Photos courtesy of Paul Locke)
Overall Show Pictures
Image 01
Image 02
Image 03
Image 04
Image 05
Image 06
Image 07
Image 08
Image 09
Image 10
Image 11
Process Photos
Process Board 1
Process Board 2
Heterotoma Project 2005
Final Drawings
Image 01
Image 02
Image 03
Image 04
Image 05
Image 06
Image 07
Broad Bean Project
Final Drawings
Image 01
Image 02
Image 03
Image 04
Iris Project
Final Drawings
Image 01
Image 02
Image 03
Image 04
Image 05
Image 06
Heterotoma Project 2004
Final Drawings
Image 01
Image 02
Posted by jsipprell at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)
January 3, 2006
Presenting a Manifold
Here are a couple of images from the final presentation in november. The object turned out really nice, but we're going to make 3 new ones for the exhibition that opens on January 23 at the school. So stay tuned for some more pics on that front.
Posted by jsipprell at 5:48 PM | Comments (1)
December 24, 2005
Minimal Surfaces - Review Pictures
Here's a slew of pictures from the review which includes the other projects:
Team A - Scheme
Team A - Presentation
Team B - Boards
Team B - Models
Team B - Presentation
Team B - Presentation
Another image from my presentation (yes, my partner can't spray mount).
Speaks, Denari, Lynn and Wiscombe
The entire jury
Team C - Presentation
Team C - Presentation
Team D - Presentation
Team D - Presentation
Posted by jsipprell at 1:01 PM | Comments (1)
December 23, 2005
Minimal Surfaces - Conclusion
Well it's almost the conclusion - all of our work is in a school exhibition slated for mid February, so I'm sure these drawings and renderings will be worked on a bit more. AND, since the 3d printer broke down in the final week (what a p.o.s.), I'll be able to print the models that I spent days thickening.
So, let's wrap things up for now. As you know we've been developing the same minimal surface system that I had from the summer - the Starfish 2 system. It's a very cellular system that very easily creates space and enclosure. The problem, which was hinted at in the first course, was how to make connections between these cells and how to make more mat like walkable surfaces. That was our starting point back in late September. The introduction of the coral gave us the idea of the unfurling line - or a conceptual surface that could oscillate between taut and loose surface conditions. The design problem then became how to gradiate this change across a site to deal with hierarchy, entry, floor plates, etc...
Our solution was the development of a morphology based on a series of spines that stretch out from a central spine before unwinding into cellular space and bumping up against the urban edges of the site. This led to the development of the site plan which used the diagram as a strategy for deploying the system - larger stretched cells that reached out to the bridge and created the main large spaces and smaller squashed cells that stacked in the back to create floor plates and smaller discrete occupiable spaces. The system was then gradiated in the north south direction via the size and orientation of the buildings and apertures. The southern most aggregation served as the parking garage which was comprised of all stretched, taut surfaces. As the aggregations moved north, the surfaces began to loosen up and become more spatially hierarchical, particularly along the eastern edge. This diagram highlights our strategy to develop a sided condition where the northern facade was very taut while the southern was allowed to unfurl as it reached out towards the edge. Conceptually, the tautness would reach around the building and capture the unfurling - creating a very stretched fingered facade to the east, although the sawtooth like stepping back of each aggregation allowed for a portion of the unfurled side to explode out into the public space.
After developing the main minimal surface system, we began to look for moments where we could add second and third order elements that would begin to give the system structure and scale. Again, we looked to the coral as a model and began to explore the small apertures that appeared in the center of each polyp surface. Our minimal surface system has an equal importance placed on center and structure as it is the two main structural axes of the hyperbolic paraboloid that locate the center point of the 2 curvatures. So we deployed a second order aperture at each center point of the individual surfaces - which undoubtedly would become more dense as you moved from entry to back of building.
The interesting thing that came out of this was that sometimes these apertures were in a horizontal orientation while at other times they were in a vertical orientation. The design therefore played this up by treating them the same from the exterior (deep punctures in the skin) while on the interior, vertical punctures linked together to form columns and horizontal punctures became deep recessed openings. The columns linked the centers of surfaces together which created a pretty interesting, though chaotic, network of angled columns that can best be seen in the long and short sections.
Now obviously this puncture into the center and arguably most structural part of the surface is counter-intuitive to the way the surface worked. So it was a natural progression that we played up the linear and edgelike quality of our surface system by designing beams that were along the previously mentioned structural axes of the surface (called the C2 axes in mathematical jargon). While this system probably could use another level of development, it was fairly successful in giving the spaces we were creating the desired sense of scale and structure - something that no other group in the class really pursued.
In fact the review focused mostly on this system and the choice we made to make the project more of a building then a more geometric study - particulary since we followed a group that was the exact opposite of our project - smooth flowing unstructured spaces where the original surface bled into an almost monstrous like quality of space and skin. The debate was mixed, but in the end I agreed with Denari that we should have pursued the structure even more and began to exploit differential thickness and poche - something which I was hoping to do after my summer project, but was just never gotten to since the quarter was spent getting the system under control. That idea focused on two unfurling surfaces that would create thickness and thinness as they moved around and against each other, but I guess that'll be for another project.
All in all, a struggle throughout was rewarded in the end by having a good project. It was received pretty well by the final jury, so that in itself was a reward. I'll post some more pictures of the review and other projects, along with whatever upgrades I make to drawings/models between now and February.
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