Monthly Archives: March 2013

Library Extension – Natalie Kwee

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Everybody gets the sense of being totally overwhelmed either when trying to gather information for a test, the sheer magnitude of a project, or even walking into the library and the overpowering amount of information at your finger tips.  At first glance, when we got Natalie Kwee submission, that same sense of being overwhelmed hit me as I tried to figure out the architectural organization and spatial movements in the design.  My eyes were forced to constantly move through and look at the all spaces and diagrams.  That exact emotion is what Natalie was going for in her Library expansion design, by creating this intense maze of space to move through in your quest for knowledge.  Yet at the same time the design encompasses how we internally deal with being overwhelmed, by breaking the task down into smaller compartmental pieces.  Check it out after the jump!

STUDENT: Natalie Kwee
SCHOOL: Cornell University
PROFESSORS: Val Warke
AWARD: 2012 AIANYS Student Award Winner
 YEAR: Spring 2011

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Shipwreck- Georgia Collard-Watson

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With the warming weather here in the U.S. some of the most anticipated things are festivals!  Art festivals, music festivals, who-knows-what festivals, and then the most label-defying festival in the world, Burning Man.  A week in the desert, filled with some of the most eccentric people in the world.  This proposed small intervention acts as a gathering place, providing shade, light and places to lounge.  The project has actually won the Burning Man Art Grant and will be designed and built this summer.  Check out Georgia’s “Shipwreck” after the jump!

STUDENT: Georgia Collard-Watson
SCHOOL: Westminster School of Architecture & the Built Environment
PROFESSOR: Arthur Mamou-Mani & Toby Burgess
CLASS: Diploma Studio 10

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Rio Olympic Kit – Ione Braddick

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Every two years we hear and see a city being consumed with new construction for either the winter or summer Olympic Games.  In Beijing China we heard about the massive evictions and destruction in order to make way for Olympic buildings.  In London we got to see the same developments in London’s East side, and in Russia we are hearing how the Sochi mayor is promising snow.  What if the necessary Olympic buildings were only temporary,where the impact wouldn’t be permanent?  We came across Ione Braddick take on the Rio Summer Games on Instagram. The project explores creating a new legacy for the Olympic Games through creating temporary structures for the Olympic Games.  Truly an exciting and fun project to check out after the jump!

STUDENT:  Ione Braddick
SCHOOL: Bartlett School of Architecture
PROFESSORS: Johan Berglund and Josep Mias
 YEAR: 5th Year

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Alloplastic Architecture – Behnaz Farahi

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The reality is that the technology we use today is constantly learning and catering to our needs, and learning and responding to us.   Apple collects endless amounts of data every time you use your iphone, but what about our surroundings what if they learned and changed to how we live?  Behnaz Farahi work at the University of Southern California challenged how a surface can interact and adapt to the way we inhabit space.  The surface begins to shift and bend as the inhabitant moves around and away from the surface. The project uses kinetic motion sensors to react to the location of the inhabitant, but what if that structure adapted to our daily routines?  Check it out after the jump!

STUDENT: Behnaz Farahi
 SCHOOL: University of Southern California
 YEAR: 2013

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Borgh dël Fum Projects – Simone Callea

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Simone Callea thesis is an attempt at bringing a mixed use program to renew the “Borgh dël Fum Projects” in Turin.  Turin is a city that has been left with vast complexes from the 2006 Winter Olympics to the old FIAT Factory, and pushing to modernize and revitalize parts of the city.  While studying at the Polytechnic University of Turin myself, we played with designing the new train station based on the master plan by Arch. Massimiliano Fuksas. Simone project pushes the live, play, and work model into large spanning urban renewal plan and integrating sustainable design.  The programs are not clearly defined as public and private spaces blend together creating smaller neighborhoods within the structure.  Check it out after the jump!

STUDENT: Simone Callea
SCHOOL: Polytecnhnic University of Turin
PROFESSOR: Paolo Mellano and Alessandro Fubini
COURSE:  Thesis / Floornature International Architecture Contest

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TransArchitecture – Ayman

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“Transarchitecture”, a term which was coined by Markos Novak, is an architectural discourse that embraced and explored the bridge between virtual and material spaces.  However this theory of design came out around 1996, when architecture was just emerging into the digital real.  However today we are really seeing how this heavily complex virtual designs impact and play with existing architecture in today’s world much like in Ayman’s project done at University of Balamand, Lebanon. We see the beginnings of a strong architectural conversation of how to tie the modern architectural impact onto a historical site, much like Libeskind’s redesign of the Military History Museum. Looking at Ayman’s project I see the opportunity push more into the existing site instead of remaining perched a top of it.  Check it out after the jump!

STUDENT: Ayman
SCHOOL: University of Balamand, Lebanon
PROFESSORS: Samer Eid
 YEAR: 2013

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Futures + Design – Your Student Architectural Journal!

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Spring break is over for most, and instead of putting hours into studio it is days, as all you push your designs to the limits for final studio critiques.  From first years to thesis grads we know what it takes, we have been asleep under our desk, in the same clothes for days, and had piles of coffee cups on our desk.  That is why we started F+ so that when it is all said and done, you can showcase all that hard work to the world!

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Zero Gravity – Kervin Lau

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In this project we can quickly see the heavy influence of Tom Wiscombe on Kervin Lau’s Zero Gravity Theater.  The exoskeleton of the facade and interior space are generated so as to create a “cavernous space” for the user to travel through.  Each move of the exterior is then forced to correlate to an interior condition, as the facade pushes and pulls to actually generate programmable space.  The project does reside next to Frank Ghery’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, so the project certainly fits the extreme landscape, yet the volumetric shifts hold a more intriguing personal interaction between site, circulation and program.  Check it out after the jump!

STUDENT: Kervin Lau
SCHOOL: SCI-Arc
PROFESSORS: Tom Wiscombe
 YEAR: Fall 2012

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AB-USE II | PATRAS 2013

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Today we are checking out AB-USE II Workshop being put on during February 11-15 at the University of Patras.  The workshop is going to explore the possibilities through the incorporation of scripting in MEL (Maya Embedded Language) that is being integrated in Autodesk Maya design software.  Check it out after the jump!

SCHOOL: School of Archtiecture, University of Patras
PROFESSORS: Yannis Zavoleas, Dimitris Zisimopoulos, Vassili Pappas, Vasilis Stroumpakos, Ioanna Symeonidou
COURSE: Workshop – codeabuse.wordpress.com
 DURATION: 11-15 February 2013

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CUBE – Isaac Ocasio

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Today we are checking out a geometrical study by Isaac Ocasio at Kent State University. The model itself begins to fold and wrap in on its original cube to generate 3 new shapes. The project interpenetrates on every edge creating a new visual field depending on the views angle. The model proves to be interesting approach to exploring the fold and solid and void.  Check it out after the jump!

STUDENT:  Isaac Ocasio
SCHOOL: Kent State University
PROFESSORS: Charles Graves
 YEAR: 2013

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