March 4, 2011
March 2, 2011
HKS Design Fellowship
On a brief hiatus from my thesis work, I have been selected to participate in a design charette integrated with the design firm HKS. The program is called the 2011 HKS Mid-Atlantic Design Fellowship. It is best described on the website:
This spring the HKS DC office will be hosting its first Design Fellowship. This is an intense, three-day charrette where professionals and students from local universities join with the community to address a local or regional challenge. We would be honored to have you nominate the top 2-3 students from your Architecture, Interior Design and/or Art programs to apply for the distinguished honor of being a fellow.
The intent of the Mid-Atlantic Design Fellowship is to focus on DESIGN, SUSTAINABILITY and COMMUNITY by cultivating and showcasing emerging design talent, and to stimulate new design approaches by solving a challenge affecting the DC metro area through design; all while building relationships with regional schools and the community. The HKS Mid-Atlantic Design Fellowship is modeled after the company-wide HKS Design Fellowship and the HKS Detroit Design Fellowship, adapted and evolved to meet the specific situations of the Mid-Atlantic regional offices. Fellows will be selected from the HKS Richmond and Washington, D.C. offices as well as local universities.
I would like to thank Susan Piedmont-Palladino for writing my recommendation later on such short notice. The charette will be hosted at HKS next weekend. The representative from HKS has told me that the charette usually pulls an all-nighter from Saturday to Sunday, so another fun weekend ahead. I will post my results from the charette as they become available.
February 16, 2011
Productive Day
Today, I produced two sections and a plan, meaning that it was an extremely productive day. Tomorrow I will begin studying my buildings skin a bit more heavily. I want to create a form that is a bit more organic, treating the individual panels as cells rather than a thick exoskeleton. I have been researching Melbourne's Rectangular Stadium, which uses tessellated dome structures to cover the outer perimeter of the stadium. The use of a strong steel frame allows each individual panel to have the option of becoming translucent, which has been a problem for my building skins thus far. Hopefully tomorrow something fruitful will come of this.
Melbourne
Sections
Melbourne
Sections
February 10, 2011
February 8, 2011
Spider Stadium
I have decided to use a repetition of solid and translucent to compose the skin of my stadium. The solid skin will be able to go up and down in a folding manner, seen in this piece done by architect Andre Kikoski.
The facade, found in Brooklyn, closes and protects the store fronts behind it. When opened, the facade provides an awning over the storefront. My building will use these doors to open and close the stadium to the public.
After I built a quick study model, it seems that my building looks like a arachnoid of some sort. I am spending the rest of the day, going back and looking at my site to re-invent my building.
The facade, found in Brooklyn, closes and protects the store fronts behind it. When opened, the facade provides an awning over the storefront. My building will use these doors to open and close the stadium to the public.
After I built a quick study model, it seems that my building looks like a arachnoid of some sort. I am spending the rest of the day, going back and looking at my site to re-invent my building.
February 4, 2011
February 2, 2011
Theoretical Backup
I have been trying to grasp my thesis the past few weeks with some success and some failure. To summarize, I am looking at how technology can be used in an architectural format to better the urban environment. In reality, it is the spatial reaction that can be utilized through new technologies and information systems that I am most interested in. The problem with this is that all of my research has been done studying new building systems and products rather then writings and theories from the past. No longer. My chair, Paul Emmons, has lent me a book, "Rethinking Technology", which is a collection of articles from architects that discusses how architecture should embrace technology. These articles range from Frank Lloyd Wright to Le Corbusier to more modern writings. I will be using this book mostly for quotes to support my thesis. It is 450 pages long, but given the short amount of time I have on my thesis, I will try to read all of it the rest of this week. Good luck to me.....
January 31, 2011
Sketch of the day
Looking at truss ideas for spanning over the stadium....
(Resolution is not the greatest as the picture was taken on my iPhone)
(Resolution is not the greatest as the picture was taken on my iPhone)
January 26, 2011
WAAC Lecture Series
So for the first time since I have been attending, the WAAC will host a lecture series this semester. The series is being conducted by the PH.D. students, which will make the lectures much more theory and discussion oriented then most lecture series. I hope to attend as many as I can this last semester.
January 25, 2011
Skin Tight
I did a couple of iterations of the skin of the stadium complex. The larger model is at 1/16" scale, showing some of the uses the skin could provide to the public. I got mixed reviews on the models, most of the comments revolved around my structure. I need to create a more "athletic" structure, according to one critic, so my next model will be a sectional structural model (say that 5 times fast).
Some Sketches:
Iterations:
Some Sketches:
Iterations:
January 17, 2011
Harvesting Energy from the Public
The auxiliary building's program have been on my mind for some time. I have been leaning towards making them a community/ fitness center. One of the ideas I have been tossing around was allowing the public to actually generate some of the electricity for the stadium.
ReRev is a company that specializes in refurbishing exercise machines with generators. They take the kinetic energy produced by humans and harvest it so that it is usable by the rest of the building.
http://rerev.com/howitworks.html
Another company is Henry Works, which invented a stationary bike that harvests kinetic energy and converts it straight into your electrical system. All you have to do is plug in the bike, and the energy is converted. By taking some of these machines and ideas, I hope to allow the public to interact directly with the building's power grid. This will allow the public to adopt the building as a neighborhood organism; a living building that grows with the community, making both the building and the community better. By having some of the building's power being generated by the public, the membership fee will be able to be lowered as well.
On another note,oomorrow is the last first day of school I will ever have. It is a sad day, but I have come to realize that it is time for me to move on. Who knows, maybe I will come back to academia in the future. Wish me luck that I will finish strong.
ReRev is a company that specializes in refurbishing exercise machines with generators. They take the kinetic energy produced by humans and harvest it so that it is usable by the rest of the building.
http://rerev.com/howitworks.html
Another company is Henry Works, which invented a stationary bike that harvests kinetic energy and converts it straight into your electrical system. All you have to do is plug in the bike, and the energy is converted. By taking some of these machines and ideas, I hope to allow the public to interact directly with the building's power grid. This will allow the public to adopt the building as a neighborhood organism; a living building that grows with the community, making both the building and the community better. By having some of the building's power being generated by the public, the membership fee will be able to be lowered as well.
On another note,oomorrow is the last first day of school I will ever have. It is a sad day, but I have come to realize that it is time for me to move on. Who knows, maybe I will come back to academia in the future. Wish me luck that I will finish strong.
January 14, 2011
Thesis Breakthrough?
Today I had an idea to add some interesting spatial features to my design. I was upset in how orthogonal the building was becoming, so I decided to play with the angle created by New York Ave. at the north end of my site. I applied this angle to the pavement pattern at first, and this idea started to manifest into the skin of the stadium as well. With the skin and pavement going one direction and the structure and playing field going in another, an interesting dichotomy is created. I started to sketch out ideas of the pavement pattern and saw that if horizontal strips are used, a plethora of different materials could be installed (solar panels, led screens, glass, concrete, etc...). Development is in process.....
January 13, 2011
Midterm Model (Old)
This is the model I presented at the end of the year review.
The scheme is simple. I sunk the stadium into the ground, allowing for a smaller footprint in a dense urban environment. The lower bowl has moving seating which allows for various events to take place, from soccer to tennis to a concert. At ground level, a running track will be place surrounding the stadium which will be open to the public during the day. Another tier of seating will rise above ground, creating the necessary seating capacity needed for an MLS stadium.
To the east of the stadium, facilities will be created to support the stadium. A plaza will be created to the north of the stadium. To the west of the stadium, a pedestrian street will be place to connect 10 St. To the west of the street will be an office building with retail at the ground level.
The roof of the stadium allows for flexible programming of the complex. The roof can either be located over patrons during stadium events..............
Or it can be located over the pedestrian street during rainy days, or for events which are more public in nature, such as famers markets or art exhibits.
I got mixed review about the model. The major thing is that there is no skin surrounding the stadium. I am unsure of what this will be. Another criticism was that the auxiliary buildings do not really mesh with the stadium. I must do a better job to connect them, perhaps using the skin to do this.
The scheme is simple. I sunk the stadium into the ground, allowing for a smaller footprint in a dense urban environment. The lower bowl has moving seating which allows for various events to take place, from soccer to tennis to a concert. At ground level, a running track will be place surrounding the stadium which will be open to the public during the day. Another tier of seating will rise above ground, creating the necessary seating capacity needed for an MLS stadium.
To the east of the stadium, facilities will be created to support the stadium. A plaza will be created to the north of the stadium. To the west of the stadium, a pedestrian street will be place to connect 10 St. To the west of the street will be an office building with retail at the ground level.
The roof of the stadium allows for flexible programming of the complex. The roof can either be located over patrons during stadium events..............
Or it can be located over the pedestrian street during rainy days, or for events which are more public in nature, such as famers markets or art exhibits.
I got mixed review about the model. The major thing is that there is no skin surrounding the stadium. I am unsure of what this will be. Another criticism was that the auxiliary buildings do not really mesh with the stadium. I must do a better job to connect them, perhaps using the skin to do this.
January 12, 2011
Design Build PinUp (Old)
These are pictures from the end of the year show and my design build project. As you recall, my group was assigned to design a partition wall that separated a studio space from the stairs below. We explored methods of digital fabrication to do this, using tools such as the laser-cam and the Grasshopper plug-in for Rhino to accomplish our design intents.
We wanted to create a system that allowed for limited visual and audio connections between each side, but provided a structural barrier to separate each side. The system uses strips of metal and notches them in different locations so that one could slide into another. A weaving pattern is created, creating rigidity in the metal as well as creating a porosity that allows for some connection between each side. This process allows the design to use zero fasteners between strips, becoming a self-sustaining structure. This is one of the reasons I believe that these methods of digital fabrication will soon permeate into the construction world. Below is a mock-up of this system.
This system, when assembled, is then attached to the existing brick wall. A joint is drilled into the brick with a notch, allowing us an easy installation; the system will slide in, the joints will secure every other edge in the metal system, and installation will be complete. Below is a mock-up of the joint.
On the stair side, a curve is generated that mimics the spiral stair which fills the volume below. We had to write a script in Grasshopper which gave us the length between each notch which allowed the curve to exist. The side facing the studio space remains constant, which allows the notches to have a constant distance from the studio side folds. Below is the Grasshopper script, the final cut file for each metal strip, and the rendering from the stair side.
Below is the final presentation. The reviews from the faculty were all positive, and it looks like we will be receiving the necessary funds to build the wall. We need to contact a company which has a water-jet cutter, as our CNC machine will not allow us to cut the metal strips. Hopefully we can iron out all the kinks and get this built before the end of the year.
We wanted to create a system that allowed for limited visual and audio connections between each side, but provided a structural barrier to separate each side. The system uses strips of metal and notches them in different locations so that one could slide into another. A weaving pattern is created, creating rigidity in the metal as well as creating a porosity that allows for some connection between each side. This process allows the design to use zero fasteners between strips, becoming a self-sustaining structure. This is one of the reasons I believe that these methods of digital fabrication will soon permeate into the construction world. Below is a mock-up of this system.
This system, when assembled, is then attached to the existing brick wall. A joint is drilled into the brick with a notch, allowing us an easy installation; the system will slide in, the joints will secure every other edge in the metal system, and installation will be complete. Below is a mock-up of the joint.
On the stair side, a curve is generated that mimics the spiral stair which fills the volume below. We had to write a script in Grasshopper which gave us the length between each notch which allowed the curve to exist. The side facing the studio space remains constant, which allows the notches to have a constant distance from the studio side folds. Below is the Grasshopper script, the final cut file for each metal strip, and the rendering from the stair side.
Below is the final presentation. The reviews from the faculty were all positive, and it looks like we will be receiving the necessary funds to build the wall. We need to contact a company which has a water-jet cutter, as our CNC machine will not allow us to cut the metal strips. Hopefully we can iron out all the kinks and get this built before the end of the year.
January 10, 2011
Some Midterm Stuff
These are a few diagrams of my intentions that I showed during our review in December. More images to follow:
The basic idea is that the roof structure could allow for flexibility in the program. When the roof is closed or partially closed, events could be taking place on the field. When the roof opens, the pedestrian street would be covered, allowing for multiple events to take place here as well. The pedestrian street could become a public art gallery or a farmers market, serving the public both economically and culturally.
I also looked at how each stadium in the MLS looked in my site. Most were around the same size, which told me that I was in the ballpark for seating capacity.
As you can see, I mainly focused on layout and the programmatic flexibility aspects of my thesis. I hope to look more at the various systems that will allow this thesis to become a living, sustainable boon for the city.
The basic idea is that the roof structure could allow for flexibility in the program. When the roof is closed or partially closed, events could be taking place on the field. When the roof opens, the pedestrian street would be covered, allowing for multiple events to take place here as well. The pedestrian street could become a public art gallery or a farmers market, serving the public both economically and culturally.
I also looked at how each stadium in the MLS looked in my site. Most were around the same size, which told me that I was in the ballpark for seating capacity.
As you can see, I mainly focused on layout and the programmatic flexibility aspects of my thesis. I hope to look more at the various systems that will allow this thesis to become a living, sustainable boon for the city.
January 9, 2011
Day 1, Week 1, Last Semester
I will start back up with my thesis this week as I prepare for the upcoming semester. Below is how I will attack my thesis this week:
I will be re-defining my thesis. This is not a total demolition of ideals, but more of a tweak. I will be focusing the thesis more on how the stadium can be a self-sustaining building that helps the city both economically and socially. I hope to do some writing this week that helps define these ideas even more.
I will be re-defining my thesis. This is not a total demolition of ideals, but more of a tweak. I will be focusing the thesis more on how the stadium can be a self-sustaining building that helps the city both economically and socially. I hope to do some writing this week that helps define these ideas even more.
January 5, 2011
New Year's Resolutions
Over the holidays, I was allowed to clear my head and relax comfortably as I visited family and friends. I needed this, as my semester had been a tough one filled with many divergent responsibilities and academic rigor. As it is customary to make resolutions at the end of each year, I came up with a few about my academic life for my last semester of formalized education. I hope these will be the backbone of a strong academic year.
1) Blog Everyday- This is something I failed at, letting days and weeks go by between posts. This not only makes the blog stagnant, but also makes me fail at documenting my work during the semester. So my vow is too have one post every weekday this upcoming semester.
2) Lay back on classes, push forward on Thesis- Last semester was class heavy, as Design Build and Urban Studies took up a large chunk of my time. This semester is all about Thesis. Far too many times, I see students pushing thesis into the summer or even next Fall. I will not allow this too happen, as I plan to defend in May and be employed by the summer. I will take two computer courses this semester, one in Revit and one in Grasshopper (new this semester) as I put most of my energy into Thesis.
3) Sharpen Resume and Portfolio- I need to make these things better so that I can land a job that I want. They are pretty good as of now, not excellent. My fear is not that I get a job, but that I don't get the one I want. I will be focusing on large firms in the DC and Baltimore area, such as Gensler, RTKL, SOM, HKS, and HOK. I also plan to apply to Populous, formerly HOK Sport, and OMA in New York. These firms are highly competitive, so I plan on taking a few weeks on each portfolio piece and strengthening them to a level of excellence needed.
4) Build my Brand- The point in applying to well established firms is due in part to my goal of opening my own firm before I am thirty. To do this requires extreme amounts of hard work, but also creating an identity for myself that attracts clients. My love of sports and physical activity combined with my love of architecture can create a pretty compelling brand, in my opinion. I need to create graphics that start to speak to my brand as I move my portfolio online and edit my portfolio and resume. If I start building my brand now, it will pay dividends in the near future.
5) Refocus my Thesis- My midterm review went well ( I will post images soon), but I left it feeling as if my Thesis was going down a path I didn't want to be on. It is turning into a study of motion in architecture, leaving behind some of the optimizing systems I wanted to study. The point of the moving building pieces was to look at programmatic flexibility and all its benefits within a new stadium complex, with interactive and eco-friendly systems also providing the building a certain vibrancy. Before school starts on the 18th, I need to sit down and write a new focused abstract that will lead me the rest of the way.
6) Teach myself Ecotect, 3DS Max, and Photoshop- Last semester, I taught myself Rhino, Grasshopper, and GIS. This semester I need to focus on rendering skills and animation skills that will allow me to display my work in impressive fashion. I also need to start analyzing my thesis in Ecotect so I can implement ecological systems into the building.
I will post part two of my resolutions tomorrow.
1) Blog Everyday- This is something I failed at, letting days and weeks go by between posts. This not only makes the blog stagnant, but also makes me fail at documenting my work during the semester. So my vow is too have one post every weekday this upcoming semester.
2) Lay back on classes, push forward on Thesis- Last semester was class heavy, as Design Build and Urban Studies took up a large chunk of my time. This semester is all about Thesis. Far too many times, I see students pushing thesis into the summer or even next Fall. I will not allow this too happen, as I plan to defend in May and be employed by the summer. I will take two computer courses this semester, one in Revit and one in Grasshopper (new this semester) as I put most of my energy into Thesis.
3) Sharpen Resume and Portfolio- I need to make these things better so that I can land a job that I want. They are pretty good as of now, not excellent. My fear is not that I get a job, but that I don't get the one I want. I will be focusing on large firms in the DC and Baltimore area, such as Gensler, RTKL, SOM, HKS, and HOK. I also plan to apply to Populous, formerly HOK Sport, and OMA in New York. These firms are highly competitive, so I plan on taking a few weeks on each portfolio piece and strengthening them to a level of excellence needed.
4) Build my Brand- The point in applying to well established firms is due in part to my goal of opening my own firm before I am thirty. To do this requires extreme amounts of hard work, but also creating an identity for myself that attracts clients. My love of sports and physical activity combined with my love of architecture can create a pretty compelling brand, in my opinion. I need to create graphics that start to speak to my brand as I move my portfolio online and edit my portfolio and resume. If I start building my brand now, it will pay dividends in the near future.
5) Refocus my Thesis- My midterm review went well ( I will post images soon), but I left it feeling as if my Thesis was going down a path I didn't want to be on. It is turning into a study of motion in architecture, leaving behind some of the optimizing systems I wanted to study. The point of the moving building pieces was to look at programmatic flexibility and all its benefits within a new stadium complex, with interactive and eco-friendly systems also providing the building a certain vibrancy. Before school starts on the 18th, I need to sit down and write a new focused abstract that will lead me the rest of the way.
6) Teach myself Ecotect, 3DS Max, and Photoshop- Last semester, I taught myself Rhino, Grasshopper, and GIS. This semester I need to focus on rendering skills and animation skills that will allow me to display my work in impressive fashion. I also need to start analyzing my thesis in Ecotect so I can implement ecological systems into the building.
I will post part two of my resolutions tomorrow.
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