EDGE CONDITION

2011 - 10up Competition - 1st Place - to be built June 2011

http://www.10up.yafatlanta.org/10up_2011_Winners.html

Utilizing a by-product material as a means of invoking the temporary pavilion with a temporary material wood edges cut from hardwood boards give a standardized object to build upon creating a field in which to inhabit. By operating on the edge of definitive material, neither board nor wood chip, the wood edge becomes the temporal object between two phases.

In the same light the pavilion offers the capacity to be an edge condition of construction. The methodical mode of stacking and maneuvering the edges is in itself on the edge of a mode of construction. The flat stacking method gives way to opportunities for expansion and contraction of the volume between the material. The variable of stacking techniques allow for light to move into the pavilion only through the spaces between the edges transforming the edge condition into an ephemeral effect.

The standardized one inch thick wood edge and weight of the hardwood compress the stack into a inhabitable nest stabilized by its dimension and assembly. While dis-assembly is the reverse operation, the disposal of the material is a process of returning the wood edges to the hardwood mill as to re enter the recycling process that would otherwise take place.

Dimension 23 

Dimensions is the annual, student-produced journal of architecture at the University of Michigan. It seeks to contribute to the critical discourse of architectural education by documenting the most compelling work produced by its students, faculty, fellows, and visiting lecturers.

http://www.tcaup.umich.edu/architecture/publications/dimensions/dimensions23/

Contributors

Thesis: Kevin J. Deng, Emmet T. Harrison, Sen Liu, Patrick Lynch, A. Scottie McDaniel, Juan Mercado, Ivelise Ruiz Upward, Bethany Wilson. Architecture Fellows: G. Britt Eversole, Nataly Gettegno, Jason Kelly Johnson. Lecturers: Marlon Blackwell, Eric Kahn and Russel Thomsen (IDEA Office), and Ben Nicholson. Wallenberg Studio: Marie Matta, Marc Maxey, Ben Ruswick, Alex Timmer. A conversation with associate professor Geoffrey Thün. With a foreward by Melissa Harris and a postscript by Christian Unverzagt.

Editors

Thom Affeldt, Bradley Cooper, Kai Liu, Sarah Petri, Amy Rydleski, Matt Slingerland, Adam M. Smith, Natalie Wiersma, James McAlistair Wilson, Robert C. Yuen

SOFT SPACE

2010 - competition - top 10

As a framework for exploration in the human scale and constructed mediation of space, this proposes a soft space of emergent exploration determined by the public itself. The space is then defined by a concrete conceptual foundation of form and material, yet embodies a virtual and indeterminate process of time, intervention and response. This project is then interested in how a designed framework can enable the public to participate and digest the creation of a volume. It questions the authorship of architecture by authoring possibilities rather than conclusions. Life is then registered with a temporal sequence of manipulations. A pattern of panels are affixed to the egg-crate construction creating the void and framework for manipulated space. The ever accessible bungee cord is then the agent of interaction. While the space itself can be assemble quickly and efficiently with standard construction techniques and modular pieces, the final product is never revealed. A finished product cannot exist in a work of architecture that proposes time as a design material. Deploying factors of unpredictability as a material agenda is a work of architecture that requires exploration in full scale. While models and drawings are mediators in the process of design, they can not anticipate effects outside of themselves. The initiating form works then is a way to allow multiple arrangements and explorations of the effects of the linear cord. As the frame peels away from itself, participants slip into a void defined by their adjacency’s, interactions and perceptions. Cords can be moved, stretched and applied to various scenarios of defining void, registering the interest and interaction of visitors through the plasticity of the space. A pattern of perforations and notches allow for the attachment of cords. The gradient pattern enables a rigorous and condensed weaving of cords in the core of the space which fades to a looser array of connection points at the slipping points. The anticipatory nature of the architecture project looks forward towards new means of material and threshold. It reaches beyond itself as a defined work with indeterminate possibilities. The human now makes an event out of architecture rather than being imposed by it.

Laser Paper

Placing regular laser printer paper into a laser cutter and cutting strips. The pieces of paper are layered three to five sheets deep and once the cutting is complete the paper slits stand on their own creating miniture striated landscapes.

WYLD

2009 - Detroit, MI - design/build

http://www.inc.com/ss/worlds-coolest-offices-2010/coolest-converted-office-spaces#2

An office situated inside a house built in 1907 on Detroit’s east side for a group that specializes in graphic design and marketing. The office identity needs to reflect that of a young and contemporary marketing group. 

Light and material are the largest factors in the design. The installation creates an interior wrap within the existing room that screens light and and defines function. The perforated panels screen the existing fluorescent lights diffusing the harsh light to a subtle glow. Window panels allow control of natural light and shelving wraps the room for extra storage and display. 

The office space requires accommodation for up to four people. On frequent occasion the office is utilized by only two people. To maximize flexibility and flow the workstations become dynamic. Extra desks nestle below the primary desks to maximize space. When all four people are at work, the desks roll apart to reveal more work space underneath.