THE ACADEMIC WORK OF K E V I N M A R B L E S T O N E. Master of Architecture Candidate Massachusetts Institute of Technology Spring 2017

Transcription

1 THE ACADEMIC WORK OF K E V I N M A R B L E S T O N E Master of Architecture Candidate Massachusetts Institute of Technology Spring 2017

2 2 KEVIN Master of Architecture Candidate Massachusetts Institute of Technology CONTENT DESERT INCISIONS... page 3 LANDSCAPE INTERFACE... page 5 ROOM... page 10 URBAN PALIMPSEST... page 13 LOFTED GEOMETRIES... page 16 URBAN RESILIENCE... page 17 THEATER... page 20

3 3 0.1 SUBJECT DESERT INCISIONS TERM SPRING 2014 DESIGN STUDIO 4 CRITIC LISA HUANG WHAT IS THE FIRST MARK IN A LANDSCAPE ABSENT OF SCALE AND MEASUREMENT? The desert is understood as a field of fragile conditions, a place where time and movement acquire new meaning. The desert surface itself is marked with natural incisions and boundaries, each generating a new set of local conditions that synthesize the multiple climatic forces acting upon the landscape. This project began by understanding these conditions and contextual layers through drawing, establishing connections and creating opportunity for intervention. Pulling open the desert surface reveals an intense construction that embellishes the rhythms and measures of the sun. The construct, programmed as an outpost for aerial archeology, utilizes the changing presence of light and shadow as a catalyst for programmatic clarity. Edges within the structure are emphasized in relation to time and program based on the movement of the sun. The permanent structure will evolve through varying lighting conditions.

4 4 0.1 SUBJECT DESERT INCISIONS TERM SPRING 2014 DESIGN STUDIO 4 CRITIC LISA HUANG Opening the desert s surface reciprocates architecturally with the atmospheric qualities of both the submerged and exposed spaces. The intervention holds an instrumental capacity to translate the desert s character for human understanding.

5 5 0.2 SUBJECT LANDSCAPE INTERFACE TERM FALL 2014 DESIGN STUDIO 5 CRITIC MARTIN GUNDERSEN SHELL MOUND CEDAR KEY SUWANNEE RIVER MANATEE SPRINGS LAKE NEWNANS PAYNES PRAIRIE SALT MARSHES MATANZA INLET HOW CAN ARCHITECTURE EXIST AS AN INSTRUMENT TO UNDERSTAND AND REGENERATE THE FLORIDA LANDSCAPE? My analysis for this project began with a sectional study of the Florida peninsula, in an effort to capture and illustrate the varying contextual layers between each coast. Critical to this study was understanding the key moments of transition between specific regions with respect to qualities of air, water, and plant life. Natural cycles between these elements change in response to location, allowing for different scales of human interaction with these landscapes. The project s site, Paynes Prairie, stands as a naturally occurring joint between Florida s omnipresent aquifer systems and the humid air. The visual manifestation of this joint is the horizon line, a datum for understanding both the near and far landscapes.

6 6 0.2 SUBJECT LANDSCAPE INTERFACE TERM FALL 2014 DESIGN STUDIO 5 CRITIC MARTIN GUNDERSEN Paynes Prairie exists today with the physical marks and natural palimpsests of past settlements. Channels in the ground, constructed by the Timucua civilization for crop irrigation, act as barriers that disengage natural water cycles from the site. Watershed from the north enters the region and then is immediately diverted east, away from the prairie. These physical boundaries must be either broken or repositioned in an effort to reclaim the dehydrated land. I approached the site analysis as a careful process of calibrating a new interface. Critical to this process is the establishment of points of control and points of release in the landscape, using the natural forces already present to generate a new dialogue with the prairie.

7 7 0.2 SUBJECT LANDSCAPE INTERFACE TERM FALL 2014 DESIGN STUDIO 5 CRITIC MARTIN GUNDERSEN The approach for this project placed emphasis on the beauty of the construct s tectonics, specifically in the joints of materials both within the intervention and between the intervention and ground. The simplicity and logic required to design a material joint can translate to multiple scales of construction. This method of making stems from my belief that both development of material joints and the generation of spatial joints are integrally linked in the architectural design process.

8 8 0.2 SUBJECT LANDSCAPE INTERFACE TERM FALL 2014 DESIGN STUDIO 5 CRITIC MARTIN GUNDERSEN Creating an effective itinerary in Paynes Prairie requires augmenting the subtle relationship between the near and far landscapes. Understanding this connection between the immediate and distant territories involves careful calibration of the approach to the intervention. The approach allows the inhabitant to occupy, and transition through, the near landscape while evolving their perception of the unattainable, far landscape. This type of understanding and response to the site s conditions inversely influenced the development of interior moments looking back onto the landscape. A modeling exercise developed the intervention s moments of acupuncture into the ground. This generated the main structural system of the pavilion, which then bled into the surrounding landscape as a network of actuating conduits.

9 9 0.2 SUBJECT LANDSCAPE INTERFACE TERM FALL 2014 DESIGN STUDIO 5 CRITIC MARTIN GUNDERSEN The interstitial spaces bounding the pavilion are constructed in such a way that leverage the interior presence of both pellucid light and filtered light. Creating these spaces allows the inhabitant s experience within the intervention to constantly engage with the near and far landscapes of Paynes Prairie. Opaque and translucent materials veil and unveil the surrounding context, choreographing the observer s understanding of the horizon line. The space is a machine that breathes with air and light. The pavilion respects these elements with a restrained intensity, allowing its beauty to reside in the constructed edges and joints between exterior and interior space. The sun-filled shadow rests on its surfaces and harmonizes its interior spatial sequences. The pavilion rests above the prairie s surface, allowing for seasonal fluctuations in water levels. Rooted conduits extend out from the structure to the south, reaching into the unconstructed landscape.

10 SUBJECT ROOM TERM FALL 2016 DESIGN STUDIO MIT M.ARCH CORE 1 PARTNER SHANE ZHANG, STEPHAN HERNANDEZ CRITIC WILLIAM O BRIEN JR. HOW CAN A ROOM TRANSFORM THE PERCEPTION OF THE BODY AND THE SPACE ADJACENT TO IT? Our primary concentration for this project was the human scale. Specifically, we challenged the means of occupation of space by developing a room that transforms the perception of the body. A key part of this process was considering the architectural means through to define a room by establishing registrations with the human body and existing architectural conditions in local sites. Our team constructed an object, a room, with the intention of installation in a variety of contexts, with each configuration of the object responding do a different set of principles and manipulations of space. We sought to understand the minimal means by which one might constitute a room.

11 SUBJECT ROOM TERM FALL 2016 DESIGN STUDIO MIT M.ARCH CORE 1 PARTNER SHANE ZHANG, STEPHAN HERNANDEZ CRITIC WILLIAM O BRIEN JR. The means and methods of construction for the object were critical to it s success. White spandex fabric was used for it s synthetic properties and for it s ability to diffuse light. The manipulation of the surface generated new qualities of light and space. The interior structure of the object was designed in such a way that would diminish it s appearance to the inhabitant by working with the bending of the fabric.

12 SUBJECT ROOM TERM FALL 2016 DESIGN STUDIO MIT M.ARCH CORE 1 PARTNER SHANE ZHANG, STEPHAN HERNANDEZ CRITIC WILLIAM O BRIEN JR. Implementation of the object above a stair defines new space both below and next to it s boundaries. Circulation space transforms into stationary space. Installation of the object vertically defines new space by turning a corner. Interactions between people are mediated, fostering curiosity and defamiliarizing sense of self and place.

13 SUBJECT URBAN PALIMPSEST TERM SPRING 2015 DESIGN STUDIO 6 CRITIC MICHAEL KUENSTLE CAN A CALIBRATED LAYERING OF MATERIALS GENERATE EXPERIENCE? My analysis for this project began with responding to the challenge of developing interstitial spaces within a civic construct in an urban environment. The process for this analysis emerged from a series of diagrammatic palimpsest drawings, each studying the sectional engagement of a core space and a surrounding system of volumes. Forms for these core spaces were extracted from material urban palimpsests found within the site s immediate context in Charleston, South Carolina. These existing palimpsests, layered in nature, can be exploded and manipulated as a space-making tool. The boundaries between these layers and experiences can eventually become so blurred that they exist as traces, or ghosts, of what they once were.

14 SUBJECT URBAN PALIMPSEST TERM SPRING 2015 DESIGN STUDIO 6 CRITIC MICHAEL KUENSTLE Palimpsests in Charleston are clustered into three distinct zones: historical, infrastructural, and civic. Each of these zones acts as an urban tectonic plate, constantly shifting over time. The friction between these plates manifests architecturally through the erasing and reconstruction of structures along these edges. Each palimpsest has a unique character and reads as ligature when understanding the urban context of the city. It also incorporates an added dimension of time and memory, mnemonically connecting these surfaces with rewritings of past generations. Charleston s palimpsests primarily exist along Meeting Street and Broad Street, two fault lines between the shifting cultural and civic zones of the city. Specific surfaces were selected from these zones to generate the programmatic layout of the final project.

15 SUBJECT URBAN PALIMPSEST TERM SPRING 2015 DESIGN STUDIO 6 CRITIC MICHAEL KUENSTLE Through perspective drawings, I studied how the layering of translucent and opaque surfaces generates experience, similar to the way layered materials generate experience in Charleston in the form of palimpsests. Through the implementation of scrim surfaces, light becomes a critical factor in this conversation. The layering of scrims along the periphery of the building creates an opportunity for the construct to have a unique active dialogue with the city, specifically with the street level. Through the utilization of interior spaces, this activity is translated through various qualities of light and then projected onto the exterior scrim surfaces. This phenomenon was studied through scale models representing the layers of translucent surfaces, with an opaque core piece that pushes light out in specific directions. Derspid quos sit, incipsume viduntibus soluptatur sitatis ea porestiorum repe porendese estrunt vendandus. Obis aut ea sedit endigni ssimili ctotatibus voluptatur, qui utem corumex exceseq uaturep.

16 SUBJECT LOFTED GEOMETRIES TERM SPRING 2015 DESIGN STUDIO ADVANCED DIGITAL CRITIC LEE-SU HUANG HOW CAN HABITABLE SPACE BE CARVED INTO A LOFTED GEOMETRY? This project proposes a unique and iconic construct on the east end of Museum Road in on the campus of the University of Florida. The project site experiences high levels of foot traffic on a daily basis, primarily in the morning and afternoon hours. The cocoon structure envelops those who inhabit the pavilion, nesting them as they rest on the seating area carved from the lofted geometry. The lofted structure pinches on each end, and swells towards the center of the pavilion to generate a habitable space. The south-facing opening allows inhabitants to enter the pavilion, while east and west-facing openings allow for framed views in either direction. The cocoon is nested in a structural scaffold, which both supports the cocoon and veils its presence from passing spectators.

17 SUBJECT URBAN RESILIENCE TERM FALL 2015 DESIGN STUDIO 7 PARTNER EMILY WHITBECK CRITIC DONNA COHEN CAN INFRASTRUCTURE PERFORM AS ARCHITECTURE IN AN URBAN CONTEXT? Along the lower west side of New York City, the Chelsea neighborhood exists in an area of extreme vulnerability. Storm surges consume the coast with raised water levels, damaging local infrastructure. In this region, the Westbeth Artist Housing building stands as a node of activity and cultural development. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Westbeth s lower-level foundry spaces were completely destroyed. These spaces are now rendered unusable. Analysis of the site began with identifying specific areas where the line between architecture and infrastructure is blurred. Understanding these infrastructural pieces as geometries with the capacity to be projected and augmented in order to become habitable space opens up possibilities for a solution that combats water level issues. Sectional studies explore the relationship between existing infrastructure and surrounding buildings. The High Line carves into the stereotomic mass of commercial structures.

18 SUBJECT URBAN RESILIENCE TERM FALL 2015 The tower is programmed as an artist housing structure with a gallery space closer to the ground. The site is treated by cutting into the Earth on the eastern portion of the site and constructing a public, infrastructural plaza towards the Hudson. The rhythms and proportions of the tower are speculatively generated by the experiential characteristics and measures of the surrounding urban context. DESIGN STUDIO 7 PARTNER EMILY WHITBECK CRITIC DONNA COHEN

19 SUBJECT URBAN RESILIENCE TERM FALL 2015 DESIGN STUDIO 7 PARTNER EMILY WHITBECK CRITIC DONNA COHEN The base of the tower is constructed as a spatial joint that embeds into the ground. This intersection between construct and Earth hosts a core infrastructural piece. Storm water that reaches the site is filtered through a constructed ground with permeable materials, allowing the water to sink below the surface. The water drains into the joint piece and then stains a corten steel screen that surrounds the retainment gallery, activating this piece as a mnemonic device that transcends the present and connects observers to its functionality over time. This speculative approach to creating infrastructure as a piece of architecture questions infrastructure s role within the urban context, catalyzing the creation of a more resilient urban fabric.

20 SUBJECT THEATER TERM FALL 2016 DESIGN STUDIO MIT M.ARCH CORE 1 CRITIC OANA STANESCU HOW DOES THE ACT OF SPECTATING DEFINE THEATER IN THE LANDSCAPE? The project s prompt asked for the design of two theaters in the landscape, one in the round and one in the ground. The project s site is Olmsted s Emerald Necklace in South Boston, and a system of artificial, naturalized vistas connected by seemingly organic paths. My first mark into the landscape was a line, about half of a mile in length, thata obliquely intersected the existing paths at six moments. This line performed as more of an axis in the development of the project, along which a series of theatrical experiences were designed. The axis stitched these experiences together across the landscape, effectively adding a new path in the park.

21 SUBJECT THEATER TERM FALL 2016 DESIGN STUDIO MIT M.ARCH CORE 1 CRITIC OANA STANESCU The project s axis intersects with both the weaving paths of the park, but also the changing elevation of the park topography. This creates experiences both above ground and below ground.

22 SUBJECT THEATER TERM FALL 2016 DESIGN STUDIO MIT M.ARCH CORE 1 CRITIC OANA STANESCU The axis of moments in the landscape is anchored by two primary theater spaces, one for approximately 1,050 spectators and the other for approximately 450 spectators (as dictated by the prompt). The larger one, the theater in the round, is defined by just the element of the stage and takes advantage of an existing bowl in the landscape.

23 SUBJECT THEATER TERM FALL 2016 DESIGN STUDIO MIT M.ARCH CORE 1 CRITIC OANA STANESCU The second theater, the theater in the ground, is embedded into a hill on the south side of the site. The theater has two levels of experiences, the first framing the sky, and the second framing the performance below. In the entirety of the project, there are three defined relationships: spectator to performance, spectator to landscape, and spectator to spectator