Spatial Explorations MsAAD GSAPP

+massu2013

EmanuelAdmassuMaster of Science in Advanced Architectural Design

Gathered here are a series of arguments for a diaphanous spatial condition where concepts of super-use, post-production and spatial appropriation are instrumental to the production of indeterminate architectural conditions. This is an architecture that hopes to facilitate the users potential to continue the process of creation. All three projects are designed to seamlessly unfold over time, reacting to the ever-changing political and cultural context. In the first project, existing architectural clichs are sampled, misused and outwitted to rethink the role of a cultural institution within the city. The second project samples a pair of contemporary urban conditions to activate the crumbling highway infrastructure of one of the fastest growing cities on the planet. And finally, the third project creates a scenario where both the user and architect act as DJs and producers, sampling, remixing and recombining a series spatial options. Whether its sampling clichs or cities, buildings or beats, sound-bites or imagesthis work takes great pleasure in taking items from the existing cultural market, abbreviating them, and using them to generate new spaces that others can build upon.

Contents

Enrique Walker , criticExcess VS. XS

Keith Kaseman , criticSupermodel City III

Karla Rothstein , criticHyper-Funerary Infrastructure

02

36

44

Spring 2012

EXcess vs. XS spring 2012

Utilizing a site in midtown manhattan two clichs or received ideas were employed to generate a series of questions addressing the role of a contemporary cultural institution and its relationship to the city. Each member of the studio coined a clichs and generated a manualhow to make a clich that would be utilized as scaffolding for a series of design operations. The first project utilizes the received idea of The Porcupine to generate an excessive container that will house a variety of organizations suspended from the spikes of a hairy envelope. While the second project inherits the received idea of The Outerwear and develops a series of slot buildings, where the program is atomized and distributed in order to be re-linked through a bridging strategy. In both cases, the cultural institution was designed to simultaneously house a Museum, Library and Artist Residence. The Porcupine inserts a massive infrastructure that utilizes a post-tensed cable system to give maximum organizational flexibility for the three different programs that will be hosted within the cultural institution, this design operation transforms the decorative spikes into a structural system. The second project transforms the received idea of an ornamental

envelope into an operative structural system for the next buildingthus the notion of conceiving every Outerwear as another building. Both projects were designed to seamlessly allow the public to flow into the building from the street. In the case of The Outerwear, we carved out the site to provide a continuous, oblique, public space, while The Porcupine provides a continuous public plaza that plugs directly to a subway station below by floating the envelope and liberating the ground plane. Each one of these projects were generated in accordance to the constraints that were established by their respective manuals, making the point of transgression where we as designers outwit the manual, a crucial moment within the design process.

In collaboration with: Lluis Casanovas, Idan Naor, and Eduardo Rega

Enrique Walker, Critic

3Porcupine As a Structural System

Spring 2012

01. Site 02. Maximum Envelope 03. Porcupine as a structural system

EXcess

Excess Narrative

We start the narrative of The Porcupine by maximizing the avail-able square footage. The whole site perimeter is extruded and punctured with spikes in order to receive a variety of cuturally-oriented programs. By lifting the large infrastructure completely off the ground, we are able to achieve a continuous public space, ready for spontaneous appropriation and provide direct access to the building.


04. Suspended Program

Design Manual provided by another team

05. Structural Articulation 06. Flexible organization

PORCUPINE

a users manual

RECEIVED

The first clich we received is a building covered with ornamen-tal spikes (UK PavilionHeatherwick Studio). We transgress the clich by taking a modernist positionmaking every decora-tive element, somewhat functional. The spikes of the porcupine are therefore reinterpreted as a post-tensed structural system that suspends a series of volumes within.

Spring 2012

Tension Cables Slabs Compression Bridges

Flexible Structure

The infrastructure is composed of a reinforced concrete con-tainer with a waffle structure, suspending a series of cables for different organizational types. The moment where the cables are post-tensed at the intersection of the waffle is the most curcial detail of the projectthis detail allows for the maximum flexibil-ity achieved through suspension. The outside face is flush with the spikes sticking out from the waffle. Within the 1m thickness

of the wall, the circles go from small to large exterior to inte-riorto maximize light without compromising the structural in-tegrity of the exoskeleton. This range also allows us to have a series of carefully calibrated variations in the amount of light that penetrates different zones of the envelope, later determining the programs that will be floating within that zone.


Interior View Maximize Flexibility

Exterior View

Elevation

Spring 2012

Phase 1 Shell Phase 2 Cables Phase 3 Slabs and Stabilizers

Construction Timeline

The infrastructure would be built in phases. The reinforced con-crete waffle container along with its perimeter circulation will be built first, then the post-tensed cables will be installed. Finally, a series of slabs along with their stabilizers are suspended. Each organization will serve as scaffolding for the following series of organizations that will be built above.


Phase 4 Maximize Flexibility

Spring 2012

Ribbon Circulation

A continuous public ribbon connects the various programmatic organizations with the pulic plaza on the ground floor. Invading and interrupting the different organizations, the path winds in and out creating an ambiguous relationship between the dif-ferent boundaries that exist within the building. This blurs the programmatic specificity of each of the slabs by allowing the different programs to migrate into one another.

The ribbon path connects with the transportaiton infrastructure of New York by plugging directly to the MTA subway station underneath.

Bridging / Compression Exposed Circulation Circulation Ribbon


Combined Paths

Spring 2012

Perimeter Circulation

The project is articulated around two types of circulation that in-teract between each other. The perimeter circulationattached to the wall structureprovides a faster path. It is comprised of four pairs of elevators and a spiral staircase. This circulation pro-vides additional structural support to the waffle container without blocking the circular apertures on the facade. A series of bridges connect the perimeter circulation to the individual organizations.

Elevator Cores Perimeter Circulation Possible Routes


Combined Paths

Spring 2012

Organizational Catalog

Once the infrastructure is set up, we suggest a catalogue of pos-sible organizations for suspension. We have a series of 6 organi-zational types de-constructed into platforms and stabilizers. The diversity of these organization types allows for an amorphous void space in-between the individual organization types and the infrastructural enclosure. This creates certain zones of overlap and ambiguity. For example, the roof-scape of the Performance

Space can be utilized to project information for the Archive and the Arist Residence. The cable space that suspends these or-ganizations from the enclosure is also utilized to house more ephemeral programs that compliment or negate the neighboring programs.

1. Library

4. Performance Space

Ephemeral Cable Programs

2. Administration

5. Archive

3. Museum

6. Artist Residence


Suspended Organizational types

Spring 2012

Expansive Envelope

Each architectural organization is enclosed by a flexible enve-lope that can be adjusted according to the needs of the users. This can relate to the events that are held inside the volume or the ephemeral events suspended in the interstitial space be-tween the waffle container and the slab. The expansive envelope marks a negotiable boundary between the organization and the cable space, offering all the variations betwen the shrink wrap

Slab & Stabilizers Steel tension & Cables Fabric Envelope Flexible Enclosure

and the sag conditionsresponding to a diverse set of perfor-mative requirements.


Plan of expansive envelope

Sectionexpansion, contraction

Spring 2012

Architectural Findings

The continuous interior public space connects a series of di-verse spatial and programmatic conditions, blurring the boundary between the city and the cultural institution. By providing access directly from the public plaza and the subway station underneath, the building is able to directly engage the physical context of midtown Manhattan. The stairs and ramps that connect the slabs act as structural stabilizers, allowing each organization to achieve

structural autonomy. Suspension opens up the possibility of an uninterrupted space in-between specialized organizations, while simultaneously allowing for maximum tranformability through the expansion and contraction of the envelope. The juxtaposi-tion of heterogenous volumes allows for an architecture that is non-panoptical.

Suspended slabs & stabilizers Programmatic Volumes Inter-Volume Spaces

Spring 2012

XS Narrative

We start the narrative by conceptualizing the facade of the adja-cent building as our first outer wear, then we fabricate a series of similar relationships across the site until we reach a critical of approximately 3m to access the public space below. We carved out an oblique space that allows the city to directly tuck into our building. It is a ramp that leads to nowhere.

Conceptualizing adjacent building as an outerwear

Carving site for Public access

Conceptualizing adjacent building as an outerwear

Carving site for Public access

Spanningacross the void to add a building for each outerwear

Atomizingprogram by multiplying outerwear

01. Conceptualizing adjacent building as Outerwear

02. Carving site for public access 03. Spanning accross the void to add a building to each Outerwear

XS

21Outerwear As Another Building

Spanningacross the void to add a building for each outerwear

Atomizingprogram by multiplying outerwear

Replicating system without blocking public access

Linking Replicatingsystem without blockingpublic access

through bridging strategy

Replicating system without blocking public access

Linking Replicatingsystem without blockingpublic access

through bridging strategy

04. Atomizing program by multiplying Outerwear

05. Replicating system without blocking pulic access

06. Linking through bridging strategy

OUTERWEAR

a users manual

RECEIVED

The second clich we received is a building wrapped by a seem-ingly structural but largely ornamental envelope (BirdsnestH&deM). Continuing with our modernist obsession, we found another way to turn ornament into structure. We were able to misread the clich by making each outer wear the structrual sup-port for the adjacent building.

Design Manual provided by another team

Spring 2012

OUTERWEAR RECEIVED IDEA

+

STRUCTURALLY INDEPENDANT BUILDING

STRUCTURALLY EXPRESSIVE ENVELOPE

Rules:

1. Outerwear Structure can not be occupied2. Outerwear opaqueness can not be less than 5% or greater than 50%3. No openings on the Outerwear can be greater than 5 times the smallest one4. The Outerwear can cover maxiumum 95% and minimum 45% of the facade5. The Performing structural system should not be the same as the Outerwears structural system6. Space between Performing structure and Outerwear can not be less than 12 inches or greater than 10 feet

Rules1. The thickness of the facade cannot be less than 1/4 inches or greater than 36 inches.2. The space between the outerwear and the performing structure cannot be occupied.3. The opaqueness of the facade cannot be less than 5% or greater than 50%4. No openings on the facade can be greater than 5 times the smallest one.5. The outerwear should cover maximum 95% to minimum 45% of the building.

Outerwear received idea


TRANSGRESSION

INSTEAD OF ADDING AN EMPTY OUTERWEAR TO EVERY BUILDING...

WHAT IF EVERY OUTERWEAR COMES WITH A BUILDING?

Initial Move:

Instead of accepting the premise of the manual which suggest that the outerwear is added as a decorative envelope to a building we decided to make each Outerwear operative.Each Outerwear comes complete with a series of slabs or buildings. This is a strictly Modernist approach that forces each outerwear to perform structurally

We converted the ornamental envelope into a performative structure by treating every outerwear as another building.

Outerwear transgression

Spring 2012 Outerwear As Another Building

STRATEGYRules:

1. Outerwear Structure can not be occupied2. Outerwear opaqueness can not be less than 5% or greater than 50%3. No openings on the Outerwear can be greater than 5 times the smallest one4. The Outerwear can cover maxiumum 95% and minimum 45% of the facade5. The Performing structural system should not be the same as the Outerwears structural system6. Space between Performing structure and Outerwear can not be less than 12 inches or greater than 10 feet

THE OUTERWEAR OF ONE BUILDING IS THE PERFORMATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE NEXT BUILDING...

A SERIES OF OUTERWEARS AS BUILDINGS OR BUILDINGS AS OUTERWEARS

OUTERWEAR

STRUCTURE

Once we devised a system that allowed us to utilize the outerwear of one building as the structural system of the next building, we multiplied a series of slot buildings horizontally accross the site

Strategy

Project Name 25

ATOMIZATION

THE PROGRAMS ARE ABBREVIATED TO A SERIES OF FURNITURE PIECES THAT ARE HUNG FROM EACH ONE OF THE OUTERWEARS

ROOMS

SINKS

& COUN

TERS

DORMIT

ORIES

TABLES

& CHAI

RS

STAIRS

CARREL

S

AUDITO

RIUM

SINKS

& TOIL

ETS

We abbreviated each programmatic element all the way down to the furniture and the minimum amount of space required to circulate.

Atomizaton

Spring 2012

Flexible Structure

A series of trusses that span the full length of the site do two things simultaneouslythey liberate a column-less oblique space underneath and they provide the structure upon which each one of the outer-wears will land. The furnitures and slabs are cantilevered off the faades.

A series of bridges provide circulation paths between buildings and function as double agents by rigidizing the towers laterally. The butterfly axon illustrates the condition on the ground and the underside view of the buildings from the public plaza.

Faades

Bridges

Trusses


Butterfly Axon

Spring 2012

Performative Truss

The actual truss package negotiates the dichotomy between two conditions. Above, there is a plaza space that is perforated and augmented by a series of balconies, ramps and light wells providing visual access and light to the space below. The actual truss is also used to house the utilitiesbathrooms, mechanical space and ventialtionfor the obliques space. A series of pro-grammatic elements housed within the truss package can be pulled down and utilized by the oblique space.

The apertures on the facades are calibrated according to the programmatic element suspended behind. Program is reduced to its simplest constituentsfurniture and associated volumeto achieve the maximum amount of buildings, and therefore out-er wears. Buildings are multiplied until we achieved the critical dimension of 3m at the entrance of the oblique space.

Oblique space

Truss with programssuspended

Plaza space


Facades

Spring 2012

Facade & Furniture

Cantilevered Furniture

Each program is reduced into an assortment of furnitures and cantilevered from the structural walls. In addition to the catalog of furnitures we have also provided a series of generic spaces that will be utilized for dwelling or the production and display of artwork. The auditorium spaces provide areas for gathering. Each one of the towers operate as a programmatic SIM cards that will respond to the specificities of the cultural institution

through their placement and accessibility from the different parts of the site. The different heights of the towers are deter-mined in response to lighting and privacy requirements of each programmatic zone.


Cantilevered furniture

Spring 2012

Foldable Circulation

The vertical circulation elements that touch the ground are fold-able and retractable, allowing for a complete separation be-tween the events that take place above and below the truss. The oblique column-less space accomodates various scales of public events.

Circulation Diagram


Atomized Plan

Each organization is formed by the links of multiple bridges. This maximizes the potential changeability of the cultural institution throughout time. This condition frames an ideal zone for collabo-ration and interaction between artists and patrons.

Spring 2012

Coexisting Museums

This organizational system could provide interesting leasing op-tions for multiple cultural institutions. Each institution can choose to operate independantly or coexist with another institution by sharing spaces such as bathrooms, offices and even galleries.


Institution A Institution B

Furniture

Volume

Circulation

Spring 2012

Coexisting Libraries

The same organizational logic can be applied to a pair of librar-ies. Each library can choose to operate independantly or coexist with another library by sharing spaces such as bathrooms, of-fices and bookshelves.


Institution A Institution B

Furniture

Volume

Circulation

Spring 2012

Project Name 39

The flexibility of this cultural institution is achieved by designing a series of highly specific spaces that can be combined or isolat-ed easily. The structural system allows for a complete separation between what happens above and below the public plaza. The specificity of the towers is balanced out by the open-endedness of the oblique public plaza below.

In order to strategically engage the gaps generated by the crumbling highway system in Mumbai, 1km2 chunks of two inherently different urban prototypesa large market in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and a major highway intersection in Atlanta, Georgia are sampled and utilized as spatial agitators. The fluid informality of Merkatothe largest open-air market in Africais strategically mixed with the rigidityof Atlantas complex highway infrastructure. The highway bordering the Dhobi Ghat community of Mumbai provides all the necessary ingredients to deploy the mash-up, ranging from a sprawling unplanned community to an under-utilized mass transit system. The supermodel city is built around three polemical statements that were derived from the urban samples; the city has no walls, the city hides its parts; and the city lives in the sensible horizon. The pedestrian movement paths within the open-air market place of Addis Ababa are loosely defined by the temporary installations used to display the goods, while the dashed white lines create provisional borders for the high-speed automobiles zipping through the highways of Atlanta. In addition, Merkato serves a hyper-active urban landscape negotiating various face-to-face interactions between

merchants and consumers, while the highway experience while the highway system isolates each driver within a hermetically sealed transportation device. The opportunities gained and lost within these two urban environments are utilized to raise new questions and develop spontaneous methodologies to deal with rapid urban growth within the developing world.

Keith Kaseman, Critic

Summer 2011

Supermodel City III summer 2011

41Supermodel City III

Zone 1DensityConsumption

Zone 2PeripheralRigidity

Zone 2SpeedFluidity

Summer 2011

P2

P2

P2P2 P2 P2 P2

P2

P2

P2

Vortex

Vortex

P1

P1

P1

P1

P1

P1 P1 P1 P1 P1

P1 P1

Mapping Visibility

A Parametric model superimposes the movement patterns that were analyzed in marketplace with the ones from the interstates system of Atlanta. In both cases, movement is mapped in cor-relation to visibility. Various actors are mapped throughout each one of these networks in order to understand the consequence of mobility within each one of these urban conditions.


01

06

11

16

02

07

12

17

03

08

13

18

04

09

14

19

05

10

15

20

P2

P2

P1P2

Vortex

Vortex

P1

P1

Fall 2011

The city hides its parts


The city lives in the sensible horizon.

Spring 2012


The city has the potential to grow as a palimpsest, witout erasing it past, and incrementally improving its existing built infrastructure. By layering and dispersing the programmatic elements above the highway we are albe to reconnect the two seggregated neighborhoods of Mumbai. The small scale economic dynamism of the city is nurtured and allowed to grow according to its own parameters. Instead of providing rigid top-down planning strategies, this scheme allows the resident and the user to fill in the gaps. The spaces are designed to maximize the potetial for future appropriation.

Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure fall 2011

Karla Rothstein, Critic

The Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure infiltrates the static net-works and dynamic agents of the city. Resolved by a series of components that can easily respond to a set of funerary and non-funerary functions, the project allows the users to custom-ize their experience. It offers the samples and the mixing pro-tocols for the users to become architectural DJs. The system responds to extreme ranges of dynamism, from the appropria-tion of transport media, such as buses and train cars, to parking garages and abandoned subway stations. Within the dynamic agents, the system inserts itself into buses and trains, utilizing their dimensional constraints as a primary point of departure for the design. This allows the heterogeneous experiences to take place in movement, or in a location far from the city. We identify three conditions within the static Networks: parking garages (ex-ogenous), abandoned subway stations one level underground (ex-endogenous), and abandoned subway platforms completely underground (endogenous). These sites offer an expanded ver-sion of the programs for the dynamic networks to plug into.

By oscillating between hyper-public and hyper-private spaces, mixing funerary programs with a multitude of non-funerary ac-tivitiesthe project injects under-utilized urban zones with a hy-peractive series of public spaces.

In collaboration with: Eduardo Rega

Fall 2011

49

Sampling Prototypes

IsozakiInflatable Robot

Coop HimmelblauVilla Rosa

Peter Colomb & John FrazerUnfolding Caravan

ConstantNew Babylon

ConstantNew Babylon

Kenyi EkuanWohngerust

Takis ZenetosElectronic Urbanism

IsozakiComputerized Warehouse

OMATres Grande Bibliotheque

OMATres Grande Bibliotheque

Spring 2012

Remix 01

Project Name 51

Spring 2012

Remix 02

Project Name 53

Spring 2012

Remix 03

Project Name 55

Fall 2011

Funerary Network

We identified a network of abandoned subway stations as un-der-utilized zones within New York that can be activated through the insertion of a public program. Once these abandoned sta-tions were identified, we decided to have a complimentary net-work of above-ground parking structures located within walking distance from each one of the abandoned stations. This would allow the Funerary infrastructure to plug directly into the two

most prominent networks of transport in New York Citythe train and the automobile.

Sedgewick abandoned subway station Parking garage within walking distance

91st street abandoned subway station Parking garage within walking distance

42nd street abandoned subway station Parking garage within walking distance

City Hall abandoned subway station Parking garage within walking distance

57Hyper-Funerary Infrastructure

Parking garage within walking distance




Funerary Options

Users are given the option of three possible site (types)Exog-enous, Ex-endogenous and Endogenousfor commemoration linked with two possible means of processionnetwork of trains or network of buses.

exogenous > parking garages exendogenous > stations under parks endogenous > platforms various levels underground

exogenous > parking garages exendogenous > stations under parks endogenous > platforms various levels undergroundexogenous > parking garages exendogenous > stations under parks endogenous > platforms various levels underground

Exogenous Parking structures above ground

Ex-endogenous Abandoned station below parks

Endogenous Abandoned platforms under active stations

parking garage facades and roofscan receive program

park space above and the ligh-wells can receive program

vertical circulation and the abandoned platform can receive program



Section Sampling 01

Fall 2011



Section Sampling 02

Fall 2011

Fall 2011



Section Sampling 03

Fall 2011

Procession Option 01 (MTA bus)

The body gets picked up from the hospital or house. The interior of an existing MTA bus is completely refurbished according to the needs of the mourners. By adding light-wells and removing all commercial signage from the side of the bus, we are able to subtly integrate the mourning procession within the existing dynamic networks of the city.

Existing MTA Bus

Proposed Mourning Bus

Mourning Bus interior perspective


MTA Bus Plan

Mourning Bus plan perspective 01

Mourning Bus plan perspective 02

Fall 2011

Burial Site Option 01 (Existing Parking Deck)

A direct connection with the network of cars and buses in the city is established by hacking into existing parking structures. The processing stations are house above the parking structure with a series of vertical circulation paths leading to Funerary and Non-Funerary modules. The buses are lifted directly to the roof of the parking structure where the commemoration ceremonies will be held.

PARKING TRUSS VERTICAL CIRCULATION PODS PLATFORMS BUSES BUSES

PODS


PODS


PODS


PODS


PODS


PODS

Truss Vertical Circulation

Buses BusesAdd Platforms

Modules

Fall 2011

Structure Panels Shrink Wrap

Spa / Bath

Mourning KioskSanctuary

Hotel Room Generic

Users are given six programmatic modules to combine accord-ing to their needs: Spa, Mourn-Hotel, Generic space, Mourning Room, Sanctuary, and Kiosk. Metallic structures are assembled, slid-in and bolted on to the train, bus or parking garage.

Modules

Mourning modules allow mourners to interact with other fam-ily members while providing space for different levels of seclu-sion in the sancturaries and gradens. The body will be housed in these modules before it is sent to the processing pods.


Shrink Wrap

Kiosk

Generic

Mourning Module

Mourning Module Roof Off

Fall 2011

Non-Funerary Modules

A series of Non-Funerary functions allow the Hyper-Funerary infrastructure to simultaneously provide space for mourners and visitors.

Mourn Hotel Module

Mourn Hotel Module Roof Off


Spa Module

Spa Module Roof Off

Fall 2011

Procession Option 02 (MTA train)

The body gets carried from the house or hospital to the closest subway station where it will be loaded onto the Mourning Train. The interior of an existing MTA train is completely refurbished according to the needs of the mourners. The mourning trian sub-tly integrates the mourning process into the existing dynamic networks of the city.

Existing MTA Train Plan Perspective

Propose Mourning Train Elevation

Proposed Mourning Train Plan Perspective

The body gets dropped off at the chosen abandoned subway station. A series of elevators will lift th body up to the processing spaces which will be hovering over the park. Mourners and citi-zens can experience this process directly from the abandoned subway platform or the public park above.

Burial Site Option 02 (abandoned subway station)

Project Name 73

thank you.

Spatial Explorations MsAAD GSAPP

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