Undergraduate Portfolio

M I C H A E L H A R R I S O N

This portfolio is the culmination of two years of under-graduate architecture studies at the University of Michi-gan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (TCAUP) by Michael Harrison. By nature of the University's undergraduate pedagogy, projects range from early, abstract representations to medium-scale architectural proposals.

Additionally, a lobby (in progress) designed while at Mancini Duffy TSC, and photography (local and abroad), are represented.

Index

.........

Fes Tannery

TCAUP Facade

Lot+

microcosm

Faculty Annex

Thor Equities

Impact

Quickness

Photography

Least Most

DurationAbstractionScale

.......................................................................................................................................

4-7

10-15

16-19

20-23

24-25

26-29

30-31

32-33

34-37

Section Perspective

4

An essential evil in the medina of Fes, Morocco, the open air tan-nery has treated animal hides for generations, polluting the air to intolerable levels. As part of a semester abroad, students were asked to propose a new program in the heart of Fes were the tan-nery no longer a viable government enterprise. In strong contrast to western typologies, the exterior facades are rarely adorned, while more than 5,000 master plaster artisans toil for years on in-terior treatments. Drawing inspiration from local textures and pat-terns, this new school aims to be an oasis in the desert for public gathering and learning.

Fes Tannery

Study Abroad (Morocco + Spain) - Summer of 2012 Professor: Irene Hwang

5.........

Elevation

6

7.........Fes Tannery

The focus of a semester-long studio was the proposed improve-ment to the Art and Architecture building at the University of Michi-gan. Targeting under-utilized areas of the school, projects inves-tigated the role of the existing parking lot and south facade in broadcasting to the public the college's position within the uni-versity. Two auxiliary sites to the east and west were to become annexes for faculty and student work, respectively.

4:1Taubman Additions

Site Perspective

8

ARCH 322 - Winter of 2012 Professor: Laura Bouwman

Coordinated by John McMorrough

9.........

Its adjacency to Lot+ makes it the most noticeable facade of the building, and in its current state the most unremarkable. In an effort to expand awareness about the school to the to the University's 40,000 other students, the south facade takes on the appearance of a billboard from afar. Approaching the message a pattern/image becomes pixilated as individual apertures become visible.

TCAUP FacadeMade up of thousands of programmable apertures, the facade displays rasterized images, texts and patterns. On the interior, vari-able lighting occurs throughout the day while at night the effect inverts. Light from the building displays the evening's or next day's events.

Night/Text Elevation

Day/Pattern Elevation

10



11.........

Elevation

12

Light Study

13.........TCAUP Facade

14

Museum board, acrylic, chip board

1/2”:1' Section Model

15.........TCAUP Facade

Lot+Nearby Detroit's Hart Plaza hosts a wide variety of public gather-ings during summertime evenings. During the day, however, the series of riverfront amphitheaters and stages go untouched save for the light and shadows cast throughout the open plaza. This, public, punctured, concrete landscape was the influence for a new parking lot and performance venue at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. The programmatic addition to

the parking lot was made given the proximity to the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance and the lack of out-door performance venues in Ann Arbor. The circulation for bodies and vehicles as well as light wells were located by applying a pat-tern to the site plan. The tessellating hexagons were scaled and positioned with regards to existing topography and parking code constraints.

Pattern



16

Site Plan

17.........

Pattern on Topography

18

1/32”=1’ Model

Museum Board19.........Lot +

Tasked with using a primitive geometry in new ways, “microcosm” is (programmatically) a miniature school for experimenting with possible new pedagogues in architecture. Volumes collide and separate, simultaneously, creating partitions as they do so. The shifting gives the impression of a building in motion, embodying the constant change in architectural discourse. The facade pat-terning binds the conglomerate together, asking: are pieces being drawn towards conclusion or are they dividing to find new form?

Wrapping Process

Primitive Shifting Iterations

microcosm20

Massing Axonometric



21.........

First Floor

Second Floor

22

Museum Board, Acrylic

3/16”=1’ Model

23.........microcosm

Regularly involved in research and fabrication, the faculty at TCAUP lacks sufficient on-site space for assembling and presenta-tion of installations. Approximately 15,000 sqft of open floor space for faculty use and display are housed in the proposed faculty an-nex. Eight subtly shifting sections give impression of a volume in staggered motion, lifting and hovering out over the ground. On the interior, this separates the space into a large basin and smaller terraces, able to accommodate a variety of project scales.

Massing Process

Faculty Annex

1/32”=1’ Model

Museum Board, Acrylic

Section

24



25.........

Adjacent to the High Line in New York's Meat Packing District, this feature stair is located on the cramped ground floor off of 14th Street. Limited in build-out depth due to egress, facetting became the solution to concealing the protruding core elements inside. Pro-viding a rhythm and emphasizing the sectional quality of the cav-ernous space, recessed LED strips run from floor to wall to ceiling.

Thor Equities Lobby

Section Perspectives

Summer of 2012 Designed at Mancini Duffy TSC

Overseen by Avery Miyasato Handy

26

27.........

446 West 14th Street • New York, NY 10014

PLANS •SECTIONS •AXONOMETRIC • 07.27.2012

28

Design Developement East Elevation

446 West 14th Street • New York, NY 10014

PLANS •SECTIONS •AXONOMETRIC • 07.27.2012

29.........Thor Equities Lobby

Design Developement West Elevation

The initial line work was created during a performance by an ora-tor recounting a childhood memory. The narrator describes a fam-ily trip in autumn to visit relatives in the American southeast. Upon return, their van collides with an indescribably large heron, whose eye, through the shattered windshield, fixes on the child briefly be-

fore ascending. The drawing attempts to evoke the speed and emotion of the crash while embedding details from the story. In particular, the drawing focuses on glass and smoke; two mediums that distort and conceal. Similarly, the art of storytelling sometimes relies on obscuring the true nature of events.

Impact

Graphite on Bristol (Inverted)

30

ARCH 218 - Winter of 2010Professor: Dawn Gilpin

31.........

Quickness explores the three-dimensional representation of speed, rhythm, and pace in oration, writing and discursive thinking. Equal-ly important to “pressing on” is knowing when to stall the discus-sion, making the work an abstraction of both design and linguistic processes.

Quickness

Graphite, Colored Pencil on Bristol

32

ARCH 218 - Winter of 2010 Professor: Dawn Gilpin

33.........

Photography Reales Alcázares de Sevilla

-Ansel Adams the photographer and the viewer.” “There are always two people in every picture

-Ansel Adams the photographer and the viewer.” “There are always two people in every picture

34

Catedral de Santa María de la Sede35.........

Cooper Union

Louve36

Sainte Chapelle Medina of Fes37.........Photography

Undergraduate Portfolio

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