Lucas McCarrellUndergraduate Portfolio

2009-2014

02Lucas McCarrell

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20K House v.13with Dylan Moore, Margaret Shariett, and Taiwei WangPrototypical two-bedroom house designed and built with tight budgetary and material constraints in rural Alabama.

Contents

Rural Studio 04

Cardiovascular Research CenterHistoric North End, Boston, MassachusettsA hospital in an urban setting with a small footprint in a culturally-rich neighborhood.

Studio Projects 24

Adaptive Reuse: Community Arts InitiativeOld Town Plaza, Las Vegas, New MexicoA subtle intervention in a historic building to resolve a social issue in an ailing rural New Mexico town.

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High Line Facade23rd Street, New York City, New YorkA four-story facade of a book store and art gallery immediately adjacent to the High Line Park.

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Phenomenal TransparencyInspired by Josef Albers and the BauhausAn exploration of perceptively unstable geometries and the architecture that they can generate.

50Other Explorations

X-Form Coffee Tablewith Sean Flaharty, Chloe Schultz, and Abby WaldoA study of the tectonics of concrete and its implications in furniture design.

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Stacking Stoolwith Kaitlyn Callis, Caleb Gardner, and Dylan MooreA historic recreation of Alvar Aalto’s iconic stacking furniture.

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WatercolorsVarious artistic explorations using watercolor paint

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04Lucas McCarrell

The Rural Studio began the 20K House project in 2005 as a response to the issue of affordable housing in the rural South. For many, the practical answer to this problem is the mobile trailer home - yet these depreciate in value, negatively affect the environment, and tend to be poorly constructed. The Rural Studio’s goal is a site-built, small house that can be fully delivered for $20,000 (including materials and labor).

Objective: Our team’s task was to fully design and construct the first two-bedroom 20K House. Essential to the home is the vernacular “big hat” hip roof with a vented attic - the roof helps protect the house on all sides from the elements while allowing heat to rise and escape, keeping the inside cooler. The two porches, located on opposite and opposing sides of the house, create opportunities for site-flexibility and passive strategies - one porch always has sun in the winter and the other is shaded during the summer. By the nature of their placement, the front porch acts as the social, public space of the house while the back porch performs as the intimate, private outdoor space. They also serve as extensions of the open living space, which helps the small house in feeling more spacious. Nine foot ceilings and 2x6 stud walls insulated at R-21 provide a cool interior environment.

Rural Studio: 20K House v.13Highway 48, Newbern, Alabama

Fall 2013-Fall 20145th year thesis project - Professor Andrew Freear

with Dylan Moore, Margaret Shariett, and Taiwei Wang

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Sylvia’s House[top] Sylvia enjoying her recently completed front porch with her brother Steven. [bottom] Learning to ride a bike under the cantilever of the back porch roof. Image courtesy Timothy Hursley.

06Lucas McCarrell

Place & Context

Hale County is an extraordinary place, yet it is far from unique to the country. It is - in many ways - a perfect manifestation of the rural American South. Shaped by deeply ingrained social patterns of tradition and pride, the farmlands and small towns echo a far-reaching history: when the prehistoric oceans receded, the shorelines generated a fertile band of soil in West Alabama [known as the Black Belt], which invited large-scale agriculture and slave labor. Despite this, it is a paradoxical food desert, a fragile network of towns and economies entirely dependent on fossil fuels. A quiet divisiveness, too, exists in the socioeconomic layering that is slow to change in the tepid, humid climate.

It is in this complicated and ailing atmosphere that Sambo Mockbee and DK Ruth started Rural Studio. Established in 1994, the design-build program began as a way to bring students away from the classroom and remind them of architecture’s tremendous social responsibility and its inextricable relationship to place and context. Hale County is the laboratory through which this type of experimental and proud architecture is created and celebrated.

Rural LandscapesGreensboro, Alabama [top] is where many thesis students live, a cosmopolitan city compared the areas surrounding it. Barns and dilapidated industrial buildings also line the highways networking the small towns, some completely overwhelmed by kudzu vines.

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08Lucas McCarrell

Process & Iteration

As we inherited it, the 20K House project was unique in the amount of work that preceded it - twelve versions of 20K houses had been built in the last decade, and countless non-20K client houses had been built by the studio since its inception. On top of this, a large amount of information was to be found in the local architecture, Victorian houses and agricultural buildings that had been built long before the studio was founded. Lessons were bound to be learned from all of these sources.

Our plan, then, was two-pronged: research into the pre-existing built landscape [both studio-made and otherwise] and design with a large focus on iteration. In practice, we investigated every 20K house that had been constructed and many vernacular building styles. This research continued long into the design process and well into the building phase as we checked, questioned, and implemented different concepts and practices that these built works embodied.

The design process began with creating “Frankensteins”, formal plans made by cutting and piecing different components of old Rural Studio house plans together [right]. Once types began to emerge, the studio committed itself to four - one for each team. The teams then developed these typologies for weekly reviews with visiting architects and consultants, ultimately working towards creating a fully developed and implementable set of construction drawings.

Hard work and late nightsWith four teams working hard to produce four houses, the studio was almost constantly messy. Much of the early design process was explorations of form through sketch models, which accumulated in every corner of the work space. A large chalkboard was used to work calculations later in the process, and typical weekly review boards are shown to the right.

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10Lucas McCarrell

Concept: two open-corner porches, site-flexible plan

Our team was drawn to the “cut corner” parti, two bars of program [a living space bar and a bedroom space bar] pressed together along a common axis with corners omitted, creating two porch spaces on opposite and opposing ends. This had fundamental implications to the interior relationships of the house - the porches could then serve as extensions of the interior: one as a public, open front and the other a more intimate, private outdoor space.

The relationship of the corner porches to the exterior drove questions of site flexibility - conceivably, the front could be from two directions as the public porch engages two sides. We found this important to the notion of prospective housing, since these are necessarily designed as ‘site-less’ homes.

Environmentally, the two open-corner porches also provided opportunity. While ideal orientation demands a North-South axial relationship, all possible house alignments affords one porch to be the ‘winter’ porch and the other as the ‘summer’ porch. The ‘winter’ porch, by it’s orientation, will always have sun during the colder months [maintaining a warmer, more comfortable space in the South’s mild winters]. The ‘summer’ porch puts its walled back toward the sun, shading it from the intense summer heat.

Massing relationshipsA rectilinear box can have its corners cut, providing two porches on opposite and opposing ends. The mass can be ‘pushed in’ to decrease the overall footprint and engage the two bars of program spatially.

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LIVING SPACE

PUBLICPORCH

PRIVATEPORCH

sunset 06/21 sunrise 06/21

sunrise 02/01sunset 02/01

DAY SPACE

WINTERPORCH

SUMMERPORCH

NIGHTSPACE

NIGHTSPACE

Final PlanA condensed version of the original open plan, with both porches operating as extensions of the interior.

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Structure: double-cantilever hip roof, platform framing

One vernacular strategy that is used immensely in the deep South is the large, overhanging roof. This protects the house from the elements while providing a vented attic to keep the interior cooler by convection. To maintain this protection on all sides of the house, our team opted for a minimally-pitched hip roof with 3’ overhangs on all sides. To reinforce the diagram of the mass and keep the porches fully open, we wanted to eliminate all structure from the porches - this proved difficult, but working carefully with our structural consultant and a truss company, we were able to realize the first and largest double-cantilever hip roof Rural Studio has designed and implemented.

The local clay soil, which does not adequately absorb heavy rains, prompted us to raise the house on piers to avoid trapping moisture underneath the house. A platform frame of 2x12 girders ganged together with 2x10 joists ride the piers, which are strategically placed directly underneath bearing conditions to transfer the immense roof load.

Vernacular lessonsThe Folsom seed house [top] was one such vernacular building our team looked at in developing the house’s roof system. The large cantilevers help protect the sides of the building while allowing ventilation.

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Responsive framingThe asymmetrical girders on the inside are moved directly underneath bearing walls to transfer the impressive loads of the cantilevered roof. The piers are concrete, which reach into the ground 3’ to maintain stability.

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Proof of concept: testing & mocking-up

Since the projects at Rural Studio actually have to be built, time and consideration is given to proof that the design can be implemented with the resources and building knowledge on hand. One large concern was how the roof was going to be constructed - the truss system was modelled structurally and systematically pieced together to help understand the full building process. First, common trusses were put in the center. Next, the ‘step-down’ trusses [which form the hip roof] are added on either side. Then, the hip-jack diagonal trusses are placed and the truncated trusses on the shorter sides to fully articulate the roof on all sides. Last, purlins are added, tying back the trusses to one another [in construction, the purlins were replaced by sheathing for added stability].

To test many of the exterior details of the walls and porches, the humorously named 20K ‘dog house’ was built - this is a 1:1 mock-up with every corner condition on display. After constructing the mock-up and proofing the details we had designed, we moved the dog house to site, where it remained as a reference during the vast majority of the actual construction process.

Examining building processesA 1/4”=1’0 model of the truss system was built in the way it actually would be during the construction process. This helped our understanding of what steps to take first to ensure that the process would work efficiently and safely.

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2x4 cut to 1.5”x 3”

2x2

2x2 at 5”o.c.2x6 composite column

2x4 rail

2x6 running through column center

2x10 rim joist

2x10 base board

2x8 beam

2x2

2x8

20K dog houseA 1:1 mock-up of every corner condition removed doubt on how to construct many of the details.

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Construction

Part of the 20K ethic is the constructability of the house. The homes are intended to be easily and efficiently put together by a contractor and a dedicated group of laborers, so special care is taken in the design phase to maintain material and labor efficiency while still being well-built. After producing construction drawings of structural and tectonic relationships, the team was allowed to proceed to the building phase.

Construction began in early April and concluded in late July, spanning approximately four months. The vast majority of the work was done by our four member team, but the studio rallies around tougher or more physical challenges to help complete the task [particularly concrete pours and roof metal installation]. The design discussions, while more fully-formed, continue through most of the construction phase - many of the daylight hours were spent working on site only to go back to studio after the sun goes down to finalize a design or alter buildable drawings for the next day. Resource allocation and budget analysis were incredibly important at this stage; on many days, a member of the team would stay at studio placing orders, calling lumber companies, and meeting with the structural engineer to ensure that work could continue efficiently for the next few days. The project, then, was an exercise in designing an efficient daily construction procedure as well as the house itself.

Beginning workAfter meeting with the clients and deciding where to site the house, batter boards and string were placed to square the platform and piers. Holes are dug, concrete poured, and CMU’s placed to form the foundation. At Pig Roast, the Rural Studio’s end of the academic year celebration, a platform was fully complete.

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Team effortHaving limited resources, the studio’s largest asset is man power and ingenuity. An auger is used to bore 3’ holes, concrete is calculated, ordered, and poured with the help of others in the studio. Girders and joists are set on the piers, and a platform soon takes form. The wall framing is completed in only a couple of days by the team, and sheathing follows soon after. Help is hailed for the erection of the step-down trusses, which are smaller and easy to move as a result of the minimal pitch of the hip roof.

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Procedural installationThe roof is completed first to protect the incomplete components of the house. Once structural, the temporary walls on both porches are removed, revealing the significant cantilevers. Tar paper is used as a vapor barrier on the outside, and batons are installed to allow air to move behind the corrugated metal siding. Windows, doors, and stairs are installed, and work can begin on the interior. Wiring is run by the team through the walls and ceiling, drywall is subcontracted, the walls and floors are painted, and lighting, fixtures, plumbing, trim, and interior doors are installed.

20Lucas McCarrell

Reflection

The entire process of designing and building a house to its full realization is certainly tiring - it does not leave a lot of time for reflection. Our team was not perfect, the weather was rarely ideal, and external deadlines never wavered. Despite this, there was no greater teacher to the fundamentals of architecture than the challenges Rural Studio forces a student to face: those of place, context, socioeconomic considerations, environment, tectonics, budget, teamwork, and leadership.

Importantly, the 13th version of the 20K House project has provided a home to Sylvia, a local woman who deserved a proper shelter and a place to sit and listen to the rain. For the studio, new students will stick their noses underneath the house, sketch book in hand, and hopefully learn from our successes and mistakes. For us, we leave with better understanding of the inherent complexities in designing and building architecture and the implications [both good and bad] it can have in a community.

Sylvia’s Team[clockwise from top left] Lucas McCarrell, Dylan Moore, Margaret Shariett, Taiwei Wang

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Dusk before move-in daySylvia’s porches are clad in spruce and finished with a clear coat, allowing the warmth of the wood to give a stark contrast to the white metal siding, especially as dusk falls.

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The Finished Product[above] Sylvia’s House, with windows opened by the client to allow a breeze to pull through the interior. Because of the cantilever over the porches, a moment occurs where much of the house is hidden.

[left] The living space. Sylvia enjoys the company of Christian and Morgan. Image courtesy Timothy Hursley.

24Lucas McCarrell

The cardiovascular research center inhabits a fairly unique site; with the culturally rich North End immediately to the north, the tourist-laden Quincy Market to the south, and the highly trafficked Government Center to the west, the site demands attention to the pedestrians who frequently walk between these populated nodes.

Objective: While holding a unique edge condition to the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, the Cardiovascular Research Center of Boston simultaneously challenges the insular, confined environment of the typical hospital while offering enclaves of anxiety relief for those who visit. The creation of a “thoroughfare” of pedestrian traffic, formally framed with a series of columns, posits an urban gesture that frames the heavy foot traffic at street level. The research center also accommodates indoor civic space with dining and lounge options - this is intended to generate a more normative, active environment to soften the anxieties commonly felt by patients and visitors to institutional buildings.

Cardiovascular Research CenterHistoric North End, Boston, Massachusetts

Fall 20124th year hospital competition - Professor Kevin Moore

Pedestrian thoroughfareA perspective of how a pedestrian would view the close-ranged approach toward the building.

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From Quincy MarketTerra-cotta panels clad the exterior of the patient tower, a solid white terra-cotta is used to clad the administration block. A vertical system of louvers screen the more public lounge and activity spaces.

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Conceptual: programmatic relationships

The massing of the hospital is composed of three areas: the public gathering and transitory spaces [top], the nursing and patient care units [second], and the doctors’ practice offices [bottom].

The public gathering space is pushed to the front of the building, serving as an vertical extension immediately over the pedestrian thoroughfare. Directly behind the public space is the patient and nursing tower, which incorporates most of the topmost building form. The doctors’ private offices are connected to the patient tower via the hallway extensions, holding the far corner of the hospital to the corner of the block.

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Level 01.visitor entrance, wellness center, interior plaza, food court, emergency services

Level 02.cafeteria, radiology, diagnostic center

Level 03.surgical suite, post-operational services

Level 04.mechanical, extended public balcony

Level 05-09.nursing, patient care units

Ground FloorThe “pedestrian thoroughfare” can be seen here - a series of columns frame the sidewalk, creating a colonnade. The “interior plaza” is accessible at both the patient and pedestrian entrance, which houses dining and lounging options. Emergency services (including ambulance parking and triage) are on this floor.

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Patient Care Floor Following a straightforward “race track” scheme in geometry, the northern wall is canted to follow the site line. This allows for differentiated family lounge space at the prominent southwest corner. Centralized nursing stations have easy access to every patient.

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Waiting Room A vertical louver system blocks intense western sun and a low seating wall is incorporated into the space. Large glazing overlooks vehicles exiting a tunnel, offering white noise and a visual catharsis.

Pedestrian ThoroughfareHighlighted in yellow. The landscaped slope punctuates traffic

lanes and serves as a foreground to surrounding buildings.

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Facade systems Partial elevation of the patient tower, tricolored terra-cotta panels punctuated by a set of two windows.

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Building systems Section perspective through two patient rooms, diagrams showing egress (top), mechanical/HVAC main systems (second), and schematic structural systems (bottom)

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A few issues face the town of Las Vegas, New Mexico: little new industry, a declining population, and many youth involved in gang activity and drug usage. The two school districts within the town are strictly divided by class, race, and income in what the town considers the “tortilla curtain”. Many of their after school activities have been cut to save money.

Objective: The Las Vegas Community Arts Initiative is intended to be a program in which the making, sharing, and learning of art can be facilitated as well as respond to the need for after-school activities for the community’s youth. It is centrally located in the city’s newly established Arts and Cultural District and in the West Las Vegas school district. An abandoned one story parachute factory is to be adapted and redeveloped for use within the burgeoning artist community.

The project aims to revitalize the economic sector by concentrating the creative market both physically and in human capital, sustain a positive quality of life based on the region’s culture, and incline local youth to become more involved in the creative process and the community as a whole. The adaptive reuse of the space is intended to be subtle, allowing the activity in and around the building to ultimately drive its social and urban gesture.

Adaptive-Reuse: Community Arts InitiativeOld Town Plaza, Las Vegas, New Mexico

Spring 20123rd year Americas Studio - Professor Sheri Schumacher

Detail: front entranceMost of the facade is kept in this subtle intervention, and a short ADA ramp invites visitors inward.

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1

4

3

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Site: Las Vegas, New MexicoThe Community Arts Initiative is denoted in red, along with the rest of the Old Town Plaza. Low income residential lots are indicated in yellow, and public schools in blue.

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Existing SituationWhile the structure and facade are sound, the wood paneling and windows are in disrepair.

Proposed SolutionFull glazing replaces most of the wood paneling. Operable doors suggest extensions of space and display work to the public.

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A

B

The program in plan was intended to literally extend past the physical borders of the reused building, as evidenced by the creation of a skate park in the back and the art booths in the front. Conceptually, this generated a notion of extension and transparency of the work and play of the teenagers inside.

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[above] Section A shows both the skate park in use and the formal creation of a gathering + performance space. An ADA ramp acts as the building’s main entrance.

[above] Section B shows the gallery space near the front. The music practice room is attenuated for noise in section.

[above] The eastern facade is punctuated with new “apertures”, intended to frame particular views to both the interior and exterior.

[above] The northern facade shows the proposed glazing for the gallery space on the left and large operable wood doors on the right.

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Interior SpaceOn the interior, the plan is relatively open, with brick columns featured within the space. The split-level floor is kept and the lower level is used as a performing space. The steps are used as impromptu audience seating. Computers line the back wall and art+gallery space can be seen in the background.

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Old Town CirculationThe Old Town Plaza in Las Vegas is still used frequently.

[First] After school foot and automobile traffic.

[Second] Current abandoned structures in the Old Town area.

[Third] Businesses and entities that participate in 2nd Saturday Art Walk, circulation of event attendees.

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weekday morning

weekday after school

park event

typical saturday

2nd saturday art festival

night event/performance

Projected community art situationsSince the plaza is used at different times for different situations, this exercise was essential to program how the space in and around the building was used, particularly the front sidewalk and the park.

46Lucas McCarrell

cultural and urban landscapes: thematic section studies of the urban Santa Fe (top), rural Dixon (second), and the geographic elements that linked the two towns (bottom)

[top] Research section through Santa Fe, New Mexico.

[second] Research section through rural Dixon, New Mexico.

[bottom] Research geological section through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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A four story brick building stands immediately adjacent to the reformatted train tracks of The High Line Park in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The program of the new structure will accommodate a book store, reading space, and gallery space.

Objective: In pursuing a new facade for this building, the historically industrial district and traditional brick buildings was considered to generate an understated weathered steel facade. Formally, the facade is punctuated by two minimalist white rooms, offering a juxtaposition of the raw exterior and the reading and gallery spaces. Glazing was minimized through most of the book store, focusing attention inward.

High Line Facade23rd Street, New York City, New York

Fall 20102nd year project - Professor Robert Sproull

Contextual adjacenciesThe bookstore is located directly against the High Line Park at the intersection of 23rd and 10th. Many of the buildings are of the original meatpacking industry sensibility.

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Something that is phenomenally transparent, rather than embodying the material properties required to allow light and information to pass through, is graphically perceived as having fluctuating qualities of interposed space or surface edges. This is a frequently utilized phenomenon in optical illusions. The process of this exploration is inspired by the Bauhaus artist Josef Albers, who played with perception through graphic “structural constellation” works; these are a series of pencil and pen drawings using lines angled and dimensioned to read as multiple axonometric volumes and surfaces.

Objective: The exploration begins by creating similar structural constellations - which can be perceived as many different geometries simultaneously - and attempts to ‘stabilize’ the graphic as a representation of a single geometry by shading them. The resultant architectures are quick vignettes of follies along Atlanta’s BeltLine.

Exploration: Phenomenal TransparencyInspired by Josef Albers’ work in Gestalt theory

Spring 20134th year exploration - Professor Katie Johnson

Structural ConstellationOne of the many ‘structural constellations’ after shading, implying masses, planes, voids, and spaces.

Constellation FieldA field of geometric potentials with meandering shapes -

without shading, these suggest multiple representations of different geometries (even impossible ones).

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[above] Planar structural constellations suggest no mass or volume but imply spaces among and between the planes.

[above] Planar+mass structural constellations suggest both mass and space, but no information is given about voids.

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[above] Planar+void structural constellations suggest both void and space, but little information is given about masses.

[above] Planar+void+mass structural constellations suggest space, volume, and mass.

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Lucas McCarrell

Certain material constraints governed this project: concrete had to be incorporated into the structure of the furniture in a meaningful way, and the total weight of the furniture was to be under two hundred pounds (or around a cubic foot of concrete).

The resultant coffee table is intended to be a play between two material forms - the Southern pine weaves through the concrete plane. The coffee table is understood as an obligatory place to keep books. Conceptually, this is accommodated in the spaces formed within the ‘X’. Structurally, the thin plane of concrete is achieved by reinforcement created by poultry netting, which is incorporated within the center of the mass.

X-form Coffee TableTectonics of concrete in furniture

Summer 2012Structures III - Professor Michael Hein

with Sean Flaharty, Chloe Schultz, and Abby Waldo

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58Lucas McCarrell

The exploration of Alvar Aalto’s Stacking Stool involved three main steps: research into the history and assembly methods, formal investigation (drawings at full scale), and the actual construction of the furniture. The curved form of the legs was achieved by the use of steam. Furniture-grade walnut was used to make the stool.

Alvar Aalto’s Stacking StoolRural Studio woodshop: furniture theory + construction

Fall 20113rd year Rural Studio - Instructor Steve Long

with Kaitlyn Callis, Caleb Gardner, Dylan Moore

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01. A steam-box is built and wooden slats are heated in a humid environment to make the wood pliable.

02. After steaming for several hours, the slats are covered in glue and fitted into a grooved piece of wood then bent and clamped around a jig. This will form one of the three legs.

06. The planks of walnut are routed to form a tongue and groove connection and eventually glued together to form the seat.

05. Walnut planks are planed down to a similar depth - these will be formed to make the circular seat.

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03. After setting overnight, excess wood is cut with a bandsaw and the leg is formed into the specified dimensions.

04. The leg continues to be formed, being smoothed on a belt sander. This is repeated three times, once for each leg.

07. A guide is affixed onto a plunge router. 08. The guide is fastened to what will be the seat of the stool and the wood is routed. The router follows the guide and creates a circular form which follows the rough dimensions of the stool - this is then sanded and the legs are attached using counter-sunk screws pegged with wood. The final step is a tung oil finish to preserve the stool.

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St. Ignatius Chapel, Steven Holl.

My creative passions are not limited by the purely architectural realm - I also enjoy working with watercolor paint to realize certain explorations. This hobby began when I was a teenager, and I continue to develop these as a skill set that is both creative and logic-based. Since this mode of “learning by doing” is intimately related to the practice of making architecture, I have included it here.

Exploration: Watercolor Paintingvarious creative pursuits in the last five years2010-2014

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Duomo di Firenze, Filippo Brunelleschi.

Docked boat in Guntersville, Alabama.

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Sturdivant Hall in Selma, Alabama.

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LM