madrid and tenerife

After completing my internship at BIG, I took some time to travel and research for my upcoming thesis project. This took me to Madrid and Tenerife to see two of the buildings I have been investigating by Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron. The first being a renovation of an old power plant in the heart of madrid. Here, the architects used the existing shell an envelope from which they could carve from and add to in order to accommodate the new gallery functions. The base of the old structure is almost entirely removed leaving a levitating brick box over a public plaza. The existing roofscape was adapted into a sculpted corten steel penthouse restaurant.




standing under the the corner of building brings on an intense feeling of weight. the choice to bring the landscape and ceilingscape within such a close proximity resulted in a very clear understanding and sense of the primary architectural move

next stop Tenerife. a small island off of the west coast of Africa within the Canaries, and still technically part of spain. the capital city of Santa Cruz is home to several H&dM projects- most recently the TEA. the project is a concrete slug... fantastic. one of my favorite buildings I have ever seen!

so this is the new year

copenhagen skyline as seen from Christopher Carlsen's rooftop on New Year's Eve

louisiana

a sunny snowy day at louisiana. admiration of masonry.

Raveonettes

In december I finally got the chance to see a band that has been on my radar for the past few years- The Raveonettes. The news of the show came as a bit of a surprise, but a last minute booking landed us some great seats at a theater venue called Bremen. The psych-garage sounds seemed to have a western feel straight out of the film Dead Man.

heading north- november 2010

took some time away from cph to enjoy the cold, dark weather even further north! stockholm. (notice the time on the digital sign)

slussen madness...

amazing gamla stan



the accommodations for the weekend...

november & hamburg

november brought a new project; a competition in hamburg, germany. the project brief called for a mixed-use medical facility with a nursing home and several clinics in a new development just outside of the city center. the project would be part of a new building exposition, highlighting contemporary design in both architecture and landscape design.





initial responses to the context of the adjacent railway and highway lead to an interest in closing the perimeter block for sound mitigation and privacy. by bringing the building to the edges of the site the interior of the block is opened up to function as a courtyard which could serve the nursing home and medical facilities. wrapping the program around the perimeter also provided a strong edge which in relation to the adjacent buildings, could be understand as a threshold or gateway to the entire exhibition. programmatic requirements pushed the building to expand vertically, so the continuous building mass is bent upwards at the northwest corner- further emphasizing the gateway condition.

october & shenzhen

in early october i joined a new team to work on the development phase of a skyscraper to be built in shenzhen. the project operates on very simple set of principles aimed at minimizing direct solar gains to the office spaces within. the facade becomes a zig-zag folded skin with glass to the north and east and highly insulated panels to the south and west.













deformations within the overall geometry allow for optimal views, entrances and public space.




joining the project in design development was challenging to say the least, this meant becoming fluently familiar with a large scale project in a matter of weeks. my days were filled with material research, product specifications, presentation reports, and landscape design.

reconstruction

the following flurry of posts will attempt to reconstruct the last four months of my life...

beach house_weekend

this past weekend i fled the city to a small summerhouse on the northern coast of zealand with a few of the other scan design students studying here in CPH. the trip was a fantastic departure from the norm... cycling along the coast, wandering around fishing villages, cozy company and red wine.

FABRICATE! london

as if i don't have enough to do in the BIG studio, i have also decided to team up with a few colleagues/collaborators (rob corser and scott crawford) to continue development on my recent masonry installation. our first project was to submit several of our recent works to an upcoming conference and publication in london. the brief called for built projects/prototypes with a focus on disseminating similarity and difference in digital fabrication. our projects convey the codependence of repetition and variability... the machine and the hand... the digital and the analog. introducing... the collaborative research project: Digital Jigs - Parametric Armatures for Manual Assembly

work work work

much of my last three weeks has been spent in the studio working on a presentation model for the new maritime museum in helsingor. the project has been in the office for several years in various stages of stagnation, and has recently regained its momentum. my task was to join a team of 5 others charged with finishing a massive model which had been in the works for months already. we presented the model on friday at the groundbreaking ceremony, which received extremely positive support from the minister of culture and community members alike. a party followed...

all of the work to wire 300+ led lights really paid off...

wed/thurs

first all-nighter in the BIG studio

mandag!

highlight of the night... shawn pointing out via skype that the moondoggies set from bumbershoot was streaming live on KEXP!

the week's end

the weekend brought beautiful weather and deambulations through the city. drinking by the canal at nyhavn and christianshavn, department 8 party at the royal danish academy, and cycling. the highlight may have been stumbling across a free outdoor concert featuring the mouritz horslev projekt (the danish equivalent of beach house?).

a great first week

since my arrival on monday, i have been staying with my good friend chris carlsen in a small flat in osterbro (the quieter of copenhagen's neighborhoods). my days have been filled with long hours at the BIG studio and nights out in the city... all this while getting over my jetlag!

working at BIG looks to be a very exciting and promising experience. the office is made up of something like 50 interns and 50 architects and operates much like an academic studio. a single open space filled with some of the more creative minds the world has to offer. the studio in packed with thousands of models, iterations upon iterations- the evidence of a group entirely obsessed with process. i think i will fit in well.

for those who are familiar with BIG's projects, i have been working on the maritime museum in helsingor. my first task was to wire 300 led lights into the ceiling of a massive model to go on display at the site. the model is about 8 feet long, and probably represents thousands of hours of work. the project has been in the office for several years and this model was started in february of 2010 (with many versions prior). my team will be in charge of finishing it by september 15th. this means that i will probably have 12 hour days and weekends in the office to look forward to!

the beginning

the trip began as most of my trips do... with a certain lack of planning. the general idea is there, but many of the details unresolved. a bicycle at the airport with no cardboard packing, a suspicious piece of luggage in reykjavik (leaving me one bag short in copenhagen), a place to stay but no address, a number to call but no phone, a bike but no pedals. all this being said i wouldn't have had it any other way... these things that seem to be obstacles help to construct memorable experiences.