canoeing in Austin...

...down Barton's Creek and into Ladybird Lake. Too bad we forgot the sunscreen.

Assemblage

An artist that I recently met put a picture of an assemblage of mine on her blog...
http://www.mai-liis.com/

Be sure and check out her assemblages, they are absolutely amazing.

The Biggest Pair of Boots EVER!

... and Becky trying them on.

...with a warming filter

I think this gives my renderings a more industrial feel to them - which might be more appropriate to the function of the site.

a few more renderings

again, SketchUp, Rhino and Photoshop...

a rendering...

this was modeled in SketchUp, rendered in Rhino and finished in Photoshop... it's the approach to one of three gallery cubes in my Train Restoration Museum.

closer...

Facade Sketch and Interior Spatial Study

Facade Sketches

The building goes under the bridge at MLK and Division. The glass panels could be photovotaic glass - thus creating electricity and providing a translucency but not allowing too much solar gain in the building. They would be operable as well to allow for passive cooling and night flushing.

The Mechanism

I am creating a door that operates in a similar fashion to the concepts in the design of my building. The concepts I am focusing on are linear motion and patina as a clue to frequency of use. This large door essentially opens up like a door on the side of a cargo car on a train. This door opens up to allow visitors to experience the passing trains that rumble by just 9 feet away. After sketching it out, I modeled in Rhino...

Train Restoration Spatial Study 1

"Give us your weak, your poor..."

and we'll ignore.

Study of Joinery

This started as a Building Tech project from last year - the Copper piece in the middle. I always wanted to make a frame for it. Well, I got a hold of some recycled wood from a friend who is a builder - Dustin!

The Copper piece was taken from a sheet of Copper - cut into three pieces; had muratic acid applied to one piece; and rejoined with bolts and solder. The bright color changes came from the torch used to solder it, while the darker color changes came from the muratic acid.

I wanted to experiment with wood Joinery as well. The dark piece on the left is a stained Douglas Fir 2x6 and the rest is cedar. The upper piece, the header, was formed by laminating several pieces of Cedar together to form a thick beam. The whole piece is held together without glue - the edges of the Copper piece fold down and hold the piece in with tension.

Peg joints were also used to join the Cedar pieces on the right. All of the Cedar had a clear coat applied and then lightly sanded to remove most of the glossy reflection.

ARCH 382 - Project 2 - Site Studies

The site is surrounded by transportation routes - train tracks, bridges, roads, flight paths and the river. All of this linear motion whizes around the site, but doesn't hardly touch it - the site is actually hard to get to.

The hub of this conceptual artifact, a rusty bolt, represents, and was found at the site. The rods represent the motion as it moves around and past the site.

This stained board is represntative of the color changes that happen on the site. Time and human activity all change the hue and saturation of colors of the materials found on the site.

These two concepts are the main ones I am investigating for the site studies.

ARCH 382 Assignment 1 - Objects in Motion

The idea of this project is to select a component of a building that is static and redesign it so that it moves with power or by human assistance.

I chose to have a dining room that could extrude out of the buidling to allow for extra space when entertaining a larger than usual group. Metaphorically similar to a leaf in a table. The table can enlarge to accomodate larger groups when needed and can be returned to a smaller, more efficient size when done. As well, the extruded volume is visible from the outside of the building to allow an approaching visitor to see that the space is activated.

I examined the concept of gears and gear ratios to understand the possibilities of human powered assistance to make the volume move. As well, I incorporated a moment arm to add more to the "mechanical advantage".

This project was just a short, introductory assignment into the the concept of mechanics and machines...

ARCH 382 - What's the Plan?

The Brooklyn Rail Yard is a vital means of transportation for materials and products to and from Portland's inner core. In the midst of the trains, trucks and cranes is a fascinating device used in the past to rotate steam engines onto alternative tracks. Associated with this industrial artifact is a roundhouse that contains three historically significant steam engines.


The program for this term will be to design a place where the public can interact with the roundhouse, the engine rotating device and the steam engines - as well as various other artifacts - in a new location about a mile to the north east of their present location.