Archinect - University of Washington (William)

regarding studio

2009-01-29T01:39:51-05:00

Our Shanghai Studio is going quite well - Lise Anne Couture of Asymptote was supposed to be in town today for a lecture and to critique our studio but was not able to make it due to snow. Unfortunate, but we hope that she will be able to make it out here to still give her lecture and give our studio a crit sometime next month.

my project is looking at the dramatic lack of public open space in Shanghai and what such space could be used for if it did indeed exist. I've begun the project with a straight forward morphological approach - seeking to understand what I can through the statistics that are available. However, I've grown to realize the problem with that trajectory is that it can be difficult to identify a finishing point; a place where you really have enough data. So, in light of the limited time a quarter presents I've decided to articulate a few but well thought through questions regarding the introduction of new infrastructures into the city.

what if new infrastruct...

Bridges in Shanghai and Winter Quarter

2009-01-12T02:08:37-05:00

My studio this quarter will be focusing on the Lupu bridge in Shanghai that connects land on each side of the Huangpu River. This land is the site for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.

A primary focus of the studio will look at how the bridge can facilitate an effective integration with the city that will improve connectivity and public life after the expo has come and gone. We'll also be collaborating with an undergraduate studio doing a similar waterfront project in Berlin. Together, we will put together a website that will contrast each studios work side by side.

The Shanghai Studio is being taught by:
Nicole Huber
and
Wyn Bielaska
The pair has been quite dynamic thus far and should prove to make for an interesting/exciting quarter.

Other courses that I'm taking this quarter include a seminar taught by Michael Pyatok on low income housing, another seminar taught by Nicole Huber on Urban Design Theory, and a digital fabrication course taught by Kimo Griggs.

Autumn 08 Final

2008-12-30T00:16:21-05:00

Winter quarter is quickly approaching and I still have not posted final images from Autumn quarter studio. In the end this studio proved to be one of my favorite thus far here at the UW. Primarilly because it gave me the opportunity to dig deeply into the urban design portion of the project - which in turn provided a very rich framework that informed the final piece of architecture. Because this was an urban design studio, the building is not developed like it would normally be in a typical arch. studio. The driving force was the development of the public spaces that the building sought to create.

The following diagrams illustrate the overall urban design concept illustrating how we dealt with circulation, flows, and the historic fabric within the neighborhood.

These diagrams zoom into my site and illustrate the breakdown of public spaces, and how the building helps to filter and store storm water.

The primary idea behind the building was two-fold. First, it sought to create...

The Project

2008-11-01T21:08:22-04:00

This quarter has been busy and probably the most exciting of my time here at the UW so far. We had a review last week that went well overall in spite of my cold that kept the volume of my presenting voice a little too quiet. My project involves evaluating the alley system in the neighborhood and how we might use those spaces as a more intentional pedestrian network. There is a large public square in the center of the neighborhood - Occidental Park - that I'm focusing on as the central public space that will help to connect the pedestrian network. In order for this space to truly function as an active center it needs both more people and spatial definition because one side of the space is currently surface parking. I'm defining the space with a building that makes two major moves. First, it slopes one side of the roof to the surface of a bordering pedestrian street that will allow the public to move upwards, above the tree canopy already in the square and experience the sun whe...

public life

2008-10-09T12:21:05-04:00

Our studio project this quarter involves a site in downtown Seattle just south of Pioneer Square. Gehl Architects are consulting with the city of Seattle on roughly the same site - analyzing pedestrian, biking, vehicular activity (which is probably an inadequate summary) and generating a report as to how the city can promote a more active public lifestyle in the area. Our studio will be exploring similar ideas.

Areas that we are focusing on include: connections between the ferry terminal (NW corner of the site) and the two train staions - King St. Station and Union Station (SE corner of the site), areas over exposed sections of track that could possibly be lidded over, the network of alleys in the neighborhood, and connections with the waterfront, the rest of downtown, the international district to the east, and south downtown and the stadiums just to the south.

the viaduct - currently seperates downtown from the waterfront

using alleys as connections, possibilities for filtrat...

Ørestad - Copenhagen

2008-09-24T15:33:25-04:00

Classes begin today so this entry won't be as detailed as I was hoping, but I still wanted to post some thoughts on this new development on the outskirts of Copenhagen. The panorama above is for me the best illustration of the space. Tall buildings that are swallowed by vast areas of open spaces. You can see the metro in the backround which acts as the major connection to the rest of the city. Truly towers in the park without major highways for cars. The scale is both intriguing and confusing. The towers give the feeling of density yet the enormous amount of open space between structures begs the question: how truly dense is it? Our trip was focused on studying public spaces and most of us were very critical of the spaces created by these buildings because there seemed to be little to no attention given to how people would actually be able to use them.

The most forgiving areas seemed to be the spaces closest to the elevated train. I'm sure that many of my class mates wo...

Copenhagen, Public Spaces, Biking, Buildings

2008-09-22T15:57:12-04:00

I just returned to Seattle yesterday after spending two-weeks in Copenhagen studying public spaces, bicycle planning and pedestrian oriented urban design. Most of my pictures are waiting for me on a friends laptop that is still in Europe so I will post a more images later but I wanted to get started with a very brief overview of what we did. The trip involved masters students in Architecture, Urban Planning, and Landscape architecture and is the precursor to an interdisciplinary urban design studio this fall. We're on the quarter system here so we don't actually start classes until this Wednesday.

Copenhagen has done a lot of work - starting in the early sixties - with creating pedestrian streets in the central city, and building cycle tracks - specific lanes for bikes only - throughout the city. Many of the pedestrian only areas have developed into major tourist spaces, but they serve a purpose and play that role nicely. It seems that everyone is biking in Copenhagen. So m...

Vancouver_Winter 08

2008-08-25T17:29:18-04:00

As noted in my previous entry, my studio last winter took a field trip to Vancouver. We spent a weekend looking at buildings and wishing U.S. dollar was still stronger than the Canadian version. Here are the photos for the entire trip. A few highlights below...

Surrey Library Patkau

Skytrain Station Busby Perkins+Will

Bing Thom

Arthur Erickson

Intro From Seattle

2008-08-24T00:16:22-04:00

Hello. I am currently about to begin year 2 of the 2 year+ M.Arch program here at the UW. We're on the quarter system here so I don't officially start classes again until the 24th of September. However, my studio this fall is an interdisciplinary urban design studio w/ master of landscape Arch. students and master of urban planning students. We will be working on a project in downtown Seattle focusing on pedestrian oriented urban design and will be traveling to Copenhagen Denmark for two weeks prior to the quarter beginning. Although, they are not teaching the studio we will be working with Gehl Architects out of Copenhagen. We will meet with them in Copenhagen and they will visit and critique our work a couple of times during the fall quarter. Nancy Rottle of the Green Futures Research and Design Lab will be teaching the studio alongside Kathryn Merlino from the Dept. of Architecture. I'll post more on the trip as it unfolds come September.
Currently, I'm working on a proj...