kevin chamberlin | work
DESCRIPTION
a collection of works from my architectural educationTRANSCRIPT
Table of Contents
ARCHITECTURE 1. cabinet house 2. living light 3. iit natatorium 4. [re]formation
STUDY ABROAD 1. photography
ARCHITECTURE
CABINET HOUSE
Alcoa, Tennessee
Fall 2011Cabinet House is a design for the community of Alcoa. As a city, Alcoa was founded upon the idea of indus-try. This idea of industry follows certain utopian ideals of self-sustainability in the live-work typology, (work the industry, live the industry). These ideals are continued into the residential design by incorporating a commer-cial space to complement the residences. Also helped by this is the fact that Alcoa as a community does not have a well defined center for commerce within the city. Most of the commercial type buildings are spread out and not very well defined within the typology of the city. The goal was to create a design to work with this through the utopian live-work ideals.
The site chosen within Alcoa was chosen for its proxim-ity to the center of Acloa as well as the commercial pres-ence within the city. Broadway (the most “main” street) frames the site at one end while the neighborhood ty-pology along Old Knoxville Highway frames the other.
Regulating lines make up the forms of the units. The commercial spaces are aligned along Broadway so as to continue the facade line of the public commercial street. Infilling behind those commercial units are the corresponding residences that they belong to. In this delineation, the units make up one side of each prop-erty while the driveway that doubles as an access road to the commercial unit lies on the other side.
CITY PLAN
SITE AXON
PLANES/VOLUMES CONCEPT DIAGRAM
SITE PLAN
PROGRAMMATIC UNIT PLANS
ENTRY CLOSET COREMASTER CLOSET CORECABINETRY WALL
Prefabrication was stressed as a construction method in this studio class. The particular method within this that I chose was that of planes and volumes. The planes are represented through the walls, floors, and roof while the volumes are created through a system of cabinetry. The cabinetry fits upon a single modular volume that can be reshaped into different forms and programs. These then make up the interior walls of the unit to form the larger volumes of the rooms themselves.
The design of the commercial spaces are left as blank slates for the plan so as to accommodate the needs of the different programs filling them. The only structured interior is the same core line of cabinetry to frame the public and private spaces on the interior.
COMMERCIAL INTERIOR
GUEST CLOSET COREMASTER BATH COREGUEST BATH CORE
The design for the residential units themselves are de-rived from the shotgun house and the dogtrot house typology. Since the houses maintain a relatively thin footprint in width, as well as the North walls frame the neighboring unit, the East and West facades oriented to the front and back of the units are entirely open. The dogtrot typology is re-imagined in this incorporation so as to provide openings to the South of the units. Large openings are created through a large window in the liv-ing portion of the unit. A courtyard space separating the private spaces is in place of the opening on the other side of the home to place the openings on the same side of the unit overlooking their portion of the outdoors.
The paving patterns on the drive correspond with the module of the cabinet for the wheel strips and a paving with greenery coming through that align with the win-dow openings and solid portions of the facade.
LONGITUDINAL SECTION
RESIDENTIAL COURTYARD
TRANSVERSE SECTION
RESIDENTIAL ELEVATIONS
LIVING LIGHT
Washington, D.C.
FALL 2010 - FALL 2011The Living Light house designed for The Department of Energy’s 2011 Solar Decathlon is an entirely solar en-ergy powered home. Conceptually, the design is based off of the cantilever barn which is a major part of the historical architectural vernacular of Eastern Tennessee. The two cores located in the barn in this usage are pushed to the extents of the home to yield an open, loft-like interior while the upper cantilevered part is re-imagined in the design and utilization of the solar array.
90°F
South North
ERV
72°F
direct sunlight
Six major concepts powered the design of the home. These concepts are living compactly, leaving a small footprint, maximizing views and transparency, space adapts in service to function, harvesting the sun’s en-ergy, and user control of light, view, and ventilation.
The smart facade system implemented in the Living Light house uses the air cavity inside the facade the ven-tilate the house. During winter, air is pulled in through the Southern facade to precondition the air before it is brought in to the home. That system is reversed during the summer months and air is brought it from the North facade so as to shield the air from the sun’s energy. The idea of passive technology is continued throughout the design of the home so as to make the most of the sus-tainable potential of the house and design.
FACADE FUNCTION DIAGRAM
A OUTDOOR PUBLIC SPACE
B ENTRY
C LAUNDRY/COATS/
MECHANICAL ROOM
D KITCHEN WALL
E KITCHEN ISLAND
F ENTERTAINMENT CENTER
G ZOOM ROOM BED
H BATHROOM
I EXIT
J EXTERIOR PRIVATE SPACE
K LOW SUCCULENT GREEN
ROOF SYSTEM
L TALL FLOWERING GREEN
ROOF SYSTEM
PRECEDENT STUDY CANTILEVER BARN HOUSE CONCEPT
FLOOR PLAN
The solar array implemented in the house is a cylindri-cal photovoltaic system. The round surface allows for generation of power throughout the day following the sun’s tracking across the sky. It is a 10.9 kilowatt array and projected to pull in twice the amount of power that would be used by the house. The array is also elevated above the house and a white EPDM roof membrane is directly below so that light that travels between the pan-els is reflected above to the underside of the array to pull in power from both sides of the system.
Passive technology is continued here as well by extend-ing the array out so as to provide shading for the house on all sides.
PV FUNCTION DIAGRAM
Structure for the house is a steel framing system. This allows for us to free up the facade to keep with our con-cepts of keeping view and connection to the outdoors through the storefront double facade system that is be-ing utilized. The steel is over designed for the home so that it can travel down the interstate as part of the life af-ter the competition of the house. It is touring the state of Tennessee to educate about the technologies we have used as well as the competition.
FOOTING DETAIL
Being a relatively small house on the interior, the use of exterior living space was looked at to take advantage of the climate we have designed for, that of Eastern Tennessee. The small footprint of the house continues the ideas of our concepts as well as the deck has a rela-tively small impact on the site compared to the house itself. The cabinetry was designed so as to incorporate the utilization of an outdoor kitchen and living area.
DECK SIDE ELEVATION
BENCH SECTION CABINET SECTION
IIT NATATORIUM
Chicago, Illinois
Spring 2009The task at hand was to design an aquatics center for the Illinois Institute of Technology. Designing for such a storied campus plan such as that of IIT, one must be very aware of the campus plan in its current layout as well as the history behind the design of the campus plan and existing structures.
Mies van der Rohe’s place at the head of the design for the campus plan of the Institute places this site at the higher echelon of architectural reputation.
In choosing a site on the campus, location of such a program was important in finding a site with enough openness to accommodate the large footprint that an aquatic center takes up. The rectilinear campus plan sets up a group of regulating lines that the form of the natatorium is derived from. Specifications of the pro-gram was four pools, one competition-sized swimming pool, one diving pool, and two recreation pools. Two locker-rooms, an administrative area, a cafe, a lifeguard station, and a classroom for swimming classes make up the rest of the program.
In the design of the plan, the linear progression was im-portant for the wet vs. dry spatial division. The locker rooms serve as the filter between the spaces.
SITE PLAN
FLOOR PLAN
The placement of the natatorium closes off the open quad to the South following the regulating lines set up by the adjacent buildings. Location of the site is also relatively centralized between the residence buildings of the campus and the public buildings.
Noise consideration on the site is extremely important due to its proximity to the elevated train. This drives the different levels of filigree along the North and South facades. The North facade remains solid to reflect the noise while the Southern facade opens up to the natural light and views.
NOISE DIAGRAMREGULATING LINES
ENTRY AXIS
The delicateness in materials chosen for the project re-flects that of the buildings on campus in the Miesian design. Steel provides the structure for the natatorium with an aluminum mullion system complementing the use of steel. Cruciform columns are used so as to pro-vide a seamless appearance for the vertical mullions as well as allowing for insulation to be placed in the gaps of the columns.
Skylighting is implemented along the circulation path so as to highlight the driving force of the linear design as well as to highlight the steel trusses overhead.
The lifeguard station as well as the classroom are lo-cated in the wet area separating the competition and recreation pools. They are placed as objects within the space to allow for free circulation around them as well as to not entirely divide the open space.
[RE]FORMATION
Krakow, Poland
Spring 2010The design of the two towers derives from the idea of a gateway into the redevelopment of the Debniki district. Reformation is meant to give a landmark to a district of Debniki that lacks definition. The forms themselves are created from ideas of hierarchy of the site and city, and views, and sustainability. An urban plan shaped the footprints of the site and the impact they have on the Wisla River and highway that provide the borders.
Hierarchy of the site is directed toward the new conference center and to the hotel. Green spaces are located on the site in these areas to frame the flow inward towards the redevelopment. The views from the towers are oriented to-wards the hierarchy of the Krakow: Wawel castle and the Vistula River. The observation decks at the top floors al-low for a view to the city of Krakow that is unprecedented, much like the height of the towers proposed. These two towers will give a definition to not only the district of deb-niki but to the city of Krakow embracing their modernity.
DETAIL A
Ideas of sustainability are represented through utiliza-tion of a double facade system that gives the storefront usage a thicker membrane while not sacrificing trans-parency. To keep the buildings true to their delicate na-ture, the materials used are steel, glass, copper, and aluminum. Copper is used as an homage to the his-torical buildings crowning elements that so well defined Krakow as a city with a strong artistic representation in the European community.
In the urban design portion of the studio, which was the re-definition of the Debniki district, the differences between the urban planning of that area compared to downtown was extremely clear. This area was developed during the Soviet occupation of Krakow and the communistic style of architecture clearly portrayed this through the community housing and linear style of building rather than the radial urban plan that founded Krakow. One of the major points of the buildings in the radial plan is the utilization of the courtyard. Reintroducing this language into the buildings by changing the built into negative space helps to instill this idea. This also helps give more built area for the site which helps in creating a destina-tion for this area of the city that is currently only really used as a segue.
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SITE SECTION
With the building restrictions as limiting as Krakow’s are, the height limit of new construction within the city is 25 meters. With my design, I tried to push the limits of the definition of the neighborhood but also the city itself. In the creation of these very impactful buildings, it was very important to design them in a respectful way so as to pay homage to the very well respected and designed downtown area of Krakow. The creation of a landmark to draw in more attention to this district was another very important aspect to make these towers unique in defining the region.
VIEW FROM WISLA RIVERVIEW FROM CONVENTION CENTER
STUDY ABROAD
In the Spring semester of 2011, I took part in a study abroad program to Krakow, Poland for the length of the semester. This program is a very important partnership between the University of Tennessee and Politechnika Krakowska that was in its fourteenth year during my studies. Through my time in Krakow as well as my trav-els throughout Europe, my photography served as my documentation. Not only documentation of where I trav-eled and the buildings I saw but also as my memory and things of importance: a place, a moment, a feeling. In doing this, I was found to have captured the details within the images and the interaction more than just the monumental.
Wawel Castle, Krakow, Poland
Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Krakow, Poland
Upon traveling to Krakow one finds that throughout the city plan, all major roads terminate at a monumental structure, such as the tower of a church. These termi-nations bring forth a very interesting downtown format for the viewer in the experience of discovery. Living in Krakow and being able to familiarize yourself with your surroundings at your own pace rather than visiting and being rushed to see everything was a great way to ex-perience such a culture enriched city.
In my other travels throughout the continent, I had the opportunity to travel to ten other countries: Italy, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, and Germany, Seeing all of these places and experiencing their specific cultures and ar-chitecture was a very inspirational experience.
Saint Andrews Cathedral, Krakow Poland
Florianska Street, Krakow Poland Tramrails, Krakow, Poland
Campanile, Florence, Italy Duomo, Florence, Italy
Carnivale, Venice, ItalyGondola, Venice, Italy
Memorial, Belzec, Poland
Fences, Auschwitz, Poland
Chapel, Ronchamp, France Canal, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Parliament, London, EnglandCliffs, Howth, Ireland
Eiffel Day, Paris, France
Eiffel Night, Paris, France