scad undergraduate portfolio

steven chappell

intent

reading grottoil museo di compagni

thermaesuite strands

tybee island researchjames monroe library

addendum

[content]

Architecture is not an end but a means to an end.Architecture unconstrained by its physicality presents an unique perspective to examine the world. The holistic nature of the profession places it at the collision of art, science, culture and society. It is from this vantage point that architects can leave behind the obsession of creating an object and instead explore the relationships between all things.

I wish to use this mindset to examine the world. The possibilities created from the collision of these varied fields are what propelled me to pursue an architectural education when I was pulled by other interests. Intrigued by the social implications of economics, the intricacies of scale in biology, and the communicative ability of art, I searched for a path that would utilize my particular interests in each area. Architecture represents to me a freedom from the imposition of specialization, which allows for a career that exists at a point of convergence.

[intent][intent]

Reading is a personal act that requires privacy and security. When privacy and security are assured the full mental focus needed for the analysis of meaning in literature can be achieved. Contemplation, the act in which one sets the book aside and reflects upon its meaning, is how meaning transcends literature and becomes knowledge. Contemplation is not very efficient within a vacuum as the monotony of a space can breed self distraction. Contemplation can be enhanced through the careful controlled exposure to things outside of literature which provide a new background to inspire thoughts and reinforce meaning.

[reading grotto]

NorthWestSouth East

A grotto innately feels private and secure.

With light filtering between interlocking concrete shells and requiring visitors to enter by crawling through a narrow passage, the reading room evokes the image of a grotto. A grotto is an archaic reminder of man’s past and innately feels private and secure. This provides an ideal setting for the contemplation of literature.

The reading grotto’s singular view focuses on a large living tree, branches all drawn to one side, silhouetted by trees in a small clearing. The frozen movement of the tree is sensational, awe-inspiring, and terrifying. The tree is sublime. The aperture is off to one side, behind the visitor, minimizing its focus while reading.

The view provides a backdrop to inspire thoughts and reinforce meaning.

A contemporary museum of our peers in Rome located across Piazza Rotunda from the Pantheon, the museum is an exploration in replicating the conditions of an urban scale on an architectural scale.

[il Museo di Compagni]

The site, located across from the Pantheon, forms one of the borders of Piazza Rotunda. The present building, a reminant of Rome’s accretive growth of the Middle Ages, encroaches on the original court of the Pantheon.

site analysis with Isaac Leverett and John Kirsimagi.

Rome is an urban palimpsest.

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When examining the figure-ground urban fabric of Rome several conditions become obvious at various scales. The spaces and circulation within the museum creates analogies to these conditions. The axial cuts made through the accretive medieval city to connect monuments becomes translated into a circulation that orients vistors to the central axis of Piazza Rotunda. The atrium entry space of the museum is an analogy to the public courtyards and piazzas located across Rome. The individual gallery level is a fitting analogy to the micro scale of Rome, where individual buildings and courtyards become discernable. The analogies become manifested in the arrangment, volume, light level and openess of each space.

Architectural conditions of various scales within the museum relate to the urban conditions of Rome.

axial cuts

public piazzas

courtyards

museum organization

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view of atrium from entry stairs

piazza level view

gallery interior

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Ground Level Second Level

South East

key1: cafe2: offices3: viewing deck4: gallery rooms

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Third Level Fourth Level

North West

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The original court is restored and visitors can experience the Pantheon from previously withheld vantage points.

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Thermal BathWarm Springs, GAProfesssor. Matthew DudzikArch Studio 2

[THERMAE]Inspired by Roman baths but adapted for contemporary visitors, this bath reconciles the historic social program of Roman designs with a modern meditative bath program. The bath accommodates for changes in social preferences while heightening some of the allure that made Roman baths so popular.

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Changes in opacity create moments of voyeristic opportunity.

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By modifying and reconfiguring parts of Roman designs, the bath can become more fitting for contemporary usage while still not losing its ceremonial program. The progression through a series of baths known as the Turkish Baths (3,4,5) is maintained, while the great bath is adapted with niches for use by more intimate groups, a seating or exhibition platform, and the addition of a bar.

key1: great bath2: apodyterium3: frigidarium4: tepidarium5: caldarium6. meditation area7: niches8: bar9: saunas

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Roman thermal bath plan at Bath, England

image: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=117309

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thermae second level plan

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Conceptual collages explored how transparency and translucency would help propel visitors through the bath space, manipulate light and change the appearances of the baths from the exterior.

landscape folly lobby

lobby entry way

34 meditation cells entry wall changing rooms

skybridge interior hall tower study

Controllable transparency creates intimate niches for conversation and spectation.

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Located in Warm Springs, GA the site is nestled between two hills overlooking Taylor Springs. The changing transparency of the building volumes are partially obscured by heavy vegetation upon approach.

warm spring locationsite topographysite in Warm Springs, GA.

warm spring location

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The sky bridge, which penetrates the entry wall, serves as separator between the reinterpreted historic bath program and the bath’s meditative area.

view of meditation cellsrestaurant

meditation hallway

The sky bridge separates the contemporary program from the historic.

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East Elevation

Ground Level

5’ 10’ 20’

South Elevation

Second Level

44left: longitudinal sectionright: transverse

Longitudinal Section

Transverse Section

[suite strands]A high-end extended stay hotel located in the historic district of Savannah, Suite Strands is a digital design form based investigation of topological surfaces.

Collaborative digital studio with Isaac Leverett.

The massing was created from the aggregation of smaller primitivies into clusters which related to the organization of individual dwelling units. The massing and volume was informed from a variety of site related factors and an examination of typological precedents. The scale of the existing building, adherence to zoning requirements, programmatic requirements and a desire to articulate corners and the entry conditions coalesced into a form that is site responsive and is typologically familiar in internal organization.

The topological logic is a surface to strand morphology. The surface strands at points where openings for apertures or structure is required by the arrangement of program. At instances the strands no longer adhere to the surface and are pulled through the apertures to form the parts of the structural system (forming the floors, columns, walls and beams) as well as other things such as stairs and railings. The strands are expressed as ornament on the exterior emphasizing the surface’s continuity and giving it legibility from a distance. The placement and sizing of apertures is based on a variety of criteria including noise level and desired views.

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street view from Layfette Square

Transverse Section

aperture detail over atrium

corner articulation on Drayton Street

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key1: apartment units2: restaurant3: front desk4: lobby5: parking6: battersby hartridge house

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Ground Level Second Level

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Second Level Third Level

[tybee island research]Dedicated to public education and research of Savannah Coastal wildlife, the Tybee Island Research Center explores the relationship between research and public exhibition.

Collaborative studio with John Kirsimagi.

site of the research center, close to the delta of the Savannah River.

The lazaretto creek bridge is the last major crossing before reaching Tybee

Island from Savannah. Remnants of the train rail that spanned this divide

remain visible, partially obscured by the marsh.

The program of the Tybee Island Research Center is to include space for holding and displaying living marine specimens and areas to perform chemical tests of water and specimen samples (i.e. toxicity). The building is to be conducive to public education and exposure to the marsh and research.

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The area surrounding the site contains clusters of small coastal businesses such as restaurants, boat storage and river tours, all of which are located off of the Lazaretto Creek, and each equipped with a dock. The docks, however, rise above the marsh impeding direct human interaction.

built environment vehicular circulation

The entire area surrounding the site consists of coastal marsh. All areas ouside of the small artificial mounds on which the bridge is built is susceptible to flooding. All of the businesses in the area are built upon stilts or push the occupied spaces above the ground level.

marshland topography

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The coast northeast of the bridge was chosen as the specific site. This site is screened from the highway by vegetation, and has unimpeded access to a small beach between swaths of marshland.

proposed site

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The built environment of Tybee Island is perceptibly hodge-podge. It became apparent to

us that the building could simultaneously respond to and critique this condition; but first it was necessary to ask,

what is hodge-podge?

Hodge-podge is cheap; it is a product of the deterioration of additive–accumulative–and

disjointed alterations. It is collage, but more precisely bricolage–a composition of independent parts from various

times. It is junk thrown together helter-skelter, without a thought for permanence.

It is a coastal tourist trap, littered with cheap beach architecture.

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The building was intuitively conceived as two horizontal elements: a wall and a boardwalk. The wall reinforces the site’s linearity, and as a location between two destinations. The majority of the program was to be contained in a third mass which runs counter to the horizontal elements.

The wall reinforces the site’s linearity, and its place

as a location between two destinations.

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While traditional marine research laboratories contain storage areas of testing tanks on racks relegated in back rooms, the program of the Tybee research center focuses on public exhibition. The wall separating the terraced public space and research laboratory is a large rack in which tanks are placed. Each tank in this scheme is able to act as an individual display and an accessible research environment. With each element of the vertical wall contributing toward the display, the entire wall becomes a sign.

rethinking research with (as) signage

The main mass was oriented around the tank display wall. Research labs were pushed behind the wall and made multistory for access to the tanks within the wall at all levels. The main public area terraces below the wall to the beach and marshland surrounding the research center to allow direct interaction.

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2: public viewing space of research tanks

3: the tank wall which separates the research labs and the public space.

4: a catwalk for use by researchers to access the tank wall.

5: two levels of research labs

6: researcher offices and research library are accessible through the bottom level of the laboratory area.

7: a floating dock with tanks for temporary specimens

8: a concrete “beach” that floods with the tide, capturing marine life for public interaction and viewing.

9: board walk with seating area

10: the wall is covered with a low density wood skin, which shades the occupiable side from direct sunlight. the vacant interior of the wall allows for coastal vegetation to reclaim some of the center’s footprint.

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public viewing platform terraces down to coast

view from the Savannah River

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Scale: 1/64”= 1’-0”

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key1: entry ramp2: public area3: tank wall4: covered educational area5: research library6: laboratory7: offices8: laboratory

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East Elevation North Elevation

North Elevation

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hodge-podge: a lack of permanence.The wall is covered with a low density wooden screen creating a threshold between

the marsh and the coast, and shading the usable area of the building. The materiality

embraces the deterioration expected in a costal environment and can be easily replaced

as needed. The vacant interior of the wall allows for coastal vegetation to reclaim some

of the center’s footprint.

[james monroe library]Located in Washington DC’s Foggy Bottom district, James Monroe Library advocates for a new organization for the changing role of the public library.

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The contemporary library has become a programmatic catch-all. Whereas the Greek word “bibliotheke” once referred to a place that was purely for the storage of books, the public library has programmatic addendums that attempt to preserve the library as a public necessity, and respond to the demand for access to modern forms of entertainment and information. Children’s day care, unemployment centers, computer workstations, classrooms, digital media areas, and community rooms have all eased their way into accepted components of a library. The typical approach to this omnipresence of program is to integrate each component, leading to conditions such as computer stations embedded within books stacks, seating that is regulated to nooks between various programs, periodicals that encroach upon other areas, and classrooms and group spaces with their associated noise opening on to stacks. The result of this convergence and combination of disparate programs is all too often a degradation of each and their respective spaces.

typical contemporary library

james monroe library

The design of the James Monroe Public Library segregates the stacks from these “neo-public” areas of the library. The main public space becomes a free for all: an expansive open level that can be freely adapted for the constantly changing and shifting programs.

96site with roof plan

The library’s site is the north section of James Monroe Park along Pennsylvania Avenue. The primary facade is oriented slightly off parallel with Pennsylvania Avenue to allow vision into the neo-public level from both directions. The building’s footprint sits on the wider east side of the park, allowing the west side to be landscaped.

Foggy Bottom District in DC

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The main public space becomes a free for all.

stair + seating sketches

The main public space is a free for all. Programs within this space overlap and are not walled in. The open floor plan allows flexiblity while the seperation from the stacks prevents encroachment of the “neo-public “. A large set of steps serves as casual seating between the two levels of public program.

The library stack levels are pulled back from the facade allowing views between levels. A translucent layer of glass ensures ample light while preventing excess heat gain.

stack level

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South West

First Level

key1:information desk 2:auditorium3:book processing 4:support offices 5:branch manager office 6:employee break room 7:storage8:mechanical

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North East

Second Level Typical Stack Level

9:unemployment office 10:interview rooms 11:IT desk12:computer classroom 13:periodicals 14:circulation desk 15:stacks

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104transverse section

longitudinal section

[addendum]

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Jones Street Elevation Courtyard Elevation

Survey of 116 W. Jones Street. Completed with John Kirsimagi.

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BUILT IN SHELVING

SKYLIGHT2'-4" X 2'X6"

SKYLIGHT ABOVE STAIRSAPPROX. 5'-1" X 8'-0"

DASHED-IN WALL CABINETS

BELOW STAIRS

LIVING ROOM

DINING

KITCHEN

COUNTER WITH SINK IN CLOSET

A1.1A1.1 A1.1 A1.1

2'-8" 4' 1'-512" 6'-91

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BATHROOM BATHROOM

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UP UP

BRICK FLOOR IN FRONT OF FIREPLACE(SAME FOR ALL INSTANCES)

FLOOR TO CEILING CABINET

BRICK FLOOR IN FRONT OF FIREPLACEAND MANTLE SHOWN ABOVE

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PLANTEREXTENDS PAST TO ADJACENT HOUSE FRONT BALCONY

REAR BALCONY


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First Floor Second Floor Third Floor

scad undergraduate portfolio

Documents

contemplation of literature

urban scale

reading room

urban palimpsest

collision of art

site analysis

reading grottos singular

large living tree