michael westrate portfolio
DESCRIPTION
Graduate Architecture Portfolio 2008-2012TRANSCRIPT
3770 Green Hill AveCincinnati, OH 45220
616.292.4985michaelwestrate @ gmail.com
Master of ArchitectureUniversity of Cincinnati College of DAAP, Cincinnati Ohio// anticipated completion June 2012
EDUCATION
Academic Exchange >> China Fall 2006Six months abroad studying Chinese language and cultureCapital Normal University, Beijing China
Bachelor of Fine Arts May 2007Calvin College, Grand Rapids MichiganMajor in Asian Studies // concentration: chineseMajor in Studio ArtAIAS Calvin Chapter // president 2006 - 2007
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Graduate Assistant Summer 2009 - Spring 2010School of Architecture and Interior Design, University of Cincinnati
Worked with Assistant Professor Karl Wallick producing a monograph of the work of KieranTimberlake.Release September 2011 // Rizzoli Publishers
Elite Graduate Assistant Fall 2010 - presentSchool of Architecture and Interior Design, University of Cincinnati
Awarded a competitive Graduate Assistantship for the remaining two years of my degree. Responsibilities include teaching classes of 20+ students, organizing software and analogue demonstrations, and grading.
3xSAID // president Summer 2010 - PresentStudent Society of the School of Architecture and Interior Design, University of Cincinnati
Organized and secured funds for lectures as well as entertain guest lecturers of the School of Architecture and Interior Design .
WORK EXPERIENCE
COMPUTER SKILLS
Experienced with Rhinoceros 4, V-ray, Revit, AutoCAD, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Sketch-up. Working knowledge of Grasshopper, Form Z, and 3DS Max
WORK EXHIBITED
FormZ Joint Study Journal 2007-2998, “Digitial Iteration: Defining a Synthesis between Manual and Digital Craft” by James Eckler // Work featured Calvin College Center Gallery // Senior show, May 2007106 South Division Gallery // Artist book display, January 2006Calvin College Library // Ceramics show, Summer 2006
Kieran Timberlake // intern Spring & Summer 2011Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Worked closely with a team on mostly institutional projects throughout the design development and construction document phases using Revit, Rhino, and the Adobe Creative Suite
4-Most Group Architects // intern Spring 2009Butler, Pennsylvania
Worked at the firm doing schematic design, site planning, construction documents, and presentations for clients using Microstation software.
KohnPedersenFox Architects (KPF) // intern Fall 2009New York, New York
Worked with numerous teams on a variety of projects throughout the design development and construction document phases mostly using AutoCAD and the Adobe Creative Suite.
Design Evolution Workshop [ DEW ] // intern Summer 2010Detroit, Michigan
Volunteered to begin preliminary measures of homes slated for deconstruction.
street ::
tel ::email ::
b r a n d i n g a n a t i o n
The exhibition theme “feeding the planet, energy for life,” requires the designer to take a solid position on food, finding a balance between criticism and nation branding. How does a designer criticize a broken system while portraying a sense of positivity?
The UN Millennium Goals, agreed upon by nearly two hundred nations in the year 2000, aimed to half the number of chronically hungry by the year 2015. In the past ten years the number of hungry people has actually risen. Rather than dwelling on the failure of the developed world, my design for the US Pavilion embraces the industrial processes which made the US a wealthy nation by proposing a vertically integrated supplement factory.
Pavilion Studio
:: Edson Cabalfin :: Milan Italy, 2015 :: United States Pavilion :: Micronutrient Factory
InstructorLocation Program Proposal
fall 2010
p a v i l i o n a s f a c t o r y
F(ood)actory - With the UN Millennium Goals quickly approaching, new solutions to the global food crisis are needed. Lessons from industrialization can be used by developing nations to quickly and effec-tively tackle this epidemic. The U.S. Pavilion at Milan is designed as an all inclusive food factory, raw material entering at one end and supplements or mineral rich food produced at the other. This method, unlike the model used by Henry Ford, can be easily adapted to the changing needs of a community. When food sourc-es are secure and chronic hunger can be managed with local crops, the factory can be appropriated for regular food production or moved to another location where vitamin and mineral rich foods are still in short supply.
milan, italy
c a n i n d u s -t r i a l i z a t i o n b e u s e d t o h e l p s o l v e a f o o d c r i s i s ? deficiencies ::
sources ::
importance ::
v i t a m i n ai r o nEssential for material & fetal health, learning, and productivity.
i o d i n eFundamental for intelligence and brain development.
Vital for sight and theimmune system.
Worldwide deficiencies with over 2 billion people affected by anaemia.
North Africa, Eastern Eu-rope, Central Asia, Southeast Asia,
Central Africa, South America, Southast Asia, Middle East
Seeds, spinach, white beans, meats
Iodized salt, sea vegetables, yogurt, milk, strawberries
Tomatoes, spinach, turnips, starches, eggs, meat
source :: World Health Organization
Shortly after the turn of the century, Henry Ford introduced vertical integration to the industrial process. Raw materials, delivered at one end of the factory are fully refined, processed, and then transformed into componants for the final product; an automobile. Ford imagined the producer, the factory worker, to be the consumer, a closed loop, a self propagating process of endless production and consumption.
v e r t i c a li n t e g r a t i o n
MATERIAL PROCESSINg
PRODUCT ASSEMBLy
DISTRIBUTION
RAW MATERIAL INPUT
p o s t - f o r d i s ma s f o r m a la r r a n g m e n t
view toward production plant on farm level
A. ENTRy // qUEUE AREA
B. PARK SPACE
C. SALT fIELD OBSERVATION DECK
D. PROCESSINg fACILITy
E. PRODUCT STORAgE RACKS
f. REfLECTINg POOL
p r o g r a m
PRODUCT
PROCESSINg
RAW MATERIAL
:: PILLS/SUPPLEMENTS/SHIPPINg PODS
:: MANUfACTORIINg/fACTORy
:: SALT/CROPS/WATER
CANOPy ROOf // SALT WATER IS PUMPED ATOP THE PAVILION WHERE IT EVAPORATES LEAVINg ONLy SALT.
fARM + PARK // PLANTS RICH IN VITAMIN A AND IRON ARE gROWN IN PLANTERS ORgANIzED AS A PARK fOR VISITORS
02REfLECTINg RESERVOIR // WATER IS STORED IN A RESERVOIR BELOW THE fARM 0301
A.
B.
C.
D. E.
f.
The components of the pavilion are designed to be manufactured off site and to fit into standard shipping containers. Planting beds and structural columns can be folded and stacked atop one another in a 6060 mm x 2440 mm container. At the end of the expo these same components can be repacked and sent to another site.
ap a v i l i o n w i t hm o v e s
columns arrive assembled inside 6 meter shipping containers
ROO
f RESERVO
IR SUPPLy LIN
E
MOTOR fOR EXTENDINg COLUMN ARMS
PUM
P fOR RESERVOIR SUPPLy
LOC
KA
BLE P
IN CO
NN
EC
TIO
N
d r a w i n g f r o m t h e l a n d s c a p e
Absent of civilization’s markers and void of obvious forms of life, the Bonneville Salt Flats occupy a space outside of the normal human experience. This experience is highlighted by the site, which is at once both a seemingly infinite field and in a state of perceived stasis.
This skewed perception is distorted by the usual clutter of everyday life.
Discovered through mapping the dynamic flows inherent to the place, the Rest Stop emerges at a knuckle of natural occurrence and human intervention. The formal and con-structed strategies directly correlate to the dynamic nature of the place capturing and augmenting that which is already there.
lyceum competition
:: Lucie Fontein :: Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah :: Rest Stop :: Occupy The Line
InstructorLocation Program Proposal
winter 2011
i s t h e r e n o t h i n g h e r e ?
b)
The Lyceum Competition prompt is for a zero energy rest stop at the intersection of the Bonneville Salt Flats and Interstate 80. The competition calls for the rest stop to engage with a proposed land art installation called “Earth Curvature”, a series of 341 logarithmically spaced poles stretching the full length of the flats while also providing spaces for overnight visitors and weary travelers.
My proposal for the competition engages directly with the art installation, the building stretching the distance between the two center-most poles. Visitors enter from between the two lanes of traffic through a portico below the west bound lanes. Ramps stretch from this underground space between six evaporative fields and disappear into the flats.
a) parking
b) portico
c) installation
d) open air atrium
e) restrooms & showers
f) evaporative fields
g) salt flats
a)
b)
d)
g)
e)
f)
building form providing the rest
// parallel thresholdThe building stretches more
than 300’ along Interstate 80
connecting the center 3’ pole
of the competition’s proposed
installation piece with the next
pole. A ramp carries visitors
from just below the 3’ pole along
this parallel threshold to grade
at the next pole.
| perpendicular thresholdA portico connects the parking
in the middle of the two
highways with the rest stop on
the north end of the road. The
portico bisects the road and art
installation by slipping below the
road, guest rooms, and evaporative
salt fields and emerging from the
ground onto the flats.
the quadrantSailing north or south,
sailers use the quadrant
to identify their latitude
relative to the sun and
stars. They then steer the
ship to the east or west
based upon this reading. In
the same way, the guest rooms
frame the site and the sky,
giving visitors a frame of
reference in an infinite
field.
a knucklePurified water drips down
into the storage pipe
which provides clean water
for drinking and bathing.
Heating elements are embedded
in the concrete cylinder
keeping the water from
freezing and heating the
rooms through radient heat
transfer. In the summer
months, the pipe will work
as a thermal mass, insulating
the occupants with thermal
mass.
heating elements
glass canopy
evaporation basin
the pipe
winter // canopy left open,
allowing water from the rising
water table to fill the
reservoir
summer // glass canopy remains
closed, trapping water and
encouraging evaporation
Winter:The glass canopy is left
open and water from the
seasonally high aquifer is
collected in large concrete
cisterns near the surface.
evaporative water basins
Early Spring/Summer:The glass canopy is closed
and the rays from the sun
warm the chamber causing
the water to evaporate,
leaving only salt deposits
within the basin. As
the water evaporates, it
collects on the underside
of the glass canopy and is
funneled towards the pipe
where it will be tempered
and stored for bathing and
drinking.
Autumn:When Autumn rolls around
much of the water that was
once in the basin has been
completely evaporated and
stored within the pipe.
The pipe is sealed and
the canopy again opened in
anticipation for the rising
winter aquifer.
flapping in the windAttached to generators,
louvers along the edge of
I80 flap from air displaced
by passing vehicles. The
kinetic energy is captured
and stored in the form of
electricty.
a) highway I80b) roomsc) open air atriumd) cafee) plazaf) evaporative fields
a) b)
c)
d) e)
f)
hidden sheltersSprouting from below the pipe, ramps reach up into
the landscape out to personal shelters. During
the winter months these paths are hidden below the
rising water table.
cafe plazaThe plaza cantilevers off the pipe above the water
line. During the dry summer months the horizon is
obscured by the platform. In the winter months the
plaza acts like a deck where visitors can hang their
toes down toward the refreshing water.
the rising tidestop year round.
Once a Shaker farm, this site is structured with rich dualisms, ripe for exploration. In addition to the built organization, this site offers subtle complexities within the natural landscape. Using Semper’s definition of Tectonics these subtle and more overt relationships are exploited in order to generate forms which amplify and reproduce the desirable qualities of the place.
The crop rows across the site were one of the organizing strategies which during certain times of the year bring both the built tectonic forms and landscape into harmony.
o r d e r & t e c t o n i c s
Tectonic Studio
:: Karl Wallick :: Miami, Ohio :: University Field Station :: Expressed Forces
InstructorLocation Program Proposal
fall 2008
1.
MASS
fRAME
PLANE
HEARTH
The studio was structured around the continuous production of iterative models and drawings abstracting the qualities of the site into Gottfried Semper’s tectonic elements. Through these iterations, a building form was generated marrying the abstracted site qualities, building form, and construction joinery.
1. gREENHOUSE
2. COURTyARD
3. RESIDENCE
4. ADMINISTRATION
5. LIBRARy
6. BRIDgE
s e m p e r ’ s t e c t o n i cs t r a t e g i e s
Using Form Z renderings, hand drawings, and Photoshop collage this hybrid drawing explores the relationship of site, building, and the flow between space. The model, constructed of MDF, recycled black board, and basswood expresses the form of the building, but also the site forces integral in the process.
o f f s e t p a t h s
SEC Studio
:: Terry Boling :: Cranbrook Acadamy, Michigan :: Wellness Center :: Contextual Continuity
InstructorLocation Program Proposal
winter / spring 2010
Designed by Eliel Saarinen, the Cranbrook campus is made of a series of courtyards connected by paths and tunnels. By offsetting these paths and adding subtle visual cues, Saarinen pulls visitors from one courtyard to another. Re-specting these relationships. This project proposes a Well-ness Center positioned along the far edge of the Grand Allee, capping a soft edge and creating new courtyards.
The building program is organized along a line parallel to the Grand Allee. Perpendicular cuts as well as vertical slices create physical and implied separations for privacy. The lay-ered building envelope and other exterior elements further this hierarchy of privacy by creating distinct space for visi-tors, students of the academy, and Wellness Center patrons.
Respecting the linear nature of the site and importance of the Grand Allee as an open space, the building pro-gram was pushed to the far end of the field, capping the road and creating opportunities for new court-yards which extend the existing relationships.
The dry programs and wet programs are split for comfort and environmental reasons by a shared mechanical plinth
g r a n d a l l e e
existing and newly formed courtyards.
A.
A. RECEPTION // 900 Sf ADMINISTRATION + LOBBy
B. LIBRARy // 500 Sf STACKS + READINg ROOM
C. CHANgINg ROOMS // 1200 Sf MEN + WOMEN D. THERAPy POOLS // 2000 Sf HyDROTHERAPy POOLS + SAUNA + STEAM
E. ALCOVES // 600 Sf MEDITATION + MASSAgE
f. gROUP THERAPy // 1500 Sf yOgA + OUTDOOR STUDIO
g. RESIDENCES // 2000 Sf COMMUNAL KITCHEN + OUTDOOR DINNINg + gUEST ROOMS (X5)
p r o g r a m
B.
C. D.
E.
f.
g.
site model // 1/16ÓCNC milled, laser cut, hand constructed
g u e s tr o o m
A. MURPHy BED
B. BATHROOM
C. SITTNg AREA
D. EXTERIOR VERANDA
1. STEAM ROOM
2. SAUNA
3. PLUNgE POOL
4. AROMA THERAPy
5. HOT POOL
6. OUTDOOR HOT POOL
7. gUEST ROOM
8. COMMUNAL KITCHEN
9. RESIDENTIAL COURTyARD
10. STUDIO COURTyARD
11. yOgA STUDIO
12. ELEVATOR CORE
13. MASSAgE ALCOVE
14. MEDITATION ALCOVE
15. CHANgINg ROOM
16. COURTyARD
17. LIBRARy
18. RECEPTION
7.
A. B.
C.
D.
Lightwells connect the upper and lower floors bringing sun-shine to the pools buried below as well as creating meditation and massage alcoves.
7. 7. 7. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
l o w e rl e v e l
u p p e rl e v e l
1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.2.3.4.
5.
6.
14. 14.
15.
15.
16. 18.
18.
n o r t he l e v a t i o n
16.
12.13. 13. 13.
Almost all mechanical systems are hidden between the wet and dry floors. Mechanical strips, wedged be-tween the c-shaped channel structure will be the only place where people inside the building will experience these systems. Operable vents and skylights will allow these strips to integrate active and passive strategies to effectively and efficiently condition the building.
LIgHTINg
STRATEgy
03
HUMIDITy
CAPTURE
02
NATURAL
VENTILATION
01
i n t e g r a t e d s y s t e m s
A. B. C.
C.
B.
A.
Lights, operable skylights, and ventilation ducts are all con-tained in mechanical strips be-tween the structural columns creating a clean expression of construction.
The changing rooms are wrapped in blue ceramic strips defining the duality of the two rectangular spaces as well as their relationship to the therapy pools below.
A wooden screen helps to de-fine space and provide privacy while also protecting the build-ing envelope from solar heat gain.
1/4” BAy MODEL
Contemporary planning and architecture is at odds with its environment. When catastrophe befalls a place the brittle relationship between the built form and nature is revealed, human interventions becoming remnants of the past. Centralia, Pennsylvania has become a scar of this tumultuous relationship. Once a bustling borough the town is now abandoned. Threatened by a coal fire burning just below the surface of the earth, the residents have been forced to leave their homes, street signs and light posts the only remnants of what was once there. Can a more dexterous architecture exist within such a ravaged place, one that both compliments and shifts within the restless landscape? The hope of this thesis is that through an exploration of the relationship between cartography and design a more adroit architecture will emerge, elegantly adapted and adapting to its environment.
Using a Deleuzian definition of mapping as a performative act, the line between what is map and what is design can be blurred together for both substantiate the imagined world into the tangible. By first cataloguing a variety of maps and understanding their bias and performative value through landscape architect Christophe Girot’s Four Trace Concept, this thesis will create a framework of possible operational systems for engaging with the site. Through this process an architectural intervention will emerge both wedded to the current conditions but also formally and programmatically
assimilating to the shifting disposition of the place.
m a p p i n g
thesis studio
:: aarati kanekar :: centralia, pennsylvania :: mortuary :: architecture augmenting landscape
chairLocation Program Proposal
fall 2011 - ongoing
Throughout the thesis process I have produced a series of maps relating to both real and perceived qualities of Centralia. The choice of represen-tational method as well as what is selected for representation forms what Centralia is beyond it’s physical form. The hope is by acting in a way con-scious of this reality a well moored architecture will emerge in the place attune to its environment.
m a p p i n ga s a g e n e r a t o r o f p l a c e
The program for the site is broken into a series of architectural follies imitating and augmenting the conditions of the place. The first of these follies is a bridge spanning from the edge of a cemetery across a quickly developing sink hole. Pin connections tie hydraulic structural columns to footings deep in the earth. As the footings shift the columns can be adjusted to level the structure. Resting across the bridge will be a second bar. This bar will be set into the sinkhole so as the ground continues to shift the bar will fall acting as a measure in the landscape.
a m o v i n g b r i d g e
k o h n p e d e r s o n f o x { k p f }
I worked on a team using AutoCAD, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Rhino to create design development and construction documents for a variety of projects in the US, Canada, and Singapore. The projects ranged in scale from a small pavilion expansion to a fifty storey skyscraper. Most of my time was spent making renderings and drawing construction details.
internship
:: Greg Waugh & Li Lei :: New York, New York :: 9/2009 - 12/2009 :: Learn Quickly & Stay Late
SupervisorsLocation Duration
Role
winter 2009
100 ADELAIDE, TORONTO Floor plate schemes used for design proposal packets.
Overall building form by KPFRendering by renderer Mike Klausmeier
qUEUINg PAVILION
For this pavilion I worked on site measurements, client presentations, renderings, and a design development set.
i n q u i r y
As a graduate student I Worked for Assistant Professor Karl Wallick helping to produce a monograph of the work of Kieran Timberlake Associates. The work included creating page layouts, image selection, and text editing.
Released September 2011 // Rizzoli Publishers
graduate assistantship
:: Karl Wallick :: University of Cincinnati :: 9/2009 - 6/2010 :: Graphic layouts, iteration
Professor-Location Duration
Role
fall / winter / spring 2010