TWA Pattern

I went to New York City this past Christmas break and flew into JFk airport. As I was riding the skytran around the airport to Jamaican station I noticed the TWA terminal designed by Eero Saarinen. On my way out of New York I walked around JFK exploring the different terminals and I wasn't allowed inside of the TWA terminal, however I did manage to get some good photographs outside of the terminal. This pattern I created was inspired by a Victorian pattern made by Falkiners. The pattern reassembled a repetition of cross shaped naturalistic designs. I took my image of the TWA terminal and spliced it into many different arrangements by mirroring and copying different layers. The original picture was carefully sculpted out using a magnetic lasso and mask to accurately cut the image out.

CAD and the Future it Beholds

Computer aided design in the world today exists as not only a tool for preconceived design but rather an essential component in a designers process. With the development of the first personal computer many new programs have been written to aid designers in communicating their ideas to other professionals. Obviously not every designer had access to the super computers developed back in the 1960’s therefore computer aided design was irrelevant and even with the use of computers such as MIT’s TX-2 renderings and geometric calculations were far inferior of a designers mind.

With the development of the first CAD systems, designers began to realize the potential in computer technology. These first CAD programs helped designers calculate complex curves and geometries that would otherwise be impossible to create using newer materials such as sheet metal and reinforced concrete. In 1977 CAEADS [computer aided engineering and architectural design] was created for architects and engineers to perform a spacial analysis, energy analysis, and other building specific analysis’s for building functions.

Later artificial intelligence was implemented to examine how the computer would create specific solutions to problems on its own. Earlier systems would respond to full filling the needs of the inhabitants. However, flaws in this would later reveal that the computer cannot do as good a job on the details as the user manipulating the system.

Here’s where the controversy starts; whether you use a computer to analyze your ideas, or create them, the computer is only as smart as the person who’s using it. Today that rule still applies to almost every system out there, but programmers have made design progressively easier to accomplish. An example would be the amount of designers now a day that continue the practice of hand drafting. Some designers still lack the necessary skills to hand render or draw their ideas. These complications arise when technology begins to take over the profession.

I believe the future holds a great deal of knowledge for us to obtain, because computers cannot realize every aspect in design, most importantly the fact that sustainability and our environment are two primary design objectives that a computer may never understand. Artificial intelligence can only exist with a processor, or brain, that can continue to rewire itself or like us relearn and unlearn certain things. In reality the only true intelligence is one that can learn from its mistakes and change when it’s environment and society is asking for it; this require consciousness. The culmination of “conscious” machines is not possible, however the culmination of human and machine is probable.

Design Timeline

Starting from Revivalism We have University of Virginia main library. Into Arts and Crafts we come to the Gustav Stickling armchair, then Gaudi’s Casa Mila. In Art Deco there are many vertical buildings similar to the Chrysler building in design through thin narrow strong vertical elements. Modernism grew from Art Deco showing Corbusier Chapel at fifty. As modernism grew Eero Saarinen came to build the St. Louis arch presenting us with connections to the past, present and future. The High-tech movement came along through the 70-80s and Piano and Rogers Lloyds of London building was constructed. Finally we come to post modernism and the Indianapolis College Life Insurance building showing repetition and the idea of deconstruction.

S.O.C - Shelter l Bus

Why design for four when you could design for more?

Above are four cross section perspectives, two longitudinal sections, a circulation/public/private space analysis and a detail drawing of collapsible shelter. Conceptually this was a battle between designing a "luxury" bus for four tramatized workers, or designing a communal hub for not just relief workers but for victims as well. I felt a strong concern about designing a comfortable suite for only four people, reason being, relief work is about the people who need it most, they are there for them, not for themselves. I realize that after carrying the dead around all day and taking care of the injured, they would need a comfortable place where they can forget about everything on the outside. They have a home for that, and when their work is done they have a home to go to. This bus consists of four experienced intellectual relief workers and sixteen victims to help out. Thats twenty people total in efforts to sway the affects of a natural disaster such as katrina. Thats five times more man power than the original design, and can save millions of dollars in return by reducing the amount of buses needed to house relief workers and victims.

Node and Landmark

Community Outreach

In reaching out to the community our group wanted to have a centralized sculpture that was a landmark for everything else. This sculpture is to incorporate something that the community would continue to pass on lee street and turn around a question the meaning behind the structure. In there search they will find that it leads back to the interior architecture studio. The sculpture is very important in this proposal, but we didn't want to limit ourselves, so we connected all of our other proposals back to this idea.


In the photo above we marked a location where alot of our guerrilla marketing would take place. The depot is the heart of the Greensboro transit system, so in order to connect with the rest of Greensboro, why not penetrate at the very epicenter? here we would conduct fundraisers to "sell" our products, which include food, pens, stickers, flyer's-all completely free.

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Sustainablity through Space

This Image by Ivana Franke "Full Empty Space" speaks alot to me in terms of sustainability. Empty Space? It really makes you wonder questions: Whats in there? How do you navigate the space? Intentionality versus intentionality. Maybe the question we all are missing is "how much space do we need. I would be willing to bet money based on the size of our living quarters that 70 percent or more of that space is waste. And all of that waste is a product of Architects and designers that contribute to the construction of colossal Hollywood homes, where maybe 1 or 2 people will live and only viably use less than 3 percent of that space. Now look around you and think globally how much energy and natural resources go into "empty" space. It's static possessions that control those space, and maybe it wouldn't be a long shot by saying our ego is too big.

Now back to UNCG, how do they help with space. Well, its simple, dorm rooms. Dorms rooms are sustainable in my opinion. We learn to make use of every inch in that space. I didn't realize it at first but after a while, I came back to my dorm room and felt cozy at home knowing I had everything I needed right in that's 20 sq ft. space. I could give almost 1000's of examples of spaces that conserve and contribute to sustainability. So next time you go home think about your space, and think about if it adds anything to your lifestyle, or is it merely you ego.