A Small Accessory Building
Sand and stone, sturdy materials, with a human touch softness and a warm glow, these seemed like an opportune voice to experiment with as a screen. The scale of the mineral can give you a wide spectrum of light qualities, specular to diffuse. They all conceal the environment behind it, but at large scales, light and shadow become colors. For this exercise, we were to design a temporary structure for the management of an adjacent site, but the building would act more like a pavilion to test out screen techniques. Aiming for a modular system, this building is constructed from resin “bricks” with rocks of various sizes and densities cast within. Thesis bricks would have holes drilled on the top and bottom for pins to lock them in place. It would act as a rain screen and would require a curtain wall for the 50% of the building that requires coverage from the elements. Since diaphaneity or clarity isn’t an issue, polycarbonate can be used in place of glass.
IMAGES ABOVE, initial 3 test samples of stone sizes and light transmission
IMAGE ABOVE, render of 3 different resin & stone bricks to be used
IMAGES ABOVE, plan with render demonstrating brick lighting effects; render of south façade (seen on previous page)
IMAGES ABOVE, north, north-east, & south-east elevation
The heart of a community, trying to protect values they hold dear while striving to embrace the outside world; the juxtaposition of privacy and transparency. Mosques in the region not only serve the community in social and religious affairs, but they also act as hubs for education and medical care. To cater to these broad programmatic needs, I designed a veil that envelops the building and public space that undulates to grant access to the garden or entryways, while cloaking private moments. The veil itself is composed of a hexagonal array with a single traditional Islamic pattern within. The pattern scales to grant visibility or to blur and distort, doing so in relation to the program.
To scale the pattern within the veil, I had to use parametric design—that, or manually scale each one, hoping it looked good. So I learned the basics of grasshopper to see if it was within reach, then diving deeper to refine and get the desired results. The script was entirely rewritten a few times for efficiency or to take on more actions, eventually producing content in 3D (renders) and simplified 2D (line drawings). Recently I rewrote the script after becoming much more proficient and reduced the computation time for the entire process from 20-60 minutes per panel to less than 10-15 minutes for the whole set. Those sleepless nights suffering through the learning curve were well worth the wait.
IMAGES ABOVE, isometric diagram of veil system; elevation diagram of veil system; mock up of veil system
IMAGES ABOVE, motif diagram; plan of floors 1, 2, 3, and 4 & 5
IMAGES ABOVE, north & north-east section
IMAGES ABOVE, interior and exterior renders by Josh Leeder
IMAGES ABOVE, section model of mosque
IMAGES ABOVE, section detail of qibla wall; plan detail of qibla wall; continuous section detail of north wall and the veil; plan detail of north wall and the veil