catherine muller selected work

catherine mullerselected work

CABINET OF CURIOSITIES0 : 1

STOREFRONT1 : 1

ASSEMBLY1 : MANY

HARVEST TABLEMANY : MANY

MICRO-EVENTS0 : 1

ASSEMBLY0 : MANY

ADAPTATIONS

mobile food collectivearcheworks fellowship, 2009-10exhibitor, 2010 venice biennale

2

URBAN FARM RESOURCE EXCHANGE

3

SEED STORY ARCHIVE INFORMATION EXCHANGE

MOBILE UNIT

MODULE

BIKE FLEET

DESIGN ELEMENTS

MFC

The Mobile Food Collective is a public education campaign to inspire the rethinking of our relationship to food, incorporating heritage, ownership, exchange, and connection into a new food culture. In support of this campaign, Archeworks has designed and built a Mobile Urban Farm Tool consisting of an interrelated Mobile Unit and Bike Fleet. This prototype is conceived as a mobile architecture that supports and connects a variety of stakeholders of established and emerging farming projects in Chicago.

The Mobile Unit serves as a hub for meetings, storage, and a variety of programming through a multitude of adaptations, from a mobile farm stand to a demonstration station to a communal harvest table.The bike fleet acts as satellites for the Mobile Unit, extending the project's reach in a community at an accessible, human scale, while capturing the interest of residents and drawing them back to the Mobile Unit to enjoy further involvement.

catherine [email protected]

510.681.5974

rainwater register passive cooling

urban transit centergraduate studio, university of texas/austintechnical communications—working drawings: fall 2007critic: michael garrisonpartner: erin holdenreid

Taking a cue from successful urban plazas, both in the US and in Europe, our placemaking goal was to create a hub for the community, a bridge between residential and commercial sectors across a busy, triangulated set of vehicle intersections, and finally, to provide an iconic gateway into vibrant east Austin from the ‘other’ side of interstate 35.

The buildings themselves shelter the slightly sunken plaza from the sight and noise of traffic, creating a protected, shaded space, together with a string of umbrellas demarking the boundary with another adjacent road. Both carved from and built up from the earth, the structures turn a green, living face to the oncoming roads, and an open, translucent façade to the plaza.

We focused on streamlining circulation of various kinds—car, bus, bicycle, pedestrian—integrating these paths into a transportation-centered node providing facilities, bike storage, food/drink, and other retail, as well as a pleasant, shady, green place to wait for a bus, or to meet a friend. With goals to both facilitate efficient movement throughout the site, and to provide multiple stimuli motivating users to remain in the plaza/urban park, we hope to allow for a cross-section of both pass-through and destination users, providing a diverse mix of people coming and going throughout the day and night—creating a vibrant public space that serves as an anchor for the community.


510.681.5974

mappinggraduate studio, university of texas/austinspring 2007critic: bill jackson

map: correspondencea function such that for every element of one set there is a unique element of another set; translation

assignment: select any two disparate activities and design a space that mediates the activities by means of theabove definition.

As my activities, I chose a child trying to fall asleep in a room adjacent to his/her parents talking at the end of an evening. I designed a wall that serves as both visual and auditory register for the child, abstracting the pitch and cadence of his parents’ voices with subtle movement and sound, as both hypnotic distraction and soothing assurance that safety and comfort is not far away.


510.681.5974


510.681.5974

WEST SECTION1/4” 1’

minimal dwellinggraduate studio, university of texas/austinspring 2007critic: bill jackson

Looking at the minimum program requirements for inhabitation dwelling—sleeping, bathing, eating—this project aims to reduce those activities to an elemental state, and then elevate each moment in a daily routine to the experience of ritual.

In addition, we explored the ideas of axiality, transition from public to private, and dialogue between spaces articulated not only by mass, but changes in spatial perception: materiality, light, permeability, enclosure and outlook.

SOUTH SECTION1/4” = 1’

south elevation

west elevation

south section

north elevation

west section

plan


510.681.5974

cocoongraduate studio, university of texas/austinspring 2007critic: bill jackson

Looking at the idea of retreat, these movable ‘cocoons’ aim to create a portable sense of both security and nurturing by mimicking the structure and form of organic examples. They provide a means to exist within nature within a permeable structure that allows for modern conveniences, while also being attentive to resources and minimizing impact. In this brief project we developed promotional materials as well as quick prototype models of our concepts.

cocoonenvelop

enclose

retreat

transform...

a new approach to the meditative retreat:a minimal habitat that allows for a reconnection with nature while providing creature comforts that nourish and rejuvenate.

the cocoon retreat literally breaks down walls blending outdoor space that is both inside and out to create an outdoor space that is both nurturing and liberating.

experience the cocoon for yourself.


510.681.5974

NOLA sustainable housingcompetition entrysummer 2006partner: carla hyman

LEV

open play

gardens

community room

aptlobby

play 3 -5 play toddlers

play infant s

covered playoff ice

conference

kitchen

ent ry

ent ry

reception

sheltered bikeparking

bike parking

hc

hc

openopen

openopen

const ructed wet lands for storm and greywater

compost/ greenhouse/ storage

permeable paving

shade trees

f ruit t rees

house 1

house 1

house 2

house 3

house 4

house 5

house 6

common pat io/gathering/ BBQ space

bioswale

3 bedroom

1 bedroom3 bedroom

3 bedroom 2 bdrm

3 bedroom

1 bedroom

2 bedroom

2 bedroom

2 bedroom

studio

2 bedroom

studio

apartment plan, third floor1/16”=1’

apartment plan, second floor1/16”=1’

site section1/16”=1’

green detailChallenge: design a sustainable residential complex in the New Orleans Holy Cross neighborhood, which was (and is) struggling to regain its sense of self after Hurricane Katrina.

With our design investigation we posed the following questions:How can the built environment catalyze community? How can it learn from collective memory, particularly the history and structures of New Orleans and Katrina? And how can the built environment learn from, foster and create connection to local ecosystems?

Our proposal was conceived around the notion of community and cooperation. We hoped to foster a sense of identity and ownership by providing a network of interrelated, shared indoor and outdoor garden and green spaces that become the nucleus of a thriving community. By allowing for homeownership, communal activity and enterprise, our design was intended to provide a means for the residents of the local area to ‘dig in’ and claim the territory as their own.

meditation chairgraduate studio, university of texas/austinwood design: fall 2008critic: Mark Macek

Constructed of laminated 3” poplar pieces, the meditation chair was a marriage of low and high tech, hand work and machining.

Intended as an organic ‘nest’ for meditation, the chair has the feel of a carved bowl, sanded super-smooth where the occupant comes in contact with the seat, left rough and a bit coarse on the exterior.

As a grounding medium between the meditator and the earth, the chair ergonomically supports the points of contact and posture for the lotus pose, providing a subtle reinforcement of the ideal seated stance.


510.681.5974


510.681.5974

GHOST architectural laboratorydesign/build apprenticeshipnova scotia, canadasummer 2008

GHOST 10 explored the concept of an urban attitude in a rural setting, while examining the essential programatic elements for living: eat, sleep, bathe, work, socialize.

Elevating these elements to a ritualized status, we designed the 1000’ house: two pavillions, one for day, the other for night, separated by a 1000 foot ‘courtyard’ (and 80 feet in elevation), defining an urban existance in the relationship of each to the adjacent road.

The workshop is an intensive design and construction exercise with 30 participants—both students and practicing architects—who collectively conceive, develop, and build the group’s vision in a two-week period.

Brian MacKay-Lyons hosts the program each year on his coastal property near Halifax, Nova Scotia.

catherine muller selected work

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