michael howard portfolio 2016

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S T E P H E N

H O W A R D

G A P S P

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INDEX

4.............................................................................................................................................................Housing

20................................................................................................................................................................Bank

28......................................................................................................................................................Public Pool

36.............................................................................................................................................Public Bathroom

40........................................................................................................................Media and the Refugee Crisis

44...........................................................................................................................................Drawing Machine

48..............................................................................................................................................Shibaura House

50...........................................................................................................................................................Theater

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Videos, animations and interactive graphics hosted at howportfolio.com

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FALL 2015CORE STUDIO IIICRITIC: MARIO GOODENPARTNER: MICHAEL NICKERSON

RESPONSIVENESS

With few means to benefit from the increasing value of space, established residents of rapidly gentrifying Mott Haven in the South Bronx are being priced out of their community. The proposed housing confronts the realities of change and argues for an architecture that responds at a variety of scales from the city to the envelope, the site to the unit. Through its responsiveness, our housing can mitigate the negative and enhance the positive aspects of change in the city. The housing finds a meaningful intersection of public programs and housing to both culturally anchor the building to the community and to give residents a means to profit from the increasing value of space.

In the library, residents are free to rent out space in front of their unit for coworking. Retractable shelves outside the units encourage a building wide sharing economy and foster a stronger relationship between resident and community. In the gym, bold projections prominently display the body to the city. Tiered sectional changes establish a hierarchal relationship between resident, gym user, and city. In the art gallery, residents may work and preform in a semi-public space doubling as studio space and circulation. These long galleries surround an outdoor gallery and performance space. These programs intersect on bridges connecting the three lots. There are moments of interruption when the public space breaks into the private and vis-versa confusing the threshold between public and private. On each lot, a column grid morphs from 16ft to 32ft to 8ft to support the needs of that space. In public spaces, these columns gently bend and sway to provide shading. In the purposed housing, program, and space respond to the needs of the resident and the community.

HOUSING

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BEDBED

LIGHT: ARTIFICIAL

LIGHT: NATURAL

SHOWER

MIRROR CLOSET/DRESSER

PAUSE BEFORE THE DAY: NEWSPAPER

PAUSE BEFORE THE DAY: STANDING

WINDOW / APERATURE

DRINKING

HALLWAY

ROAD

TRANSPORTATION: SUBWAY

DISPLAYS / DESIRE BEFORE WORK

WALKING ON SIDEWALK

WORKING: ALONE

WORKING: TOGETHER

POST-WORK IMAGINATION





TRANSPORTATION: BICYCLE

TRANSPORTATION: PRIVATE CAR

TRANSPORTATION: TAXI

TRANSPORTATION:BUS

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149th St Subway - 2, 4, 5

Hostos College

Lincoln Hospital

Hotel (Under Construction)

Playground

Waterfront Developments

144th St

149th StMaj

or D

eega

n

Harle

m R

iver

Gran

d Con

cour

se

Walto

n AveG

erard

Ave

Metro

North

7

LIBRARY

10

LIBRARY

11

LIBRARY

13

GYMNASIUM

14

ART + PERFORMANCE

15

GYMNASIUM

16

ART + PERFORMANCE

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BANK

SPRING 2015CORE STUDIO IICRITIC: ROBERT MARINO

VOIDS

In 2011, the City of New York rezoned Long Island City allowing developers to replace manufacturing warehouses with lucrative high-rise residential towers. In an odd triangular island dwarfed by these fresh walls of glass, our critic asked us to design a bank. With the advent of digital currency and online banking, the industry has forced branch banks into an awkward period of self-examination and, arguably, a loss of relevance. Rather than focus solely on the branch bank program, I found inspiration in the sites context and in architectural permanence. I wanted to design a welcoming semi-public space that would last in spite of all the new construction. Rather than attempting to combat this churning development, I embraced it.

Preserving space for a 30ft x 30ft steel column grid structural system, the bank allows for a tower to be constructed on top. The bank is as much negative space as it is occupied space. Hyperbolic voids paneled with transparent ETFE foil pierce the bank respecting the 30ft grid. The voids serve many purposes - natural light, vertical greenery, greywater catchment, and form a public arcade at ground level. The bank also provides public access to its top floor greenhouse. Here the voids blossom outwards, maximizing office space square footage on the middle floors and maximizing natural light in the greenhouse. The bank, as a program, is diminished. In its place, structure, public space, and light rise to prominence.

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PUBLIC POOL

FALL 2014CORE STUDIO ICRITIC: JANETTE KIM

REDUNDANCY

Well-integrated support systems like flood protection, back-up generators, community-meeting spaces, etc. provide the community with undeniable utility. While these systems help mitigate the aftermath of a hundred year storm and smaller scale issues like temporary heat loss, it is arguably more important that the community use and enjoy these spaces on any given day regardless of their energy needs. NYCHA is plagued by frequent failures of basic utilities like heat and hot water. Directly opposite NYCHA is Columbias new Manhattanville expansion with modern utilities and an onsite steam and chiller power plant.

The pool, located between NYCHA and Manhattanville, bridges the energy disparity by providing redundant utilities and energy to the public. A large anaerobic digester located underneath the site converts community food waste and human waste into biogas. Thick utility walls house all of the mechanical systems. The public circulates through, walks on, feels the warmth from, and swims within these walls creating a meaningful relationship between the public and redundant systems.

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0F 1F

32

2F 3F

33

Exte

rior S

tairs

2F A

cces

s

3F Acc

ess

1F Access

Skyligh

t

Cafe

Thick

Utili

ty Wa

ll

Thic

k Ut

ility

Wal

l

Cuts

thro

ugh

wal

l

Broadway

Bath

room

s

0F Changing Rooms

2F Extension

Thick

Util

ity W

all

Broadway Entrances

Chim

ney

Anerob

ic Diges

terIncinerator

Saun

a

Kids Po

ol

Old Broadway

Public E

gress

Underg

round

Utility L

oop

Generator Gym

Elevator

Glass Facade

Atrium

3F Out

door Po

ols

Outdoo

r Pool

Green

Space

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PUBLIC BATHROOM

FALL 2014CORE STUDIO ICRITIC: JANETTE KIM

INCINERATION

Located in Straus Park on 106th and Broadway, the public restroom uses heat from incinerated human waste to warm the interior and the facade. Rather than flush away the waste to an offsite processing plant, solid waste is incinerated onsite. Waste water, from urinals and sinks, warms as it flows through pipes wound around the hot incinerator chamber. This hot water is then pumped through a gypsum concrete facade, similar to the technology used in heated floors.

Many small circular indents in the facade increase the surface area by ~60% creating a proportional increase in heat flow compared to a flat surface. The bathroom provides a warm relief for park goers and bus patrons. Heated potable water from the bathroom is also circulated to surrounding buildings, alleviating their hot water needs when demand is high. In the summer, the water is redirected to an alternate cooling system and the facade cools the space.

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Increased heat flow

Flat surface

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MEDIA AND THE REFUGEE CRISIS

FALL 2015HISTORY ELECTIVE: ECHOING BORDERSCRITICS: NORA AKAWI & NINA KOLOWRATNIK

TO WHERE WE LOOK

As of November, more than 660,000 refugees entered Europe through Greece in 2015. Over half of them traveled through the small Greek island of Lesvos just off the Turkish coast. Once a quaint Mediterranean tourist attraction, the island begrudgingly rocketed into the international spotlight on the waves of the refugee crisis. With over 3,000 refugees arriving on the island everyday on unsafe and makeshift boats, it is impossible to ignore the ceaseless flow and painful journey of refugees. Various media outlets, European agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and individuals flooded the island in recent months to be on hand for a dramatic portion of the refugees longer journey; that of the boat landing on European shores. Each actor portrays the same few miles of coasts through slightly different lenses in what has become an international blitz of nearly identical imagery.

When placed in the context of the crisis, this coverage is justified. The refugee crisis demands a coordinated international effort in order to put an end to countless human rights violations. If the imagery of the beach landing is the most effective fulcrum against which to position the conversation, actors on Lesvos are right to use their most potent imagery to compel the world to act, to mobilize through shame. But, as Tom Keenan warns, one must be aware of the threat of saturation. With such a barrage of beach landing imagery, the public becomes increasingly desensitized. One wonders how NGOs will compel the international community to act as the atrocities of the refugee crisis become increasingly mundane as an ironic and indirect consequence of the saturation of media coverage of the issue.

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DRAWING MACHINE

SPRING 2015ARCHITECTURE DRAWING & REPRESENTATION IICRITIC: DANIL NAGY

RECURSIVE

In our second representation course, we were asked to explore methods of design and representation as systems with inputs, processes/rules, and outputs. Our critic asked us to create a machine that, given certain inputs, would explore some architectural qualities - in my case density, scale, and pattern - through some set of rules to create an output, some type of drawing or marks. We explored these machines over three different assignments: analog, digital, and architectural.

I was interested in exploring the recursive relationship between user and machine - taking some initial command or dialogue, applying a set of rules, and then using this output as a new input for the same set of rules. I repeated this rule, this recursive relationship, until the dialogue broke down. I hoped to expose the chaotic relationship between a user and a machine when the conversation echoed indefinitely. Due to slight changes in the inputs, sometimes the output would reveal fixed points where the machine would settle on a preferred outcome and other times the results would be chaotic and appear almost random.

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SHIBAURA HOUSE

FALL 2014ARCHITECTURE DRAWING & REPRESENTATION ICRITIC: DANIL NAGY

REJECTION

Located in downtown Tokyo, Shibaura House by SANAA stands in stark contrast to its surroundings. I interpreted Shibaura House as a rejection of traditional Tokyo corporate culture. Historically, Japan has been characterized as a culture of relentless work. Shibaura House rejects this rigid structure with an openness and flexibility that encourages collaboration and movement. I juxtaposed Shibaura House with its environment, an abstraction of a standard office building in Tokyo.

In the physical model and first drawing, I used furniture as a language to describe working environments. No strict borders exist between in and out as a chaotic mix of furniture more naturally reflects how we work and move. In the final drawing, I adopted the language of General Relativity to depict the different ways in which people occupy Shibaura House versus another office building. In General Relativity, massive bodies warp space-time around them. In the drawing, I projected a persons position in space to the walls of each structure over the course of a day. The more warped the walls are, the longer a person spent in that position. The office building illustrates fixed positions in space as workers remain in a grid of cubicles for hours. Shibaura House, on the other hand, reflects the dynamic movement of occupants.

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THEATER

FALL 2015TECHNOLOGY SEQUENCECRITICS: CRAIG SCHWITTER, JUNKO NAKAGAWA & KRISTA NINNAVINGIPARTNERS: NICK KAZMIERSKI, KIMEE BOONBANJERDSI & KATHY XIAO (KBHX)

HULL THEATER

Tasked with designing a theater in Red Hook, Brooklyn, our team drew inspiration from Red Hooks vibrant shipping history. A box within a box within a box - the theater projects out from the ground over the lobby, resembling the hull of a ship, and penetrates the surrounding glass volume. Reception spaces on the upper floors of the theater volume provide views to the surrounding neighborhood and ports. A service and circulation wall adjacent to the theater houses the fire stairs, elevators, ductwork, and all other services. The theater volume is slightly rotated within a larger glass volume that acts as reception and cafe.

Structurally, the theater is surrounded by thick concrete walls to acoustically isolate the performance space. This concrete volume is supported by steel columns and beams. The mechanical strategy focuses on minimizing obtrusive ductwork and maximizing sustainable practices. An earth duct pre-conditions air on its way to the mechanical room. Utilizing a displaced underfloor variable air volume system, conditioned air is supplied to both tiers of seating via plenums underneath the seats. Air emerges quietly through stair risers and is ultimately returned at the ceiling where it is quickly ducted out of the exhaust on the roof. In addition to the ducts supplying conditioned through in the lobby floor, a gypcrete radiant floor supplies additional heat in the winter. A variety of other sustainable systems like adjustable louvers and rain water collection support the theater and help to foster a vibrant public space on the leg of the L shaped portion of the lot adjacent to the theaters main entrance.

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NTheater Service &Circulation WallReception &Cafe Space Building Massing

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michael howard portfolio 2016

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