BEN LEWISARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO Spring 2013

INDEX

Mapping 1.0

Interdisciplinary Outpost

Mapping 2.0

ICAHQ

MAPPING 1.0

This project was prompted with an assignment to “map” a local area for one week. Given this vague task, I decided to map the Faneuil Hall area of Boston with pictures and video recordings.

On the first day, I picked a manhole to stand on while taking the pictures and recording the video. The video was recorded while rotating on the manhole with a 5 minute revolution. These images are created from seven days of visiting the site. By overlay-ing the images, one can understand patterns of human interaction that happen in this area. Particular paths of travel that may not be immediately noticed have now been revealed.

This project maps the ephemeral qualities of a space. The ghost-like figures in all of these images show how the spaces are actually occupied. The hope is that I can gain an understanding of how to design for these occupied spaces that have a scale and fleeting quality beyond the actual building form.

MAPPING 2.0

For Mapping 2.0, we were given a similar prompt to Mapping 1.0 except out site was predetermined to be Magazine Beach which ended up being the site for our final project. My group mapped the elemental tensions on the site with the human tension of a snowball fight. Each team represented a different element on the site and had to stand near this element during the course of the snowball fight. Colored snowballs ensured that we could record how the fight went.

Each team represented a different element on the site and had to stand near this element during the course of the snowball fight. Colored snowballs ensured that we could record how the fight went.

INTERDISCIPLINARY OUTPOST

INTERDISCIPLINARY OUTPOST

The Interdisciplinary Outpost project was a proposal for a studio outpost for the fellows of the International Cartographic Association. My concept was to continually allow and deny views of the surrounding woodland as to relate to the trees and how they define ones immediate perceptual boundary.

INTERDISCIPLINARY OUTPOST

INTERDISCIPLINARY OUTPOSTBy using various vertical louver systems oriented towards certain trees in the landscape, one can gain an understanding of their surroundings beyond the building envelope.

INTERDISCIPLINARY OUTPOST

ICAHQ

The ICAHQ (International Cartographic Association Head Quarters) is part of the same organization that the Interdisciplinary Outpost project was for. Given that the proposed site, Magazine Beach in Cambridge MA, has such close proximity to MIT there would be a relationship formed between these two institutions that drove my conceptual development.

In the original site analysis, along with our Mapping 2.0 project, I saw the site as being bounded by the Charles River, Memorial Dr and the Mass Turnpike across the river. By creating a bridging gesture across the site along with the metaphorical bridging with MIT, the hope for this project is to connect the extents of the site and bypass the original boundaries either physically or metaphorically.

This series of diagrammatic models were used to understand how to manipulate the landscape as a surface rather than a mass. By performing a set of operations to the surface and then creating spaces with the basswood, I was able to get closer to generating a building form.

INTERDISCIPLINARY OUTPOST