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TIFFANY M. WANG

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Architecture should function, whether subtly or blaringly, as a mechanism to instigate thoughts. Not simply of the built form, but questions or memories embedded within society about society.

Throughout my education and career are projects that delve into theoretical explorations looking at architecture as opportunities to: encapsulate time, conceptualize invisible aspects such as social and historical information, and what I believe to be the most important, question standards that have become accepted as the norm. While functionality remains a priority, these explorations function as underlying guides. The ultimate goal is to evoke a response, as small as a single thought or emotion, about how architecture has a higher function.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Design Build 06

Modular Steel Prefab 10

Perception Deception 16

S’Klallam Tribal Center 20

Deciphering Intangibles 24

Project Expendable assisting the demise and growth of architecture 28

Nomads Be Warned ancient binary, future weaving 34

Talus Multi-Family Housing 38

Redevelopment of Denny Way & Third Avenue 42

[paw]PRINTS 44

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The rehabilitation program for Mt. Baker Village apartments was an amazing opportunity to help a community in need, while gaining hands on design and construction experience. I was incredibly proud and motivated to participate from the project’s conception to realization, and then to witness the structures in use by residents. Three weeks were devoted to agreeing, as a group, on the concept and then coordinating drawings. The remaining eight weeks were allocated to the prefabrication of parts and on-site construction.

Prefabrication for the waiting areas included: cutting, drilling, and welding steel columns in preparation for powder coating, establishing a template for the 16 wood scissor trusses, cutting 2x4s to the exact measurement and angles required, and assembling the trusses.

On-site construction for the waiting areas included: leveling columns, pouring concrete into lath-lined form work for texture, attaching trusses and bracing, and finally, securing the corrugated metal roofing.

left: welded, drilled columns ready for powder coating

right page: waiting shelter from conception to completion

DESIGN BUILDFaculty Advisor: Steve BadanesSpring 2006 Studio

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Emphasis was placed on safety. Despite the bus stop being at a larger scale, both structure types provide high levels of transparency for clear visibility of the surrounding areas. However, the two differ in that the waiting areas are passageways for people to pass through which is reflected in the continuous opening. The bus stop, on the other hand, is a destination. The sweeping roof implies a welcome, gesturing people in. An aesthetically heavy roof conveys structural stability.

Prefabrication for the bus stop included: cutting, drilling, and welding steel columns in preparation for powder coating, establishing a template for curved wooden trusses, cutting and bending aluminum for the seat backs.

On-site construction for the bus stop included: leveling columns, pouring concrete for column bases and benches, attaching beams for trusses to attach to, bracing, weather proofing structural members with bituminous felt, adhering flashing caps to the roof, attaching cedar slats, attaching aluminum backs to seats, and mounting the sign.

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left page: bus stop roofing sequence. Aligning 2x4 to trusses, attaching bituminous felt and perlins, covering the underside with insect screening

above: installation of cedar slats

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Prefabricated modular structures are often poor at wearing disguises. They are designed and constructed with a complete lack of connection to context because they are based on the principles of lower cost and higher efficiency. The end result is generally a facade, repeated unabashed until there is no visual relief, because it is based on a single module. Rather than accepting redundancy, this project investigates the construct of modular steel prefabricated structures and the opportunities for variability through customization, while remaining economically conscious.

One method of specification explored is the integration of streetscape with building. Instead of treating the site as a parcel of land independent and offset from its surroundings, aspects of the site are intertwined with the urban fabric. Being situated near Wayne State University in Detroit, the project acknowledges the university along with the coinciding foot traffic through pedestrian circulation. Openings between retail storefronts on the south and west facades beckon passerbyers onto a grassy rooftop courtyard and through the site. Along with promoting a walkable community, the enhanced circulation allows the building to acknowledge main thoroughfares and nearby destinations.

Modular Steel Prefab adapts to each unique project through flexibility of form and function, while providing tools to enhance community by recognizing surrounding context.

MODULAR STEEL PREFABPartners: Andrew Bodley, Kirsten Dotson, Javian Tang, Nathan UmsteadFaculty Advisor: Harry GilesWinter 2008 Steel Structures

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The second method of site specification is based on the reinterpretation of the core 12’ module. Illustrated on the right page is the assembly method of each module, how they interlock, and the final application of terra cotta to all exposed sides.

Each module is identical structurally, optimizing constructional prefabrication, but allows for potential future remodels through easily modified internal layouts. Thus, while the internal structure is consistent throughout the buildings, varied throughout is a variety of floor plans and unit types that combine, stack, and encroach upon half modules to create a seemingly fragmented aesthetic.

Utilization of half modules are often overlooked in modular prefab, as they require slightly more time in the design phase. However, since there is no additional time required during the assembly and construction phase, the minimal effort invested earlier on in design remains cost effective and efficient while providing variability through outdoor spaces.

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01. assembly of end channels and floor decking and all stiffening members

02. welding of columns to outside face of bottom channels

03. attachment of top tube members and ceiling hat channels to columns

04. laying of precast concrete floor panels on to floor decking

05. attachment of wall studs, header, and sills to top tube and bottom channel

06. add tension bracing to outside of columns

07. placement of insulation, floor sheathing, and interior wall board (gyp.)

08. weld and bolt connection pieces to end of columns

09. final module for trans-port; additional bracing across end bay and visqueen wrap for moisture protection may be necessary for travel

10. detail of column connec-tion and module end-to-end connection

11. concept of module assembly

12. final organization of (4) modules with connections in place; exterior cladding would then be placed on outside of sheathing

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1 bedroom 2 bedroom

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3 bedroom 3 bedroom, live-work live-work 012 story

live-work 022 story

Building plans in the upper residential zones focus on diversity by integrating studios with one, two, and three bedrooms along with live-work units. The massing model to the left illustrates how interchangeable layouts are through dispersion that results in an atypical, site specific modular building.

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Located at 1st and Huron St, the project is situated between the urban and residential context of Ann Arbor. The design accepts the existing urban fabric by serving as a transition between the two differentiating areas of the city through the shifting of scale and play between building and landscape.

Facades facing the downtown core reflect the rigid language of the city. Regularly spaced trellises hang before cubes that have been repeated, stretched, and stacked. One atop another to form a tower, the cubes are shifted to provide opportunities of light and air, but more importantly, they acknowledge the language of commercial buildings and question the uniformity. Pushing outward, the pieces transition from one mass to another throughout the site to acknowledge the general transition of city to residential scale by breaking down the overall mass into fragments.

Towards the back, the form loosens in response to the residential context and begins to play with what is building and landscape. While the ground plane functions as an urban park, vines weave upward along the walls to meet green roofs, blurring reading of the built form. Vegetation continue the ascending language of landscape while also providing opportunities for communal gardens in upper residential levels.

PERCEPTION DECEPTIONFaculty Advisor: Tom Buresh & Danelle GuthrieWinter 2008 Studio

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Continuing with the scalar perception play, the wooden trellises serve functionally as solar shading devices, while conveying a sense of continuity that both hints and masks the fragmentation behind. A complete lack of acknowledgement regarding the various interiors hinder the perception of scale and program within the boxes, as seen below in the west elevation and east section.

The project flirts with assumption of the typical: when people apply what they already know to new experiences. By delving into the unconscious categorization through standards set by predecessors, the project aims at evoking questions in the everyday person regarding to authenticity of perception through architectural stereotypes.

left: west elevation, infers false scale through facade

right: east section, reveals play with volume and assumption

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live-work level 1.5 live-work level 2

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Similar to other Native Americans, the S’Klallam Tribe has experienced a decline in population, both from external opportunities and from the abandonment of heritage. As a result, members have voiced concerns about the loss of cultural identification and knowledge, and inevitably, the loss of the tribe.

To counter the decline and to promote the thrive of community, S’Klallam leaders announced the construction of a tribal center as a visual extension to the existing educational facility. Programs include a wood carving workshop at the north end of the complex, a central dance hall, and sleeping quarters for performers and guest speakers along the south end. The goal was to create gathering spaces for people to celebrate the tribe’s culture and reestablish a sense of camaraderie. Both daily and during special occasions, the setting, nestled amongst trees overlooking the majestic Puget Sound reminds members of the strong ties the tribe has to nature.

S’KLALLAM TRIBAL CENTERFaculty Advisor: Mary JohnstonWinter 2006 Studio

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left: floor plan of complex [1] wood shop, [2] performance hall, [3] sleeping quarters

right page: [top] north elevation and [below] section through the wood shop, illustrating the play with trellis, canopy, and shadow

[1]

[2]

[3]

[3]

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Throughout S’Klallam Tribal Center lies an emphasis on the integration of building with nature. Existing trees were left untouched, allowing the building to form and carve itself respectfully to the site, causing minimal disturbance. Buildings in the complex were then connected with an exterior walkway, to take advantage of the temperate Northwest weather along with the view.

Except for the wood shop, which is sunken into the earth for practical purposes, columns raise the overall structure to create a delicate and light footprint. The trellis mimics the language of canopies above to blur the reading between foliage and structure. In addition to shading device, the trellis extends to the inside of the buildings to create a continuous reading of interior and exterior, building and landscape.

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Despite attempts to revitalize Detroit, the city is littered with forlorn lots and abandoned buildings. Efforts to counter the desolation have insisted that the city is in a temporary respite. Refusing to accept Detroit for what it is, the ghost of a once prominent city, hinders the potential of future development. Rather than nursing remorse or regret, Deciphering Intangibles embraces what once was Detroit, and what still is.

The site is an empty lot containing a single vacant building surrounded on three sides by uninhabited apartment complexes. The lone presence that makes itself known on a regular basis is Detroit’s People Mover, a tram that travels along two sides of the site. As it passes through, its noise is amplified by the adjacent buildings, echoing off of their surfaces, intensifying and colliding in the center until the tram curves along and exits the opposite end.

To document the prominent yet invisible force, audio recordings stationed around the site were taken to generate a sound analysis to create a visual form. From the produced soundscape derive the heights of pillars, whose locations are based on the site’s imposed grid.

exploded axonometric: reinterpretation of soundscape and city grid

DECIPHERING INTANGIBLESFaculty Advisor: Glenn WilcoxFall 2007 Studio

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Concrete pillars indicate the existing grid while frosted members allude to where buildings once stood. The presence of the remaining pillars are muted through transparency, but allude to a refined grid.

Experiencing the site through the People Mover provides a raised vantage point where the pillars resemble tombstones. Translucent columns become visible with the ground plane as a backdrop, and help create a density of degradation and demise in their resemblance to a cemetery.

Experiencing the site at ground level emphasizes the city-within-a-site quality. Vertical members read as buildings of a concentrated skyline, suggesting the future potential of site and city as vacant lots ready for rebuilding and densification.

people mover concrete frosted transparent

experience: people mover, cemetery

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existing redefined grid soundscape height analysis

experience: ground, skyline

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Banality

Repetition has become the essence of existence. Mundane events and markers serve as devices to reinforce the perception that tomorrow will follow a similar pattern, and ultimately be another today. Through regularity, a false sense of lull creates comfort through the expected.

Along with lives that entail tedious redundancy through actions and conversations, society also adapts physical environments to convey stability. The most prominent example is through the typical suburb where neighborhoods are not only replicas of one another, but where houses are identical copies as well. Lack of differentiation engross such developments to the extent that identities become ambiguous. Suburbs have also been propagated across the landscape to such an extent that a certain level of standardization has been established. However, what society fails to convey is the dependency suburbs have on permanent occupation for upkeep. Without it, overgrown lawns and hedges hint at the truth that instability exists, and that neither people nor houses are immune.

Project Expendable challenges the standard approach to habitation by proposing three housing typologies that both take advantage of fluctuation and instigate it.

PROJECT EXPENDABLE assisting the demise and growth of architectureFaculty Advisor: Neal Robinson, Perry KulperWinter 2009 Thesis

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prairie erection

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field_typology

prairie_typology

hill_typology

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0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 0 5 10 15 20 25

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 600 5 10 15 20 25

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hill erection

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exploded

collapsed

fieldfold prairie hill

waterproof membrane

wall panels

structure

below grade

collapsed

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Most importantly, each typology maintains a set shelf life, surviving only as long as its degrading materials allow. Throw-away culture is both solved, and encouraged, sans judgement.

The three typologies developed are based on temporary occupations in temporary infrastructures. They question housing lifespan along with the protocol for construct and demolish, and in doing so, produce opportunities that coincide with the rise and decay of form.

Each housing typology begins in an unoccupied state where the various layers ranging from waterproof membrane to structure are collapsed to function as, or at least resemble, landscape forms of a Prairie, Field, or Hill. When uninhabited, the houses and parcels become community property, and engage with surrounding context by returning to the ground for their secondary function.

The Field, for example, is designed to retain water for potential irrigation needs or else function as a pool for remaining residents. Both Prairie and Hill alter the terrain to create varying aesthetics of undulation to produce potential trails or play structures and nooks for kids.

As shelter becomes necessary, all of the typologies may be erected through vehicle or brute strength, each home a result of domestic origami. Water and electricity are either pre-established, or else, obtained by tapping into neighboring lines. Thus, just as neighbors constantly shift prioritization of ever changing events in life, parcels adjust accordingly, silently hinting at underlying disorder. Such moments become noticeable when sprinklers subtly fluctuate force as water pressure of a tapped pipe lessons. Likewise, those with stolen water may unleash sprinklers with significantly higher spray and diameter, encroaching on adjacent yards, once more contesting boundaries on ownership.

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site city grid water main network subway routes

NOMADS BEWARE ancient binary, future weavingPartner: Richard RanoSukkah City Competition September 2010

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Proposal: [24] City of New York water filled columns, and woven fabric tertiary layer, patterns dictated from the stars as viewed from Union Square Park

1 1 0 0 0 01 1 0 1 1 11 1 1 1 0 00 1 1 1 1 01 1 0 1 1 01 1 1 0 1 0

0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 1 1 10 0 1 1 0 00 1 1 0 0 10 1 0 1 0 00 1 1 0 1 1

0 0 1 0 1 11 1 0 0 0 01 0 0 0 0 11 1 1 0 1 00 1 1 1 1 11 0 1 1 1 0

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equinox 03.20.2010

constellation formations

solstice 06.21.2010 equinox 09.23.2010

sukkah form derived from binary weaving

1 1 0 1 0 01 1 0 1 0 01 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 0 1 10 1 1 0 1 10 1 1 1 1 0

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The banishment of Jews into the Egyptian desert sits at the core of the nomadic spirit behind the Sukkah. The cartography of the vast universe above provided the navigational support for survival. Enemies of the state, they were not bound to borders or militant controls nor allowed permanent residence within any political wall. Still, in today’s city, following post-medieval planning strategies, those threats which develop within the wall are handled through perpendicular grids for ease of control. The subway line beneath the park itself combats this grid; a noble site of contention. The triumph over an oppressive homelessness signals a need for illegal taping into something permanent. New York’s network of water mains provide the central structure for this Sukkah through 24 water-filled tubes, showcasing a morph-able habitat and years of progress, technologically and socially. More water means a taller, more stable structure.

Like many civilizations, tribes, or refugees, lightweight material practices are essential in early development. Gottfried Semper argues that weaving technology is the first architecture for its manipulation of linear elements into opaque surfaces. Encouraging Sukkot’s tradition in the use of improvised transportable materials, fabric, specifically cotton, bourne of the Earth and prized export of Egypt, make up the tertiary layer of the Sukkah. Woven into the water-filled columns using parametrically determined binary patterns through celestial cartography, the fabric follows constellation formations as seen from a human’s perspective from the site of Sukkah City.

Contemporary computational logics, ancient material craft, and futuristic shifting structures give way to personal and political struggle experienced by many throughout time. Nomads, this is your time.

solstice 12.21.2010

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Situated on the backside of Cougar Mountain in Issaquah, Washington are twelve four story multi-family townhouses. Each consists of eight units, totalling to about 16,000 sf. End units house three bedrooms while the interior six units are two bedrooms with a bonus room that spans the entire third floor.

The primary challenge with Talus Multi-Family Townhouses was the steeply sloped site. To work with the existing conditions, each unit was stepped according to the topography while the back of each townhouse has access to below grade parking garages.

Responsibilities included drafting and coordinating drawings for the design documents, construction drawings, and the permit set. As a project with two people working on it, I was given a variety of tasks that included: the reworking of plans to best utilize the narrow space, integrating all units into a continuous facade that retained individual entry ways through setbacks and canopies, building sections and determining the location of stairs, and details that range from the planters out front to the shared wall between units.

TALUS MULTI-FAMILY TOWNHOUSESFirm: Freiheit & Ho ArchitectsProject Architect: Andrew McDonald

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left: building floor plan garage, floor plan 01, floor plan 02

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above: photos of Talus under construction and completed

below: overall site plan

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left: building floor plan 03, roof plan, building elevation

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Though main vehicular arteries, both roads are inconsistent in design. For example, Third Avenue’s width fluctuates so that curb parking is not available south of Steward Street. Another example of inconsistency includes the variation, or complete lack of, waiting areas for bus passengers. The ultimate goal of the Redevelopment of Denny Way and Third Avenue was to create a Street Master Plan to establish, guide, and suggest future developments.

Bumgardner Architects began working with the city of Seattle in 2008 to redevelop main thoroughfares downtown through urban design studies. The main roads of focus included Denny Way and Third Avenue, two heavily used streets that connect many popular destinations.

Primary goals included: creating safer and more inviting public spaces for pedestrians, better accommodating the metro bus system, and to support a variety of retail storefronts along the streets.

pacific science center

pikeplace

market

westlake civiccenter

king ststation

colemandock

REDEVELOPMENT OF DENNY WAY & THIRD AVENUE Firm: Bumgardner ArchitectsProject Architect: Mahlon Clements

15’-0” Sidewalk

15’-0”Sidewalk

8’-0”Parking Bike

11’-0” 11’-0” 5’-0”�rough/Turn �rough/Turn

11’-0”�rough/Turn

8’-0”Parking

11’-0”�rough/TurnBike

5’-0”Planter3’-0”

Planter3’-0” 30’-0”

Denny Park

8’-0”Parking

11’-0”�rough/Turn

30’-0”Denny Park

15’-0”Sidewalk

11’-0”�rough/Turn

11’-0”�rough/Turn

11’-0”�rough/Turn

10’-0”Bike

76’-0”Roadway

106’-0”

6’-0”Planter

8’-0”Parking

15’-0”Sidewalk

15’-0”Sidewalk

15’-0”Sidewalk

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Responsibilities included sectional studies of potential street layouts that designated separate areas for: drivers, pedestrians, and bikers. Separating bikers and drivers, who are currently sharing the road, would reduce confusion and tight quarters thereby increasing safety. Enforced through landscaping, the division also functions as visual barriers that provide aesthetic and thermal relief while encouraging opportunities for the development of parks and open spaces.

Other responsibilities focused on Third Avenue’s integration of retail with waiting areas through canopies. Numerous canopies would encourage pedestrians to travel on the road during inclement weather, promoting storefront exposure. In addition to providing weather protection, adding and utilizing one type of canopy would unify the various building languages.

existing: unprotected bus stop and storefront proposed: covered and lit canopy functions as shelter and to encourage retail traffic

fritz

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Each [paw]PRINT order is personalized to create a custom abstract representation of a beloved pet. Each image is based on a photo, and it is from there that I extract the shadows, highlights, and personality to create a one-of-a-kind silk screen print template or cut paper graphic. While screen printing utilizes dual tones, cut paper allows for a flexibility of layers and contrast of colors.

exploded axonometric:representation of the layers used to create the Schnauzer, Fritz

[paw]PRINTSFounder

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