BETHANY ROMANARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

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CONTENTSUndergraduate Work

The Ohio State University

INFORMATION AND THE CITY

TOWERING VOID

SIMPLY BEER

THE VOXEL

DARE TO BE DUMB (LIKE A FOX)

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INFORMATION AND THE CITYPUBLIC LIBRARY FOR LONDON

Ohio State University Senior Design StudioInstructor: Karen Lewis

Autumn 2015

Since 2012, the United Kingdom has permanently closed the doors to over 300 public libraries. This fact forces evaluation of the role of the library as a single entity and as a larger piece of the city before a new, more effective model for a library can be successfully proposed or designed to integrate itself into the city of London.

This investigation begins to evaluate the current state of London: where its citizens choose to reside; how information interfaces between the library, the people, and the city as a whole; and why a new library is a necessary addition to London.

GIS research and map modeling was completed as a studio; I was directly responsible for creating the GIS data regarding libraries in London, and assisted in indexing the areas which surrounded both currently open and recently closed libraries to understand whether neighborhood plays a role in their success.

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TRANSPORTATIONThe library site exists just inside the “congestion area” in which driving is discouraged by large tolls. This means the library must rely largely on serving populations who will ride London’s public transportation to access it.

SITE CONTEXTThe majority of London’s existing libraries are srrounded by residential buildings, while the library site is embedded within the edges of business-focused and residential areas and has the opportunity to serve varying populations throughout the day.

GEOGRAPHIC FEATURESThe floodplane of the River Thames covers large areas of the city while the greenbelt encroaches on London’s borders. Public space is abundant within the city, even in highly populated areas, suggesting that the natural features of the greater London area continue to influence the development of the city.

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R E L A X AT I O N

FA M I LY H I S T O RY

E N T E R TA I N M E N T

D I G I TA L C R E AT I O N

I N T E R N E T AC C E S S

S T U D Y S PAC E

M E E T I N G

R E S E A R C H

N E W S K I L L S

LU N C H

F I N D A N S W E R S

C E RT I F I C AT I O N

d a t a b a s e

t e c h r e n t a l

I T s u p p o r t

f a b r i c a t i o n

p r i n t i n g

p r o g r a m s

i n t e r n e t

m u s i c

c h i l d r e n’ s b o o k s

f e a t u r e d b o o k s

r e a d i n g r o o m

g a t h e r i n g s p a c e

e x h i b i t s

c l a s s e s

s t u d y r o o m

p a s s p o r t s

t a x e s

c a f e

The library is traditionally the interface between the city – people – and information. In the modern age of technology, with an abundance of information available instantly, knowlege is more frequently gathered through interaction: conversations with people, Google searches for a specific fact, or even the conscious decision to open a book. The library is no longer required for access to these sources, yet it remains a pillar of knowledge in the city. While it no longer has to be the sole source of information, it provides a space in which people interact with each other, with the technology which drives so much of the world, and occasionally with its vast collection of books.

Using the library and its resoruces to accomplish a specific goal – anything from conducting in-depth research on to just stopping in for a quick lunch – exposes people to more than what they are actually looking for. Through interactions with other visitors who may be using the same space for a very different purpose, people are gently forced to interact with other sources of information, often without even realizing it.

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EXHIBITION SPACE

GREAT HALL

AUDITORIUM

FILE ROOM

PERIODICALS

CHILDREN’S AREA

OUTDOOR PATIO

FRONT DESK

CAFE

WORK SPACE

RARE BOOKS

RARE BOOKS

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EXHIBITION SPACE

GREAT HALL

AUDITORIUM

FILE ROOM

PERIODICALS

CHILDREN’S AREA

OUTDOOR PATIO

FRONT DESK

CAFE

WORK SPACE

RARE BOOKS

RARE BOOKS

The petals of the library are more than simply an elegant form: they enable connections to be made throughout the building, giving momentum to the interactions it houses with information. Each petal is small enough that it can be a relatively intimate space for learning, yet the sight lines through the building ensure that, while one space may be slightly removed from another, they are all still able to interact on some level to bring people together to spread knowledge from the library to modern London. The library stacks, traditionally housed in one central book tower, are pushed to the edges of every petal in which people may interact with knowledge. This allows them to always be unobtrusive, yet present; it serves as a reminder that one is occupying a library, while allowing visitors who may not usually intentionally seek out books to nevertheless have a small degree of interaction with this vast storage of knowledge.

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TOWERING VOIDVERTICAL HOUSING FOR NEW YORK CITY

Ohio State University Sophomore Design StudioInstructor: Sarah Bongiorno

Autumn 2013

A void is a completely empty space, defined by the existence of its surroundings. It holds a certain fascination as an abyss, a space which nothing enters and therefore nothing may leave. A void either must be respected for its nothingness and left starkly bare, or feared for its emptiness and filled to eliminate its lack of presence.

This project seeks to do neither. Instead, it aims to blur the void: it allows occupation of the void’s edges in safety, with the ability to retreat back into one’s home at any point. However, it never attempts to occupy the very center of the voided space, preserving the building’s captured nothingness. As the edges blur, the voided tower raises the question: at what point is a void no longer a void, and for how long can its inhabitants perceive emptiness rather than the presence of nothingness?

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The duplex from which this housing tower departs forces two families to occupy the void between living spaces while retaining individual units for each family.

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Typical units. Each floor plate is equally sized; those which have more balcony space in the central void must sacrifice living space.

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SIMPLY BEERBREWERY AND BEER HALL IN CINCINNATI

Ohio State University Junior Design StudioInstructor: Kristy Balliet

Autumn 2014

As the oldest intact German neighborhood in the United States, Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati, Ohio, has a very high level of appreciation for good beer. In order to both respect the historic character of the neighborhood and build a new brewery behind the Findlay Market, the restaurant must respect certain German characteristics of a traditional beer hall: large areas for drinking and an outdoor bier garten are both necessities, as is the ability to brew their own signature beer.

The interior main beer hall takes on the simplicity of a barn, a familiar drinking venue in traditional Germany. The rotating shapes around that interior hall create space for necessary functions within their poche while preserving the integrity of the beer hall as a highly refined, pristine space. Wrapping the beer hall in the production ensures that it is part of the character of the main room; the further addition of the bier garten maintains the brewing areas as a central portion of the beer hall.

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THE VOXELPAVILION IN MANSFIELD, OHIO

Ohio State University Vertical StudioInstructor: Michael Baumberger

Spring 2015

The volumentric pixel, often known as a “voxel,” is without scale; it can exist at any scale, and the resolution of the final product is directly related to the number and density of the voxels. This project uses the voxel as a tool to explore scale. A monolithic voxel is embedded in the sloped landscape. The voxel’s facades show signs of erosion over its theoretical lifetime, resulting in a new scale. Throughout the journey up the slope to reach the voxel, its scale shifts constantly until it is diminished to the human scale. This multiplicity allows for a clearly defined geometric shape - the cube - to both mimic and depart from the forms naturally occurring in the surrounding landscape.

This project was truly a group effort, with each memeber of the team contributing to every stage of construction, from planning and deveopment to finish work. My main responsibility before construction began was developing the method required to allow each voxel to appear identical. In reality, cedar planking and cement parge on OSB are different thicknesses, but we were able to develop a variable framing system that allowed independent manipulation of structural members to conceal those differences, and which was straightforward enough to alter during construction as needed.

Project Team: Bethany Roman, Ellen Shirk, George Hawks, Nathan Gammella, and Bryson Coy

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THIS PAGETOPThe project began with a massive excavation and installation of foundation posts in order to embed the voxel into the hillside.

CENTERThe pavilion framework was sheathed in weather-treated OSB. The sheathing would serve as the base layer for a cement parge, creating the monolithic face of the structure.

BOTTOMWooden framework allowed the sheer mass of the voxel to read as a single solid rather than individual boxes, while maintaining its feasibility of both cost and construction.

OPPOSITE PAGETOP LEFTInterior view of the entrance and nook. All voxels are two feet square and accessible by climbing through the project.

TOP RIGHTInterior view of seating ledge, Cedar runs in one continuous vein throughout the project, deliniating spaces meant to be occupied for longer periods of time than those covered in cement parge.

BOTTOMWhen finished, the voxel was an imposing structure in the landscape that simply begged to be investigated. It easily held 30 people on the upper levels for a final critique, and will be allowed to remain on the site indefinitely.

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DARE TO BE DUMB (LIKE A FOX)MANIFESTO AND BOOK

Ohio State University Senior Design StudioInstructor: Karen Lewis

Autumn 2015

As complexity increases, it seemingly wrests control of program away from the architect. It insists that certain spaces must connect, that form and function must compete for dominance in design, and that that each problem must be solved as quickly as possible so that we may move on to address the next issue. And complexity of architecture must increase with complexity of program, so that each building serves the purpose it is meant to accomplish.

Is it possible, then, that this highly complex architecture, which has been coerced into weaving its complexity through a highly simplified form, becomes the most complex of all? That architecture which simply performs its duties, almost well enough to become invisible to the everyday user, may transcend the debate of form versus function by integrating use, organization, and form so thouroughly that one cannot be distinguished from the others?

Excerpt from my personal manifesto on architecture.

The book featured on the facing page contains 256 images that are significant to my creation of architecture in relation tho this manifesto.

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND CONSIDERATION.

Bethany Romanbethanycroman@gmail.com440-454-4142