nathan

f o l i o

echstenkamper

CONTENTS01. garden for communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

02. flood resilient housing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

03. schwartz’s point apartments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

04. cross vault tectonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

05. staunch interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

06. dixon lodge revisioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

07. urban forestry facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

GARDEN

FOR

COMMUNITIES

01

01

liberty

hugh

es

main

syca

mor

e

See url for the full book on this project:issuu.com/nathanechstenkamper/docs/garden_for_communities_2016

The site for this project is at the junction of several neighborhoods in Cincinnati with varying populations, as well as between Hughes and Sycamore streets with Cogswell Alley running through it. The assigned program was a martial arts and community center which includes two apartments for instructors and a program I chose: performing arts. As a challenge for this studio chance was incorporated into the design process to investigate its effects. Two words were drawn from a hat: “garden(s)” as an architectural operation/idea and “concrete frame” as the structural system. Formal gardens were researched to identify typologies of gardens and to massage some of the formal elements into communal elements of play.

The strategy of the design was

to treat the martial arts as the

primary building and raise it on a

type of piano nobile and put other

major program under a Sycamore-

level garden including a winter

garden/performance space; to

connect Hughes and Sycamore

through the site with a central

plaza and performance space;

to link it all with multi-level

circulation and interactive canal;

to incorporate an after-school

space on the west side of the site

which is conceived of after an

orangerie that opens completely

to the Hughes level garden.

FLOOD

RESILIENT

HOUSING

02

02

Community members of the East End Garden District of Cincinnati initiated this competition project to develop prototypes for flood resilient housing for their community. The Garden District is a unique and quirky area that has suffered destructive flooding from the Ohio River which is only hundreds of feet from the chosen site.

The premise was to develop a prototype that could be used to help fill in the gaps and to reestablish the East End’s former density. I was struck by the Garden Districts established porch culture, which I used to help diffuse the distance between the ground and the entry of the home which had to be lifted 10 feet. I also included an open light well that aids in natural ventilation to help alleviate the hot humid summers on the river.

This project was awarded 3rd place by the jury panel.

first floor (10 ft above grade)

second floor

SCHWARTZ’S

POINT

APARTMENTS

03

03

This project is located at the intersection of Vine and McMicken in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati. The program is a multi-use apartment community. The strategy of this project was to break-up the mass of the building by dividing the apartments into two blocks. The blocks are: 1) a block (shown in pink) oriented to views and street grid of a wooded hill to the northeast; and 2) a block (shown in blue) oriented to views and street grid of the rest of OTR and downtown to the south.

The public ground level has retail along the busier Vine St, as well as public access with stairs along McMicken and through the site to Vine. The ground level maintains a porosity throughout the site, converging at the common space in the western corner of the site.

ground floor plannortheast elevation

The apartment blocks house six one-bedroom, eight two-

bedroom, and six three-bedroom apartments between the two of them. The two- and three-bedroom apartments are two

stories and all apartments have balconies that open

out to the view to which the block is oriented. At right are

representative floor plans of the apartment blocks and a rendering

of the pedestrian access looking north through the site and up

McMicken.

CROSS

VAULT

TECTONICS

04

04

The process of making was coupled with an exploration of the cross vault for this exercise in structural tectonics. The image at far left represents some of the outputs: (clockwise from top left) fabric stretching, knit casting, CNC milling, wax casting, vacuum forming, paper folding, 3D printing, weaving/suspension.

Hand-work like the paper folding, stretching, and knitting proved to show interesting details in the influence that the strategy had over the form of the object. These influences helped to push the idea of a cross vault that might not have been present in other investigations.

Computer modeling and mechanical production also

aided in pushing the idea of a cross vault. CNC milling (top

right and directly right) aided in adjusting the tessellation of

cross vaults to produce differing spaces. 3D powder printing (lower

right) produced more elaborate tessellation properties as well as suggesting different ideas about

inhabiting such a dynamic space.

STAUNCH

INTERACTION

05

05

This project, located on Langland St. in the Northside community of Cincinnati is a modest home designed for a maker/artist. The design of the home is formed by a series of primary walls that run east-west. These walls are designed to be useful with functions described in the diagram at left. The concrete walls, staunch though they are, bend strategically to the needs of the user. In so doing the walls not only create the space to live and work, but also interact directly with the user to facilitate their interactions with: community, environment, spaces, people.

The making-space of the house is a heightened space situated in the center of the home (shown in the

section-perspective at far right). This space, while still between

impressive primary walls can be opened or closed to the rest of the home by movable storage

components and to the exterior by various screening devices. The versatility of interaction

with other spaces through the home and outside is one of

the dominant functions of the primary walls.

section looking south

south elevation

DIXON

LODGE

REVISIONING

06

06

While working for Mahlum Architects in Portland, OR I had the opportunity to work with Oregon State University on a vision project to produce material for a renovation project on the main campus. The idea was to take an existing co-op and renovate it for the graduate school to use for administration and student spaces. I was given the task to design and assemble a vision report booklet as well as producing rendered images with a fellow intern. Revit was used for modeling the building, producing proposed floor plan schemes and rendering.

first floor

second floor

URBAN

FORESTRY

FACILITY

07

07

Process and iteration were emphasized in the design of an Urban Forestry Facility on a wooded site in Mt. Airy Forest Cincinnati, OH. The program was a sawmill, wood kiln, workshop center that would prepare and use wood from trees in urban settings, an educational component, and space for an artist in residence.

I focused on layering throughout my design; in more obvious cases like wall sections, and in the layering of spaces and structure as well. I choose to suspend the roof planes from a series of trusses to keep the program tight so as to disturb as little of the site as possible while maintaining versatility of program.

The process of designing this project was unique in that we began with the wall section, then building section, and eventually site/plan. So by working in a variety of scales throughout the process, large gestures can influence small details, and small details can influence large gestures.

t h a n k s f o r yo u r t i m e a n d t h o u g h t s

nathan

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