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EXPLORING LOCAL RESOURCES IN PURSUIT OF GLOBAL DESIGN Giancarlo V Montano University of Texas at Arlington B.S. Architecture, Minor in Architecture History 2004-2008 M. Arch
PORTFOLIO
GIANCARLO MONTANO 131 TAYLOR ST APT 25 SAN ANTONIO, TX 78205
Personal Statement
The majority of my life has been spent looking out of windows into sprawling, unplanned cities that still glow with possiblility as soon as the light changes. I have inevitably drawn inspiration from the gamut of possibility that springs forth from my waking life. From the easygoing beauty of the Texas landscape, to my own bedroom, the world that fabricates before me is profoundly invigorating. These images permeate my psyche and become backdrops for the creatures and unfamiliar places that are born of my dreams. We are at once a product of our environment and an alien with intrapersonal perceptions of the world around us. Whether deliberately or surreptitiously, both find their way into the studio. Along with the pedagogy of academia and the workplace, these are the local resources that fuel the innovation and imagination needed to energize our built environment.
CUBES:
TEMP :
SUSP:
ROME:
PEEP:
PROJECT MAP
SCAPE:
WORK:
MINE:
Personal Studies
The semester project was an evaluation of ideas based on simple cube configurations. This eventually led to exercises in composition via physical models, drawings and digital learning devices. By starting off with cubes of specific dimension and an open ended developmental interpretation within orthogonal constraints, the evolution of the model helped to develop an intuitive understanding of scales and composition.
SPRING 2005
The cubic composition for this particular model lent itself to a linear progression. As a method for demonstrating a rhythmic sequence, a series of frames were strategically placed to exhibit a progression of variations on a theme.
This configuration implied a centrifugal or radiating composition, which was suited for a demonstration of solid to void. The central cube represents a solid mass with the frames representing ambiguous conditions of implied space and delicate structural members.
The five cubes that make up this configuration has strength in one direction, which enables a clear exhibition of the rhythm to repetition that occurs between the structural members. One side is evenly spaced and allows the rhythmic sequence of the other side to occur within it.
4 The base model was a device that provided contextual information for the cube configuration exercises. It was based on numbers consistent with the Fibonacci sequence, thereby allowing possibilities for proportional relationships across the base model.
1 Top down-model 2 Close up-model 3 Full model elevation 4 Longitudinal View-blue and green 5 Oblique front view-red, orange and green 6 Top down view-red, orange and silver 7 Oblique close up-green, orange and silver
Cube Composition
During this semester, the studio was asked to observe the temporal conditions and nuances that are potential in static structures but rarely explored. Via diagrams, stop motion photography, and motion picture, the exercise enabled us to consciously observe static surfaces and armatures as constantly changing forms.
TEMP
FALL 2006
Descent, Decipher
The main project objective was to reverse engineer Marcel Duchamps Nude Descending A Staircase to further understand the temporal conditions and movements of the work. The process was initiated through studies of how the artwork was organized as a stationery composition and also how it demonstrated movement beyond the canvas. The studio was then asked to interpolate between the diagrams and create an original composition that interpreted the extracted concepts. Through this process, I began to understand that nuances and technicalities, however intimidating or overwhelming, can be understood and developed into original systems.
Large Fields 1 Small and Intermediate Fields 2 Vibrations 3 Nodes and Trajectories 4 Nude Descending A Staircase No. 2, Marcel Duchamp 5 Original Production Based on Studies 6
Dynamic Diptych
The studio was asked to choose a mechanism that possessed three dynamic components. The piano key is a complex machine that is used to produced sound. I extracted the three movable components as a genesis for the next step of the assignment, which was to generated a terrain, a spatial object and a connector piece. Finally, we were asked to convey this transition from a static object to a dynamic environment through a diptych. This was to demonstrate our understanding of ephemeral conditions in three dimensional objects through a two dimensional medium.
As piano key is struck a space develops between the hammer and the base. This is documented in orange across the dyptyph.
Final image is a dynamic void created by the striking of the piano key, which is collided within the boolean terrain of the section cut
Our world has become increasingly fast-paced. Most of the time, the environment that lay before us is experienced in passing. The blurring of static objects causes us to perceive them as something entirely different. Through these digital exercises, I was able to further investigate these nuances in temporal armatures and surfaces and began to see how they inform our current environment. It was the ultimate object of the studio to communicate these perceptions through movies and digital media so that they may be more clearly understood.
Temporal Surface
The objective was to develop a methodology of identifying movement in an object. Every fold was monitored as a move was captured and exhibited via stop motion photography. This enabled a closer examination of how dynamic surfaces can be accounted for, and is analogous to logically keeping track of an evolving studio design.
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The exercises in this studio originated in developing innovative techniques in displaying art and evolved into a variety of solutions for multiple projects. As a studio, we began investigating how to manipulate a sheet of paper as the basis for an outdoor art gallery. As we programmed mapping strategies and developed concepts, we began to distinguish and define our own projects.
SUSP
SPRING 2008
Gaming Structure
In the beginning, the objective of the project was to create a temporary outdoor gallery space for an art festival that takes place in Austin, Texas, every spring. The task was to construct a possible space for a 10x20x10 space from one sheet of paper and document the process through stop motion photography. The initial assembly is constructed through a gaming structure informed by simple arithmetic calculations. Having the documentation aided in the development of a temporal sensibility. One can look at the photography and see the finished piece and reverse engineer it to discover its inception.
Mapping Strategem
Our next task was to integrate systems and map them into the object. It was here where I started to develop a suspension matrix where the movable parts are informed by a gameboard structure. This evolved from early experimentation with the concept behind algorithms and calculators.
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Suspension Film
As a tool for investigating how art could be observed as suspended objects, I developed a prototype in my apartment. I used the medium of short film to understand how temporal changes came into play with the art. A gaming structure was set up on the perimeter of the apartment as a guide for plug and play suspension cables to hang the objects.
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TOGS Austin
In the beginning, the objective of the project was to create a temporary outdoor gallery space for an art festival that takes place in Austin, Texas, every spring. The task was to construct a possible space for a 10x20x10 space from one sheet of paper and document the process through stop motion photography. The initial assembly was constructed through a gaming structure informed by simple arithmetic calculations. This evolved into a study in suspending the art as a way of vertically experiencing the space and how it influences the art.
Magok S. Korea
The Magok Waterfront in South Korea was a group project that blended the ideas of our individual Austin projects into a central concept. As a group, we decided to touch upon the socio-political rift between North and South Korea as an impetus for a project based on biological healing processes. The site is has a natural inlet that can be seen as a chasm or scar that needs to be healed. The pod typologies that float in the water act as inhabitable bridges that go across. These are held in place by the connective tissue that physically and symbolically hold the project together.
The University of Texas at Arlington has a great tradition of taking a handful of students to Italy to rediscover the one of the origins of defined public spaces and utilization of classical Western beauty in an urban context. Our travels took us to various urban centers of Italy in pursuit of piazzas, churches, and how the preservation of the old have influenced the modern. The experience was eventually taken back to studio to turn into a project.
ITALY
Italy
In the summer of 2006 I traveled to Italy for a study abroad in architecture. While there I sketched and took photographs to further examine how the countrys great cities were designed and how architecture was used to inform public space. Our travels took us to Rome, Florence, Verona, Venice, Vicenza, Lake Como and Milan
Exiting Uffizi
The studio was tasked to design a program for the undefined urban space that occurred at the exit to the Uffizi in Florence, Italy. I initated the project with several studies of the famous citys urban grain and rich history. Diagramming the city revealed that Santa Maria della Fiore, the psychological center of Florence and Santa Croce , the burial place of Galileo, create a cross-intersection at the project site. This initiated a rough organization of the building. Eventually I saw a possibility for two buildings to represent the past and the present linking the traffic of those exiting the Uffizi to the neighboring Piazza del Grano. The building immediately facing the Uffizi is a museum celebrating the life of Galileo. The major focus is an observatory that houses one of his telescopes. The building that defines the urban edge of the Piazza del Grano is a small art-house cinema that shows the most current and compelling films not found in major box office venues. This gives the setting an oppurtunity to be utilized at night when the museum is closed.
Map of Florence indicating Santa Maria della Fiore, the Uffizi, and Santa Croce 1 First Floor 2 Second Floor 3 Third Floor 4 Section cut through Uffizi, the Galileo museum, and arthouse theatre 5
The study of the organization and methodology of the Soane House led to an understanding of designing for narrower infill spaces and the importance of natural lighting. The program called for a series of spaces that would facilitate a school for drawing. This particular studio deliberately coincided with an art and architecture history course. The students were encouraged to study other masters of light and space to enrich the process.
PEEP
SPRING 2006
CAMERA OBSCURA As part of the program, a room for a camera oscura was included as a learning device for drawing.
ORGANIZATION Studying the Soane House revealed techniques for maximizing narrow spaces by utilizing a strategy of thresholds and a tri-partite scheme.
TEA ROOM Utilizing John Soanes technique of bringing in natural light as a basis of design for the tea room
LIGHT WELL Looking to Borromini and Carravaggio as a method of bringing natural light to the stage of the salon
PERSPECTIVE ROOM Looking to Borromini and Carravaggio for optical illusions and changing perceptions of space.
LIVE DRAWING SALON A large, naturally lit room is optimal for life drawing. The stage is set for observation.
SCAPE
The studio was an examination of post-modernist concepts and discovering ways of expressing architecture as landscape. The process began with a simple idea of bringing up the ground and pulling down the sky. It eventually evolved into a theoretical high school for the creative arts to be situated in Los Angeles, California. The mission of the charter school was to not merely teach curriculum but to understand how they are designed.
FALL 2007
Conceptually, I was tasked to develop the floors as a series of landsapes stacked on top of one another. This initiated how the spaces were organized and how light was to get into the building.
The floorplans of the building are organized have classrooms are the perimeter, open to natural light. The movable partition walls allow the classrooms to be open during an assembly on the middle platform. This middle platform not only acts as the major form of circulation, but also as seating for a performance.
I was asked to create to options for the roof of the bulding, which was to act as an outdoor plaza for the public. One is composed of a red, recycled rubber material. The other is essentially a conceptual green roof
Groundscape
The studio was an examination of post-modernist concepts and discovering ways of expressing architecture as landscape. The process began with a simple idea of bringing up the ground and pulling down the sky. It eventually evolved into a theoretical high school for the creative arts to be situated in Los Angeles, California. The mission of the charter school was to not merely teach curriculum but to foster an understanding of how these typical school subjects are designed
The pocket-pivot walls are designed to be configured into classrooms or to open up completely for optimum interaction between the classes. The face of the building is composed of glass and operable louvers to ventilate the building with fresh outdoor air. The arrangement of the materials implied letters
The semester project was an evaluation of ideas based on simple cube configurations. This eventually led to exercises in composition via physical models, drawings and digital learning devices. By starting off with cubes of specific dimension and an open ended developmental interpretation within orthogonal constraints, the evolution of the model helped to develop an intuitive understanding of scales and composition.
WORK
2007PRESENT
Affiliations
LEED AP
Skills
HELEN DEVOS CHILDRENS HOSPITAL Grand Rapids, MI, Renovation, 14-story addition, 290 beds, 400000 sq ft -reviewed design and construction submittals -assisted project team with technical knowledge within the architectural discipline -inspected construction to ensure that the design was properly carried out -kept track of the LEED account to ensure a LEED Silver Rating BRAMPTON COMMUNITY CENTER Millom, Cumbria, UK, 3 story hospital and community center, 7000 sq m -production captain of Dallas for Predesign and Schematic Design -coordinated with overseas team in England -synthesized drawings as per user group meetings -contributed to design and layout of the hospital -applied quality assurance process on the drawings -developed this project simultaneously with Millom Community Center
References
My involvement with the project varied from development of the envelope to cost estimation. Within the plans, it was part of my responsibility to ensure that the patient rooms complied with ADA, that the rooms were per the requirements of the clinical planning, and that the graphics properly referenced the correct sheets.
As production captain for the US team, it was my task to make sure that the graphic representation of the project was as per direction from the principal in London as he was meeting with the clients for direction.
As a team member of the technical branch, I provided technical architectural support on site. I used this time as an oppurtunity to understand the relationship between physical construction and contract drawings vis-a-vis themedium of sketches.
14 SHOCK/ TRAUMA
2' - 0"
6' - 9"
TC-128B 307C
101A
G3 G3 TC-134 101A
6' - 2 5/8"
1' - 5"
D4
145 - 10 NCOIC
8' - 0"
TC-128A 307C
CORRIDOR
TC-128
CLR.
MECHANICAL RM
TN-101 7/8" 8' - 4 3/8" 7/8" 2 A-503 CONC. UTILITY PAD 8' - 6"
3' - 10 1/2"
DO
1' - 9 3/4"
FEC
FE
8' - 9"
M.O.
B3 B3 TL-128 101A
ALIGN
H2
TN-101 262A
1' - 0"
FE
TC-109 101A G3 F8 G3
2 A-320 3 7/8" 1
F8
EQUIPMENT STORAGE
G3
7' - 4 1/4"
1' - 0"
M TLT
B3
M LOCKER
TC-109
TC-110
9' - 9 1/2"
1' - 10"
ELECTRICAL RM
6 7' - 0" TL-128
UP
B3
T5
G3 G3
11' - 2 1/4"
11' - 8 5/8"
F8
STAIR #08
TL-129 141A
Large conduits penetrating fire rated deck. Floor assembly is not fire rated at all
M SHOWER
6 2' - 0"
TC-108A 307C
S4
G3
PB VESTIBULE
TL-122
TL-122B 411D TL-122A 411D
PB
2' - 0 3/4" 10' - 3"
G3 B3
14' - 1 1/8"
G3
1 A-320
1 A-416
CORR
TL-123
91
7 CORRIDOR
OFFICE
12' - 1 1/2"
G3
Unprotected hole in a teo hour fire rated wall, incorrect wall label
2 hour fire rated gypsum does not extend all the way to the deck
Post graduate life in the workforce and out of a structured pedagogy allowed for a rediscovery of daydreamy sketches while using the logical systems of architectural graphics to post rationalize them. I found this time in my life made me more self aware of how I can see objects or environments and take them out of scale or context in order to further examine them.
MINE
POST COLLEGE
Personal Exercises
These studies were based on a dream about an unidentifiable layered construct that housed spatial settings for several reoccurring dreams that I have had throughout my life. It is never the same structure twice, however, for the purpose of this exercise, one iteration of the construct was examined.
Personal Exercises
These studies involved examinations of the forms and spaces that occur in the human body. By observing the sinous texture of muscles, the structure of the skeleton in various positions, and dissecting inner organs, many ideas were formed on how to communicate complex systems and generate interesting forms and spaces.