Lauren Cundiff
Architecture Portfolio
Professor: Judy Gordon
Year: Third-year student project
Assignment: Design a Media Art Center & Studio for Oxford College of Emory with a study on a chosen phenomenology from nature.
Precedent: Ohio State University's Knowlton School of Architecture by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects of Atlanta
Concept: Caustic Illusion. Play on chaos, illusion, and theatrical projection. Inspired by Caustic Networks (movement of light reflected off water), the Dada Movement, Marey and Muybridge's “Movement Studies,” and the Transmaterials: Terrazzo Lumina and PIXA.
Design: The three main masses (shown in section) let light through from above the way a bundle of stones would, gaps and all. With the sunlight constantly changing in angle and intensity, and also the movement of people in the building, the light in the building is in continual flux. This gives the light an effect of a caustic network in a sense.
Upon ground level entrance from the east side, the visitor walks under a shallow, wide walkway under a giant mass, like a whale in this stream of glimmering water. This mass overhead is the studio, which has a transmaterial floor
to allow light through in varying intensities and hues based on the users pressure points on the studio floor.
After passing under this studio mass, the space opens up to a grand, fluctuating view of the stairs and the back of the library wall. This wall, serving as a climactic element to the processional experience, is made of a transmaterial, allowing flickers of natural light through from the west light-catching room. This wall becomes a theatrical piece as three factors (sun rotation, sun intensity, and movement of people) cause the light to move in a playful whim.
This prismatic shape of the west space is a glass-walled room, visually connecting the building to the forest outside. The space is oriented so as to face the users toward nature while they sit and study on the steps. The upper levels of this room serve as a library. The space below is composed of reading and lounging steps.
The underground mass is the auditorium, needing no natural light, it releases some flickers of automated light from screenings or presentations through to the nature-study room to add to the caustic nature of the design.
Once users have approached the theatrical wall, they have two routes, either go up the stairs on the ramped floor toward the library, or enter the semi-disguised doorways
into the underground auditorium. The disguise and split in routes further emphasizes the spirit illusion, evident in the Dada Movement.
Caustic Illusion
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