A A R O NC O T EP O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 5

AARON COTÉEducation Awards

Work Experience

Skills

University of Waterloo School of ArchitectureBachelor of Architectural Studies2013-Present

Commissioner’s Citation for Lifesaving2009

Studio MonolithChief Creative Officer2014-Current

Design Work

University of TorontoBachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies2012-2013 (first year complete)

University of WaterlooResearch and Exhibition Assistant May 2014-April 2015

Family/PersonalDesign, Fabrication, Construction2005-Present

Fabrication

At Studio Monoltih I handle overall creative direction for our independent video game, Polyball. My responsibilities included branding and marketing, asset production, level design, and overall aesthetic experience. My main workflow involves Sculptris, Rhino, and Unity3D, as well as the Adobe Suite.

Adobe Design Suite CS6+ publication, graphic render, vector graphic, collage

Rhinoceros 3d Modeler+ rapid modeling, architectural design, VRay

Unity3D+ level /environment design, lighting, plugin handling

Programming+ Processing, Arduino, Grasshopper (Rhino Plugin)

Leadership+ organizational, budgeting, motivating

Delegation+ observes others strengths and interests, assigns work responsibly

Research+ market analysis, feasability studies

Awareness+ follows tech, science, media, design cultures

Responsible for concept-to-completion work of part of the Building Waterloo Region architecture festival. Work included research, design, and fabrication of a gallery/museum exhibit displayed in the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery.

Assisted in the construction of two family homes, including framing, drywalling, deck building, cladding, design, and landscaping. Personal projects include furniture design/fabrication, landscaping, and restoration.

+ 1.647.524.2683+ agcote@uwaterloo.ca

Manual processes+ physical labour, proficiency with hand tools as well as shop equipment

Metalwork+ MIG welding, O/A torch brazing, basic blacksmithing

Full Scale+ experience building homes, furniture, landscapes, prototyping, temporary structures, modifications

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Standouts Interests / HobbiesNuit Blanche 2014, PlaneterraeumProject Lead2014

PolyballCreative Director2014-Present

Planeterraeum had its inception in early 2013 with a team of 3, including myself.It slowly grew into a project involving a team of around 20 students from the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. The project was entirely designed and executed by these students. I was part of a team of three who carried out administration for the project, including design decisions and delegation.

Polyball is the first project to be completed at Studio Monolith. We worked on it for about 6 months before our soft launch earlier this summer. The project is currently for sale on the Steam platform, and will have its full release later this summer. I managed all of the visual assets for Polyball and handled most of the branding and marketing for Polyball and Studio Monolith as a whole.

Genres+ science-fiction, fantasy, dystopia, kitsch, magic realism, surrealism

Futurism+ technology, architecture, socio-political structure

Gaming+ critical theory, writing, playing, game design, competitive + casual

Hobbies+ building, playing music, reading, film, gaming

Currently I’m a student at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, and I’m there after a year at the Daniel’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto.

I like to build things; I like to create. I’m particularly interested in the intersections between media, tech-nology, science, and design. I think there’s something to be found in that intersection, the coming together of various fields which individually enrich our lives, but together can solve large problems.

Most recently I founded Studio Monolith, a small business that I started with my older brother and a close friend. We just had our first major release, a computer game titled Polyball. The company has plans to grow in the areas of design and digital goods from a grassroots independent standpoint.

In my spare time I write songs, poems, and stories. I create conceptual outlines for video games, futurist technology, movies, and cultural practices. I write a series on “the Architecture of Video Games” and have been published on sites such as Kotaku and Bridge Waterloo Architecture. I build furniture, installations, and homes with my family. I try to adventure as much as I can, in and around the natural landscapes of my home in small-town Southern Ontario.

I’m particularly inspired by inventors–those among us who have taken risks in developing something new and daring to push the boundaries of what we think possible and make us question the world around us.

I’M AARON COTé, AND ThESE ARE My SELECT WORkS.

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TABLE OF CONTENTSCURRICULUM VITAE

REFERENCE LETTERCONTENTSPOLYBALL

UnzOOSSEF: THE FINGER TRAP

PROJECT PLANETTERAEUMPATCHWORK LOFTS

nO SMALL PLAnSBLACKSMITH RESIDENCE

PERSONAL WORKS

2 / 3456 / 91 0 / 1 51 6 / 1 71 8 / 2 12 2 / 2 32 4 / 2 52 6 / 2 72 8 / 2 9

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POLyBALL+ INDEPENDENT VIDEO GAME RELEASED ON STEAM

+ 4 PERSON TEAM, IN CHARGE OF CREATIVE

My role on Polyball was overall creative direction as well as the production of visual content. I handled asset creation, menu design, and most level design, . The project challenged me to direct my own work, handling deadlines and working within the parameters of the other two members of our team, who handled technical development.

We (my brother and I) set out to recapture some of the simpler times in gaming, while bringing something new to the genre of physics platforming. We settled on a low-poly aesthetic after a few weeks of sketching out ideas, as it was both practical (I’m the only artist for the game) and a style that is only just beginning to surface.

Polyball started out as a simple phone game to learn the basics of game development. I began to develop levels for the game, and the technical limitations of a mobile device slowly crept up on us. We got a few friends on board, and what started out as a simple phone game turned into a full-fledged independent PC release on the Steam platform.

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ThE UNZOO+ LANDSCAPE INTERVENTIONS ALONG THE DON VALLEY

+ COLLABORATION WITH BRENDA REID

The UNZOO is a series of constructed landscape interventions exploring the relationship between human presence and undisturbed nature.

There are three interventions, each focusing on a different method of engagement: the first is a wall, for walking and looking into a natural space; the second, a series of towers, one for humans to use for observation and the rest for birds to use as habitats; the third is a bridge over a constructed marshland, to engage the participant by walking through a landscape, rather than beside it.

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ThE FINgER TRAP+ SSEF COMPETITION ENTRY

+ COMPLETED WITH AMIR GHAZANFARI

The Finger Trap is a pedestrian boardwalk intended to combat the mass and built density of the city by offering space above the ground plane between buildings. The project uses cabling to create a tensile structure. The cables are first attached to the side of a vertical mass (tree, building, rock face) and then are fastened to a large manufactured face (monolith of steel, concrete, etc) which provides counterweight. The monolith is then erected and tipped away from the vertical face to create a web of structural cabling in-between. This web can then be used as a platform for further construction, or as a piece of infrastructure. In this case we placed it in Central Park as a boardwalk raised above and out into the Park. Two large stone structures provide the vertical facing.

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PROjECT PLANETERRAEUM+ INDEPENDENT NUIT BLANCHE 2014 PAVILION

+ ONE OF THREE PROJECT MANAGERS

On this project I was one of three project leads and so oversaw the process from start to finish. My jobs in the project ranged from leadership to hands on fabrication. Planeterraeum had its inception in early 2014 amongst myself and a few friends. We all wanted to create something for Toronto’s Nuit Blanche 2014, an all night art even that occupies the entirety of downtown Toronto every year. In the end, we came up with Planeterraeum. The project involves a series of projectors mounted inside an 8.5m geodesic dome which acts as a screen for aerial footage taken from a hexacopter. The structure was erected in Gore Park on October 4, 2014, and hosted a number of DJs from dusk until dawn. Every part of the project was designed, built, and fundraised by members of our team. In the end it took us around 8 months to design, fund, and construct the dome, and our team grew to include around 20 architecture students.

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PATChWORk LOFTS

Proposal for a high-rise condo tower in the heart of St. Clair West, a historic neighbourhood just west of downtown Toronto. My goal was to create a new streetfront for pedestrians and eliminate the need to walk alongside Caledonia Road, a major artery for automobile traffic. The structure is comprised of two towers joined in the middle above the second floor. This connection results in a covered walkway ‘underneath’ the living floors of the building, creating an arcade that circumvents the typical walking route along the busy streets. Intended as a master plan, this typology can be repeated to create pedestrian spaces.

+ 321 ST. CLAIR WEST, TORONTO+ 36 UNITS

+ 90 OCCUPANTS

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During the summer after first year I worked on the No Small Plans exhibition, part of the Building Waterloo Region architecture festival. The festival focused on the development of Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo throughout the 1900s until today and the role that architecture played in that development. My focus was No Small Plans, which focused on design excellence in the region.

I worked as a research and exhibition assistant, pulling information together, designing exhibits, and following through on the concept, development, and fabrication of various built elements. My specific focus was designing the physical pieces for the exhibition as well as fabricating them. In addition to that work I filled in missing reasearch information, synthesized information, and wrote textual material for this and other shows.

+ MAY 2014 – AUGUST 2014+ RESEARCH AND ExHIBITION ASSISTANT

NO SMALL PLANS

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BLACkSMITh RESIDENCEConcept for a home designed to be occupied on a rotational basis by artists who work primarily in the medium of hand-worked metal. The residence is designed to have the work on constant display in a center courtyard, such that the artist is always within sight of their work. The space is large, to accomodate any scale of work. The central courtyard allows the blacksmith to connect with nature on a primal level and work in a small oasis under a canopy of trees.

+ ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE RETREAT+ SINGLE OCCUPANT FOR 4 MONTHS

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FAR LEFTled audio visualizer (arduino + processing)created in conjunction with Alexandra Sermol and Jake Read. Source code courtesy of DDF MInIM

ABOVErose, steel, 14” length, hand-worked using traditional methods (hammer + anvil)

LEFTvarious sketches

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“ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES A DESIGNER CAN HAVE IS NOT ONLY THE ABILITY, BUT ALMOST THE UNCONSCIOUS CONSTANT ExPERIENCE OF PUTTING YOURSELF IN OTHER PEOPLE’S HEADS AND WATCHING THEM AS THEY HAVE AN ExPERIENCE.” – JASON JONES

+ 1.647.524.2683+ agcote@uwaterloo.ca+ aarongcote@gmail.com