charlotte rose matthai...breaks through the physical landmass that currently creates a “rupture”...
TRANSCRIPT
Charlotte Rose Matthai
Coney Island YMCApage 18
In Relation Topage 28
Carehaus Accessible Design page 16
Bending Vines Winerypage 4
Where There’s Smokepage 22
Transfer at Jamaicapage 10
Kayak Pavilionpage 24
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Bending Vines WineryCollaborator: Ginevra D’AgostinoInstructor: Cristina ParrenoMIT - Core III2019
The Bending Vines Winery is situated along an arroyo, nestled into the
slope of the mountainous terrain and overlooking the dry riverbed in Baja California, Mexico. Using a primary
construction system of rebar, our design extends the linearity of the existing
vineyards in the region to shape the form of a winery for small-batch
production and tastings.
A visitor to the winery approaches along the top of the arroyo and is embraced by the shading of the structure as they ascend a ramp,
entering the winery on the upper level, housing fermentation and the research center COLEF, among other program.
My partner and I had a very collaborative process, but I have emphasized drawings on which I
generally worked more.
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right: upper level fermentation area (top) and lower level barrel storage (bottom)
left: 1:300 acrylic sequential section model (left) and site plan (right)
Building in a winery in Baja presents unique challenges due to its climate. In particular, due to the scarcity of water in the region, there is tension with the intense water usage of a wine-making
production.
This structure seeks to mitigate these conditions. The rebar is filled
with boulders, excavated during construction, that provide thermal mass
and capitalize on the diurnal climate. This reduces the need for additional
cooling systems. The lower level, where the wine is aged, is cool and dark, in
contrast to the upper level that provides the tasting experience in the bright (but
shaded) sun.
The design of the winery is also informed by water collection
capabilities. The rebar can be covered in a mesh that provides shading but also serves as a fog catcher. Water from the fog catcher and the limited
rain in the region are diverted through the walls of the structure and contained in the foundations, which form canals to
carry the water to storage.
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The spatial experience of the upper level is framed by rebar, deformed by the loading of the enclosed program spaces. This contrasts the space below, primarily used for barrel storage, for which the rebar is pre-bent into catenary arches and arrayed as a vault system. These two distinct kinds of spaces relate through their origin – the bars of rebar spring from the same point, crossing to form a natural gabion. Between these spaces are piled boulders, excavated from the site, that support the floor above, create unique lighting conditions for the lower level, and shape the pathways and gardens of the level above.
right: 1:50 cross-section
below: gabion bent rebar study model and 1:25 sectional model (piano wire, rock, concrete)
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Transfer at Jamaica
Collaborator: Dries CarmelietInstructor: Alexander D’HoogheMIT - Options Studio - New York Squares2020
Jamaica Station is the third largest transit station in New York, following Penn
Station and Grand Central, and is a true intersection for transportation modes: Long Island Rail Road, subway, bus,
and airtain, as well as numberous and developing micromobility and rideshare
options.
Our proposal reimagines Jamaica Station as a multi-modal hub that manifests in
three “theaters”. On the north side of the tracks: the urban theater, housing the
subway station and releasing passengers on a direct route to commercial Jamaica.
The Atrium acts as the second theater - the grand instance of transportation
integration as well as the crossing of the rupture. The third theater presents as
a park that also facilitates bus parking, car drop-offs, and the entrance to the
air train. Directly above the hub, the roof becomes a VTOL launch pad.
cross-section between Archer Ave and Atlantic Ave
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What is a monument for the city? In the spirit of Lady Liberty, we are creating a monument for the masses. People arriving, people leaving and passing by. Inspired by Medieval cathedrals, the roof is constructed as a vault of steel flanges with elevators in its cores.
The Atrium is the heart of the transit hub, through which all passengers must cross when switching modes, and which also breaks through the physical landmass that currently creates a “rupture” in Jamaica. The atmosphere is ethereal and bustling, where time is marked by trains passing overhead and casting fast shadows as light filters in through the clerestory. The cathedral-like roof structure provides a moment of grandeur and pause within the busy station, energized by the juncture of integrated modes of transport.
There are few examples of agreeable bus dropoffs - these spaces are often filthy, noise, air polluted and dangerous. Therefore we are reinventing what a contemporary bus dropoff might be: the park(ing). It feels neither as a park or a parking - but it is both. This urban jungle prioritizes rapid car, bus, and shuttle pick-ups and drop-offs, but guides movements through a lush forest. After all, isn’t providing people with an experience of green and calm during their daily commutes exactly what is missing now?
Again, this was a highly collaborative project, but I primarily realized the drawing and modelling of the design, whereas my partner managed the mapping and research.
top: LIRR train platformsmiddle: atrium bottom: bus park(ing)
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existing condition
the rupture
proposed intervention
While in most cases being near a major transit hub is a major asset, the trains running through Jamaica present a tangible barrier to its success, physically dividing the region into North and South. The impact of this rupture
can be observed in the geographic distribution of commerce and community. The proposed
intervention responds to this challenge to make crossing the tracks or changing modes as
fluid and painless as possible. In the new hub, whichever modes you change, you are always
able to transfer withing two minutes of walking.
longitudinal section through train platforms
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Carehaus Accessible Design
Work with: Marisa Morán Jahn and Rafi SegalTransarchitectural Interior DesignJanuary 2021
tactile cues inside door frame for orientation when
exiting the stairs and elevator
left: diagrams of accessible design strategy implementation
below: render of first floor lobby entrance with kitchen and seating. Spaces of transition (entrance,
elevator, stairwell) indicated with yellow.
high contrast tile to protect walls against wear and
indicate edge
8”
tactile floor pattern to indicate waiting area for
elevator
For this four week project, I researched accessible design precedents and
strategies for Carehaus Baltimore. I worked with architect Rafi Segal and
artist Marisa Morán Jahn to test potential interior design implementations through
renderings and 3D modelling.
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Coney Island YMCA
Instructor: Liam O’BrianMIT - Core II2019
3rd (top) and 1st (bottom) floor plans Exploded axonometric with site
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This project began with a study of caverns, inspired by the cheese Mimolette and by experimentation with the malleability and spaces formed by a process of casting aluminum study models. For the cavern study models, the wood was carved out of a 2x4 and aluminum poured into the hollow, burning the low-density wood around the pour.
The YMCA in Coney Island, New York functions as a gym as well as a community center. Thus, the proposed design centers around a large atrium space, shaped into a cavernous skylight. Program is pushed to the outside and circulation occurs as an intermediary space between the amorphous atrium boundary and the orthogonal program walls. The building is lifted off street level so that the bottom level is visibly accessible to passers by, joining the fabric of the neighborhood.
page left: container study models (cast aluminum), made in collaboration with Ryan Clement and Ruth Blair Moyerspage right: cavern study models (aluminum cast into wood)
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Where There’s Smoke
Collaborators: Jonathon Brearley, Cyrys Chu, Emily Lo Gibson, Lenna Johnsen, Sarabrent McCoy, Yaara YacobyInstructor: Miho MazereeuwMIT - Innovation for Disaster Relief 2019
page left: game board set-up and game boxpage right: game board set-up; Rancher Character Card; game board in play
This cooperative game was designed by a team of planners and architects in order to facilitate conversations in rural communities about housing in the Wildland-Urban Interface. It engages with the disaster timeline from pre-disaster and resilient planning through post-disaster response. Meant to by played by government officials in planning meting, the board game can be disassembled and carried in a shoebox-sized container.
My primary contributions to the project were research and character development, which guided the game design approach. Each player was given imformation and, occasionally, speeches, in order to assume the attitude and biases of their role. The game is meant to be informational, but also with humor; disaster housing is often an ignored topic in emergency planning because it is so complex and intimidating. In order to make the topic more approachable and empathetic, the game introduces quirky character personalities and light commentary.
Kayak Pavilion
Instructors: Ray Wang and Amina BlacksherColumbia University - Intro to Architecture Summer Program2017
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The Adjustable Module:Rectagular form with front and back pair of equal lengths.
Can be elongated, scaled, and rotated.Cannot be distorted.
Pavilion, plan with motion diagram
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Using design elements from a structural study capable of elevating a steel ball 18” using basswood sticks (Tower Process Model), this kayak pavilion manipulates a static “hashtag” module into a dynamic arrangement that propels the pedestrian overtop the pier and onto the water in a hurricane of forms, all the while maintaining the openness of the site from views on the shore, the pier, and inside the structure.
The components of the Adjustable Module operate to activate spaces on the shore and in the structure, the beams operating as both structure and as a way to frame and activate negative spaces. The structure is intended to be jarring while maintaining the organic nature of the site through material: repurposed wooden beams. Thus, the space forces people to adjust their path in order to appreciate their surroundings in a new perspective.
Tower Process Model, elevation
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In Relation To
Collaborators: Marisa Concetta Waddle and Yaara YacobyInstructor: Rania GhosnMIT - Options Studio - Growing Power, Sowing Worlds2020
This is a project of a speculative future. One where we reexamine our current modes of being and hypothesize on new rituals, behaviors, and architectures resulting from a new system of values - ones grounded in empathy and blurred boundaries. The land of East Boston has been mined, moved, collected, submerged, built upon, and forgotten. The land that was once considered natural has become a hybridized new natural, an expansion that today accommodates oil storage sites. Considering a future of continued pollution and consumption, how do we live in the landscape? How do our rituals of operation need to adapt? How can we shape this blurred boundary of future and past, earth and water, polluted and clean?
While the ideas in this project were highly collaborative, the drawings displayed represent my own work unless otherwise noted.
left, top: network flowleft, bottom: tracking infill around East Boston and the Chelsea Creek - 1630; 1833; 1995 (by Yaara Yacoby and Marisa Concetta)
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This project was guided by philosophies of maintenance and care, inspired by Maria Puig de la Bellacasa’s text: Matters of Care. “Maintaining Care” sets the table for a conversation that entrenches our conception of care within and resisting relationships of power in politics, science, and technology. It focuses on the often undervalued “women’s work,” maintenance, and maintenance of women’s work. The conversation begins around a table that is a cross-section of an IUD - a symbol of choice, power, and control. Plated on a uterus, the table is otherwise set to serve tea, and hosted in the presence of a crochet coral reef.
These guidelines of care and empathy extended into our statement of issue, position, and strategy for the boundary condition of Chelsea Creek. We propose a shift in relationship between humans and the Creek, from one of authority and control, to one of compromise. We reimagine community, not as untethered and individual, but as interconnected - earth-human-machine, all blurred boundaries. above: Maintaining Care
right, clockwise from top left: Issue (Yaara Yacoby), Position, Strategy (Marisa Concetta)
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In this speculative future, tankers continue to chug up the Chelsea Creek, now depositing their 100 million gallons of fuel for Logan airport in the rafts rather than on land. The stacked bladder is a flexible system - as the water rises and falls with the tide, which can vary between 6 and 12 feet in this area, the rafts float up the stakes on which they are attached. Additionally, as petroleum is deposited and extracted, the bladders shrink or swell, affecting the heights of the platforms suspended on a cable system.
The bladders are enclosed within second skins. These skins serve multiple roles - they protect the bladders from leaking directly into the water, allow access for bladder maintenance, and reinforce stability. As land is slowly taken over by rising waters, (and when not undergoing maintenance) the second skins also serve as gathering spaces on the rafts - new observatories, a window into the underwater world.
