eli sokol undergraduate portfolio
DESCRIPTION
This is a compilation of my undergraduate architecture work at Washington University in St. LouisTRANSCRIPT
ELI SOKOL
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST LOUISSAM FOX SCHOOL OF DESIGN & VISUAL ARTS
COMPAS + COMPOSITION
ACOUSTIC GEOMETRIES AT SHAW NATURE RESERVE
FIRENZE COM’ERA FLORENCE AS IT WAS
FIRENZE COMPOSTA FLORENCE COMPOSED
LIVE WORK SHOW
CARONDELET PARK POOL COMPLEX
MAPPING SOFT BODIES
CITY WALK FRAMING THE URBAN CONDITION
CASE STUDY POMPIDOU CENTER
CASE STUDY VITRA FIRE STATION
PROFESSIONAL WORK UIC + CDO
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International Design Competition Collaboration with Yurina KodamaCOMPAS + COMPOSITION`
Flamenco music is a compositional dialogue between dance, guitar, singing, and clapping. To architecturalize Flamenco is to materialize its cadential elements into a complementary and fluid space, at the same time using fundamental rhythmic principles to create a l inear but l inked series of spaces. An analysis of the flamenco score “Sevil lanas,” informs the scheme for a cultural dance center in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.
Above: Mapping of “Sevil lanas”Right: Model Construction
program
danceexhibition
gymlecturelibrary
performanceplaza
restaurantshop
2: Plaza Entrance
1: Interior Courtyard First Floor Layout
Second Floor Layout
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2
AB
C
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AB
C
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Section C
Section B
Section A
ACOUSTIC GEOMETRIES AT SHAW NATURE RESERVE
A mapping study of a forested portion of Shaw Nature Reserve in eastern central Missouri reveals a dichotomous acoustic relationship between the tree canopy and ground vegetation. The space between the two is occasionally punctured by the passage of sound.
Featured in 2010 Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts student catalogue
Above: Acoustic abstraction of forest sectionTop Right: Acoustic mapping of forest sectionBottom Right: Volume construction of acoustic geometries
Informed by the preceding auditory data, a classroom space with a crystall ine envelope responds to the acoustic geometries of the forest as well as its varied topographical landscape.
The streamlined triangulation of earlier models is recomposed to meet site conditions. Raised within the forest tree canopy, the building skin allows for interior acoustic conditions similar to those of the forest itself.
Right: Geometric Form TransformationFar Right: Classroom Model
Above: South Elevation and Cross SectionsRight: Geometric form evolutionFar Right: Model ConstructionBelow: East Elevation
LECTURESPACE
ENTRANCE
MEZZANINE
FIRENZE COM’ERA FLORENCE AS IT WASFeatured in exhibition of selected works from Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts study abroad programs
INTERIOR PUBLIC PIAZZA
PROGRAMMABLEEXHIBIT SPACE
MAINEXHIBIT
ADMINISTRATIVECAFE
EXITOBSERVATION
The Challenge: A museum that exhibits a historical narrative of the city, to be located beneath the narrow Piazzale degli Uffizi in the center of Florence’s historic core. Museum program is informed by historical perspective and expression.
Ground Plan
-1 Plan
-2 Plan
Florence has a layered quality, both in historical sequence and urban form. The subterranean site typifies the complex networks of society and the spaces that define the city.
A line perpendicular to a slight geometric imbalance on the ground level arcade of the Uffizi Gallery regulates the program and form. A series of ramps, stairs, and plateaus shift and undulate along this off-axis tectonic l ine.
Above: Interior Exhibit VignettesRight: Floor Plans
Model Construction
Interior Exhibit Vignettes Axonometric Diagram of Regulating Order Axonometric Diagram of Circulation
Model Construction
BOUNDARIES
RELATIONSHIPS
FORMS
Built or unbuilt, these are physically significant conditions. Boundaries mold their environments, acting as either a force of containment or a force of attraction.
Relationships highlight context. They exist as both physical and visual connections but also as l inks to past ideas or spaces.
These are the elements that define the built environment. They are expressive artifacts of an ever evolving society. As physical entities, they are a manifestation of cultural ideas and values.
Using physical milestones as notation, the built environment becomes a choreographed composition that reveals the evolution of Florence over time.
FIRENZE COMPOSTA FLORENCE COMPOSED
Midtown Alley is a St. Louis neighborhood sandwiched between the city’s most urban pockets. It is an incomplete landscape, fractured by demolished buildings and surface parking lots. The experience of compression, release, and convergence in this built landscape is extracted to inform the program of the building.
1 Painter1 Sculpter
Artist living spaceArtist studio spacePublic exhibition space
LIVE WORK SHOW
Right: View facing West, Locust Street at Garrison AvenueBelow: Model Construction
l ive
work
show
liveworkshowOLIVE STREET
LOCUST STREET
GA
RR
ISO
N A
VE
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Midtown Alley Plan
North Elevation Cross Sections
Interior Perspective Collage
A series of interior perspectives highlights the surfaces that help to distinguish programmatic space. The ceiling and street-facing walls are the only surfaces that change in pitch and height along the length of the site. Shades of blue highlight this progression of shifting surfaces.
Each end of the building is reserved for its respective artist in residence. To meet in the middle, the two residents each experience a spatial compression that ultimately terminates in the most open interior room, where all shared living functions are housed.
West Elevation
Longitudinal Section
Second Floor Plan
First Floor Plan
Basement Plan
Above: SectionsLeft: Floor Plan
CARONDELET PARK POOL COMPLEX
Carondelet Park is a victorian era St. Louis park distinguished by its centrally located lake and Olmsteadian artificial topography. The design for a recreational swimming center called for pool and spa facilities as well as space to exercise and sunbathe. Oriented along the northwest edge of Carondelet Lake, the complex is nestled into the rolling hillside surrounding the water.
To enter, visitors descend from the steet along a winding pathway that carves into the hillside and funnels into the building proper. This linear experience terminates with a vista of the lake and nearby boathouse at the south end of the complex. Metaphorically speaking, the building interior has the appearance of a gorge... a sunken space created by the presence of water.
SPA
WO
MEN
MEN
OFFIC
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GYM
FRONT DESK
SPECTATOR AREA
RECREATIONPOOL
OLYMPIC POOL
To achieve an etheral and weightless quality within this sunken space, recesses in the ceiling and floor planes create the illusion of floating surfaces. Horizontal apertures along the retaining wall extend through the adjacent hill to provide lakeside views.
MAPPING SOFT BODIES
The Paramecium Multimicronucleatum is a freshwater-based cell found in waterborne microrganisms. Tracing a microscopic image of this cell reveals a fibrous composition. This quality is then extruded in a three dimensional digital model which seeks to better convey the formal relationships of the cell and its various functions.
Paramecium Multmicronucleaturm, digitally rendered
H2O Freshwater H2O Waterborne Microrganism Paramecium Cell
Paramecium Multimicronucleatum
Isolated Paramecium Cell
Paramecium, digital drawing Paramecium Multimicronucleatum, digital drawing
plasma membrane
aveolar sacs
septa
cilia
granulo-fibrillar material
trichocyst tips
A complete three dimensional transformation of the original paramecium tracing hypothesizes the formal properties of this dynamic network of cells and functions.
Paramecium Multmicronucleaturm, digitally rendered
Model Construction of Trichocyst Tips
To examine a closer scale of the paramecium cell, the trichocyst tips region is chosen as a candidate for further study. Unique in its form, the trichocyst is a fi lamentous cell with a large oval-shaped cavity at its center. This model speculates the three dimensional qualit ies of a cell that is presented microscopically at a two dimensional level.
THE FOOTThe Foot keeps each ring in place. Maximum extension is reached when the foot locks below the Lip of the preceding ring.
THE LIPThe Lip is the top horizontal surface of each ring.The Lip overextends to lock each ring in place during maximum extension.
THE NECKThe Neck is a topographical extrusion. It is fully exposed when the system is at maximum extension, while a base segment is still revealed at minimum extension.
Above: Trichocyst Transformation from compression to extensionBelow: Diagram of system components
Above: Section Cut of the Trichocyst SystemTop Right: Section Cut of the Trichocyst SystemBottom Right: Overlay of extension transition
The trichocyst structure is formally driven by its ability to eject thread-like filaments in response to various stimuli. To further examine this dynamic property, a flexible system is proposed. The system is effectively a machine that recreates the potential forms of a trichocyst with a series of extendable interlocking rings.
Pullling on either end of the object, all rings will extend outwards from the center. A condition of maximum extension is reached when all the rings interlock in place. Complete compression in this system cannot be reached, considering the cell structure never exists in a two dimensional state.
I l lustrated Route indicating views and sections
CITY WALK FRAMING THE URBAN CONDITION
Section: Palazzo Medici Ricardi
Piazza San Marco to Piazza della Republica
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Section: Accademia GallerySection: Via de’ Bonizzi
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Selecting two Florence piazzas as endpoints, various routes emerge through the city, revealing the dynamic of the street and its shaping elements. These Illustrations examine the complexity of the built environment and the notion of “place” as a qualifiable urban condition.
CASE STUDY GEORGES POMPIDOU CENTRE
Plan courtesy of Roberts Stirks Harbour + Partners
Collaboration with Michael Pogran
This model was featured in a university exhibition of selected Case Study works
plumbingelectricalcirculation/safety climate control
This model isolates the Pompidou Centre’s distinct features from its spatial regulating order. It explores the designers’ aspirations of a more expressive built environment, where buildings are viewed as machines rather than static entities, activated by integrated systems as well as interaction.
CASE STUDY GEORGES POMPIDOU CENTRE
CASE STUDY VITRA FIRE STATIONRight: Orthographic Drawing, pencil on vellumBelow: Axonometric Drawing, ink on mylar
This axonometric drawing emphasizes the building’s regulating order, such that the project’s series of intersecting planes are shown to articulate the unique qualities of the space.
This orthographic representation is composed by a derivation of the Vitra Fire Station’s acute angles and their supplements.
The hybrid composition draws on the building’s dialogue of fragmentation and intersection, expressing the fragile tension and dynamic qualities of Vitra’s forms. Similar to the intentions of the building, this image aspires to convey a sense of tension and movement.
Above: Hybrid composition, pencil renderRight: Hybrid composition, digital render
PROFESSIONAL WORK UIC + CDO
Street Perspective Rendering
Proposed Floor Plan
Collaboration with Central Design Office
Proposed changes
Existing conditions
PROFESSIONAL WORK UIC + CDO
Threatened by demolition, a landmark midcentury gas station is proposed to be integrated with its surrounding modernist plaza as a mixed-use urban center.
A new two-story building with a skewed orientation creates a dialogue with the bold contour of the gas station, as well as the regulated geometry of the ex ist ing mal l across the street.
Sidewalks and landscaping as well as ground level retail seek to form a sense of place along a newly formed street that bisects all proposed developments and existing buildings.
Tower Grove Ave & McRee Ave
Tower Grove Ave & Flora Ave
Tower Grove Ave & Interstate 44
Tower Grove Ave & Vandeventer Ave
The Botanical Heights neighborhood of St. Louis is experiencing a combination of urban infi l l and renovation of existing homes. To complement the new development, major thoroughfares are being modified to accomodate bike lanes, street parking, crosswalks, and rain gardens. These new features seel to activate use of sidewalks, slow traffic, and help contribute to an overall friendlier pedestrian environment.
A 1930’s Standard Oil Station in Botanical Heights, St. Louis is being converted to a wine bar. A connective addition between the main structure and the wine cellar and kitchen located in an adjacent home facil itates easy circulation. Contemporary but subtle, the addition’s small scale and gentle angles allow a seamless transition between the two nodes.
Cross Section facing West
Site PlanSouth Elevation North Elevation
Cross Section facing EastLongitudinal Section facing North
Existing conditions at Gas Station site
ELI SOKOL517 Kingsland Avenue, #1SSaint Louis, MO [email protected](305) 439 2235
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCESam Fox School of Design - WUSTL / St. Louis, MO www.wustl.eduDigital Fabrication Lab Monitor / Assisted students and executed operation of laser cutter facilities
UIC + CDO / St. Louis, MO www.uicstl.comArchitectural Intern / Collaborated on a design proposal, produced construction and schematic drawings
The J. Co LLC / St. Louis, MO www.thejco.comProject Assistant / Developed industry research models, contributed to creative project brainstorming.
Burger King Franchising and Development / Miami, FL www.burgerking.com Development Intern / Proudced comprehensive design, drawings, and models for a restaurant prototype
Oppenheim Architecture + Design / Miami, FL www.oppenoffice.comArchitectural Intern / Assembled, catalogued, and categorized an architecture and materials library
(08/11-12/11)
(05/11-08/11)
(10/09-05/10)
(05/09-08/09)
(09/06-08/07)
EDUCATIONWashington University in St. Louis / St. Louis, MOBachelor of Arts in Architecture / Sam Fox School of DesignMinor in General Business / Olin Business SchoolMinor in American Culture Studies / College of Arts and SciencesCumulative GPA 3.60
Gulliver Preparatory / Miami, FLInternational Baccalaureate program graduateTop 10 GPA of graduating class
(08/08-05/12)
(08/04-05/08)
ACTIVITIESArchitecture Student CouncilAcademic Vice President / Managed undergraduate student academic experience
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual ArtsPeer Advisor / Mentored transfer students in their transition into the architecture program
Sigma Alpha Epsilon FraternityBrand Manager, Correspondent, Standards Committee / Developed brand image for chapter affairs
Themed Entertainment AssociationYouth Member
AWARDSDean’s List (2008-2011)Junior studio work featured in university exhibition of selected works (2011)Case Study studio work featured at university exhibition of selected works (2011)Sophomore studio work featured in undergraduate architecture catalogue (2009-2010)1st Place in Fairchild Tropical Gardens sustainable architecture competition (2008)
SKILLSSoftware: Autocad, Revitt, Sketchup, Rhino, Indesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft OfficeDigital 2D and 3D fabricationDigital photographyModel constructionMultilingual in English, French, ItalianTechnical hand drawing
(04/11 - present)
(08/11 - present)
(01/10 - present)
(11/07 - present)