This project was nominated on behalf of the Director and Faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago for the Art Institute of Chicago's annual Schiff Design Foundation Fellowship Award. Every year the design award is given to a student from either UIC, SAIC, or IIT.

Less Big, More Small

The way of modern life means to own less and experience more. In turn, the domestic landscape rids furniture as it gathers objects.

How does less (big) literally mean more (small)? Furniture is reduced in scale from many (usually large) traditional pieces to consolidated and scaled-up pieces. For example; a sofa, a chaise, end tables, and a coffee table produce a "living room", and a large table with many chairs produce a "formal dining room", while a small table with few chairs produce a casual "breakfast nook". What if domestic activity is no longer marries to the formal versus informal—breakfast versus dinner, a nap versus an eight-hour deep sleep, or simply "eat in the kitchen, sleep in the bed." Both acts of socialization and retreat occur in open realms—we eat and lounge in bed, on the floor, at the table. Activity suggests program rather than furniture defining program. Therefore, in owning less large furniture items that make up a room, domestic activity (or program in terms of architecture) is then combined into a singular furniture piece. In reducing quantity and scaling up, ideas of domestic life shift towards being object focused and the ways in which belongings are used in everyday life. Living in a consumer society has generated a home full of stuff. The stuff sits on a counter top, hangs in a closet, mounts on the wall, or is stored in a bin. The stuff is purely an accumulation, and more importantly the stuff is rarely used. If domesticity is more directly involved in confronting the stuff, perhaps a household will own less and use more.

Fall 2016 with Penelope Dean and Grant Gibson (CAMESgibson)

Vault on Vault on Vault

Historically, architecture has been heavily invested in the spatial and descriptive principles of geometry. Today, architecture is often divided between two mathematical camps: Euclidean and Non-Euclidean. This studio situates itself at the intersection of these two types and seeks to unpack their historical and future potential in the form of projective geometry (drawing) and advanced computation (modeling). The studio approaches axial space within which these types are produced through isolation and recomposition.

The Vault. Re-imagining the vault from a structural line to a solid surface or mass yields unconventional relationships between conventional architectural components: columns become walls, walls become rooms, and rooms become vaults.

Fall 2015 with Kelly Bair (Central Standard Office / BairBalliet)

Lego 601 broadly considers the cultural and institutional norms and standards that ultimately influence the conditions of our collective future. Rather than suggest a specific technology or artifice as the way forward towards a vibrant and “sustainable” future the form simply proposes the attitude that such a future can only be achieved through optimistic and unapologetic rule breaking.

Through the juxtaposition of the orderly plinth with its historical reference and the unruly, playful object we suggest that solutions to future conditions can only be discovered through unconventional and disobedient methods, proposing that architecture today must identify and challenge preconception in order to gain escape velocity from contemporary anxieties.

Project Team: Spencer McNeil, Andrew Jennings, Jamie Evelyn Goldsborough, Preston Welker, Andy Lang, U Kei Long. Photographs courtesy Spencer McNeil

UN- is a (hypothetical) quarterly publication for those interested in as well as experiencing a dreaming state. As a publication, UN is a homage to what is considered reality and not reality based upon scientific and abstract perspectives. As a dream guru, UN hopes to build a framework of knowledge and understanding between the subconscious and reality in relation to exposure, restraints, and awareness.

promotional poster for AIGA Herron Student Group membership drive

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produced for / AIGA Herron Student Group, role / graphic designer & AIGA Herron Membership Officer