Electric Canyon

One of my studios in Berkeley covered the topic of hybridization in architecture, one of the “trending” movements in contemporary architecture. More and more, architects are combining typical typologies, and often with interesting results. The reason for hybrid architecture is not merely about the shortage of land in urban areas, but also about creating interesting foci in the urban fabric that will help reinvigorate the city. City planner Jamie Lerner’s idea of the “urban acupuncture” prescribes cities to focus interventions at the architecture scale all throughout the city in order to create a positive ripple effect. He used this theory successfully at Curitiba, Brazil which is now considered a role model for sustainable urban planning. Hybrid architecture, then, often becomes an urban design project as well because of this desire for beneficial urban effects.

Supermarket 2.0

In today’s fast paced urban lifestyle, we often need to go to several different places every day. This can create problems when our lifestyle prevents us from doing such (sometimes necessary) activities. Architects, city planners, and developers can help minimize the back and forth by synthesizing different programs into one. Not only can the combination of different programs create new design possibilities and typologies, it may become a sustainable solution in architecture and planning.

Painted Canvas

An old project I did back in 2008 at Chabot College. It was a short project where we had to design the facade of a paint/pigment store. Although the brief was almost entirely program-less, I added an education component to the building that would bring in the community to “learn” art (techniques) as well as a gallery to showcase local artists. The painted wood panels was placed to evoke an image of paint “dripping” from the roof. The roofline tapers down to connect the difference scales of the adjacent buildings. Additionally, the tall floor-to-ceiling glass near the entrance presents a glimpse at the local art scene.

Although it was simple project, I am quite pleased with how this one turned out. In hindsight, I could change a million things in the design (the facade is a little bit too flat, for one) but I will stay my hand for this one. I just added some subtle reflections in the glass to the render, which made it look roughly 21 times better.

To do list for this project:

• construction detail wall section
• detail of facade elements

Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover?

A small update on the portfolio: new cover. This cover uses the Tiger in Snow color swatch and I’m liking it so far. The grid of circles in the background is from a  project in ARCH 160 (Construction) where we had to design+build a coffee cable made of steel. Our concept was a light box table that had a perforated sheet metal skin that would allow light out in a brilliant way. To laser cut the perforations, I created the grid pattern using Rhino and the Paneling Tools plug-in to shift the size of the perforation through a set of curve attractors.

A Friend Bench

The Friend Bench in front of Ramona’s Cafe at Wurster Hall. This was a project for ARCH 160 (Construction) for which we had to design and build a sitting device that would allow people to eat and relax. There was a design requirement of engaging with the concrete planter benches scattered in the Wurster front courtyard. My group’s concept was a “friend bench” that would simply slot in to the uniform width concrete planters.

Tiger in the Snow

One of the first things I am tackling with the portfolio is the choice of colors. After picking a color palette, hopefully I can begin the rough draft of the general page layouts . Revisiting old projects will be one of the longer processes in making this portfolio and once I have a rough layout of the projects, I can just insert my edited projects into my portfolio and begin to finalize everything.

The Making of a Portfolio

Aloha, my name’s Joval. I have just finished my undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley with in Architecture and a minor in Envionmental Design and Urbanism. Getting restless from the post-graduation vacuum of today, I’m just starting to think of how I will tackle the heavy task of creating my portfolio. I made a quick cut-and-paste portfolio for an optional studio (ARCH 101), but it was more plopping down renders and images onto the page rather than designing a portfolio.