Consultants:  Akustikmiljö

The D151ort Pavilion is an architectural device to transform our experience of sound and light.  It explores the potentials of parametric design, is informed by material logic, and is inspired by the urban experience.

The result of a transatlantic collaboration between architecture students from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture in Copenhagen and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture in New York produced an innovative sound installation for the most progressive international music festival located in Denmark: The Copenhagen Distortion Music Festival.

The D151ort Pavilion is the centerpiece of the festival, a digitally fabricated, reconfigurable, acoustic pavilion made up of 151 sound absorptive cones arranged in a hexagonal geometric configuration. The graphic quality of light projected from the triangular cones emphasizes the shape and structural character of the installation. The mobile installation visited four venues during the festival, taking center stage in an outdoor plaza, in a small nightclub, in a grand hall, and in a teeming lobby. The project would not have been possible without the expertise, knowledge, and generosity of Akustikmiljö of Sweden. Special thanks  for time and resources donated by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture in Copenhagen, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture, CITA, Method Design, Krydsrum Arkitekter, Statens Kunstfond, and of course the Copenhagen Distortion Music Festival.

Method Design Team: Reese J Campbell, Demetrios A Comodromos, Alexander Chu, Ted Davis,  Rachele Louis, Angela Pasquale, Leigh Stewart.

The skyscraper is the ultimate (western) ‘formal typology’ created by the urban booms of the last century and most recently appropriated as the agent of rapid globalization. However, as a means of densifying urban fabric—and consequently reducing sprawl and congestion—it is conspicuously ab­sent from some of the world’s densest cities, particularly those within the Middle East. This project investigates the lack of tower constructions in Cairo’s dense urban and medieval fabric—and ultimate­ly proposes a speculative skyscraper that verticalizes the complex interrelationship of informal social networks and urban/civic form.  For full text  accepted by Journal of Architectural Education, click here.

Consultants: David Kefferman, PE (Structural Engineering)

Method Design was approached to consider an addition to an existing 1960’s Modern era house built on the hillside in Pound Ridge, New York. The proposal lifts the Master Bedroom addition in the air on a free standing structural platform, which provides the opportunity for the existing house to re-engage the landscape through a new formal entry, allows for the reorganization and re-programming of the interior public space, and offers passive cooling strategy to the upstairs through venting skylights which operate through a chimney effect. The entire project is re-clad in order to simultaneously unify the architecture and increase the building’s environmental performance.

The proposal from Method Design, which led an international team, attempts to project heavy traffic infrastructure into the future by submerging it underground, affording Cairo the ability to continue and extend the social logics of the highly pedestrian city which already exists. Submerged highways and trains begin to create and fulfill underground networks by connecting to the existing tunnels in place. With high velocity traffic and mass transportation below ground, the surfaces along those routes become fully pedestrianized paths, plazas, parks, markets and open public spaces, all of which are needed to transform the choked megalopolis of Cairo into a projective world city.

Consultants: Eurodent, David Kufferman, PE.

The infrastructure of the surgery center, including laboratories, sterilization areas, 3D X-ray machines and ample storage, is grouped together in a centralized core and formalized with a custom material pallet that creates the architecture of the entire facility.  Infrastructure, which is normally an ignored or hidden area, becomes the center piece of design by turning it into glowing volumes of frosted glass or lacquered volumes of custom millwork.   To offset the sterile nature of the glass surfaces, warm walnut paneled walls trisect the space into three efficient programmatic bays: Client Reception and Business in the front, the infrastructural core in the center, and Operatories along the back.  To mitigate the both public aspect of reception and the private necessity of business negotiation, the wall separating the lobby from the business area was developed with layering opacities of translucent and transparent glass in front of a purposefully booleaned wall.  The specifically designed openings allow for light transmission and monitoring of waiting patients, while obscuring business operations and client negotiations.  The effect of pragmatic planning combined with innovative use of material strategies creates a highly efficient surgery center with the highest caliber of design.

Builder: Steve Caputo

In Enrique Norton’s (TEN Arquitectos) newly completed 1 York residential project in New York City, Method Design was charged with re-programming a partially finished unit.  By using a single integrated piece of infrastructure, the space was capable of being transformed based on the client’s daily use.

A media wall, which acts as a spatial object offset in the center of the space and houses necessary infrastructure and storage, allows the apartment to be divided or joined together into continuous space through the operation of two oversized sliding partitions hidden within.  The media wall includes power, data, and A/V hookups on both spaces (public living room and private bedroom) for flush mounted televisions and a recessed niche on the main space side to set back the screen from protruding.  All data and A/V equipment is hidden away in a separate area of the apartment so not to be prominent on minimal aesthetic of the media wall.

Treating the noisy and obtrusive mechanical units in the space, Method Design used the same ideas of integrated infrastructure to develop a sophisticated cover that acts as a peeled-away extension of the wall surface to encapsulate the heat pumps.  Whereas mechanical units are normally left exposed in spaces, by treating them with a perforated cover which helps baffle noise while allowing for ample air flow, the units bleed away almost seamlessly into the wall.

Method Design Team: Reese J Campbell, Demetrios A Comodromos, Rachele Louis, Angela Pasquale

Method Design was initially retained for this project by the executive architect Amanda Martocchio Architecture and Design, LLC to act as building science and architectural consultants for a new single family residential project.  Due to the client’s wish that the project be developed around green and sustainable strategies, Method Design developed the initial massing and design concepts by integrating the site’s legal zoning constraints and programming requirements, with the necessary solar geometries for both passive and active systems.  Rather than treating sustainability as only an applied armature or product, the entire house operates passively through appropriate massing, orientation, and exposure to both sun and prevailing winds.  To further refine the passive process of the building, strategic shading systems were developed to block out harsh summer sun exposure while allowing for the benefits of passive heating through the lower winter sun angles.  Active sustainable systems, such as the use of the photovoltaic cells, were utilized on the roof of the solar wing of the house to further enhance to overall performance and reduce its reliance on energy.

Consultants: CODE LLC (Expediting)

The façade renovation in a Landmarked building necessitated adherence to the rigorous Landmarks Preservation Commission while finding ways to maximize the visual transparency of the client’s showroom.  The high-end jewelry store wished to display the owner’s large hanging sculptures, which are scaled extensions of the jewelry, as a provocative method of advertising.  Using a module that was appropriate to the historic district, the tall slender glazing panes of the new façade maximized visibility from the street to both the jewelry and the sculptures on display inside.  The end result is a system developed that subtly attracts potential clients as they pass by and appropriately relates to the historic urban context in which it is situated.

Builder: TBD

The Quench Wine Store attempts to combine three distinctly different sales programs into a single store.  There is to be a vast variety of wine on display including a high end, environmentally controlled premium wine room.  Separated from the wine is the more traditional beer and liquor sales.  As an ancillary component designed to facilitate the other, there is a “Teas and Treats” area selling a selection of teas and product which complement the variety of wines. The legalities of the municipal zoning law required a separation for control purposes between the programs.  In order to unify them into a legally separated contiguous space, an articulated ceiling surface undulates above all three programs, while glazed openings make visual connections between spaces.  The façade is programmed to be activated by the presence of people specifically during events and tastings.  Rather than cover the windows with signage and treatments, tasting bars and tea counters line the glass and double as a window display.

Consultants: David Kufferman, PE (Structural Engineering), CODE LLC (Expediting)

The Vorkas Residence is an existing Row House Typology common in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, where each house shares a common demising wall with the adjacent property.  In this situation, an adjacent neighbor built out the entire bulk mass allowed by the NYC Zoning code, which broke historic cadence with the existing block and context.

To mitigate the recently created problem, the proposed design tries to respond to the pressing concern of the existing condition and resolve the lack of parity with the massing of the adjacent lots by developing a ‘projected mass’ which caps the existing volume on all sides and expands the floor area and perceived mass of the residence.  This is achieved by treating the new project as “two shifting bars” that carve away at the mass to create new outdoor balconies and interstitial spaces that mitigate the masses of both neighbors while also creating new ‘found’ space for the owners.  Materially the newly projected facades utilize the contextual brick in minimal way with clean detailing that overtly minimizes the mimicry of traditional details to create a contemporary response to a historic typology in New York City.