3. Architecture is a hybrid between theory and reality. It cannot
exist solely as a built artifact nor can it subsist only on paper.
The built reality is a compromise between these two conditions.
Additionally, architecture must fulfill the needs and desires of the
party who initiates its actuality. Well-considered design solutions
should be folded into a narrative that informs the physicality of
the building. For me, this makes architecture a kind of spatial
poetry. It is authored by individuals who labor carefully and empty
themselves into each and every mark. Just like the birth of space
itself, architecture is spoken into a beautiful, complex, and simple
existence by commanding words. So when people ask me what I
do, I answer, “I write.”
I Write.
4. /Con-tension
Elia Zenghelis Masterclass
Everything is constructed to some degree. In the realm of the ideal, the
cosmos is ordered in such a way that the idea is the end of a logical
argument. In contrast to this, reality is influenced by many factors that must
ultimately come into harmony with one another. This emblematic image
deals with the tension that exists in unifying the ideal, built, and context.
Le Corbusier’s notion of “the house as a machine for living” is shown as
the realm of the gods, a constructed version of the universe. Below is reality
that unifies the built and the landscape, a nod the Alvar Aalto’s belief that
nature can serve as a catalyst to harmonize humans and technology. While Le
Corbusier’s ideas are pure, Aalto’s bring human experience to the forefront.
Removing one element of this image would reduce the significance of the
remaining parts.
Base Images:
Stage set for Mozart’s Magic Flute. Karl Schinkel. 1815
Scene Under the Stairs. Jacek Yerka.
with Nicole Becker
Spring 2016
5.
6. The contrast between outside and inside is a key interest for this project.
The separation between these often involves no more than stepping
over a vestibule. We propose that the difference between two environmental
conditions may be elaborated in such a way that all understand that the change
is happening. The ‘doorway’ is elongated and entry becomes procession, not
step. Changing the body’s relation to sea level heightens this contrast.
The Venetian Carnevale acts a catalyst for the development of this project.
During Carnevale, elaborate masks are worn to hide the wearer’s identity. In
days past, Carnevale was a time of unrestrained consumption and decadence.
Ordinarily law abiding citizens put on the masks and were free to expose their
true character. The concept abstracted from this contradiction was adding a
new and elaborate layer to something in order to reveal its true character;
putting on a layer to peel back many layers.
Our structure is the mask that reveals the hidden foundations of Venice; the
wooden piers that carry the weight of the city. We are able to reveal these
because of the unique conditions in the Arsenale; there is a set of warehouses
that no longer exist. In the late 1800s, part of the fondamenta, Venetian for
foundation, was removed to accommodate the construction of larger ships
in the Arsenale basin. Since the technology did not yet exist to completely
remove the wooden piers that were driven into the ground as the final support
structure, they were left behind while the stone base was removed. These
piers are a reminder that the perceived solid nature of the city above relies
upon a material that can decompose. The revelation we make begins this
decomposition and puts it on its own stage.
with Taylor Jourdan Danger
Professor Peter P. Goché
La Maschera Piú Bella
Fall 2014
8. Site Plan of Arsenale with floating theater.
Site model showing how the theater relates to the ‘fondamente’ , or
‘ground’, and the remains of the foundations of the old Arsenale.
14. 2014 Venice Biennale Sessions
Professor’s Cameron Campbell
Peter P. Goché
Mitchell Squire
Caution: Wet Floor
In 2014, Iowa State University was invited to the Venice International
Architecture Biennale. Thanks to the support of many generous donors,
I was able to attend with my fellow classmates. The focus of the workshop
we participated in was ostensibly to study the undervalued fundamental
element of the floor. Groups of four worked together to carefully unroll and
arrange paper on the ground within the warehouse exhibition space we were
provided. Folds were rigorously made and discussion occured whenever a
boundary was reached. As the workshop drew to a close we realized that the
activity had more to do with the most fundamental element of architecture
than it did the floor. This element? Collaboration.
15.
16. with Ashley Schmitz
Professor Ziad Qureshi
A Landscape to Heal
Landscape is the balance that results from the processes acting on it. These
processes are many and humans are but one of them. Landscape itself can
be a force; water may carve into the landscape but its path initially flows as
the landscape guides it. There is a hierarchy to these forces with one being
the dominant shaper and the rest subsidiary, but each leaves an imprint in
the landscape. This balance is deceiving, in that, to a casual or glancing view,
it is serene, but upon careful examination the record of these processes is
apparent.
Meditation can be considered a close act of observation and can be provoked
by actions that are mundane, dull, and repetitive. Many of the processes that
form the landscape are unexceptional. The intent of this project is to place
installations into this rural St. Charles, Iowa site that focus on these natural
processes and use them to instigate meditation.
Additionally, the presence of an apiary on the site connects it to a larger
context. The bees that reside within the apiary serve a greater function in the
surrounding landscape. This interconnected community serves as a model
demonstration for the professionals who attend this retreat to recuperate from
their stressful occupations. Their participation in this community occurs as
they process the product of the apian ecosystem.
Within this context, the explicitly constructed space of the building is for
essential processes; eating, sleeping, and some production. Beyond these
functions, architecture fades and milieu becomes foreground. Landscape is
the focus and much of the psychological healing occurs beyond the confines
of the four walls.
Fall 2013
17. Map locating the site in relation to where the clients will
travel from.
Axonometric showing the qualities of the site and specific points of interest that the design responded to.
18. Diagram showing how the formal arrangement of the building was determined.
Determine overall programs. Partition Programs. Allow access to site through
structure.
Arrange programs for maximum
exposure to the site.
22. Cabinet can be defined as “a room devoted to the arrangement or
display of works of art and objects of vertu; a museum, picture-gallery,
etc.” (OED). When there is an ‘arrangement or display’, it is implied that
a narrative will be constructed by those who come to view, or, interact in
some manner, with the items on display. The intercourse between the two
parts, object and observer , becomes the cabinet. In this sense the cabinet
consists of three elements: object, observer, and the dialogue between them.
Critical to the cabinet is the dialogue, which is a process and brings the whole
together. What is important is not the ‘end’, or ‘product’, of this process but
the process itself. The cabinet presented is the end result of many processes:
marking, dissection, and reconnection. As such it lacks a meaning that is
predefined by the author.
The implication for food production is that the critical elements are not
the individual steps: planting, cultivation, harvest, drying, distribution,
processing, and consumption. Rather, it is the process as a whole and how it
relates those parts. The process becomes a network along the lines of Eneropa
. One element of the network is no more or less important than the other.
The installation at Black Contemporary should heighten awareness of process
by using the intensely focused spatial qualities present. Primary consideration
will be given to the revelation of process in contrast to preloaded ideology and
spatial ideas. Speculations will be based around demonstrating process rather
than hollow representation of predefined meanings. Using these constructs
a cabinet is defined as a room devoted to the arrangement or display of
processes that brings the ‘observer ’ into a heightened awareness of their role
in the space.
(Project in process at Black Contemporary)
with Ali Brunn
Static Potential
Yuxuan Gu
Professor Peter P. Goché
Spring 2016
23. In progress. Full scale installation at Black Contemporary. The project research is focused toward ritual.
24. Martin Heidegger, in his book “Being and Time” suggests that because of
the transitional nature of death and our inability to experience it, our
only way of objectively understanding the boundaries of our own existence
is to do so through others. This is not to say that the dead are no longer
in the world, but they are no longer a corporeal being. Their identity, or
memory will still remain, and still be associated with tangible objects, i.e.
a body, an urn, or coffin. In modern contemporary practices, the deceased
is embalmed: a nasty process that I’ll spare you the details of, but one that
will only temporarily delay the decomposition of the body and will leach
poisonously into the ground. This process causes us to identify the deceased
with a body, which becomes a spatial issue when introduced to the urban
condition: That is to say that if the “dead” are to have a continuing presence
within the city, we must let go of the deceased’s physical vessel and reimagine
our relationship with the them abstractly.
As a counter to contemporary practices, this project proposes a process called
“promession”. Much like cremation, the end result is a granulated powder,
but does not undergo a burning process which the EPA has banned within
the city. Instead, the body is chilled, granulated and freeze-dried. This powder
is then temporarily memorialized in the ritualistic sowing of a plant. Through
the lifetime of the plant, the living grieves the loss of their loved one, but the
plant ultimately passes; itself being an only temporary carrier of the deceased
identity. What’s left is a permanent architecture that stands to give memorial
to the larger body of absence within the city.
with Callah Nelson
Jenna Wiegand
Being Towards Death
James Zeller
Professor Mitchell Squire
Fourth place, Construction Specifications Institute Competition
Fall 2015
25. Early ideogrammatic collages authored by fellow team member
Callah Nelson.
Above. Early ideogrammatic collage of this project that understands
the structure as a space dealing with industrial processes as well as
memorials within a constructed ‘nature.’
26. 1825. 1850. 1900. 1930.
Mapping of movement of cemeteries in San Francisco plotted against the growth of the city.
CREMATION OF HUMAN REMAINS IN CITY AND COUNTY
LIMITS PROHIBITED.
BURIALS WITHIN CITY AND COUNTY LIMITS PROHIBITED.
http://library.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates&fn=default.htm&vid=amlegal:sanfrancisco_ca
SECTION 195SECTION 200 PENALTIES
ARTICLE 4San Francisco Health Code
of theA visual guide
to aspects of
Fine of $100-$500 or improsonment for up to 6 Months, or both.
$
Diagram outlining the San Francisco Health Code.
27. Health care Facilities
KEY
BART
MUNI
New Infrastructure
MUNI Underground
Map showing existing and proposed new infrastructures for the movement of bodies through San Francisco.
28. Bodies are moved via a system
that attaches to the existing
infrastractures of the city.
Above. Bodies are placed in transit
canisters.
Right. Diagram showing how bodies
transit from place of death to the
site.
Below Right. Diagram showing the
unloading, storage, and processing of
the body upon its arrival to the site.
29.
30. Usage map of Mission Bay District San Francisco.
36. Our Conversation
Last night
the city clattered on below
across from our ten story perch
a man hunched over his counter
and stared at a blue screen
White chardonnay patiently rested in
plastic cups that replaced goblets
while we decided our project
could not solve homelessness. Then
I went inside to use the bathroom
The blackness of 1:29 AM was punctuated
when a man and a woman eight stories up
turned out the lights in their loft
1:30 AM saw the definition
of a perfect relationship
A theory of architecture accompanied
a design proposal for new Trump Tower
It disintegrated when the homeless -his creation-
urinated on its ground floor causing
the ‘T’ to fall and make the iconic “Rump Tower”
Just before entering the small hotel room where
our roommate lay tangled in the sheets and
a homeless man rooted through a dumpster far below
we gazed across the sea of earthbound stars
and wondered silently at our conversation
37. Ryan Carter www.assemblagestudies.com
r y a n c a r t e r 6 1 2 @ g m a i l . c o m
(515) 829-1927
Academic Achievements
Fourth Place, Construction Specifications Institute Competition
Shirey Award for innovative use of concrete in studio designs
Hansen Prize, Finalist
Dean’s List
Fall 2015
Fall 2015
Spring 2014
2013-Present
Educational Background
Venice Biennale
Elia Zenghelis Masterclass
Peer Mentor
Rome Study Abroad
DATUM: Iowa State University Student Journal of Architecture
Consisted of extrapolating and synthesizing ideas about modernism and the urban from examples of
domestic architecture by various iconic architects.
Represented Iowa State at the 2014 Venice International Architecture Biennale sessions. The workshop
was called Caution: Wet Floor and two studios of students, including myself, went to Venice as
representatives of the university.
This volunteer position involved being in class to assist the professor, provide demonstrations, and
generally support the first year design students. Here I further devoloped the skill of critically evaluating
student work as well as begin the process of learning to speak to the level of my audience.
Studied abroad in Rome for four months. Part of this included working with Roma Tre students and
communicating across a language barrier.
Another volunteer position that involves compiling, editing, and printing DATUM: The Iowa State
Student Journal of Architecture. This role requires attending weekly meetings and preparing material
for them.
Work Experiences
Fareway Food Stores
Flieshman Construction Company
Medicap Pharmacy
This position was a manual labor position. It was an opportunity for me to learn some basic construction
technologies as well as understand how contractors think about building.
Worked as a part time meat guy. This position involved listening to what customers wanted. I also began
to learn how to be the first line of complaint handling. I needed to understand what I was able to handle
and what I should pass up the line.
Worked as a cashier. Customer service was a priority and it was here that I learned how to handle sensitive
information discretely.
Education BArch, Expected Graduation 2016
Leadership Experience
Spring 2016
Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall/Spring 2016
2013-Present
Summer 2015
2011-2014
2008-2011
Fall 2014
Spring 2015
Software Familiarity
Microsoft Office Suite Adobe Creative SuiteAutodesk
AutoCAD
References
Peter P. Goché
(515) 520-3384
goche@iastate.edu
www.blackcontemporary.org
James Spiller
(940) 781-6731
jspiller@iastate.edu
Wayne Fleishman
(515) 490-9651
ACADEMICS and DESIGN WORK ETHIC
