Kinetic Connections
Woodbury University Dormitory
Woodbury University | Studio 2B | Instructor: Aaron Gensler | Woodbury University, Burbank | Spring 2020
This semester was focused on one project that was divided into four sequential exercises and assignments designed to help students examine and explore context, content, sequencing, relationships and form. With an emphasis on studying interactions between the student’s body, the student body and the urban body, the research dictated the configuration of the project to display a future reality of what it means to inhabit the campus. My goal of this project was to address the health of the students of Woodbury, to create a form that combines the ideas of movement and biology to create functional spaces that influence the structure of the building. Examining the relationship between architecture and the human body is important to produce a design that promotes positive psychological and social well-being and a better quality of life, as well as lead to a world of many thought-provoking and astonishing designs that can better engage the senses of the people.
For the first assignment we were assigned to construct our own body armor as the function of the armor had to solve any sort of contemporary issue a student may face. I decided to address the issue of health within Woodbury campus, as becoming sick can be a major impediment toward a student’s education. I constructed an armor mainly out of copper wires that is supposed to filtrate and protect the user from harmful microbial pathogens. The construction of the armor helped inform design decisions toward the dormitory. The use of non linear curves and forms found in my armor presented many wonderful opportunities to create moments and perspectives that evoke gestural connections to the structures within our own bodies. Within these spaces’ students can find comfort and safety from the stressors of the outside world in a place that is optimized for the health of their bodies. Skylights flow throughout the structure to represent the main circulation and resemble the wired connection from my armor. I Separated the main programs between private and public spaces, but the bridge still connects these two entities as one as well to allow convenience for the students and faculty but to also create points of interest and spaces in between these two programs.