meghan hawkins architecture portfolio '08-'12

MeghanHawkins

To be truly successful, I be-lieve each architectural work must reach beyond the project footprint and into the land-scape, community and minds of passerby and generations to come.

Architecture should serve as an integral part of the lo-cal ecology, help to build communities both during and after construction, and seek to deepen user’s understand-ing of the world.

It is my goal to stitch these elements together into a uni-fied and cohesive whole, and my conviction that doing so will intensify people’s ex-perience of their everyday lives.

I hope to build upon my knowl-edge of architecture, land-scapes, business, and archi-tectural history to provide meaningful, responsible and context driven projects to groups both large and small.

Outdoor Recreation Center

Sketches

The Hillside Collaborative

Masieri Foundation

Turkish Carpet Museum

Visiting Scholars Academy

The Hillside Collaborative:Process

As the preliminary attempt at my final school design, I strove to create a community within the larger community, one in which the child’s role was both citizen and student.

In this environment, the chil-dren are encouraged to develop social and leadership skills in addition to traditional academic learning.

Like the Outdoor Recreation Center design, it is intended to be a demonstration site, run by the students and teach-ers, portraying what may be achieved at the larger com-munity level, and preparing students for the active role they might take in community building.

Somewhat reminiscent of medi-eval towns, the idea was to create outdoor learning court-yards which would function as play areas, classrooms andso-cial gathering spaces.

Over the course of the proj-ect, these became less like paved piazzas, and more fo-cused on the landscape and the exploration and study of eco-logical microsystems.

The Hillside CollaborativeLocation: Springfield, OregonProgram: K-8 School

Focus: Interior ExplorationDevelopment of Communal SpacesAccess to NatureContextual Response to LandscapeHolistic Education and Design

Process Sketch

“Nature, rather than the machine, should serve as the model for architecture.” -Alvar Aalto

Site Plan

ECOLOGY

COLLABORATION

FOOD PRODUCTION

GLOBAL LEARNING

COMMUNITY

-Fostering connection to and stewardship of natural resources-Understand student role as active citizens striving for a more sustainable future-Increase ecological literacy and understanding of larger natural systems-Work towards “decriminalization of nature”

-Providing a sense of responsibility, purpose and community; a familial atmosphere-Uniting all students through whole school activities-Fostering Mentor-relationships between students, teachers and community members

-Increasing awareness of good nutrition and healthy lifestyles-Demonstrating understanding of where food comes from, and its value-Teaching life skills of growing food, preparing and cooking it, and waste/reuse cycles-Interacting with the community and making meaningful, tangible contributions

-Exploration of how local issues and natural systems apply to larger world.-Increasing awareness of other cultures, and understanding relationships between them-Demonstrating importance of creative learning, in music, art and languages

discussions-Application of learning to real community issues; Creating sense of purpose for students-Creating spaces for after-hours use by community groups

“Organic means intrinsic-in the philosophic sense, entity-wherever the whole is to the part as the part is to the whole and where the nature of the materials, the nature of the purpose, the nature of the entire per-formance, becomes clear as a necessity. Out of that nature comes what character in any particular situation you can give to the building as a creative artist. Frank Lloyd Wright, Future of architecture

Common Courtyard and School Garden

“[We must] make each one of our schools an embryonic community life, active with types of occupations that reflect the life of the larger society, and permeated throughout with the spirit of art, history and science.” Dewey

Shared Space:Assembly Area Demonstration KitchenMultipurpose Zone

Plan:Classroom Pod

Carlo ScarpaVilla Ottolenghi

Alvar AaltoTeacher Training College

Process SketchLearning Courtyard

Elementary Classroom

“The school of tomorrow will be a garden city of children; that is to say a place of many shelters-a township…of small schools built as one community but with every shelter organized as a separate unit designed to meet the needs of children of specific age or stage of life…every shelter is in effect a small school, it is also a self contained unit or school home…” –Margaret MacMillan

ClassroomPerspective

School “Neighborhoods”

KindergartenElementaryMiddle SchoolSpecial Education

Outdoor Learning Courtyards

Extension of the School to Wider Community

GRAND CANAL

Masieri FoundationLocation: Venice, ItalyProgram: Architecture Academy

Focus: Flexibility of SpacesShared Access to CanalLiving/Learning Cohesion

GRAND CANAL

This project was approached as an experiment in the layering of programmatic elements.

With the unique triangular footprint and high density that comes with 15 architec-ture students living, work-ing and socializing within 6,000sq. feet, I chose to carefully assemble a variety of elements within one large space.

Rather than creating separate rooms for separate functions, this approach mimics the cre-ative process of the students.

Students are free to move from the Grand Canal terraces, where they might seek inspira-tion, to their workstations, library resources, and a so-cial area within which they may exchange ideas or sit for a lecture.

The mezzanine, containing the dormitories, also serves as a quiet place to read and take a break from the action below.

Concept: To confront the challenges associated with multiple people living and working in a small space.

Living Room & Studio Space

LEVEL ONE . VENICE, ITALY . MEGHAN HAWKINS . 2011

LEVEL TWO . VENICE, ITALY . MEGHAN HAWKINS . 2011

LEVEL THREE . VENICE, ITALY . MEGHAN HAWKINS . 2011

Grand Canal

Level 0

Levels 2 & 4

Levels 3 & 4

“An approach is favored in which individual human activities are enhanced by the articulation of spaces of different character, in which a building’s unity of form and idea is considered paramount, and in which technique is made the servant of the controlling form.” Curtis, W.J.R., Denys Lasdun Architecture

Layering of Program along Canal Facade

Process Sketch

Living Room & Library

Gallery, Exhibition Space and Dining Hall

Privacy Gradient Filtering Circulation

Gallery Concept Sketch

Prospect & Refuge

Turkish Carpet MuseumLocation: Portland, OregonProgram: Museum and Research Center

Focus: Museum as TheaterArchitecture as Educational ToolContributing to Urban Fabric

LongitudinalSection

The goal of this effort was to create a museum that increased the visitor’s understanding of the material through the ar-chitecture.

I set out to translate the qualities inherent in ancient Turkish prayer rugs into the tectonics of the structure itself.

Some of these qualities in-cluded percieved symmetry, the void, boundaries, and the interock of pattern.

The building has a dense structural grid to provide an intimate room in which to view the works, and create a sense of mystery.

Screened enclosures hold spe-cial exhibits and become sources of light within the darkened gallery space.

The gallery takes on a the-atrical quality as museum-goers catch glimpses of other visitors through the layered floorplates above and below.

LEVEL 0

Site Plan

Level Three

South Section:Entrance &

Research Facility

North Section:Gallery &

Lecture Hall

Visiting Scholars AcademyLocation: Rome, ItalyProgram: Live/Work Center for Visiting Scholars and Artists

Focus: Response to Historic StructureInterior DesignLinking Landscape and Built Spaces

THis project was a result of a collaboration between an Inte-rior Architecture student and I.

Challenged with the prospect of situating a new building within the confines of a medi-eval monastery, the new struc-ture both completes 3 existing courtyards, and continues the original monastery’s inter-locking with the landscape to the south.

We developed a modular design for the live/work studio units that would maximize light and continue the studio space to-ward the orchard.

While interaction with the landscape was a major focus of the design, it was peri-mount that the small studios and apartments catered to the flexible needs of the artists in residence, with built in shelving, workspace, supply storage, and bathrooms.

Great focus was also applied to materials and details.

Process and Diagrams

Studio Perspective

South Elevation[Facing Orchard]

Live/WorkStudio Axon

Site Plan:New & Existing Structures

Outdoor Recreation CenterLocation: Springfield, OregonProgram: After School and Excursion Center for Springfield Youth

Focus: Contextual Response to RiverPlayful, Youth FocusDirecting & Framing Views

Lower Level[Stream Access]

Upper Level[Entry]

Vegetated RoofSolar Panels

South Facing Clerestory

VegetatedShading Device

Stream-CooledBreeze Access

Mill RaceStream

Thermal Mass

Earth BermHeat Sink

Stack Ventilation

North ClerestoryDaylighting

Mill RaceStream

This design emerged from both its immediate context and the use of sustainable design strategies.

Situated along the man-made Mill Race stream, and along a south facing bank, it provided an opportunity to teach young Springfield residents how natural systems might be har-nessed to heat and cool build-ings.

A variety of sustainable de-sign strategies are demon-strated and complement the students explorations of the environment and natures cy-cles.

The fan shaped form is intend-ed to propel students outside and onto the terraces along the river, and direct views from within towards a water-fall, the mouth of the stream, and a small island in the cen-ter of the stream.

The terraces provide instruc-tional space and also a gear preparation area before excur-sions.

Passive Heating and Cooling Study

Strategies:-North/South Orientation-Cross Ventlation-Stack Effect-Bermed Lower Level Heat Sink-Thermal Mass and Abundant South Glazing-Vegetated Shading Devices

Calculations were completed to achieve an optimum indoor temperature range throughout the year.I also experimented with the effects of cooltowers, Night Flush Ventilation, Trombe walls, Water Walls, and Sun Spaces

Brion CemetaryPiazza Navona

CastelvecchioBrion Cemetary

ManarolaOslo

AvignonAssissi

Manarola

Venice

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Meghan Hawkinshttp://issuu.com/meghanhawkins

hawkins.meghan@gmail.com(414) 333-9163