portfolioarchitecture

braden thomas

BRADEN THOMASKansas State UniversityCollege of Architecture

1321 Laramie StManhattan, Kansas 66502

braden.z.thomas@gmail.com785.727.9138

ONE ARTIST MUSEUM

READING COMMUNITY CENTER, BOWMAN COMPETITION

COOL SKINS

CONTENTSDESIGN WORK

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ART AND DESIGN21

EPA LABORATORY

PARAMETRIC DESIGN

STEREOTOMIC/TECTONIC ANALYSIS

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one artist museum NYC

This aim of this project was to design a museum dedicated to displaying the works of a single artist. The final design focuses on a sculptor, Martin Puryear, and the multitudes of art he creates using nothing more than wood and adhesives. Visitors circulate through the spaces, from short squat rooms housing cage like objects, into towering atria filled with long fragile pieces that reach for and are illuminated by the heavens. The final presentation consists of a physical model and printed off drawings.

ONE ARTIST MUSEUMLocation: New York CityYear: Spring 2012

COMMUNITY CENTER, READING, KS

This project was submitted as an entry to the Bowman Competition held annually at Kansas State. The goal was to design a community center for the town of Reading, KS, which had just been hit by, and was in the process of recovering from, an F4 tornado. The guidelines called for designing a community center that would promote social gatherings within the community, and that would also attract visiting artists and events to the town. The final presentation consists of a physical model and printed off drawings.

COMMUNITY CENTERLocation: Reading, KansasYear: Fall 2011

COOL SKINS

Due to the overwhelming cost of maintaining internal environmental temperatures, our studio focused on the development of a thermally efficient exterior metal cladding system. Working cooperatively with Zahner Metals of Kansas City, live tests and computer simulations have been conducted allowing us to begin fabricating a system that will minimize heat gain and heat transfer from exterior to interior. Final presentations consist of drawings, research analysis and a full scale 4’ by 8’ model which were fabricated and constructed completely in house.

COOL SKINSMasters ThesisYear: Fall 2013

EPA LABORATORY

My final semester involves, designing a research laboratory in Houston, Texas for the EPA. This project, is situated at the southern edge of the Houston Medical Center, and consists of 30,000 square feet of lab space and 15,000 square feet of office and support spaces. Furthermore, we are required to implement our findings from the Cool Skin project into the buildings cladding system. This is a work in progress.

EPA LABORATORYMasters ThesisYear: Spring 2014 to present

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PARAMETRIC DESIGN

This seminar focused on using Grasshopper to parametrically analyze an existing structure, in this case the California Academy of Sciences by Renzo Piano, and then to recreate part of its structure. I chose to recreate the rainforest biodome, and the 142 spider clips that are used to hold the curved glass sphere together. The images on the right are the major steps in the script, which is located in the background of this page.

PARAMETRIC DESIGNSeminar Year: Spring 2012

STEREOTOMIC/TECTONIC ANALYSIS

This seminar focused on the analysis of two categories of structural systems, those that appeared heavy, stereotomic, and those that appeared light, tectonic. We were to choose an architecturally significant building which we would be exploring and analyzing. This analysis would become the basis for abstract drawings and a model that would combine both structural types in one amalgamation.

STEREOTOMIC/TECTONIC ANALYSISSeminarYear: Fall 2013

ART AND DESIGN

Various sketches from other projects, along with drawings of buildings I visited on my semester abroad.

ART AND DESIGN