dehenzel portfolio

PORTFOLIO

section

plan

2

CHRISTOPHER DeHENZEL

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE RINCON BATES RESIDENCE

+2EDISON7 RESIDENCE

INSTALLATIONS/FABRICATION

PLANT LAB

WURSTERSHIRE SAUCE BENCH

FOLDED PLATE TESSELATION

NIGHT GARDEN

GRADUATE STUDIO WORK

EPIGENETIC LANDSCAPE

MUSEO AQUA/CULTURA

WALNUT CREEK URBAN/ECO PARK

PROSTHETIC ECOLOGIES:LA

OCTAVIA ART PARK

CONTENT

FURNITURE

ART

ARCHITECTURE

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

URBANISM/INFRASTRUCTURE

RINCON BATES RESIDENCEWashington, DC2008-2009completed as Project Architect with Studio27 Architecture

The Rincon|Bates Residence is a sustainable residential renovation project for the owners of a rowhouse in the Capital Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC. The existing two-story structure was originally built in 1906 and represents the archetype of single family dwelling units in the city. The house had been renovated in the early 1970s, but the interior space remained a series of compartmentalized programmed rooms reminiscent of more tradi-tional lifestyles. The owners, a couple in their mid-30s without any children, approached studio27 architecture with an open-ended request, the only stipulations being a reconfigu-ration of the existing circulation pattern and a thoughtful consideration for the ecological impact of the project.

PROPOSED

EXISTING

DEHENZEL/RINCON BATES/STUDIO 27

INTERIOR VIEW FROM FRONT BEDROOM

rincnbates residence610 4th st. neproposed floor plans_scale:3/16=1-0_date: 01.30.08

second floor

first floor

1 entry2 living3 stairs4 dining5 kitchen6 terrace7 lavatory8 study9 corridor10 bedroom11 storage12 bridge13 open to below

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rincnbates residence610 4th st. nefinal building section_scale:3/16=1-0_date: 10.08.08

el: 22-0parapet

el: 10-4second floor

el: 0-0 first floor

el: -5-10 existing back yard

el: -8-3 1/2 basement

winter solstice

summer solstice

My role in the project was comprehensive, from initial client meetings through conceptual development, documentation and construction administration.

The scope of work evolved through an investigation of sectional manipulations focusing on apertures and daylight. Our strategy displaced the dark, musty interior with a sense of open-ness, both in plan and section, to create a more implicit series of relationships between traditionally separated hierarchical programs. We removed a section of the second level floor joists to carve a void through the middle of the house over the dining room, and introduced operable skylights to create a performative stack effect to control ventilation. The second floor is divided into two bedroom suites, connected by a tubular steel and glass bridge that further contrasts with the heavy-ness of the existing masonry. Energy and water consumption are additionally minimized through the use of tankless gas-powered hot water heaters, new low E glass windows and doors, low-flow plumbing fixtures and dual-flush wall hung toilets, and all interior finishes are domestically sourced, recycled and formaldehyde -free to improve indoor air quality. Open House represents the non-traditional, urban sustainable lifestyle. It was completed in 2009.


SECTIONAL STUDY MODEL


MATERIAL TEST RENDERINGS

DETAILS FROM THE CD SET


SOUTH WALL DETAIL SECTION

VIEW OF CANTILEVERED SOUTH WALL


CUSTOM CONCRETE KITCHEN ISLAND

rincnbates residence610 4th st. nekitchen island coordination sketches_scale:nts_date: 07.16.08

perspective from dining room: by architect

perspective from veranda: by architect

construction options: concrete artisan


PHOTOS BY ANICE HOACHLANDER

AWARDS2012 AIA Washington DC/Washingtonian Magazine, Residential Design Award

2011 AIA Virginia Society, Excellence in Architecture

2011 Inform Award

2011 Urban Turn Best Renovation by a Local Firm

2010 AIA Washington DC Merit Award in Architecture

2010 Remodeling Design Awards Project of the Year

PUBLICATIONS2012 World Interior Design Glamorous Living Space

2012 Eco Remodeling Green Architecture

2012 Washingtonian Magazine June Issue

2011 DreamWork Space: Residential (China)

2011 Washingtonian, October Issue: Kitchens

2011 Inform Magazine, Issue #3

2011 Energy of the City (Washington Gas Magazine), Energy of Life

2010 Remodeling Magazine

2010 Jutarnji List (Croatia)

2010 Front Row (Jordan)

2010 Archdaily.com feature

2010 Fine & Pure Modern Interior Design (China)

+2edison7/ RESIDENCEArlington, VA2008-2009completed through CD/permitting phases as Project Architect with Studio27 Architecture

This project was an incredibly unique and challenging opportunity, because the client was my boss - one of the two principals at Studio27. I worked with him (and his very demanding wife) for more than two years from the conceptual design phases through Construction Documents and permitting, at which point I departed for graduate school, and he took over CA. The house is a renovation of an existing post-war brick box typology, which was used to anchor a new living volume which contained a new master suite and bedrooms on the second floor, connected to the existing box with a bridge overlooking the living room. The skin of the new volume is formed by a series of planes that flood the common areas with natural light and take advantage of views from the interior while minimizing exposure to the street. I was designing this house while the Rincon|Bates residence was in construction, and it became a joke in the office that the two houses were like cousins.

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DEHENZEL/+2EDISON7/STUDIO 27

DESIGN EVOLUTION/ BY MODEL

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summer solst ice

73.4 a l t i tude at noon

equinox


winter solst ice


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SITE DIAGRAM

CONCEPT SECTION RENDER

CONCEPT RENDER


SECTIONS FROM THE PERMIT SET


INTERIOR VOID

OPEN FLOOR PLAN

THE ADDITION STRATEGY


PHOTOS BY ANICE HOACHLANDER

PLANT LABSF Flower and Garden Show, San Mateo, CAIndependent Design Build, Spring 2011Collaboration with Brian Gillett and Rockne Hanish

The plantLAB is an experiment in hydroponic gardening and landscape garden design, conceived and constructed by a team of graduate and undergraduate architecture/land-scape students for the 2011 San Francisco Garden Show. The project addresses issues of food production and normative definitions of garden through an interpretation of hydro-ponic methods for a temporary gallery exhibition. It consists of a modular steel frame that supports an irrigation system and a volumetric field of hydroponically grown lettuce. Rather than constructing a new ground, the garden is formed by a landscape of 432 suspended crystalline tubes and water distribution systems that allow visitors to circulate around the garden and inhabit the space beneath it. Each recyclable clear plastic tube contains a plant, an inorganic growing medium, and a connection to a drip irrigation system, which circulates nutrient infused water from a submersible pump in a suspended reservoir. These interconnected systems are suspended from a custom steel frame that also supports an array of UV lights. The plantLAB received a 2011 ASLA National Student Honor Award for Collaborative Design.

SUB-PUMP

SUB-PUMP

1 2

3 4

DEHENZEL/PLANT LAB/INDEPENDENT

IRRIGATION DIAGRAM

DETAILS

ELEVATION RENDERING



PHOTO BY KYLIE HAN


SYSTEMS DIAGRAM

WE MADE THE COVER!

CONSTRUCTION TIME LAPSE


AWARDS2011 American Society of Landscape Architects, Award of Excellence

WURSTERSHIRE SAUCE BENCHBerkeley, CAUC Berkeley/ LA 226, Spring 2010Instructors: Linda Jewell, Yes Duffy

The landscape courtyard on the northeast corner of Wurster has served as an outdoor classroom, plant demonstration area, work space, casual lounge and the CED happy hour location. The objective of this project was to design and build a bench that would accomodate and enhance these diverse activities. With resources from the Beatriz Farrand foundation (which funds courtyard maintenance projects), I lead the two-month design process and assisted in the fabrication and construction of the bench through the Spring 2010 semester. The concept applies operative folding, splitting and stretching actions to the generic conception of a bench, and formally responds to the variable positions that one might sit. The resulting form creates difference out of this variability, while a repetition of human scale (and material) modules suggest continuity and resourcefulness. The construction method borrows from details of attachments to Wurster, and even creates a new habitat for an existing olive vine. The Wurstershire Sauce Bench received a 2011 ASLA National Student Honor Award for Collaborative Design.

DEHENZEL/WURSTERSHIRE SAUCE BENCH/UC BERKELEY

CONCEPT SKETCH

CONCEPT MODEL

1_EXTRUDEDBASESECTION

2_CUTEXTRUSIONINTORIBS

3_FOLDBASEDONOCCUPATIONPARAMETERS

4_FINALVARIATIONOFSECTIONS


TRANSFORMATION DIAGRAM

ACTIVITY POTENTIAL

NIGHT LIGHTS

CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS


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MATERIAL ASSEMBLY

WURSTER HALL DETAILS


DETAILS RE-ASSEMBLED

CONSTRUCTION SEQUENCE


BEFORE


AFTER, AND IT STILL LOOKS GOOD

AWARDS2011 American Society of Landscape Architects, Honor Award

2011 AIA San Francisco, Constructed Realities Small Budget Citation Award

FOLDED PLATE TESSELATIONBerkeley, CAUC Berkeley/ ARCH 269X, Spring 2010Instructor: Lisa Iwamoto

How might an standard stuctural methodology be analysed parametrically and redeployed at a scale that tests material properties? That was more or less the question that Lisa Iwamoto posed our Spring 2010 seminar. Working collaboratively with John Faichney, Ileana Acevedo, Bryan Allen and Roxanne Levy, we developed a script using Grasshopper to define the geometric properties of a folded plate system. We isolated the density, depth, and UV distribution of the fold as variables that we could then redefine to account for material, program and structural issues. We tested a series of physical paper models and digital simulations that allowed us to feed the re-calibrated parameters back in to the definition before deciding on a final iteration. The full scale installation is built of lazer-cut HDPE that is overlapped to create connections between panels (based on the size of the lazer bed), and perforated for venilation. It functioned as a temporary shading canopy for people watching yard games in the Wurster courtyard. .

FOLDED PLATE RULE

DEHENZEL/FOLDED PLATE TESSELATION/UC BERKELEY

ONE OF MANY STUDY MODELS

STRUCTURAL TESTS


HDPE CONNECTION DETAIL


PHOTO BY ILEANA ACEVEDO

TEXTURE

TILES

NIGHT GARDENDesCours Architecture Festival, New Orleans, LAUC Berkeley/ ARCH 269, Fall 2009Collaboration with Rael San Fratello Architects

Night Garden was built as a collaborative fi nal project with 10 other students in Ron Raels experimental form course, Digital Ceramics. The intent of the project was to combine digital and material craft to produce a sculptural object for the DesCours Festival, meant to be experienced at night. The sculpture consists of a laser-cut steel lattice frame that supports a modular porcelain skin, each piece cast from CNC milled plaster and fi red until translucent. Custom vacuumformedplastic bladders hold night-blooming fl owers that protrude from holes in the back-lit translucent porcelain. The project evokes a tension between nature and technology, with the intended effect being somewhere between awe and confusion. I was responsible for designing and milling plaster molds, fabricating the steel frame, designing and fabricating detailed attachment systems to connect the porcelain to the steel, and designing, sourcing and wiring the LED lights.

DEVELOPMENT

MATERIALS

DEHENZEL/NIGHT GARDEN/UC BERKELEY

CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS

EPIGENETIC LANDSCAPETrat Province, ThailandUC Berkeley/ ARCH 201, Fall 2009Instructor: Raveevarn Choksombatchai

This studio was focused on experimental research methods that inform design for augmenting the landscape as a way to generate energy and facilitate new modes of inhabitation. The site is 300 acres in southeast Thailand, the ecology of which is characterised by a series of natural confluences and mangrove forests that cohabitate with the cultivated landscape of rice fields, salt farms and shrimp farms. Thailand is the worlds largest producer of rice, with 55% of land dedicated to rice agriculture. In 2007, the US EPA released a report identifying rice agriculture as a major source of methane emissions, a dangerous and highly potent greenhous gas. The conceptual foundation of this proposal is focused on turning the emissions liability into an energy resource for Thailand through the implementation of a temporal system of collection networks that follow the seasonal and diurnal cycle of methane emissions during the rice growing period.

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DEHENZEL/EPIGENETIC LANDSCAPE/UC BERKELEY

THAILAND/SITE MAPPING

According to a 1995 report in Current Science journal, There is considerable variation in methane release during the growth period [of rice plants]. ...The peak emission value remains for a period of 10-15 days in the crop duration of 90-100 days. This period accounts for 90% of total methane release during the whole crop cycle. Additionally, a 1997 article in Plant and Soil journal reports a distinct diurnal pattern [in rice methane emissions] especially at tillerin, panicle initiation and maturity stages of a field-grown rice crop, with maximum emissions in the early afternoon followed by a decline to a minimum around midnight. The above graphic illustrates these temporal modulations in relation to the average monthly rainfall in Bangkok and Trat. The final proposal consists of an operable canopy for capturing methane during the times when it is emitted from the rice paddies. The structure of the canopy is defined by an increased density and depth of the hexagon grid where it touches the ground at the intersection of the existing dyke system.

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METHANE DIAGRAM

dyke intersections

connection between nodes

density gradient network

canopy surface

canopy frame

methane bladders (top)water cisterns (bottom)

perimeter foundations

christopher william dehenzel {epigenetic landscapes} uc berkeley 1st year studio, fall 2009 | raveevarn choksombatchai, instructor

The nal proposal consists of an operable canopy for capturing methane during the times when it is emitted from the rice paddies. The structure of the canopy is de ned by an increased density and depth of the hexagon grid where it touches the ground at the intersection of the existing dyke system.

methane canopy axon


dyke intersections

connection between nodes

density gradient network

canopy surface

canopy frame

methane bladders (top)water cisterns (bottom)

perimeter foundations

christopher william dehenzel {epigenetic landscapes} uc berkeley 1st year studio, fall 2009 | raveevarn choksombatchai, instructor

The nal proposal consists of an operable canopy for capturing methane during the times when it is emitted from the rice paddies. The structure of the canopy is de ned by an increased density and depth of the hexagon grid where it touches the ground at the intersection of the existing dyke system.

methane canopy axon

OPERABLE METHANE CANOPY

OPEN CANOPY VIEW FROM ELEVATED PATH


3D PRINTED MODEL

1 2 3

the cellular automata of biofilms as an epigenetic landscape

density complexity FORM EXPERIMENTS BY SKETCH

MUSEO AQUA/CULTURALima, PeruUC Berkeley/ ARCH 201, Spring 2010Instructor: Rene Davids

Lima is a city of more than 8 million inhabitants, but it is just a stop-over for most people who visit there on the way to Cuzco. It is a colonial port city that emerged out of the fertile valley of the Rio Rimac near the outlet to the Pacific Ocean. Like many cities, however, Lima grew beyond its dependency on the river, and urbanization has since choked the flow to a fetid trickle. Recent public projects have attempted to bring life and attention back to the riverfront where old industrial buildings are now obsolete and decaying. The Museo Aqua|Cultura responds to this condition with an aggressive yet precise objectives of remediating the Rimac through a series of tiered rhizofiltration gardens, providing access between a disconnected urban grid, and generating a new hybrid program between park/museum, recreation/culture that will attract both tourists and citizens. The museum consists of a network of pavilions, islands and bridges that utilize traditional methods of cast concrete to create a new dialogue between river and city.

DEHENZEL/MUSEO AQUA|CULTURA/UC BERKELEY

AERIAL RENDERING OF MUSEUM/RIVER LANDSCAPE

RIVERFRONT AFTER REMEDIATION

DEHENZEL/MUSEO AQUA|CULTURA/UC BERKELEY

PLAN DIAGRAM

WALNUT CREEK URBAN/ECO PARKWalnut Creek, CAUC Berkeley/ LA 201, Fall 2010Instructor: Karl Kullman

This proposal attempts to address issues of urban reslience in Walnut Creek through modifications to the existing hydrological system that expose and augment the creek to create a new civic urban park. My chosen site is downtown Walnut Creek, where the creek itself is currently routed under a generic new urbanist retail center and adjacent derelict single story parking structure. This scheme prioritizes the legibility of the creek by replacing the parking structure with a subsurface garage, daylighting the creek and threading it back into the existing overflow channel that currently runs in a concrete box parallel to Broadway. The creek edges are terraced in a triangulated pattern to allow access in certain areas, where others are planted with wetland vegetation. These planted terrances hold water during seasonal floods and collect irrigation, runoff and greywater from the big box store in dry seasons.

DEHENZEL/WALNUT CREEK/UC BERKELEY

EXISTING SITE

MODEL PHOTO

DEHENZEL/WALNUT CREEK/UC BERKELEY

PROSTHETIC ECOLOGIES:LALos Cerritos Wetland, Seal Beach (LA County), CAUC Berkeley/ LA 202, Spring 2011Instructor: Marcel Wilson

The Los Cerritos coastal zone is a former delta where the San Gabriel River meets the Pacific Ocean. Urban development in the 20th century destroyed over 95% of Californias wetland habitat, including 600 acres in Los Cerritos that is currently being used for oil extraction and energy production, bounded by strip malls and residential development. The river has been channelized and bermed for flood control, which has reconfigured a once complex tidal zone into an entirely constructed network of flows, regulated for public safety and energy profits. Through decades of negotiation however, 500 acres of land is under consideration for the creation of wetlands in the current urbanized context of Seal Beach. Prosthetic Ecologies is a wetland restoration proposal that attempts to integrate natural, cultural and technological networks to provide wildlife habitat and an urban ecological park for the community of Seal Beach. Rather than attempting to reconstruct a passive tidal system that would be defenseless in the event of an emergency, a prosthetic system of sensors, pedestrian bridge/sea walls, and a control/viewing tower protect and provide access to certain areas of the wetland.

DEHENZEL/PROSTHETIC ECOLOGIES/UC BERKELEY

SITE CONDITIONS DIAGRAMS

E SUBTIDAL ZONE

LANDFORMS

INTERTIDAL ZONE

CONTAMINATED SOILCAPPED WITH CLAY IN BERMS

DATA MONITORING SENSOR NETWORK

EXISTING ROADS

EXTENDED SYSTEM OF PATHWAYS/BRIDGES

FRESHWATERMARSH

SITE PLAN/AXON LAYERS


DETAIL GRADING PLAN

CLAY MODEL FLOOD TESTS

NIGHT RENDERING FROM OBSERVATION TOWER


MODEL PHOTOS


WETLAND RESEARCH CENTER AND KAYAK CLUB

OCTAVIA ART PARKUC Berkeley/ Octavia Boulevard, San FranciscoLA 203, Fall 2011Instructor: Judith Stilgenbauer

The Octavia Wet Park is a proposal for a linear park that functions as stormwater management system and outdoor gallery to support installation artwork in the Hayes Valley neighborhood. The site is a series of lots along Octavia Boulevard where the US 101 freeway once ran through this San Francisco neighborhood. Since the freeway came down following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, these parcels have been appropriated for use as community gardens, parking lots, pop-up retail, and installation art, although they have been slated for residential development. This proposal suggests an alternative public use for these unique spaces, while attempting to weave a process-based, performative element into the more traditional idea of landscape architecture as place-making.

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DEHENZEL/OCTAVIA ART PARK/UC BERKELEY

FREEWAY DEMOLITION: PHASING

2011 SITE/ACTIVITIES

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AVG. MONTHLY STORMWATER VOLUME ON SITE(CUBIC FEET)

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CAPTURE FILTER STOREcisterns

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IRRIGATE urban ag/bioswales

STORMWATER

CAPTURE

GRAYWATERBUILDINGS

RECIRCULATE fountains

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CISTERN 1

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SWALE/PLANTER

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EXISTING TOPO/STREET RUNOFF

AVERAGE MONTHLY STORMWATER VOLUME ON SITE (CUBIC FEET)

STORMWATER CATCHMENT AREA/PROPOSED SYSTEM


The main idea was to use the east edge of Octavia Boulevard as a stormwater filter, collecting runoff from a large catchment area and thereby alleviating the potential for overflow of the SF combined stormwater/sewer system during major rain events (assuming that other neighborhoods implemented similar models.) The stormwater collection basins are used as a design feature to structure a system of planters and pathways that weave back and forth and under the existing sidewalk.

AQUEDUCT/LIGHTING

SCREEN WALLS

EXHIBITION PLATFORMS

WALKWAYS/BENCHES

STORMWATER PLANTERS

50

SITE PLAN/SECTION


TO BE CONTINUED...