matthew hoffman portfolio
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MATTHEW HOFFMAN
The Pennsylvania State University
Bachelor of Architecture
360 W. 127th St.
New York, NY 10027
p: 717.201.6746
MATTHEW D. HOFFMAN JUNIOR ARCHITECT
2010: May - currently: C-LAB, New York, NY.
Jeffrey Inaba. 212.989.2398
Worked in teams of 2-3 on projects ranging from the scale of a pavilion for the New Museum and
an entry to the Sukkah City Competition, to a large-scale housing development in St. Petersburg Russia,
in collaboration with Neil Denari’s office.
2009: June - September: RSH Architects, Pittsburgh, PA.
Art Ruprecht, AIA. 412.429.1555
2009: May - July: The Manhattan Airport Foundation. New York, NY.
Joe Stevens, Freelance Writer / Director, 917.843.8165
Published in The Guardian UK, The Huffington Post, U.S. News & World Report among others.
Developed and created all images for the website Manhattanairport.org, an art project to satirize urban
development initiatives and draw public attention to the shortcomings of our air transportation
infrastructure.
2008: September - December: Design Logic Architecture. Philadelphia, PA.
Tunde Kazeem. 215.925.0700
2008: May - August: DigiFAB website and digital fabrication.
Professor David Celento. 814.865.3682
2005 - 2010: The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA.
Accredited five-year Bachelors of Architecture degree.
2009: January - May: Sede di Roma, Rome, Italy.
Semester abroad: Cartography, Urban Studies and Analysis, Italian Language.
Work Experience:
Education:
2010: May: Runner-up: Design Excellent Award.
Honorable Mention: Kossman Thesis Awards.
2010: March: College Award for Creative Achievement.
Recognizes students who exemplify the objectives of the college with respect to
enhancement of the arts. Students are selected based upon their creative work,
academic excellence and service contributions.
2010: January: Stewardson Memorial Competition - Finalist.
Comments from the Jury: “This entry engaged the site and the existing structure
utilizing it as a driver. The Andrew Wyeth-esque imagery was strongly compelling
and served as a reference point. This was perhaps the most emotive and poetic image
in the competition. The design was unique, in presentation, attitude towards the
site, and in its imagery and palette. The effect could be measured as much in the silent
contemplation of those considering it as in their comments.”
2009: Semptember: Corbelletti Competition. Excellence in Graphic Design.
2008: May: Design Excellence Award.
Excellence in design studio at the third-year level.
2007: September: Corbelletti Competition. Finalist.
Computer: Working experience with FormZ, Rhino, Sketchup, VRay, Autocad 2010, Final Cut
Pro, Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, Flash.
Model building techniques: 3D printing, Laser-cutting, CNC milling.
Excellent hand-drawing techniques.
Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture. “ART MEADOW: The Feral Artscape.”
MAS Context. PUBLIC issue, “superFUND.”
ASSEMBLY. “Towards an Art Experience.”
Publications & Awards:
Skill set:
Publications in progress:
CONTENTS
Sukkah City
Slavyanka Masterplan
ART MEADOW: The Feral Artscape
Stewardson Competition
Termini Station Mixed-Use
Fraser Center
The Manhattan Airport
SUKKAH CITY 2010
Facade & Massing Studies
ART MEADOW, the Feral Artscape
or the Distributed Creation of Art in an Atomized Society
Matthew D. [email protected]
Thesis Advisor: Peter Aeschbacher
CONTENTSSTATEMENT
ABSTRACT
RESEARCH & DOCUMENTATION
SITE & CONTEXT
PROGRAM
DESIGN
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ART MEADOW
Feral Artscape [feer-uhl ahrt-skāp’]The creation, expression and re-appropriation of ART in its wild state, like wild animals or plants; not domesticated, cultivated or censured; ferocious.
Currently there is a great divide between the process
of making ART [the artist’s studio] and experiencing
ART as a spectator [the art museum or gallery]. The
traditional model of art museums and galleries has
long served as a barrier between artistic creation
and appreciation, which has led to a banal and
soon to be irrelevant architectural form. We are
spoon feed collections along a predetermined
path, which leaves little room for a truly personal
experience or understanding of the artistic process.
In contrast to this, the Internet thrives on constant
input and feedback, an ability to freely and instantly
reconstitute itself. The ease and availability
of content creation and re-appropriation has
changed the way that we operate as individuals
and as a society. By analyzing the effects of new
media on identity, and applying this as an
analogy to the creation of art, it is possible to
create a new type of community completely
devoted to exhibition and whimsical creation.
In order to bridge this gap and create a new
ART EXPERIENCE, a new type of environment
must be created which destroys the division between
artwork and spectator and in its place constructs a
collective involvement in all aspects of a moment in
time, from the décor, to the actions of the inhabitants.
This project creates a new LANDSCAPE OF
MOVEMENT that takes the form of a massive urban
playground in Central Park, New York.
Using the theories of the Situationists [Constant’s
New Babylon], ideas of Bigness [Voluntary Prisoners
by OMA], and architecture of the endless interior
[MVRDV and SANAA] as springboards, this project
seeks to create a new typology that will save art and
the artistic experience from the drudgery of existing
museum and gallery environments. ART MEADOW
[museum + nightclub + sandbox + sovereign city-state]
will resurrect the process of creating, experiencing and
immersing oneself with ART by removing the idea of
the artist as the solitary creator and replacing it with
an environment of continuous creation brought forth
by collective involvement.
The necessity of this space leads to an abandonment
of the architect as a creator of exact and unbending
space through the formal enclosures of floors, walls
and ceilings, and instead replaces the traditional role of
the architect with that of a strategist of space creation,
outlining processes of space-creation through models
and kits of architectural pieces to then be appropriated
and altered by amateur designers in an environment
devoted to the continuous creation of ART.
ART MEADOW, the Feral Artscape
Inhabitants will transform and recreate their surroundings
within the structure, according to their artistic vision. All
movement and action will become a part of the artistic
endeavors of the whole, thru an uninterrupted process
of creation and re-creation, sustained by a generalized
creativity that is manifested in all domains of activity.
The inhabitant is invited to bring along an arsenal of
tools and materials to facilitate their experience in ART
MEADOW. Likewise, the unprepared user simply re-
appropriates found materials already within the structure.
The seasoned veteran could develop an entire outfit for
his self, or assemble a team of like-minded explorers
for their expedition into the depths of ART MEADOW.
TOWARDS AN ART EXPERIENCE
≠
THE SOLUTION:
Freedom to Play
Modification of Aggressive / Destructive Influences
Search for Beauty
Recreation of a Lost or Ruined Object
Form as Content Conceived in Terms of a Medium and a Culture
Artistic Creation
Unconscious Re-living of the Artist’s Experience of Creation
Search for Fulfillment of an Emotional Need
Aesthetic Experience Occurs by Chance
Artistic Appreciation
Infinite Divisibility [de-centralized administration, infinite monkey theorem]
Crowd-Sourcing [collective intelligence, distributed participatory design]
Fabrication / Adaptation of Identity [-isms, role-playing]
Viral Phenomenon / Memes [amateur celebrities, viral]
Cyber-Terrorism [hacktivism, google bombing, flashmob]
Tribal Formations [minority style, fringe movement]
Crowd-Sourcing Artistic Endeavors
Unrestricted Movement through Space
Ability to Invent Identities
Transparency of Actions
Super-Compression of Interaction
Mobile Sense of Place
Hierarchy Defined by Movement
Creation in Virtual-Space
Project Guidelines
E O T MErasure is taking things away, making space.
Tree-Hierarchy [Existing]
The Art Process [Existing]
Generate a Field
Scatter Destinations
Add Crowd
Define Programmatic Elements
Connect
Add Space
Combine & Scatter!
All movement & action become a part of the artistic process
The Art Experience
Final Structure
As applied to INDIVIDUALS
As applied to MOVEMENT
As applied to ARCHITECTURE
Transformation indicates a continuous change between two states of an object or situation; change with a beginning and an end.
Migration describes things moving from one point to another, things that leave and don’t return, of which sometimes traces remain.
Origination is a point in time where something new begins to happen, origination sets something into the realm of the other, it is the basis for reaction.
The creative act MUST be a social act!
They wander through the sectors of New Babylon ART MEADOW seeking new experiences, as yet unknown ambiances.
Without the passivity of tourists, but fully aware of the power they have to act upon the world, to transform it, recreate it.
They dispose of a whole arsenal of technical implements for doing this, thanks to which they can make the desired changes without delay.
Just like the painter, who with a mere handful of colors creates an infinite variety of forms, contrasts and styles, the New Babylonians can endlessly vary their
environment, renew and vary it by using their technical implements.
This comparison reveals a fundamental difference between the two ways of creating.
The painter is a solitary creator who is only confronted by another person’s reactions once the creative act is over.
Among the New Babylonians, on the other hand, the creative act is also a social act: as a direct intervention in the social world, it elicits an immediate response.
The artist’s individual creation seems, to other’s eyes, to escape all constraint and ripen in isolation.
And it is only much later, when the work acquires an undeniable reality, that it will have to confront society.
At any given moment in his creative activity, the New Babylonian is himself in direct contact with his peers.
Each one of his acts is public, each one acts on a milieu which is also that of the others and elicits spontaneous reactions.
All action, then, loses its individual character. On the other hand, each reaction can provoke others in turn.
In this way interventions form chain reactions that only come to an end when a situation that has become critical ‘explodes’ and is transformed into another situation.
The process escapes one person’s control, but it matters little knowing who set it off and by whom it will be inflected in turn.
In this sense the critical moment (the climax) is an authentic collective creation.
The yardstick, the space-time framework, of the New Babylonian ART MEADOW world is the rhythm in which each moment succeeds the last.
-Excerpt from New Babylon Constant Nieuwenhuis
CENTRAL PARK, NYC“Creative activity may be the closest thing to a natural resource
in New York, but it is also a little understood and long overlooked
asset, and one that can no longer be taken for granted.”
Creative New York, Center For An Urban Future
Not only does New York City have the art capital in place for such
a landscape, but the model upon which Central Park was created
[The Greensward Plan] provides a basis for my own project by
outlining a model of movement, views and destinations, knitted
together with a false topography. Using this model yields a new
dense landscape condition which becomes a natural extension of
the ideals of Central Park and the landscape itself.
Annual Museum Attendence
1,000,000+
500,000 - 1,000,000
250,000 - 500,000
<250,000
THE GREENSWARD MODEL“The park was to be a Republican Institution where the
classes would mingle as a single collective in the spirit of
democratic fraternity. It was to be a pleasure ground where
citizens could find an escape from the pressures of cramped
living. The ideas behind Central Park were accented by the
moralistic overtones of the American Transcendentalists
who believed in a metaphysical need for individual
communion with nature, as a way of salvaging personal
autonomy from the social conformity spawned by the
nascent commercialism of American Culture.”
-DOUGLAS KELBAUGH
Guidelines:
• Landscape of desire
• Naturalness [or the simulation of]
• Mechanisms of exposure & concealment
• Disorientation [as opposed to the grid of Manhattan]
• Mechanical artifice which simulates naturalness
• Idyllic, naturalistic landscape
In many ways the creation of Central Park
erased the natural and replaced it with a simulation of
the natural. This artifice seeks to accomplish what was
expected of a natural landscape. The model of Central
Park sought to accomplish a certain set of goals for the
inhabitant by becoming a simulation of a certain ideal.
In a similar way, this project replaces the
existing landscape with a new dense field condition
upon which a continuous artistic invention and
reinvention occurs. The space of this project does not
erase or deviate from the original intentions of the
parkscape, but instead enhances these original goals,
through a process of continuous, collective artistic
creation.
FIFTH AVE.
THE RESERVOIR
ABOVE: PLAN OF CENTRAL PARK [THE GREENSWARD PLAN]BELOW: SITUATION PLAN
NORTH MEADOW
BALL FIELDS
CONSERVATORY GARDENS
HARLEM MEER ART MEADOW [PREVIOUSLY EAST MEADOW]
96th ST.
101st ST.
106th ST.
THE PROGRAM
GALLERIES
ADMINISTRATION
THEATER
EDUCATION
RESEARCH
PUBLIC
100K
10K 10K
5K
5K
5K
4K SEATING - INTERIOR THEATER
OPEN OFFICE OPEN SPACE
CLASSROOMS
ENTRY
LOBBY
CAFE
BATHROOMS
INDIVIDUAL OFFICES
LIBRARY
MATERIALS WORKSHOP
STORAGE
STAGE - EXTERIOR THEATER
STAGE - INTERIOR THEATER
4K
3K
3K
3K
3K
1K
1K1K
.1K
.1K
.1K
THE COMPONENTS
HORIZONTAL CIRCULATION
VERTICALCIRCULATION
WALLS
WHITE BOXES
BLACK BOXES
FOLLIES
STAGESPITS
Ram
ping
syst
ems
are
adde
d on
ly
whe
n ne
eded
to re
ach
inac
cess
ible
pl
aces
. In
mos
t pla
ces,
the
topo
grap
hy
of th
e fie
ld p
rovi
des
acce
ss.
Stairs and elevators are combined together to form vertical elements which are scattered through the project. They are placed in ideal locations where multiple planes overlap.
White boxes represent the traditional museum environment. These are varied in size and location. They also hold typical programmatic elements such as cafes, bathrooms, workshop and research spaces.
Wal
ls, o
f var
ied
shap
e an
d si
ze,
serv
e as
can
vase
s fo
r ope
n-pl
atfor
m
expe
rimen
tal p
ainti
ng a
nd d
raw
ing.
Thes
e ar
e av
aila
ble
for a
nyon
e to
al
ter,
usin
g an
y m
eans
nec
essa
ry.
Som
e w
alls
are
als
o m
ovea
ble. Black boxes enclose
purely digital spaces. These facilitate a new type of art creation, with no physical presence, but instead a complete immersion in digital art production and environmental creation.
Shallow pits mark the landscape of the project, denoting spaces devoted to free-form sculptural
pursuits. These spaces hold raw materials, and serve as workshop spaces for any to use to create, alter or destroy 3-dimensional art pieces.
Extravagant pieces of architecture which are
scattered throughout the structure. These are
constructed solely for decoration and to add emphasis to specific areas.
Multi-level platforms are integrated into the topography of the
structure. By deleting certain pieces adjacent to these stage
spaces, transparency is created which encourages voyeurism and exhibitionism.
THE HUNGRY PROGRAM
PLAY 100%EXHIBITION 90%
DESTRUCTION 80%
CREATION 70%
ADMINISTRATION 60%
NETWORK
NOUR
ISHM
ENT
SENT
IENC
E
NURT
URAN
CE SEX
INTO
XICA
TION
50%
10% 10% 10%10%10%
Spaces are defined and arranged
inside of one another: the “hungry
program.” Like hungry animals, they have
swallowed a large amount of information,
sensations, perspectives, moods and
environments and compressed them into
a dense landscape condition. The result is an
endless landscape: the form offers infinite
internal possibilities and contains an infinite
amount of interconnecting spaces.
1. 2. 3. Cut:To generate a field for ART MEADOW, the topography of Central Park is divided and separated into four even pieces.
Layer:Four layers are formed and arranged vertically on top of one another.
Amplify Height:The topography of each of the planes is then extruded and amplified vertically to reach a total of 100’-0” from their lowest to their highest point.
FIELD GENERATION
4.Merge:Each of the four layers is then merged together to form a large wire mesh, roughly 800’-0” square and 100’-0” vertically. This forms the field condition which holds all of the program elements and forms the backbone of the project.
FIFTH AVE.
THE RESERVOIR
NORTH MEADOW
BALL FIELDS
CONSERVATORY GARDENS
HARLEM MEER
5.
96th ST.
101st ST.
106th ST.
Situate:The generated field is then situated on the site, with varied edges created to mesh with the surrounding terrain and reconnect itself back to Central Park. Thus the fabric of the project, generated from the parkscape, is re-grafted to the park to form a seamless addition.
THE TOPOGRAPHYIn order to form a fabric to knit the programmatic elements and the components together, a dense topography is developed utilizing the existing landscape of Central Park as a basis. This topography is also layered vertically, by stacking each of the layers and bringing the ground plane upwards through the structure through a series of massive ramps formed by the topography.
The fabric of the four overlapping planes is further triangulated to form a dense 3-dimensional field of points. A hierarchy is formed among all of the points depending on the amount of lines each point is connecting. The greater the amount of connections, the greater the point. This forms a varied, or gradient, field of densities.
EXPLODED AXONOMETRICN.T.S.
GROUND
COLUMNS
VERTICAL CIRCULATION
WHITE BOXES
PLANES
FLOORS
BEAMS
Lines are then generated between the points. These lines form the structure of the entire project, both vertically, horizontally and diagonally. The structural columns and beams are varied in size and shape, according to their span and the load that they are carrying. The structure is typically concrete, which encases all necessary utilities within the column itself, effectively hiding all of the mechanical aspects of the structure.
Finally, planes are formed between the lines to complete the process. These planes form the basic topography of the structure, becoming floors, coverings and walls. Many planes are deleted throughout the structure, or filled with materials such as mesh or other translucent materials, to admit and filter light to the interior depths of the structure. This acts in a similar way to the filtering and shading of light from the trees of Central Park.
THE GUIDELINES [REVISITED]
UNRESTRICTED MOVEMENT
THROUGH SPACE
MOBILE SENSE OF PLACE
CROWDSOURCING ARTISTIC ENDEAVORS
ABILITY TO INVENT IDENTITY
TRANSPARENCY OF ACTIONS
SUPER-COMPRESSION OF INTERACTION
HIERARCHY DEFINED BY MOVEMENT
FRINGE MOVEMENT
SEGREGATION & ASSIMILATION
BUREAUCRATIZATION OF ART
CONCLUSION:ART MEADOW allows and encourages an unrestricted movement through
space, and a mobile sense of place. There is a transparency throughout the
whole structure which harnesses and exhibits the participant’s actions, and a
super compression of interaction and activity. The combination of each of these
guiding principals allows for a crowd-sourcing of artistic endeavors, and an
ability to re-invent and re-define identities according to each visitor’s creative
insight.
This new ART EXPERIENCE, of art in its most primal and basic element, forms
a radical departure from the traditional and banal architectural form of art
museums and galleries. The existing need to enclose spaces through formal
frameworks has long served as a barrier to art and to our ever-accelerating
selves. By taking into account societal changes and applying these changes
to create a new set of guidelines for architecture, it is possible to bridge
the existing gap between artistic creation and appreciation and in its place
construct a unitary environment completely devoted to whimsical creation and
complete immersion within ART. On a larger scale this project also addresses
the shifting nature of our own self-awareness as individuals and as a society.
This landscape forms a zone of pure simultaneity, absolute simulation,
instability and instant transmission of all creative processes.
“Architecture must inevitably hemorrhage in this seismic mix. It must
flow out in other less predictable directions. New spatial aggregates will
require multiple escape routes. A single door for entering and exiting will
no longer suffice. “Riemannian spaces ... amorphous collection of pieces
that are juxtaposed but not attached to each other.” Pure patchwork with
an infinite porosity of structure, like a sponge.”
Merge Invisible Layers John Beckmann
Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities. Harvest Books; 1978.
Costa, Xavier. Theory of the Derive and Other Situationist Writings. Museo d’Art Contemporani; 1996.
Evans, Robin. The Projective Cast. The MIT Press; 2000.
Harrison, John E. Synaesthesia: The Strangest Thing. Oxford University Press; 2001.
Koolhaas, Rem. Content. Taschen;2004.
Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York. Monacelli; 1997.
McLuhan, Marshall. Counterblast. Harcourt; 1970.
McLuhan, Marshall. Gutenberg Galaxy. University of Toronto Press; 1962.
McLuhan, Marshall. Medium is the Massage. Gingko Press; 2005.
NAi Publishers. Reading MVRDV. Actar; 2007.
Sadler, Simon. Archigram: Architecture without Architecture. MIT Press; 2005.
Scott, Felicity D. Architecture or Techno-Utopia. The MIT Press; 2007.
Sorkin, Michael. Starting from Zero. Routeledge; 2003.
Steiner, Wendy. Image and Code. Michigan Slavic Publications; 1981.
Venturi, Robert. Iconography and Electronics upon a Generic Architecture. The MIT Press; 1998.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
TERMINI STATION MIXED-USE:PIAZZA DEI CINQUECENTO
Semester Abroad - 4th yearProfessor Giuseppe MilaniRome, Italy2009: January - May
For most visitors Piazza Dei Cinquecento is the first place of impact within the complexity of this City, a place of sharp conflict both in forms and in scale, and in almost all parts not yet architecturally resolved.
When you exit the train station, which is reas-suring in its rigorous functionalism, you meet a huge formless open space, beyond which the big measured mass of the Diocletian Terms closes your sights.
We were asked to redesign the eastern half of the piazza to create a new enclosure and defini-tion for the piazza. My project replaced the existing Compartmental RR building, and rose to the same height of the Termini Station front, 28 meters high. Within this envelope my project included a hotel, offices, retail and exhibition spaces, which were arranged along a narrow spine of circulation. This spine holds a series of ramps which wrap around the perimeter of the facade. The programmatic elements of the proj-ect are then cantilevered off of the circulation spine, and woven around the rigid geometry to soften the edges and add a playfulness to the massing of the project.
North Elevation
East Elevation
Longitudinal Section BB
Longitudinal Section AA
Transverse Section AA
Transverse Section BB
Transverse Section CC
Transverse Section DD
FRASER CENTER
State College, PA2007: August - December
In State College there is a need for, and an opportunity to design a structure to improve the area’s viability simply by creating a locus for the area’s personality and promise. The Downtown Vision and Strategic Plan identifies the need for establishing a unique “arts” identity for the downtown while strengthening its roles as the Centre Region’s center for business services, specialty retail and entertainment.
This project proposes a 6-plex cinema complex, 40 residential condominiums as well as retail, office and restaurant spaces at the base to form a vibrant street scape. The primary focus of this project is to create an overall structure and form for the project which responds and enhances each programmatic element. The simple L-shape massing provides for a large open piazza, while the facade of the building then becomes a living “screen” for the plaza. The mixture ofdiverse programs will also provide a combination of day and nighttime uses that cater to the student, and permanent resident populations while also ensuring a round-the-clock use of the interior and exterior spaces.
This page: Facade StudiesOpposite: Interior Studies
Index:
1. Plaza2. Pedestrian entrance3. Cinema4. Green space for condominiums5. First level condominiums6. Second level condominiums7. Miller Alley8. Fraser Street
123
4
5
6
7 8
Index:
1. Beaver Ave.2. Calder Way3. Pedestrian Entrance4. Cinema5. Vertical Circulation - Cinema6. Condominium7. Entrance to Green Space
1
2
3
4 45
5
66
6 6 7
4 4
Index:
1. Beaver Ave.2. Fraser St.3. Stairs up4. Cinema entrance5. Ticketing and concessions6. Circulation - Cinema7. Cinema8. Bathroom9. Circulation - Condominiums10. Restaurant Entrance11. Indoor Seating12. Covered Exterior Seating13. Kitchen14. Fire stair
Index:
1. Cinema2. Elevator3. Stairs4. Bathroom5. Fire stair6. Storage7. Circulation - Condominiums8. Office9. Conference Rm.10. Storage
Index:
1. Circulation - Condominiums2. Entrance3. Stairs - Cinema4. Green space5. Condominium6. Mail Rm.
THE MANHATTAN AIRPORT FOUNDATION
Professional FreelanceClient: Joe Stevens, Writer / DirectorCentral Park, Manhattan2009: May - June
Personal Responsibilities:I was asked to create all images for the project, as featured on the website www.manhattanairport.org.
The Manhattan Airport Foundation TMAF is an art project created to satirize urban development initiatives and draw public attention to the shortcomings of our air transportation infrastructure in NYC, specifically Manhattan.
The project has been featured in Fast Company, The Guardian UK, U.S. News & World Report, The Huffington Post and Gawker among others in addition to generating huge amounts of conversation throughout the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook.
“The Manhattan Airport Foundation is a land-use constituency committed to the immediate development of a viable and centrally-located international air transportation hub in Manhattan for the benefit of all New Yorkers.”
-manhattanairport.org
“The group’s proposition, conveyed by a very professional website complete with quality 3D renders, is to redevelop the unused area of central Manhattan, currently known as Central Park, as an air transportation hub fit for the 21st century.”
-londonist.com