Cameron BuckA Selection of Architectural Work

TABLE OF CONTENTS University of Florida Undergraduate (2011-2015) / Graduate (2015-In Progress)

Charleston Dance Institute 1-6

Boathouse 7-10

Botanical Tower 11-14

Urban Campus 15-22

Size Matters 23-26

Spine + Joint 27-30

Resume 31

Charleston Dance Institute Site: Charleston, South Carolina - ARC3321, Spring 2014 - Instructor: Micheal Kuenstle The Charleston Dance Institute began as a very programmatically driven project that focused on creating an interactive facet of the culturally rich urban landscape in Charleston. The project set aside a strict 1/3 of the building footprint for open community space in order to allow the building to house many different impromptu programs separate from the Dance Institution itself. This mentality was established in order for the building to become a social hub within the surrounding social areas. This idea of receiving the public also spurred the creation of a permeable surface or skin that would mediate the boundary between the inhabitants and the environment outdoors. This skin creates a monolithic appearance from the outside that is only punctured by the dance studios themselves in order to subtly reflect the building’s program and contribution to the city. However from the inside, the exposed steel beams allow the interior program to hang within the construct and the light from the outdoors pours through the skin to establish a feeling of weightlessness fluidity though the project.

Boathouse Site: Gainesville, Florida - ARC3320, Fall 2013 - Instructor: Tom Smith From the beginning my boathouse design was derived from my initial fascination with the stroke and how that propels the boat through the water. In order to find meaning in the stroke itself and make it useful as an architectural motivator it was immediately distilled into its parts, that being: the catch, the drive, the finish and the recovery. This series of steps was used to generate the segmented approach to my overall form. When these steps of the stroke were then over laid with the program of the boathouse itself it allowed me to apply the steps of the stroke symbolically to each of the spaces laid out in the program. Initially this approach led to a very separated boathouse that did not work cohesively so in oder to compensate, I pushed together the separate pieces of the program in order for them to work synergistically much in the same way that the mem-bers of a crew team must behave in order to excel in the sport. Now that the loose form of the boathouse has been established materials must be applied to generate the second aspect of my driver, that being the light and hindered motion of the boat gliding across the surface of the lake. In order to understand where the material allocation would go and how it would work occasionally, the design must be dissected based of the different parts of the stroke in much of the same way that it was created. The material palette of wood, weathered steel and glass would be used to highlight the different programatic elements and also used as a scheme for pulling the building together as a cohesive whole.

When I began thinking about materiality and its relation to the lightness and unhindered motion of the crew boat, the use of glass immediately came to mind. While glass is the obvious choice when a structure is designed to appear and feel light weight, I coupled it with the use of light colored wood and positioned both of those against the use of weath-ered steel.The wood and large spanning would be used in the initial space/lockers and in the club house in order to re-flect the light weight and seamless design of the boats and their ability to glide on the water. The weathering steel along with a more structural glass facade is the bridge between these two wooden constructs, connecting them physically and also metaphorically. This connection which houses the Erg machines represents the “ power” phase of the stroke and is the most physically demanding and industrious part of the stroke itself. While the material difference is a stark contrast, its continued use of spanning glass and also the slow transition of materials ensures that it is seamless and still carries the gliding and seamless idea of the crew boat against the water.

The Botanical Tower Site: Upper East Side, N.YC. - ARC4322, Fall 2014 - Instructor: Martin Gundersen

Situated in the Upper East side of Manhattan, the botanical tower overlooks central park and exists in a small relatively quiet business sector with small residential areas scattered near-by. The program of the tower was generated by the desire to bring organic growth into the city in a new way. The tower offers a residential component side by side with a botanical research facility. These to programs are linked by 3 main organic terrariums that display plants and oth-er products of the research facility for the residents and the city of observe and enjoy. These three organic terrarium areas overlook the city and filter natural light into the project through the green spaces. These terrariums are depicted as plexi glass masses in the model photographs. The dual program also offers a unique opportunity for residents to be inter-twined and live within a science laboratory. While most of the actual facilities of each of the programs are very separated, much of the designed circulation was created with the idea that inhabitants would mix and create a totally unique scientific environment. The project is also sheathed in a perforated metal that folds around the project and serves to mediate between the inside of the project and the rest of the city. The skin folds with the shape of the building but is broken where the terrariums of plants seek to pull natural light into the project-This aspect of the project in crucial in creating the organic and scientific experience on the inside.

The Urban Campus Site: DUMBO, Brooklyn, New York- ARC4322, Fall 2014 - Instructor: Martin Gundersen In collaboration with Amanda Rutherford Situated between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, the DUMBO (Down Between the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) area is rich with a unique city experience that allows the area to stand very separate from the nearby dominating New York City. This project began with a detailed breakdown of DUMBO and lead to the discovery of its rich manufacturing history. This discovery prompted the creation of an urban campus that would focus on the revitalizing of traditional skilled crafts. The crafts that were chosen for the campus are as follows: wood timber frame construction, blacksmithing, glass working, welding, woodworking, textile manufacturing, and watch making. These crafts were chosen for a vari-ety of reasons such as scalar diversity and the systemic nature of their processes. The unique nature of each of the crafts led to a desire to create space that directly reflected the process within them, this however was troublesome due to the practical limitations of the project. These was solved initially by creating a series of follies that would have the special qualities of the craft without the tethers of constant inhabitation. These follies would occupy a field outside the campus and act as a filter mediating the city and campus life. Encouragement came during the mid-term review to reintegrate the spatial qualities of the follies back into our campus configuration. Using a program document similar in design to Perry Kulper, we created associations be-tween the crafts that allowed us to decide on a configuration that was both systematic and spatial. This created highly unique spaces within our project that seemed to float within the overall matrix of the project. Residential grid systems and circulation were then used to stitch these spaces together. The result was an urban campus that allowed the city to filter through while still creating spatial conditions that reflected the task held within and allowed for the exhibition of work.

Watchmakers WeldingTextile Manufacturing

Woodworking Glassworking Blacksmithing Timber Frame Construction

In order to create a seemless system of highly unique spatial conditions, the program document on the previous page was used to draw associations and then the zero point perspective (right) was drawn so that the craft spaces could be visualized as a whole. This process allowed for the campus plan to created ( above). This process was crucial in the development of the project because once the plan could be visualized, the method through which the project interacted with the city could be designed.

Given the site’s direct proximity to the water and waterfront park system, the waterfront facade was designed in such a way that views from the campus residences are maximized while still allowing for the public to filter in and out of the project easily viewing what the institute had to offer. This render also demonstrates the highly tailored spatial qualities of each of the craft spaces and how they are arranged to fit together. Seen here is the ( from right to left): glass working, blacksmithing, and wood timber frame spaces.

Size Matters Understanding the process of material experimentation at 1:1 scale. Fall 2015, Grad Studio 1 Beginning my project, I was heavily influenced by the work of Car-los Scarpa and Peter Zumthor. Projects like the Therme Vals and the Brion Family Tomb exemplify these architects total mastery of the idea of the detail and its use to seamlessly integrate complex material conditions. Ini-tially this idea of detail and joinery led to the project seeking out human engagement to create differing lighting conditions. The idea was that the project would invite the occupant to engage and participate to experience different light conditions that were the effect of complex material decisions about receiving light. After the initial inspiration, the project began with material experi-mentation in two realms, casting moving parts in concrete and treating dif-ferent cast materials like plaster and concrete to yield differing light con-ditions through a variety of surface conditions. Preliminary testing returned mediocre results regarding the elements cast into concrete but the range of surface conditions I was able to bring forth in the concrete piqued my inter-est. Further testing revealed that casting concrete elements into plexiglass molds led to an unparalleled smoothness and reflectivity in the concrete. It was at this point that the project reached a breaking point and the exper-iments led away from cast elements into a full emersion in seeking out a concrete condition that would reflect light and also instill a powerful tactile desire.

This experimentation would deal with perfecting the exact concrete/cement/water ratio and also precise plexiglass molding. Drawing again on project precedence, I looked into the work of Herzog and De Meuron and Tadao Ando, specifically that dealing with material experimentation in concrete surface conditions. Using these new precedence, I looked back at my original desire to engage the project with the human body and attempted to answer that desire with a different solution. This time, the project would be less about engaging with the body to elicit a mechanically moving response, and instead to simply create pleasure from the act of touching the project and allowing the light to engage the body itself. The next realm of material experimentation with plexiglass borne concrete sought to draw the occupant to touch the project not simply from reflectivity and smoothness but also through organic forms that would draw forth the desired lighting conditions. This phase used melted plexiglass to create organic forms that would act to shuttle light down from the outside and through to the occupant. Through the relative scale of such organic openings the project is now attempting to not only use the reflective surface to broadcast a unique flood of light but also create a sense of material satisfaction when it is felt on the skin.

Spine+JointTo understand the design and creation process for rendering a piece of furniture, I had to step back to what I know, architectur-al design, and try to establish a logical relationship. This however suggests that the architectural design process couldn’t be ap-plied to the creation of furniture and would in some way need to be changed. What was discov-ered however was the true simi-larity between the idea of spatial occupation of architecture and the intimate engagement of fur-niture. With this in mind, the de-cision to design a chair emerged from this fascination with human relation in the same way that scale is used when designing an archi-tectural space. Initial sketches started with the only tangible driv-er available, the human body and

proportions.

Fall 2015, Furniture StudioMaterial testing Form testing Form testing

Sketching allowed for a more detailed understanding of the different components of the body could be proportioned and metered to create rhythm and metric. Immediately the design of the chair was emerging as a fluid, organic shape that could respond harmoniously with the bending and curving of the body. Without too much of an idea already conceived, material testing was done to discover what was feasible yet still desirable aesthetically. Finally though research surrounding Charles Eames, testing started to focus on bent plywood. The bent ply allowed me to explore the fluid shapes that I was sketching while also retaining an ability to flex and respond to the human engagement. While testing the rigidity of the plywood, I became fascinated with the idea of a tensioned arch and its capacity to support weight while still retaining elegant slenderness. Tests included simply tensioning several layers of oak veneer to assess the validity of the strength of minimal plies.

While few plies could support tremendous amount of weight, the natural shape of the arch did not respond to the curves of the human figure. Through a sec-ondary series of sketches, I settled on an arch shape that could also reflect the shape and meter of the legs. This shape allowed what would turn into the seat, to respond to the curves of the thighs and bend in the knee. This new shape however undermined the original strength in the arch. To solve this, a series of tiers was created to allow the seat to be thickened in portions supporting weight and elegantly slim out in the extremities. The addition of the tiers also led to an opportunity to align the tiers in places that reflect the human meter and proportion, such as the back of the knee, hamstring and ankle. With the seat underway, I used the themes discovered to begin designing the back or “spine” of the chair. Once again drawing inspiration from the human body, I sought to mimic the fluid form of the human spine. Using the same method as the seat, a series of sketches allowed the creation of a simple shape that reflected the elegance of the spine but once again tiered up to maintain thickness in crucial joints. Finally these two pieces are joined using a screw and post attach-ment with a rubber spacer to create a gap in the form for visual appeal and to create a separation between the pieces to indicate their individual uniqueness. Final finishing consisted of 7 polyurethane coats and exten-sive sanding to create a hyper smooth finish that draws the human touch. The result of this method is a chair that retains the strength to bear hu-man weight but uses the wood’s inherent flexibility to shape to respond to the user.

Contact Information Cameron Buck Cameronbuck.arc@gmail.com (813) 727-4171

Bloomingdale High School 2011 GPA: 5.6 23/652

Southeastern Construction Co. Summer 2012 Digital Prefabrication

Habitat for Humanity: Hillsborough 80 Hrs Assisted in various stages of construction

Architectural Autocad Rhinoceros 3D Modeling Vray Rendering Plugin Maxwell Rendering Plugin Sketchup Technical Sketching Hand Drafting/ Modeling

General Photoshop InDesign Illustrator Excel Powerpoint Word

Furr and Wegman Architects Summer 2014 and 2015 Architectural Intern

University of Florida 2015 B. Des. Architecture Emphasis GPA: 3.8 Major in Architecture Minor in Entrepreneurship

University of Florida Masters of Architecture Graduation: 2017

Education

Work Experience

Volunteer

Skills

Cameron Buckhttp://issuu.com/cameronbuck/docs/portfolioCameronbuck.arc@ufl.edu(813) 727-4171