RESEARCH// DESIGN

I grew up in Huntington Beach, California - a depraved city overrun with asphalt, cinder blocks, and strip malls. During this time I was principally fascinated with life, as it was the thing most lacking in that environment.

This brought me to study biology at the University of California Berkeley. Immersion in this drastically diff erent culture aroused a fundamental shift in my perspective; fostering new interests and questions.

My eventual decision to pursue architecture was the result of understanding its capacity as a medium to synthesize the analytical side of science, with the romantic narratives of art. I see a moral obligation to dedicate my time towards bettering our environment and I believe this can be accomplished through architectural practices. This involves integrating continually advancing strategies to create healthier, more energy effi cient, and beautiful places.

I am currently a second year Master’s of Architecture student at the University of Oregon. My time here is divided into research and design. I am especially fortunate to have been awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship at both the Biology and the Built Environment Center (BioBE) and the Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory (ESBL). This has aff orded me the opportunity to investigate the interaction between architecture and biology, as well as learn and develop sustainable building strategies.

The following projects have been selected to represent the range of my interests and explorations. Thank you for taking the time to review my work.

Max MoriyamaUniversity of OregonMasters of Architecture 2013

Introduction

Slow DripIn-progressAn exploration of the erosive potential of water. Routes for further investigation include: time-lapsed footage, ceramic casting, and introduction of a digital component such as a 3D erosive printer.

CONTENTS:

Energy Studies in Buildings LaboratoryBiology and the Built Environment Independent Research

Slow Drip // in-progressConstructive InterferenceFloodSocial WallHand DrawingsTaproot ProjectPlastic QuarryThe Mirror + The CaveThe Curtain

1.RESEARCH

2.// DESIGN

9 .13 .19 .

1 .25 .33 .37 . 41 . 47 . 53 . 63 . 73 .

RESEARCH// DESIGN1.

ESBLUNIVERSITY OF OREGON

Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory

The Pickle Box, Climate Chamber

Director G.Z. Brown demonstrating heliodon.

The wall covered with over 30 years of reports

Daylighting model of Eclectic Cat Building with Artifi cial Sky

The Energy Studies in Building Laboratory

A branch of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon, ESBL conducts research projects focused on understanding how buildings and related transportation determine energy and resource use. The lab’s goals are to develop strategies for maximum energy effi ciency in new materials, components, assemblies, and whole buildings. In the past thirty years, ESBL has completed over $18 million of research.

Architects, designers, builders, developers, and governmental agencies use ESBL to improve buildings and communities. ESBL conducts a design assistance program for architects, has published several textbooks, and off ers workshops and seminars for engineers, architects, and citizens on how to design energy-effi cient buildings and communities.

Eclectic Cat Building

Oregon Institute of Marine Biology

Mt. Angel Abbey

Northwest Energy Effi ciency Alliance

Thin Film Heat Exchanger

Advanced Research Methods

The Pickle Box, Climate Chamber

Projects

Background

Design assistance consisting of recommendations on daylighting and ventilation.

Analysis of building envelope with infrared camera; Make recommendations to increase energy effi ciency.

Diagnose infi ltration issues through blower-door testing; Make recommendations on louver repair.

Research existing techniques for performing deep energy retrofi ts in occupied commercial buildings.

Write grant to U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E).

Assist Professor G.Z. Brown in preparing a lecture for Ph.D. of Architecture students.

Assisted in construction.

Graduate Research Fellow. March 2011 - Present

Biology and the Built Environment Center

Director Jessica Green. “Are We Filtering the Wrong Microbes?”

Biology and the Built Environment Center

The vision of the BioBE Center of the University of Oregon is to develop hypothesis-driven, evidence-based approaches to understanding the “built environment microbiome” in order to optimize the design and operation of buildings for human health and sustainability. The center is comprised of experts in microbiology, ecology, and architecture/building sciences.

Biological data obtained by DNA sequencing of samples from building surfaces, air, and mechanical fi lters is combined with environmental data such as temperature, relative humidity, and airfl ow with architectural data.

We have come to understand that buildings are complex ecosystems that house trillions of diverse microorganisms interacting with each other, with humans, and with the environment. The two main sources of microbes are the outdoor air brought in via ventilation, and the humans who occupy the spaces. Once microbes enter a built environment they can be fi ltered by building materials and environmental conditions.

Background

Projects

Lillis Hall Experiment

Oregon BEST Fest

Sloan Foundation Conference

In- progress; Participated in preliminary experiment design, preparation, and microbial sampling; Assisting in analysis of data.

Prepare information about the center to present at the conference.

In-progress; Prepare information about the center to present at the conference.

Graduate Research Fellow. March 2011 - Present

The BioBE Center is currently using University of Oregon's Lillis Hall as a model to explore several interrelated aspects of the built environment microbiome. Lillis was chosen because it was designed with both window and mechanically supplied ventilation air. We are currently processing the collected data.

LILLIS HALLUniversity of OregonSummer 2011- presentIn-progress

Experiment

Infrared Image of Lills Hall

Spatial variation within a room.Surfaces were swabbed to sample the metacommunity spatial variation within a room.

Temporal variation within rooms.Air samplers were used in classrooms to sample the variation of the metacommunity over time, allowing us to measure the eff ect of ventilation types and occupancy.

Spatial variation across the building.Vacuuming dust throughout the building was used to study the history of the microbiome at the scale of the building.

Independent Research

How Alternative and Low-Energy Building Techniques Affect Indoor Microorganism Communities

ABSTRACT:While humans spend 90% of their lives inside buildings, researchers at the interface of architecture and biology are just beginning to discover how and why indoor bacterial and fungal communities are aff ected by building design. In parallel, alternative and low-energy building techniques such as rammed-earth and straw-bale, are becoming more popular as designers become cognizant of the energy and resource use required for conventional buildings. These two threads of thought converge in our preliminary study investigating the diff erent microbial communities associated with conventional versus alternative building materials. Given the large diff erences between the microbial communities of soil and those of conventional buildings, as well as the potential health eff ects of the diff erent community types, we propose a comparative microbiological evaluation of alternative built environments.

Presented at A&AA Student Research Symposium 2011 & UO Graduate Research Forum 2011Co-Researcher: Gwynn Mhuireach

Download Poster Here:http://issuu.com/moriyama/docs/alternative_and_low-energy_building_techniques

Independent Research

RESEARCH// DESIGN2.

Constructive Interference

Constructive Interference

"Apparently because our age is so manifestly unconcerned for the life of the spirit, many people conclude that it places an undue value on material things. But that cannot be so, for people who valued material things would take care of them and would care for the sources of them."- Wendell Berry. "Preserving Wildness" from Home Economics.

A modular storage system which promotes materialism by venerating the contents. This is accomplished through the kinetic mechanism that partially obstructs the observer's view of within.

Though not shown, the installation of a record player and speakers could create a dialogue between the hand-powered kinetic action and the electrical power source. The waves of the right and left units collide in the center [constructive interference] before crashing down in a wild commotion.

Spring 2011Furniture Design StudioInstructor Sara Huston

Flood

Flood

Celilo Falls was a tribal fi shing area on the Columbia River on what today is the border between Oregon and Washington. The site was home to native settlements and trading villages for over 5,000 years and was the oldest continuously inhabited community on the North American continent. In 1957, they were submerged by the construction of the Dalles Dam.

The Flood luminaire seeks to call attention to this signifi cant historical event. By providing soft ambient light and visual interest, the luminaire directs the viewer’s curiosity towards the story.

The topography is reconstructed from maps of the Dalles Reservoir Site taken by the U.S. Army Corps of engineers in 1945. The natural gradients of the layers of rising canyon act to eff ectively diff use and redirect the light. Vertical layers terminate at points where settlements and cave paintings were lost, and the red layer indicates the water level after the fl ood.

Spring 2011Luminaire Design Competition1st Place Gallery’s Choice AwardDisplayed May 2011 Modern Gallery

Top Diffuser

Fastining PinWall Bracket

13W CFL (7)

1/0 Switch

Fastining Plate

Topography

Spines

Fastening Tabs

Social Wall

Social Wall

The idea for the social wall began as an exploration into the idea of creating a collaborative interaction that breaks the boundaries of physical space. Based on the interest in having two human inputs to initiate the responsive output in the surface, the project required at least two individuals to trigger the surface interaction. Depending on where the two people are in physical space determines the location where the wall reacts. The wall illuminates on the opposite side of the user, allowing the second user to see their collaborate reaction and vice versa. In eff ect, the wall allows visual contact with another individual without physically seeing the person. Using the digital model and a scale module of the wall, the behavior of the installation was simulated as the installation would react within the lobby of the A&AA Building. Light sensors detect the proximity of the users. When the people move closer to each other and ultimately reach a point where they would be face-to-face in the physical world, the wall illuminates to full brightness, where the wall communicates the union of their interaction.

Summer 2011Grasshopper + Firefl y WorkshopInstructors Andy Payne and Jason Kelly Johnson

Hand Drawings

Graphite on Bristol18 x 24 in.

Previous:Coat, Desk, Chair

Left:International House,

UC BerkeleyTree

Middle:Vermeer Copy

Dave Van Ronk 1Dave Van Ronk 2

Right:Mississippi John Hurt

Panurge

Graphite on Bristol18 x 24 in.

Ancestral Realm:US ArmyManzanarFisherman

Taproot Project

Genetic Modifi cations:1. Luminescent Skin2. Structural Root Mesh3. Accelerated Growth4. Water Network5. Ecosystem Primer

6. Trunk Entrance7. Vertical Circulation8. Passive Ventilation9. Diurnal Cycles10. Seasonal Cycles

Fall 2011Addressing a Crisis Pre-Studio ProjectProfessor Erin Moore

Taproot Project

Using pre-existing trees to create underground natural reserves. The Taproot Project splices foreign DNA into a tree’s genome, eff ectively reprogramming the tree’s root system to expand downward to create an underground habitat. The result is a structural luminescent skin, which fosters the growth of a closed loop ecosystem to be enjoyed by those who desire an escape from urban overcrowding.

Plastic Quarry

Plastic Quarry

A facility that demonstrates environmentally benefi cial quarrying techniques. Instead of extracting materials from the earth, this quarry mines from waste plastic to aid in its decomposition as well as generate new raw material. As an intermediary step in this process, the refi ned plastic is slowly injected from a structural network forming a dynamic building envelope that meets the thermal demands of the changing seasons.

The Plastic Quarry is located in Barre, Vermont.

“Some types of change are only noticed over a generous amount of time; one day you look up and realize the progress of slow and steady movement.”-Zen Master Tetsuo

Fall 2011Architecture StudioLyceum CompetitionProfessor Erin Moore

Oil Plastic Landfill

Plastic Quarry

Industrial core continuously excretes refined plastic through a structural network.

A

C1D

Train Conveyor ImportConveyor ExportWalking Path

Section CutIndustrialResidenceEducational PavilionArtist Studios

C2

B2

B1

A.B.C.D.

The plastic skin adapts to the thermal conditions of the seasons. In the spring it is harvested as raw material and exported.

Summer Fall Winter Spring

The Mirror + The Cave

The Mirror + The CaveAddition to the Henry Mercer Museum

In 1916 the historian and archaeologist Henry C. Mercer designed and built a museum to preserve handmade objects being discarded in favor of the new machine-goods of the Industrial Revolution. The museum is a 6-story poured-in-place “concrete castle” located in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

An expanding program and desire to involve “visitors in a meaningful explorations of the past, present, and future through active engagement with its dramatic buildings and historical collections,” created the need to expand the museum. The principle aim of the new addition is to respect Mercer’s original intentions and to preserve the formal and historic purity of the exterior.

Above ground, the new addition refl ects the castle through a shallow pool - the mirror. A fracture develops in the mirror, projecting an image underground. The expression of the new museum becomes distorted with the cave imagery revered by the old archeologist.

Winter 2011Architecture StudioProfessor James Givens

Casting a model of the concrete walls

The intention of these walls is to communicate the feeling of being underground by expressing the massive force required to contain the earth. The resulting form allows light from above to seemingly trickle down the wall.

The Curtain

The CurtainPortland Film Center

The Curtain is a symbol for denied access. The unveiling of the screen before the beginning of a fi lm is an important tradition. Anticipation mounts and children become impatient, their desires actively suppressed by the curtain until fi nally their wants penetrate the barricade. Exclusivity (without social or hierarchical implications) is intentionally used to illicit intrigue and wonder, while building an ever deepening desire through the delayed promise of access to the unattainable. The result is an architecturally cinematic progression of space.

The Portland Film Center is located in Portland, Oregon.

Spring 2012Architecture StudioProfessor James Givens

The Portland Film Center is a 60,000 ft2 building which includes fi lm theatres, fi lm editing suites, administration, and a restaurant.

The spaces are initially arranged according to patterns of use, grouping spaces with similar thermal requirements together. This distinction of form creates a separation between the public theatre realm, and the private editing and administrative suites.

Natural ventilation is achieved by enclosing the separated space between the independent volumes to create a stack eff ect.

A connection is made from the fi lm editing suites with the theatres by a series of bridges. In some instances, these bridges connect directly to a theatre and become the projection room, allowing fi lm makers to instantly play their fi lms on the big screen.

Due to the solar obstruction by the southern apartment complex, and the greater need for natural light for the offi ces, access to the sun is increased by lowering the height of the theatres and raising part of the offi ce block.

Unifi cation is established by draping a curtain over the independent forms. This becomes the infrastructure for a dynamic sun shading system that protects the space from high solar gains in the summer. In the winter, the shades can be fully drawn to increase insulation, helping to retain heat.

A large screen is inserted into the building, utilizing the roof as an outdoor theatre similar to the community movie nights in a park or a drive-in movie theatre. The projected fi lm on the semi-transparent screen can also be viewed from the streets of Portland.

n bby

East-West Section

North-South Section

RESEARCH// DESIGN

Contact

The projects featured in this document are a selection of work completed or in-progress during the fi rst two years of my Master’s of Architecture degree at the University of Oregon. Once again, I thank you for taking an interest in my work. I welcome any feedback or questions.

Max Moriyama

e: maxmoriyama@gmail.comtel: +1 714 932 7556

1075 Lawrence St.Eugene, OR