METALAB » Architecture

MIRABEAU B

The MIRABEAU B SALES CENTER is a temporary structure installed on the site of a proposed LEED Certified, 14-unit Condominium to be built by a Green developer in Houston. It is built from a kit-of-parts composed of two recycled 20’ shipping containers and a series of digitally designed and fabricated components that provide solar racking, shading, signage and exterior decking. With a marketing and communications firm specializing in renewable energy, we developed the Sales Center to serve as visual promotion of the project, real estate agent’s office, material sample display and as a public interpretive center for sustainable architecture. The containers and their components are truly portable so the Center will be up-cycled after its job as a Sales Center is complete. Their role as prefab offices with integrated solar panels and minimal site impact will be carried forward beyond their initial purpose.
AIA Houston Design Award 2009 “Citation for Sustainability”

ROUND PEN

The Round Pen is a standard size – 62’ diameter – open riding arena that is used to train yearling horses in a simple environment without distraction. This project was a re-invention of this rural building typology, using computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) laser cutting and digital modeling to create a kit of parts that was built on site by skilled craftsmen using only scaffolding, minimal equipment, and hand tools. Precise truss layouts were generated, along with parts and assemblies directly fabricated from the digital model. A unique convergence of design, manufacturing, and craftsmanship resulted from this highly collaborative and interdependent effort.

AIA Houston Design Award 2008 with Joe Mashburn

AURORA PICTURE SHOW

An addition to the Menil campus behind the gray bungalow, Aurora picture show is a an indoor/outdoor screening space. A large window box will operate as a dual direction projection screen. A large door will hinge to cover the window during indoor screening events. It will open and the lawn will be activated as a outdoor theater.

NEW HARMONY GROTTO
The Grotto for Meditation proposed in 1963 for New Harmony, Indiana commissioned by Mrs. Jane Blaffer Owen was the culmination of the work of the avant-garde architect Frederick Kiesler. Through the UH College of Architecture and the Kiesler Foundation, we engaged in formal research and tectonic resolution of the project employing contemporary digital modeling and fabrication technologies at our College and in our city. Our university has opened the door to the opportunity that our reinterpreted Grotto become a permanent fixture in a Garden dedicated to New Harmony on the campus next to a pond that it is currently under construction. The proposal included a steel trellis based on Kiesler’s Grotto, the original gate and a bridge that curves in plan and section.

INNOVATION TERRITORIES

An invited competition, Innovation Territories (IT) 093 – 066, was curated by AIA Houston andNew Yorkartist Mary Ellen Carroll to explore the potential of the slowly decaying Sharpstown Mall area. The proposition digs a deep hole into the southeast corner of the lot, scraping the existing shopping mall structure in and encapsulating the debris. The dirt removed from the hole is used to create a structured mound over Interstate 59, thereby extending the useable land. The site is then converted to a green space with some combination of park space, productive landscape, comminty garden, and pasture-land.

A 400,000 SF footprint mixed-use building sits at the center of the site with retail on the bottom floor, and offices, hotel, condo, and event space above. A depression in the site above the debris field becomes a lake and its surrounding marshland become a reservoir and habitat for native plants and animals, while providing ample storm water retention for this site, and others around it, with excess storm water capacity being reserved and sold as credits to future area development in order to promote density.

Competition Winner with Faro Studio

Head of Jury: Charles Renfro, Partner, Diller Scofidio + Renfro

CUTLOOSE

A façade makeover for Cutloose Salon on the Westheimer commercial strip in Montrose. CNC cut serrated blade edges and flap pack letters for the letters and graphic identity while thousands of hanging ball-chains strands of “hair” are suspended from the perforated metal canopy and are cut into a angular style that might be the first architectural “mullet”.