Browsing by Author "Korkuti, Arian"
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- An Analogical Garden of MemoryVermillion, Emma Flower (Virginia Tech, 2022-08-14)An architect draws from a deep repository of past memories made durable in the act of architecture. This thesis is a study of the analogous relationship between a childhood memory of a garden and a set of architectural acts giving form to this memory. The ideas of threshold, meander, focus, and framing are the basic conditions of the project. Perspectives and montages are the primary methods of study. The project is a garden placed within the context of an imagined city setting up the interplay of silence amidst the cacophony of the city. It centers around a singular tree, informed by a specific childhood memory. The single tree in concert with the architectural conditions allows one to resist the inexorable rush of urban time.
- Bedford Elks Lodge conceptual design : Prepared by the Community Design Assistance Center for the Bedford Elks Lodge #2844, Bedford, VirginiaGilboy, Elizabeth; Steika, Kim; Korkuti, Arian; Fields, Kristin; Marshall, Ashleigh; Meier, Kerry (Virginia Tech. Community Design Assistance Center, 2011-03)The Elks Lodge #2844 of Bedford, Virginia hired the Community Design Assistance Center (CDAC) to develop a conceptual architectural design and site plan for a new Elks lodge. The Bedford Elks recently purchased a 5-acre parcel that is adjacent to the National Elks Home to build their new lodge. Due to the site’s close proximity to the grand and iconic National Elks Home, members desire the new lodge to reflect the architectural style of the National Home, while maintaining their spatial needs and budget as well as their own distinct identity. The Bedford Elks envision their new building to be capable of a variety of uses. A large banquet hall that would be functional as a meeting place for lodge members as well as a transformable space for producing revenue through event rental is desired. In addition, the lodge should contain a kitchen capable of serving the banquet hall, an Elks Room for members only, and office space. The site boasts an excellent view of the Blue Ridge Mountains as well as the National Elks Home, and a building that takes advantage of these views is desired. The Elks envision the new lodge to be a place for daily business as well as special events and would like to create a destination within the community.
- City on the Hill - Palazzo della CommediaKorkuti, Arian (Virginia Tech, 2012-06-13)This thesis is an exploration of three architectural types: regia, tholus, and theatrum which put together in the form of a building would demonstrate the nature of architecture. My quest traces these types in time and geography and combines them in a play that takes place in the form of a building in Blacksburg, Virginia and on the foothills of mythical Mount Alban near Rome, Italy. Furthermore, this thesis addresses questions regarding methods of construction techniques, and building materials used in each of the building forms presented. In doing so it reinterprets a traditional construction technique through a study model.
- Cleveland Elementary School Site Redesign + Cleveland Ball Park Redesign + Riverwalk Conceptual DesignsGilboy, Elizabeth; Browning, Lara; Korkuti, Arian; Jessup, Jennifer; Walker, Harley; Wan, Mingchao (Virginia Tech. Community Design Assistance Center, 2014-01)Cleveland is a community of approximately 130 people located in Russell County in southwest Virginia. The Town is situated on the Clinch River, one of most biodiverse rivers in North America. The Clinch has more species of endangered and rare freshwater mussels than anywhere else in the world. Cleveland recognizes the value of this unique river and hopes to utilize its natural assets to promote tourism and stimulate economic growth.
The Community Design Assistance Center (CDAC) was tasked with developing conceptual designs for upgrading the existing ball park and reusing the former Cleveland Elementary School site as an RV park and campground. In addition, the team explored the possibility of linking the project sites, downtown, and the Barrens waterfall with a river walk. CDAC worked closely with the community and stakeholder groups to develop these concepts which are discussed in further detail in the following report. - Etudes in DemonstrationLayden, Kaitlyn Rose (Virginia Tech, 2021-08-03)Geometry has long been studied and considered sacred for its ability to represent and make comprehensible the myriad phenomena of the natural world. Geometry is idealized form, understood in the mind and can be represented in the two-dimensional realm of drawing. Other geometries exist outside of our minds, in the physical world and can demonstrate universal truths and orders which cause us to be. The act of geometrical demonstration allows for the construction of invisible forces, orders, and patterns underpinning the physical world. This work consists of a series of primarily perspectival drawings which rely on the idea of proportion as a means to construct, demonstrate, and represent potential architectures.
- The Evocation of WonderEnkhbold, Nasanbileg (Virginia Tech, 2022-02-01)The following pages serve as a record of the tracing of wonder in the development of a project for a temple of light and shadow. They recount a search formed through the wading of a chaos that cherishes in its heart a luminous array of color and form; it is a documentation of discovery pulsing forth from intoxicating possibility. Within these wilds of new beginnings, from the countless paths left unventured, there comes to light an order. An arrangement of form brought forth and traced through points, lines then tone, dedicated to light and shadow, its existence and staging of moments within it serving to call forth from concealment, a manifestation of wonder.
- Kinetic DemonstrationsSpruill, Raymond Taylor (Virginia Tech, 2022-12-05)This thesis studies general architectural conditions in pursuit of the ideal through specific acts of drawn geometric constructs. It attempts to clear away superimposed doxa from architecture, making space for a demonstration of epistemic constructs. These projections of the ideal carry with them the basic autonomy of form. The demonstrations are a search for what is true in architecture. The purest form of architecture can be found in drawing; drawing is bound to the fundamental axioms of geometric construction. The explorations are situated in the space between the ideal and the natural. Several kinds of parallel projections are developed into a set of rationally constructed demonstrations culminating in the posting of an ideal city. Through the practice of drawing, five propositions emerge. Drawing in a kinetic dimension. Drawing as a reconciliatory act between potentiality and actuality. Drawing in question of perception. Drawing as a precursor to model making and photography.
- Learning center at Fishburn Forest concept design : Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VAGilboy, Elizabeth; Korkuti, Arian; Steika, Kim; Rogers, Robin; Smith, Liam; Wan, Milo; Burg, Gardner; Dunne, Peter; Jessup, Jennifer; Pieri, Gray; Poteet, Tish (Virginia Tech. Community Design Assistance Center, 2014-03)The Fishburn property is a site of about 1,400 acres located about 6 miles west of the Virginia Tech Blacksburg campus. It was donated to Virginia Tech by Junius B. Fishburn, former president of the Southwest Virginia Trust Co. and former owner of the Roanoke Times. Approximately 1,350 acres is owned by Virginia Tech and the remaining 53 acres by the Virginia Tech Foundation. The Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation (Dept of FREC) manages the property and uses it as a living lab for a variety of classes that require field work.
The Department of FREC would like to build a learning center that could serve a variety of uses including supporting the educational activities of the Department; renting the facility to other groups for meetings, conferences, weddings, and community functions; and opening the site more formally to the public. Two possible locations for the facility were selected by FREC representatives for consideration.
Preliminary programing elements for the building include a meeting hall for approximately 50 people, a kitchen, restrooms, offices, and a caretaker’s facility.
The Fishburn project began with an initial site visit to the property, guided by Dr. Mike Aust, Forestry Professor. During that visit, Dr. Aust shared some of the site’s past and more contemporary history with the CDAC design team. Two potential locations were identified for the learning center’s concept design. Qualities of each site were discussed with Dr. Aust as well as current uses by the College of Natural Resources and the university at large. The CDAC team photographed each site and conducted an inventory and analysis. Additional visits to the site were made to gather and confirm site analysis information.
After completing inventory and analysis for each site, the CDAC team prepared four preliminary design ideas for the learning center - two for each site. These design ideas were presented to faculty, staff, and administration in the College of Natural Resources and the Environment (CNRE). Additionally, a short survey was prepared. This survey along with 11x17 drawings of the design ideas were distributed to faculty for review and comment.
Based on comments received from faculty and staff as well as guidance from Dr. Janaki Alavapati, the CDAC team narrowed the design focus to what was termed “Site 2” and developed two conceptual design options for that site. Conceptual designs were presented to Joshua Galloway (Community Housing Partners) and Mark McConel (Summit Studio), architects on the CDAC Design Review Panel. Refinements were made based on their feedback. The designs were presented in November 2013 to the client group. Slight revisions were made based on comments from this presentation and one final conceptual design for the structure and caretaker’s residence and one final site master plan were prepared for the learning center.
This short supporting report was prepared to document the design process and describe the design concepts prepared by the Community Design Assistance Center. - Maison de CoutureGent, Bailey Lynn (Virginia Tech, 2021-07-30)This project stems from the dualities joining two worlds: couture, the art of fashion and architecture, the art of building. They both involve the intelligible and the sensible, the skill of the artist and the engineer. Architecture tends towards the rational whereas fashion depends on the emotional. Architecture constructs rational things discovered through conventional methods. Fashion brings the emotional and the sheer immediacy and drama of momentary seasonal trends. This study is made up of two sections, the first, a collection of screen prints and images the second, a collection of conventional methods and projections. The gossamer like screen prints serve as cameras into the world within the Maison de Couture. They capture the essence of the creative process, always-in-motion spirit of a fashion house. The architectural projections describe the architectural skeleton of the Maison. The house is a place for expression; design, fabrication, and demonstration of the spectacle of couture. The heart of this building lies on the central longitudinal axis, where a double helix stair case rotates down to the basement level and spirals up to the rooftop level. Couture pieces are styled and modeled on a series of catwalks that are cartesian extensions of the stair landings. Invited guests can view the spectacle of the fashion show. The stair is a place to see and be seen. The stair becomes the spirit of the Maison de Couture. The works of art worn by the models trickle down the stair, one by one, allowing a select few to view these unique pieces for the first time.
- Patrick Robert Sydnor Civil War Era Historic Site + Log CabinGilboy, Elizabeth; Browning, Lara; Korkuti, Arian; Im, JooWon; Rollins, Michael; Smith, Liam; Young, Colby; Walker, Harley (Virginia Tech. Community Design Assistance Center, 2013-08)The Patrick Robert Sydnor Civil War Era Historic Site and Log Cabin are located in Mecklenburg County, Virginia near routes 15 and 58. Surrounded by wooded lots and farmland, the rural setting complements the historic nature of the site. Located on a wooded area of 4.41 acres, the cabin is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register. Built during the antebellum era, the cabin was used to house the enslaved workers of the nearby Prestwould Plantation.
The log cabin site is named after Patrick Robert "Parker" Sydnor (1854-1950), a locally well-known Virginia tombstone carver, who lived in the cabin during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Parker Sydnor was born into slavery in Halifax County. He worked for forty years at his craft and there is evidence that he began making gravestones before 1900.
The log cabin has undergone structural transformation because it was continuously occupied by African American families and maintained to the best of their abilities up until the 1970s. Most of those occupants were immediate descendants of enslaved African Americans at the Prestwould and Sydnor plantations in Mecklenburg and Halifax counties.
Thus the Sydnor log cabin shifted in physical appearance and function throughout various historical periods after slavery when African American families struggled to survive and succeed. The home place was a foundation for freedom, autonomy, self-reliance, faith and the legacy of endurance. The Sydnor log cabin was characterized by an enslaved workforce, freedwomen and freedmen, sharecroppers, and unconditional poverty.
Literacy lnterActives, Inc. requested that the Community Design Assistance Center (CDAC) develop plans to rehabilitate the Patrick Robert Sydnor Log Cabin and design a new visitors center. These two features are strengthened with the design of a conceptual master plan that includes a nature trail, amphitheater, natural play area, various gardens and caretaker's house.
Throughout the design process, the CDAC team worked collaboratively with Literacy lnterActives, Inc. and members of the Mecklenburg County community to develop conceptual plans for the historic site. This report documents the design process and describes the final concepts that were developed. - Proportions and LightHe, Xinnuo (Virginia Tech, 2022-02-01)This thesis is an inquiry between music and architecture. The rational and emotional aspects of music are applied into architectural language. Rationally, the base for both music and architecture is mathematic, or proportions, which derives from the cosmic order, and gives the harmonic sense for the ears and the eyes. They are both carefully constructed on paper: scores and constructive drawings. Neither of them will make sense unless through experience, which will take to an emotional journey. The numbers for Pythagoras scale are the agreement of sounds that affects our ears with delight, the same that can please our eyes and our minds. Since harmonic ratios inherent in nature are revealed in music, the architect who relies on those harmonies makes use of a universal harmony apparent in music. Light moves within a space throughout time in a year, it can be considered as a time signature for the season and the day in architecture. The form and material change the quality of light. Light and shadow gives rhythm in a space. Music is close to heaven with eternity. In Japan, Mount Fuji is the highest mountain and people worship it as a symbol of immortality. Both of them have their trace connect to nature. The journey for this thesis is about exhibiting a series of woodblock prints called Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, using knowledge of proportions and light. By ordering the prints into a certain order, the exhibition eventually celebrates the Mount Fuji itself.
- Ratiocinium in the Architectural Practice of Giuseppe Terragni and its role in the relationship between architecture and the city during the modern movements in ItalyKorkuti, Arian (Virginia Tech, 2021-01-11)The architectural practice of Giuseppe Terragni (1904-1943) takes place during the twentieth century modern social movements, as architecture and urban form follow a major shift in the political conditions, in Italy and beyond. This dissertation is a demonstration of the quest for the rational in the architectural practice of Giuseppe Terragni. Furthermore, it sorts out the role of Terragni's practice in the dichotomous relationships between city and architecture as well as state and project. Initially, it is the obligation of this dissertation to address questions of principles, in order to build a plenum for the relationship between the city and architecture. It traces movements through translation and transformation of architectural impression, in form and type, and its meta in concinnity, in terms of legacy, legitimacy, and the rational in idea. THESIS. The implicit rational in architecture exists in hierarchical order that allows for it to form unity of the whole that any of its constituents cannot form individually. It should be the architect's duty to fully reconcile all the elements in action – for and against form – in architecture, and demonstrate that the resultant is not a mere compromise but a necessary optimal condition. Therefore, I start with a stance in which I attempt to show how Giuseppe Terragni, in his ratiocinium, explicates the implicit rational in architecture, against the sea of protean political conditions. Giuseppe Terragni can be understood in his convictions which we may be able to sort out through his words, works, and deeds. In his pursuit of the rational Giuseppe Terragni offers a clue to the time and actions taking place, as if he were to remind us of the Homeric song about the deeds of men with convictions under their destiny and their ironic tragicomedy. Terragni's Danteum is the one instance where destiny seems closer to fulfillment. Dante Alighieri's dream of the glorious empire seems to materialize in the signs of the monarchy and its savior – Mussolini. Since the fascist movement concerns itself with questions of legitimacy that in lineage shifts between histories of origins and middles, the shifting in language plays an important role in the sorting out of factum and verum. Languages that enter into this play shift laterally mainly between Greek, Latin, and Italian. And, at times Dardanian and Proto-Albanian, both Illyrian dialects, enter the play. METHOD. Many aspects of this inquiry demand specific research methods as shown through the general and specific instances of man's activity as work which results in that which is made (factum) and the pursuit of that which is true (verum). Therefore, method in the sense of search for the way concerning purpose in what is made is conducted through istoria and historiography. Meanwhile, the search for truth, as it does not concern itself with the same scope as factum, requires philosophy as means towards knowledge, to sort out questions regarding truth. This dissertation follows certain Italian philosophers as guides in the pursuit. Not the least among them is Giambattista Vico who proposes that universal laws of development of men and society can be traced through the union between verum and factum. So, verum and factum become characters of the same play. Philology, love for reason, as a subspecies of philosophy, is a means toward knowledge in unraveling of the layers of the rational in the making. Additionally, in this inquiry, I employ analogies, diagrams, ideograms, and images, which demonstrate the quest for the rational in the architectural practice of Giuseppe Terragni.
- Reynolds Homestead : Community Enrichment Center, Critz, VAGilboy, Elizabeth; Korkuti, Arian; Houck, Chris; Sergeyev, Ivan; Walker, Harley (Virginia Tech. Community Design Assistance Center, 2012-12)As a Commonwealth Campus Center of Virginia Tech, the Reynolds Homestead Community Enrichment Center provides educational and cultural programs for the residents of Patrick County and the surrounding communities in Virginia and North Carolina. A wide variety of classes are offered such as music, art, lectures, children’s activities, fitness programs & movies. Located in Critz, Virginia, the current facility (constructed in the 1980s) does not meet current program demands. Consequently, the Reynolds Homestead asked the Community Design Assistance Center to conduct a design feasibility study to determine a program plan of space needed and develop conceptual drawings for a renovation/addition to the current facility.
- A Series of Questions, a Joining of PartsCross, Philip Edward (Virginia Tech, 2022-07-05)This thesis is an exploration of method demonstrated in a series of mechanical drawings of the elements. An investigation of methods of drawing and of how different questions can be asked through drawing. Furthermore, this thesis asks the question of place in the elements of fire, earth, and sky in the formal relationship between walls, joints, trusses. These architectural elements protect against the natural ones, forming place focused around the hearth. This thesis traces the formal relationship between the elements of architecture stemming from the German thinker Gottfried Semper's treatise on architecture, but diverges from Semper's fixation with materiality and delves into questions of form, appearance, and construction through drawing. The drawings address questions about the elements; questions about form, tectonics, and the relation of part to whole. The whole becomes a building focused on forming a place and the relation of the elements to one another.
- Surface in the Making: A Study in Colors and WeavingBrahma, Sreeya (Virginia Tech, 2022-10-03)
- WayFinding: A Story Told Through The SensesColeman, Erin Ashley (Virginia Tech, 2022-06-27)Architecture often references the five senses through conveying moments and experiences that someone could have in a specific setting. The purpose of this thesis is to dive deeper into how the senses can be engaged and how they relate to the concept of wayfinding. This thesis explores how engaging the senses can assist in a person's physical and mental wayfinding, specifically through touch, sight, and smell. The building typology best suited to experiment with this was a community center because it is used by a myriad of different people of varying ages, height, mobility, etc. Multiple studies were conducted that centered around different textures, floral fragrances, and light quality. This is a story that takes you on a journey through a community center and narrates how the different senses are engaged, specifically with regards to wayfinding. In three different chapters you will feel the touch of a wall, follow a path of different fragrances, and see through different perspectives.