SEAN MICHAEL KELLYArchitecture Portfolio, 2013

Intern Architect 16711 148th Avenue SE Renton, WA 98058 (206) 696-8962 sean.mic.kelly@gmail.com

© 2013

I am an M. Arch graduate, with construction management experience, interested in enriching our

built environment through sustainable, functional, and aesthetically-appealing design solutions.

At its core, I feel great design:

is process and constraint drivenis cognizant of craft

is enviromentally and economically sustainablequestions conventional wisdom (innovates)

is collaborativeis contextually sensitive

promotes social heterogeneityintegrates seemingly disparate bodies of knowledge

cover image: 51” x 51” lasercut Birch topography model of Snoqualmie Pass Wilderness Area

Hello!

UW Energy Engineering

An energy research and education building for The University of Washington.

06Urban Bike Shelter

A repair shop, cafe, and parking shelter for bikes in Seattle’s

Fremont neighborhood.

05Creative Commons

Community programmed / “open-ended” urbanism in Seattle’s

Central District

04

Copenhagen Greenthumb

A hydroponic food production and mushroom growing facility that reuses abandoned railroad tracks to move the greenhouses in accordance with changing sun

angles.

03Nørrebro Mediatek

A library within Nørrebro park (in Copenhagen) that speaks to digital medias increasing

dematerialization of the information we consume.

02Infrastructural Ecologies

Converting an abandoned flourmill on Seattle’s Harbor

Island into an aquaponic food production and education facility.

01

* Undergraduate projects and non-academic work available upon request.

This thesis project explored ways in which highly specialized, yet technologically obsolete, buildings could be reprogrammed/

retrofitted with contemporary uses by finding overlap between two-differing processes with coincident material flows and building forms. As the case-in-point, the abandoned Fisher Flourmill, on Seattle’s Harbor Island, was converted into an aquaponic food-production and education facility with four primary goals:

1. To retain Seattle’s industrial heritage by re-using and re-contextualizing its existing infrastructure.

2. To produce food locally, thereby reducing the disconnect between food-producer and consumer.

3. To reframe the interaction between the general public and the means of production that sustain us, since traditionally industrial processes have been removed from public view.

4. To remediate the superfund site of Harbor Island by injecting the soil with effective microorganisms (compost tea), a byproduct of the aquaponics process.

The design emerged based on the building’s technical constraints, becoming more like an instrument in the end– an approach coincident with industrial architecture’s valuation of usefulness over aesthetics (a more subjective measure). But, that’s not to say the aesthetic experience was unimportant. Rather, a newly punctured (public) circulation paths, through previously enclosed spaces, made the otherwise abstract processes of building-as-flourmill and building-as-aquaponics-facility tangible to visitors less familiar with each process. Light became the evocator, illuminating these obscure internal spaces along with their aged surfaces. As well, it communicated the building’s food-growing capabilities at night, redefining Seattle’s industrial skyline in the process. In short, this proposal reimagines an ecology served by infrastructure rather than one subservient to it, thereby reaffirming humanity’s role as planetary steward.

01Infrastructural Ecologies

Spring 2013 | Rick Mohler & David Strauss, UW CBE

1 fish tank platforms added to silos

4new structure aligned with existing grid

5bottom ofgreenhouse liftedtriangularly (for lateral support), creating a public observationspace into the greenhouse above and fish tanks below

6plant beds tier, maximizing sun exposure

7plants and fishadded to thesystem at ~ 1:1ratio

2small silo punctures bring light in

3greenhouse placed above existing structure

Existing Material FlowsBuilding as Flourmill

Regional Context

Proposed Material FlowsBuilding as Aquaponics Facility

New Water CirculationGreenhouse Air/CO2 Circulation

OR

Passive Ventilation

2” Drilled Holes with Glass Infill (adds natu-ral light to exterior silo tanks)

Cleaned water exits the grow area through openings in the floor. That water is then pumped directly into either the isolated fish tank(s) below or is sent back to the main water tank (on floor 7 of the headhouse) where it circulates through all the fish tanks (globally) from the beginning.

Water return to individual fish tanks

Water return to entire network of fish

Supplemental lighting is located underneath grow beds

A continuous walkway cuts through openings in the silo tank walls. As people move along the top of the this walkway, fish can swim through the opening below. This opening can also be closed off in case a more closed ecosystem is desired between the plant beds above and the specified tank.

Arranging a system that can both isolate and include the fish within the whole system, creates resilience. If something catastrophic were to occur in a tank, such as disease, it could be quickly isolated before spreading. Also, separation is necessary to control fish populations, since in aquaculture males and females are typically separated.

Once dirtied, the water from individual tanks can be returned to the Pump Room through a drain pipe running back down the vertical-plenum

Active Ventilation Return:When the façade is closed, air is pumped through the bottom of the southeastern edge and returns through the top of the Northeastern “circulation spine”.

Ammoniated Water Supply (blue pipe) enters from the top of the structure. Once it reaches the end of the first bed, it’s pumped back into the top of the bed below until it reaches the end of the lowest bed.

Active Ventilation

Both people and resources circulate along this northeastern “Circulation Spine,” minimizing structure along the more-important southwestern side

The Integrated SystemThe tectonic language of the addition reflects the flow of materials through the building (i.e.- water, air, sunlight). The required flow rate of water through the system generates the 1:10 greenhouse ramp slopes.

The grow beds tier, bringing light deeper into the structure while also creating a high pressure air-zone at the top of the enclosure which pulls air up through the skin when the operable windows are open.

The exterior shell is triangulated to laterally resist shear forces. This minimizes any overshadowing that may be caused from laterally bracing within the enclosure.

Greenhouse Air/CO2 Circulation Fish Silo Air/CO2 Circulation

1910

1916

1956

1912

1920

1990

1913

1929

2004 The Existing Building as Flourmill (mono-functional)

Existing Conditions

Selective Demolition and Deconstruction

AdditionGrowth & DecayTimeline

The Repurposed Building as Aquaponics Facility (multi-functional). The Headhouse remains the main vertical artery.

Longitudinal Section Perspective of Existing Mill (looking southwest)

Longitudinal Section Perspective of Repurposed Mill (looking southwest)

MAIN ENTRY LOBBYAs you enter into the main triple-height lobby space on the ground level, you see the new public staircase cutting obliquely up through the old temper bins.

VIEW UP THE OLD TEMPER BINS

Walking up the new stairs due south, hanging lights illuminate the grand height of the temper bins, adding dynamic qualities to a space once packed with saturated wheat.

TRANSVERSE SECTION PERSPECTIVE (looking East)

The new public circulation route begins at the entry lobby, and cuts up through the existing temper bins. This new route is also accessible from the 4th floor Klickitat Avenue entry.

In the landscape, creosote logs removed from the delapidated dock are innoculated with mushrooms to create a the mycoremediation “forest,” while Poplar trees and Vetiver begin to bioaccumulate the soil’s contaminants.

VIEW INTO THE FISH REARING SILOS

VIEW ALONG GREENHOUSE “CIRCULATION SPINE”

TRANSVERSE SECTION PERSPECTIVE (looking southeast)

As one reaches the bend at the top of the stairs, they turn back into the building to discover the first viewing platform (into the fish-rearing silos).

VIEW DOWNWARD INTO A SILO FISH TANK

VIEW FROM THE NORTHEASTERN VIEWING PLATFORM

PUBLIC VIEWING PLATFORM

From the viewing platforms (located above each of the silo tanks) visitors can observe the fish swimming below and the plants growing above (through openings in the greenhouse floor).

Sited within Nørrebro Park (in Copenhagen, Denmark), this library appears as a series of fragmented planes cutting

through the landscape. Its linearity and converging sight lines disguise the building’s size when approaching along the north-south bike path. Conversely, the layering of transparent and transluscent glass planes create an atmospheric effect when viewed from the east/west park entrances. As well, the varying opacity and reflectivity of these panes obscure the building’s true form as the surrounding trees create collaged reflections upon the glass surfaces. When combined with shadow, light, and digital projections, these surfaces become spectacles that change throughout the day and into the night. This transience in form and virtualization of content (light on surface) speak to digital technologies ongoing dematerialization of the media we consume.

The central core of the complex is a thin, three-story, building comprised of book stacks, personal reading nooks, an underground auditorium, and “digital commons.” An outdoor auditorium also sits atop this artificial landscape and is framed by the central core and inner glass pane. Light wells illuminate the subterranean areas during the day and project light upward onto the glass surfaces at night.

02Nørrebro Mediatek

Spring 2012 | Morton Vedelsbøl, The Royal Danish Academy

URBAN CONTEXT

BACKLIT EAST FACADE

OVERLAPPING PANES

NORTHERN APPROACH ALONG BIKE PATH NORTHERN FACADE

FRONTLIT WEST FACADE

ILLUMINATED AT NIGHTEAST ENTRY (PLAN VIEW)

EAST ENTRY ALONG BIKE PATH

TRANSVERSE SECTION PERSPECTIVE (looking South)

The central core of the library holds the printed media, and has various reading nooks for visitors to relax in. Digital projectors, located along the central core, project movies and various other spectacles onto the transluscent glass panes. Below ground, the digital commons provides an area where minds can meet and creatively innovate.

B 1 2

L O N G I T U D I N A L SECTION PERSPECTIVE (looking South)

The artificial and undulating landscape extends into the building as stairs split the floorplates into spatially diverse nooks and passages.

CENTRAL BOOK STACKS CENTRAL COURTYARD

ENTRY

Along Copenhagen’s redeveloping South Harbor sits the remnants of a demolished manufacturing warehouse,

complete with train tracks and water access. Reincorporating this post-industrial infrastructure into an urban agriculture facility set the tone for my thesis project a year later. With food production historically located outside the city boundaries, the distance/energy required to transport food to consumers inward gradually increases as the city expands. This project seeked to invert this trend by introducing vertical agriculture into the city proper.

The larger idea was to take Copenhagen’s five finger plan and reimagined the [opposable] thumb as a self-sustaining system capable of “closing the loop” on production/consumption/waste cycles within the city. The train tracks allowed three-story hydroponic “growing pods” to move across an open field according to varying sun angles throughout the year. The pods combine to create deeper floor areas in the winter months, and break apart to accommodate steeper sun angles in the summer months. The building’s location next to the Dong Energy plant is also opportune, as excess heat could be pumped from the plant and into the growing pods during the winter months.

A “spine” located along the western edge of the tracks is used to harvest the vegetables and sell them to the public, or ship them to other local markets. Public picnic/grilling areas are also located within the structure. Openings in the “spine” were created based on “pod” locations– The likelihood that a growing pod would be parked alongside the structure at anytime throughout the year (as dictated by sun angles) created a probability map or “solar DNA strand” which informed where each opening should occur.

03Copenhagen Greenthumb

Fall 2011 | Morton Vedelsbøl, The Royal Danish Academy

URBAN MATERIAL FLOWS

EXISTING INDUSTRIAL WATERFRONT

Monthly Pod Location Schedule

The pod location shedule merges to create the annual probability chart (above), showing the likelihood that any of the moveable pods would be in a single location (at harvest time)– The building’s west side was carved accordingly.

Jan / NovDec Feb / Oct Mar / Sep

Pods 14° 23°11°

Pods Pods

IDEAL POSITION OF GROWING PODS (by month)

The pod location shedule merges to create the annual probability chart (above), showing the likelihood that any of the moveable pods would be in a single location (at harvest time)– The building’s west side was carved accordingly.

Mar / Sep Apr / Aug May / July June

57°54°46°34°Pods Pods Pods Pods

Typical Greenhouse

Dynamic shades

Uniform climate throughout

Partially Dynamic Greenhouse

Dynamic shades

Partitioned and differing climates by section

Static sections cannot respond to changing sun angles

Dynamic Greenhouse

Dynamic shades

Partitioned and differing climates by section

Dynamic sections– distance between sections depends upon differing sun angle.

CENTRAL PLAZA

Excess Heat Imported from Dong Energy Plant

TRANSVERSE SECTION PERSPECTIVE (looking South)

People can enter the “grow pods” from the harvest spine then pick vegetables straight from the media-beds before purchasing and grilling them on-site in the adjacent cooking spaces.

Excess produce is sent to the storage and shipping areas below ground. The mushroom growing area is located underneath the grow “fields” and produces CO2 as a byproduct to be recirculated back into the grow pods.

INTERIOR

SECTION SLICES

By carving continuously through the building (in section), a fluid and continuous space is also created in plan.

The theme of this studio was “Garbage Urbanism”– each student was left to interpret this as they wished. The wasted and

underutilized spaces in Seattle’s Rainier Valley (our project area) seemed like a form of “spatial waste/garbage” in need of varous interventions and re-activation. And, with the recent introduction of a light rail system along MLK JR. Way, the area’s car-centric urban paradigm was beginning to shift towards a pedestrian friendly model. Bike routes and walkable streets will be the next logical step in development, and reconnecting isolated pedestrian routes became my primary project goal. As well, this area contains the most diverse area code in the nation, so it became equally important to connect people socially. The need for a cultural commons became apparent.

I chose to focus on Genessee Park, an area that was once a garbage dump (suitably enough). The strategy I used was infrastructural– first build the elevated paths (the “connective tissue”), then allow the community to program the buildings beneath as they see fit. This “open sources” urbanism could be changed and modified over time based on community needs. Every surface could be activated by different user groups– bikers, skateboarders, climbers may add to the existing transitions and walls, while gardeners cultivate the manufactured hillsides.

04Creative Commons

Spring 2011 | Nicole Huber, UW CBE

NEW PARK PLAN

EXISTING PARK PLAN

INTERIOR (as community art studio)

LANDSCAPE (as a d.i.y. skatepark)EXTERIOR (as a festival space)NEW PARK PLAN

EXISTING PARK PLAN

LONGITUDINAL SECTION PERSPECTIVE (looking Southwest)

The concrete roofscape allows for faster passage above the slower community spaces below.

Inspired by a rusting bike, this shelter’s Corten steel framework contorts around two inset wood and glass envelopes– A bike

repair shop occupies the west section and a cafe occupies the east. They both spill out onto the community gathering space in the middle, complete with a performance stage.

The south ramp accessing the basement-bike-parking area seamlessly connects to an existing ramp, located in the alley to the north.

Fremont’s excentric flavor and various landmarks make it easy to navigate the city, so the eastern corner of the building has become a towering beacon, continuing this precedent.

05Urban Bike Shelter

Winter 2011 | Jim Nicholls, UW CBE

LONGITUDINAL SECTION PERSPECTIVE (looking North)

The building becomes an extension of the urban landscape as ramps brings cyclists down to the basement parking or up to the rooftop lookout.

PROGRAM

STRUCTURE (gradient)

SECURITY

WEST FACADE

SOUTH FACADE

SOUTH FACADE

SOUTH FACADE TECTONIC SECTION (looking East)

BASEMENT LIGHTVIEW FROM FREMONT PL. NORTH

B

1

SOUTH ELEVATIONPRELIMINARY TECTONIC SECTION DRAWING

ALLEY/STREET TO BASEMENT ACCESS

PRELIMINARY TECTONIC SECTION DRAWING

TRANSVERE SECTION THROUGH TOWER/CAFE (looking East)

BEACON ALLEY/STREET TO BASEMENT ACCESS

This Energy Engineering Building for the University of Washington relates professional labs and teaching/

administration “blocks” through a central atrium, which provides a setting for chance encounters and information exchange between professionals and students alike. The “block’s” exterior regularity is juxtaposed by the irregular geometry of the atrium within.

The orientation of the blocks was based on the urban context’s grid shift, creating a funneled entry on the alley and street sides. The two stereotomic blocks (of concrete and re-used brick panels from nearby demolitions) allow the central-atrium space to be punctuated by self-supporting plate-steel stairs, topped with a light tensile roof structure. The atrium’s floor plates are pushed/pulled to create various meeting spaces that cater to the differing overflow in adjacent rooms.

06UW Energy Engineering

Winter 2011 | Alex Anderson, UW CBE

SECTION PERSPECTIVE (looking South)

TWO PROGRAMMED MASSES INTERSTITIAL SPACE

COLLAB.

PROGRAM ADDED & GRID SHIFT REFLECTED

LABS

TEAC

HING

&

ADM

IN

WEST ELEVATION

B2 B1 2 3 R1

UNIVERSITY WAY

LAB

ATRIUM

ATRIUM STAIRSUNIVERSITY WAY

LAB

ATRIUM