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A selection of my work
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Chair detailMilled Framing Lumber22”x22”x30”
photographyarchitecture
Joshua C. Ross345 W. 50th Street
New York, NY 10019
issuu.com/josh.ross
design approachI’ve known I wanted to be a designer in some capacity since I was 9-years-old when my father found me haphazardly nailing two pieces of scrap wood together in his work shop. I didn’t know it at the time but this was the seed planted in my head that would one day grow into my desire to practice architec-ture, namely the satisfaction I find in creating. On another level it’s the desire to leave my mark on this earth. What neither my father nor I fully understood that day I chose to indiscriminately attach the first two things I could get my hands on was that I so desperately wanted to make something tangible from the previously nonexistent. I wanted to hold this object in my hands, marvel at my craftsmanship, and know that it was a manifestation of something that had previously only existed in my head.
To the left is a detail of a chair I built in the fall of 2012. This project served me in two ways; first, I needed a chair for my apartment. But more importantly, I had become something of an amateur furniture designer and this project was the last in a series of works that was meant to test my abilities and expand my understanding of wood working, design, and my skills of creating details. There is not a single screw in the entire chair, every connection is custom-designed to fit together with wood glue and dowels when necessary. It took almost 40 hours to build and taught me about patience, crafts-manship, and the beauty of details.
architecture
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Several years after the work shop incident my father began insisting that I search for a career path that would utilize my now much more developed artistic skills. It was his encouragement that lead me to architecture. Initially I was drawn to the practice for the idea of creating space. This was the progression I had been looking for in my creative endeavors, and to an extent, the end goal of the 9-year-old wildly hammering those scraps of wood together. I had finally found a profession where I could create something truly tangible, an object people would use everyday and rely on as an intrinsic presence in their own lives. It only took about one semester to learn that there was so much more to architecture than simply creating space. As my education progressed I was frequently reevaluating my place in relation to the practice, trying to recapture the same enticing glow that had drawn me in like so many other students. Ultimately it was a professor who introduced me to Rem Koolhaas that rekindled that long-lost infatuation I had with architecture and spurned me on my way. The practice of pairing architecture with a narrative had always been an abstract concept to me, one that I was never able to fully grasp until I began familiarizing myself with Koolhaas’ work. It was his design approach through his firm, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, and my final undergradu-ate thesis that served as a launching pad into how I would like to approach architecture.
My final project as an undergraduate, discussed later in this portfolio, was an exercise in architecture as a tool for societal remediation. It was my way of bringing the practice into the 21st century so as to prove it’s value in a modern context while shaping it into a catalyst for the good of all people.
LEAP collaborative | fall 2011The LEAP (Landscape, Engineering, Architecture, and Planning) Collaborative is a multidisci-plinary design firm specializing in the major areas of urban design and is headquartered in Knoxville, TN. The major focus of this project was the integration of systems and had a minimum requirement of LEED Bronze. The building centered around 3 major design considerations; the green screen that wraps the South and West façades to prevent excessive solar heat gain while creating a jewel box condition for the building itself, the central lab space placed between the production wing and the administrative wing which is used for staff meetings, design charettes, and as a common space, and finally the extensive use of sustainable materials and a green roof which aided in the LEED award process.
Ultimately the project received a LEED Gold rating and provided an excellent learning experi-ence on how a building is actually assembled and the many considerations that must be made to ensure a good design is successful after the last pieces are set in place.
2008
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second floor view
requirements:
1. reception400 sf
2. retail space2_10,000 sf each
3. work stations80_125 sf each
4. private offices20_100 sf each
5. small conference rooms10_200 sf each
6. large conference rooms4_500 sf each
7. parkingas required
8. bathroomsas required
9. mechanical spaceas required
10. storage space
Coping
ROOF ASSEMBLY
Parapet cap
Flashing
Steel angles at 48” O.C. w/ stud in� ll
Steel plate
Green roof assembly
Waterproof membrane
Raised access � oor support
FLOOR/CEILING ASSEMBLY
Insulation
Composite decking, concrete slab
4” steel stud
Precast, concrete panel
W-Section Joist
HSS Column
Z-clips
HSS support member for green screen (tied back to W-Section beams, bolted)
Clip system for suspended ceiling
Steel substructure for suspended ceiling
Triple galzed, low-e window
Suspended � ourescent light, direct/indirect
Green screen
FOUNDATION ASSEMBLY
Soil for green screen
Sidewalk
Concrete planter
Turn down slab
Expansion joint
HSS Column
Triple pane, low-e insulated glazed unit
Composite decking, concrete slab (sloped 1/4” per 1’)
Crushed stone
Perforated drain pipe
“Spot” footing(2’ thick)
Steel angle (wleded to stell plate)
Green screen support for foundation
Return air
Swirl di� user
Fan coil unit
wall section
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22
8
9
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3
3
4 4
5
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9
8
1
10
10
2nd floor
ground floor
transverse section
longitudinal section
galleria cracovia | spring 2012The Galleria Cracovia is a multipurpose complex on the border between 19th century and 20th century construction in Krakow, Poland. On our site stood the building with the most modern aesthetic that was once a famous hotel built in the 60s but is now abandoned and used for ad space.
Situated across the street from Błonia-Krakow’s largest, most sacred green space, and next to the Cracovia stadium, the building required massive amounts of retail space to remain eco-nomically viable. Office space and residential units were also encouraged, but not required. Additionally, we were to design the entrance lawn to the National Museum across the street. My design began as a circulation study of how people move around this site and using this to en-courage foot traffic through my building. The site features a large interior street that is bisected by a secondary pathway and pedestrian bridge to bring in patrons safely over the busy street and tram line. The façade was a system of copper panels and green wall to meld better with the large green space.
Having the ability to create a project in another country with its own unique culture and ways of designing was not only incredibly rewarding, but remarkably eye-opening in terms of both how I design and currently view my own culture.
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view from corner
requirements:1. retail
50.000 sm2. office space
as desired3. residential
as desired4. open/public space
10.000 sm1
1
23
4
site plan
section 1
section 2
aerial view
three towers market | spring 2013As my final project as a student it was of great importance that this project serve as a mani-festo for what architecture meant to me. After countless discussions with my peers, both in classroom settings and in more casual scenarios, I was afraid that architecture was becoming seen as either a commodity for the rich, or as a nuisance to the public who couldn’t grasp what contemporary architecture was trying, and often failing, to convey. As such I wanted to prove that architecture could be a tool, perhaps even a catalyst, for societal change. I then turned my attention to a very real, imminent crisis.
Due to current unsustainable land-use practices and a swelling population projected to hit 10 billion by the year 2050, vertical farming in urban centers is becoming a more widely discussed solution for the impending food crisis.
Through my initial research into fast food production and popularity, and the consequences of these conditions, I am proposing a model for urban food production that satisfies the need for affordable, healthy, sustainable food. The end result being a solution addressing the need of food produced in mass quantities as well as America’s addiction to fast food which is detri-mental to individual health, local economies, and the environment. It is my goal to create both proper access to healthy food as well as sufficient education in regards to healthy eating and the benefits of the multiple systems I have compiled in this project.
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Grow space
Park
Exec Suite
Demonstration kitchen
Classroom
Market
Penthouses
Café
Dumb waiter
Elevators
Water supplySump
Fish tank
diagram of systems
Crops
ground floor plan 1:50
requirements:1. market
16,000 sf2. community forum
4,000 sf3. mobile greenhouse
250 sf
3
111
2
Upper-level plaza Typical grow floor Residential unit
upper floor plan 1:50
Park
park
aerial view
Transverse section Longitudinal sectionLongitudinal section
photography
2008
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2011
2012
2013
This selection of pictures comes entirely from my time spent abroad in the spring of 2012. I decided to limit the selection to this time frame because of how transformative this time was for me, which I found in the stark differences between these photos and those I had taken previ-ously.
To say that traveling and living abroad was the driver of my new perspective, while true, isn’t quite doing the true source justice. Living in a foreign country, Poland in my case, is challenging for anyone and will undoubtedly change an individual. But when tasked with designing a land-mark building in a an unfamiliar country one must reevaluate the typical tools brought to the de-sign process. Superfluous language and ambiguous architecture terms don’t impress a group of jurors who only speak English as a second, or even third or fourth, language. The design moves must be based on something more common, something that must be shared between myself and someone who was raised in another time, and in another country. I was forced to revert back to first-year terminology, that is, using the vocabulary I had when I was in my first year in architecture school. While my designs may have come from someone who had been studying architecture for 4 years, my explanations had to come from a much less learned time.
What I discovered was the lost design characteristics that used to fascinate me years before. Speaking in such a clipped manner all the time lead me back to old design moves like the sim-plicity of the quality of light filtering through a green screen, or the value of well-designed public space near a busy intersection. Focusing so heavily on these characteristics in my studies lead my to seeking them, and other equally elegant characteristics, in countries that had experienced several millennia compared to my own home.
Piazza San MarcoVenice, ItalyMarch 2012
Abandoned Pill BoxCinque Terre, ItalyMarch 2012
Centennial Hall (Hala Stulecia)Wrocław, Poland
April 2012
Catholic ChurchWarsaw, PolandApril 2012
Torree dei LambertiVerona, ItalyMarch 2012
The Pantheon Rome, Italy
March 2012
Malbork Castle Marlenburg, Poland
April 2012
