andrea o'connor
environment artist
& designer
architecture
The projects below were all completed during my undergraduate program at Texas A&M University, College of Architecture (2011-2015).
Kapsa Svetla
4th year transSTUDIO
We were assigned to develop a transformable shading system that could offer enhanced control of light and sight, imbued with architectural merit, to an existing window fenestration system. For this reason, the design should be modular and versatile in operation and placement for various buildings and facades.
When thinking about the design for the shading system, my partner and I wanted to create a modular piece that, when pieced together, will create pockets of light that come alive as the sun moves across the sky.
We want to investigate the relationship between light, form, and materiality, and develop a system that has depth and serves as a piece of art as well as a system to control light.
Tensegrity Bridge
4th year conceptual structures
Bridging the Gap between Structures and Architecture, our team was to design and construct a long span structure that would span 20" between two desks and support a point load hung from the center. Our materials were restricted to bass wood, sewing thread, and glue. The project was graded based on weight held to bridge weight ratio and aesthetic design/craftsmanship.
Incorporating the idea of tensegrity structures, we chose we were able to devise a minimal mass tensegrity bridge structure.
A Theater for Tim Burton
3rd year design studio
Inspired by and designed for the eccentric Tim Burton, the main idea behind the theater’s design stemmed from many of the themes displayed in his works: the juxtaposition of extreme opposites, contrasting light and dark, the regular and irregular, the obvious and the illusion.
Applying these extreme themes to a programmatically and conceptually sophisticated design with phenomenally transparent spaces and points of interaction proposed a challenge in its own. Nonetheless, with careful analysis and design exploration the theater’s final form displays both qualities of the absurd as well as the sophisticated.
Media Lab Houston
4th year integrated design studio
Similar to a circuit board which is design driven by its systematic functions, the media lab is designed to adapt to the primary technological and programmatic functions required.
Additionally, placement of three dominant materials--glass, copper, and concrete--represent the nature of media, how it changes over time, and how we can control that change. Glass is fairly constant--it is honest and transparent, similar to the transparency of media and the accessibility of information through it. Concrete and copper, however, corrode and oxidize with time.
Media, likewise, changes as time passes, technologies advance, and people change. By acknowledging this constant change we can adapt and design to it and for it.
il Garage d'Arte
3rd year italia study abroad, competition finalist
Located in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy, il Garage d’Arte serves as both a parking garage and a cultural youth center. The facility is geared to promote creativity among the youth (approximately age 16-25) as well alleviate the congestion of cars in the area.
Phenomenal Transparency
A two-week project to explore the definition of phenomenal transparency.
The extraordinaire of phenomenal transparency is not in complexity but in simplicity. Simple geometric shapes superimpose to create a space characterized by illusion, speculation, and experience allow for transparency of phenomenal instance to occur. The remarkable situation that arises in the presence of phenomenal transparency is not aesthetic appeal or efficiently programmed spaces (though both may be achieved), but is the experiential quality of a duality of spaces at one instance.
Inverse-Gravity Bookshelf
Explorations in structures and furniture
For our final conceptual structures project, I was inspired by Franco Albini's tensegrity bookshelf "Veliero" and wanted to do something similar as I had just recently been studying tensegrity as well. The loads are distributed down the cables and the V-point at the bottom which simply rests on the floor board. I used poplar wood which allowed me to bow several of the longer pieces simply by wedging the tooth-cut shelves in between. I also drove several wooden pegs were through the shelves and vertical support for extra stability.
The only materials used were poplar wood, steel cable, steel hooks, and cable adjusters.
Double-Helix Pedestal
Explorations in structures and furniture
After completing a study of structure in nature where I focused on DNA, I began to conceptualize how the DNA's double-helix could be applied to a piece of furniture.
The assignment required a 24" high pedestal with a 12"x12" platform that must support the weight of a person standing on it. The model was built out of 3/4" plywood, 1/8" cables, and metal hooks and clamps.
The Rippling Door
A two-week exploration of movement in architecture
The assignment was to design a door that its movement is itself the intention of the design.
I began my design with the intention of creating a visual display of ripples as the door opened and closed. I then began to look at how a person's experience with the door could extend past the visual encounter and integrate touch and versatility.
By exploring the mechanics of the scissor connection and how different panels were joined and operated the door became more than a door; it became a window, a passage, a portal.
A Polygon
A short study on kinetics in design.
I began my 14-sided polygon by first calculating the required pin locations and constructing a bone model. Once I understood how the polygon worked I was able to create a design around the pins.
My design was inspired by a dreamlike element with an edge, something that might appear in a fantasy movie or scene, that was beautiful but also dangerous. I wanted the individual pieces to resemble something of branches or vines that interlaced as they moved over each other and came together to form a pure geometry.