Thierry Mugler Fashion Pavillion

Architectural Argument

This Project is a high end fashion Boutique for Thierry Mugler, which will be located in Soho, New York on the corner of Canal and Hudson Street. It is a project that caters towards the new age in Fashion and Architecture Culture. It looks forward to the new styles in fashion through Thierry Mugler and the revolutionary building materials that are available at present. Even though the building uses Carbon Fiber and ETFE Glass for the building materials, it does not only look towards the future, but reflects on parts of the past and really presents itself in a new way.

Precedent

            The site for this project is best described as a courtyard in between two buildings; therefore my Project formally can be identified as an object in a court similar to Bramante’s Tempietto which is a perfect position within a courtyard. It describes a flow within a site that invites one in with multiple tactics. One is brought from the exterior to the interior under these strands that serve as a canopy and public space. This area can be explained as “middle ground”.

            The exterior shell takes precedent from the Art Nouveau movement in terms of the figural sensibility and ornamentation; this produces an affect similar to Bernini’s Baldacchino. One can gaze upon Bernini’s Masterpiece for hours and continue to find new and interesting parts to it, due to its ornamentation as well as surface articulation. It is almost as though one is underneath this “Baldacchino” and can stare at the interior of this shell for hours and continue to see different things about it. Every step that one takes inside, there is a new sensation that one feels and a new experience that they get by looking at the interior.

Affect

            The exterior shell is based on a previous prototype design, but instead of interweaving the strands to itself, they strand to multiple prototypes. Each “main body” is strategically placed to form the shell of the building. The web of strands conform the entirety of the project and wraps around the program of the project. In every place that one goes, they experience a new affect that complements the fashion that is being sold.

            The project, while inspired by the Art Nouveau sensibility, in turn it misbehaves and becomes bad and hardcore. The strands that make up the shell can be referred to as “Straps” recalling the idea of “bondage”. This body is explained as the archaic form of Architecture that holds up this new form of building material. This archaic form is really being strapped down and bonded to the ground. These straps are tightly bound around a now void thus the form of the outer shell. This archaic form of Architecture is denied existence and is now only used in the construction portion of the progressive movement of architecture. Many people believe that as one life dies, another begins and replaces the old one. This explains the death of the archaic form and the beginning of the way architecture will be in this new form.

Within the strands, glass has been placed strategically to create multiple affects. It is mostly transparent, but due to the variance in thickness, it creates a translucent feeling. This way, the glass is really making a painting that is alive, continuously moving and changing. This gives a sensation of curiosity to those who are on the exterior of the building. They are able to experience the fashion on the inside in a different way at first and this makes them want to know what it really looks like. The distortion of the fashion gives the affect of intrigue and the interest moves one from the exterior to the interior where the painting of the glass takes on a whole new meaning and purpose. It creates privacy and protection from the exterior since the distortion of the glass allows one to not fully understand what they look like from the exterior.

Architecture as part of the Celebrity Culture

            The coloration of the interior is meant to reinvent the red carpet feeling, and to produce an integration of the culture of architecture to the culture of fashion via the “red carpet” ground. Architecture needs to be integrated to contemporary popular culture and this strategy becomes a vehicle and a commentary on how to and the importance of achieving it as well as gain this sensation of importance. However, this sensation is temporary and normally dies once they enter the event. This project addresses the idea that we can continuously reinvent the red carpet feeling by recreating it so that it runs throughout the entirety of the project. This idea also helps in the way that because they are important, they will buy clothes that are also important and highly fashionable. If the red carpet idea stopped at the door, then why would the clothes be important if they are after the entry, away from the red carpet? On the bottom floor, one is engulfed in this idea of the red carpet, where they are not only walking on the carpet, but really walking in the carpet itself because it surrounds them and creates a canopy like structure. The red carpet or ground condition flows upward and creates a journey to the top. The pleats that make up part of the ground condition allude to a carpet that may have been bunched up, but instead of giving when one steps on it, they stay stiff and rigid.

The red carpet feeling does not only cater towards how people feel about themselves, but also to how this building plays an important role in the history of Architecture. The aggressive strides it is taking to be very different in a city where almost all the architecture is in the archaic form of building, it stretches to makes itself different, obviously by materials, but also by this idea that the red carpet flows throughout the entirety and does not just end at the footsteps. This creates the impression that it must be extremely important on its own. 

Interior Rendering - Entrance

 Interior Rendering - Couture Showroom and Lobby

 Interior Rendering - Cafe

 Interior Rendering - Gallery Two

Aerial Render

Rendering Placed on Site One

Rendering Placed on Site Two

Floor Plan One

Floor Plan Two

Section One

This project was my final product from my ARCH 205 Fall Semester 2011 Studio while at Texas A&M University. Obviously there were many programs used, but the main program that was used to create the bulk of the project was:
     Autodesk Maya 2011
Other Programs used:
     Rhinoceros 4.0
     Adobe Illustrator
     Adobe Photoshop
Other Projects from this studio can be viewed at the website below and continue through the Mugler Pavilions. There were 13 that were posted, so be sure to check them all out!


http://www.theoremas-gabe00fab.blogspot.com/2011/12/mugler-pavilion.html

Midterm Boards

The idea behind this project is to create a Fashion Boutique for Christian Dior by using one of his dresses as the inspiration to create the Analog Model. I looked at the dress and used the curve on the left leg of the dress from the bottom up to the chest as the main design to bend the steel rods that are the main structure of my analog model. I realized that the models body is the structure and the dress is a "skin" that has been stretched across to create a covering, such as a pavilion. I used the idea of the fluffy, layered blue shear material to create the two pleats that are held in place by wire mesh that accentuate the structure of the curve.

The Analog model has four architectural characteristics within it. The first one used is Tectonics. When all of the fabric is taken away from the model, what is left is steel rods bent to shape and wire mesh. These are the main components of the model. The second is Structure. Even though structure is very similar to Tectonics, it differs by how the steel rods have been formed to create the "skeletal figure". The third is Ornament. This is the contrast of the blue and beige fabric, including how it is used. The blue fabric is mainly stretched over the structure, while the beige material is wrinkled along the one rod. The fourth is Ornament as Structure. This is the wire mesh that creates a pleat on top of the model, while the blue fabric is stretched over the top. 

I used this model to produce my Prototype in Maya. The Prototype is based off of strands that loop around the center mass and intersect at various points. The center mass is what is based mainly off of my Analog model. Instead of having two pleats on the top, there are three. The piece is about power and strength that intertwines the strands. The strands connect at specific places where they continue throughout the entirety of the project, where there are no loose ends. The structure of the project has been taken from the wire mesh from the Analog model and really dropped to the bottom of the Prototype to “hold up” and “Support” the bottom of the Prototype. The strands continue to make up the mass of the project. They give the false reality that there is something there in between when there is not. The prototype has multiple techniques that have been observed through other progressive architects such as Stephen Ma, Tom Wiscombe, Edward Kim, Mark Gage, Kokkugia and other Digital Architects that use Maya to create Architecture. I have mainly looked at Stephen Ma and Edward Kim to try and perfect the Strands and how they intertwine throughout the entire piece. 

Sophomore Year!

Everything that is posted beyond the last post will be from Sophomore Year at Texas A&M! A-A-A-A-A!!!

Sketch Models That Didn't Quite Make It...

These are the rest of my sketch models that I made for my industrial design, but for one reason or another, didn't make it to the final cut.

Final Industrial Design!

I finally finished my Industrial Design! I think it turned out absolutely awesome!

I actually made some last minute changes to it. The top of the coffee table that I was going to use is now the bottom of it. It seemed too bland and boring compared to this side of the cut wood. I decided to use this side instead because it has so much more variety to it and is very unique. It is absolutely gorgeous compared to the other side and that is why I chose to use this side instead.

It is made out of Walnut plywood that I got from Clark's Hardwoods in Houston. My return trip from Houston took me 4 and a half hours to drive instead of 1hour and 45 minutes because a major part of Highway 290 was shutdown completely and I was stuck in the middle lane for almost an hour and a half until I was actually able to move and then it took another hour to try and find an alternate route to get back to College Station.

All I have to say is that small inconvenience was well worth it to be able to make this coffee table out of that wood I bought!

One week Isn't too late is it?

The week of November 29, I mainly worked on my Industrial Design all week as much as possible. On Tuesday night, I stayed up extra late taking pictures of my Behavioral Setting and working on my portfolio. Wednesday I went to the Ranch to get my Final Industrial Design cut out and I actually was not able to work on it and had to go back later. Thursday I went to the Ranch again to finish my Design, and got very close, but had to leave it over night to finish it on Friday. Thursday night I stayed up late again to take pictures of all my projects I have done in this class. I would say that this week was one of the most exhausting weeks of my life even though this was just a glimpse of it. I survived though, and that's all that matters!

Two weeks is not really that late....

My Behavioral Setting Final Model!

This picture emphasizes the shading pattern of the driveway and parking spaces and how it protects the west side windows from the sun.