Alex Streyffeler Architecture Portfolio

Alex Streyffeler

Alex StreyffelerPortfolio of Academic and

Independent Work2009-2014

Of Two Cities

Transcending Terrain

Groundbreaking

Fountainhead

A New Line

Out and About

Photography

Table-Read

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[Condominium ∙ New York City]

[Library ∙ Chicago]

[Wall Section]

[Coffee Table]

[Community Center ∙ Kansas City]

[Jazz Campus ∙ San Francisco]

[Museum ∙ Columbus, Indiana]

SoHo Courtyard CondosNew York City Year 3 ∙ 10 weeks

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Of Two Cities

Balancing the love of an energetic city with the need to escape, this project explores the dichotomy between the existing bustling street life and the serenity of an inner courtyard.

Opposites don’t have to be separated. The juxtaposition of opposites is what makes a city like New York engaging. The power of Paley Park is found both in the chance to look upon a park with a peaceful gaze while in a hectic city and in the ability to look into a city from the cozy shelter of a park. This condominium explores the dichotomy between the existing bustling street life and the serenity of an inner courtyard. The architecture of ‘both-and’ was needed to do the complexities and contradictions of the city justice.

“I prefer ‘both-and’ to ‘either-or’”

-Robert Venturi

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Between the opposing dynamics of the street life and the courtyard, the building becomes a porous boundary that facilitates the exchange of sound, smell, light, and air between the two spaces. Two-storey units were chosen to allow this passage of the senses through each unit. A rigourous spacial strategy was used to allow room for three public spaces that allow for people to occupy the boundary between these ‘two cities.’

Pilsen Children’s LibraryChicago, IllinoisYear 2 ∙ 5 weeks

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Transcending Terrain

Within an immigrant Chicago neighborhood, this library creates a beacon of upward mobility.

The history of the neighborhood of Pilsen is the history of people coming to the U.S. looking for a better life. The library is designed around a single light shaft that shatters the height barrier of the district and acts as a light well, elevator shaft, and an anchoring element. The tower becomes a beacon, signaling a destination of self-improvement. Around the tower, the undulating roof creates the urban gesture of passage over the structure. Through the roof planes are smaller light shafts that admit light into the reading room spaces and create nodes to gather around. They also pierce the entire structure to illuminate the sunken courtyard below and are each angled to illuminate a particular spot on a date of historical importance to the neighborhood.

“I want my architecture to inspire people to use their own resources to

move into the future”-Tadao Ando

Even the frozen Iowa soil in February couldn’t slow down this fast-paced project. Soil survey maps were used to find the right mixture of sand, silt, and clay. The wall was designed with the Iowa climate in mind which led to the addition of insulation and ten percent cement in the mixture. The final step of the project was to get the wall classified as an art piece on campus so we could study its performance in the Iowa climate.

GroundbreakingRammed Earth Wall SectionYear 2 ∙ 5 weeks ∙ Team of 4

Table-ReadCoffee TableIndependent ProjectWorking for the Department of Residence cleaning apartments, I see a lot of waste every semester as students move out and pile all their unwanted furniture in the dumpsters. I enjoy collecting found objects and making something useful out of them. The frame was left by a dumpster apparently after the glass top was broken. The wood top was an old desktop of my grandfathers. I stripped away the oak veneer to reveal the poplar wood scraps that had been pieced together to make the desk. Architecture magazines once stashed away in the closet enjoy their new home.

Living Machine Community CenterKansas City, MissouriYear 3 ∙ 10 weeks ∙ Team of 4

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Fountainhead

Making “the City of Fountains” live up to its name, this projects celebrates the mitigation and treatment of storm and waste water in a community center.

‘City of Fountains’

Sewage treatment is something cities desperately try to hide, not something they relocate within a popular tourist district. While Kansas City pronounces itself as the ‘City of Fountains,’ they simultaneously dump billions of gallons of untreated sewage into the river each year from combined sewer system overflows. Working in a team with landscape architecture students, a landscape and community center proposal were created for the River Market district of Kansas City which showcase sustainable strategies for the mitigation and treatment of storm and waste water.

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“Yes is More”-Bjarke Ingles

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Anaerobic Septic Tank Closed Anoxic Reactor Closed Aerobic Reactor Open Aerobic Tanks

Indoor Wetland

Outdoor Pond

Open Aerobic Tanks

4∙Open Aerobic Tanks:these tanks combine plants, snails, algae, and fish that work to remove the remaining waste5∙Indoor Wetland:the final filtration process provides both anaerobic and aerobic spaces6∙Outdoor Pond:the exterior pond is fed by the clean water exiting the indoor wetland

1∙Anaerobic Septic Tank:solids begin to settle and microbes break down organic material within the waste 2∙Closed Anoxic Reactor:microorganisms convert the dissolved nitrates within the waste water into nitrogen3∙Closed Aerobic Reactor:pumps push fresh oxygen into the bottom of the tank which collects noxious gasses

“New Line”Experimental Jazz CampusHayes Valley, San Francisco Year 5 ∙ 12 weeks ∙ team of 3

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A New Line

In the shadow of a demolished freeway, a jazz campus provides a linear node of performance for Hayes Valley

1940 1955

“Everything awful in San Francisco used to be

something good...

Throughout our cities are the marks of history’s unkind hand. Part of the Central Freeway in San Francisco was damaged in the 1989 earthquake and eventually removed, leaving behind ‘the scar.’ The city divided this void into 22 lots to be sold off and developed individually. The result in no way attempts to recall the history of the freeway’s impact on the neighborhood, nor does it take advantage of the unique spatial condition left behind. This project proposes a ‘what if ’ scenario for similar conditions in other cities. A collection of different programs was assembled in the footprint of the old freeway to create a jazz campus that would provide a linear node of performance for Hayes Valley.

2000 2015

...and everthing good used to be something awful”

- inspired by Brian K. Vaughan

“The Collection” Museum for Innovative Industrial ObjectsColumbus, Indiana Year 4 ∙ 12 weeks ∙ Team of 2

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Out and About

Rejecting the idea of a museum being a terminus, this museum for innovative design participates in the dynamic urban movement of the city.

Museums can no longer be the temple upon the hill portrayed as the terminus of a journey. They have to integrate into the dynamic movement of cities so that the experiences of learning and observing can be mutually beneficial. To create a museum within a town that is itself a museum, access and choice influenced formal and functional strategies. In ‘The Collection,’ which focuses on the contributions made to modern architecture and industrial design by Columbus, Indiana, four galleries span between two entrance points. This formal decision offers 64 different options for sequencing the galleries to fit with people’s exploration of the city. The building itself also fits into the movement of the city by allowing passage above, under, and through the building. Situated between an existing library and a visitor’s center, the museum balances entertainment and education as it seeks to benefit tourists and residents both.

“A city is a repository of possibilities, and walking is the act of speaking that language, of selecting from

those possibilities”-Rebecca Solnit

The Collection

The Collection

Photography

‘Seeking Aalto’Studio and Town HallFinland

‘Upward Mobility’Mercedes-Benz MuseumStuttgart, Germany

‘Complexity of Perception’Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of AmesAmes, Iowa