Matthew Hoffman Portfolio

MATTHEW HOFFMAN

The Pennsylvania State University

Bachelor of Architecture

360 W. 127th St.

New York, NY 10027

p: 717.201.6746

e: [email protected]

MATTHEW D. HOFFMAN JUNIOR ARCHITECT

2010: May - currently: C-LAB, New York, NY.

Jeffrey Inaba. 212.989.2398

Worked in teams of 2-3 on projects ranging from the scale of a pavilion for the New Museum and

an entry to the Sukkah City Competition, to a large-scale housing development in St. Petersburg Russia,

in collaboration with Neil Denari’s office.

2009: June - September: RSH Architects, Pittsburgh, PA.

Art Ruprecht, AIA. 412.429.1555

2009: May - July: The Manhattan Airport Foundation. New York, NY.

Joe Stevens, Freelance Writer / Director, 917.843.8165

Published in The Guardian UK, The Huffington Post, U.S. News & World Report among others.

Developed and created all images for the website Manhattanairport.org, an art project to satirize urban

development initiatives and draw public attention to the shortcomings of our air transportation

infrastructure.

2008: September - December: Design Logic Architecture. Philadelphia, PA.

Tunde Kazeem. 215.925.0700

2008: May - August: DigiFAB website and digital fabrication.

Professor David Celento. 814.865.3682

2005 - 2010: The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA.

Accredited five-year Bachelors of Architecture degree.

2009: January - May: Sede di Roma, Rome, Italy.

Semester abroad: Cartography, Urban Studies and Analysis, Italian Language.

Work Experience:

Education:

2010: May: Runner-up: Design Excellent Award.

Honorable Mention: Kossman Thesis Awards.

2010: March: College Award for Creative Achievement.

Recognizes students who exemplify the objectives of the college with respect to

enhancement of the arts. Students are selected based upon their creative work,

academic excellence and service contributions.

2010: January: Stewardson Memorial Competition - Finalist.

Comments from the Jury: “This entry engaged the site and the existing structure

utilizing it as a driver. The Andrew Wyeth-esque imagery was strongly compelling

and served as a reference point. This was perhaps the most emotive and poetic image

in the competition. The design was unique, in presentation, attitude towards the

site, and in its imagery and palette. The effect could be measured as much in the silent

contemplation of those considering it as in their comments.”

2009: Semptember: Corbelletti Competition. Excellence in Graphic Design.

2008: May: Design Excellence Award.

Excellence in design studio at the third-year level.

2007: September: Corbelletti Competition. Finalist.

Computer: Working experience with FormZ, Rhino, Sketchup, VRay, Autocad 2010, Final Cut

Pro, Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, Flash.

Model building techniques: 3D printing, Laser-cutting, CNC milling.

Excellent hand-drawing techniques.

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture. “ART MEADOW: The Feral Artscape.”

MAS Context. PUBLIC issue, “superFUND.”

ASSEMBLY. “Towards an Art Experience.”

Publications & Awards:

Skill set:

Publications in progress:

CONTENTS

Sukkah City

Slavyanka Masterplan

ART MEADOW: The Feral Artscape

Stewardson Competition

Termini Station Mixed-Use

Fraser Center

The Manhattan Airport

SUKKAH CITY 2010

Facade & Massing Studies

ART MEADOW, the Feral Artscape

or the Distributed Creation of Art in an Atomized Society

Matthew D. [email protected]

Thesis Advisor: Peter Aeschbacher

CONTENTSSTATEMENT

ABSTRACT

RESEARCH & DOCUMENTATION

SITE & CONTEXT

PROGRAM

DESIGN

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ART MEADOW

Feral Artscape [feer-uhl ahrt-skāp’]The creation, expression and re-appropriation of ART in its wild state, like wild animals or plants; not domesticated, cultivated or censured; ferocious.

Currently there is a great divide between the process

of making ART [the artist’s studio] and experiencing

ART as a spectator [the art museum or gallery]. The

traditional model of art museums and galleries has

long served as a barrier between artistic creation

and appreciation, which has led to a banal and

soon to be irrelevant architectural form. We are

spoon feed collections along a predetermined

path, which leaves little room for a truly personal

experience or understanding of the artistic process.

In contrast to this, the Internet thrives on constant

input and feedback, an ability to freely and instantly

reconstitute itself. The ease and availability

of content creation and re-appropriation has

changed the way that we operate as individuals

and as a society. By analyzing the effects of new

media on identity, and applying this as an

analogy to the creation of art, it is possible to

create a new type of community completely

devoted to exhibition and whimsical creation.

In order to bridge this gap and create a new

ART EXPERIENCE, a new type of environment

must be created which destroys the division between

artwork and spectator and in its place constructs a

collective involvement in all aspects of a moment in

time, from the décor, to the actions of the inhabitants.

This project creates a new LANDSCAPE OF

MOVEMENT that takes the form of a massive urban

playground in Central Park, New York.

Using the theories of the Situationists [Constant’s

New Babylon], ideas of Bigness [Voluntary Prisoners

by OMA], and architecture of the endless interior

[MVRDV and SANAA] as springboards, this project

seeks to create a new typology that will save art and

the artistic experience from the drudgery of existing

museum and gallery environments. ART MEADOW

[museum + nightclub + sandbox + sovereign city-state]

will resurrect the process of creating, experiencing and

immersing oneself with ART by removing the idea of

the artist as the solitary creator and replacing it with

an environment of continuous creation brought forth

by collective involvement.

The necessity of this space leads to an abandonment

of the architect as a creator of exact and unbending

space through the formal enclosures of floors, walls

and ceilings, and instead replaces the traditional role of

the architect with that of a strategist of space creation,

outlining processes of space-creation through models

and kits of architectural pieces to then be appropriated

and altered by amateur designers in an environment

devoted to the continuous creation of ART.

ART MEADOW, the Feral Artscape

Inhabitants will transform and recreate their surroundings

within the structure, according to their artistic vision. All

movement and action will become a part of the artistic

endeavors of the whole, thru an uninterrupted process

of creation and re-creation, sustained by a generalized

creativity that is manifested in all domains of activity.

The inhabitant is invited to bring along an arsenal of

tools and materials to facilitate their experience in ART

MEADOW. Likewise, the unprepared user simply re-

appropriates found materials already within the structure.

The seasoned veteran could develop an entire outfit for

his self, or assemble a team of like-minded explorers

for their expedition into the depths of ART MEADOW.

TOWARDS AN ART EXPERIENCE

≠

THE SOLUTION:

Freedom to Play

Modification of Aggressive / Destructive Influences

Search for Beauty

Recreation of a Lost or Ruined Object

Form as Content Conceived in Terms of a Medium and a Culture

Artistic Creation

Unconscious Re-living of the Artist’s Experience of Creation

Search for Fulfillment of an Emotional Need

Aesthetic Experience Occurs by Chance

Artistic Appreciation

Infinite Divisibility [de-centralized administration, infinite monkey theorem]

Crowd-Sourcing [collective intelligence, distributed participatory design]

Fabrication / Adaptation of Identity [-isms, role-playing]

Viral Phenomenon / Memes [amateur celebrities, viral]

Cyber-Terrorism [hacktivism, google bombing, flashmob]

Tribal Formations [minority style, fringe movement]

Crowd-Sourcing Artistic Endeavors

Unrestricted Movement through Space

Ability to Invent Identities

Transparency of Actions

Super-Compression of Interaction

Mobile Sense of Place

Hierarchy Defined by Movement

Creation in Virtual-Space

Project Guidelines

E O T MErasure is taking things away, making space.

Tree-Hierarchy [Existing]

The Art Process [Existing]

Generate a Field

Scatter Destinations

Add Crowd

Define Programmatic Elements

Connect

Add Space

Combine & Scatter!

All movement & action become a part of the artistic process

The Art Experience

Final Structure

As applied to INDIVIDUALS

As applied to MOVEMENT

As applied to ARCHITECTURE

Transformation indicates a continuous change between two states of an object or situation; change with a beginning and an end.

Migration describes things moving from one point to another, things that leave and don’t return, of which sometimes traces remain.

Origination is a point in time where something new begins to happen, origination sets something into the realm of the other, it is the basis for reaction.

The creative act MUST be a social act!

They wander through the sectors of New Babylon ART MEADOW seeking new experiences, as yet unknown ambiances.

Without the passivity of tourists, but fully aware of the power they have to act upon the world, to transform it, recreate it.

They dispose of a whole arsenal of technical implements for doing this, thanks to which they can make the desired changes without delay.

Just like the painter, who with a mere handful of colors creates an infinite variety of forms, contrasts and styles, the New Babylonians can endlessly vary their

environment, renew and vary it by using their technical implements.

This comparison reveals a fundamental difference between the two ways of creating.

The painter is a solitary creator who is only confronted by another person’s reactions once the creative act is over.

Among the New Babylonians, on the other hand, the creative act is also a social act: as a direct intervention in the social world, it elicits an immediate response.

The artist’s individual creation seems, to other’s eyes, to escape all constraint and ripen in isolation.

And it is only much later, when the work acquires an undeniable reality, that it will have to confront society.

At any given moment in his creative activity, the New Babylonian is himself in direct contact with his peers.

Each one of his acts is public, each one acts on a milieu which is also that of the others and elicits spontaneous reactions.

All action, then, loses its individual character. On the other hand, each reaction can provoke others in turn.

In this way interventions form chain reactions that only come to an end when a situation that has become critical ‘explodes’ and is transformed into another situation.

The process escapes one person’s control, but it matters little knowing who set it off and by whom it will be inflected in turn.

In this sense the critical moment (the climax) is an authentic collective creation.

The yardstick, the space-time framework, of the New Babylonian ART MEADOW world is the rhythm in which each moment succeeds the last.

-Excerpt from New Babylon Constant Nieuwenhuis

CENTRAL PARK, NYC“Creative activity may be the closest thing to a natural resource

in New York, but it is also a little understood and long overlooked

asset, and one that can no longer be taken for granted.”

Creative New York, Center For An Urban Future

Not only does New York City have the art capital in place for such

a landscape, but the model upon which Central Park was created

[The Greensward Plan] provides a basis for my own project by

outlining a model of movement, views and destinations, knitted

together with a false topography. Using this model yields a new

dense landscape condition which becomes a natural extension of

the ideals of Central Park and the landscape itself.

Annual Museum Attendence

1,000,000+

500,000 - 1,000,000

250,000 - 500,000

<250,000

THE GREENSWARD MODEL“The park was to be a Republican Institution where the

classes would mingle as a single collective in the spirit of

democratic fraternity. It was to be a pleasure ground where

citizens could find an escape from the pressures of cramped

living. The ideas behind Central Park were accented by the

moralistic overtones of the American Transcendentalists

who believed in a metaphysical need for individual

communion with nature, as a way of salvaging personal

autonomy from the social conformity spawned by the

nascent commercialism of American Culture.”

-DOUGLAS KELBAUGH

Guidelines:

• Landscape of desire

• Naturalness [or the simulation of]

• Mechanisms of exposure & concealment

• Disorientation [as opposed to the grid of Manhattan]

• Mechanical artifice which simulates naturalness

• Idyllic, naturalistic landscape

In many ways the creation of Central Park

erased the natural and replaced it with a simulation of

the natural. This artifice seeks to accomplish what was

expected of a natural landscape. The model of Central

Park sought to accomplish a certain set of goals for the

inhabitant by becoming a simulation of a certain ideal.

In a similar way, this project replaces the

existing landscape with a new dense field condition

upon which a continuous artistic invention and

reinvention occurs. The space of this project does not

erase or deviate from the original intentions of the

parkscape, but instead enhances these original goals,

through a process of continuous, collective artistic

creation.

FIFTH AVE.

THE RESERVOIR

ABOVE: PLAN OF CENTRAL PARK [THE GREENSWARD PLAN]BELOW: SITUATION PLAN

NORTH MEADOW

BALL FIELDS

CONSERVATORY GARDENS

HARLEM MEER ART MEADOW [PREVIOUSLY EAST MEADOW]

96th ST.

101st ST.

106th ST.

THE PROGRAM

GALLERIES

ADMINISTRATION

THEATER

EDUCATION

RESEARCH

PUBLIC

100K

10K 10K

5K

5K

5K

4K SEATING - INTERIOR THEATER

OPEN OFFICE OPEN SPACE

CLASSROOMS

ENTRY

LOBBY

CAFE

BATHROOMS

INDIVIDUAL OFFICES

LIBRARY

MATERIALS WORKSHOP

STORAGE

STAGE - EXTERIOR THEATER

STAGE - INTERIOR THEATER

4K

3K

3K

3K

3K

1K

1K1K

.1K

.1K

.1K

THE COMPONENTS

HORIZONTAL CIRCULATION

VERTICALCIRCULATION

WALLS

WHITE BOXES

BLACK BOXES

FOLLIES

STAGESPITS

Ram

ping

syst

ems

are

adde

d on

ly

whe

n ne

eded

to re

ach

inac

cess

ible

pl

aces

. In

mos

t pla

ces,

the

topo

grap

hy

of th

e fie

ld p

rovi

des

acce

ss.

Stairs and elevators are combined together to form vertical elements which are scattered through the project. They are placed in ideal locations where multiple planes overlap.

White boxes represent the traditional museum environment. These are varied in size and location. They also hold typical programmatic elements such as cafes, bathrooms, workshop and research spaces.

Wal

ls, o

f var

ied

shap

e an

d si

ze,

serv

e as

can

vase

s fo

r ope

n-pl

atfor

m

expe

rimen

tal p

ainti

ng a

nd d

raw

ing.

Thes

e ar

e av

aila

ble

for a

nyon

e to

al

ter,

usin

g an

y m

eans

nec

essa

ry.

Som

e w

alls

are

als

o m

ovea

ble. Black boxes enclose

purely digital spaces. These facilitate a new type of art creation, with no physical presence, but instead a complete immersion in digital art production and environmental creation.

Shallow pits mark the landscape of the project, denoting spaces devoted to free-form sculptural

pursuits. These spaces hold raw materials, and serve as workshop spaces for any to use to create, alter or destroy 3-dimensional art pieces.

Extravagant pieces of architecture which are

scattered throughout the structure. These are

constructed solely for decoration and to add emphasis to specific areas.

Multi-level platforms are integrated into the topography of the

structure. By deleting certain pieces adjacent to these stage

spaces, transparency is created which encourages voyeurism and exhibitionism.

THE HUNGRY PROGRAM

PLAY 100%EXHIBITION 90%

DESTRUCTION 80%

CREATION 70%

ADMINISTRATION 60%

NETWORK

NOUR

ISHM

ENT

SENT

IENC

E

NURT

URAN

CE SEX

INTO

XICA

TION

50%

10% 10% 10%10%10%

Spaces are defined and arranged

inside of one another: the “hungry

program.” Like hungry animals, they have

swallowed a large amount of information,

sensations, perspectives, moods and

environments and compressed them into

a dense landscape condition. The result is an

endless landscape: the form offers infinite

internal possibilities and contains an infinite

amount of interconnecting spaces.

1. 2. 3. Cut:To generate a field for ART MEADOW, the topography of Central Park is divided and separated into four even pieces.

Layer:Four layers are formed and arranged vertically on top of one another.

Amplify Height:The topography of each of the planes is then extruded and amplified vertically to reach a total of 100’-0” from their lowest to their highest point.

FIELD GENERATION

4.Merge:Each of the four layers is then merged together to form a large wire mesh, roughly 800’-0” square and 100’-0” vertically. This forms the field condition which holds all of the program elements and forms the backbone of the project.

FIFTH AVE.

THE RESERVOIR

NORTH MEADOW

BALL FIELDS

CONSERVATORY GARDENS

HARLEM MEER

5.

96th ST.

101st ST.

106th ST.

Situate:The generated field is then situated on the site, with varied edges created to mesh with the surrounding terrain and reconnect itself back to Central Park. Thus the fabric of the project, generated from the parkscape, is re-grafted to the park to form a seamless addition.

THE TOPOGRAPHYIn order to form a fabric to knit the programmatic elements and the components together, a dense topography is developed utilizing the existing landscape of Central Park as a basis. This topography is also layered vertically, by stacking each of the layers and bringing the ground plane upwards through the structure through a series of massive ramps formed by the topography.

The fabric of the four overlapping planes is further triangulated to form a dense 3-dimensional field of points. A hierarchy is formed among all of the points depending on the amount of lines each point is connecting. The greater the amount of connections, the greater the point. This forms a varied, or gradient, field of densities.

EXPLODED AXONOMETRICN.T.S.

GROUND

COLUMNS

VERTICAL CIRCULATION

WHITE BOXES

PLANES

FLOORS

BEAMS

Lines are then generated between the points. These lines form the structure of the entire project, both vertically, horizontally and diagonally. The structural columns and beams are varied in size and shape, according to their span and the load that they are carrying. The structure is typically concrete, which encases all necessary utilities within the column itself, effectively hiding all of the mechanical aspects of the structure.

Finally, planes are formed between the lines to complete the process. These planes form the basic topography of the structure, becoming floors, coverings and walls. Many planes are deleted throughout the structure, or filled with materials such as mesh or other translucent materials, to admit and filter light to the interior depths of the structure. This acts in a similar way to the filtering and shading of light from the trees of Central Park.

THE GUIDELINES [REVISITED]

UNRESTRICTED MOVEMENT

THROUGH SPACE

MOBILE SENSE OF PLACE

CROWDSOURCING ARTISTIC ENDEAVORS

ABILITY TO INVENT IDENTITY

TRANSPARENCY OF ACTIONS

SUPER-COMPRESSION OF INTERACTION

HIERARCHY DEFINED BY MOVEMENT

FRINGE MOVEMENT

SEGREGATION & ASSIMILATION

BUREAUCRATIZATION OF ART

CONCLUSION:ART MEADOW allows and encourages an unrestricted movement through

space, and a mobile sense of place. There is a transparency throughout the

whole structure which harnesses and exhibits the participant’s actions, and a

super compression of interaction and activity. The combination of each of these

guiding principals allows for a crowd-sourcing of artistic endeavors, and an

ability to re-invent and re-define identities according to each visitor’s creative

insight.

This new ART EXPERIENCE, of art in its most primal and basic element, forms

a radical departure from the traditional and banal architectural form of art

museums and galleries. The existing need to enclose spaces through formal

frameworks has long served as a barrier to art and to our ever-accelerating

selves. By taking into account societal changes and applying these changes

to create a new set of guidelines for architecture, it is possible to bridge

the existing gap between artistic creation and appreciation and in its place

construct a unitary environment completely devoted to whimsical creation and

complete immersion within ART. On a larger scale this project also addresses

the shifting nature of our own self-awareness as individuals and as a society.

This landscape forms a zone of pure simultaneity, absolute simulation,

instability and instant transmission of all creative processes.

“Architecture must inevitably hemorrhage in this seismic mix. It must

flow out in other less predictable directions. New spatial aggregates will

require multiple escape routes. A single door for entering and exiting will

no longer suffice. “Riemannian spaces ... amorphous collection of pieces

that are juxtaposed but not attached to each other.” Pure patchwork with

an infinite porosity of structure, like a sponge.”

Merge Invisible Layers John Beckmann

Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities. Harvest Books; 1978.

Costa, Xavier. Theory of the Derive and Other Situationist Writings. Museo d’Art Contemporani; 1996.

Evans, Robin. The Projective Cast. The MIT Press; 2000.

Harrison, John E. Synaesthesia: The Strangest Thing. Oxford University Press; 2001.

Koolhaas, Rem. Content. Taschen;2004.

Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York. Monacelli; 1997.

McLuhan, Marshall. Counterblast. Harcourt; 1970.

McLuhan, Marshall. Gutenberg Galaxy. University of Toronto Press; 1962.

McLuhan, Marshall. Medium is the Massage. Gingko Press; 2005.

NAi Publishers. Reading MVRDV. Actar; 2007.

Sadler, Simon. Archigram: Architecture without Architecture. MIT Press; 2005.

Scott, Felicity D. Architecture or Techno-Utopia. The MIT Press; 2007.

Sorkin, Michael. Starting from Zero. Routeledge; 2003.

Steiner, Wendy. Image and Code. Michigan Slavic Publications; 1981.

Venturi, Robert. Iconography and Electronics upon a Generic Architecture. The MIT Press; 1998.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

TERMINI STATION MIXED-USE:PIAZZA DEI CINQUECENTO

Semester Abroad - 4th yearProfessor Giuseppe MilaniRome, Italy2009: January - May

For most visitors Piazza Dei Cinquecento is the first place of impact within the complexity of this City, a place of sharp conflict both in forms and in scale, and in almost all parts not yet architecturally resolved.

When you exit the train station, which is reas-suring in its rigorous functionalism, you meet a huge formless open space, beyond which the big measured mass of the Diocletian Terms closes your sights.

We were asked to redesign the eastern half of the piazza to create a new enclosure and defini-tion for the piazza. My project replaced the existing Compartmental RR building, and rose to the same height of the Termini Station front, 28 meters high. Within this envelope my project included a hotel, offices, retail and exhibition spaces, which were arranged along a narrow spine of circulation. This spine holds a series of ramps which wrap around the perimeter of the facade. The programmatic elements of the proj-ect are then cantilevered off of the circulation spine, and woven around the rigid geometry to soften the edges and add a playfulness to the massing of the project.

North Elevation

East Elevation

Longitudinal Section BB

Longitudinal Section AA

Transverse Section AA

Transverse Section BB

Transverse Section CC

Transverse Section DD

FRASER CENTER

State College, PA2007: August - December

In State College there is a need for, and an opportunity to design a structure to improve the area’s viability simply by creating a locus for the area’s personality and promise. The Downtown Vision and Strategic Plan identifies the need for establishing a unique “arts” identity for the downtown while strengthening its roles as the Centre Region’s center for business services, specialty retail and entertainment.

This project proposes a 6-plex cinema complex, 40 residential condominiums as well as retail, office and restaurant spaces at the base to form a vibrant street scape. The primary focus of this project is to create an overall structure and form for the project which responds and enhances each programmatic element. The simple L-shape massing provides for a large open piazza, while the facade of the building then becomes a living “screen” for the plaza. The mixture ofdiverse programs will also provide a combination of day and nighttime uses that cater to the student, and permanent resident populations while also ensuring a round-the-clock use of the interior and exterior spaces.

This page: Facade StudiesOpposite: Interior Studies

Index:

1. Plaza2. Pedestrian entrance3. Cinema4. Green space for condominiums5. First level condominiums6. Second level condominiums7. Miller Alley8. Fraser Street

123

4

5

6

7 8

Index:

1. Beaver Ave.2. Calder Way3. Pedestrian Entrance4. Cinema5. Vertical Circulation - Cinema6. Condominium7. Entrance to Green Space

1

2

3

4 45

5

66

6 6 7

4 4

Index:

1. Beaver Ave.2. Fraser St.3. Stairs up4. Cinema entrance5. Ticketing and concessions6. Circulation - Cinema7. Cinema8. Bathroom9. Circulation - Condominiums10. Restaurant Entrance11. Indoor Seating12. Covered Exterior Seating13. Kitchen14. Fire stair

Index:

1. Cinema2. Elevator3. Stairs4. Bathroom5. Fire stair6. Storage7. Circulation - Condominiums8. Office9. Conference Rm.10. Storage

Index:

1. Circulation - Condominiums2. Entrance3. Stairs - Cinema4. Green space5. Condominium6. Mail Rm.

THE MANHATTAN AIRPORT FOUNDATION

Professional FreelanceClient: Joe Stevens, Writer / DirectorCentral Park, Manhattan2009: May - June

Personal Responsibilities:I was asked to create all images for the project, as featured on the website www.manhattanairport.org.

The Manhattan Airport Foundation TMAF is an art project created to satirize urban development initiatives and draw public attention to the shortcomings of our air transportation infrastructure in NYC, specifically Manhattan.

The project has been featured in Fast Company, The Guardian UK, U.S. News & World Report, The Huffington Post and Gawker among others in addition to generating huge amounts of conversation throughout the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook.

“The Manhattan Airport Foundation is a land-use constituency committed to the immediate development of a viable and centrally-located international air transportation hub in Manhattan for the benefit of all New Yorkers.”

-manhattanairport.org

“The group’s proposition, conveyed by a very professional website complete with quality 3D renders, is to redevelop the unused area of central Manhattan, currently known as Central Park, as an air transportation hub fit for the 21st century.”

-londonist.com