c h r i s t o p h e r b a l lportfolio

Manhattan, Inundated - Visions et Utopie, EPFL

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Market as FieldCarnegie Mellon University

An Evolution of Icelandic LandscapesEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Pittsburgh Eco-ParkCarnegie Mellon University

Digitized TowersCarnegie Mellon University

Saco Lake BathhouseCarnegie Mellon University

inter·punct: vol 2, inter·viewsCarnegie Mellon University

Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding MegacitiesThe Museum of Modern Art

Collaborative Performing Arts CenterCarnegie Mellon University

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c o n t a c tchristopherball93@gmail.comwww.christopher-ball.comUSA: +1 301 509 0799 / CH: +41 78 799 10 65

Carnegie Mellon University: Pittsburgh, PABachelor of Architecture candidate, Class of 2016Secondary Major in French and Francophone StudiesMinor in Architectural History and Theory

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne: Lausanne, SwitzerlandExchange student in MSc of Architecture ProgramIndustrial Iceland Studio under Prof. Harry Gugger, LABA, Basel, CHSeptember 2014 to June 2015

Richard Montgomery High School: Rockville, MDInternational Baccalaureate Magnet Program, Graduated June 2011

Laboratoire Bâle, EPFL: Basel, SwitzerlandStudent Assistant, Industrial Iceland Studio under Prof. Harry GuggerJanuary to February 2015

The Museum of Modern Art: New York, NYCuratorial Intern, Department of Architecture & DesignResearch, image curation and copyright permissions for Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities exhibition and catalogue under Pedro GadanhoJune 2014 to August 2014

School of Architecture: Carnegie Mellon UniversityTeaching Assistant for Historical Survey II: Modern Architecture, Prof. Kai GutschowSeptember to December 2013

Ossolinski Architects: Washington, DCArchitectural Intern, website design and schematic design drawings for various projectsMay to August 2013 + January 2014

Phi Kappa Phi Honor SocietyNominated and inducted in Spring 2015, GPA within top 10% of University class

Measuring & Monitoring Services, Inc. Internship FundCarnegie Mellon University, School of Architecture, May 2014Awarded in support of a student’s internship at a non-profit institution

Patricia Askwith-Kenner Study Abroad ScholarshipCarnegie Mellon University, Dietrich College, Department of Modern LanguagesScholarship for French-language study abroad, April 2013 + April 2014

Dean’s List: Carnegie Mellon UniversityCollege of Fine Arts, all semesters Fall 2011 to Spring 2014

Head of School Commendations: Carnegie Mellon UniversitySchool of Architecture, 4 / 6 Semesters, 2011 to 2014

c h r i s t o p h e r b a l l

p u b l i c a t i o n s + e x h i b i t i o n s

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l e a d e r s h i p + a c t i v i t i e s

volume 2, inter • views: inter • punctAssisted with curation, editing, layout and interviews conducted with practitioners for the second volume of Carnegie Mellon’s student-led journal for architecture theory and discourseForthcoming Spring 2015

Fourth Year Design Awards: Carnegie Mellon UniversitySelected for portfolio exhibition, School of Architecture’s design show for fourth year studentsMarch 2015

Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities: MoMAAssisted with curating publication images and managing image copyright permissions under Curator of Contemporary Architecture Pedro GadanhoPublished November 2014

President’s Advisory Council Review: Carnegie Mellon UniversitySeveral projects exhibited as a part of University departmental reviewsFebruary 2014

SoftwareAdobe Creative Suite; Rhinoceros 3D with Vray Rendering, Grasshopper, Diva Energy Analysis, RhinoCAM; SketchUp 3D; Autodesk AutoCAD; Microsoft Office Suite

Representation and FabricationLaser cutting, CNC mill, 3D printer, Wood-working and machinery; Digital photography; Graphic and web design

OtherFluent in English and French, beginning proficiency in German; Print publication experience, Image rights and permissions clearing

References: Available upon request

inter • punct: Carnegie Mellon UniversityAssistant Editor, Carnegie Mellon’s student-led journal for architecture theory and discourseJanuary 2014 to present

American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS)Treasurer, Carnegie Mellon Chapter of the national membership and advocacy organization for architecture studentsJanuary 2013 to January 2014

Student Advisory Council: Carnegie Mellon UniversityRepresented Class of 2016 to the School of Architecture administrationAugust 2013 to May 2014

Odyssey Program: Carnegie Mellon UniversitySelected by faculty for participation in leadership development programJanuary 2013

Varsity Diving Team: Carnegie Mellon UniversityStudent athlete, Fall 2012 to Spring 2013

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m a r k e t a s f i e l dCarnegie Mellon University School of Architecture: Pit tsburgh, PA

Structural Systems Studio: Spring 2014, Prof essor Stephen Lee

With market, office and restaurant serving as semi autonomous objects, a new spatial matrix seeks to unify the diverse elements of program in a singular system while respecting the identity of each.

View from Railroad Street Plaza

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Intent on preserving this eclectic mix of scales, clients and tenant typologies, Market As Field seeks to integrate into the surrounding city-block field through the creation of a micro-field of its own. With market, office and restaurant serving as semi autonomous objects, this new spatial matrix seeks to unify the diverse elements of program in a singular system while respecting the identity of each.

An offset grid sets apart the market hall as the principal element of program within the building’s spatial hierarchy, while simultaneously addressing primary site circulation. Opposing grid incisions into both elements of program reinforce and contextualize visitors of their place within the larger site. Within the market hall, vendors are organized in distinct volumetric molecular fragments, an individualistic experience which relies upon local relations of difference within the field to create a contextual identity for each portion of the building. “Neighborhoods” of vendor types, clusters within the field, provide for relational grounding within the greater field, giving a sense of memory and a navigational placement to the occupant as they walk through the building.

Field organization also affords to the market a metaphoric relationship with existing commercial and retail vendors in the Strip, whose organic development naturally responded to needs within the site. This relationship binds the new development to the existing, helping to ensure it maintains its authenticity and success that have made the Strip District such a destination in the city thus far.

Varying roof heights within the marketplace create a contextual and phenomenological identity for each portion of the hall.

The Strip District, as a mixed-use neighborhood within Pittsburgh, has a wide and varied history, serving host to rail yards and wholesale distributors in the past while today acting as a unique mix of residential, office and commercial uses.

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Site Plan: Strip District, Pittsburgh, PA

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Entrance Pavilion

Plan +10’

Market HallOffice Space

Kitchen

RestaurantLogistics + MechanicalStorage

Courtyard

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Mirrored glazing reflects the site’s context, while transparent incisions provide views directly into the various market neighborhoods.

Longitudinal Section

Transverse Section

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Offices

Offices

Offices

Logistics / Mechanical

Entrance Pavilion

Upper Restaurant Seating

Restaurant Kitchen

Restaurant

Market Hall

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building floor system

market structural system

market glass enclosure

office + restaurant structural system

office + restaurant perforated metal

enclosure

Market Hall Enclosure Detail Drawing

Standing Seam Metal RoofingExtruded Polystyrene InsulationConcrete w/ Roof Decking

Glass Fin to Beam Bracket

W10 x 30 Wide Flange Beam

Rectangular Steel Pipe Column

Spider Bracket Glazing System

Fin to Fin Bracket

Double Paned IGU

Glass with Spandrel Frit

Structural Glass Fin

Fin to Floor Bracket

Concrete Footing

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an evolution of icelandic landscapes

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Laboratoire Bâle (LABA), Basel, CH

Industrial Iceland Studio: Fall 2014, Professor Harry Gugger

Collaboration with Caroline Favre, Elvira Pietrobon and Hiroki Tanigaki

By finding the limit between preservation of its pristine landscape and the development of industry in the

form of two regions of concentration, linked by a pristine Highland National Park, Iceland can diversify its

economic and urban development, bringing stability and balance to the nation for years to come.

The Ridge Experience

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An in-depth analysis of the state of Iceland’s tourism, agriculture, maritime, and energy industries provided extensive background from

which to base our project. Tourism was selected as a central focus due to its rapid growth and yet still tremendous possibilities.

Icelandic Tourism: State of Affairs

Comparison of Tourism Seasonality

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Road Access and Tourism Today

Seasonal and Regional Concentration

Territorial Constitution Map

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Hybrid Industry: Hydroelectric Spa

ZOOM 4 : GEOTHERMAL CAMPS

ON THE MOON

ZOOM 2 : HYDROELECTRIC SPA

INTO THE WILD

Iceland’s unique geological conditions and established specialties make for a large number industrial possibilities. New forms

of hybrid industry allow Iceland to build up their existing expertise and become a new center for industrial innovation.

Hydroelectric SpasGeothermal Camp Sites

Geothermal Plant

Aquaculture

Hydroponic Greenhouses

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Traditionally agrarian based, Icelandic settlement was characterized by isolated farms up until the last several centuries. With the declining influence of the Danish kingdom came a turn towards the sea in the form of coastal fishing villages as Iceland’s first urban development. Industrialization in the 20th century began Iceland’s rural migration as manifested in the generational migration of Icelanders to Reykjavik. But now, globalization and climate change put Iceland at a crossroads. A historically unstable economy based on finance and aluminum smelting have threatened Iceland’s prosperity, while rapid growth in tourism and demands for increased energy production threaten Iceland’s untouched nature.

With abundant natural resources of its own, Iceland has the opportunity to develop its own range of industries rather than relying on foreign investment for economic development. By finding the limit between preservation of its pristine landscape and the development of industry in the form of two regions of concentration, linked by a pristine Highland national parkland, Iceland can diversify its economic and urban development, bringing stability and balance to the nation for years to come. This project asks: what could industrialization mean when fuelled by such a sublime landscape? What role can architecture serve in shaping the evolution of Icelandic urbanization?

The advent of the 21st century brings new challenges that threaten to upend Iceland’s traditional order. As a people with an intrinsic foundation in nature, Icelanders’ cultural perception of their environment has always had a fundamental impact on their society.

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p i t t s b u r g h e c o - p a r kCarnegie Mellon University School of Architecture: Pittsburgh, PA

Parametric Ecological Landscape Studio: Fall 2013, Professor Dana Cupkova

Collaboration with Jeremy Lu

Flowing from the urban context into the riverfront, the structures, housing open pavilions, a restaurant,

and artifical reef system piers, provide a physical link between the human occupants and aquatic life

beyond and serve as a community gathering place for an area of the city void of public spaces.

Park Pavilions

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Parametric spines continue the urban grid through the historic Produce Terminal Building, while agglomerated pathways run parallel to the river.

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Creating habitats for fish and other aquatic life on the riverfront, artificial reef systems attract fish by way of their complex branching patterns. Taking this as inspiration, the project begins to replicate this experience on a human scale with the parametric architectural system.

The structures are arranged by program, with the elemental sticks morphing between restaurant, outdoor pavilion and pier/artificial reef to form roof, canopy, wall, and walking surface. Flowing from the urban context into the riverfront, the structures provide a physical link between the human occupants and aquatic life beyond and serve as a community gathering place for an area of the city void of public spaces.

An extension of the urban street grid provides a contextual structure to the landscape, forging a strong connection between the urban development and the riverfront. A bi-axial system of circulation replicates the rectangular grid of the Strip with pathways, oriented parallel to the river, forming the longitudinal direction of circulation and with the structural spines forming the latitudinal direction of circulation.

Tasked with fostering a healthier riverfront through a park for the Strip District in Pittsburgh, PA initial explorations focused on creating a healthier aquatic ecosystem through the use of an artificial reef system.

Restaurant Section

Pavilion Section

Pier Section

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The parametric system morphs from artificial reef / pier to pavilion and back to artificial reef / pier, contributing to the betterment of Allegheny River ecology while reconnecting the Strip District to the previously neglected riverfront.

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Aggregated paths, running parallel to the river, co-opt the structure’s formal language to create an interlocking system of circulation that promotes access from the urban Strip District, which remains separated by the Produce Terminal Building.

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d i g i t i z e d t o w e r s Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture: Pittsburgh, PA

Materials and Assembly Course: Spring 2013, Professor Dale Clifford

Collaboration with Nouf Aljowaysir, Shanna Chan, Avanti Dabholkar, Laura Gonzalez

Shivani Jain, Naomie Laguerre, Clara Lee, Nikhil Sambamurthy, and Tommy Sterling

Exploring formal and tectonic variations on how to compose a fifteen foot tall tower, the project uses

a cellular approach for its formal design, fabrication and assembly methods, generated with Grasshopper.

Tower, assembled, in the College of Fine Arts

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Through an iterative study using both physical models and digital scripts, the final tower reflects a sense of gravity, with larger cells grounding the structure in a gradient of decreasing size as the tower grows taller.

An emphasis on refining the fabrication and assembly processes drove experimentation for cell to cell connections, with 1:1 testing revealing zip tie connectors to be the optimal solution in the final design. After using the CNC mill and digital fabrication techniques to craft each cell from plywood, the tower was collaboratively assembled, rising to a height of 14 feet and seemingly defying gravity. Constructed with only plywood and zip ties, the project was instructive of the ramifications that design decisions and theoretical processes have in the construction and assembly of a built project, revealing the importance of the dialogue between design and practice.

Exploring formal and tectonic variations on how to compose a fifteen foot tall digitally-fabricated tower, the project uses a cellular approach for its formal design, fabrication and assembly methods, working with three dimensional voronois generated under the parametric design software Grasshopper.

Experimentation and process work were extremely important to arriving at the tower’s final composition and parametric form.

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Project elevation

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Rising to a height of fourteen feet, the project defies gravity with its parametric form yet straightforward materials and construction methods.

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Intra and inter-cellular joinery were important to the project’s viability and were ultimately resolved solely with zipties.

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collaborative performing arts centerCarnegie Mellon University School of Architecture: Pit tsburgh, PA

Material Tectonics Studio: Spring 2013, Prof essor Jeremy Ficca

Presented with the task of encouraging collaboration across the disciplines of dance, theater, music and the communications, the project through its structural organization

increases daily interaction between all users of the building.

Four volumes, each oriented towards its respective institution, transect one another to encourage collaboration.

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Sectional Perspective

Lecture Hall

Box Office

Media Lab

Stretching Room

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Performance Space

Lobby

Media Lab

Lounge

Offices

Dance Studio

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A lack of dedicated performance, practice and creation spaces at the Berklee College of Music, Boston Ballet School, Boston Conservatory and Emerson College, institutions of music, dance, theater and communications, presents the opportunity for a collaborative center for the performing arts, where faculty and students from all institutions can engage together with the public in creating new and inventive forms of media.

Presented with the task of encouraging collaboration across disciplines in built form, the project, through its structural organization, increases daily interaction between all users of the building. Four volumes, each oriented towards its respective institution, transect one another, resulting in distinct “intersection spaces” where collective aspects of the program are found. Additionally serving as central circulation nodes, these communal spaces encourage spontaneous interaction that co-location often provides.

A distinctive form lends itself to a complex structural system. Rather than obscure this complexity, the project celebrates it by exposing to the interior structural beams that compose the bounding planes of each volume. As a visitor navigates through the building, the visual reminder of the structural system communicates a situational identity, while transecting volumes in intersection spaces convey with a physical presence the communality of the room.

A city with a wealth of art and technology institutions, Boston presents a unique opportunity to serve as an incubator for new and innovative cross-disciplinary forms of media, performance, technology and art.

Collaborative ‘intersection’ spaces, where volumes intersect, feature the

most communal aspects of program and serve as centers for circulation within the building to encourage chance encounters.

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plan +32’ plan +0’

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Massing Process Model

Project Plans

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s a c o l a k e b a t h h o u s eCarnegie Mellon University School of Architecture: Pit tsburgh, PA

Material Tectonics Studio: Spring 2013, Prof essor Jeremy Ficca

Collaborat ion with Laura Gonzalez and Clara Lee

Investigating the narrative of becoming aware of one’s own body, this Saco Lake, NH bathhouse partakes in phenomenological theory to examine how the building envelope can invoke sensory

experiences that create a richer understanding of space, mind, and body.

Moving Body

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Entering either by way of the Frigidarium Pully System or from the water, underneath the belly of the Caldarium, guests experience the bathhouse through its phenomenological properties, reconnecting with their innerselves by way of their outer sensory experiences.

Plan: Level 0

Plan: Level -1

Lobby

Frigidarium Pully System

Caldarium Access Bridge

Caldarium

Meditation Room

Caldarium Pully System

Changing Facilities

Frigidarium

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With the separation of the frigidarium and caldarium, each bath provides a unique sensory experience, contingent on the temperature of water housed in each volume. Adding to the overall experience of the procession and act of bathing, the spatial separation invokes the opportunity for temperature changes to affect the bathing experience. The pulley system, whether ascending from the land path or after canoeing in underneath the belly of the hot bath, engages the body in a sort of kinetic motion that one does not often experience in everyday life.

The cast components act both as essential structural elements to each volume and additionally connect the bather with the more material qualities of the architecture. With each component model being molded from casts created with digital fabrication processes, the project was fundamental in teaching an understanding of the casting process.

Assembled with pieces of corten steel and cast in concrete, the hot bath components funnel steam upwards, out into the environment, affording those outside hints of the heat and humidity within, while the cold bath components provide viewports to the landscape, inviting bathers to take a look out to the vista beyond.

Investigating the narrative of becoming aware of one’s own body, this Saco Lake, NH bathhouse partakes in phenomenological theory to examine how the building envelope can invoke sensory experiences that create a richer understanding of space, mind, and body.

Bathhouse Transverse Section

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Frigidarium Longitudinal Section (above) / Caldarium Longitudinal Section (below)

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Component Axonometric Drawings (top)Component Model (middle right)

Project Model (bottom right)Site Plan (bottom left)

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u n e v e n g r o w t hTact ical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacit ies

The Museum of Modern Art: New York, NY, June to Aug. 2014. Published Nov. 2014

Curatorial Intern under Pedro Gadanho, Curator of Contempoary Architecture

Uneven Growth seeks to challenge current assumptions about the relationships between formal and informal, bottom-up and top-down urban development, and to address potential changes in the roles architects and urban

designers might assume vis-à-vis the increasing inequality of current urban development.

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Uneven Growth © 2014 The Museum of Modern Art, New York

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“To engage this international debate, Uneven Growth brings together six interdisciplinary teams of researchers and practitioners to examine new architectural possibilities for six global metropolises: Hong Kong, Istanbul, Lagos, Mumbai, New York, and Rio de Janeiro. Following the same model as Rising Currents and Foreclosed, each team will develop proposals for a specific city in a series of workshops that occur over the course of a 14-month initiative.”

“Uneven Growth seeks to challenge current assumptions about the relationships between formal and informal, bottom-up and top-down urban development, and to address potential changes in the roles architects and urban designers might assume vis-à-vis the increasing inequality of current urban development. The resulting proposals, which were presented at MoMA in November 2014, will consider how emergent forms of tactical urbanism can respond to alterations in the nature of public space, housing, mobility, spatial justice, environmental conditions, and other major issues in near-future urban contexts.”

In my role as Curatorial Intern, I performed research included in the exhibition show in addition to curating illustrations and researching, managing and gathering copyright permissions for the catalogue’s several hundred images.

The world’s rapid population growth, primarly urban, largely poor and alarmingly uneven presents one of the greatest challenges faced by societies across the globe and their city authorities, urban planners, economists and designers, who will have to work together to avoid major social and economic catastrophes.

Tactical Urbanisms in India and Tokyo

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Exhibition Views. Images: Thomas Griesel

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Uneven Growth © 2014 The Museum of Modern Art, New York

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Uneven Growth © 2014 The Museum of Modern Art, New York

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Uneven Growth © 2014 The Museum of Modern Art, New York

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Uneven Growth © 2014 The Museum of Modern Art, New York

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inter · pu nct : vo l 2 , inter ·v iewsCarnegie Mellon University School of Architecture: Pit tsburgh, PA

Student-led Journal for Discourse: Assistant Editor, Forthcoming Spring 2015

The forthcoming issue compiles the transcripts of a conversation series conducted by myself, Chief Editor Phillip Denny, and members of the editorial staff with visiting lecturers, faculty members, and colleagues between January 2011 and December 2014. Developed under the heading ‘inter·views,’ the issue intends to reflect a

contemporary moment in which multiple conversations on architecture proceed simultaneously and in parallel, and even the best critics aren’t quite sure where it’s all headed. Inspired by the ‘crisis of criticism’ heralded by

the September 2013 day-long Log-sponsored conference ‘In Pursuit of Architecture,’ the issue asks: what do we talk about when we talk about architecture?

Inter·punct is a journal for architecture theory and discourse that was founded by students at Carnegie Mellon University in 2011.The School of Architecture’s first sustained student-led editorial effort, the journal is intended

to create a new platform for critical discussion and dialogue.The project requires the coordination of various faculty, students, alumni, contributors, and visitors. Our first issue, ‘para·meter,’ was published in July 2013.

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Christopher E. Ball (b. 1993) is an American designer and architecture student currently participating in a year-long French-language exchange in the MSc in Architecture program at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. A fourth-year Bachelor of Architecture candidate at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Christopher’s interests lie at the intersection between architectural theory and built form. Experience in a diversity of architecture domains, including publication and curation in addition to his formal education as an architect, have engendered a multi-disciplinary approach to his work, always working in dialogue with the historical, academic and cultural discourse of the field.

As Curatorial Intern under Pedro Gadanho, Curator of Contemporary Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY during the summer of 2014, Christopher assisted with research and the publication of Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities in addition to researching potential acquisitions for the MoMA Architecture + Design Collection. Since January 2014, Christopher has been the Assistant Editor of inter·punct, Carnegie Mellon’s student-led journal for architecture theory and discourse and has contributed to the production of its forthcoming issue, volume 2: inter·views. From January 2013 to January 2014, Christopher served as Treasurer on the Executive Board of Carnegie Mellon’s chapter of American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), a membership and advocacy organization for architecture students in dialogue with the professional American Institute of Architects (AIA).

In addition to his studies in architecture, Christopher is a language enthusiast and fluent speaker of French, with elementary fluency in German. A former elite-level acrobat, Christopher has interests in dance, photography and the visual arts.

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