Architecture in progressPortfolio Niek Schouten MSc

About me

I am a young and enthusiastic Architect, looking for a Job in a well established architecture practice where my skills can be applied and further developed. I studied Architecture and Design Systems at the Eindhoven University of Technology.

I have a strong passion for conceptual design, linking societal, environmental and architectural aspects in order to come to a better solution for modern day design problems. Strong connections between the multiple layers of a design task ensure an integrated design solution from a conceptual scale to the scale of the detail.

I am skilled in a broad range of two- and three-dimensional architectural drawing and visualisation software like ‘AutoCAD’ or ‘3DStudio MAX’ and I have extensive experience with algorithmic design tools like ‘Grasshopper’.

During my exchange semester at the University of Sydney in Australia I gained some valuable experience in international design practice and communication skills.

Engelsestoof 174261 RA Wijk en Aalburgniek@niekschouten.comTel:+31 (0)6 23291069

www.niekschouten.com

Contents

2013

12

12

12

12

11

11

11

11

10

10

10

10

09

09

09

09

08

08

08

08

07

07

07

07

06

06

06

06

05

05

05

05

04

04

04

04

03

03

03

03

02

02

02

02

2012

2011

2010

A Home for Rhythmic Living p.5

Liverpool Public School p.15

‘t Eindje p.19

Generative Design p.25

Quartier des Arts p.29

Freeform Design p.23

A smart Living environment for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders in a former monasterygraduation project

A smart Living environment for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders in a former monasterySydney University exchange project

A smart Living environment for people with Autism

A smart Living environment for people with Autism

A smart Living environment for people with Autism

A smart Living environment for people with Autism

A house is not a home. There is a significant difference between the house, merely providing shelter, and the home providing much more in the form of a place that is ‘your own’. But what is it that turns a house into a home? What is it that makes a simple building, made out of bricks, stone or wood, into the highly personal and sophisticated place that we call home?

One group of aspects that contributes to the transformation of a house into a home, is the group of temporal aspects and in specific cyclical temporal aspects or rhythms. The personal rituals that can be found in everybody’s life are strongly linked to the space they take place in, creating a strong, personal connection between the user and the space.

The R itua l Home

A H

om

e fo

r Rh

yth

mic L

ivin

gG

raduatio

n P

roject

Sep

tember 2

013

1

5

A Home for Rhythmic LivingA smarter l iv ing environment for people with Aut ism Spectrum Disorders in a former monaster y

A Place that is designed with a strongly rhythmic target group in mind is the religious monastery. Monasteries are especially interesting, because the rhythmic connection that monks have with their monasteries is enhanced by the fact that they do not have any personal possessions and because social interaction is controlled and limited. This way the daily routine becomes an even greater generator of ‘a sense of home’, in relation to physical objects and social relations.

People with Autism Spectrum Disorders have a strong preference for routine. They like to live in a calm and safe environment where they know what will happen next. A building environment that is focussed on following daily routines can be highly beneficial for this group of people. This design proposal for a smarter living environment for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders in a Former Monastery takes this target group with a strong

preference for routine and links it to a place that is designed for the ritual lives of monks.

In the St. Willibrord-abbey near Doetinchem, the Netherlands, rhythm is mainly expressed through the movement of the monks in the cloister hallways. Following this idea of migrations within the building as an expression of rhythmic living, the pendulum concept is developed. The pendulum concept creates a distance between key spaces that are linked to a daily living routine. By creating this distance a migration route is created that expresses and dramatises the rhythmic properties of the lives of the users. The facade is then used to further express, but also support this rhythmic notion, creating a calm and orderly environment in both space and time, providing the user with a solid base, which he can trust and rely upon.The design consists of a group living part, where people with Autism Spectrum Disorders can live in a family style model,

Plan 0Scale 1:200 N

Group Living 1 - Living room 2 - Coatroom 3 - Bedroom 4 - Washroom 5 - Dining room6 - Entrance area7 - Courtyard 8 - Kitchen9 - Cloister hallway10 - Church

Monks Residency11 - Lowered square12 - Refectory13 - Kitchen14 - Storage space

Supervised Independent Living15 - Buffer zone16 - Living ‘room’17 - Dining ‘room’18 - Shared entrance19 - Courtyard

The exist ing c l oi ster h a l l way has been expanded, creat ing a meet ing point

des igned with specia l considerat ion for ex ten d e d proxem i c s

In the ‘supervised independent living’ apartments the pendulum concept is expressed in section and through the louvres in the windows

Section A

Section B

Section E

- Ceramic rooftiles- Watertight membrane- ʻPerforaʼ elements- Steelconstruction with insulation 160mm- Insulation 45mm- Plywood finishing

- Ceramic rooftiles- Wooden structure- Watertight membrane- Underlayment- Wooden beam structure- Steel structure

- Steel structure- Wooden structure- Insulation 120mm- Plywood- Gypsum board- Plaster finishing

Detail A

a supervised independent living part, consisting of a number of apartments for one or two residents with healthcare on site, and a new residence for the remaining monks. This combination of residential typologies can be seen as a series of stepping stones, softening the difficult transition from living with family to an independent living environment. The remaining monks stay on site and are able to use the old church building. This way the monks can provide some facility services like building maintenance and catering. The group living part is implemented in the old monastery building, the monks residency and the supervised independent living part are newly added extensions, replacing the old farm buildings, which will be demolished.

The ensemble of buildings is shaped as an interesting composition of simple elements. Important lines in the fabric of the site led the design to an angled morphology of primary shapes and archetypical cloister typologies. By using simple volumes like the cube that houses the monks, the mass of the buildings is easy to understand and easily readable. A minimalistic facade design with wooden fins and hidden gutters, makes sure that the sensory intensity of the design is kept within limits. Brick, wood and copper are used as strong but elementary materials further reducing the visual and textural intensity of the design, creating a safe living environment that supports a life of routine.

Detail B

Liverpool Public School

A b r o a d s c h o o l o n t h e f r i n g e o f t h e c i t y

The Liverpool Public school site is a prime location between the city centre and the railway station, a location that will make the difference in future development. The proposal addresses the safety issues the city has to deal with and realises the potential of the site to take a first step towards a lively and multicultural city.

In the urban fabric there are multiple cultural and educational hotspots. The corresponding networks touch the plan area from different sides and are transformed into pedestrian paths cutting through the scheme. The master plan balances public, semi private and private space, so that human interaction can be stimulated without endangering privacy.

15Plan +1

Liv

erp

oo

l Pu

blic S

cho

ol

Exch

ange P

roject

June 2

012

2

15

winter situation

summer situation

The concept of the school is based on the constant struggle between the privacy and safety of the kids and the community role the school fulfils. The new school design is based on a circular shape that functions as a shield from the city around it. The classrooms are located on the outside of the ring and protect the outdoor space on the inside.

The library has become a community hub, with books, computers and different types of learning spaces. The ground floor can be accessible for community use after and even during school hours, without disturbing the daily school routine. The more private classrooms are located on the two levels above, creating the distance necessary for the safety of the children. They are designed to be home bases for learning activities. From this highly personalised space they can venture out to discover the world and learn. The circulation space in between the classrooms is usable outdoor space, providing an outdoor learning environment morphed around the classrooms. By stretching out these spaces to abnormal proportions they become a meeting place that can be used for different activities instead of just being traffic space.

‘t EindjeA col laborat ive ef for t towards a mult i funct ional work/ l iv ing distr ic t in the c ity of Eindhoven

‘t Eindje is the dutch name for a small area close to the city center of Eindhoven, home to the Eindhoven stock exchange. The design scheme encompasses a a reconsideration of the site with a mixed function program in existing and new buildings. The program is spread across the site and stacked on top of each other and does not follow a more traditional zoning strategy. This ensures liveliness across the building site, throughout the day.

The first layer is an already existing parking garage. The second layer exists of a large square connecting the six towers that rise on top of the parking garage. The bottom floors of the towers house little shops and office functions.

The top floors are occupied by apartments and an urban hotel. A shopping street cuts through the volumes connecting the city center with a smaller shopping center on the other side of the plan area. All the different functions are expressed through the use of different facades and materials.

The design is the result of a training exercise that focussed on working efficiently in large design teams. The scheme was designed by a large consortium of more than twenty designers with different skills and backgrounds, ranging from urban architects to real estate managers. Autodesk Revit was used as a BIM-system to collectively store all the design information.

‘t Ein

dje

(g

roup w

ork)

Coursew

ork

June 2

011

3

19

London Olympic PavilionA parametr ic des ign using grasshopper and

Rhinoceros

In the freeform design course advanced CAD-tools were used to create architectural shapes and geometry. To create complex free forms the software packages 3D-studio Max and Rhinoceros were used. Using the visual scripting plug-in grasshopper for Rhinoceros a script was created to parametrically define the shape of the trees in the façade and the openings in the roof. Inspiration for the designs is the image of a pebble surrounded by the stems of

trees, with the branches and leaves as a roof.

The script used for the design parametrically defines the number and dimensions of the tree elements in the facade design. Sliders can be used to interactively change the underlying parameters. The nodes of the tree elements are then translated using a random engine that ads a controlled amount of randomness. This way a dynamic facade design is created.

Freeform DesignF

ree

form

De

sign

Coursew

ork

January 2

011

4

23

Ge

ne

rativ

e D

esig

nPro

jectJan

uary 2

011

5

25

Math = Mor pholog yA smarter l iv ing environment for people with Aut ism Spectrum Disorders in a former monaster y

The generative design project focused on basic knowledge about form finding with the help of CAD-tools. Using a script mathematical functions are transformed into a spatial geometry. A square grid of small plates is used as a starting point. Using the coordinates of each plate and a given mathematical function the script either translates or rotates the plates to create a new geometry. Another script has been made to create structural tubes that hold the plates together. One of the script variants also considered the steepness of the function

using a derivative and locally breaking up the plates into smaller parts. By doing this the continuity of the function is preserved even when the shapes are more extreme.

Throughout the project no use was made of graphical algorithm editors like Grasshopper, but in stead the scripting languages Visual Basic and MAXscript were used. This way fundamental knowledge could be developed of the way computers work and how parameters are stored transformed and expressed in geometry.

A house is not a home. There is a significant difference between the house, merely providing shelter, and the home providing much more in the form of a place that is ‘your own’. But what is it that turns a house into a home? What is it that makes a simple building, made out of bricks, stone or wood, into the highly personal and sophisticated place that we call home?

One group of aspects that contributes to the transformation of a house into a home, is the group of temporal aspects and in specific cyclical temporal aspects or rhythms. The personal rituals that can be found in everybody’s life are strongly linked to the space they take place in, creating a strong, personal connection between the user and the space.

Q u a r t ie r d e A r t s

Voted No. 1 project of the semester

by students and professors

Qu

artie

r de

s Arts

(gro

up w

ork)

Grad

uatio

n P

roject B

achelo

rJu

ne 2

010

6

29

Plan +4

Quartier des ArtsA mixed funct ion design for a new cultura l hub

in the c ity of ‘Maastr icht’

The Multidisciplinary project is the graduation project of the bachelor course. It consists of a design for a complex combined program of a conservatorium and a performing arts school, students and starter dwellings, a museum, a theater and a concert hall. All of these features are combined on the grounds of the old paper factory in Maastricht (the Netherlands). The old factory buildings are partially reused. Due to the mixed program, the connecting access spaces become the main design feature. The routing space is enlarged, exaggerated and

visually highlighted to bind the plan together.

Strong diagonal lines cut through the plans and guide the eye towards important buildings, objects and reference points. Hight differences are used to create soft transitions between the different functions. The in-between space becomes a long ribbon intertwined with the rest of the building, splitting and widening where necessary.

The design was created within a small design team consisting of a number of designers with different fields of expertise.

Progress in Architecture