Rhino, Photoshop, & Adobe Illustrator.
Year 2 - Arch 202B - Professor Julia Sulzer
Petro-Steel is a sustainably focused project centered in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve, utilizing reused steel components from the mechanisms of an oil pumpjack.
The project objective was to create a part/panel/component responding to three performance criteria. To begin developing this performance criteria, I looked into the background of the Bolsa Chica itself. Upon my own research of the area, as well as the development of the panel, I formed the following criteria:
Social Interaction and Exchange
Ecology of Materials
The panel utilizes recycled steel elements from the oil pumpjacks for the vertical and horizontal elements of the facade, which are currently being removed from the areas surrounding the Bolsa Chica ecological reserve.
Social Interaction and Exchange
The part encourages interaction through its integrated seating as well as integrated bike paths for those biking through the Bolsa Chica reserve.
Environmental Resilience
The part utilizes an aerodynamically curved facade, which significantly increases the structure's wind resistance, and the use of breaks in the facade itself allows for the interior to self-regulate in temperature.
Panel Perspective
Model Photos
Stage Two of the project was to design a small structure that utilizes the Stage One prototype unit (two-sided envelope membrane) as a larger collective enclosure system component. The small structure would be located in my selected ecology from Stage One, Bolsa Chica. The program for the small structure is an artist-in-residence live/work space modeled after the National Parks Art Foundation program. The small structure would serve as a multi-disciplinary artist-in-residence live/work space for short-term stays (30-60 days), serving as a contemplative space for creative research away from the distractions of normal life.
My approach reflects the original intention of industrial reuse reflected in the project's first stage, reutilizing pumpjack components for the structural support systems within the small structure itself. The structure has a unique two-layer exterior system, including the original horizontal steel membranes from the panel design and a layer of glass to enclose the structure, as well as an open-air bottom half to allow for the passage of air through the structure. The artist's work area is synchronous with the patterns of the steel exterior, forming into the working desk itself and existing on a rotating axis, allowing the desk itself to merge onto the sundeck, allowing the interior workspace to expand into the marsh.
Structure Axon
Structure Perspective Section
physical model
