SELECTED WORKS ALEX
CONFLUENCE A LIBRARY FOR
WEST OAKLAND
The traditional library is no longer suitable for the needs of a heterogeneous populace. Confluence aims to provide a new typology for the library: one that is ambitious in its program and in its focus on a diversity of needs. The distinct volumes represent the diversity of identities in any community, and their shared form shows how when we come together for support and community, it doesn’t always look the same, but it serves us to do so. The resulting form is a beacon to the community, reinforced by its glowing polycarbonate façade, that this is a place to come, be yourself, and lean on your neighbors not despite of but because of your differences. As these pure forms warp to find their own personality or identity, they lean on each other for support and form a new collective identity.
INWARD EYE
FAMILY RETREAT IN HOWARD FALLS, PA
Concept diagramed by Ryan Keerns and Kristen Smith of keernsmith, adapted by Ryan Keerns, myself, and Kaleb Bourne. Model by myself and Kaleb Bourne. Drawings by myself and Ryan Keerns. Inward Eye was submitted to and shortlisted for the Buildner Competition: Howard Waterfall Retreat in Howard, PA.
RICKLE HOUSE
AN ARTIST’S RESIDENCY
CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE
‘Rickle’ noun a small stack : loose heap : pile i.e. a rickle of stones
An artist’s residency nestled into a hillside, Rickle House is centered on ideas of communal living. The facility has 12 private bedrooms, with shared restrooms, studio spaces, and 3 central kitchens. All circulatory spaces are outdoors, but under cover of the roof. The roof strategically peels upward in the bedrooms and workspaces, creating clerestory windows facing east in the bedrooms to capture morning light and north in the workspaces to maintain a more consistent daylighting throughout the day.
Rickle House was 1 of 4 nominees for the Master of Architecture Studio Prize | First Year Core Studio Award
INTERSECT
MIXED-INCOME HOUSING IN CHICAGO, IL
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS
Intersect is a proposal to renovate 2 of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Lake Shore Drive Towers in Chicago, IL. It revolves around the concept of integration, formally by physically integrating the two towers into one building, and programmatically by introducing socio-economic integration in the residential portions of the project. The formal logic is dictated by a distortion of the Miesian column which uses the columns as anchor points from which to disrupt. The project includes additions to the program to help lower-income families thrive in a higher-income neighborhood including an urban market on the ground level, a restaurant that provides employment opportunities, offices for legal and medical assistance, and communal spaces to nurture integration.
SELECTED WORKS
ALEX RIEDEL