Outcropping is a temporary installation designed for the main concert field at the Camp Bisco music festival in upstate New York. The installation is comprised of multiple groupings of crystalline forms that sit within and tower above the festival audience. The forms are tipped with angled mirrors that reflect the landscape, the performance lighting, and the crowd below, producing a dynamic, refractive atmosphere intended to unify the core elements of the festival.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client CAMP BISCO type INSTALLATION location MARIAVILLE LAKE, NY status COMPLETE year 2012

Colorblock, a proposed installation within the Hudson Square Connection Business Improvement District, is intended to enliven its surroundings and attract pedestrians into two under-utilized public spaces. The design, a field of painted and chromed stainless steel masses, is based on a single pre-fabricated unit that is replicated at various scales, with varying degrees of enclosure. Each unit contains one reflective panel positioned adjacent to the ground, and an interior, visible through its seams, that is coated in elaborate patterns of electroluminescent tape. These mechanisms work at two scales – at the urban scale, folding the surrounding plaza and inhabitants into a new and curious geometry, and at an intimate scale, where one discovers a hidden world by peeking through the open seams of the forms.

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design  BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client HUDSON SQUARE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION type INSTALLATION location NEW YORK, NY status UNREALIZED year 2011

Higher Power is a 12 outlet cruciform surge protector that accommodates oversize adapters and provides comprehensive protection from evil, power surges, and AC contamination.

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design MEANS OF PRODUCTION position FOUNDER type OBJECT status COMPLETE year 2010

Montello is a small off the grid complex that provides simultaneous immersion in and protection from an extreme landscape. Two simple structures, made of precast concrete and corrugated aluminum siding, house living quarters and a work studio and are connected at the roof by a screened canopy that houses solar panels and a water catchment system and at the ground by and reclaimed timber deck.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client MONTELLO FOUNDATION type ARTISTS STUDIO location MONTELLO, NEVADA status UNREALIZED year 2009

Abacus is a site-specific performance and installation piece produced in collaboration with Lars Jan of Early Morning Opera that was commissioned by the Whitney Museum for its retrospective, Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe. By recombining material and rhetorical tropes of Buckminster Fuller’s oeuvre, the piece seeks to construct a new relevance to Fuller’s methods of making.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART type INSTALLATION location NEW YORK, NY status UNREALIZED year 2008

Ecco Eco New York is a redesign and renovation of an existing structure to house the offices of the environmental design initiative Ecco Eco. The building is intended to take advantage of sustainable energy sources while providing an iconic presence to the environmental brand. Combining environmental performance with graphic design, the signature element of the project is an intricate patterned facade comprised of custom parabolic solar panels and landscape elements that produce electricity and improve the urban air quality.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client ECCO ECO type COMMERCIAL BUILDING location NEW YORK, NY status UNREALIZED year 2009

Xanadu is a DJ booth designed for a performance by Juan Atkins, the inventor of Techo, that was comissioned for the Expanded Music Project at Land of Tomorrow. The form is based on an irregular pentagonal antiprism, a geometric shape comprised of alternating triangles. It is framed with solid plywood panels and clad in padded sections of gold-sparkle vinyl and maroon carpet

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client LAND OF TOMORROW type INSTALLATION location LOUISVILLE, KY status COMPLETE year 2012

The Strata Tower, a forty-story, luxury residential building is now under construction in Abu Dhabi and scheduled for completion in 2013. At a height of 160 meters, the Strata Tower will be the tallest building in the Al Dana precinct, the centerpiece of Aldar Properties PJSC’s Al Raha Beach development recently unveiled at MIPIM in Cannes, France.

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design ASYMPTOTE ARCHITECTURE: HANI RASHID + LISE ANNE COUTURE position LEAD DESIGNER client ALDAR type RESIDENTIAL TOWER location ABU DHABI, UAE status UNDER CONSTRUCTION year 2007

Ecco Eco Los Angeles is intended to produce brand identity through the production of architecture that is sustainable, memorable, and proactive. The project strives to integrate sustainable design elements into an ornamental patterned volume. The signature element of the building is a facade comprised of custom integrated wind turbines that harness energy from passing winds as well as from wind produced by the building’s air displacement.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client ECCO ECO type COMMERCIAL BUILDING location LOS ANGELES, CA status UNREALIZED year 2009

Budapest Bank Tower frames the view across the Danube in an industrial section of Budapest that is being developed by the Orco Group. The 30 story tower is designed to incorporate a second tower, to be constructed later, and is set to become the tallest building in Budapest. The project is the winner of international competition that included Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry among others.

The scheme is based on a single line that projects through multiple vectors and is given volume through a series of hyperbolic projections. The building is supported by a two rotating cores and a structural skin that we developed in collaboration with ARUP. The mesh skin is based on experiments we conducted with perforated topologies and aggregation, where a surface would become less perforated under heavier loads and more perforated under light loads.

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design ASYMPTOTE ARCHITECTURE: HANI RASHID + LISE ANNE COUTURE position LEAD DESIGNER client ORCO type COMMERCIAL TOWER location BUDAPEST, HUNGARY status UNREALIZED year 2006

Trillion Dollar Mile is a renovation of an existing commercial building along a major thoroughfare in New Jersey. The project takes up the contextual typology of the drive-by commercial facade as its point of departure. Operating as a series of chromatically shifting ribs arrayed along the surface of the existing masonry structure, the project produces a facade as volume, as it reconstructs and thickens the building’s original flatness.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client ESL CORPORATION type COMMERCIAL BUILDING location FORT LEE, NJ status UNREALIZED year 2007

76N6 is a multi-family residential building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The seven unit brick building features private terraces, a communal roof garden, and a facade comprised of operable doors set behind custom steel railings. The surface of the railings are pleated around angled steel tube subframes to create a layering of textures and pattern across the facade that offer varying degrees of light filtration.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client DANKYLE REALTY type MULTI-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL location BROOKLYN, NY status UNDER CONSTRUCTION year 2012

Grey Out is a quick, cheap, and novel centerpiece for a dinner of fifty people commissioned by Pin-Up, the Magazine for Architectural Entertainment. The installation, a combination of found birch branches and finished birch lumber, juxtaposes rough and finished elements in an improvised tessellated gray form punctuated with fresh orchids.   

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client PIN UP MAGAZINE type INSTALLATION location NEW YORK, NY status COMPLETE year 2010

In tandem with the studio’s architectural work, Bureau V produces an original drawing composition for each project with which we are engaged. This series of drawings is an ongoing experiment, seeking to find new values for the architectural deliverable outside the functions of presentation and construction. Each drawing is an original document created through processes such as computer-generated graphics, hand drawing, applique, paint, and collage.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client LAND OF TOMORROW type DRAWING status COMPLETE year 2008

In tandem with the studio’s architectural work, Bureau V produces an original drawing composition for each project with which we are engaged. This series of drawings is an ongoing experiment, seeking to find new values for the architectural deliverable outside the functions of presentation and construction. Each drawing is an original document created through processes such as computer-generated graphics, hand drawing, applique, paint, and collage.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client LAND OF TOMORROW type DRAWING status COMPLETE year 2008

In tandem with the studio’s architectural work, Bureau V produces an original drawing composition for each project with which we are engaged. This series of drawings is an ongoing experiment, seeking to find new values for the architectural deliverable outside the functions of presentation and construction. Each drawing is an original document created through processes such as computer-generated graphics, hand drawing, applique, paint, and collage.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL COUNCIL type DRAWING status COMPLETE year 2008

In tandem with the studio’s architectural work, Bureau V produces an original drawing composition for each project with which we are engaged. This series of drawings is an ongoing experiment, seeking to find new values for the architectural deliverable outside the functions of presentation and construction. Each drawing is an original document created through processes such as computer-generated graphics, hand drawing, applique, paint, and collage.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL COUNCIL type DRAWING status COMPLETE year 2008

SSWTR Spring 2010 is a pop-up installation based on the idea of still life. The installation is comprised of a series of simple wood structures with rope supported shelving and decorated with objects donated by artists and designers including Amy Yao, Andrew Kuo, Chris Caccamise, David Carson, Darren Kraft, Gloria Baume, Judy Linn, Mika Tajima, Mike Mills & Miranda July, Naomi Nevitt, No Age, Sam Wilson, Sonnet Stanfill, Tauba Auerbach, Tavi, Vampire Weekend , Wendy Yao, Zoë Ghertner and other special guests.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE type INSTALLATION location NEW YORK, NY status COMPLETE year 2010

LQ is the latest addition to Zumtobel’s Avantgarde Collection. The form is made from a single minimal surface component that can expand infinitely via seamless edge to edge connections. The form is generated by a scripting process that evolves the topology of a primitive towards particular goals, in particular heightened refraction and a lack of undercut surfaces.

LQ was awarded Light of the Future at Light+Building Frankfurt 2008.

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design ASYMPTOTE ARCHITECTURE position LEAD DESIGNER client ZUMTOBEL type LIGHTING status COMPLETE year 2007

SSWTR Spring 2009 is a pop-up installation based on the organization of the modern day department store. Drawing on construction methods of balloon-frame suburban housing and Hollywood sets, the installation aims to convert the idea of the traditional multi-level organism of commerce into a singular streamlined and temporary experience.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE type INSTALLATION location NEW YORK, NY status COMPLETE year 2009

Fractalizer is a MEL script that produces a field of fractals on any given geometry. Variables adjust the scale and replication of geometry throughout the field.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL type RESEARCH status COMPLETE year 2007

Eye to Eye is a collaboration with the art collective Assume Vivid Astro Focus on a live performance at the Guggenheim Museum. Using a laptop, 2 digital sequencers, and an electronic drumset, we produced an improvisational sound-scape of rhythmic, operatic, and abstract effects that provided the sonic environment for a real time light-show and a wild crowd of masked dancers.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL client GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM type PERFORMANCE location NEW YORK, NY status COMPLETE year 2010

Slicer is a MEL script that cuts random angles into any form. Variables adjust the range of angles, the location of projection, and the quantity of cuts.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL type RESEARCH status COMPLETE year 2008

Koala Blue Gold is a MEL script that enables incremental parametric variation in a three dimensional field of components. Here it is applied to a field of linked components, effecting rotation, materiality, reflection, porosity, and color.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL type RESEARCH status COMPLETE year 2007

Koala V3 is a MEL script that enables incremental parametric variation in a three dimensional field of components. It is a further refined version of the earlier Koala Blue Gold script that now includes limits on scale, color, and deformation. The result is now a softly modulated series of effects.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL type RESEARCH status COMPLETE year 2007

Koala is a MEL script that enables incremental parametric variation in a two dimensional field of components. In this example, a field of circles achieves scalar variation by means of the relationship between each component and the distance between two adjustable points in space.

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL type RESEARCH status COMPLETE year 2007

Drums of Death is a vector animation short produced for Chuck D and DJ Spooky for their single B Side Wins Again.

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design ALEXANDER PINCUS + NOAH OLMSTED client CHUCK D + DJ SPOOKY type ANIMATION status COMPLETE year 2005

Love Always documents two lives through juxtaposed images taken daily in different cities.

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design ALEXANDER PINCUS + NOAH OLMSTED type INSTALLATION status COMPLETE year 2007

Candelabra is a design research project done in collaboration with David Boira and Zoe Coombes as an independent study under the guidance of Hernan Diaz Alonso at Columbia University. The forms and assembly logic are based on research into minimal surfaces and genetic organization that I had done in Bill Macdonald’s design studio earlier in the semester.

Our intention was to produce a chandelier that relies on its architecture rather than its technology for its performance. The curvature of the components was optimized to refract light as well as to connect seamlessly at its edges either in plane or offset. This logic allows for multiple configurations that were in the end sampled from the refractive behavior of scripted flocking patterns.

The components themselves are made from vaccum formed plastic and joined in the center with fiberglass tape. The seams were refined with bondo, sanded, and finished with primer and finally painted with three coats of auto body paint. The components are assembled using tranparent plates that were made using a laser cutter.

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design ALEXANDER PINCUS + ZOE COOMBES + DAVID BOIRA program COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GSAPP course INDEPENDENT STUDY critic HERNAN DIAZ ALONSO type INSTALLATION location NEW YORK, NY status COMPLETE year 2005

Cloudform is a MEL script that maps a geometrically consistent pattern on the surface of a complex form by projecting a two dimensional pattern onto a flat yet topologically identical form, then reassembling the form in three dimensions. 

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design BUREAU V role PRINCIPAL type RESEARCH year 2012

Wolford is a MEL script that produces geometric primitives that contain a reciprocal relationship between form and perforation. The above renderings show a Wankel inspired torus with two slightly varied strategies.   

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design BUREAU V position PRINCIPAL type RESEARCH year 2007

Ripple is a seating element that is part of the M-Scape series of furniture by Hani Rashid. It was designed for an exhibition on Asymptote’s product and furniture design at Phillips De Pury.

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design ASYMPTOTE ARCHITECTURE: HANI RASHID + LISE ANNE COUTURE position LEAD DESIGNER client PHILIPS DE PURY type FURNITURE status UNREALIZED year 2007

LGB is one of the earliest examples of the use of subdivision surface modelling in architecture and the first example of the single surface branching structure that has become an increasingly popular design technique. 

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design ALEXANDER PINCUS program COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GSAPP course ADVANCED DESIGN STUDIO critic HERNAN DIAZ ALONSO year 2003

Recon X is a fetishized design object with no particular purpose whatsoever. Made from water-jet cut aluminum panels, cnc milled hinge plates, and automotive linear actuators, it is a highly articulated yet completely de-calibrated piece of furniture. It is a piece that comes with no agenda other than encouraging the user to figure out their own potential uses by reconfiguring it into different spatial and performative organizations.

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design ALEXANDER PINCUS + DAVID BOIRA program COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GSAPP course DESIGN STUDIO critics MARIO GOODEN + CHARLES ELDRED year 2003

Volkswagen Navigator is a touch screen interface and external control device for an interactive virtual environment at Volkswagen’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.  In its dormant state, the interface orbits slowly on a touch screen monitor. When touched, it orients itself to the user and presents a series of options. As options are selected the interface subtly responds through motion, rotation, and animated screen graphics while initiating actions in the display space.

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design ASYMPTOTE ARCHITECTURE: HANI RASHID + LISE ANNE COUTURE position LEAD DESIGNER client VOLKSWAGEN type INTERACTIVE status COMPLETE year 2005