Kendall Mann



What Difference Does it Make?

UG Thesis 2022 ++
*      Thesis Prep
*      Diagrams and reseach
*      Drawings I
*      Drawings II
*      Model photographs

Choreographs:
Architecture in the Expanded Field

Vertical Studio 2021 ++
*       Models and research
*       Drawings and models I
*       Drawings and models II

Omphalos

Advanced Project Delivery 2021 ++
*       Construction documents
*       Wall sections and details

Museum as Accumulation

Design Studio 2020 ++
*       Diagrams and models
*       Drawings I
*       Drawings II
*       Plan animation

Matters of Congestion

Design Studio 2020 ++
*       Research
*       Drawings and models I
*       Drawings and models II

In the Field

2020 - 2022 ++
*       Photography and videography



Kendall Mann —
Info

  1. Graduated from the Southern California Institute of Architecture [SCI-Arc] with a B. Arch. Proficient in Rhino, Vray, Revit, Adobe Suite, AutoCad, Fabrication, et al. Strong leadership and communication skills with a design-oriented approach to architecture.


Mark

*Diagrams and research

 


    01. 17th century palace complex enclosing a courtyard
        01. Remaining wing isolated within its current urban context



    02. Symmetrical elevation
        02. Broken symmetry

    03. Original entry on axis
        03. Entry along front façade


    04. Frontal access at midpoint
        04. Sinking, elongated access

    05. Circulation on axis between rooms
        05. Circulation deterred, visually present inaccessible axis


    06. Linear, horizontally organized circulation
        06. Episodic, vertically organized circulation



    07. Shallow public space surrounding the building
        07. Recessed and extended public space


    08. Elevated public plinth in back
        08. Sunken public plaza in front and under
           


What Difference Does It Make?


An iconic building rooted in the past, the Hall of Realms presently remains invisible. Our thesis subverts the Prado Museum extension through a series of interventions that challenge the existing characteristics of a building weighed down by its own historic status. To transgress the prior typology of a government institution, we misused its essential features, reorienting an expected encounter into an unforeseen discovery.

Formerly a 17th-century private seat of power destined to become a public container of culture, the Hall of Realms competition falls into the all too familiar trope of a palace-to-museum conversion that produces a building we know how to occupy and relate to.
Altering architectural features such as symmetry, access, circulation, and ground, the project forces us to rethink our relationship to the past. Instead of reinforcing old ways of inhabiting cultural institutions, these changes provoke different ways of occupying and moving through the space of the museum.

Between the two extremes of placing the existing building on a pedestal or overwhelming it with entirely new architecture, this thesis is quietly different – posing an alternative to the dichotomy of old versus new that dominates restoration projects today. The interventions alter the nature of the architecture in a way that neither ennobles nor diminishes the previous renditions of the building. Liberated from the division between past and future, the building shifts to be present.

Transmuting the building to obscure the distinction of an addition, our thesis is at once old and new, (un)obtrusive in its subversion, uncanny in its differences.

Produced with Tamara Birghoffer
Instructed by Russell Thomsen

Mark