Status: 2001, complete
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Design Team: Frano Violich, AIA; Managing Principal Sheila Kennedy, AIA; Principal Consulting on Design Eric Bunge, Hansy Luz Better, Mila Chun, J.J. Dooley
Project Team: Architecture: Kennedy & Violich Architects Ltd, Landscape: Margaret McGavin Landscape Architect Structural Engineer: Odeh Engineers, Inc MEP Engineer: Wilkinson Associates Civil Engineer: Searle & Searle Landscape Architecture
The Madden Dance Theater unifies a set of physical education and health programs through the design of the building’s section and exterior wall cladding.
The Madden Dance Theater unifies a set of physical education and health programs through the design of the building’s section and exterior wall cladding. The design organizes the program in a long, slender two-story volume of space that wraps around the double height gym volume. Diagonal views between health and athletic activities are produced by establishing spatial and programmatic relationships between the different levels of the building. The building section connects the Dance Theater with the Campus courtyard and the Entry Lobby and training rooms with the Lower Gym level. The design creates a well scaled public image for the building through the material performance of an architectural building envelope that combines a storefront glazing system with operable windows set in a galvanized metal shingle cladding. This semi-reflective cladding dissolves the scale of the gymnasium, and creates a wrapper that joins the public entry to the Dance Theater and the Campus courtyard with the Campus entry and Health Clinic programs. The cladding system uses a single standard shingle; the installation pattern was designed to be modified on site for the corner condition using a portable power driven metal break. Three primary interior walls types are created for this project. Thick walls take on acoustic linings to absorb sound or to provide locker storage functions. Thin walls, constructed of a double layer of expanded metal screens provide security for training equipment and harvest daylight, dissolving visual barriers between program elements. The Health Center spaces are defined with a series of interconnected cores which provide equipment and built in furniture formed around plumbing and mechanical infrastructure.
Status: Completed
Client: Harvard University VES
Design Team: Frano Violich, AIA; Managing Principal Sheila Kennedy, AIA; Principal Consulting on Design Soo Jin Yoo, Danny Chan, Richard Hollington
Project Team: Structural Engineer: Richmond So Structural Engineering, Inc. MEPFP Engineer: Collaborative Engineering, Inc. Acoustic Engineers: Cavanaugh Tocci Associates, Inc. IT/Lighting Specialties: Color Kinetics, Inc., LA Theatrics, Inc.
KVA worked closely with Harvard University’s VES Department Chair and Faculty to develop a space use program and a vision for the architectural integration of digital media in the design of a new inter-disciplinary facility for filmmakers, scholars and critics working in comparative literature, cultural studies, and film and video production.
KVA worked closely with Harvard University’s VES Department Chair and Faculty to develop a space use program and a vision for the architectural integration of digital media in the design of an inter-disciplinary facility for filmmakers, scholars and critics working in comparative literature, cultural studies, and film production. The building program included the design of film screening rooms, projection booths, animation studios, editing rooms, faculty offices, seminar rooms, a public Screening Gallery and Harvard’s Film & Video Library. KVA led an extensive consultant team to co-ordinate the design of new elevators and stairs, new electrical, life safety, mechanical and digital information systems for this project sited within the un-occupied double height attic space of Sever Hall in Harvard Yard. Designed by H.H. Richardson in 1880, Sever Hall is on the City of Cambridge Historic Register of Landmark Buildings and its exterior envelope cannot be altered. To address the seemingly apparent contradiction in compatibility between architectural program and historic identity, the project’s section borrows daylight from existing dormers and establishes diagonal views between program elements on the upper and lower floors. The design of performative architectural elements enable smart day lighting for public events and darkness for film projection to co-exist without the need for new fenestration or roof openings. A dynamic digital day lighting system with ‘tunable’ white solid state lighting, the first of its kind in the United States, was created by KVA MATx and integrated into a Cinematic Skylight and an Acoustic Curtain Wall. The design of these architectural wall and skylight components define the double height public circulation sequence and enable this space to be used as a Screening Gallery for faculty and student work. Rear view projection on treated glass with an integrated digital information network changes the ways in which the public ambience and material qualities of the Gallery are perceived, and allows the architecture, at times, to frame the media.
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Status: 2007-present, prototypes complete, research ongoing
Client: Pre-fabricated house manufacturers, Organic photovoltaics OEMs
Design Team: Sheila Kennedy, AIA; Principal in Charge Frano Violich, AIA; Principal Consulting on Design Veit Kugel, Dip. Ing., Associate; Project Architect Tonya Ohnstad, Patricia Gruits, Skender Luarasi, Daniel Bonham, Sloan Kulper, Jason O'Mara
Project Team: Architecture and Technology Integration: Kennedy & Violich Architects Ltd. Structural Engineer Roof: Schlaich Bergermann and Partner LP Building Manufacturer: Kullman Buildings Coorporation Digital Fabricator: Milgo Bufkin, Inc. Photovoltaic Manufacturer: G24 Innovations, Inc. Project/ Construction Management: Hudson Meridian Construction Group Textile Manufacturer: AB Ludwig Svensson, Inc. Intelligent Textiles Engineering: Interactive-Wear, GmBH
The SOFT HOUSE by KVA MATx transforms the household curtain into a set of energy harvesting textiles that distribute renewable electrical power, adapt to the changing space needs of living and working in a compact home and generate up to 16,000 watt-hours of electricity—more than half of the daily power needs of an average household in the United States.
The SOFT HOUSE by KVA MATx transforms the household curtain into a set of energy harvesting textiles that distribute renewable electrical power, adapt to the changing space needs of living and working in a compact home and generate up to 16,000 watt-hours of electricity—about half of the daily power needs of an average household in the United States. KVA MATx was commissioned by the Vitra Design Museum to present designs for the pre-fabricated SOFT HOUSE and develop full scale energy harvesting textile prototypes. The SOFT HOUSE research group at KVA MATx demonstrated how the existing performance parameters and material possibilities of organic photovoltaic (OPV) nanotechnology could offer a hybrid energy and space making solution by providing renewable DC power for solid state lighting and work tools such as laptops, digital cameras, WiFi and cell phones. Translucent movable curtains along the SOFT HOUSE perimeter convert sun light into energy throughout the day, shade the house and form an insulating air layer for the building envelope. Integrated into the design of a skylight, a central energy harvesting curtain can be lowered to create an instant habitable room. Folded upward, the central curtain becomes a suspended soft luminous chandelier that defines the open living area with integral solid state lighting. The principles of the SOFT HOUSE energy network--simplicity, adaptability, and intelligent co-operation among individual contributing elements--are extended into the architectural design and fabrication of the SOFT HOUSE. Parametric design software, developed for the SOFT HOUSE project, allows the homeowner to customize the energy density of the textiles according to need and guides the relationship of building form to site. Multiple flat, pre-fabricated bamboo plywood beams interlock to form a grid shell structure which can be customized through digital fabrication allowing the SOFT HOUSE to accommodate a range of different site orientations. KVA MATx is now actively seeking development partners from interested individuals and the manufacturing and real estate development sectors to realize SOFT HOUSE demonstration projects in 2009. Please email info@kvarch.net for more information about partnership opportunities.
Status: Ongoing
Client: KVA MATx initiated Research Project
Design Team: Sheila Kennedy, AIA; Principal in Charge Tonya Ohnstad, Sloan Kulper, Casey Smith, Patricia Gruits, Heather Micka-Smith
Project Team: The Rocky Mountain Institute; Aspen, USA iTeach [Integration of TB in Education and Care for HIV/AIDS] program with Harvard Medical School/MGH Dept. of Infectious Diseases and Edendale Hospital, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa Global Solar, Inc.; Arizona, USA Dr. George Craford, CTO; Lumileds, Inc, USA Centro Huichol, NGO; Huejuquilla Mexico Nanotechnology Victoria, Non-Profit; Melbourne, Australia Professor of Anthropology Dr. Stacy Scheafer, C.S.U. at Chico, USA Doctora Carmen Huerta, M.D.; Nuevo Colonia Comunitas, Mexico
The Portable Light Project is a non-profit research, design and engineering initiative established by KVA MATx that creates new ways to deliver de-centralized renewable power and light to the developing world.
The Portable Light Project is a non-profit research, design and engineering initiative established by KVA MATx that creates new ways to deliver de-centralized renewable power and light to the developing world. Each Portable Light unit is a simple, versatile textile with flexible photovoltaics and solid state lighting that can be adapted to local cultures and customized by people using traditional weaving and sewing technologies in an open source model. This creates the opportunity for greater levels of cultural acceptance and stewardship of this technology, particularly for women who are often among the most vulnerable in developing countries. A Portable Light textile provides bright, white light to read, support cottage industries and facilitate community based education and health care. Each textile generates electrical power to charge cell phones and other small devices. Portable Light maximizes its efficiency through digital communication protocols between linked units. This distributed intelligence allows linked Portable Light units to charge in the sun and work together more efficiently as a group than they could as a collection of individual units. Families benefit from individual ownership of Portable Light and can join their units at times to create a co-operative and sustainable distributed network for community tasks. Portable Light has been serving indigenous communities in the Mexican Sierra Madre since 2005. New Portable Light projects are underway for Nicaragua, through the Paso Pacifico program, for the Brazilian and Venezuelan Amazonias through Tele-Salud Medicos and for Zwa-Zulu Natal through the iTEACH program at the Edendale Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital. The Portable Light Team is working with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), to scale the project. Click here to join the initiative and support the Portable Light Project.
Status: Under Construction
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Design Team: Frano Violich, AIA; Managing Principal Sheila Kennedy, AIA; Principal Consulting on Design Veit Kugel, Dip. Ing., Associate; Project Architect Tonya Ohnstad, Edward Steinemann, Patricia Gruits, Sloan Kulper, Jason O'Mara
Project Team: Architecture: Kennedy & Violich Architects Ltd. Structural Engineer Roof: Schlaich Bergermann and Partner LP Marine Structural and Civil Engineer: M.G. McLaren Engineers MEPFP Engineer: Lakhani & Jordan Engineers IT/Security Engineers: Cosentini Technologies
KVA was commissioned by the New York City Economic Development Corporation to design the East River Ferry Project, a major urban sustainable transportation initiative which includes the design of the East 34th Street Public Ferry Terminal as well as ferry landings and waterfront improvements on six sites along the East River in Manhattan.
KVA was commissioned by the New York City Economic Development Corporation to design the East River Ferry Project, a major urban sustainable transportation initiative which includes the design of the East 34th Street Public Ferry Terminal as well as ferry landings and waterfront improvements on six sites along the East River in Manhattan. The project encourages public use of the East River waterfront, offers commuters an alternate means of public transportation between Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island and serves as a public safety transportation corridor in times of emergency. The design of the 34th Street Ferry Terminal takes a non-nostalgic attitude toward the NYC Riverfront. Pier 34 is re-designed and expanded to provide passengers with ticketing and waiting facilities for two ferry berths. The surfaces of the architecture are designed to distribute an innovative distributed network of services, scaled to the passenger and integrated in undulating perforated wall screens, benches and public furniture elements. New York City’s existing but underutilized maritime Global Positioning System is harnessed for public use to provide intelligent real-time transportation scheduling (ITS), wireless public messaging and information access systems for commuters and waterfront residents. On demand integrated radiant heating is provided in the passenger waiting area which is protected from wind and rain by retractable weather screens. The 34th Street Ferry Terminal creates a public architecture which integrates the physical experiences of the waterfront with the expanded virtual experiences of the working commute: GPS, cell phone and Internet access. The building’s cross section is detailed so that the Ferry Terminal appears to be suspended above the water—by day, a translucent tensile membrane roof provides filtered daylight and the play of light from the water is reflected along an inner ceiling layer of reflective mesh. At night, large light wells with solid state lighting create a luminous roofscape which is reflected in the surface of the water.
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Status: Completed
Client: Name withheld at client's request
Design Team: Sheila Kennedy, J. Frano Violich, Markus Froehlin, Craig Mutter, Bhupesh Patel, Scott Murray, Eduardo Sucre
Project Team: Landscape Architect: Stephen Stimson Structural Engineer: Richmond So
This project for a gallery and private residence includes a dance space, an office, a pool, and viewing spaces for a collection of contemporary and modern art with two exterior courtyards and a sculpture garden. Programmatic hierarchies of domesticity, leisure and the workplace are re-defined in a fluid landscape of reflected natural light where intimate daily experiences of viewing art present an alternative to the institutionalized space of museums.
This project for a gallery and private residence includes a dance space, an office, a pool, and viewing spaces for a collection of contemporary and modern art with two exterior courtyards and a sculpture garden. Programmatic hierarchies of domesticity, leisure and the workplace are re-defined in a fluid landscape of reflected natural light where intimate daily experiences of viewing art present an alternative to the institutionalized space of museums. The building massing accommodates this unusual program with six contiguous roof planes which define a single interior space that flows across a fifty foot long pool of water, using the water surface to reflect natural light. A habitable internal light well suspended above the water provides allows western sunlight to reflect off the surface of the water into the gallery spaces, providing a play of reflected natural light without direct contact with damaging ultraviolet rays. At night, the light well becomes a large lantern which illuminates the gallery with ambient light. The design distributes the given volume of mechanical space for the gallery within thickend zones in the pool ceiling plenum, which is constructed of reflective stainless steel cladding. This distribution strategy enables the use of very thin laminated plywood floor and wall surfaces that morph into undulating volumes. This architectural topography works both as structure and skin, furniture and infrastructure distribution surface for low voltage direct current power and electro-luminescent lighting. The office is supported by a single plane of laminated plywood that bridges over the pool and is simultaneously floor, ramp and desk surface.
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Status: Under construction, completion 2008
Client: University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering
Design Team: Ben Gramann, Sheila Kennedy, Veit Kugel, Sloan Kulper, Frano Violich
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KVA was commissioned by the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania to design the Center for Human Modeling and Simulation (HMS), a leading national research and production laboratory for motion capture technology, computation and animation.
KVA was commissioned by the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania to design the Center for Human Modeling and Simulation (HMS), a leading national research and production laboratory for motion capture technology, computation and animation. The design creates a public identify for the Center with an outdoor projection theater sited in the School of Engineering’s new Courtyard and visible from the School’s public entry. To increase the presence and public outreach of the HMS Lab, the design engages motion capture technology along the North South Corridor that joins the School’s research buildings and connects the work of the Center with the day to day public life of faculty, visitors and students on Campus. Using motion sensors and video capture footage of people walking, the KVA MATx team used processing software to create a virtual companion that accompanies each person along the corridor then dissolves into a cloud of light. The KVA team worked closely with the School of Engineering to establish a program of collaborative and congenial working and meeting spaces supported with state of the art technical infrastructure. As the laboratory research and production space requires a high level of spatial flexibility, the design develops room to room plan making strategies, ample storage, movable curtains and rolling work carts, so that space and equipment can be rapidly re-configured for different projects. The design provides for adjacent social spaces and allows the motion capture studio to overlap with animation and computation workspaces, as this naturally occurs in the work flow of faculty and student researchers.
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