Jonathon Brearley

Creative approaches to climate-responsive design in the built environment

Anthropocene

April 2019

Portland State University School of Architecture, for the Oregon Environmental Council, with Aaron Whelton, Kip Olkowski, Griffin Lutz, Molly Jacobs and Kagan Reardon

The sculpture on the Portland State campus: rust-red steel pipes stacked on a concrete base, their staggered ends outlining a rider on a bicycle

ArN2thrO2pO2cene is an installation that celebrates Oregon's 1971 Bike Bill and the positive impact biking has on the air we breathe. It was one of three Art of Loving Oregon projects the Oregon Environmental Council made for its 50th anniversary, and it honours Sam Oakland, the Portland State English professor whose ride of some 400 cyclists from Portland to Salem helped pass the bill. The anthropocene is a geologic time period defined by human effects on climate and the earth’s environment. One of the largest implications of human influence on our environment is the quality of our air.

Initial design inspirations were found in air flow diagrams and heat maps of bikers and bicycles. Produced using parametric design software, this installation abstracts the relationship between air, rider, and bicycle.

Diagrams of cyclists from the side and from above, with the air they push through trailing behind them in red
The method: a bike and rider, approximated in front view by a cluster of pipes, extruded back from the side profile, with the pipes dissolving behind the cyclist
South elevation: the horizontal pipes on their concrete base beside a standing figure, about six and a half feet tall. Drawing by Aaron Whelton
Site plan: the sculpture, outlined in red, between two trees among café tables on the campus
The sculpture in place under the trees, with food carts and a brick building behind
Close view of the rusted pipes threaded through a waterjet-cut steel plate

Process

Early rendering: lines of air streaming past a wireframe rider, with red pipes hung among them and people walking by
Annotated model of an early scheme: a contoured bike between steel frames on a concrete pad, air lines streaming back from it, and hanging red pipes
Parametric model: lines drawn from a grid of points bend around the rider and bicycle
Parametric model: the bent lines made into pipes and held between two end plates