Blake Austin Walter
I’m an avid creator with over 10 years’ experience developing diverse urban and architectural designs and animated and immersive experiences for high profile clients. I’m passionate about technology and its capacity to change the way we live and work.
To the right you will find film experiments developed at the Bartlett as part of an investigation into reflexive fictions. The project sought to understand how conventional building elements and film itself could be manipulated to create new worlds.
Some projects below are unpublished professional works completed with KPF, hence the password protection. I am happy to share additional unpublished work in person.
Croydon, North End
A massive regeneration project in the heart of Croydon; this is KPF’s proposal to turn the Whitgift and Centrale shopping malls into mixed-use urban developments with character-led urban spaces and density.
On this project, I led aspects of the urban design, creating building facades and urban spaces while directing visualization production and verifying massing compatibility through view analysis. The rendering to the left is by ATchain with modeling work and direction by me.
We took care to reuse existing site elements to reduce overall carbon footprint and retain some of the character of the existing neighborhood.
Museum of Museums
Developed as a proposal for a disused site in Deptford, the project takes inspiration from the recursive ornament of Bavarian Rococo churches. The building forms here curve back on themselves to absorb aspects of other buildings, specifically of other museums.
A method of 3D collage using 2D and 3D printed elements created building forms developed from other material.
One North Quay
Tipped to be the largest life sciences building in Europe upon completion, this project with KPF is currently under construction. I developed aspects of the building form, facade design, and led design of the public realm and landscape.
Ongoing work to select materials and construct facade panels has involved collaboration with glazing artists to develop the building gradient.
The image to the left is by Kiasm with modeling and photoshop work by me.
EPCOT
An experimental community built to support the imagination in the production of fictions. This “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow” transmits the idyllic dreams of its users to those living below.
Platform 16
Now under construction, KPF, TMG, and Devcon have developed three buildings at 440 West Julian Street, San Jose. Two challenges influenced the design for this 1,000,000 sq ft office complex: heeding the height restrictions from nearby Mineta Airport and breaking down the scale of the extremely long facades.
I worked closely with lead designer Richard Kim on this project from feasibility through design development. All images shown are my own modeling and visualization work.
A Network of Lines That Intersect
Inspired by storytellers Charlie Kaufman and Jorge Luis Borges, this project amplifies diagetic disruptions and artificiality in film to develop subversive narratives.
This led to an exploration of intimate moments of design which permit connection to the real world and real materials through specifically designed objects which bring one in touch with other worlds.
Education
The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London, UK
MArch, Architecture, RIBA Pt 2, Merit, June 2020
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Dean’s List, University Honors
Bachelor of Arts in English, December 2015
Bachelor of Architecture, May 2015
L’école Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville, Paris, France
Experience
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Architect - August 2020 to Present - London, UK
Architectural Designer - June 2015 to August 2018 - New York, NY
Design Intern - June 2014 to December 2014 - London, UK
Mentor - The Bartlett School of Architecture - September 2019 to June 2020 - UCL, London, UK
Photographer/Realty Marketer - GR Gill LLC - January 2012 to January 2013 -Austin, TX
Skills
Animation
Experience animating in Unreal Engine and manipulating film in After Effects.
Animation editing experience in Premiere Pro.
Basic knowledge of compositing in Nuke.
Additional experience animating in 3DS Max, Maya, and Houdini.
Photo-Real Rendering
Expert knowledge populating worlds and images with advanced architectural designs and entourage.
Advanced familiarity with V-Ray for Maya, 3DS Max, and Blender for stills and animation. Over a decade’s experience using Adobe Photoshop to manipulate digital images.
Modelling and Texturing
Experience modeling in Blender and Maya, and algorithmic modeling in Houdini.
Good knowledge of Z-Brush and Substance Designer for use in creative applications in texturing, modelling, and environment design.
Good familiarity preparing UVs, LODs, and topologies for Unreal.
Environment Design
10 years’ experience designing inhabitable, lived spaces.
Deep knowledge of designing and modelling environments in Rhino, Maya, and 3DS Max.
Creative applications of storyboarding and pre-visualization techniques to inform the design process.
Creative Coding
Advanced knowledge of modeling in Grasshopper for Rhino
Growing knowledge of Houdini and Processing.
Knowledge of the principals of photogrammetry for environments and objects, particularly through photographic reconstruction in Agisoft Photoscan/Metashape.
Building Technology
Intimate knowledge of construction processes and detailing of built work.
Expert level knowledge of BIM software Revit for architectural design and the management of coordination and clash detection.
Organization
5 years’ experience working on large, global teams, coordinating efforts across different consultant groups and disciplines from visualization to engineering. Proficient in using Excel and Outlook to organize meetings and track schedules and project deadlines.
Collaboration
Long exposure to team organization and hierarchies and the importance of cohesion in mixed-skill teams. Strong desire to work as part of a larger team towards a common goal.
Communication
Many years’ experience writing in professional and academic contexts. Earned a second degree in English and highest marks in research papers - exprienced in researching, synthesizing written ideas, and describing abstract concepts in English. Some written/spoken knowledge of French.
