ABHITHA BATIKERI
Cornell University | 2025 Architecture Portfolio
a c a d e m i c w o r k
FOLDING SOUNDSCAPE
Second Year Studio | Spring 2022
Third Year Studio | Fall 2022
Fourth Year Studio | Fall 2023
BECOMING SAN JUAN HILL LIVING WITH WATER GASTRO-LAB
Cornell In Rome Studio | Spring 2024
Monaco Smart & Sustainable Marina Architecture Awards: Third Prize | Summer 2024
Cornell University Sustainable Design (CUSD) Project Team | Spring 2023-2024
p r o f e s s i o n a l w o r k
HANBURY
Summer Scholar - Architectural Intern | Summer 2023
BRIC Architecture
Architectural Intern | Summer 2024
| FOLDING SOUNDSCAPE
ARCH 2102 | Spring 2022
Integrative Design Studio
Professor: Marta H. Wisniewska
Program:
Library + Farmer’s Market
The project defines a soundscape on the site that transforms itself from a lively market place facing the public realm to a quiet, solemn library space. A distinct roof shape of tesselated prismatic folded frames shelters both programs and further shapes the movement of sound with its undulating heights.
Within the project, programs are strategically placed relative to eachother based on their respective sound levels and those of the site’s environment. The treatment of roof and interior spaces of these programs manifests in the application of materials that have their unique reactions of either absorbing or reflecting sound suited for various acoustic conditions from quiet to noisy.
site isometric
1:50 plans [ground level, upper level]
ROOF STRUCTURE
WOOD BEAMS AND JOISTS
REINFORCED CONCRETE PLATES
ROOF STRUCTURE
ROOF SUPPORT STRUCTURE
ROOF STRUCTURE
WOOD BEAMS AND JOISTS REINFORCED CONCRETE PLATES
STEEL JOISTS
REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS
WOOD BEAMS AND JOISTS
REINFORCED CONCRETE PLATES
ROOF SUPPORT STRUCTURE
ROOF SUPPORT STRUCTURE
STEEL JOISTS
REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS
STEEL JOISTS REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS
ROOF SUPPORT STRUCTURE
STEEL JOISTS
REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS
COLUMN STRUCTURE
STEEL COLUMNS
REINFORCED CONCRETE COLUMNS
REINFORCED CONCRETE FLOOR SLAB
COLUMN STRUCTURE
STEEL COLUMNS REINFORCED CONCRETE COLUMNS REINFORCED CONCRETE FLOOR SLAB
COLUMN STRUCTURE
STEEL COLUMNS
REINFORCED CONCRETE COLUMNS
REINFORCED CONCRETE FLOOR SLAB
COLUMN STRUCTURE
STEEL COLUMNS
REINFORCED CONCRETE COLUMNS
REINFORCED CONCRETE FLOOR SLAB
| BECOMING SAN JUAN HILL
ARCH 3101 | Fall 2022
Third-Year Studio
Professor: Hanna Ellen Tulis
Program:
Museum + Archive + Performance
Through explorations of public and private space and learning about the erasures of San Juan Hill resulting from the establishment of Lincoln Center, my project revives the sounds of San Juan Hill that took place in specific spaces with varying conditions of public and private such as streets, porches, and basement clubs. The project identifies three major programs of a museum archive, performance hall, and practice space. All these petals are interconnected with circulation that create varying indoor and outdoor conditions of public and private sound.
A museum and archive occupies the first petal that is open to public access through the outdoor stairs and entrance near Lincoln Center. The Sound Museum draws people through an exhibition that uses curved walls to create nested sound pods that change from the beginning of San Juan Hill’s rich music from jazz to street percussion to the establishment of Lincoln Center that promoted western forms of music. The museum ends at the second petal, the performance space, that opens up both to the inside and outside. The visitor travels through the past, and reaches the present where they hear the lively, open sounds of not just the performance, but also aspiring musicians practicing their own styles in the third petal, the practice space. While individuals are practicing in an enclosed space, the sounds travel to an outdoor seating area, opening their music to the public.
1:200 lower level plan
| LIVING WITH WATER
ARCH 4101 | Fall 2023
Climate Uncertainties Option Studio
Professors: Farzin Lofti-Jam, Vivek Srikrishnan
Partner: Prarthana Jathar
In the context of the global climate crisis and unequal impact on disadvantaged countries, our project, “Living with Water,” focuses on climate adaptation and reparations in Bangladesh. It implements a network of various adaptive and responsive strategies to the ongoing flooding of Bangladesh, rapidly increasing with the onset of climate change. The hope for the project is to respond to existing lifestyles and cultural practices of building spaces and occuyping land in the Haor regions of Bangladesh.
The geographical location of Sylhet exposes it to various climatic challenges, including cyclones and floods. Bangladesh, as a whole, is highly susceptible to these natural disasters due to its low-lying topography and being crisscrossed by numerous rivers, including the Ganges and Brahmaputra. Historically, Bangladesh has been prone to both regular floods and flash floods due to its geographical location, flat topography, and extensive river systems. The country experiences two main types of floods: riverine floods, associated with the annual monsoon rains and overflow of major rivers, and flash floods, which are rapid and intense floods often triggered by heavy rainfall, cyclones, or other extreme weather events.
FLOODING TIMELINE
SYLHET DISTRICT, BANGLADESH
IMPACTS OF SEASONAL FLOODING
Haor Region
Sundarbans Mangrove
Baor-Oxbow Lake
Chalan Beel
Dekar Haor Karchan Haor
Sylhet District
Kaptai Lake
DESIGN NETWORK
After examining some of the main solutions including boat infrastructure, early warning systems, live town-wide alerts, and workshops for flood preparation, the design network implements the following elements to provide spaces for economic recovery, flood resilience, and a community hub. These spaces are constructed with local bamboo techniques that are common to Sylhet residents, and offer a variety of uses throughout the seasons to support the community’s traditional lifestyles of living with water while reducing damage from climate-induced flash floods.
| GASTRO-LAB
ARCH 3101 | Spring 2024
Cornell in Rome Studio
Professors: Martin Miller and Giorgio Martocchia
Partner: Jessica Kim
Our project titled “Gastro-Lab” is a teaching kitchen that immerses the visitor in an exciting journey that directly participates in the backroom processes of a restaurant. Both the architectural and infrastructural expression of the project defamiliarize the visitor from their traditional dining experience and celebrate the “back of house” side of a culinary space that is generally hidden from the view of the customer. It challenges traditional systems of cooking with innovative infrastructures in a vertical kitchen organization such as dumbwaiter elevators incorporated into the structure. The project is situated on Via del Politeama, selected for its abundance of restaurants, giving it the potential to collaborate with chefs in hosting training workshops and sharing their cooking with the community.
| MIRAGE
Monaco Smart & Sustainable Marina Architecture Awards 2024
Awarded Third Prize Partner:
Nathan Gach
Our project, titled “Mirage,” is a floating marina that blends beauty with sustainable innovation and environmental stewardship. Its modular design, based on only two structural components, allows for quick assembly and flexibility in a variety of spatial configurations including pools and docks. The marina prioritizes the preservation of Posidonia meadows, utilizing an innovative flex mooring system that minimizes seabed damage compared to traditional anchors. It features a shimmering canopy that serves as both a shading device and a clean energy source, implementing flexible photovoltaic panels spatially optimized for sunlight capture.
| Sustainable Education, Nepal
Spring 2023-2024
Bandipur, Nepal
Cornell University Sustainable Design (CUSD) Project Team
Roles: Team Lead, Architectural Designer
CUSD (Cornell University Sustainable Design) is a student-run, interdisciplinary organization committed to fostering sustainable communities throughout the world. For four years, I have been a part of the Sustainable Education project team within CUSD to design educational facilities for UWS (United World Schools) following the Living Building Challenge guidelines for sustainable design. The work below represents a portion of the research completed by the design and community team for classroom layout design based on empathy fieldwork surveys.
The interior layouts of classrooms have been tailored for each age group with comfortable seating spaces and carpeted floors for as requested by students and U-shaped layouts as requested by the teachers.
Students were asked to draw their favorite place at their school:
The design team closely evaluated these surveys to visualize an ideal classroom for these students:
The classroom layouts were designed according to the feedback from students and teachers in Bandipur, Nepal through a variety of surverys communicating their aspirations for the school.
| HANBURY Internship
Summer 2023
Raleigh, North Carolina
AXP Supervisor: Shawna Mabie
Partners: Kayleigh Macumber and Julia Sansbury
Jones County, North Carolina has been long overdue for a new investment in recreation that touches on the diverse needs of the community’s physical, social, and mental wellness. Hanbury Summer Scholars have partnered with the Jones County Recreation Department to begin the design process for this recreation and wellness center. As per the concerns of the county members, our project started with a scholar-organized community engagement event to understand the priorities of families in recreational activities. Research continued with the Jones County Recreation Department in establishing three potential sites by analyzing both physical factors and design potentials for recreation. 33 During the community engagement event, we received a large number of county members who expressed their thoughts through activities, surveys, and candid conversations, affirming to the necessity of a new recreation center.
Two sites were narrowed down based on analysis of buildable area, proximity to the city center, and the potential for the recreation center to become an evacuation shelter in the case of flooding of the Trent River.
PROPOSAL 1
proposal, located near the city center, is grounds for a water-based recreation that can provide access to kayaking and boating for the rest of the county. It also has pocketed pavilion spaces within the circulation paths for family activities.
| BRIC Internship
Summer 2024
Portland, Oregon
AXP Supervisor: Octavio Gutierrez
Projects: Renton High School, Oregon School for the Deaf
My internship with BRIC was a collaborative experience on multiple projects with an incredibly talented intern team coming from various backgrounds. I contributed to the Renton High School project in the Schematic Design (SD) phase by refining exterior elevation designs in Revit, conducting daylight comfort studies to improve user experience, and creating photorealistic renders in Enscape for collaborative feedback sessions with students and families. I found this to be a valuable educational experience, as I received great feedback from the Renton High School design team and supervisors during every step of the way. Additionally, I worked with the intern team to develop an engagement curriculum plan to foster community involvement, which was presented to and enthusiastically received by school district officials. I also designed an interactive brochure in collaboration with Jini Li for the Oregon School for the Deaf revitalization project using Illustrator and Photoshop, effectively communicating the project’s vision and potential impact to support grant acquisition efforts.
Renton High School: [left] early facade studies, [right] iterative daylight comfort studies on Climate Studio [in collaboration with Jini Li]
Renton High School: schematic design renders
