PORTFOLIO
Ainsley Dahl
Ainsley Dahl
(415) 798-6742 | dahlainsley@gmail.com | linkedin.com/in/ainsley-dahl-538572250/
4th year architecture student enrolled in Syracuse University’s B.Arch program with a passion for sustainable architecture, writing, furniture design, graphic design, and music. Has professional + educational experience using Revit, Rhino, Adobe Suite, and Enscape and specializes in preliminary design, technical plans, diagramming, finish selection, and presentation preparation.
SKILLS
Software:
Autodesk Revit
Rhino 7
AutoCAD
Enscape
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe InDesign
Athena LCS
Bluebeam Revu
Microsoft Office
Technical Skills:
Programming + Design
Diagramming
Construction Drawing
Sketching
Fabrication:
Physical Modeling
CNC
Laser Cutting
EDUCATION
2O21 - 2026
B. Arch Candidate - Syracuse University, NY
Syracuse Abroad London 2024
Member of Alpha Rho Chi - Professional Fraternity for Architecture and the Arts
Success Scholarship Recipient 2021-2025
Dean’s List: Fall 2021-Fall 2025
3.56 GPA
EXPERIENCE
ARCHITECTURAL INTERN - IA INTERIOR ARCHITECTS
Los Angeles, CA | June 2024 - August 2024
Confidential Projects
Aided in Revit modeling and the development of drawing sets and renderings during the Schematic Design, Design Development, and Construction Document phases. Conducted early-phase programming and pre-design efforts by developing test fits and prepared client presentations
ARCHITECTURAL INTERN - LIONAKIS
Sacramento, CA | May 2023 - August 2023
Secondary and Post-Secondary Education Projects
Aided in Revit modeling, preparation of drawing sets, production of renderings, and drafting of construction details during the Schematic Design, Design Development, and Construction Document phases.
01. TIDES TO CANALS
02. BYZANTIUM RESIDENCE
03. TWIG
04. GROUNDSCRAPER
06-23 24-35 36-49 50-59
01. 2024 TIDES TO CANALS
SITE
Surfside, Florida PLATFORM SURFSIDE
ARC 408 Design Studio
Led by Pablo Sequero + Laura Salazar COLLABORATORS
Kristian Nunez
As it sits now, the city of Surfside has no framework set up to cope with the increasing threat of flooding and sea level rise and regulate excess water. The city is in need of a system that can begin to capture and regulate excess water in the wake of adverse weather events.
This proposal reimagines the residential block as a resilient, adaptable framework that accommodates a spectrum of living arrangements and anticipates the evolving challenges of coastal life. It revolves around a multiphased plan which implements a sustainable infrastructure in the short term, allowing these less disruptive adaptations to inform the design of the block as the need arises and rennovation becomes unavoidable. Tides to Canals explores flexible short-term housing solutions for communities affected by natural disasters, while also offering practical, low-impact strategies to improve existing homes on the site—ensuring current residents maintain a high quality of life with minimal disruption. Housing within the block becomes a mosaic of different approaches to living, tailored to the needs of residents and informed by changing climatic conditions.
Rather than prescribing a singular solution, this project introduces a layered approach to housing that addresses the diversity of residents’ needs and lifestyles while responding to environmental pressures.
The Adapted Lot offers a range of retrofitting applications to existing units, including bioretention basins, green roofs, and water catchment and recycling systems. The Single Lot applies the retrofitting applications more rigorously, and follows a revised zoning strategy which encourages residents to build up, not out. The Double Lot contains three independent units, offering an affordable alternative to the multi-family home typical of Surfside while utilizing climate resilient architectural strategies.
The adapted units act as an approach for current residents to maintain their current existing home without the need for major changes to their current way of life. The adapted lots have revisions made to roof conditions or areas on the property that don’t effectively capture or direct water properly. Some of these changes can include adjusting roof angles or roof type/material in an effort to reduce possible runoff to other parts of the plot or collect storm water more efficiently.
ADAPTED UNIT ELEVATION COLLAGE
Single new construction units are units built on a mound of earth. The mound acts as a natural and sufficient barrier for possible flooding and sea level rise. With an emphasis on sustainability, new construction units also allow residents to actively choose how their units are constructed and designed in order to properly implement systems that directly relate to residents lifestyles and needs.
SINGLE UNIT ELEVATION COLLAGE
New construction double lots combine two singular lots into one. The double lot approach allows owners to benefit from both living and renting, they also have the opportunity to act as short term housing in the wake of natural disasters. The units themselves are built on a free base, allowing themselves to adjust to potential flooding. The double unit acts as a potential solution for housing needs in the future as conditions worsen.
DOUBLE
DOUBLE UNIT ELEVATION COLLAGE
ADAPTED LOT PHYSICAL MODEL
SINGLE LOT PHYSICAL MODEL
Bio-retention basins spaced around the perimeter of the block allow for water collection and drainage, funelling water back to the soil during flood events.
The central canal collects runoff from the residences and helps regylate the flow of water on site through retention ponds. It acts as a public space, providing residents with an environmentally benefically, and community oriented landscape.
The front of the property acts both as a space for residents and for water conservation. The yard becomes an important factor in the reintroduction of native, endemic plants in the neighborhood.
2034 PROJECTION MODEL
Roof catchment systems are retrofitted to existing buildings, establishing a relationship with the proposed infrastructure.
2044 PROJECTION MODEL
Integrated sustainable building systems are applied to the new construction single lots, which sit upon buffer mounds.
2054 PROJECTION MODEL
A new flexible, shared living style consisting of a three unit compound allows owners to customize and rethink their use of land.
2054 PROJECTION MODEL
The block becomes more porous , with room for residents to engage with eachother as well as with nature by way of extended sidewalks and dedicated greenspaces. This proposal recognizes that a solution to the issue at any level will involve the reimplementation of greenspace and native species. It emphasizes the need for not just one singular appraoch to housing, but multiple.
02.
BYZANTIUM RENEWAL
SITE
Amsterdam, Netherlands
1% vs THE 3rd ESTATE
ARC 307 Design Studio
Led by Richard Rosa
Situated between Vondelpark and the city beyond, Byzantium Renewal confronts the housing crisis in Amsterdam through a spatial and social negotiation between public and private realms. This project proposes a hybrid typology for urban living—one that considers the cultural significance of the Amsterdam row house while pushing toward a community-oriented domestic architecture. Through attention to spatial sequencing and circulation, this project becomes a dynamic, porous, flexible, and inclusive framework for urban living.
Byzantium Renewal consists of four linear blocks of apartments, split and staggered to open a central communal courtyard that anchors the project both spatially and socially. Acting as an extension of Vondelpark, the courtyard dissolves the boundary between city and nature, offering a public thread through an otherwise private housing compound. Populated by community garden beds and a small amphitheater, it serves as a threshold space, encouraging informal gathering and shared stewardship.
SECOND FLOOR PLAN
A-A
The side of each block facing the courtyard hosts public programs, while the opposite edge serves the private residential units, creating a spatial buffer between public and private. The pairs of housing blocks are separated by bike lanes modeled after Amsterdam’s own, serving as semi-private circulation routes and cultivating a neighborhood atmosphere within the housing block.
ROOF PLAN
BALCONY ENTRANCE
SECOND FLOOR BALCONY
FLOOR CENTRAL STAIR
FOUR-BEDROOM UNIT
This housing complex features five unit prototypes; each organized vertically across three stories and an internal private stair. Narrow two-bedroom units occupy the outer edges of the site, imitating the proportions and rhythm of the Amsterdam row house. In contrast, wider four-bedroom units are stretched apart, offering spatial flexibility. Despite differences in size and layout, each unit follows a gradient from communal living areas on the lower level to increasingly private spaces on upper floors.
ROOF PLAN
FOUR-BEDROOM UNIT AXONOMETRIC
PHYSICAL MODEL + SITE EXPLORATION
VOID AXONOMETRIC
NEXUS WORLD HOUSING ANALYSIS
Students conducted an anaylsis of a housing project, highlighting key aspects of its design through diagrammatic drawings. The strategic balance of solid vs. void, individual circulation corridors, and prototyped units were studied more closely to inform the intial programming and planning of Byzantium Renewal.
UNIT A + B AXONOMETRIC
DAYLIGHTING DIFFUSION PLAN
Room & Void vs Light & Air Plan
Room & Void vs Light & Air Plan
SITE
London, United Kingdom
HIGHGATE STATION
ARC 407 Design Studio
Led by Amber Bartosh + Vanessa Lastrucci COLLABORATORS
Emma McDevitt + Oji Anderson
At the northeast corner of Hampstead, Highgate is a hub for arts, culture, and transportation in London. It became known as a thoroughfare which connects the area to greater London. The site surrounding the original overground was converted to an Highgate Underground Tube Station, however the original above ground location lies deserted, overgrown, and partially burned. The neglected site presents a unique opportunity for renewal. Twig offers a space for residents to gather, fostering community cohesion and cultural enrichment day and night. The community center seeks to restore a sense of place to an area once central to Hampstead’s identity, utilizing the site’s topographical changes and existing railway infrastructure to its advantage.
PROGRAM + CIRCULATION DIAGRAM
Much like how a twig represents a natural extension of a tree, this project seeks to extend beyond traditional boundaries and connect human to nature, indoors to outdoors, pedestrian to community.Integrating a music hall, pub, café, visitor center, and club into a unified space, Twig offers a variety of programs that reflect the needs and interests of a diverse community.
SITE PLAN
In plan, the two primary axes are revealed, which guide the project’s circulation and spatial moves are organized. Twig extends naturally across the forested site in branches reaching outward from a central trunk. These axes not only structure movement through the music hall, pub, and club, but also position the project as a buffer to the private residential areas of Priory Gardens and Archway Road.
SECTIONS
Building masses are embedded in the ground, creating a connection with the surrounding nature, and giving way to the sloping site. The sloping site creates a dynamic experience: from the street, visitors descend into the landscape, while from the tube exit, they ascend toward the project—this procession heightens the sense of arrival and grounds the building in its site. Adjacent to the bar, lobby, and music hall are semi-outdoor leisure spaces which create a similar atmosphere to being outdoors in nature. The theater hall acts as the heart of the design, its flexible facade allows the outer shell to be removed for larger more public shows which extend on to the lawn and into the woods.
PATIO + LOUNGE
AUDITORIUM
CROSS-SECTION PHYSICAL MODEL
2023
GROUNDSCRAPER
SITE
Imperial Valley, California
FIELD CONDITIONS
ARC 208 Design Studio
Led by Kate McCarthy
Located in Imperial County, California, this culinary school is at the center of crop production on the West Coast. This project began through a series of formal and diagrammatic explorations inspired by Stan Allen’s field conditions—a design framework that describes urban phenomena through drawn compositions. Informed by the spatial distribution, horizontality, and rhythmic segmentation of the Dutch polder landscape, Groundscraper translates these qualities into an architectural field dappled with shifting masses. The polder analysis points to key areas of solid (land) and void (water), segmenting the land into interconnected striations, constantly shifting and tapering.
PLAN OBLIQUE
Drawing on the subtle sectional qualities of the polder, the site is carved into at regular intervals which house an expansive array of garden plots and water retention ponds. The terraced site conditions are echoed in the building’s vertical expression. Components are embedded into the earth, cantilevered outward, or elevated above the ground plan, creating a field of continually shifting extrusions. The architecture encourages exploration, informal gathering, and seasonal adaptation, mirroring the cyclical nature of cultivation and agriculture. The design becomes a learning landscape shaped by the land it inhabits.
PLAN + SECTION C-C
The complex consists of ten buildings including teaching kitchens, research labs, and community gathering spaces, interwoven with eight semi-enclosed courtyards. Rather than rigid zoning, the project uses programmatic clusters to define soft-edged boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces, allowing gardens, courtyards, and buildings to blend into one another. In plan and section, the building follows the polder’s logic of layering and shifting, solid and void. Circulation flows flexibly through interconnected spaces, as layered, planted gardens draw visitors through a variety of experiential zones.
