DESIGN PORTFOLIO
Ayrton Laucks
Ayrton Laucks
Syracuse Architecture Class of 2026; B.Arch, Psychology Minor www.linkedin.com/in/ayrton-laucks www.aj-laucks.com ajlaucks@gmail.com
Practical Experience
Research and Design Assistant, MATR Lab
6 months; May 2024 - Present
• Worked on two competitions and an ongoing research project contributing through research, design, and representation
• Design Lead, Buildner Microhome Competition, Mycelium blocks in plywood waffle structure
• Design Assistant - Massing and Facade, Lee Gunhee Museum Competition
Architectural Intern, Laucks Architects, P.C.
15 months; Summer/Winter 2024, Summer/Winter 2023, Summer/Winter 2022
• Worked on 20+ projects from proposal to construction documentation
• Drafted and designed from the detail level to site planning
• Operated as primary designer and drafter on multiple projects, in charge of everything from code review to final construction documentation
General Construction Laborer, The Kaiser Martin Group
3 months; June 2021 - August 2021
• Learned general construction practices and techniques
• Worked extensively with concrete and EIFS
Academic Experience
Research Fellow, The SOURCE
18 months; May 2023 - Present
• “Projecting Complexity: Building an Post-Perspectival Imaging Paradigm from Virtual Worlds”
• “Realizing Complexity: Building Architectonic Representations of Virtual Worlds”
• Construct methods of perceiving the chaotic miasma of virtual swarming and its impact on architecture
Teaching Assistant, Syracuse University SoA Summer College
2 months; July 2024 - August 2024
• Provided daily critique and input on student projects, including daily TA sessions with a group of 6 students.
• Produced two instructional videos to assist students in their daily exercises
• Assisted in grading and general course responsibilities, including incremental feedback, organization of course drive, and weekly meetings with instructors
Research Assistant, Syracuse University SoA
8 months; May 2023 - December 2023
• Copy edited over 300 pages of material for a faculty member’s upcoming book on architecture in Calabar, Nigeria.
Undergraduate Program Assistant, Syracuse University SoA
4 months; September 2023 - December 2023
• Assisted ARC 141: Introduction to Architectural Theory
• Made numerous instructional videos to assist students in completing analytical and video essays
• Assisted in manual grading
I am a 4th-year Architecture student pursuing a B.Arch and Psychology Minor at Syracuse University. My interests and research revolve around the intersection between virtual, real, and imaginary worlds, using post-perspectival representation systems to understand the contemporary built environment. I enjoy incorporating multidisciplinary ideas into my work, with additional interest areas including philosophy, psychology, physics, mathematics, and literature. CONNECTION is something which permeates all of my work. This work has been recognized on various international platforms including Terravia, Non-Architecture, Bristol Art Gallery, and Archiol.
Education
Syracuse University SoA
September 2021 - May 2026
B.Arch, Psychology Minor, Intro. to Architecture Design
Summer Program
Architecture Scholarship (Full-Tuition), Invest in SUccess
Scholarship, Dean’s List
3.988 GPA
Honors and Awards
Finalist, Banaue Lodge Competition, Terravia
July 2024
International competition for lodge in rice terraces
Doug Whitney ‘80 SoA Global Exp. Scholarship
March 2024
Awarded to an SoA student to travel abroad
Honorable Mention, Archiol One Image Render
March 2024
International competition, describing a project through a single image
2nd Place, PLO League, WASA 2023
2,056 total entries
International competition for conceptual architecture designs
2x Finalist, Non-Architecture AI Competition
June, October 2023
Using AI to visualize the future of columns, toilets
Ars Artificials Exhibit, Bristol Art Gallery
July 2023
Multiple works exhibited on the creative power of AI
Faculty Award, William J. Slivers Competition
March 2023
One week self-led design competition combining architectural and landscape precedents, first place based on faculty voting
2nd Special Mention, Archidots
July 2023
International competition for studio projects
Extracurriculars
Independent Architecture and Design Projects
2021 - Present Volunteered my time towards the design of a highschool softball dugout, church stairway canopy, and local organization branding.
POINT!
2024-Present Student-run SoA publication. Designed and created a website to house the publication content.
SU Men’s Volleyball Club
2022 - Present Two practices weekly with weekend tournaments
Syracuse University Concert Band
2023-Present Weekly rehearsals with two performances per semester
Skills
Creating Rhinocerous 3D Revit
AutoCAD
Rendering
Vray
Lumion
D5
Enscape Twinmotion
Miscellaneous
Climate Consultant
Digital Photography
MidJourney AI
StableDiffusion ComCheck
Modeling
3D Printing
Laser Cutting Concrete Formwork
Adobe Products
Photoshop
Illustrator
InDesign
Lightroom Premier Pro
Coding Grasshopper
Python
Among the Cliffs
Life-Frame
2022 Spring 2023 Summer 2023 Spring 2022 Fall 2023 Summer 2024
Separate We Share
2023 Summer 2024
Summer 2023
Spring 2023
Summer 2023
Spring 2020
2022
Bellefonte Condos
Hamburg Public Library
Delaminating Waters
Softball Dugouts
Westcott
Pawilon Mirtu
Fleetwood Pool Bathrooms
Things Fall Apart
Church Stairway Covering
Syracuse Arts Incubator
Structure: Concrete
Fall
Visions of a Computational Architecture
Lee Kun-Hee Museum Competition
Olde Homestead Carriage House
Strange Compounds
Park Memorial
Create, Display, Live
Structure: Steel
Structure: Wood Performance Center
Kharkiv Housing Competition
Domestic Dreams, Uncanny Urbanity
2023
2023
CREATE, DISPLAY, LIVE
Centro II Sassu is a center of Bonifica (water reclamation) in western Sardegna, built by the Italian government for agricultural and water control. Originally programmed for buffalo and cow cultivation, the site now sits derelict. Our studio sought to redevelop the site as a group, each taking responsibility for small areas of the site, collaging our architectural interventions into a patchwork that adaptively reuses the site.
Our site “area” is something beautiful and meaningful that we wish to work with, not against. Based on our experiences, we derived a set of two architectural strategies. From the industrial rhythm of aggregation and the silos, we came to the idea of doubling. From the complex grounds we walked on and walls we touched, filled with fragments of plants, CMU, concrete, and dirt, we came to the idea of layering. These layers come to represent the layered histories of the site – a physical rendering of a complex history.
With this understanding of the site and a set of architectural strategies, we looked to an interview our instructor conducted with a squatter on the site. Jean-Pierro is a metal-worker – an independent artisan detached from society yet attached to his craft. Considering the history of the site as a space for industrial production, we began to think about what a change from industrial to individual production would mean architecturally and programmatically. For local artisans producing separately but brought together by their trade, we organized a simple programmatic sequence concentrated on the South edge of the site:
Create, Display, Live
Looking back to our architectural strategies, we placed this new process of production as a new “layer” on the site, still connected to the past but distinctly separate and different. Offset walls, light structural connections, and a raised walkway emphasize this historical approach in architectural space.
This proposal is not meant to be the first, nor the last intervention on the site. It supports and is supported by the past, and offers a means of physically preserving the site’s layered history while changing to support new processes of production and artistic creation.
Semester: Fall 2024
Location: Centro Sassu II, Arborea, Sardegna
Instructor: Daniele Profete
Collaborators: Vivian Sheng, Max Walewski
Proposed Aerial Collage N
The former storage building, centrally located on the site in the southern bar, is beautiful. A series of aggregated CMU bays with concrete trusses and rusted, metal doors, the space is teeming with light and life, including layers of plants, soil, and gravel on the ground. Its metal doors, rusted on the inside and vibrant without, provide glimpses of the interior while never allowing a complete view. Looking closer, small, beautiful details pop out like rounded edges to the doorways and concrete which bears the shape of its former roof
The interior of the infirmary is composed of CMU walls covered in concrete, and still contains the original cow stalls. The ground is subtly articulated, shaped to move water and detritus from inside the outside. The roof structure is enclosed, and coupled with the toxic nature of the existing asbestos roof panels, suggests that the entire roof system should be replaced. South of the infirmary, there are a series of old concrete and metal pylons and the remnants of a herding system.
Two silos dominate the site sectionally, surrounded by three smaller silos. There is a CMU building which connects the area between the two silos – a clear infill. Both silo types are very different than the other buildings, remniscent of a more contemporary strategy of modularity which ellicits a different architectural response. To the West, there are a series of rusted fenceposts. Like the storage building, there is an idea of industrial aggregation modulated by wear and tear.
TOP
MIDDLE
DASHED: Group site area
Existing Aerial Collage N
BOTTOM
Wall Demolition Type 1
Wall Demolition Type 1 Remove components which form gable, brace all sides with steel angle
Wall Demolition Type 2
Wall Demolition Type 3 Brace existing wall form with steel angles
Demolition Type
Remove
Wall Demolition Type 3
Demolition Type
Type 3
Demolition Type
Wall Demolition Type 4
Wall Demolition Type 5
Remove
Demolition
Demolition Type 7
Demolition Type 6
Wall Demolition Type 4
Wall Demolition Type 5
Wall Demolition Type 6
existing walls directly opposite openings on the north side lintel to match northern openings
Wall Demolition Type 7
existing bays
Wall Demolition Type 5
Brace existing wall with steel angles, remove portions to form doorways and brace top with steel angles
Wall Demolition Type 6
Remove gable and wall components along with a door-sized opening in the southern, smaller portion of the existing wall. Brace all with steel angles
Completely remove existing walls
Wall Demolition Type 7
Remove existing wall, preserve gable form with steel insert
Cut wall at eye height, retain what remains of existing openings
Wall Demolition Type 8
Remove portion of wall for door
Create openings in existing walls to accomodate a path
Decrease wall height, cap with steel angle, windows to remain
Wall Demolition Type 8
Wall Demolition Type 6
Remove gable and wall components along with a door-sized opening in the southern, smaller portion of the existing wall. Brace all with steel angles
Wall Demolition Type 7
Cut wall at eye height, retain what remains of existing openings
door-sized opening in the southern, smaller portion of the
Wall Demolition Type 7 Decrease
Cut wall at eye height, retain what remains of existing openings
Demolition Type 8
Decrease wall height, cap with steel angle, windows to remain Wall Demolition Type 8
Remove existing ceiling and roof assembly
Decrease wall height, cap with steel angle, windows to remain
Remove upper portion of wall to accomodate new roof system
- Volumes
Proposed Volumes
Proposed Roof Conditions
Proposed Ground Conditions
Proposed Volumes
Existing Half-Wall
Existing Structures
Proposed Roof Conditions
Proposed Ground Conditions
Existing Half-Wall
Proposed Volumes
Proposed Roof Conditions
Proposed Ground Conditions
Existing Half-Wall
Existing Structures
Brace existing steel angles, portions to ways and with steel angles
gable components door-sized southern, of the existing all with steel Cut wall at retain what existing openings
Sculptures
Sculptures
Section A
Section B
Section C
Section D
Section E
Existing Infirmary Photograph
Existing Infirmary Photograph
Domestic Dreams, Uncanny Urbanity
The experience of urbanity is collapsing upon the domestic sphere. Virtual communication systems and an increasing migrant population contribute to changes in the effective size of families, pushing the boundaries of nuclear family housing structures. As families grow larger and interactions are pushed away from the urban fabric, dynamic spaces of inter-nuclear family interaction are replaced by the ambiguity and the flexibility of the COMPLETE DOMESTIC INTERIOR. Work and play, family and individual, private and public are blurred as domestic spaces take on the spontaneity and dynamism that constitute urban interaction.
As a response to this shift, DOMESTIC DREAMS, UNCANNY URBANITY proposes a Cooperative Housing development that uses a series of radical intra and inter-unit shared spaces to create extreme flexibility and shared interaction.
THE FRAMEWORK consists of multilevel units organized around gallery and free levels, where each gallery level houses the infrastructural elements of the unit through a dense infrastructural band (middle plan to right), freeing an entire floor, or free level, for flexible contingency. Spaces between units become shared and circulation spaces, with shared facilities located on the gallery levels and shared living space located between the free levels.
To the south, a live-work unit structure provides a hard BUFFER separating both court and mid-rise from the noise of the adjacent railway. This buffer is recessed into the ground, mediating topological separation and allowing the structure to fold around the railroad track, reflecting noise away from court and mid-rise. The lower level of the buffer is a flexible fabric of workspaces and dividers, receiving light from windows directed above the train tracks. Overlooking the work area are studio units which share facilities to the North of the lower level.
This FRAMEWORK alone does not provide the flexible basis on which a cooperative operates, necessitating infill and subdivision. As such, the free floors previously open for spontaneous and flexible activity can be modified in more permanent manners to accommodate changing family structures and increased housing demand. This INFILL is overseen and built by the cooperative from simple wood framed walls and premade facade components.
Over time the infilled framework would develop contingency and dynamism, ultimately coming to approximate the complex lives which its inhabitants live. The spaces both private and public would come to resemble an UNCANNY URBANITY. Something brought about through the collective aspirations of its constituents - through DOMESTIC DREAMS.
Semester: Fall 2023
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Instructor: Pablo Sequero
Middle “Infrastructural” Unit Level
Upper “Free” Unit Level
Lower “Free” Unit Level
Free Level Lower Free Level Infill Sequence
Open Free Level
Infilled
Facade Collage
Chunk Model Photograph
LIFE-FRAME
New methodologies of mycelium form-making promise innovative relationships between architectural systems and the domestic. More than a microhome, LIFE-FRAME utilizes these mycelium volumes to infill the structure of living, creating a thick wall condition teeming with plants, mushrooms, and views of the outside world. It is a framework for new ways of living centered around a new living frame.
The blocks - insulation, mushroom, and plants - are cast from 3D printed molds, using baked mycelium as a light, plastic material. Because of the ease of production and high insulative performance, the cast mycelium functions as a sustainable and high performing enclosure system. In order to incorporate glazing into the wall system, modified Kingspan Uniquad translucent panels and Kingspan Clear Acrylic Unit Skylights are also fit within the voids of the structural waffle system, forming a gradient of light and life which responds to dynamic site conditions. Beyond promoting mental well-being, this system of blocks also provides a sustainable food source for its users, functioning as an agricultural system as much as a domestic one. The waffle structure is constructed out of CNC milled plywood pieces, prefabricated off-site and transported for assembly. Because of this production process, these plywood components are able to slide into each other, forming a robust structural system without fasteners or fixative. Within the structure, prefabricated programmed volumes supply area for the entrance, kitchen, and bedroom. In sticking out of the central volume, they also allow for the creation of an occupiable space in-between structure and enclosure, as a “shrink-wrapped” plastic sheet is pulled off of the central volume and fixed to the ground through metal rods. This area is adjustable, but primarily oriented towards the south in order to support the growth of plant-filled southern facades.
Inside the waffle, the bathroom and storage are built into a southern infrastructural band, allowing for the complete vegetation of the southern facade. A compostable toilet along with water, material, and heat storage are contained directly below the living area, accessible via removable floor panels. Plywood offsets integrated into the waffle pieces lift the volume from the ground while facilitating a breathable ventilation system using small fans and operable openings at the bottom of the frame. This continuous supply of air is piped through sand which fills the majority of the structure’s base cavities and functions as heat storage, helping the interior to maintain climatic control throughout the year.
As the LIFE-FRAME is occupied it gains the nuance of platforms, ladders, plants, and furniture; all which grow in and out of the frame. Each volume and enclosure would come to represent the diverse lives which they contain, assisted by the agency given to each occupant through the open-ended frame structure. Beyond a frame full of life - an archi-tectonic system - it becomes a framework for living.
Summer 2024
Location: Siteless
Collaborators: Daekwon Park, Juinkye Chiang, Yifan Shen, Cass Peiyo
1 Shrinkwrap
Programmatic Volume
Mycelium Block Insert
Waffle Structure
Operable Glazing
Shrinkwrap Attachment Pipe 7 Ground Offset
8 Sand For Heat Storage
Heat Propagation Pipe
Ventilation System By Season
Fans assist in creating buoyancy ventilation
Hot air is drawn from the top of the enclosure with an air duct through sand which acts as thermal mass to store the heat
Cold air is drawn through the themal mass from an operable opening, distributing stored heat through the enclosure
Hot air is drawn from the top of the enclosure with an air duct through sand which acts as thermal mass to store the heat
Cold air is drawn through the themal mass from an operable opening, distributing stored heat through the enclosure
Adjustable air intakes on at ground level allow for a controllable supply of cool air
Step 1
Plywood Member Fabrication With Cnc Mill
Step 2
Truck Transportation To Construction Site
Step 3
Foundation Assembly
Step 4
Plywood Volumes And Waffle Structure Assembly
Step 5
Mycelium Block Installation
Northeast Facade - Fungus And Glazing
Northwest Facade - Fungus
Step 6
Shrinkwrap Installation
- Plants And Fungus
Plants
Elevations
Southwest Facade -
Southeast Facade
Modified Kingspan Clear Acrylic Skylight to fit waffle void
Mycelium block is formed to include a recessed “pot” for plant growth
Individual CNC-milled plywood components slide together without fixative
Modified Kingspan Uniquad panel to fit waffle void
Mycelium block for continued mushroom growth
Fully-baked mycelium panel functions as insulation
Precast concrete pedestals provide a simple means of lifting the volume
ETFE plastic is wrapped around the volume to provide enclosure
Sand acts as a thermal mass, storing heat and distributing it via embedded air ducts
Church Stairway Covering
This simple project responds to an open small stairway attached to a local church. I was asked to design a new structure that will stand up to the elements, including snow and wind loads (area of heavy snows, located on a hill and subjected to strong winds) and shelter the stairs to prevent ice and water collection.
Connection points into existing structure was very important, and I utilized a ledger cut arrachment to the existing top-plate of the adjoining wall, going through the soffit. A 2x6 P.T. bottom plate attaches directly to the existing concrete foundation, and between the two connection points, a simple wood framed structure supports transparent polycarbonate sheathing. I was in school during the construction, so was unable to directly supervise, but besides a few small details and preferences from the contractor, the built project is what I designed and drew.
Summer 2024
Location: St. Peter’s UCC, Moselem Springs, Pennsylvania
Collaborators: Peter Laucks
Project Photograph
2x8 Ledger Cut to Fit Around Existing Roof Joists
1/2” Plywood Soffit Sheathing
2x8 Joists @ 16” O.C. (2) 2x6 Header
2x4 Framing @ 13” O.C.
SUNTUF 26”x6’ Clear Polycarbonate Roofing Panel Affixed on Providing Mounting Strips
Red Hear Wedge Anchor 6” O.C. Typ.
Pressure Treated 2x6 Bottom Plate
Sill Foam Pad In-Between Foundation And Bottom Plate
Bellefonte Condos
The Bellefonte Condos are part of a larger development program in Bellefonte, PA, composed of a hotel, parking garage, and set of condos along the Bellefonte Waterfront Walkway. Bellefonte is known for its historical preservation and the municipality has a strict Preservation Board which oversees all new development. The key problem this project contends with is how to make the imposing mass of the project (necessary for the required program) blend into the surrounding context and feel light despite its size.
The design exploration below was done in response to a meeting with the Preservation Board, as they claimed that the previous massing strategies were too heavy and “European.” In order to break the mass up, I created three distinct “buildings” or higher masses, breaking the condos and parking garage (right) into what reads as two masses, even though it is one building. In strategically using roof typologies from the town, each of the three masses have a weight and direction. The leftmost mass (hotel) moves the eye towards the center, and is built-up with a facade on the main street to the left. The middle mass (condo, parking below) concentrates the eye towards the left, moving it towards the right and the gap separating it from the third mass (condo, parking below), which is smaller but more stout, terminating the line.
Summer 2024
Location: Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
Collaborators: Peter Laucks, Summer Koch (During internship at Laucks Architects)
Enlarged Unit Type 2
Fifth Floor Plan
Enlarged Unit Type 1
Enlarged Unit Type 3
