For as long as I can remember, the water has been part of my daily existence. Though the ocean is often seen as a vast natural border between faraway lands, I view it as a great connector. No one owns the ocean, at least not in the same way people think they can own land. The water is always moving, always changing, constantly shaping the land and collecting stories over time.
I would like to acknowledge the water as a way of life in Narragansett Bay and elsewhere. It facilitates rituals, interactions, and connections between people and other life forms. Each wave crashing on the shore changes the land beneath it, even if it is at a scale we cannot see. At a geological level, the water shapes the land, carving different paths through the stratigraphy to create the landforms we know today. As glaciers melt and our waterscapes shift, so does our land. At a smaller scale, a variety of shells, sea glass, seaweed, rocks, debris, and other objects wash up with each wave, rearranging a new layer in the sand. We do not know exactly where the objects came from, but can imagine a story for each one.
As I walk along the beach looking at the shells and sea glass on Conanicut Island’s shoreline, I appreciate the beauty of each shell and its ability to host sea life. I think about the Narragansett people finding Quahog shells on the shore and also admiring this beauty, finding hidden meaning in the deep purples and bright white colors, taking the care to slowly craft the shells into beads, and giving them to loved ones as thoughtful gifts.I imagine the time it takes for a skilled maker to sand and polish each shell and delicately drill a hole into it so it can be secured on a string and worn on the body. To gift someone something from the ocean shows appreciation for the ocean as a gift itself. To then physically wear the gift illustrates a deep connection to the water, a connection I would like to carry forward in my life.
When I look out across the bay and see the boats in the distance, I remember what I have learned from my family and their stories of the water, whether here in Narragansett Bay, or in the waters around the island of Skiathos, Greece, where my family is from. My father tells stories of his adventures with my grandfather on the lobster boat—waking up at 3:00 every morning, setting up the boat, picking up the pots, resetting them, cleaning the boat, and selling the catch to the local community. I am reminded of the importance of only taking the gifts you need, and then sharing these gifts with the community as a form of nourishment. I realize the dedication and preparation required to maintain this lifestyle, the skills needed to survive the ocean’s power. I think of my grandfather tying knot after knot to create a strong net, physically connecting the fibers of rope together to build his life and practices. I think of the knowledge held within each knot, and hope to continue building my own appreciation of the ocean through this ritual type of making.
Though the water can be overwhelmingly powerful and dangerous, seen as an obstacle to overcome, I believe it can also be a place of healing and deep connection. I recognize that the water can hold stories of trauma, but it can also be a place of hope, as it is always in flux, always changing; it is alive. In acknowledging the stories the ocean holds, have learned to see the water as a place of wonder and beauty, not an opportunity for extraction or a method of transporting goods for transactions. The water is supportive, filling in the gaps between lands and providing us with gifts that cross time and place. The stories in the water have taught me to find the beauty in everyday practices and rituals, and inspires me to continue the process of living with and caring for its great gifts.
land acknowledgment collage: wood frame with cork, foam, nylon twine, shells, sea glass, wood. paper
THESIS [excerpts] unearthing complexity
ABSTRACT
How can artifacts of geological processes between the water and the earth reframe ideas of architectural permanence and foster a greater connection between humans and the planet across time scales?
There are stories hiding beneath the surface of the rocks and the water yet to be unearthed–stories of species long before humans, stories of life, death, and time. These stories are told through the fossils, through the minerals in the sediments, through the shape of the earth carved by the water, and through all the life forms that interact on the earth. These stories can teach us about our past and direct us toward the future.
This thesis seeks to explore geological relationships across geological time. I believe the answers to some of our anthropocentric issues lie in the past, and on/in the ground. In order to bring this interest into the physical realm, I would like to examine our relationship to the ground through various scales of life, time, and stories. The site of my inquiry lies at the intersection of the body and the land- the physical experience of touch that connects us to the ground. The simple act of walking, of placing our feet on the ground, is the first and most obvious physical connection we have to the earth at the scale of the body. The sensory information felt in our feet informs the rest of our movement through space. In our current geological epoch of the Anthropocene, we have become disconnected from this fundamental interaction between earth and body, from the scale of the physical essence of matter and its various qualities, to the scale of the shoe that physically separates us directly from the ground, to the scale of the planet, whose surface is increasingly covered and altered by human intervention through roads, buildings, and extractive activities.
The second part of this multiscalar site of inquiry focuses on the evidence of geological processes present in the land with which I am most familiar, the land forming Narragansett Bay. As New England’s largest estuary, the land and water in this area features many points of geological significance, with rock formations at Beavertail Point in Jamestown, RI providing evidence of a previous transcontinental link with Europe and Africa hundreds of millions of years ago. This in-between place where land meets water offers a wealth of geological information and artifacts that bring the faraway concept of time down to earth.
I hope to approach some of these questions through a variety of architectural methods and practices, starting with the act of intentional walking, listening, and feeling to establish a practice of deep awareness of the land, the water, and time. This will occur through the practices of collecting, curating, and drawing. The shells, rocks, sand, and human-created objects that wash up on the shore provide evidence of the ongoing shaping and carving of land through the incessant movement of water. Curating such found objects highlights their stories and the complex assemblies and systems that make up our world. Next, I engage with the surface of the rock formations throughout Jamestown through a series of texture tracing drawings. Though the section drawing may seem more appropriate at first glance, the layers of rock present at these sites already act as a sectional view– the section is already at the surface; we just need to look for it.
In zooming in and out of these various scales, I hope to learn from the earth’s geological processes in order to situate human activities and systems within a broader perspective, and ultimately propose alternative ways of being in the world that care for all of earth’s inhabitants. I would like to adopt a narrative around geology in terms of architecture that cares for the long view–a view of time that recognizes multiple temporalities and scales. In telling the stories of the earth, I hope to uncover the complexity beneath the surfaces we come into contact with, and use this knowledge to foster an architecture that leaves space for past, present, and future stories, making sense of the multiplicities of time that exist at the intersection between the body and the land.
CRITICAL MAPS, CRITICAL SURFACES
The way we currently draw maps is unsurprisingly based on our human perceptions of the land. When the land meets the water on a map, we see a line of demarcation. The contour lines of the topography, the labels, the vegetation, the colors, the data, and other elements abruptly stop in the face of an opaque blue shroud. This representational decision highlights how little we know about the ocean and how little we care about the surfaces we cannot easily traverse. By mapping in this way, we ignore the unknown. We forget that what is beneath the opaque blue of the water is in fact more land, more solid yet ever changing ground, more topography lines, more vegetation. The term “underwater” is accurate in its usage when describing a body that is submerged in the water and has water above it. I suggest changing this term to “inwater” and reserving “underwater” for the earth that happens to have a body of water above it. The use of the term “coastline” suggests some immutable boundary rather than an ever-changing zone.
topobathymetric maps edited and derived from NOAA data and bathymetric models from Brown University + RISD Nature Lab research grant [via Georgia Rhodes]
A series of animations derived from digital model translations of the texture rubbings and topobathymetric map models begins to imagine new ways of mapping coastal zones that highlights how they are constantly in flux and are much more complex than a single line.
SURFACE EXPERIMENTS
Biomaterial investigations using combinations of alginate, sand, crushed shells, and seaweed culminate in recreations of rock surfaces from clay molds.
SPAZIO360/MIRAGE TILE COMPETITION revolution
Project Objectives:
The next 10-15 years will be a unique moment for the world’s history, since we are close to the point of no return for our planet’s climate health if we do not make a decisive change. The challenge now is to speed up the transition to a new climate economy, more inclusive and with new articulated key economic systems: energy, city, food and use of soil, water, and industry.
How can architecture support and embrace a rebirth favoring this change? Design the surface of a porcelain tile to promote sustainable thinking.
Project Statement
All life is connected This realization is the foundational key to sustainable development in today’s world. Thus, this tile design features a one-line drawing of various life forms that make up an intricate biological scene. Each organism connects to the next via a string of abstract swirls that could represent energy, DNA, or other biological forms. The organisms are loosely organized to depict an evolutionary history of life on earth. Their connection highlights the fact that nothing is permanent and that everything has evolved from the same matter, and will continue to do so. The title “Revolution” reflects this cyclical notion of life over large time scales while also calling out the human developments of concepts such as recycling or revolutionizing technology.
It is also important to note that the human figure is simply another piece of this evolutionary scene; we are no more or less important than any other creature. We are simply all connected. By shifting our mindsets away from purely human perspectives, we can recognize the value inherent in all life and find sustainable ways of living that respect this value. As a designer, I try to keep these ideas in mind through every creative project I encounter.
RE-PRESENTING CANON
dwelling with care
Project Objectives:
Given a canonical residential work of modern architecture, work through its site using a combination of conventional and experimental techniques for representation and analysis. If we are to argue that the drawings by which these canonical projects were conceived and constructed are vehicles by which prevailing stories persevere, how might we imagine alternative drawing projects that care for multiplicity, simultaneity, and otherness?
Project Statement
E1027, as it exists, inherits myths of patriarchal norms, progress, and human exceptionalism. The characters involved in the history of the house have greatly shaped its legacy. Despite Eileen Gray’s work to define her own place as a designer in the modern canon, her efforts were long overshadowed by tensions with Le Corbusier and his unsolicited series of murals painted on the walls, threatening Gray’s vision.
”Home” should feel safe and non- threatening. Dwellers should be able to exist in their truest sense of being, without being marginalized. We are called to make space for those who have been excluded, restricted, or otherwise threatened from these past myths; for dwellers to freely practice their rituals of inhabitation. Inhabitants include but are not limited to women of all differences and abilities, trees, plants, small creatures, and sea life. The dwellers become the designers and owners, shaping, shifting, and passing on their space to the next life forms.
In challenging the inherited myths, we hope to bring forward Eileen Gray’s idea of a dwelling as “a living organism,” viewing architecture through the following lenses: rituals of collective care and self care, cycles of growth and decay, and forms and systems of rigidity and softness. Our approach to an alternative E1027 seeks to filter through these concepts to create a dwelling that is shape- able, erodes, returns to the earth, and becomes a home for women and other animals, plants, and microorganisms over various scales of time.
dwelling section-tide pools
walls and wedges
Project Objectives:
Taking on the lawn at the John Brown House Museum in Providence, RI as site, design a neighborhood pavilion that defines orders and formal ambitions to address the nature of bodies occupying public space.
Project Statement
A sprawling system of curvilinear walls and wedges guides visitors down the hill and under the trees on the lawn of the John Brown House Museum. Taking into consideration concepts from previous projects, this system is based on the response of wall and wedge elements to the site and to each other. Both elements are situated within several ‘anchor points’ on the site: the stairs, path, slope, and trees. Using these anchor points as a general boundary and guide, the walls act as a framework for the composition and define the circulation and transitions between programmatic elements. A wide curved wall scoops up visitors coming from the path into the pavilion and funnels them through a narrow passage to a large multipurpose space. People are then funneled back into another passage that gradually opens up into a system of open seating wedges that swirl around two large trees. The wedges use both the walls and the trees as anchor points and act as programmatic infill to the pockets created by the walls, providing visitors with spaces to rest and contemplate on this historically significant site.
model: painted CNC-routed foam with Bristol paper and chipboard
ANALYTICAL ELEVATIONS
the depth of texture
Project Objectives:
Using elevation drawings as your primary representation tool, provide a critical reading of the site surrounding the Old State House in Providence, RI.
Project Statement
This elevation drawing exercise explores the use of hatches as a way to define surface textures. Combined with detailed line work, each facade texture was assigned one of four hatches to create a new illustrative language of elevation drawing that tells a story beyond the surface.
South Court Street
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL HEADQUARTERS
rhythmic nodes
Project Objectives:
Design a new headquarters building for the Providence Journal, editing and adapting the given base office building design to fit specific programmatic needs. Design a new facade for the building in response to the base design, surrounding site, and use as a newspaper headquarters.
Project Statement
Ribbon-like forms with “rhythmic nodes” that weave over and under one another, combined with a system of louvers, form a facade that acts as a composition itself while functioning as a shading device. These weaving curvilinear elements primarily respond to the curved nodes in the given base design, but also connect to the history of the Providence River and its relocation, as the river has been woven under the city and rewoven through new paths. The curved forms extend into the plaza design, dividing its space and providing opportunities for outdoor seating clusters. This facade highlights certain interior areas through both its artistic composition and its shading elements. The shading elements affect the experience of the interior space while the arrangement of the more abstract ribbon elements draws attention to certain interior features, such as the auditorium. Similarly, the ribbon forms that weave across the facade suggest a diagonal movement toward the north side of the building, inviting people in through the main entrance.
MULTIGENERATIONAL HOUSING
COMPLEX community foundations
Project Objectives:
Design a multigenerational urban housing complex that includes community spaces and ADA-accessible units.
Project Statement
“Layers of ventilation” make up this multigenerational housing complex in New Orleans, Louisiana. The ground floor consists entirely of community and public spaces while the upper floors consist of housing units. Concepts of ventilation, shifting, and perforation guide the arrangement of the units, as alternating cutouts in the circulation areas in front of each apartment allow for vertical ventilation and light penetration into the lower levels while increasing privacy for the residents. These cutouts, combined with the shifting arangement of units to create breezeways, as well as the green spaces, water features, and perforated walls on the ground floor, create a comfortable, secluded oasis of shade and plant life in a dense urban landscape.
THE SHAPING OF URBAN SPACES: LIVORNO
forma del mare
Project Objectives:
Propose a masterplan, including a museum, piazza, and restaurant, for the historic waterfront area of Livorno, Italy.
Project Statement
Various rounded triangular forms work together to create a composition of solid and void spaces that activate the Darsena area of Livorno in the “Forma del Mare” (“Shape of the Sea”) masterplan. The different angular forms present in the geometry of the Fortezza Vecchia (Old Fortress), the Fosso Reale (Grand Canal), and the general shapes of boats inspired these forms, while the major axes in the city informed their general organization. These forms call out the city’s early designs of water flowing around distinct shapes, and remind us that water can act as both a solid and a void. This masterplan proposal provides a contemporary design solution for the waterfront that revitalizes the formal history of Livorno’s urban fabric.
Fortezza Vecchia (Old Fortress)
elevation
Alexis Violet Roger Williams
fork and frame
Project Objectives:
Design a bicycle station facilitating transportation for both cyclists and pedestrians between the elevated bike path and the ground at India Point in Providence, RI.
Project Statement
This project uses the image of the fork component of a bicycle as the basic structural system of the building and ramp. Pairing the fork idea with bike frame geometries in the design allows this structure to work with the triangular shapes of the major programmatic spaces. The combination of tall and short forms allows the ramp to follow the landscape of the building in a winding manner, with some sharp turns that resemble the the fork. In response to the site, important programmatic elements are spread throughout the building to address cyclists on the raised path and pedestrians coming from the park below. Large, sculptural “forked” structures top the circulation towers and can be seen from the highway, turning the bike center into a landmark for the city of Providence.
concept: “fork and frame”
Forks are bent
structures in response to programmatic needs.
FORT WETHERILL RESTAURANT
awareness and contemplation
Project Objectives:
Design a restaurant at Fort Wetherill, a state park in Jamestown, Rhode Island.
Project Statement
Inspired by themes present in Japanese tea ceremonies and traditions, this proposed hilltop restaurant prompts people to become fully aware of their surroundings in a serene setting separate from the outside world. Japanese tea houses are traditionally surrounded by a garden space meant to make people feel as though they are entering a new world. The existing site already had this quality of being sort of separate from the outside world due to its many unique features. The four classical elements act as a guiding theme to inspire the restaurant’s architecture. Water, earth, fire, and air are seemingly separate entities that come together to make up our physical environment. After exploring the site and making the journey up the hill to the restaurant, people will have directly experienced the elements of earth, wind, and water. Upon reaching their destination, they are rewarded with the warm experience of fire at the restaurant’s many hearths. Through various element-inspired components of the restaurant, people will become more spiritually aware of their surroundings.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
architecture + graphics
My professional architectural experience includes work on schematic design drawings for residential projects, as well as measurements, photographs, and drawings of existing buildings and the creation and organization of submission materials for Historic District Commission applications. I also worked on various marketing materials within the scope of an architectural firm, taking the lead on written project statements, graphic design, and the printing of company brochures.
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