SELECTED PROJECTS FOR CONSIDERATION INTO THE ROYAL DANISH ACADEMY’S ARCHITECTURE AND EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS MASTER PROGRAM.
CHISEC, GUATEMALA - 2022
SELECTED WORKS
WA_ter, S_anitation, and H_ygene
Professional Work
Disaster Relief, Reconstruction
The Human Catalyst
Space + Media
Costume, Projection, and Performance
Building Agency
Special Interest
Middle-Scale Affordable Housing
Underline
Emerging Technologies
Fabrication and Landscape Renovation
The Medium is the Message
Comprehensive Studio
Culinary School and Restaurant
A Platform for All
Exhibition
Fabrication and Temporary Installation
Chisec, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala
WA_ter, S_anitation, and H_ygene
Decoding Resiliency through Community-Led WASH facilities for Guatemalan primary schools
Project Team:
Type: Role:
All Hands and Hearts - Guatemala, 2022 Disaster Relief, Reconstruction Construction Site Manager, Designer
Hurricanes Eta and Iota
Hurricanes Eta and Iota were two Category 4 storms within two weeks that impacted Central America in 2020, causing infrastructure-related losses equivalent to 0.56% of Guatemala’s GDP (435 million USD).
The central department of Alta Verapaz received rainfall and wind speeds as high as 235 km/hr. After two years, many communities still hadn’t recovered and were facing additional pressures due to COVID-19.
I led the daily development and completion of two sites: Nuevo Eden and El Paraiso. During the process, I lived with a host family in Chisec, engaged in local celebrations, and developed solutions with local workers, teachers, and community members to complete projects that aimed to build sustainability beyond the buildings.
10,000
schools without proper access to sanitation or potable water according to the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC).
1,633
schools in Alta Verapaz in need of adequate WaSH facilities
Approach
Community Town meetings Needs Assessments
Site visits with student families
Identify local partners for training
Hire local laborers
Create opportunities for community volunteers
Utilize local languages in instruction
Intigrate by living with host families
Contextually Integrated Resiliency with Limited Resources Site 1: Nuevo Eden
Systems Thinking
Composting Toilet Unit and Chamber
Site 2: El Paraiso
Artificial Wetlands
The Human Catalyst
Using Civic Improvisation as a Methodology for Producing Spacial Distortion. Process
i. Precedent Study
Solid Light
British-born artist, Anthony McCall, drew inspiration from traditional cinemas where audiences sit positioned beneath face). McCall subverts this classical division by introducing
In practice, the interaction of visitors intersecting the projection redefines the shape physically, expressing the impact of people on space and how it is defined.
To bring awareness to this quality, my project aimed to prototype and develop a deployable architecture using material properties and projection. In this project, the relationship between performer, observers and their environment becomes playful, highlighting human’s agency in defining space.
ii. On-Site Testing and Prototyping
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Building Agency
Fostering Intergenerational Space for Young and Older Adults to learn together and from each other on Blue Hill Avenue
Project:
Type:
Role:
Professor:
Academic, Special Focus Architectural Studio, 2020
Blue Hill Avenue was one of Boston’s most critical roadways as it connected downtown to the farmland. It became the home for generations of immigrants until the 1960s when blockbusting, predatory loans, and transportation severance disrupted the community around it.
Part of its success was the abundance of a housing typology colloquially called the Triple Decker, a middle-scale house named after its three repeated floors that allowed for generational housing. This design allowed immigrants to rise to middle class for decades.
Approached by the Boston Society of Architecture and the Mayor’s Housing Innovation Lab, my studio focused on researching and presenting new housing typologies rooted in the social and economic needs of the area. My project aims to address the needs of young and older adults, by developing a mixed community built out of the cooperation and training of the housing’s program.
Boston’s Ages
Triple Decker Typology; three repeated floor plans with a shared stairwell near the front, notable balconies and bay windows.
Shared Housing
for Young and Older Adults
Challenges
Housing Affordability
Lack of experience
Lack of meaningful relationships
Advantages
Years of experience Cultivated network Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Mobility Knowledge of emerging technologies
Challenges Mobility
Mental/Physical health Opportunity for Socializing
Advantages
Central atrium
Housing unit
Ground floor makerspace opens onto sidewalk for larger projects and transportation.
Underline
Uniting a Shared Landscape Through Tactile Engagement Transitioning Scales and Materials
Project: Type: Role
Professor:
Academic Group, Emerging Technologies, Architectural Studio, 2019 Fabrication and Landscape Renovation Bench Designer, Robotics Fabricator Robert Trumbour
Thomas M. Menino YMCA
and the Hyde Park Community
The YMCA of Greater Boston was the first chapter in America and has since grown to 13 branches in various neighborhoods. The Thomas M. Menino YMCA in Hyde Park offers various programs and facilities for children, youth, and adults. Located in the city, the 615 sq. meter back lot is an important space for children to play, students to finish their studies, and adults to sit during a walk. The lot was largely unstructured and unsecured, leading to mud, trash, and difficulty when trying to utilize the space.
As such, the YMCA approached the course looking for design proposals that engaged both the YMCA community and the community at large. As a group, we pitched a renovation that seeked to create a responsive and continuous formal language of distinct spaces, offering varied uses through simple applications. Characterized as a line, the form transitions depending on the program from concrete benches, to stone pavers, to wooden posts, and then back again.
Fence / Points
Seating / Line
The studio was highly collaborative, research-based, included community partners and challenged the team to consider fabrication, information, and detail as important to formulating the final design as any other inspiration. Experimentation was encouraged and provoked through multiple iterations and new resources.
My role was primarily a site designer before leading the robotics team on bench designs and fabrication. With help from Autodesk, we developed the hot wire tooling, tool paths, and workflow for the ABB Robotic Arm.
Canopy / Plane
Initial Iterations
Techniques for Achieving Irregular Forms
Initial iterations explored the human body and ergonomic forms. Fabric Formed plaster led to the final design’s fluctuations and seating variation.
Robotics Workflow
STRAIGHT
CURVE
END PIECES
PROCESS
Massachusetts, U.S.A.
The Medium is the Message
Imaging South End’s Community through the Threshold of Shifting Perceived Layers
The language of Boston’s South End is one of community. Live music, social justice protests, experimental foods, art galleries and dog parks are some of the many ingredients that compose a rich, diverse, and vibrant culture within South End.
And yet, it’s architecture is incongruent. The stoic image of red brick and turret windows remains frozen in time while communities, change and evolve. Over time, a detachment grows between people and their architecture. There is a perceived lack of transparency and expression.
My project explored layering and detachment as surfaces revealing movement incrementally, shifting the line between interior and exterior through various material applications. As part of the comprehensive studio, this course focused on detailing, prototyping, building code, programming, and system integration.
Blackstone Community Center Blackstone
Terracotta Tubing Facade on Washington St. Clearshade Honeycomb Assembly Wall
Membrane
Extruded Alum. Mullion and Glass Facade
Extruded Green wall on W. Brookline St.
A Platform for All
Exhibiting Past Design Work as a Narrative for Continued Community and Connections
Project:
Role Type:
Advisor: Departmental, M.Arch Program Exhibition, 2019
During the Fall 2019 semester, the Wentworth Department of Architecture celebrated the ten year anniversary of the Masters of Architecture program at the institution. To showcase student work, space on campus was allotted to host an exhibition. Program coordinator, Kelly Hutzell, asked Scott Smith, an adjunct, to choose three students to help design and fabricate the exhibit in under a month.
The design had two parameters: utilize the entirety of the space allotted and exhibit the core values of the program (design, service, and travel). By shifting the ground plane, we could inform hierarchy and segment projects by the three tenets.
I worked as conceptual designer and fabricator for the acrylic and wooden components. Due to the short schedule, the project required efficiency, adaptations, and independence to accomplish the multi-media product.
Designer and Fabricator Fabrication and Temporary Installation Scott M. Smith
Modular construction stencils for bending heated acrylic sheets across a uniform metal duct.
