Caroline Christiano Portfolio 2021

CAROLINE CHRISTIANO SELECTED WORKS 2017|2021

Cornell University - College of Architecture, Art, and Planning

“The following is a selection of projects completed during my undergraduate studies at Cornell University. With this portfolio of work I hope to display my passion for architectural design on many scales, and my attentiveness to context and human interaction with the built environment.”

Caroline Christiano Cornel l B.A rc h. 2 0 2 1

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CONTENTS ACADEMIC C L I M AT E C O L L E G E

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N AT U R E R E T R E AT

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GORGE DWELLING

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COLLECTIVE HOUSING

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ITHACA MUSIC HALL

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TIBURTINA STATION

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THESIS PROPOSAL

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THE VIRTUAL CITY

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PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL OFFICES

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MIXED USE BUILDING

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CLIMATE COLLEGE The property of emissivity is generally defined as the relative power of a surface to emit heat by radiation. There is a wide range of thermal conditions and needs throughout every building. Design needs to operate within those thermal subtleties in order to successfully optimize energy use. By designing with emissivity in mind, material placement is no longer an afterthought, but a driving force, because materials have the ability to shape the thermal comfort of a space, by reflecting heat away or absorbing and re-emitting it. This has the power to reduce energy use and to make occupants more comfortable at the same time. This “college of climatism” project is a proposal for a school of interior design at Cornell University, where the students will be able to learn about the thermal properties of the materials they design with by experiencing the emissivity of the building they’re occupying.

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NATURE RETREAT Inspired by the element of wind and the natural properties of found wood, this yoga retreat center on Virginia Key in Miami, Florida is designed to seamlessly unify those who visit it with the surrounding environment. The lightweight timber gridshells glide over the island to shelter yoga classes and living amenities, while their apertures vary in size according to the desired amount of physical and visual connection with nature and air flow. The walkways lift up from the ground to accomodate programmatic functions, while the recycled polycarbonate shell protects some spaces from rain and filters light. In this “future primitive” getaway, people will have the chance to return to a more natural flow of daily life.

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GORGE DWELLING This home, overlooking Fall Creek Gorge, is for a musician.

His residence therefore needs to include a practice room, a modest recording studio, and a small performace space. The concept is derived from the material duality of the pool and sauna structure next to the house, that features a two sided wall: one side has wood that encloses the warmer space and the other has concrete for the cooler pool. But, instead of inverting the two materials as the wall wraps around, the wood always remains on the interior of the residence and music spaces because of the acoustic properties. The outer concrete wall then begins to peel away from the wooden skin in certain areas to allow for circulation and perforation for entrance and openings.

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COLLECTIVE HOUSING The existing site of Morissania in the South Bronx has many empty lots with potential for infill. The goal of this project is to connect the blocks of the neighborhood with pedestrian paths and interventions at both the human and building scale. On this block, the buildings have been designed to first close in the perimeter with collective facilties, second, build up housing units in close proximity inside the block, and third, create a functional urban landscape that allows for gathering and space to play between the new buildings.

The interventions are like viewing frames that look upon this shared space, bringing a new sense of transparency and openness. The housing has been designed as a new type of social housing, where the bedroom is really only for sleeping, while other life functions take place in the shared facilities.

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M U S I C

H A L L

The Ithaca Music Hall project was designed to allow pedestrian flow through its site, creating a passage between two streets that opens up from an alley into a public plaza. The program is split into two primary groups, with separate entrances. The first is the public entry to the main hall, and the second is the private practice rooms and offices. The two are bridged underneath the plaza space between the entrances at street level. Where the roof ramps down to meet the ground, it becomes seating for an open air theater behind the building. The structural systems are highlighted in the drawings and models on this page.

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TIBURTINA STATION The bus station design was originally created by using a monumental scale fragment of a vault from Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome. Throughout the design process, the vault fragment was used as a modular piece to be multiplied and rotated until the structure covered the site. Open circulation through the station at street level is maintained by moving the bus lane underground, creating a plaza with a market space above it. Inside this space there is a ticketing desk, a waiting area, and a cafe with indoor and outdoor seating. There are two central stairs down to the bus area below, and one leading up to the roof terrace. The underground level also connects to the exisiting building on the site, with access to the park space.

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THESIS PROPOSAL T ALK IN G T R A S H : A LANG U AG E OF CI RCU L A RITY

This thesis asks; what does circularity look like? The project will develop a language where impermanence is explicit in design, and explore this through local implementation and use of locally available materials. Construction waste is a massive problem, and simply “recycling” materials at the end of a building’s useful life is not going to fix it. Design is the problem, but also the solution in this case. We must rethink the process in a more circular way, where buildings are designed for all the elements to be disassembled and reused again in future construction.

There are already existing buildings that claim to be “fully circular”, designed as material deposits. These buildings may be recyclable in the future, but are not necessarily recycled. They are designed to fit into current “green building” aesthetics, instead of letting circularity and locally available materials drive the design. The goal of this thesis is to design a building that is both recycled and recyclable. In doing so it will explore the aesthetics of circular design when working with a specific inventory of local materials to be reused. It will try to answer the question; can a building look “circular”? How can architecture communicate it’s circularity?

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Concrete

Wood

Heavy Timber 3,467 ft3 87 Tons

Cast Iron 59 Tons

Gypsum 66 Tons

Glass/Steel Windows x 1500

Gypsum Block 57,670 ft3 1125 Tons

Wood Doors x 600

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THE VIRTUAL CITY IN COLLABORATION WITH BASIL HARB

This project utilized virtual reality technology in both the design process and as a mode of representation, moving from hand sketched concepts to an experiential world, while retaining the qualities of a working drawing. In this research studio, our primary goal was to invent new ways of “jumping into the sketch”. The Skyline Building is a vertical city complex that acts as an extension and a reinterpretation of the existing Highline in New York City, by expanding the public realm to new heights. The Highline gives you a new perspective on the city by leading you to a series of vantage points, and our previous research focused on raising the ground plane in the vertical city. So, to bring these ideas together, our project adds a third dimension to the Highline. It dramatizes the effects of the highline by recontextualizing visitors at new heights where they can better understand the city context and the vertical city building.

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MEDICAL OFFICES CAYUGA PARK MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDING, ITHACA NY

SCHEMATIC DESIGN PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH DESIGN TEAM FOR HOLT ARCHITECTS Worked as an intern for the team to edit the project Revit model, test solutions for exterior glazing and finish materials, design options for interior lobby and stair, draft interior and exterior elevations, model signage options, and collaborate on Enscape and Lumion renderings to present to the development team.

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UP

UP

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MIXED RETAIL/OFFICE TROLLEY HOUSE, CA MB RIDGE MA

CONCEPTUAL PACKAGE PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH DESIGN TEAM FOR BRUNER/COTT ARCHITECTS Modeled conceptual design for project in Rhino and built detailed context model in Revit, drafted exterior elevations, worked with signage options, presented precedent research, and collaborated on Photoshop and Lumion renderings as an architectural intern.

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