Portfolio & CV, 2023

Dylan Cassilly

Washington University in St. Louis

Bachelor of Science in Architecture, 2022

Resilient Concrete: Sequential Casting

Pablo Moyano’s 412 Studio Washington University in St. Louis Spring 2022, In-Person

This studio is all about creating a concrete home for a family in Joplin, Missouri, a town frequently hit by tornados and strong storms. Concrete construction has been shown to reduce injury from flying debris during extreme weather. Because Joplin’s median household income is low, we were tasked to develop and utilize a sequential casting system for low cost on-site construction.

This studio is about creating a sequential casting system as a cheap alternative to traditional construction in Joplin, Missouri, a midwest town that frequently experiences extreme weather —most notably devastating tornados. Concrete construction has been shown to reduce injury from flying debris, making it an apt material for this site.

This project comes in three stages: designing a conceptual concrete room, creating and testing a sequential casting system, and designing a full home using our system.

The Concrete Room

I played with a double-wall facade and explored ways to allow and control sunlight without traditional windows. My goal was to make the home as safe as possible without compromising on comfort.

Pushing the Concept: Curves

Finalized Concrete Room

Embracing curves allows the room to have a nested feeling. All walls, desks, closets, and outdoor planters peel off of a primary wall. The curves of the room are all one interconnected system.

A secondary wall splits from the main interior wall to create a “pocket” garden. This allows the interior wall to safely use glass and open up views from the bed.

Floor Plan Roof Plan

Section Perspective

West Elevation South Elevation Interior Section

Designing the Casting System

The next step was to create our own sequential casting system and actualize a model wall mockup in concrete. Since this project needs to be accessible and easy to use, the casting system needs to have as few pieces as possible. I decided to prioritize the splitting and joining actions rather than the double curvatures; this decision allowed my system to have just four unique molds.

I opted for a conservative design with my model, because I wanted to guarantee a successful attempt. My molds were 3D printed and butterflyclipped in place. Concrete was poured one layer at a time. Molds were able to be removed and reused after two layers of casting.

A Tiny Concrete Wall

The wall was a success. Curves come across smoothly, layers can split and rejoin the wall seamlessly, and the system can even support cantilevered splits.

First Sketches

Now that I knew my sequential casting system was viable, I decided to push the conditions as I expanded in the next design phase. I played through many different iterations here; the final design pulls successful elements from each.

The Concrete Home

The main wall that swivels around the plan has splits and shutoffs that form skylights, garden beds, desks, and windows. Every space contains ample sunlight and garden views with a minimal risk during adverse weather conditions.

Because of the site’s rural conditions, privacy screening with a full courtyard wall was less necessary than I anticipated; I used this as an opportunity to open the backyard pocket into a larger garden.

Trees filter harsh sunlight on the east and west walls, and they have elevated basins to zone habitat for native caterpillar species to safely grow in.

A Concrete Home

My casting system ultimately facilitated a building that exists in layers —its splits allow for a level of design connectivity I wasn’t expecting. Although we had a small footprint to work with, the house has lots of character. The outdoor space is an extension of the indoor. My vision is that a family living here would be able to easily flow between the indoor and outdoor spaces.

Passive / Aggressive: Redesigning Suburbia

Patty Heyda’s 411 Studio Washington University in St. Louis

Fall 2021, In-Person

Passive / Aggressive looked to redefine the suburban condition through the use of HOA laws. We began by designing a passive home, which we would later array through a full neighborhood of our own design. Our site is in Chesterfield, Missouri, an affluent satellite county of Saint Louis. Paired with our neighborhood plan, we were to submit an aggressive policy proposal to create a cleaner suburbia.

This studio offered lots of personalization; my project has a strong emphasis on protecting and restoring local ecologies. This was a fun one— hope you enjoy it!

Building Section, drawn at 1/8” = 1’

Phase 1. The Passive House

Analysis of Chesterfield mega-mansions lead me to realize that so many of the houses here have no natural ventilation whatsoever. My primary passive strategy is having a large breezeway through the center of the home. Low exterior barriers, facade bars, and windows optimized for pressure differences swing cool air in at a low angle while expelling warm air as it develops.

Floor 1 Plan, drawn at 1/8” = 1’ with grids = 3x3’

ECO INFO

Rainwater Collection:

- Missuori receives 0.62 collectable rainfall/sqft annually. All water shed on the 1,675 sqft of rooftop is collected in two cisterns totally 500g.Scaled up for a twenty building collection, this system can collect up to 10,000 gallons annually.

- Greenspaces have collective rain gardens at lower elevations to minimize the system’s impact and reliance upon storm drains.

Solar:

- Houses have 49 solar panels. Southern-facing roofs are angled at 15º. Although a 38º angle would allow for a larger annual energy capture, the angle used allows for more consistent capture year-round.

- Each house has unobstructed access to north and south light for the majority of each day.

Wind:

- Missouri has a south-north windflow. Each house is oriented upon this axis, and their central living areas are between walls of operable glass doors with minimal interior obstructions.

- All interior circulation is user-controlled.

- Southern-facing windows are vertical and slim, while north-facing windows are typically more horizontal.

- Southern wind capture is maximized using jetted bars; the majority of the southern facade is able to be opened to capture air.

- Distances between houses are set to allow fresh air to be collected for each.

Neighborhoods are oriented around strips of park. These parks are secluded and only able to be accessed on foot.

Views between houses are obstructed, and ground floors are protected from direct sight from those in the shared areas.

Phase 2. Nature’s Best Hope

Douglas Tallamy’s Nature’s Best Hope discusses the ecological challenges facing wildlife and habitats in North American suburbs. The book outlines ways that individual homeowners can make a positive impact. The concepts behind Tallamy’s recommendations helped inform my neighborhood and citywide proposals.

After my research, I identified three problems that I could successfully tackle:

1. Habitat Segmentation. When habitat areas are split by roads, they have smaller and more fragile wildlife populations. Bridging habitats allows for better population resiliency.

2. Non-Native Plants. Roughly 48% of Chesterfield’s tree code was made up of non-native “alien” species, which contribute very little to local ecology. One policy recommendation was to only include native plants in the code and offer incentives to residents for planting and maintaining native species.

3. Few Interior Forest Conditions

Forest edges are 300’ deep and are too harsh for important wildlife to live in. Widening existing forest spaces can help foster this important zone. More on this soon.

Phase 3. Mapping Chesterfield

Chesterfield actually has a bunch of large parks and native reserves! There’s also lots of Green pockets across the county, but because they are all isolated and segmented, their capacity to house wildlife is minimal. Through mapping, I noticed an interesting web woven through the city: its waterways.

An analysis on the current ecological conditions of a given Chesterfield suburb. Although a large percentage of land is covered with plants and trees, very little of it is able to effectively contribute to the local ecological network. Current suburbs do not see their wildlife populations well.

Phase 4. Neighborhood Design

My suburb aims to remedy the various issues of existing suburban conditions. Forest areas are far more connected with one another than normal, and they all connect into the Waterway Protection Zone —and interior forest habitat— at the site’s southern edge.

The Waterway Protection Zone

My Aggressive proposal is extending Chesterfield’s current 50’ protection zone on each side of all waterways to a 500’ protection zone on each side. Accounting for edge conditions, this guarantees a 400’ width of forest interior habitat across the city’s entire network of waterways. Neighborhoods connected to protection zones have more productive forests, because their existing green-spots are now connected to an expansive forest interior. Wildlife populations are joined together and consequently become much more resilient than before.

This benefits residents, too —and it reinforces the concept of suburban identity. Permeable walking trails wind through the neighborhood’s green spaces. The Green wraps and contorts around houses to create enclaves of privacy without segmenting houses fully from each other. But best of all: the world around residents will not be still or sterile. Nature will exist in the same space they exist, and kids will grow up in private yet engaging commual environments.

Retrofitting

Asking for 500’ of clearance on each side of all waterways in Chesterfield may seem like a big ask, but as illustrated by the diagram in the top right, very few existing housing plots overlap. These recommendations are for ideal circumstance rather than realistic ones, but it’s still interesting to note that retrofitting would be largely possible.

Phase 5. Welcome to the Neighborhood

Although this project is highly idealistic, the concepts and ecological logic are incredibly beneficial for future designs. I no longer agree with the argument that the suburbs cannot be improved without destroying suburban identity. Privacy, community, and status are not mutually exclusive to ecologically inefficient suburbs —all that can stay with a slight change in priority. The solutions here are truly exciting.

A Theatre for Two

Constance Vale’s 212 Studio Washington University in St. Louis Spring 2020, Hybrid

This project is a theatre for a commercial district in Saint Louis, Missouri. Conceptually, this project is about dichotomies within architecture. I worked to play with and push the condition of two separate entities throughout this process —light and shadow, solid and transparent, old and new. I was aiming for a relationship somewhere between a harmony and a contrast.

Phase 1. Light & Shadow

Phase 1 was a study of light and shadow. We took historical architecture drawings, translated them into paper models, photographed them and their shadows, then morphed that into a new form and model.

I decided to create two forms: a wrapping encasement, and an internal mass. Their differences in form, shape, and role contrast one another, but they also complicate each other. When together, the shell covers and encases the mass. With the mass removed, the shell is left with an imprint and lofty interior conditions.

Phase 2. Material Studies

Phase 2 is also defined by a transformation. We were tasked to translate photos of real materials into similar representations using studio materials. Each material had an opaque and transparent translation.

All materials used were recycled from trash cans around the school.

Reference Images

Opaque Models

Transparent Models Interactions with Light

Concrete

Foamcore

Paper Stencil

Wood

Foamcore

Foamcore Scrap

Stone

Foamcore

VHS Tape

Phase 3. Form Studies

For the form studies of Phase 3, I looked at form through wrapping similar to my first models.

Phase 4. Modeling

As we shifted to representational forms, I wanted to encase one structure within another formally unrelated one. I was aiming to create both a harmony and a contrast.

Iterations

1. Function-Mapped Geometric Form 2. Gridded

3. Textured in Foamcore Material

4. The Second Form

5. Convergence

6. Merging & Texturing

Casting Shadows

Growing up in Saint Louis, I was very familiar with this site before this studio. Delmar aspires to be a bubbling commercial district with shops, music venues, and restaurants. Despite this, the street is monotonous and uninspiring. While my design is obviously unique, the building really breaks past the plot and the street’s uniformity by the shadows it casts. Shadow forms are intentionally abrasive and uncompromising. Theatre itself is a spectacle, and I wanted to project that quality across all of Delmar using the only way I could break past the site’s confinements: in shadow.

Center Stage

Circulation is centered around the main stage. Staff and guest amenity spaces buffer the amphitheater from Delmar. All performance-focused spaces are nested underneath and around the curvature of the seating ring. This allows for privacy as well as entrances at stage left, right, and center.

1. Lobby

2. Performance Hall

3. Stage

4. Backstage

5. Box Office

6. Offices

7. Cafe

8. Kitchen

9. Restrooms

Because the two forms are so different from each other, they highlight each other’s unique qualities. The shell is akin to The Process in Supergiant’s Transistor; the interior mass calls back to performances from ancient times. The dichotomy between the ancient and the contemporary, the light and the shadow, the shell and the mass, exist in both harmony and contrast.

1. Lobby

2. Performance Hall

3. Stage 4. Backstage 5. Box Office

6. Offices

7. Cafe 8. Kitchen 9. Restrooms

The remnants of the original form hang above the amphitheater providing shade and coverage while also contrasting the archaic form of the amphitheater.

Elevation

1. Lobby

2. Performance Hall 3. Stage 4. Backstage 5. Box Office

6. Offices

7. Cafe

8. Kitchen 9. Restrooms

Constrained Housing

Ryan Abendroth’s 311 Studio Washington University in St. Louis Fall 2021, Online

Starting with a conceptual study of a two-part joint mechanism and ending with a full two-family housing setup on a notably skinny plot of land, this housing studio was all about interlocking pieces.

The biggest challenge involved the site: how do you create privacy when you have another house on your same plot of land? And how do you screen privacy on a tightly packed residential street?

Couplers in Movement

Slowing at a gradual angle

From Joints to Houses

As I shifted from conceptual to representational, I was thinking about how I would inhabit those joint diagrams. I used that thinking to create space in three dimensions while adhering to the diagram’s geometric constraints.

Turning right at a constant speed

Accelerating straight ahead

Train Couplers

Old steam engines fastened to one another using a pin-and-link type joint to keep train cars hitched together. This allowed for fluid movement as the cars traversed varying angles, speeds, and changes in elevation. I became excited by diagrams of static instances of the joints and how they varied between situations.

Slowing straight ahead

Combining Conditions

Final Product: The Two-Family Home

A central wall divides the two houses. It opens on the ground level to connect the two house’s green spaces. Bedrooms on the third level and flex spaces on the second are visually screened from the neighbors by the wall.

Final Product: The Two-Family Home

The splits, densities, and geometries of the joint diagrams became the architecture’s way of creating screens and controlled environments in a tight neighborhood with very little privacy.

Mother & Child Clinic

Dusica Stankovic’s 312 Studio Washington University in St. Louis Spring 2021, Hybrid

This studio was an in-depth exploration into designing healthcare environments. We were tasked to create a dual-clinic for both mothers and their children situated in North St. Louis.

Healthcare architecture is interesting because of how important the return are —even at the margins. In healthcare architecture, the measurable outcome in whether a design is effective isn’t subjective or arbitrary: it is measured in patient health outcomes. A clinic with marginally more efficient circulation will yield marginally better outcomes, and in this context, that is huge. So given that, my goal in this studio was to work with my professor to design a clinic that would (hopefully) function well in actuality.

PROCESS

PROCESS

Research & Initial Clinic Design

PROCESS

Design strategies used in this project come from recent evidence-based design publications. I’ve broken this down to two main strategies.

First Bubble Iteration

When doing this first full-clinic function map, the biggest challenge was moving patients from the waiting room to their exam rooms. Although shared functions are placed between the two clinics, the largest issue with this iteration was that there wasn’t a central core for staff.

Strategy A. Framing Patient Circulation

Research shows clinics that use nurse stations as a way to frame patient circulation yield better outcomes, because care is streamlined and patients are more comfortable navigating the space.

Roots

Root systems were my original inspiration for how this clinic would come together. When viewing them in plan, The voids created between roots formed interesting patterns and networks.

Final Bubble Iteration

Exam Room Design

Based on found research, the exam room’s design prioritizes modes of information sharing with the assumption of fully digital records. It also advocates for patient privacy and family involvement.

Formalizing the Clinic

Building off the bubble diagrams from earlier, I began to give form to each space indicated. I shifted my secondary functions (ultrasound, ECG, etc.) to spaces within the pods rather than a designated rear area. This improved wayfinding and allowed nurse stations to better direct circulation.

Final Iteration

The finalized function map of the maternity clinic. After adjusting for project constraints, the pod system became much more central to the clinic layout. Patient circulation is extremely streamlined — all spaces where patients would go to on their own are within sight of a nurse station.

Tiny-Space Exhibition

Bruce Lindsey’s 112 Studio Spring 2019

This first year studio explored constrained living through designing a structure for someone to live in for one week within a gallery space.

Working within the 9’ cube we were given, my goal was to make living in this space feel as natural as possible. A green wall and a water feature screen privacy for the bed. A lofted area makes use of the space’s verticality. This became a study of our usage of space and our requirements for comfort.

Dylan Cassilly

dylancassilly@gmail com | (314) 800-4571

Education Washington University in Saint Louis, St Louis, MO

Bachelor of Science in Architecture & Minor in Computer Science, 2022

Selected Coursework:

ARCH 412: Resilient Concrete, under Pablo Moyano

ARCH 411: Passive / Aggressive, Redefining Suburbia, under Patty Heyda

ARCH 212: A Theatre for Two, under Constance Vale

ARCH 311: Constrained Housing, under Ryan Abendroth

ARCH 312: Mother & Child Clinic, under Dusica Stankovic

ARCH 112: Tiny-Space Exhibition, under Bruce Lindsey

Experience WashU Student Union, St Louis, MO, 2018-2021

Social Programming Board, Executive Board & Events Director: planned, coordinated, and managed recurring events, led a team of 8, and restructured group for long-term longevity

Events ranged in scales from 100 to 2,500 attendees.

Student Union Senate, Senator: advocated for students’ interests to university administration, led groups up to 20, and helped allocate Student Union’s $3.7 million budget.

Selected Projects:

Changed Unviersity’s add/drop deadline for classes

Amended Student Union guidelines for more equitable elections

Helped secure funding for student mental health fund

Collected and analyzed data from schoolwide surveys

Student Union Senate, Social Media Manager: created and maintained organization’s online presence, led virtual outreach campaigns, and created guides and standards for successor Student Union Senate, Recruitment Lead: planned and coordinated outreach campaigns, led a team of 4; culminated to a record-breaking numbers of applications

WashU Center for Teaching & Learning, St Louis, MO, 2021-2022

Student Worker: assisted professors during lectures and managed recording equipment.

Private Tutoring, St Louis, MO and Los Angeles, CA, 2015-2022

Students K-10: created individualized lesson plans, adapted to student needs, and communicated with parents and teachers

Game Design, 2016-2023

MoonDust: co-founder and creative director of an online game and gaming community As co-founder, helped lead a team of administrators and helped with frontend and backend maintenance As creative director, set game-wide design choices and co-designed all digital environments

Duality: co-created a platformer game completely from scratch Helped code the game and created all assets, animations, and digital environments