Catherine Kai Shih Selected Work 2013-2020
shih 2020
shih 2020
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interes t s
Conceptual Narrative and Storytelling Storytelling through a project narrative is a critical component in creating meaning in the built environment. The following projects have conceptual meaning that tell a specific narrative related to form, program, material, culture, and context. This is reflected in the projects form, function, use, program and performance. For example, an archive takes the act of displacing material from it’s original context as a point of departure for the building’s design. Similarly, a pavilion that is situated in the courtyard of a museum tessellates and is engaged through seeing, walking around, and surrounding one’s self in the context of the courtyard of the museum, creating a commentary on the visual relationship of objects and visitors in a museum: how a piece of art can have multiple readings.
Urban Engagement with Landscape Architecture is interdisciplinary, engaging buildings, landscape, culture and the urban context. The following projects intend to facilitate integration with the wider context, through careful analysis of urban context, strategic intervention and placement, careful consideration of how building’s interact with the ground, and how landscape can be interwoven into the building.
Dichotomy and Balance of Tension The following projects have titles based on dichotomies that informed the conceptual narrative of each project. This interest in finding a common ground between opposing elements generates productive tension that further invigorates the building’s meaning and performance. Each project seeks to both find a balance between these dichotomies, as well as heighten a tension between them.
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Interests
content s
PENN ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
YALE ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
Unfamiliar Symmetry
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Cemetery Island
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Cohesive Autonomy
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Intertwine Residence Studio
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Suspended Symbiosis
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Sectional Voids
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Tenuous Solidity
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Body in Space
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Inward and Outward
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Dominant Void
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Sharp Softness
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Subtle Transitions
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Present Absence
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Shonan Church
153
Visible Void
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Bento Box
157
Music Haven
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Rubix House
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Drawing Architecture
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PENN EXTRACURRICULARS Meyerson Basement Competition
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Penn Charity Fashion Show
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GoFare Lunch Pack
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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Product Design Competition
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Snøhetta
177
Ballinger
183
Joel Sanders Architect
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Table of Contents of Selected Works
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Night Life
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Collection Enclosure
Circulation
Landscape
DeďŹ ned Perimeter
Facade Expression
us *s t u di o i n p ro gre s s :
u n fa m i l i a r symmetry This studio seeks to re-imagine the future potential of the La Brea Tar Pits Museum to become an international research center that tells a story of climate evolution and our evolving impact on the evironment. The program seeks to expand the scientific mission of the museum to engage in urgent questions reagrding the changing climate and how this impacts biodiversity. To start, the studio began by analyzing building precedents and extracting core DNA regarding how “collection” of different sorts happens, and analyzing ideas about display, movement, connection to landscape, perimeter definition, material expression, and light expression at night. These elements were then used to reconfigure and recombine into hybrid studies, each with their own idea about collection, display, and the relationship to “dangerous waters”, representing the tar lake pit located at the La Brea Tar Pits. The studio is currently in the process of siting these hybrids in relation to the site.
La Brea Tar Pits Museum and Research Center in Los Angeles, CA Weitzman School of Design 704, 3rd-Year Studio Spring 2019 Professors Marion Weiss + Michael Manfredi w/ Perry Ashenfelter + Marta Llor
Final 1/4” Scale Model Photo Showing Interweaving Volumes and Merging of Mass and Tectonic
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Hybridizing Precedent DNA Hybrid Models Synthesizing Precedents, Precedent Drawings Extracting Core DNA
Through analysis and drawing of The Carpenter Center by Le Corbusier, and Neue Staatsgallerie by James Stirling, core DNA was extracted regarding ideas about collection, display, movement, connection to landscape, perimeter definition, material expression, and light expression at night. The core strategies from both were utilized to create hybrid models that reinterpret and recombine the DNA of both precedents. These studies are in the process of being further refined before placing and re-configuring them on the site.
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Hybrid Models: Combining the Core DNA Extracted from Each Precedent and Re-configuring to Create New Symmetries
Precedent Analysis Drawings: Core DNA (top), Carpenter Center Section Perspective (middle), Neue Staatsgallerie Section Perspective (bottom)
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Hybridizing Precedent DNA Hybrid Models Synthesizing Precedents, Precedent Drawings Extracting Core DNA
Through analysis and drawing of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library by Gordon Bunshaft, and the Perez Museum by Herzog and de Meuron, core DNA was extracted regarding ideas about collection, display, movement, connection to landscape, perimeter definition, material expression, and light expression at night. The core strategies from both were utilized to create hybrid models that reinterpret and recombine the DNA of both precedents. These studies are in the process of being further refined before placing and re-configuring them on the site.
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Hybrid Models: Combining the Core DNA Extracted from Each Precedent and Re-configuring to Create New Symmetries
Precedent Analysis Drawings: Core DNA (top), Perez Museum Section Perspective (middle), Beinecke Library Section Perspective (bottom)
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ca c oh e s ive aut o n o my In interpreting the studio brief of creating a “fuzzy aggregate” this building is a fusion of building parts that produce ambiguous readings of autonomy – parts or figures that stand on their own, and cohesion – parts that become synthesized and interconnected with other parts. Programmatically, new ideas of mixed-use emerge in the programmatic juxtaposition of performing arts and housing. In the creation of a school for the arts, a social program component of housing allows families and other residents to host students and provide them with a family away from home within the Catalan culture which values strong familial ties and home traditions. Formally, Readings of parts on the facade, which are defined by carved profiles, appear to operate autonomously when looking at one moment, however in other moments, appear to be connect by elements that wrap and share a seam, creating a sense of involution and continuous organization. The project strives to create a striking balance between moments of isolation and moments of cohesiveness to create a fuzzy aggregate whole. Materially, misalignments create an ambiguous relationship between the building’s facade articulation and how the part operates internally, rather than being indexical
Housing and Performing Arts Center in Barcelona, Spain Weitzman School of Design 701, 3rd-Year Studio Fall 2019 Professors Georgina Huljich and Marcelo Spina w/ Marta Llor
Render of Close-Up Relationship of a Convergence of Two Building Parts that Seem Both Autonomous and Cohesive
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Synthesizing Urban Building w/ Site Rendered Site Plan, Sheared Massing Diagram Site Diagrams Final Model Photo
The building is sited between the city and the sea, just beyond Port Olympic park. Due to site barriers from a curvilinear housing complex, the highway, and rail lines, the site is difficult to reach. Because of this, a very circuitous but highly trafficked pedestrian pathway from the port into the city leads directly through the site, creating a place of transition and passage, rather than a destination. Therefore, in siting our building, our intent was to redirect this dominant city grain to mediate the flow of pedestrian traffic and activate the corner of the site least publicly accessible. Formally, the building reacts or responds to the urban flows that take place on the site. Sheared shifts in the building plan invite people into the building, while lifted corners react to traffic flows.
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Rendered Site Plan: Situating the Building within the Larger Port Olympic neighborhood, Massing Diagram of Site Strategy
Generate New Circulation Access Points into the Site
Foster a New Connection with Olympic Park
Breakdown Urban Barriers b/w the Site and the Water
Expand Views to the Waterfront
Account for the Flow of Pedestrian TrafďŹ c
Mediate and Respond to Forms and Flows of the City
Diagrams of Site Challenges, Considerations, and Strategy, Final Model Photograph of the Building Corner Lifting up to Respond to Urban Conditions
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Creating a “Fuzzy Aggregate” Fuzzy Aggregate Diagrams Rendered Section and Elevation
The project reinforces ambiguous interpretations of autonomy and cohesion through the readings of the parts in elevation and the perceived push and pull of these parts in relation to another. Three converging programs – a school for the arts, public programing arts venues, and housing, operate autonomously, with strategic moments of “fuzziness” or overlap. Misalignments or fractures from profile lines create uniquely carved openings in the floor for vertical atrium spaces that visually connect public zones for a larger sense of community, such as the school’s main gathering space. Materially, the projects is a “fuzzy aggregate” through the articulation of seams, where the fragmentation of materiality creates new readings of parts through misalignments. Rather than being indexical, material misalignments create an ambiguous relationship between the building’s facade articulation and how the part operates internally. Through the gaps in the ceramic paneling, people at street level catch a glimpse of life inside, a snapshot of the stories of performance and domesticity that inhabit the space and become reflected on the exterior and infuse the building with life.
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Diagrams of Profile Line Carvings (Top), Diagram of Individual Building Parts and the Blurring of these Parts through 2 different Material Articulations (Bottom)
Rendered Section and Elevation Illustrating the Inner Logic of Building Parts and the Material Seams that Blur Delineations of These Parts
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Night Render: Material Articulation “Fuzzying” the Reading of Building Parts
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Performing Arts + Housing Render of Rehearsal Space Render of Housing Unit
New ideas of mixed-use emerge in the programmatic juxtaposition of performing arts and housing, creating a dichotomy between the observer and the observed. Through the interstice of these programs, a visual overlap of housing and performing arts enables residents to catch glimpses into the life of performance. In the creation of a school for the arts, a social program component of housing allows families and other residents to host students and provide them with a family away from home within the Catalan culture which values strong familial ties and home traditions.
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Render of Performance Space: Split Levels Allow Glimpses Into Other Building Programs, Such As The Performance Hall Below
Render of Housing Unit: Material Articulation and Size Allowing for Views into Surrounding Performance Spaces, While Maintaining Privacy
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Activating the Urban, Public Realm Render of Private Plaza Render of Outdoor Screening Plaza
The site and building act in a symbiotic relationship of cohesion and autonomy. Through porosity, visual exposure, and connection with the landscape, an otherwise monolithic building opens up in moments and becomes an active participant in the fabric of the city. In some moments, parts act autonomously and refuse to ďŹ t in with the context, but rather push back on the context. This happens at the outdoor theatre, where the building protrudes into the urban space of the entry plaza, allowing for public screenings that put the inner workings of the performance institution on display. In other moments, the building stands off and is more subdued and cohesive with the ground ows of the landscape, becoming a backdrop for the life of the city. Urban windows at street level combined with shared terraces from carved openings create a visual relationship with the street.
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Render of Private Plaza: Moment Where Building is a Subdued Background with Balconies that Enable a Visual Relationship with the City
Render of Public Outdoor Screening Entry Plaza: Building is Performative and Actively Engages with the Landscape and Urban Flows
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ss suspended symbiosis The Industry City Apiary + Food Center is a cultural attraction, not only providing local honey and by-products to the New York City area but also creating a new conception of what “nature” in a building can be. Rather than a typical greenhouse where plants grow on their own in a static and regular layout, this building hosts both nature, as well as visitors, intertwining the two through the building structure, form and composition. As a result, visitors can interact with nature in a new and engaging way by entering the building. Urban nature and bee homes are intertwined with human spaces, both informing the other. This speaks to the symbiotic feedback loop of bees as pollinators in the larger ecosystem. Through educational programming, harvesting pollinators and generating local produce, the building nourishes the Metropolitan area. It stands as an indication of the intricacies, symbiotic nature, and our reliance on a wider ecosystem. Located in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, the Industry City Apiary + Food Center harnesses the area’s industrial past, rethinking what manufacturing is today in relation to a food center.
An urban apiary and food center in Industry City, Brooklyn Weitzman School of Design 602, 2nd-Year Studio Spring 2019 Professor Nate Hume w/ Marta Llor
Final 1/4” Scale Model Photo Showing Interweaving Volumes and Merging of Mass and Tectonic
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A New Kind of “Urban Nature” “Urban Nature” Diagrams 1/4” Final Model Photograph
The Industry City Apiary + Food Center is a cultural attraction, not only providing local honey and by-products to the New York City area but also creating a new conception of what “nature” in a building can be. Through educational programming, harvesting pollinators and generating local produce, the building nourishes the Metropolitan area. Its novel experience and spatial qualities are an indication of the intricacies, symbiotic nature, and our reliance on a wider ecosystem.
NURTURING PRODUCTION RECYCLING CONSUMPTION DISTRIBUTION
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“Urban Nature” Diagram: Programmatic Feedback Loop Surrounding Pollination and Honey Bees
1/4� Final Model Photograph: Main Public Entry Up Into the Building, Surrounded by Figural Moire Frames of Lush Vegetation
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Form Finding and Sliver Spaces Final Model Site Plan Diagram, Massing Studies
The scheme builds upon the sliver space culture that has transformed the interstitial space between the re-developed manufacturing warehouses on the site into shared, activated public space. Capitalizing on this notion, the buildings’ slivers create public circulation, views, and access for bees in and out of the building. Form ďŹ nding began by exploring stereotomic mass, tectonic frames, and hybrids of the two. The primary interest was maintaining a gridded, sliver system while at the same time introducing a secondary, competing directionality. At the ground level, the grain is focused in a different direction than what is established by the building form as structural grid. Movement is re-conďŹ gured diagonally, encouraging visitors to wander through a moire forest.
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Final Model: Tectonic Frame Intertwined with Building Mass, Site Plan Diagram: Site Slivers + Proposed New Grain (bottom)
Stereotomic Geometries: Competing Grains and Nested Complexity
Tectonic Geometries: Competing Grains and Nested Complexity
“Stereotectonic” Hybrid: Combining Both Stereotomic and Tectonic Studies
Final Massing: “Stereotectonic” Hybrid
Massing Studies: Stereotomic, Tectonic, + Hybrids, Final Massing
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Rough, Layered Reveals
Broken Down Crevices, and Striated Texture
Fluid, Drifting Qualities
Subtle, Overlapping Material Shifts, and Pockets of Greenery
Materiality Casted Material Experiments Section Detail
A series of casting experiments were done to extract qualities that inform materiality as well as massing. Moments of reveal, interior pockets, soft vs. hard transitions, and a gradient of textures and sizes were explored. These elements were then applied to the larger massing, where a shell of concrete casted panels of varying sizes creates different densities of grids, creating an interplay with the tectonic. Slivers or gaps in the building align with a gridded tectonic moire of steel columns, providing a system for plants to grow on, while supporting the concrete cladding enclosing the building’s mass.
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Casted Material Experiments: Illustrating Interior Pockets, Soft vs. Sharp Transitions, Material Reveals, and Striations
Section Detail: Figural Tectonic Moire of Columns Responding to Interior Pockets of Space Clad in Concrete Panels
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Massing Slivers
Tectonic Moire
Greenery Extended Threshold
Human Pockets
Structure
Bee Hives
Breakdown of Volume + Material Plan Diagrams Material Render
Taking inspiration from the material studies, the building mass is broken down into slivers of volumes. These disparate volumes are interconnected through bridging circulation pathways, tectonic steel structural columns, as well as building systems such as heating, cooling, and water supply that breathe life into the building like arteries in the human body. Dense build-ups of greenery breakdown the ultra high performance concrete panels, creating ďŹ gural patches along the tectonic framework.
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Plan Diagrams: Building Elements + Grains
Material Render: Elevation Vignette illustrating Material Breakdown, Figural Slivers, and Interconnection of Tectonic Structure with Greenery
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Section illustrating the Interior Network of Human Spaces, Bee Spaces, and Urban Greenery.
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ts tenuous solidit y This design elective sought to imagine the future of precast concrete through the conception, design, fabrication, and assembly of a full scale, precast concrete wall panel mock up, in collaboration with North East Precast in New Jersey. A wall panel was imagined with an interplay of deep, cavernous pockets or conical impressions, juxtaposed against thin, sinuous and sharp edges or seams. The pocketed openings of varying sizes give depth and variation to the panel, allowing light to dance over the surface in rhythms. The pockets have both sharp corners as well as more smooth curvilinear edges, creating both dramatic and soft shadow effects on the surface as the sun changes position throughout the day. The space between each of the disparate impressions create interstitial seams that read as a network of flat, sinuous, sharp edges. Overall, the collection of pockets create an overall reading of a curvilinear form. The tension between the cavernous area of the panel and the flattened surface is heightened by the thin reveal that runs between the two.
Pre-cast Concrete Wall Panel Mock-Up, Full-scale Weitzman School of Design Design Elective Fall 2019 Professor Richard Garber w/ Karen Toomasian + Amanda Gruen
Final Precast Concrete Wall Panel , 8’ x 4’
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Wall Panel Axon
Negative Impressions of the Panel
Contoured Impressions for Fabrication
7”
5 7/8”
8’-0”
1’ - 2 3/4”
4’-0”
Unrolled Elevation of the Precast Concrete Elements + Panel Location
Chosen Wall Panel Elevation
Wall Panel Conception Diagrams Render of Facade that Panel Was Extracted From
The conception of the panel was based off of a section of the facade from a former studio project of my teammates, comprised of a precast concrete panel system inlaid with brick. In constructing this panel, the negative forms of each impression were created by stacking sheets of CNC milled MDF, sanding them down to a smooth finish, and applying an epoxy resin finish. Foam was placed on top of three of the forms for the full penetrations in the panel. A circuitous joint expression creates redirects the perceived breakdown of the panel system conceptually when assembled within the larger system.
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Diagrams: Unrolled Facade with Panel Location, Final Panel Axon and Corresponding Negative Formwork, Panel Elevation
Render: Facade From Which Our Panel Was Generated, Precast Concrete Panels with Brick
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Drawings + Fabrication Photographs of Fabrication Shop Ticket Drawings
Shop ticket drawings were created through collaboration with a consultant from North East Precast in New Jersey. These drawings illustrate the detail that went into creating each assembly, as if being produced for an actualized, built project. Factors such as structure, strength, concrete composition, panel connections and tie backs to the building structure through placement of hardware were all considered. Formwork for the panel was created and assembled at North East Precast.
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Photographs of Fabrication: Placement and Preparation of Formwork Negatives, Re-bar Placement, Concrete Fill, Hardware Positioning
PSA 4535
10"
EP08
LPA2T434G
20"
CI5634412P 2’-0”
11”
EPO8 10"
1’-4”
PSA 4535 8-7/8”
LPA2T634G
10"
LPA2T634G
20" 3’-1/2" LPA2T434G (TIF)
CI5634412P (TIF)
CI5634412P
LPA2T434G (TIF)
PSA 4535 (TIF)
EP08 (TIF)
LPA2T634G (SIF)
2’-0”
1’-4”
11"
10"
8-7/8”
1’-4”
LPA2T634G (SIF)
EP08 (TIF)
FORM VIEW
LPA2T434G (TIF)
EP08
LPA2T434G
PSA 4535 (TIF)
LPA2T434G (TIF)
CI5634412P
LPA2T434G
PSA 4535
5” LPA2T634G
SECTION VIEW
5-1/2”
#40308
7”
#40308
1’-2”
1’-6”
#40308
1’-0”
#40308
2’-0”
#40308
10"
#40308
5-1/2"
#40308
3”
3”
#40708
11”
1’-0” 1’-2”
10”
#40708
1’-3”
#4BB01
10” 6”
6”
#40608
3”
3”
#40708
FORM VIEW - UPPER MAT
ITEM MARK
GR
LENGTH
#4BB01
60
#4 X 9’-3”
DESCRIPTION
2”
56”
10”
7”
12”
10” 26”
SECTION VIEW - UPPER MAT
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#4 X 6’-11”
19”
24”
#4BB02
40”
BEND DIAMETER : 2”
Shop Ticket Drawings: Re-bar and Hardware Positioning For Production and Assembly on Site. Customization and Bending of Re-bar Was Necessary
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io i nw a rd and o u t w a rd The strategy of inserting housing into an existing courtyard located in Stuytown is one that pushes back against a tabula rasa approach, working with existing conditions. With an ever increasing immigrant population, Stuytown welcomes and provides assistance for immigrants transitioning and assimilating to New York culture. With a clear urban strategy, Stuytown opens itself up to 1st Avenue parallel to the courtyard, becoming externally engaged. By welcoming in the wealth of the city into the complex, the residents, as well as the building itself, are integrated into the urban fabric and culture. The sleek graphite form that contrasts with the existing brick and envelopes the interior of the courtyard creates an internally deďŹ ned atmosphere. As a result, residents feel a sense of both security and openness. This dichotomy is expressed formally, materially, and programmatically.
Urban Housing Expansion in Stuytown, New York City Weitzman School of Design 601, 2nd-Year Studio Fall 2019 Professor Kutan Ayata
Render Looking Up From the Central Courtyard - View Diverges with 1st Avenue to the Left, Stuytown to the Right
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Creating a Sense of Place Render View Stuytown Collective Site Plan Massing Studies and Final Model Photograph
How can the character of a courtyard be manipulated so that the character of the buildings around it begin to change? The challenge was to create a sense of place in an otherwise transitional avenue for residents so that the building becomes enmeshed in its urban fabric, creating porosity with the city fabric and reactivating it for public use. Massing studies transform the courtyard from a place of transition, through a series of boolean manipulations, into a central destination with a building language that distinguishes itself from the brick, rectilinear building blocks. Familiarity of the rectilinear grid is maintained, with moments of rupture that shift the directionality and allow for changes in perspective and an inward and outward sense of place. The building is lifted off the ground, providing commercial shops at the street level that spill into the courtyard, emphasizing the site’s urbanity. Both seam and edge condition are explored, indicating transitions materially, programmatically, and formally.
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Render View: From Across 1st Avenue
“Both internally defined, and externally engaged means that the architecture in which it is housed must be both enclosed and open� - David Leatherbarrow
Stuytown Collective Site Plan, Massing Studies Activating the Courtyard, Final Model Photograph
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Render View: Entry into the Central Courtyard From the Street, Capturing an Internally DeďŹ ned Sense of Place that Brings the City Inside
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2 Bedroom Apartment
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Hallway from Core to Shared Public Spaces
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Main Atrium Library
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Library Break-Out Spaces
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Bridge Level Windows Surrounding the Center
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Storefront Windows to the Food Hall
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Outdoor Courtyard Elevated from Ground Level
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Zinc Panels
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Negotiating Old + New Chunk Render Choissy Drawing Render View
The chunk explores how the existing brick building and the units meet the new extension made of zinc paneling. A grand atrium rises four stories, with arms that branch out to windows for study and gathering break-out spaces. Being that the building connections are lifted off from the ground, an additional level of courtyard space is provided for residents, giving a semi-private outdoor atmosphere. Large windows at the edge are at or inset to provide outdoor terraces.
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Chunk Render - How Private Housing Units Meet the Semi-Public Atrium Library (top). Choissy Drawing of Chunk (bottom)
Render View: “The Edge”, Where Old Meets New - Material Difference Mediated through Seamless Continuity of Windows
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Bridging New Connections Section Drawing / Render Unit Plans First Floor Plan
While shared semi-private library space occupies the central links, housing occurs at the exterior links. Up to quadruplestory units are available, with a familiar suburban house section at the peak. At the scale of the unit, residents inhabit the edges of space, providing views down into the central courtyard. Shared space is formed in a similar language to that of the entirety of the courtyard where circular enclosure is implied.
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Section Drawing with Rendered Background + Plan of a Multi-Story Housing Unit
First Floor Plan: Housing at End Links and Public Space at Middle Links Unifying the Buildings
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Mediating The Edge Render View Sketch First Floor Plan
At “the edge”, wrapping windows allow residents to inhabit both the old and new simultaneously, providing multidirectional views. While the two materials come together at a bold edge, the wrapping effect of the windows counteracts this hard seam. In the same way throughout the project, seams and alignments are shifted to provide a seamless transition and flow of space that wraps back onto itself.
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Render View: Looking Up - Undulating Edge +Wrapping Windows - Inward + Outward Engagement, Initial Sketch of Window Differentiation (bottom)
Top Floor Plan: Inhabiting the Edge + Roof Culture
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ss sharp s o ft n e s s In designing a branch library for the community of East Parkside, the challenge was to create an invigorating public environment while respecting the building’s context within a row home neighborhood. The proposal takes advantage of its site at the intersection of two main roads, creating an entrance that entices. Interlace Branch Library explores the relationship between sharp and sinuous surface, and the figureground relationship of connecting building and landscape. Like a sea cave where the flow of water overtime smooths a rock’s surface, in this building the flow of people within the community is registered in the building’s formal + material manifestation. Entrances, access points, + viewpoints are points of slippage, carved openings under or beside the building’s form inviting + guiding circulation. These critical points of access + views are further accentuated by material difference, where glass volumes reveal an inner energy that contrasts against the sinuous monolithic volume of the building.
Branch Library for East Parkside, Philadelphia Weitzman School of Design 502, 1st-Year Studio Spring 2018 Professor Danielle Willems
Render of Sinuous Building Landform Emerging from the Ground, with Sharp Glass Windows Protruding from the Form
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* Inspiration for Interlocking form, Locknesters 3D Puzzle
Interlacing Form, Material, Program Massing Models: 3D printed Triptych: Casted Rockite Locknesters: Inspiration for Massing
This exercise began as a formal study, transforming two dimensional ideas about uidity + the integration of a hard + soft language into a model. A network of pathways is laced through a more soft, submerged topological surface. This idea of a network was translated to the scale of the building, where a series of pathways intersect to encourage spontaneous interaction + gathering. Massing studies were done to explore programmatic intersections. The method of interlocking was used, unifying programmatic parts into a whole.
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Conceptual and Formal Explorations - Inspiration, Interlocking Model, + Triptych Model made of Rockite (top). Massing Studies (bottom)
Triptych Concept Model Negative (top) used to create the concept model (bottom) giving form to the image on the right.
Conceptual and Formal Explorations - Image Exploring Intertwining and Bundling of Hard and Soft (right). Triptych Model (left).
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* Sculpture by Ben Young as Project Inspiration
Building Flow + Sequence Inspiration Image, Building Render, Section Renders: Street Elevation + Entry
Like a sea cave where the flow of water overtime smooths a rock’s surface, in this building the flow of people within the community is registered in the building’s formal + material manifestation. Entrances, access points, + viewpoints are points of slippage, carved openings under or beside the building’s form inviting + guiding circulation. These critical points of access + views are further accentuated by material difference, where glass volumes reveal an inner energy that contrasts against the sinuous monolithic volume of the building. The entry into the museum is submerged, integrated into the landscape. While at first glance the buildings heavy mass may seem uninviting, the building is porous, open at the edges for entry, views, and circulation. As if pulled up from the ground, the circulation path from the exterior enters into the building, winding through the various functions of the building. While the plan shows two disparate volumes, the section reveals the connection between these seemingly disparate forms above.
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Inspiration for Materiality and Concept - Sculpture by Ben Young and Render of Sinuous Building (top), Section - Emphasizing Continuity and Stratified Circulation (bottom)
Final Constructed Model (with Rendered Figures) - Cantilevered Entry that Entices and Enlivens the Street Corner
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Building + Landscape Organization Site Plan Physical Model: 3D printed
While the overall mass of the building is seen as a continuous volume, traces of the original diamond-like component can be revealed from above in the plan and section model through the building’s organizational logic. Spaces pinch and weave, creating an undulating sense of compactness and monumentality as you move through, in both plan and section.
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Plan - Cut at Ground Level, Where the Path Cuts Through the Seemingly Disparate Forms, Connected Above
Final Model - View from Above Emphasizing the Interior and Exterior Formal Relationship of Building + Ground
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Entry into the Winding Library and Study Space, Surrounding a Landscaped Atrium
Performance Area Bridging the Passageway Below, Adjacent to Outdoor Space for Performance and Events
Program + Activated Public Space Massing Model: Render of Sinuous Concrete Against Sharp Glass Protrusions Exploded Axon + Diagrams
Beyond an inward, static space for collecting + reading books, this library invites community meeting + gathering providing both indoor + outdoor places for functions such as screenings, performances, + workshops. Rather than being inward, the library branches out, invites, + intertwines the urban context. Programmatic strips wind around + through the building, seamlessly connecting exterior pathways into the interior circulation of the building.
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Programmatic Drawing Vignettes From Exploded Axon
Building Circulation
Building Form + Window Apertures
Hard-scape Circulation that Winds Through the Building, “The Continuous Path”
Diagrams of Site Elements (top), Cutaway Drawing of Entire Site - Interior/Exterior Circulation “Path” that Winds Through the Building
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ps
present absence Situated in the courtyard of the existing Penn Museum and bridging a gap between the past, present, and future, this archive is a link between historical objects, the present Penn Museum, and spaces where objects are given signiďŹ cance for future study. All are intertwined in a feedback loop reinvigorating the other through a carving of space and a fragmentation of form that implies or generates new connections. The archive thoughtfully engages with the museum and the city, creating new entrances from the existing building facade, and engaging the street with a cantilevered urban window from the gallery with respite underneath. The ground-scape echoes the forms above creating a vibrant, open, urban plaza.
Archive Extension for the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, PA Weitzman School of Design 501, 1st-Year Studio Fall 2017 Professor Ben Krone
1/8� Scale Final Section Model Showing the Displaced Volumes of the Archive
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Analog Model: Solid + Void Analog Model: Laser Cut MDF Diagrams: Form Development
The studio began with the creation of an analog model, one that would inform the entirety of the project. Through the analog model, the concept of solid + void was explored, where a penetration creates a spatial expression of a void. In contrast, the removed material can also be expressed as a solid. Placing the two next to each other, a charged concept of memory, fragmentation, and displacement is formed in relation to the creation of an archive for the PennMuseum.
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Analog Model Expressing Concept of Solid + Void, Memory, Impression, and Displacement
Site
Underlying Cone Geometry
Regular Extrusions: Connection b/w cones
Displaced Extrusions: Connection b/w above + below
Public Archive
Private Archive
Displacement Concept
Conceptual Narrative - Diagrams of Concept of Displacement, Impression, and Memory
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Connection With Museum Archive entry interfaces with existing museum facade
Public Programming Lecture Hall + Classrooms
Plaza Entrance Opened up to the street, creating a more public interface with the city. The central connection below ground is registered only in landscaped elements
Displacement + Fragmentation Plan Diagram Model Photographs
Collections of objects + documents exist in fragments, often separated physically by type or size, but meaningful when unearthed, staged, + pieced together. This archive embodies this concept of displacement and re-contextualization. It also provides connection between objects separated from their original context + given new meaning through archivists + researchers. It reflects a mediation between a displaced whole, through a dialectic of completion + incompletion, inside + outside, solid + void, and presence + absence.
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Plan Drawing - Cut Above Ground Showing the Public Programming
Ground Articulation Softscape ground echoes or “completes” the fragmented building using the same formal language at varying heights
Gallery Space With viewing window looking out into the city
Final Model Photographs: Boolean-ed Window Opening + Displaced Form Above vs. Below
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New Connection From the Existing Museum Into the Archive
Back of House
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Private Study Room
Object and Document Storage
Lecture Hall
Connection Between Public + Archive
Exterior Viewing Window
Existing Museum Entry
Archivist Staging Area
Connection to the opposite end of the courtyard
Section Drawing - Private Archive Below, Public Programming Above, Point of Inection Between Levels + Connection to Existing Museum
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Memory + Impression Section Perspective Drawing Diagrams Render View
Just as archival objects are re-contextualized, cone-like forms carve through the building and are displaced above, activating points of inflection connecting public + private space. The rigid, carved-out portion below creates the private spaces – object and document storage along stepped walls, staging areas, + circulation for archivists and researchers. The dynamic, displaced forms above house the public spaces – classrooms, research spaces and gallery – creating vital points of entry from the existing museum down into the new archive.
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Context Connection Museum + Street
Vertical Displacement Landscaped Respites
Softscape Displacement Window Impressions
Hardscape Displacement Public Plazas
Section Perspective Drawing - Showing the Archive’s Engagement with the Street, Museum, + the Surrounding Context
Render View: Displaced Form Emerging from the Ground of the Courtyard
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Section Perspective Drawing - Showing the Archive’s Engagement with the Street, Museum, + the Surrounding Context
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visible void This pavilion was conceived as an installation within the courtyard of the Penn Museum. Exploring the relationship of part to whole, this structure is the aggregation of one form expressed on three scales, that displays two primary conditions: open and closed. A attened image of solid over void is perceived in elevation. However, from any other angle, the pavilion complicates - even directly opposes this initial condition. Parts are pushed and pulled in space, component scales are shifted, and connection points are varied to suggest new readings of the same structure. In essence, the pavilion explores the consequence of multiple interpretations in three dimensions: the expansion of space when the appearance of surface shifts to that of volume, and the inversion of structure as the appearance of mass becomes that of void. The result is a material, spatial language for multiple readings.
Pavilion Installation for the Penn Museum Courtyard in Philadelphia, PA Weitzman School of Design 501, 1st-Year Studio Fall 2017 Professor Ben Krone With Mitch Chisholm, Rentian Liu, and Yihao Zhang
Render of Pavilion in the PennMuseum Courtyard
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Reading 1 Circles Within a Square Grid Creating Multiple Readings
Reading 1 Component Generation
Reading 1 Overlapping Grids Combined
Reading 2 Circles Within a Square Grid Creating Multiple Readings
Reading 2 Form Generation Space In Between
Reading 1 Component Aggregation, Absence of Space
Tessellation + Implied Space Section Perspective Drawing Diagrams Render View
Similar to the way that displayed objects in museums can have multiple readings, this pavilion explored this notion of seeing. Taking tessellations as a point of departure, a component was generated that would allow for two different readings. Translating this into three dimensions, this explores the presence and absence of space, or implying space. This notion was adapted from the container study (opposite page) where the container not only held the object, but implied or became one with the object, understood as one whole in unison.
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Concept Diagrams: Tessellations and Multiple Readings in 2D (top)
Reading 2 Presence of Space
Reading 2 Form Generation Space In Between
Component 2d Implied Sphere
Component 3d Implied Space
Aggregation Logic Carving Away Sphere
Initial Aggregation Sphere Space Packing
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Position 1 Most Closed
Final Aggregation Implied Sphere Tessellated
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Position 2 Most Open
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Position 3 Closed
Position 4 Closed
Diagrams: Component Aggregation as 3 dimensional volumes (top), 4 Readings of the Component as One Engages with it (bottom)
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Part to Whole Aggregation Plan Drawing, Diagram Model Photograph, Elevation Drawings
The resulting final pavilion was constructed at 5 feet in height - half scale of the actual 10 feet pavilion sited in the Penn Museum courtyard. The configuration accentuates the “closed” and “open” readings of the components as they are aggregated, and how this affects the overall reading as one moves around and interacts with it. Components are flipped, twisted, and varied in scale. To create depth and enclosure, the components are pushed and pulled in plan in space, maintaining a flattened reading in elevation, while being spatial in actuality.
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Plan Drawing within the Cairo Grid - Components are Pushed + Pulled in Space Creating Depth and Enclosure (top).
Most Open Position
Most Closed Position
Photo of Final Pavilion Chunk Made of Custom Molded Polystyrene (top). Elevation Drawings of 3 Different Readings (bottom).
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Customized Fabrication Process Photographs of Fabrication Process Diagram of Process
Hundreds of components were fabricated using our custom made jigs at three different scales. Polystyrene sheets were cut by a milling machine and prepared for insertion into the jigs. Once placed, the sheets were heated using a heat gun, and pressed into the jog to create a form on one side. This process was repeated on the other side to create opposing conditions.
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Images of Fabrication Process: Milling, Creation of Custom Jigs, Heating, and Pressing
Fasten Screws: fasten plastic + creates joints Frame: holds the plastic
Heat Template: only heats one side with heat gun Cover: fastens plastic + creates joint Mold: shapes the plastic
Press Rail support
Press Further
Flip
Repeat
Space for formed side Final
Diagram of Construction of the Component Using Custom-Made Jigs to Form Polystyrene Plastic Sheets.
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Form Joint
Frame Joint
Large 15” x 15”
Small 5” x 5”
Assembly Diagram of Assembly Final Model Photographs
Once they were created, assembly began by attaching the components to one another in two different ways: through a form joint at the front nose or backside of the component, or a frame joint on the outer edge. By assembling in this way, the component could be read in two differing directions. The final result is a 5’ tall pavilion that encourages interaction, and engages through walking around and seeing.
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Diagram of Assembly: Two Different Joints, Three Different Scale Components
Medium 10” x 10”
Photos of Final Constructed Pavilion: Six Different Angles of Views That Change Perception
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bv v i s i o n fo r meyerson b a sem e n t This competition called for re-imagining a vision for the basement of the Weitzman School of Design in Meyerson Hall. For a room that is one of the most highly used spaces not only by design students, but also undergrad students of various majors, and the wider community such as church organizations and student groups, this space is in dire need of improvement. We strove to focus on circulation, placemaking, and the need for programmed zones of use in order to make the basement a destination as well as a place of transition, one that is inspirational and speaks to the innovative and creative aspirations of the institution we are a part of.
Vision for the Basement Lounge of Meyerson Hall, Weitzman School of Design Basement Re-Design Competition, Hosted by Dean Fritz Steiner Spring 2020 With Ian Lai, Ellison Turpin, Lizzy Machielse
Render of One of the Activity Zones Within the New Scheme
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CIRCULATION PATHWAYS
ZONES OF USE
CAFE AREA
Improvement to Circulation + Use Diagrams of Existing and New Improvements Plan Drawing of Scheme
Some of the key needs for improvement were circulation, lighting, programming zones of use for various types of activities, and re-organizing the cafe to remove clutter. The proposed scheme re-ogranizes circulation into an “x� formation, due to the observation of people tranversing through the current lounge area to get where they need to go. This scheme prioritizes circulation pathways, while also creating zones of use that differ, including a zone for work, lounge, touchdown space for work, and the cafe with eating areas.
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Diagrams of Needs for Improvements: Circulation Pathways, Programmed Space for Use, Cafe, and Lighting
LIGHTING
Plan Showing Space Division Into Activity Zones (Work, Lounge, Cafe, Touchdown) and the Re-Organization of Circulation Pathways
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Wooden Louvres Birch Veneer Carpeting Turrel Blue Lighting Shroud Frosted polycarbonate
Stair Runner Black Steel Stair Case Stone Wall Paint Calder Orange
Wooden Desk Oak panels Tables and Stools Stainless Steel Wooden Cafe Top Birch Veneer
Placemaking + Pride Axon and Call-Outs of Scheme Section Drawings of Scheme
The basement is one of the most used and publicly visible spaces of the Weitzman School of Design. Rather than a “depressing” space that lacks character, and does not support various uses such as lounging, our design strives to create an environment that is inviting, inspiring, and creative. It is one where student can proudfully say, We Are the Weitzman School of Design.
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Axon Diagram of Proposed New Scheme With Defined Zones of Activity
Couch Seats Leather Couch Cotton Upholstry Ottoman Leather
Sections of the Basement
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Render of the New, Inviting Basement Lounge of Meyerson Hall
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fs penn charity fa shion show The Penn Charity Fashion Show is an annual event put on by Wharton and Penn Design students. In addition to creating “looks” for the show as part of a fashion and architecture class, design students are involved in the set design, as well as the graphics and marketing for the show. The show in 2019, Midnight Matrix, was held at the Barnes Museum. For the first time, the PennDesign team got involved at the beginning, helping with venue location, theme, marketing, and set build out. Designed around the idea of a gridded matrix, gabbions were painted and assembled for the set design of the runway. Graphics for the show including pamphlets, posters, video, and logo were created in tandem with the theme and build-out. The 2020 show, Lux Obscura, is being held at the Phildadelphia Museum of Art.
Fashion Set Design, Marketing + Graphics
Wharton + Penn Fashion Club Spring 2019, Spring 2020 With Isabel Lopez, Kevin Bloomfield, Katarina Marjanovic, Eliana Weiner, Ira Ark, Bhavana Shyam
Photograph of the Final Build-Out
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Rendering of Set Design (top), Logo Design for Penn Charity Fashion Show Group (Bottom)
Photograph of the Final Build-Out (top), Marketing Graphics for the Show (Bottom)
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gf g o Fa re lunch pack This product design was based off of userresearch in designing a product under $50 for a college student. Focusing in on the lunch sector, we researched and interviewed many students to determine their needs in transporting food. After receiving feedback about portability, forgetting extra bags in class, customization, the perception of being dirty and messy, we designed a lunch pack that is modular, interlocks, and ďŹ ts in the side of a standard backpack pocket for handsfree portability.
Hands-Free Food Storage For the Side of Your Bag Integrated Product Design Product Design Class Spring 2019 With Yan Li, Geli Du, and Derek Lin
Render of Customizable GoFare Lunch Packs
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Less Mess, More Color Render of Design Photograph and Diagram of Components
With students being on the go constantly, portability was a key factor that we focused on. Rather than having to place various containers for diferent sized snacks and meals in an extra tote or plastic bag, our lunch pack is all in one and hands-free by ďŹ tting in the side of your backpack. In doing market research, we focused on the customization aspect our design. Taking inspiration from Swell and other millenial companies, GoFare can be customized with different colors and designs, and can be mixed and matched for extra personalization.
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Render of Customizable GoFare Snack Packs
Photograph of GoFare Snack Pack Components (top), Diagram of How Components Come Together (bottom)
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up u n i ve r s a l produc t design The PennDesign Challenge is an annual interdisciplinary design challenge with student groups with design, engineering, and business backgrounds. This challenge took on universal accessibility, in designing a product, or suite of products for those that are disabled. We began our user research, by gaining empathy and understanding through interviewing who we are designing for. From the interviews, we gained insights of wanting empowerment, feeling a sense of normalcy and connection with others, and design can impact how accessible the world is for disabled people. With the idea that work and live are merging more and more together, we designed a suite of products for the future workplace: a workstation, smart sink, and shower chair.
Product Design Competition, Understanding Universal Accessibility
Wharton Innovation and Design Club Fall 2018 With Jia Yuan, Subhransu Mahapatra, Susie Fan, Zirui Wang
Render of Accessible Work Table Design
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Rethinking Workstations Diagram Rethinking a Table Unit + ConďŹ guration
Taking on Universal Accessibility, we designed a workstation that rethinks a single unit desk, designing it around the turning radius of a wheelchair. From this, we created a modular desk system that is ergonomically designed for spontaneous collaboration, tech-enabled communication, and ensuring proper aisle clearances.
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Renderings of ReconďŹ gured Workstation Unit and Modular Arrangement
Pain-points of Existing Workstations (top), Rethinking Workstations (bottom)
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Smart Sink + Shower Chair Intial Design Sketches Renders and Diagrams of Design Solution
With the rise of the live-work office model, gyms and showers are being considered as part of the working environment. This trend was incorporated into our product suite through the design of a sink and shower chair. Through interviews we discovered that while ADA sinks exists, latent needs are not considered in the funcional experience. Extended front surfaces cause wet forearms, and hard to reach sensors and dispensers. We re-imagined a smart sink, with a tilted bowl to minimize wet forearms, moving the flat surfaces to the sides, bringing the sensor to the front to minimize reach, with curved radius ADA panels. For the shower chair, prioritizing stability and lightness led to a hollow chair, using water collected from heating up the shower to weigh it down, with water holes to maintain a level water height, and plugs for easy release. Slip resistant material prevents sliding, and the ergonomic profile prevents pooling. A back and single arm support prevent falling off from behind.
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Original Sketches of the Shower Chair Idea and Key Features: Back Support, Rubber Bottom, Water Pathways for Weighing it Down, Quick Release
Design for a Smart Sink and Shower Chair - Key Features
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ci cemeter y island-park A site was chosen within Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida to create a modern cemetery island encompassing 100,000 square feet. The site is aligned with the zero street that divides Miami into East and West. An obelisk marks the end of the island and identiďŹ es it’s location. A program of three layers was conceived. First, in relation to the gridded streets of Miami, a linear system of programmatic strips was generated, providing different types of resting places for people with varying opinions about death. These programmatic strips include traditional graves, columbariums, mausoleums, private family plots, and above ground burial structures. Second, a canal pathway winding through the island breaks the rigid linear system. Third, buildings and above ground burial and gathering spaces provide centralized elements within the linear plan. The buildings include a chapel with a large reception area, and a funeral service and multipurpose building, both splitting the waterway.
Cemetery Island in Biscayne Bay in Miami, FL
Yale University Undergrad Senior Design Studio Spring 2015 Professors Steven Harris and Marta Caldiera
A sequential movement through the islands waterway brings one through the grieving and funerary process. First, one encounters the chapel and reception area, and then the funeral service building for the funeral to take place, before stepping onto the island at grade.
Plan Axonometric: Linear Programmatic Strips for People with Varying Opinions about Death
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Linear Typology + Program Strips Photographs of Type Studies + Siting Model Render of Program Strips
Inspired by OMA’s Parc de La Villette Design and the diversity of Miami’s residents, this cemetery island is made up of programmatic strips that provide different types of resting places for people with varying opinions about death. A sequential movement through the islands waterway canal brings one through the grieving and funerary process. First, one encounters the chapel and reception area, and then the funeral service building for the funeral to take place, before stepping onto the island at grade. While each strip is distinct in its offering, the placement and fluidity within allows for one to meander through an experiential sequence on the island. Above ground mausoleums have a dual purpose of creating shaded moments of repose.
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Linear Type Sketch Models (top), + Model Integrating Linear Type Model Into the Site (bottom)
Aeriel Render View of the Island
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Rendering of the Water Basin Entry onto the Island
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Traditional Graves
Family Plots
Mausoleums On the Water
Columbariums and Above Ground Burial
Traditional Graves
Water Basin Entrance
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Plan Diagram of Each Programmatic Strip
Traditional Graves
Mausoleums on the Water
Chapel with Canal Running Through
Mausoleums and Above Ground Burial
Water Basin Entrance
Renders of Each Programmatic Strip
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Rendering of the Columbariums: Linear Typology Directing Un-Interrupted Views from Either Side of the Island
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ir inter t wine residence + s tudio Wayne McGregor is a dance choreographer known for his avant-garde style of dance and choreography methods. This residence and studio space embodies the entangled and indistinguishable bodies that McGregor creates in his movements. The program for this house was conceived of as two separate entities, public and private, or two human bodies, that unite as one form through choreography. Both the private and public pieces of program have a similar form when modeled separately, but come together motivating circulating and creating a sense of rotation and dynamism. Both residence and studio spaces are intertwined throughout the house, creating views that slip between public and private.
Residence and Studio for an AvanteGarde Dance Choreographer
Yale University Undergrad Junior Studio Fall 2013 Professors Bimal Mendis and Trattie Davies
Final Model
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Avant-Garde Entanglement Photograph of Choreography Inspiration Sketch Model Studies
The entangled bodies of McGregor’s radical dancer’s became the inspiration for the form and circulation of the building. Sketch models on the right side of the page focus on an intermixing of program, spaces, and pathways that allow for unforeseen views and circulation patterns.
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Photo by Tristram Kenton. Wayne McGregor Choreography of Dancers
Renders of Each Programmatic Strip
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Hand Drawing: Second Floor Plan (top), + First Floor Plan (bottom)
Final Model: Public and Private Program Modeled Separately yet Intertwined when Pieced Together
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sectional voids In this three part studio assignment, the task was to carve out space from a monolithic cube through a series of sectional models to create space, light, and circulation. In response, slicing is utilized as a subtractive approach. First, a sectional model articulated a dense circulation “X� and an extension of the diagonal geometries created by the stairs, in order to carve light into the space. Second, building a perpendicular section generated moments where circulation sliced horizontally through the cube, against the verticality of the central public atrium and dominant circulation path.
Generating Space Through a Section Yale University Undergrad Junior Studio Fall 2013 Professors Bimal Mendis and Trattie Davies
Original Sectional Slice From Which the Rest of the Building was Made
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Hand Drawing of the Original Slice of the Cube
Slivers of the Final Model
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Model Photo and Diagram Showing the Piercing of Light Through Apertures
Model Photo and Diagram Showing the Diagonality of Views and Light Streaming Through the Side Windows
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Model Photo and Diagram Showing the Horizontality of the Halls, Contrasted with the Central Atrium
Model Photo and Diagram Showing the Central Atrium
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body in space A refuge for a single human was constructed into the granite face of a quarry wall in Guilford, CT. The journey through the wooden poles irts with conditions of fear and vertigo, terminating in a secure intimacy in the interior where the body is held in a cozy relationship between the rock face and the void of the space of the quarry over the edge.
Temporary Refuge in a Connecticut Quarry Yale University Undergrad Senior Studio Fall 2014 Professors Turner Brooks and Adam Hopfner
Model of Refuge
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Flirting with the Edge Photograph of Initial Inspiration Sketch Model Exploded Plan Axon Drawing
The original idea that drove the project forward was a tectonic system of wooden poles that created a stepped journey and invited one to the edge. The space became driven by this edge condition, constantly irting with vertigo.
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Sketch Model of Stepped Concept
Exploded Plan and Axonometric Hand Drawing of the Grided System of Poles and the Winding, Stepped Journey.
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The Natural vs. The Man-Made Site and Plan Hand Drawing Photographs of Final Model
The location of the habitation is in a niche on the corner of the quarry wall’s edge. By expanding the language of the poles, a forest of wooden posts was created, where a clearing became an opportunity for movement and spaces of solitude. In the same way that living greenery infiltrates the interstitial space of the quarry wall, the human body is the life that moves through the man-made, wooden structure. The wooden poles not only create flickering views from the exteri or, but also act as a surface and create distinguished landings and seating spaces when clustered together in a grid.
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Site and Plan Drawing
Photographs of the Final Model Showing the Pathway and Resting Places Along the Journey to the Rock Face
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Hand Drawing Showing the Varied Experiences Inside the Habitation
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dominant void An exercise in space making where the space that is designed (the void) becomes more palpably present and powerful than the outline of its deďŹ nition (the wooden sticks).
Generating Powerful Space Through the Void Yale University Undergrad Senior Studio Fall 2014 Professors Bimal Mendis and Trattie Davies
Final Model of Two Forms with Interstitial Space Between, Full Scale
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Interstitiality + Form Relationships Photographs of Final Model, Wood Furring Strips
The idea began by taking two triangles and reorienting the position of one in order to change the perspective of the shape in relation to the other, and questioning the relationship that they have with each other. A second piece was constructed creating a tension in the mirroring of the two. By doing this, parallel lines merge and the mind looks for an intersection, even though there is no point of connection between the two entities.
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Photo of Model Showing the Two Pieces Combined - Creation of a Charged Interstitial Space
Photographs of the Final Model Showing the Pathway and Resting Places Along the Journey to the Rock Face
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subtle transition An integrated landscape was created for the preparation and cultivation of food. Driven by the ideas of centrality and an unfolding language created by the bento box study, the landscape became centrally organized, with spaces spiraling from the center. Movement through the site is directed by the placement of walls and is never orthogonal.
Landscape Study of Submersion + Edge Condition Yale University Undergrad Junior Studio Spring 2014 Professors Joyce Hsiang and Sunil Bald
Graphite and Pencil, Hand Collage Drawing Combining Section, Plan, + Perspective Vignettes
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Paper Relief Models Paper Relief Study and FInal Models
The landscape study began by creating paper relief models that portray the nature of the bento box and the preparation, presentation, and consumption of food. A precedent study was done of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House and the way in which the hearth became an organizer of space for the rest of the house. This became the inspiration for a second paper relief model. A third paper relief model combined the two studies. From this, the idea for a ďŹ nal landscape was conceived.
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Paper Landscape Studies
Paper Relief Models of Bento Box (top), Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House Organization Around the Hearth (middle), Comb (bottom)
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Variation Along the Edge Photographs of FInal Model, Layered Bass Wood
The stepped and smooth edge conditions create very different experiences when moving along the edge. The stepped walls create an intimacy along the wall at a more human scale. Towards the center of the landscape, the space attens for circulation to collect.
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Final Model : Stepped vs. Smooth Edges Directing Circulation
Final Model: Culmination Towards a Central Space
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Final Model: Stepped vs. Smooth Edge Conditions, Drifting Circulation
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Food Center + Urban Landscape Sketch and FInal Model
Integrating the ideas from the landscape study, a local site on Yale’s campus with a canal path running through the middle was analyzed for the construction of a food center. A public food hall and educational center was constructed for the production, consumption, cultivation, and education of food. Issues of the site included mediating the canal path running through the center and accessing the building from both canal and street level. A cut and ďŹ ll strategy relates the two sides along the canal. A sloped hill leading up to the food canal provides an outdoor terrace and a public resting place. On the opposite side, a retaining wall holds back cultivated land, creating a place for shade. Pathways and views that cut across the canal connect the two sides, creating a circulation that folds back into itself.
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Concept Drawing for a Food Center Integrated with a Sloped Landscape
Photographs of Final Model of Food Center Emerging from the Landscape
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shonan c h u rc h s tudy A study of Shonan Church, by Takeshi Hosaka Architects, was undertaken to better understand the materials and processes involved in the building’s making. The concave roof panels were created as segments of varying sized circles. The smooth, cast forms provide a striking difference from the roughly striated walls of the building. Streaks of light beam through the apertures created by the separation of the roof panels. In order to get a better sense for the way in which natural light moves through the space throughout the day, a model made of rockite and bass wood was created.
Study of the Effects of Material and Form on Light Yale University Undergrad Materials Elective Spring 2015 Professor Tim Newton
Final Model: Interior Detail of Light Shining Through Ceiling Apertures
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Curved Foam Forms Poured with Rockite
Final Model Detail of Aperture
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unraveled e n c l o s u re In analyzing the construction, presentation, and consumption of soup dumplings, a bento box for two was created that not only provides a meal, but is an architectural space-maker and organizer for dining. The beginning analysis informed a process of folding, pinching, creating enclosure, the breakdown of something solid to something liquid, and the emission of steam. Through experimental drawings of these processees, studies models were created that spoke to this process. An element of mystery was incorporated in the owering and unraveling surprise found inside with a relatively inconspicuous exterior container. While the top of the box holds utensils for eating, the sides of the box when unfolded create placemakers for dining, as well as utensil holders. The box creates a holistic experience for eating that is inherently traditional, intential, and authentic.
A Bento Box for Soup Dumplings as an Architectural Space-Maker
Yale University Undergrad Junior Studio Spring 2014 Professors Joyce Hsiang and Sunil Bald
Bento Box Made of Bass Wood: Placeholders for Utensils at the Top with Hint of Flowering Container Inside
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Unraveling, Experiential Nature Photographs of Study Model Photographs of Final Model Interior from Above
In creating a bento box for soup dumplings, one challenge was expressing the fragility of the dumpling as a container as well as the transformation that occurs in it’s making. The dough is stretched, pleated, and then stretched again as the gelatin forms into a liquid hidden inside. The idea of a hidden interior generates the language for an exterior cover unraveling to unveil something greater inside.
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Hand Drawing Analyzing the Interactive Motion of the Box
Photographs of the Study Model and Final Model Interior Showing the Flowering Sequence of Opening the Dumpling Container
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Photograph of the Final Model Being Opened
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From the exterior, the box is quite mysterious. The only hint of the interior is from the owering container that pops out from the top. Places for utensils: chopsticks, dumpling spoons, and soy sauce container sit at the top of the container.
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As hooks are undone, opening the sides of the box unveil two sides for dining, with integrated plates, and two sides that hold the eating utensils. A lazy susan sits at the center, reminiscent of traditional Chinese dining tables.
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Hooks hold together the four sides of the box. One must open the sides one by one to uncover the interior. The box celebrates what is inside. Eating becomes an experience that is intimate and elegant.
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At it’s essence the soup dumpling is a container. It’s fragile nature is expressed in the materiality of the unraveling box. Rather than a vessel for transportation, this bento box captures the experience of preparing, presenting, consuming and eating.
Photographs of the Final Model: Process of Unraveling and Experiencing the Bento Box
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mh music haven Music Haven is a local string quartet that performs and provides lessons to children in diverse communities surrounding New Haven, CT. With a mission of building a vibrant community through performance and music education, Music Haven asserts a dynamic presence within the city and is in search of a space that encompasses their ambitions.
Music Education Communicity Center in New Haven, CT
A new home with rooms for group practice at the top level, and individual practice spaces on the lower level that feed into the centralized performance space was conceptualized. With a focus on transparency, the building became the stage, providing visual access as spaces fold into each other. A sense of uidity from the subtle level changes as one moves through the space embodies the integration of race, socioeconomic class, genders, and ages that makes up the community of Music Haven.
Yale University Undergrad Senior Studio Fall 2014 Professor Turner Brooks and Adam Hopfner
Final Model: Concept of Building Emerging From Landscape
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Food Center + Urban Landscape Sketch Models and FInal Model Plan View
The concept evolved from a plan cut from a single sheet of paper, generating a central circulation that folds back into itself (figure 1). The shadows emphasize the subtle level changes and the continuity of circulation. The original site strategy (figure 2) was to create a public gathering space where the building becomes a part of the ground. The interior of the building is a sunken world where seating, balconies, and practice rooms blend together around the main stage (figure 3, 4). The final plan includes group practice rooms, individual practice rooms, office spaces, and reception areas circulating around the center.
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Study Models: Concept of Building Emerging From Landscape
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5. Center Stage 6. Group Practice Rooms 7. Reception Area 8. OfďŹ ces 9. Entrance 10. Library and Waiting Area
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rubix house Rubix House incorporates and expands the formal language of a room designed by a studio-mate. The original room, highlighted in gray, is trabeated with a semi-striated roof. The combination of columns, translucent wall panels, and opaque wall panels creates an original arrangement on each of the 4 facades. Each facade is divided in a tripartite manner. Rigorously extending the original room’s form and facade treatment to the 6 planes of a cube creates a 9 square grid house that is objectiďŹ ed.
House Developed from a Given Room Yale University Undergrad Junior Studio Fall 2013 Professors Bimal Mendis and Trattie Davies
Final Model: Original Room Highlighted in Black, from which the Rest of the House was Designed From
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Plan (top), Elevation (bottom)
Organizational Studies Based off of the Nine-Square Grid , Sketch Model Rotated to Show the Variations In Each Facade
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dr aw i ng a rc h i t e c t u re A series of drawing exercises were completed introducing drawing as an architectural tool. Harkness tower at Yale University was drawn at different times of the day capturing the way light affects architecture and its surroundings. It is also drawn with its surrounding environment capturing its site. A series of exercises were done in charcoal, as well as drafted hand drawings introducing intricate and detailed plan, section, and elevation studies.
Drawing that Captures Light, Context, Atmosphere Yale University Undergrad Drawing Architecture Course Spring 2013 Professor Victor Agran
Charcoal Drawing of Harkness Tower, Yale University, Group Drawing
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Charcoal Drawing of Harkness Tower at Night, Yale University
Charcoal Drawing of Harkness Tower at Dawn, Yale University, Group Drawing
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Hand Drafted Entrance Portal, Berkeley Master’s House at Yale University. Plan, Section, Elevation United on the Page
Charcoal Drawings of Stairs Capturing Light and Shadow
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pe p ro fe s s i o n a l ex per i e nc e :
S n ø h et t a For Vesterheim, the National Norwegian Cultural Center and Museum, a design vision was produced to transform Vesterheim’s Campus into a cultural destination. The master plan strategy proposes to grow a forest over time, creating a unifying connective tissue and public park for the campus through a series of “glades” or openings in the forest that offer immersive experiences including a working gallery of Vesterheim’s historic cabin structures inhabited by early settlers, a café glade, and a great lawn. The proposed museum expansion is an oval shaped building that acts conceptually as the museum “glade”, housing the most public spaces of the museum including the main lobby, gathering and event space, a café, visible archive storage, and gallery space. The expansion sits between two existing structures, creating new connections at all levels on one side. Set back from the street, the building reinforces its civic character by distinguishing itself from its surroundings.
Vesterheim: the National Norwegian Museum and Cultural Center
Snøhetta Summer Internship Summer 2019 Team: Matt McMahon, Takeshi Tornier, Mabel Loh, Yuan Zhuang, Renders: Moare
Render View: Nordic Fest Along Water Street with Building Set Back from the Street, Distinguishing Itself From Its Surroundings
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Expand Heritage Park to Water Street
Create a Civic vs. Commercial Presence
Plus into the Larger Campus Network
Make Space, Protect, and Open Up through Building Form + Structure
Focus Views + Gathering Places
Creating a Vision for the Future Diagrams Render Views
The motivations behind the proposed design for the expansion building are expressed through the diagrams above. The expansion of Heritage Park as a series of glades creates a connective tissue that unifies Vesterheim’s campus. Unique and set back from the street, the building distinguishes itself as a civic attraction against the commercial street. The tapered building structure is optimized to allow for an unobstructed, immersive experience at the ground floor. Finally, views and gathering are focused through strategically placed facade apertures.
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Diagram of Key Ideas for Expansion Building
Render Views: Interior Entry Lobby (top), Landscape and Forest Glade Design (Middle, Bottom)
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Render View: Gallery Space Looking out over the Glades, to the Bluffs
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p ro fe s s i o n a l ex per i e nc e :
Ballinger Ballinger is a leading architecture/engineering firm in academic, research, and healthcare design and planning located in Philadelphia. Ballinger was chosen to do both a core and shell addition as well as a fit-out for a 2 story addition to the main Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia hospital. As an architectural intern part of a 6-person team, I worked on the fitout by assisting in putting together the DD set and full CD set. In addition, I became the lead coordinator for a mock up patient room CD set that was fully constructed. Through this experience I became proficient in Revit modeling and coordination between architects and the inhouse engineers.
Addition to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Summer Internship Summer 2018 Team: Sara Ridenour, James Bowman, Mike Choi, Ali DeSantis, Erin Brobson
RCP From the Constructed Mock-Up Patient Room 100% CD Set
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pe p ro fe s s i o n a l ex per i e nc e :
J oe l Sanders A rc h i t e c t Prior to graduate school, I was an Architectural Designer at Joel Sanders Architect (JSA), an award-winning design firm in New York City. In addition to contributing to design tasks, I became the lead FF&E coordinator (furniture, fixtures, and equipment) where I established budgets, concepts, interior material palettes, built-in furniture designs, and coordinated with clients and vendors for residential projects. This 12,000 SF penthouse apartment located in the Upper East Side of Manhattan creates zones of public living spaces on the East, with private program consisting of six bedrooms on the West end. A dramatic accent stairway made of poured concrete treads with metal plates and steel cables is adjacent to the main living space, conceived of as a floating stairway leading up to the outdoor terrace.
Park Avenue Penthouse, Designer + FF&E Coordinator 2015-2017 Team: Joel Sanders, Greg Epstein, Josh Dannenberg, Marco Li
Rendering of Main Living Room Area with Custom, Built-In Furniture and Upholstery
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FF&E, Design, + Construction Diagrams Render Views
Furniture layouts were ďŹ nalized with the client for each of the six bedrooms and six distinct living spaces. Each had its own distinct color, material palette, custom, built-in furniture pieces, and upholstery. Opposite, aluminum frets were custom designed and placed to accommodate the design intent of a custom oating accent stair. Not only do they provide lateral stability between the steel cables, but they are also strategically placed to hide the connection between the metal plate of the stair and the cables.
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Floor Plan w/ Furniture Layout
Site Photos of Stair Detail Design in Construction, Completed Photo of Built-In Benches and Furniture in the Children’s Den
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pe p ro fe s s i o n a l ex per i e nc e :
J oe l Sanders A rc h i t e c t Prior to graduate school, I was an Architectural Designer at Joel Sanders Architect (JSA), an award-winning design firm in New York City. In addition to contributing to design tasks, I became the lead FF&E coordinator (furniture, fixtures, and equipment) where I established budgets, concepts, interior material palettes, built-in furniture designs, and coordinated with clients and vendors for residential projects.
Capsule Loft, Designer + FF&E Coordinator 2015-2017 Team: Joel Sanders, Greg Epstein, Josh Dannenberg, Marco Li
For this 2,500 SF West Village apartment, I coordinated the FF&E by presenting furniture concepts to the client, coordinated with vendors for implementation, designed built-in furniture, and coordinated the photo shoot and awards submission. The apartment accommodates a second level for bedrooms while maintaining the architectural integrity of an industrial loft. The floating, wood-clad volume that houses the private bedrooms defines a series of linked spaces - entry hall, media-home office, circulation path, kitchen-dining area and a den - each with its own atmosphere, created by a unique color and material palette. The project was awarded Best Of Year 2017 by Interior Design Magazine.
FF&E Design and Implementation, Photo Shoot Coordinator, Photograph by Peter Aaron
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Completed Photograph of Custom, Built-In Bed, Photo by Interior Design Magazine
CD Drawing Details, Plan Drawing of Narrow Apartment w/ Furniture Layout
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Catherine Kai Shih Selected Work 2013-2020