a choreographed clutter. a coordinated mess. a multitude of perspectives in an architectural design ideology.
A collection of works from 2022 - 2025.
Weitzman School of Design Nathan Huynh
ISSUE: 5/24/2025
kalos + eidos + scope beautiful + form + inspect
How can architecture be made to contain a library of perceptions, views, beliefs, yet all under one project? How can we begin to create complex connections which could reflect, or even create many modern and contemporary ideas?
How can we investigate beautiful forms and incentives to create newfound perspectives for better architecture?
This portfolio’s work investigates the idea of perspectives – spanning from individual thoughts to bigger resolutions – all within the domain of architecture. Perspectives, being an intangible concept bring a multitude of opinions. The idea of perception varies between one another; each person perceives something differently. To have that understanding reflect in architecture demonstrates complexity – multiple perceptions create even more ideas, so much that it one could feel like they’re in a:
UNIT CLUSTER MODEL PLAN from CORAL COMMUNE
ALT. PROJECTS
FOLDED GRAINS
ARCH 7373 [24 - 27]
ROTOBRICK
ARCH 7325 [38 - 41]
BAROQUE PARAMETERS
ARCH 7122 [50 - 53]
TOXIC WASTELAND
ARCH 7710 [64 - 67]
DIFFICULT WHOLES
ARCH 6210 [76 - 79]
SYSTEMS ON SYSTEMS
ARCH 7323 [80 - 83]
MAIN. PROJECTS SHIFTED HELICICULTURE
ARCH 6020 [4 - 15]
MATTER VALUE
ARCH 7010 [16 - 23]
TRACING MOTION
ARCH 7040 [28 - 37]
INCLUSIVITY’S INTERSECTION
ARCH 5010 [42 - 49]
CORAL COMMUNE
ARCH 6010 [54 - 63]
SPLIT COGNIZANCE
ARCH 502 [68 - 75]
ASSISTANT
PARTNERS
100 NORFOLK ST, NEW YORK, NY
NATE HUME
COURTNEY WARD
BRENNAN FLORY
ARCH 6020
NOMINATED FOR PRESSING MATTERS
PERSPECTIVES OF THE OBLIQUE VS. THE NORMATIVE
M - 1.
SHIFTED HELICICULTURE
URBAN FARM - AIR RIGHTS
Shifted Heliciculture explores the idea of the oblique, which in section rotates the floor plates into slopes. These contrast the normative floor spaces into rotated spaces that encourage conventional spatial arrangements that embrace the diagonal. This diagonal in turn meets the requirements of the program, a snail farm. Urban snail farming on the Lower East Side offers a sustainable, nutrient-rich food option suitable for a community experimental kitchen, fitting well within the space and resource constraints of New York City. This program challenges the fine dining stigma of escargot, making it an affordable and eco-friendly cuisine solution.
Also taking advantage of the 45 are framed views that highlight change in the program. These moments not only exist on the oblique but pierce horizontally, juxtaposing the rectilinearity of usable space, highlighting the power of the obliqued volumes within the form. Similar to these framed views, the cladding is an operable facade which selects framed views from the outside, whereas the cladding exists as a blurring condition; structural elements and profiles are masked removing the profiles and adjacencies within the structure from the exterior.
STRUCTURAL
CHUNK MODEL 1’ = 1/4”
F-1. || Full Model Elevation with Facade Detail Base
F-2. || Entrance Detail
F-3. || Removable Facade Elevation Detail
F-4. || Full Model Section
F-5. || Interior Oblique Boilers Detail
F-6. || Exterior Single Detail
F-1.
F-2.
F-3.
PROGRAMMATIC OBLIQUE
The model’s section highlights the interior of the project, where some of the major program aligns itself to the oblique, instead of the normative. The largest program seen at an angle is the snail spaces (F-4) and the large boilers (F-5).
F-5.
F-6.
F-4.
EXPERIMENTAL AXON DETAILS
01. || Escargot Restaurant
02. || Mockup Snail Spaces
03. || Experimental Kitchen
04. || Back-Of-House Snail Prep Programs
EXPERIMENTAL AXON
The Experimental Axon highlights all of the programs that occur within the space, and explodes in a manner that reflects connectivity through MEP, such as the pipes and ductwork. As the program rises in floor level, there is a transition from most public programs at the earlier floors, and the back of house at the higher floors.
SLIVER
The sliver is a small segment of the project that in the early phases, serves as a device to explore as much detail to help determine how program, design, and detail can further develop into the full project. As an early iteration, it becomes an entity of itself that expresses the project 's early tectonics and explores opportunities of form, structure, and even cladding.
SECTION LEGEND
F-1. || Entrance
F-2. || Restaurant Space
F-3. || Main Kitchen
F-4. || Experimental Kitchen Space
F-5. || Mock-up Snail Displays
F-6. || Snail Cleaning Space
F-7. || Insulated Storage Space
F-8. || Alternate Boilers
F-8.
LONGITUDINAL SECTION
F-1.
F-2.
F-3.
F-5.
F-6.
F-4.
F-7.
F-2.
F-3.
F-5.
F-6.
F-4.
PLAN LEGEND
F-1. || Oblique Snail Space
F-2. || Mockup Snail Space
F-3. || Experimental Kitchen Demonstrations
F-4. || Oblique Boilers
F-5. || Alternate Boilers
F-6. || Insulated Storage Space
F-1.
DETAIL FIGURES
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F-1.
F-2.
F-3.
F_1.
Double Shingle Space Assembly Detail
F_2.
Parapet and Operable Facade Detail
F_3.
Section Alternate Cladding Detail
RIGHTS
Shifted Heliciculture utilizes the concept of air rights, where space is utilized vertically above existing buildings. This promotes more space for the project yet also provides a structural challenge is formal volumes begin to overhang.
FACADE RELIEF MODEL
SITE ||
4-3 SONGWOL- GIL, JONGNO DISTRICT, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
CRITIC ||
ASSISTANT ||
PARTNERS ||
BARRY WARK
FRANCISCO ANAYA
DILLION DAY
ARCH 7010
PERSPECTIVES OF WEATHERING AND ADAPTABILITY
M - 2. MATTER
VALUE
ADAPTIVE REUSE - WEATHERING
Matter Value is inspired by Stewart Brands notion “Age + Adaptability is what makes a building come to be loved. The building learns from its inhabitants, and they learn from it.” How can spatial memory be recorded on the site through the creation of architectural ghosts on permanent wall structures, where adaptable and temporary forms can be deployed to meet the spatial needs of current and future adaptations? As we learn and record our history, we might also hope to learn from them. The project attempts to generate an ecological awareness and conversation surrounding the topic of weathering. Through the collaborative effort of architectural construction and ecological acants, the walls may suggest a relationship of enmeshment between humans and our environment, rather than one of distance and separation.
Alois Riegl’s Discussion of ‘age Value’ can be identified with the notion of aging as enhancements and the idea that the various markings and layers of a surface record and allow one to recollect stages in history of a building and human life associated with it.” Thus, the project investigates how age adds value to a site, where every subsequent intervention enhances the design through weathering and memory.
FULL MODEL 1:50
F-1. || Full Model Elevation
F-2. || Top View Detail
F-3. || Elevation Perspective
F-4. || Detail Views
F-1.
F-2.
F-3.
STAINS
The act of staining questions what weathering means within the project. As figural stains are made alongside with the untouched ones (F-4 bottom), it highlights the juxtaposition of how the stains become representative of spatial memories, instead of natural ecology. The removal of the impermanent wooden structures highlight the figural stain (left)
F-4.
FIGURAL
THRESHOLD
The cutaway axon highlights the element of threshold between these walls. The Korean corridor is often the most memorable aspect of space within the site. For us to preserve the corridor, the site uses its undemolished walls and inverses the space, whereas what used to be corridor is now the threshold within the project. The threshold is also the most ecological area as weathering is focused into the space.
TIMELESS SITE
The project pertains existing walls that align with the new urban plan scheme. Demolished walls are then rearranged to match the proposal, then wooden structures are aligned with said walls. These structures are temporary and can be moved as needed. As a result, figural stains left on the wall become recorded and serve as memories, and further adaptations leave more and more layering of stains to accumulate. The site in this time span ages indefinitely as a result, as information is constantly layered to create a weathered aesthetic that is celebrated in timelessness.
PERSPECTIVE OF THE MODULARITY
A - 1. FOLDED GRAINS
This furniture series is developed from a modular system that uses standardized wooden units as the basic structural elements. These units are assembled in a way that forms the overall framework of each piece, establishing consistency while allowing for variation across different functions. The arrangement of the wooden components creates a visual rhythm, where the units appear to fold or layer over one another. This method introduces a sense of volume through repetition and alignment, resulting in forms that carry both structural and visual weight.
Each piece also incorporates a pre-formed metal sheet that interacts directly with the wooden units. These metal elements are produced in predetermined profiles and are applied to the outer edges or surfaces of the wood. Rather than acting as an independent element, the metal serves to outline and define the final shape of the furniture. In this way, the combination of wood and metal determines the function—whether the result is a bench, chair, table, or another form.
The series explores how a limited set of components can be reconfigured through systematic methods, offering variations in use and form while maintaining a unified construction language across all pieces.
TABLE AND LAMP SETUP
LAMP
TABLE
AXON ASSEMBILY DIAGRAM TABLE
AXON ASSEMBILY DIAGRAM LAMP
ELEVATIONS TABLE
SITE ||
CRITIC
ASSISTANT
PARTNERS
TRADE CENTERE, DIFC, DUBAI, UAE
ALI RAHIM
AMY WU
JING YAN
ARCH 7040
PERSPECTIVES OF SYSTEMS AND MOVEMENT
M
- 3.
TRACING MOTION
CAR ECONOMY - SYSTEMS
Tracing Motion draws inspiration from the dynamic forms and aerodynamic language of the Aston Martin Valkyrie, the project integrates principles of motion, directionality, and contrasting geometries—broad, sweeping curves alongside sharp, faceted surfaces. These formal studies informed an initial exploration that illustrates spatial tension between fluidity and rigidity, embodying a sense of movement within static structure.
Set within the rapidly evolving urban context of Dubai, the project parallels the city’s nomadic roots and modern automotive-centric culture. The shifting desert landscape serves as both metaphor and material reference for a design that embraces circulation as an expressive, culturally resonant system. Programmatic zones— mechanical and consumer-oriented—are linked by infrastructural bridges and keystone elements that guide flow and hierarchy.
Circulation, both vertical and horizontal, is re-imagined not as standardized but as narrative—mirroring the layered, sometimes chaotic, interactions between people, vehicles, and mechanical systems in Dubai. The design elevates car movement as a central organizing force, connecting front-of-house display with back-of-house operations in a way that celebrates mechanized choreography and cultural continuity.
CHUNK RENDER
FULL MODEL 1” = 3/32’
F-1. || Full Chunk Model
F-2. || Gallery Space
F-3. || Mechanical Space
F-4. || Elevation and Roof Condition
F-1.
F-4.
F-3.
F-2.
PLAN LEGEND
F-1.
F-2.
Main Car Elevator
Car Gallery Space
F-3. || Round Elevator
F-4. || Mechanical Zones
F-5. || Housing Space
PLAN
The plan illustrates 3 zones of the project, the car gallery commercial space, the mechanical back-of-house space, and the circulations between it. Although the 2 main programs are separated, there is not necessarily a full barrier, but a multitude of winding paths that separate the space. Therefore, as one traverses through 1 type of space to another, there are a multitude of circulations, stairs, and escalators that blur the zones barriers.
F-1.
F-2.
F-3.
F-4.
F-3.
SYSTEM DIAGRAMMATIC AXON
SYSTEMS INDIVIDUAL DIAGRAMS
SYSTEMS
The project utilizes multiple circulation systems not only to make it a assembly logic but as a metaphorical logic as well. There is the main car circulation for people, circulation for air and vents, and even the fire stairs follow a logic of circulation. All of these systems work together cohesively to create a web of functions and movement within the building. This becomes a reflection of how Dubai functions as a whole.
SECTION LEGEND
F-1. || Car Gallery Space (also in zoom)
F-2. || Car Mechanical Space (also in zoom)
F-3. || Fire Stair Moments
F-4. || Commercial Sales Space
F-1.
F-2.
F-3.
F-4.
F-1.
F-2.
CONCEALMENT
The façade serves as a form of concealment, creating a boundary between the external appearance of Dubai and the dynamic environment within. Inside, the building reflects the essence of Dubai itself— characterized by constant motion, consistency, and a fast-paced rhythm. This strong barrier from the outside world emphasizes the internal systems, where movement and structure combine to form an environment that feels both familiar, yet new.
This Facade model uses all the cues found in the AI studies and represent this as a illustrated composition. The key to this model is how it encompasses the round, where no side lacks depth and includes qualities found in research and applies that logic all thought the model’s space. The front side captures much more intense geometry while the rear captures more broader strokes, where both highlight the visual qualities found within Aston Martin.
AERODYNAMICS AND AI
Initial studies of how Aston Martin sculpts their car’s bodies highlight how the formal language was researched. The next step was to put these highlighted qualities through an AI blender, combining qualities that still represent Aston Martin. There are then created as AI compositions that are later analyzed again,which concludes the formal language in the entire project.
CRADLING
DIRECTIONALITY
SEAMING
ORNAMENTATION
FRAMING
MATERIALITY
NESTING
NOTCHING
FOCALITY
LAYERING
MATERIALITY
MERGING
AI COMPOSITIONS AND RESULTANT ANALYSIS
CRITIC ||
ASSISTANT ||
PARTNERS ||
LAIA MOGAS-SOLDVILA
BEGUM BIROL
TAELY
FREEMAN SAHIL SHAH
YUWEI YANG
ARCH 7325-301
PERSPECTIVE OF THE BIO-MATERIAL
A - 2. ROTOBRICK
Rotobrick utilizes a low viscosity water-based material that produce translucent and thin, yet strong and flexible shells through rotational casting? What are geometries and methods in rotational molding that can enhance structural capacity of translucent thin shell volumetric bio-composites? Can the actions of manual rotation be replicated in a robotic arm sequence?
The project explores the use of biomaterials and how it can be fabricated with a newer fabrication method outside of additive manufacturing. Liquid gelatin and hide glue were tested in rotational molding – where a liquid is rotated within a cast as it is dried. Experiments were investigated in the material, such as the proportion of the composition, and the method, such as creating a custom rig that dries casts much more efficiently. Roto brick hopes to highlight innovation in how biomaterials can be cast in different ways to contribute to architectural solutions in sustainability.
MOCKUP
The façade mock-up highlight’s the roto brick’s application in an architectural scale. The color and geometry of the molds lends them to capture and diffuse light in a very interesting way. The wall opens up possibility in building up further with larger scale teste and installations.
MANUAL AND ROBOTIC
Rotobrick casts mainly work in 2 methods: by hand, or on a rig. The hand method offers much more control yet the robot with its constant movement allow for much more challenging solutions to cure. The multiple methods of fabrication allows for the flexibility of whoever and whenever to produce these bricks. The rig only revolves in one direction, so this can be mounted on a simple motor, or even on a robot. Rotobrick allows fabrication at all scales and makes the project much more accessible and versatile.
ROBOTIC CAST MOUNT
HAND CASTING METHOD
CASTED BRICKS
CASTED BRICKS
SITE
CRITIC
ASSISTANT
PARTNERS
640 WATERWORKS DR, PHILADELPHIA, PA
ANTHONY GAGLIARDI
CLAYTON MONARCH
INDIVIDUAL
ARCH 5010
PERSPECTIVES OF THE INTERSECTION
M - 4.
INCLUSIVITY’S INTERSECTION
GALLERY - COLLAGE
20th century monumentality is one-dimensional. Its success balances on the need to minimize intersections, projecting a singular figure, group, or idea. This project deploys the formal device of intersection as a contemporary means to understand monumentality. By multiplying and condensing many intersections, architecture may include numerous interpretations while still creating a collective whole.
The main program of this project is a museum that overlooks the waterworks dam from the Schuylkill River. To incorporate the ideas of intersections and inclusiveness, the form “intersects” the ground, air, and in horizontal space, being sure to intersect in all directions and dimensions.
In plan, these intersections create long axis convey a notion of intersection; these axes reference the icons around the site and the axis itself, spewing itself in 4 distinct directions which become one element of intersection. What’s read as intersection in plan also reads similarly in elevation; the long, tall lightwells highlight how the structure seems to pierce in elevation. A juxtaposition to that is how those lightwells are reflected downwards into the ground, where forms similar to the shape of the lightwells also pierce into the ground. As a result, these various intersections in every direction offer a new reading to a form, which offers a new reading to monumentality itself.
EL LISSITZKY
The initial collage of the museum took fragments of El Lissitzky’s work, where constructionist designs offered an insight for progressive social values and the change of society. In terms for the project, taking these fragments, representative of the need of societal progression, becomes a symbolist device that reinforces the architectural ideology of the intersection.
INTERIOR RENDER
Preliminary Sketch for a Poster
New Man Proun 19D Proun 19D Proposal For a Proun Street Assembled Collage
CHUNK MODEL 1’ = 1/8"
F-1. || Full elevation
|| Transverse Elevation
|| Interior Details
EXTENDING OUT OF THE SECTION
This chunk model questions the idea of what the section cut is, and elements of extension again illustrate the idea of inclusivity. The area selected for the chunk illustrates how the form extends out in all directions, including horizontally, into the ground and into the sky all at the same time, again reflecting the idea of intersection and inclusivity.
F-1.
F-3.
F-2.
F-3.
F-2.
F-3.
F-3.
HORIZONTAL SPAN
PHYSICAL MASSING MODEL 1’ = 1/16”
Through the main plan and massing model, the scale of its sprawl, especially in its horizontal is expressed. Long hallways and giant cantilevers express length, which though metaphor expresses the act of intersection within the site.
COLLAGE
ANDREW SAUNDERS
INDIVIDUAL
ARCH 7122-301
PERSPECTIVE OF THE PROXY
A - 3.
BAROQUE PARAMETERS
Guarino Guarini, a 17th-century architect and mathematician, integrates geometric principles into his architectural practice, producing spaces characterized by spatial complexity and structural ingenuity. The Immacolata Concezione in Turin serves as a paradigmatic example, which illustrates mathematical fundamentals within baroque painterliness. The church’s plan is defined by two intersecting circular volumes, generating an elongated nave articulated by twin domes. These domes, each housing side altars, are offset due to the collision of geometries, resulting in non-orthogonal alignments that introduce spatial torsion and directional ambiguity.
This study utilizes a point cloud of the church as a digital proxy to investigate Guarini’s geometric strategy through computational means. A conical primitive is systematically arrayed across the surface of the point cloud, functioning as both a formal and analytical device. The cone, with its radial and axial properties, resonates with the inherent geometry of the church while simultaneously imposing a new vectorial logic. This array generates emergent readings of the building’s internal tensions, particularly in the skewed altar zones, and reveals latent directional forces embedded within the original design. CRITIC || PARTNERS
PROXY AS FORM
The project utilizes a proxy based script through Houdini to create volume through primitives. These proxies have multiple identifiers, which could be iterated upon with different primitives. There are multiple proxies within the script, such as shadows, curvature, and slope, where all an be identified with a different geometry. Most of the proxies for this church revolves around the cone, where the radial - ness can be originally found in the main form of the church. These cones have slightly askew directionality which the proxies can create newfound tensions.
SECTION AXON
MAIN ALTAR
SITE ||
CRITIC ||
ASSISTANT ||
PARTNERS ||
LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS, NY
GISLEA BAURMANN
COURTNEY WARD
INDIVIDUAL
ARCH 6010
PERSPECTIVES OF THE COHABITATION
- 5.
CORAL COMMUNE
RESIDENTIAL HOUSING - COHABITATION
How do we both comfort the human and the coral in the same space? How can we circumnavigate the idea of a permanent barrier yet still host a homogeneous community between vastly different species? This project aims to combine an urban housing program to live in symbiosis with brain coral, a very prominent organism in coral reef ecosystems.
The idea of filtration reigns as an important factor as it involves both of the organisms in question. The human breathes air while the brain coral filters their food. This project will consist of a central environment that filters water and air, and build spaces that respond to each other’s needs, comforts, and ultimately form an inter-species community regardless of practical barriers.
The language takes upon the question of arrangements through brain coral’s biological growth. Not only were the geometries inspired by how the folds specifically emerge, but also take into consideration how the brain coral interacts within its environment. Therefore, the project would not limit its design through the morphological traits of the organism, but also integrate its performance by geometric specificity.
CHOISY CHUNK RENDERING
CHUNK MODEL 1’ = 1/8"
F-1. || Full Model with Human Scale
F-2. || Elevation Detail
F-3. || Facade Elevation
F-4. || Focus on Smaller Tower
F-5. || Detail of Top Plazas
F-1.
F-2.
F-3.
F-4.
F-5.
PHYSICAL CHUNK MODEL
The physical model at a staggering 67” tall best renders what the project is about, spanning from the site plan to the individual unit. The tower on the right focuses on relationships between programs, while the smaller tower on the left highlights the legitimacy in the core circulation.
LONGITUDINAL SECTION
CONTINUITY
The coral space is all connected from one hydraulic system. As seen in the longitudinal section, and other images before, water from the East river is collected and pumped up the facade of the whole tower, mimicking a trombe wall system. Therefore, the water in the system heats up due to solar radiation. The water peaks at the top of the tower then folds into the interior space, which provides the coral the warmer water environment needed for their comfort.
THE ANOMALY OF FOLDS
The floor plans of the units follow the biological language that brain coral grows, mimicking the folds and texture of the coral. Floor plans connect and assemble with complexity as a result. Nevertheless, the coral spaces (highlighted in grey) contradict the human spaces, being the simplest spaces in the composition. This highlights the compromise for cohabitation, where metaphorically, the humans live in forms familiar to the coral, and the coral spaces live in spaces more normative to the human, demonstrating the synergy of these two perspectives that create for a new architecture.
STUDIO UNIT FLOOR PLANS
MULTI - BEDROOM UNIT FLOOR PLANS
INITIAL SKETCHES OF FACADE
BUILDING FACADE DRAWING
MEANDERING TROMBE
This is a graphical study derived from the coral, which become rationalized as a piping system for a trombe wall. The trombe wall consists of a pipe within a facade where water going through the pipe can be heated up as it meanders along the facade. As the movement of the pipe is defined, other elements such as glazing and foliage fill the facade to create a composition. The meandering curves of the geometry of the coral become surface space for the pipes, insuring sunlight helps warm out the water needed for the system.
FACADE DIAGRAM MODEL
FERDA KOLTAN
JACK BRADLEY SAHIL SHAH
ARCH 7325-301
PERSPECTIVES OF THE AI
A - 4.
TOXIC WASTELAND
Toxic Wonderland is a speculative design project that explores the aftermath of technological disasters through the lens of artificial intelligence. Drawing on the eerie aesthetic of Soviet-era photography—particularly the haunting imagery of Chernobyl—we use AI tools not only to reconstruct these abandoned, irradiated zones, but to project them forward in time, imagining how they might be reinhabited generations after catastrophe.
Rather than preserving decay as a static symbol of loss, this project envisions a future where toxicity itself becomes an architectural condition—mutated, weathered, and ultimately assimilated into new environments. Using machine learning to reinterpret visual records of these spaces, we craft fictional but plausible futures in which nature, ruin, and synthetic intelligence converge.
The result is a series of speculative landscapes—Toxic Wonderlands where collapse and adaptation coexist. These AI-generated interiors and exteriors suggest unfamiliar forms of habitation that grow from the detritus of our technological overreach. In reimagining what these places could become, the project interrogates the role of design in the Anthropocene, asking not only how we live with disaster, but how we might build within it.
AI AS REPRESENTATION
Drawing inspiration from Soviet-era ruins and the desolation of wastelands, this project harnesses artificial intelligence to re-imagine and rejuvenate catastrophe-ridden spaces. The AI explores the potential transformation of abandoned, decaying environments into vibrant landscapes. By analyzing historical context, architectural details, and urban decay, the system generates novel design concepts that breathe new life into these forgotten areas. This innovative approach challenges conventional perceptions of ruins, proposing that even spaces marked by disaster can evolve into welcoming, adaptive environments.
CHUNK MODEL
F-1. || Full Panel Model
F-2. || Pocket Detail
F-3. || Edge and Seam Detail
F-4. || Transitional Detail
WASTELAND DETAILING
In the AI images, results of objects that looked like sand dunes evolved to create what could be new interpretations of furniture within these spaces As a result, a large CNC panel with embedded objects become represented as an environment map for the scene thats being developed. It takes into account how we can produce something new that looks decayed, and how we can interpret decomposition more as a curation method instead.
F-1.
F-2.
F-3.
F-4.
FULL PINUP LAYOUT
SITE ||
CRITIC ||
ASSISTANT
PARTNERS ||
LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS, NY
VIOLA AGO
DAVID PERRINE
INDIVIDUAL
ARCH 5020
PERSPECTIVES OF THE PROJECTION
M - 6.
SPLIT COGNIZANCE
MAUSOLEUM - PROJECTION
How do we disseminate the idea of something that must be covered? Death is an idea that many have felt to be something that is read through many perspectives and ideas, but also shouldn’t be revealed but rather respected. How do we teach the knowledge about death to others in that case?
The program is a mausoleum with winding paths that one gets lost in, drowning themselves in the flowing labyrinth of death. In juxtaposition, the graphic abruptly breaks this trend, illustrating the idea of the split, or even suddenness, something that death could also symbolize. This project aims to explore an idea and representation of death, both disseminating it functionally and metaphorically as well.
Furthering the idea of the graphical split, there is a metaphorical question about continuity vs. split, as the graphic, plan, and form all can be viewed as segregated or united. The graphic itself, using bold colors, makes an obvious separation. The form is its own entity, having a separation between occupiable building vs. site. However, Seeing the graphic transverse the form makes the graphical split read as a continuity device instead. This questions the perspectives of death, becoming a metaphor on disseminating such a complex idea though the architecture of the mausoleum.
The chunk model is an entity of its own that represents the project. Although it is meant for it to be a section of a full building, some devices could be altered to better empathize the idea of the project. The chunk model explores the idea of how the flowing form could be split in an aggressive manner, similar to what the graphic does.
F-1.
F-1.
F-1.
MATERIAL STUDY
This material study explores 2 devices, the transparent lines, and the graphic split. This discovery of how these become intertwined becomes projected into the total site plan, thus exemplifying the idea of the split found in the project. The splits made in this study become a texture that becomes the split in the overall orange graphic.
CONTINUITY THROUGH DIMENSIONS
This drawing investigates graphic continuity through image and object. Using the figural relief, the graphic overlay questions the 3-dimensionality of the figure, yet questions the 2-dimensionality of the graphic overlay. This idea rises as the main conflict of the graphic, as the graphic device here can be considered a split through color and texture, but a connection though the dimensions. What does it mean to have a projection as both a device of split, and a device of continuity?
FIGURAL RELIEF DRAWING
CANVAS & CONTINUITY
The Relief model questions the idea of continuity. Taking formal figures of Frank Stella, The initial relief lights how figures lay within on a canvas. This initial relief is split into 3 fragments which push upon the idea of continuity. How can we aggregate figures in a continual way? At the same time, how can we keep borders while also suggesting extension?
STELLA RELIEF
RELIEF AGGREGATION
DIVIDE
The form is mostly homogeneous while the graphic contrasts with a definite split. Various visual techniques develop this split into much more representative ways of splitting the form, illustrating the project in many ways that point to the idea of the split.
This becomes furthered as the splits determine top view shapes that help read the project in another view rather than the homogeneous, flowing form.
RENDERED TOP VIEW
1.
The journey starts at the Ceremonial space, where a large, flexible space with a stage is able to host funerals or other funeral ceremonials, defined by culture.
DRAWING
Various drawing techniques in the domain of linework are explored to what it means to illustrate the split throughout a flowing floor plan. This highlights the different perceptions that one may read while exploring the project.
2.
As one progresses down the plan, the hallway space begins to narrow and becomes filled with sarcophagi. The main mausoleum space holds full tombs or smaller spaces that can hold cremated processes.
3.
At the bottom of the plan, nearing the end of the passage is a space dedicated to cremation. Various program and machinery are embedded within the mausoleum, and there is a choice to leave ashes back up the mausoleum or to be taken home.
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
INDIVIDUAL
A - 5.
DIFFICULT WHOLES
Difficult Wholes is an exercise explores the relationship of part to whole within design tectonics, investigating how geometry, materiality, and color influence perception and spatial interpretation. Rooted in the conceptual framework of Robert Venturi’s Difficult Whole, the project challenges the notion of visual unity by embracing complexity, contradiction, and layered meaning. Simultaneously, the study draws from Josef Albers’ investigations into color theory, particularly how adjacent hues can shift perception and alter the viewer’s understanding of form and hierarchy.
Through deliberate manipulations of shape, texture, and chromatic contrast, the composition presents multiple readings: elements may appear unified or fragmented depending on the viewer’s perspective. The juxtaposition of materials and geometries encourages dynamic visual interactions, where the identity of each part shifts in relation to the whole.
This exercise is not only a study in aesthetics but also a reflection on how architectural language can be constructed through subtle tensions—between clarity and ambiguity, unity and multiplicity.
COMPOSITION
While experimenting with the tectonics of the difficult whole, the investigation of compositions come into play as well. As the colors separate the 3 figures, a continuous diagram in the background ties all three of the compositions back into one. This gains a new perspective of an element that also adds into the idea of the difficult whole.
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SYSTEMS ON SYSTEMS
Systems on Systems is a sculptural project that explores how layered tectonic systems can form a cohesive, self-supporting structure. The piece integrates four systems—cast concrete blocks, acrylic waffle grids, 3D-printed rails, and wooden ties—each contributing both structurally and conceptually.
The acrylic waffle system forms the initial planes, though these surfaces are inherently unstable. Cast blocks with grooves anchor and rigidify them, providing mass and stability. 3D-printed rails then introduce verticality, allowing the structure to rise into three distinct towers. Finally, wooden ties connect these towers, both physically and visually uniting the composition.
Each system addresses the limitations of the others, creating a network of interdependence. Together, they embody a process of cooperation— where strength emerges through the integration of contrasting materials and construction methods. Systems on Systems ultimately becomes a meditation on balance, support, and the architecture of complexity.
CASTS VERSATILITY
Although there are 12 casts, there are only 4 molds. Each cast becomes independent using different methods that iterate the shape. Some have a split put in the mold to make a smaller cast, while others are half poured. This illustrates how although there are a fixed number of molds, there are many variations of casts that could be produced.
PLAN CUT
TECTONIC SYSTEMS
All parts could be separated and there is no required glue for the structure. This highlights how all the systems work with each other through interlocking mechanisms. Each component is fabricated with tolerances that allow for both structural integrity and modular disassembly. This design approach demonstrates a high level of systems integration, where each element contributes to the overall stability by design rather than by bonding agents. It’s an example of mechanical synergy— where structural and aesthetic considerations are met simultaneously.
