Taely Freeman University of Pennsylvania Master of Architecture
This body of work investigates the relationship of the built environment and its engagement with human experience. Each series highlights a commitment to thoughtful and innovative design that amplifies what is present and poses possibilities for what could be. Through an exploration of material expression and form, this body of work aims to negotiate a relationship of parts that have agency not only on eachother but on its surroundings and users. A unique identity of formal and material expression operates as a common thread throughout each study, instigating immersive and sensory engagement through light, texture, and color. It celebrates the power of place, embracing challenges and opportunities of site and culture from which they emerge while highlighting tactile expression and the unique identity of craft.
Critic
Location
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Meander More
This project challenges conventional architectural paradigms by introducing delicacy to mass timber construction. Meander More retains its structural rigidity while integrating five degree shifts in both cladding and interior elements to prompt an acknowledgement of perception change. This proposal dedicates itself to humanscultivating the novelty of both natural and built environment through an elevated meadow program situated above the Lower East Side. This space serves as a setting for inclusive dining experiences for vulnerable communities and is supported by an inhouse grainery that utilizes compost to sustain meadow growth and limit food waste.
Nate Hume NYC 12 weeks
Regina Gonano
Frames and Grains
Urban Meadow and Community Kitchen
An ADA compliant, long-span ramp operates as a continuation of the meadow procession with elevated balconies and resting zones meant to encourage the act of “meandering.”
“Baskets” extend beyond the largest floor plate to house meadow spillage within a triple height space - these accentuate the subtle shifts of interior space and are situated adjacent to kitchen and preparation areas. A green-house style cladding system reinforces the verticality of the building, introducing a three-layer rain screen assemblage combining polycarbonate, exposed CLT, and ceramic shingles - each responding to the 15’ bay divisions and structurally supported by a steel frame at its core.
1/4” Model Detail Photo
T-Frame and Tilt
The application of a T-frame structure maximizes square footage for a site where neighboring properties transfer air rights. It is then split into 15’ bays that step or extend beyond frame to cantilever over the street. This application scales down the street entry of the building to welcome users inside. The facade is also remniscient of the building’s interior - once inside, occupants are immediately confronted with a quadruple height atrium that reveals two dropped bays housing meadow program, thus invoking a curiosity that encourages occupants to move up and through the building.
Meadow in the City
Drawing influence from Denis Agnes’ “Wheatfield: A confrontation”, this project explores the placement of a wild meadow in juxtaposition to the urban environment. An ADA compliant ramp circulates over top with rest and lounge zones meant for a variety of viewpoints, thus encouraging occupants to “meander.” This meadow also serves as a unique setting for communal dining and aims to foster interaction between occupants. Supported by steel columns at its core, structural members are smaller in size and greater in quantity to allow for a hat truss that spans the floor plate housing both meadow and ramp - allowing for flexibility and negotiation of structure to space.
Structural Diagram
T-FRAME
LOWER CLT FRAME
STEEL COLUMNS
HAT TRUSS
Meadow Detail Photo
Basket Dining Photo
Exploded Program Diagram
Basket Connection Detail
Floor Detail
Roof Detail
Model Photo 1/4” = 1’ - 0
Delicate Cladding
To achieve layers of tranclucent lighting effects, this double-skin facade utilizes a combination of polycarbonate panels and shingles - all are clipped to a steel frame and serve as rain screen. The impermanence of this system not only allows for ease of panel maintenance, but enables the possibility of retrofitting during its lifespan.
Meadow Basket Photo
Meadow “Jitter” Photo
Ramp and Meadow Photo
Wall Section
Ripple + Trace
This panel explores the possibilites of precast panelization and expands beyond its traditional use in an urban environment through a study of ornamentation and light play - particularly using “rakes” and “flutes” of varying radii as a surface technique in combination with the integration of exposed rebar. The iterative process was informed by logistics of its assembly and feasibility of embedding exposed rebar as a seamless part of the panel fabrication. The repetition of this geometry serves not only as an aesthetic feature, but also a functional one, reducing quantity of seams in the foam used for molding and enhancing thermal performance by increasing surface area.
Course Critic Duration Team
Precast Elective
Richard Garber
12 weeks
Brennan Flory Jiaye Li Sahil Shah
Matter, Making, & Testing Precast Mock-Up Panel
Typically concealed, the exposed rebar here serves a dual purpose: structurally reinforcing the slender part of the panel while also highlighting the creative potential of blending structure and aesthetic. This panel was built in collaboration with engineers of Northeast Precast, requiring rigorius exchange of shop drawings illustrating each step of the casting process, including rebar placement, plywood formwork, and insulation. The team was fully involved on pour day, coordinating each step with project managers and communicating information from shop drawings to application. The final configuration showcases a thoughtful approach that balances function and innovation.
Panel Mock-Up Photo
Iteration and Fabrication
This project explores the integration of exposed rebar directly into the precast casting process, challenging the conventional approach of post-cast additions. Through multiple design iterations, the goal was to assess the feasibility of embedding exposed rebar as a seamless part of the panel fabrication. Exposed rebar placement underwent rigorous evaluation to ensure secure embedding and prevent interference with structural rebar. Specific bending points are annotated to avoid interference with these design elements while maintaining the panel’s structural soundness. The detailed bill of materials highlights each rebar piece, specifying lengths and quantities for efficient fabrication and assembly.
Drawing - Insulation and CNC Ticket
Shop Drawing - Rebar Ticket
Shop
Exploded Assembly Diagram
Listen Closely!
Listen Closely! is a proposal that encourages community through spatial organization while highlighting identity and agency through design. Situated in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, PA, this project provides a temporary housing solution for immigrants and refugees. Drawing from the historic buildings that populate this neighborhood, the design is populated with motifs remniscent of colonial style rowhouses. Each building is constructed of native Philadelphia materials and surrounds a centralized, private courtyard. Using a townhome typology, the site is occupied with eleven buildings that utilize the narrow structural profile found in rowhouses to maximize square footage and
Competition Location Duration
Collaboration
HOK Futures Philadelphia, PA 3 Days
Regina Gonano
1st Place HOK Futures Competition Temporary Housing Complex
efficient building processes. To initiate a sense of agency and individuality for inhabitants within the overall scheme, traditional rooftop styles are defamiliarized to provide each resident with their own unique buliding and floor plan. This project benefits both its residents and the surrounding communityit implements multifunctional creative spaces throughout, but more specifically educational workshops that are meant to allow residents the opportunity to interact with others, both at the local scale and that of greater Philadelphia. With these programs, residents are also capable of developing a skillset that has the potential to benefit the surrounding neighborhood.
Oblique Elevation
Formal Diagram
Building Elevation
Programmatic Section Diagram
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Premonitions on the Promenade
“The word monumentality should be eliminated from the architectural vocabulary as a characteristic desirable for buildings in a democratic society.”
-Gregor Paulsson
This statement implies that monumentality has been coined as a self-serving gesture that holds no place in modern society - a permanent and immovable expression of autocratic purpose. Inversely, systems of motion and autonomy are called to mind as a logical subversion to this position. Rather than direct opposition, this project proposes that the promenade offers an opportunity for the co-existence of strengths within both – the static and the dynamic. Here, place and purpose, permanence and motion, simultaneously occur to generate alternative
Studio 501
Anthony Gagliardi Philadelphia, PA 4 weeks
Monument et. Al. Museum Extension
readings of monumentality. Rather than spotlighting a singular intensity of purpose, monumentality can now be understood as both fixed and fluid. Drawing influence from artist Nanette Carter, this project exemplifies how contrasting elements work in tandem with one another to highlight movement as both circulation and destination. The sensation of movement within its overall form is expressed through the grand gesture of the promenade that is reflected in both interior and exterior. The dynamic language of push and pull between elongated forms operates concurrently with the solidity of each singular mass and their postured forms.
Interior Promenade
Detail Model Photo
Waterfront Model Photo
Pull Apart Model Photo
Longitudinal Section
Waterfront Elevation
Static yet Fluid
Rather than organizing circulation as transitional space, the promenade of the interior continues as a visual experience in which users are confronted with a sensation of tension as they move through large atriums and condensed pockets of space, each mode of circulation as important as the destination. The subtle top-heavy qualities of each mass suggest not only static subordination by dynamic instability. Drawing from the color palette of early collages influenced by Nanette Carter, solidity of the exterior facade is disrupted by the implementation of a colorful perforated screen, allowing for an abundant amount of light and color to infiltrate each interior space, thus generating another means of subverting the static and serious nature of monumentality.
Elevation Studies
Perforated Facade Render
Course
Critic
Duration
Involvement
Studio 501
Anthony Gagliardi
3 weeks
Collaboration
Course Critic
Duration Team
Studio 501
Anthony Gagliardi
3 weeks
Natsuko Nozaki
Yuwei Yang
Aotong Yan
Centrifigural
This project explores the ways in which qualities such as time and weight are inextricably linked to monumentality. Through its dynamic interplay of figures, Centrifigural serves as a formal representation of the progression of time required for an object to be deemed monumental. This was explored through a combination of figure mass, figure void, and figure joint conditions. As a result, solidity and translucency are utilized to create obscurity and blur depth of understanding from the lens of the viewer, evoking a sense of time through puzzling as parts of the whole start to reveal varying figures through layers. These combinations produce its tilted posture and instigate a precarious interaction with
Monument et. Al. Hyperlapse Chamber
the ground, inducing questions of weight and gravity as additional levels of understanding needed to read the project. Additionally, Centrifigural reinterprets the historical function of centering as a fabrication method by transforming its temporary qualities into a permanent structural system that is fully integrated into the design. In this instance, wood mass remains as an integrated element with foam as structural support. With this method, the method of fabrication through centering formwork is now visible in the final product. By exposing the formwork, monumentality is now a celebration of process.
Full Scale Model Detail Photo
Figure Mass, Void, and Joint
These sections display the concentric interplay of mass, void, and joint that produce alternative readings of solidity and translucency within the overall whole. Upscaled sections identify areas of fabrication where joint condition occurs. Light is used as a vehicle for highlighting new figures situated within figure void. In these cases, the mass is constructed of upholstered wood frame that serves as a base for sewing a threaded grid pattern that allows for light transmittance.
Figural Section Field
Model Illumination Photo
Model Photo
Exploded Fabrication Diagram
Material Divisions
The fabrication process maximizes the strengths of each material composition and ultimately assisted in determining the final form of each element. Both plywood and hardwood negotiate planar surfaces, revealing seams in the joint where they meet. Sculptural components utilize CNC contouring with foam and upholstered wood frame. Similar to shotcrete, both foam and frame are coated with plaster aided by spray gun and air compressor.
Upholstered Wood Frame
Plaster Coated Polystyrene
Hardwood / Plywood Panelization
Granular Happenings
Located in Downtown Brooklyn, Farragut is a public housing facility funded by the New York City Housing Authority. In response to existing site conditions and the multigenerational care that exists between current residents, this project spatially and programmatically proposes a forwardthinking economic model that prioritizes a culture of care through three scalar interventions that alleviate dependence and encourage communal exchange through food. Materiality sits at the forefront of this proposal. Initial analog studies done with plastic and concrete fundamentally shape core underpinnings of the overall design and inform speculative spatial, structural, and
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Critic
Location
Duration
Studio 601 Jonas Coersmeier Brooklyn, NYC 10 weeks
Lolux Care
Adaptive Reuse Housing
programmatic solutions. Drawing from the interactions and blurred thresholds of these material blends, this project proposes a model that promotes support and interaction literally from the ground up. These scalar interventions include estate, courtyard, and building - all of which intervene at their own autonomous scale and integrate to form a unique response to the need for site densification and spatial cultivation. Combining both tower and bar typologies, the formal intervention at the building scale abides by the original pinwheel form of the existing buildings, yet introduces new means of circulation and visual connectivity between varying scalar interventions.
3/32” Model Photo
Analog Studies to Scalar Intervention
Material findings display a system of porosity at the granular level in which the boundary between separate materials completely dissolves. In similar fashion, this proposal integrates three scalar compontents that prioritize selfsufficiency and multi-generational exchange through food. At its largest, the estate scale is utilized as a grounds for rainwater collection that supports gardening and growing space within the interstitial courtyard scale. At building scale, the atrium is introduced as spectacle for visual connectivity alongside varying unit types with shared kitchens. Its facade speculates a material and tectonic system that introduces a live facade, or a vertical farming solution, that densifies as it transitions from surface level garden trellis to interior infrastructure.
Finer Tectonic Facade System
Facade Detail Model Photo Cast Technique applied to Form
Analog Detail of Cast
Initial Cast Study
Two-Bed Duplex
Studio
Three-Bed Duplex
Two-Bed Duplex
Shared Kitchen
Shared Kitchen Model Photo
Detail Model Photo
Detail Model Photo
Course Critic Duration Team
Biomaterial Elective
Laia Molgas-Soldevila 5 weeks
Sahil Shah Yuwei Yang Nathan Huynh
Roto-Brick
This study proposes an eco-friendly biomaterial and innovative fabrication system that utilizes rotational molding derived from product manufacturing techniques. It addresses the waste generated by single-use molds and replaces plastics and other nonbiodegradable materials with a sustainable alternative for both building construction and product design. The use of rotational molding has yet to be utilized in the field of biomaterial research and pushes beyond the limitations of planar surface fabrication. This process utilizes the scientific method as a systematic process of research and experimentation of both material matrices and formal geometry. Primary challenges
DumoLab Research Biomaterial Brick Exploration
included management of moisture control and application of rotational molding using the robotic arm for ease of mass production. Research was conducted on the ratio, shrinkage, and viscosity of material blends and their structural capacity within a variety of mold shapes. Success was found with both gelatin and hide glue as animal-based material blends paired with conic and cylindrical molds utilzing a yoshimura folding technique. Studies resulted in translucent bio-composite structures fabricated with robotic arm technologies. There are many opportunities for field application of the Rotobrick as a translucent screening method.
Speculative Wall Mock-Up
Fabrication Parameters
Two major parameters of this study involve method of rotation and airflow. Initial studies were conducted using plastic water bottles to test material blend and viscosity. These were spun manually, which allowed for careful control of rotation speed as blend increased in viscosity. In contrast with injection molding and slip casting, this study requires airflow in order for bio blend to solidify - the 3D-printed mold design accommodates a removeable cap and air gap at its base for air circulation. For ease of manufacturing, actions of manual rotation were studied to be repicated by robotic arm, requiring a specific grasshopper code that controls acceleration as blend hardens.
Gelatin Slump Test
Rotobrick Detail Photo
Hide Glue Slump Test
Gelatin Slump Test
Automated Rotation
Jig for Robotic Arm
Manual Rotation
Blend and Form Analysis
Mold and Results
Gelatin Results
Hide Glue Results
Written in Wickers
Designing through the medium of garment construction alleviates architecture from typical constraints, and this two-part project makes realizations of new discoveries and repositions them within the framework of architecture. This garment observes the human figure as the initial blueprint and begins to reshape parts of the whole through elongation. Focus areas include the hips, neck, and arms. To further enhance this effect, each garment contains tapered extensions that reduce the blunt edge and woven frames serve as a method of blurring the boundary between human profile and extension. Drawing from the traditional garment boning technique of sewing plastic
Function of Fashion in Architecture Garment Design to Pavilion Translation
into fabric, this design contains multiple frames of MDF fabricated to withstand the tension created by woven carbon fiber threads, Bold color is explored as a blocking technique for highlighting the separation between human figure and intervention, drawing attention to the elongation of areas not dictated by fabric.
Learning from this garment design, the next phase of this study uses pavilion as medium to expand on found material and spatial possibilities. It expands upon a discourse surrounding the relationship of structure to envelope, pushing for a flexible facade skin that operates autonomously and prioritizes atmospheric qualites of light and color.
Course Critic Duration Team
Fashion Elective
Ezio Blasetti
8 weeks
Dillon Day
Marjorie Tello-Wong
Garment Photo
Moiré Application
This study adapts the frame of the previous garment design by disguising its structural profile with a woven facade system. At a larger scale, this material can be implemented to create a moire pattern with spatial outcomes unseen in the garment design. Here, this effect curates distribution of light both along its exterior and interior.
Detail Garment Photo Process Photo
Initial Sketch
Pavilion Elevation
Reassembly Lines
This project responds to the unique cultural and material identity of Barrio Padre Mugica, the city’s largest informal settlement. Recognizing the community’s inventive use of salvaged materials and its informal economy, this proposal introduces a system that transforms waste into opportunity. Located near an underutilized pedestrian bridge, the site serves as a nexus for material reuse, economic growth, and community education. Salvaged construction materials collected citywide are processed and repurposed through a system which integrates local knowledge with sustainable practices. The project introduces educational programs to exchange formal and informal construction
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Critic
Location
Duration
Collaboration
Studio 701 Winka Dubbledam Buenos Aires, AR 14 weeks
Ben Oliver
The Wall of Discord Cultural and Educational Campus
techniques, empowering residents with skills for innovation and self-sufficiency. Spatially, the design prioritizes porosity and connection, bridging the barrio with its surroundings through ramps and campus layout. A gradient of public to private spaces organizes function, transitioning from open markets for salvaged goods to fabrication workships and education centers. Recycled materials, including reconstituted clay bricks, reflect the barrio’s ethos of resourcefulness while addressing broader urban challenges of sustainability. Interweaving economic, spatial, and cultural threads, the proposal reimagines the barrio’s role, fostering integration, resilience, and agency.
1/8” Scale Sectioned Model Photo
Existing Material Analysis
Agentic Assemblages
This program seeks a third actant - a relationship of parts that have agency not only on eachother but on the surrounding barrio and its city adjacent. Salvaged construction materials often seen as waste are reframed as participants that acupuncturally stimulate opportunity in the neighborhood by tapping into existing networks of building recycling and economic opportunity.
Model Photo Showing Ramp Entry
Programmatic Flow Diagram
Volume, Ramp, and Roof Diagram
Assemblage Feedback Loop
Campus Elevation from Barrio
Entry from Barrio Model Photo
Roof Plan Model Photo
Perspective of Assembly Line from Ramp
Section Cut Model Photo
Ramp, Site, and Roof
The organization of various building functions serves as a gradient from public to private, much like the collective’s goal of being a gradient between formal and informal economies. As materials (and people) move down the assembly line, organizationally the plan becomes more publicly accessible until it reaches construction education facilities, maker spaces, and fabrication shops. This gradient is articulated through programmatic organization, material availability, and the level of enclosure.
Relationshiop of Parts - Exploratory Axon/Choisy
Section Displaying Fabrication Spaces and Marketplace
