Portfolio

PO RT FO LIO

Makanaka Grace Musadaidzwa Selected Works 2023 - 2026 UC BERKELEY | Architecture

PROLOGUE Architecture is not only seen, but felt.

Growing up between Southern Africa and East Africa, and now studying in the United States, I have developed an awareness of how space reflects broader social and cultural conditions, and how it shapes the way we experience and remember the world around us. Subtle shifts in light, level, or proportion shape how we move, gather, and inhabit space.

Informed by ideas of memory, atmosphere, and perception, my work explores how architecture can respond to context while creating meaningful relationships between people and the environments they inhabit.

CONTENTS 01 Rotation As Method pages 3-7

02 The Blank & The Charged pages 8-11

03 Artist Residence pages 12-14

04 The Wooden Puzzle pages 15-16

05 Miscellaneous page 17

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01

Rotation as Method

Studio ARCH100A Fundamentals of Architectural Design | UC Berkeley | Fall 2025

Design of Excellence Award Recipient, 2026 Rhino, Illustrator, Photoshop, Tayasui Sketches

A four-story academic building for the UC Berkeley campus, organized around the insertion of a rotated cube within an orthogonal grid.

The project investigates how a minimal geometric intervention can produce moments of friction between order and misalignment. While the grid remains stable, the rotated volume creates tapered rooms, angled boundaries, and shifting spatial conditions.

Circulation follows the clarity of the grid, but movement is continually reoriented by the rotated object. As stairs wrap around the cube, they widen and compress, making this tension legible through the body.

Light operates as a spatial material. A continuous gap between wall and ceiling transforms poché into a luminous condition, while moments of alignment between windows and the rotated volume allow the interior misalignment to register subtly on the façade.

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SITE MODEL | 1/16” = 1’0”

MODEL DETAILS : BRISTOL, CHIPBOARD

Exploring Rotation Concept Development :

PROJECT ONE

PROJECT TWO

From the beginning of the semester, I explored the many ways rotation can be utilised at a spatial manouvre and what its implications mean for architecture. For the first two projects I worked with square and rectangular geometries. Project one explored rotation as a device of internal ordering. Project two explored rotation as a formal relation between two stacked volumes.

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1 - THE GRID

MODEL AXONOMETRIC | 1/4” = 1’O”

2 - SUBTRACTION

MODEL ELEVATION | 1/4” = 1’O”

PLAN VIEW, ENTRANCES

3 - INSERTION

MODEL DETAILS : BRISTOL, MUSEUM BOARD

4 - OPENINGS 5

1 5

1

1

1

2

2 1

3

4

1

1

1

1

4 3

First Floor - Lobby Area 1 Reception 2 CED Student Loune 3 Gallery Wall 4 Storage

Third Floor - Faculty & Offices 1 Offices 2 Pinup Space 3 Professor Lounge 4 Storage

Movement through the plan is structured by a rotated geometry that resists full alignment with the grid. As one circulates, this misalignment produces a shifting spatial experience, defined by moments of compression, release, and reorientation

FLOOR PLANS | 1/8” = 1’O”

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SITE MONTAGE Set within the campus, the building maintains the clarity of the orthogonal grid while subtly registering the internal rotation on the façade.

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02

The Blank + The Charged

Studio ARCH100B Fundamentals of Architectural Design II | UC Berkeley | Spring 2026 Midterm Project Rhino, Illustrator, Photoshop, V-Ray, Rhino Render

A City Gallery This project develops a spatial framework defined by two voids with contrasting qualities. One remains blank, operating as a translucent light well defined by absence, while the other is charged, activated by circulation, bridges, and visual connections across levels.

As the building rises, the voids transform, the blank void expands while the charged void compresses, producing a vertical gradient from open, public spaces below to quieter, more introspective environments above. Floor slabs shift in response the voids. This transformation is developed through section, where shifting floor slabs respond directly to the changing geometry of the voids.

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SECTION A | THE CHARGED

THE CHARGED A | 3/32”=1’0”

SECTION A | THE CHARGED

THE BLANK B | 3/32”=1’0” 9

Diagrammatic Drawings: Shifting Floors

SECOND FLOOR

FOURTH FLOOR

THIRD FLOOR

FIFTH FLOOR

Floor slabs shift laterally in response to the expanding and compressing voids, terminating at their edges and making the transformation legible in section.

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B

A

Site Context: The project is a proposal for a city gallery that replaces the Walgreens opposite Berkeley Bowl, situated between Adeline Street, Oregon Street, Shattuck Avenue, and Stuart Street. The proposal introduces a civic pathway that connects the two edges of the site.

PUBLIC RESTROOM

SMALL GALLERY

SIXTH FLOOR PLAN | 3/32”=1’0”

SMALL GALLERY

PRIVATE MEETING ROOMS

B

A

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MODEL DETAILS : BRISTOL, ACETATE

03

Artist Residence

Studio ARCH11B Introduction to Design | UC Berkeley | Spring 2025 Rhino, Illustrator, Photoshop

This project is organized around the concept of mirroring, which operates across both form and spatial organization. Programs are distributed to establish a dialogue between public and private conditions, allowing residents to occupy either a more open, outward-facing side or a more enclosed, inward-oriented one.

Circulation reinforces this duality: public stairs align with the diagonal grid, while semi-private movement follows orthogonal systems, producing layered paths across and between volumes. Openings and balconies extend this logic, framing views and facilitating visual and physical connections.

Differences in roof height and massing articulate programmatic hierarchy, with larger volumes marking collective spaces and smaller ones supporting more intimate uses. Thresholds and controlled access further distinguish public and private domains, while shared outdoor spaces, such as the rooftop garden, act as points of convergence within the mirrored system 12

Assignment 1.1 Hard Edge, Soft Edge.

SECTION | 1/8”=1’0”

CTION AA’

LE: 1/8” = 1’ - 0”

0

4'

8'

16'

32'

ment 1.1

Soft Edge.

The project explores a contrast between hard and soft edges, where grounded, solid masses are offset by carved voids that introduce spatial openness. This interplay is expressed through moments of compression and release, as well as suspended and cantilevered elements that challenge the stability of the overall form.

Hard Edge

Hard Edge Drawing

Soft Edge Drawing

On site, this contrast is reinforced through the relationship between built form and open space, where harder edges define boundaries while softer conditions allow for permeability, movement, and transition.

Soft Edge Assignment 1.1 explores the concept of symmetry—with a twist: asymmetrical symmetry.

This refers to a visual sense of compositional equilibrium achieved without direct mirroring between structures. The model is composed of two L-shaped forms. Subtractions of volume, based on the grid, create a rhythm of mass and void—where parts of the structure are solid and grounded, while others are carved out to introduce spatial lightness and openness. This is particularly evident in the cantilever and suspended portion of one structure, while the other rests firmly on the ground—emphasising contrast. Unifying elements include vertical voids that pierce both structures, horizontal voids that cut across—suggest-

SITE PLAN | 1/8”=1’0”

Soft Edge Drawing

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S HROOM OOM OOM COURTYARD

A

L

B

FIRST FLOOR PLAN | 1/8”=1’0”

MODEL BIRDS EYE | 1/8” = 1’O”

LIBRARY RESIDENTIAL GALLERY ART STUDIOS PUBLIC BATHROOM LAUNDRY ROOM STORAGE ROOM A

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

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Photo Credits: Montse Saavedra Lara

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The Wooden Puzzle

Lecture ARCH160 Introduction to Construction | UC Berkeley | Spring 2026 Group Members: Cristal Judith Infante Gutierrez & Montse Saavedra Lara Rhino, Illustrator

This group project reinterprets traditional dougong joinery through an abstract system of layered load transfer, compression-based connections, and modular timber assembly.

MODEL CLOSE UPS | 1/2” = 1’O”

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MODEL DETAILS : PLYWOOD

Precedent: Researched into the temples in China’s great long standing forbidden city to understand this technique.

The project draws from traditional Chinese timber construction, particularly dougong systems that rely on interlocking joinery rather than nails or fasteners.

Studied aseembly through the use of axonometric drawings.

Model Axonometric Drawing Credits: Cristal Judith Infante Gutierrez

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05

Miscellaneous - Memories Personal | 2023-2026

Hand drawings of places from home, exploring memory, observation, and spatial familiarity.”

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Makanaka Grace Musadaidzwa UC Berkeley | Architecture makagracemusa@berkeley.edu (510) 502-5507 LinkedIn: Makanaka Grace Architecture Instagram Account: m.g.m.archwork

100B Model - The Pavillion