Render for Rail Trail Lights Public Art Installation - Preliminary Design
Emerging Professional graduated from University of North Carolina in Charlotte. Bridging the built environment with the community through art installations and architecture is what drives my architectural interests.
01. Rock Hill
02. Gold Rush
03. Irwin Creek
Business incubator and Co-op
Reuse
Architecture plays a pivotal role in environmental sustainability, and architects have a critical responsibility to minimize carbon emissions throughout the design process. The objective is to establish a business incubation system that harnesses agriculture and commerce to efficiently use available resources.
The building’s design focuses on sustainability by incorporating net-zero practices, such as rainwater collection, solar power, and carbon sequestering materials. This architectural approach not only promotes eco-friendliness but also re-imagines how people engage with historical factory spaces, transforming them from mechanical spaces into vibrant green environments
As our society shifts from the industrial era to a service-based economy, disused warehouses are evolving into innovative hubs, taking advantage of the spatial opportunities they offer. This transformation has given rise to the Agritech Innovation Hub, a collaborative initiative working in close partnership with Charlotte’s local farmers to enhance crop yields.
These farmers are integral members of a locally sourced grocery store cooperative, providing the community with accessible grocery options. Moreover, this business incubator also serves as a resource for restaurants and retail, offering a platform for entrepreneurial growth in Charlotte.
SECTION A- A
Girl's School and Community Center
The intersection of humans and bees occurs at the school, which serves as an educational institution for young girls. The primary aim is to provide these girls with knowledge and skills that will elevate their social status within the country and open doors to better job opportunities.
Beekeeping in Tanzania is a legally protected practice, and the community center will be utilized as a beekeeping school for other women in the community. This initiative will enable more women to incorporate bee products into their daily lives and generate additional income by selling surplus honey. Through a symbiotic relationship, humans and bees mutually protect and assist one another.
Masonry construction encompasses various forms worldwide, serving as a versatile solution for different needs. In rural areas like Ifakara, Tanzania, it is the predominant method of building using bricks and concrete blocks. This region, known for its prevalence of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, presents an opportunity to utilize the built environment as a defense against them. A new type of concrete block, easily manufactured by rural builders, will be employed in this project. This block is made in a shape that alludes to bee hives. The unique shape also allows openings for the bees to enter and exit the hives.
Additionally, addressing social inequalities, an all-girls boarding school focusing on agriculture and beekeeping is established. The school integrates honeybees and their hives within the walls for protection, supply, and growth. Lavender and Sage fields further contribute to repelling mosquitoes. Human efforts ensure hive protection and provide homes, while bees aid in pollination and honey production, fostering both educational and ecological growth.
Crematoriam and Chapel Funerary Project
The project is a crematorium with a columbarium on site. This project was placed on a historic site and was meant to be a challenge with the topography. Dealing with the sensitive topic of death and burial, this project used the "home" iconography as the driver for the main design idea. Creating a place that holds and provides services for the recently departed as well as comforting the family was a goal for this project. The segmented roofline was intented to contain special spaces within the ritual of death and burial.
This studio dealt with handcrafted models as a vessel to produce architecture. We were encouraged to use manual modes of representation and iterations. The small "house" structures are the columbaria that are surrounded by nature as a way for people to enjoy time with their departed loved ones.
Indulgent Disillusionment
The Case for a Floating Miami Residential Housing
Miami Beach and all three different configurations of the housing types placed on varying flooded beachfront. These structures are meant to withstand the weathering of waves and natural surroundings.
As global warming continues to be a catastrophic issue especially for coast cities, Miami is in extreme danger to flood. This project looked at the current housing typologies within the city of Miami and attempted to fix the potential flooding issue. I chose to take the Miami Art Deco typology and iterate it into a large housing type.
The project was initiated with line drawings and precedent studies of the selected typology. Through the process, the design started to develop upon itself with my three units (as seen above). Combining the art deco typology with coast and water, lead me to an exploration of an underwater city. Later this idea turned into a floating design that cascaded into the beach. Miami is pricing out many of the residents that make it a cultural hub, this project was meant to solve the homeless and low income housing crisis. By setting the houses out of the water, the building was reminiscent of Stiltsville, a community of houses on stilts in the ocean.
Line drawings of typical Miami Art Deco
Underwater city
Women in Motorsport Museum
Sustainable Material Exploration
Traveling Temporary Exhibition
Emerging Material Research is the foundation of this project. Using the root structures of Mushrooms, Mycelium, as a building material confronted traditional materiality as well as how one views a building. This project came from months of growing and testing Mycelium panels for use within the built environment. By using Formula One's womens only league, F1 Academy, as a basis for this project, it lead to this being a traveling museum for all womens motorsports that would travel with the F1 Academy for their race weekends.
Mycelium Panels are created by growing the material, breaking it up and making it into a mold. This mold would have these "Void Geomentries" placed in the mold and the material would be packed around it. After a few days of growth, the Void Geometries would be removed and the panel would be set out to dry. These panel would then be covered in a wax coating to keep it relatively safe from weather. As this project was meant to travel, the panels can be reused without being regrown everytime.
Located in the NoDa neighborhood in Charlotte, NC, this housing project was an exploration of light and shadow. Formal expression came from iterating with linework over images that
Rendered Perspective
Rendered Perspective
One of the earliest ideas for this project was to set a seemingly heavy object on top of slender members. This juxtaposition would carry the rest of the project through to the end. A photograph of a Tadao Ando building was used to create line work that I would use as a base for 3D modeling. Starting with the levitating bulk structure and the diagonal cut, the idea was to find a way to connect the two opposite sides. Using the slender members to hold up one of the visually heaviest objects was important to create a visual asymmetry. Allowing the corner to seemingly break but never actually touching the ground was intended to evoke an anxious expression. This architectural move meant to shift perspective from the exterior had a different motive for the interior space. The interior is open and minimal with tall ceilings and rooftop access. This buildings essence was meant to carry the artists negative anxiety emotions while providing a sense of place and calm. This residency holds room for two artists to live in Charlotte's old arts district to feel inspired by the daily life surrounding the house.
Sketch Model iteration
Final Model
Inspired by the embroidery technique of Smocking and the act of furrowing, this fashion school was intended to push the boundaries of androgyny through fashion design. Placed in the socially affirming city of Stockholm, the school would not have push back on its teaching and therefore create fashion that many people would never attempt.
This school would be in a design inspired by the rich folds of a furrowed garment. Creating the fashion house was intended to have a public gallery that also was a permanent runway for thesis fashion designers.
Rendered Perspective
Rendered Perspective
Rendered Perspective
Taxonomy Models
Learning a new craft based on sewing techniques to understand the logic of how the material will work and play amongst itself with tension of a thread. This taxonomy shows the many iterative processes that were used to find specific fold types. By showing the corresponding logic of the threads next to the images of the furrowed fabric the expressions and spacial qualities emerge within the fabric.
Ubiquitous in America
This Wall Section of a ubiquitous home in the United States was a way to familiarize ourselves to the built world through materials. Understanding where we may look to purchase these materials for any sort of building project is necessary for any designer.
Urban Re-development
Renders of redevelopment for the City of Rock Hill to create a more walkable city.
Rock Hill
Perspective Render Collage
Perspective Render Collage
Perspective Render Collage
Light Rail Trail - Community Art Project
Rush
Student Led art installation called Gold Rush to allude to Charlotte's being the first gold rush and to the city's prominence in the banking industry. This is made out of gold spray painted wood members, and gold filmed plastic sheets.
This project took a small team that include Sierra Grant, Sage Duffy, Sarika Merchant, and Rachel Dickey. This installation was an incredible team effort through many design phases up until the opening of the Light Rail Trail. This was placed behind the restaurant Flower Child during the exhibition.
Professional Work
Acrylic
Using
Hardware diagrams that are used in this ongoing project to show where elements of the vessels will be placed around the greenway threshold. This threshold is a starting point on a green pedestrian path through Charlotte.
