Jessica N Luscher RISD Architecture Portfolio 2013

JESSICA N. LUSCHER Rhode Island School of Design / 2 College Street, Box # 092 / Providence RI 02903 814.380.2461 / jluscher@risd.edu / Online at http://issuu.com/jessicaluscher

JESSICA N. LUSCHER Rhode Island School of Design / 2 College Street, Box # 092 / Providence RI 02903 814.380.2461 / jluscher@risd.edu / Online at http://issuu.com/jessicaluscher

I am looking for an entry-level position or internship as a designer in an architecture firm that will allow me to broaden my education as a creative individual as I pursue my career and license as an Architect.

RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN (RISD), Providence, RI RISD Scholarship Program, Honor Roll

HONG KONG UNIVERSITY, Hong Kong Faculty of Architecture, Visiting Student

Bachelor of Architecture Bachelor of Fine Arts 2009-2014 Semester Abroad, BA(AS) Fall 2012

PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR’S SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS, Erie, PA

Architecture, 2008

Scholarship-based Pre-college Summer Program

STATE COLLEGE AREA HIGH SCHOOL, State College, PA High Honors Student, Top 7% of Graduating Class, Debate Team

SKILLS

High School Diploma 2006-2009

PROFESSIONAL / ARCHITECTURE •

•

Internship experience at five separate firms.

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Project Categories: large/small-scale housing, academic, mixed use, laboratory, and interior/refurbishing.

•

Tasks: Competitions, Schematic Design, Design Development, Site Surveial and Analysis, Site and Project Documentation, Facade Design, Layouts/Graphic Design, and Cost Calculations.

•

Digital and physical modeling, parametric modeling/scripting and digital fabrication.

•

OSHA Health and Safety Sertified, on-site small-scale construction experience

Mac and Windows, AutoCAD, Revit, Archicad, Rhino 3D (Grasshopper parametric modeling. basic Python scripting knowledge), Adobe Creative Suite, Lightroom, VRay and VectorWorks.

ACADEMIC / PERSONAL • • • •

Intuitive design and aesthetic sense Strong fundamental knowlede of materials and methods of building, physics and geometry.

Trained in color, composition, layouts and information design.

Ability to learn computer programs quickly and apply them to projects as necessary.

• •

Bilingual German and English. Basic Spanish. USA/Euro Dual Citizen. Past residence in USA, Europe, and Asia.

Hardworking, determined, focused, and self-disciplined. Socially outgoing and collaborative. Logical, organized and thorough researcher. Innovative and resourceful problem solver.

JESSICA N. LUSCHER Rhode Island School of Design / 2 College Street, Box # 093 / Providence RI 02903 814.380.2461 / jluscher@risd.edu / Online at http://issuu.com/jessicaluscherr

DESIGN INTERNSHIPS

PAYETTE ASSOCIATES, Boston, MA, USA

Design Intern, June-August 2013

Translated our project’s facade concept into a parametric script which efficiently modeled variations of the building’s 800+ unique vertical fins for shading. My script’s outputs were shared with our structural consultants, with in-house building scientists and with Payette’s rendering team to discuss structure, lighting quality, and aesthetics.

FISCHER ARCHITEKTEN AG, Zurich, Switzerland

Design Intern, June-August 2012

Worked on a competition entry for a 60-apartment complex in Zurich. Participated in site analysis and initial building concepts, apartment layout design, client profiling, and landscape/garden concepts. Designed the final presentation layout and all necessary schematic diagrams. Detailed final 1:500 contextual plans. Drafted weekly Design Team meetings’ protocol, with German Language proficiency.

BACHELARD WAGNER ARCHITECTS, Basel, Switzerland

Intern, July-August 2011

Built topographic and mass models to assist in landscaping and façade studies for a 7-building, 360-apartment complex planned for Schwamendingen, Zurich Switzerland.

EMCH + BERGER GESAMTPLANUNG HOCHBAU, Basel, Switzerland

Intern, June-July 2011

Developed a book of remodeling concepts for the rooftop condition of a large multi-use facility in Basel. Presented my schematic design ideas to groups including the project’s engineers and owners, in both German and English. These presentations continued after the end of my paid internship.

ZULAUF & SCHMIDLIN ARCHITECTS, Zurich, Switzerland

Summer Intern, 2008

Designed a built-in storage unit for a physiotherapy clinic; measured the office space, completed CAD drawings and models, and held client meetings to discuss her needs and my design ideas.

ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP

TechSTYLE HOUSE, Solar Decathlon Europe 2014, Versailles, France

Student Designer, 2013-Present

Worked as a primary 3D parametric modeling expert on our 100+ student team, communicating our design aesthetic to consultants at Simpson Gumptertz and Heger (Boston) and Saint Gobain (Tensile Fabric Specialists in Germany) to design the structure of our tensile membrane house, with focus on ease of construction and Passiv Haus energy efficiency. Attended weekly Site Operations meetings with Shawmut Construction in RI, to coordinate for when our team will build, display, and deconstruct the house June-July 2014 in Versailles, France.

RISD CAD LAB, Assistant to Technitian, Computer Lab Manager, Providence, RI

Lab Manager, 2013-Present

Hires, trains and coordinates the 27 student computer lab monitors for the RISD Architecture Department. These monitors offer advice to students as they use RISD lab equiptment including computers, large-format scanners and plotters.

RISD DESIGN + BUILD, Blossom Community Garden, Pawtucket, RI Elected by faculty to serve as one of six Project Design Managers of a studio in which 70 RISD students cooperatively designed and built a permanent raised garden and two pavilions for the Pawtucket Community. One of six elected student speakers at the Final Presentation to represent the project in front of the clients, invited town officials, our peers, and seventeen visiting critics.

Student Leader, Spring 2011

Table of Contents Art and Design Samples Fine Art Samples: Painting, Drawing, Woodwork.............................................

Two Complexity and Mobility Studies...................................................

Photography Samples............................................................................

8 10 12

University of Hong Kong: Fall 2012 Mass, Tower, Hill: Concrete Formwork Design for Housing in Hong Kong.................

16

RISD Architecture Program (2010-Present) Architecture of Ground and Sky: Re-imagining the Many Scales of Wine..........

Preliminary Thesis Investigations.........................................................

Solar Decathlon Europe 2014: TechStyle Haus..............................................

Providence Train Station and Hotel.......................................................

Urban Villiage: Reinterpreting the Cohousing Model..........................................

Digital Investigations: Rhino and V-Ray Renderings........................................

Design/Build: Student Leadership.................................................................

28 34 42 46 48 50 54

Summer Internships Payette Associates.................................................................................

Fischer Architekten................................................................................

Emch + Berger Gesamptplanung Hochbau.........................................

Bachelard Wagner Architekten.............................................................

Zulauf & Schmidlin Architekten............................................................

56 60 62 64 65

Art & Design Samples

8 / Section: Art Samples Page 1/3 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

1) A Deconstruction. Oil paint, stitched thread, and magazine clippings on layered canvas (13” x 24”) 2 ) Sleep. Selection from a series of long-exposure photographs tracking sleep patterns, inspired by the Automatic Drawing Movement of the 1920s. (11” x 17”) 3) Violin Box. Stained poplar wood, hand carved ( 8” x 6” x19”)

COMPLEX SURFACE 1

10 / Section: Art Samples pg 2/3 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Paper cones on fabric were used to articulate and document complex curves around Providence.

Instructors emphasize a designer’s need to experiment through making. Constructing and discovering with my hands is integral to my thinking process.

COMPLEX SURFACE 2 Flat stainless steel and aluminum sheets fold up into cubes with high compressive strength. Depending on the direction of the exerted tensile force, the cubes flex to articulate various textures.

12 / Section: Art Samples: Photography / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY Photos taken with Canon Rebel XSi Edited in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom

Photography helps me rapidly remember, reinterpret, and further inhabit the places I study.

14 / Section: Hong Kong Semester Abroad / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

From August to December 2012, I chose to take a temporary leave of absence from RISD in order to study as a visiting student in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong.

There are multiple reasons why I chose this city:

Hong Kong is dynamic and rapidly-developing.

Hong Kong is highly functional, competitive and livable, yet decidedly different urbanistically and culturally from other model cities.

Hong Kong demonthstrates multifaceted, integrated uses of its limited space.

The city’s density, verticality and high level of interconnectivity permeates all scales of its buildings network. The subsequent volumetric organization deeply influences how its inhabitants live and interact.

Living and learning in Hong Kong has made me more flexible intellectually, socially, academically, and in terms of design.

This photograph was taken from a pedestrian overpass on my first day apartment hunting in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Semester Immersion

MASS TOWER AND HILL Concrete Construction for Housing in Hong Kong

16 / Section: Hong Kong Semester Abroad / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

This project was carried out in cooperaton with a 3rd Year BA(AS) student at the University of Hong Kong, Kelly Ziqi Zhao.

Though an indepth an alysis of Tunneling Formwork, we aimed to design an innovative construction system for insitu cast concrete housing projects. The effective, economical formwork precedent was pushed to overcome its spatial limitations.

The final structural system was applied to a hypothetical site, simulating the steep, varried terrain common in Hong Kong.

Precedent: Tunneling Formwork Room sized structural steel forms are aligned side-by-side to cast the walls and floor slabs of a building as a monolithic structure in a continuous pour. This form system brings speed, quality and accuracy to concrete construction. The reusable formwork is optimal for largescale housing projects with repeating floorplans.

Concrete Formwork Our tunneling system is based on a specific set of five modular units, which can be arranged to cast our spatial combinations.

Project Goals in Diagram The three main goals of our design investigation of tunneling formwork are detailed below.

Terracing of Units adapts to a sloped site. it creates views and outdoor space at the unit level.

Splitlevels and Connections creates varying spatial dialogues and scales and masks the repetitive building piece.

A continuous load path maintains structural efficiency despite spatial variance.

18 / Section: Hong Kong Semester Abroad / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

18 / Section: Art Samples Project 1/2 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Plan AA

The aggregation of formwork, cast insitu, creates a range of possible apartment relationships.

20 / Section: Hong Kong Semester Abroad / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Unit Formation and Sectional Circulation Logic in Three Steps

Units are created out of groups of 3 splitlevel spaces between corridors (corridors in yellow).

Splitlevel units create redundancy in circulation.

Corridors are reduced to every three floors.

Unit 1: 185 m2 + patio

Unit Examples Apartment Section

Upper Two Splitlevels Plan 1:100

Lower / Entrance Floor Plan 1:100

Unit 2: 88 m2 + patio

Apartments absorb this redundant circulation, allowing unit expansion and variability.

Unit 3: 69 m2 + patio

Alternatively, the spaces become double-height building voids for crossventilation and sunlight.

Splitlevel apartments are aggregated around hallways, which occur every three floors (in yellow).

22 / Section: Hong Kong Semester Abroad / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Process

LEFT: The models below were constructed in order to investigate various design concerns including mold-making techniques, casting proceedures, concrete properties, various spatial ideas, module aggregation, and site integration.

RIGHT: These are our drawings and models as presented for discussion at the end of the semester.

The final concrete model was cast in 19-stages in order to represent a 9-story structure.

(60 x 60 x 40cm)

24 / Section: RISD Architecture / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

RISD Architecture

Silvia Acosta, S 2013

Advanced Studio: Re-imagining the Many Scales of Wine

David Gersten, F 2013

Preliminary Thesis Investigations Solar Decathlon Europe 2014

Johnathan Knowles, F 2013

Advanced Studio: A Train Station in the Urban Context of Providence, RI Urban Design Principles: Three Types of Housing in Providence, RI Digital Investigations: Explorations with Rhino and Vray Architectural Design Principles: Design and Build Garden

James Barnes, S 2012 Ann Tate, F 2011 Peter Dorsey, S 2011 Adrienne Benz, S 2011

26 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 1/6 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

ARCHITECTURE OF GROUND AND SKY Cinematic Manipulation for Constructed Understanding Advanced Studio: Re-imagining the Many Scales of Wine, Silvia Acosta, Spring 2013 The Architecture is built to register the visitor within the surrounding landscape. Through natural and constructed datum lines, the architecture frames landscape, extends landscape, and provides varying understanding of time, scale, and material in the vineyard.

The farmers market is constructed for the Ground.

The greenhouse is for the Sky.

28 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 1/6 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

The farmer’s market is constructed for the ground.

Farmers Market Cross Section facing South

Restaurant Section and Farmers Market Elevation Facing West

An earth berm holds the foundation for the cantilevered roof of the farmer’s market. The gentle rise and fall of the berm along the structure’s length allows each cantilevered beam to rise or fall with the changing height of its earth restraint. A large amphitheater space becomes an expansion space for the market, as well as a flexible location for outdoor music festivals hosted by the winery and adjacent vineyard restaurant.

30 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 1/6 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Greenhouse Longitudinal Section Facing East

The greenhouse is constructed for the sky.

Greenhouse Plan

Greenhouse Roof Structural Diagram in Section

From the greenhouse entrance, the vineyard sky is framed by an ellipse. The natural horizon line is eliminated and individuals are left alone with the expanse of the moving sky. However, as one walks along the edge path of the greenhouse, the path slopes upwards, rising above the framing ellipse and reconnecting individuals with the horizon line at the other side of the structure. These two vantage points help visitors understand their place within the vineyard environment (see perspective images).

2

4

1

3

BREATH OF THE MOUNTAIN: A VOICE FOR EACH HOUSE Preliminary Thesis Investigations, Process Work

32 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 1/6 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Thesis Prepatory Seminar Thesis Advisor

Professor Lena Georas Professor David Gersten

Phase 1: Organ Pipes (1.06.2014- 1.22.14) Over the past four years, I have been repeatedly mentally and physically drawn back to a rock house located high within the Swiss Alps. This is one of three houses scattered across this otherwise desolate mountain range.

Responding to the site’s in the varying atmospheric and wind conditions, I designed a set of metal organ pipes, to be built into the roof of each rock house.

When the wind rolls up the mountain from the valley below, the pipes will voice the wind from the roof of each house.

The calls, infrequent, unpredicable and faint, carry across the mountain bowl, through the lowering light and frequent storms,. They create a soundscape, compressing distance between people and places.

Metal Me M eta tall or organ rg ga an pipe p pipes, ipes, s,, b s built uiilt u lt iinto ntto the tth he ro roo roof oof of o off e ea each ach ch e existing xist xi stin ing m mo mounounou un u ntain catch wind on the mountain ta ain lodge, lod dge ge, ca c atch tc ch th the ew wi ind nd o n tth he mo m ou un nta tain n and an nd d provide pro rovviiid de de each house with unique pitch. ea e ach h ouse ou s w se itth a un niq ique ue ttone ue o e and on and p pi itc tch h..

The Th T he voices v ic vo ices e o es off th tthe e th tthree re ee is isol isolated olat ated ed h houses ou us se es in in tthe he m he mountain ou o un nttai ta aiin bowl bo b owl wl p permeate e meat er me eat a e tth the he sh s shifting iffting tiing c clouds, l ud lo uds, s c creating re eat atin ing in g a so soun soundscape, und un nds dsca cap cape pe e, compressing people and places. c co mpre mp r ss re s in ing g distance dist di sa st an nce e between bet e we ween en p eopl eo pea pl an nd p pl lac ces s.

Organs and Organs: Call and Response The wooden organ pipes above (22� to 48�) were built and handed to critics and audience members at one of my benchmark critiques. The playful, inquisitive and communicative dialogue which followed connected individuals and became a piece unto itself.

34 / Section: RISD Architecture Preliminary Thesis Work / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Phase 2: Stillness and Motion (1.22.14 -2.07.14) “Architecture is the archive, the collector, machine and instrument.

It captures, holds, and tells, for it is at once a structure and a ruin, haunted by a storied past and a potenial future. We imagine its life, reciprocal to our own, and anticipate the motion from its present stillness.�

This machine was developed to further personify and utilize the wind at the roof of the Rock House, this time as a source for mechanical energy.

During our thesis exhibition, the wind machine was dormant. The tactile potential energy of the wind machine in this state, its potential to transform, alluded to a past life and a potential future.

Similarly, the photographs of the wind machine capture a thin place within motion, from which one can imagine the 4th dimension.

**These four pages represent preliminary thesis investigations executed during the first four weeks of 2014. For more current work, please see my personal website.

TECHSTYLE HAUS

36 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 6/7 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

36 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 2/4 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd jluscher@risd..edu edu

Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 The Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and Germany’s University of Applied Sciences Ehrfurt (FHE) have united to design and build the first-ever Solar Decathlon entry to incorporate a complete textile enclosure. The house, built to Passivhaus energy standards and powered exclusively by solar power, is being built first in Providence and then in Versailles, France for the 2014 Solar Decathlon competition.

MY LEADERSHIP: Structural Construction Detailing Detailed the required structural sections, footing plan, framing plan, structural floor plan, structural roof plan, and structural details for the Design Development deadline for submission to Solar Decathlon Europe.

3D Parametric Modeler Worked closely with consultants at Simpson Gumpertz and Heger (Boston) and Saint Gobain (Tenside Fabric Specialists in Germany) as a primary 3d parametric modeling expert on our 100+ student team, communicating our design aesthetics and needs to find the best spatial and structureal solution for our house’s tensile membrane enclosure.

Construction Coordination Attended weekly meetings with Shawmut Construction in Rhode Island to coordinate Site Operations for when our team will build, display, and deconstruct the house in JuneJuly 2014 in Versailles, France.

ABOVE: Current Renderings of our tensile membrane design and photos of the mock-up house, currently in construction in a warehouse in Providence, Rhode Island.

ABOVE: My script’s outputs were used to discuss the desired shape of our tensile structure with our structural engineers and tensile membrane consultants.

BELOW: These drawings are part of our structural drawing set, drawn by me and submitted on behalf of our team at the end of Design Development.

TRAIN STATION in the Urban Context of

Providence, RI City Threshold Historical Reference Providence Icon for Identity Commercial Enterprise Hub Until 1850, Providence had the largest train station in the United States

The Train is an important element of Providence’s industrial history.

In 1850, due to heavy reliance on industry, Providence had the largest rairoad station in the United States. When industry diminished, the train was relocated out of the city and was replaced by the automobile.

RI Statehouse

Current Station

The Train has potential to revitalize modern Providence.

As car travel becomes less affordable, the train makes Providence more accessible to commuters. It connects Providence to an extensive network of cities in the northeast, including Boston and New York City. Ease of access increases exchange and makes Providence a much more attractive place to live.

Pre-1950 Station

In 1950, the Providence Train Station was downsized and relocated away from downtown.

NEW N EW URBAN URBAN P PLAN LAN

38 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 3/7 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

RISD Arch Advanced Studio, Professor James Barnes, Spring 2012

Downtown Providence Proposed Station Providence Mall

EXISTING CONDITION

Mall

Old Station

Urban Plan

RI Statehouse

40 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 3/7 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Gradient West to East from public commercial to low-rise residential (blue). To the west, housing blocks at higher density retain 1st floor mixed use space.

Providence Place Mall

Train Station

Larger Arterial Roads are connected by smaller feeder streets.

Waterfront

Downtown

Permanent Trolley Line runs from the Kennedy Plaza bus terminal to connect the mall, train station, and residential zones of the district.

Complementary Streets

Pedestrian Zone

Taking advantage of the bustling train station and the activity on Francis Street, the stores and restaurants on the Pedestrian Parallel create a walking-safe area that links the state house lawn and the park surrounding the Providence waterway and downtown.

Why is the Pedestrian Parallel deflected in a way that prevents it from framing the statehouse axially?

The ambling turn of my Pedestrian Parallel allows the monumental Statehouse to be slowly discovered by curious pedestrians. This contrasts Francis Street, which already forms an axial relationship and frames the building. Based on the speed of traffic in these locations, each street has a unique character and approach to the State House.

Station, Mixed Use, and Hotel

4-story row houses, with mixed use first story

“Pedestrian Parallel�

Providence Mall

Francis Street

42 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 3/7 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Tr Tra ac in ks

N

Floor 2: Conference Center with Ballroom

Floor 4-7: Typical Hotel Floor

Floor 3: Hotel Lobby, Restaurant, and Upper Ballroom

Hotel Ground Floor: Train Station Hall, Bus Terminal, MixedUse Commercial

SITE CONCEPT: Train Tracks as a Reorientation Within the City The massing of the station hall above the tracks expresses the powerful axis of moving trains below and imparts this energy to the cityscape.

Original Concept Sketch

Transport Interchange T

The new Providence Train Station reinstates itself as a center of urban life.

{

{

Automobile Commuter Congestion Environmental Pollution

Activity Hub

CREATES AN

Extended Hours of Business Heightened Pedestrian Traffic Diverse User Groups

FOSTERS

Public Platform FOR

City Events Political Podium Activism Advertising Blood Drives

PROGRAM CONCEPT: Train Reintegration Through Train Building’s Diverse User Groups

Downtown

Hotel

2nd Floor conference rooms benefit travelers and the hotel and allow views into the train station.

Conference Center

Taxi Pickup

Waterfront Train Platforms

Hotel Elevators

44 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 3/7 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

INCLUDING

REDUCES S

Surrounding

Mixed Use Development

Transport Transit Hotel Retail Restaurants Conference Center

Hallways upstairs allow views into the train hall.

Double-height ballroom and lobby area connect into the hotel restaurant.

The terraced north end of the building provides spectacular views of the Rhode Island State House.

Statehouse Restaurant

Hotel Lobby Lobby

Ballroom

Bus Terminal

This section was handdrdrafted and inked for the final critique at 1/8th� scale.

N The open ground floor axially connects the train station (south) and the bus terminal (north).

URBAN VILLAGE: Cohousing Model Reinterpreted

46 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 4/7 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

RISD Urban Design Principles. Professor Anne Tate Fall 2011

Considering an urban context in post-industrial Providence, I was asked to design housing in proximity to Brown University’s Medical School.

50 dorm units for medical students, 50 units of Faculty Hotel 50 units of elderly living.

The diverse groups of residents addressed in this project have all been displace from previous living arrangements to some extent. Thus, attention was placed on designing living arrangements that would encourage social interactions and allow residents to develop a sense of community.

I designed two apartment blocks that integrate housing for the elderly, graduate students, and families of medical students and young faculty.

The floorplan aims to promote cooperative familystyle living (unit description continued on next page).

Bedrooms. Each unit has between one and three bedrooms.

Pairs of Units are grouped around front porch spillout areas, which encourage the hallway to become an active, inhabited space.

Unit Section Through Shared Dining Room

48 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 4/7 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Each Unit Quad shares a common dining and living room, which have the option of expanding into the kitchen and living spaces of the two larger apartment units.

A Shared Atrium rises through the center of the building, uniting the Unit Quads.

Private Room

Shared Space

Section through Building Atrium

2nd Floor

N

Units become more private on the top two floors, after the middle atrium is capped. The four central apartment units expand, absorbing the center portion of the double loaded corridor that is continuous on floors one and two. This creates larger units with increased privacy.

3rd Floor

4th Floor

DIGITAL INVESTIGATIONS RISD Arch Digital Representation, Professor Peter Dorsey, Spring 2011

50 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 5/7 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

RISD Architecture promotes using the computer not only as a mechanism for representation, but also as a tool for creativity and design investigation.

This course focused on Rhinoceros 3-D modeling software and Vray rendering software. The course also covered the Adobe Creative Suite, AutoCAD, and introduces the Rhino Grasshopper Plug-in.

BLOSSOM: designBUILD

52 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 7/7 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

52 / Section: RISD Architecture Project 2/4 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd jluscher@risd..edu edu

RISD Architectural Design Principles, Professor Adrienne Benz, Spring 2011

In this 12-week studio, 70 RISD students designed, then constructed a public garden and two open-air pavilions for the Chinese Christian Church of Rhode Island. Beginning with individual work, we formed groups of four, then twelve, then twenty-four, and finally, seventy students, in order to merge ideas.

We had an amazing experience working closely with real clients, seeing our project realized as a full scale, and learning how much detail was required to complete it. I learned an incredible amount about teamwork, communication, organization, and leadership.

LEADERSHIP: Design Phase Project Manager 1 out of 6 total students chosen by faculty to act as team leaders during the design phase of the semester.

Project Documentation Head 1 out of 6 students chosen by faculty to organize photography, video, and presentation design for the project.

Final Presentation Speaker 1 out of 6 students chosen by faculty to present the finished project to the client, the town, our peers, and seventeen visiting critics.

The images on this page show my personal idea sketches for the project, along with models constructed by my first 4-person design team.

Images on this page depict various stages of the project’s construction, along with images of both permanent pavilions after completion.

I was born in Zurich and moved to the United States when I was eight years old. Returning to Switzerland for summer architecture internships in Zurich, Basel and B aden has been a great way for me to maintain my German language skills and stay in touch with my birth country, while gaining valuable work experience in exciting and busy design environments.

I have also had the wonderful opportunity to work for Payette Associates in Boston, Massachusetts during Summer 2013.

During my five summer internships, I have worked on a variety of projects, ranging from designs for large and small-scale residential projects to small-scale interior renovation work; from designs for retrofitted multi-use buildings to designs for highly controlled scientific research environments.

Summer Internships

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56 / Section: Internship 1/5 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

PAYETTE ASSOCIATES, Boston, Massachusetts, USA During my summer with Payette I participated in the Schematic Design and Design Development phases of one of the firm’s most exciting current projects, an interdisciplinary scientific research building for Northeastern University in Boston. After building a detailed sectional model of the building at 1/8” scale, I translated the project’s facade concept into an extensive

Architecture Intern, June-August 2013 parametric script which efficiently modeled variations of the building’s 800+ unique vertical fins for shading. The variable outputs of my script were used to begin a dialogue with Arup (our structural consultants), along with in-house building scientists and Payette’s rendering team, in order to discuss structural issues, lighting quality, and aesthetics.

PAYETTE ASSOCIATES, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Architecture Intern, June-August 2013

58 / Section: Internship 2/5 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

FISCHER ARCHITEKTEN AG, Zurich, Switzerland During this three-month internship I worked with a team on a competition entry for a 60-apartment complex in Zurich. I participated in all design phases from site analysis and initial building concepts to apartment layout design, client profling, and landscape/garden concepts. I was in

Design Intern, June-August 2012 charge of designing the final presentation layout and illustrating all necessary schematic diagrams. I detailed the final 1:500 contextual plans.

During Design Team meetings, I drafted the weekly protocol with German Language proficiency.

60 / Section: Internship 2/5 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

I was put in charge of the graphic representation of the building’s context at 1:500 (final drawing pictured to the right). The garden plan was integral to the overall concept of the apartment block, “my house is my castle in a green oasis. ”

FISCHER ARCHITEKTEN AG, Zurich, Switzerland

Design Intern, June-August 2012

The layout that I designed for the final project presentation (6 landscape A0-size boards) is meant to graphically reiterate the building’s undulating facade concept, which helps give the apartments their unique identities and gives the project an address.

FISCHER ARCHITEKTEN AG, Zurich, Switzerland

Design Intern, June-August 2012

Emch+Berger AG

62 / Section: Internship 3/5 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Gesamtplanung Hochbau

EMCH + BERGER GESAMPTPLANUNG HOCHBAU, Basel, Switzerland During my summer internship, Emch + Berger was coordinating the massive renovation of a large multi-use facility in a suburb of Basel. I was put in charge of photo-documenting a section of the building’s rooftop which originally held a covered swimming pool, a fitness center, a small 90-seat auditorium, and multiple garden terraces.

Summer Intern, 2011

I was asked to develop a series of remodeling concepts for this portion of the project, which I then presented through manual and digital sketches in powerpoint and printed book formats to groups of outside professionals, including the project’s engineers and owners, in order to facilitate a dialogue regarding possibile design options. My presentations were conducted in both English and German.

By the end of the summer, we had decided on the final remodeling concept for the space, which centered around a new, 300-seat auditorium to replace the covered swimming pool and fitness center. With the addition of now supporting program, the new auditorium would complement the programs that were planned for the lower floors.

In one final meeting after the completion of my internship, I proposed the VectorWorks drawings on the right to the project’s owners and engineers, as two variations of the remodel. Both of these were pronounced feasible, depending on future decisions regarding budget.

64 / Section: Internship 4 and 5/5 / Jessica Luscher / RISD 2014 / jluscher@risd.edu

Basel, Switzerland Summer Intern, 2011 I built topographic and building mass models to assist in landscaping and facade studies for a 7-building development containing 360 apartments, planned for Schwamendingen, Zurich, Switzerland.

During this internship, I was given the lead role in a project to design a built-in storage unit for a physiotherapy practice. The project included visiting the office space with the client and again to take measurements for CAD drawings and models. Multiple meetings were held with the client to discuss their needs and my design ideas.

JESSICA N. LUSCHER Rhode Island School of Design / 2 College Street, Box # 93 / Providence RI 02903 814.380.2461 / jluscher@risd.edu / Online at http://issuu.com/jessicaluscher