kayla stock
architecture portfolio
water harvest bath house
The purpose of this project was to design a building on the banks of a river/ waterfall in Deckertown Falls, NY. The site is steep and unaccessible to the elderly, children, and people with disabilities. The design is meant to provide a space that will allow those that can’t acces the site with a similar experience through architecture. However, the architecture should not take away from the beauty of the natural surroundings or hinder the experiece of people that want to experience the site around the structure. Water Harvest Bath House is designed around three main concepts: materiality, sustainability, and the user’s experience.
PRIVATE
hot tubs/ baths
sauna/ steam rooms
yoga/ exercise studio
bathrooms
offices/ classrooms bathrooms cafe reception
pool
PUBLIC
locker rooms
The left side of the site is more private with spas, a yoga studio, and saunas. This side is quieter for people to focus on mindfulness and peace. The right side is more public with two large community pools, restaurant space, and classrooms so encourage interaction with others.
MATERIALITY The goal was to create cohesion throughout the architecture with material. Wood was choosen as the material because it is a natural material that blends into the heavily wooded site. Also, taking inspiration from Japanese architecture where wood is a prevalent building material for its ability to evoke calmness and serenity in a culture that practices Buddhism and meditation. According to research of the nine most common tree species for timber in the state of New York, the timbers with the best price, durability, workability, and sustainability were beech, cherry, spruce, and white pine trees. Those four species were mapped throughout New York and based on proximity to site and appearance, the white pine timber was choosen as the primary material of the structure (displayed in the renderings). SUSTAINABILITY The primary focus of the project was the collection and reuse of rainwater. The architecture was formed around this idea through the sloped roofs and location of the water collection pools. This system was choosen for this specific site because of the high precipitaion in the Ithica area year-round and to combat the high water usage of the site due to multiple pools, hot tubs, and showers. First, water is collected off the roof and drains into pipes where it is then filtered underground, next the water is transfered to a holding pool where it is either pumped back up to the building where it can be used for pools, toilet water, bath water, etc. Or the water is discarded into the well in the case of overflow. The water holding pools are exposed to highlight this quality of the design and to contrast the rainwater pools to the larger swimming water pools, rather that hiding the water holding pools below ground. USER’S EXPERIENCE The goal was for the space to be primarily outdoors, therefore all circulation through space takes place on outdoor ramps to evoke calmness and a connection to nature. Each building placement is determined by which areas of the site are flattest to minimize disruption to the environment.
System model contrasting the rain water from the roofs and rain water pools to the filter water in swimming pools and hot tubs.
creekside youth hostel
The youth hostel is sited in downtown Syracuse, New York near a creek and public walking trail. The plan of the building was influenced by the uniqueness of the site and from a previous study on movement and space.
The facade of the building bends to the shape of the trail in order to not disrupt this public space. Additionally, the roof is extruded to highlight the path of the natural water feature below. Since located in a very public place, a coffee shop was incorporated into the first floor of the building for public and visitor use. The seating area is used for both cafe seating and dining purposes for the kitchen just down the hall.
SUN PATTERNS SUMMER SOLSTICE
WINTER SOLSTICE, 12PM
sun is lower in the sky during the winter the southern facade receives the most direct sunlight
SUMMER SOLSTICE, 12PM WINTER SOLSTICE
sunlight enters dining hall through the skylight and large south facing windows. this space takes the most advantage of the direct southern sunlight because such a large space would require a lot of artificial lighting. optimizing natural daylight helps reduce energy use.
SUMMER 3PM SUMMER 11AM
WINTER 3PM WINTER 11AM
sun is higher in the sky during the summer. the upper balcony and souther facade will receive the most direct sunlight
The building responds to the environment by utilizing natural daylight through skylights which minimizes the need for artificial lighting. The incorporation of skylights also informed the geometries of the facade. However, since windows are also contributors to heat loss during the winter and heat gain during the summer, windows are avoided in places where they are not needed, like the bathrooms, and the light coming into the single person rooms are filtered through an array of small metal columns. An important part of the design was to optimize outdoor space. People love to take advantage of the outdoors here during the warmer months, so each single person bedroom is complete with a small balcony. Along with a balcony just outside the library and 3rd floor. Syracuse recieves a large percentage of precipitation and that is why each balcony is either fully covered or partially covered.
exhibition pavilion
The purpose of the pavilion is to exhibit three chairs of historical significance by crafting a sequencial experience through design. The pavilion sits on a 96x96 ft site and entered at the southeast corner. Each chair is displayed on an individual pedestal. The three chairs exhibited in the pavillion are the LCW chair by Charles Eames, the B3 chair by Marcel Breuer, and the Donald Judd chair. The concrete structure is intended to contrast the light wood materials of the LCW Chair and Donald Judd Chair, along with the metal and dark leather of the B3 chair. Only two materials were used throughout as to not take away from exibition. Just as art museums do not have decorative or curvelinear walls that take away from the art, this pavillion is composed of straight, rectangular surfaces and cohesive materials.
The diagram demonstrates the relationships between elements of the pavilion. The pavilion fits within a square shape. The red vertical and horizontal lines through the center of the square both intersect through the center of the chair displays. The light blue lines convey that the concrete walls are parallel and the dark blue lines show a similar relationship between the vertical wood elements.
Concept models used to display initial ideas.
topography and structure This three part project started with the research of a landform, then a case study of a house that responds well to site, lastly key concepts from the research of the first two stages were combined into a design project. The first stage of the project was to research an atoll. An atoll is a ring-shaped island formed from a former volcano. They typically form in chain of multiple atolls. The diagram on the top right diagrams a chain of atolls that form the Maldives. As climate change worsens and sea levels rise, the atolls will grow further apart from eachother which is diagramed by the blue circles. The diagram below shows materiality and depth of a single atoll. The second stage of the project was to research the House in Monsaraz by Aires Mateus. The key details of the house which are highlighted in the diagrams of the following page are the solid vs. void spaces and how natural light circulates the house.
Losand/ocean floorm ipsum
Lotropical pacific plantsm ipsum
Locoral reefm ipsum
Locoral sand and limestone ipsum
Lovolcanic rock
lagoon
10 km
The final stage of the project references the round and chain-like nature of an atoll. The continuous rings around the circles that differ in height mimic the differation in depth and materiality of an atoll. The House in Monsaraz is shown with the concrete materiality and thickness of structure. Along with the structure to ground connection and circular skylight openings.
SPECULATIVE AXONOMETRIC