Architecture Portfolio

LAUREN FISCHER PORTFOLIO 2024

table of contents 1. the cute big box 4-9

2. building analysis 10-11

3. bigness 12-15

4. fine arts I 16-17

5. accesory dwelling unit 18-21

6. dream house 22-25

7. chair 26-27

8. fine arts II 28-29

9. the magic lamp 30-33

10. corner/center 34-37

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CV Lauren Fischer lfischer101@gmail.com lauren.fischer@tufts.edu

education

Tufts University (2020-2024) BA in Architectual Studies Minor in Urban Studies Minor in Museums, Memory and Heritage Senior Honors Thesis: the TechnoArchitectural Object in Grand Central Terminal (2024) Speaker at the Boston Visual Culture Consortium Undergraduate Art History Symposium: Crossing the Collection: the Art Museum in Animal Crossing (upcoming April 2024)

work

Boston Landmarks Commission (2022) Landmark and district cataloging, research (MACRIS), and photography Recipient of Tufts Career Center Summer Grant Tisch Library (2021-2024) Student Lead at front desk assisting patrons and managing material loans

extracurricular

Future Histories Literary Magazine (2021-2024) Co-chair/Head of Art and Design managing production of semesterly literary and arts magazine (view) Tufts Architecture Society (2023-2024) member, event coordinator Hobbies: origami, sudoku, skteching, attending art history/academic lectures (Tufts, GSD, MIT, NESAH)

programs

Autodesk (AutoCAD, Inventor, 3dsmax) Rhino Revit Adobe (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) ArcGIS Microsoft suite 3

1. the cute big box FAH 0097: Adv. Architectural Design | The Big Dumb Box (2023) Rhino, Photoshop Theories and practices on cuteness in architecture is a topic rarely explored, and cute buildings far and few between.

Furniture, clothes, objects, interiors; but also music, color, place. If all of these can be cute, then where are the cute buildings?

There are many potential reasons as to why cute buildings are not a common typology, but one is likely due to the fact that buildings are just big, and cuteness associated more with smallness.

The big box is the pinnacle of an anti-cute structure; it’s sheer size overwhelms the human scale, it’s depths discomforting, it’s shell hollow.

But what if a building could embrace both cuteness and a big boxiness? I wanted to design a building that did not use cuteness to combat the big box (or vice versa), but one that embraced both qualities.

I started with those characteristics that cuteness and the big box share: namely, their flatness and scaled proportions.

The big box struggles to be cute because the proportion between the building and the human is too large to harmonize instead, I designed a warehouse whose “occupants” are semi-trucks, and their doors and walkways scaled appropriately.

Circulation and navigation, generally tricky for the drivers of semis, is easier and pleasant — things not necessarily cute, but whose lack is not cute.

lauren fischer / the cute big box

Thus, cuteness is not a matter of form alone (proportion, curve, color), but the framework through which this building’s program is realized.

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intervention | elevation

intervention | plan

lauren fischer / the cute big box

site

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movement

elevation

photo

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lauren fischer / the cute big box

interior

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collage

site | ground floor

site | upper floor

photo | detail

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2. building analysis FAH 0097: Adv. Architectural Design | The Big Dumb Box (2023) Rhino A design/material analysis of the front facade of 2443 Massachussetts Avenue, Cambridge. Pattern and color disguise the asymmetries of building and site.

lauren fischer / building analysis

material

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spacing

section

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3. bigness

lauren fischer / bigness

FAH 0097: Adv. Architectural Design | The Big Dumb Box (2023) Rhino An imagined building/city that is infinitely expandable, defined by “rooms” and “halls”. There are a set number of room types, to which all programs must conform. Both rooms and halls facilitate and restrict access; large, cross-shaped walls intersect the grid at its topography, mirroring the way that real city grids must either concede to preexisting landscape or change it, while passage throughout individual rooms provides shortcuts and byways.

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lauren fischer / bigness

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gather

focus

meditate

pray

divide

die

vignettes 15

4. fine arts I AP Studio Art: Drawing (2020)

lauren fischer / fine arts

9” x 12” oil paint on canvas

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24” x 30” oil paint on canvas

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5. accesory dwelling unit FAH 0096: Architectural Design (2023) AutoCAD, Photoshop ADU for a house in Medford, MA that provides yard space and privacy for all occupants by bisecting the yard and placing ADU windows outwards instead of towards the main house. The design of the ADU is meant to invoke the sensation of sinking underwater and looking towards the surface.

lauren fischer / accesory dwelling unit

axonometric

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model

section

diagram | movement

diagram | light

site usage

plan 19

lauren fischer / accesory dwelling unit

window

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building concept

door

building concept 21

6. dream house FAH 0092: From Drawing to Building (2022) AutoCAD A house reflexive of its surrounding landspace in material and arrangement.

A series of skylights and large windows opens the home up to its surroundings, and the rooms cascade downwards from the main entrance, following the slope of the hill it sits on.

site

lauren fischer / dream house

sketch

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elevation

section

exploded axonometric

plan 23

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lauren fischer / dream house

collage

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7. chair FAH 0096: Architectural Design (2023) AutoCAD A chair/stool designed for multiple modes of sitting: sitting in the chair backwards accomodates and provides support for slouching forwards whilst working.

lauren fischer / chair

axonometric

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model

elevation

model

draft 27

8. fine arts II

lauren fischer / fine arts

AP Studio Art: Drawing (2020) DRWM: Drawing: Mixed Media (2022) FAH 0092: From Drawing to Building (2022)

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12” x 24” oil paint on canvas

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9. the magic lamp EC 0018: Computer Aided Design (2022) AutoCAD, 3dsmax A miniature wizard’s tower contained within a lamp.

lauren fischer / the magic lamp

axonometric

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interior render

exterior

interior render

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side panel detail

lauren fischer / the magic lamp

upper panel detail

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panel dimension

lamp fiixture

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10. corner/center

lauren fischer / corner/center

FAH 0097: Adv. Architectural Design | The Big Dumb Box (2023) Rhino An invesitgation into and extrapolation from the decorative corner piece of door trims. the mass-manufactured, idyosyncratically- employed block, in the monumental scale, transforms from surface covering into the form of the building itself.

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collection

lauren fischer / corner/center

collage

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column model

axonometric

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thanks for reading!

Lauren Fischer lfischer101@gmail.com