Madison Tousaw | Architecture Portfolio

MADISON TOUSAW PORTFOLIO OF ARCHITECTURAL WORKS

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As future architects, it’s important to remind ourselves of our role in society. As makers of spaces, we have a social responsibility to create better places for the communities we design in. One statement from a final review that has really stuck with me is that we must be “optimistic without shying away from difficult questions.” I continue to keep this idea in mind as I speculate on the potential of each new project. We may not be able to solve all the world’s problems, but by having these larger issues of socio-economic inequalities and public needs in our minds, we can do our best to help the communities in which we build our ideas.

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WEAVING IN WELLNESS

Urban Housing and Public Commons in the Lower East Side

RE-USE | RE-CONNECT

Building Back Community and Resilient Spaces for Buffalo

BREAKING BOUNDARIES Penn Museum Archive Extension

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Cabinet Design/Build Installation

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Public Exhibition, Water Treatment Facility and Data Center

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STRATIGRAPHIC VESTIGE

EMBEDDED SEAMS

SHIFTING PANEL PROTOTYPE

Design/Build Seminar with Next Generation Concrete

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CO-LIVING GARDENS

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KINDERGARTEN IN KANATA

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A Mixed-Generation Residence to Combat Loneliness

Early Education Center in Ottawa’s Suburbs

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Chair Design and Prototype Workshop

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WEAVING IN WELLNESS

Urban Housing and Public Commons in the Lower East Side The Sunshine Theatre has a long history of acting as a public space for the Lower East Side Community, not just as a theatre but also as a boxing arena. These programs have created a very closed in building, and that’s where this project seeks to flip its past and redefine the space to be transparent and open.

The goal of this project seeks to weave in a place of refuge within the dense urban grid of New York City. A new soft and transparent architectural form opens a new urban threshold into a community space dedicated to wellness. This past year we have watched as a pandemic highlighted racial and economic injustices across the United States. This project breaks down physical and social barriers that respond to those inequities by developing a space for anyone in the community to feel comfortable with engaging for both physical and mental health services regardless of their socio-economic status.

University of Pennsylvania STUDIO 601: Instructed by Hina Jamelle

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Ground Floor Plan

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Residential Floor Plan

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Public Entrance The spaces are informed by a curvilinear grid influenced by the character-defining arch, pushing the boundaries of the existing structure. This new strategy of the shifted weave defines the forms that create the unique environments and comforting public space as well as the creation of spaces for wellness across all levels of the residential tower. In order to bring up the idea of wellness through the whole building, the residential plans shift to make room for double height spaces. These spaces can be appropriated by the residents and community for a range of activities including, but not limited to, workout classes and nutrition classes or group therapy and AA meetings focusing on both mental and physical wellness of the occupants.

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Facade Detail

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ADA Unit Plan

Studio Unit Plan

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RE-USE | RE-CONNECT

Building Back Community and Resilient Spaces for Buffalo

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As we’ve learned, global migration continues to grow with each new storm. Entire communities find themselves transposed in a new and unfamiliar location. The nature of resettlement can be both socially and economically complicated. Buffalo has both experience in housing refugees throughout the city as well as a location that will prevent it from experiencing extreme climate shifts. Understanding this future scenario of climate migration in comparison to the city’s current resources, we can begin to develop a path forward to ensure a prepared arrival city.

Our proposal begins to look at a model of development that utilizes existing community assets and makes them multi-functional in order to be accessible and usable by more people for longer periods of time. Through various scales of development from the individual, groups of individuals to municipal intervention, collaborative ownership over these spaces creates a development that ensures continued support. By sharing these resources the inventory becomes larger for the increased population, ensuring a continued high quality of life.

Partner: Olivia Xu University of Pennsylvania STUDIO 501: Instructed by Matthijs Bouw

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Blue/Green Corridor Allocation

Strengthened Blue/Green Infrastructure System Connection

Community Space Enhancement Municipal

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Groups of Individuals

Individual

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Summer

Winter

1/4” = 1’-0” Physical Model Phase 1 Bus Shelter

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Shelter Materiality

Snow Application

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Community Flex Space

Green Insulation

Phase 2 Building Re-Use

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Bus Shelter

Sharable Residential

Interior Public Connection and Flex Space In the interest of adapting existing assets, the old Barcalo Manufacturing Complex facility is re-purposed for current needs. These light industrial buildings were a big employer until de-industrialization hit in the 50s/60s. The reuse of the building retains the historic character for the neighborhood and allows for new community connections and vistas within.

The grid system of the existing structure allows for flexibility within the spaces. Currently planned for office, a restaurant, small grocer, light manufacturing, residential, retail and pharmacy, but as with the landscape, the interior spaces are multipurpose that can grow and develop with the changing needs of the community. Within the building - Public gathering space can also be used for lectures or learning events, pop up retail and small business markets or an expansion to a full service grocery. Residential rooms can be tradable to create larger units, and smaller units allow for interior space of shareable large dining, leisure and other amenity spaces.

Courtyard Histories

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Typical Residential Plan

Interior Public Connection and Flex Space New cuts and curves into the building structure create pockets of green or community space, and opens sight lines through the entire building. Glazing is highlighted in the cut courtyard of the building to highlight to the community both the historic industrial programming of the building but also showcase where small resilience interventions for their community can be seen being made.

At a smaller scale, one the resiliency interventions includes the design of a bus shelter. The design is intended to be made of reclaimed and recycled materials such as wood, concrete blocks, and steel, that create a new type of landmark for the area. Each shelter helps shade in the summer and protect in the winter.

Ground Plan

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BREAKING BOUNDARIES Penn Museum Archive Extension

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The existing Penn Museum is withering away into the increasingly dense urban fabric of the university. The new design utilizes historical references to create both its formal construction and materiality. The overall form reinterprets prime figures of monumental structures across history, transcending the original volumes through manipulation of scale and orientation to create a new modern form. This new form becomes a new gateway for the museum.

This project developed as a result of various studies at increasing scales; where each study explored the relationships between objects and the larger boundary that contains them.

First, a foundational understanding of the individual artifacts within the Penn Museum was gathered through study of their patinas and Euclidean geometry. Using concepts from George Kubler’s The Shape of Time, containers and cabinets were produced to elicit the signals of the artifacts through carving a boundary box with geometries from the artifact itself.

University of Pennsylvania STUDIO 501: Instructed by Andrew Saunders

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Atrium

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Lobby Level Plan

Longitudinal Section

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Upper Level Gallery Entrance The materiality of the building references the patina of an artifact contained in the museum itself. The building becomes a signal of historical significance of the museum and the importance of the objects within. While not immediately obvious of the artifact it emerged from, the material pattern removes automization of the structure, slowing down visitor’s perception of the massing evoking a sense of curiosity. Visitors are drawn up through the slippages between the figures, bringing back a sense of excitement and discovery into the museum. Moments present themselves to visitors throughout the building creating vertical courtyards.

By elevating these social spaces, it reframes the inward nature of the existing museum to a more outward and forward view.

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STRATIGRAPHIC VESTIGE Cabinet Design/Build Installation

This project arrives from a synthesis of the concepts of Stratigraphy, the analysis of the order and position of layers of archaeological remains, and the Vestige, a trace of something that is disappearing or no longer exists. Taking an archaeological approach, the cabinet becomes a series of Excavations to reveal the Artifacts within. These Artifacts are the primary signals by which a series of relays has deformed the original, manifesting in the classifications of the following: the Strong Figures of the massing, the Excavations unearthing the Artifacts, the projecting Collars of the Excavations, and the Patina extracted from the Artifacts.

The Excavations have become a gateway into the understanding of a new reading, digging into the cabinet as a reveal. A series of projected Collars serve as disruptors, defining a new form of defamiliarization through slippages that cross original boundaries and seams while reinterpreting the Strong Figures. Deriving its figure from the texture of combined Artifacts, the Patina has focused its signal as an expression of the micro scale, emphasizing a familiarity of the original source while defamiliarizing the physical massing as it ignores seams and surfaces of the veneer, and instead becomes projection that is void of the veneer materiality.

Group Members: Benjamin Hergert, Yifan Shi, Shiyue Liu University of Pennsylvania STUDIO 501: Instructed by Andrew Saunders

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Exploded Axonometric

Unrolled Elevation

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EMBEDDED SEAMS

Public Exhibition Water Treatment Facility and Data Center

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Although the Fairmont Water Works is no longer an active pumping station, it remains an important historical landmark to Philadelphia as an example of mixing public space with infrastructure clad in high design. The beloved site has since been turned into a museum, a restaurant, and sits adjacent to a public park.

Embedded seams explores a new relationship between infrastructure and its surrounding context. It’s monolithic form is softened by continuous curves that can be found throughout the site and into the form itself. The curves are derived from both site lines as well as material studies. The curves are responsible for marbling programmatic spaces throughout the site; the programs weave between structural grids, bleed into the landscape, and meander across floor slabs. The marbling of programs allows for the inherently unique systems to mix, while still maintaining their own unique identities. The monolithic form embeds itself within the site, and by straddling the Schuylkill River, creates a new connection between the land and water.

Partner: Lauren Hunter University of Pennsylvania STUDIO 602: Instructed by Danielle Willems 37

Longitudinal Section

Transverse Section 38

The geometry creates a new urban threshold by highlighting infrastructure and creating a new public commons space for learning and exploring systems and meandering landscapes.

The large open space allows for views across the entire building while textured glazing and reflective surfaces create exciting atmospheres that draw people to the data center spaces in the back. Marbled vessels of infrastructure become focal points of the space and are strategically placed under the glazing that wraps around the space. These programmatic elements penetrate through the floor plates as a means to marble the flows of water and data across floors and allow visitors to learn from the celebrated infrastructure itself.

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South Facade from River

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West Facade from Marsh Landscape

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1. Glass-fiber Reinforced Concrete Panel 2. LED Waterproof Lighting Strip 3. Panel Fastener 4. Moisture Barrier 5. Rigid Insulation

6. Composite Slab 7. Steel Connection 8. U-Profile Steel 9. Water Drainage Collection 10. Perforated Metal Panel

1. Glass-fiber Reinforced Concrete Panel 2. LED Waterproof Lighting Strip 3. Panel Fastener 4. Moisture Barrier 5. Rigid Insulation

6. Composite Slab 7. Steel Connection 8. U-Profile Steel 9. Water Drainage Collection 10. Perforated Metal Panel

a. Roof at Vessel

Selected Cladding Chunk The cladding of the building takes the opportunity to reemphasize these concepts of marbling from the outside.

While a fractal pattern of glass-fiber reinforced concrete and metal panels breaks down the overall form, soft textures influenced by the landscape flow across the entire facade.

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This flow of texture marbles itself along the entire surface blurring the materiality and boundaries between both concrete and metal panels. The texture also provides locations of perforations that serve two functions. Perforations at the concrete panels allow for LED lights to illuminate the facade at night and create a new reading for the project given its proximity to the lights of boathouse row. At the metal panels, these perforations accommodate the air movement of infrastructural elements such as the cooling tower. The project also challenges the way in which water is typically treated in relation to infrastructure by embracing it systematically, influencing textures of the glazing, as well as allowing water to meander across the site and create dynamic moments that highlight and celebrate the infrastructure such as the reveal of the drainage vessel.

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Elevation. 3/16” = 1’- 0”

c. Facade at Overhang 9.

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1. Glass Reinforced 2. Panel Fastener 3. U-Profile Steel 4. Steel Connectio 5. Rigid Insulation

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Elevation. 3/16” = 1’- 0”

1. Glass Reinforced 2. Panel Fastener 3. U-Profile Steel 4. Steel Connectio 5. Rigid Insulation

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1. Insulated Metal Panel 2. U-Profile Steel 3. Steel Drainage 4. Panel Fastner 5. LED Waterproof Lighting Strip

A. Roof at Vessel. 1” = 1’- 0”

Moisture BarrierConcrete Panel 1.6.

Glass Reinforced SteelFastener Bracket 2.7.Panel Aluminum Glazing Connection 3.8.U-Profile Steel Aluminum Flashing 4.9.Steel Connection Insulated Glazing Unit 5.10.

Rigid Insulation

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Glass Reinforced Moisture BarrierConcrete Panel 2.7.Panel SteelFastener Bracket 3.8.U-Profile Steel Aluminum Glazing Connection 4.9.Steel Connection Aluminum Flashing 5.10.

Rigid Insulation Insulated Glazing Unit

A. Roof at Vessel. 1” = 1’- 0”

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Insulated Steel Connection Metal Panel 2.7.U-Profile MoistureSteel Barrier 3.8.Steel RigidDrainage Insulation 4.9.Panel SteelFastner Skylight Connection 5.10.

LED Insulated Waterproof Glazing Lighting Unit Strip

B. Roof at Skylight. 1” = 1’- 0”

B. Roof at Skylight. 1” = 1’- 0”

B. Roof at Skylight. 1” = 1’- 0”

6. Steel Connection 7. Moisture Barrier 8. Rigid Insulation 9. Steel Skylight Connection 10. Insulated Glazing Unit

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1. Insulated Glazing Unit 2. Aluminum Glazing Connection 3. Glass Reinforced Concrete Panel 4. U-Profile 5. Moisture Barrier 6. Steel Connection

d.12.Facade at Glazing 1. Insulated Glazing Unit 2. Aluminum Glazing Connection 3. Glass Reinforced Concrete Panel 4. U-Profile 5. Moisture Barrier 6. Steel Connection

C. Facade at Overhang. 1” = 1’- 0”

B. Roof at Skylight. 1” = 1’- 0”

6. Moisture Barrier 7. Steel Bracket 8. Aluminum Glazing Connection 9. Aluminum Flashing 10. Insulated Glazing Unit

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C. Facade at Overhang. 1” = 1’- 0”

6. Steel Connection 7. Moisture Barrier 8. Rigid Insulation 9. Steel Skylight Connection 10. Insulated Glazing Unit

A. Roof at Vessel. 1” = 1’- 0”

1. Insulated Metal Panel 2. U-Profile Steel 3. Steel Drainage 4. Panel Fastner 5. LED Waterproof Lighting Strip

A. Roof at Vessel. 1” = 1’- 0”

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Insulated Steel Connection Metal Panel 2.7.U-Profile MoistureSteel Barrier 3.8.Steel RigidDrainage Insulation 4.9.Panel SteelFastner Skylight Connection 5.10.

LED Insulated Waterproof Glazing Lighting Unit Strip

C. Facade at Overhang. 1” = 1’- 0”

1.7.Insulated Rigid Insulation Glazing Unit 2.8.Aluminum Panel Fastener Glazing Connection 3.9.Glass SteelReinforced Bracket Concrete Panel 4.10.

U-Profile Aluminum Glazing Connection 5.11.

Moisture Aluminum Barrier Flashing 6.12.

Steel Insulated Connection Glazing Unit

7. Rigid Insulation 8. Panel Fastener 9. Steel Bracket 10. Aluminum Glazing Connection 11. Aluminum Flashing 12. Insulated Glazing Unit

D. Facade at Glazing. 1” = 1’- 0”

D. Facade at Glazing. 1” = 1’- 0”

1.7.Insulated Glazing Unit Rigid Insulation 2.8.Aluminum Glazing Connection Panel Fastener 3.9.Glass SteelReinforced Bracket Concrete Panel 4.10.

U-Profile Aluminum Glazing Connection 5.11.

Moisture Barrier Aluminum Flashing 6.12.

Steel Connection Insulated Glazing Unit

7. Rigid Insulation 8. Panel Fastener 9. Steel Bracket 10. Aluminum Glazing Connection 11. Aluminum Flashing 12. Insulated Glazing Unit

D. Facade at Glazing. 1” = 1’- 0”

D. Facade at Glazing. 1” = 1’- 0”

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SHIFTING PANEL PROTOTYPE

Design/Build Seminar with Next Generation Concrete This seminar focused on precast concrete, specifically on it’s manufacturing and the logistics of its assembly. Through a partnership with Northeast Precast, we were responsible for the design and fabrication of a precast mock-up panel. Final production of the panel required collaboration to determine build-ability of formwork and ultimately shop drawings for manufacturing ahead of pour day. Constraints of the class included the formwork to be reusable and made from a maximum of two sheets of steel. The priority for our team was to create a design that allowed for a large range of potential variations from the one base mold.

Initial studies for a finger corner joint allowed for a connection between similarly cast panels. From the same form, the panel orientation is flipped and the diagonal cuts slip into one another. Following this joint, the panel is further subdivided into 6 sections where the form contains a 3-dimensional pattern. These 6 areas are where all the variation potential lies.

Our two panel casts highlight some of these options through the use of foam block-outs to smooth out the surface, create an opening or apply a simple coating for a change in texture.

Group Members: Riley Engelberger, Lisa Knust, Lauren Hanson University of Pennsylvania Northeast Precast Project Manager: Cheyenne Doyle Precast Seminar: Instructed by Richard Garber

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Formwork Construction Process

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Rebar Shop Drawing

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Formwork

Panel Variations

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Physical Panel Details

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CO-LIVING GARDENS

Mixed-Generation Residence to Combat Loneliness Canada’s elderly population is growing due to the coming of age of baby-boomers. In order to combat the loneliness of old-age, this project combines low-rent housing units for seniors and students. Sydney, Nova Scotia provides the perfect opportunity for this type of development. The city is currently working with outside agencies as well as a newly developed Waterfront District Regeneration office in order to bring life back into the city’s core. The site’s unique location provides easy access to transit routes, a recreation center, library, and remarkable views within walking distance. The layout encourages mobility and community engagement as well as spaces for the community to come into the project itself.

A retail entrance on the main road through downtown [Charlotte Street] offering expertise from the residents such as cooking lessons or child care. The rest of the building program is dedicated to providing comfortable living spaces for both students and the elderly. Exterior gardens and covered pathways create an overlapping of space for exchange and exercise for both residents and the public. This project bridges the gaps between generations through its variety of gathering spaces, sight-line connections across buildings at different levels and raised pathways.

Carleton University STUDIO 7: Instructed by Sheryl Boyle

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Control

Section of North Gardens

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Certainty

Warmth

Protection

Growth

Reflection

Section of South Gardens

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Physical Model

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1:1 Physical Model

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Wall Detail Construction

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KINDERGARTEN IN KANATA

Early Education Center in Ottawa’s Suburbs

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Located in suburban Kanata, the project is defined by two things, its function of providing children ages 4-5 with an education and its location in a vehicle-oriented part of the city.

Important ideas considered when designing architecture for children: different perceptions of scale, creation of a protective environment, and balancing a place for learning as well as play.

The plan is centered around the theme of the game “hide-n-seek”. The front entry is very open but the placement of hallways and courtyards creates a sense of hidden sight-lines. Some places you can see but cannot easily get to. The snaking hallways allow for the entrance to remain open as a public space while keeping the classrooms at a more private and protected part of the building. This approach of intervening courtyards helps divides up the spaces whilst giving children an opportunity to have a closer connection with nature within the protective environment. North facing skylights provide each room throughout the school with non-direct, natural light improving the natural quality of the spaces and lessens the overall energy load of the school.

Carleton University STUDIO 4: Instructed by Inderbir Riar

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Site Plan Each classroom is fitted with the necessary amenities for children to flourish: collective storage spaces [cubbies], a private washroom, full height windows, clerestory, exterior vestibule and accessible door handles for all heights. The naturally lit space is open for a range of learning activities to take place as well as promote academic and scientific discovery. Due to the harshwintered nature of Canada’s capital city, the vestibule creates a heated buffer for each classroom when exploring the outside spaces. This space drastically lowers the amount of heat loss in the classroom during the winter season as well as providing an interior space of learning that provides an expanded 180-degree view for the students.

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Plan

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COURTYARD

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CUBBIES/STORAGE

PRIVATE W/C

CLERESTORY

CLASSROOM

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1-PLUS

Chair Design and Prototype Workshop This unique workshop provided the opportunity to learn about wood, the special techniques used for its construction and to understand practical concepts surrounding fabrication of a structure. The task of the workshop was to design and build a chair prototype mostly out of wood using the techniques taught in class and through exploration of different technologies available to us.

The final chair design consisted of pre-fabricated pieces cut out by a CNC machine with part numbers etched onto each part. Pieces were carefully connected by dowels through precut holes designed through 3D modeling software before hand. The CNC machine also provided hidden voids to lighten the overall mass. The leg’s were connected to the chair on either side by a bolt tied into a pipe that runs through the base of the chair. By welding a vertical rod extending into the chair at each corner of the base, lateral support is provided to prevent any movement.

Carleton University CHAIR WORKSHOP: Instructed by Rob Wood and Mark MacGuigan

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