This project challenged the flat landscape of Houston. The multi-level watchtower design enhances different views for a sense of exploration while peering over Buffalo Bayou. It also provides circulation from UHD’s outdoor space to Allen’s Landing.
The design of this flood museum explored conceptual parameters from its facade to structural system. The facade was created through Grasshopper. The facade creates shade and is used as a planter. The structural system is a grid that dictated and molded the massing of this project.
Project Compost Relief Station for Hope Farms. Hope Farms needed restrooms for their site, and in efforts to go off grid, and set the example for sustainability, they wanted us to design the restrooms with a composting system. This studio required us to produce construction drawings through AutoCad for the actual construction of our design in 2023.
Outdoor classroom at Frank Black Middle School. This project was not designed by my studio, however we did construct it. We also were tasked to create plans and renderings. In this project I explored using V-Ray to create a daytime render. We fabricated off and on site through construction drawings provided by our professor from the previous studio. (Floor plan below was group work, Bottom right pg. 11 photo credits: Patrick Peters)
Daytime V-ray render
This research course challenged me to learn GIS software and data, from shape-files to excel tables. Illustrations in this project demonstrate demographic, environmental, and infrastructural characteristics of Newtok, Alaska. A critical finding was that 23.7 % of Newtok’s 3.21 square miles town, was made of water. This means that as their shore erodes the inundation of their town is inevitable.
This studio focused its attention to vulnerable communities, that are threatened by political-socio economic and environmental injustices. My focus was on a community, Northshore in the south east region of Houston, Texas. For this studio diagrams and maps of challenges and opportunities created a positive visualization for the future of Northshore.
Industr yP roduction
Vibrantz
This research project involved all facets of design. My research partner and I were tasked to 3D model a 1916 topographic map of Houston. Through the use of Rhino and Grasshopper we were able to create 3D elevation of the map. We then physically created this model using MDF board and a CNC machine to create the topographical model. We also 3D modeled and 3D printed a 2022 topographic model (orange cubes). This research highlights the physical landscape of Houston whilst bringing light to the realities of Houston’s vulnerability to floods. My drone photography skills were also used in this research/exhibition.
This research demanded GIS mapping skills, schematic drawings, and site drawings. I was tasked to study and illustrate several resilience hub locations for a thermal comfort handbook. In this spread are displayed Three maps: Amherst Mass, Miami, Fl, and Alameda California. However this spread showcases further illustrations only for Bay Area Makerfarm in Alameda, California. Makerfarm is resilient and utilizes many of the skills and resources offered by their own community. Through their programs they have demonstrated how to be self sufficient and sustainable to provide for their community off grid. We also created physical models (pg. 20-21) for the exhibition Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities, Center for Architecture + Design, San Francisco, California, 2024.
Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities, Center for Architecture + Design, San Francisco, California, 2024.
Physical model of Palo Verde, Arizona. This model represented the shade created by the physical landscape in a dangerously hot urban climate. 3D printed models, cut MDF board, laser cut acrylic.
