University of Florida Graduate + Undergraduate Portfolio

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA SoA GRADUATE + UNDERGRADUATE

SELECTED WORKS 2021-2023

marla stephens PO RT FO LIO

MARLA STEPHENS marla.stephens@ufl.edu (904) 412-5782 Thank you to my parents, for your forever unconditional love and support my friends, for turning studio and Gainesville into my second home and my professors, for constantly motivating me to be the best version of myself.

Skills DRAFTING

3D MODELING

RENDERING

ANALOG

Autodesk Autocad Hand Drafting

Autodesk Revit Rhinoceros 3D SketchUp Grasshopper

Adobe Photoshop Adobe InDesign Adobe Illustrator V-Ray Lumion

Sketching Drafting Model Making Woodworking Soldering Casting

EDUCATION August 2022 - Present

University of Florida | Gainesville, Florida Master of Architecture (M.Arch) Advanced Program Expected Graduation | May 2024

January 2022 - April 2022

University of Florida Vicenza Institute of Architecture Study Abroad in Vicenza, Italy

August 2018 - April 2022

University of Florida | Gainesville, Florida Bachelor of Design (B.Des) Graduated | May 2022 Fleming Island High School | Fleming Island, Florida AICE Program

August 2014 - April 2018

Experience August 2023 - Present

Vorkurs: Void | University of Florida Executive Editor | Graduate-led publication

Summer 2019, 2020, 2021

DURA Architecture | Orange Park, Florida Architectural Summer Internship

August 2019 - December 2019

AIAS | University of Florida American Institute of Architecture Students Social Committee Member

Pedagogy Fall 2022 + Fall 2023 (Present)

Graduate Teaching Assistant | University of Florida Design 1 GTA

Fall 2022 + Fall 2023

Design Exploration Program | University of Florida Graduate Instructor

Summer 2020

Undergraduate Teaching Assistant | University of Florida Summer Design 1 + 2 TA

awards Spring 2023

CBA Award | First Place | University of Florida

Spring 2023

Jack and Edith Moore Scholarship | University of Florida

Fall 2022 + Spring 2023

Grad. Work Selected for Curricular Review | University of Florida

Spring 2020

Top 10 Pin-Up | University of Florida

Fall 2019

Intro. to Digital Arch. Poster | First Place | University of Florida

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CONSTRUCTING THE HUMAN HORIZON

SAVANNAH SCHOOL OF TRADITIONAL BUILDING CRAFTS

HOLLERHAUS

B.A.Design Arch. Design 6 Spring 2021

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M.Arch Advanced Arch. Design 2 Spring 2023

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Design Competition Summer 2021

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NOGUCHI CENTER FOR THE SCULPTURAL ARTS

HOT AND COLD

B.A.Design Arch. Design 7 Fall 2021

M.Arch Advanced Arch. Design 1 Fall 2022

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B.A.Design Arch. Design 6 Spring 2021 Professor Nicolas Rabinowitz Location: Historic Cocoa Village, Florida

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CONSTRUCTING THE HUMAN HORIZON Buoyancy is defined as “the ability or tendency to float in water or air or some other fluid”. Situated along the Space Coast of Florida, this project is dedicated to understanding and celebrating the importance of buoyancy to this region while remaining reactive to the fragility and instability of ground along the Intracoastal Waterway.

The Space Coast is an inherently buoyant site with many ships coming in and out of the port, as well rockets being launched out of Cape Canaveral, establishing a significant relationship between the instability of the ocean’s surface, the horizon, and the sublimity of exiting Earth’s atmosphere.

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PALIMPSEST This set of generative mappings explores the overlap of the new and old Cocoa Village and the spatial joints that exist between the two. In an effort to dissect the relationship between the portico of the historic Porcher House, the tectonic abnormalities of local nautical hardware store, S.F. Travis, and the fluctuating sea level of the Intracoastal Waterway, peculiarities were uncovered, such as the use of a sunken barge as foundation for the expansion of S.F. Travis.

HORIZON AS DATUM My fascination with the sunken barge, used as a makeshift “anchor” to stabilize the intracoastal sand deposits from dredging, led to the mapping above which pinpoints the location of shipwrecks on a global scale.

The diagram below features a contour study of the famous shipwreck, La Trinité, located off the coast of Cape Canaveral. This study ignited my interest in the perpendicular relationship between the irregular ocean floor and the horizon (a horizontal datum), and the rising and sinking movement of buoyant structures, such as boats, planes, and oceanographic research devices (a vertical datum).

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Ground Floor Plan

MAPPING FORM The diagram on the left maps the various horizons that humanity has achieved.

Starting with...

A boat hull at sea level... an airplane wing... the ISS...

a GPS satellite....

and the moon.

2nd Floor Plan

3rd Floor Plan

Each semisphere was measured to be the exact curvature of the Earth proportional to the various altitudes that humanity has achieved.

The building overall is this assembly of different human horizons that organize the three primary spatial components which are the public space (holding artifacts of shipwrecks), the atelier (a neutral buoyancy pool where synthetic aperture sonars will be built and then used to scan objects on the ocean floor like shipwrecks), and the archive (where different maps of shipwreck locations are kept).

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TRANSPOSING PERSPECTIVES With the organization of the spaces I sought to frame views that are not normally experienced in their correct context such as having to look down and placing this view of space equipment underwater and vice versa in the main gallery where visitors have to look up at the shipwreck that is placed against the view of the open sky.

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SAVANNAH SCHOOL OF TRADITIONAL BUILDING Professor Jason Alread CRAFTS

M.Arch Advanced Arch. Design 2 Spring 2023

Location: Savannah, Georgia

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Located on the cusp of Yamacraw Village, Savannah’s North Historic District, and the ongoing redevelopment of the waterfront: this project serves as a spatial stitch between these three vital neighborhoods. The Savannah School of Traditional Building Crafts aims to revitalize trades that have been lost over time, while offering transparency to the operations within, in an effort to invite and unite surrounding communities, students, and transient visitors of Savannah.

This project asks: how may space invite the public in and the private out?

The project stitches together the North and South approaches of the site, with a binding circulation “zipper”, allowing all users to traverse between more public program (on the north side) to more private program (on the south side). By physically “zipping” the form via circulation, inter-connectivity is established between program. The project seeks to craft a studio environment, in the pursuit of making space which fosters and inspires a collective knowledge.

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ADAPTIVE REUSE

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One of the challenges presented on this site was the requirement to adapt to the existing brick shell of the Atlantic Paper Company warehouse, constructed in 1900. In this design proposal, the original column grid is kept intact, which then led to the decision to inhabit the site vertically, through operations of stacking and suspending.

3rd Floor Plan

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Ground Floor Plan

2nd Floor Plan

4th Floor Plan

PARTI

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In the surrounding context, bridges and the act of bridging is present throughout, primarily along Factor’s Walk. The bridges play a crucial role of connecting public to private spaces, exhibiting a datum to node relationship. The initial parti diagram is two horizontally manipulated planes (datum): the roof and zipper stair, with spatial ‘objects’ that populate along these planes (node).

The main programmatic elements on the north half are the lecture hall and three levels of flexible workshop spaces for the school’s three specialized crafts: stone, metal, and wood. The workshops and movement of materials operate vertically while movement between the zipper occurs on a horizontal datum.

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SMOKE TO LIGHT The three conical lightwells serve as spatial markers, establishing a visual presence from exterior to interior.

The form is an ode to the ever-present smokestacks surrounding the industrial context., and how they serve as visual markers of a place throughout the city of Savannah. The interior of the lightwells are constructed with copper panels which amplify light to the conference/study spaces beneath. The material and structural language of the lightwells is influenced by the craftsmanship of the historic bridges on Factor’s Walk, which are constructed with various tensile truss typologies.

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Design Competition Summer 2021 In collaboration with Sydney Sinclair and Ann Nguyen Location: Appalachia, United States

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HOLLERHAUS The HollerHaus is crafted from the Appalachian custom that the porch is the central gathering place within a home. The HollerHaus seeks to modernize this notion, transforming the idea of the porch into being the ‘hearth of the home’. The concept of the Southern porch is derived from the symbiotic connection between the environment and the community.

All spaces encompass the central porch in a modular fashion, generating an inward-looking volume that emphasizes this relationship. The home has a minimal impact on the environment and is ideal for any rural terrain because it is situated on stilts. It perches itself above the landscape, creating a juxtaposition between the orthogonal construction and the organic environment.

3D Model: Stephens, Sinclair, Nguyen

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MODULE TO TRUCK TO ASSEMBLY The design is composed of two prefabricated modules, each holding the secondary floors and walls in a folded assembly on the exterior facade of each module. Once situated on the site, one facade from each module will unfold to double the floor space, then unfold again to position the secondary walls. The four folding floors, each measuring 3.2 meters by 9 meters, allow for optimal floor space while remaining compact during transportation.

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Stephens

The glass folding doors that form the porch are then assembled on the site. The rectangular, glass porch serves as a moldable threshold that can activate and deactivate various spaces within the home. The roof is broken up into four components that can then fold in half and be transported on top of the two main modules.

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Nguyen, Stephens

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Sinclair

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Stephens

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Steph

OFF-GRID The HollerHaus is self-sufficient by utilizing energy strategies such as solar panels which provide all electricity for the home. The home is insulated using icynene insulation, which is a spray foam made of water and castor oil. It is environmentally friendly and repels pests. An embedded gutter system is used for rainwater collection where water feeds into a filtration and disinfection tank. The water is then redistributed back throughout the house as potable water. The form of the folding roofs work to funnel and capture as much rainwater as possible.

The home is constructed with local, sustainably sourced materials and is predominantly made with wood such as cedar. The exterior facade is laminated with shou sugi ban wood siding, an ancient Japanese technique that preserves the integrity of the wood and repels insects by charring the wood

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Sinclair

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Steph

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B.A.Design Arch. Design 7 Fall 2021 Professor Judi Shade Monk Location: Manhattan, New York

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NOGUCHI CENTER FOR THE SCULPTURAL ARTS With New York City’s recent pursuits of revitalizing the public infrastructure, affordable housing, and green spaces of Midtown West Manhattan, this project aims to provide a sanctuary, a moment of rest detached from the chaos of the nearby Madison Square Garden and Moynihan Train Hall. Inspired by the works of Isamu Noguchi and Ruth Asawa, the tower employs a contrasting logic of weightlessness and mass present throughout the tectonic, materiality, and form of the design, emanating the properties of Noguchi and Asawa’s lamps.

3D Model: Stephens, Sinclair, Lapid Render: Stephens, Sinclair

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Summer Solstice

Winter Solstice

8:00 a.m.

12:00 p.m.

4:00 p.m.

The diagram on the right served as a jumping-off point for a tower form and it analyzed the negative spaces of the city that operate at various scales, or zones that are occupiable by a walking pedestrian. This information was then layered with the forms of Noguchi and Asawa as a tool to relate the scale of Noguchi and Asawa’s work to the scale of the city streets.

Lapid

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Sinclair

Stephens

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FORM FINDING The form of the ground floor plan was derived from the Noguchi mass/void shape studies below, with each arrangement exploring a unique sequence of movement through the block from either 29th St. or 30th St. Stemming from the form studies, all exterior edges are orthogonal, to respect the traditional form of the Manhattan facade, while all interior edges are curvilinear. All entrances are held within the interior, cultivating an inward looking, fluid movement throughout the ground floor plane. Major cores are grouped together and held within the walls developing a language of a layered wall system that begins to peel away revealing and concealing entrances. Visitors navigate the space by “slipping through the cracks” in a way.

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W 30th St

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W 29th St

Stephens

Sinclair, Lapid

Sinclair, Lapid

INHABITABLE FACADE The renders above capture the inhabitable facade system employed throughout the structure. Starting at the 2nd floor, this combination of the glass curtain wall system and mesh facade work to break down the large scale of the city and provide a faster mode of transportation while navigating through the tower. It reinforces the nature of the inward looking space by compressing occupants into a zone that hugs the interior curves. On the ground floor are two outdoor sculpture gardens displaying the works of Noguchi, one being more public and one being more private. The two gardens provide an accessible, public space that is guarded by the exterior masses, shielding away the noise and motion of the city streets. The translucent mesh visually compresses the spaces, blurring the boundary between all ground floor space.

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Stephens

Sinclair, Lapid, Stephens

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Sinclair, Lapid, Stephens

M.Arch Advanced Arch. Design 1 Fall 2022 Professor Bradley Walters Location: Tyonek, Alaska and Ft. Pierce, Florida

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HOT AND COLD This project aims to explore the overlaps and digressions of two distinct communities: the Dena’ina people of Tyonek, Alaska and the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) research students of Ft. Pierce, Florida. This project examines the challenges posed and innovations necessary for working within two climatic extremes: Alaska and Florida.

The project begins by analyzing the rituals embedded within the communities of Tyonek, Alaska and Ft. Pierce, Florida. In Alaska, rituals are steadfast and rooted in tradition, whereas in Ft. Pierce, Florida rituals take form as a more transitory, individualistic experience. However, a common thread amongst each community is the intimate, informal existence of ‘hearth’ within a home, a space of togetherness. With this study as a jumping off point, I began to look at how rituals affect place making and may present themselves as a physical, inhabitable space.

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RITUALS In Tyonek, the form of the home was constructed from moments, “charrettes” of three specific rituals tied to the Dena’ina culture, such as: a space to clean and prepare fish and game, a space to collect and store everyday objects, and a space to chop and store firewood.

In Ft. Pierce, I probed the term “cultivation” and its double meaning to consider how public space is shaped amongst individuals with an array of unique backgrounds while also pursuing a design that echoed the values of IFAS.

FT. PIERCE For materiality, I explored the use of rice straw bale construction. My interest stemmed from the locality and availability of the agri-waste material, which is abundant in Palm Beach, Florida. One of the major concerns of the graduate students was noise; straw bale construction has the benefit of being a strong sound insulator. The material is also lightweight and easy to assemble. In section, I experimented with how it could be pre-assembled using a technique similar to post-tensioned concrete where steel cables are fastened to each cord of a wall (top and bottom) and tightened to hold the wall in compression. The use of the material also ties to the core values of IFAS and their mission to reduce and eliminate agricultural waste.

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TYONEK For materiality, I explored options that would tie ritual and identity together while also bringing as little material to the site. Since Tyonek is extremely remote (with only access being via bush plane or boat), weight, size, and quantity became important factors in the design. I searched for solutions that could be found on the site itself. I examined the soil composite of Tyonek which consisted mostly of silt, sand, and gravel; all primary components of a rammed earth wall. Utilizing rammed earth wall techniques became a viable solution due to its great resistance to seismic loads, its longevity, and its thermally insulative properties.

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marla stephens marla.stephens@ufl.edu (904) 412-5782 Thank you.