CONTENTS
Postgraduate AADRL
i. Halokinesis
ii. Society Nano
iii. Out of Stock
Professional / Freelance
i. Los Angeles Low-Rise Competition
ii. Odessa Avenue
iii. Network Trajectories
Undergraduate California Polytechnic SLO
i. A Mobile Sector
ii. Westside Google
iii. Primal Mill
HALOKINESIS
// Crystalline Salt Infrastructures
M.Architecture Thesis _ AADRL
Duration _ January 2022 - January 2023
Professor _ Dr. Theodore Spyropoulos
Team _ Maya Mashiach // Kay Mashiach // Zhen Jia
// Zhichang Yang // Stephanie Di Gironimo
Within the contemporary condition new conceptual terrains emerge that raise questions of agency and intelligence within a deep ecology of our environment. The work explored examines environmental phenomenon in the service of sustaining life on this planet. Challenging the orthodoxies of contemporary spatial landscapes, this studio focuses on the temporal nature of the environment, while applying provocative research methods through material exploration. While questioning the ecological application of architecture, an inquisition towards generative and procedural forms engages in a discernible environmental and discursive conversation, igniting an urgency within this field. The thought is a worldly application – an architecture that can be implemented into multifarious environments, which include the most extreme environments in an application to urban systems.
HALOKINESIS is an architectural endeavor that utilizes salt, a universal material, to re-balance the coral bleaching environments within applicable locations on this planet. HALOKINESIS
is the magical ability to move salt with one’s mind, and thus, this project explores salt crystallization’s phenomenology by harnessing this power within our reality. Salt, an essential and abundant element on earth, is known for its ubiquitous flavoring and preservation, while also denoted as a sterilizing agent. However, salt remains an essential element of life. Salinity’s increasing abundance in relation to its paradoxical attributes of sustaining and annihilating situates itself as a priority in investigating its usefulness and applications. Analysis of this element revealed an inherent nature of supertemporal growth, requiring us to elicit interventions through controlling behavioral propagation. As salt is seen to be a keystone to the ecological processes of the world, we take into consideration the circulation and movement of salt bodies on earth. Our HALOKINESIS relies on time coupled with a responsive scaffold, growing crystals to achieve strength and formations. Salt tectonics, halokinesis, and crystallization are typically referred to as existing within the "geological time scale," existing within the history of the Earth.
_ dodecahedron _ mesh iterations
_ cube
_ pyramid
Still images from simulations experiementing with inflation phasing underwater in relation to an individual agent.
Various salt crystallization models and experiments, utilizing every aspect of the environment to achieve maximum growth.
Still images from an animation which demonstrates the harvesting phase of the group of agents in a single saline area.
Images taken from simulations created demonstrating how our agents will harvest salt from its initial location and maximize crystalization.
Images taken from simulations created demonstrating how our agents will self-organize as an ever-changing formation that balance the salinity level temporally.
Still
Perspective breakdowns of formations predicted from the salt tectonic in nature, we translate pressure and density into buoyancy and cohesion force; With information from the neighbors, agents would behave collectively and form an autonomous cluster.
Still
SOCIETY NANO
// void setup () {
M. Architecture Robotics Studio _ AADRL
Duration _ November 2021 - December 2021
Professor _ Apostolos Despotidis
Team _ Maya Mashiach // Kay Mashiach // Zhen Jia
// Zhichang Yang / Stephanie Di Gironimo
When presented with a task to design and assemble a form of creative robotics, we chose to develop the ‘Machine-Machine’ relationship. First we set up a series of rules that all the individuals would follow, and then built a society for them to interact and perform. A key factor to this project, was the development of interacting robots, which were not initialized by human interaction. With the inspiration from flying machines and bioluminescent creatures, we decided the robot should be able to simulate flying or floating and with the ability to glow. The material silicone is light, transparent, and can be easily cast into different shapes. We designed different types of silicone shells for the robot. A void space was left in order to design a frame and attachment system for the Arduino and electrical setup, as well as the vertical pulley.
This specific pulley system is based on a simple physical mechanism, which requires a continuous rotational servo located inside the prototype with all the Ardunio set-up. The prototype is attached to a frame and goes up and down through the coded rotation of the servo. To create a machine-machine interaction, the robots needed to speak a specific language with each other. We decided to use color as the language. So the robot was equipped with an R/G/B color sensor. We tested the sensor connecting it to the wheel with the calibration in the light environment, followed by experimenting with connecting the wheel with the calibration in the dark environment. This connection was established through the coding of the Arduino, a language which ensured direct interaction.
Set of images displaying the robot installation and their various interactive states based on color input. These images are from 18 long motion video.
OUT OF STOCK
// Active Wireframes
M. Architecture Wireframes Studio _ AADRL
Duration _ September 2021 - November 2021
Professor _ Apostolos Despotidis
Team _ Maya Mashiach // Kay Mashiach // Zhen Jia
// Cemre Demicri // Swati Singh // Bensu Talay
The goal of this project was to explore how different wire thicknesses effect the bending properties of components through creating a dynamic system of rigid and active bodies. We developed components which assisted us in examining the behavior of a system clearly. These components included a rigid body which embodied a simplified primitive geometry as the main unit of this system, which was then accompanied by an active and rather complex unit. The geometry on these components was studied in detail to facilitate the dynamic system which resulted in the decision of having the rigid body in a volumetric organization and the active one toggling between 2D and 3D.
The connection point between two pyramids’ components were facilitated through the attachment of our active, slider component. By attaching the edge points of the pyramids to the mobile wire within the movable loop, we can afford a basic expansion or contraction of the space between. As separate entities, the pyramid and the slider act oppositely. The slider creates its own internal tension through the deformation of the wires. The pyramid is fixed in its body, only changing when applying outside forces. When pulling and pushing the slider handle, a
reaction is caused where the outer loop expands or contracts, creating movement that scales the distance between the two wires. The main aggregated module is comprised of five pyramids and two sliders. There is a center pyramid, in which every point is attached to another pyramid, comprising a five-part pyramidal structure. By attaching two sliders on opposite edges of the center pyramid, the flex is most seen in the end points of the triangles, compressing and coming together when movement is applied.
Creating a source module for our cloud formation allowed us to explore variations in connections, leading us to decide upon a clamping mechanism in application to the loop. The clamping of two triangles when a loop/slider is pulled, we find that there is a tension that is transferred from the deformable component (sliders) to the rigid components (pyramids). Trying to combine one module with another posed a problem for us to solve. We explored the idea of a chain link. With each module being a link in the chain, we are able to expand the module into a more dynamic form. Just as well, these formations allow for an extreme variation in dimensionality through the tension acquired within the slider.
Rigid and active component analyses and visualization both physically and digitally of the combined objects.
STATE 01
10% _ SLIDER PULL
100% _ REST RELAXED DENSITY
STATE 06
60% _ SLIDER PULL
50% _ REST EMERGENCE OF VOIDS
STATE 10
100% _ SLIDER PULL
10% _ REST MAXIMUM TENSION
LOS ANGELES LOW-RISE
// Competition Proposal
Social Studies Projects
Team Members _ Mary Casper, Kay Mashiach, Bradley Nissen
Los Angeles, California
2021
Sisters is a proposal for the resurrection and re-appropriation of the notably Richard Neutra-designed and Ayn Randoccupied, Josef von Sternberg house, in Northridge, California. Originally built in 1935 and demolished in 1971, the veritable estate originally envisioned on “a distant meadow” originally included just one primary bedroom and several servant quarters. Taking this project as our starting point, which serves as a sort of archetype for the heroic single family, individualistic American dream, we set about plotting a reversal of power. From one residence, the proposal carves four, which encircle shared spaces devoted to community, education and agricultural self-sufficiency. The original house is
reconstructed as a glass greenhouse at the center of it all, with the building’s original rooms quite literally exploded across the site into discreet units, affording its residents the formal experience of the single family typology while living and working in community.
Like the three sister crops, the units in this project are envisioned as socially supportive, typologically diverse, and ecologically aligned. We designed the project’s three programmatic considerations in a parallel sisterhood: The Communal, The Sustainable, and The Spatial.
Combining photoshop and vray rendering to achieve an artist inspired rendering quality. Perspective views from agricultural space (top), western walkway (middle), interior greenhouse (bottom left), and interior kitchen of unit (bottom right).
Isometric composite drawing breaking down a housing unit’s parts within the context of the site. Maya
ODESSA AVENUE
// Residential Renovation
Freelance
Team Members _ Kay Mashiach
Los Angeles, California
2021-Current
The Odessa Avenue house renovation was a multi-phase redesign of various spaces within the home. Beginning with the entry-way/secondary bathroom and finishing off with the primary bedroom, each square foot of this home was rethought. Whether it was moving walls or finishing tiles, the outdated interiors were refreshed to be more fitting for a family.
The main idea was to consolidate storage spaces into a mudroom and into the garage, which opened up more opportunities for space maximization when it came to bedrooms and bathrooms. On the first right hand of the entry space, there was originally a storage closet as well as an L-shaped full bathroom. By removing the entry-way closet and converting the bathroom to a full rectangular shape, we were able to create a larger space for the secondary bathroom, as well as a larger closet area
for the guest bedroom.
Looking at the garage, it became renamed to the “family-room” which was intended as an expansion space of a livable extra bedroom. Built in storage was added to the family room with custom 36” deep closets. In addition we newly outfitted and combined the laundry room and mudroom, allowing for a large storage capacity and comfortable backroom.
The final phase of the house remodel was the primary bedroom and secondary bedroom, which included the primary bathroom. Storage here was maximized by moving walls, as well as creating a larger space for the bathroom. The finishing of this whole house was completed with consistent and new oak flooring, as well as wallpapers and fresh paint.
Freelance - Grasshopper - Network Trajectories
Grasshopper procedure for right form trajectory.
Grasshopper procedure for bottom form trajectory.
Output iteration of mesh pipe finish and curve iteration variation.
Freelance - Grasshopper - Network Trajectories
Front view of procedural steps of formal domain. Form utilizing butterfly meshing.
Nanjing Blimp
Pudong Heli
Huangpu Boat
California Polytechnic SLO - Illustrator - A Mobile Sector
Orthographic visuals of each mobile sector in its context within Shanghai.
California Polytechnic SLO - VRay - A Mobile Sector
Nanjing Blimp visualized during early morning on Nanjing Road in Shanghai.
Huangpu Boat
Pudong Heli
Nanjing Blimp
California Polytechnic SLO - Illustrator - A Mobile Sector
Isometric visual of all mobile entities docked together on the Huangpu River.
Maya Mashiach - 29
