Selected Works

01 A NEW TEXAN TYPOLOGY

W/ THE TEXAN DONUT, HOUSTON HOUSING DEVELOPMENT AND NEW TYPOLOGIES

02 WATER TANK PROTOTYPE

W/ WATER TANKS, COMMUNITY GARDENS, MULTIPLE SCALES, AND NYC GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

03 IN TANDEM, COMPETITION WINNER

W/ RICE UNIVERSITY DESIGN

COMPETITION, COVERED BIKE PARKING, AND A BIG LIGHT BOX

04 NOTES ON MATERIALITY, TEMPORALITY, AND THE INTERIOR

W/ SONTAG’S CAMP, PAPER PULP, CARDBOARD, SCENOGRAPHY, A TON OF COLOR, AND A THEATRICAL DEMISE

01 A NEW TEXAN TYPOLOGY

Houston’s development is dominated by quick-and-easy, bang-for-your-buck development. The Texas Donut, the Townhouse Pack, the Garden Apartment, and the Tower in the Park are the go-to, ubiquitous typologies for developers. Not only do their generic qualities leave little improvement for quality of life through design, but their densities are relatively low. How can Houston densify affordably without replicating typical development strategies in the city?

Referencing incremental housing seen in the modern housing project PREVI in Lima, Peru, this project proposes a variable unit type that expands and contracts over time.

PROF. JESUS VASSALLO

TYPOLOGY

01. previous page, left. Perspective render from front of building showing three levels and front-yard terraces.

02. previous page, right. Unit Configuration Diagrams. The left column is the normative condition. Over time, as families change, so do the units (right column)

03. Site Plan. The building occupies four lots, facing south for maximum sun exposure and anchors the building between residential and light industrial zones within the neighhorhood. 03

04. Ground floor plan in the original normative condition and four elevations.

05. The structure steps back to create shared terraces, inviting the building’s occupants to use the terrace as a shared front yard.

06. Layered “front yards” emerge through the terraced building organization.

Unit 1-B, One Bedroom, One Bath 518 sq.ft.

Unit 2-D/2-C, One Bedroom, One Bath, and In-Law Suite w/ One Bath

sq.ft.

Unit 1-B/1-C, One Bedroom, Two Bath, and Work Studio

sq.ft.

Unit 2-B, Three Bedroom, One Bath

sq.ft.

Unit 2-D, Studio, One Bath 528 sq. ft.

Unit 1-B, Three Bedroom, Two Bath 1,334 sq.ft.

Unit 2-E, One Bedroom, Two Bath 1,194 sq.ft.

08. Example Unit Configurations. Through a rental program, as units become available, residents can incrementally increase or decrease their unit size.

09-10. Over time, as dweller’s needs change, the interior walls can be removed and adjacent units combined to allow for more space. The opposite can happen, as well.

02 WATER TANK PROTOTYPE

New York City is comprised of a dynamic network of infrastructural systems. For the city to thrive, infrastructure must succeed at four scales: the city, neighborhood, building, and the unit. One piece of existing infrastructure ripe for rethinking is New York’s ubiquitous water tank. With over 20,000 rooftop water tanks across New York City, these containers play a critical role for the city’s expansive infrastructural systems. This project questions not only how the water tank can function beyond its service to a single building, but also as a new anchor for threatened community gardens throughout the five boroughs.

Collaboration w/ Emma Scott

PROTOTYPE

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01. previous page, left. Replacing existing water tank infrastructure with a new water tank typology allows for the rethinking of infrastructural systems at multiple scales.

02. previous page, right, top. New York City map showing existing water tanks (left), Green Infrastructure projects (center), and existing community gardens (right)

03. previous page, right, bottom Aerial View. Suggested relocation of existing community gardens in priority overflow areas to rooftops with established water sources.

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04. Model Photograph. The operable long wall opens and closes depending on weather conditions and user needs.

05. Aerial Site View. The roofscape supports a new community garden in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Exploded Axon

1. wood framed parapet

water membrane

calibrated spring

cable net

5. industrial nylon fabric

6. structural steel frame

mechanical systems

8. wood shelving unit

9. operable wood wall assembly

10. hollow steel frame

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07. Technical Section Detail. Wall, spring, and water membrane assembly.

08. Technical Plan Detail. Wall and membrane detail.

09. Plan configuration. When the prototype is opened, the community can use it for community events.

10. Plan configuration, the prototype in a closed configuration.

THERMAL AND VENTILATION DIAGRAMS

11. Top, left to right. Thermal Diagram, winter day; Thermal Diagram, winter night; Thermal Diagram, summer day. Middle, left to right Thermal Diagram, symmer night; Ventilation Diagram, summer night; Ventilation Diagram, spring/fall day. Bottom, left and right. Wind Diagram, winter day; Wind Diagram, summer day.

12. Water as a thermal mass allows strategic heat transfer. On a summer day, the cooler water absorbs heat from inside the prototype.

13. On a winter day, the lower sun angle allows for more direct light into the prototype. Lower water levels means the water tank absorbs less ambient heat from the internal environment.

14. Detail view. The wood component meets the textile component and doors left ajar.

15. Aerial View. The prototype deploys across the city on multiple rooftops and fades into the night.

03 IN TANDEM

Rice University Design Competition Winner

Rice University currently lacks a unifiable bicycle parking typology, implicating numerous problems for the University’s goals of a more bicycle-oriented campus community. A simple and identifiable covered bicycle parking strategy will inspire pride in biking culture on campus. In Tandem is durable, secure, contextual, modular, efficient. It is simple and it is light. Through its modest form and subtle illuminance, the bike parking structure transforms into a campus icon, easily recognized as it deploys across campus. In Tandem functions as a subtle intervention to inspire pride for Rice’s increasingly bike-focused community.

FALL 2020 - ONGOING

Collaboration w/ Emma Scott

Steel Tube

2’’x2’’ Steel Tube

Base Plate

Bedding Space

Holding Down Bolt

Steel Packing

Poured Concrete Beam

Anchor Plate

01. previous page, left. Perspective Render. Proposed location in front of Fondren Library.

02. previous page, right, top. Existing Context Photographs. Existing bike racks on campus are improperly used and made of contextually insensitive, off-the-shelf solutions.

03. previous page, right, middle. Concept Diagrams. A standard bike parking dimension is extruded up and out to function both as the lock mechanism and as shelter.

previous

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page, right, bottom. Photograph. Section mock-up image at night with illuminated light box.

2’’x2’’

End Closure

Waterproofing

05. Construction Detail. Structure to foundation connection.

06. Construction Detail. Polycarbonate panel and roof connections.

Standing Seam Roofing

Drip Edge

3/4’’ Ply Sheathing

Metal Cap

2’’x2’’ Steel Tube

Reflective Foil, Light Box

Steel Angle

Polycarbonate Twin Wall

07. Photograph. Mock-up during the daytime.

Photograph. Mock-up at night.

NOTES ON MATERIALITY, TEMPORALITY, AND

American building culture is readily available, easy to consume and digest — predicated on fastness and cheapness, but with little regard to buildings’ lifespans. What if everyday materials merge with conventional building techniques to produce a familiar-yet-unfamiliar material expression for an architecture that embraces, rather than deceives, its lifespan? This project questions the simultaneous role of everyday materiality, architectural temporality, and the domestic interior in an age of material excess. Using paper pulp and cardboard, the project proposes a material and temporal language — one that relies on artifice as a means of performance — for an architecture of living/consuming.

MATERIALITY, AND THE INTERIOR

TRADITIONAL NONTRADITIONAL

are depected, in jest, as hosing down the house.

Photograph. Interior of house.

03. previous page, right, bottom. Photograph. Interior of house.

04. When combining traditional and nontraditional materials, an opportunity forms for new materials, for instance, a pulp block or rammed cardboard.

05. Model Section Cut. The rammed cardboard exists in the core of the house and creates a dense, stereotomic carving technique to create space.

06. Model Top View, Collaged. The rammed cardboard spills out into the more open, tectonic-derived pulp spaces.

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Model Photograph. Representation becomes important. The author reveals himself and the production of the shot, through subtle reflection and exaggerated staged lighting.

08. Interior Model Photograph. Again, the devices of production are revealed through reflection of the author’s image to enhance the theatricality of the thesis.

Interior

11-14. Movie Stills. Various stages of the physical model in decline. With water the paper pulp melts over time while the rammed cardboard swells to increase in size.

15. rows 1-4. Fragments collected from the remains of the destroyed house. Barnacle-like, yet still colorful and playful. rows 5. The bottom row contains images of re-pressed pulp blocks made from wet pulp remains for a reimagination of a next life for a new house.