Natalie Cerf's 2024 Art and Architecture Portfolio

Bachelor of Arts

Major in Architecture

Minors in Visual Arts and Environmental Studies & Policy

Natalie Cerf

To teach myself Revit, the industry’s leading BIM program, without a college course or a company’s client to provide an active project, I modeled up the home I grew up in in Kentfield, CA. Special thanks to Kyle Sinko‘s YouTube channel which taught me the basics and more for free.

This home was designed by Daniel Liebermann, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, in 1963. Using scans of the original hardcopy blueprints, updated renovation floor plans, and photos of the house, I rendedered the house I lived in from ages 5 - 18.

This project is in progress. As I learn more about the program, I will continue to add details including interior elements and landscaping.

SENIOR ARCHITECTURE THESIS

A MATERIAL LIFE: THE CULTURAL + MATERIAL EXISTENCE OF ARCHITECTURE AND ITS PLACE 2023

How can resilient, adaptable, and intentional architectural materials signify placemaking and accurately represent the cultural and sociological conditions of a specific place in time?

Questioning how materials connote time and place allow for architects to consider what it is they want their architecture to say about the people who experience the design. Materials like brick, clay, and stone can encapsulate the many ecological and social factors of that space. An architect then has the choice to let the materials tell a heritage.

Places of worship imply a divine connection with something – God, land, each other – and materials can connote awareness of a symbiotic relationship with the natural elements. In this way, the materials themselves may become the thing being worshiped as they bring communities together, serve as a basis for education, and offer a new perspective to what is considered sacred.

Figure 1. > Oblique illustrations

Figure 2. > Floor plan vinegette

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

HOMEMADE

MATERIALS SOURCED FROM THE SAN DIEGO RIVER: CLAY DIRT, DRY GRASS, SAND, WATER

CASE

SENIOR ARCHITECTURE THESIS CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

KEY ELEMENT: SLOOPING ROOF

Collects and stores rainwater to supply plants growing on classroom wall

Frames Peruvian mountains surrounding the school

KEY ELEMENT: WINDOWS, DOORS, POSTS

Ventilate air in hot, humid climate

Indoor/ outdoor to welcome all community members

KEY ELEMENT: BOARDER SEATING

KEY ELEMENT: CLASSROOM WALL

Interactive wall for teaching and learning about the cultural and environmental importance of local jungle

Alertnatate side of wall acts as a plant growth lab

TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT LABORATORY

KEY ELEMENT: ORIENTATION OF SEATING

Inward facing seating encourages new dynamic between user and program runner

Increased community feel

KEY ELEMENT: INBETWEEN SPACES

Elements of facility beyond the relgious center encourage movement, gathering

Emphasize the scale, gravity of the synagogue and its materials

BETH SHOLOM SYNAGOGUE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

STANLEY SAITOWITZ NATOMA ARCHITECTS

INC.

20,000 SQ FT

CASE STUDY 1 STRATEGY NATALIE CERF 2 SAN GIACOMO APOSTOLO CHURCH AND PARISH COMPLEX FERRARA, ITALY MIRALLES TAGLIABUE EMBT 17,000 SQ FT

KEY ELEMENT: WINDOWS

Considerately placed windows allow for strategic use of natural light to empahsize materality, design

KEY ELEMENT: ALTERNATING MATERIALS

Side of strucutre alternates betwen sleek and rough materials that showcase the other

Group project with two classmates

The Tijuana River Watershed is a large (1,750 square mile), binational watershed straddling the international border of U.S. San Diego and northern Baja California, Mexico.

The border divides this region politically, but the Tijuana River is a natural feature that, regardless, flows through the international border.

Pollution from the Tijuana River containing contaminated wastewater, sediment, and trash has become an important environmental concern as it affects the Tijuana River Valley’s valuable ecological, recreational, and economic resources.

Rapid urbanization has outpaced the capacity of the water treatment plant serving the city of Tijuana. The topography of the Tijuana River Estuary, which slopes down towards the river, and the direction of the flow, south to north, also contribute to the contamination that flows out to the Pacific Ocean.

For the full story visit: https://bit.ly/tijuanariver

SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR: HOW THE TIJUANA RIVER INTERACTS WITH THE BUILT ENVIRONMENTAL 2022

Zoomed in Pollution Tijuana, Mexico

We studied how the natural and built environment interacts at three locations along the river and near the border wall.

Three sections investigate the varying levels of urbanization along the Tijuana River which increases as we travel farther south.

This is a result of many concurrent political, environmental, and economic decisions made by the two respective governments. With the threat of flooding and inundation, the Mexican Federal government decided to channel the river to control its flow.

The United States government decided to buy the land surrounding the Tijuana River and delegate it as state, city, and county land to preserve the natural environment. This eliminated the need to channelize the river because no urbanization exists to be threatened by flooding or inundation.

For the full story visit: https://bit.ly/tijuanariver

Section at Dairy Mart Bridge in Imperial Beach, CA

Section at Zona Rio in Tijuana, Mexico

Section at the U.S. - Mexico border wall

PRINCIPLES OF DRAWING: HIDDEN GEOMETRIES, DEPTH & VOLUME, SEQUENCE 2022

Study of XV and XVI century Italian art and architecture to understand ways Renaissance-era work remains relevant within the context of contemporary technological advancements to face the challenges of our future built and non-built environment.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Figure 3. > Depth and Volume > Analysis of light and shadow creating depth through relief in the archways of Baldassare Perruzi’s 16th-century drawing

Figure 4. > Sequence > Physical models > Exploring the experience of an archway

Figure 5. > Depth and volume > 4x 11” X 11” laser cut chipboard

GEOSPATIAL AND LAND ANALYSIS CASE STUDY

2021

-LaGuardia Public Housing

-Block 256/Lot 1

-Lot Area: 294793

-300 Cherry St, Manhattan -Zoning District R7-2

Open Space and Street Trees Lower East Side

-Completed 31 July 1957, addition made 1965

-NextGen Neighborhood

-Half units priced at market rate, half 60% AMI

-35 stories, 400-500 units

-In need of $70 million in improvements

Open Space/Park location

GIS analysis of a NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) tax lot. FAR and current NYC zoning laws permit densification on the tax lot LaGuardia Housing sits upon. The intervention is the “worst case scenario” if all avilable FAR was used in new construction.

Building Height Lower East Side

61 Floors plus mechanical

25’x 25’x 25’

Mechanical

615’ 150’

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS IN RELATION TO NYCHA PROPERTIES:

HOW CONCENTRATION OF PUBLIC HOUSING CREAtES ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM AND PUBLIC SAFETY HAZARDS

2021

The intersection of classicism, racism, and architecture

Where was public housing first located in NYC? Why there?

Original NYCHA properties were located mainly on the coasts and waterfronts of the city. This includes: Lower East Side, Harlem River, Rockaways

These locations were chosen because:

- Where the poorest citizens already happened to live and work

- Most vulnerable areas of the city because of potential impact from hurricanes

- Isolated from the rest of the city/city center, especially the Rockaways

Why are new developments clustered in the same locations as original public housing developments?

- Land was most readily available in these same locations

- Many of these locations became “dumping grounds” for the city’s worst-off citizens - extended to elderly, mental patients

- Political feasibility, 1971 Forest Hills

- Likelihood of credit eligibility is higher if developer proposes new build public housing in high-poverty census tracts also known as “qualified census tracts (QCT)” -- would receive 30% more credits than proposal outside of QCT

Current Available FAR vs. Far minus sites within 500 ft. of Environmental Hazards

Current Available FAR vs. Far minus sites within 500 ft. of Environmental Hazards

44% Less Availability

THE GARDEN AT DAA+AH

Garden patch: 7’ X 16’

Trellis: 4‘ X 1.5’ X 6’

Welded steel, wood, native CA plants, lemon tree, mulch/planting soil

New elements in the dirt patch, as it was, in the courtyard of the Department of Art, Architecture and Art History (DAA+AH) on the University of San Diego campus create spatial unison and change the dynamic of the exterior courtyard. The trellis bench seat facilitates conversation and gathering in the small space. CA native plants and an improved Meyer lemon tree are planted in the garden. The garden encourages collective artistry as a location for DAA+AH students or faculty to display their artwork.

Figure 6. > Rendered design

Figure 7. > Welding, woodwork, landscape design

Figure 6. Figure 7.

WINDBREAK

2021

2.5’ X 1’

Wood, fishing wire, recycled desk lamp, chain, spray paint

FAMILIAL RELATIONS

2022

4’ X 3’

Steel, fishing wire, upcycled slide photographs

UNWELCOME

2022

2’ X 3’

Chicken wire

Lead on paper

SELF PORTRAIT #2

2022

36” X 48”

Oil paint on plywood

SILENT GROUNDS

2023

30“ X 24”

Oil paint on plywood

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE STRUCTURE AND THE FACADES AT LIBRARY IN PARIS (1838-50) AND OXFORD MUSEUM (1860)

Midterm essay excerpt from “Introduction to Modern Architecture” for Dr. Can Bilsel

This course was a survey of the Modern Movement in architecture and the various intellectual and artistic responses to social, political, and technological changes between 1750 and 1960.

Labrouste demonstrated progress and the materials of the industrial age. He paid attention to the facade of the building to create an exterior that considered the nature of construction along with its social impact. Every part of the design had a purpose. “The thinness of the masonry infill below the great windows of the reading room on the upper story is all the more telling in contrast to the heaviness created by the progressive stepping back of large-scale masonry [...],” (European Architecture, 182-83).

The Oxford Museum was a project intended to educate and elevate the way the public admired architecture. The museum also used impressive amounts of iron along with glass to pay homage to nature, materials, and the industrial age. The celebration of nature and God were evident in the facade with its carvings of the flora and fauna and geological specimens, (European Architecture, 216). This facade also served the purpose of helping and informing the students who studied in the museum.

Both the library and museum have strong connections between their structure and their facade. They were designed to inform the onlooker of the era in which they were created. I think that is one of the biggest commonalities between the buildings; the architects put a lot of attention to designing something that honors the time in which it was created.

A CITY IN TIME

Project reflection excerpt from “Biographies of World Cities: Rome” for Professor Adriana Cuellar

This course was a three-week intensive class taken in Rome, Italy to study the ways the art and architecture of the city has evolved through history in response to shifting social and political contexts.

The desire to create and own maps of Rome connotes the curiosity and fascination with both the city itself and the art that was created there. In “The Demand for Maps in Italy,” Michael Bury poses many important questions about the creation of maps related to their production, materiality, and distribution as well as the intentions of the customers of the maps. He discusses the artistry of maps in the context of them being used as wall decorations above anything else. Many pictorially portrayed the city rather than cartographically. Maps in this context were a piece of art in addition to being a form of documentation.

All this is to say that Rome was, and still is, a city that begs to be recorded. This woodcut exemplifies that before there was the ability or even the desire to create an accurate depiction of Rome, there was still the desire to memorialize the city how one saw or understood it at that moment in time. Maps were used for a myriad of reasons but at the root of each is the fascination with an ever-changing, marvelous city. This woodcut, no matter how inaccurate it is, depicts the buildings and landmarks that were important to the artist. In this way, it accurately captures Rome at the time of its creation because it illuminates what was significant to its creator.

ANIMIST ART AND ARCHITECTURE: METHODS OF BEAUTY AND SURVIVAL

Excerpt from final paper for “Faith and Environmental Justice” for Dr. Jason James Kelly

This course analyzed the ways religious ideas have shaped how we value the natural world and affected our contributions and responses to the current environmental crisis.

Architecture and art as forms of animism mean that spirituality and soul exist within our built environment. Architecture and art as animism has been present throughout time and place. Indigenous cultures, particularly, have expressed spirituality through a physical form such that there is a meaningful connection between the people and the place. Placing value on physical, man-made structures is important when considering the longevity of planet Earth. Caring for the environment includes consciously caring for the forms that humans construct. If architects and artists harness the ontological concept of spiritual value existing within their creations, then we may be able to see a shift towards a more sustainable built environment.

In the case of water availability, the Paquimé use a particular central post in the dwelling – one that plays a crucial role in dedication ceremonies– in conjunction with water-related offerings so that the house becomes a living agent and can help humans gain access to water, (VanPool and VanPool, 327-28). In other words, the building and humans are equally contributing to whether or not water is available because the Paquimé’s cosmology assigns them equal levels of agency. Ideally, the adoption of similar practices by architects and builders will translate into the habitual use of sustainable materials and building techniques precisely because each has a spiritual essence. This spirituality must galvanize those responsible to use materials that we care for to create structures we are inclined to preserve. Architecture having an animist quality means that it has significance akin to another living, breathing creature. We must care for this creature in the same way we care for our neighbors.

INTERSECTIONALITY IN ARCHITECTURE

My interdisciplinary approach to architecture includes consideration of the visual arts and the natural environment. As young architects entering the field I feel we must build not only beautiful architecture but architecture that is long-lasting and considerate of our shared future. By studying the ways that the natural environment is entangled with the built environment I can approach architecture holistically, that is, as an empirical and experimental manifestation of the interactions of living and non-living systems.

Introduction to Architecture Studio ARCH 101

Architectural Design Studio I ARCH 201

Architectural Design Studio II ARCH 301

Arch II: Renaissance Drawing ARCH 301

Architectural Design Vertical Studio ARCH 302

Architectural Internship ARCH 494

Senior Project Studio Seminar ARCH 495

Senior Thesis in Architecture ARCH 496

Materiality and 3D Form

Introduction to Modern Architecture ARCH 121

Architecture and Theory Since 1945 ARCH 221

Topics in Architectural Theory, Organicism ARTH 331

Biographies of World Cities, Abroad - Rome ARCH 340

The Year 1500: A Global History of Art & Architecture ARTH 136

Housing Seminar, Affordable Housing Solutions ARCH 494