NICHOLAS WONG
Selected works from 2022 to 2025
NICHOLAS WONG
SKILLS SUMMARY
CAD: Rhino 3D, Revit, AutoCAD, Sketchup
3D Modeling: Rhino 3D, Blender 3D, Maya, ZBrush
Microsoft Office Suite: Word, Excel, Powerpoint
EDUCATION
Adobe Suite: Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Lightroom, Premiere Pro Rendering: Blender 3D, VRay, Lumion, Keyshot, Enscape, TwinMotion Fabrication: 3D Printing, Laser Cutting, CNC Milling, Woodworking
Carnegie Mellon University, Bachelor of Arts in Architecture | September 2017 - September 2021 Minor in Game Design
University of Pennsylvania, Master of Architecture | July 2022 - May 2025
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Graduate Design Studio Teaching Assistant | Part-time Job | Philadelphia, PA, USA | July 2024 - December 2024
Worked at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design as a second-year Master of Architecture studio teaching assistant for Richard Garber’s 601 studio. Created and presented tutorials on Rhino 3D, Grasshopper, and rendering software to second-year Master of Architecture students. Instructed and advised design decisions for students. Helped schedule and plan mid review and final review pinups.
Perkins Eastman [BLTa] | Summer Internship | Philadelphia, PA, USA | June 2023 - August 2023
Awarded 2 month summer internship for achieving first place at the 2023 BLTa charrette competition. Coordinated with Perkins Eastman New York office team in designing residential unit layouts. Actively participated in design meetings with MEP and client representatives regarding unit layout designs. Assisted in the conceptualization and creation of multiple pre-design proposals and bid proposals.
Arno Matis Architecture | Full-time Job | Vancouver, BC, Canada | September 2021- July 2022
Assisted in the creation of diagrams, renderings, and drawings for rezoning proposals for multiple multi-family residential projects. Assisted with the iteration of multiple designs in pre-design phases for multiple projects. Responsible for creation and management of multiple physical study models using Laser cutters and 3D printers. Created and assisted with multiple animations and marketing material on social media.
LWK + Partners | Summer Internship | Hong Kong, China | June 2020 - August 2020
2 month paid internship at a large architecture firm in Hong Kong. Assisted with editing and post-processing of renders to show clients. Rapidly iterated through multiple formal ideas of a large-scale commercial project in Rhino 3D. Assisted with creating schematic design presentations.
BTR Workshop | Summer Internship | Hong Kong, China | June 2018 - July 2018
1 month paid internship at an interior design firm in Hong Kong. Work consisted of making presentations for clients and post-processing of 3D renders in Adobe Photoshop. Shadowed multiple coworkers for site visits and design meetings.
PYX_Labs | Remote Part-time job | New York, NY, USA | May 2022 - November 2022
Primary 3D asset creator and designer for an NFT startup. Worked on multiple design iterations for a 3D NFT product line. Responsible for creation of animations, renders, and 3D models of NFT products for website and marketing.
Freelance Illustrator / 3D Artist | June 2017 - Current
Completed multiple paid commissions for several online clients. Completed works include illustrations, character designs, logos, and renders.
CONTENTS
IMPERFECT INTERSECTIONS
UPENN DESIGN STUDIO FALL 2024
CHIAROSCURO
UPENN DESIGN STUDIO SPRING 2024
BEE BREEDERS 2021 COMPETITION
UPENN DESIGN STUDIO FALL 2023
CASCADE
REVISED UNDERGRADUATE PROJECT
THE BIOCITADEL
UPENN DESIGN STUDIO SPRING 2025
SARCOPHAGUS
UPENN DESIGN STUDIO FALL 2022
I MPERFEC T INTERSECTIONS
RECLAIMATION OF DONUIMUN MUSEUM VILLAGE
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 2024
SECOND YEAR STUDIO PROJECT CRITICS: BARRY WARK
PROJECT MEMBERS: NICHOLAS WONG, NANCY WU
This project is situated in Donuimun Museum Village, a historic site in Seoul with a dynamic architectural and cultural heritage. Currently, the Korean government plans to completely demolish the site in 2026 and create a large historical and cultural park. Our proposal for Donuimun Museum Village in Seoul, Korea, reimagines the site through the Korean philosophy of mak (막), embracing imperfection, transience, and organic growth. This design offers an alternative perspective that honors the village’s layered history while introducing adaptive spaces for community engagement. By selectively demolishing underused structures, the proposal exposes historical foundations, decaying facades, and incomplete walls, preserving them as cultural artifacts that document the passage of time.
Minimalist prefabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT) units are integrated with the preserved fragments, creating a striking juxtaposition between clean, adaptable forms and rugged, weathered elements. These modular additions host temporary galleries, markets, and workshops, evolving with the community’s needs and reinforcing mak’s impermanent nature. The irregular seams and loose fit between old and new emphasize the beauty of imperfection, celebrating the interplay of enduring materiality and ephemeral use. Open-air community spaces beneath the CLT units encourage interaction, spontaneity, and growth.This alternative vision complements Seoul’s broader restoration efforts by showcasing an evolving dialogue between past and present, honoring the imperfection, adaptability, and raw beauty that define mak.
Echoes of Imperfection
Donuimun Museum Village is located near the historic Donuimun (West Gate) of Seoul and is situated just south of Gyeonghuigung Palace. Once a bustling residential area near one of the Four Great Gates of the Joseon-era city wall, the village was originally defined by traditional hanoks (traditional Korean timber houses). Today, the village is a collection of restored and repurposed structures, many of which retain their traditional architectural features, alongside modern additions. However, the site also exhibits signs of wear, with some buildings in disrepair or underutilized. The programs of the village include exhibitions showcasing local and traditional Korean culture, workshops for crafts and art, and temporary galleries. Our proposal advocates for the partial demolition of Donuimun Museum Village to expose the layers of history embedded within the walls and foundations of the buildings while creating a garden that opens opening up circulation towards Gyeonghuigung Palace. This way, the historical traces of the village is retained while the spaces are revitalized for the community.
Donuimun Museum Village - Initial Condition
Donuimun Museum Village - Proposed Partial Demolition and Landscaping
Floor Plan of Proposed Partial Demolition and Landscaping
The colloquial definition of mak [막] is an adverb or prefix that conveys a feeling of roughness, coarsness, spontaneity, impulsiveness, and improvisation. This quality of mak is an inherent part of the site, as seen through the ad-hoc organization of buildings and streets, as well as the layered renovations that have taken place throughout the decades. The clashing of old and new exist everywhere around the village, revealed as peeling layers of history, embodying the essence of mak
Similarly, we wanted our approach to the site to also be rooted in mak. While the partial demolition of defunct buildings is purposeful and open up circulation towards Gyeonghuigung Palace, we wanted to convey a sense of coarseness and impulsiveness in the demolition process. The demolition would be controlled, yet look spontaneous and random, creating a ruined silhouette while exposing the historical layers of the site. On top, clean rectilinear boxes would be placed. The placement of these boxes would, in the spirit of mak, be made to look impulsive and spotaneous, intersecting with the existing ruins in jarring ways. The loose fit between the old and new would create an imperfect intersection, embodying mak
Partial Demolition And Supporting Walls
Urbanism
Weathered fragments act as anchors for minimalist prefabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT) additions. These temporary prefabricated volumes are placed down upon the existing walls and masonry, creating a striking juxtaposition between the clean, rectilinear forms of mass timber and the rugged, layered remnants of the site. These adaptable structures, designed to last from a few months to a few years, serve as popup galleries or shops, offering flexible spaces for community and artistic engagement. These CLT volumes are placed down on the site in a seemingly ad-hoc fashion, while being meticulously precise in their design. They can take on whatever shape, size, or orientation anywhere they can rest on existing structures depending on the needs of the community.
Physical Model
The imperfect intersection created by the intentionally-precise loose-fit of the CLT volumes with the existing walls highlight the tension between permanence and impermanence, making visitors aware of the transient nature of our built environments.
Thermally enclosed and insulated, the CLT volumes are purpose-built to serve as popup galleries or retail spaces, accommodating diverse community and cultural activities. The irregular forms resulting from their intersection with the preserved walls generate unique poched spaces within the walls and floors. These air pockets contribute to the structures’ thermal performance, enhancing energy efficiency. For structural stability, steel plate caps are bolted onto stable portions of the existing walls to anchor the CLT units securely. Areas that require more structural reinforcement rest on masonry support walls made from recycled brick from the site.
Timeless Intersections
Walking through the project feels like stepping into a dialogue between the past and the present. The weathered textures of preserved walls and exposed foundations contrast with the clean, minimalist lines of the ephemeral hovering CLT volumes, creating a dynamic interplay of ruggedness and precision. Shaded pockets beneath the elevated structures offer cool, intimate spaces for gathering or quiet reflection, while irregular seams and intersections draw your eye to the imperfections that tell the site’s evolving story. This project transforms Donuimun Museum Village into a living tapestry, where time weaves together the raw beauty of the past and the quiet elegance of the present, inviting every visitor to walk between what endures and what evolves.
A CINEMATHEQUE FOR THE FUTURE
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 2024
SECOND YEAR STUDIO PROJECT
CRITICS: OLIVIA VIEN, NATE HUME
PROJECT MEMBERS: NICHOLAS WONG, NANCY WU
This Cinematheque ties two distinct spatial experiences with two contrasting archival methods.The first archival method, film preservation, requires film reels to be stored in carefully climate-controlled spaces, and have to be screened periodically to check for degradation. In this cinematheque, this screening routine is automated via a series of computer-controlled mechanical systems. As the film is being analyzed, it is simultaneously recorded and projected onto the screens of all the cinema spaces in the building, allowing visitors to watch the film. The other archival method is a proprietary data storage technology developed by Microsoft called Project Silica. Data is inscribed and etched onto quartz glass, embedding terabytes of data into a physical form no bigger than a coaster. Unlike a film stock or a hard drive, it is not affected by power outages, magnets, sunlight, wind, rain, or snow and if maintained correctly, can theoretically last forever. Furthermore, the proportionally gigantic storage capacity allows these Silica panels to store far more than just films; a large portion of humanity’s digital history can be stored onto these shelves, cladding the building with the entirety of our accumulated knowledge.
The Silica library itself is both an archive and the facade, acting as an advanced glazing system. The spaces around the Silica archives are public, transparent, and open, illuminated by sunlight filtered through the Silica-lined facade. On the other hand, the more traditional film archives are protected, shielded from sunlight and existing in the dark. The contrast between these two storage techniques and the spaces that surround them allows for an experiential interplay between the themes of light and dark, open and closed, public and private, man and machine.
CHIAROSCURO
CONTRAST AND DICHOTOMY
The two distinct archival methods of the cinematheque are very boldly reflected in the cinematheque’s form. Each archive technique is represented by two distinct angled volumes that intersect; The Northern volume wears its archive as a skin, while the Southern volume protectively houses the other archive within itself. This contrast not only serves to reflect the difference between these two archival techniques (one being resilient, high-tech, and immune to the elements, the other requiring protection and darkness) but also serves to reflect the spatial experiences of the interior. Both archives are completely automated by machines and computer-code. Each archive utilizes an interconnected system of track-roller carriages and robot arms to extract or replace the silica panels or film reels. Additionally, each projection booth is automated to extract and screen film reels periodically to check for degradation.
SYSTEMS AND STRUCTURE
The automated nature of the building’s systems creates an interesting dynamic between visitors and the cinematheque: Visitors are simply witnesses to the archival system’s autonomous functions. The space is built for human visitors, however the function of the building itself is not to accomodate its inhabitants. To support the weight of both the storage systems and the occupants in the cinema spaces, the building reies on a robust steel frame structure. Structural calculations were done in the VisualAnalysis software and with small physical model studies. To ensure the storage systems spaces functioned adequately, facade system and HVAC studies were used to build an accurate model in collaboration with professional consultants.
STEEL FRAME STRUCTURE
The volume containing the Project Silica archives is open, spacious, and both physically and visually transparent. The spaces are illuminated by sunlight that is filtered, refracted, and reflected through the layers of glass Silica shelves. In contrast, the volume containing the film storage is darker and enclosed, filled with shelves of film reels. Nestled within these storage spaces are various raked seating spaces for guests that each offer different viewing experiences of films whose reels are being autonomously checked for degradation.
PHYSICAL MODEL INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHS
The choices of materials were influenced by the properties and requirements of the two archival techniques. Since the Silica library is made out of glass, it was only fitting to use more glass to accentuate the themes and architectural ideas of lightness and transparency. Wood was chosen as the second primary material for the project because it was an opaque material that was light, warm, inviting, natural, and complemented the glass aesthetically. Furthermore, the layering of wood louvers on the opaque volume’s facade created a visual sensation of density and depth, as if looking at the edge of a dark forest, the opposite of the Silica library’s transparency.
Circulation is designed in a way that requires visitors to traverse through both halves of a level and meander through both archives in order to ascend to the next level. The experience provides contrasting spatial experiences as visitors walk through the open, transparent, and sunlit spaces of the Silica archives into the tighter, more opaque spaces of soundproofed theaters and enclosed film reel storage spaces.
SILICA STORAGE
To properly prevent thermal bridging and to adequately waterproof the building, the Silica shelves had to be outside the thermal barrier of the building in separate air/watertight volumes that hang off of the diagonal structural members. These shelf compartments are accessible for maintenance but are on the exterior of the building. Each compartment contains two shelves of Silica panels that interface with a single track-roller carriage system which can autonomously deliver panels to a small elevator that runs down the entire building to the basement level. Behind the Silica shelves and between each floor slab are floor-to-ceiling window walls that allow light into the building. By day, the building breathes in the sun, its walls shimmering with the weight of history—exabytes of memory etched into glass, refracting time itself.
TERRA DOMUS
RESPITE FOR THE TERMINALLY ILL
2021 Bee Breeder’s Competition Entry
The concept heavily draws inspiration from Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s book On Death and Dying, where our design translates The Stages of Grief into spaces that portray the dynamism and interconnectedness of each stage. The design creates a sense of freedom of movement, a milieu for strolling, a mood that has less to do with directing people than seducing them. A space where one could stay and not just pass through; A voyage of discovery.
The site is located near a cliff overlooking the ocean on the west side of UBC’s campus in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A small path separates the project from the busy urban environment, creating a place of quiet contemplation and repose. The view of the ocean symbolizes the origin of life, while the horizon beyond symbolizes humanity’s infinite possibilites and dreams.
and Task Distribution:
Project Members: YongHao Zhang, Jerry Yang, Max Chen, Nicholas Wong
Role
Ideation / Concept: All 3D Model: Jerry Yang, YongHao Zhang Technical Drawings: Jerry Yang, Max Chen Renders: YongHao Zhang, Nicholas Wong Diagrams: Max Chen Final Composite: Nicholas Wong
We placed emphasis on the horizontality of the design by using locally sourced rammed earth for the outer walls. Its solidity hints upon a return to earth, while the patterns resemble the flow of time and the waves of the ocean. The concaved roof represents delicacy and lightness. The wood induces a sense of calmness.
The chapel symbolizes the fifth stage of grief, acceptance. According to Kubler-Ross, acceptance involves being in quietude, at rest, void of feeling, and fading interests, as opposed to a profound celebratory rationalization. Thus, the chapel operates more as a complimentary place of solitude instead of being the apex of the design.
View of The Dining Area
View of The Common Room
INTERLOCK/INTERLINK
THE MODULAR ECONOMY
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 2024
SECOND YEAR STUDIO PROJECT
CRITICS: RICHARD GARBER, HINA JAMELLE
This project is a modular housing proposal for an adaptive reuse initiative at the historic Five Corners intersection in Jersey City, New Jersey, where a community library has stood since 1972. The library complex is close to losing its taxexempt status, prompting the city to solicit proposals for the integration of multifamily housing to the site. Furthermore, the site is part of a larger 6.35-acre parcel where some 500 affordable housing units were built by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The library structure is an object within a corner, but also part of a larger assemblage known as “Summit Plaza”, which is one of nine sites developed country wide as part of an initiative called Operation Breakthrough. The initiative tests innovative building materials and construction methods with the goal of removing obstacles to large-scale affordable housing production in the United States, bringing quality housing to all income groups. Operation Breakthrough collaborated with 22 system producers to deliver around 2,900 housing units using off-site construction methods, ranging from precast concrete to plastic or metal structures. This project aims to continue the mission of Operation Breakthrough by providing luxurious, yet affordable housing via an innovative modular housing approach.
The shape of the traditional puzzle piece is the foundation of all formal and logical decisions that guide the design of every aspect of the project. The themes of shifting, fileting, and interlocking persist throughout the project, from the furniture, the modular components that make up units, the units themselves, the arrangement of the units on each floor, the units’ stacking strategies, and so on. It is through the interaction and interlocking of these puzzle-shapes that unique spatial experiencese are created.
The first piece of the puzzle is the room. A collection of modular common room typologies are created based off of the shape of the traditional puzzle piece, which use “tabs” and “sockets” to connect to each other. From there, different configurations can be created to create different unit types. Some room modules are created from smaller sub-modules, all of which fit within the maximum dimensional constraints of being at most 16 feet wide and 11 feet tall, the maximum permittable dimensions for an oversize load on a lowboy trailer. This allows all rooms and room modules to be prefabricated off-site and easily assembled on-site. These room modules can then be combined in a myriad of ways to create different unit typologies, ranging from studios to 3-Bed-3-Bath units.
The tabs and sockets not only act as joints in two-dimensions. Aside from being joints to connect rooms together to form residential units, tabs can also extend vertically to become shafts for MEP, or act as columns by having HSS columns inserted through them. This vertical connection logic allows for a unique non-standard stacking of room-types and units, creating interesting conditions where some units may cantilever over others or have their roofs become terrace space for units above. This stacking logic also serves to break up the typical uniformity found in most residential projects, creating an interesting variation in depth to the facade. However, this stacking logic and joinery ultimately creates uneven floor plates and inevitably creates inefficiencies in hallways. This project proposes that these inefficiencies turn into opportunities for social interaction, increasing the amount of shared public spaces on each residential floor.
To break apart the reading of individual units and rooms further, modular prefabricated GFRC (Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete) panels are then attached onto the units. These GFRC panels span multiple floors and units, hiding some seams between units and floors, while revealing connections and cohesions that may not have been readily apparent.
Conversations with the library custodians provided insight into the evolution of public libraries into multi-purpose communal hubs. Many libraries now have computer labs, dedicated learning areas and store a variety of media that aren’t just books. Additionally, classes, seminars, and public outreach programs are often hosted at libraries. Libraries still provide traditional silent study spaces, but are now turning into community spaces where people learn and grow together. With this in mind, some additions to the Five Corners Libraries in this project include: A public outreach office, a large auditorium, a makerspace, a bar, a large computer lab, and a large stepped seating area.
CASCADE
C&O CANAL LOCK 52 VISITING CENTER
Revised Undergraduate Project
This visiting center is located at Lock 52 of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, situated between the lock and the adjacent river. Remains of the canal walls remain at this portion of the lock, emphasizing the linearity of the canal. The staggered design of the scheme serves to emphasize this linearity, and provide views along the vestiges of the canal and aqueduct. Attached to the visiting center is a ‘lookout tower’, which follows the staggering formal language of the visiting center, and is cantilevered over the canal lock. The staggering and shifting of the scheme in plan, section, and elevation creates a cascading spatial experience as one travels from the riverbank to the canal lock within the project.
PROCESS
The intial design began with a simple site analysis and massing model study. Based on the favorable views towards the river to the South and a nice view along the Canal to the West, the initial idea was to have visitors approach a series of cascading volumes from the East that would circulate visitors towards the top of the visiting center lookout. Then, a physical study model explored materiality how these cascading volumes may be realized in 3-dimensions. Concrete was chosen for its stability and firmness, anchoring the base of the visiting center into the hillside. Wood was chosen as a lighter material that would cantilever over the canal lock and act as a tactile connection to the surrounding trees. The final design would evolve from this study model, which would incorporate structural considerations, as well as the programs of a cafe and gallery space.
Roof
Despite the volumes shifting, the gallery space is transparent enough to allow a direct sightline from the entrance of the project to the entrance of the tower, creating a processional sequence throughout the project. The lower volumes emphasize views of the Potomac river, while the upper volumes allow for views along the canal. At the center is a gallery space that displays artifacts from the canal and a topographical model of the lock.
The ‘lookout tower’ exists as a partially sculptural attachment to the visiting center, continuing the shifting and staggering formal language above the canal. The idea was for the lookout tower to look light, elegant, and fit the texture and materiality of the treeline beyond the canal. However, in order to support such a massive cantilever, the tower needed a hidden steel beam system that extended to the foundation.
Proposed Lookout Tower Structural Axonometric
The stepped nature of the volumes allow for light shelves to exist between each volume to illuminate the main gallery space. It also allows for the staggered, shifting processional sequence through the project in the plan to also exist in section; the spaces shift in all three dimensions. The section perspective below shows the procession from the outdoor lookout point by the river to the cantilevered lookout tower above the canal.
The project’s form is inspired by the cascading waters created from raising and lower the water levels in a canal. The stepping nature in both plan and section creates a staggered linear sequence that begins by the riverbank and ends above the canal lock. The building functions as a place of respite for travelers, an educational visiting center for the canal, and a sculptural memento of canal lock 52.
THE BIOCITADEL
A FORTRESS REIMAGINED FOR CLIMATE RESILIENCE
A speculative intervention exploring form, ecology, and adaptation
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 2025
THIRD YEAR STUDIO PROJECT
CRITIC: MARION WEISS
PROJECT MEMBERS: NICHOLAS WONG, JULIUS QUARTEY-PAPAFIO
This project envisions a speculative intervention on the southern edge of Governors Island, reimagining its militarized past as a platform for ecological adaptation. Developed over an intensive two-week design sprint, the proposal embraces abstraction and metaphor as tools for architectural inquiry. It introduces a phased, multi-layered “fortress” that merges hard infrastructural edges with soft ecological systems, positioning the island as a testing ground for climate resilience. At its core stands a vertical hydroponic conservatory tower, a beacon of regenerative agriculture and research. Beneath it lies a subterranean, cave-like conservatory—an immersive environment for low-light vegetation and atmospheric cultivation. The project’s formal language draws from the Orange Peel Fungus, a resilient pioneer species whose cupped morphology inspires water-collecting canopies and sea-edge barriers. Rather than offering technical resolution, the project imagines a mythic ecology at the threshold of land and sea—an architecture that invites reflection on adaptation, ritual, and collective care.
2020s ZONE (11 INCHES) 2050s ZONE (31 INCHES)
SITE STRATEGY
Governors Island sits at a critical point in New York Harbor, historically valued for its military role and now increasingly vulnerable to sea-level rise and storm surge. The project is sited along the island’s exposed southern edge, where the risks of flooding are greatest. This location becomes a strategic testing ground for climate resilience, transforming a vulnerable shoreline into a dynamic interface between architecture, ecology, and public life.
The project’s formal system is derived from the Orange Peel Fungus, a bright, sculptural species known for colonizing disturbed soils and emerging in fragmented landscapes. Its open, cupped morphology informs the design of the hydroponic tower, water-collection canopies, and sea barrier—each shaped to channel water, light, and public flow. As a fungal species that thrives in marginal conditions, the Orange Peel Fungus metaphorically parallels the project’s aim: to regenerate life in an ecologically and historically fractured site.
Orange Peel Cup Cluster (Plan)
Orange Peel Cup Cluster (Elevation)
Excavated material from the island is used to create an elevated park below the tower. Carved into the mound beneath the park is an underground conservatory that leverages the earth’s natural insulation and humidity to create a stable microclimate with minimal energy input. The intersection between the cave-conservatory and the freshwater lake functions as a freshwater plant conservatory.
A SUSTAINING LANDMARK
The Biocitadel’s tower acts as the project’s core, connecting the ferry terminal, production greenhouse, conservatory, park spaces, and surge barrier together. The primary function of the Biocitadel is the hydroponic tower, which functions as both a research center and a large-scale food production facility. It is an adaptive response to climate risk, food insecurity, and ecological regeneration. It employs vertical hydroponics to grow crops resilient to saltwater intrusion and shifting conditions using desalinated seawater and rainwater. At its scale, it acts as a beacon—part lighthouse, part living infrastructure—recasting the legacy of fortification into a symbol of resilience, productivity, and public engagement. Additionally, it rests atop an artificial mound,
FORTIFICATION AND REGENERATION
Through the integration of a hydroponic tower, multiple onservatories, research spaces, resilient coastal infrastructure, a new ferry terminal, and elevated public parks, the design transforms a former site of defense into a living system of cultivation, research, and collective renewal.
Drawing inspiration from the Orange Peel Fungus, the project embraces growth through disturbance—using biomorphic forms to soften thresholds and invite new rituals of coexistence. The fungi’s fragmented yet cohesive form becomes a visual and structural motif, transforming symbols of fortification into devices of collection, cultivation, and climate resilience. It becomes a design medium through which architecture negotiates adaptation and continuity in the face of environmental change.
SARCOPHAGUS
A RESTING PLACE FOR DISCARDED MODELS
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 2022
FIRST YEAR STUDIO PROJECT
CRITICS: DANIEL MARKIEWICZ
PROJECT MEMBERS: NICHOLAS WONG, JULIUS QUARTEY-PAPAFIO, HOLLY SMITHBERGER, JOYCE ZHANG
The Sarcophagus is the culmination of our exploratory work during UPenn’s first semester Master of Architecture studio. Using various digital fabrication techniques, we were tasked with building an ornamental vessel that would contain and describe the now obsolete models we produced throughout our first semester. Inspired by ideas of growth, uplifting, rebirth, and evolution, our sarcophagus takes the form of a monolith, shifting and morphing as it rises. The relief patterns inscribed on its surface take inspiration from Louise Zhang’s paintings, where she explores the dynamics of aesthetics, contrasting the attractive and repulsive to navigate the senses of fear, anxiety, and otherness. The thin, painted steel pipes form concentric loops that add to a sense of movement, creating the illusion that the monolith has risen and grown from under the ground.
The project is broken into 3 parts: The wooden monolith, the steel pipes, and the foam base. The shifting, jagged, diamond form of the monolith was accomplished by both hand-cutting and CNCing faces of plywood to construct an outer frame. The “floor” plates would be connected by long wooden dowels on the inside. The relief textures on top were laser cut from MDF, painted, and then glued onto the outer faces. The steel pipes, which formed the main structural elements of the project, were cut with a saw and bent with a pipe bender. Wooden dowels joined the ends of each pipe together and then secured with screws. The base was a simple plywood sheet with holes for the steel pipes to slot in, which was then embellished with a layer of machined styrofoam to resemble rock, which was then coated with plaster.
Something we wanted to convey was the shifting and morphing of the sarcophagus. We wanted the sarcophagus to look as if it was frozen in time, in the midst of reconfiguring itself and reaching its final form. This is what inspired the offsets and shearing of the geometry, as well as the curved carveouts on the top and bottom. These organic carveouts also served as the connection points between the steel pipe structure and the monolith.
From start to finish, the entire project took 10 days. The final model, standing at 160cm (5’3”), contains 12 physical models in its hollow interior, fulfilling its role as a sarcophagus. The project is a testament to our team’s meticulous coordination, mastery of digital fabrication, and adaptive problem-solving under time constraints.
