Architecture Portfolio Selected Works 2022-2024
VR Research Facility
San Francisco, CA
Student Housing Thesis Old Town Alexandria, VA
04-11 12-17 18-21
THE MEMORY FABRICATION CENTER
16 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
~84,000 GSF | 17 STORIES
The MEMORY FABRICATION CENTER is a virtual reality research facility where technological innovation drives new treatments for those with dementia. Although the Fabricated Memory Center primarily serves older demographics, the project engages with the local community by providing inner-city youth the opportunity to learn about neuroscience and applied technologies through their own dedicated virtual reality lab. This outreach also facilitates breakthroughs in neuroscience as it allows the researchers to study developing and deteriorating memory function simultaneously in real-time.
Public
SOUTHEAST FACADE
MODELED AT 1/16” = 1’-0”
VR Exhibit Lab for the
VR LAB “MEMORY CLOUD”
3D PRINTED AT 1/4” = 1’-0”
Dedicated interactive learning lab for inner-city youth program. Emerges from the facade to engage with the public on the street scape.
MEMORY CLOUD SECTION ASSEMBLY
3D PRINTED AT 1/4” = 1’-0”
NORTHEAST FACADE
MODELED AT 1/16” = 1’-0”
Rhino, Grasshopper
CURTAIN WALL SYSTEM W/ INSULATED GLASS
LAMINAM ‘VERDERAME’ PORCELAIN TILE SPANDREL
ARKTURA ‘GRAPHIC PERF EXTERIOR’ POWDER-COATED ACP
TYPICAL FACADE + BAY ASSEMBLY
Using an attractor grasshopper script, the perforations enlargen and densify at the average eye-height of the users to preserve exterior views. This subsequent mapping of circulation on the facade also serves to abstract users as signals firing between neurons, exchanging information through the building.
DECOMPRESSION POD
3D PRINTED AT 1/4” = 1’-0”
WAAC HAUS SOLAR DECATHLON
116 S HENRY ST, OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA, VA
~45,600
GSF | 4 STORIES
WAAC HAUS is a student housing project for Virginia Tech’s Washington Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC) in Old Town, Alexandria, VA. The design integrates a high-performance building into a historic context, demonstrating that preservation and sustainability can work hand in hand. Inspired by traditional Old Town shutters, the project introduces innovative PV window shutters alongside rooftop PV panels. Drawing from 18th-century materials like wood and clay, it employs terra cotta and mass timber. The courtyard strategy creates a cohesive campus while the ground floor houses the Northern Virginia Chapter of the AIA, fostering connections between architecture students and the community.
My contributions spanned the entire design process, including climate analysis, massing strategy, daylighting design, circulation planning, and facade design. I developed massing iterations, daylighting strategies, and finalized the facade composition, independently producing the schematic exterior model in Rhino and conducting solar and energy performance analyses with Grasshopper. Additionally, I led decisions on window/shutter design, WWR, and shading strategies, ensuring a balance of performance and aesthetics.
Rhino, Grasshopper, Ladybug, Honeybee
RENDERING: Angela
DESIGN:
Molina
3D MODEL + EXTERIOR
Raina Lee
JUNE 20TH
12:30 | ALT: 74.5°
APRIL 20TH
12:10 | ALT: 62.97°
DEC 21ST
12:30 | ALT: 27.6°
GROUND FLOOR
DAYLIGHT SECTIONS
Grasshopper, Ladybug, Honeybee
COMMON AREAS
EAST | WEST PV SHUTTER ELEVATION: Raina Lee
+ AXON: Naomi Cruz
NORTH | SOUTH SECTION
COMMUNION
LEVERAGING THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S RESOURCES TO SHELTER AMERICA’S UNHOUSED
5th-Year Thesis Studio [in progress]
The U.S. unhoused crisis, with nearly 1 million newly houseless in 2023, highlights systemic housing inequality and governmental failure. In this context, private institutions such as the Catholic Church must assume responsibility for bridging the welfare gap. Washington, D.C., a city shaped by marginalization and institutional power, offers a lens to examine the Catholic Church’s significant land ownership and moral doctrine in addressing housing insecurity. This project explores how architecture can challenge the Church’s role in upholding these systems, proposing radical, community-centered solutions such as converting underutilized church properties into affordable housing. It asks: How can architecture reclaim power from institutional wealth to empower marginalized communities? What could a productive transformation of the Church’s spaces look like?
It’s remarkable to think about how the Catholic Church manages a portion of the world’s real estate. Across the globe, they control over 177 million parcels, adding up to an immense amount of property.
This includes forests, farms, and urban acres that could be repurposed for social good. Imagine if even a fraction of this land were used to address pressing issues like homelessness.
CATHOLIC LANDOWNERSHIP IN D.C.
The Catholic Church collectively owns over $1.75 billion in real estate assets in Washington, D.C. Due to censorship of Catholic landownership and the privatization of property data, this mapping required extensive research into public property tax records and cross examination of recorded landowners. Major landowners include the Roman Catholic Archbishop, Catholic University of America, William Wakefield Baum [a deceased Archbishop of Washington], and a number of undisclosed, Catholic entities. These real estate assets include religious canons such as churches and Catholic schools, as well as anomalies such as rowhouses, empty lots, commercial buildings, and large, mixed-use developments. Coincidentally, Ward 5 of D.C. which is dubbed, “Little Rome,” holds the concentration of Catholic wealth/assets and has the 2nd highest density of unhoused people in the District. This overlap shows the need for a radical architectural intervention that reclaims exclusionary, Catholic property to provide a new model for housing security.
ANALOG WORKS
EXPLORING MEDIUMS
COMMUNION | DESIGN BUILD
[conversation] chairs, coffee table, bench
Baltic Birch plywood, TransTint, wax finish
Communion reimagines conversational furniture as a medium for fostering empathy and openness. Drawing from liturgical furniture, Donald Judd minimalism, and the proportions of Mackintosh chairs, communion carves out an intimate, semi-enclosed space that renders both participants vulnerable and equal to each other.
This piece is designed to inspire open dialogue between individuals, symbolizing the potential for connection and equalization between the Catholic Church and the broader community. By merging two “chairs” into a singular form, this hybrid bench-coffee table invites moments of unity, understanding, and inclusion. Through simplicity and engagement, communion becomes a place for bridging divides and building empathetic relationships.
Special thanks to Kyle Wilhelm, who shared his experience and wood joinery methods from working in Donald Judd’s studio.
Rhino | Wood Shop, Biscuit Joiner
PROJECT 308 INTERNSHIP
COMMERCIAL OFFICE RENOVATION
AUSTIN, TX | ~17,000 GSF
During this internship I quickly learned Revit and was the main designer on various commercial interior projects, both for classified and unclassed offices. This renovation project was an unclassed addition for a third party government contractor’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. I worked on the project from Pre-design to the Construction Document phase, modeling the existing conditions and designing the interior under the supervision of the senior interior designer and the firm’s founder/principal. As the primary designer, I also conducted code analysis, produced all of the schedules, curated finish palettes, etc.
ENLARGED CEILING PLAN @PANTRY NOT TO
NEW WORK REFLECTED CEILING PLAN NOT TO SCALE
1.
(703)
raina.m.lee@gmail.com