Ryan Debski_Architecture Portfolio_2020

RYAN DEBSKI. [ ARCHITECTURAL + INTERIOR DESIGNER ]

Selected works 2009 - 2019

215-353-2392 ryan.debski@gmail.com www.ryandebski.com

1514 North Hollywood Street Philadelphia, PA 19121

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

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Rebuilding Home: Memory, Dwelling, and Architecture

Tea House Meditation Cabin

Berlin Wall Memorial

Spruce Street Cohousing

Adirondack Retreat

2018 - Latvia

2015 - Berlin, Germany

2014 - Philadelphia, PA

2010 - Adirondack Mountains, NY

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Mausoleum of the Sea

Mount Lemmon Observatory

2018 - Portuguese Coast

2017 - Mount Lemmon, AZ

Brandywine Realty Trust Office Building

University of Michigan School of Kinesiology

University of Michigan School of Dance

2019 - Radnor, PA

2018 - Ann Arbor, MI

2017 - Ann Arbor, MI

2015 - Iwaki City, Japan

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Amber Road Trekking Cabins

Lighthouse Sea Hotel

Forest Meditation Pavilion

2017 - Latvian Coast

2016 - Siracusa, Italy

2015 - Woodstock, VT

From Away : Photos and Sketches Various - Various

Photography : Bethlehem Steel Works

Painting : Moments in the Sky

2012 - Bethlehem, PA

2011 - Philadelphia, PA

Education Master of Architectural Management and Design 2017 - 2018 IE Business School / Madrid, Spain

RYAN DEBSKI

[ ARCHITECTURAL + INTERIOR DESIGNER ]

GPA: 3.73 Graduated Summa Cum Laude MBA for Architects

Bachelor of Architecture ( 2 + 4 Option ) 2009 - 2015 Drexel University / Philadelphia, PA GPA: 3.61 Graduated Cum Laude

HELLO, I am a Philadelphia based architect whose work is focused on bringing people closer to nature through architecture and design. I believe that for our species to live on this planet sustainably, we have to not only minimize the constructed world’s impact on the environment through passive design strategies and locally sourced materials, but we also need to invite nature back into our cities for our benefit and the environment’s. My future ambitions include becoming licensed as a professional architect and landscape architect and starting my own multidiscipline design firm. Please feel free to reach out.

Professional Architecture Degree

Distinctions

Experience

Best Venture Lab Project 2017

Ballinger Architects + Engineers Fall 2015 - Present

"NestList" - Best Business Plan

Architectural Designer II

Pearson Prize 2015

Stuart Rosenberg Architects Spring 2013 - Fall 2015

"Rebuilding Home: Memory, Dwelling, and Architecture" -

Architectural Designer I

Best Undergraduate Architectural Thesis

Wilson Prize 2013

Drexel University Winter 2012 & Winter 2013 Teacher's Assistant - Architecture and Society

"Barcelona's Santa Caterina Market: A Collage of Time, Imagery, and Imagination" Best Architectural Research Paper

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Rebuilding Home is an off the grid village located in Iwaki City, Japan built for the refugees of Futaba, Japan whose homes were rendered uninhabitable by the Tohoku Tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Caiichi nuclear power plant located just 2.0 miles from the town center.

UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

MEMORY, DWELLING, AND ARCHITECTURE

REBUILDING HOME:

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My thesis project attempts to make anew home for the people of Futaba, a place to live that not only recalls the memories of the past and allows new memories to be created, but also a place where the refugees can dwell meaningfully as a community in a familiar architectural and natural environmental.

In short, Rebuilding Home seeks to answer how architects can contribute their craft to the rebuilding of communities that have been devastated in such a way that is sensitive to both time and place but also memory and history to create architecture that is at once timely, time-full, and eternal.

Type Masterplanning Urban Design Civic Residential Year 2015 Location Iwaki City, Japan Used Software Autocad Sketchup Lumion Photoshop

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The village masterplan utilizes a pentagonal tiling that presents the identical residential typology in differing ways adding variety to the urban design and creates a multitude of opportunites for gardens and social spaces.

_ The village was conceived to be resilient in so far that if another disaster were to strike the people of Futaba the village would be able to not only survive the disaster, but would be able to lives their lives with minimal impact.

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The village features a multitude of social spaces and gardens that creates opportunites for socializing.

The exterior of the community building is constructed out of the rubble from the previous village.

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TEA HOUSE

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The following was my competition entry for an off-the-grid cabin on the property of a rural Latvian herbal tea company. The competition sought eco-friendly and cost-effective proposals for an easily constructible, 15 square meter hut that could be sited in a series of forested locations across the site.

The cabins are intended to provide a calm space to meditate while surrounded by the sounds of nature.

MEDITATION CABIN ACADEMIC WORK

My proposal breaks down the 4 primary elements of the program, (arranged in order of the sacredness of the function) composting toilet, sleeping area, living area, and a meditation space and gives each space it's own volume, which is then lifted off the ground by varying heights to minimize the architecture's impact on nature.

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The volumes are accessed via a meandering stepped path that acts like an extension of the path through the forest the guest has to use to access the cabins. The transparent volumes of the cabin are screened by the building strucutre itself which creates privacy forr the occupants while creating the experience of living in and amongst the tree canopy.

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Type Hospitality Year 2018 Location Latvia

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Used Software Autocad Sketchup Lumion Photoshop

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MAUSOLEUM

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Located on the site of a former quarry on the Portuguese coast , my competition entry for this internation competition is conceived as a monumental excavation from the earth whose roof is open to the sky above. At the center of this cavern-like space is a flowering tree surrounded by a reflecting pool, which not only collects rainwater as it falls through the mausoleum's oculus but also represents the lake formed by the rivers Styx and Acheron in the mythological underworld as understood by the Greeks.

OF THE SEA ACADEMIC WORK

The hall of memory is accessed via a sharp cut in the stone which radiates out from the center of the hall towards the sea and forms a plinth that offers panoramic views of the sea beyond.

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The tree at the center of the design represents the circle of life insofar as in the same way that we are born from dust and return to dust, a tree similiarly is reborn every spring all to shed it's leaves in the winter.

Type Spiritual Date 2018

A 5cm trough allows water to flow from the rain water catch basin out through the cut in the rough hewn stone and down the entry stairs to a small catch basin at the bottom of the stair at the mausoleum entrance. As Charon ferries souls across the river Styx so to will the fallen flower petals from the tree flow down the "river" to collect in this basin.

Location Portuguese Coast Used Software Autocad Sketchup Lumion Photoshop

Oculus is at once anexcavation and an extrusion of the earth. It is hewn out of the rough rock and built of polished marble. It's a place for the living, built to house the dead. It is a place carved from the earth that provides a view to the heavens.

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MOUNT LEMMON OBSERVATORY ACADEMIC WORK

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

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Type Educational

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In this 10 day sprint competition, participants were asked to design an observatory for the University of Arizona SkyCenter located on Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, Arizona. The facility's intent is to educate people about the expanses of the galaxy and makes the facility's 32-inch Shulman telescope publicly accessible.

Year 2017 Location Mount Lemmon, Tuscon, AZ

My proposal is conceived as a single gesture that divorces the landscape from the ground plane and thrusts it upward towards the skyabove. The bar contains the public education and cafe portion of the program and the tower contains the research components of the program. The building is clad in rugged corten steel which protects the delicate pine finishes of the building's interior from the harsh climate of the observatory's desert site, while picking up on the colors and tonalities of the landscape itself.

Used Software Autocad Sketchup Lumion Photoshop

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Type Hospitality

ACADEMIC WORK

TREKKING CABINS

AMBER ROAD

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The project seeks a low impact, transient and inhabitable structure in anticipation of a hiking network that would connect the different ecological zones of the region: pine forests, dunes, and white sand beaches. In order to accomodate these vastly different topographies, my cabin proposal is lifted off of the ground allowing it to be sited above dunes or on a precipice overlooking the sea.

The form of the cabins is pulled from the traditional vernacular and utilizes traditional building techniques and materials.

The exterior cladding of the cabin is tarred pine wood, and the interior pine wood is left unfinished.

Year 2017 Client Latvian Coast Used Software Autocad Sketchup Lumion Photoshop

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The rugged tarred pine of the exterior cladding contrasts starkly with the natural, untreated pine of the interiors of the cabin.

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A skylight in the bunk room provides dappled light into the building interior.

_ The double height of the interior of the cabins provides relief from the small footprint of the building.

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36 The floor to ceiling glazing of the living area offers expansize views of the sea beyond.

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Type Hospitality Year 2017

LIGHTHOUSE SEA HOTEL

Location Siracusa, Italy

ACADEMIC WORK

Used Software Autocad Sketchup Lumion Photoshop

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The Forest Meditation Pavilion is a project that began as a group project during the Immersion Masterclass with Rick Joy that I participated in in the summer of 2015, but later reworked into an original project. The brief for the project is a small pavilion located anywhere on the property that featured a more open space to be used for yoga, and a smaller more enclosed space to be used for deep meditation and introspection.

WORK

ACADEMIC

PAVILION

MEDITATION

FOREST

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My project inhabits a hollow in the forest close to the main house on the property that sits above a creek that rambles below. The pavilion features a stone "core" of Vermont granitethat encloses a sinuous wood space that features a fire and an oculus above. This core of the pavilion is encircled by an array of brass slats in the shap of an oval that lessen in density as one approaches the back of the pavilion facing the forest.

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Type Spiritual Year 2015 Client Woodstock, VT Used Software Autocad Sketchup Lumion Photoshop

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The ceiling of the pavilion is sloped in such as way as to amplify the sound of the stream below the pavilion. At the heart of the design of this building is the belief that architecture should enhance one's experience of nature, not alter it.

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The oculus in the wood ceiling of the pavilion not onl allows smoke to escpae from the fire ring, but also would allow dappled sunlight from the tree canopy above to filter into the other dark space.

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BERLIN WALL MEMORIAL ACADEMIC WORK

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Type Memorial Year 2015 Location Berlin, Germany Used Software Autocad Sketchup Lumion Photoshop

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SPRUCE STREET COHOUSING ACADEMIC WORK

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Cohousing is a living movement in which people own their own homes, but also share communal living spaces which help to prevent social isolation and create a strong sense of community. Located at the intersection of Juniper and Spruce Streets in Center City Philadelphia, this cohousing project features a variety of vertically stacked apartment typologies that revolve around an internal courtyard which the apartments then borrow light from.

In this way, the internal corridors of the buildings become like exterior sidewalks, they become places where people want to congreagate, chat, and hangout in as opposed simply circulate through. Sliding wood screens on the courtyards interior create a dynamic and ever changing internal facade that helps to activate the courtyard's myriad of terraces of varying sizes.

A large community multi-purpose room and setback storefront that sells produce farmed on the building's extensive roof, form a strong and activated street front.

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Type Multi-Family Residential Year 2014 Location Philadelphia, PA Used Software Autocad Revit Sketchup Lumion Photoshop

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ADIRONDACK RETREAT ACADEMIC WORK

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The Adirondack Retreat was inspired by a gesture.

The steeply angled roofline of the cabin represents the moment that someone jumps off from land diving into open water. This gesture also serves a practical purpose of opening up the interior space of the cabin as one progresses from the forest to the panoramic views out to the water of the lake beyond.

On approach, the retreat divorces itself from the landscape to form an enclosed upper level and an open lower level which also has a small boat dock. The enclosed upper level features a sleeping area and a living area seperated by an outdoor communicating stair that allows users to go between the upper and lower levels of the cabin without being completly exposed to the elements.

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Type Residential Year 2010 Location Adirondack Mountains, NY Used Software Autocad Sketchup Lumion Photoshop

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_ A screen of charred wood slats helps to unite the composition of the two floors of the cabin in elevation, while "camoflaging" the building as the slats recreate the experience of the surrounding forest. The charred wood helps to waterproof the cabin against the elements.

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56 An added benefit of lifting the building off the the ground is that it helps to minimizes the building's impact on the fragile ecotone, or transitional zone between two ecological communities, that it occupies.

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BRANDYWINE REALTY TRUST

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OFFICE BUILDING PROFESSIONAL WORK ( BALLINGER )

Type Office Year 2019 Location Radnor, PA Used Software Autocad Revit Enscape Photoshop

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This project is part of a larger masterplan in Radnor Township that seeks to attract tenants through a strong health and well ness program. The building will be set with several miles of nature trails and design plant community meadows as well as outdoor pavilions that will encourage people to get outside and live a healthier life style.

Another directive that we were given was to conceive of the entry lobby space as more of a living room as opposed to a typical corporate interior lobby.

Likewise, we deisgned the lobby to put the user at ease using natural materials such as wood paneling on the conference room walls, and a natural stone floor that slides seamlessly out into an exterior courtyard designed as a collaboration between Ballinger and Jonathan Alderson Landscape Architects.

My repsonsibilites on the project included collaborating on the interior design of the lobby space, the documentation of the lobby space, and working with Jonathan Alderson's office to design the exterior courtyard.

CREDIT: ATCHAIN

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Deep mullions along the perimeter of the lobby space create a variety of shelf openings that will be used to a varying amount of different plant species.

CREDIT: ATCHAIN

CREDIT: ATCHAIN

CREDIT: ATCHAIN

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCHOOL OF KINESIOLOGY PROFESSIONAL WORK ( BALLINGER )

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Type Higher Education Date 2017 Location Ann Arbor, MI Used Software Autocad Revit Sketchup Photoshop

CREDIT: ATCHAIN

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In a sense, the new School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan is not new at all. The building is actually a renovation of an existing 1915 building designed originally by Albert Kahn. Our intervention included infilling an existing courtyard with an ETFE covered internal atrium and a concrete core that gives the building it's lateral stability, while housing a large learning classroom on every level.

The heart of the building, however, is the building's three story atrium that features wood soffits and white guardrails that interact in such a way as to create the sense that the white gaurdrails that form the skin of the atrium is pulling away from the wood muscles that lie beneath the skin. My responsibilities on this project included documentation of the interiors of the building, as well as giving input on the design of the interiors.

CREDIT: ATCHAIN

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CREDIT: ATCHAIN

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CREDIT: ATCHAIN

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCHOOL OF DANCE PROFESSIONAL WORK ( BALLINGER )

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Considered to be one of the best performing arts schools in the country, the School of Music, Theater and Dnace at the University of Michigan has a long and storied history. Located on the University's secluded North Campus, the school sought to consolidate its dance program and bring it closer to the the two buildings that house the music and theater programs respectively. creating a seperate campus unto itself.

The new UM Dance building is located adjacent to an existing Eero Saarinen building at the north of the site (Moore) and an existing extension done by Ennead Architects (Brehm). We felt that we had a responsibility to respond to both buildings to create a unified aesthetic amongst the three buildings. We were careful to create a strong dialogue between the buildings in scale, form, and fenestration, but to set our building apart, we utilized shingled terracotta roofing system as our cladding material distinguishing our building from the adacent two brick buildings.

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Type Higher Education Date 2018 Location Ann Arbor, MI Used Software Autocad Revit Sketchup Lumion Enscape Photoshop

CREDIT: RICH DENGLER

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_ This is the first project in my career that I was able to see through from early conceptual design tthrough to realization. My repsonsibilities on this project included conceputal design of the project, preparing for and going to client meetings, coordination with MEP, and detailing the exterior envelope.

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70 Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. In et bibendum est.

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FROM AWAY : PHOTOS AND SKETCHES OTHER WORK

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I've always believed that travelling is a critical component of being an architect. Being exposed to different cultures and types of spaces gives you a new perspective that you can use in your own work. On the following pages I've collected some of my favorite photographs and sketches that I've taken and done on my travels in Spain and Portugal, South Korea and Japan, and England and Scotland respectively. These images represent some of the most impactful spaces and places I've experienced and continue to draw inspiration from in my own work.

Consuegra, Spain

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Alhambra, Granada, Spain

Palacio de Cibeles, Madrid, Spain

Douro River, Porto, Portugal

Alhambra, Granada, Spain

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Buddhist Temple, Seoul, South Korea

Kyoto, Japan

Katsura Imperial Palace, Kyoto, Japan

Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Kyoto, Japan

Katsura Imperial Palace, Kyoto, Japan

Kinkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan

British Museum Court, London, England

River Thames, London, England

Big Ben, London, England

Art Installation, King's Cross, London, England

Edinburgh, Scotland

US Embassy, London, England

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_ I have always been drawn to the industrial wastelands that dot the landscape of the industrial northeastern United States. We view ourselves and the buildings that we make a permanent fixtures on the land, these forgotten places are often testaments to the contrary. This series of photographs explores themes of abandonment, decay, and theultimate return of nature to the places we have forgotten.

OTHER WORK

BETHLEHEM STEEL WORKS

PHOTOGRAPHY :

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PAINTING :

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Moments in the Sky is a series of 5' x 5' paintings, which represent specific ethereal and atmospheric moments that occured in the sky during a volatile day during the summer of 2011. The paintings, not only represent real weather conditions, but also the feelings that one feels during those moments throughout the day. The series begins with a melancholic morning and gives way to to a bright a cheerful day, but soon turns for the worst as an ominous summer storm rolls in. What follows is an intense storm scape that ends finally when a dramatic sunburst breaks through the clouds. The day ends peacefully when day gives way to a pitch black night sky illuminated by a bright full moon.

MOMENTS IN THE SKY OTHER WORK

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THAN K YO U.

RYAN DEBSKI

[ ARCHITECTURAL + INTERIOR DESIGNER ]

215.353.2392 ryan.debski@gmail.com www.ryandebski.com

© 2020 RYAN DEBSKI - All Rights Reserved

1514 North Hollywood Street Philadelphia, PA 19121