Subsurface Convergence
Fall 2025
Architectural Design Studio 9
Critic: Lonn Combs
Troy, New York - RPI Campus
Partners: Scott Sigmund, Shawn Putman, Camilla Dominguez
Looking at the history of the RPI campus, the 86 field has always been a space of gathering. Whether that was for events or sporting games, the quad is a significant part of RPI’s history. Our design looks to respond to the existing circulation paths on campus as they converge on the field to create a single, integrated area for student collaboration. This new student center sits beneath the existing 86 field. The main design move is a vessel that provides a pathway from an entrance at Sage Avenue, through the student center and landing on the southern side of the field. The building is also accessible through plazas that frame and respect the existing buildings that surround the 86 field. In terms of program, the student center consists of classrooms, labs, maker spaces, offices, and social lounge areas.
Urban Incline
Fall 2024/Spring 2025
Comprehensive Design Studio
Critic:
Adam Patela, Leandro Piazzi
New York City, New
York
The high line in New York City acts as a point of relief in an otherwise congested city. I wanted to take this same effect and expand on it. The main massing move is a large connection between the high line and 10th Avenue to create an extended ramp system for people to engage with. As a result, the overall parti of the project becomes these two disjoint volumes; one anchored towards the party wall and the other in suspension. Structurally, in order to support the 40’ cantilever created over the ramp, a series of four trusses extend the whole width of the building. To support these trusses, the main stair and elevator cores of the building are placed in the center axis to allow for majority of the load to be transferred through the core walls. This suspended space is the main auditorium. Overall, the project is about the relationship between the exterior move to create the ramp and how that affects the spaces above. There is a clear relationship between the ramp and auditorium spaces in regards to structure, materiality, and program which were the spaces of main focus for this project.
Anthropozoonosis
Fall 2023
Architectural
Design Studio 5
Critic:
Hseng Lintner
Partner: Emily
Zheng
Our assembly of columns is a folly due its purpose of being strictly decorative. When studying ornament, we looked at Hindu Cave Temples. Ornament is not treated as a texture or pattern but by depicting religious or historical scenes through the use of iconographies and figures. This led to the design of our columns. The first is the human column, composed of human faces into the column substructure. Next is the animal column which lacks a substructure as the animals form the entire column. The final column is the hybridization of the two forms of ornament. Making use of both the human and animal forms. This column shows the tension between the two forms of decoration. The traditional human faces which have been seen in Greek and Roman columns is now being taken over by a new form of ornament; animals. Regarding the assembly of the columns, the organization reflects the type of column. The human columns are arranged in only a vertical formation to reflect the traditional order of the column. Meanwhile, the animal column occurs in a free flowing form at oblique angles to break the traditional column grid.
The Uncontained
Spring 2022
Architectural Design Studio 2
Critic: Stefan Svedberg
Troy, New York
This pavilion is a literal abstraction representing the horrors of war rather than a memorial. It is composed of two main geometries: The exterior cage and the interior pipes or what I called intestines. The intestines are bundled on the interior of the cage. However the cage is unable to contain the intestines as they spill out and effect the rest of the site. This represents how often times we think of war as a contained idea that does not effect us or society but war can spill out and effect society in various ways. Regardless of how much we try to think of war as an isolated idea, the consequences affect the rest of our communities on a local and global scale. Inspired by the work of Anish Kapoor, the intestines are depicted as gruesome with a red color and red splatters on the floor plates and the ground. This represents the realities of war and how it is a gruesome and horrific experience that can harm peoples lives forever. The point of this pavilion is for people to be horrified and nervous of the grotesque consequences war can have not only on an individual but also on a community and society as a whole.
