Melissa Amodeo Design Portfolio

SECTIONS & PLANS

MELISSA AMODEO DESIGN PORTFOLIO 2022

MELISSA AMODEO

T: 6474541813 E: melissa.amodeo@ucalgary.ca A: 2 The Wynd, Etobicoke, ON

Melissa Amodeo is an interdisciplinary designer from Toronto, Ontario whose work asks questions around equity and social inclusion in architecture.

As a current Master of Architecture candidate at the University of Calgary, Melissa is passionate about design that aids in creating equitable cities, prioritizing social and environmental needs of the population at the forefront of design. As co-founder of Advocates for Equitable Design Education (AEDE), a student run collective at the University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL), Melissa is interested in dialogues minimized in current design practices and helps organize numerous workshops and panels to engage in conversations around equity and urban life.

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EDUCATION

COMPETITIONS & AWARDS

(2022)

Master of Architecture, University of Calgary, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape.

2021-2022

2018

Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies, Major in Environmental Studies, University of Toronto, Daniel’s Faculty of Architecture.

The Cohos Evamy Scholarship, Dialog Design Firm. Project: No Place, Like Home (Of Other Spaces). Research and Exhibit.

Advocates for Equitable Design Education

2020

2018

Exchange Program at the University of New South Wales, Faculty of Built Environment.

Emotions, Architecture, Opioids Competition (2nd place). Project: The Centre for Common Ground. Collaborators: Vivian Ton, Natalie Sandelli, and Cindy Nachareun.

2017

2014

High School Diploma with Honor Roll, St. Marcellinus Secondary School.

University of Toronto 2-week Intensive Summer Design Build. Project: Nocturne Elemental. Caledon, Ontario.

RELATED EXPERIENCE

RECENT TALKS AND EVENTS

2021-Present

Editor, Ultra Journal, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape.

Calgary, Canada.

2022

2021

Design Intern, hcma. Vancouver, Canada.

“The Future (or Non-Future) Of Architecture,” with Maya Bird-Murphy, Dr. Sechaba Maape, Dr. Arijit Sen. Advocates for Equitable Design Education.

2020-Present

Co-founder, Vice President, Advocates for Equitable Design Education. Calgary, Canada.

2022

“Urgency: The Future of Design Education,” with Melissa Amodeo, Aleksandra Simic, Supernatural, Salam Yousef.

2018

Greater Toronto Chapter Volunteer, Canada Green Building Council. Toronto, Canada.

2021

“Community Engagement,” with Srimal Ranasinghe. Advocates for Equitable Design Education.

2017

Sustainability Intern, Triovest Realty Advisors. Toronto, Canada.

2021

“Sweat Equity,” with Nmadili Okwumabua.

Advocates for Equitable Design Education.

2021

“Cities as Cultural Landscapes Block Week Panel,” University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Arijit Sen, Alison Hirch, Aroussiak Gabriellian, Felicia Ann Davis.

2020

“Decolonizing Design Workshop,” with Wanda Dalla Costa, RAIC, Arizona State University, Indigenous Design Collaborative. Advocates for Equitable Design Education.

2020

“Whose City? Interdisciplinary perspectives on housing, gentrification, and neighborhood change,” with Hayden Patullo, Ray Yeung, Tara McLaughlin, Advocates for Equitable Design Education.

SKILLS Technical: Rhino 3D, Revit, Sketchup, ElumTools

Visualization Blender, Adobe CC (Ps, Ai, Id),

Soft Skills Leadership, Interdisciplinary, Critical Thinking, Communication, Time and Pressure Management.

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INTRODUCTION The following projects address the intersectionality found within the different challenges faced by our cities and societies today. Whether it be climate change, a global pandemic, or food insecurity, all taking place in highly inequitable cities.

Split into three parts, the first series explores how catalyst architecture can act as a beacon in a community and allow for an inclusive place for everyone to learn and grow together. The second series demonstrates conceptual explorations of emergency and temporary housing, encouraging one to start rethinking dwelling in a city in terms of building materials and methods in order to appropriately respond to such a rapidly changing world. Lastly, part 3 moves from concept to practice through projects that involve community engagement + exhibit curation.

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CONTENTS Encompass

13. The Centre for Common Ground 7.

Part 1: Catalyst Architecture

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projectREGEN

29. UPright

Part 2: Explorations of Temporary Housing

33. PALLET 39. cityGRID

Part 3: Community Exhibits

44. Making

Waves

47. No

Place, Like Home (Of Other Spaces)

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1.1 Encompass

Most Private

Open

Most Private

Open

Most Private

Indoor

Outdoor

Indoor

Studio III project | 2020 Encompass is an urban infill health and wellness center focused on the concept of Salutogenesis and nutrition. Located at the intersection of 14. St NW and Kensington Rd. NW in Hillhurst, Calgary, the site has a strong connection and history of community and culture. The program intends to work with all members of the community including the low-income residents that make up 12% of the population in Hillhurst. Through a Salutogenesis institute that focuses on the concept of cooking and nutrition, the program attempts to mend the community and bring cultures together through the commonality of food, cooking and learning together.

Cultivating good health through food. The building will act as a catalyst in the community through a core that brings people together through the various programs and concepts of growing, healing, and nutrition. A whole system design that builds a relationship between the built form, users, and society.

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How can the built environment break the link between health status and societal status and allow for synergy instead? The core of the building acts as this place of synergy where all spaces radiate from. The design also works with and showcases the semi-historic two story brick building that exists on the site, respecting its relationship to the neighboring historic buildings and community.

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structural components

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ground floor plan

11. north south section

second floor plan

third floor plan

environmental conditions

fourth floor plan

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HEAL

PATHIZE EM

VE YOURSE RGI LF FO

OWNERSH KE IP TA HEAL

TE YOURSE UCA LF ED

1.2 The Centre for Common Ground

Emotions, Architecture, Opioids Competition (2nd place).

Collaborators: Vivian Ton, Melissa Amodeo, Cindy Nachareun and Natalie Sandelli Common Ground addresses ways in which individuals and the communities they inhabit can begin to heal together from the effects of addiction. The common narrative around addiction demonizes those who have fallen into it, leaving very little space for compassion and healing to happen. How can a person learning to recover and cope receive the necessary help they require while the community simultaneously educates themselves about the realities of drug addiction? This centre acts as an anchor to mediate both sides, utilizing the history of arts in Venice and the ritual of making to reframe the act of receiving methadone and regular therapy visits.

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REWORKED

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The ceramic studio acts as a social enterprise that links the history of Venice to all members of the community, remediating the past. Lastly, the center performs a time-based architecture that shows the rituals of use over time through the outdoor mosaic feature and memorial garden, where reclaimed clay tiles made by participants through the program become the shared ground for social rehabilitation.

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1.3 projectREGEN

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Comprehensive Studio | 2021. Collaborators: Angelina Caixeiro The urban fabric of Calgary and many cities currently exists as static in form and function, providing a disconnect between our built environment and the users. How can we begin to change this with an architecture that continues to evolve with social, economic, political and environmental relationships. Allowing for space that acts as a “preventive system rather than a remedy.” projectREGEN attempts to bridge the disconnect between the built environment and users through an architecture that in form and function shows how our cities must evolve with changing societies.

Through an evolving mapping gallery and workshop spaces based around architecture and planning, one will begin to understand the past and present of our cities in a circular feedback loop that bleeds into and influences the future, refuting obsolescence. A multi-disciplinary platform to participate and contribute knowledge, collectively imagining what your city could be.

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TEMPORALITY vs PERMANENCE In philosophy temporary has to due with the past, present and future in a linear matter that occurs over a long period of time.

Our definition of temporary turns this standard definition on its head, understanding the past-present-future in a nonlinear way that is rapidly changing and evolving, focusing on the short-term. Hence reflecting a dynamic society in which static architecture does not adhere too.

The interior/exterior conditions and how you experience the building is what is constantly changing- the architecture allows it do so.

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23. east west section

glulam truss system

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outdoor exhibit kit of parts

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27. east west detail section

double skin facade: summer + winter

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2.1 UPright

Studio I project | 2019 “Providing space does not mean prescribing it.”- Tom Kundig Explored transitional housing for young adults who struggle to find adequate housing due to high rental markets. Currently in Calgary the waitlist for affordable housing sits at around 4000, leaving many individuals moving between shelters.

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exploded axonometric

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LIVE.WORK.PLAY The design was influenced by the existing affordances on the site, embracing everyday actions as a design strategy. The shipping containers upright allows “people to create their own environment by living” through a series of aggregated platforms dedicated to work and sleep, with communal platforms weaved through the middle.

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2.2 PALLET

Studio II project | 2020 Landing in the regional Exploring emergency housing for newcomers through a connection to the landscape of Calgary. Allowing for one to bond with an unfamiliar place while being understanding and respectful of past experiences and traditions.

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35. pallet explorations

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floor plan

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2.3 CITYgrid The final project of my first year in architecture school and of my emergency housing exploration is a design that addresses two critical challenges facing our cities today and builds off of PALLET VESSEL. Food production and the impact farming has on our environment, in compilation with the lack of adequate social housing for newcomers to Canada.

For newcomers, integrating into a city through a connection to landscape while retaining their culture is key to adaption.The mass timber prefab structure and pods can be quickly assembled on vacant lots all over the city to help provide housing while producing food for the city, allowing for newcomers to bond with an unfamiliar place through the commonality of food.

Some facts about the potential of urban farming in our cities!

1. 40% of earth’s land surface is used for farmland 2. 70% of global water usage 3. 30% of greenhouse gas emissions 4. 24 000km is the average distance fruit and vegetables travel before reaching consumers, contributing 12% of GHG emissions.

Studio II project | 2020

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vacant properties in Calgary

kit of parts brought to site

adaptable housing and food production

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41. mass timber construction

axonometric section

east west section

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3.1 Making Waves

Summer Intensive Studio + Exhibit | 2021 The story and history of Calgary’s Chinatown has not followed a linear progression. Through the past and present of the community, stories from different marginalized communities have found a home in Chinatown, creating a powerful collective of stories that have the capacity to galvanize change for the future of Chinatown.

The history and stories of our city and the enclaves within are often represented from a fixed perspective, where a select few who represent the power and capital narrate and choose what is revealed. This results in space created out of class that only provides a certain truth, excluding the majority of people that represent our cities.

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The canopy design plays homage to the past, present, and future of the site in Chinatown.

Acting as a beacon that can be seen from far away and continuously reflect its surrounding while allowing for various experiences under the thin aluminum recycled sheets that move in the wind and reflect different light qualities. The tile pattern was inspired by the tiled roof glass pattern on the historic Native Friendship center that once exsited on site. The repetition of tiles are reminiscent of dragon scales, a symbol of strength and resiliency of chinatown.

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3.2 No Place, Like Home (Of Other Spaces)

Research Grant. Workshop + Exhibit | 2022 Collaborators: AEDE Members The project, made up of a workshop and subsequent exhibition, seeks to engage a group of immigrants (many of whom are international + university students and artists) in a dialogue around living in Calgary, Canada and share their perceptions of home and sense of place in a new country. Symbolism tied to the home transcends ethnic origin; all cultures have their own stories and associations with domestic spaces. As the hearth has symbolic meaning tied to comfort and family, aspects of the home like the walls, roofs and doors also have symbolic meaning.

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The project uses the symbolic representation of elements of a typical North American house as a symbol to prompt conversations and perspectives on individuals understanding of ‘home’, their relationship to the city, and their unique experiences as a newcomer to Calgary. Like the construction of a wall, our experiences of a place are multilayered and complex. Each of the 8x8 sheets displayed in the exhibit represent a different layer, exploring individuals experience to place and home.

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THANK YOU. MELISSA AMODEO DESIGN PORTFOLIO 2022