Creative Portfolio

ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO Thuan La

Candidate for Bachelor of Architecture, 2024 Cornell University

THUAN LA | B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

updated Jan. 2022

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B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Set Design:

A Number - Caryl Churchill

Fall 2020 | Scenic and Lighting Design for Performance Studio I Jason Simms Addressing the topic of human cloning, a Number is a drama written by Caryl Churchill about a father cloning his son. The play begins with the father facing confrontation from his favorite son after the son learns that he is a genetically-produced copy of “himself”. The father defended that his intention of human cloning was because of love and redemption. Despite the father’s efforts to deceive his cloned son, the son gradually discovers the dishonesty and later is murdered by the vengeful original son. After the homicide of his favorite cloned son as well as the uncloned son, the father becomes desperate and seeks for a new relationship with his other “sons”.

Throughout the play, the two sons are under the constant reflection of their own identity. Meanwhile, the father covers himself with multiple layers of identity, creating multiple intangible versions of himself while only possess one single physical body.

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THUAN LA

Production Design:

Malcolm X - Roseland State Ballroom

Spring 2021 | Production Design for Film, Television and Contemporary and Digital Media Studio I Jason Simms Addressing the topic of human cloning, a Number is a drama written by Caryl Churchill about a father cloning his son. The play begins with the father facing confrontation from his favorite son after the son learns that he is a genetically-produced copy of “himself”. The father defended that his intention of human cloning was because of love and redemption. Despite the father’s efforts to deceive his cloned son, the son gradually discovers the dishonesty and later is murdered by the vengeful original son. After the homicide of his favorite cloned son as well as the uncloned son, the father becomes desperate and seeks for a new relationship with his other “sons”.

Throughout the play, the two sons are under the constant reflection of their own identity. Meanwhile, the father covers himself with multiple layers of identity, creating multiple intangible versions of himself while only possess one single physical body.

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B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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THUAN LA

APPLE VILLAGE:

ECO-SMART URBAN LIVING Fall 2021 | Design V Lotfi-Jam, w/ Desai Wang

“What is the city of tomorrow?” By examining the existing relationship between technology and sustainability in current urban settings, this project categorizes and builds upon tropes associated with “smart” and “green” cities. The growth of big-tech companies is juxtaposed with ideologies of eco co-living in a predictive city design for Ithaca 2100.

SILICON VALLEY HOUSING HIERARCHY 6

B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

AMAZON ECHO

LEARNING FROM ECO-VILLAGE

Food Production

Community Engagement

Section through FROG

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LAND COVER

TECH CAMPUSES

Apple Park

Amazon Sphere

Siilicon Valley now

Google Ithaca now rooftop garden main commercial street

Facebook

Ithaca 2100

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Ithaca Land Use 2100

modeled after Silicon Valley

B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

GAMA VILLAGE MASTER PLAN

Meta: virtual, individualized

Rocket Launches

Google: web-based, nodal

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hyperloop connects all sites

Amazon: logistical, grid-based

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THE 15-MINUTE CITY (APPLE VILLAGE)

Work Food Production

Nature & Parks

Health Facilities

Entertainment

Diverse means of transportation car, bike, walk, boat

Government & Business

Community Engagement

Learn

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B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

bathroom kitchen

Single-Family Units

bedroom

living room

Community Center & Public Housing

Multi-Family Units

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Re-make/Re-model:

Adaptive/productive Facades Fall 2021 | Building Technology Greg Keeffe, w/ Je Baek & Hazel Lam Channel Island located in Southern California houses many native and distinct species of birds. For the focus of the bird watching tower, we attempt to create a folding geometry facade where each petal unfolds to block sunlight during the day, and folds to reveal the vista in the morning or in the evening to support bird watching activities.

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B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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THUAN LA

Prototype 1

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B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Prototype 1

Panel Architecture

Final Prototype

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Components from Final Protoype

B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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THUAN LA

the HOUSE

Fall 2020 | Design III Luben Dimcheff The Site is widely open to the sky and looks out and far onto Cayuga Lake, as it also stairs unapologetically into the face, the other wall of the gorge, right across, as it tiptoes – precariously, tethered on the edge above the seductive and sometimes treacherous waters of Fall Creek.

Tesign accommodations for a pair of visiting scholars-in-residence, whose work is preoccupied with the Carl Sagan Archive and his body of research and greater legacy.

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B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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Concept model and representation of the site

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Interior visualizations of The Loom

B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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THE THIRD TOWER OF ITHACA

Spring 2021 | Design IV Dillon Pranger Ithaca is a small college town that houses Cornell University and Ithaca College. Both of the universities contribute largely to the community and they each has their own recognition with well-known towers pitched endlessly on top of the hills.

However, Ithaca is much more than that. It is a place where many elders and other families has come to settle. The third tower of Ithaca aims to represent and bring recognition to the otherwise neglected portion of the community.

Cornell Clock Tower

Ithaca College Twin Tower 22

B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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Tower approaching from different perspectives (left) Model of the tower and its context (right)

THUAN LA

ALONG WITH THE MOVEMENTS Spring 2021 | Design IV Dillon Pranger

Cass Park is a routine destination for many Ithaca residents to jog, cycle, walk their dogs, and launch their boats when the weather permits. The site, then, to me is a personal reminder that Ithaca isn’t just a college town but also a place for many others, whose existence sometimes can be easily forgotten in the community. Therefore, I want to design a community house that attempts to generate a new social program to bring more people to the park but also preserves the familiar settings for the old frequent members.

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Concept drawing

B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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THUAN LA

Detail drawings and structural model of the boathouse

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B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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Sections and interior visualizations of the boathouse

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B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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PAVILION OF REFLECTIONS Fall 2020 | Structural Systems Mark Cruvelier w/ Austin Couch & Gloria Shi

The concept of the building is to establish an alternate understanding of floating. The platform of the pavilion floats and moves on Lake Zurich, but equally impressively, the three elevated structures appear to be floating above the platform, creating an open in-between space that people can occupy. The project aims to understand the structural system of the pavilion thoroughly through remodeling, reconstructing, and representing the syste through a series of drawings.

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B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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THUAN LA

AFTERLIFE TERMINAL: THE DROPLET OF LIFE

Winter 2020 | Big Thing Competition with Austin Couch & Gloria Shi Eighty percent of the human body is made up of water, we imagine that every droplet of water contains the memory of a human’s life. When the soul leaves the human body, it transcends its entire life into a droplet of water and returns to the realm of the in-between. In this realm, the souls converge into a vast ocean before embarking on the journey to the afterlife through the terminal.

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B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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THUAN LA

Facebook Profile Frame graphic design

Design a frame using the event’s logo and theme while ensure the delivery of the message - Together We Thrive.

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FAREWELLCOVID graphic design

Collaboration with a friend to create an informative website regarding COVID-19 and universities’ responses to the pandemic. Design visuals and collect data for an informational website.

B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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Manos

The Inner Me

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Visual Arts

B.ARCH ‘24 | CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Spirit

Mother!

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Father!

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