Apartment complex in Queensboro, New York.
Wellness spa and waste recycling plant in Xiong’an, China.
Library adaptive re-use in Florence, Italy.
Community arts center in Berlin, Germany.
Reinvented communal living in London’s Greenbelt.
Moody and multi-functional apartment in New York.
Partial renovation of an apartment in New York.
Interpretation of the speculative project by OMA.
Animation inspired by home during lockdown.
Daekwon Park
Suren Sivaram
New York, New York
This apartment complex was created as a competition entry for a Mass Timber Complex in Queensboro, New York. The scheme of the building program was derived from a series of data maps and diagrams that tracked the populations who inhabit the surrounding neighborhoods as visitors, workers, and residents. Along with housing, the project aims to provide access to the waterfront as well as recreational and educational spaces for the public and it’s residents.
The structure of the buildings are made from pre-fabricated timber elements that act as inserts and structural shells. The modularity of the overall structure and site layout is repeated in various scales throughout the site and allow for the potential of change, improvisation, and reconfiguration. The housing units range from micro-units to three-bedroom apartment modules, and are arranged to create a horizontal neighborhood-like relationship within the vertically oriented towers.
Drawings and diagrams made with Rhino and Illustrator. Renderings made with Rhino and Photoshop.
Fei Wang
Kayleen O’Brien
Xiong’an, China
The design for this waste-to-energy processing facility offers by-product resources that are utilized to create atmospheric spaces for a wellness spa on the same site. The location offers a park and greenbelt to the surrounding park and cityscape for the local community in Xiong’an, a future city designed to relieve Beijing’s overpopulation. The processional overlaps between the waste processing and spa experience create a blended path of recycled materials and human renewal, and allow for a symbiotic relationship between the outputs of each program.
The monolithic public space above the ground contrasts with the hyper-ritualized and individualized experience below the surface. The buildings are cast in ashcrete and steel frame structure, and the entire site is self-powered maximizing the utilization of products derrived from the waste management process. The spa temperatures, sounds, and overall ambiance are moderated by the cycle of waste recycling to continuously intertwine the two seemingly disjointed programs.
Drawings and diagrams made with Rhino and Illustrator. Renderings made with Rhino and Photoshop.
Luca Ponsi
Maria Gutierez & Phang Lim
Florence, Italy
This adaptive re-use project aims to transform Le Murate, a former convent turned prison turned public housing complex, into an experiential library and architectural archive. The library serves as a local landmark, public space, educational tool, and resource for the residents and more specifically for the students at the neighboring Florence School of Architecture.
The library experience draws upon the building’s history as a convent and prison to create a ritualized journey of education. The cycle of obtaining knowledge as a library user mirrors the journey of a prisoner serving time, and gaining freedom at the end of their sentence. The library amenities radiate from a central core that directs users to collections, reading rooms, and conversation spaces built within the existing architectural skeleton. The new architectural and spatial interventions offer a clear understanding of the contrast between maintaining the former rituals of the space while updating the program to suit the contemporary needs.
Drawings and diagrams made with Rhino and Illustrator. Renderings made with Rhino and Photoshop.
Maya Alam
Berlin, Germany
The design of this community arts center draws on precedents from the German Expressionist film sets of the 1920’s like Nosferatu and ThecabinetofDr.Caligary. Like the visual landscapes of the expressionist films, the project aims to distort the visitor’s understanding of space by manipulating the of materiality and perspective, both inside and outside of the building. These distortions allow for a new type of experience that highlights it’s surrounding context by providing new vantage points and offering a seemingly opposite visual language.
The building located in the Museum Island District, provides a series of classrooms, outdoor stage, workshops, viewing galleries, and a rooftop bar for tourists and locals alike. The pattern of the facade is skewed to blur the motion and curvature of the architectural structure and is intersected with glass interventions that offer views of the surrounding areas. The forms allow for the accommodation of multiple functions to happen independently, but with visual permeability, further distorting the viewer’s perspective of the space they inhabit.
Drawings and diagrams made with Rhino, Illustrator, and Photoshop.
Renderings made with Rhino and Photoshop.
Davide Sacconi & Jad Semaan
Aaron Cass, Stephanie Mitchell, Tyler Valgora, & Yao Wang
London, England
R.E.E.F. is a speculative British city for the future expansion of the London Greenbelt. Taking inspiration from the imposing language of large scale, experimental, and infrastructural architecture works from groups like Archizoom and Superstudio as well as the Russian Constructavist social condensers and later interpretations by OMA, to create an architecture that floats above the existing landscape in an attempt to pause and preserve the current over-development and rising real estate prices within the green belt.
The project exists as a series of architectural belts that are filled with random clusterings of programs like spaces to work, sleep, eat, and socialize. The goal of the project is to create a hyper-consolidated way of living that combines the needs of the individual with the needs of the collective. In order to counteract the division of land and property in the natural world, R.E.E.F. aims to exist outside of the norm and allow it’s inhabitants to live in their new reality.
Drawings and diagrams made with Rhino, Illustrator and Photoshop.
Renderings made with Rhino and Photoshop.
Architecture Workshop, PC
Robert Garneau, Alex StrezleckiManhattan, NY
In Construction (Spring 2023)
The design intent for this apartment is to emphasize the architectural interventions by using multi-functional millwork to define space and program. Areas of activity are centered around hidden amenities such as an entry bench, dry bar, and bathroom. The dark wood exterior shell can be opened to reveal pockets of a rich material palate. The millwork serves as a divider of uses and spaces. The combination of the pre-war architectural shell and the refined finishes of the design interventions create a provocative composition. The apartment is experienced like a clamshell allowing the rough exteriors to give way to shining objects inside like a tilt-down desk, fold-out bar, and expandable kitchen prep-space.
Participated in all phases of design as project team member and lead designer. Developed and presented initial concept design and design development deliverables through sketching, 3D modeling, and visualization in SketchUp, Maxwell, Photoshop, and by hand. Produced construction drawings and details in AutoCAD. Assisting during construction administration phase by resolving site identified issues with existing conditions, finalizing product selection, reviewing submittals for approval, and coordinating between the client, principal architect, and contractor. Managed value engineering and cost saving measures for the client throughout construction.
Construction drawings made with AutoCad. Renderings made with SketchUp, Maxwell, and Photoshop.
Architecture Workshop, PC
Robert Garneau
Manhattan, NY
Completed (Winter 2023)
This transformable custom millwork is intended to create additional storage, as well as to provide sleeping quarters when entertaining friends and family. The guest bedroom unfolds through a series of bi-folding panels, revealing additional spaces carved accented in warm woods. The cabinetry interventions appear subtle in comparison to the already existing details of the apartment, and the raised texture of the cabinetry exteriors invite the eye to investigate further. When fully deployed, the panels in-front of the murphy bed in unison with a hidden roller shade provide visual and physical privacy from the rest of the apartment when in use.
Participated in all phases of design as project team member and designer. Developed and presented initial concept design and design development deliverables through sketching, 3D modeling, and visualization in SketchUp, Maxwell, Photoshop, and by hand. Produced construction drawings and details in AutoCAD. Led client meetings and design conversations. Managed construction administration phase and problem solving with contractors. Reviewed submittals and shop drawings, finalized product selection, and managed project timeline. Managed value engineering and cost saving measures for the client throughout construction.
Construction drawings made with AutoCad. Renderings made with SketchUp, Maxwell, and Photoshop.
Photos by Robert Garneau
Davide Sacconi & Jad Semaan
Yiwen Dai, Cindy George, Phang Lim, Siraphob Khuptiphongkun, & Erin Young
The Agadir Convention Center is an unbuilt project by OMA for Agadir Morrocco.
This model recreation proposes the method of achieving the building’s iconic dune-like topography througuh a waffle grid system made out of foam core and paper. The 1:1 scale model was derrived from the original model, conceptual plan, and of serial sections produced by OMA in 1990. The remaining elements of the building were
The project consists of two masses divided in two to create a separation of program. The privitized programs such as the theaters, hotels, and casino are embeded into the solid spaces of the project. Contrastingly, more public experiences of shopping, eating, and socially gathering are held in the open middle space. The dunes and pillars act as zone dividers and the general landscape feeling.
Photography by Gili Merin.
Model
Daniele Profetta
Inspired by the increasing amount of time spent in my room at school during lockdown of 2020, This animation was a product of reasearch into the intersection between technology, animation, and architectural documentation.
The story of the ball echoes the story of a person left to explore the confines of their limited and permanent space. In the video, the timeline of the story is constantly changing. Evidence of changing time is only articulated through the deteriorating surface of the ball’s material. The scenes intercut the timelines to emphasize an endless passing of time and blurring of memory. The glitched nature of the LiDar scan errode and redefine what is familiar about the elements of the scenery.
Animation made in Maya and edited with After Effects.
Vanessa Poe
vanessanpoe@gmail.com
610-457-3344
Brooklyn, NY