Undergraduate Work
2024 - University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture
Yash
Aprameya
Educ�tion
University of Michigan (202�-2025)
B.S. Architecture, Taubman College of Architecture
- Direct Admit (offered to 15/100
B.S. Arch)
Minor in UX Design, School of Information
Experience
Co-President + VP Innov�tion / Bountiful P�ntries (Sep 2023 - Present)
▪ Served as lead architect, using Rhino + hand drafting to construct drawings for local carpentry businesses to build 4 24/7 outdoor pantry cabinets with accessible food & hygienic supplies
▪ Co-founded organization and managed 16 team roles, acheiving 501(c)3 nonprofit status & 50 general members
▪ Established 3 locations (as of Dec 2024) in Washtenaw County, logging 900+ uses on Northside Pantry
Rese�rch Co-Author / School of Inform�tion (Sep 2023 - Present)
▪ Conducted diary studies and 5 focus groups to understand and analyze needs of Black women in information-seeking platforms
▪ Coded qualitative data, developed research reports, assisted with creation of materials (i.e. focus group participatory design activity)
▪ Co-authored publication from ground-up, aiming to publish by mid-2025 alongside Dr. Peterson-Salahuddin
Peer Mentor / T�ubm�n College (Feb 2024 - Present)
Aw�rds
▪ Taubman Merit Scholar ($�0,000/year)
▪ Taubman - Student Showcase Selection (May 2024)
▪ UofM CCI - Civic Poster Contest / �st Place ($�,000)
▪ OptiMize Social Innovation Challenge ($�0,000)
▪ Science as Art - People’s Choice Award (February 2022)
▪ Scholastics Art & Writing - Gold Key 2x (202�)
Skills
Rhino
Grasshopper
Revit
ZBrush
Enscape
Lumion
Twinmotion
Illustrator
▪ Mentored B.S. Arch students by organizing 1 on 1’s to assist with assignments, mental health, & providing resources on literature
▪ Appointed to Design lead to create new program logo & merch
MiC Digit�l Medi� Ch�ir / The Michig�n D�ily (Feb 2022- Oct 2023)
▪ Managed, hired, and trained 30 designers on graphics and social media teams, resulting in production of 6-10 social justice posts & artworks/week
▪ Co-led POC centered fashion-inspiration webpage, reaching 16,000+ users using Figma, wireframing, & collaborating with web team
DEI
Committee Student Rep / T�ubm�n College (Sep 2022 - May 2023)
▪ Served as sole undergraduate on committee, organizing summits to serve as basis for institutional research by engaging 100+ faculty & students
Gr�phic Design Ch�ir / Portr�it of South Asi� (Aug 2023 - June 2024)
▪ Created issue 1 of South Asian fashion magazine by managing team of 8 graphic designers, selling 60 magazines, designing logo, cover & 3 spreads
Fellow / United Asi�n Americ�n Org�niz�tions (Sep 2022 - May 2023)
▪ Led merchandise initiative to distribute 150 pieces of self-designed apparel
▪ Designed front page & formatting of �ueer Courage Zine, distributed 250 copies for magnification of �ueer-Asian storytelling on campus
Cre�tive Designer / Sol�r C�r �t UofM (January 2023 - Present)
▪ Assisted with creation of 2023 Solar Car wrap design, designed public 6x3 ft advertising banner, created logo for 2025 Solar Car
I am a current undergraduate student at the University of Michigan pursuing a B.S. in Architecture. In the future, I hope to work on projects such as modular refugee shelters and community centers that integrate sustainable building by using advanced fabrication techniques.
I am also a UX Designer, illustrator, and graphic designer. My work explores experimentation with form, mediums, representational techniques, as well as softwares such as Rhino, Grasshopper, and After Effects.
Year 3 Project May 2024
Taubman Student Show selection
FLUID MOTIONS
This project is a proposition for a Capoeira facility, an Afro-Brazilian dance martial art. The site was located off the coast of Ann Arbor’s Huron River, and engages in dialogue between humans, pollinators, and local plantlife, united by the importance of water and the physical and spiritual act of performing Capoeira.
Fluid Motions revolves around purification: the physical purification of water tied into the purification of self. The sport contains hundreds of years of history, and was taught to help defend Afro-Brazilians against slaveowners. As I researched the sport, the rawness of the emotion put into the movements themselves, the connection between everyone involved in the Roda (dance circle) and nature providing protection space to do so, became tied together by the act of resistance.
Laura Walker Studio
RODA SECTION + CIRCULATION AXON + PROCESS
The circulation path of the space allows for people to feel the e bends of the ionized pond without directly following its path. It also utilizes layers of circulation, utilizing below ground, on ground, and above ground, despite fundamentally being a one story building. The capoeira roda dips into the river, allowing capoeristas to harness the energy of the tides to motivate and shape their dance, with a ramp spiraling around for musicians to occupy. This ramp leads to roof access, where a bridge connects to the opposite side of the pond.
After imposition on the environment, the structure is built to become unmade. Its exterior walls are cast with rammed earth, which breaks up easily during overexposure to water. Utilizing the overhangs and large roof areas, the building is protected from water-- until the sea level rises. Upon this phenomenon, the building would begin to break apart, becoming unoccupiable to humans, but may be overtaken by local carp, algae, and other life forms.
LONG SECTION SECTION + RENDERS
Killing off fish and vegetation, the Huron River’s polluted waters actively prevent a thriving local ecosystem. Drawing inspiration from the resilliant nature of Capoeira, the active motion of the “Jinga”, and the sport’s natural reliance on community, nature, and storytelling, a proposed fieldhouse envisions the ionization of algae-infested tides. By harnessing the power of constant motion of the dance-- a constant fight and an ongoing history, Pavogen tiles allow for Capoeristas to convert their kinetic energy into a physical purification system filtering Huron River water into a pond, allowing for irrigation, offering safe drinking water, and a built-around community center.
MASSING + TOPOGRAPHY MODELING
The fieldhouse additionally incorporates a cut and fill site strategy, enveloping a portion of the building with the land. The geometry created by doing so wraps the pond around a contrasting direction, situating the building in the middle of this tension. This strategy creates an offset of “rippled” circles, challenged by a strong straight strip, which the occupant can follow to carry them from the entrance of the building directly to the pond area.
The “performance” of this building incorporates human, flora, and fauna. Humans perform capoeira to fuel the ionization process, irrigating local plants such as oak and loosetrife with healthy water. Pollinators also thrive off of the purified water and plants, cultivating the crop for humans to harvest and heal from. This symbiotic dialogue engages the fieldhouse with the land and wildlife it is situated within, under the premises of water, motion, and change.
Year 4 Project August 2024
Personal Project
BLR COMPOST TOWERS
While I visited my family in Bangalore, India during the summer, my grandmother told me stories about how when she was growing up in the city, it was filled with flowers and gardens, but is now overrun with polluton and has little to no greenery. Through my research and observations, I found that a leading cause of this shift was attributed to overpopulation, and the packed, condensed living conditions of the city. Coupled with the fact that there are no efficient waste disposal methods, the city faces many issues.
BLR Compost Towers proposes vertical temporary structures that community members can visit to dispose of their waste. From the framing emerges a garden, encouraged by various composting methods. Utilizing Bangalore’s common architectural practice of accessible flat roofs, people may take plots of the soil and plants to plant atop their homes, bringing greenery back into the city without taking up walking space.
SECTION + ITERATIONS
The towers can be deconstructed and rebuilt in different neighborhoods once a specific area has been agriculturalized, becoming more carbon efficient. The designs were created entirely parametrically using Grasshopper, with no native elements besides a single point in space and custom built code.
By doing so, the project considers mass-building and flexibility, being able to fit into given spaces based on specific dimensions of the site, speeding up the process of pre-fabrication. The section depicts a variety of composting methods within the structure, additionally serving as a community pavillion and garden.
Utilizing a graph function to shift floor placement, there are millions of possible iterations. The parametricism also allows greater range for different materials, and can be built according to available resources + needs. The simplicity of the structure allows opportunity for community building, democratizing the impositions of the structures. Therefore, they can be built in tight spaces and need not last for long durations, to maximize space efficiency.
SETUP DIAGRAM
Year 3 Project December 2023
Landon Carpenter Studio
CASA DUARTE REIMAGINED
This project was preceded by a series of exercises to reimagine Avelino Duarte, by Alvaro Siza. After recreating precedent drawings of the original house and creating a thesis abstraction model, the house was redesigned according to specific requirements, including party walls on both longitudinal sides, while keeping the original house occupants in mind.
The formal language of the house engages in setting up an ABA Palladian scheme that is broken by the diagonal-cut staircase, a focal point of the original. This angle is reflected about a column, engaging with Siza’s emphasis on linear columns to define spaces. It also hints at geometric displacement, inspired by the original’s use of concave and convex shapes that can be rearranged to become a puzzle-like unified shape.
CORE + MASSING MODELS
Constrained to a 25x50x25ft dimension, Duarte was reimagined as an uptown Chicago residence, utilizing the abstracted thesis to ground its design.
A residence built for a family of four, the ground level contains a living room space, an open living space, kitchen, the master bedroom, and a slanted staircase, drawing inspiration from the original stair. This stair impacts the ABA paladdian scheme of the building, slicing the orthagonals by carrying its grid lines throughout the plan. Reflected across a central point column, the slant mirrors to create walls for two bedrooms, and balcony area. Finally, the third floor follows the mirored slants to curve back into the building itself in the Z dimension with a “J” shaped roof.
EXPLODED CONSTRUCTION + PLANS
A residence built for a family of four, the ground level contains a living room space, an open living space, kitchen, the master bedroom, and a slanted staircase, drawing inspiration from the original stair. This stair impacts the ABA paladdian scheme of the building, slicing the orthagonals by carrying its grid lines throughout the plan. Reflected across a central point column, the slant mirrors to create walls for two bedrooms, and balcony area. Finally, the third floor follows the mirored slants to curve back into the building itself in the Z dimension with a “J” shaped roof.
Year 4 Project
December 2024
USPS - POSTAL “BARAGE”
The USPS system is a beloved national institution, yet has many issues, especially since the appointment of the Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy. Such problems include a lack of mail tra c, low engagement of youth, and unfriendly customer-employee interactions.
This USPS project aims to alleviate some of these issues while being focused on the community of Ypsilanti, Michigan. The proposal envisions a transit center and bar connected to the USPS, publicizing the building while expanding on the geographical connections that the USPS can bring to cities.
The Bar Garage -- or “Barage” replaces the current Ypsilanti USPS, working within the existing site.
Jacob Comerci Studio
The section reveals a circulation path in which different actors begin to interact. The transit users are dropped off into the garage, where they walk past the restaurant/bar to exit. Here, USPS customers who are waiting, as well as employees, can order food or drinks, providing opportunity for the transit users, USPS customers, USPS employees, bar staff, and bar customers to interact with one another. Dissolving the anoniminity of the postal workers can facilitate more personal interactions. This concept was inspired by the first USPS being opened inside of a tavern, and nationwide USPS’s have functioned as community hubs in the past. Over time, this facet the postal service has disappeared, though being retained in some rural communities.
By approaching the design as a continuous garage space, servicing bar, transit, and USPS activity, social poche is de-emphasized between the different programs.
ANIMATED ISOMETRIC + PLAN
The isometric reveals the complexity of the systems inside and outside the building. Possessing one of the largest vehicle fleets, and with a requirement to service every US address, the Postal Barrage expands upon existing infrastructure to further service the community. The bus stops shown in the video stop at residential locations instead of urban ones, bridging the gap that Ypsilanti’s public transit is unable to provide. People are shown to benefit from rideshare, as well as a transit loop. Simultaneously, there are last-mile deliveries being completed by drones as people are dropped off. In the building, customers are shown shipping out regular mail, as well as using the bar and USPS infrastructure to send bottles of wine to friends and family.
The plan was designed on a 20’x20’ grid, creating “resting areas” for the vehicles inside the building. Some vehicles are occupiable upon dock, and have differing programs, as is detailed on the following page. The resting areas create a narrative of a vehicle “family,” with different functions and “personalities” for each family member. The largest, outside vehicle (bottom left) is rotated at a 45 degree angle, “crashing” into the facade and re-orienting parts of the grid. As a result, the food truck vehicle to its north is forced to move up from its resting area, tightening the bathroom square footage. Additionally, garage doors are utilized to transform public and private areas according to whether or not the vehicles are in service.
Animated isometric video
VEHICLE RENDERS
With USPS’s recent pledge to deploy over 106,000 carbon-free vehicles, the Barage envisions 6 different types of vehicles. While some are simply upgraded mail trucks, many are threshold, occupiable spaces/rooms when docked. They function differently, while some unfold to create a dance floor, while others augment access to parts of the building, such as offering a platform and stair to the second floor, or extending the bar, They are operable as postal vehicles as needed, and transform the building when docked. Program is shown to bleed out of the vehicles in their “resting areas,” such as arcade machines and expanded seating.
THE TRANSFORMER
Largest vehicle, can become a USPS “popup”, plugs into building and transforms into a modular, compact element. Creates a new entrance into the USPS and has 2 levels.
THE CONNECTOR
Wheeled trolley, expands bar seating and may be wheeled outside as weather permits.
THE UNFOLDER
Docks and unfolds, providing stair access to second floor, while offering an outside exit and dance floor. Roof may be exposed using gantry, exposing a quaint lighting ambiance.
Collaborators:
Crayne Cabinets LLC
Bountiful Pantries E-Board
Year 2 Project July 2023
Nonpro t Project
OptiMize Social Innovation Winner
BOUNTIFUL PANTRIES
Bountiful Pantries is a 501(c)(3) founded by myself, Ahsan Ahmed, and Humza Irfan in 2022. Our mission is to provide food and hygienic supplies using 24/7 outdoor pantry cabinets across Washtenaw County to alleviate food insecurity issues through an unsurveilled, stigma-free model.
My role started off as VP Innovation, serving as the lead architect to develop pantry designs and construction, and was elected to Co-President for the 2024-2025 school year.
Over 2 years, we have established 3 locations, acheived nonprofit status, won the OptiMize Social Innovation Challenge ($10,000), logged over 1000 uses for Northside Pantry, grew our core board to 18 members, and a general membership of over 50.
INITIAL DESIGNS + FINAL PANTRIES
As of Fall 2024, Bountiful Pantries has two locations: Ibrahim Mosque and Northside Associated Ministries. They have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from community members, and have proved to be resistant to environmental factors since their instillations in April 2023 and October 2024, respectively. From its conception of 3 members, we have now grown to a 15 member board, acheiving nonprofit status. The remaining two cabinets will be placed at community locations in the Washtenaw area by the end of 2024.
The finalized pantries were built with a pine base, 4x4 and 2x2 base members with weather resistant paint. The cabinet was built with plywood and solid maple doors with glass inserts. Insulation padding is placed into the interior as local temperature drops.
I created the plans for the design of the pantries, dimensioned around a box of cereal. Factors such as falling debris, accessibility, friendliness, and durability were all considered. After budgetary constraints, we landed on a model that a local carpenter, Crayne Cabinets was able to assist us with creating. Together, we constructed 4 pantries to host within the community.
3D Print
Built by Crayne Cabinets LLC + Bountiful Pantries
CONSTRUCTION DIAGRAM
CONSTRUCTION + DATA VISUALIZATION
Erected Aug 2023
(Updated Nov �6th, 2024)
Data analysis by Anne Cao
Foam board insulation
Plexi glass panel
Visual by Yash Aprameya
FUTURE ITERATIONS
The original pantries were constructed with a relatively constrained budget given the newness of our initiatives. After a year
The first pantry solves the issue of our pantries not containing fresh produce, in which the roof of the cabinet can cultivate crops. The community members can help upkeep this shared garden, and reap its benefits.
This pantry leans on the original, sloped roof and cabinet combination, but now incorporates refrigeration. Our community partners havve expressed the want for this feature, which can be accomodated using the base of the pantry.
This pantry grows in size to accomodate for “making” of food. While our Bountiful Pantries can help supply cans and sealed food, they do not accomodate for the making process that may be involved. Therefore, growing into more of a “station”, a pantry might host a microwave, cooking materials, and space to mix foods.
Mini roof garden
3 tier shelving Support shelf for garden materials
Sloped roof
Cantilever making shelf Microwave
Various works
2022-present
Commission + professional
CCI Civic Engagement Poster Winner
GRAPHIC + UX DESIGN
Throughout my undergraduate career, I have created posters, merchandise, logos, and websites for many different organizations including the Michigan Daily, United Asian American Organizations, UofM Taekwondo, Taubman College DEI, Taubman College Mentorship, Taubman Architecture Ball, UofM School of Information, Solar Car, Portrait of South Asia, Bountiful Pantries, and local businesses.
THANK YOU!