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ARMENIAN EMBASSY REYKJAVÍK, ICELAND Embedded into a mountainside to combat Iceland’s extreme climate, the Armenian Embassy takes on the challenge of designing an embassy for a country that is disproportionately affected by climate change in an environment drastically different from its own. Each of the embassy's three floors vary in levels of utilized transparency; the first floor being transparent, the second floor being translucent, and the third floor being opaque, each separated by private and public use. The sustainable rammed earth material blends into the mountainside, blurring the lines between what is mountain and what is building. Inspired by the cultural significance of traditional Armenian folk music, a façade system made of guitar strings was created. Each string is tuned to its sung note and spaced apart by its rhythm. Thus, visitors interact with Armenian culture as they strum the guitar strings as they walk along the exterior pathways of the building, overlooking the view of Reykjavík. Fall 2022 . Professor Christian Unverzagt

Guitar String Façade Diagram . Armenia by Komitas 05

Exploded Axonometric

Cross Sections

Floor Plans 07

1 . Security 2 . Visitor Offices 3 . Information Center 4 . Staff Offices 5 . Open Work Spaces 6 . Café 7 . Consulate Housing 8 . Restrooms 9 . Mechanical Equipment 10 . Storage

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ONSEN HOKKAIDO, JAPAN Located in the mountainous hot springs of Jigokudani Noboribetsu in Hokkaido, Japan, Onsen creates the perfect atmospheric experience for visitors to enjoy the views of the springs by being able to relax in the large bath and the two separate saunas. Focusing on personal experiences one would have in these series of spaces, Onsen’s massing responds to the mountainous forms of its contextual landscape; two separated slanted masses begin to connect together with two outdoor corridors. The disconnection present in the form alludes to the differing and separate, yet connected, journies visitors embark on as they make their way through the bathhouse and sauna spaces. Further developing experiential elements, Onsen’s materiality ranges from opaque, translucent, and transparent moments that allow visitors to experience the wondrous views from the inside in varying ways, while also ensuring privacy for the more intimate spaces. Fall 2020 . Professor Andrew John Wit

Second Floor Plan

First Floor Plan

1 . Entrance 2 . Storage 3 . Shower 4 . Bath 5 . Ledge Seating 6 . Bridge Corridor 7 . Sauna

Axonometric

Elevations . East and North

Bathhouse 13

Second Floor Corridor

Section Perspectives . North and South

Saunas 14

RHYTHMIC ROWHOME PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA Rhythmic Rowhome is inspired by the vibrant arts and culture society present in the city of Philadelphia. Home to a classical upright bassist, a jazz trombonist, and their two young children, this rowhome encompasses ideas and intentions related to the musicality present within the family, while creating designated spaces for the family to best utilize as they develop, grow, and evolve into their home. Prominent swooping curved formations present in building's massing represents the movement present within music, and particularly felt and played in both classical and jazz music. These curved forms further begin to hint towards the way music moves through an instrument when playing phrases with dramatic crescendos and decrescendos. Curvature of forms and changes in music is a repetitive motif throughout the design, and is further amplified through the design of the gradual, gradient rotation of the stacked bricks on the building’s southern façade. Fall 2020 . Professor Andrew John Wit

Massing Diagram

Axonometric 17

Brick Wall Rotation Assembly

Third Floor Plan . +36' 08"

1 . Control Room 2 . Recording Studio 3 . Practice Room 4 . Entry 5 . Kitchen 6 . Dining Room 7 . Family Room 8 . Music/Playroom 9 . Laundry Room 10 . Children's Bedroom 11 . Closet 12 . Bathroom 13 . Master Bedroom 14 . Balcony

Second Floor Plan . +22' 05"

First Floor Plan . +10' 00"

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Basement Plan . -05' 08"

Section Perspective 19

Elevations . East and West

Cross Sections . East and West 20

HERBAL NECTARS DETROIT, MICHIGAN Rooted in the exploration of sustainable building materials, Herbal Nectars investigates the speculation of utilizing nature to create architecture as a means to imagine a future that cultivates symbiotic, ecological relationships amongst nature, wildlife, and humans. Inspired by the efforts brought forth from Circle Forest Park and Callahan Park, Herbal Nectars strives to increase biodiversity and sustainability initiatives within the Poletown East neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan. The pavilions' wall systems integrate natural, soil brick modules that grow herbs, in the larger, more collaborative tea pavilion, and mushrooms, in the smaller, more intimate tea pavilion, in controlled environments. Such herbs are used to make the tea being sold, whereas the addition of an apiary on the site is used to make honey for the tea as well. Encouraging experimentations to better integrate biodiversity in urban contexts inspires the engagement of the surrounding community. Fall 2023 . Professor Claudia Wigger

Site Plan 23

Site Diagram

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Floor Plan 24

Section Perspective 25

Wall Section . Seedling

Wall Section . Germination

Wall Section . Growth

Wall Section . Ripening 26

CULTIVATING CO.HOME PORT AUSTIN, MICHIGAN Over time the western concept of home has equated itself to its efficiency to complete domestic functions for the user. Cultivating Co.Home serves to recalibrate the nodes of cultivation, collection, and invitation through a woven fabric of activity typically thought to be confined in the bounds of one's personal domestic space. Through a disseminating logic of grid, domesticity is explored on varying levels of scale. On site, cultivation represents the hydroponics lab and market, collection represents the apothecary store, and invitation represents the teahouse. Within a home, consisting of an aggregation of dwellings and communal landscape spaces, these ideas further address the health and wellness of the users, ensuring flexibility for different ways in which people may live. Cultivating Co.Home creates collective domestic spaces that respond to urgencies regarding our climate, while simultaneously cultivating a flourishing community rooted in care, connection, and collaboration. Winter 2023 . Professors Kathy Velikov and Jonathan Rule Co.Created with Sahr Qureishi and Zephaniah Romualdo

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Site Plan 29

Home Type Diagrams

Home Plans . Second Floor

Home Plans . First Floor 30

Assemblage Key 1 . Interior Wall 12" . R-24.2 Timber Cladding 3" . R-0.75 Weather Wrap Batt Insulation (Mineral Wool) 5-1/2" . R-18.15 Vapor Barrier 3-Ply Cross Laminated Timber 3-1/2" . R-4.2 2 . Ground Floor 14.75" . R-22.68 Timber Flooring 3/4" . R-0.1875 Gypcrete 1" . R-24.2 Radiant Floor Heating Concrete Slab on Grade 5" . R-1.0 Rigid Insulation (XPS) 5" . R-21 Gravel 3" . R-0.285 Weather Wrap 3 . Second Floor 10.5625" . R-21.64 Timber Flooring 3/4" . R-0.1875 Radiant Floor Heating Batt Insulation (Mineral Wool) 4-3/16" . R-14.65 5-Ply Cross Laminated Timber 5-5/8" . R-6.8 4 . Green Roof 25" . R-49.3 Growing Medium (Soil) 8" Filter Fabric Retention Layer Weather Wrap Vapor Barrier Rigid Insulation (XPS) 8" . R-33.6 7-Ply Cross Laminated Timber 7-3/4" . R-9.3

Wall Section Perspective 31

Dwelling Type 1 . 1 Bedroom and 1 Bathroom

Dwelling Type 2 . 2 Bedrooms and 1 Bathroom

Dwelling Type 3 . 4 Bedrooms and 2 Bathrooms 32

SOLARPUNK CITY PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA Envisioning speculative futures in South Philadelphia, Solarpunk City integrates ideas, technologies, and aesthetics in response to the recently developed Solarpunk movement. Striving to optimistically revitalize this area using sustainable strategies, this project promotes resiliency to the anticipated five-meter water level rise that is inevitably to occur within the next one hundred years. Resiliency is achieved by the placement of a canal that connects to the Delaware River, protected by thirty-foot tall, hilled berms that contain a variety of vegetation types. Woonerfs, pedestrianonly streets, and the addition of bike lanes on major roadways increases the walkability of this area. Sustainable communal practices encouraged through the planting of street trees and a community food forest enhance the environmental qualities in the city. These integrations create a community that embraces sustainable initiatives aims to create solutions in the midst of our planet’s climate crisis. Fall 2021 . Professor Phillip Crosby Co.Created with Ben Wolfe

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Site Plan

Site Diagram . Major Roadway 35

Site Diagram . Woonerf

Site Diagram . Pedestrian Path

Street Section . Major Roadway

Street Section . Woonerf

Street Section . Pedestrian Path

Street Plan . Major Roadway

Street Plan . Woonerf

Street Plan . Pedestrian Path 36

Berm Section . Storefront . Urban Green Space

Site Section

Berm Section . Storefront . Urban Promenade

Berm Section

n . Waterfront . Stormwater Protection

Berm Section . Waterfront . Green Urban Pathways

EXPLORATIONS ASSORTED WORKS A series of assorted works, these selected explorations engage with sustainable research in architectural design. The first of these works investigates biomaterial experimentations derived from cornstarch, sand, and water, to create CoRncrete, following with the subsequent succession of the addition of soil to advance the imaginative examination of sustainable materials that may begin to transform architectural buildings. The following exploration applies such research in the form of a children's card game. Decomposing Duplicates is a memory game, introducing children to the different types of biomaterials that are being implemented into architectural building and material systems. Imaginative Futures then furthers these ideologies to imagine the beginnings of what a Solarpunk City may entail. Sustainable building materials, green roofs, and interior gardens all begin to emerge in a societal shift speculated to occur in the future, implementing such prior explorations on an architectural and urban scale. Spring 2022 . Fall 2023

Decomposing Duplicates . Fall 2023 . Professor Emily Kutil 41

Imaginative Futures . Spring 2022 . Professor Andrew John Wit 42