Arden Stapella Selected Works 2023

ARDEN STAPELLA

SELECTED WORKS 2023

My name is Arden Stapella and I am a currently a fourth year architecture student. Creating and design have always been a part of my life. My devotion to the visual arts has taken many forms over the years from sewing, weaving, embroidery, and stained glass to model making and analytical drawing. These forms and applications of the visual arts has aided my journey in architecture. That explorative component combined with my interests in research, philosophy, and preservation, gives me the determination to create meaningful, innovative, and compelling work.

The work that I have selected to include is a representation of my journey in architecture. It shows me growing into my beliefs on philosophy, art, politics, and greater social issues, and learning how to implement those into my projects.

RETROSPECTION

FALL 2022 | ARCH 401 INTEGRATED STUDIO | PROFESSORS: NATHAN GRIFFITH, BRIAN WARTHEN, NICK LINDSLEY, KHALID KAHN | PARTNER: MIRCEA NASTASE

Retrospection is a social justice center located in Portland Oregon, designed in response to the needs and goals of the non profit organization, The Immigrant Story. Portland has a rich and complex immigration history. For decades, Portland has provided a home and community for a diverse range of immigrant groups from Japan, to China, to Mexico, this fostered a place dense with culture; unfortunately this contribution was not always valued or welcomed. The Immigrant Story seeks to rectify Portland’s historic disregard and underappreciation for the immigrant and refugee population by honoring their tremendous strength and persistence through storytelling. Storytelling has always been a way to nurture empathy and understanding. Retrospection provides a tangible place for this to occur.

The large pillars erected in Tom McCall Waterfront Park serve as a visual reminder to the community of the strong and permanent presence of immigrants in Portland, occupying their space beautifully and powerfully. The grand stature of the pillars are framed by the city grid. As you proceed closer, you are gestured toward the structure by the linear path proceeding from the street, and invited by the stairs to explore below grade. There, you will find a celebration of differences, spaces designed to inspire compassion. It is a space to inform the public of the hardships that these immigrants have endured, the violence and racism, to acknowledge that experience, and recognize them for their courage.

Up the stairs and in the park the ground has been sculpted to form small hills which emanate light from the program below. They give movement to the landscape, mimicking that of the rippling water of the river beside it, inviting onlookers to traverse upon the udulant terrain. Retrospection is an invitation to the community to embrace the diverse heritage of the city and provide recognition to where it is deserved.

REFORMATION ART FACTORY

DIA BEACON FEMALE ARTIST RESIDENCY

SPRING 2021 | ARCH 302 RESIDENTIAL STUDIO | PROFESSOR: PETER GOCHE | PARTNER: JESSICA RITLAND

In the early 20th century, Beacon, like many other cities in the United States, depended on their factories to preserve economic stability. However, when World War I began in 1914 and the men that were maintaining the prosperity of their cities had to leave to join the war effort, factories were left lacking labor. To compensate for this loss factories began to hire women. The women proved to be perfectly competent when taking on these roles. This went unrecognized. When the men returned from the war when it ended in 1918, they wanted their jobs back. Many women were fired, and those who stayed were paid significantly less than the men, doing the same jobs. Women were made to feel unwelcome and unappreciated, after stepping up, saving their towns from economic devastation. This discrepancy between male and female wages continued through history, making its way to the Nabisco printing and carton factory that opened in 1929 where 600 men and women were employed. This is what we now know as the Dia Beacon where we are proposing the implementation of an artist residency. Proposing a program in the same place where women were experiencing this inequity, gives us the opportunity to re-conceive the way in which women partake in labor. Like the Nabisco factory production is at the center of our scheme, but our re-conception emphasizes the dignity in production, denouncing the exploitation of female work. Our space aims to provide a comfortable space for them to work, and invites them to engage in an anti-capitalist type of labor, producing their work for their enjoyment and fulfillments, rather than through the demand of others.

It is in these spaces that female artist would be encouraged to produce their work. many different art forms occur, provoking collaboration and inspiration.

work. It is an open space where

My work this semester examines the affect structure has on movement. In the beginning of my work through explorations of space I discovered that the confines of a structure manipulates movement stifling free expression of being. It was this common theme in architecture of which I sought to break free. I aimed to create work that was characterized by the inevitable transformation time and space has on structure, rather than the limits that structure imposes on space and time.

SUBVERSION FALL 2019 | ARCH 201 STUDIO | PROF. GREGORY PALERMO

PUBLICATIONS

WHERE IS BEAUTY?

Published in TU Delft's architecture magazine "Bnieuws"

* see right

Published in Iowa State's design journal "datum"