University of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, PA: GPA 3.96
• Master of Architecture Candidate 2022-2025
Smith College: Northampton, MA
• Bachelor of Arts: Architecture and Urbanism 2022
Teaching Assistant: University of Pennsylvania, Second Year M.Arch Studio: Philadelphia, PA
• Fall 2024
Exhibition Design Intern: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: New York, NY
• Summer 2024
Teaching Assistant: University of Pennsylvania Department of Architecture: Philadelphia, PA
• Fall 2023, Spring 2024
Junior Designer: Phillips Win Architects: Oakland, CA
• 2020-2023
• Worked on the design and revisions of commercial and affordable housing projects through the creation of architectural drawings and details.
• Assisted in product research and material selection as well as maintaining studio relationship with vendors.
Pedagogical Partner: Smith College Landscape Architecture: Northampton, MA
• Fall-Spring 2021-2022
• Composed instructive presentation for future students of Studio: Landscape and Narrative, detailing strategies for better hybridized design workflows.
Research Assistant: Smith College Architecture Department: Northampton, MA
• 2018-2019
Architectural Intern: TIA Architects: Amherst, MA
• 2018
Crew Member: Trader Joe’s: Shoreview, MN
• 2017-2018
Awards & Honors
• 2025 Metropolis Future 100: Nominee
• University of Pennsylvania Walter R. Leach II Fellowship: Winner
• University of Pennsylvania Atkin Fellowship: Winner
• KPF Travel Fellowship: Nominee
• University of Pennsylvania Will M. Mehlhorn Scholarship- Winner
• University of Pennsylvania: Merit Scholarship
• 2022, 2023, 2024 University of Pennsylvania: Pressing Matters Publication Contributor
• 2021 Smith College Sherred Pedagogical Partnership: Selected Student
• 24-Hour Smith College Architectural Design Competition: 1st place 2020
• Golden Nugget Grand Award and Award of Merit: Best Affordable Housing Community – under 30 du/acre: Phillips Win Architecture: Drafting Member and Award Recipient
• NEWMAC Cross Country Academic All-Conference
• Cross Country NCAA All-Academic Team Member
• Of Juliet Magazine Spotlight Artist 2020
• Smith College Summer Work Praxis Grant Recipient
Curtain Call
Nestled beneath a railroad bridge and adjacent to a popular walking path and the University of Pennsylvania’s sports venue, Curtain Call transforms an underutilized urban void into a vibrant community destination. This project centers on the interplay of adaptability, performance, and public interaction, using a pair of monumental curtains as its defining architectural elements. Through the creative reuse of simple materials, Curtain Call reimagines overlooked infrastructure, encouraging public engagement and fostering connections in a dynamic, multifunctional environment. The project invites the community to inhabit and transform the space, blurring the boundaries between performance and everyday life.
Fall 2024 (In Progress)
Weitzman School of Design 701
Critic: Pascal Flammer
Curtain Tie-Up Detail Render
Hidden Space Transformed
Situated beneath a bustling railroad bridge near the University of Pennsylvania, Curtain Call occupies a transitional urban site at the crossroads of movement and leisure. Flanked by a popular walking path and the university’s sports venue, the space bridges the gap between infrastructure and community life. Once overlooked and underutilized, this location becomes a stage for public interaction, transforming an ordinary passageway into a vibrant cultural hub.
Top Left: Open-Curtain Site Render
Bottom Left: ClosedCurtain Site Render
Right: Site Plan
Flexible Boundaries
The first curtain, crafted from a durable blue tarp, offers weather protection and anchors the space with a sense of enclosure. The second, a delicate white fabric, introduces a layer of softness and privacy, allowing for intimate gatherings or performances. These curtains are designed to move, fold, and open, enabling the space to transition seamlessly between public events, performances, and informal gatherings.
Left: White Linen Curtain Drawn
Right: Blue Tarp Drawn
Above: Concrete and Plywood Stair- Access Point
Right: White Sheer Curtain Detail Render
Leveraging Existing Structural Strength
The existing railroad structure provides a stable foundation for Curtain Call, minimizing the need for complex new infrastructure. By leveraging the strength of this framework, the project focuses on using simple, accessible materials like aluminum and concrete blocks. These elements are durable, cost-effective, and easy to work with, allowing the design to remain functional and grounded. The detailing is intentionally straightforward, emphasizing practical solutions that prioritize ease of use and adaptability. This approach ensures that the space is both approachable and unpretentious
False Projections
Fall 2023
Weitzman School of Design 601
Critic: Ben Krone
“False Projections” critically examines Red Hook’s development practices, spotlighting the demolition of historic manufacturing buildings for commercial purposes. The preservation of fragments from these structures’ facades signifies a gap between developers and the community’s need for public spaces. Integrating these historic elements with the Liberty warehouse, the project shapes semi-public areas designed to mimic Red Hook’s stoop culture. This design emphasizes community engagement and public gathering while addressing the discord between development interests and the community’s aspirations for accessible spaces in the neighborhood.
Above: Street-Facing Chunk
Unitized Privacy Spectrum
The project introduces a progression of public space within each housing unit. Commencing at a feature reminiscent of the stoop, there’s a purposeful transparency that fosters community interaction. As one moves deeper into the building’s interior, the design subtly conceals spaces, fostering a gradient of privacy. This strategic interplay with opacity creates semi-public areas, facilitating movement and artistic activity.
Above: Residential UnitInterior Render
Upper Right: 1B Degrees of Domesticity- Diagram
Bottom Right: 2B Degrees of Domesticity- Diagram
Superimposing Historic Fragments
The Liberty Warehouse is imbedded with abstracted fragments of historic demolished Red Hook buildings, mimicking and critiquing the ruins of the leftover buildings. These extrusions and embossments crack open the original facade, encouraging movement within and between.
Legend:
a. One Bedroom Unit
b. Two Bedroom Unit
c. Designated Community Studio Space
d. Community Studio Flex Space
Above: Chest of Drawers Style Chunk Rendering
Left: Figure Ground- Historic Fragments and Original Building Facade
Above: 2nd Floor/Roof Plan Hybrid
Above: Transverse Section
Neural Distortions
Weitzman School of Design
Schenck-Woodman Competition
Partner: Yousef Almana
Images Completed by Author, Partner Assistance Indicated
This project plays with machine learning technology and its misinterpretation of prompts, resulting in the creation of novel objects within a preset architectural typology. Viktor Shlovsky’s literary trope of defamiliarization hinges on one essential element, the perception of strangeness. This feeling can be brought about by challenging habitual, over-automotized object perception. Neural Distortions uses descriptive language in programs like Dalle-2 and Midjourney to defamiliarize structural components which repeated throughout the Callowhill neighborhood. These objects are colorfully described to ai, but never named, leaving the computer with space to slightly misinterpret their form. The result of these errors is our project.
Above: Exterior Facade Detail Rendering
(Image Completed by Author Excluding Ornate Swirl in Top Left Corner)
Defamiliarizing and Redefining Objects
Neural Distortions employs a literary defamiliarization tactic, which disorients readers by describing objects rather than naming them. This tactic does away with our conceived notions of well-known objects by increasing the difficulty of recognizing the object for what it isforcing the reader to digest the “essence” of the object more slowly and therefore come to understand it more completely. When inputting this language into Dalle-2 and Midjourney, we recognize the result as both a distortion of the original object as well as a novel approach towards fulfilling similar goals- either functionally or aesthetically- as the original object.
Bottom
Bottom
Above: Distorted “Pipe” Interior Render
Upper Right: Interior Render of Glass Production Space: Postproduction Entourage Figures by Yousef Almana
Right: Facade Elevation Render: Postproduction swirl by Yousef Almana
Left: Midjourney Distortion Examples - used to inspire digital models
Phyto Tectonics
Spring 2023
Weitzman School of Design 502
Nominated for Pressing Matters
Critic: Ryan Palider
This project explores the intersection of machine learning and design, utilizing Tolstoyesque descriptive language to deliberately mislead AI in interpreting building styles. PhytoTectonics uses this tactic to defamiliarize two building styles inherent to the project program, the Big Red Barn and New England Textile Mill. The project’s program- an algae farm which infuses cellulose into its product to create biodegradable yarn- plays into the hybridization seen in the building form. The hybridization of these errors sets the foundation for the project. Such specific building typologies are indicative of the neighborhood’s history in large-scale fabrication. These confused figures are reintroduced into their original context, paying homage to their industrial home.
Above: Axonometric Overall Rendering
The project began with a digital collage of architectural motifs which were found throughout the Callowhill neighborhood. This set the general framework for the project’s silhouette, which was abstracted and hybridized using Midjourney. The project is refined from theretypical appearing brick cavity walls wrap around algae tanks in a warm embrace. Windows provide opportunities to peek into this world of production, revealing differing concentrations and species of algae. Visitors walk parallel to this world which reveals the process of biodegradable textile manufacturing.
Top Right: Inital Found Object Digital Collage
Middle Right: Abstracted Relief
Bottom Right: Relief Situated on Site
Left: Oblique Overall Site Rendering
Silhouettes of Callowhill
Left: Chunk Diagram Revealing Algae Workspaces
Above: Longitudinal Section
Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing
Fall 2022
Weitzman School of Design 501
Nominated for Pressing Matters
Critic: Na Wei
How can an extension of an institution married with the lineage of colonialism- the Philadelphia Museum of Art, attempt to decolonize the land it resides upon? This question may seem counterintuitive at face value- it is. That said, any extension of a colonial system under the guise of decolonizing intentions acts as a wolf wearing sheep’s clothing. This project takes the advice of “make the invisible, visible,” and employs it to reveal the wolf. This extension serves its role as a monument of questioning. That is- questioning its own purpose and- in applying the transitive property- the intentions of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as an agent of decolonization.
Above: Physical Chunk Model
Kitbashing and Symbols of Imperialism
The design nods to the relevance of movements like structural expressionism, which celebrate and expose utilitarian building components often hidden behind walls. This project offers a slight departure from that legacy. While the use of these specific kitbashed objects- the components of a camshaft pulley, engine block, drive belt, and piston- pay homage to Philadelphia’s industrial relationship with the Schuylkill River, they also work to symbolize the legacy of imperialism which accompanied these periods of industrializationpart of that history resulting in works of art found in the PMA.
Top
Bottom Left: Longitudinal Section
Bottom Right: Chunk Rendering
Top Left: Site View Overall Site Rendering
Right: Choisy Site Line Drawing/Render Hybrid
Didn’t See You There
Fall 2022
Weitzman School of Design 501
Group: R.Zhang, S.Bugni, K. Chen
Critic: Na Wei
This project is best described as a sum of many parts. Found objects such as a trash can, chess pawn, pinecone, and observed architectural components are composed to create a unified whole. The basic contours of the assemblage are extracted from silhouettes of the human body. Using these outlines, the voided space is extruded, enabling and encouraging specific movements through the structure. Infused with the ornate concepts of baroque architecture, this creation evokes an uncanny familiarity, presenting an architectural type that transcends its individual components.
Above: Physical Chunk Model
Object Recognition as a Symptom of Scale
the project aims to generate an ambiguity of scale. at the scale of the pavilion It reads as an interlocking part to the whole while by itself reads in assemblage of modules. objects that are generally seen at an architectural scale become textual and placed among both natural and industrial elements. the scale of the chamber shifts based on the proximity to the object.
Above: Physical Model
Top Left: Elevation Rendering
Top Middle: Section Rendering
Bottom Left: Compiled Images of Production- CNC Foam Positives Used to Create Plaster Negatives. Expanding foam Positives made with Plaster Negative Blocks.
The Duct Lamps
Spring 2023-Current Personal Project
The Duct Lamps project creatively utilizes readily available HVAC ductwork components, including tee ducts, angle boots, end boots, shortway elbows, and shortway angles, to construct operable lamps. Employing lasercut and 3D printed parts for precision, the project emphasizes the use of accessible materials rather than repurposing discarded ones. The lamps offer a practical and innovative solution by transforming common duct fittings into functional lighting fixtures, showcasing an industrial aesthetic. This approach ensures that the project is not only resourceefficient but also accessible for wider implementation in interior spaces.
Above: Tee Lamp Detail
Screening and Lighting Integration
Screening was positioned within the duct openings for a subtle texture. Other openings were designated for the installation of lighting elements. This pragmatic arrangement enhances both the lamps’ appearance and functional integration of components within the overall design. Embracing the utilitarian roots of these objects in construction, the lamps demonstrate a straightforward departure from conventional functionality, highlighting the versatility inherent in commonplace components
Common Grounds
Work in Progress: Spring 2024
Weitzman School of Design 602
Group: Andreina Sojo
Critic: Nate Hume
This project seeks to redefine the role of coffee shops in the Lower East Side, prioritizing innovative structural and facade design as a strategy to invite the public to explore and engage with alternative fungal coffee production methods, fostering a new dialogue around sustainable practices. It aims to revitalize community involvement, sustainability, and innovation within a dense urban context by creating a welcoming space for collaboration and education. This endeavor not only honors coffeehouses’ historical significance in Manhattan as centers of creativity and social exchange but also addresses contemporary challenges such as reducing coffee waste and promoting food production education for the Lower East Side community.
Above: Physical Model
Revitalizing Coffee Culture
The once vibrant and communal coffee culture of the Lower East Side has gradually shifted towards a more isolated and homogenized atmosphere, diluting its former diversity and authenticity. Our project seeks to revive the historicized essence of the coffeehouse, emphasizing its role as a hub for communities to gather, while also providing an opportunity to explore and engage with local food production. We aim to challenge the prevailing trend of coffee shops primarily serving as solitary workspaces. The solution? Implementing a fungus cultivation method for alternative coffee production. This proposal includes establishing an in-house fungus production system- using coffee grounds as a substrate.
Polycarbonate Screening
A central feature of the design is the use of polycarbonate screening, stacked to create a feathering effect that not only adds visual interest but also serves as a functional element. The polycarbonate material is lightweight and translucent, allowing natural light to filter into the interior while providing privacy and protection from the elements. The stacked arrangement creates a dynamic play of light and shadow, enhancing the building’s visual depth and creating an inviting atmosphere for the public.
The structure utilizes a CLT (cross-laminated timber) system, which contributes to the project’s sustainability by using renewable materials that minimize carbon emissions. The CLT system also provides the building with a sense of warmth and natural texture, balancing the more industrial feel of the polycarbonate façade. This combination of materials reflects the project’s commitment to both innovation and sustainability, offering a contrast to the surrounding urban context while engaging with it on a deeper level.
