Design
Portfolio Daniel Preston
2016
danielpreston design
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to create a better everyday life.
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2016
Contents
Publication Design
Introduction 7 resume The Thread Magazine Fall/Winter 2015 13 issue vii, the romance issue
The Thread Magazine Spring/Summer 2015
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issue vi, the art history issue
Association 31 volume 7
[RAW] Expo 41 cross-disciplinary collaboration
Immaterials 43 photographic diptics
SEG Research Book 49 case studies
Freelance Graphic Design
Phoodieur 59 instagram campaign
Furniture Design
B.Bounce 65
Architectural Design
Centre d’Education Inclusif
furniture design
design competition
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[mixed]ucation 79 multipurpose building in morningside park Art & Illustration Design
Graphite 89 selected works
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Contact Daniel Preston dap264@cornell.edu +1 516 965 6583 danielprestondesign.com I am currently a fourth year student at Cornell University and a native of Long Island, New York. From design to execution I see publications as a way to present opportunity and to push limits both creatively and technically. I am a designer, a conceptualizer, but most importantly, I am a thinker. I strive for the opportunity to contribute as a designer on a team that is challenging, innovative, and determined to pushing these limits.
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Education
Publication Experience
Cornell University
The Thread Magazine
Ithaca, NY College of Architecture, Art + Planning Bachelor of Architecture Anticipated Graduation | May 2017
Cornell In Rome
Roma, Italia College of Architecture, Art + Planning Bachelor of Architecture August-December 2014
Paul D. Schrieber High School
Port Washington, NY Port Washington Union Free School District AP Scholar with Honors June 2012
Proficiency Computer Aided Design AutoCAD, Rhinoceros, V-Ray Rendering, Sketchup
Adobe Design Suite
Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign
Mechanical
Cornell University Currently the Editor-in-Chief for Cornell’s first and only student run fashion, art, and lifestyle magazine. Responsible for the editorial content, graphic representation, and design aesthetic. Under my time as Editor-in-Chief, readership has doubled and online viewership has grown exponentially. thethreadmagazine.com
Association
Cornell University Responsible for organizing and designing upwards of sixty architectural, artistic, and otherwise design oriented plates to be compiled into one legible and coherent publication which is distributed annually.
Professional Experience Joshua Brandfonbrenner Architect | Design Intern
New York, New York Worked alongside the firms principle partner on active job sites. Supervised a variety of projects from historic restoration to high-end residential and different stages of completion. Made active decisions based on historic color theory and precedents. Produced a variety of technical drawings for the three projects underway. June-August 2015
Gap Inc. | Assistant Visual Merchandiser
Carpentry, Metal Working [Soldering, Welding], Digital Fabrication [Laser Cutting, CNC Milling]
Manhasset, New York Assisted the chief visual merchandiser to improve the ascetic appearance of one of Gap Inc.’s most profitable stores through visual displays and product merchandising. Learned valuable skills in store design, color, merchandise branding, and customer service. June-August 2014
Exhibitions
Accredited Environmental Solutions
Hand Drafting, Sketching
Microsoft Office Suite Word, Excel, Powerpoint
Model Making
Structural Systems Showcase Ithaca, NY John Hartell Gallery, Cornell University November 2013
Honors and Awards Centre D’Education Inclusif Design Competition, Finalist
Port Washington, New York Worked on active construction sites assisting various contractors in general construction and inspection services. Learned valuable techniques in regards to building construction and renovation. Additionally, my skills were utilized to compile lead inspection reports for The City of New York Department of Housing Preservation and Development. June-August 2014, August 2013
Alvarez + Brock Design | Design Intern
Cornell University 2013
New York, New York Worked directly with the firms two principle architects, who specialize in restaurant, hotel and product design, on multiple projects in various phases. Using AutoCAD and Sketchup, personal drawings were then used to aid the construction and presentation drawings for two restaurant concept designs. June - August 2012
Cornell University 2013
Leadership
Cornell University Sustainable Design 2014
Oppenheim Family Scholarship Cornell University 2013
The Baird Prize, Special Recognition The York Competition, First Place 5th Congressional Art Competition, Honorable Mention US House of Representatives 2011
2011 All-County Artist
Art Supervisors Association 2011
Scholar-Artist Nominee Long Island Art Alliance 2011
Book Award for Academic Achievement with a Social Conscience St Michael’s College 2011
Sustainable Education Ghana
Cornell University Sustainable Design, Cornell University Currently the design team lead for Sustainable Education Ghana, a student run project team devoted to empowering the young girls of Sogakope, Ghana through the design and construction of a secondary school. Alongside Voices of African Mothers, our primary stakeholder, we have conducted in depth research into vernacular precedents, sustainable deliverables, and cultural practices and are currently design the building with the intent to begin construction January 2017
References Steven Rosenbaum Principle and Employer at Accredited Environmental Solutions | inspector@optonline. net
Brannen Brock
Partner and Employer at Alvarez + Brock Design | brannen@alvarez-brockdesign.com
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The Thread is the only fashion and lifestyle magazine on Cornell’s campus founded in 2011 by a group of Cornell University students. As a completely student-run publication, The Thread is a conglomeration of student-made fashion, photography, styling, and design. It is published every semester and aims to showcase the unique talents of individuals within the Cornell community through its attention to high quality and compelling visual storytelling.
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The Thread Magazine Fall/Winter 2015 The Romance Issue Issue VII
Associate Editor-in-Chief
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thread f/w 2015
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The Thread Magazine
Fall/Winter 2015 Associate Editor-in-Chief The Romance Issue Issue VII
The Thread aims to explore the interwoven nature of fashion, art, lifestyle and the mundanities of everyday life. This issue, we explored the ever popularizing trend of romance. No, not in its traditional sense - we had no interest in hearts - but rather we explored the redefinition of romance in a contemporary societal setting. How has romance changed in the age of androgyny and political and social acceptance of ever changing gender normalities? We touched upon gender roles, sexualization, eroticization, heteronormativity, and even romance as an artistic movement all to gain, and share a broader understanding of how the changing notions of romance influence our readership deeper than surface level. As Associate Editor-in-Chief, ensuring the adherence to the creative direction was of utmost importance. Directly intervening in all of the photoshoots to provide direction, advice and guidance and ensuring the editorial content was in tandem with the theme, I was able to appropriately guide the direction of the magazine while simultaneously embracing the creative spirit of the various team members. Currently, for the spring/summer 2016 issue, I sit as Editor-in-Chief with full intent to push Thread to its extreme. During my time as Editor-in-Chief, print readership has doubled and online viewership has grown exponentially.
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“Our skins become the still life, our souls epiphany� - Paula Cole
As the romantic artist, it is ones responsibility to bring about the passion of emotion, of testifying against the balanced and tranquil forces of human behavior and embracing the erotic and tortured soul.
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thread f/w 2015
The Thread Magazine
Delequescence of the Male Daniel Preston
In November of 2011, over one hundred works of art were displayed at SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco in the exhibition, Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze. While the exhibit was no more than a collection of unsystematic accounts of masculinity through an aggressively sexualized feminine lens, it begs the question: why is the male body so de-eroticized? The heteronormative nature of American society drives the eroticization of the female body over that of the males. It is not because a woman’s body is quote unquote sexier, or that her curves embody anything more than those of the Caryatids of ancient Greece, but rather the homophobic implications of sensualizing a male’s body in a particularly patriarchal society are far too controversial. If you were to take the stance that the female body is objectively more beautiful than the man’s, you might understand then why heterosexual women are more aroused by nude women exercising than by nude men. But how do you argue why the erotic male stimulates homosexual men? As a gay man, the question has perplexed me for quite some time. Why do I find my heterosexual female friends fantasizing over the beauty of other women while all I do is sit there thinking how attractive the guy sipping coffee at the next table is? Is it a question of sexes eroticizing other members of the same sex or simply that gay culture celebrates and eroticizes the male body in a way that straight culture does not, simply because homosexuality has long been a subject of controversy? There has been a recent proliferation of sexualized images of men that can be highly attributed to the success of the gay liberalization movement, which has increased in legitimacy in the past three decades, and the accompanying acceptance of gay culture in a heteronormative society. Do I believe the increased eroticization of the male figure is solely attributed to gay liberalization? Absolutely not, but the liberalization of the gay community is a liberalization from the masculinity of mankind as a whole. Had society not started this progressive transition we wouldn’t see David Beckham’s sultry 2012 H&M Super Bowl campaign or Calvin Klein’s infamous black and white underwear ads, for which we are all grateful, but rather we would still see an excessively oppressive, rather homophobic, internalized view on masculinity and male eroticism. But while media has been progressively sexualizing men for the past forty years, it has taken society quite some time to catch up. Still, even with the dramatic liberalization of societal institutions, why is the objectification of men still restrained?
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The de-eroticization of the male is not just a strife between human sexualities; rather, it stems from the symbiotic relationship between heterosexuality and the aforementioned masculinity. One key assumption about gay men is that they’re somehow less manly than straight men, effeminate, even “girly”. While I’d like to think most of the twentyfirst century world knows that not to be true, there has historically been an androphilic obsession with men. To objectify men is to reduce their being to submissive characters in a hegemonic play, and in a patriarchal society, the loss of dominance is a loss of power. Why would a culture dominated by heterosexual men passively avow male eroticization? In fact, masculinity is enhanced by the presence of women, a sentiment that further nurtures man to objectively exploit the female body and never once will he get quote unquote slut shamed for it. So, if the size of a Sultan’s harem or the breadth of a pimp’s streetwalkers bolsters their power and extent of their authority it’s no wonder men conform to the beastly and misogynistic
practice of exploiting women in lieu of their own sex. Heteronormative gender identification is masculinity and masculinity is power; it is as simple as that. Heteronormativity has driven the de-eroticization of the male figure. A look at People’s list of sexiest men, with David Beckham at number one, and you’ll see loose t-shirts and face shots sans of any bodies but very rarely is a women deemed sexy without explicit societally drawn curves. It has become evident through gay liberalization that homoeroticism reflects liberalization of the hetero man yet defined masculinity still restricts absolute liberalization. The media draws on the objectification of certain men in certain moments but lacks the tenacity for a full fledged coup for fear that the eroticization will deliquesce the apex of male power and, well, God forbid.
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thread f/w 2015
The Fall/Winter 2015 issue pushed for more integrative editorial content. By exploring the extensive issue of romance and romanticism and applying the question to a broader social context, we were able explore the popular cultural notion through a variety of means.
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The Thread Magazine Spring/Summer 2015 The Art History Issue Issue VI
Contributing Editor
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thread s/s 2015
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The Thread Magazine
Spring/Summer 2015 Contributing Editor The Art History Issue Issue VI
The spring/summer 2015 issue was the first to introduce art as a pivotal component of the magazine. We found that through art a new avenue could be explored. By drawing comparisons between historic movements, fashion, and contemporary lifestyles The Thread was able to add a new layer of dynamism for its readers. How can artistic movements be translated to fashion? This was the question we asked ourselves. This placed a heavy burden on the beauty and styling teams to appropriately portray these movements through color and the layering of textures and patterns. As contributing editor, I worked mostly alongside the Editor-inChief but more often than not, found myself dabbling amongst the creative teams. I actively took a stance throughout the Frida Kahlo shoot and assisted the styling team with accessories and layering. This was the pivotal moment during my time with Thread where I realized the full collaborative potential of the publication and when pursued a more active role in the magazine.
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“I drank to drown my sorrows, but the damned things learned how to swim.� - Frida Kahlo
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The Thread Magazine
Twitter, Typewriters & Tees: A Century and a Half of Cornell Fashion Daniel Preston Fashion doesn’t define a generation: it is a physical manifestation of a future of unrest and uncertainty scribed in mankind’s innate obsession with expression. As a campus we use fashion as a preface to the inevitable changes in society, policies, and technology, turning our bodies into mechanisms of progress.
What is a sesquicentennial if not a celebration of scrunchies, tiedye tees, and velour jumpsuits? The Cornell campus has seen 150 years of political upheaval, educational reforms and social revolutions, but just as apparent is the century and a half of fashion evolution, both good and bad, that has manifested itself in the day-to-day street wear of the university’s students. For several decades now, the department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design (FSAD) has been amassing a collection of over 10,000 garments, apparels, flat textiles and accessories dating from as far back as the late eighteenth century. Focused on the ethnographic characteristics of the collection, which serve to reflect the Cornell community as a whole, the curators of the collection are interested in the cultural and social history of the garments and what they say about a particular community during a particular moment – a community that happens to be Cornell. Cornell is a phenomenal conglomeration of students from across the nation and the globe, each with their own individual style and cultural background, who upon arriving at Cornell renegotiate with one another in regards to what becomes fashion. Assistant Professor and Director of the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection, Denise Green (’07) describes the ongoing collection as a way of “documenting history as it unfolds”. The collections serves as a dynamic reminder of the mundane fashion choices of the student body, which in their moment seem ordinary and unimportant but in retrospect serve as landmarks of political achievement, technological advances, and social reforms. A major fashion revolution, stirred by women’s rights movements, civil rights activism, and anti-war protests, shook the campus in fall of 1968. Until the early 1960’s women were restricted to wearing solely dresses on campus, meaning no trousers, and most certainty, no denim. However, like the rest of the nation, Cornell bore witness to major political and social revolutions during the
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late 1960’s and partook in major evolutions in fashion and style. Many women completely abandoned dresses in favor of completely and wholeheartedly adopting blue jeans, precipitating the rise of denim as a symbol of liberation and respect. In conjunction with the rise of denim, another staple of 1970’s fashion, the graphic tee, emerged. According to Green, technological advances in screen printing made the production of graphic tees easy and economical and thus they quickly began to become popular as a means of using the body as a way of conveying political messages and ideological ideas. The female body itself became the site of communication and political contestation. Beyond technological advances in apparel manufacturing, Cornell students have integrated contemporary technology into their aesthetics more and more, particularly the millennial generation. The ways in which we wear our headphones or how we accessorize the latest iPhone reflect our ever changing definitions of style. Green locates the history of the typewriter as the first piece of technology to be incorporated into fashion. At its inception, the typewriter was heavy and stationary and served solely as an accessory on one’s dorm room desk, but then evolved into the portable electronic typewriter and ultimately into the laptop computer, now a staple of every student’s persona. Green describes the clamshell iBook, debuted in the late 1990s, as exemplifying a technological fashion statement. Available in several fluorescent colors and even sporting an integrated handle so as to be carried like a purse, the iBook was one of
the first pieces of technology to be fully integrated into the realm of fashion design. Wearable technologies such as smart watches, statement headphones, and even the choice of sleek metals when picking out a new iPhone have expanded the purview of fashion-forward technology. The advent of digital technology constitutes a newly egalitarian and increasingly dynamic fashion discourse. Magazine editors and fashion moguls no longer spearhead the visual and physical production of style, as social media has liberated the public to deploy style in a discursive space. That which is “in vogue” changes daily, as digital media establishes platforms to continually imagine and reimagine our style identities in a disembodied medium. The fast clip of contemporary technology has transformed “fast fashion” from a faux pas into a mode of being. Fashion is no longer physical, but is a fluctuating, frantic function of community creation, affiliation, and vocalization across media. Consistency is difficult to locate within the mix, prompting style hounds to straddle the line of immaterial discourse and grounded fashion. As Green puts it, “we use clothing, we use textiles, and we use our bodies as a way to negotiate the uncertainty of the future.” Uncertainty is the crux of what moves fashion forward. By negotiating the tensions of the past, the present, and the future, college students employ the medium of fashion as a means of illuminating stability and instability within oneself and within a community.
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Association Volume 7 2015 Product Designer & Contributing Editor
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association vol. 7
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Association
Volume 7 2015 Product Designer & Contributing Editor
Association is a student-run publication featuring the work of students, faculty, and alumni across the disciplines of Architecture, Art, and Planning, with particular interest in crossdisciplinary projects that demonstrate the connections and overlaps between these fields. Volume 7 showcased the highest number of cross disciplinary projects from current students, faculty and alumni. Over ninety plates in total demonstrated the exemplary talents of the Cornell community in a collaborative effort to promote inter-project associations. During my time with Association, I acted as a contributing editor, where I designed and formatted the various project plates. Additionally, I was a leading member of the product development team who orchestrated the design, and manufacturing of the product encasement.
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association vol. 7
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[raw] expo
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Association
[RAW] Expo 2015 Event Coordinator
In the spring of 2015, Association held its inaugural [RAW]Expo, an interdisciplinary event intended to foster relations amongst over fifty project teams from Engineering, Architecture, Design and Environmental Analysis, Fashion, Hotel Administration, Sciences and many more. I co-coordinated the event, attended by nearly 500 students, faculty, and alumni, that exposed each teams projects in their raw, intermediary and process states, to emphasize the commonalities, and differences, amongst the design process of student work from all seven colleges on campus.
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Immaterials Diptics 2014
Photographer & Creative Director
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immaterials
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Diptics
Immaterials 2014 Photographer & Creative Director
The everyday. The constant changing of small things unnoticed.
In an information-rich society, we are intellectually inept. We no longer see beyond the day in front of us, the detailed facets of the world around us: what is man, what is nature, and the beautiful harmonies between the two. The images in this book are a tribute to the banal components of our metaphysical existence and the objects that provide our natural and simultaneously fallacious stability. This photographic exploration attempts to facilitate the dialogue between the miniscule details of the natural and man-made world and how they inform the beauty of what is around us.
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immaterials
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SEG Case Studies Research Book 2016
Creative Director
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Research Book
SEG Case Studies 2015 Cornell University Sustainable Design Creative Director & Design Team Lead
Cornell University Sustainable Design (CUSD) is a student led design-build project team that’s mission is to improve the lives of others by promoting social, economic, and ecological sustainability. We want to empower students to make an impact and encourage deep engagement with the communities we work in to design effectively and preserve local culture. Our Mission Sustainable Education
The vision for Sustainable Education Ghana (SEG) is an ecological educational center that will draw people in from all over Ghana to promote and support women’s empowerment. Its plans include schooling for girls from nursery through junior high school, conference centers, and farmland. CUSD hopes to design and construct part of the VAM Girls’ Academy; a multipurpose academic building for the students of VAM Village. Our design for the school will address the social, environmental, and cultural concerns of the people that occupy it. We are interested in designing spaces that promote a strong community and offer an enjoyable and fulfilling experience for both students and teachers. Through use of color, communal gardens, and open classroom layout, we hope to achieve an environment that engages students and encourages active participation within the VAM Village community. VAM Girls Academy will not only provide girls with access to quality education, but will empower young women to recognize and appreciate their potential. The site for VAM Village is approximately 200 acres and rests along the Volta river in Sogakope, Ghana. In addition to its academic purpose, roughly 100 acres of the site will be designated for farming and agricultural projects. VAM Village will be an ecological hub where students can learn to farm and understand the meaning of sustainability by growing and using their own produce. We intend to build the school using locally sourced materials, alternative energy technologies, and passive energy systems. This will not only reduce the school’s carbon footprint, but will enable it to serve as a model of ecological sustainability for the region.
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SEG case studies
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SEG case studies
Through an invigorating five months of in-depth research into cultural, economical, and environmental sustainability, an explorative research book was produced to serve as a guideline for the design of our school. A series of precedent studies were introduced as a means of studying architectural typologies and vernacular building methods.
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graphic
freelance graphic design
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Phoodieur
Instagram Campaign 2016
Graphic Designer
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phoodieur
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Instagram Campaign
Phoodieur 2016
Graphic Designer
Phoodieur, a mobile restaurant guide emphasizing a visually stimulating approach to dining and the sharing of experiences, launched an instagram campaign in 2016 to share food through catching graphic representations as a method of promoting its popular app. This series was selected as the inaugural posts for the campaign.
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furniture
furniture design
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furniture
B.BOUNCE Version 2.3 2015
Designer
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b.bounce
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furniture
B.BOUNCE 2015
Designer
B.BOUNCE is an integrative bench which explores the dynamic properties of wood. As a rather rigid material, zippered kerfs in opposing directions allow the wood to adopt flexible properties allowing for not just pliability but for double curvature as well. This curvature allows the wood to compress and form around the occupant sitting upon it providing maximum comfort from a material which is stereotyped for its rigidity and stiffness.
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architectural
architectural design
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Centre d’Education Inclusif
Design Competition | Second Place 2014
Completed in Collaboration with Erin Yook
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centre d’education inclusif
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architectural
Design Competition | Second Place
Centre d’Education Inclusif Petit Goave, Haiti 2014
Completed in Collaboration with Erin Yook
This proposal seeks to create an interface that responds to the challenging site condition of Petit Goave, namely, sunlight, in order to inform program. Light becomes critical to the manipulation of the academic landscape which changes throughout the day. As a completely self sufficient school, in a community which doesn’t have the luxury of electricity or running water, it is the responsibility of the building to rely only on internal and natural resources. The space is designed with adaptability in mind with a brise soleil of maneuverable bamboo louvers, which can be manipulated according to the solar path, and internal walls which can be re-positioned according to academic needs. The intensive louver system is constructed of sustainable bamboo fibers which can be locally harvested and constructed.
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architectural
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centre d’education inclusif
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[MIXED]ucation Morningside Park 2015 Designer
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Morningside Park
[MIXED]ucation 2015 Designer A mixed, multipurpose, education facility, addressing the needs of Columbia University, and serving as an education and community center for West Harlem. From performing arts to community workshops, the building bridges two communities, hybridizing the needs of two distinct populations. From gallery spaces to community offices, each population shares a need, or a desire, for education, cultural development, and social responsibility. It is ultimately a place for mixture, for blending, and for chanced encounters. It is a metropolitan insertion that mediates cultures and topography linking two communities through culture, education, and exhibition, forcing interaction, intermingling, and interrelations.
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art and illustration
art and illustration design
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Graphite
Fenestrations 2012 Artist
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art and illustration
Fenestrations
Graphite 2012 Artist
A collection of graphite drawings completed between the years 2010 and 2012. Primarily focusing on architectural fenestrations, each piece explores different qualities of light, composition, form, and symbolism.
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