EMILY S YEN PORTFOLIO
Rhode Island School of Design Dartmouth College
CONTACT INFORMATION Emily S Yen 907 317 7459 emilysyen@gmail.com www.emilysingeryen.com
EDUCATION
INTRODUCTION
Rhode Island School of Design | 2015 Providence, RI Master of Architecture Yestermorrow Design-Build | 2011 Waitsfield, VT Home Design/Build Reclaimed Furniture Design/Build
I believe in and work towards a built environment that facilitates the human experience. Without its inhabitants, architecture becomes obsolete. There has to be, however, a connection between our construction, the land it occupies, and the nonhuman visitors. It is in this connection that we define our sense of place. To foster such a connection, I play and explore. I work intuitively with my hands in drawing and making, inside and outside. It is this balance between the intuitive hand and resolution of details where architecture comes alive. Architecture is at its most powerful when it enters the physical world. The effort behind that translation is moutainous and worthy. We sow what we eat and we build where we live. This is our world.
Dartmouth College | 2010 Hanover, NH Bachelor of Arts Major in Studio Art Minor in Engineering
SELECT AWARDS AIA Henry Adams Certificate of Merit RISD Department of Architecture | 2015 RISD Graduate Student Fellowship Department of Architecture | 2012 - 2015 Preview Museum Competition Winner Museum of Science Fiction | 2014 Design Competition Shortlist SwitzerCultCreative | 2012 Solo Barrow’s Rotunda Exhibition Hopkins Center for the Arts Dartmouth College | 2010
SKILLS Software Rhinocerous AutoCAD Sketch Up Maya InDesign, Illustrator, Lightroom Photoshop, Muse Microsoft Office Languages English Mandarin Chinese Spanish Italian
CONTACT INFORMATION Emily S Yen 907.317.7459 eyen@risd.edu www.emilysingeryen.com
Studio Woodworking Torch-Welding B/W 35mm Photography Chainsaw Certification Personal Dancing, Playing Music, Whitewater Kayaking, Biking
REFERENCES Reference letters available upon request.
DESIGN EXPERIENCE Museum of Science Fiction | Washington, D.C. | Winner and Consultant | September 2014 - Present Designed the winning conceptual entry to the international Preview Museum Competition Consults/assists the design team and organization in museum actualization and public presentations Ultramoderne | Providence, RI | Architectural Designer | July - October 2015 Designed and built programmed lighting installation for winning Chicago Architecture Biennial kiosk Oversaw construction of CLT and glu-lam structure and assisted in furniture production/design Assisted in project management; collaborated in other tasks involved to complete short term project Cooper Robertson | New York City, NY | Architectural Intern | May - August 2014 Collaborated with a multi-firm team for a bridge park competition in Washington D.C. Designed program specificities both at the scale of the project and its urban context Built physical/digital models and presentation drawings for meetings and mid-review submissions Karolina Kawiaka | Washington, D.C. | Freelance Designer | July - August 2013 Researched/represented daylighting methods for a winning Washington Mall competition master plan Rendered site plan, sections, and architectural drawings Watershed Studio, LLC | White River Jct,VT | Architectural Intern | September 2010 - July 2012 Designed the winning RFQ for a canoe clubhouse renovation at Dartmouth College Collaborated in schematic design, presentation drawings, permitting issues, and agenda for renovation Acted as liaison between clients (Dartmouth students, administration, and alumni) and firm Livingston Slone Architecture, Inc | Anchorage, AK | Architectural Intern | June - August 2009 Conducted general construction inspections and drew construction documents and lighting plans Assisted in selection for 1% for art program
TEACHING EXPERIENCE ACE Mentorship Program | Providence, RI | Mentor | September 2013 - April 2015 Co-mentored a group of ten high school students in architecture, construction, and engineering Helped organize final presentations and events each year for the ACE Rhode Island program RISD Architecture Department | Providence, RI | Instructor | January - February 2014, 2015 Designed and taught a five-week Math and Physics Review course that covered geometry, trigonometry, calculus, 1 and 2-D kinematics, Newton’s three laws, momentum, equilibrium, rotation RISD Architecture Department | Providence, RI | Teaching Assistant | September 2013 - March 2014 Assisted in required drawing courses teaching both digital and manual methods of representation Architectural Projections with Nick Brinen (Fall) and Architectural Analysis with Carl Lostritto (Spring)
Boston Architectural College | Boston, MA | Co-Leader | July - August 2013 Co-led ten high school students in the BAC’s Summer Academy High School Design Exploration Dartmouth Studio Art Department | Hanover, NH | Teaching Assistant | June - August 2010 Assisted in two introductory art courses as well as monitored various shared facilities Introduction to Photography with Virginia Beahan and Architecture I with Jack Wilson
OTHER RELEVANT EXPERIENCE RISD Architecture Department | Providence, RI | Exhibitions Assistant | September - May 2015 Prepared the gallery for different exhibitions and lectures by building furniture, painting, making labels Collaborate with some exhibitors in creating exhibition materials like SO-IL’s experimental plaster casts Vermont Studio Center | Johnson,VT | Artist-in-Residence | April 2012 Received the VSC Artist/Writer grant for installation work examining attitudes toward the environment Dartmouth Outing Club | Hanover, NH | Construction Volunteer | June 2010 Worked with student-only construction crews in building a full-scribe log cabin sited on an island Dartmouth Outing Club | Warren, NH | Construction Volunteer | September 2008 Worked with students and alumni in building a traditional timber frame cabin at a remote site Jatun Sacha Biological Reserve | Tena, Ecuador | Volunteer | January - March 2008 Volunteered in a variety of fields including reforestation, organic farming, and general construction Directed the design and applied for funding for a playground built in a local, rural community
CONTENTS
sketching by casting
WORK
Thesis : A Narrative Architecture of Multiple Realities a year-long exploration of the removal of mental self from present place and time as triggered by a layered awareness of immediate physical/environmental conditions
Inhabiting the Intersection : Vertical Void a multi-scale project bridging an urban fabric across the Providence River in as few of moves as possible, through a public museum program
Re:Thinking Urban Living a conceptual exercise in re-imagining city living by demanding the spatial freedom achieved in surburbia within the confines of Boston South End’s urban grid
Variations on Light a building project that maximizes a singular operation to create a range of natural light conditions with which to satisfy an educational program for urban farming
RISD MachtPlatz a group building project brought to construction details while preserving initial concept, structural integrity, environmental responsibility, and universal architectural requirements
PLAY Sci-Fi Preview Museum
Ronchamp Analysis Ceramic Geologies Plastic and Heat
Span and Balance Experimental Cast Plaster Shells
Knife Rack
Getting Dirty
WORK Thinking begins with the hand; it is strengthened when pursued through material constraints and concretizes in resolving details. The collection of photographs on this page represent significant moments of making in the design process. Zooming in and out, models of all scales are used to test for successes and failures alike. An element of play is inherently involved, and with it the discovery of pleasant surprises.
THESIS
TRIPTYCH watercolor, ink, gouache on douglas fir representation of atmosphere experienced through Jean Sibelius’ Concerto No. 1 in D Major
A Narrative Architecture of Multiple Realities September 2014 - May 2015 Rhode Island School of Design Primary Advisor Silvia Acosta Secondary Advisor Chelsea Limbird
BETWEEN the tangible and the intangible lies a narrative architecture of multiplicity. It occupies worlds of physical limitations, natural processes, dreams, uncertainties. BOUND
by gravity, context, programmatic necessities, and expectations, its release is revealed through an experienced fiction, an amalgamated reality. When the multiplicity becomes one, the story emerges.
WITHIN,
a transit hub - an intersection of different speeds; three-dimensionally layered infrastructure and experience in continuous space.
WITHIN,
a moment of pause - a breath between past, present, and future infinity.
IN PURSUIT of simultaneous contradictions; in total awareness and disembodiment. NOTHING is absolute, but not everything is relative.
Beginning with an abstracted atmosphere, personal representations of emotions, memories, and feelings found in music, this thesis evolved through the intangible and indescribable into something more concrete, universally understood, at least on an intuitive level. In this abstraction, I found a language and geometry with which to carry into an architecture. Working in-between drawing and modeling, I drew the imaginative atmospheres that I sought to bring out and tested them through physical models - ones that had to obey gravitational, structural, and material logic. It is only through these physical limitations that the intangible strengthens. This is true of the architecture as well. The narrative is embodied in lattice and column design, enclosure and circulation, the project’s interactions with landscape and season. Constant motifs that persisted were repetition and its irregularities, continuity of space, inclusiveness of weather elements, material revealments, and selective use of dramatic geometry like slots, cantilevers, and elongation.
TRIPTYCH COLLAGE an exploration in different readings of the intangible; playing with ways of achieving gestalt
THESIS PROBE evolved triptych into a singular board, inviting the viewer into the piece and three-dimensional guidance
FAIRYTALES 2015 COMPETITION story-boarding the narrative through visuals; beginning to bring similar language and geometry into recognizable architectural elements while maintaining a level of abstraction this series was accompanied by an adaptation of Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”
PLASTER I first plaster translation of the storyboarding from the FairyTales Series; the beginning of integrating material limitations and accepting happy coincidences
SITE, CONTAINER, PROGRAM SERIES a collection of images exploring different facets of encapturing the narrative, now more explicitely beginning to define site conditions, architectural form and geometry, and programmatic necessities each site, container, and program series was accompanied by a poem and a one-worded representation
PLASTER II cast ground conditions and cardboard construction, photographed in Providence’s first snow blizzard to test the integration and weather infiltration PLASTER III from ground to roof, walls to inhabitable space, all cast into a singular form to play with massiveness versus slimness - planes versus volumes PLASTER IV drama cast into single mass - effectiveness of sloped walls and floors, slotted openings and incisions
Transit Hub - An Architectural Proposal
SITE
The project is sited with specific, fictional conditions based on a certain New Hampshire river bank. It undergoes all four seasons of fairly equal length, seeing the changing of the leaves, falling snow, frozen river, spring defrosting, and sun-soaked summers. Its close vicinity between a river and cliff find the project embedded within the earth in two directions. The flexibility but specificity of site conditions is the intermediary step between bringing an intangible narrative into the world. There exist physical but not yet political limitations.
PROGRAM
A transit hub, intersecting three subway lines of varying elevations, a bus route atop the cliff, and bike and walking paths both on the cliff and riverbank elevations brings a flurry of movement and different speeds. This is the opportunity to pause that movement - to fulfill an opportunity in waiting and elevated awareness. This program allows the designed details to live a full life. Transit hubs are by nature open to the public every month, every week, for almost every hour of the day. In considering an infiltration of weather into the space, a program that is interacted with all hours of the day, every day, is the perfect setting.
INTEGRATED DRAWING first drawing integrating select elements explored in the site, container, and program series; the beginning of defining project boundaries and working toward an architectural proposal
Site and program were chosen in support of the thesis exploration: intangible narrative as triggered through universal realities. I absolutely acknowledge the impracticality of such a combination - bringing a dense transit hub to a remote environment of water, cliff, and forest. However, these set conditions permitted me to more fully develop a fictional project to a degree of plausibility. This proposal is not at its end - it is simply one of many future iterations to come, each approaching a deeper level of reality. I believe the motifs and method of working by hand and computer, in model and in drawing, developed towards this iteration are a lifelong pursuit that will permeate all projects, real or not. MASSING MODEL in defining the project, this model finds inspiration and clarification in the materials of clay and plaster
The focus of my thesis was to find a way in which to represent and share something so intangible and personal with a larger audience. I have found the process by which that might be achieved, but its product can still be finessed and re-evaluated.
CAST COLUMN plaster and charcoal cast, 4’6” tall a 1” = 1’-0” model exploring a hollow column detail, from roof to foundation
COLUMN DETAIL DRAWING drawn 1/2” = 1’-0” hollow column section detail, centrally rotated from the section cut to investigate the column’s relationship with the roof, floor slab, structural lattice, subway platform, and ground
PLAN SERIES top to bottom: cliff entrance and cantilever, raised subway platform 1, riverbank entrance, underground subway platforms 2 and 3 plans highlighting the structural canopy and the resulting shadows
CANOPY PERSPECTIVE circulation and canopy perspective; amidst the jungle SECTION MODEL photographed in two lighting conditions, one highlighting the canopy’s form itself, the other the shadows cast from the canopy
SECTION MODEL DETAIL I canopy to column to floor slab to canopy detail connection
SECTION MODEL DETAIL II column to floor, awaiting rain’s infiltration and cascade into the retaining basin in the ground
ADVANCED STUDIO
PERSPECTIVE TRIPTYCH perspectives of the vertical void, top, middle, and bottom - expressing the openness and intersecting of spaces
Inhabiting the Intersection : Vertical Void February - May 2014 Rhode Island School of Design Professor Silvia Acosta
CONCEPT
In search of emptiness and finding meaning in the forgotten voids begins with the intersection as driver. Where all things collide, hidden within the complexity of form, the intersection is inhabited and experienced. It provides an acute awareness of the immediate environmental and weather conditions. It is the key to an everexpanding project. All circulation and form extend from this intersection, creating a rotational force, pulling in and cycling out visitors, residents, and objects alike.
SITE
Given the larger boundaries of the Jewelry District in Providence, RI, we were asked to analyze and select a specific plot of land on which to develop our building project. Our only directive was to physically bridge both riverbanks and enliven the Jewelry District. Beyond, the selected plot needed to support our established concept.
rra
nc
eS
t
Dyer St
Do
nce
vide Pro r
Rive
y St
Edd
PROGRAM
Similar to site selection, program was driven by our concepts, and needed to assist the development of concept and provide enough parameters to strengthen design. My chosen program, to highlight the concept, was a museum for kinetic constructions - a museum housing kinetic sculptures utilizing immediate site and weather conditions to create a sense of movement. As such, the building needed to capitalize on naturally light and dark spaces, climate-controlled and open-air spaces, transition between constructed ground and building.
2013
2008
1997
1972
1951
URBAN VOID ANALYSIS analysis of urban pattern changes from 1951-2013, tracking transportation routes and persisting revered spaces, then inverted
VOLUMETRIC ANALYSES extrapolated from selected Chillida’s sculptural and two-dimensional pieces, the diagrammatic drawing and model express the idea of an intersection as key, held where many volumes intersect
SKETCH MODELS four iterations of building massing with various ground conditions
SITE MODEL final site massing and urban crossing
MODEL DETAIL vertical void detail with circulation, ground conditions, and ground level entrance through the void
Site Section
Ground Level Site Plan
0
16
32
64
96
0
16
32
64
96
Eastern Elevation
Longitudinal Section
6th Floor Plan
4th Floor Plan
0
16
32
64
96
0
16
32
64
96
0
16
32
64
96
0
16
32
64
96
MODEL DETAIL looking towards the auditorium space, an intertwining and revealing of interior and exterior space
URBAN DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Re:Thinking Urban Living September - December 2013 Rhode Island School of Design Professor Gabriel Feld
CONCEPT
In a city where the population is growing exponentially, I wanted to reimagine the residential experience. What are aspects of rural, suburban, and urban living that can be integrated into a singular solution? The density of urban living is undeniably more efficient, sustainable, and necessary in cities, but that does not have to come at the cost of a feeling of openness, immediate access to an expanse of greenery, and uncongested air.
With those values in mind, I raised the entire residential component of the project into the sky, leaving the ground open for smaller-scale public, institutional, and commercial ventures. These residential boxes are then rotated and stacked in a way that allows open views for all units and access to a planted roof terrace atop another residential box.
The circulation up to the residences are as slim and unimpeding as possible to maintain a feeling of openness at the ground level. The city has been split into two elevations.
SITE
The given parameters for the project are 250,000 sq. ft. of undeveloped property in the northeast corner of Boston’s South End. The ground-level commercial, institutional, and public components reinforce the organization of the city fabric while the floating residential boxes above are governed by another set of rules. St
Harris
on Ave
Shaw
mut Ave
Herald
E Be
rkele y
PROGRAM
St
The required programs for the studio were to provide 250-400 housing units and a public/institutional theater.
URBAN SKETCHES massing sketches in perspective, elevation, and models, testing various urban strategies
Site Section
Site Plan - Ground Level
0
40
80
160
240
0
40
80
160
240
SKETCH MODEL a study of structural expression, material exploration, and massing proportions
ARCHITECTURE DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Variations on Light February - June 2013 Rhode Island School of Design Professor Anastasia Congdon
CONCEPT
To accommodate the large range of natural lighting conditions asked of the project, the large move is a peeling up of the ground both away from and towards southern exposure. This peeling and seamless integration of landscape and building allows the entire site to act as a system that feeds and cycles resources for the agri/aquacultural program. It also provides large south-facing surfaces that filter a more dispersed light for inhabitation. Each peel also naturally creates shadow spaces for mycoculture (mushroom) growth. Humans and plants mingle across the site, both in service of each other. Throughout the process, earth and building materials hold a strong relationship.
SITE Sited on the waterfront of Providence Harbor which flows into Narranganssett Bay in Providence, RI, the project boundaries include an existing abandoned and gutted building skeleton and structure for an ancient dock system. Pedestrian access to the site is barred by an I-195 overpass, but is close enough to the India Point Park walking/ biking paths to bring connection. The historical water quality in the Bay and Providence River to the west of the site are terrible. Decades of metal production waste and industrial dumping upstream have rendered the water at this site some of the worst in the country. The proposed program and building process have to take reparations into consideration.
ain SM St
ate SW t
rS
N IDE OV PR
ia
Ind
St.
CE ER
` PROGRAM
5
19
RIV
ate
rst
e Int
PROVIDENCE HARBOR
This is a center for urban agricultural and aquacultural education. We were asked to include (from maximum to minimum light requirements) greenhouse, aquaculture, visitor cafe/classrooms/labs, administrative offices, mycoculture (mushroom), and oystertecture conditions as well as any service spaces to facilitate the program.
SUN ANGLE SECTION / AXON sectional and axonometric study of light and water interactions with proposed concept
SITE PLAN layered, working site plan of vehicular/pedestrian access, circulation, and integration of humans and plants
VID PRO CE
EN ER
RIV PROVIDENCE HARBOR
SKETCH MODELS cardboard models studying angles, inhabitable thickness, and ground/ building integration
INTEGRATED BUILDING SYSTEMS
+ 84.50 LVL 8 + 78.00 LVL 7 + 63.00 LVL 6 + 51.00 LVL 5 + 39.00 LVL 4 + 27.00 LVL 3 + 15.00 LVL 2 + 00.00 LVL 1 - 14.50 LVL 0
South Water St Elevation
Top axon: Taylor Haywood Bottom line dwgs: in collaboration with Nicholas Cote
RISD MachtPlatz : A Making Place September - December 2014 Rhode Island School of Design Professor Jonathan Knowles Group members: Taylor Haywood, Nicholas Cote, Jungmoon Choi ROLE
My primary roles and responsibilities in the group consisted of project management and group coordination, model-building, software (WUFI) testing of wall sections, and the entire landscape series. I also contributed to formatting the drawing package, site massing/planning, elevations, sections, and electrical plans.
CONCEPT
The purpose of this project was to combine our knowledge of previous structural courses into a cohesive building that begins with site planning and concept and is followed through design development detailed drawings. Through the semester, we compiled a 26-pg professional drawing package as well as a series of representative models at various scales. Our group’s concept to meet the program and site criteria was a simple one: push the building to the extents of the property line towards the water with masses on either corner and a thin glass 4-story bridge truss spanning the two. This concept allowed for a large, naturally-lit surrounded courtyard space that looked out onto the Providence River as framed by the building mass.
SITE
The project is sited on a 30,330 sf lot off of South Water St in Providence, RI. It is typed as Institutional/Factory, within the C2 Commercial District zoning requirements. There is a possibility of applying for an extension of institutional variance. The location receives 4.5� of precipitation per month on average, which accumulates to an average monthly runoff of 136,485 cu. ft.
Power St
ain
SM St
r ate SW St
nce
vide Pro r
Rive
PROGRAM
60,000 gross sf of programmed studio, classroom, and office space with a focus on wood, metal, and digital fabrication facilities. Two-thirds of the net space must be devoted to flexible fabrication/work facilities to allow students to build full-scale building components.
MASSING EVOLUTION in collaboration with Taylor Haywood
WUFI STUDY envelope integrity evaluation by Passivhaus WUFI software
FINAL MASSING STUDY in collaboration with Nicholas Cote
SINGLE BAY DETAIL MODEL 1/2” = 1’-0” structure and expression of single bay in bridge component
FACADE DETAIL MODEL 1/2” = 1’-0” structure and expression of facade and openings in bridge component
1/ Grass and Sod Paver Detail scale : plan x 6
2/ Reservoir and Sand Filter Detail scale : plan x 3
3/ Bioswale Detail scale : plan x 3
4/ Eco Paver Detail scale : plan x 6
1” = 20’ - 0”
RISDMACHTPLATZ : A Making Place Arkeeteet Architects, LLP 2014 12 06 L - 102
PLAY Experimentation and play, in concept, skill, making, and seeing, are integral to my process. The asking of questions and testing of answers reveals so many things both accidental and intentional that augment any outcome. It is here that architecture encompasses both art and science. It is here that expectations are surpassed and the work becomes magical. Here lies the inspirational seed from which dedication and diligence grows. The image compilation to the right represent moments in ways of play that I’ve greatly enjoyed in the past seven years. The project types vary widely, from competition entries to sculptural and material investigations to volunteering as a construction worker building various log-based cabins.
COMPETITION
Winner : Preview Museum Competition September 2014 Museum of Science Fiction Washington, D.C. Advisor Carl Lostritto PARAMETERS The parameters for this competition were to design a 2-3 year temporary museum that introduced / publicized the new upcoming permanent comprehensive Museum of Science Fiction in Washington D.C. At the time of entry, there was no site, but specific program requirements and a loose gross budget. QUESTIONS My interest in this competition was to explore the realms of imagination within architecture. How can a building capture the infinite creativity of science fiction? Does the design itself necessarily need to look like it came from the science fiction genre? What are the opportunities here, with a temporary museum, that make exhibition space unique to the visitor? What are the integral experiences of being immersed in science fiction that needs to translate into the project? RESPONSE My response was a simple one: Schrodinger’s Box - a glowing cube of mystery. A rippled, translucent cube is lifted from the ground, emanating light that hints at the mysteries inside. You enter out of curiosity, and find a tilted world view - one that takes reality as we know it and pushes at its boundaries. The ground floor hosts the necessary ticket console and gift shop, and the first floor and mezzanine contain a continuous flexible exhibition space that has both typical and atypical gallery walls and counters; the top floor is a screening room with movable bleachers and a projector/screen. The roof can roll into the walls to reveal the universe beyond.
Skeleton
Ground Floor
Interior Box
First Floor
Exterior Box
Mezzanine
Top Floor
ANALYSIS
La Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut Le Corbusier Ronchamp, France March - May 2013 Architectural Analysis Professor Peter Dorsey
FAR LEFT
CENTER
RIGHT
Analysis of Ronchamp components, their relation to Le Corbusier’s artwork, and a re-imagination / compilation
Exploded axonometric Rhino drawing, seeing Ronchamp as gestalt - and finding those essential parts and objects.
Drafted axonometric x-ray through the building, focus on forms, radial curves, window dimensions, roof shape
MATERIALS
Ceramic Geologies February - March 2015 Ceramic Sculpture for Non-Majors Professor Jan Holcomb In white stoneware clay, I built, layer by layer, an understanding of gravity, structure, and a material beauty that is not readily found in the digital realm. An intuitive and meditative process, the forms are generated by my intention to create inhabitable space and the clay’s limitations in spanning depending on its moisture level. The three pieces to the right were fired without glazing to reveal the clay in all its stages. The piece below was glazed with orange, green, yellow, and black combinations.
MATERIALS
Recycled Polymers and Heat January - February 2013 Materials Laboratory Instructors Taylor Colantonio, Chen Liu What began as manipulating felt made from recycled plastic bottles beyond the expected evolved into a larger series of tests that included plexi-glass. The two goals with heat application were: melt and expand the felt or plexi into a new texture and to fuse the two plastics together. Unfortunately, the felt polymers and the plexi polymer compounds required different levels of heat so the fusion wasn’t a stable, permanent bond. However, changing the texture of the recyclable felt and plexi via heat was a tremendous success. When a sheet of plexi was placed in the industrial oven at o 375 for 20 minutes, permanent bubbling happened and when removed, still folded like a sheet while maintaining the new texture. I then cut out a pattern in a new twodimensional raw sheet of plexi, placed it in the oven, and manipulated it into a lantern after heating.
MATERIAL + TOOL
Re-Centering Centroid March 2013 Architectural Design Studio Professor Anastasia Congdon As a part of the Architectural Design Studio, we were tasked with moving the centroid of a 4” x 16” x 16” mass from center to a point 4” up the diagonal. This balance shift needed to be achieved through removing 50% of the mass. After approaching different mathematical solutions, I decided to play with the material’s response to my tool, the scroll saw. Using triangular geometry, I designed a general layout for where the masses needed to be and their dimensions. Then, using the scroll saw and plywood’s reception to different wave cuts, purposefully allowed for the incalculable so the balancing act would be achieved through playing and intuition as well as the math behind it. Ultimately, the 50% mass balanced as if on air, connected by two wire pieces and a base. This project was an exercise in determinate calculations and spontaneous/ intuitive reliance on the hand.
MATERIALS
SO-IL Collaboration: Casting Complex Curved Surfaces November 2014 Graduate Assistantship with Gallery Exhibitions Professor Aaron Forrest and SO-IL architects As part of the graduate assistantship working in Gallery Exhibitions, our team of 6 had the extraordinary opportunity to collaborate with architects at SO-IL in experimenting with methods of casting thin, lofted curves in plaster. Jiali Xuan and I collaborated in experimenting with different larger scale casting techniques, based on geometries given to us by architects at SO-IL. We tested different types of fabrics, methods of application, and woven structure within the shell. Ultimately, we succeeded in casting a 1/2� scale hydrocal model roof 1/8� thick at its thickest point using embedded woven structure in the process and a less porous fabric. Our final casted piece and frame were included in the exhibition.
Photography Credits to: Brandon Wang, Jiali Xuan, Natalie Kruch
FULL SCALE
Knife Rack August 2012 Personal Project : Learning to Weld Bamboo skewers, plywood, steel, using oxyacetylene torch welding In learning how to weld from a friend, I chose to make a personal project. Inspired by some bamboo skewer knife racks, I designed one that tilted for easy reach, contained openings in the plywood frame for a natural wicking process, and a formal tense moment where the tilted rack is held in suspension one centimeter above the counter. Three materials: steel used for its structural strength, plywood planes as bamboo skewer container, and the bamboo for its wicking capabilities and storage flexibility. Any sized knife can be placed anywhere depending on the owner’s preference.
CONSTRUCTION
Construction Volunteering September 2008, June 2010 Dartmouth Outing Club Dartmouth College Through my tenure at Dartmouth College, I volunteered extensively with the Dartmouth Outing Club both in outdoor leadership and in construction projects. Two primary projects with which I spent significant time were a full-scribe cabin on Gilman Island on the Connecticut River and a traditional timber frame cabin at the base of Mount Moosilauke in the White Mountains. Through these two projects, I learned and participated in the chainsawing and felling process, de-barking, detailing mortise and tenon connections with hand tools, structural frame raising, putting together of components, strengthening structural integrity with diagonal braces, raw finishing, and adjustment process for continuing to dry logs. Working with my hands and participating in construction are just as interesting to me as conceptual thinking and design. It is the integration of process, from diagram to concept to tree selection to barn-raising, that is so potent in the making of this world, and what drives me as an architect. Nothing can enable a deeper appreciation and understanding for our built environment than participating in its creation.
Photography Credits to: Phil Bracikowski, Greg Sokol, Lucas Schulz
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
p:
e:
w:
907.317.7459 emilysyen@gmail.com www.emilysingeryen.com