IZZY WITTEN
they/them/theirs
iwitten@iastate.edu
(+1) 505 - 659 - 347
EDUCATION
Iowa State University Ames, IA
Spring 2025 Graduate
Bachelor of Architecture
Minor in Preservation and Cultural Heritage
SKILLS
Digital
Rhinoceros
AutoCAD
Adobe Creative Suite
Analog
Model making
Drawing / sketching
Woodworking/shop tools
REFERENCES
Consuelo Nunez Ciuffa
Associate Professor of Practice consuelo@iastate.edu
Letitia Kenemer
Workspace & Arts Coordinator 2229 Lincoln Way, Ames, IA 50014
Letitia@iastate.edu
515-294-8081
EXPERIENCE
TCA Architects
Annapolis, Maryland
August 2019 - July 2020
Internship Position
Specialized in Educational Facilities projects
Worked with Vectorworks Software
Adjusting architectural drawings
3D modeling and developing material profiles
The Workspace at the Memorial Union
Ames, IA
January 2021-Present
Lead Staff Member
Artistry tools, large machinery, and supply handling
Customer service and clerical tasks
ENGAGEMENT
DATUM
Collaborative Student Journal of Architecture
President and Contributer
OPN Workshop with Elise Hunchuck
SPACIAL HISTORIES Workshop with Andrew Schachman
ACHIEVEMENTS
Hansen Prize Winner 2023
H. Kenneth Bussard Prize Finalist
COALESCE
2023 HANSEN PRIZE
Ledges State Park Madrid, IA
ARCH 301, FALL 2022
In collaboration with Bayleigh Hughson
Coalesce: to come together to form one mass or whole, as seen by merging wild land and the domesticated into a newly hybridized environment. The project, located on the edge of Ledges State Park, aims to provide the community with a new center to approach and investigate a unique conjunction of vegetation, topography, animals, and humans. Coalesce acts as an angular extension of the existing landscape, putting the proposed idea that “What it was originally [the landscape] cannot be mimicked” into practice: an abstraction of the topography lines reveals the interdependence of our design with the site. By integrating the building and the landscape, the project reflects their necessary connection and acts as a mediator between realms, highlighting and overcoming the dichotomy between domesticated and wild nature, facilitating their interaction as a hybrid. Coalesce integrates education, research, and community, encouraging these areas to cross over: it houses the functions of an environmental education facility and welcomes the wild into the composition. The project aslo follows the flow of time, allowing Coalesce to become a ruin, evidence of a past time, and at the same time-a new feature, a new piece of the landscape, a hybrid open to new perceptions. Coalesce acts as a reminder that
our roots are forever planted in the earth.
To approach the building, a unique path is set by changes in topography and in light conditions: the journey to the structure is a slow descent into the landscape. The actions taken on the land aim to remind visitors of their deep connection to the land as they are nestled into the ground.
MASS TIMBER MANHATTANISMS
Chinatown New York, New York ARCH 302, Spring 2023
In collaboration with Bayleigh Hughson and Sierra Wroolie
This studio focused on Manhattan’s congestion through operations of lamination at multiple scales. At the scale of material: dimensional lumber is stacked and glued together to form cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels. At the scale of the building: CLT floor “plates” stack to form housing systems defined by notions of laminated space. we designed 24 units of housing with a new notion of hybridity, laminating the work, life, and fun within the New York China Town scene. A tea room interacting with the street level serves as a bridge between the densely packed city scape and the private serenity of flexible apartment living.
REQ • UI •EM
H. KENNETH BUSSARD PRIZE FINALIST
Black Contemporary Imaginary, Bin NO. 12 Fall 2024
In collaboration with Sierra Wroolie, Elly Schuemann, and Zoë Stenseth
Black Contemporary is Located just south of Ames, Iowa on a defunct seed drying farm consisting of farm equipment scattered throughout the property in an organized chaos with natural prairie threatening to overcome the dormant machinery. Here, previously functioning corn drying bins serve as a vessel for examining ideas within and beyond architecture where the creative output is an experimental set of speculations. We were tasked to answer the question inspired by the 60th International Art Biennial, asking what it means to be a foreigner. The ideas brought forward through the biennial were First of all, that wherever you go and wherever you are you will always encounter foreigners as they are everywhere. Secondly, that no matter where you find yourself, you are always truly, and deep down inside, a foreigner. Our work requiem draws from the latter of two meanings.
Beginning with the void of the corn bin, the darkness creates an intimacy between the person and the room. To a foreign entity, intimacy is a way to relate to a space. The foreignness of the bin is diminished through developing a comforting and intimate relationship as a means of familiarity. Here, a sense of comfort emerges through the repetition of labor. Our work is a body of our labor; a performance of finding familiarity. It touches on the tense relationship between Iowa’s natural prairie lands and the colonial capitalist practices that are now Iowa’s reality. The land and the prairie were once one, now made foreigners.
Requiem curates the prairie to the bin allowing a moment of humble contemplation of the re-imagining of the landscape.
PUBLICATION DESIGN
DATUM - Student Journal of Architecture
DATUM is a student led journal of architecture at Iowa State University with a goal to document the thoughts and creations of the student body it represents, acting as a tool for critical academic discourse through the exchange of bold design and progressive ideas. The journal makes space for student content that explores many mediums: essays, poetry, artworks, and interviews. The members of DATUM are involved in every phase of the journal’s production, from content creation, design, and formatting all the way to printing and distribution.
My own involvment began as a simple interest in learning the publication process and ended as a passion for thoughful publication design that curates a connection and understanding of the content being shared. Both as a member and president, I have contributed original graphic and written content. I have also collaborated on the publication design and group content.
