Katharine Vavilov 2022 Portfolio

Selected Works

KATHARINE

KATHARINE ELIZABETH VAVILOV

+1.267.288.3787 | kat.vavilov@gmail.com | linkedin.com/in/katharine-vavilov | issuu.com/katharinevavilov

Skills + Certificates

Graphics. Adobe (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, A er E ects), Arnold in Maya, Substance 3D, V-Ray, Keyshot. Modeling + Drawing. Rhino (Flamingo, Grasshopper, Ladybug, ZBrush), Autodesk (AutoCAD, Revit, Maya), 3D Printing, Laser Cutting, Casting. Languages. Fluent in English + Russian.

LEED Green Associate. U.S. Green Building Council. Issued August 2022. Credential ID 11502753.

Iceland Renewable Energy Innovation + Sustainability The Green Progam. Issued January 2017. Credential ID 59175186.

Education Experience

University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. Philadelphia, PA. 08/2018 - 05/2021 Master of Architecture

Temple University Tyler School of Art. Philadelphia, PA. 08/2014 - 05/2018 Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Bachelor of Science in Historic Preservation

Burr Salvatore Architects New York, New York. 011/2021 - 10/2022

Architectural Designer.

In a two-person team, worked on the schematic design, design development, and contruction sets for an addition and large renovation of a 10,000 sq. . house and pool house, a small renovation of a 1,500 sq. . house, and a 4,000 sq. house. At the rm, I contributed on photoshop renderings, construction sets, interior elevations, and 3D printed models.

University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA. 09/2018 - 05/2020 Laser Cutter Operator.

Ateljé Sotamaa Helsinki, Finland. 06/2019 - 08/2019 Architectural Intern.

Completed design development of a private guesthouse.

Warren Techentin Architecture [wtarch] Los Angeles, CA. 03/2019 Architectural Intern. Externship Program.

One-week externship where I assisted with 3D modeling and drawings for a competition the rm was participating in. Competition: Archstorming, African School Project, Education For e Future

JB Richards Construction LLC Philadelphia, PA. 05/2017 - 08/2017 Architectural Intern.

Assisted with plans, elevations, construction documents, and management, for residential, o ce, and healthcare projects.

Activities + Affiliations

Penn Women in Design (Formely PennDesign Women in Architecture) Philadelphia, PA. 08/2018 - 05/2021 Professional Development Chair

Organized rm visits in New York and Philadelphia and also worked to set up events, talks, and collaborations.

University of Pennsylvania. Stuart Weizman School of Design. Philadelphia, PA. 08/2019 - 05/2020 Peer Mentor.

Guided an incoming student in their rst year of graduate school architecture at University of Pennsylvania.

American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) 2015 - 2018 Attended multiple conferences and served as a studio representative.

Temple Architecture Department Philadelphia, PA. 06/2016 - 05/2018 Peer Mentor.

Guided incoming freshmen and transfers along their rst year in architecture at Temple University.

Exhibitions + Publications

Pressing Matters 10. Philadelphia, PA. Biome Bacillus, Fall 2020 Studio Project. 04/2022

Pressing Matters 9. Philadelphia, PA. Misfit to Misfit, Spring 2020 Studio Project. 06/2021

Penn Museum. Philadelphia, PA. Formalized Ecologies, Fall 2018 Pavilion Exhibited. 10/2018

AIA Center for Architecture. Philadelphia, PA. Living Aqua, Fall 2017 Studio Project Exhibited. 03/2018

Professional References Ryan Salvatore. Principal. Burr Salvatore Architects. r.salvatore@burrsalvatore.com. 203.655.0303

Simon Kim. Associate Professor. UPenn Weitzman School of Design. simonkim@design.upenn.edu.

Kivi Sotamaa. Architect + Founder. Ateljé Sotamaa. kivisotamaa@gmail.com. +358.50.435.0109

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Vault in Vitro

Biome Bacillus

Misfit to Misfit

Formalized Ecologies

Pseudo

Projects Completed at UniversityofPennsylvania’sStuartWeitzmanSchoolofDesign

ResIdential

Burr Salvatore Architects

ResIdential

AteljéSotamaa

Select Professional Projects

Competition: African School

Warren Techentin Architecutre

Vault in Vitro

Redefining The New York Bank Building Monument

Vault in Vitro is a transformation and response to monumental classical architecture of 20th century banks. The project is located at 23 Wall Street in New York City, reusing the JP Morgan Bank Building also once known as the “House of Morgan.” It was built in 1912 by Trowbridge and Livingston and is one of the most symbolic structures of the 20th century financial prowess of New York, serving as the imposing backdrop for Paul Strand’s iconic photograph Wall Street. The capitalist model historically plagued by class differences, colonialism, and greed is now also rife with issues over privacy, ownership, and profiteering. The new bank is a reflection on human genetic data becoming a new currency, that has been exploited for profit by big pharma, harvested from patients with or without consent. The redefinition of the building from a bank vault into a biological human data vault, manifests itself through the implementation of organ chip technology. Vault in vitro becomes a space for creating, analyzing, and housing human data, enshrining DNA samples where money was once the treasure. This vault becomes a new icon of the building, shrouded in anonymity and mystique.

Nominated for

I. Front Facade in Paul Strand’s Wall Street

II. Section Chunk

VAULT IN VITRO

The data bank’s geometries are extracted from the characteristics of the original bank. The original monumental characteristics now house a monumental program. The facade was extruded to create volumes which surround the underground vault, now revealed to the public. These volumes from the outside create mystery in what now occupies the original window space. The deep window volumes hold private sampling rooms, where cells are collected from the public. The cellular samples are then brought to labs, where scientists inject them into the chips for analysis and experimentation. The chips are then transferred through vertical belt systems, passing through the underground storage where a portion of the existing basement houses a data server room for personal information to be stored digitally. Mundane safety deposit boxes now house precious human DNA, like jewels on view anonymously for the public.

III. Server Room Render

IV. Plan Perspective Chunk

VAULT IN VITRO

Catalog of Labs and Testing Rooms

VAULT IN VITRO

BIOME BACILLUS

Membranes breathing in and out, cultivating and expelling miasmas of bacteria to create new architectural biomes.

A world plagued by infected microbes serves to both include and isolate, much like a virus itself. As both individual bodies and society at large have been infiltrated by Covid-19, design principles must utilize the very characteristics of the bacteria itself. The ideas of microbiomes, membranes, and elements of infiltration offer potential for consideration of spaces designed for interaction, or lack there of. Looking closely at the pandemic politics of NYC, and the societal injustices that resulted, the disproportionate risk of exposure and exploitation within bipoc communities is tremendous. The subway, a hub of both culture and survival for these communities, serves as the infectious link between human and virus. We design with and against the virus, creating a common space of healing, refuge, and testing to both isolate from and interact with the virus itself. The project is situated in Central Park but the eventual viral transformation of the world has disrupted any conception of site.

Fall 2020, Studio 701: PublicCommons+Worldbuilding

Critic: Simon Kim In Collaboration with BridgetFarley

Vimeo Link for Animations: https://vimeo.com/491601258

BIOME BACILLUS

To study bacteria and its implications in design, we have grown microbial specimens inside petri dishes, allowing it to thrive and grow irrespective of any human involvement. This allows us to create new textures for our imagined world. These specimens directly serve as design tools for the poche of our world. Homunculi specimens allowed us to combine bacteria and human-made objects to see the relationship between human and non-human and allow us to speculate on their future relationship. Translating analog specimens to digital objects in a digital world, new forms and understandings of bacteria and their micro forms emerge.

Our architectural proposal is a biome as a living, breathing body. Through the evolution of the site, cells die, evolve, and rebirth throughout time, creating a new bacterial architecture that loses sense of boundaries and scale. An interconnectedness between elements such as membrane, veins, bacteria, and occupants can be seen where microbes move through poche, air, and ground to reshape the spaces around us. Clusters of microbes consume the architecture and morph it into a new species. An atmosphere of microbes surround and engulf our world to show the movement of all the parts in the overall system interacting with the membranes, moving in and out of the architecture. Here, the bacteria has agency to create its own structure, where any conception of the built environment is overtaken by natural growth of microbial beings.

of

Homonculi Model of Infected Architecture: Using PLA

Bacteria Growth

BIOME BACILLUS

BACILLUS

VII. B +W Axonometric

VIII. Bird’s Eye Render

BIOME BACILLUS

IX. Interior Render: Infected

X. Color Axonometric

BIOME BACILLUS

Misfit to Misfit

An Art School With New Strange Identities

Anchored in the history of Roosevelt Island, we noticed that the concept of Misfit was defined by proportion and perspective. Misfits are classified by their relationship to “the standard” or “the normal”. And they are always outnumbered by the “conventionally accepted”. Iteration by iteration, we explored architectural design languages to demonstrate this concept through the alteration of the two principal systems and through the contrast of material color and texture. This conceptual relationship plays out through the carefully crafted experience, where users may observe the same volumetric feature from different perspectives and may notice the role of the misfit alternating between the two principal systems as their proportions change in the space. Misfit to Misfit is constructed not only to create a unique spatial experience, but also to remind the art students and public audience, who visit this building, of great artists who are critical of the perspective they take and are bold and brave to be the misfit.

Student Atrium Render

MISFIT TO MISFIT

Second Floor Plan

Sixth Floor Plan

Fifth Floor Plan

Alternating betweeen two systems, the angular grid versus the radial carving, each system is not seen as principal nor secondary, taking turns to be the Misfit and the ”Normal” as the scale and perspective shifts. In the section there are two carves making the shared gathering spaces, one being the public and the other, the student atrium. The systems slip into one another creating interesting figures and spatial organizations as public and private spaces interlock. Yellow material exagerrates and exposes the carvings contrasted with angular wood facades.

Look-Up Render of Atrium

Section

Materials used in the design include a dark burned wood versus a perforated yellow transparent material. A rougher texture versus a monolithic carved-out volume. Wall sections describe how these two materials interact with the massing of the building. The wood facade based on earlier studies of Roosevelt’s Island is placed on the flat parts of the exterior envelope, composed of overlapping wood layers of different density attached to an interior skin of glass and columns. The yellow facade is composted of semi-transparent tubes that when moved around allow for alternating transparency and opacity allowing people to look into spaces and let light flow. These tubes are placed into panels that are attached to curved volumes by brackets and beams, and enveloped in glass panels on the interior.

VI. Detail Wall Sections of Two Different Facade Systems

VII. Facade Vignettes and Physical Model

MISFIT TO MISFIT

Formalized Ecologies

A Pavillion For A Museum Full Of History

Space is a perceptive vacancy where things should go. Each vessel was created with the purpose to be filled. From the funeral jars to cooking pots to perfume containers, the vessels’ original functions were lost as its identity transitioned from that of a manufactured tool to an artifact. Comparing the vessel from its conception to present day, the geometric form of the vessel is the only continuity. In line with its original function, the vessel’s form is repurposed for habitation by a new organism. From the vessels, the location and time period provide a setting in which new ecologies can be created. Based on the organism, the geometry and fabrication process for each piece of the cairotile is sculpted by the form or organizational characteristic of the organism.Through various studies into the curvature and surface of each vessel, boolean operations were performed to fuse solids and voids. The curves and surfaces were used to create new habitats for the indigenous organisms. The resulting collaged cairo tile model is a fusion of different ecologies that are cross-pollinated and connected by fabrication and form.

III. Four Systems of Pavillion and Their Vessel

Designed to be interactive as well as a storage system, the pavillion combines different logics of natural historical systems to create a sedimentary fossil. With the accumulation and collage of four different ecologies, a monument is created that can be peered into, opened, and touched.

IV. Physical Fabrication at Penn Museum

V. Obliique Section

PSEUDO

Self Sacrfice For An Ideal

Set in 2051 on a terraform planet that resembles and clones Earth, our story focuses on the ideas of artificial intelligence versus human survival. Artificial Intelligence tends to see imperfections in humans as wrongful and destructive. The A.I. in this story seeks to recreate a human that is perfect and moral and creates a world that is new but a trap. Using pastel and warm colors to create matte paintings as backdrops for animations and movie-making, the purple and brightness contrasts with the horror, deceit, and trappings of the story that trap a girl in a bunker with no idea that there is an outside world. These colors and creations allow for mystery to be discovered and allow us to see a different iteration of a habitable world.

Spring 2021, Design Elective: Cinema and Architecture in Translation

Critic: Danielle Willems and Nicholas Klein In Collaboration with JosephMathews

Vimeo Link for Animations: https://vimeo.com/600513087

Scenes

PSEUDO

Burr

Addition and Alterations to Large Residential Home and Pool House

At Burr Salvatore Architects, I contributed to a number of residential projects ranging from large additions and full guts to small renovations. I helped setting up and drawing construction sets, creating renders, and 3D printing and putting together physical models.

This project is a 10,000 sq.ft. home that includes a large renovation and an addition to the main house, as well as an addition to the pool house. The original home built in 1941 is a pre war French country manor home that we are maintaining but adding modern elements to the new areas of the house. The firm values historical and past detailed elements while inputting modern innovative elements. The design went through two complete designs due to scaling back the project. The team was constructed of two people and I contributed to the main house as well as being the main hand on the pool house. The house is set to be in construction 2022 through 2023.

Render Done Out of House

Ateljé Sotamaa: Summer Internship 2019

Södersol, Guesthouse

At Atelje Sotamaa, I worked with a multi-discplinary and international studio on small-scale residential projects. I contributed to the design of a guesthouse, part of a three building site for a family that includes a home, sauna, and a guesthouse. All three buildings are made out of CLT(Cross-Laminated Timber) which is an important building material in Finland. For the guesthouse I helped 3D model the exterior and interior in Rhino and worked on the elevation and plan drawings in AutoCad. In addition, I created study models. The completed design is planned to be in construction 2022.

WTARCH: March Extenship 2019

Archstorming, African School Project, Education For The Future

At Warren Techentin Architecture, I worked for a one-week externship to gain experience and knowledge about the field. During this week, the office was focused on a competition for ArchStorming, African School Project. I worked on developing and refining the roof design and structure on the main noodle buildings, using Rhino and AutoCad. This included working with curved surfaces, bamboo weaving, and ventilation. I assisted with the section and plan drawings for the competition and setting up renders.

KATHARINE ELIZABETH VAVILOV

+1.267.288.3787 kat.vavilov@gmail.com linkedin.com/in/katharine-vavilov issuu.com/katharinevavilov