Kelsey Willis. Architecture Portfolio 2019 Tulane School of Architecture
About Kelsey
I am a recent architecture graduate and French double major originally from the city of Bellingham, Washington. I graduated in May 2019 with a five-year M.Arch from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. I am particularly interested in the intersection of social and evironmental justice with the built environment, as well as in processes of equitable community engagement in architecture. In addition, I have worked as a Design Thinking Fellow at the Taylor Center for Social Innovation, I coordinated service learning courses at the Tulane Center for Public Service, and I headed “The Charrette�, an architecture student arts organzation dedicated to interactive installations and creative print media.
Contents
(Arranged Chronologically) 1. Thesis: Play-Hacking the City Spring 2019 2. Per(Sister) Exhibition Design Spring/Summer 2019 3. Tippet Rise Visitor Center Fall 2018 4. Rooted in Water Spring 2018 5. Smart Streetscapes Spring 2018 6. The Charrette Spring 2016-Spring 2019 7. Urban Quartet: Chamber Music for a New Audience Fall 2017 8. Public Interest Design Fellowship Summer 2017 9. Hostel for Hikers, Bikers, Snowboarders Spring 2016 10. Apartments on Euterpe & Baronne Fall 2016
Play-Hacking the City: Tools for Out-of-Line Architects in the Apathetic City Amazon Campus, South Lake Union, Seattle, Washington Spring 2019, Professor Graham Owen This project, my culminating thesis, addresses the social and cultural impacts of "neoliberal architecture" (capitalism as manifested in the built environment). In my primary research, I developed a "tookit" identifying these elements. Interested in the role of architect as activist and agent provocateur in society, I explored ways that "play" can be introduced through design as a means of combatting these identified conditions. Over the course of my research, I was interested in the work of the situationists and their contemporaries, who proposed the use of the tactics of dérive (aimless exploration and free movement) and détournement (hijacking of objects, images, or ideas) as a means of rejecting and subverting the domination of the capitalist "spectacle" over everday life, particularly in cities. This was hugely influential for the UrbEx movement, a philosophical offshoot of situationism. For my "test design" I chose to explore the neighborhood where capitalism has most occupied daily life in my experience - the recently redeveloped urban Amazon Campus in Seattle. There, I looked to repurpose (or détourne) the play tools of the tech elite: climbing gear and outdoor tools, to create deployable play structures that can be used to intervene in daily life.
Diagram showing the properties owned & occupied by Amazon in Seattle - 40% of the City's Office Real Estate
A closer view of the politics of space in the center of the South Lake Union district
One Image from the catalogue of "Exclusionary Spaces" - Exclusionary tactics in residential and office buildings in South Lake Union
Another image from the catalogue of exclusionary tactics, around the Amazon Spheres at the heart of the urban campus
Illustrations from the tactical instruction guide, showing how to repurpose tools of Seattle's urban elite clmbing and outdoor equipment - for playful intervention in the heart of the city
Map of interventions, inspired by the psychogeographical maps of the Situationists
Model close-up: Temporary nets being used to generate play spaces in the midst of the city
Before: Corporate Buildings as Monolith and Spectacle
During: The Urban Environment Perceived as Modifiable, Made of Parts
After: Renewed Sense of Potentiality and Ownership of the Streetscape
Sequential Drawings: The tactical roles of four team members when installing net structures
Illustration: Play environments in underused alleyways between massive office buildings, allowing for a reclamation of the street
Illustration: Play environments generated amidst construction sites, halting further development
Per(Sister) Exhibition
Formely Incarcerated Women in Louisiana
Newcomb Art Museum New Orleans, Louisiana Spring/Summer 2019 A small group of students worked with the directors and curators of the Newcomb Art Musem in New Orleans to produce an exhibition sharing the stories and experiences of formerly incarcerated women in Louisiana, the state which houses the most incarcerated people. A majority of these people are poor and of color, and often subject to a range of societal injustices in America. Working directly with the artists and storytellers whose work was being shown, we designed strategies for displaying complex works of art like quilts, sculptures, and audio stories, as well as interactive artworks.
Entry hall for the exhibition
We also designed a number of interactive educational components to engage visitors with broader discussions of incarceration in the region, including a timeline, a tree for placing personal memories relating to incarceration, and a cloud of envelopes that shared handwritten messages from women in the prison system today. In addition to a traditional gallery, the space was used for many performances and events that brought members of disparate communities together under a shared appreciation and concern.
Interactive exit sequence featuring a "memory tree" and a place to read the stories of women
Close-up of the timeline that progresses through the exhibit
A dance performance taking place in the exhibit, which doubled as a performance space
Exhibit-goers listening to the personal stories of some of the "PerSisters"
Tippet Rise Visitor's Center Tippet Rise Art Center, Fishtail, Montana Fall 2018, Professor Wendy Redfield A visitor's center and overlook point for the twelve-square-mile Tippet Rise Art Center in rural Montana. Recently opened, the center hosts 12 works of land art and large scale sculpture, which also become the venues for a yearly classical music festival. This "Visitor's center" is, more broadly, an alternate way of viewing and experiencing the site. Instead of a traditional road/parking lot/building, there is only a walking path through the foothills to the final building at the site's high point. This path is only hinted at by a navigable sequence of land art pieces, that create overlooks, shelters, and information didactics - vertebrae in the "spine" of the mountains. To access the visitor's center, the true art fan must wander through these scattered pieces to find the final view point.
Site Plan: Sequence of Interventions
Site Plan: Complete 12-Mile Site
Axon of Visitor's Center Floor Plan of Visitor's Center
Passage
Picnic Point
Wilderness Viewing Platform
Ranger Area
Restrooms
Array of "Intervention" Typologies, experienced en route to the Visitor's Center
Wilderness Viewing
Art Viewing
Storage & First Aid
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2
4
3
5
6
Conceptual Massing Elements
Exterior Perspective: Descent to the main works of art
Interior Perspective: "Hearth" Space
Rooted in Water
Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans Spring 2018, Professor Aron Chang Working collectively as a nine-person studio, we developed and conducted research and community engagement around stormwater management and vacant lots in the heavily blighted neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. The project was entirely self-guided, in which we formed our own goals and strategies for the final product. Ultimately, we framed our resulting designs as "visions" for what communities could generate in a variety of conditions in their neighborhood, rather than finalized design proposal. In addition, as a strategy for helping communities determine when to implement these visions, we designed prototypes for two interactive design tools - one at the individual lot scale and one at the district scale. Based on tests of those prototypes and extensive conversations with residents, we developed a series of hypothetical proposals for ways that vacant lots could be radically converted to create social spaces and stormwater management tactics. Our final critique involved fifteen community members and activists, who we invited to test out our tools and comment on the ways they saw our designs pairing with the futures of their neighborhood.
Neighborhood Site Plan - note the high rate of vacant lots
Sectional Models of Canal Replanting Strategies
Current Conditions
Proposed Transformations
Design Tool 1: Lot Scale Redesigning Vacant Lots for Water Storage
Design Tool 2: Neighborhood Scale Arranging Canal & Bioswale Systems Within the Lower Ninth Ward
Design tools in action with our board of reviewers, residents of the Lower Ninth Ward
Conceptual Diagram Explaining the Importance of Green Infrastructure in New Orleans
Proposed Intervention 1: Daylighting the Jourdan Avenue Canal
Proposed Intervention 2: Rain Garden Network on Rocheblave Street
Proposed Intervention 3: Floodable Bioswales on Caffin Avenue
Smart Streetscape Central City, New Orleans
Spring 2017, Professor Aron Chang This was a product of a one-week partner study of urban resilience strategies in the low-income residential neighborhood of Central City, New Orleans. In this partner project, our pair was asked to focus on coordinated utilities, solar microgrids, reevaluated recycling and compost systems, and mesh wifi networks, and the implications of these changes at the district and street scale. By engaging the possibilities already existing in New Orleans’ context of closely held neighborhood relationships and local identity, we tried to incorporate new technologies into the streetscape to make a more people-friendly, resilient, and maintainable residen We mapped perceived changes in human interaction in several neighborhood contexts: home, street, and - our design addition - the new corner “hub”, playing up the social nature of some Central City street corners.
Diagram showing connectivity of neighborhood heat and energy: Localized cogeneration facilities, individual home-scale batteries for overflow storage, renewable generation on the house scale.
The Charrette Tulane School of Architecture New Orleans, Louisiana
Publication: UpsideDown Spring 2018
The first of several print pulications I coedited as head of the student organization "The Charrette" at the Tulane School of Architecture. We design installations, as well as source and publish "architecture-adjacent" material from students, staff, and faculty of the school, exploring the ways that an architectural education informs the way we experience the outside world.
A page from the article I wrote, "highway", analyzing the changing geographies of gas stations and truck stops in Louisiana and Texas.
This issue, released in the Spring of 2018, focused on the the contrasts and contradictions of 21st century life, particularly as we experience it in the old-new spaces of the American South. I work with a team of volunteer students, leading weekly meetings to design and curate the issues. In addition to this, we have built - independent of the university - an ongoing relationship with a risograph print press in New Orleans, and work closely with them to design and develop the issue, learning print and layout techniques to best convey a diverse array of visual and text submissions.
The front and back covers of the reversible issue.
Art from Shauna Warner, an MFA student and contributor.
Cloud Nine
Fall 2018
I led a team of students from our "staff" to reoccupy a vacant office space in the basement of the Tulane School of Architecture, turning an underused corner of the building into a exciting late-night gathering spot. Using simple household crafting materials and sound-sensitive LED’s, the team created a soft illuminated drop ceiling that moved in response to music.
A team member with her head in the clouds.
Immersing visitors in color and sound, we were able to create experiences ranging from “zen” to “disco hall”, simply by changing color and music within the small space. In addition, we blocked out all entering light, laid out soft mats and carpets, and encouraged people to lay, meditate, and fully step away from their studio work temporarily. We marketed this with the catchprase, "Sit back & relax - you’re on Cloud Nine".
Groups in the space on the installation's opening night.
We found a variety of seating objects around the building, which we switched out for different experiences.
The String Thing
Spring 2017
This project was an exploration in interactivity and time-sensitivity, situated in the main entry hall to the architecture building, Richardson Memorial Hall. What started as a simple geometric exercise - strings connecting two orthogonal forms diagonally - became an adventure in layering, color, and depth, temporarily reforming the landscape of the wall and staircase. Rather than installaing the "artwork" ourselves, we placed rolling spools of string on both sides with graphic instructions as to how to unroll and wrap the string around the frame. The color of string was switched out each day, creating a "strata" of actions by people entering the building. At first, people stayed within the confines of the frame, but over a matter of days, the installation extended out up the staircase and into the halls in a web of motion.
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Spring 2016
" We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And watch where the chalk-white arrows go To the place where the sidewalk ends." -Shel Silverstein The theme of our Spring 2016 print issue was the under-construction(ness) that defines New Orleans. The vegetation that upends sidewalks, the constant rebuilding of homes, and the feeling of unfinished-ness present in much of the city. Shel Silverstein's simple poem Where The Sidewalk Ends resonates deeply with this vision. Our installation aimed to bring a little of the weathered New Orleans back into the Tulane Campus by marking a virtual crack in an otherwise smooth Mcalister road, asking students to look up from their phones to think about the place they live in.
Urban Quartet: Chamber Music for a New Audience
Vesterbro, Copenhagen, Denmark Fall 2017, Professor Maija Popovic Completed as part of a studio abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, this project addresses a waning interest in classical music by creating a “tent concert�-inspired destination for musicians and music-lovers in the heart of Vesterbro, the primary nightlife neighborhood of Copenhagen. Acknowledging the many uses of the existing square, called Enghave Plads, (including a skate park, a hangout for homeless people, and a kindergarten), the project incorporates a combination of flexible practice spaces, musician residences, and outdoor performance spaces, as well as a large chamber hall, while maintaining the open public park spirit of the site.
Diagram: Flexible Uses of Practice Space Modules
Diagram: Flexible Uses of the Primary Chamber Hall
This design strives to make classical music accessible to all by reducing the culture of formality in performances and by introducing a format that welcomes all types and classes of musicians, including street musicians. Because of this accessibility, it can be a safe and welcoming destination for all, day or night, in an area known for its seedy history.
Circulation between gathering spaces
Outdoor performance spaces and sound penetration
Site Axonometric
Enghave Plads - Site Plan
Interior Perspective: Practice Room
Interior Perspective: Alternate uses for a "Chamber Hall"
Serial Collages: Progression through the site from the Metro station exit to the large outdoor performance area
Vesterbro Neighborhood Site Plan
Nighttime Elevation
Public Interest Design Fellowship Albert & Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design New Orleans, Louisiana Summer 2017
Solar-Powered Bus Shelter The PID fellows partnered with a group of local high-school students employed by the nonprofit Groundwork NOLA over the course of only two weeks to collaboratively design and build a solar-powered bus shelter with lights and a phone charging station.
Phase 1: Site visits and concept design with representatives from the EPA & Groundwork
To make this happen, we designed and implemented a rapid codesign strategy in which the students and fellows shared equal decision making power and chances to share ideas in an open setting. The result was a whimsical design tha takes into account the experiences and desires of the students, who brought their expertise from taking the bus regularly in the city. Turnaround was 2 weeks from our initial ideation meetings to construction completion. In addition to the structure, we including developped educational signage for the inside of the shelter and a “building instructions� booklet for the high-schoolers to reference when making future project iterations. These will be placed along major transit corridors in the city, in a continued partnership with the Tulane School of Architecture.
Phase 2: Evaluating concepts with the Groundwork team, for feedback collection and next steps
This project was funded by grant money from the EPA as part of an outreach program that creates positive dialogue around both transit infrastructure and alternative energy in communtiies.
Phase 3: Prototyping several ideas at scale, and testing materials on-site
Phase 4: Offsite Fabrication - including steel framing modules and oyster gabion baskets
Phase 5: On-Site Fabrication with the Groundwork team
Phase 6: Finishing touches and educational signage
Hostel for Hikers, Bikers, and Snowboarders South Lake Tahoe, Nevada Spring 2017, Professor Bruce Goodwin This project is an environmentallyconscious temporary residence for visitors to the resort mecca of South Lake Tahoe. The hostel provides a low-cost option for outdoor sports fanatics to get outside without the high cost barriers. Conceptually, the goal was to emulate the experience of being in a traditional cabin or lodge, while expanding the scale to house hundreds of visitors at a time. Similarly, it intends to have low visual impact on the environment, as well as a low carbon footprint, by employing a locally-sourced wood structure and cladding and a system of ground-source heat pump and solar panel heating. The butterfly roof scheme allows water to be directed intentionally for snowmelt collection, and brings in significant amounts of natural light to the dorm-style sleeping units.
Terraced Floor Plans
Conceptual Model
Exterior Perspective
Longitudinal Section
Building Systems Diagram
Apartments on Euterpe & Baronne Central City, New Orleans Fall 2016, Professor Errol Barron This project is a reimagination of an empty lot in the rapidly transforming and gentrifying Central City neighborhood of New Orleans. The mixed-use complex creates a new urban commercial and residential node in the heart of the city, blurring the lines between public and private space while engaging the formal elements of the existing commercial corridor. The core of the project is a central public plaza with open ground-level circulation and a dense commercial layer on the ground floor. In elevated roof gardens, the residents can interact with, but are separated from, the busy street front.
Ground Floor Plan
The project’s central goal was to explore the intersection of public and private space in a social housing context: through publicly accessible courtyards that support local commerce and a multitude of accessible interior public spaces, the project serves to create a privately maintained extension of public space for the good of the whole neighborhood - the opposite of a “gated community”
Central Courtyard Rendering
Diagram: Green & Public Spaces
Exterior Perspective, Front Entrance
Early Concept Sketch
South Facade & Section
Wall / WIndow Connection Design
Interior Perspective: Residential Unit
East Facade & Section
Interior Perspective: Gallery & Event Hall
Thanks!