Kseniya Yerakhavets
Empathy Poetry Paper Architecture Cornell University
AAP
Master’s of Architecture Program
2022
-1
Transient Perspective, Design 4, Professor Nancy Clark
1
Book Cathedral
9
Biological Recomposition
17
Care and Commons in a Waterscape
25
Angler Lamp
29
Park Avenue Power Plant
LIBRARY ANNEX
Design 6
FLORIDA LANDSCAPE
Design 5
Professor Stephen Belton
Professor Martin Gold
CARE FACILITY Graduate Design 3 In Collaboration with Julia Vasilyev
Design 7
Fall 2019
Professors Tao Dufour & Suzanne Lettieri Fall 2021
CNC ASSEMBLY Digital Architecture Professor Lee Su Huang In Collaboartion with Kiaron Aiken, Miguel Martinez
WASTE TO ENERGY POWER PLANT In Collaboration with Erika Blandon
Spring 2020
Professor Peter Sprowls
Spring 2020
Fall 2020
Title page: Care and Commons in a Waterscape, Graduate Design 3, Tao DuFour & Suzanne Lettieri, with Julia Vasilyev
1
1 type__library annex
Massing study; grain and plasticity, Lends to a rough mud brick structure De-materialized by light.
2 site__Lake Eola, Orlando
3 occupancy__600 people
4 du
Book Cathedral LIBRARY ANNEX
uration__10 weeks
Design 6
Professor Stephen Belton
Spring 2020
Air-dried clay and basswood material experiment
5 program__auditorium, book storage walls, reading spaces, lobby
3 The marionettist shapes the mass, The theater holds the performance, Plasticity is embodied in the heaviness.
Wire-cut of clay block
Clay molded by hands
As a vision for the future, a book in the coming centuries will be a sacred relic – something that may be forgotten and rare but when discovered, it releases the history of human thought it holds within. With this idea, a library becomes a space that houses sacred relics, a literary cathedral. In order to achieve a sense of gravitas and stillness associated with holy places, a massive canyon wall organizes the project. This wall is carved away to house books and people in a variety of scales. Public and private reading spaces are embedded within the exterior of the walls where they are sheltered from the sound of the auditorium within. A system of light wells percolates through the walls. These light wells harness light from above and siphon it down to the ground level to provide natural light throughout the whole building. These light wells work like a circulatory system that occasionally punctures through the walls, thereby making one interconnected light aperture. The site is a large driver for the design. Its location in downtown Orlando with proximity to Lake Eola creates an important connection to nature in the bustling city center. This is engaged in the design through its form which pulls the gaze toward the lake through glazed spatial arms. An outdoor garden which also faces the lake is pulled into the building creating a direct spatial and visual relationship to nature.
Sketch on trace paper
5
Encased in knowledge, The walls hold sacred history. The relics housed within the literary cathedral Embody the collective mind of humanity’s past.
Site plan, Lake Eola
Longitudinal section
7 Ground floor plan
Moving through circulation, circulation for movement. The break-down of mass through passage.
Third floor plan
Second floor plan
Circulation diagram
9 Heaviness aloft, The landscape suspended in an architectural sky.
Section model
1 type__funerary chapel
2 site__Prairie Creek, Florida
3 occupancy__100 peop
ple
Biological Recomposition Florida Landscape
Design 5
Professor Martin Gold
Fall 2019
Roof lifted, composed of Florida pine needles
4 duration__16 weeks
5 program__chapel, water bell tower, meditation room
11
Perspective; landscape reveries
Sketch on trace paper
Longitudinal section
The concept of biological recomposition suggests the natural recycling of organic materials in the world. When applied to the program a green funerary chapel, this concept suggests a re-thinking of the burial process. The intervention addresses the programs that are a product of the green burial process. These include a chapel spaces, a meditation room, and an outdoor water feature. Within the chapel space, the room mass is composed of a form inspired by the hull of a boat. This creates an effect of a curved mass being suspended and allows for light to pass around the perimeter, further emphasizing the floating effect. The exterior ground water feature continues into the chapel space and allows spatial continuity and promenade. The water featured is systematized at a different scale when looking at the water bell tower. This structure creates musical sounds when rainwater hits the brass cups suspended within the steel frame structure. This sounds is propagated through the landscape and creates a temporal and environmental sound quality and creates an interesting experience for people in attendance. Overall, the funerary intervention aims to engage with the program in question and attempts to blur the line between the indoor and outdoor environments to further the idea of green burial.
13
The approach; When one is faced with the performance, When one is faced with the self. The architecture does not simply rise out of the ground, It becomes the ground.
Ground plan with site details
15
The altarpiece of nature, A triptych to worship the recycling of the world.
Cross section
Textured landscape Projected on site model
17
1 type__care facility
2 site__Niagara Falls, NY
3 occupancy__30 people
4d
Care and Commons in a Waterscape CARE FACILITY Graduate Design 3 In Collaboration with Julia Vasilyev
duration__10 weeks
Professors Tao DuFour & Suzanne Lettieri Fall 2021
5 program__apartments, common spaces, jetties, ice fishing huts
Glycerin material study, with Julia Vasilyev
19
The historical context of this region has always been closely tied to the water. For generations, people have seen Niagara as a place of healing due to the minerals present in the water and the negative ions in the air from the falls. In the wintertime, people have practiced ice fishing in order to engage with the outdoors and procure sustenance. The Adam’s Slip site is an anomaly in the Niagara River shoreline and slows down the rapid flow of the water in close proximity to the drop off of the falls. The bordering landscape houses a historical chimney that serves as a tourist attraction and carries with its motifs of home and gathering. As a reaction to our research, historical precedents, and site context, our project integrates itself in the waterscape of the site. Through a series of rock jetties, the water flow into the site is slowed down further in order to promote the accumulation of native plants, birds, and fish. For the occupant, the jetties become a unique vantage point to observe the microecology that surrounds them. upkeep the surrounding landscape.
Colored pencil sketch, with Julia Vasilyev
21
Site plan, mosaic water analysis
23
Projection studies on site model
Floor plan
Photograph of figure next to Angler Lamp assembly
25 Bio-luminescence; The guiding light to provocative forms, Borne of the need to mesmerize the on-looker.
Angler Lamp CNC ASSEMBLY Digital Architecture Professor Lee Su Huang In Collaboartion with Kiaron Aiken, Miguel Martinez
1 type__lamp
2 use__lighting fixture
Spring 2020
3 tools__Rhinoceros, CNC Mill 4 duration__2 weeks
27 The Angler Lamp project was formally inspired by the angler fish. This fish utilizes an appendage coming out of its forehead to lure prey by utilizing bio-luminescence. The appendage is angled in the same way that the dorsal fin is structured. This formal aspect is included with this CNC assembly. The primary arm of the floor lamp can pivot at the middle point to adjust the strength and quality of light. The base of the lamp is constructed out of a plywood rib structure. This approach allows for a stable structure as well as a sweeping gesture that mimics the body of the angler fish. Armature Mill Layout
Angler Lamp CNC mill Group Members: Kiaron Aiken, Miguel Martinez
Photograph of figure next to Angler Lamp assembly
29
1 type__power plant
2 site__Manhattan, New York
3 occupancy__6,000 people
e
Bird’s eye view of the Park Avenue Power Plant
Park Avenue Power Plant WASTE TO ENERGY POWER PLANT
Design 7
Professor Peter Sprowls
Fall 2020
In Collaboration with Erika Blandon
4 duration__12 weeks
5 program__power plant, residential, greenhouse, aviary
31
The negative and the positive, The cast and the casted. A form generated from the inner workings of utility.
Material study, hot wax shaped by cold water
L
Longitudinal section, the urban condition
The furthest reaches of this project extend to the transfer station on the Northern end of Manhattan. On today’s journey, we will not be taking the underground trains that bring trash to our intervention. This system built as an offshoot of the systems in place at the Grand Central Station is operated strictly by the power plant workers where the trash is incinerated to be converted into energy. We instead remain on the upside of Park Avenue. As we approach the intervention that marks the break of the New York grid, we are met with the waste to energy power plant encased in a delicate atrium. Inspired by the parti study, the main atrium is held by three heavy towers. The threshold is marked with the greenhouse. As we ascend through the circulation cores, the boundary between the residential common spaces and the power plant atrium is stitched together with air locked bridges. These preserve the negative pressure within the space, mitigating odors and allowing for public occupation. The final destination sits atop the intervention and houses several aviaries. These are a public attraction and represent the intersection between utility and luxury. The aviaries are kept warm with the radiant heating of the power plant and demonstrate that utility can allow beauty to take place.
33 Ground floor plan, the greenhouse inviting in pedestrians
Perspective view from escalator within the greenhouse
Floor plan, residential connection to power plant
Perspective view from within power plant, public occupation of a utilitarian space
35
Cross section, the waste to energy process
A utilitarian process made into luxury, Life is given through warmth, The urban scape is powered autonomously.
Perspective view from car on Park Avenue
A moment of reverie