Lisa Kusaka - 2022 Work Samples

LISA KUSAKA

Architect, AIBC

lisa.kusaka@gmail.com 788.865.2963

Intern

Resume | Portfolio

contact

lisa.kusaka@gmail.com

808.892.8918

education

University of British Columbia // Vancouver, Canada

Masters of Architecture

2017 - 2021

ETH Zürich // Zürich, Switzerland

Visiting Student, Chair Christian Kerez

2019

Rhode Island School of Design // Providence, RI

Bachelors of Fine Arts, Industrial Design

2013 - 2017

software

Rhino Revit InDesign Illustrator Photoshop  Lumion Enscape AfterEffects PremierePro

accomplishments

Centre of Korean Research Travel Grant

2019

Beans Justice Memorial Scholarship

2019

UBC Outstanding International Student Award

2017

work experience

Johnston Davidson Architects // Vancouver, Canada

Architectural Designer

Worked on design development, construction documents, and construction administration for a number of mass timber firehalls across Canada. Gained experience in traditional construction delivery as well as integrated project delivery.

2021 Aug — 2022 Dec

Balissat Kaçani // Baden, Switzerland — Remote

Architectural Drafter, Part-Time

Digitized drawings of 100 notable buildings in Baden, Switzerland for an upcoming publication on Baden’s architecture. Worked remotely. 2022 Jul — 2022 Oct

Office of Christian Kerez // Muharraq, Bahrain

Architectural Designer

Produced construction drawings and helped coordinate the construction of four doubly-curved concrete parking structures in Bahrain, created drawings of existing projects for El Croquis publication, and assisted with coordinating an exhibit of Kerez’s work.

2020 May — 2020 Dec

UBC School of Architecture // Vancouver, Canada

Graduate Teaching Assistant

2019 Sep — 2021 Jun

Nest Homeware // Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Furniture Designer

2017 Jun — 2017 Aug

Ontraport // Santa Barbara, CA

Graphic Designer

2016 Jun — 2016 Aug

languages

English Japanese

*All drawings done by me unless otherwise noted.

Bahrain Parking Structures

For four months at the Office of Christian Kerez I worked as their first entirely remote intern due to COVID-19. This work included archiving former projects to be displayed at the Dubai 2020 Expo, creating new drawings for an upcoming El Croquis publication, and Rhino modeling for a renovation of Kerez’s Leutschenbach School.

I then relocated to Bahrain for four months to assist their project manager with four different multistorey doubly-curved cast-in-place concrete parking structures that are currently under construction. I produced construction drawings, specified products, coordinated with the mechanical and electrical engineer, communicated updates to the main office in Switzerland, and coordinated an upcoming exhibition of Kerez’s work to be displayed in Bahrain.

one of four parkings under construction in Muharraq

PROPOSED PEDESTRIAN

R 1626

Final geometry of staircases and elevators to be provided after measurements of slabs on site are provided. The staircase must be approved upon review of mockup.

view of car ramp, car driving path delineated by texturing the concrete

top: view down car ramp middle: ramp openings between slabs bottom: concrete close-up

Burnaby Firehall No. 4

Burnaby Firehall No. 4 is a two story building that utilizes a combination of mass timber and steel to meet post-disaster standards, while also expressing a material palette and post-and-beam vernacular that reflects the architectural traditions of British Columbia, Canada.

This project uses an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) approach, which is unique in that it calls for equal collaboration between the City, Consultants, and Contractor from the very beginning of the design process. With all stakeholders involved so early on, the IPD method allows for a much higher degree of coordination, resulting in a more streamlined and economical construction delivery.

My particular role in this project was to produce design development drawings, construction documents, and to coordinate the BIM model with the other consultants.

bottom: section north-south

wall section assemblies

Pitt Meadows Firehall No. 1

Pitt Meadows Firehall is a three story mass timber and steel building designed to meet post-disaster standards, and to house a considerable and complex program list: Headquarters administration offices, gear lockers and equipment storage to service up to 40 career and paid-on-call firefighters, training rooms, and four tandem apparatus bays to hold eight vehicles. The building is also designed to act as an Emergency Operations Center and to house a back up City Server.

My particular role on this project dealt with construction administration. I assisted with a number of on-site challenges, especially with the delivery and installation of the CLT panels. My general tasks included answering requests for information, reviewing shop drawings and material samples, issuing color schedules, issuing change orders, and performing site visits and site reviews.

main floor plan (drawn by Kimberly Allingham)

Baden Architecture Exhibition & Publication

I worked as a part-time remote freelancer with Swiss firm, Ballisat Kaçani, on an exhibition and publication for the Historiches Museum Baden on notable buildings in the city of Baden, Switzerland. I drew and digitized over 100 historical building plans and sections. The exhibition and publication are scheduled to for showing and release in March 2023.

A Stadium for Zürich

The task for a new football stadium in Zürich is a politically and publically controversial project, one that has had a long and turbulent history of failed proposals and repeated competitions. This project attempts to take on this challenge by considering most of all, the role of the spectator.

The design introduces varying ways of watching the game, from implementing a media facade along the short sides facing the train tracks and highway, allowing commuters to get a glimpse of the action from afar, to inverting the typical bowl stadium form, creating an opportunity for gallery style seating that allows fans to hover over the pitch, giving a nearly birds eye view of the match. Polycarbonate panels, steel trusses, and a tension cable roof structure emphasize a sense of translucency and lightness, and at night, turns the stadium into a glowing monument that celebrates Zürich’s favorite sport.

Type Professor Collaborator Site Program Year

None

Zürich, Switzerland

Sports Stadium

2019

A Tower for Pleasure

This project is about the city of Vancouver, specifically regarding the city’s relationship to its rainy weather, its understanding of public space, and the agglomeration of podium towers that constitute much of the downtown. As a response to the underlying tension between these three topics, this project proposes a public observation tower for Vancouver, in an area that is slated to be saturated with new luxury condo developments. A tower for pleasure, a tower that does not generate revenue, is radically useless, a waste in the eyes of the market. But then, profit is not architecture’s only measure of value.

This building, though its purpose is to enjoy the view at the end, is really about the journey upward, and the vertical circulation of people and rain. The architecture focuses on three main elements: stairs, handrails, and the steel mesh curtains, and how the different arrangement of these few things can create varying spatial experiences.

A Stable and a Bridge, ca. 1731

The year is 1731, and the site is Stowe Park, in Buckinghamshire, England. Livestock play a key role in the economic success of Stowe, but the animals are perceived merely as commodities, much less living creatures. The irrational perception of animals born out of a blurry combination of symbolism, function, and the boundaries we impose upon them, presents the question: How does an animal’s spatial condition inform the way we understand it?

Two interventions at Stowe visualize architectures that privelege nonhuman characters, and the benefits of designing for interaction rather than exclusion. While this project is set in the past, the issue posed is contemporary. Animals have never had more rights or respect, yet we still face issues of industrialized slaughter, factory farming, and animal testing. This exercise uses historical context as a tool to critique on the present, and speculate on the future.

Type Professor Collaborator

Site Program

Year

Academic Fionn Byrne

Valia Puente

Buckingham, UK

Stable & Bridge

2018

duck cow fox

HORSE RAMP

Straight and gentle slope for horses to comfortaby enter the raised barn

PARROT MENAGERIE

Rather than a small cage kept in the main house, parrots are kept in a double height menagerie

WILD VEGETATION

Southern wind carries seeds from the parrot cage into the landscape, growing into dense coverage for foxes

GARDEN Vegetation and shrubbery to provide food and natural toys for parrots

MANURE COLLECTION

Facade opens to reveal system for manure removal

WIDE, DEEP STREAM

Crossing point for cows to reach different grazing pastures, and masks scent so deer can move safely through the landscape

DEER GUARD

Cows operate as obstacles, protecting deer from hunters

DECOY

Funnel shaped stream references original duck decoys, encouraging ducks to congregate near the bridge

BRIDGE

Raised covered arches provide safe nesting and sleeping areas for ducks

SPARSE TREES

Combination of trees and pasture allow deer to graze and provides protection

Farnsworth Guest House

Envisioned as a temporary residence for those maintaining or studying Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Farnsworth House, this design exercise proposes a guest house on the same property. This sibling archecture borrows and inverts elements from the Farnsworth House: the floor plan organization and proportions are similar, and it mimics Farnsworth’s structural approach. However, rather than offering a panoramic view of the forest and river, the guest house is completely walled off, with views only to an interior courtyard garden. It is cautious instead of proud, conscious of the flood plain in the context of the climate crisis, nestled in the trees rather than an object in the landscape.

Type

Professor Site Program Year Academic Greg Johnson Plano, Illinois Guest House 2020

Triangle Island Research Station

A minimal housing solution, a prefabricated living container hosts two capsule beds, ample storage, shelving, and a window to the outdoors. Shipped to Triangle Island with the beds disassembled, each container ferries food, research equipment, and building materials for the phased assembly of a small research centre on a remote and sensitive site.

The first container carries the floor system, the second bringing the wall materials, and the third holds the roofing materials. Building materials are precut and of light wood, minimizing helicopter fuel and construction waste, and also allowing for faster and easier onsite construction. Assembly is simultaneous with occupation, as each container is able to provide immediate shelter once emptied of its contents. The deliberate placement of the containers and their entrances, enclosed by perimeter walls, organize the program through their negative space - voids for a vestibule, a kitchen, and a shared workspace.

Secwépmec Nation Artist Residency

Designed with the daily inhabitation of the artist residents in mind, a folding sawtooth roof wraps an artist workshop, creating spaces for conversation, collaboration and display. North-facing clerestories light up the double height workspace, while east and west courtyards frame views of the land. Large glass sliding doors open up to exterior work areas available for seasonal use.

A resource library runs along the main space to the north, preserving artifacts while simultaneously putting them on display – inspiring artwork that may extend the traditions of the past. A smaller south-facing courtyard for lounging is adjacent to the entrance and kitchen, where both artists and visitors can meet and converse.

Type Professor Collaborator Site Program Year

Academic

Joanne Gates

Arnold Jung

108 Mile, Canada Gallery, Residence

1:200 massing model

Porch Roof

Clear corrugated panels

Roof

Standing seam metal roof supported by CLT panels // 243mm depth

Truss

Glulam members // 200mm depth

Cable cross bracing

*Brought to the site in two pieces (18m and 11m lengths)

Walls (Residence, Type C Occupancy)

Light wood frame // 2x4s

*Exterior wall thickness is 200mm to account for exterior insulation

Floor (Residence, Type C Occupancy)

Light wood frame // 2x12s beams span exterior wall to glulam, braced with joists

Bridge Glulam beams // 456mm depth

Timber decking // 43mm depth

Walls (Truss support)

Light wood frame // 2x6s

Glulam beam // 256mm depth

Columns

Heavy timber // 200mm width

Walls (Artist Workshop, Type A Occupancy)

Concrete retaining base // 400mm width

Light wood frame // 2x4s

Floor Concrete slab on grade

Glulam beams supporting light wood frame // 456 mm depths

F1

Concrete screed 2 1/2” (see eng)

4” Structural slab (see eng.)

R1

Corrugated metal roo ng

Hat tracks @ 16” c/c

W1

Wood siding 3/4”

Wood strapping 1“x3” Pine @ 16“ c/c

Structural glulam beam (see. eng)

R2

(2) 3/4“ Polystyrene panel

Polyethylene 0.0006” (air barrier)

F2

4” Structural slab (see eng.)

(2) 3/4“ Polystyrene panel

Polyethylene 0.0006” (air barrier)

3 layer SPS membrane

Light cement panel 7/8”

(3) 3/4” Polystyrene panel

CLT structure (see eng.)

R2

Corrugated metal roo ng

Hat tracks @ 16” c/c

Russian plywood grade A grooved

Joist #2 pine 2”x12” @ 16” c/c

Powdercoated cal. 22 folded gutter

(2) 3/4” Polystyrene panel (R7 cont.) with air barrier liner

Plywood 7/8“

Mineral batt insulation “Roxul” 6“ (R24)

Studs #2 pine 2”x6“ @ 16” c/c

Wood strapping 1“x3” Pine @ 16“ c/c

GWB Board 5/8” joints sealed and painted

W2

(2) 3/4” Polystyrene panel

Bitumen coating 2 layers

Concrete foundation wall (see eng.)

Bitumen coating 2 layers

W1 W2

Cavity lled (polyurethate)

(2) 2”x10” wood lintel

Flashing cal. 22 ermal break

Treated wood joist 2”x12” @ 16” c/c

(2) 3/4” Polystyrene panel

Sealant & mineral batt insulation

Air vent

R1 F1 F2

Powdercoated cal. 22 folded gutter

French drain 4” diam. with geotextile membrane cover with 6” of 3/4” net gravel

Retaining wall (see eng.)

Draining cavity with river rocks

Wood siding (see W1)

French drain 4” diam. with geotextile membrane cover with 6” of 3/4” net gravel

Light cement panel 7/8” 6”

Light cement panel 7/8”