Selected works

This portfolio gathers a selection of experimental research, studio projects, and independent studies I’ve worked on over the years. As I prepare to embark on new life experiences outside of school, I hope these projects will serve as a reminder of my first aspirations in the field of architecture and anchor my knowledge.

My passion for both science and art led me to study architecture. I have always nurtured a great curiosity about the spaces and ecosystems that shape our world and our experiences within it.

I have been practicing competitive sports for several years, which has helped me develop discipline that is reflected in my academic work. I love challenging myself and always seek opportunities to learn and grow as a person. Studying architecture has opened my eyes to the inherent complexity and richness of the design process that leads to the emergence of creative ideas.

Through my Master degree, I developed a keen interest in understanding energy flows and thermal environments of buildings. I was involved in intensive research surrounding innovative methods of passive ventilation and thermoregulation that utilize principles of fluid mechanics to induce movement of air and heat exchanges within the interior spaces. This approach to architecture challenges the conventional belief that all interior spaces should be mechanically governed and thermally stable to ensure energy efficiency. Instead, it proposes a way of living that embraces temperature gradients and fluctuations as an alternative to dealing with climate instabilities.

In light of the current environmental crisis, it is important to reconsider our energy-intensive practices when it comes to constructing and managing indoor spaces. I believe that as architects, designers, we must take actions in framing a future where built spaces align and come in response to our socio-environmental context.

1. Shove, E. (2003). Converging conventions of comfort, cleanliness and convenience. Journal of Consumer policy, 26, 395-418.

2. Barber, D. A. (2019). After Comfort. Log, (47), 45-50.

‘‘Comfort is not a product that the building provides, instead it is a goal which the inhabitant wants to achieve.’’ 1

Our artificial conditioning of buildings stimulated by energy performance standards has disrupted our sensorial experience of interiors. Design guides informing practice such as the psychrometric chart have fed the belief that comfort can be quantified, standardised, and that humans must be confined to those specific conditions. The goal of HVAC systems is to create a stable and homogeneous indoor climate devoid of any potential discomfort. To ensure this global thermal neutrality, buildings have become high-tech hermetic machines, automatically controlled by energy intensive devices, that the profession ceased to comprehend.

As the effects of climate change have become more drastic and tangible, we are compelled to make a shift now because: “we will be discomforted either by design or by default.” 2 Daniel Barber claims that the challenge for architects today is to imagine and proliferate a culture of discomfort. In that sense, indoor environments must be dynamic, diverse, and foster movements of air and thermal exchanges. Collectively, this calls for a new paradigm of living in which seasonality is embraced, and where the occupant is aware and actively engaged in its interior climate.

The next chapter investigates the mechanisms and architectural potential of temperature cascades as catalysts of natural ventilation cycles, and social relations.

Buoyancy - or stack - ventilation, is a form of natural ventilation that is driven by a temperature gradient; the warmer air rises and is replaced with heavier cooler one by convection. The internal occupation of a space (occupants, appliances, lighting, etc.) generates heat that can be used to move air either by displacement or mixing. The two ventilation regimes are managed by a system of high and low apertures, orchestrating a continuous buoyant flow.

Experimental studies on scale models using air or water as a fluid medium allow to visualize the physical principles of air movements in interior spaces. The salt bath technique simulates air movements through differences in density; the model filled with a saline solution empties as fresh water within the tank is drew in. A more recent technique known as the background oriented schlieren renders flow patterns by computing the displacement in the background pixels, which indicates the variations in the refraction of air caused by its change in temperature and density.

For designers, environmental models encompass more than proof of concepts for building ventilation; they bring awareness on the processes and provide insights on climate strategies. Physical experimentations stimulate speculation on how airflows and temperature gradients can shape the interior space & external form. The following prototypes seek to make visible the principles driving buoyancyinduced air movement and reflect on new modes of building interior climates.

Experimental architecture

Prototype studies -Summer/Fall 2023

Mcgill University

In collaboration with Anna Halepaska (Ph.D.), supervized by Prof. Salmaan Craig

Part 1: Flow visualization of a 3-steps temperature cascade with heat recovery

One of the last technical obstacles to overcome in developing truly passive buildings is the dependence on mechanical systems for ventilation heat recovery. First introduced in 19th-century architectural schemes, heat recovery was achieved by means of an elaborate ventilation thermosyphon system. By putting in thermal contact the intake with the exhaust, the warm stale air could preheat the fresh incoming air one, without the 2 streams mixing. Rather than being part of an independent system, the same principles can work in a configuration of spaces, in which floor and wall partitions act as heat exchangers.

To this aim, this study investigates the fluid mechanics of a ventilation stream driven by buoyancy, which flows through three adjacent rooms, and transfers heat through a surface separating the first and last rooms. Using salt bath models to visualize the flow behaviors the experiment shows that steady, one-way flow is possible near the theoretical 50% heat recovery limit when the dominant heat source is in the second room and rules for the relative vent heights are respected.

Two experiments are conducted, with and without simulated heat recovery, comparing the flow regime, temperature structures, and ventilation rate. Dyes, digital image processing, and measurements with a conductivity probe are used to evaluate the degree of thermal mixing and relative temperature gradient in all spaces.

ABOVE Salt bath models buoyancy ventilation processes visualized with saline in water

ABOVE 3-steps temperature cascade - Natural ventilation cycle through three spaces progressively warmer than the exterior

BELOW energy balance equations relative temperature of each space (θi ), accounting for the internal heat sources/sinks and heat exchanged with neighboring spaces or the exterior environment, where QpCp θi represents heat carried by the ventilation stream and UAp θi heat loss from conduction

A configuration of three adjacent rooms where the middle one is naturally heated by solar gains, share a continuous ventilation stream; air enters space 1 from a lower vent, is driven to the heated space (2), and enters space 3 where it exhausts from a higher vent. The arrangement of vents ensures the flow is unidirectional and well-mixed air temperatures. The plan is folded so the inlet space (1) is in contact with the exhaust (3), and thus the warm stale air can preheat the fresh incoming one, without the two streams mixing.

The generalized scheme is translated into an unfolded 2D section model, where a saline solution is injected into the floor of the second box to simulate heat input. Heat transfer from the last to the first room is replicated by introducing a 50% concentrated saline solution in the first box, and by diluting the fluid inside the third space. Conductivity probes located at each space entrance capture the relative densities relating to a temperature scale.

ABOVE ε -NTU graph where the knee of the curve represents the heat recovery theoretical limit

BELOW flow balance equation and variables - ventilation flow rate found by tracing pressure along the streamline

variables flow balance

Q= A * (βg θ3 (H+ΔH) - βg θ2H + βg θ1H)1/2

temperature in space (i) relative to the exterior [K] airflow rate [m3/s] or [L/s] density of air [kg/m3] specific heat capacity of air [J/kg/K] height difference between vents openings [m] additional heigth of the chimney [m] volumetric expansion coefficient of air [1/K] gravitational acceleration [m/s2] heat input [W] effective vent opening area [m2] heat recovery efficiency non-dimensional size of the heat exchanger

ABOVE Emptying box assembly BELOW recording setup

1- water tank (115L)

2- salt bath model

3- led lights

4- high speed camera

5- water sink & pump supplying the tank

upper reservoir (3L)

reservoir plug

floor cavity porous plate

mesh 75 microns

acrylic frame 3mm emptying box unit (1.5L)

inline conductivity probe

ABOVE salt bath model submerged upside down in a fresh water tank and filled with a saline solution dyed in blue

Part 2: Thermal loops - designing interior climates

The idea of recycling exhaust heat to preheat the incoming one as an energy saving method is appealing and has been developed in mechanical services. In contrast to the device-based approaches, we could imagine using the architectural space itself as a means for recovering heat. Conceptually, thermal loops are ways of thinking indoors as interconnected knots in a buoyant flow internally and with the exterior. Airflow principles shape the interior configuration and the external form, while orchestrating socially the seasonal use.

Thermally driven ventilation experiments using air as a medium involves additional challenges regarding heat loss perditions. First off, the loop was tested in two scenarios: the rowhouse and the nested schemes, to study the impact of heat loss on flow patterns and stability. Thermal profiles were established mathematically for the design of a third more sophisticated iteration that served as a proof of concept. This model uses prototyping foam CNC milled and vacuum insulated glass to minimize conduction loss and ensure a uni-directional flow for a heat recovery efficiency of ~ 0.4.

In

collaboration with Anna Halepaska (Ph.D.), supervized by Prof. Salmaan Craig

ABOVE Thermal knot axonometric, plans, & section

BELOW Visualization setup

1- speckled background on aluminum board

2- schlieren subject

3- high speed camera, LaVision Imager M-Lite

4- Optical table, t-slotted framing

5- LED spotlight

6- Power supply

7- Programmable timing unit

BELOW rowhouse and nested schemes & flow regime patterns

nested

experiment case chimney transfer partition

chimney

ABOVE rowhouse configuration flow visualization

ABOVE nested configuration

Can we imagine architecture as a series of spaces progressively warmer or cooler than the exterior (Suerich-Gulick et al., 2022), where not all spaces need to be “comfortable” for everyone at once? As opposed to static; isothermal buildings, naturally ventilated or mixed-mode ventilated interiors have the potential to “expose their occupants to temperature transients and thermal asymmetries that are noticeably cool or warm, and yet deemed acceptable.” (Parkinson et al., 2015) The implementation of these environmental conditions grants the inhabitants a degree of freedom of use and can generate functions or purposes that had not been foreseen. By setting up such situations of thermal fluctuations, architecture becomes a rich thermal landscape, catalyst for building form and organization, community relations and climate resilience.

The first phase of the project consists of an exaggerated study of a two-sided house, arranged around a central courtyard, where inhabitants migrate from one wing to the other depending on the season. The south wing, occupied during the winter months, is attuned to the sun, and drives a continuous warm ventilation stream. During summer, the north facing wing is attuned and radiates to the sky which cools by a few degrees the main space under and powers the flow loop. The ever-changing environment nudges occupant’s behavior, as their thermoreceptors are stimulated and elicit adaptation. The project highlights the thermal pleasures that arise from those moments of dynamic body regulation.

M.Arch II research project Mcgill University

In collaboration with Victoria Desgagné

ABOVE seasonal thermal pleasures

ABOVE South wing thermal plan during the winter months, a cool breeze enters the quasi-exterior room and is instantly warmed through walls and floors that transmit heat from space 3. The sunspace remains more stable throughout the day, heated by low sunrays and some radiant floor heating when necessary. This room drives a unidirectional flow traveling the house.

BELOW East thermal sections two wings vertical temperature cascade during seasonal influx

north - june

south - december

ABOVE North wing thermal plan during the summer period, warm air enters the quasi-exterior space, falls while it gradually gets cooler. The chilled space is usually the space where people enjoy a meal during the day, and where they retreat on the mezzanine level to sleep in at night.

BELOW West thermal sections two wings vertical temperature cascade during seasonal influx

2 -conditioned

3 - quasi-interior

1 - quasi-exterior exterior

north - june

south - december

livable temperature cascade in LA

In recent years, California has faced more frequently and severely heat waves, which has translated into more heat-related mortality and intensified wildfires. The issue is exacerbating with the electrical grid becoming increasingly vulnerable of outage during periods of extreme heat where the demand from houses dependent on mechanical systems is at its highest. In city such as Los Angeles, it’s the realm of the standalone single-family home, which is the most resource intensive and wealth exclusive housing type in the United States. The large private gardens, swimming pools and double garage echoe the legacy of the American dream that completely redefined the landscape and culture of life.

The project sizes the opportunity to imagine a dense low-rise cohousing project, inspired by LA’s history of inventive housing types such as the bungalow-court and garden-apartments. The proposed living/coworking residential unit is set on a typical 18x50 meters plot, shared with two similar units. The envelope is made of rammed earth, a traditional material of construction that offers rich environmental performances and aesthetic qualities.

The loop is explored in a destructed and porous way, where the initial scheme is punctured by loggias and courtyards. Extruded volumes vary in heights, creating enclosed shaded areas. In colder months, when the thermal loop is in effect, the vestibule (1) draws fresh air from the lowest point. The flow passes to the conditioned living room (2) located south and reliant on passive solar heating. It then enters the atrium (3) and exists to the highest point of the rooftop terrace. An adjoining room to the stream, the grotto, is cooled year-round via a radiative roof. On hotter days, people can shut down those vents to prevent warm air to circulate throughout the house. They orchestrate operable windows to foster greater cross ventilation or migrate towards cooler spots.

1. Reese, P. (2023, August 31). Heat-related deaths are up, and not just because it’s getting hotter. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-08-31/california-heat-related-deaths-climatechange-homelessness-methamphetamine

DIAGRAM buoyant flow mechanism

1- low inlet

2- heat transfer partition

3- upper stratification

4- heat transfer floor

5- natural & active heating

6- cold convective plumes

7- high outlet

8- radiative cooling

9- downward mixing

10- well-mixed interior

envelope ratios

AP : A2 : area heat transfer partition space 2 (conditioned) envelope

thermoregulation strategies

a. thermal loop + active heating

b. thermal loop + sun heating

c. displacement ventilation + high sun control

mean exterior temp. conditioned space (1) quasi-exterior space (3)

EXPLODED AXON livable temperature cascade in LA, California

1- shaded entrance

2- cold garden

3- vestibule

4- atrium

5- living room (conditioned)

6- vestibule L2

7- atrium L2

8- courtyard

9- living room L2

10- loggia

11- grotto

12- atrium L3

13- rooftop terrace

14- radiative roof

15- south porch

ABOVE North-South / Summer

When it’s hot, occupants know how to maximize displacement ventilation and prioritize shaded areas. The cool concrete and the evaporative cooling effect from the courtyard and cold garden provides a good place to rest while the cooled grotto becomes the escape during serious heat waves.

BELOW East-West / Winter

In the winter, the sun heats the conditioned living room, and the warm ventilation stream brings occupants to get more active

livable temperature cascade in Matane

Matane is a small town of 10,000 people located on the shores of the Gaspésie Peninsula, in the province of Quebec. Coastal erosion and rising water levels, accelerated by climate change, have destroyed several homes, and disrupted communities: ‘’marshes and beaches are migrating landward across the flat terrain, compelling a human migration in turn’’ (Elkin, 2022) Still, a great population remains at the mercy of those recurrent disasters and will eventually be forced to leave this land behind. This inland retreat represents an opportunity to implement a new resilient co-housing typology in which people live attuned to the seasonal changes.

The proposal draws inspiration from the traditional maison québécoise, in which people were much more aware of climatic variations, they moved around the house in search of favorable interior conditions. The cuisine d’été and its weaker thermal barrier is occupied very differently depending on the exterior temperatures. In the summer, it constitutes a living space, where people gather during sunny days, and remain at night to benefit from a cooler environment, whereas in Winter, it becomes a space for storing goods. The wooden structure pay respect to the important material culture of mass timber constructions. While the pitched roof acts as a crucial protective element from wind and snow, underneath its structure, the attic adds a layer of insulation and creates an alcove where people retreat for sleep.

The loop functions in a nested scheme, where the most conditioned space (2) is contained within a larger volume (space 1), minimizing its heat loss. The warm ventilation stream operates most of the year, looping around space 2 to exhaust the high point of the foyer. The quasi-exterior room on the first floor echos the traditional cuisine d’été, which accept a wide range of thermal and serves as an external skin.

1. Elkin, R. S. (2022). Landscapes of Retreat. K. Verlag.

DIAGRAM buoyant flow mechanism

1- low inlet

2- heat transfer wall

3- heat transfer floor

4- upper stratification

5- adjacent rooms to the stream

6- active heating

7- heat transfer floor

8- cold convective plumes

9- high outlet

AP : A2 : area heat transfer partition space 2 (conditioned) envelope

thermoregulation strategies

a. thermal loop: active& sun heating

b. displacement ventilation + high sun control

c. mixing ventilation mean exterior temp. conditioned space (1) quasi-exterior space (3)

EXPLODED AXON livable

temperature cascade in Matane, Quebec

1- north entrance

2- cooking station

3- winter garden

4- living room (conditioned)

5- south terrace

6- atelier

7- closed studio

8- sun’s patio

9- shaded patio

10- attic space (beds)

ABOVE South-east / September

On late summer evenings, occupants host collective dinners on the south terrace. Opening windows allows the interior to flush some heat that has accumulated during the day.

BELOW South-West / January

On cold winter days, the heated room activates the warm ventilation stream. The winter garden, which is tempered by low solar rays, acts as a buffer space between the exterior and interior allowing a smoother body’s acclimatization. A fireplace gives extra warmth to the foyer space.

Rooted in a long history of vernacular strategies in hot climates, the brise-soleil was a crucial element to mitigate heat gains. This permanent façade structure not only performed environmentally, but gave expression, local identity to a building. During the modern movement, the façade was seen as the main mechanism for mediating climatic elements and fostering a controlled milieu interieur, freed from the cumbersomeness of mechanical systems. The architecture of the brisesoleil proliferated in Le Corbusier and others’ work, was emblematic of new concerns about the climatic performance of a building in relation to the sun.

This project explores the potential of the articulated surface in shaping the perception of a space. Through an iterative process and speculative research, the fabrication of 1:1 mock up builds upon a design concept and stimulates ideas. Textures echoes the traditional weaving method of the Catalogne, an ancestral textile used as an insulating layer for our beds and floors during Quebec’s harsh winter. The folding technique is altered to obtain more complex and dynamic forms. The structure seeks to produce the massiveness effect by the density of light objects while the white translucent plastic reflects and direct sunlight that comes in, creating playful shadow patterns and enriching the spatial experience.

Studio incursion

Undergrad II - September 2019

Université de Montréal

In collaboration with Anna Paola Bossi, Victoria Desgagné, Laurie Malenfant & Véronique Doré

materiality exploration

folding expression of different materials; textile; paper; plastic

LEFT pieces assembling & enfilade method

1. juxtaposing

2. threading on metal rod

3. rotating up

4. rotating down

RIGHT brise-soleil unit axonometric

ABOVE Larger scale solar device passage of light through the brisesoleil and playful interior shadows

RIGHT collaboration during the fabrication process

Care is defined as ‘Everything that we do to maintain, continue and repair “our world” so that we can live in it as well as possible. That world includes our bodies, our selves, and our environment, all of which we seek to interweave in a complex, life-sustaining web’ (Tronto, 1993).1

Today, we might wonder what care is about or what place it holds in our society. Why do we care? Who cares and for whom? And mostly, how to care? The current narrative of resources destruction is manifest of a clear lack of care and ecological consciousness. Peatlands, labelled as the ‘kidneys of the landscape’, are immensely rich soils and climate stabilizer that have been mistreated, extracted, and consumed to their very limits. Traditionally, turf was harvested for house heating combustible, and became a very attractive substrate in soil gardening and golf field. The extraction process, which requires extensive drainage of peatlands releases important amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The exhibition proposal depicts an immersion through peat as a way to promote access and raise awareness towards the intricacies of this great ecosystem. Our belief is that care requires curiosity that emerges from familiarity and proximity, and the hope to bring us as humans closer to ‘becoming-with’ in our living multispecies world.2

Studio incursion

M.Arch I - Avril 2022 Mcgill University

In collaboration with Ariane Ducharme & JJ Mu Zhao

2.

1. Tronto, J. C. (2015). Who cares?: how to reshape a democratic politics. Cornell University Press.

Wright, K. (2014). Becoming-with. Environmental Humanities, 5(1), 277-281.

ABOVE Exhibition sequence

An immersion through the world of peatlands

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

01- The current narative: Peat as a dead matter - this station sheds light on the traditional peat harvesting and informs the visitor of the slow accumulation process

02- The counter narrative: Peat as a living matter - this central exhibition artifact depicts the rich intricacies frozen in space and time, deep underground.

ABOVE Aerial view of a patterned peatland in Red Lake Minnesota

BELOW Sphagnum moss expulsion sequence

The survival of any species is ensured by its reproduction. Moss is no exception. Through a vivid liquid expulsion, the plant breeds and breathes life.

PHOTOS Exhibition artifactsfinal studio presentation (April 2022)