PORTFOLIO
Lydia Rosenthal
B.Arch, Cal Poly, 2024
Prof. Stacey White
Collaborative work with Katherine Neuner
San Diego, California, USA
Located in the underserved Logan Heights neighborhood of San Diego, Open Arms Library exploits the intersections of environmental and social sustainability to create a lasting, welcoming addition to the community. As part of a new law school campus, we had to be particularly aware of the area’s tense history with institutional impositions. To create a welcoming yet private environment, interactions between users are encouraged on the ground floor and in outdoor space, but controlled through separate circulation and curated views on the upper floors.
Studio Prize Winner
Daycare Law clinics Librar y Student support
The Open Arms Library is part of the broader California Western School of Law relocation within San Diego. The school has a particular emphasis on providing legal services to underserved and migrant populations. As the new Barrio Logan neighborhood contains a significant migrant population, this new location was seen as an opportunity for improved outreach. The Library, sitting at the border with the neighborhood, was an ideal candidate to house community programming, including pro-bono law clinics and a community daycare. The daycare and law clinics not only improve “town-gown” relationships, but may contribute to student success. According to data from
the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, only 33% of single parents graduate within 6 years, but access to reliable child care improves graduation rates three times over. It was important that the building massing reflect our social goals. Assigning each program to a distinct volume maintains privacy and security, and allows the building to be clearly legible from the street. It also facilitates the scale transition from the low-lying residential areas to the denser campus block. The L-shaped form also engages the street more directly while creating sheltered green space for the campus community.
Our site mediates the residential and university boundary. In an effort to increase transparency and access, the ground floor is porous and intentionally non-hierarchical, inviting all users in with public programming, such as a cafe and children’s library.
transport into the campus area better connects the divided
Increased and convenient bike parking reduces carbon emissions and caters to
Public functions and a porous ground oor encour age exible circulation for all
DAYCARE
A. cafeteria
B. classroom
C. play room
D. storage
E. active play
F. children’s library
G. roof playground
H. theater
LIBRARY
I. group study
J. conference pods
K. breezeway
L. reading room
RAINWATER CAPTURE
A. roof membrane
B. downspout filter
C. cistern
D. filters
E. uv light disinfection
F. carbon filter
G. potable water tank
I. water heater
J. chlorine tank
K. drinking fountains, sinks
L. greywater
passive convection through experiential stair
Berlin, Germany
What will life look like, three degrees warmer?
This project focused on a renovation of an existing apartment complex at Mehringplatz, Berlin, imagining how architecture and urban form can be adapted to not only survive, but thrive on a warming planet. The project covers strategies at the urban and architectural scale, and aims to improve the passive thermal and ventilation performance. Throughout, a focus on adaptability, light-weight intervention, and connection to outdoor space was of
URBAN STRATEGY
Developed in collaboration with Franka Marxer and Ramona Friedrichs.
The Mehringplatz residential complex was designed by renowned German architect Werner Düttmann in the 1960s. Although quite radical for its time, the design has proved less successful than anticipated. Its repetitive structure is characterized by covered throughways which are underutilized and unwelcoming. The central grassy area is similarly little-used, and primary pedestrian traffic consists of commuters walking through the complex to reach a subway station. The ring orientation means that many apartments have poor orientation, and are either too hot or too cold throughout the year.
WIND TUNNELS
Yellow indicates partial demolition of existing walls to allow for the prevailing winds to pass through the urban complex. Community gardens in these spaces will unite the community.
TRAFFIC CALMING
To limit non-resident traffic and protect the privacy of the community, commuter bicycle and car paths will be rerouted outside of the interior ring.
FACADE SHADING
To protect the southern exposure in a warming climate, a system of balconies and arcades will extend the living space and provide adequate shade. These may also begin to affect building circulation.
DENSIFY
The red areas indicate places where open space in the ground floor will be filled with new programs. In these areas, additional floors will also be added to densify the complex further.
GREEN CORRIDOR
The rewilding of the local park and nearby river will protect from the heat and provide a barrier against more frequent flooding events.
REMODEL TYPOLOGY A
2 Bed, 1 Bath
Minimal intervention in the existing floorplan improves ventilation and offers increased flexibility in the living spaces.
REMODEL TYPOLOGY B
1 Bed, 1 Bath + Studio
One bedroom apartments enable a greater diversity of lifestyles. Both receive southern and northern exposure, and can be cross ventilated.
REMODEL TYPOLOGY C
3 Bed, 1 Bath
Densification of the existing apartments can also be achieved through an additional bedroom abutting the balconies.
ARCADE STRATEGY
Each apartment may extend onto the new arcade, which provides additional living space, shading possibilities, and instant connection to outdoor space.
COMMUNAL FLOORS
Remodel and extension typologies are flexibly and diversely arranged in order to promote intermingling between residents. Spaces that were opened for the urban wind tunnels host community gardens, while the rerouted circulation emphasizes connection to outdoors.
Prof. Dale Clifford
Collaborative work with Xander Bergey, Eloise Hides, and Morgan Miller
Surrending control to nature allow us to understand our world in novel ways. “Wind’s Eye” aims to create a viewing portal controlled by the wind itself. The bent-wood “weather vane” takes its form from airfoils, and spins freely about the tripod. Users are invited to take a look in the direction of the wind, and follow the instrument as it rotates. Even the slightest shifts in wind direction force a change in perspective. Wind is typically a power that we harness for our own goals and desires. The chance to submit to its whims for a change subverts expectations in a fun way.
Munich, Germany
Platz 89 serves the needs of many disparate groups – including seniors, young families, and students. Sited on a prominent corner in a quiet neighborhood, the project offers intimate, appropriately scaled building volumes housing meeting and living spaces. Beyond these safe and solid anchor points, the space in between is full of airy spaces for spontaneous use or friendly conversation. Platz 89 aims to invite users into an exploratory and open mindset.
FLOOR 3
A. Group room
B. Workshop
C. Gymnastic room
D. Music room
E. Lounge
F. Gardens
G. Terrace
H. Student apartment
Structural system consists of a combination of self-supporting CLT walls, and mass timber frame systems. Mass timber was chosen for its carbon sequestration abilities, as well as its friendly impression in this neighborhood. Two CLT volumes are elevated, necessitating a hybrid system. Circulation spaces exist between or outside the volumes, giving them an airy quality, with abundant glazing. Privacy was a concern for student apartments - there, the circulation corridor is pulled out from the volumes, with individual “entranceways” leading to each apartment.
STRUCTURE CIRCULATION
CONSTRUCTING ELEVATIONS
The simple, friendly facade organization gives the buildings a human, approachable scale, and helps them blend into the neighborhood. Subtle interlocking patterns between materials lend texture and visual interest and help indicate underlying structural organization.
Waterproof Bitumen Membrane
Mineral Wool Insulation
max 200 mm + 250mm
Moisture Barrier (PE Film)
175 mm Cross Laminated Timber
36 mm Cement Fiber Eternit Wave Panels
or: 19mm Larch Siding
2 x 30/60 mm Steel Batten
Weather Resistent Barrier
20 mm Fiberboard
150 mm Wood Fiber Insulation
125 mm Cross Laminated Timber
WALL FLOOR ROOF
20 mm Wooden Floorboards
20 mm Fiberboard (for sound insulation)
Installation Level / Wood Framing 95/45 mm
175 mm Cross Laminated Timber
Prof. Angela Bracco and Prof. Clare Olsen
Cal Poly is working to develop a curriculum focussed on bio-based, natural materials and wall assemblies. To help establish this, I work with a faculty-student team to test different materials and projects that could be included in the curriculum. This involves gathering/harvesting, and forming the materials.
1 c. Water
2 c. Flour
1 tsp. Salt
ON-CAMPUS THATCH (Current Project)
Harvesting, lashing, and drying locally sourced reeds for use as a facing material on a straw-bale wall assembly. Hands-on involvement in sourcing materials builds greater appreciation for them!
Reclaimed Wood Scraps
1 Parts Hemp Hurd
1.5 Parts Binder
2 Parts Pozzolan [Ca(OH)2]
5 Parts Lime [CaCO3]
Avocado Pits, Boiled
100g Water
20g Gelatin
10g Corn Starch
5g Charcoal
100g Oyster Shell
Toronto, Canada
As climate change upends ecological systems, and human activity becomes increasingly inextricable from our environment, it is difficult to identify what constitutes the “natural.” In his essay Environmental Philosophy After the End of Nature, philosopher Steven Vogel argues for accepting this condition, and embracing “an environmental philosophy without nature would thus find its normative foundation in an appeal to self-knowledge and self-recognition, not in an impossible return to a nature beyond or before human practice.” The new, post natural world will be one where we understand our impact and consider our actions before, during, and after we take them. Toronto exemplifies the tension between the natural and the artificial. The city converted many of its ancient rivers into sewers to combat rampant pollution, filling their ravines to build new neighborhoods. These “river-sewers” still flow today, hovering between the natural and the artificial - collecting storm runoff along their ancient watersheds, yet otherwise divorced from the water cycle and their habitats. The greatest harm may be the illusion that no harm has been done. Residents live in ignorance of the ghostly river under their feet. This breeds a general disregard for the complex relationship between the city and its natural systems, putting the community at risk to repeat its same mistakes out of ignorance. The largest of the river-sewers, Garrison Creek, will serve as a site for this intervention. This sewer is remarkably large and perhaps the most obvious on the city surface. A series of waste treatment stations transmit the subterranean history to the larger community, using architectural form which balances artificial perfect geometry with more natural, amorphous forms. This project suggests that, by engaging with the sewerage system directly and processing its waste transparently, locally, and accessibly, residents will be encouraged to understand the history of their place and question the balance between the natural and the artificial in the city.
CityBoundary
URBAN INTERVENTIONS
Careful mapping revealed the traces of Garrison Creek within downtown Toronto. A series of thoughtfully located “stations” can engage this linear path and connect to their surrounding community. This reanimates the creek within the city, without disrupting established communities.
FORM FINDING
Iterative hand drawing and sketch modelling in search of a scalable, symbolic form that can be used for multiple interventions in the cityscape.
CONCEPTUAL SECTION
RAVINE MACHINE
1’’ = 10’
This “Ravine Machine” in Trinity Bellwoods treats sewer waste, using it to recreate habitats.
1. EXISTING SEWER LINE
2. SOLID SETTLEMENT TANKS
1. Existing Sewer
3. EQUALIZATION TANKS
4. ANOXIC TANKS
2. Solid Settlement Tanks
5. CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS
3. Equalization Tanks
6. AERATED LAGOONS
4. Anoxic Tanks
7. DISPERSAL FIELDS / REWILDING
8. HABITAT SCAFFOLD LYDIA ROSENTHAL
5. Constructed Wetlands
6. Aerated Lagoons
STUDIO CLIFFORD, WINTER 2024
7. Dispersal Fields/Rewilding
8. Habitat Scaffold
