2024 Architecture Portfolio

From the cellular to the universal, our world is composed of data at all levels. As a designer, I aim to unveil, organize, and analyze ecological, social, and spatial data to design sustainable and equitable spaces. To design for context, we must first understand the various layers that interact within the physical and cultural space.

PLEASANT VALLE Y 5TH

Studio 7

Instructors: Jordan Sheets, Josh Leger

Studio Collaborator: Erin O’brien

This project takes a close look at the community that lives, and has lived for decades in the area we know as East Austin. In 2018, the East Austin Creative Coalition planned to create low-cost live/ work studios in support of artists with generational ties to the to the East Austin community. This project takes on this task. Here, we display the design for a community art museum-- part in parcel of a larger multi-use residential scheme. The museum’s design incorporates the community’s visual culture, choosing to represent existing residents, against current notions of gentrification and erasure of Black and Latino histories.

DISCRETE BODIES

Studio 5

Instructors: Igor Siddiqui, Piergianna Mazzocca

Studio Collaborator: Aren Edwards

Discrete Bodies is a speculative architectural project that problematizes the nature of urbanity. The project considers trauma as the catalyst for shifts in the way we design our cities. We begin by defining urbanity as a scaleless apparatus or machine ranging from the body to the planetary. This machine, of overlapping human paths and interactions, extends across physical and digital environments. By understanding the urban-space as a collection of discrete individuals reacting to changing socioeconomic, environmental, and political conditions, we can further unveil the dynamic character of urban life, and the actively responsive solutions needed to sustain it. Instability within the public health sector, market volatility, political distress and environmental disasters have cast light on the rigidity of the current physical city, and the fluidity of the digital urban space. The existing framework of the city has been built on ideas of permanence and the myth of singular solutions. Discrete bodies, however, exist as a multiplicity of shifting identities with different genders, racial backgrounds, ages, and economic statuses. With the compounding impact of digital infrastructures (social media ecosystems, the Internet of Things, machine learning and AI technologies), our visual, social, economic and political landscapes have become encapsulated by quantifiable multiplicity. Each body in space is a container for discrete (particular) and socio-political information. The project proposes the activation of such countable, discrete information into the architecture we build. This is only possible if architecture is made editable and responsive.

discrete bodies docs.umentary link

First, we developed three unique discrete parts, angled at 0°, 90°, and 30°. Each are designed with tongue and groove ends, and a rail system embedded in their form. Discrete parts aggregate to produce a structural framework, as displayed in iterations a-h.

iteration a

ITERATION A

iteration c

ITERATION C

iteration b

ITERATION B

iteration d

ITERATION D

iteration e

ITERATION E

iteration f

ITERATION F

DIFFERENTIATION

Iteration G features special elements [glass panels] that are designed to be conducive with the rail system embedded within the form of each discrete part. The embedded gantry in each discrete element allows the structure’s interior flexibility and specialization of spaces to fulfill specific programmatic needs.

Discrete assembly also allows for variations in light, sound, and other intelligences embedded within selected parts.

ROBOTIC CONSTRUCTION

Use of discrete building parts in this project is conducive to implementing a larger system of adaptable, and efficiently ‘editable’ public space.

The project uses the ‘transport hub’ as an archetypal model of the physical urban space-- a place where discrete bodies intersect during their daily routines. Through this project, we analyze how a discrete approach to architecture can allow for the rapid assembly and dis-assembly of various physical spaces. We envision a system of rails spanning across the city, allowing for quick assembly of discrete parts via in-situ robotic machines positioned at different points along the rail system. The consequence of such an apparatus is a dynamic physical urban infrastructure that can meet changing essential healthcare, grocery, internet, schooling, and public space needs for each unique community. In other words, the decentralization of movable facilities allows the city to change with the movements of its discrete bodies.

ITERATION H: PERFORMANCE SPACE EMBEDDED WITHIN TRANSPORT HUB

SECTION THROUGH PERFORMANCE SPACE (ITERATION H)

central point (node) of each elementary school zone

PROJECT CONNECT IS AUSTIN’S NEW RAIL TRANSIT PLAN (2020)

Like many urban plans, this development favors the city center. This plan extends most benefit to those who can afford to live or work within the city’s core. Our project questions, is there an alternative method for development that extends equity and accessibility for all?

Our cities must be built to serve bodies in space for the realities they endure. Rapid changes in environmental, health, and democratic needs have highlighted the inequities elicited by rigid urban planning. We must move towards architecture that is reflexive to change-- that learns from and responds to its users. This project argues that in order to design a resilient built-environment, we must begin to design structures based on responsiveness to our changing physical and socio-economic needs.

Within this model, transport nodes in the city must disperse. By connecting central points of each neighborhood1 through a network of rails, we create an apparatus by which robotic machines can quickly put together essential spaces based on changing community needs. If trauma emboldens architectural change, the outcome of 2020 must be to embrace an architectural apparatus that makes room for multiplicity in urban orientations.

1 This model defines ‘neighborhood’ by each elementary school zone in the city of Austin.

transport hubs in these neighborhoods serve as healthcare facilities.

metro rails connecting network of dispersed nodes

transport hubs in these neighborhoods serve as healthcare facilities and grocery suppliers

CASE STUDY 3: POP-UP HEALTHCARE MODULE

MONTAGUE REST STOP

Studio 3

Instructor: Nichole Wiedemann

path garden

BUILT SITE INTERVENTION

CAR PARKING

parking, road, impervious surface shelter

TRAILS WITHIN REMNANT PRAIRIE

SITE STRATEGY

SITE STRATEGY

CULTIVATED REMNANT

PRAIRIE GRASSES

POLINATOR FLOWER

GARDEN

SUSTAINED NATURE

re-introduced native plants to promote pollination & restoration of the prairie preserved grasses, trees, water source

TRUCK PARKING

SUSTAINED NATURE

REST AREAS

PICNIC ARBORS

TREES PRESER VED GRASSES

DOMINANT INVASIVE

GRASSES --- NATIVE

BLACKLAND PAIRIE NEEDS RESTORATION

grasses

TREES PRESER VED GRASSES

SUSTAINED TREES Post Oaks

trees

BLACKLAND PRAIRIE

SOIL

TOPOGRAPHY

topography

EARTH & TOPOGRAPHY

WINDHORST & DUFFAU - severly eroded

VEMON CLAY

soil

REMNANT PAIRIE GRASS

Site Analysis + Strategy

DUFFAU

CUT TREES

Through an analysis of the site’s existing remnant Blackland Prairie, loamy soil conditions, and mild topography, this project proposes a rest area that promotes further restoration of native Blackland Prairie ecology via the re-introduction and replenishment native plants which attract pollinators. A layered approach of existing site conditions justifies a light approach to building on this delicate site.

ECKRANT-ROCK OUTCROP COMPLEX - extremely stony

WINDHORST FINE SANDY LOAM

GULLIED LAND COMPLEX - severly eroded

CHANEY LOAMY SAND

GRASSES

Purple Threeawn aristidapurpurea

Little Bluestem schizachryiumscoparium

Indian Grass sorghastrumnuntans

Silver Bluestem bothriochloalaguroides

Switch Grass panicumvirgatum

Wild Rye elymuscanadensis

boutelouadactyloides

Blue Grama boutelouagracilis

Curly Mesquite hilariabelangeri

HERBS

Lemon Mint monarda citriodora

Broom Weed amphiachyrisdracunculoides

White Tridens tridens albescens

Showy Chloris chlorisvirgata

TREES

Post Oak quercusstellata

Blackjack Oak quercusmarilandica

Evergreen Sumac rhus virens

BUTTERFLIES

Skipper Banded

Zabulon

Crossline

Pepper and Salt

Dusted

Dixie

Eufala

Northern Hairstreak

Horaces Duskywing Satyr

Goatweed Leafwing

Whites & Sulphers

BIRDS

Purple Martin

Bobolink

Ruby-throated hummingbird

Eastern Kingbird

Northern Bobwhite

Baltimore Oriole

Harris s Sparro

Lark sparrow

Carolina Wren

Northern Mockingbird

European Starling

Blue Jay

Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher

Northern Cardinal

Eastern Cardinal

Eastern Meadowlark

Red-Winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

House Sparrow

Carolina Chickadee

Eastern Screech-Owl

Cattle Egret

Turkey Vulture

Killdeer

BEES

Sweat Bees

Green

Agapostemonangelicus

Agapostemontexanus

Striped halictusligatus

halictustripartitus

Dark lasioglossum

Mining Bee

Dainty Sulphur larval

Perditaignotaisopappi

Longhorned Bees

Melissodes

Leafcutter Bees

Mgachile

The rest stop along Route 287 aims to service car and truck travelers. The site is among the 2% remaining remnant Blackland Prairie left in Texas. Given the extraordinary native ecology existing on the northbound half of this site, this rest stop design seeks to inspire visitors to kindly explore, appreciate, and preserve our native landscapes.

Through its interior form and use of skylights, the rest area turns visitors away from the road towards a framed view of and trails leading into the native prairie.

To promote conservation, a pollinator garden is included to promote spread of the existing biodiversity whilst providing colorful beauty for picnic users.

LOBBY

WOMEN’S RESTROOM

MEN’S RESTROOM

MECHANICAL ROOM

SECURITY & LAW

VENDING AREA

JANITOR EQUIPMENT

STORM SHELTER

FAMILY RESTROOM

SECOND WOMEN’S RESTROOM

1SECOND MEN’S RESTROOM

STORAGE & YARD EQUIPMENT OFFICE

PICNIC AREA

The rest stop’s form is produced as a mechanism of turning. Visitors undergo an experiential gradient from the man made road to the native prairie landscape of the Blackland ecoregion. The lobby serves as the main area mediating between the two worlds, serving as a space that houses environmental advocacy information.

PICNIC PAVILION WITHIN GRASSLAND

REST AREA LOBBY

VIEW FROM CAR

NATIVE BLACKLAND PRAIRIE CONCEPT SKETCH: FRAMING SERVED PRAIRIE

MODELING ROOF TO EXPRESS INTERIOR SKYLIGHTS

FRAMING A PRE - MASS & VOID STUDY

URBAN ARCHIPELAGO

Studio 6

Instructor: Clay Odom

WHAT ARE THE NETWORKS THAT UNDERLIE THE URBANSCAPE?

A MACHINE OF SUN + WATER + FOOD

COMPONENTS

TO A LIVING SYSTEM

HOW MUST CITIES BE RE-IMAGINED RESOURCE RATHER THAN

This project argues that dense urban-spaces, -such as downtown LA -must integrate agricultural networks within the urban building fabric to improve communal quality of life. Access to and production of food is essential to sustaining human life.

THE URBAN

RESOURCE : LIFE

ARCHITECTURE RESOURCE

RE-IMAGINED AS PRODUCERS OF THAN CONSUMERS OF RESOURCE?

For a resilient future, buildings must be augmented to act as sources of production for food energy, electric energy, and water resource. This project speculates the urban fabric as an underutilized brownfield, imminent for use to connect communities.

IS A MACHINE OF LIFE = SUN + WATER + FOOD

GREATER LA GREEN NETWORK

A WORLD OF

PRODUCTION

GREATER LA GREEN NETWORK

HOW MUST CITIES BE REIMAGINED AS THE PRODUCERS OF RESOURCE RATHER THANTHECONSUMERS OF RESOURCE?

GREEN NETWORK IS DESIGNED TO REUSE DOWNTOWN LA LOW-RISE ROOFTOPS AS FOOD-PRODUCTION GARDENS.

DIAGRAM PLANS OF RESIDENTIAL UNITS WITH (1), (2), (3), AND (4) BEDROOMS.

UNITS CLUSTER INTO SMALL AGGREGATIONS CONNECTING INNER PATHWAYS

MID-SIZED AGGREGATION

(1) (2) (3) (4)

By designing architecture as a system of parts rather than apart of an unidentified system, we leave room for further reorientation and continued growth of interdependencies.

Each kitchen is designed with a hydroponic system. Water and nutrients, and small individual gardens interconnect within a larger communal network, centered on resource sharing.

AGGREGATION

LARGER AGGREGATIONS PRODUCE INTERSTITIAL AREAS FOR GROUP GATHERING AND COMMUNITY USE

LARGER AGGREGATIONS PRODUCE INTERSTITIAL AREAS FOR GROUP GATHERING AND COMMUNITY USE

GREENHOUSE LINING INNER ATRIUM EXTERIOR

GROWTH CENTER #12

LATERAL ELEVATION

DIGITAL PROJECTIONS

Instructors: Danelle Briscoe, Kory Bieg, Ben Rice

CURVES 1

At the heart of making is understanding the ‘tool’. Parametric softwares offer the ability to mix intuitive visual aesthetic sensibilities with process ‘command’centered methods for generative design.

Through three courses, I focused on understanding digital form-making and algorithmic sources for design.

RENDER

FORMAL ITERATIVE EXPERIMENTS

RHINO + 3DS

formal iterative experiments, 3DS Max

5 generations, painted by Kuka robot

90°, painted by Kuka robot

DESIGN BY ALGORITHM

Through research for the course, Creative Robotics (Fall 2019) I utilized Lindenmayer Systems to iterate through a series of morphologies produced by a single branching algorithm. The L system’s axiom and production rules are based on Benoit Mandelbrot’s 1982 Combination of Islands and Lakes (as recorded on page 9 of The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants by Prszemyslaw Prusinkiewicz and Astrid Lindenmayer).

A plugin, ‘Rabbit’ to Grasshopper in Rhino was used to visualize the branching algorithm.

Where

Axiom=A

F= drawn step f= undrawn step,

A=F+F+F+F

F=F+f-FF+F+FF-f+FF-F-F-Ff-FFF f=fffffff

The L system set to produce 4 generations of the above specified algorithm.

Each iteration is differentiated by the angle at which each drawn line changes for every step taken. Using Kuka PRC plugin for Grasshopper, the Iteration at 36° and 5 generations was transformed into a series of points, that the Kuka 6 arm robot (fitted with a bingo dabber paint pen) painted on paper.

Though the experiment is not yet architectural, the exercise demonstrated the process of using computational algorithms as a generative tool, the human mind as a curator, and the robot as a specialized ‘fabricator’. This process is increasingly being utilized to produce innovative and unexpected architectural provocations.

TEA TABLE

Wood Design

Instructors: Mark Macek, John Vehko

This piece was designed and built for the course Wood Design, taught by Mark Macek and John Vehko. African Mahoghany and Hickory hardwood was used to juxtapose the top layer of the table from what is hidden underneath. A storage area underneath the mahogany covers was created to store tea pots, plates, and tea cups. Users can steep and prepare their spread, then close the covers to leave for steeping. When ready, the covers pull apart to unveil the spread of food and drink hidden underneath.

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