PORTFOLIO MA R Y BET H ROBB I NS | 2021
ABOUT
MARY BETH ROBBINS www.marybethrobbins.com marybeth1798@gmail.com 302.242.5396 Instagram | mary.beth.robbins LinkedIn | mary-beth-robbins Growing up on my family’s small farm in rural Delaware, agriculture was ingrained into my daily life. I helped sell produce many summers at our roadside stand and showed animals at the state fair. My father, a lifelong farmer, always was an inspiration to me. He has one of the most brilliant minds when it comes to care and precision. I believe it was his passion for thinking critically and creative problem-solving that inspired me to study architecture. I wanted a career that would allow me to channel innovation. Studying architecture has opened my perception in terms of design, critique, and viewing the world. I had the opportunity to work on projects of various scales and disciplines, including art installations, high-rises, and now pursuing my master’s degree in Landscape Architecture. I appreciate the diversity of where design can take place - from a regional scale down to a doorknob. I love the challenges design presents, not only solving problems but something that is beautifully executed. Overall, I am a passionate, hardworking individual who is always looking to challenge myself and beautify the world, one design at a time.
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RESUME
EDUCATION University of Tennessee | Knoxville, Tennessee Bachelor of Architecture | August 2016 – May 2021 Master of Landscape Architecture | August 2020 - May 2022 University of Arkansas Rome Center | Rome, Italy Study Abroad Semester with a focus in Architecture | Spring 2020
EXPERIENCE StudioJAED | Bear, Delaware
Architecture, Engineering, and Facilities Solutions Firm
Architecture Intern | 2019 - 2021
Peninsula Acoustical Company | Smyrna, Delaware
Sub-Contractor specializing in Acoustical Ceilings and Metal Framing
Intern | May – August 2017
INVOLVEMENT
SKILLS Adobe Creative Cloud: Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom, AfterEffects 3-D Design: Revit, AutoCAD, Rhino, Sketch-Up 3-D Rendering: V-Ray, Enscape, Blender Digital Photography Microsoft Office Suite Hand Drafting Hand Sketching
Alpha Rho Chi | Theodorus Chapter
Professional Fraternity for Architecture and the Allied Arts
2020-2021 Worthy Architect (President) 2019 National Convention Secretary 2018 – 2019 Worthy Scribe (Secretary) Dean’s Student Advisory Council
Council representing the student body of the College of Architecture and Design
2016 – 2021 Student Representative
Student Environmental Initiatives Committee AKA the Green Fee Committee at University of Tennessee, Knoxville Spring 2021 Student Committee Member
Design Living and Learning Community
On-Campus housing initiative to integrate living and learning among freshman design students
2017 – 2019 Community Peer Mentor 2016 – 2017 Community Ambassador
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C O N TENTS
8 REGENERATED LEISURE
14 ELEVATED EDUCATION
20 DIGITAL RECIPROCITY AUTOMATIC MILK MANAGER FOR ROUTINE COWS
24
30 PHOTOGRAPHY
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REGENERATED LEISURE
FALL 2020 LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON, UTAH PROFESSOR ANDREW MADL PARTNER: RACHEL ALBEE REGENERATIVE LEISURE is a landscape architecture studio project that focuses on creating a temporal and ever-changing experience of trail skiing at the Alta Ski Resort in the Little Cottonwood Canyon, outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. Expert skiers are attracted to the “un-touched” conditions that exist in the Canyon, but the area presents high-risk areas for avalanches. REGENERATIVE LEISURE takes vegetation and maintenance practices to create expert trails while breaking up the dangerous paths of avalanches. This project considers the ecology of the mountain, integrating thriving tree species - the Quaking Aspen, the Engelmann Spruce, and the Utah Juniper, as well as modern agricultural practices like pivotal irrigation systems, to create a rotational ski lift system that plants and maintains the mountain’s ecology and engages skiers in a new experience season to season.
10 | REGENERATED LEISURE
AVALANCHE PATH
AVALANCHE PATH
AVALANCHE PATH
VEGETATION
MOUNTAIN TOP
VEGETATION
MID-MOUNTAIN
MOUNTAIN BASE
VEGETATION
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12 | REGENERATED LEISURE
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14 |
FALL 2019 MONTREAL, QC, CANADA PROFESSOR MARK DEKAY PARTNER: MICHELLE BLACKWELL
Elevated Education is the idea that education can be elevated...literally, as well as figuratively. Using the sky as “elevation”, the teaching world can be greatly improved upon, or elevated, if the space around them encourages discovery, learning and joy. Biophilia is the love of life and nature itself, in its climate, environment and inhabitants. The intention of this studio is to promote biophilia in educational institutions within cold climates. Given the site of an existing school, all aspects of integration are expressed via accessibility, LCA, natural daylighting and more. Cold climates generally suggested to be unwelcoming and harsh, especially in locations where snow can pile up to over 3 meters each year. Snow is a great part of biophilia, which can attest to many different factors: the sky, the sun, the wind, rain, trees, grass, animals and humans alike. For this particular project, many intentions were considered. Firstly, biophilia; second, sociability; thirdly, perception. These three factors were crucial to producing an effective design that connects the existing school to the proposed addition that was designed in this project.
ELEVATED EDUCATION
NORTH COURTYARD CAFETERIA
GYMNASIUM
CENTRAL COURTYARD LIBRARY
CLASSROOM
PRESCHOOL COURTYARD
PRESCHOOL CLASSROOM
ADMIN SUITE
EXISTING SCHOOL
16 | ELEVATED EDUCATION
FLOOR PLAN
sting Site Plan
Metal Finish Roof Roof Rafters Plyood Sheathing Metal Roof Decking
Truss System
Gypsum Board Vapor Barrier Spray Foam Insulation
Direct LED Luminaire
Structural Steel I-Beam Column
EXISTING SITE CONDITIONS 90
30
0
Softscape
Hardscape
Street
Highway
Context
ual Buildings
1” = 30’
60
Air Barrier Wood Sheathing
N
Existing School
Air Gap Brick Ties
For this project to be truly imagined, the project was considered under the five senses as well as the perspective of the child and the teacher. This school needed to be seen, touched, smelled, heard and tasted in every room to be completely understood. Most importantly, the school needed education at its forefront- meaning that the necessary requirements of a classroom were met. However, the students there also make an impact. This school houses pre-school and elementary school children who see the world differently than teachers and designers. There was careful consideration of safety and guarding those who go to the school and use the facilities within the building.
Brick Veneer
Steel Channel Window Header
Gym Window
Window Sill
Exterior CMU Block Wood Finish Floor Floor Decking Concrete Floor Base Gravel
CMU Block Foundation Wall Floor Supports Foundation Footing
0 2" 4" 8"
1'
1.5'
Drainage
2'
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September: 7 AM
September: 12 PM
September: 4 PM
September Wind
February: 7 AM
February: 12 PM
February: 4 PM
February Wind
18 | ELEVATED EDUCATION
This project was submitted to the AIA COTE Top 10 competition for students. This competition awards the best projects designed for environmental performance based on a series of measures. A few of those measures include: Design for Integration, Design for Community, Design for Discovery, and Design for Change.
Design for Integration: Integrating education is not the only component for this school, but also community, perception and biophilia. Community supports education by providing friendliness and enthusiasm to children. Using perception, schools are able to teach in different methods, whether children are listeners, readers, doers or thinkers. Lastly, biophilia is a strategy in which nature is the ultimate teacher: through climate and weather, through plants and animals, and through the natural cycle of the seasons.
Design for Community: The level of a child’s eye is critical to understand and investigate. Along with that, there are teachers, nurses, administrators, cooks and other adults who make the school work to the best of its abilities. All of these people need opportunities to make a difference not only in the educational field, but also to give back to the earth. Almost everyone already moves to and from the school on food, but to further that notion, the school’s expansion includes a large, open entrance that welcomes all those who enter inside.
Design for Discovery: This school provides learning for 31 preschool and 165 school children. But this is only a single moment in time. People fluctuate through the building day by day, and the school is expected to expand it’s numbers. The predicted amount of growth for this school and its addition is at least 150 students. It is important to value the experience in the building beyond all other aspects, because a school is one of the most valuable buildings of the future.
Design for Change: The original school was first built in 1902, then required two additions: in 1922 and 1960. Change is not foreign to the teachers that work in the building as well as the families that send their children there. It expects a revision if it is meant to remain resilient. This time, these additions bring more than just a code update and some classrooms. It encourages the outdoors as a beautiful and proactive place where plants, like children, can grow.
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SPRING 2019 KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE PROFESSOR NATE IMAI DIGITAL RECIPROCITY, a seminar lead by University of Tennessee’s 2018-2019 Architecture Fellow Nate Imai, focused on responsive architecture in terms of temperature, humidity, and air. The 84-square-foot Mobile “T House” reads live data and sensors placed at each corner to display lights in an array of colors between Blue and Red. The color the house glows tells the difference between the interior and exterior conditions. This built project explored many skills and design techniques by taking inspiration from Japanese Tea Houses to modern digital fabrication. This project was on display at the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum in May 2019 and is now on display in the gardens of the College of Architecture + Design. My fellow classmates who participated in the seminar: Nicole Capps Roni Feghaly Christopher Rubio Jessica Shremshock Zachary Standley Akshata Dusa
Tyler Forsberg Diana Kraczkowska Mary Beth Robbins Anastasiya Skvarniuk Izabela Szumniak
DIGITAL RECIPROCITY
22 | DIGITAL RECIPROCITY
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ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN
24 |
SPRING 2019 FOREST PARK, GEORGIA PROFESSOR MARK STANLEY This project challenges the current operations of dairy farms. As farming increasingly becomes a more difficult profession, farmers are looking towards automation to save time in their daily operation. My approach was to design in a way that appealed to the natural behaviors of the cows, by playing with lights, contrast, scratchers, etc. The cows are also equipped with RFID tags that collect data, and help keep track of milk production, consumption, and movement. This data not only helps the farmer keep track of his herd, but the data is used on a constant updating twitter feed, adding a direct connection to the consumer. The farm is set up to be a profit/ benefit system to those who play in part: the farmer, the distributor, the consumer, and most importantly, the cow.
AUTOMATIC MILK MANAGER FOR ROUTINE COWS
26 | AUTOMATIC MILK MANAGER FOR ROUTINE COWS
Collaging helps to discover truth, relations, and information about a certain subject. In order to understand the daily process of producing milk, I compared the cow to the machine. The first machine to producing milk is the cow, with the udder as the main mechanism. In order to produce milk, the cow must be fed to produce energy, and must regularly calf. The milk is pulled from the udders to holding tanks, then goes through a series of processes like pasteurization and homogenization before bottling and being shipped to the store. Collaging also helps layout the workings for my design, as in what triggers “Bovine Behavior”, the different functionalities in “Routine Milking”, and using technology as a “Automated Manager” for this new farm.
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In the section perspective, you are able to see the functional tiers of this vertical farm. Each tier has rows of automatic-filling food and water troughs, an outdoor pasture, automated manure clean-up, and brush scratchers. Each cow is RFID chipped to control eating times, movement, milk production, and reward system. The slanted core connecting the levels features a lift that will host pipage that serves to food, water, and waste. The ramp circulates around the core for ease of movement when it is time to milk. The majority of the milking cows live on the second and third levels. The fourth level hosts sick or separated cows (cows who may be treated with antibiotics for a certain time) and the calf huts are on the top level. Located on the first level is the automated rotary “rotating” milker, and processing machinery to pasteurize and bottle milk. The aim of this project is to have the entire milk cycle exist in one location, and pushing boundaries to elevate this experience.
CONSUM CONSUMPTION
TROUGHS CO COVERED WITH SENSORS TRACK AMOU AMOUNT OF FOOD + WATER CONSUMED
PROCESS
ON-FARM PASTURIZATION, BOTTLING + DISTRIBUTION
28 | AUTOMATIC MILK MANAGER FOR ROUTINE COWS
REWARD
SCRATCHERS RELAX COWS HAPPY COWS = MORE MILK PRODUCTION
MILKING
50-HEAD ROTARY MILKER EASE OF FLOW
FEED
BLENDED FOR HEALTH + PRODUCTION OF HERD DELIVERED BY ELEVATOR
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30 |
PHOTOGRAPHY
Piazza San Pietro Rome, Italy | Vatican City February 2020
Acropolis Museum, Bernard Tschumi Athens, Greece February 2020
Basilica of Santa Maria Novella Florence, Italy January 2020
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Renzo Piano Athens, Greece February 2020
32 | PHOTOGRAPHY
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Diller Scofidio + Renfro Boston, Massachusetts October 2018
Boston Public Library Boston, Massachusetts October 2018
UTK Filament Tower, Marshall Prado Exhibit Columbus | Columbus, Indiana October 2019
Jefferson’s Rotunda, University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia March 2018
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Fishing with PopPop Coursey Pond, Felton, Delaware July 2018
Patience Coursey Pond, Felton, Delaware July 2018
Haybarn Remains Paradise Alley, Harrington, Delaware June 2018
Mother’s Roses Paradise Alley, Harrington, Delaware June 2018 HOME_series is a collection of photos that shows the hidden beauty of my home in rural Delaware. As a soul who desires to travel the world, it is good to reflect on the place where I call home. This collection shows old barns on the farm that date back to early 20th century, my
Summer 2018
HOME series 34 | PHOTOGRAPHY
mother’s yellow roses (her favorite), and one last fishing trip with my PopPop, a luxury that is sadly no more. HOME_series is meant to preserve memory of home, reminiscing where I spent my early life.
_gLitCH_
_mirrors_the_eye_of_the_error_
_pORtrAit_
_fLamiNgO_
_gLitCH_: a self-curated photoshop series to explore the effects of channels, layers, and color by editing photos using a series of tools. _gLitCH_ takes personal images and creates a new lens on the view of my everyday world. The characteristics of blue, green, red, cyan, magenta, and yellow come together with shifting channels to create an error, even in the most perfect conditions. In creating this series, I’ve learned that “glitching” brings out imperfections, but in return creates something captivating.
Fall 2017
_gLitCH_ series
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Mary Beth Robbins | Portfolio February 2021 www.marybethrobbins.com
THANK Y O U