Academic Undergraduate Architectural Portfolio

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Understanding People’s Access to the Food Industry around the Site

After doing an extensive amount of urban speculation, the project came to realization through focusing on certain urban trends and aspects in the Islandview neighborhood of Detroit. Those urban trends are the food industry and the access people have to that.

The project’s intent is to integrate itself within a network of urban farms that are already present around the site, thus increasing the community’s access to a local and accessible source of food.

The project aims to further capitalize on the urban farming trends and take it a step further through the focus on water collection, treatment and utilization on site.

Gleaner’s

Interfaith

Gleaner’s

Plan understanding how the project plugs itself into surrounding context

Facility

Community Garden

Community Garden

Potential Community Garden DWSD

In addition to showing the relationship between immediate context and the site, the floor plans also illustrate how daylight reaches the farm and isn’t obstructed by the built form during the growing season. The floor plans also highlight the relationship between the outdoor elements and the housing units. Despite the semi-public nature of this project, there is an intent to maintain a sense of privacy and ensure that the outdoor elements are mainly focal to the residents of this project.

In the perspective section below, the water collection and storage criteria is shown. The intent was to choose a vivid water collection feature that will bring awareness to the topic of water use, consumption and access, as that is an important issue to the city.

Water Tanks

Below Grade

Splash Park/ Storm Water Retention

Meldrum St.

Meldrum St.

Experiential Relationships

Experiential Relationships

Splash

Splash Park/ Storm Water Retention

Vertical Farms

Transverse Section 1

Transverse

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Moussa Aoun, Kirsten Crawford, Kayce Deal, Jacob Farida, Manasa Potlur

After an extensive amount of compiling data about the City of Croswell, combined with on ground research, the team has concluded that a proposal focused on community and economy will best respond to the needs and wants of the city and its residents.

Croswell faces issues that are common with other rural U.S. cities, such as the migration of youth population, the lack of sociological activity and unavailability of various programs that interest the residents. ECONOMY

Preserve cultural aspects of the city

A project unique to Croswell

Croswell’s population pyramid shows a sharp decrease in people ages 20-30. The most probable reason is population migration and the fact that Croswell is in a rural area RURAL URBAN

Croswell is family oriented

Young & single adults and teens can use more programs to strengthen attachemnt to Croswell

Borrow from successful prototypes in similar cities

Attract non residents

Make people spend in the city

Incite further opportunities in the city

Other groups in the city besides families

Awareness of future trends

Give non-local demographics an incentive to visit the Croswell

Local demographics want incentives to stay in Croswell

PLAY WORK LIVE

Most events that take place are seasonal and there is a lack of leisure programs in the city

(This

The combined research provoked the team to think of ways it can be applied into a meaningful design.

While considering other current and applicable trends and movements pertaining to community and economy, the team realized that a re-imagined LIVE-PLAY-WORK environment, within a rural context, would create a project that is unique to Croswell. This re-imagined work environment will help attract businesses and remote workers to spend an amount of time in Croswell, and this shall reflect on the economy and sociological activity and traffic in the city.

The proposal aims to emphasize the PLAY aspect in LIVE-PLAY-WORK environments. This emphasis will create a unique environment where someone can live, work and play in one place, without feeling that the living and working are being predominant over play. Through reevaluating the relationship between LIVE PLAY and WORK, the team hopes that workers would also reconsider the balance they typically strike for those three aspects.

Defining playful architecture

Playful architecture provokes all the senses asymmetrically as users navigate spaces

Street Wall River Side

Breaking the rigidness

Playful architecture defies conventional form and spatial arrangement approaches

Circulation as a playful element

Circulation can be both functional and exciting through the incorporation of non conventional circulation elements

TOUCH

SIGHT HEAR TASTE SMELL

Introducing the timber frame to the existing building

Plugging into the timber frame in an unordered fashion

Arriving to final form by playfully finishing the enclosure

Playfully redefining EGRESS

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Peninsular Dam Performance & Community Center

The peninsular dam and paper mill in Yipsilanti are iconic features in the area that no longer serve an economic purpose, thus facing the threat of demolition. The dam and the paper mill have been around since 1867 and ever since both became nonfunctional, the surrounding area was reorganized as Peninsular Park which is a popular destination for locals to come together and enjoy the river.

The intent behind this project is to restore the paper mill into a functional space that can be utilized a s a performance and event space by the community of Yipsilanti. With the incorporation of three event spaces that can accommodate a range of events, the project creates an opportunity for the local community to bring people together and celebrate the history of the site and the local heritage of Yipsilanti.

Huron River

Paper Mill

Peninsular Park

Circulation Path

Stops along

Circulation Path

The sections show the different programs that the project offers the community The sections also reveal the openness of the envelope of the building, as connection to nature is an important aspect of this project.

The main purpose of this project is to offer the community the opportunity to organize different types of events. In this section, it can be seen how the auditorium can be used for a range of activities. Similarly, the installation room is a flexible space where different things can take place. The activity shown is a caustics art installation that utilizes the interaction of light with water to create an immersive experience

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Conceptual Facade Design

The concept behind this conceptual facade design is to create a wall that is made up of modular hexagonal units using robotic technologies. The units have the same perimeter which makes them all fit together regardless of where they fall in the facade. Voids of different sizes are cut into these units. This allows for different levels of permeability throughout the facade. One of the ways this can be utilized is as a shading device that casts unique shadows. 1. Cut out a hexagon of the same perimeter for all molds. The cut piece will be used to make a mold

1st Cut

2. From the piece that was cut, cut another hexagon of variable perimeters for different bricks.

2nd Cu

3. Combining both pieces together will create a mold that can be used to make hexagons of the same perimeter but different size voids Pour Resulting piece

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RURAL AMERICA

The following illustration was done at the beginning of ID5 where the site during that studio was in a rural part in the state of MI. The map was produced to introduce fellow classmates to the main issues rural areas face, as well as the general atmosphere and commonalities among rural areas