Practice Portfolio

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portfolio m juliana lloreda | lawrence technological university | summer 2016

welcome

practice

portfolio m juliana lloreda | lawrence technological university | summer 2016

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table of

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contents

Introduction ........................................6 Advanced Design Studio I ..................

10 Advanced Design Studio II .................

18 Critical Practice Studio ........................

30 Project Management ...........................

46 Ecological Issues ............................... 52

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introduction

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to the book

About me and my journey as an architect in training Throughout my life, I have been attracted to art and technology, as well as photography. I remember when I was younger I would always come up with new ideas and more creative ways to play. I used to design and build small models to complement my toys. I knew I wanted to do something creatively interesting with my life, and even though there wasn’t an architect in my family, I realized at an early age that architecture is my true passion. Going to architecture school is what I consider one of the most important decisions in my life, not only because I find passion in design but also because it is a constantly evolving profession that fulfills my desire for innovation.

As I went through every stage of my career, I fell more in love with it, discovering the amazing art of architecture. Through my training as an architect and landscape architect, I have realized how extensive the field is, and it has been through this that I have come to understand the effort it takes to achieve high quality results as a professional.

About the degree and why I chose to do a Master of Architecture.

It has been a personal goal for me to get licensed as an architect, and I now have a deeper understanding of all the effort that goes into this. The three general requirements accomplish this are 1) completing an NAAB-accredited degree, 2) fulfilling 3,740 hours in a professional setting, and 3) passing the seven Architect Registration Exams.

About this book as an academic practice portfolio In 2014, I began my journey as a student of the Master of Architecture program at Lawrence Technological University. It has been a long journey, but overall very rewarding as a professional.

Therefore, my decision to pursue the Master of Architecture at Lawrence Technological University was highly inspired by the first requirement.

After being in the profession for a few years, I know now that becoming licensed is not a requirement for being successful in our profession. However, I want to do this for me, as I believe that this is my one personal goals that I need to accomplish as a professional.

Needless to say this entire process has been challenging, I keep getting motivated to become licensed when I look back and see everything I’ve accomplished.

book is a compilation of five projects I completed while in the program, and were selected as they marked my academic path with personal discoveries. The project selection includes the three core studios: Advanced Design Studios I & II, Critical Practice Studio, Ecological Issues, and Project Management.

Advanced Design Studio One 7

For the proposal of this project, three stages were crucial: understanding, analyzing, and proposing urban wilderness. After much research, I proposed a project based on the human-nature relationship which translated into urban wilderness.

A field trip through wild and wonderful West Virginia steered me to come up with a concept called the Everyday Birdhouse, since the state is home to many bird species. I felt that in cities, there wasn’t enough attention being paid to the habitat and existence of birds, and their presence was being taken for granted. Birds adapted to the manmade environment, and now it was time for humans to adapt to a birdfriendly built environment.

As I developed the research and the project, I found a stronger personal passion into embedding nature and sustainability into the urban grid of the city of Morgantown, where the project

this studio was a graphic novel which told the story of a bird-friendly project proposal based on what I saw in my field trip and all the research on urban wilderness I had performed.

Advanced Design Studio Two Following two theoretically-focused studios, I was very motivated to design a project for the Haitian community.

This course challenged me to think critically about design, as the location of the project was in one of the poorest countries in the world with limited resources for construction. Two main components were addressed before designing the project: 1) a case study of historic vernacular architecture in South Asia, and 2) the historic, social and cultural aspects of Haiti.

I chose to design the Timber Technology and Learning Center, a facility that would offer courses to help Haitian strengthen their knowledge to build their own homes by implementing the craftsmanship methods they already know, and based on their own vernacular architecture.

The center included several acres for tree farms in order for timber harvesting.

The project addressed social issues by encouraging people to build their own homes, and environmental issues by mitigating the impact of deforestation.

was located. The final outcome of 8

Critical Practice Studio This is the first required studio of the Master of Architecture program, which I took during the summer of 2014. The visiting practitioner who led the studio and team organization is Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss from Normal Architecture Office (NAO).

As a professional that has experience with architecture and landscape architecture in academia, I was very impressed by the nature of the Critical Practice Studio, and I found it very interesting to work with people from different backgrounds and educations.

Intense group collaboration played an important role, with critical analyses of radical Western architecture of the 1960s and 70s, European monuments, and contemporary elements, which rendered proposals for three different utopic and futuristic projects, located between Detroit and Flint, Michigan.

Three projects were designed in this studio, with a final deliverable for each project in the form of a graphic novel. The first project was the Trip Bus Stop, which was our first exploration between Southfield and Flint. The second project was the Retreat Cloud in which we explored geometric forms for utopic architecture and proposed different retreats on a lake based on a combination of arbitrary regular and irregular shapes. The third and largest projects was the Garage Inhabited in

which we proposed a project called Re-Linking the City, where we brought agricultural activities into a futuristic building in an effort to encourage people to produce their food locally.

Ecological Issues This has been one of my favorite courses during my training as an architect. I discovered that in this rapidly growing society, being environmentally aware is essential for everyone, including [and perhaps particularly] for architects.

We are responsible for shaping the built environment, and this directly impacts the lifestyle that people may or may not adopt, how the infrastructure of architecture works or can work, and how it affects the natural environment.

Two major components were fundamental in this course: 1) deep analyses regarding environmental awareness, ignorance, and complacency, and 2) the design and fabrication of three pieces of furniture from architectural salvage. I involved my family in each process of fabricating the furniture, and I believe that I shared information that helped them become more environmentally aware. After this class, I am motivated to share my knowledge on these matters, and help make communities into healthier places.

Project Management This course was extremely interesting to me, as I discovered the true, real-life

essence of the practice of architecture, which is different on many levels from the theory and practice of the studio environment. At the time I took this course, I had started managing my own small projects at the firm where I work at, and perhaps this is why I found this class one of the most interesting of my training as an architect. I learned aspects of architecture that are usually experienced by architects in training, only after a few years of experience in the field, and it made sense to me because I was [and still am] in that stage of my professional career at work.

This course encouraged me to learn more about the real-world practice of architecture and in my mind created a personal milestone to keep striving toward licensure.

Conclusion My personal journey at Lawrence Tech has been vital in my career, as it has urged me to be more aware of our social and environmental responsibility as architects. It has shaped my beliefs that history should play a more important role in contemporary architecture, and that through architecture we have a responsibility to the community and the earth.

I put quite some time into research about quality assurance in project management, and I had been previously interested in the trend of offshoring architectural services in the United States. In an essay, I merged these two topics and it is now a subject I am still highly interested in. Thanks to technology, this new business model called offshoring has been rapidly growing, but what consequences does that bring to American professionals in the field of architecture. This paper is an insight into the pros and cons of offshoring and how it relates to quality assurance in architectural projects.

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advanced design

studio one anirban adhya | fall 2014

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Research for the Everyday Birdhouse This was the second studio in the program. The oxymoron of the studio’s topic: urban wilderness produced a very interesting outcome of something I had never experienced before in a class. Even though the project was based on real-life research of the cultural and social heritage of Morgantown; the town it was located in, the project itself was very utopic in terms of feasibility. I fell in love with the project itself, but mainly with the process I went through to get there.

My leading theme was to revitalize a lost connection between the relationship of humans and nature, specifically bird wildlife.

The project was a three dimensional urban grid, and the story was 11

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05 represented in a graphic novel and told through the lenses of the main characters, the birds. In the story, the birds would analyze and discuss the human presence in the environment and realize that they needed to send a message to people so they would stop taking for granted the birds’ existence and importance. Without exception, all around the world birds have adapted to man-made environments, making infrastructure and architecture their homes.

They nest on gutters, porches, light fixtures, trusses, light poles,

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Birds have adapted to the urban conditions. Urban conditions that humans have built throughout centuries without considering basic wildlife needs for habitat and survival. My graphic novel depicts a utopian three dimensional modular grid designed for birds and plant wildlife in mind, where people can live in harmony with them. I created a type of urban wilderness that integrates architectural modules as a futuristic city, where people,

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topographical features and wildlife become one. The most important lesson the graphic novel delivers is that humans, by the end of the story, were aware that they needed to adapt to the natural conditions of bird habitats, and that they could learn so much from the interaction with these creatures.

Conclusion Even though the Everyday Birdhouse was a utopic prototype, it digs deep into the possibilities of having ideal interactions between humans and the natural environment.

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advanced design

studio two jason colon | spring 2015

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My Experience The experience I had with Advanced Design Studio II was very important to my career, as it was not only geared toward one of the most underprivileged communities in the world: Haiti, but also entailed significant research and analysis of the context in a country I have never visited. The research was a very significant piece for me to decide what project to offer the Haitian community. I greatly learned about the history, economy, culture and environmental facts. Even though Haiti is an underprivileged country economically and environmentally, the people are hard-working and are eager to learn. I wanted to take that learning enthusiasm to my advantage.

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About Haiti Haiti’s faces deforestation and soil erosion, combined with a lack of housing due to the natural disasters they’ve endured. With this in mind, I designed the Wood Technology Center, a place with a design intent based on sensitivity to timber typologies used in Haiti’s vernacular architecture, and the ecological issues that Haiti is currently facing – and has confronted for several decades. My idea was that this learning facility would allow Haitians to grow and process timber to build their own homes. Reintroducing

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native trees would mitigate deforestation and soil erosion, protect timber resources, and create hundreds of jobs, facilitating the country’s economical growth.

One of the issues I identified in my research was that in an effort to help victims of natural disasters, people from other countries would visit and help Haitians build homes, but those resources and especially the knowhow wasn’t embedded into Haitian culture. I wanted to strengthen Haitians craftsmanship in building their own homes without the help

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of foreigners. The facility would be a place built by Haitians, for Haitians, and administered by them.

They would learn in a structured way how to build their own homes with advanced methods that would be easy for them to adopt and refine, based on their cultural craftsmanship.

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The Project The Wood Technology Center would offer the community daytime training classes, wood processing and lumber drying seminars, technical courses, and hands-on learning experiences.

The facility was composed of two main areas: 1) extensive acreage for tree harvesting, and 2) an indoor facility with equipment to process timber for construction. Since I did general research on the equipment needed for this process, I designed the facility with those factors in mind, along with Haitian vernacular architecture elements.

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Architecture Architecturally, there were four basic buildings around a courtyard, as this architectural element was important in the Haitian society as a gathering space. The facility contained a lobby, a conference room, eight classrooms, timber processing areas and kilns, and supporting spaces such as restrooms and kitchen, as separate but adjacent structures. Each building was constructed out of timber, with cross-ventilation qualities, natural light from skylights and the staggered enclosure, and extended gable roofs for weather protection.

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Depending on the building and how it faced the sun, there were three types of siding enclosure: staggered lath, parallel lath and stacked lath.

The staggered lath would suit spaces that needed visual privacy from the outside but still allow crossventilation, like the classrooms; the parallel lath would allow a visual relationship from the inside of the buildings to the outside, like the hands-on workshop and the lobby; and the stacked lath would serve best for areas that needed more privacy, like the conference room and the restrooms.

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Conclusion All things considered, I considerably learned that problems in Haiti are much deeper than just the need of housing, as there are major social, cultural and economic problems. This project may not solve all those problems but it’s a start, as it’s a projects for Haitians,

by Haitians, so they can gain more knowledge of construction methods and implement them better based on their environmental conditions.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”

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critical practice

studio philip plowright | srdjan jovanovic | summer 2014

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Critical Practice Studio During my first 10 weeks at Lawrence Tech, I attended the summer design experience titled Critical Practice Studio, which was implemented during four charrettestyle workshops. Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss from Normal Architecture Office (NAO) and Philip Plowright from LTU were the leaders for this course. Srdjan brought his experience of futuristic beliefs based on principles of the past to three different projects that were intertwined in a general focus.

There were eight architecture design teams composed of eight to ten students and one or two leaders per team. The team leads were practicing architects who had been selected for their research backgrounds and design ideologies.

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The main subject of the studio was the way of inhabiting unusual and utopic post-industrial landscapes between Detroit and Flint, MI. The prologue of the final book explains the following: “This masterclass re-interpreted unrealized visions of radical Western architecture from 1960’ and 1970’ amalgamated with archeology of socialist monuments from Eastern Europe built about the same time. These projects are seeking contemporary aspects of inhabiting futures from the past. They are charged with ideologies that inspired them as symbols of the future and their ever dislocation of the everyday into forthcoming times. The projects drew future into the present and explored new typologies of inhabitation and their emerging monumentality. “ Through this experience I learned several things about teamwork. The development and process for the three projects we produced were naturally distinct than any other academic projects I have worked on, because an additional challenge was to coordinate the opinions, backgrounds and ideologies of eight people, and merge them into a homogenous deliverable of the three novels as a sequence; Leaving the City, Saving the City, and Re-Linking the City.

The first project was the Trip Bus Stop, which entailed the design of a futuristic bus-stop typology, based on

principles of the past, specifically late socialist monuments. We went on a group field trip and the idea was to discover the intent behind the (typical) everyday action of waiting at a busstop. The findings entailed the typical bus-stop becoming a place for learning –something more architecturally– and not just a transition space for getting to a specific destination. As a group, we explored human mobility and the late socialist monuments, two topics that ¬¬were merged into a graphic novel explaining the story of the mayor of the city of Tanturbia (between Detroit and Flint), who struggled with bringing urbanity back into the city and the views of the citizens. After his journey in exile, the mayor concludes that there are unique qualities in the landscape that he can bring into Tanturbia and make it a harmonious city again.

contemporary food trends and sustainable tendencies, and designed a project called the SILO; a place for Selective Intellectuals Looking for Organics. It was located on the remaining droplet-shaped site of a highway loop between Detroit and Flint.

During our development, we explored utopic and organic architectural shapes for the building. The main idea of the project was to integrate rural resources within the urban organization of the city highway system, and to allow the users of the building to plant, grow and harvest their own food within the building.

The second novel was a Retreat Cloud on a lake, where as a group, we explored patterns and forms, utopic cities, and socialist archaeologist typologies. We developed a project that allowed the users to combine certain architectural forms and shapes to create a customized retreat cloud on a lake, between Detroit and Flint. The tailored retreat would allow people to get way from the chaos of the urban setting and allow them interaction with the natural environment.

The last project was Re-linking the City. In this project, we studied the 33

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Saving the City Integrating Intersections is an epic narrative set in the near future, amidst a contentious society struggling to achieve balance with the sublimation of urbanity from a continually expanding condition named “Tanturbia�. Tanturbia, is a sprawling, consumer-based, homogenizing entity, devoid of urbanity.

The main character, John Stevens, mayor of The City, finds himself in the tough position to meet the outcries of his angry and confused citizens. Follow John Stevens, as he is excommunicated from his post by his own people, thrown out into an unknown land until he can return with an answer to help protect their City. Stevens’ adventure leads him through the confusing and ubiquitous suburban scene, until he discovers hidden spaces containing the unique qualities that Stevens needs to piece together to provoke harmony between the many opposing forces that exist in his world.

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Leaving the City The decision to leave the City and its pervasiveness is often a yearly ritual for urban dwellers. Many retreat to their favorite sacred spaces that are removed from their everyday worlds, yearning for the tranquility that nature provides.

The City is a distracting and chaotic territory, and its pulsation congests not only our lungs, but also our minds.

Personal creativity and freedom is nurtured by means of venturing outside the rituals of the everyday.

The Retreat Catalogue is your very own personalized retreat resource, offering opportunity to connect with the fundamentals of one’s inner being through the self-expression of the creation of space. The Catalogue offers a collection of spatial solutions that are possible through the selection and organization of your building block. Built to suit your immediate and restorative needs!

Selecting a domestic environment is a very personal experience, and we hope you find an invigorating spatial solution that will suit your needs and open your mind.

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Re-Linking the City The rise of the epicurean foodie has produced a culture that seeks only a certain quality of food. Seemingly everyone today is becoming a ‘Food Aesthete’, with the ability to broadcast one’s tasteful delights through social media, food blogging, and of course, the food Instagram.

Everyday food now has the option to be bourgeois. People are choosing to pay more for what they eat, but not only because it was locally produced, but because they want to be a part of ‘The Scene’. Food and its procurement is entertainment; the forum to see and be seen. Contemporary food is pervading into daily activities, which seems more appropriate than radical, if you think about how little it influenced our lives in recent history. The City allows us to forget that there is an abundance of quality food outside of its walls. The quality food that does make it through those walls is treated as high commodity and thus, high-end.

There is a solution to bridge rural resources within the urban organization of the city highway system. The SILO - a place for Selective Intellectuals Looking for Organics, amplifies this condition, and pushes not only the procurement of food as entertainment, but also the conditions of processing and production. The SILO is the automobile and cultural entertainment garage, the emporium of our cultural lives, and the height of all food experiences -- it is a working farm.

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project

management ronald herzog | spring 2015

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Offshoring in Architecture and the Challenges of Quality Assurance in Project Management The Concept Technology has made possible a new business model in the field of architecture called offshoring. Large companies do offshoring, which involves work done overseas around the world, for projects that will be built on U.S. soils (Architectural Record, 2005). The concept consists of different services offered by architecture firms, associate architects located abroad, or individuals in the field, with a broad scope including design, visualization, CADD drafting, and Building Information Modeling implementation (BIM). Offshoring in architecture is a controversial subject that has opened the door to various opinions by professionals in the field.

Due to the nation’s variant economic situation in recent years, companies in different fields have been outsourcing services for some time from countries such as India, China, South America, Eastern Europe and others. Offshoring in the United States has boomed in the past ten years due to the spread on the Internet and the ease of access to these

services. Methods of tracking effort and time spent on certain tasks have been improved throughout the years. Despite all this, this is a controversial subject that has opened the door to numerous opinions by professionals in the field.

In a field where project management is so important, what are the challenges that offshoring poses to the quality assurance of architectural projects?

Why Firms are Offshoring It is a question that is challenging to answer due to the numerous advantages and disadvantages that offshoring offers. For employers, one of the most attractive features of outsourcing has been lower salaries while maintaining a high workflow and a low production time for firms in the United States.

There are several offshoring models that offer these services, ranging from U.S. branch offices located abroad, partnerships with foreign architecture firms, specialty consultants who provide services as needed, or through U.S. brokers between U.S. firms and offshore employees.

The Advantages and Disadvantages Time difference is one of the main topics in offshoring. When production

stops in the United States during night time, work continues to progress on the other side of the world, and if done right, a process that controls time difference can be established to run day and night. However, in order for effectiveness during shifts, significant coordination

efforts must be achieved because projects require different levels of communication throughout its phases.

Turnaround can be impacted if there is a limited time when workdays overlap with other countries, which can critically impact the project’s schedule and its quality (Loza, 2008).

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Language barrier and culture gap may be an issue. In some cases difficulties can occur around miscommunication or not understanding specific messages.

This can lead to a breakdown in communication and consequently complications in completion of project tasks. In addition, this may result in risks associated with inaccuracies, which can affect the project quality and other components (Cohen and El-Sawad, 48

rendering & visualization 22%

design development

schematic design 11%

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construction documents 69%

drafting 10%

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2007). In order to avoid communication failure, both parties should be concise and realistic when it comes to the needs and expectations from one another.

In an article by IBIS (2013), it is explained that India is one of the countries that do the most offshoring with the United States. The article is about the cultural gaps between U.S. teams and Indian teams that collaborate overseas, and discusses several topics regarding cultural differences from the two different points of views of each team.

The article states that the communication style in India tends to be more indirect than the U.S., which may lead to miscommunication regarding specific tasks in a project.

Sometimes U.S. teams feel that a lot of micromanaging is required when offshoring, and tasks take longer than expected, while Indian teams feel they are not provided with enough accurate

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information. The differences in time orientation creates disconnect in the sense of urgency of both teams due to the fact that in India, deadlines and schedules are seen as somewhat flexible if other priorities arise. In the U.S. project priorities are critical. Lastly, orientation to authority and conflict are matters that have different perceptions in both countries because in India, silence is preferred over disagreements.

How much is Offshored in Architecture According to the AIA International Committee’s Report on the Offshore Outsourcing Roundtable (2006), through technological improvements including BIM and web communication and information transmission, architecture firms are offshoring a growing amount of services that have typically been performed in-office, such as drafting and construction documentation. The figures for offshoring on architecture for 2006 accounted for a 69% of construction documents, 22% for rendering and visualization, 14% of design development, 11% for schematic design, and 10% for drafting.

Nevertheless, several potential risks to the profession have been raised, including loss of jobs of U.S. architects; loss of training and experience for interns; potential insurance, liability and security issues; and how this model corresponds to quality standards for architectural projects.

An AIA Firm Survey performed in 2006 suggested that over 60% of architecture firms offshore sporadically.

Larsen Associates conducted a survey (2006) and showed that by 2008, 20% of firms would outsource work though offshoring, and by 2015, 20% to 30% of U.S. architecture jobs would be hired through this model. In his article Exporting Architecture Services Overseas, Vonier (2007) explains that by 2015, three million service industry jobs will be offshored, reflecting more than $100 billion wages. In 2007, the AIA International Committee stated they would organize standards to ensure architects would meet legal requirements of responsible control, integrate quality assurance, incorporate risk management and liability protection, and assure security and intellectual property protection.

Quality Assurance Challenges in Project Management Despite the technology and the ease of communications through the Internet, quality assurance may be challenging in the field of project management in architecture due to the distance and need for direct communication, extensive planning, accountability, and timely presence of team members.

This model may require having two project managers on each location in order to ensure quality, and taking other measures (AIA International

Committee’s Report on the Offshore Outsourcing Roundtable, 2006), which can critically increase the budget and schedule, while decreasing the project quality.

Quality is associated with the worldwide competition and the increasing standards that have surged through technology and the Internet. Firms in the United States are ultimately accountable for the management and quality of work they produce, whether it is hired overseas or not. Consequently, well-established quality control plans should be defined in order to maintain excellence in architectural projects (Vonier, 2007).

A Growing Business Model Offshoring is a relatively new practice and business model, and it offers several advantages and disadvantages.

The most prevalent advantage for the firms that are using this model is the low cost of services provided overseas, compared to a higher cost of services provided by local professionals in the United States. Conversely, one of the most evident challenges is that control of documents produced through offshore providers can not only pose legal issues but also jeopardize quality standards and responsibility control of architectural projects.

offshoring model is moreover changing education in architecture in the United States. A particular topic that has risen is that the AIA believes that leadership skills for working with and managing offshore teams are likely to be expected from interns of architecture.

Conclusion Offshoring practices cannot be avoided because it is a growing business model that many firms are accepting and using for various reasons.

The consensus and next steps is for professionals in the field of architecture to embrace this change and see it as opportunities, and take measures to improve offshoring practices, ensuring that high quality standards are met. The AIA has recognized through various articles (2005-2009) that offshoring is changing the profession to some extent, and the recommendations that are out there from firms who are doing offshoring include using technology to establish clear lines of communication and managing quality control, thoroughly reviewing related work done by the provider, identifying contacts and meeting them in person, developing clear deadlines, and carefully defining product and delivery methods (Vonier, 2007).

The AIA has had several discussions on the subject and has stated that the 51

ecological

issues william allen | spring 2016

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About the Class Ecological Issues was my favorite class during my time at Lawrence Tech.

The topics we touched upon helped me discover a side of myself that is very sensitive toward the environment we live in, and how we, as architects, are shaping it. Beyond this, it helped me realize how I can make a difference in the world by spreading the word, starting with family and friends.

One of the assignments by mid semester was to design and fabricate three pieces of furniture from architectural salvage. I had a lot of fun making these projects, but one of the most valuable things in the process was that I had help from mom, dad, and my husband.

The three “Waste Not/Want Not (WiN/ WiN)” projects that I came up with were: 1) two candle holders made out of balusters and rosette pieces, 2) a side table made out of four shutters, and 3) a coffee table made from an old window and balusters.

Our journey to these projects started a couple of blocks from my house at a place called The Black Cat Empire.

It’s owned by a local couple; a war veteran and his wife. They always have interesting architectural salvage.

From there, we visited around various garage sales and a couple more local architectural salvage stores. This is when I realized that repurposing materials also helps the local economy.

I purposely tried to involve them mainly because I wanted to teach them that making our own stuff from salvaged materials is more sustainable that buying new things, and gives our time and effort a new meaning.

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Project 1 | Candle Holders The idea for the candle holders was originated because I was raised catholic, and my mom has always loved candles. Since I was younger, I remember mom and dad collected glass liquor bottles. At one point, mom was determined to place colorful candles on each bottle and letting them drip to make sculpturelike, gravity-influenced decorations for the house. As the colorful candles dripped, the pieces got wider with wax of different shades. We had these ever-changing, sculpture-like candle holders for years.

The materials we used for the candle holders were: two balusters; one from an old hotel staircase, and another one from a historical house; two rosette pieces which really caught my eye for the base; a power drill; and a 3/4� spade bit.

The baluster is the actual candle holder, and it rests on the rosette piece. We had a little bit of a challenge figuring out how to put together these two pieces because the rosette element has a curved detail at the top that didn’t allow the baluster to rest flat on it. We shaved some wood off the rosette’s rounded center for the baluster to lay flat.

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We then drilled two vertical holes at the center of each rosette piece, and at the center of each baluster, to screw them into place. The candle slot was made with the ž� spade bit. We decided not to paint them in order to preserve the original material and texture of the architectural salvaged elements.

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Project 2 | Side Table The second project is a side table made out of four shutters and wood flooring. We used two wood boards to create two 9 square inch panels, for the base and the top of the table. I wanted to leave the original wood finish on the top and bottom, and color the shutters pink.

Before painting the shutters, we sanded the frame and left the louvered pieces with their original finish. We reused the original hinges but placed them on the edges of each shutter, top and bottom, and locked them into place to create the main part of the table.

Four holes were drilled on each corner of the base and top wood floor pieces, and aligned them with the shutters, drilling four holes on them to match. Then we glued and screwed them together.

From the three projects, this is the one I had the least vision for. I thought it wasn’t going to be very appealing, but I ended up being a very unique piece. I particularly like how the louvers are operable, and most of all, how the tongue and groove of the wood floor is exposed.

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Project 3 | Coffee Table I’ve seen old doors get turned into tables, and I soon as I saw this old wood-framed window, I started thinking of a design to make it a coffee table. We used two old legs from a table and two balusters, and build a frame for the window to rest on.

The window had paint that was peeling off, so I sanded parts of it to prevent further shedding. The glazing compound was brittle as well, so I removed the parts that were coming off. I didn’t want to take too much of the glass putty because I really liked the roughness of it. We went ahead and cut the legs to a 23-inch height based on the height of the frame which is 3-inches, for a total of 26-inches.

We made the support frame from 1x3 lumber boards, painted in teal.

We drilled four holes on each corner of the frame, and aligned them with the window. Then we drilled four holes at the bottom of the window to match, and placed screws in from the bottom of the frame to attach to the bottom of the window. When the frame was ready, the legs were glued and screwed into place, from the sides to the frame.

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My favorite feature of this table is the contrast between the colors; the original white, the exposed wood, and the new teal. In addition, the two sets of different legs give a uniqueness to the end-product.

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Conclusion At the end, I was very pleased with the three pieces my family and I created, not only because it was a collaborative family-effort but because it was a great learning experience for all of us. This opened a window for me to know that there is lot more to recycling, but as a designer, we have to think about reusing materials since the initial conception of a product. This goes for buildings too.

With Ecological Issues, I’ve learned that as architects, we can make a difference in how the built environment is developed, while preserving the natural environment and mitigating the effect of global warming and resource depletion.

I feel now I am a more responsible professional and I am ready to take on ecological challenges as I transition as a young professional.

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Epilogue After seven years in training as an architect (five in undergrad and two in grad school), and two additional years in training as a landscape architect, I have a deeper understanding of what my social and environmental responsibility is as a professional of architecture.

At Lawrence Technological University, I found new interests and a more inspired trajectory for my career in recognition to the exposure of courses I had.

This extensive journey has been professionally rewarding to me and it is satisfying to know that I am contributing to the evolution of the profession of architecture into a more sustainable and healthy career with principles based on history and in the future.

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m juliana lloreda | lawrence technological university | summer 2016