Kinship interventions

Individual Project Semester: Fall 2021

Location: Oakland, California

Professor: Tatiana Bilbao and Ayesha Gosh

Software: Rhino, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Procreate

The project creates kinship relationships with spaces that celebrate rituals through the act of storytelling, promoting cultural and social cohesion. When we started communicating, we relayed knowledge and history through a story, and created rituals alongside artifacts to reinforce and remind each other of those stories – Now they help us foster dialogue around our core beliefs and principles that come from our different cultures – storytelling becomes a collective activity.

To develop kinship within the community, I propose four different spatial types. These include an 1. Indoor performance space for large rituals that involve dance, theater and singing, 2. An interstitial space for open air chants, parades and gatherings, 3. An outdoor space for altars, chanting and street interaction, and 4. A linear volume for dinners and intimate readings. And in a site specific sense, I played with the placement of each, to understand the dialogue between the spaces themselves and the surrounding context while each one properly caters to the different activities. In terms of materials, I chose to use wood for its sustainable properties, affordability, and efficiency of construction in California. In turn, this unifies the concept not only socially but environmentally.

In Between multi-purpose hall girls school

Group Project

Alicia Moreira, Brianna Ward + Myself

Semester: Spring 2019 at UMD

Location: Remote Site, Kenya

Professor: Tonya Ohnstad

Software: Rhino, Lumion, Adobe

Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

A space that empowers girls and provides a sense of community among its context. The design formalizes the informal by emphasizing the spaces in-between, derived from the happenstance spaces that occur between formal spaces throughout the site. The multi-purpose hall consists of angled rammed earth and CSEB walls, which vary in thickness to allow for inhabitation and framed views. The interstitial spaces created between the walls allow for occasional meetings between girls, teachers and community members who would not normally interact. These interstitial entryways vary in size and program, facilitating not only separate circulation between the primary and secondary school girls, but also freedom of choice and therefore empowerment.

Natural elements are celebrated through the resourceful use of local materials, while the sound of rain is softened rather than dismissed as noise. Although the building is nestled into the landscape to enable uninterrupted sight from uphill, it is monumental in form, responding to its context and providing a gathering place for an entire community.

Site Plan

Constructed as a studio

Wood and Cardboard Model

Constructed as a team

Solar Panels

Water Collection

Holes in rammed earth for inhabitation

Bamboo columns tied to trusses + inset in floor to prevent roof uplift

Bamboo trusses

Perforated compressed earth block screens in walls

Fabric coated in resin for stiffness + water-proofing

Bamboo weaving interstitial