I’m Parker Kulis, a fifth-year student in the Syracuse University School of Architecture. Throughout my years of study, I have developed a passion for problem solving, collaboration, and constantly pushing the boundaries of what I can do. This collection of work showcases the breadth of my academic and professional work, demonstating the range of my capabilities.
Awards and Recognition.
1: 2019. National Merit Scholarship.
2: 2020. Portfolio Scholarship Award. Full Tuition.
3: 2021. William J Slivers Prize. Honorable Mention.
4: 2024. 1:1 Mock Up Model Competition Finalist.
5: 2024. Comprehensive Design Studio Prize Finalist.
6: 2024. Syracuse University Scholar Finalist (TBA).
7: 2020-2024. Dean’s List Every Semester.
Work Experience.
1: 2016-2022. Ski Instructor.
2: 2018-2019. Wedding Set-Up.
3: 2019-2023. Intern. KaTO Architects.
4: 2024-Present. Intern. Selldorf Architects.
The following drawings were completed primarily by me unless otherwise noted.
Shibuya Imagined Section
MODEL PHOTOGRAPHS
1 | 2 |
Year 3. Syracuse. Geomorphic Urbanism.
Year 3. Florence. Marsala Makers’ Market.
Year 2. Syracuse. Musical Mangroves.
Year 4. Syracuse. Eckel Enclave. 3 | 4 | 1:1 Mock-Up Model Competition. Finalist.
Collaboration with Sofia Izer, Jade Cyrus, and Zhaoyi Wang.
ECKEL ENCLAVE
Syracuse. Comprehensive Design Studio.
Collaboration With Zhaoyi Wang.
Conceived as two bars dancing around a central workshop space, Eckel Enclave proposes a porous ground condition forming a public park, with workshops, 24 housing units, and performance spaces hovering above it. The columns, beams, and double T slabs are stacked together in an expressive and structurally honest way. The structure is never hidden inside walls; instead, the layers are always visible, giving them an artistic and sculptural quality.
MARSALA MAKERS’ MARKET
Florence, Italy
This project is a traditional craft center located in Marsala, the westernmost point in Sicily, Italy. Sicily is an island that has experienced a large number of regugees and immigrants in recent years due to its proximity to Northern Africa. This project seeks to revitalize traditional practices of weaving and ceramics present in countries like Tunisia, Egypt, and Bangladesh, while simultaneously providing opportunities for upward mobility. The complex has spaces for both making and selling, with an emphasis on dynamic circulation and organization around a courtyard. The design modules synthesize architectural symbols typical to origin counntries with Sicilian building techniques.
MUSICAL MANGROVES 2022 |
This project explores how the cultural and ecological context of Loiza, Puerto Rico can create a fun, educational, and site specific sequence of formal and informal experiences for K-12 students in Loiza that transform, amplify, and infuse the sonic landscape of the forest.
‘Loiza was the birthplace of Bomba music, which typically combines drumming, maracas, and dance. The walking surfaces throughout the project turn the whole thing into a giant musical instrument. The floors of the upper level of the berm, as well as the bridge steps, are drums. As one approaches along the gradually sloped terrace, the cantillevering classroom floors above them vibrate and booms from people walking on the drum floors, forming a professional experience. When they ascend to the upper level, they become the performers, projecting music down to the people and forest below.
My final ambition was to design all of the furniture in my project, ending by actually building a chair that is deeply embedded in my design language. I probably designed 10 different versions before reaching this result which is made of solid ash and features dovetail, dowel, and sliding joints. The designed aspects, such as the base groove reflected in the seat, double vertical support, and tensile cable follow my design language.
Loiza, Puerto Rico
GEOMORPHIC URBANISM
2022 |
This project proposes a topographical understanding of the context of the site to create new architecture, a kind of “geomorphic urbanism.” Taking from the surrounding drumlined landscape, we abstract the form of the hills into heavy and light spaces that slide past one another, turning the architecture into the landscape itself, a landscape housing a town hall linked to food production, selling, eating related programs. A grid was derived from the nearby drumlim landscape which was used to guide a series of stepping spaces up the sloped landscape, creating a new pedestrian route that links to the future lifestyle center to the north.
The right section diagram analyzes how the greenhouses can become public spaces, while the diagram below shows possible programmatic adjacencies. Syracuse
HAND DRAWINGS
Sketching has become a fundamental part of both my design process and urban investigations. In first-year, I used hand drawing to investigate spatial relationships and understand architectural conventions. Later, my sketchbook accompanied me through fifteen european and four asian countries as I expanded my education in Florence, London, Seoul, and Tokyo. 2020-2024.
BUILDING SYSTEMS
2023-2024 |
Collaboration
My contribution drawings to group projects investigating case studies for mechanical and passive systems and climatic responses.
Right, Far Bottom Left | Analysis and retrofit of the National Veterans Resource Center, proposing a double-skin facade to mitigate solar intake during summer months.
Top Left, Close Bottom Left | Analysis and retrofit of the Rudrapur School in Bangladesh, analyzing how it performs well in an extremely hot and humid climate and then redesigning it to perform well in an the opposite climate of Bergen, Norway.
Links to Animations.
APPENDIX
Drawing, Rendering, Collage, and Alternative Media.
