sarah pumphrey
architectural design portfolio + 1
sarah pumphrey james madison university architectural design sarah.m.pumphrey@gmail.com 804.385.7399 spumphreydesign.com
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pre-thesis studio populating bhasan char futures for fukushima abuse / resilience 5
POPULATING BHASAN CHAR vertical migration for political and environmental refugees Critic: Jori Erdman: Pre-Thesis Studio Final of five projects
Muslims in Myanmar, the Rohingya, flee to neighboring Bangladesh for safety from political violence and oppression, however the refuge they seek brings overwhelming poverty and new risks. Camps near the border of Myanmar have become overrun, flooded, and dense enough to count as some of the largest cities in all of Bangladesh in a fraction of the area. The Bangladeshi government actively seeks to relocate these refugees to safer land, but humanitarians are pushing back. The island that the government has chosen to move these nation-less individuals too is described by the Dhaka Tribune as a “a muddy islet that emerged from the Bay of Bengal in 2006�. The island is unfit to sustain a community and is being viewed as more of a concentration camp than as a place to thrive. This project seeks to understand the needs of this group of individuals in order to establish a safer, more comfortable, more future-thinking plan for their new home in contrast to the dormitories being constructed by the Bangladeshi government. If this community is established as a vertical conglomerate, the Rohingya can establish the types of communities that will be necessary globally as sea waters rise and weather becomes more severe due to climate change. With form informed by the unique programs that will support growth for the Rohingyan culture, this project hopes to establish a sustainable community which can, in the future, establish itself as a micronation. These mega structures will serve as the ground on a site that promises to fluctuate constantly, creating a permanence for hypermobile or displaced individuals and a new typology for urban living.
final model
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process collages. The form-making process I engaged in for this project was paper collage of previous, and often famous, works of architecture as well as landscapes and agriculture specific to Bangladesh. The use of Louis Kahn’s National Assembly Building became important in the political and formal narrative of the new structure.
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FUTURES FOR FUKUSHIMA radioactive mitigation & human preservation through surrogate architecture Critic: Jori Erdman: Pre-Thesis Studio Other Group Members: Kalen Johnson & Sam Goodwin
Fukushima, Japan has been evacuated and abandoned since 2011 when an earthquake and nuclear disaster brought mass destruction and contamination to the area. Tasked with the prompt of creating architecture for the human body, our group engaged in thought around dystopian post-human worlds, and decided to push on ideas of mitigating architecture and scientific fiction. stage two process collage
This scheme would allow volunteer humans to live in and power creatures of mitigation in order to clean up their former hometown. Each creature has a specific purpose informed by radioactive cleanup research. When Fukushima is again inhabitable, the human will be released back into the architecture of Fukushima to re-enter the human world.
personal final drawing based on collective ideas and designs
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FINAL MODELS
FINAL COLLECTIVE COLLAGES 13
ABUSE / RESILIENCE material study through functional facades Critic: Jori Erdman: Pre-Thesis Studio In three categories, I explored what wood, historically, does not “want” to do. Through exploring wood’s reactions to fire, wind, and water, I researched how these phenomena can actually strengthen wood to provide sustainable options for cladding and barriers for buildings in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Three explorations emerged: Yakisugi, Molded Plywood, and Charcoaled Concrete.
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junior level studios + research living lot spiritual x physical pause grow oyster reefs reasearch assistantship buruhouse 17
LIVING LOT
asking more of the parking garage typology Critic: Wanda Dye (second semester junior studio) Competition: ACSA Designing Healthy Places Competition Transportation is a defining factor of how society functions and evolves. The way in which we move from place to place effects our lives tremendously. Presently, one can observe a pivotal shift in the way that human beings interact with and use transportation. The concept of ride sharing as a convenience rapidly became a daily need for many individuals in metropolitan areas globally. This demand for ride-sharing has called a large number of individuals to spend their time as Uber and Lyft drivers, often leaving their full time jobs to make a living driving for rides hare companies. However, with this industry becoming increasingly popular as our relationship with the car changes; not only as consumers but as servants of the community, ride share driving has become increasingly competitive. While visiting Los Angeles, California I was struck, as many are, by the homeless community. Not only was I alarmed by the amount of homeless that reside in Los Angeles, but with the fact that many of these individuals are making enough money to live fairly comfortably elsewhere, but are forced to live on the streets in Los Angeles. During my research, I became enthralled with the new nomadic lifestyle, and found interviews and statistics about the growing population of ride share drivers that are becoming homeless in Los Angeles. These drivers are forced to live in their cars. They sleep where they work, eat where they work, and live where they work. This semester, in response to the ASCA Designing Healthy Places Competition, I decided to respond to the category of Transportation Ecologies. The intention of my research and design was to create a home base and a landing place for homeless ride share drivers to sleep comfortably, store belongings, establish community, and to maintain their own cleanliness and the cleanliness of their cars. I believe that as our relationship with transportation evolves, parking garages must offer more. This design is intended to work as a prototypical condition for additional Living Lots to be built on a need-based timeline in Los Angeles, as well as in other cities. I have designed a microcosm which surrounds, tops, and permeates through an existing and trusted parking garage typology, in order to promote sustainability, cost efficiency, and repeatability.
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competition board 1
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SPIRITUAL x PHYSICAL PAUSE
serving the soul of the passerby Critic: Ron Daniel first semester junior studio
We started in New York City between Manhattan and the Bronx on the High Bridge. After walking its length and documenting its social, historical, and spatial conditions, we were given seven programs and a brief on “Ad-Hoc Urbanism�. I landed on the final program of a church. By the end of the semester I had developed a six-foot wide church that was cut into the side of the bridge. I contemplated light intensely, developing louvred screens based on lines found in my initial site exploration drawing that would swivel on a ball joint, altering the light that entered the space. During this studio, I was able to consider light, spirituality, and cultural-religious demographics to create an intimite setting in which members of two communities could congregate in worship and find solitude in prayer.
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inspired original form
mapping of population movement- later inspired light slots
initial site drawing - perry kulper style. Following our physical exploration of the site, the site was explored individually using site mapping, inspired by the drawings of Perry Kulper. The initial form of the final church, as well as ideas of pilgrammage were initially from this drawing. 27
final drawings & models:
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GROW OYSTER REEFS
researching & fabricating for environmental healing Designer + Inventor + Owner: Evelyn Tickle research assistantship in fabrication & PR During my junior and senior years, I had the opportunity to work under Evelyn Tickle to fabricate and promote her design for the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County Underwater Museum of Art. This underwater art museum is the first of its kind in America, and Evelyn’s design was chosen to become realized as a part of this project. Evelyn has invented “scalable concrete oyster substrate products poised to dramatically improve oyster reef restoration efforts globally” (Tickle). The concrete was used in her design to serve as ocean-healing artwork. I was able to partake in steel and concrete fabrication with a team of students to build several of Evelyn’s “Concrete Rope Tangles” for the museum. To the right is a detail photograph of one of the tangles, taken by teammate Amber Pearce. The underwater photograph on the opposite page shows one of the Tangles, and was taken by Spring Run Media. Sentences in quotations are from Evelyn’s Grow Oyster Reefs website.
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BURUHOUSE: Amber Roads Trekking Competition Critic: Ron Daniel first semester junior studio
The following spreads contain my competition boards that were submitted to the Amber Road Trekking Cabins international architecture competition. We were asked to follow the competition briefs to design a small structure to house hikers following the Latvian coastline. My scheme included the use of repurposed sailboat cloth with timber framing to construct a lightweight, open air tent for coastal hikers. These materials were chosen based on historical and cultural influences. A faculty jury voted and chose my design along with two others to be submitted for the competition.
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sophomore level studios (dis)comforts of home wunderkammer nakagin capsule tower redesign measuring + learning 37
(DIS)COMFORTS OF HOME
studies of refuge + the fight for freedom at home through memorial Critic: William Tate second semester sophomore studio My sophomore studies reside in Gdansk, Poland, where our studio entered an “International Competition of Spatial Forms� called Crossroads of Freedom. Each student has wrestled with the ideas and stories of international civil rights activists and refugees, as well as Polish activist Lech Walesa, in order to design an architectural installation to enter into the competition. My piece gains inspiration from Aung San Suu Kyi and refugee women, aiming to immerse visitors in the struggle of feeling trapped in one’s own home. The landscape I have designed allows for human interaction and discovery, while paying respect to those who have faced these struggles. The following spreads feature my process from graphic representations of research, to material samples, study models, drawings, and a final drawing-model, which were shipped to Poland. Our work as a studio was compiled into one large project, which won a distinction award in the competition. The following concrete tiles are process pieeces I poured to explore texture.
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gdansk, poland: Displayed on this spread are photographs of a drawing-model I have constructed which relates to the site of the memorial I have proposed for the crossroads of freedom competition. Several layers of chipboard, paper, mylar, tape, wire, and concrete were used. The land would undulate, allowing for the architecture to interact with it in a way that provides two layers of interaction. Visitors would have the opportunity to walk over top of other visitors. Both sets of visitors would be able to look up or down to view the other, responding to the idea of being trapped in a space that was designed for comfort, while constantly being watched.
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gdansk, poland: original poster design. visual representation of research on aung san suu kyi. photograph not mine, used for educational purposes only.
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WUNDERKAMMER
creative play and studies of self Critic: William Tate second semester sophomore studio A drawing-model and axons of layers that would be realized into a multi-layer model. Responds to questions of a site that would convey the message of my creative fear: being held back creatively by becoming too comfortable. 45
RETHINK: NAKAGIN CAPSULE TOWER making relevant: reviving a classic Critic: Evelyn Tickle first semester sophomore studio Studio one focused on learning technical and conceptual architectual skills. Our second and final project of the semester was to incorporate the technical skills and concepts from our first project into a hypothetical plan to redesign the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo, Japan. My design featured concrete cubes that housed glass living spaces. These living spaces would push out or retract based on the time of day and amount of light being received by the space. This idea was inspired by airplane windows that I observed, which change tints in order to reduce the effects of jetlag. As the original Nakagin Tower was inhabited by somewhat nomadic businessmen, my new design would act similarly to these airplane windows, allowing for visitors to recover from long journeys and escape the bustling city around them.
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capsule tower redesign: Process models of new capsule design.
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MEASURING & LEARNING
exercises in tools and systems Critic: Evelyn Tickle first semester sophomore studio
The first project encountered during studio one was one to sharpen technical skills. While learning to use architectural drafting tools, each of us chose an item to devise a measuring system for. The measuring system, rather than the item, was drawn, and later encorporated into our capsule tower redesign proposals.
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case studies
computer aided design course materials and methods courses I & II
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CHI CASA BIANCHI CASE STUDY learning software by re-drawing & re-imagining classics Critic: Sidney Griffin CAD 3-D Modeling Displayed to the right is a portion of the project board I designed, which includes a rendering, plans, and exploded axons I created in Revit based on original drawings for Mario Botta’s Casa Bianchi.
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KENGO KUMA: sunny hills cake shop materials & methods of building Critic: Evelyn Tickle Materials and Methods I For this assignment, partnerships of two were instructed to research an existing structure and its building processes. My partner, Kara Hannibal, and I chose Kengo Kuma’s Sunny Hills Cake Shop in Tokyo, Japan. For the assignement, we had to chose detail sections on the structure and find measurements to produce technical drawings that would help us to learn how the structure was built. We then used similar processes to build a smaller scale model of a section of the pre-existing building. This model was constructed using pine and hardware to mimic the joinery used in Kuma’s structure. The purpose of this project was to take a closer look at how masters of architecture design building systems, and to learn from this in order to apply practical techniques to our future studio work. 57
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art & graphics 61
TWO-SEATED CARDBOARD CHAIR Critic: Stephanie Williams
While taking a freshman year foundational 3D Design course, we were presented with the task of designing a sturdy carboard chair. I, along with my class partner Tanner Leslie, decided to construct a chair that would invite more than one individual to sit in more than one direction. This chair can hold two individuals who may choose to sit backwards, forwards, or to the side. We were inspired by letterforms which were combined to create forms. The chair acts as a modern loveseat. This chair has a significant fingerprint on my architectural education. Its design and fabrication was one of the events that led me to move from graphic design to pursue architectural design. 63
GRAPHIC ARCHITECTURAL ABSTRACTIONS Critic: Laura Wilkins
line drawings of original photographs taken of local architecture, later transformed to color blocked graphics as color studies.
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INSULATION STUDIES Critic: Evelyn Tickle + Sneha Patel Materials and Methods II visual representation of inventory taken of insulation at a hardware store, combined with inventory and research about denim; a mundane material which can be used for insulation.
roll batt
[ 2x4 walls 2x6 walls attics
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Owens Corning
faced unfaced
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[
] attics basement ceiling crawlspaces exterior sheathing exterior wall foundation floors garage re-siding under slab
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2x4 walls 2x6 walls attics ceilings floors
GreenFiber Owens Corning
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roll sheet
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] 2 4.9 5.8
Loctite GREAT STUFF Touch N’ Foam GREAT STUFF PRO
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attics basement ceiling crawlspaces exterior sheathing exterior wall foundation floors garage re-siding under slab
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1.5 in 3 in 3.5 in 5.5 in 7.25 in
2x4 walls 2x6 walls attics ceilings
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attics basement ceiling crawlspaces exterior sheathing exterior wall foundation floors garage re-siding under slab
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BAGELS & CHOCOLATE MILK memory translated into installation Critic: Stephanie Williams 3-D Design floor to ceiling installation based on childhood memory. bagels nailed to wall. 69
study abroad 71
CULTURAL HYPHENS
processing cultural hyphens through mapping Critics: Ronn Daniel, Evelyn Tickle, & Jack Faning Japan Studio During our month-long study in Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Sapporo), we were asked to contemplate encounters with society and landscape that created tension physically, emotionally, or culturally. While travelling, we kept a sketch book and completed collaged drawings each week. w In this specific drawing, I address the hyphen I experienced in Hiroshima between the present peace and thriving modern culture, which sits upon land that was once barren, devastated by the bombings of Hiroshima. Visiting this site as an American citizen created tension internally, as we struggled with the weight of historical conflict. While in Japan, I exercised my passion for photography, creating a photo journal of the people, architecture, and culture of various Japanese cities and towns. Some of these photographs can be seen on the following spreads. 73
PHOTOGRAPHING JAPAN The following photographs are my own and depict several works of japanese architecture.
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PHOTOGRAPHING JAPAN The following photographs are my own and depict several works of japanese architecture.
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PHOTOGRAPHING JAPAN The following photographs are my own and depict several works of japanese architecture.
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thank you. 81