Architecture plays a role in all facets of the human experience; sociology, psychology, economics, environment, politics, science, diversity, culture. I am deeply fascinated by the intersections of these architectural roles.
My educational and professional pursuits have fostered my passion for all aspects of architecture, as well as niche interests in computational design and architectural theory.
I aspire to blend these interests and my enthusiasm for architecture’s role in the human experience to contribute to ethical, inclusive, and thoughtful design.
INNOVATE IOWA
EXPLORATIONS
PUBLICATIONS
DATA FIELDS
Architectures of Futurity
San Francisco, CA
Collaboration: Kyle Guenther, Mircea Nastase, Connor Shanahan
Kocimksi Super Review - Finalist Substance Design Forum - Finalist
Examining the historical process of material mining that has been used to manufacture built environments, we begin to understand the geology of the undergrounds as elements of our stratified world that are invisible to the activities above ground. As our existence becomes increasingly reliant on technology, this extractive cycle repeats itself through the mining of data to create new virtual environments that shape what we see, do, and feel. Rather than starting with the architect’s aspirations, if we begin by understanding the data infrastructures of the underground, can we decolonize the frameworks above ground? How can examining extractive mining, given that it has historically supplied the resources that fueled technological developments through labor exploitation, provide a basis for examining data mining practices and the invasion of personal data?
Infrastructures such as algorithms, the “cloud,” black boxes, and artificial intelligence support extractive activities to obtain power and control within society, oftentimes under the guise of technological advancement and modern convenience. Thus, contemporary technologies are not neutral; we must reconsider their implications in our lives and become aware of the predetermined logic of our machines and processes.
The “black box” refers to a closed-off algorithm that outputs results without explaining its process. This lack of traceability makes it one of the most threatening extractive technologies to the wealth of information the cloud provides. The human is often viewed as the ultimate extractive threat. In the non-physical world, the human is a necessary filter in machine processes to provide an ethical perspective that objective machines cannot. What level of involvement does the human play in making caring algorithms?
Although this non-extractive world is non-physical, it is not immune to extractive threats. Turn the handles of the machine to begin the extractive process. Scrape the web. Alter data. Misrepresent and distort the information you desire.
As data is continuously and increasingly collected, systemic biases integrate into our data-driven world. We now have both a physical and virtual identity; human exploitation is transitioning from the physical to the virtual as the digital world is less regulated.
Silicon Valley’s tech giants require the outsourcing of data storage, leaving smaller communities, like the Des Moines metro, to bear the weight of these decisions. These data centers engage architectural conventions to plan, extract, and build physical manifestations of the seemingly non-physical “cloud” on the earth. Corporate interests of big data continue to overpower the aspirations and resources of less dense communities and repress the underground infrastructures that operate today.
Data curation involves the meticulous selection, organization, and presentation of information to conform to the agendas of its curators. In a world where data curation intertwines with the pursuit of political agendas, the individual becomes further distanced from their virtual identities and the landscapes they occupy.
Data has been used to manufacture physical and cognitive environments. Living within these environments, we become immune to the power of data in our society and play with its severity as it is continually consumed. When subjected to abundance, how can one decipher what is informative versus misinformed?
As our physical and virtual identities become increasingly fused, engaging our bodies to reconnect our presence in the hybrid landscapes we occupy becomes imperative. Hybridization provides a new context of exploration to investigate how much of our world is dictated by our autonomous actions or instead prompted by technological infrastructures that design our digital and physical realms.
ROMAN CAMPAGNA
Rome Abroad Studio
Rome, Italy
Collaboration: Megan Sawyer, Ben Lyons
Situated in the neighborhood of San Lorenzo, the Roman Campagna occupies a unique condition as a bridge between the dense urban system that exists throughout much of Rome and the opening that flows along Scalo San Lorenzo towards the outer city landscapes. Sense of place is fundamentally impacted by nature. “Hardly any other great European city expresses the same closeness to nature, and hardly any other place has in the same way humanized nature. This might be the essence of the Roman genius loci: the feeling of rootedness in a “known” natural environment.”
-Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture
Urban terraces, gardens, and parks offer dynamic open spaces to contrast the density of the neighborhood, bringing this genius loci to the community.
SITE PLAN
UNDERGROUND
PARKING ENTRANCE
RESIDENTIAL ENTRANCES
1 ROOFTOP PLAY COURTS
2 PARK
3 PIAZZA
4 CO-WORKING PODIUM
5 RETAIL SHOPS
6 AUDITORIUM
7 ART GALLERY
8 MAKERSPACES
9 CHILDCARE
Pulling both primary masses from the ground, the longitudinal slope creates a duality of ground floor accesses, acting as both a return to the natural landscape and an occupiable space for the community. Working transversally, the slope allows for a sequencing of outdoor spaces through different levels.
P:EAR
Integrated Studio
Portland, OR
Collaboration: Daniel Leira
Sense of belonging- a fundamental need that plays roles in the mental, physical, social and behavioral human experience.
P:ear, an organization that creatively mentors homeless youth, specializes in the vocational training of three common occupations in Portland: baristas, artists, and bike mechanics. It is not a social services center, but is described as a living room for the students and a place to belong.
The space they currently occupy lacks breathing room and adjacency to the downtown and riverfront of Portland. However, it is successful in that it provides two things: a space for homeless youth to feel welcome and comfortable, as well as exposure towards new skills and people.
The architecture is to contribute to this spatial and social dynamic while also attracting the community of Portland to come and use the services that P:ear provides.
A 90° grid superimposed on a 45° grid influenced by the surrounding context carves out the interior spaces and refines the overall form.
MINDFUL MATTER
Residency Studio
Beacon, NY
Collaboration: Jacob Becker
At the time of the 1970s recession, the industrial town of Beacon, NY had succumbed to economic decay and was slowly abandoned. In 2003 the contemporary arts museum, Dia: Beacon, opened its doors, leading to an influx of visitors and artists, allowing the town to grow into the vibrant artistic community that it is today.
To support the growing community of artists within Beacon, the architecture is an artist residency and exhibition space nestled adjacent to the Dia: Beacon.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Beacon became a refuge from a locked down city, providing mountainous hiking, natural beauty, fresh air, and access to art. This continuous healing nature on both scales drove the design concept, creating a harmonious environment between live, work, and the landscape that inspires artistic creation. Healing and creative spaces are most successful when they address the psychological, social, physical, and self-efficacy needs of the inhabitant.
1. in situ concrete
2. metal decking
3. cavity insul.
4. steel joist
5. wide flange beam
6. vapor retarder / perm. weather membrane
7. concrete wall
8. furring strip
9. steel reinforcement
The angled facades of each unit are part of the passive environmental strategy, allowing sunlight to hit the trombe wall in each unit. The trombe wall surface area is 23% of the unit floor area, letting solar energy to supply 41% of the winter heating load.
INNOVATE IOWA
Landscape Studio
Iowa City, IA
Collaboration: Alexis Clark, Jill Wilhemson
On average, it takes two to three years for a growing business to become profitable. About 20% of these businesses fail within the first year. Innovate Iowa is a proposal for a nonprofit organization that serves as an incubator for the small businesses located in and around Iowa City to help strengthen the growing micro-enterprise community.
The architecture acts as a threshold that welcomes the community to Waterworks Prairie Park, a water treatment plant and prairie grass preservation site. It is utilized and treasured by many user groups in the Iowa City area, including runners, bikers, and bird watchers.
Positioned at the entrance of the park on an existing main pathway, the hills and height of the building prevent any park-goers from observing the rest of the park until they walk through the space.
Compress and release.
waterworks praire park
downtown area
BEFORE THE BOMBS CAME
Interdisciplinary Studio
Vieques, PR
Currently ongoing
04.15.3067
They grow slowly.
Yet I know that they are alive because of photos taken here from past generations. Where did they come from?
They are sustained by the toxins within the earth. How lucky they are to have found this place, where the crater-like scars from the past provide never-ending nourishment.
They are beautiful, inhabited over time by the tiny creatures native to the island, resembling an extreme topography that once might have existed - before the bombs came.
Long-term exposure to low frequency noise (LFN) (<500 Hz, including infrasound) can lead to the development of vibroacoustic disease. Thickening of cardiac structures, found in Vieques residents, is an indicator of the cumulative amount of LFN-exposure.
Vieques natives are 8x more likely to die of cardiovascular disease and 7x more likely to die of diabetes than natives of PR mainland.
The risk of dying from cancer on Vieques is 1.39x higher than on the PR mainland.
Byproducts and Sound Frequency Emissions of US Military Ordnance during the Military Occupation of Vieques, PR (1938-2003)
COMPUTATION + DESIGN
Digital Fabrication - Exploration
Currently ongoing
Computation as a tool for design, art, and fabrication stimulates new methodologies and ways of iterating. Currently in progress and evolving, interests in digital fabrication, parametric design, data-driven design, and algorithmic art begin to shape my architectural process.
Patio Light Prototype: a cover for a patio light using a Form Labs Form 3 SLA printer (resin). Iterations were created using Grasshopper scripts that simulate organic and woven-like forms.
Stacking Module: a module that contains a void and relies upon repetitive interlocking elements. The mold was 3D-printed, then cast with Rockite.
Repetitive Tile: plaster tiles cast from silicon molds made from a CNC-fabricated positive.
Exploration
San Francisco, CA
ARCHITECTURES OF FUTURITY
Natural resources are tied to a necropolitical relation. Exploitation, violence, and criminal behavior are heightened in areas of extraction sites. This space of living death exists within the undergrounds of our consumerist societyunseen, yet vital. Does the separation, both geographically and in awareness, between the extracted vs. the built perpetuate the extractive gaze that ultimately leads to extraction?
Where extraction exists, it is often as a layering of many issues, affecting the victims concurrently. In analyzing a site of extraction, West Oakland San Francisco, those affected are primarily people of color. Gentrification pushes out those who have lived there for generations, as the contaminated water from industrial facilities poisons them from within. What would the response be if this existence was imposed upon Billionaire’s Row?
PUBLICATIONS
DATUM - (Super)natural 2024
A journal of architecture founded and edited by students at Iowa State University, Collection No. 14 investigates the ways in which the intersections between humans and the natural environment create supernatural conditions. The journal contends with the opposing beliefs that nothing remains untouched by human influence and thus “natural” no longer exists, or that human intervention is an integral part of the natural world. As designers and stewards of the built environment, these concepts begin to challenge our understanding of ecological, material, and cultural value as we continue advocating for more sustainable and ecologically responsible architectures. https://datumcollective.org/
The Earth Is A Tree Full Of Poems 2024
A collective narrative of the Spring 2024 Interdisciplinary Design Studio. Inspired and guided by the work of Puerto Rican poet, Roque Salas Rivera, this collection of work investigates architectures, landscapes, and media as the poems that fill the earth in the Caribbean and beyond
Data_Fields 2023
A comprehensive collection of the process of examining data mining practices. How much of our world is dictated by our autonomous actions or instead prompted by underground technological infrastructures?
