In Dark Ecology, Timothy Morton talks about weird as defined as both strange of appearance and turning of causality; from this, he talks about a third kind of weird - “the weird gap between the two”. Dark ecology aims at slipping between the two as a method of questioning the boundaries between human and nature. In architecture, there are also many assumptions made as we are designing; assumptions about material performance, architectural boundaries, and what man is capable of. My project uses the philosophical idea of slipping in Dark Ecology, to enter the gap between these architectural assumptions. The subtleties of transforming these qualities asks us as architects to question how we are engaging with architectural elements. The assumptions of material qualities are questioned, and reconfigured. Glass is not used for seeing through, but rather something to look at. Metal is not used for precision, but left to weather in its environment. The boundaries of interior and exterior are blurred, redefining and slipping between the two. Slits of views are only seen from compressed spaces. Expansive spaces are met with transparency which never allow the picturesque view.
FALL 2016
Critic: Mark Foster Gage
Ground Floor Plan
2nd Floor Plan
3rd Floor Plan
The sake brewery and museum is located on Pontocho Alley in Kyoto. This street is one of the most vibrant streets in Kyoto, full of small but lively restaurants and bars. The scale of the street is relatively modest, so the project uses the scale of the contextual buildings to create a brewery made of pavilions. Each of the pavilions is designed specifically for the function of the brewery, and performs to enhance the environment of each step during the brewing process. The configuration of the brewery gives back to the city a protected public space, and retains the existing open area along the Kamo River.
SPRING 2017
Critics: Andy Bow, Patrick Bellew, Tim Newton
The Vlock building project is part of the first-year curriculum at Yale University. The class as a whole is asked to design and built a single family house in New Haven. The project is located on a corner site in New Haven, facing the challenge of a small footprint (at about 1,200 SF). In the summer 14 students worked with 2 professors and completed the house and landscaping in 3 months. Role in project was summer intern, as a team member of the 14 students who spent the summer finishing the house.
SUMMER 2015
Critic: Adam Hopfner & Kyle Bradley
With: YSOA M. Arch 1 '17 & Building Project Interns
BRASTEC in Bridgeport is a vocational aquaculture school that partners with the existing public school system to provide students with useful professional skills. However, upon graduation, there is no incentive or opportunities for these students to stay in Bridgeport, causing most of them to leave.
With the anticipation of Obama High School moving to northern Seaview Ave, it creates the opportunity to use the new school physically and ideologically to encourage economic development in order to create a self-sustaining economy.
Seaview Ave. contains existing buildings and building types that can support the new educational model, and is composed of a series of brownfields that are opportune for remediation and reuse. The design of Seaview Ave takes advantage of the brownfields, adjacency to water, and new curriculum to create a new kind of city.
SPRING 2016
Critic: Aniket Shahane
With: Brittany Olivari
Kean University’s School of Architecture and Design fosters a studio environment, while using the circulation to instigate serendipitous encounters. The studio spaces are pushed to the North of the building, with a circulation path that expands and contracts with activities. The larger shared programs such as the auditorium, library, and shop are easily accessed on the ground floor. The focus of the school is discovery, and creating diverse and varied experiences for the users.
FALL 2015
Critic: Peter de Bretteville
Ground Floor Plan
2nd Floor Plan
3rd Floor Plan
The library located in Bushwick, on a triangle site serves as a centrifuge that spirals the users upwards. The folded landscape bends to the needs of the programs. On the first floor, the library has a gallery as well as shops that draw people inwards. Upon entry, they are faced with intertwined staircases that lead them to the auditorium and central skylight.
FALL 2014
Critic: Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen
The Environmental Science Center at West River Memorial Park uses natural elements as inspiration for organization and form. The architecture inserts itself into the landscape. The visitor descends from the street, down to the open waterfront.
FALL 2014
Critic: Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen
The house sits on a corner lot in New haven with two sides facing the roads. The building refers to both the sides and splits into two halves - one dense and one open. The dense wing houses the bedrooms and bathrooms, while the open wing houses the living room and kitchen. The knuckle between the two halves serve as an entry, which features a direct view of the outdoor deck upon entry. The hinging of the two halves of the house allows for diverse arrangements of different lots.
SPRING 2015
Critic: Amy Lelyveld
The client wanted to make a new shed in the backyard of a Park Slope Brownstone.
2012-2013
with: Zachary Taylor, Hayoung Baik
Using the lock as an analogy for knowledge, the studio sits as an object waiting to be unlocked by the user. The motion of expansion both is literal as well as psychological. The spatial changes reflects the inner changes of the user.
FALL 2014
Critic: Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen
This project explored using a singular element, paper, to create an installation that was dynamic. The tubes of paper created two different sides to this wall, and stood at 4’ wide by 8’ tall. The full scale installation pushed the compressional quality of bristol paper.
Spring 2015
Critic: John Eberhart, Brennan Buck
With: Alex Kruhly, Andrew Padron, Brittany Olivari, Chris Leung, James Shwartz
