MATERIAL / IMMATERIAL
The challenge of this studio was to explore the relationship between the Virtual/ Visual/ Physical environment. Architecture and more specifically housing has an immense influence on the physical environment, from the bodily dimensions of the spaces to the material construction of the structure. Nevertheless, the Visual and the Virtual have taken on a new dimension at the beginning of the XXI century and are strongly challenging the traditional way to plan and design a new residential community.
While we once were led to believe that Form Follows Function or Form Follows Finance, or Form Follows Technology, this studio explored the intertwining relationships between the Virtual, Visual and Physical parameters of our artificially built environment to define the new generation of spaces, forms and programs.
Completed at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation under Professor Frederic Levrat, 2008
TOPOGRAPHY & TRACES
This studio questioned the very nature of architecture. Some people say sculpture is not architecture because it is not inhabited. The entire history of architecture insists on scale and the human body, proportions, symbolic beauty, etc. But what if the inhabitants are not human?
The program is a zoo habitat addressing both animal and human requirements, but it also questions the level of interaction between the two. It raises questions regarding: fake real vs. real fake, private vs. public, generic vs. specific, global vs. local, patterns, camouflage, scale, technology vs. nature, bio-mimicry, bio-esthetics, neo-organism, genetic architecture and environment/sustainability.
The zoo as a neighborhood?
As wilderness and natural habitats disappear, the program suggests that the cohabitation of animals and people must evolve.
Neighborhoods or districts compose the fabric of every city in the world. The city is a melting pot of hierarchies, cultures and organizations and each neighborhood’s architecture, infrastructure and spatial characteristics are uniquely shaped by its inhabitants.
Today, movement and accessibility, the infrastructural backbone of every metropolis, is based on the movement of human beings. Can the introduction of an ‘animal neighborhood’, with its movement and accessibility focused on the needs of the animal, facilitate a new urban experience?
Completed at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation under Professor Bernard Tschumi, 2009
TRANSLOCATON
Awarded a Thesis Citation
The programmatic composition of this thesis was developed through the idea that the ‘city’ can be broken down into six typologies: the city of production, the city of consumption, the city of habitation, the city of captured nature, the city of commodity and the city of service. Each of these by usage has a typical matched pair, i.e. production with consumption, service with commodity, nature with habitation. More importantly, a new form in the urban fabric is created when these types are paired with an atypical match. This project argues that revitalization is most successful when unlike typologies are mated.
Located on the site of a dilapidated sculpture garden, this property in Long Island City is a prime area to begin revitalization and increase the accessibility of the outer boroughs.
Surrounded by warehouses and independent art galleries, the sculpture garden is an important identifying element in the area, however, it is not easily accessible. Dedicating a portion of this site as a transportation hub automatically increases the number of people passing through the area and will hopefully raise the awareness of the art scene in Long Island City.
Another portion of the structure would be dedicated office space, in particular, for research and development. Many of the sculpture gardens past exhibit themes have expressed a relationship between art and science and the proximity of these two unlike programs may foster a new type of relationship.
A major component of this project also focused creating distinct viewing spaces for exhibits as well as adding long term artist housing and gallery space would create a welcoming and defined streetscape.
Completed at Syracuse University School of Architecture under Professor Phu Duong and Professor Gregory Stroh, 2005
CHINESE MEGA BLOCK ARCHITECTURE
Existing cities are expanding and new ones are being formed without historic precedent. The contemporary Chinese city can provide multiple portals into how the world’s future urban landscape might be formed. Our understanding of this phenomenon is critical to our ability to participate in the world’s future urbanization.
The challenge of the studio was to re-conceptualize the Mega-Block. By effectively accommodating the gross numbers of new urban inhabitants, many regions of the world are, or will, experience rapid influxes of urban growth.
This project focused on the issues of a diminishing agricultural economy, the stringent control and censorship of education and the influx of rural migrants into the city center. The project attempts to reorganize these ‘flows’ thereby creating a more viable living situation for the future population of Beijing.
Completed at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation under Professor Jeffrey Johnson, 2009
