China Mieville’s novel The City and The City echoes a thematic redundancy in names, actions, and spaces.  The literature subvertly highlights a woven inefficiency of movement as it follows characters and events forced to navigate two cities at once.  Though they reside in the same geographical location, Beszel and Ul Qoma exist as separate entities that require an overlapping array of multiplicity - there exist two cafes, two transit systems, two economies, two governments. This repetitive duality plays out on a complex and intricate scale in Copula Hall, the single building that houses the collective and individual government and border checkpoints for both cities. 

The design for Copula Hall seeks to formally and spatially play up this duality and highlight both the inefficiency that it might cause, especially in crosshatched interior spaces, and the experience of “seeing double” that one might feel within the city. Two large volumes are mirrored around a central point along the East-West axis - the gateway’s main thoroughfare - to create the focal points of each city’s domestic governments; with one volume for Ul Qoma and housing its Parliament and the other for Beszel and housing its City Council, each volume faces its own city’s entry point and acts as a welcoming facade for its denizens. 

Viewed from the side, the two mirrored volumes are joined by crosshatched forms containing office spaces and international government chambers. Belonging to neither city, these volumes instead address the sameness of the cities - their equality in their duality - and create an intensely and chaotically bureaucratic environment totally shared by both cities. Ultimately Copula Hall exists not just as a government building, but as a symbol throughout both cities of their separation.

The Edifice,

a companion narrative, by Jack Lynch

The coolness of the masonry edifice welcomed Safiye in the Grand Entrance of Copula Hall’s Ul Qoman wing.  Had the university let her, she would have avoided the Hall altogether; but business was business, and the Ul Qoman archaeology archives - limited as they may be - happened to have that one unique artefact vital to her research.

The tapping of her stilettos reverberated along the narrowing hallway of stone as Safiye ascended the Grand Stair.  She took her time, pausing for moments to study the line of various Pre-Cursor artefacts along banisters.  One display, an outdated building apparatus, consisted of four various pieces that somehow connected together by means of a field of various finger-like appendages.  Utterly bizarre.

Safiye pulled her eyes back from the display to check her watch.  Shit.  She was late for her appointment with the head archivist.  With haste, Safiye pranced up the stairs.

Business as Usual,

a companion narrative, by Morgan Parrish

He cleared his throat from his seat at the end of the Council table, hoping it would quiet the bickering of his fellow Council members.

The topic for discussion today and the presentation provided by the citizens had been controversial and impassioned, and while the citizens, journalists, and reporters eagerly awaited the ruling of the City Council, the Council members sat around their long table and debated. It was not unusual - often the Council had difficulty reaching a consensus, and votes were usually rather split. The spectators and reporters had grown accustomed to sitting in the upstairs viewing galleries for long periods of time awaiting results. 

He could hear the sound of rain beginning to patter against the skylights and the slim window behind him. Peering out through the slit and into the city, he saw people begin to open umbrellas. He hoped this matter would be resolved soon, as the grand staircase he walked to enter the Council Chamber tended to become precariously slippery when wet. 

Office Life, a companion narrative, by Morgan Parrish

It was my first day working for Beszel’s Department of Transportation, and I was nervous. I had seen Copula Hall often, but I had never entered its doors. I exited the tram stop, crossed the plaza, and entered the glass doors into the crosshatched floor of open offices. To my untrained eyes, it was quiet, oddly ordered chaos.

A woman directed me to my desk, which shared a column with two Ul Qoman workers.    I couldn’t help but feel that they, and by extension, that ‘other’ city, held total control over my future space.    My fellow transportation department employees sat a few columns away - the director told me that, due to an overlap with an employee who would be leaving soon, I had to take the closest open desk, but that I would be able to sit with them in a more Besz section soon. 

There seemed to be a subtle grouping of departments.   Three Besz desks around a column, or a cluster of Besz desks all back to back - amongst the otherwise scattered employees of both cities. A natural order established by our rhythmic, patriotic sensibilities.  I could tell that it would take a few months of working here to fully understand the radical nuances of this life.

This new childcare facility manifested itself with a design focus on materiality as the backbone of the project, underscored by the foundational question: “how can the ethics of care be achieved holistically in design?” The facility is comprised almost entirely of cork, a miracle construction material with acoustic properties to shield children from the noises of passing overhead subway trains and vibrant Jackson Heights, Queens street life.

The compression qualities of this playful, non-toxic, water-resistant medium greatly influenced a building typology entirely funicular in its structural form. The result is a series of self-sustained compression vaults and undulating cork-paneled surfaces that weave together classrooms and additional childcare programs across interior and exterior spaces to establish areas of both play and protection.

Play house is rooted in an ethical framework internally and externally, with a community engagement for the Jackson Heights neighborhood by becoming a Community Land Trust (CLT) model for a neighborhood actively fighting gentrification and dwindling support.

This urban development masterplan project sees a potential future for Newburgh, NY to become a thriving medical center in the Hudson Valley area.  

Taking inspiration from Alvar Aalto’s Sanitorium and exploding it into an array of formal gestures that activate a difficult riverfront site, this future Newburgh Medical Campus aims to bring together urban and ecological systems in a healthy way. The hospital functions primarily as an inpatient oncology center and maternity ward, serving neighborhoods along the Hudson River with higher-than-normal testing rates for the respective healthcare specialties.  

In-stay patients located in wards that weightlessly hover over the riverfront wetland landscape and surrounding tree-tops are invited to embrace the scenic beauty of the Hudson River and its natural awe.  Here, the hospital, wellness house, is re-imagined as a tree, with branch-like wards being pre-fabricated modules that may be built upward and attached to a single trunk of vertical circulation.  Alternatively, the same modules may be dispersed along the riverfront for extended medical infrastructure.  

This new hospital typology pushes the limits of our understanding of how architecture can subvert existing medical connotations to establish healing spaces of human wellness.

A complex housing project located in the Bronx, projected living began in an exploration of housing forms centered around the perspective viewpoints of occupants located both inside and outside the potential dwellings. The pivotal relationship between interior and exterior led to the driving question of what it means to see and be seen in an urban setting, and - more importantly - how does one live in such unique situations.

To further advance the larger mass of the multi-use development, forms were established first by means of designing in perspective. In this approach, formal architectural moves in plan and section were subjugated to the perception of space in real-time instances, from both inside the unit to the views of passersby along adjacent streets. Large scale moves were further influenced by vistas and viewpoints of direct relationship with urban site.

The project plays host to approximately 225 units following a modular taxonomy of 8 unit modules interspersed between the two largest vista masses, the north and south towers. Both towers rely on an intricate interplay between units and their larger truss structures, seamlessly creating impressive architectural moves that canopy the flatter portions of the site. Community programs such as a neighborhood YMCA, a fresh-foods grocers market, and day-care centers occupy these undulating sidewalk facades, ultimately pushing and pulling the perspectives of the streetscape.

An illiteracy of the mind – of knowledge, memory, emotion, and life; of all these things and more that meet at the crossroads of what it means to live – is an unavoidable truth. We are all illiterate in this regard.

In order to establish a library devoted to the collection and representation of the intricacies of mental passageways and the human condition to remember, the proposed site, just off of the East River in DUMBO, Brooklyn, was continuously toyed with in a playful manner. Stepping back as a designer and recognizing the existence of a local memory via the contexts of the site allowed for a flexible amalgamation of nearby facade, window, ornamental, and structural systems that could be reinterpreted into a block-mass building capable of skewing the perceptions of visitors who may or may not have memories associated with the site.

Formally, the interconnecting block system allows for spaces to coexist in multiplicity. Exterior walls break up interior spaces; common windows are adapted to act as ceilings and floors, and reading levels twist and break apart as the library breaks above the skyline.

Memory house is also integrated with the adjacent building, inserting a new floor that houses the program’s collection of books and other stimuli centered around subjects of human mentality.

A 3 month intensive architectural project complete with fully articulated SD, DD, and CD submission sets, the theater at greenpoint, aimed to fully integrate a newly programmed site on the Brooklyn waterfront with both adjacent parks and urban contexts. The project relies heavily on an open air plaza thoroughfare that bisects the building longitudinally as well as laterally. The public space activates further activates nearby Transmitter Park, as well as currently existing industrial-styled retail that composes much of this rapidly developing NYC neighborhood. Moreover, by lifting the building, the site finesses necessary flood plain precautions whilst utilizing the environment for better passive system integration and bioswale landscaping.

Formally, the lifted program heightens the dramatic experience of partaking in arts. The main auditorium theater situated on the topmost level is strikingly hung by dramatic industrial trusses that, in combination with the re-purposed warehouse brick facade, calls back to the site’s previous architectural history.

The additional smaller venue blackbox theater intertwines the programs above and below, delicately suspended beneath the base of the auditorium and protruding into the open air plaza. The blackbox’s marvelous reinforced glass floor allows the implication of interaction between city passersby and its unique program.

In memory of the classics... the new.

Highlighting the apparent return of post-modern styling in the 21st century, this collection of drawings, models, and mixed media animations addresses the rising popularity of post-digital modes and methods of representation. The focus of the work, James Stirling’s neue staatsgalerie, becomes a fitting symbol for reinterpretation. The vibrant colors and post-modern spatial effects surrounding an inherently classically inspired open-aired atrium heralded Stirling’s memory and reinterpretation of past art and architecture with present. In this likeness, neue staatsgalerie may once again be neue, its spatial and ornamental affects reinterpreted with the representations of today.

The drawing, kaleidoscopic (top left), envisions the original worm’s eye axonometric sketches by Stirling with the finesse and dexterity of advanced computer modeling, but with an ultimately flattened, crowded, and distracted visual complexity.

The additional “portable post-modern museum” model pushes the kaleidoscopic nature of a museum’s curation in tandem with its kitsch, consumerist undertone. And ultimately, the supplemental short animation, stirling’s dream sequence, ties together modern visual media and popular television motifs with Stirling’s atrium, the post-modern decor, and the classical artwork residing within.

A retreat lake house located in the Catskills, this 2 bedroom residence was designed in tandem with the rocky shoreline. The house is intended to be constructed around an existing monolithic granite boulder that would be cut and polished into the shared kitchen and living space’s main feature: a polished, one-of-a-kind counter-top bar. The bedrooms, shared bath, and study are all kept isolated within a second internal space to highlight the procession from the entryway to the living space and exterior dock overlooking the lake vista.

Consider the fold…

an exploration by Jack Lynch + Dalton Baker

Akihisa Hirata’s Treeness House in Tokyo, Japan, is a compelling model for innovative architecture and nature working in tandem to develop space.  It successfully houses multiple generations in one home, hosts a gallery space for art, and creatively folds the facade of the building back at various points to create unique spaces that bleed nature from the exterior, in - and vice-versa. The stairs and the pleats that create the living ecosystem of Treeness House, serve as connections to the rest of the building’s spaces that envision various scenarios that could be re-interpreted as a fully functioning modular system.  The goal being to replicate the thesis of Hirata’s residence without duplicating any particular aesthetic.  Consider a pleat.  A fold in space that pivots all vectors towards a new direction.  Eyesight, movement, even gusts of wind can all be pushed beyond the confines of “enclosure” when the concept is broken down and folded.  The origami of architecture serving multiple functions. If pre-fabricated modules for residences could be thoughtfully designed in a similar fashion, then perhaps nature in our growing sustainable future can begin to metamorphose the construction and assembly of space.  Better yet, over time folding away at how urban dwellers occupy the confines of their homes and interact with available pockets of nature.

The first iteration of the module system utilized the idea of the co-op to create apartments that had shared communal spaces. The system prioritized an 8’ - 8’ modulated grid, with a series of folding panels that could begin to carve out spatial arrangements within the overall layout. The carving nature established by the panels created an operable pleat that allowed the singular “unit” to blossom.  This culminated in several different layouts, redefining the approach towards central circulation for buildings with multiple non-related occupants.  The core circulation, like the interior modules, wove between nature and pathway, working towards bringing green space into both the private and public spheres of the building. However, the rooms’ folded panels lacked the ability to be customized and changed. To counter this, an adaptation towards a stronger post-and-panel system - akin to the living structure of plants that branch out and intertwine in intricate arrays and patterns.  Moreover, this system would allow for development and change over time, a shared commonality between both the nature and the occupants invited to live in the spaces.  

In this isolated iteration, the module systems are developed to accommodate multi-generational families in one apartment, thereby further the argument to allow the modules to grow and change over time so as to reflect the evolution of the family.  By creating a baseline of every apartment beginning with double height spaces, occupants may choose to fill the larger spaces in with nature, begin development on a second floor for occupancy, or a mix between the two to better permeate the many lifestyle possibilities.  The system creates a spectrum of different modular pieces, from full room sets, to additional planters and gardens, to smaller planter attachments that could be added over time using a patented track system. Furthermore, by enlarging the module from an 8’ - 8’ - 8’ grid to a 10’ - 10’ - 10’ layout, the spaces were given more room to breathe, establishing a deeper synthesis with the integrated nature components.  

On a more specific scale, the system explores how nature can actively become integrated into each module.  It recognizes the opportunities to look at how planters and green spaces can be used in different apartment and lifestyle scenarios to create green shared spaces for a broader audience of dwellers. This includes reintroducing the active presence of nature in any shared circulation spaces.  Modules themselves could open up to become two or three modules rather than be contained into one 10’ - 10’ - 10’ grid. For instance, a bedroom that opens up into an office module with a folding desk, thereby allowing larger open floor spaces in an otherwise tight two module system. Or perhaps the entry way, with its sliding glass panels, becomes an extension of the outside to the two planter modules in front of them.  With this system, the modular units sufficiently reflect the thriving ecosystem of nature - constantly pushing and pulling borders and boundaries to increase sunlight and sustainability.  All in all, building towards a more sustainable future for living.

Located just off 6th St., simple pier is a low-floating boardwalk pier along the East River that intersects the various growth stages of a long-term reconstructed wetlands plan. The pier exhibits close environmental encounters via apertures in the floor along the walk.

Additionally, the bank of the pier operates in tandem with the walk. Whereas the pier prominently puts the brackish flora on display, isolated aquarium tanks organized within an open urban plaza by the pier’s entrance would exhibit the fish and fauna species that thrive in the local tidal marsh.

The aquatic tanks are envisioned as recycled water cisterns, an immediate icon of the relationship between New York City and water. Moreover, the display aquariums would similarly be connected to the wetlands wastewater pipeline infrastructure, thus keeping with an adaptable and re-usable cycle.

Lastly, because of the projected long-term growth for the wetlands’ wildlife, the pier and its plaza would only exhibit local nature as it becomes prevalent. Throughout the first phases of development, the pier and plaza is displayed barren or empty, an evocative call to passersby + citizens that there is much sustainable work to be done to achieve space worth propagating and aesthetics worth displaying.

Subway stations, in their purest practicality, work. There are many measures architects may take to assert a design, or a style, or an idea, towards the public, and with great success; however, one must accept that such interventions are fundamentally assertions of artistic representation, ultimately tacked onto a fleeting spatial hideaway beneath the city. The true room for spatial improvement in these spaces are: ingress, egress, and seating.

Because of this realization, the final design of the 14th St. Subway Station narrows its focus directly into a large culmination space - the atrium - partially set back from the immediate line of the subway. Think Grand Central Station. The space is voluminous, and open from the epicenter outwards. Its highlight is the ceiling, a massive, 70x25 foot cement rock, seeming upheld by an array of randomized curtain windows separating the border of the space from the excavated earth two feet set back. The weightless rock, my single, artistic addition tacked above this spatial space, consolidates the metaphor of life beneath a city resting on earth, and the construction processes necessary to achieve such feats.

The construction process would be as follows. First, the negative of the overhead cement for the atrium is excavated. Then, pylons and foundations are drilled deep into the rock of the island of Manhattan. The concrete is poured directly into the hole, held together by rebar and the tops of the drilled pylons. Once cured, the excavation of the atrium and it’s subtly descending ramps from the East + West begins. As the earth is excavated beneath the cast rock, it remains supported by the foundation drilling and pylons, which are then used as complex mullions and filled in with glass, creating the effect that the surrounding curtain wall - a metaphor for the existence of the city above - is supporting the earth.

Two additional stairwells are added on either end to facilitate better flow and traffic..

At the intersection of 14th St. and 2nd Ave. is a simple apartment building, corner house. 7 flights, pre-war, + just about similar to every other walk-up within Manhattan. In an effort to maintain the efficacy of this building’s simplicity, similar simple rotation movements of folding hinges and pivot rotations were added and caressed into the existing facade. Windows, bays, channels that define the ornament of the building shift and rotate so that over the course of a 24 hour day, various public + private spaces are activated within and beyond the realm of the building. The iterations, in their complete ensemble, cater towards 1 of 3 time periods :: morning, midday, + evening.

As the corner of 14th + 2nd slowly begins it’s alterations, the existing facade folds upwards, practically doubling the verticality of the building + revealing an activated athletic space properly situated within the realms of the geometries formed by the original ornament of the building. What’s left behind on the remaining sliver of exterior walls below is a sleek curtain wall, very much modeled as the ghost of the original building whilst it takes on a transformed ‘extra-ordinary’ state for a select few hours in a day.

With this project, the corner is allocated room to breathe. It may be experienced either in it’s original state, or in a new + invigorating state, both of which are just as exciting + beautiful as the other.

RotoKite 02 | GSAPP, Core I Studio | 2017….

The form and subsequent floating function of RotoKite, 02 began with the inspiring drawings of mushroom spore prints. Performed by fungi enthusiasts, a mushroom left atop paper or glass in appropriate conditions releases it’s reproductive spores into visually appealing 2-dimensional patterns. This flowering image, coupled with the cyclical life nature found in select mushroom species, spawned the initial concepts for a folding form that could float wistfully atop any viewers below.

Originally conceived to ascend into space, modules of folded bristol were assembled in an overlapping conic form that could expand and contract in a blossoming fashion to receive heat from a flame source suspended beneath it. Logically, the paper rosette would rise with the heat and ascend gracefully. The modules were later re-analyzed into different media, assembled out of watercolored parchment paper and bass wood for a sturdier structure at a similar weight. Upon realization that the heat necessary to lift the object into the air was unattainable without drastic measures, the rosette was re-approached in its expanded state, wherein the later anticipated path of descent yielded a graceful spin downward that emphasized the points of the geometries. The rosette was clearly better suited for a floated fall rather than a simple rise. To better stabilize the flight path, a smaller, similarly defined rosette was connected concentrically just inches above the larger spiral. The new addition also featured a decorated fabric to act as chute for further air resistance.

Lastly, decorative LEDs were intertwined within the open space of the rosette, hailing back to the cyclical, inspiring nature of the spores released from mushrooms that ultimately inspired the shapes.

RotoKite 01 | WashU, Core II Studio | 2014….

An exploration in the merging of functional necessities and aesthetic forms, the RotoKite, v1  is a rotating form capable of achieving suspended flight in mild-to-moderate wind conditions via its creation of wind vortexes. the kite’s design pulls inspiration from numerous precedent studies of various wind-induced forms, namely the archaeological remains of prehistoric pterodactyl wing structures

Located on the northwest corner of the intersection of the Delmar and Skinker boulevards in St. Louis, MO, this housing project aims to situate a medium-rise residential building into a niche real-estate and developer market. Once named one of the 10 best streets in America, the Delmar Blvd. Loop is an eccentric, kitsch-driven atmosphere that profits from visiting outsiders and demarcates a clear socio-economic divide between its north / south neighborhoods.

Ultimately, the goal of this multi-use housing venture - playfully coined as urbn-plex - was to meet the demands of ambitious real estate developers all the while successfully integrating mixed-unit housing typologies to better integrate the stark divide between the site’s north and south borders. The formal attributes and ornament that detail the exterior of the complex cater towards the nostalgic aesthetic developers have embraced in storefronts along the street in recent decades. These moments are then re-evaluated and adapted to generate a successful merging of housing types that create internalized communities with access points to all the surrounding neighborhoods.

The living spaces include a homely collection of townhouses that connect directly with the street, all the while linking to a private elevated courtyard that connects the low-rise residences with a tower of 1-3 bedroom units.

Located within the confines of the unique Elephant Rocks State Park in rural Missouri, tiered reflections began as an intensely concentrated study of the natural environment within the expansive site. The main feature of the park is a monolithic granite tor that climbs above the forest, prominently displaying large granite boulders resembling an imaginary herd of elephants.

The site also has a rich history as privately owned granite quarries prior to their abandonment and acquisition by the state. The remnants of these quarries are two self-contained water reservoirs that attract environmentalists and will serve as the focal point for the design of an educational retreat center.

The retreat center comprises a set of 4 unique residences dispersed around a central hub. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the site, reflect, produce, and ultimately share their work with other occupants.

Four terraced water features are additionally landscaped to follow the geological topography of the two rock tors and quarries. The terraces are constructed with relation to the site’s hydrology, accumulating thin spans of stagnant water that reflect the scene of the sky above, becoming a path-like source of inspiration for the retreating community of 1 geologist, 1 artist, 1 academic, and 1 lay person.

A project centered around the site of the Mississippi River, graffiti house uniquely situates itself above the river by attaching itself to the underbelly of the historic Chain of Rocks Bridge. This single person residence doubly functions as both home and museum, integrating itself vis-a-vis program with the bridge that supports it.

The intent of the structure is to house an urban art historian, one in charge of operating the coexisting gallery spaces that collect and project the incredible collection of graffiti present on aged urban infrastructures such as the bridge above.

Moreover, the particular formal attributes of planes and faceted faces that make up both the house and it’s elongated access ramp are intended to provide increased surface area and public accessibility to an otherwise private institution. This allows the continuation of such graffiti to ebb onto the structure itself, ultimately demarcating the residency’s program to visitor’s of the historic site overtime and thereby continuing the public conversation regarding graffiti’s role in the art world. Should it be promoted and preserved, or does that take away from the scandalous nature it seemingly yearns for? This question is further exemplified via the project’s delineation between public and private spaces, using the monolithic cement pylon of the bridge as a stark dividing line accessible to artists.

In learning to interact with ecology, climate, & other natural phenomena as inspiration for a systematic building, the project began at the scale of an isolated seedling. The sub-project, plant terrarium, saw a continuous development of form and systems integration during the maturing stages of the given plant, cyclamen persicum. The result is a fully functioning and self-sustaining enclosure, moderately scaled and assembled to adorn a desk, coffee table, or counter. The integrated systems include water collection, drip irrigation, cooling ventilation, and adaptive shading that all contribute towards the plant’s growth.

In jumping scale to that of a building, an urban, vertical greenhouse was designed to doubly function as both an urban garden and a local community center. The selected site is located adjacent to an I-44 W exit within the historic Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis, MO.

Quite simply, green house is a twisting vertical composition whose form emphasizes: 1) the inversion of height & growth, 2) the interplay between functional construction & design aesthetics, and 3) the interaction between nature and urban development. The triangulated facade is structurally relevant in this regard, narrowing in its contact with the earth and expanding upwards to encapsulate the necessary living systems for the ecological flora the structure houses.

Framing a view for the city of Florence, Italy via the lens of social media, inthecity explores how people, tourists and inhabitants alike, experience and share perceptions of their surrounding urban contexts. We see that as users upload photos to a greater global communications network, the interstitial spaces within city are broken down, abstracted, and adapted into new ideas of understanding and participation for all.

In an introduction to the methodology of design processes, this observational pavilion ideally set in St. Louis, MO's Forest Park pulls inspiration from the decomposing qualities found in local birch trees and numerous topographical and modular design forms.