#thesisprize

Link to PDF of Drawings: LINK

Project Description

This thesis seeks to create a new type of single family home, the form of which has many possible solutions and variations, all using one modular, unitized CLT box. With these units there are 6 different faces, and 6 different orientations it can take on, each of these having their own rules, consequences, and feedback. The orientation dictates the movement, size and quality of space, and openings for access and views. The aggregation of multiple units further demonstrates this: continuous open space, a series of smaller spaces, grouped programming, and horizontal and vertical movement between them.

These units accept a number of modules, with numerous locations and configurations. The selection and placement of these prescribed service modules further defines the uniqueness of each unit box’s arrangement and configuration. These modules come with their own sets of rules, and, in turn, more limits to address. The modules can: limit or allow views or movement into or between the units, and they provide essential services like heating, cooling, plumbing, ventilation, and electricity. The selection and placement of each module further defines the uniqueness of each unit box’s arrangement and configuration. These modules are all additive to the unit box, and the unit box itself cannot be altered.

Link to PDF of Drawings: LINK

Project Description

Speckled in the Pacific Ocean lay the 9 small atolls of Tuvalu. With the lagoon to the west and the ocean to the east, the thinnest slice of land on the main island of Funafuti is less than 30 feet wide. The lagoon, ocean, and rain splash and settle into pools of water on the land, sand lightly coats the street, and waste has nowhere to go but upward as it becomes intertwined with the ground. As sea level continues to rise by an average of 3.9 mm per year, the blur between land, water, and its relationship to living species is strikingly apparent.

A Tale of Water, Waste, and Human Trace is a collection of artifacts that explore ways in which natural processes and human trace interact. It questions how architecture can reveal and respond to already existing phenomena instead of preventing opposing conditions from meeting. It calls to attention processes that are already occurring all around us, and conveys ways in which we interact and can adapt with them.

Models were created from found objects and materials that documented and explored the existing conditions that I observed in Funafuti, Tuvalu. They became the basis for the creation of 5 fantastical interventions that respond to these existing conditions. The interventions are entitled Eroding Matter, Floating Gardens, This Way Around, Garbage No More, and Illuminating Sprouts. Each intervention reveals, anticipates or adapts to various processes of reclamation of the “natural” world and anthropogenic impact.