CAFFEINE FUEL
ARCHITECTURE
I am a student at the University of Southern California enrolled in the Bachelor of Architecture program, graduating in 2028. These are some of my favorite projects from each year.
Year 1
102a
105a
102b
In the first year, we learned about some principles of architecture and how to navigate our main programs: Rhino, Grasshopper, and Adobe Suite. Apart from basic digital skills like model making and line weighting, we explored the design process through iterative design tools and analysis drawings to convey concepts and ideas for each space we created.
105a
Project 1
This project focused on line weights and detailing an object of our choice in plans, sections, and elevations. I chose a pipe wrench.
102a
Project 2
After analyzing a case study of David Chipperfield's Single House Berlin (1996), we took a concept to translate to a 14'x14'x14' dwelling space. It needed to provide the opportunity to work, play, and rest within it. My dwelling was a study of apertures and their correlating floor segments, providing each opening with its allotted floor and space while creating a push and pull of vertical and horizontal planes.
102a
Project 4
Project 4 was a combination of the concepts from project 2 translated onto a site model made in Project 3. The radial leading lines became a guide for the structure, which required two parties housed in the same space. My structure relied on the ability of two people to inhabit the same space with minimal interactions other than through apertures divided by three main walls.
102b
Project 3
As a cumulative end to the work done in second semester, we used building systems and design elements as tools to create a new space for an existing site, Mercado La Paloma near USC. Mercado La Paloma 2.0 used the Heatherwick Chair as its main design block, becoming subtractive and interactive elements for people to be around. Floors were created by massing and cutting through to create planes. Frosted glass walls were extracted from the geometries in the floor, which differed in scale and density to create dynamic walls for private -- but not enclosed-- spaces.
Inspiration was taken from Frank Lloyd Wright’s SC Johnson Administrative Building, with randomized (rather than ordered) supports. This said, a grid was followed for massings so that light would filter through planes of frosted glass through the building to the lowest levels while nestled within the planes of Heatherwicks. As seen in plan, a visual language similar to that of Wright’s Guggenheim is followed.
