archived portfolio - april 2015
DESCRIPTION
A collection of project and process 2012-present.TRANSCRIPT
PORTFOLIOEMILY S YEN
M.ARCH 2015
Rhode Island School of DesignDartmouth College
PORTFOLIOEMILY S YEN
M.ARCH 2015
BRIEF INTRODUCTION
I believe in and work towards a built environment that facilitates the human experience. Without its inhabitants, architecture becomes obsolete.
There has to be, however, a connection between our construction, the land it occupies, and the non-human visitors. It is in this connection that we define our sense of place.
To foster such a connection, I play and explore. I work intuitively with my hands in drawing and making, inside and outside.
It is this balance between the intuitive hand and resolution of details where architecture comes alive.
Architecture is at its most powerful when it enters the physical world. The effort behind that translation is moutainous and worthy.
We sow what we eat and we build where we live. This is our world.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Emily S [email protected]
Overall Winner - Museum of Science Fiction Preview Museum CompetitionWashington, D.C. • Sept 2014 - PresentWon the architecture competition for concept for a temporary (3-5yr) museumConsult with the design team regarding the project and other Museum of Science Fiction programs
Gallery Assistant - Rhode Island School of DesignProvidence, RI • Sept 2014 - PresentPrepare the gallery for different exhibitions and lectures by building furniture, painting, making labelsCollaborate in making certain exhibition materials like SO-IL experimental plaster casts
Artist in Residence - Vermont Studio Center (VSC)Johnson, VT • Apr 2012Received the VSC Artist/Writer Grant to for installations examining environmentalism Developed/created two installations questioning the nature of ground through viewer interactions
Construction Volunteer - Dartmouth Outing ClubHanover, NH • Jun 2010, Sept 2008Learned and helped build a traditional timber-frame cabin using hand tools onlyHelped de-bark trees with a draw knife for a full-scribe log cabin and build miscellaneous details
Volunteer - Jatun Sacha Biological ReserveTena, Ecuador • Jan 2008-Mar 2008 Directed design and applied for funding for a rural playground in a local community
Architectural Intern - Cooper, Robertson & Partners (CRP)New York City, NY • May - Aug 2014Collaborated with a multi-firm team for a bridge park competition in Washington D.C.Designed program specificities both at the scale of the project and its urban contextBuilt physical/digital models and presentation drawings for meetings and mid-review submissions
Freelance Architectural Designer - Senior Lecturer Karolina KawiakaProvidence, RI • Jul-Aug 2013Researched/represented daylighting methods for Washington Mall competition and rendered dwgs
Architectural Intern - Watershed Studio Architecture, LLCWhite River Junction, VT • Sept 2010 - July 2012Designed the winning RFQ for a canoe club renovation at Dartmouth CollegeWorked in schematic designs, presentation drawings, permitting issues for canoe club renovationDrew construction documents for various projects and helped build certain design details
Architectural Intern - Livingston Slone Architecture, IncAnchorage, AK • Jun - Aug 2009Drew construction documents and lighting plans and conducted general construction inspectionsAssisted in selection for 1% for art program
ARCHITECTURAL WORK EXPERIENCE
TEACHING EXPERIENCEMentor - ACE Mentorship Program, Providence RI ChapterProvidence, RI • Sept 2013 - Present
Instructor - Architecture Department, RISDProvidence, RI • Jan - Mar 2014, 2015Math and Physics Review
Teaching Assistant - Architecture Department, RISDProvidence, RI • Sept 2013 - Mar 2014Architectural Analysis (Carl Lostritto), Architectural Projections (Nick Brinen)
Studio Leader - Boston Architectural CollegeBoston, MA • Jul - Aug 2013Summer Academy: High School Design Exploration
Special Intern Instructor - Studio Art Department, Dartmouth CollegeHanover, NH • Jun - Aug 2010Intro to Photo (Virginia Beahan), Intro to Architecture (Jack Wilson); and additional responsibilities
ADDITIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE
EDUCATIONRhode Island School of DesignProvidence, RI • 2012 - PresentMasters in Architecture CandidateCumulative GPA: 3.6
Dartmouth CollegeHanover, NH • 2007 - 2010BA in Studio Art, EngineeringMajor GPA: 3.4
Overall WinnerMuseum of Science Fiction, Preview Museum CompetitionSeptember 2014
Design Competition ShortlistSwitzerCultCreativeOctober 2012
Artist/Writer Grant Vermont Studio CenterApril 2012
Solo Exhibition Hopkins Center for the Arts, Barrow’s RotundaJun - Jul 2010
Software: Rhino • Maya • AutoCAD • Sketch Up •Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Lightroom, Photoshop, Muse • Microsoft Office
Languages: English • Chinese • Spanish • Italian
Studio: Woodworking • Torch-welding • B/W Photography • Chainsaw Certification
Other Interests: Dance • Whitewater Kayaking • Mt Biking
SKILLS
SELECT AWARDS
Silvia AcostaRhode Island School of [email protected]
William KentwortheyCooper Robertson and [email protected]
Daniel Johnson Watershed Studio, LLCPrinciple [email protected]
REFERENCES
CONTENTS
sketching by casting
ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTS
Thesis-In-Process
Inhabiting the Intersection : Vertical Void
Re:Thinking Urban Living
Variations on Light
RISD MachtPlatz
EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES
Sci-Fi Preview Museum
Ronchamp Analysis
Fairy Tales Competition 2015
Ceramic Geologies
Plastic and Heat
Span and Balance
Cast Plaster Shells
Knife Rack
Getting Dirty
ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTS
thinking begins with the hand;strengthens when pursued
through material constraints;concretizes in resolving details
THESIS PROCESS
fictional translation in images
Between the tangible and the intangible lies a narrative architecture of multiple realities. It occupies worlds of physical
limitations, natural processes, fears, dreams, everything, and nothing all at once. Bound by gravity, context,
programmatic necessities, and expectations, its release is revealed
through an anticipatory fiction, psychology of space, defiance of reality.
When this multiplicity becomes one, the story emerges.
Within, a pursuit of simultaneous contradiction: strength and fragility,
endurance and ephemerality, limitations and imaginations. Truth cultivates
untruth. Nothing is absolute, but not everything is relative.
Beyond the paper, architecture comes to life; intentional fiction draws strength
from the rigors of the built world.
There is no beginning and there is no end;
there is only a continuance of being.
A NARRATIVE ARCHITECTURE OF MULTIPLE REALITIES
Advisor Silvia AcostaRhode Island School of Design
September 2014 - May 2015
MULTIPLE READINGS:interpretations and combinations,a diverse fictional world
THESIS PROBE: three-dimensional translation
enter the world
FICTION WITH ARCHITECTURAL COMPONENTS:visualizing fictional atmospheres, physicalrelationships, and motifs
COMPILATION OF ELEMENTS:from drawing to model,
back to drawing
Embedding
Defiance
Time
Flow
Awareness
MOMENTS INPLASTER MODELS:
working through models,varying levels of control,
testing in weather’s elementsfinding moments of opportunity
and inspirationin material realities
COMPILATION OF ELEMENTS 2:from drawing to model,
back to drawing
INHABITING THE INTERSECTION : VERTICAL VOID
tectonics and circulation model of the vertical void
intended experiencesof site connections
understanding and feelingweather, gravity, materialhistory, circulation, time
created through principlesof intersection and continuity
to house a museumof kinetic constructions
reacting toweather, gravity, materialhistory, circulation, time
scaled from the detail to urbanto facilitate an intuition, experience
about space beyondthe literal and physical
ADVANCED STUDIOProfessor Silvia Acosta
Rhode Island School of DesignFebruary - May 2014
INTERSECTING URBAN VOIDS:site analysis and abstraction
INTERSECTION HORIZONTALITY : VERTICALITY 1/32” = 1’ - 0”
INTERSECTING VOLUMES: architectural order
and abstraction
INTERSECTION ASPIVOTAL VOID:intersection at vertical void as the heart of circulation and experiential atmospheres
when two geometries collide
INTERSECTING SITE AND ARCHITECTURE:
moving through the vertical void and traversing the horizontal
temporal spatial awarenessat scale of programmatic detail and site extents
VERTICAL VOID: perspectives from inside the main void
experience from top to bottom
VERTICAL VOID: modeled perspectivevoid and circulation from the exterior
PROGRAM PERSPECTIVE:utilizing light and shadow movements in site-basedkinetic installations
SECTIONS AND ELEVATIONS:intersecting geometries at all dimensions, circulating throughthe vertical void experience
RE:THINKING URBAN LIVING
urban aerial sketch
reimagining urban livingin Boston’s South End
where density doesn’t engenderclaustrophobia and tightness
darkness and constriction
where city living can provideaccess to light and air
views and privacy
for all
bringing desired qualities in suburbiato urban living
residential forms rise abovelayer and intersect
bridge
governed not by street gridsbut by standards of living
leaving groundscapes availablefor commercial and public
URBAN DESIGN PRINCIPLESProfessor Gabriel Feld
Rhode Island School of DesignNovember - December 2013
SITE PLAN1” = 40’
SITE SECTION1” = 40’
SECTION A-A: TYPICAL RESIDENCE, LONGITUDINAL1/8” = 1’-0”
SECTION B-B: TYPICAL RESIDENCE, TRANSVERSE1/8” = 1’-0”
VARIATIONS ON LIGHT
site and architecture concept model
a waterfront siteand a program
to encourage and encompass life
direct, energetic lightgreenhouse, aquaponics
ambient, atmospheric lighthuman interaction
shadowed, controlled, limited lightcompost, mycoculture
one operation, a range of light conditions
the angle
masses peeled from the groundin orientation to southern exposure
a range of natural light variationsgravitational graywater recycling
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIOProfessor Anastasia Congdon
Rhode Island School of DesignFebruary - June 2013
SITE PLAN:circulation and movementintegration of plants and people
LIGHT STUDY MODEL:single light source depicting range oflight and shadow
SUN ANGLE STUDY:section axonometric -bio systems
SITE PLAN:circulation and movementintegration of plants and people
final sectional modellight conditions and range
AXONOMETRIC HYBRID:inhabiting the angle
and connecting to its waterfront site
RISD MACHTPLATZ
sketchup massing modeland site drawing
in collaboration with:Taylor Haywood
Nicholas CoteJungmoon Choi
towards a new making placefor all of RISD campusstudio and workshop
focused on detailscalculations and responsibilities
structural integrityand conceptual alignment
environmental considerationsand integration of design
INTEGRATED BUILDING SYSTEMSProfessor Jonathan Knowles
Rhode Island School of DesignSeptember - December 2014
MASSING EVOLUTION
WUFI STUDY:envelope integrity of detailby Passivhaus software
FINAL MASSING STUDY
SINGLE BAY DETAIL MODEL:structure and expression of single bay in bridge component
FACADE DETAIL MODEL:structure and expressionof facade and openingsin bridge component
SECTION DRAWING:circulation tower, studio bridge,and workshop block
SECTION DETAIL:studio bridge structure
and pop out facade detail
EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES
constantly challenge boundaries and expectations;
exploration and discovery as impetusfor personal and professional growth
Overall WinnerPreview Museum CompetitionMuseum of Science FictionAdvisor Carl LostrittoSept 2014
informal beginnings of thesis interests
learning to integrate concept and techniqueefficient representation
concept: scalable cubeobject or architectureinside, contents evoke curiositytilted reality
ambition: constructable but atypicaleconomic but wondrousphysically temporarypsychologically permanent
SCI-FI PREVIEW MUSEUM
Architectural ProjectionsProfessor Peter DorseyMar - May 2013
by hand,exploring Ronchamp in depththrough details and analysisgeometry and space-making
by Rhinomodeling and explodingCorbusier’s elementsconfiguring and reconfiguringarchitectural components as objects
process and objectone and the same
RONCHAMP ANALYSIS
Thirteen Ways a ContainerAdvisor Silvia Acosta
Between words, images, and objects lies an architectural process.
Working between writing and drawing simultaneously influences both and strenghtens both.
This is based on my written adaptation of Wallace Stevens’ poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.”
These drawings and writings examine a sense of oneness in multiplicity, blending earth and sky, inside and outside, reality and anticipation. An embodiment of everything around it, inside it, expected of it, the container is.
FAIRYTALES COMPETITION 2015
Ceramics Sculpture for Non-MajorsProfessor Jan HolcombFeb - May 2015
playing with the level of control, allowing clay to do what it does bestmushing and mergingdrooping and remembering
its creation is dependent on and inspired bynatural processes:
gravitywindairwater
this is the beginning of a series of explorations in establishing site for thesis
CERAMIC GEOLOGIES
Materials LaboratoryRISD WintersessionJan - Feb 2013
plastics: plexiglas and recycled felt
learning by makingtesting through mistakespushing convention
by playingby experimenting
PLASTIC AND HEAT
Re-centering CentroidProfessor Anastasia CongdonMar 2013
building and balancingintuitively, trusting
plywood forms driven by the scroll-sawlearning to adapt and adjust
by hand and by machine
SPAN AND BALANCE
RISD Architecture DepartmentGraduate AssistantshipSept 2014 - May 2015
Under the guidance of Professor Aaron Forrest, our team of five graduate assistants plan and install the exhibitions that rotate through the BEB architecture gallery.
Our involvement ranges from simple painting and installing to building custom tables to a more in-depth collaboration with So-il from NYC.
My specific work with So-il entailed the experimentation of casting doubly curved thin plaster shells at a larger scale. Jiali Xuan and I tested different methods of fabric casting in conjunction with So-il architects to strengthen the piece despite its thinness. Our final piece and its formwork were incorporated into the exhibition.
CAST PLASTER SHELLS
Photography Credits to:Brandon Wang, Jiali Xuan, Natalie Kruch
Learning to WeldPersonal ProjectAug 2012
working with steelfor enjoymentand curiosity
how we wieldhow we storeknives
benefits of materialsefficiencyeasewhimsystrength
KNIFE RACK
Dartmouth CollegeConstruction VolunteeringSept 2008 - Jun 2010
Through my tenure at Dartmouth College, I volunteered extensively with the Dartmouth Outing Club both in outdoor leadership and in construction projects.
Two primary projects with which I spent significant time were a full-scribe cabin on Gilman Island on the Connecticut River and a traditional timber frame cabin at the base of Mount Moosilauke in the White Mountains.
Through these two projects, I learned and participated in the chainsawing and felling process, de-barking, detailing mortise and tenon connections with hand tools, structural frame raising, putting together of components, strengthening structural integrity with diagonal braces, raw finishing, and adjustment process for continuing to dry logs.
Working with my hands and participating in construction are just as interesting to me as conceptual thinking and design. It is the integration of process, from diagram to concept to tree selection to barn-raising, that is so potent in the making of this world, and what drives me as an architect.
Photography Credits to: Phil Bracikowski, Greg Sokol, Lucas Schulz
GETTING DIRTY
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
907.317.7459 [email protected] www.emilysingeryen.comp: e: w: