Table of Contents:
• Lab Imprint
• Cover to Cover
• Fab Tree Hab
Throughout my career, I have cultivated a fascination with technological systems and strategic resilient design, concepts that continue to shape my work. I am driven by curiosity and a strong desire to visualize ideas.
I recognize the high stakes of the field I practice in and approach that responsibility with care and intention.
Minimal space does not mean minimal care. The project proposes a modular, off-site research station designed for disassembly, approaching architecture from its end of life toward its beginning. Recognizing the temporary nature of inhabitation, the structure redefines minimalism by introducing comfort, warmth, and familiarity within an otherwise unlivable environment.
This project questions conventional approaches to inhabiting extreme environments by designing with the site rather than against it. The modular, off-site research station embraces Antarctica’s conditions, using snow as insulation and protection instead of treating it as an obstacle.
By merging architecture with the environment, the station redefines minimalism through comfort, warmth, and familiarity within an otherwise uninhabitable landscape. In a territory indifferent to human presence, architecture becomes the sole mediator between humans and their surroundings, transforming isolation into belonging. The station stands as a contemporary monument to human presence grounded in endurance and coexistence.
Location: Antartica
Course: YACADEMY - Offsite Technologies
Tutor: Nicola Scaranaro / Foster + Partners
Term: Nov 2025 - Feb 2026
The horizontal structure is assembled from 2-meter-long modules (A &B), optimized for transportation and ease of handling. Two module types are used: single-floor modules and double-floor modules, allowing programmatic variation along the length. Modules are mechanically connected through internal structural joints, keeping the exterior façade continuous and smooth, ensuring uninterrupted sliding during removal and preventing ice bonding at the envelope.
Structural and façade modules are prefabricated off-site in controlled conditions. Modules are transported and assembled into larger horizontal units on site. Units are mounted onto ski-runner bases and structurally connected. Mechanical and electrical systems are linked by module.
Antarctica plays a critical role in regulating global climate systems, yet it remains one of the least instrumented and most inaccessible regions on Earth. The station is positioned in Commonwealth Bay, near the Australian and African continents, a location selected for its advantageous time zones and logistical access for material transportation. The bay’s distinctive geography provides natural protection from strong winds while offering researchers a strategic vantage point to study diverse ice conditions and surrounding biodiversity.
The station remains fully operational and buried within accumulated snow. Prior to disassembly, access zones are cleared and mechanical systems are isolated by module. Pressure-relief drilling in the surrounding ice reduces bonding and prepares the structure for phased removal.
The vertical tower is dismantled first, floor by floor, reversing its construction sequence. Structural loads are reduced and services disconnected, clearing the path for the horizontal extraction of the main station.
The horizontal structure is removed in modular segments. Side excavation and drilled relief holes release ice pressure. Each module is disconnected, systems shut down, and slowly slid out on ski runners through controlled incremental movement.
After removal, a negative ice mold remains, shaped by years of snow accumulation. This temporary cavity acts as an ice shelter and spatial archive, gradually deforming and sealing as the landscape returns to ice.
11.
15. Inspectable suspended ceiling
16. Precast driveable floor slab (vehicular-rated)
17. External ring beam / edge beam capping
18. Insulated precast ring beam / edge beam
Initial Occupation (Year 0)
Partial Ground Floor Coverage (≈ 2–3 Years)
Full Ground Floor Coverage (≈ 4–5 Years)
First Floor Coverage (≈ 8+ Years)
Over time the station gradually integrates with its environment through natural snow accumulation. As the snowpack grows, the lower levels become embedded within the ice, improving thermal stability and transforming the building into a partially insulated structure. The station is designed for a crew of nineteen people, including
twelve researchers and seven support staff, a number selected to balance scientific productivity, operational needs, and psychological well-being during extended isolation. While the exterior adapts to changing environmental conditions, shared interior spaces remain a stable social core for the research community.
In Mexico, the roof is more than shelter. It is a gesture of protection without restriction, an open system connecting public and private, formal and informal, individual and collective. This project re-imagines the block around Mercado de San Cosme as a shared framework for vendors, fonda owners, and working class residents.
Rather than replacing existing dynamics, the proposal builds upon them. A new civic infrastructure becomes visible, anchored by a roof that collects and distributes essential resources. This canopy becomes a shared asset, delivering water, electricity, shade, and other services across spaces, redistributing value between areas often divided by front and back of house functions.
Inspired by the traditional Mexican markets, the project blurred thresholds to support both formal and informal economies while integrating affordable housing for young families. It addresses inequality through unity, offering dignity, shared purpose, and a renewed sense of belonging rooted in cultural life.
Location: San Rafael, Mexico City
Course: ADV Studio VI
Partner: Seong Hyun Leem
Professor: Gabriela Carrillo & Thomas De Monchaux
Term: Spring 2025
We approached Mercado de San Cosme by looking beyond its existing roof and into the spaces between. The market’s layout revealed underused pockets and overlooked edges, offering the opportunity to insert new structures that would both fill these gaps and create new ones for gathering, circulation, and exchange. These insertions aim to extend the market’s activity into surrounding streets while introducing housing that benefits from and contributes to the daily life of the market. By stitching together these spaces, the project forms a network of living, working, and public areas that evolve with the community over time.
We opened the San Cosme to the public by prioritizing human and pedestrian movement over cars, extending the market outward and blurring the boundaries between formal and informal, public and private. In Mexico, markets reflect a culture shaped by warmth, joy, and generosity, where social life naturally extends beyond walls.
Mercados are home to many forms of talent. Beyond selling food, people repair cars, offer care, provide therapy, friendship, and healing. It is common for individuals
to embody multiple skills, and this layered normality became central to the project. We translated this mentality into architecture by designing a building that is as complex, adaptive, and performative as its users.
Mercados also bring together all generations, from infants resting with their parents, to children playing after school, to grandparents shopping for their families. The project creates a welcoming environment for all ages, reflecting the concept of “cover to cover” as both a spatial and social condition.
This conceptual model is inspired by the reflected ceiling plan of Mercado de San Cosme, which informs both the facade and the interior programming of the building. Constructed from found objects, the model explores how the roof’s open and connective logic can extend vertically. A kinetic element allows the structure to shift, generating multiple spatial configurations that reflect the adaptable and ever changing character of the market.
The project proposes a redefinition of housing. Rather than understanding housing solely as shelter, it is envisioned as an extension of the individual. With this idea in mind, the residential unit is treated as a market stall. By maximizing usable surface, residents are able to transform and personalize their homes according to evolving needs. The space can support selling goods, teaching, or functioning as a more traditional dwelling.
The intervention reclaims an underused parking area in front of Mercado de San Cosme, a space already informally occupied for gathering and storage. The project extends the market into the street, increasing pedestrian activity and strengthening its civic presence.
Conceived as a growth of the existing market, the structure reuses and reorganizes shared water and electrical systems. Infrastructure becomes collective, allowing resources to be distributed efficiently across market and housing spaces.
Detail Unit Plan
Located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Terreform ONE is a nonprofit architecture and design research group dedicated to advancing a socio ecological future. Guided by the principle design against extinction, the studio integrates biotechnology and architecture to support biodiversity within urban environments.
One of their explorations, ELM, envisions living architecture as a system grown from biological materials that serve both human use and ecological function. The project proposes an all natural pergola that incorporates planters and habitat spaces to support birds, insects, squirrels, and other species.
As co-founder Mitchell Joachim explains, “It is a multi tiered structure that cares for avian species, insects, squirrels, and all our friends on the outside of our building. It begins with scaffolding and multi species facades. We fit the scaffolding with willows from farms, and after a year or two we remove the scaffolding and reuse it elsewhere, arriving at a multi species system held together by living structures.”
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Course: Summer Internship
Professor: TERREFORM ONE
Term: Summer 2023
I developed a Grasshopper script that simulates natural growth patterns to inform the organic form of each habitat module. This algorithmic process generated complex geometries derived from biological structures, allowing the modules to integrate seamlessly with their surrounding environment. Once the designs were finalized, they were
fabricated through a precise 3D printing process, translating digital models into durable physical components capable of supporting multiple species. This workflow grounded the project in natural logic while enabling a direct and continuous transition from computational design to ecologically integrated architecture.
The research centered on developing a 3D printed system capable of withstanding harsh weather conditions while maintaining structural integrity over time. The objective was to identify a material, coating, or fabrication process that ensures long term durability. These printed elements, potentially made from ceramics or other environmentally responsible materials, are designed to support plant and animal life for decades. As noted during the design
process, “If we want this structure to last a minimum of fifteen years, the time required for trees to establish, we cannot leave raw fibers exposed to the elements.” The finalized components are suspended within the wooden modules shown to the right, each acting as a protective cradle for future habitats. Together, they form a resilient system that integrates durability, ecological performance, and long term environmental stewardship.
https://www.terreform.org/fab-tree-hab
This project proposes a global facility managed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to transform carbon removal technologies into scalable, proven solutions. By testing different technologies in diverse, controlled environments, the facility will rate their efficiency, price, embodied carbon, resilience, and carbon capture capacity.
This initiative addresses urgent climate needs by ensuring solutions are ready for global deployment, tailored to diverse conditions around the world. Bridging technology and policy, the facility creates a foundation for a thriving, equitable carbon removal market and offers hope to avoid irreversible global
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico Course: ADV Studio V
Professor: David Benjamin Term: Fall 2024
The images on the left were taken during a visit to Bandelier National Monument, once home to the Tewa and Keres Pueblo peoples. Their architecture demonstrates how built form responds to environmental extremes through material intelligence, adaptation, and resilience.
Shaped by water, wind, and time, this landscape offers a powerful context for architectural testing. The proposed Biome structure draws from Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome, a system defined by structural efficiency, lightweight construction, and modular
logic. Its geometry distributes forces evenly, minimizes material use, and encloses large volumes without internal supports. Prefabricated off site and assembled with precision, the dome creates a controlled interior.
Scalability in the Next 10 Years: DAC: 60% – High scalability, but costly.
Dependencies on this technique?
Dependencies on this technique? Carbon Mineralization
Scalability in the Next 10 Years: Carbon Mineralization: 30% – Limited by geography.
Scalability in the Next 10 Years: 12% Slower due to material handling.
Dependencies on this technique?
Our paths are firm and stable with accessible grades. Trails have varying terrain and are designed to be experienced on foot in comfortable shoes.
The Trails connect with the larger site of Taos (14 miles) and with the Bandelier Monument trail (6 miles) with this one being more challenging due to it’s steep inclination.
This project builds on global frameworks like the UNFCCC to create a scalable model for sustainability. By incorporating closed-loop systems and public engagement, it seeks to bridge technological innovation with accessible design for a sustainable future.
Terrariums
These terrariums were constructed from recycled materials to explore the logic and elegance of closed loop systems, where resources are continuously reused and sustained within a contained environment. Water, air, and nutrients circulate internally, allowing life to thrive independently without external input.
The process of making these terrariums mirrors the behavior of closed loop ecosystems and offers insight into how resilient, self sustaining systems can inform future approaches to sustainable urban living and environmental design. The goal, to understand and control parameters.
Care
Difficulty
Water
Light
Container
Supplies
Recycled glass jar
Measuring cup
Plant mister
Small scissors
Ingredients in order
• 1.5 Cups - Leca Clay Pebbles
• Window Metal Mesh
• 2 Cups - Sphagnum Moss (mix)
• .25 Cup - Orchid Bark (mix)
• .25 Cup - Charcoal (mix)
• 1 Cup - Coco Fibre (mix)
• .25 Cup - Worm Castings (mix)
• Spider Wood
• Dragon Stones
• Cushion Moss
• Air Plants
• Spring-tails
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”
- Richard Buckminster Fuller
“If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.”
- Richard Buckminster Fuller
