SUZIE FELIX PORTFOLIO
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Envision Resilience Competition Precedent Study | Water and Wave Analysis
This quote from the poem “Do Not Love Half Lovers” by Khalil Gibran was the driving inspiration behind this design: “Do not dream half a dream ... Half the way will get you nowhere Half an idea will bear you no results.” I knew that the solution to a water issue had to come from water itself. One of my peers suggested building directly in the water, and that idea stuck -and ended up bearing real results. I am glad I did not dream half a dream, because the design is not only possible; it has a real-world precedent in the Salmon Eye restaurant in Norway.
In this community design project, I designed a floating structure that serves as a restaurant, positioned at the center of a ring of floating short-term rental units. The project was part of a group design that responds to climate change and rising sea levels in Portland, Maine, and was developed for a design competition organized by Envision Resilience. Since climate change is closely tied to rising water, the project follows the logic of water itself, its movement, its ripples, the rhythm of waves. After studying these patterns, we used them to inform the design. Instead of trying to block the water out, the project embraces it, building directly on it as a way to live with, rather than against, the changing environment. Modeling Clay and Spaghetti Sticks.
Envision Resilience Competition Parti Diagram | Study Models
Envision Resilience Competition 3D Model Development | Plans | Elevations | Section | Interior
Envision Resilience Competition Floating Structures: Response to climate change in Portland, Maine.
Library Seat & Water Treatment Building
The design for this library seat explores how a simple object can adapt and grow with its user. The seat is designed for children, with three adjustable heights to accommodate different ages. It snaps together without glue or fasteners, keeping assembly easy and safe. While the library’s concept features two elements pivoting away from a central point, this chair flips the idea; its two pieces move toward each other to form a sturdy, unified seat. Material: Plywood.
Independent study, a small water treatment plant reimagined to feel more connected to its purpose. The design features a curved roof that stretches over a half-circle structure, modeled entirely in Revit. The form grew naturally from observing how water moves.
Allen Whitney Visitor Center
“Standing at the Crossroads” As we meander through the forest, we encounter many crossroads that shape the course of our journey. A crossroads raises a question: “Which direction should we go?” And it also whispers the answer: it depends on the call we are choosing to answer in that moment. Our Visitor Center stands at such a crossroad. Its very geometry is defined by the path leading to the neighboring body of water; its form is shaped by water itself. Whether we come to the woods to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life or simply to wander, this place -at the crossroad- brings us full circle to the familiar unknown, helping us uncover the answers that were with us all along.
Spiritual Center
The Four Elements Fire
Air
Earth
Water
In developing this architecture, the Four Elements became a foundation for creating an open and inclusive space, one that belongs to no single faith, but offers a place of reflection and gathering for people of all beliefs and for those who hold none.
This small writer’s retreat is a place for solitude, contemplation, and daydreaming, which this project will promote through the use of angled windows. These windows not only capture a specific scene like an artwork on a wall, but also focus the writer’s horizon on the infinite views of the sky and the lake. The triangle, the only rigid two-dimensional shape, is used as a design concept for these modules because it is born out of order. When placed in the woods, which are born out of chaos, the triangle creates a paradox -the paradox of life. Therefore, the writer is forced to question her or his surroundings and perhaps find some answers in the dynamic but seemingly constant views of the sky and the lake, which are the only direct views from the inside, from within.
Writer’s Retreat
Thank You!