stephanie youngportfolio

address: 112-01 Queens Blvd #23D Forest Hills, NY 11375phone: 347-613-1658email: steph88nyc@gmail.com

CONTENTS

.FILM INSTITUTE - LOS ANGELES, CA

.MEDIUM DENSITY HOUSING - LOS FELIZ, CA

.CIVIC CENTER - LOS ANGELES, CA

.OBSERVATORY - LAS CAMPANAS, CHILE

.INTERNATIONAL STUDENT CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURE - COMO, ITALY

.URBAN GENERATOR - LOS ANGELES, CA

.LUNAR CITY MODULE - THE MOON

The site next to the Bradbury building contains an easement for access into the existing parking structure. There is urban pedestrian activity including a pathway through to the backside.

FILM INSTITUTE-

SITE: Downtown Los Angeles, adjacent lot to Bradbury Building

PROGRAM: Film archive, libraries, small theater, large theater, offices, conference room, exhibition space

2ND YEAR FA’07

The resulting scheme is a dialogue between solid and void, the voids being light wells that slice through the building and yield a looping circulation on each level at the center of which is a circulation core. This gesture in plan alludes to the continuous movement of a film projector.

unitsprivate open space

retailunitscirculationplaza

impact frommountain view

MEDIUM DENSITY HOUSINGSITE: Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California

PROGRAM: 45 apartment units, laundry room, health food store, used book store, art store.

3RD YEAR FA’08

The form of this building was derived from one main site force: the view of the Hollywood Hills to the north. I translated that view into a single impact into the back of the building, placing the main circulation throughout

In contrast, the front facade contains smaller impacts pushing in and out, providing each unit with natural south sun shading and a unique relationship between each apartment. The above study models were made to investigate possible screening configurations.

Outside each unit is an outdoor seating area framed by concrete planters behind which are bicycle racks, suitable for the very biker-friendly community of Los Feliz.

ceremonialadministrativesocial

rampsstairs egress

CIVIC CENTER3RD YEAR SP’09

SITE: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California

PROGRAMS: council chamber, offices, social hall, classrooms

The courtyard typology resonates with Southern California and provides the building with natural cross ventilation

employees’ circulationvisitors’ circulation

north-southwinter rise-summer set axes

OBSERVATORYSITE: Las Campanas, Chile

PROGRAMS: Auxiliary building, Facilities building (offices, laboratories), Visitor’s center, Living pro-

grams (astronomer/staff housing, recreation etc.)

4TH YEAR FA’09

Extension of swimming pool into housing allows for evaporative cooling behind a mesh screen.

FUTUREDYNAMIC

PASTSTATIC

PRESENT

USC INTERNATIONAL STUDENT CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURESITE: Como, Italy

PROGRAMS: Exhibition space, cafe, library, architecture studios, audito-rium, dormitories, faculty apartments and dining halls

4TH YEAR SP’10

-

ECHO PARK

EAST LOS ANGELES

COMMERCE

RIVERSITE RAILROAD STREETS FREEWAYS

ECHO PARK

EAST LOS ANGELES

COMMERCE

ECHO PARK

EAST LOS ANGELES

COMMERCE

RIVERSITE RAILROAD STREETS FREEWAYS

ECHO PARK

EAST LOS ANGELES

COMMERCE

ECHO PARK

EAST LOS ANGELES

COMMERCE

RIVERSITE RAILROAD STREETS FREEWAYS

ECHO PARK

EAST LOS ANGELES

COMMERCE

1

URBAN GENERATORSITE: Los Angeles, CA

PROGRAMS: Urban farm, parkscape and farmer’s market

5TH YEAR SP’10

An urban phenomena: bridging communities severed from each other.

An urban phenomena: turning air polluter into air promoter.

The cool earth solar module: a very lightweight inflated solar concetrator made out of lightweight and inexpensive materials

FARMER’S MARKET CONNECTION

The final scheme features a massive drape of farm and park scape that implements solar powered air filtration units. This system would scrub the polluted air and act as shields for the crops against the freeways’ exhaust and brake dust, thereby countering the freeways’ image as pollutor.

The farming drape reacts to two forces: accessibility from the main roads and the type of terrain it covers. Any Interstitial green space immediately adjacent to a surface street becomes primary farm area and tries to extend to the next street. As a result, long strips of farm space stretch between the main roads, which become both the farms’ access points and their connective tissue.

The interstitial spaces engage the farming drape in two ways. Where terrain is a high mound, the drape dips down to merge with the existing soil. Where it’s low, the farm becomes infill with the air filtration units acting as retaining walls. The areas of the drape that do not make contact with terrain are per-forated, letting in at least some sunlight for fern growth. Additionally, there are breaks in the air filters that let light into the tunneled freeways, providing drivers views looking up into the farms.

PROPOSAL ABSTRACT

In this day and age great strides are being made in gaining a better understanding of our planet as its environmental crises continue to escalate. Research stations devoted to this cause are abundant in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions and throughout the world’s oceans1. We have even assembled humankind’s first and only research station in space: the International Space Station orbits our planet while its crew conducts experiments in a variety of sciences

2

. All these efforts were made to uphold the responsibility of studying our planet and finding solutions to its worsening state. More importantly, humans are now able to live in these remote environments for extended periods of time and stay connected with the rest of the world. Whether in Antarctica or New York City, people everywhere are engaged in a growing virtual world during this era of accelerating telecommunications. As our digital lives expand, architecture acquires a role in developing new social, spatial and sustainable conditions, particularly in extreme environments where virtual connectivity is vital. My proposal is to develop a new architectural model in the form of a research facility that responds to this developing condition and to test it on the Moon where both virtual connectivity and scientific initiatives are essential.

1 Ruth Slavid. Extreme Architecture: Building for Challenging Environments. (London: Laurence King, 2009), 7.2 “NASA - International Space Station.” NASA - Home. Web. 05 Nov. 2010. <http://www.nasa.gov/ mission_pages/station/main/index.html>.

LUNAR CITY MODULE

When a future time and place generates shifted paradigms, and new freedoms and restrictions, certain elements of architecture and planning remain vital to the unpredictability of human behavior, particularly the dialogue between interior and exterior spaces and the overlapping of different programs.

The emphasis is on modules and the way they can aggregate and generate a design that both borrows and separates from planning and architecture as we know it on Earth.

THESIS PROJECT

2085

2045

2025

2015

Hermetic Architecture in History

Technology will never cease to progress. As our cities become increasingly immersed in a growing virtual environment, people’s lifestyles and workflows will face constant change. As we send emails, text our friends, and shop online, there is a tendency to seal ourselves within a virtual space. Yet in reverting further into ourselves, we are able to accomplish so much and always remain connected to each other. As information and communication technologies continue to accelerate, it is clear that this “hermetic culture” will permeate the way we approach architecture. The role of real physical spaces will change as cyberspaces expand. As we continue to seal ourselves in self-imposed hermetic realms, our associations with physical space will change. Today it is evident that live and work spaces and public and private zones are overlapping each other as we have become so digitally interconnected.

Omega Point and Noosphere

One way to understand how hermetic culture impacts architecture is to examine the extent to which it has changed people’s socialization patterns. Professor of culture and communication Scott McQuire asserts that technologies—whether it’s the telegraph or internet—are often seen as disruptive forces once introduced to the world and incorporated into people’s everyday lives. He claims that they have the potential to “disembed existing social relations”1. This has certainly happened in recent years due to our ability to communicate at the speed of light. We are globalizing rapidly, and it is evident that the technologies which enabled our hermetic culture have always been about making connections. According to Alejandro Zaera-Polo, as globalization accelerates the pace of social, cultural and political change, architectural typology can become the catalyst for the experimentation of new urban models2. The philosopher priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin would claim that our globalization will eventually spur the entire human population to organize itself into more complex social networks and ultimately reach an “Omega Point” of human interaction3. His contemporary, Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky would add that this will result in a “Noosphere”,

1 Scott McQuire. The Media City: Media, Architecture and Urban Space. (Los Angeles, Calif.: Sage, 2008),

8.2 Peder Anker. From Bauhaus to Ecohouse: a History of Ecological Design. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State

UP, 2010), 56

3 Anker, 88.

Hermetic culture

Hermetic form

Un-hermetic form

the name given to the Earth when the interaction of human minds will culminate in the development of renewable resources for our planet1. In essence, these thinkers imagined a future in which such a utopian social condition was made possible by human connectivity. Our hermetic culture continues to nurture this connectivity.

Biosphere 2 and Spaceship Earth

The concept of Vernadsky’s Noosphere can already be detected in a fascinating scientific experiment and architectural complex located in Oracle, Arizona known as Biosphere 22. In addition to being the model of a closed ecological system for future space colonization, it also subjected its inhabitants to a “confined environment psychology” which, according to researcher Jane Poytner, should have been further studied3. Another example of the way people’s interactions in a hermetic environment can shape design is Constance Adams’s design of the Transit Habitat module for the International Space Station. Adams conducted a “social ergonomic analysis” to determine how people dwelling in closed habitats start to behave as a single entity4. It is possible that the resulting psychologies is a derivative of hermetic culture and can determine the optimal organization of spaces within the architecture.

Another realm of discussion is to do with the direct integration of information and communication technologies within architecture. This new state of design can generate an increased awareness of technology thereby stressing the importance to reverse its harmful by-products through sustainable practices in architecture. One of the first individuals to explore principles of energy efficiency and sustainability since the 1960s was Buckminster Fuller who exercised his vision for “Spaceship Earth”, a concept which compares our planet to a ship whose crew must work together to conserve its limited resources5. Fuller argued fervently that architects and designers should be tasked with taking over and successfully operating Spaceship Earth6.

1 Paul R. Samson and David Pitt. The Biosphere and Noosphere Reader: Global Environment, Society, and Change. (London: Routledge, 1999), 5.2 Anker, 113.3 “Biosphere 2.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio-

sphere_2>.4 Kim Dismukes. “HSF - TransHab.” NASA Human Space Flight. 06 June 2003. Web. 05 Nov.

5 Anker, 68.6 Anker, 80.

Programmatic Elements of Hermetic Architecture

Fuller’s passionate understanding of Spaceship Earth was derived from his time served aboard U.S. naval vessels where the art of military survival taught him how to do “more with less”1. Since ships and submarines are fundamentally hermetic environments, the sustainable living required within them is another layer of our hermetic culture. If such is the case, then hermetic culture can yield a “hermetic form”. Within this hermetic form is the potential for new architectural configurations to occur. This concept of hermetic form revisits the architecture of enclosed ecological spaces such as Biosphere 2 or the Transit Habitat. First is the question of its programmatic arrangement.

Organization of program can be determined by people’s socialization patterns as well as their live and work flows. This returns to Mitchell’s discussion concerning the possible creation of electronically-mediated dwellings that merge the live and work program. Constance Adam’s “TransHab” module placed particular emphasis on the importance of individual privacy to ensure that its inhabitants avoid personal clashes2. It is also important to address people’s mobility within an enclosed environment. Since computer terminals and smartphones allow people to access whatever they need, hermetic culture launches them into a very sedentary lifestyle, minimizing physical movement from place to place. Obviously this is not beneficial for one’s health. Spaces should be arranged in ways that are both efficient and conducive to bodily movement.

Second to explore in hermetic form is its relationship between the interior and exterior. Hermetic forms require the creation of an “outdoors” within, not just for the purpose of agriculture and atmospheric maintenance but for aesthetic reasons as well. As humans continue to move further into a hermetic culture, there is an opportunity to bring more of the outside in to remind people there is a natural world that is real and more sensorial than anything the virtual world can provide. A mere window might not be enough. On land, the terrace, patio or backyard begins to serve this function. In the sea, a ship’s deck does the same. However, if the environment is underwater or on an ice cap, then an exterior condition must be sealed.

1 Anker, 43.2 Dismukes, 1.

The Moon as Site

In a speech delivered by President Barack Obama at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in April 2010 he states, “Fifty years after the creation of NASA, our goal is no longer just a destination to reach. Our goal is the capacity for people to work and learn and operate and live safely beyond the Earth for extended periods of time, ultimately in ways that are more sustainable and even indefinite1.” President Obama’s push for a more ambitious agenda in space exploration is an acknowledgment of our need to look to space when considering the future of design.

The most drastic measure architects can take in testing the definitive hermetic architecture would be launching it into space. Socially, it must be generative of a near-utopian social network. Spatially, it should mold to our growing digital lives since virtual connectivity is critical. Sustainably, it is a model that should trickle back to Earth. On the subject of architecture in space, Peder Anker asserts that “the technology, terminology and methodology developed for ecological colonization of space became tools for solving environmental problems on board Spaceship Earth2.”

1 “NASA - President Barack Obama on Space Exploration in the 21st Century.” NASA - Home. 15 Apr. 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. <http://www.nasa.gov/news/media/trans/obama_ksc_trans.html>.2 Anker, 84.3 Sarah Hart. “There Is No North Arrow in Space.” Architectural Record. Web. <http://archrecord.construction.com/resources/conteduc/archives/0212space-1.asp>.

COMMAND CENTER

LABORATORIES

INDUSTRIALGROWTH

TOURISM

LIFESTYLEGROWTH

WILDERNESS

CIVIC GROWTHAGRICULTURALGROWTH

SPACEPORT

SPACEPORT

HABITATIONGROWTH

COMMANDCENTER

ENGINEER

user group

outpost lifestyle

SCIENTIST

EXPLORER

ANTHROPOLOGIST

ARTIST

MERCHANT

TOURIST

DOCTOR

CIVIC LEADER

LABORATORY

DNA VAULT

WORKYARD

WORKSHOPS

LIBRARY

LIBRARY

HOTEL

MUSEUM

HEALTH CLINIC

OFFICESOLAR HARVESTING

phase I population: 1,500 residents and touriststotal area: 206,960 square meters

CLASSROOM

GYM

FARM

HABITAT

GARDEN

PARK/BIOME

SHOP

RESTAURANT

The knowledge gained form building in space will infiltrate the mainstream on Earth, changing the way architects approach design and construction3. While buildings on Earth are demolished and dumped in landfills, obsolete structures in space are disassembled and reused. On earth, portability of products and systems is still a fledgling industry whereas in space portability is a necessity for economic launch and deployment.4

The Moon is the ideal test bed for hermetic architecture. Although the objective is to incorporate a self-sustaining system, the moon’s geology is ideal for in-situ resource utilization5, meaning there is opportunity to use the moon’s natural resources to minimize the materials necessary from Earth. For example, the regolith that covers most of the rock on the moon is able to provide protection against radiation if integrated within the architecture6.

4 Hart, 5.5 http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/203084main_ISRU%20TEC%2011-07%20V3.pdf6 Slavid, 195.

public/community space(interiorized outdoors)

private programs(aggregating units)

infrastructural datum

COMMAND CENTER

LABORATORIES

INDUSTRIALGROWTH

TOURISM

LIFESTYLEGROWTH

WILDERNESS

CIVIC GROWTHAGRICULTURALGROWTH

SPACEPORT

SPACEPORT

HABITATIONGROWTH

COMMANDCENTER

ENGINEER

user group

outpost lifestyle

SCIENTIST

EXPLORER

ANTHROPOLOGIST

ARTIST

MERCHANT

TOURIST

DOCTOR

CIVIC LEADER

LABORATORY

DNA VAULT

WORKYARD

WORKSHOPS

LIBRARY

LIBRARY

HOTEL

MUSEUM

HEALTH CLINIC

OFFICESOLAR HARVESTING

phase I population: 1,500 residents and touriststotal area: 206,960 square meters

CLASSROOM

GYM

FARM

HABITAT

GARDEN

PARK/BIOME

SHOP

RESTAURANT

The module consists of a lightweight aluminum space frame that becomes a collapsible secondary structure within which a translucent mylar inflatable suspended within.

DEPLOYMENT

MISCELLANEOUS2011 ‘TOP FUEL’ WORKSHOPweek-long workshop exploring building skins and constructing 1:1 mock-ups

FREEHAND SKETCHESselected drawings from my travels in Italy