Tiny Home Competition 2021 by Design Class
In collaboration with Christine Smith and LeAnna Gilmer.
Role: Designer and Project Manager
In the absence of modern technology, our tiny home reconnects us with ourselves, partner(s), and family by extending into nature and within—a collective refuge providing an intermission from the increasing globalization of the world we inhabit. Minimally designed, so daylight embraces us with a soft touch of warmth while framing the environment’s natural sways – a frozen moment captured and uninterrupted.
From an initial glance to habitation, our home invites you into your home. An irrefutable question arises – are we prioritizing what’s important?
This refuge invites and allows strangers to co-exist with others, whether it be a brief or prolonged period. A home’s importance is no more than the intrinsic value belonging to its inhabitants, and as such, a reminder that time supersedes life. And so, this collective refuge is a temporary location for individuals seeking to revitalize and wake up from the lull that rapid globalization placed on us.
Our proposal offered two living experiences; the teeny house or the tiny home.
Each teeny house in the retreat serves an individual or couple by providing the simplest necessities; a bed, shower, closet, and a workspace.
The tiny home features those necessities with the inclusion of a kitchen, occupiable roof, and greenhouse. The tiny home supports the retreat’s dietary needs through the greenhouse, compost, and cooking, which a couple or small family operates. Now, the greenhouse becomes a pivotal element acting as an intermediary portal from the exterior environment to the main house, as well as providing sustenance.
Just like two living experiences, our design upholds two thoughts. The first, minimizing technological reliance through immersing oneself in the natural environment. The second, encouraging designers with their vehicles or tiny houses to travel to our site to stay, recharge, and re-envision their creation.
Art is collaborative; being home is an Experience; The Experience is Art.
AIA 20′ Spring Competition
A small oyster research hatchery on the shoreline of the Lafayette river in downtown Norfolk that will inspire the public to learn about the significance of oyster farming to the local economy and the health of the Chesapeake bay.
Created post-submission to develop graphic representation in my body of work.
Adapt Competition by mOOO
In collaboration with Matias Osei.
The collective crisis exposes our deep interdependencies between social and physical systems requiring us to utilize the voids from the built environment to empower the infrastructure of health in cities. The phenomena that our generation is faced with exacerbated the mental strain on the public by changing the way we work and interact. Our answer is to reformat and promote the relationships between hutongs, alleys, and rooftops through the act of dance in order to achieve our goal. By utilizing the voids in cities while introducing dance into everyday life, the cost to empower the infrastructure of health is minimal and accessible. Think, Zumba on the roof overlooking the city skyline! Dance is a cathartic expression of a multitude of emotions; joy, sadness, fear, jubilance, etc., benefiting mental health. We’ve recently seen similar examples in cities! Restaurants have overtaken the streets to expand for people’s safety, so, is it not possible to do the same with dancing? Currently, there’s a large exodus from cities that forces us to ask, “What will happen to cities now?” However, we believe cities will evolve and continue to stay fluid through the generations to come if we can optimize the built environment. To further impact cities, we hope that the utilization of voids can lead to diverse socio-economic demographics throughout cities. This will lessen the impact of future catastrophes and redefine essential employees. By creating pockets of diverse economic ecosystems in cities, it will benefit not only the welfare of society but shift how we think about urban design. Ultimately, the use and layering of void spaces will have a positive domino-effect in sectors or whole cities through the act of dance.
MoMinhts 