- senior thesis
- design assembly cabin
- columbia intervention
- imaginary dwelling
- nyc apartment
- pratt institute floorplan
Digital Collages
These digital and physical photocollages were primarily completed for the course Architecture and the Environment at Middlebury College, the Columbia GSAPP summer intro to architecture program, and my own personal explorations. They explore themes of ritual and ceremonies, roots and cultural connections, home, utopias, and infiltration and more. The collages provide diagramatic explorations for architectural themes that can be seen throughout the included projects.
2025
“Carbon Lovers”
This collage was completed for a study on Carbon, and how carbon impacts construction and the environment in architecture. I used an image that I took on a small beach in Denmark, outside of Odsherrd. There were two people on the dunes, talking quietly to each other, enjoying nature and their environment. In relation to carbon, I created a checkered frame that alternates colors and opacity, each relating to a diffrent natural element on the periodic table, e.g. Carbon, Sulfur, Phosphorous, Nitrogen, etc.
Carbon is represnted as the largest block in full opacity red. It is meant to draw your eye there, rather than the two people framed by the other squares, reminding us how carbon can quickly take over our lives and the planet if we don’t readjust our focus back to what is important.
- John Roedel
“Rowers on the Schykill”
Taken from the window of an Amtrak train heading to Philadelphia from New York City, idustrialization and innovation is apparent. From the train I could see highways and cars, boats, as well as the the environment that slowly carved my reality into existence. I found the river to be extremely powerful, and a reminder that it is ultimately the one in control. The scattered dead trees represent how human interventions have transformed the landscape as well. Thin horizontal and vertical lines highlight the invisible threads that we might forget about, and yet are quietly connecting the world.
“Movement - as a measure of time”
This design focuses on a crew of eight rowers on a small river in Vermont, racing.
I wanted to show how the position of certain elements in the photo are variables of time, and how a photograph can only capture a specific moment in time. I wanted to give insight into this moment to show how the environment was typically behaving, and how we can wholly understand the photograph.
The movement of the boat was much quicker and aggressive, than the movement of the sun, and somewhere in between the flight of a small bird (black dots in the sky).
I also wanted to emphasize that the rowers are counteracting the forces of nature to make their way upstream and then back downstream, in order to recieve a time and place themselves within a scoring system of other crews.
“Rhythm”
One of the most powerful moments of my life was the Solar Eclipse that happened on April 8th, 2024. Since then I have been fascinated in the glow of the sun and the moon at various times of day. The moon cycle and how it impacts the architecture of our days is subtle, but it is always there. I wanted to show how the sun and the moon are intertwined and dictate our rhythm whether we know it or not.
Personal Project
New York City
2025
This is a collage made from images of trash and pollutants that I saw in NYC during the fall. I wanted to work with contrasting colors, and how water impacts the process of decompositon and how it makes us see landfills and trash differently.
New York City
2025
This is a collage made from images of trash and pollutants that I saw in NYC during the fall. I wanted to work with contrasting colors, and how water impacts the process of decompositon and how it makes us see landfills and trash differently.
“Harlem for Sale”
2025
This collage explores ideas of commodification, specifically of the Manhattanville campus of Columbia University and further regions of Harlem. The depictions of roots under the bridging highway system versus the roots under the Harlem Fairway Market that closed down in 2017, show how even though something might be “worth” less on paper, the cultural value and depth is much greater than what a new innovation can bring.
Lastly, the color orange was important for this design, as it was heavily present at the site this photo was taken. It just so happens that orange is the complimentary color to blue. In this case, specifically the iconic Columbia blue.
“Architecture of Home”
Spring 2024
The idea of domesticated animals and where home can be located was at the crux of this collage. I chose the quotes: “home is found outside the margins society creates (Salima Naji), and “like finding clearings in the jungle” (Junya Ishigami) to further the idea of home. I placed a sheep outside of the fenced-in area that house them, to emphasize the point that these quotes make. How do we view home, and how is it experienced by each and every being? We all share the same home.
“The Ritual of Everyday”
Spring 2024
This collage was created in an exploration of rituals and ceremonies. The inspiration was driven by my sisters and the child-like curiosity that comes with experiencing each day and noticing something new with people you have grown up alongside. I also drew inspiration from the rituals my lacrosse team did throughout our season, each year. These rituals related to working together as a unit, much like the starling birds in the sky. Additionally, a quote that comes to mind is: “you are part of a circle, a circle with no beginning and no end” which influenced the choice of an open circle at the end of the pathway the children are going down.
I also wanted to utilize the idea of how every organism within a network has their own perspective. “Umwelt: the world as it is experienced by a particular organism.” Lastly, the second quote on this collage means to me that the trees, the birds, the grass, the children, the animals, the wind, all are connected in strange and secret ways. We as humans might not share passions, religions, languagues, etc., but it is true that we each have our own individual views and roles within our everlasting circles.
Summer 2024
On a cold and windy day in Iceland in October, I took this picture of four icelandic horses standing together. I admired their stoicism, and unwavering stance. They slowly walked together into a bit of low ground in front of a higher bank, and just stood. Their manes blew elegantly in one direction, and their tails into each others’ faces. Meanwhile, I was struggling to stand up straight without stumbling, and my hands wavered when taking this photo. I chose to make this simple collage to emphasize how harmoniously the land, the animals, and the sky were working together. They are such different systems, yet their beauty is shown when they are united. By seperating these elements, you are able to see each of them as individuals.
Infiltration
Spring 2024
This collage focuses on the idea of infiltration both into the natural environment, and into architecture. The Mies Van Der Rohe quote “God is in the details,” is a quote I think about often, especially when thinking about how to avoid, and take note of, the infiltration that might take place around the world. This collage goes hand in hand with the collage about Carbon, and is why the ripples on the lake are highlighted in red.
Materials
Spring 2024
This collage was about materials, and how architecture can be dictated by its materials. There are so many materials that can be used to create art, we just need to be unafraid of experimentation.
“-topia”
Spring 2024
This collage is about utopias and what it means to create a world that has no blemishes. The quote “the islands we envisage as a counterproposal to carbon form can only exist if we radically shift our relationship with the land” (Aureli). The land might be a utopia if we change our perception to understand what that truly means.
Otherwise we might uncover a dystopia.
Carbon #2
Spring 2024
This physical collage utilized paper-weaving techniques to comment on how carbon is linked to all elements of the environment. I chose the quote from Elisa Iturbe, “the disorder in which we live follows as inevitable consequences of a changing world,” to further emphasize how carbon affects our world today is due to the consequences of climate change.
“The Maple”
Spring 2024
This collage critiques two time periods. The anthropocene: the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. The comfortocene: the new period of time where personal comfort comes before the good of the planet.
I chose the quote from Braiding Sweetgrass to sit among fallen leaves: “if a maple is an it, we can take up the chainsaw. If a maple is a she, we think twice.” This piece aims to show how fragile and alive the land is, and that it deserves the respect we would give to another human being.