TopoTotem is a computational design and fabrication project that explores how generative imagery can be translated into materially precise, fabricated architectural artifacts. The project challenges students to move beyond image-making by using generative AI as a tool for surface logic and spatial speculation, and then rigorously converting those visual outputs into constructible geometries.

Students began by producing generative AI imagery focused on texture, displacement, and topographic variation. These images were treated not as representational end products, but as data sources—informing displacement maps and surface manipulation strategies within Rhino. Through advanced modeling techniques, students translated image-based depth, contour, and pattern into three-dimensional mesh geometries, carefully managing resolution, continuity, and edge conditions.

A critical component of the project involved transforming highly complex displacement meshes into fabrication-ready files. Students employed advanced Rhino workflows to clean, remesh, and rationalize geometry, ensuring the models could be successfully milled using a KUKA robotic arm. This process required close attention to toolpaths, surface smoothness, undercuts, and structural stability, reinforcing the relationship between digital design decisions and physical constraints.

The resulting totems function as material records of a hybrid workflow—where generative AI, parametric modeling, and robotic fabrication converge. Each TopoTotem embodies a layered translation: from image to surface, from mesh to toolpath, and from digital abstraction to physical form. The project emphasizes the role of the designer as both curator of generative systems and author of fabrication logic, positioning AI not as a replacement for design agency, but as a catalyst for new material and tectonic exploration.

Student: Carys Ursell

Angel’s Haven Café & Library is a community-centered adaptive reuse project located along Main Street in Springville, New York, reimagining the existing Art’s Café buildings as a calm, inclusive space where reading, creativity, and social connection intersect. The design blends the intimacy of a library with the warmth of a café, using soft curves, pastel tones, sculptural bookshelves, and layered lighting to create an environment that feels welcoming, restorative, and safe for a wide range of users. Programmatically, the project is organized across multiple levels, offering a variety of spatial experiences—from quiet library seating and reading nooks to café seating, art gallery space, collaborative work areas, performance and entertainment zones, and small conference rooms—allowing visitors to choose how they engage with the space throughout the day and evening. Material selections such as dusty rose and sage plaster, oak wood, brass accents, wallpaper, and frosted glass reinforce the project’s gentle atmosphere while maintaining a refined architectural identity. A rooftop garden and fire pit seating extend the experience outdoors, supporting seasonal gathering and reflection. Overall, Angel’s Haven is envisioned as a safe haven for the community: a hybrid cultural space that supports productivity, creativity, and belonging while strengthening Springville’s social and civic fabric.

Students: Brian Nicpon, Christian Perrone, Damian Majkrzak

BLOOM⁸⁶ is a responsive architectural prototype that investigates how thermal data from the human body can directly activate spatial systems through material behavior. The project explores the integration of silicone panels and nitinol shape-memory wire to create a porous, adaptive wall system that reacts to body heat by opening and closing in real time. Nitinol elements are programmed to activate at specific temperature thresholds, triggering deformation within the silicone panels that modulates airflow and daylight. As heat increases, panels open to create breathable conditions; as temperatures drop, panels return to a closed state, regulating the environment without mechanical systems.

The design process begins with thermal imaging of the human body, capturing zones of higher and lower heat output. This data is translated computationally into a grid-based panel system, where variations in brightness and intensity inform panel sizing, activation zones, and material behavior. The wall is zoned vertically to correspond with human anatomy—feet, chest, and face/breathing zones—allowing environmental response to be tuned to how the body occupies space. Through parametric scripting, thermal information is remapped into a constructible logic that balances responsiveness with fabrication constraints.

Materially, BLOOM⁸⁶ emphasizes scalability and modularity. Individual panels can be produced at varying sizes and activation temperatures, enabling localized control over light and airflow across a larger architectural surface. When assembled, the system forms a dynamic enclosure that responds to proximity, presence, and thermal exchange, transforming the wall from a static boundary into an interactive interface between body and environment.

By coupling human thermal signatures with smart materials, BLOOM⁸⁶ proposes an alternative model for environmental control—one that is intuitive, passive, and biologically informed. The project positions architecture as a living system that responds to human presence through material intelligence, challenging conventional approaches to enclosure, comfort, and energy use.

Students: Damian M. + Samantha

AGGLO is a speculative public research center situated on Lake Erie, emerging from an initial exploration of small-scale boat construction using CNC-fabricated frames and a tensioned fabric envelope. What began as an investigation into lightweight, adaptable marine structures evolved into a spatial and ecological system that negotiates between architecture, infrastructure, and living environmental processes.

The project draws inspiration from aquatic organisms—particularly seaweed clusters—and their ability to adapt to constant mechanical stress, water currents, and seasonal change. These biological systems informed both the structural logic and spatial organization of AGGLO. Tension between masts, flexible cables, buoys, and anchor points generates a responsive skin that continuously shifts in form, registering the pushing and pulling forces of wind, waves, and water movement. Rather than resisting these forces, the architecture embraces them as drivers of form-finding and performance.

AGGLO is organized as a dense field of tubular volumes that descend from a tensile roof structure into the water below. These tubes serve multiple roles: structural supports, light wells, ventilation shafts, research pods, and public program elements. Their arrangement is governed by clustering logic derived from environmental and biological studies—varying density creates gradients of openness, privacy, and environmental exposure. Highly concentrated clusters produce enclosed, protected spaces for research, restrooms, and exhibitions, while looser arrangements allow light, air, and water to flow freely through public gathering and circulation zones.

Environmental performance is central to the project. Open-bottom tubes allow water, nutrients, and marine life to pass through the structure, supporting seaweed growth and aquatic ecosystems beneath the building. Light is filtered through the tensile skin and structural tubes, directing daylight deep into the interior and down into the water column to encourage photosynthetic activity. As seaweed detaches and floats to the surface, its life cycle becomes visible to visitors, reinforcing the building’s role as both habitat and educational instrument.

Programmatically, AGGLO functions as a hybrid civic and research space—housing laboratories, classrooms, exhibition areas, a café, and public observation zones. Visitors are invited to move through and among the tubes, experiencing changing spatial conditions shaped by water levels, light, and seasonal shifts. The architecture does not present a fixed form, but rather a continuously evolving system that makes environmental forces legible and experiential.

Co-Taught: Stephanie Cramer

Sustainable Futures’ nine week program offers students the opportunity to live and work in a rural, but rapidly developing region on the Pacific slope in Costa Rica. This is a “service learning” engagement where the studio works on community-identified projects that envision and create futures that are ecologically and socially just. Since the program’s inception in 1995, Sustainable Futures has contributed to planning, design, and construction of dozens of projects throughout the area.

Student: Julia Wade

Abstract

A multisensory approach to reading inhabited spaces deepens our understanding of space as a fluid and interconnected system that includes material, non-material, and bodily experiences. By considering space as a multisensory system with weaving parts, this thesis explores how material components become activated by the body, creating a sensory output. When received by the body, that output affects how we move through and inhabit space. In essence, sensory elements join space and the body together. This research delves into the intricate relationship between the multisensory system and spatial perception, specifically focusing on how sensory experiences influence and shape our understanding of the physical world around us.

Student: Ramisa Rafi

The Digi Café + Library is a community-oriented public building proposal that reimagines the traditional library as a hybrid social, educational, and creative hub within the historic context of Main Street in Springville, New York. Blending the informal atmosphere of a café with the resources of a contemporary library, the project seeks to foster creativity, collaboration, and accessibility while strengthening the village’s civic life. Organized across multiple levels, the building integrates a café and general reading stacks on the ground floor, a lounge and makerspace above, and a community kitchen and event space below, allowing diverse programs to coexist while remaining visually and spatially connected. A rooftop community garden extends the building’s public mission outdoors, offering space for gathering, learning, and food cultivation. Through adaptive reuse, flexible programming, and an emphasis on inclusivity, the Digi Café + Library positions architecture as a social infrastructure—one that supports learning, making, and connection across generations while contributing to the evolving cultural identity of Springville

Student: Gianna Pisa

The Rusted Page is an immersive bookstore café and library that harmoniously blends rustic industrial charm with modern functionality. Designed to inspire book lovers, creatives, and coffee enthusiasts, the space features exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and blackened steel, softened by warm lighting and layered textures to create an inviting atmosphere. With an open-concept layout, distinct zones are seamlessly defi ned by overhead baffles that enhance acoustics and guide visitors through curated book collections, cozy reading nooks, and a welcoming café serving handcrafted espresso. This thoughtful design fosters an environment that celebrates storytelling in all its forms. Hidden beneath this literary retreat is a secret treasure—an Art Deco-inspired speakeasy. In contrast to the industrial aesthetic above, this opulent lounge exudes 1920s elegance with velvet seating, gilded accents, and moody lighting. A haven of sophistication and intrigue, it offers guests an exclusive escape where literature and libations come together in perfect harmony

Co-Taught: Christopher Romano (Coordinator)

Group Lead: Randy Fernando

Student Team: Zlata Anisimova, Aryan Cacodcar, Elizabeth Geiser, Michael Goodlander, Yosi Hoffman, Allison Lavis, Ryan Osborne

Mixed Reality Support: Nicholas Bruscia

This project is a full-scale concrete prototype developed to explore efficient structural design and the use of mixed reality (MR) as a construction aid for formwork setup and alignment. The project centers on a three-legged concrete arch system designed to achieve stability, material efficiency, and constructability within strict weight and fabrication constraints.

Students began by analyzing a precedent arch system and iteratively modifying its geometry to improve structural performance while reducing material volume. A tripod configuration was selected for inherent lateral stability, allowing the structure to bear loads directly to the ground without additional bracing. Uniform leg cross-sections were used to simplify fabrication and enable precise waterjet-cut foam formwork.

A key component of the project was the integration of mixed reality technology during fabrication. Using a Microsoft HoloLens headset synchronized with a Rhino 3D model, students overlaid digital geometry directly onto the physical workspace. This approach was used to guide the alignment of stacked foam formwork blocks and reduce dimensional errors commonly caused by manual layout methods. Mixed reality significantly minimized guesswork during assembly and improved consistency between the digital model and the final cast.

The prototype was cast using site-mixed concrete with internal steel reinforcement concentrated at critical structural zones. The final assembly weighed approximately 562 pounds, meeting material and budget constraints while maintaining structural integrity. The project required students to coordinate digital modeling, material testing, formwork fabrication, reinforcement detailing, and sequential assembly.

Deliverables included a fully resolved 3D model, architectural drawings (plans, sections, elevations), construction details, specifications, mix designs, and documentation of the mixed reality construction workflow. The project demonstrates how emerging digital tools can support accurate, efficient, and repeatable concrete construction processes in contemporary architectural practice.

This project explores the use of parametric design as a method for generating modular architectural systems that are both structurally expressive and spatially engaging. Students employed Rhino and Grasshopper to develop a pavilion composed of repeatable triangular modules, translating simple rule-based logics—such as point spacing, string connections, and rotational sequences—into complex geometric assemblies. What begins as a two-dimensional patterning exercise evolves into a three-dimensional pavilion through systematic aggregation, rotation, and connection of modules, demonstrating how local design decisions can produce emergent global form.

The pavilion is conceived as a lightweight, open structure situated within a landscaped public setting, where structure, pattern, and enclosure are integrated into a single geometric language. Parametric workflows allowed students to test variations in density, curvature, and aperture size, linking digital control to spatial performance such as light, porosity, and human scale. By emphasizing modularity and rule-based design, the project highlights how computational tools can support adaptable construction strategies while maintaining strong formal coherence. Ultimately, the pavilion serves as a physical and visual record of a parametric process—bridging abstract algorithms, fabrication logic, and inhabitable space.

Co-Taught: Christopher Romano + Micheal Hoover

Group Design Lead: Randy Fernando

Designed as a large, open exhibition space, Palazzo del Lavoro, or The Palace of Labour, consists of sixteen independent columns, called “umbrellas”, which support the entire building. The columns feature a varying cross section, with branching radial beams stretching to the roof from the top of the column.

The proposed column design takes inspiration from the precedent. Featuring a varying cross section, starting from an octagon shape and into a cruciform. This adds additional facets to the column, increasing its strength. The column also introduces branching, similar to the ideas of the precedent with its branching umbrellas. The goal of this feature is to create a more spatial experience for people interacting with the column. Additionally, it provides an opportunity to test the relationship between the compression of the column, with the tension of the branches.

Multi-media formwork allowed for more complex geometries to be used in the design. This however, also led to additional challenges in the fabrication process. The biggest problem was the tolerances of each of the fabrication processes to come together.

This pavilion project investigates how parametric design methodologies can generate adaptable, lightweight architectural systems through modular logic and precise geometric control. Developed using Rhino and Grasshopper, the pavilion is composed of repeated triangular frame units that aggregate into a larger spatial structure, demonstrating how simple rule-based relationships—angle, length, rotation, and connection—can produce complex architectural form.

The design process began at the component scale, where students defined a single triangular module and its joint conditions. Parametric controls allowed the module to flex, rotate, and adapt, ensuring consistency across the system while enabling variation in spatial configuration. These modules were then assembled into clustered formations, creating a pavilion that balances structural clarity with openness and porosity. The resulting geometry produces a rhythmic envelope that filters light, frames views, and establishes zones of gathering beneath the structure.

Materially, the pavilion emphasizes lightness and reversibility. Slender frame elements and translucent infill panels create a dynamic interplay of color, shadow, and transparency, allowing the pavilion to respond visually to changing environmental conditions throughout the day. The modular construction strategy supports ease of fabrication, transport, and assembly, positioning the pavilion as a temporary or deployable structure suitable for public landscapes, exhibitions, or community events.

As a pedagogical project, the pavilion serves as a bridge between computational abstraction and architectural realization. It foregrounds the relationship between digital design intent, structural logic, and human experience, encouraging students to understand parametric tools not as generators of form alone, but as systems for organizing space, material, and assembly at an architectural scale.

Title | Imaginative Realities: Crafting Architectural Narratives with Digital Media

The course will empower students with the fluency to navigate a diverse range of cutting-edge digital tools and technologies that are integral to contemporary architectural practice. By immersing themselves in software such as Rhino for advanced 3D modeling, laser cutting, CNC fabrication, 3D printing, and various visualization platforms.

including Photoshop, AI Fill Tools, Mid Journey, Concept Design, Lumion, Enscape, and VRAY, students will unlock the creative potential of these mediums. With a strong emphasis on cultivating a seamless exchange between two-dimensional and three-dimensional domains, participants will learn to translate intricate architectural concepts into compelling narratives that transcend the boundaries of traditional representation.

Through a series of meticulously curated activities, students will not only hone their proficiency in utilizing these tools but also cultivate a heightened sensitivity to the nuances of digital and analog craftsmanship. The course goes beyond technical mastery, delving into the realm of critical thinking, file management, and efficient media output for various contexts. As students embark on projects that demand the convergence of technology and creative intuition, they will cultivate a comprehensive skill set that prepares them to tackle the multifaceted challenges posed by the ever-evolving landscape of architectural design.

"Imaginative Realities: Crafting Architectural Narratives with Digital Media" equips students with the essential capabilities to seamlessly bridge the gap between imaginative concepts and tangible design manifestations. By fostering a deep appreciation for the synergies between digital and physical modes of representation, this course empowers future architects to convey their creative visions with precision, nuance, and a profound resonance that resonates in a world driven by transformative digital technologies.

Co-taught: Christopher Romano + Michael Hoover

Students: Rocco Battista, Serena Minix, Ainish Sheth

SoilWorks: Mortaring is an independent material research project that investigates the performance, craft, and environmental potential of stabilized earth construction through the development of compressed earth blocks and compatible mud mortar systems. The project focuses on achieving a monolithic wall assembly by aligning block and mortar chemistry, hydrology, and fabrication methods, reducing reliance on high-carbon cement while prioritizing locally sourced soils and aggregates. Through an extensive matrix of block and mortar recipes, the research tests variations in clay content, particle packing, water ratios, and stabilizers to understand how material composition affects strength, workability, curing behavior, and moisture transfer. Full-scale block production using an Auram Press, paired with iterative wall mock-ups, allowed the team to study real construction variables such as brick saturation, mortar adhesion, joint craft, and post-assembly curing. Hydrology testing revealed that controlled moisture—specifically lightly dampened bricks rather than fully dry or saturated units—produced the most reliable bonding and minimized cracking. The project culminates in a refined set of low-cement block and mortar recipes that function cohesively as a system, demonstrating how earthen construction can support durable, low-carbon building assemblies while reconnecting architectural production to material knowledge, manual labor, and regional soil ecologies.

Title | Fusing Dimensions: The Transposition of Virtual and Physical Realities

Level: Graduate Technical Methods Seminar

Co-Taught: Shawn Chiki Lewis

This course utilizes experiential learning methods to address how designers can interface the nuances of real and virtual environments during the creative process. Tools used in this course include Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, AI, Grasshopper, Rhinoceros 3D, Blender, 3D Scanning/Drone 3D Scanning, Advanced 3D modeling, simulation software, and 3D printing. The course will be run with weekly workshops that ultimately will culminate with the production of virtual and physical artifacts that will be displayed as part of an immersive exhibition at the end of the term.

In this course, students will explore the increasingly blurred boundaries between digital and physical phenomena. Utilizing virtual reality, we will sculpt, interact, build, and play within virtual spaces, then bring these experiences into the tangible world as physical prototypes. We will embrace the quirks and imperfections of unpredictable digital tools as collaborators, influencing our methods and aesthetics. By encouraging the use of accessible yet flawed technologies, we aim to stretch our collective imagination of the future of our built environments. From glitching software to creating mixed media environments, students will learn to navigate and manipulate the gaps in both digital and physical worlds that await exploration.

This seminar offers students a unique opportunity to explore the frontier of architectural design, cultivating a rich set of technical skills that are increasingly relevant in contemporary practice. The course is designed for those who are eager to push the boundaries of design and technology, and who are interested in exploring new methods of visualizing and realizing architectural spaces.

By fusing these dimensions, we can set new technological standards in the fields of construction, manufacturing, and design, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the evolving digital landscape. This course will provide hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies, alongside theoretical discussions about their implications in the field of architecture. This blend of practical skills and intellectual inquiry will equip students to navigate and contribute to the evolving landscape of architectural design.

Location: Monteverde, Costa Rica

Student Team: Juan Luis Romero Vazquez, Nicholas Frantzeskos, Julia Ferone, Anthony Meli, Hannah Ruth

Faculty Team: Stephanie Cramer, Randy Fernando, Gabriela McAdam

Program Coordinator: Anibal Torres

The Riochante Community Center Revitalization project is a community-centered architectural proposal focused on strengthening Riochante’s role as a welcoming space for gathering, creativity, and connection to nature while actively resisting gentrification pressures in Monteverde. Over the past 80 years, the site has undergone multiple transformations, ultimately becoming a place shaped through volunteer labor, restoration, and collective stewardship. This project builds upon that legacy by preserving the site’s identity while expanding its capacity to serve local programs and community needs.

Grounded in extensive site analysis, the proposal addresses critical environmental and spatial challenges, including steep topography, water runoff, flooding beneath the existing structure, limited ventilation, and insufficient program space. Through topographic mapping, water-flow studies, sun and wind analysis, thermal imaging, and community surveys, the design responds directly to existing conditions and lived experiences of Riochante’s users.

The architectural intervention introduces a phased strategy for growth that prioritizes water management, environmental comfort, and program flexibility. Garden terraces, rain gardens, bioswales, and retention ponds work together as an integrated landscape system to slow runoff, absorb excess water, and redirect flow safely toward the river. Roof geometries and pitches are carefully reconfigured to support these systems while improving daylighting, ventilation, and thermal performance.

Programmatically, the project expands Riochante’s ability to host locally focused activities through the introduction of an industrial kitchen, art studios, multipurpose spaces, classrooms, computer labs, caretaker housing, and outdoor amenities including a sculpture garden, amphitheater, greenhouse, and river access. Interior and exterior spaces are designed to overlap visually and spatially, encouraging interaction between simultaneous programs while maintaining areas for privacy and reflection. Movable partitions and flexible layouts allow the center to adapt over time to evolving community needs.

Material strategies reinforce Riochante’s identity by continuing the use of familiar and locally resonant elements such as wood, stained glass, corrugated metal roofing, bamboo partitions, reused windows, murals, and mosaics. These materials are mapped and reintroduced to preserve the site’s eccentric, handcrafted character while supporting new construction and expanded program space.

Location: Monteverde, Costa Rica

Student Team: Faith Vale, Jasmin Ferreiras, Xinyi Qiu, Matt Kinnally

Faculty Team: Stephanie Cramer, Randy Fernando, Gabriela McAdam

Program Coordinator: Anibal Torres

The Huerta Comunitaria project is a community-centered redesign proposal focused on expanding the capacity, accessibility, safety, and long-term resilience of an existing community garden in Cerro Plano, Monteverde. Developed in collaboration with Corclima, an organization dedicated to combating climate change through carbon capture and emissions reduction, the project positions the garden as both a social anchor and a climate-resilient public space.

Established through a partnership between the neighboring school, the town of Cerro Plano, and Corclima, the garden has evolved into an important communal resource following years of abandonment prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on this history, the proposal seeks to transform the site into a more visible, welcoming, and multifunctional environment that supports everyday use while also functioning as a resiliency hub during emergencies.

Extensive site analysis informed the design, including demographic research, circulation and transportation mapping, wind and water-flow studies, structural assessments, and documentation of existing garden use. Key challenges identified included limited visibility and transparency, deteriorating bleacher structures, unsafe circulation patterns, insufficient weather protection, and underutilized views toward the surrounding landscape. At the same time, the site’s flat terrain, strong community engagement, and strategic location along walkable routes presented significant opportunities for growth.

The proposal introduces a phased design strategy that incrementally reconfigures the existing structure and landscape. Programmatic additions include an expanded community market, greenhouse, improved bathrooms, terraced gardens with integrated seating, composting areas, storage, and flexible gathering spaces. Circulation is clarified through distinct paths for pedestrians, vehicles, and service access, while increased transparency and open sightlines strengthen the relationship between the garden and the surrounding neighborhood.

Environmental performance is central to the project. A comprehensive water management system—including rainwater harvesting, swales, rain gardens, and storage tanks—slows runoff from the adjacent cliff and roof surfaces while providing irrigation for planting areas. Wind flow is moderated through building openings and strategic vegetation, and new roof geometries support both climate comfort and water collection. Native plants, edible crops, and pollinator-friendly species reinforce the garden’s ecological function and educational value.

As a resiliency hub, the redesigned Huerta Comunitaria is envisioned as a safe gathering space capable of accommodating approximately 150 people during emergencies, with enclosed areas for shelter and storage for essential supplies. In everyday use, the garden supports food production, markets, education, social events, and informal gathering—strengthening community ties while modeling climate-responsive design practices.

Ultimately, the project frames architecture and landscape as tools for environmental stewardship, social cohesion, and long-term resilience, transforming the Huerta Comunitaria into a visible, adaptable, and community-driven public space.

Location: Monteverde, Costa Rica

Student Team: Sean O’Keefe, Alec Lewis, Sofia Pasquarella

Faculty Team: Stephanie Cramer, Randy Fernando, Gabriela McAdam

Program Coordinator: Anibal Torres

The pavilion is a site-responsive architectural proposal that explores openness, transparency, and public engagement within a coastal context. The project responds to the site’s flat terrain, proximity to water, pedestrian and boat traffic, and exposure to climate forces such as wind, tides, and sun, positioning the building as both a social gathering space and a mediator between land and water.

The design process began with extensive site visits and documentation, including on-site measurements, drone photography, and firsthand observation of pedestrian movement, dock access, and building adjacencies. Environmental analysis informed the project’s orientation and form, particularly prevailing winds from the northeast, tidal conditions, and solar exposure. These forces shaped decisions related to building openness, roof design, and material strategy.

Programmatically, the pavilion prioritizes flexible public space. Most of the ground level is open and visually connected to the street, allowing the building to function as an extension of the public realm. A market space anchors the corner condition, while service functions are separated to maintain openness and clarity. Interior and exterior seating areas frame views toward the water and stage, encouraging lingering, gathering, and informal use throughout the day.

The building emphasizes transparency and permeability through semi-transparent assemblies, raised floor conditions, and layered thresholds. These strategies allow visual continuity across the site while accommodating changing environmental conditions. A second-floor level introduces elevated views toward the coast, reinforcing the project’s relationship to the waterfront and providing shaded, protected space below.

Structurally, the pavilion is organized on a clear grid with primarily column-based support and minimal walls, allowing programmatic flexibility and visual openness. Roof strategies balance shading and sun protection while directing rainwater into integrated collection systems. Material selections emphasize durability, weathering, and contextual fit, reinforcing the building’s role as a resilient public structure within a coastal environment.