Deschooling through Media is a thesis convocation, a manifesto thread, and a kit-of-parts that sponsors alternative learning experiences through digital + analog play. The project examines follows the transformative ways that digital technologies are dismantling and revolutionizing spaces of learning, especially in middle-to-late childhood. The goal of the convocation is to understand disrupt how education establishes systems of control and thought standardization (#deleuze+guattari).The thread facilitates urges for architecture that works in synchrony with (and sometimes in opposition to) media-delivery mechanisms in order to agitate academic archetypes. The kit-of-parts consists of an open-source set of deschoolization tools and methodologies that leverage the material and human capital available within existing schools. Together, this framework reclaims pedagogical autonomy by questioning how knowledge is acquired and valued (#stiegler) and how academic building typologies shape subjects in control societies (#illich). Through small-scale assemblies and networked environments, the objective of the project is to (almost always) understand, (often) assist and (sometimes) limit media’s role in restructuring education.

The research produces a deschoolization toolkit at <https://deschooling.online/>. The effectiveness of the toolkit is tested through the intense alteration of an existing k-5 school. By combining pedagogical media with materially-rich spatial scenarios, the resultant architecture simultaneously ‘deschools’ the building and (hopefully)creates a more engaging thing that subverts learning paradigms. Deschooling immediately requires the critical reconsideration of pedagogical practices and, over time, entails the drastic redesign of spaces of learning. Eventually, this toolkit could be re-deployed as an adaptable, crowdsourced system made accessible to architects, teachers, parents and students. Ultimately, Deschooling through Media is a platform through which a variety of players can collectively defy existing models for knowledge acquisition by using media architectures deliberately and mischievously.

Party Animals was a project developed collaboratively with Maggie Cochrane and Maksim Drapey as part of the Constructing Entanglements Architecture Systems studio taught by Kathy Velikov and Jonathan Rule in the Fall semester of 2019. This project was included in the 2020 Taubman College Student Show.

The massing for the project is based on decentralized co-housing. This model allowed us to accommodate dwellings for humans, a variety of gardening typologies, and dwellings for animals in clusters gathered around steel and glass winter garden structures which serve as central vertical circulation. These vertical circulation towers offer communal places in which residents can intermingle, tend to plants, and let their pets spend time outside their units during the colder months.

An additional way in which we achieved entanglements was through our innovative façade system. Our terracotta rain screen system added texture, planters, places for birds and bats, as well as a surface onto which climbing vines could attach onto. Additionally, our fenestration system further added to the identity and personality of each residence. Windows extended inwards, extruded outwards, were flat, and were clerestory, providing a variety of interior and exterior habitats along the skin of the clusters. Residents could paint the windows in whatever color they like, with the intention to provide opportunities to add sense of ownership and individuality.

Chinam-pow was a project developed collaboratively with John Vieweg and Sonam Lhamo as part of the Propositions studio taught by Anya Sirota in the Spring semester of 2019. This project was included in the 2020 Taubman College Student Show.

The premise of Chinam-pow is re-appropriation as a means of cultural production. A former recycling plant in Coyoacán, Mexico City is re-purposed by residents and converted into a cultural center. The recycling plant is made up of three three large sheds and two small ones along the street front. The large sheds are utilized for the fabrication of mobile Chinampas, off-season storage/ dance club, and a video production center with artist residences. The two smaller sheds are proposed as a large cyber-cafe, a year-round farmers market, and a rooftop bar. This combination of programs is intended to encourage a culture of making for the neighborhood, while also celebrating the pre-existing forms of cultural production (youtube videos, short films, and longer features).

This center specializes in the production of mobile Chinampas out of repurposed materials. The chinampas are fabricated in thebiggest of the shed and rolled out on a small track that cuts through trafficand leads directly into the water. This ritual celebrates the reactivation andrehabilitation of the Canal Nacional. The production and utilization of thechinampas is festive while simultaneously performing ecosystem services.

<title> hello, city hall! </title> was developed independently as part of the Urban Institutions studio taught by Elizabeth Galvez in the Fall semester of 2018. This project was included in the 2019 Taubman College Student Show.

Ann Arbor City Hall consists of two worlds - the physical and the digital. Today, an increasing number of municipal tasks occur online and the citizenry has complex and evolving relationships between the physical and the digital realms. <title> hello, city hall! </title> synthesizes this complexity by foregrounding digital and analog technologies within a single flexible space. Analog and digital programs are organized along a series of poche spaces at the perimeter of each architectural volume. The central-zone allows for a flexible 'gradient' that recognizes the human as a hybrid-user while also entertaining an uncertain future relationship.

The tectonic strategies applied to the project manipulate, enhance, and/or hinder the usage of technology throughout the structure. The interior atrium, which is heated by the data storage cores and office activities, is prone to glare due to the shiny undulating window bays, and its materiality impides the use of wi-fi within it and lending itself to exclusively analog activities. In contrast, the perimeter of the building encourages the prolonged use of digital technology. A range of booths accommodates different groupings of users, and the small windows are designed to require physical movement in order to engage with the outside.

Starfish2-1 Genus 31 was research project developed collaboratively with Adam Schueler and Roberto Corpus as part of the advanced fabrication course taught by Mania Aghaei Meibodi in the Spring semester of 2020.

This project followed along through the computational understanding of minimal surfaces, to their design applications, development of molds and fabrication methods using 3D printing, and ultimately casting. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, we were unable to finalize testing of the form work.

Our proposed application of the Starfish 2-1 surface was a mobile, climbable, play sculpture which was to be installed in the Taubman College Commons. We relied on Weaverbird and Grasshopper to be able to improve the surface in the interest of grippability for children. We also proposed a bowl shaped base which was intended to rock gently when the sculpture was used for play.

9 ‘Spec’-ulative Bathrooms! was part of the 2018-19 Fellows Exhibition: Things Around Us, at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College. 9 'Spec'-ulative Bathrooms! was developed collaboratively with with Abby Stock, and Michael Ferguson, under the leadership of Liz Galvez (the 2018-2019 Munscheheim Fellow), and as a partnership with Kohler. This project was featured in Archinect and Plat.

The project consisted of a showroom showcasing typical plumbing fittings, fixture sculptures that we designed and built as a team, visualizations of potential designs for bathrooms, plumbing drawings, fact cards which guests could take with them, and a bath tub ball pit.

Through a partnership between Caracas MiConvive (a non-for-profit looking to reduce violence in the barrios of Caracas), and Enlace Arquitectura, we were tasked with helping communities envision, design, and build public spaces in the barrios of the Libertador Municipality in Caracas. I was in charge of the design, construction documents, budgeting, and oversight of two projects – a lookout plaza and outdoor cinema in Los Pinos, and a community garden in Mamera. Additionally, I helped with the design and sourcing of vegetation for a small children’s park and installation in El Cardón, which was thereafter planted with the help of the children from the soup kitchen.

While these projects are small in budget and size, they represent immense outreach effort, community building, and empowerment. Most of the materials used are sourced by donations from local shops, and most of the plants are propagated from the neighbor’s gardens and planted by members of the community.

A Gem for Boston University was developed collaboratively with Colin DaPonte during our undergraduate comprehensive design studio at Northeastern University. Students were paired up with the purpose of developing a building with a program of their choosing in the very heart of Boston University's campus. Given the inaccessibility of the site, our proposal was based on a precast system that would minimize the amount of site work. Likewise because our project would house institutional functions, our approach was highly modular so as to maximize the flexibility and adaptability of the interior program.

The location of our site next to the Mass Pike provided a unique opportunity to create an icon for Boston University. Our initial massings attempted to articulate the site’s oddly shaped boundaries and topography by creating multiple smaller buildings connected by covered passageways. However, this approach proved to be ineffective programmatically as well as detrimental to the environmental systems which we wished to deploy. For our final iteration, we were able to manipulate the open spaces around the building by playing with the building envelope. Our resulting “gem” shape sets the building apart from the rest of the campus. In addition, the orientation of the windows serves to generate a variety of unique views from inside.

Our focal point in the interior is an atrium that houses the circulation and works as a solar chimney to facilitate natural ventilation. The atrium is the heart of the building. There is a lounge and a cafe at the bottom, a program which triggers the solar chimney by generating heat that pulls hot air from the upper floors as it rises.

There are additional smaller study areas at the enlarged stair landings as you go up the stairs. The large circulation encourages small gatherings throughout the atrium, thus activating it. This, together with the transparency of the labs encourages students to spy on each other’s work, generating collaborations and facilitating inspiration.