May 13, 2021
Future100: Students Explore Materiality, Pattern, and Form in Facade Details
From graphic treatments to unconventional materials and fabrication techniques, these projects show the facade is anything but superficial.
As these young minds create formal boundaries, they push them figuratively. From a facade concept for an arts center that selectively introduces daylight as a respite from gallery fatigue to a city park structure with a “crocheted wood” appearance that provides refuge for wildlife and human visitors, these facades and building details explore the dualities of light and dark, mass and void, and interior and exterior. Of these thoughtful explorations of materiality, pattern, and experience, some make imaginative, graphic statements while others add a delicate, whimsical touch to their surroundings.
YASMIN BEN LTAIFA
Columbia University
Graduate Architecture
NOMINATOR: Richard Plunz, Professor of Architecture, Chair of the Division of Architecture, Urban Design Program Director, Urban Design Lab (Earth Institute) Director
Highly intricate, almost technical drawings accompanied by detailed site studies, iterative illustrations, and formal explorations help bring Ben Ltaifa’s projects and settings—from the Bronx to Beirut—to life. Model making, including by 3D printing, delves into projects’ context-informed patterns.
GWYNETH HARRIS
University at Buffalo
Graduate Architecture
NOMINATOR: Annette LeCuyer, Professor of Architecture
Engaging concepts such as openness and porosity, Harris developed a facade that would introduce a spectrum of daylighting conditions to the galleries of a contemporary arts center in downtown Buffalo, New York.
ARIEL LORENZI
New York Institute of Technology
Undergraduate Architecture
NOMINATOR: Giovanni Santamaria, Architecture Department Chair, Associate Professor
Crochet Wood demonstrates Lorenzi’s passion for creating community through the built environment, as the structure offers refuge and activities for both aquatic and terrestrial species.
PAUL McCOY
University of Pennsylvania
Graduate Architecture
NOMINATOR: Andrew Saunders, Associate Professor, M.Arch Program Director
In his portfolio, McCoy states that “drawings are the protagonists of architecture,” an emphasis that runs through his stark, future-oriented proposals. Living Continuity extends a circular housing development in Moscow, imagining new communal spaces and connections to its surroundings.
MIRA SHAMI
University at Buffalo
Graduate Architecture
NOMINATOR: Joyce Hwang, Associate Chair
Shami’s project for a flexible Black hair salon in Buffalo, New York, combines urban infill, entrepreneurship, and cultural preservation: An existing house and adjacent purpose-built structure flex as the business grows. The project is conveyed with neat axonometrics, elevations, and playful yet clear renderings.
CHRISTINA SHIN
University of Southern California
Undergraduate Architecture
NOMINATOR: Yo-Ichiro Hakomori, Associate Professor of Practice
Shin’s 99 Laps concept for a public pool housed under a long-span cantilevered structure exemplifies her playful approach while demonstrating an affinity for building technology.
ALFRED XUANYU WEI
Rice University
Graduate Architecture
NOMINATOR: Andrew Colopy, Assistant Professor
Wei’s design sensitivity is apparent in Life in the Facade, in which a linear concept makes everyday life a highly visual and integral aspect of the micro-housing development’s exterior.
MEGAN YORK
University of Pennsylvania
Graduate Architecture
NOMINATOR: Andrew Saunders, Associate Professor, M.Arch Program Director
For a housing design on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, York designed a facade by analyzing the site’s graffiti and extracting datum lines from the surrounding context.
JINGYI ZHOU
University of Pennsylvania
Graduate Architecture
NOMINATOR: Andrew Saunders, Associate Professor, M.Arch Program Director
In the facade for Slanting Threshold, Jingyi Zhou used a polycarbonate screen with a cymatic water pattern to form “an analogy between informational data and running water.”
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