UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM
@ THE COOPER UNION

THESIS (2024-2025)


FOURTH YEAR (2023-2024)

Spring Studio - Plein Air

Structures


No New Jails: Radical Futures for Chinatown

We began this project with a critical perspective on the renders presented by the city for the proposed Manhattan-based prison at 124–125 White Street. These abstracted images—always exterior ground-level views with an applied watercolor Photoshop filter—serve as the primary mode of representation for the proposed 500-foot jailscraper, disseminated by the DDC, the DOC, and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice.

By intentionally obscuring the prison’s function as a site of enclosure and detention, these visuals are designed to garner citywide support for the borough-based jail initiative following the planned closure of Rikers Island. They appear alongside narratives that attempt to reframe prisons as civic assets to their neighborhoods and to the city at large, supported by an $8 billion budget for the construction of four new detention centers in New York City and allocations for “new neighborhood investments”, such as the expansion of MOCA’s headquarters at 215 Centre Street.

This film traces the history of 124–125 White Street as a carceral space and explores architecture’s complicity in systems of racial capitalism—from the construction of The Tombs to the Manhattan Detention Complex, to the jailscraper scheduled for completion in 2032.

Drawing on drone and camera balloon footage we captured of the demolition site, archival materials, and audio from public forums discussing the Chinatown jailscraper, we aim to destabilize these sanitized and abstracted images and narratives by foregrounding the material consequences of this construction project for both the surrounding neighborhood and incarcerated individuals.


Fall Studio










THIRD YEAR (2022-2023)


Fall Studio - Housing Analysis
Working in groups of three, each student focused on two different housing precedents: one large scale project that defined a portion of the city, and a smaller scale project defined by specific typological inventions. By researching and studying these precedents and their histories, we analyzed its spatial, social, and environmental narratives. 
Assignment 1
Formal and Spatial Typology Analysis

Assignment 2
Social and  Innovative Theme Analysis

Assignment 3
Scale and Site Analysis

Assignment 4
Final Hybridization

Fall Structures

Fall Building Tech

Spring Studio - Housing Design








SECOND YEAR (2021-2022)


Spring Studio - Design



Spring Structures


By experimenting with different materials and methods in groups of four, we were able to use plaster and fabric to create catenary curves. We placed wooden columns under a sheet of fabric to make points of tension. Depending on the height of each column, vaults of different sizes are produced and create an interesting space when turned upside down. Then, we casted the fabric in plaster; after drying, the structure is strong enough to stand on itself without the columns. The final piece is placed on a mirrored base to exaggerate the vaults through its own reflection.

Spring Environments


Fall Studio - Design
Using the concept of an exquisite corpse, we designed a hostel consisting of three different typologies studied in the beginning of the semester: public hall, public void, and public bath-house.


FIRST YEAR (2020-2021)


Spring Architectonics



Fall Architectonics
Precedent and Ritual Analysis












 
Hybrid Design

Models