Brick Point Stress Reduction

A brick is the most fundamental building block in construction. Its design hasn’t changed in many years.  Does it mean that it is perfect?  Hardly.  Bricks have sharp angles which allow them to fit snug against one another, but this also creates a high stress point in the mortar between each connection.  When stress occurs in the form of settling, cracks easily move through the weakest point, resulting in cracks through the mortar joints.  I developed a theoretically simple fix that would reinforce the connection and reduce point stress.

Design 9- Olympic Stadium

In this design class, my team and I had to design a Track & Field Stadium for the upcoming Olympics.  To see the process, view: http://issuu.com/tapac333/docs/final_process_book

 

Prayer Chapel

| A New Home For God |    –Deconstructing the Church

Why do we go to Church?  We go to be closer to God, to pray, and to restore our internal energy.  A church should be a place of healing for the mind.    In this economy, many lavish churches are falling into disrepair.  Priests are asking for more and more generous donations, mega-churches are filing for bankruptcy, and the scandals certainly don’t help.  Like it or not, today’s churches are run more like institutions.  Why can’t we build a church that simply inspires people to pray and find inner peace?

Design 5- CAPA project

This was a quick conceptual project for a Creative and Performing Arts School on an abandoned site along the L line in Philadelphia.  The school takes advantage of its proximity to public transport, and connects various program spaces with multilevel “walkway” connections.

Skiffington Arch.: Day to Night- Photo Visualization

I was given a photo by a client and was asked to manipulate the photo to represent the firm’s changes and vision for a redesigned stage.  I rendered the scaffolding and stage according to specs and manually edited the lighting within the space.