Slow Ablution
Columbia GSAPP Spring 2022, Critic: Ziad Jamaleddine
Collaboration with Karen Tong Wang
Site: Islamberg, New York
Columbia GSAPP Spring 2022, Critic: Ziad Jamaleddine
Collaboration with Karen Tong Wang
Site: Islamberg, New York
Slow Ablution is the interface of water; it encompasses altered landscapes and built structures that direct, collect, and filter rainwater, run-off water and melted snow in the winter. The interface proposes a bridge-over-wetland typology and reintroduces water flows not as problems, but as opportunities to foster new relationships between watershed, rural community, and the city.
︎︎︎ Waqf Document:
‘Islamic Architecture’ and the Waqf (Charitable endowment):
A general feature of Islamic social history, the Waqf produced and financially supported varied architectural typologies serving society’s poor and needy. These buildings and structures included waterworks, soup kitchens, schools, hostels, and hospices.
For the residents currently living in watershed areas, there still are a lot of hardships and sacrifices they face. Even with the financial assistance the city provides, watershed communities are often unseen stewards who hold the responsibility of protecting the city’s water supply.
The rural provides, the city receives.
︎︎︎Site plan of interventions in Islamberg
︎︎︎Site Ecology
Slow Phasing
︎︎︎Plan and Axon view, Mosque
︎︎︎Plan Axon view and Section, Nursery
Ablution Bridge
Cannosville Reservoir Prayer Bridge
The Field Paths
Columbia GSAPP, Spring 2024
Critics: Sandro Marpillero, Sonal Beri
Site: Godhavi, Ahmedabad, India
Columbia GSAPP, Spring 2024
Critics: Sandro Marpillero, Sonal Beri
Site: Godhavi, Ahmedabad, India
The Field Paths are created in relationship with the existing landscape. By connecting key ecological points across the canal and between the watershed, working with the existing conditions and adapting the design to the locale, the presence of the paths upholds the patterns of the farming fields. With a seasonal wetland habitat surrounding the trees, the visible conditions of the landscape form a natural force that resists rigidity and the linear.
︎︎︎ Narmada River Stories
Monsoon, the soul of India, has been vital for thousands of years, it gives life to India’s ecology and culture. With the geographic surface drained by rivers, seasonal rainfall has been nurturing the land and its people.
Narmada River supplies water to the Sarbamati River that runs through the city of Ahmedabad, and supplies water to hundreds of communities with the expanded canal system. Life cycles in these countries depend greatly on the rain.
Currently confronted with overriding infrastructural expansion, pollution and farmland losses. What does harmonious ecology mean in the context of Godhavi, for whom it is intended, at what scale is it achievable, and through what means can it be realized?
Visible Conditions
Natural Extension
As versatility defines conditions of water, seasonality and gravity redefine its movement. The expanse of water in the summer farming fields becomes the initial moment for this sensible practice. Expanding the landscape of organic wetlands as a way of honoring the monsoon and extending water’s presence into all seasons.
︎︎︎Site Sections
︎︎︎Site Sections - Seasonality
Broadway Stories
Inwood Arc
Columbia GSAPP Fall 2020, Critic: Josh Uhl
![]()
Inwood Arc Works intends to create an urban theatre that emphasizes on daily commoning and knowledge sharing that would stitch together the people of Inwood through various performance spaces. The theatre borrows space from a void in-between the sloping terrain. With a system of arcs weaving together experiences of light and performance, it creates a network of spaces for social engagement, information exchange, and for people to celebrate their cultures.
Inwood Arc
Columbia GSAPP Fall 2020, Critic: Josh Uhl
Inwood Arc Works intends to create an urban theatre that emphasizes on daily commoning and knowledge sharing that would stitch together the people of Inwood through various performance spaces. The theatre borrows space from a void in-between the sloping terrain. With a system of arcs weaving together experiences of light and performance, it creates a network of spaces for social engagement, information exchange, and for people to celebrate their cultures.
Inwood, New York
Thresholds
PS 64 Post Carbon School
Constructed Grounds
Columbia GSAPP Spring 2021, Critic: Miku Dixit
Site: PS 64 K-12 school, New York, New York
The proposed laboratory-school focuses on studying the city’s natural environments, drawing inspiration from its existing geological conditions. It is based on the belief that children can actively interact with and learn through constructed topographical conditions. The design features overlapping playing and learning spaces with research-centric, subject-based programs. The interplay of introduced sloped structures with existing buildings allows for interchangeable programs, offering various modes of habitation.
Constructed Grounds
Columbia GSAPP Spring 2021, Critic: Miku Dixit
Site: PS 64 K-12 school, New York, New York
The proposed laboratory-school focuses on studying the city’s natural environments, drawing inspiration from its existing geological conditions. It is based on the belief that children can actively interact with and learn through constructed topographical conditions. The design features overlapping playing and learning spaces with research-centric, subject-based programs. The interplay of introduced sloped structures with existing buildings allows for interchangeable programs, offering various modes of habitation.
︎︎︎Site tree study - seasonal
︎︎︎Ground Level Plan
︎︎︎ First Level Plan
Second level
![]()
Thrid level
![]()
Fourth Level
![]()
Section through site surrounding
︎︎︎ Spatial Prototypes
︎︎︎ Concept Models
The Porch
Columbia GSAPP Fall 2021, Critic: Eric Bunge
Collaboration work with Priscilla Auyeung
The “porch”:
A place for gathering,
to connect with the outside,
To engage with the street,
Mediator of public & private,
A threshold.
︎︎︎Street level activities
︎︎︎Tower and porch level plans
Nest, Nesting, Nested
The Porch is a communal block consisting of a porch over apartment towers to search for new and inclusive frameworks for living in the contemporary city. This communal block fosters a seamless shared porch and a dynamic network of interconnected and potentially nuanced relationships. Within this block, various elements such as furniture, building components, rooms, units, shared amenities, and gardens intertwine to form the foundation for social connections.
The Porch is a communal block consisting of a porch over apartment towers to search for new and inclusive frameworks for living in the contemporary city. This communal block fosters a seamless shared porch and a dynamic network of interconnected and potentially nuanced relationships. Within this block, various elements such as furniture, building components, rooms, units, shared amenities, and gardens intertwine to form the foundation for social connections.