Investigation of New Technologies, 2014
Project Co-Lead, with Sayjel Patel

Awards
*Massachusetts Institue of Technology Council for the Arts (CAMIT) Grant
*McGill University John Bland Scholarship

Shanghai is a complex amalgamation of different eras, typologies, and cultures. How do we begin to understand and represent such a place? Scanhai is a collection of moments that make up one of the fastest changing cities in the world. The project tests the viability of photogrammetry, a 3D scanning technology that allows anyone with a smart phone to create digital 3D models through photography, in architectural education and discourse.

The initial phase of the project launched when researchers from MIT visited Shanghai and captured a range of 3D samples drawn from their experience of the city.

The second phase of Scanhai will share this database through exhibitions at McGill University and MIT to engage communities in a discussion around technology in design. Scaled urban representations will be created using color 3D printing and stereo-lithography and full-scale reproductions will be CNC fabricated. Using 3D motion control, an interactive visualization will allow people to explore the catalogue in its entirety.

The final phase of Scanhai involves the creation of an open-source digital platform to allow the general public – tourists and residents – of Shanghai to capture and upload unique spatial conditions in a geolocated database, re-establishing the modern map of the city.

Masters Thesis, 2013
Advisors: Professors Martin Bressani and Aaron Sprecher

Awards:
*Ping Kwan Lau Prize in Architecture for excellence in research, site analysis, and program preparation
*Régis Coté Graduate Prize in Design and Sustainability
*Canadian Architect Student Award of Excellence, nominee

This thesis proposes a utopian vision for the very real dystopian future of the Samoan islands: one that includes a depleted energy source, an insufficiency of agriculture, a lack of local economy, and a minimum two-meter rise in sea level. However catastrophic, these anticipated changes are seen as an opportunity for the emergence of a new typology. An elevated infrastructural backbone is proposed for the island off of which other program grows. The thesis explores the design of this spine along with an experimental village: the scale at which Samoan society functions. Unassailable from the dangers of a swelling sea, the island is able to introduce a new economy: data centers that leverage the landscape’s geothermal energy and ocean cooling. The project then begins to address the issues of energy, agriculture, and housing.

Rather than domesticating the natural conditions and extreme topography, this project aims to exploit their true conditions. An elevated road runs around the island, navigating the slopes to connect even the most dramatic points, capturing a diverse range of conditions. Development clings to this road while allowing the majority of the island to remain untouched, as it has been for thousands of years, preserving the natural and sacred integrity of the mountains. Specific moments, such as the villages, interrupt this continuity responding to the surrounding site and capitalizing on its natural systems. There is an implied style of life in these emerging sites all the while maintaining familiar cultural conditions in an attempt at redefining Fa’a Samoa – ‘the Samoan way’.

Fa'a Samoa
The Samoan people have a strong cultural and spiritual tie with the sea. All villages on the island are coastal, and almost always linear and narrow in shape. The proposed typology maintains this important connection to the sea for centuries to come.

The largest 20 islands and their respective coastal boarders are delineated below.

A New World Economy: the internet's undersea world
The Samoan private sector is supported by tuna fishing, processing, and canning. However Japanese and Chinese ships are increasingly fishing in the region, decimating local fish populations. How does such a modest and unsustainable economy afford this dramatic yet necessary infrastructure overhaul? 

As South America and Asia continue to witness dramatic economic and population growth, new undersea fiber-optic cables are planned connecting the two regions. The Samoan island chain falls in the middle of this route, making it an ideal location for the cables to pass through. When this happens, Samoa becomes the fastest point on this groundbreaking network.

By 2050, financial institutions, social-media companies and more all want to house their data servers in Samoa. Aside from providing the fastest connection between Asia and South America, geothermal energy and cool ocean water provide cheap cooling solutions for the server farms. These activities fuel the economy allowing Samoa to retool their infrastructure in an age of rising seas.

Click to see fiber-optic cable evolution.

Masters Design Studio, 2011
Studio Coordinator: Professor Aaron Sprecher, Project Partner: Caileigh MacKellar

Awards and Publications:
*Azure Magazine’s 2012 AZ Award Jury’s Prize and People’s Choice Award
*Published in LUNCH8: Futures for Sites Unknown, University of Virginia, July 2013. Print
*Published in McGill Alumni 365, Trash Talk: A Winning Design, April 3, 2013. Digital
*Featured in The Globe and Mail, Imaginative Cities, March 1, 2013. Print
*Featured in The Globe and Mail, How architecture students would shake up our cities, February 28, 2013. Digital
*Featured in Azure Magazine, June 2012 issue. Print

Workshop with architect Philip Beesley and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, 2009
Undergraduate student involved in research, design, and manufacturing

Workshop Website

Exhibited at the United Nations Climate Change Summit (COP15), Copenhagen, 2009
Exhibited at the Pluto Design Festival, Brussels, 2009

Run by Canadian architect Philip Beesley and organized by the Center for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, this collaboration investigated how concepts of interactivity and responsiveness can suggest new ways of thinking the relationship between the building and its environment.

U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, Team North, 2009
Team member
Led by Professors Geoffrey Thun and Kathy Velikov

placed fourth overall

"In Canada, anyone who spends time in the outdoors camping, canoeing, or hiking, knows that the best way to prepare for unpredictable weather is to dress in layers. With this in mind, North House is constructed in layers. The outermost layer combines flexible thin-film photovoltaic technology with passive solar heat management in the dynamic shading textile. The second layer is a high-performance, highly insulated glazing system with an unusually high solar heat gain coefficient to maximize solar gain. Inboard of the glazing system, is an interior shade to moderate privacy and view, without compromising thermal performance. The interior layers, called the Adaptive Living Interface System (ALIS), is conceived of as a ‘thin’ skin of information systems, responsive to touch, capable of subtle display, and able to measure interactions between the occupants and the building systems."

Participation through a course at the University of Waterloo led by Professors Kathy Velikov and Geoffrey Thün.