January 2018 - May 2018
In my undergraduate study at Rice, I took ARCH 305, a studio course introducing architecture for non-architecture students. The final assignment tasked us with designing a cafe for a commercial urban infill site in Houston. My design explores the relationship of void and solid, outdoor and indoor.
A grid is overlaid on the site, and three rectangles of increasing size and spacing are created. Each of the two floors utilizes this same plan but inverts what is defined as the interior and as the exterior.
The ground plane is open as a public outdoor space, both a stationary space with seating available and a transitory space for passage between the front and back of the lot.
The second level encloses three outdoor courtyard spaces, providing seating space and a connection to sunlight and the outside environment.
The roof is pitched to one side to acknowledge the context of the site, serving as a transition between a taller building on the left and a shorter building on the right.
I 3D printed study models to test out the form.