Student Spotlight 2021

In the third year Formal Analysis studio, students explore canonical examples of twentieth-century architecture by six key architects from the Modern and Post-Modern era. Working in groups, they investigate four buildings by each architect to discover a range of concepts and ideas, learning to see and read as an architect. By examining the key polemical concepts, positions, and arguments of each architect, students begin to build a vocabulary of spatial concepts. Their rigorous formal analysis of these buildings, via detailed drawings and physical models, yields a critical understanding of architectural form. This project analyses theDüsseldorf Museum of Art (1980) designed by the architect James Stirling.

To mask is to partially cover: a mask removes context, but also creates focus and even allows for abstraction. It lets us decide what is important. But masking also allows for invention—we can fill in what we don’t know, or what we’ve removed. It can let us see something anew. This first year Architectonics studio prompted students to use masking as a way to invent a fictional space, a public room to enact public rituals. Students experimented with scaleless geometric protocols to discover new types of space. They began by studying precedents of public spaces, saturated with their contexts, histories, and particularities. Masked from their buildings, they developed a new vocabulary of spatial behaviors to perform, and new spacesin which to perform them.

In the most reductive description possible, aesthetics can be defined as energetic wavelengths hitting a human eye. If we can accept this definition and simultaneously accept that there are energetic exchanges between non-human entities in the world, then the exchange of energy between non-human entities can be defined as anaesthetic relationship. This thesis aims to investigate the imperceptible aestheticsof non human entities in the wilderness by modeling invisible light spectrums in point clouds that highlight energetic exchange and entanglement, and by designing the cameras for that imaging.

This Thesis began from three objects in one observable phenomenon: the sky, a plane, and its trace. The trace is the proof of the plane’s existence. Through the lens of relativity, the trace becomes the proof of our existence. As Peter Galison writes: “In looking down, we see up; in looking up, we see down.” The plane traverses meridians. These invisible lines construct the time and space of earth. Cutting through the meridians reveals the conditions underlying environmental, social, and political forces. Stepping into the meridians, we see the reality that reminds us of interconnections and interdependencies with other regions, making us aware of the particularity of one place and the universality of the globe. This thesis visualizes the meridians as sections and archives which register the intersections of culture, environment, and politics. The plane becomes a moving witness. Everything becomes relative, subsuming in one picture.

This thesis aims to decouple occupation of property from possession of property, and to encourage the decommodification of space via interventions that can seed alternate building uses. By proposing interventions as a form of occupation that circumvent official formalization, this project examines what existing architecture can afford its inhabitants, and how modifications to structures by occupants, not by architects, offers opportunities for alternate use--or misuse. This project, situated during urban crisis when businesses shutter and vacant properties increase, identifies six types of sites: an office tower, a department store, a brownstone, a traffic island, a factory, and a garage structure. Each building type is distinct and able to afford unique architectural opportunities for alternate (mis)use. By cracking open the potential that these buildings can offer, it is possible to radically reimagine the role buildings can play in dismantling understandings of property ownership and to conceive of a new one.

Since the inception of the Open Restaurants Program in June 2020, restaurants have been setting up their outdoor dining spaces in accordance with the guidelines determined by the Department of Transportation in New York City. These dining pavilions have taken over public sidewalks and parking lanes throughout the city at no additional cost, providing a new environment for eating and socializing.

This thesis proposes ways in which the spatial typology of the outdoor dining program can be appropriated at an urban scale. To facilitate cultural engagement, this project will reclaim the parking lane for broader public use to reimagine the outdoor environment as an intersection for social transactions. It is composed of a kit of parts that can be gathered, rearranged, and adapted to provide the necessary framework to support the programmatic needs of each neighborhood.

These four images are taken from my thesis collection. One image is of a Clo3D render of a fitted gown with asymmetrical cutouts and glowing fur inserts. Another image is my first thesis look: a silk organza pin-a-fore and bloomers, with glow-in-the-dark stamens to emulate GFP research from my inspiration. One image is a sketch and pattern development page. The last image is a complete look from my graduating collection lookbook.

These images are from my graduation collection and are inspired by the street narrative in India. This work takes inspiration from all the small things like street vendors and bigger things like democracy and humanity. Here are journal sketches and a swatch development page. The looks are all titled "truck drivers and banana sellers," a genderless collection with a knitwear focus.

Personal wearable devices have a potential to effectively implement physical distancing on others, eliminating the awkward and often anxiety-generating verbal requests. However, functional models are not present on the market yet. The objective is to create a wearable outfit: a device that could create a physical distance of 6ft from the people around the user with a simple arm gesture. This is a fun, irreverent, yet meaningful way to limit a close physical contact, and therefore a possible viral cross-contamination.

I created this series of posters for a local bodega in a Brooklyn neighborhood. For inspiration, I referenced bodega's color palette and typefaces, but adding a twist of my own modern graphic style. Each of them has a slightly different approach, but all combining both illustrative type and set type. I wanted to explore contrasting colors and bold shapes in this project.

My thesis collection is focused on wanting to hold on to how I felt as a child. I began looking at my upbringing through family scrapbook albums, which then led me to explore interests of mine from my childhood. I heavily researched one of my favorite movies The Sound of Music and some of my favorite artists such as Cher and Dolly Parton and used them as a starting point to inform different textile and silhouette ideas. I was heavily inspired by the idea of playing dress up and wanted to create garments that could translate this idea to my current age and style. This collection is whimsical, eclectic, and meant to evoke a sense of personal nostalgia.

“WE LEARN CULTURE AT HOME” This thesis focuses on the home as a central agent of change in response to the remittance between the Salvadoran-American transnational identity. Here, remittance signifies the value of cultural currency by forming a multi-generational landscape of retraced rituals and reassembled emblems. Within the binary framework of the transnational identity lies cultural currency; emblematic objects and their rituals which have an accumulated notion of value that is emphasized by the variety that is produced by generational retracing/reassemblage. By activating an inclusive landscape from the analysis of homes of remittance that reflects the cultural milieu of today's world, the thesis posits there is agency in how the home responds to generational, cultural, psychological and environmental issues in order to constantly shape design to re-examine contemporary living -- edging towards a pluralistic view of intersectional domestic narratives.

u&i is a mental wellness campaign dedicated to young teens dealing with the pandemic (and beyond the pandemic). It primarily exists as a physical toolkit to help teens destress and take a break from the digital world, and to understand that they are not alone in their unique wellness journeys. The toolkit consists of a reflection journal set, conversation cards, and a meditative puzzle. The campaign will eventually include a website with free resources.

Bike share platforms like our beloved CitiBike have become rampant all over the world. They are an excellent way for people that do not or cannot own a bike or car to get around the city. What they are not excellent at is helping users to navigate through the city safely & confidently. NaviGrips is a proposed solution to fix this. NaviGrips is a haptic navigation tool that guides the user through the city with vibrations and lights. Users link up their phones to NaviGrips, set their destination, and go. Vibrations and turn signaling (much like that of a car) will not only guide the user but inform everyone around of the bicyclist’s presence and intention. Safe commute in the city is all about riding confidently and being visible – this is the goal of NaviGrips.

As sea levels rise, areas formerly at risk for 100-year floods will soon be submerged at high tide. How can the interior adapt to embrace the new reality of water? This thesis tests how floodwater can become both a catalyst and context for design, reimagining normative spatial conditions as a living symbiotic relationship between inhabitant and enclosure. The presence of shifting environmental water embeds time into site, etching destruction and regrowth in materiality. The program uses environmental waters to cultivate phytoremediative algae as raw materials for product development. The industrial algae farm and small business incubator integrate economic, social, and climate resiliency in the disinvested site of Coney Island, catalyzing the local economy while detoxifying waters. This project aims to design a prototypical green infrastructure intervention in which tidal, flood, and stormwater become a revitalizing new form of adaptive interior.

How are emerging designers helping NYC rebuild and recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and build a more equitable future? Kats Tamanaha, the first student to complete a dual MFA in Interior Design and MS in Sustainable Environmental Systems, proposes an integrative green infrastructure and urban agriculture master plan for the six-superblock NYCHA campus in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Transforming the existing streetscape into a series of interconnected agricultural corridors harvests rainwater for self-sustaining irrigation, provides immediate access to fresh produce, mitigates air pollution and obesity-related health impacts, decreases the urban heat island effect, and creates long-term economic growth for local residents.

Leal was conceived and designed to bring a new perspective and differentiate this skincare brand from other existing brands in this category. The goal of this product and its packaging is to redefine how a brand can engage with and educate skincare consumers through interactive engagement and collaborative design. A focus on reuse, recycling, upcycling, and circularity are critical elements of this project. This natural face mask kit includes a reusable primary package delivered with the first order. This package includes a wooden storage box with an integrated mirror, mortar, and pestle, and five reusable tubes of upcycled food waste for the face masks that have been selected for their healing and nourishing properties. Additional facemask kits are delivered in test tubes which are mailed back to Leal to be cleaned and refilled.

description: Bounds is a leather goods brand focused on creating heirlooms to be passed along from loved one to loved one with an emphasis on product longevity, responsible material resourcing, and utilizing natural and biodegradable materials. The core concept of the brand and project is ‘object as storyteller’ and how an item can be witness to its own creation and participate meaningfully in your daily life. This project is a reflection upon 2020 and how during the pandemic I felt connected to certain items that my family had passed along to me when I couldn't be with them in person. My family is fond of heirlooms and that interest has been continued with me, which I have then manifested in this project.

Names I hate explores name-calling, a common phenomenon of verbal abuse and personal attack. Name-calling is a negative experience that causes distress and is hurtful because it threatens one's identity. The project is built on the results of a series of interviews with young adults about the experience of being called names that they hate and how that experience affected them. While the name-caller might dismiss this practice as teasing or joking, it is, in fact, a form of bullying and harassment. The design of stickers is based on each interviewee. It uses an approachable and playful visual language designed to communicate that tension between something that might seem innocuous but is harmful. The stickers positioning on the subject face illustrates the physical discomfort and harm of name-calling. Each sticker packaging has a QR code that leads to a video of the subjects talking about their experience.

COVID-19 brought NYC’s inequities into the spotlight, and class of 2021 designers are addressing the injustices with projects that invest in communities, prioritize sustainability and food justice, and focus on economic development for underserved populations. Charli Verni, in Pratt’s Graduate Architecture and Urban Design program, is exploring a potential alteration to Sunset Park’s Brooklyn Army Terminal that localizes food production in response to pandemic-related supply chain shortfalls and helps cut greenhouse emissions due to food import. It would yield hundreds of pounds of fresh produce for NYC weekly, while teaching smart urban agriculture methods. It would also incorporate oyster and algae farming to clean NYC waterways. Considering the community’s vocal opposition to gentrification, the vertical farm would be invisible and profound, sourcing labor from the local community and serving as an education facility for surrounding schools and the next generation of urban farmers. Tags: @verni.design, @prattgraud, @prattsoa, @brooklynarmyterminal

Emerging designers are envisioning new spaces in NYC to revitalize the city and implement solutions to build a more sustainable future for the city. Pratt Graduate Architecture and Urban Design student, Carlos Balza Gerardino, is exploring the future of Governors Island as an educational hub by redesigning the parade grounds as an open-air classroom. The thesis project seeks to pioneer a new model of education that combines outdoor spaces with today’s learning models. Leveraging Governors Island’s natural infrastructure to create the outdoor classroom will empower the island’s role as an environmental hub by providing an experimental space that would transform the education system for over eight thousand students from the surrounding school districts. The project aims to not only shift the future of classrooms from “artificial” to “natural,” but presents a window of opportunity to redefine architecture as the point of interaction between humans and the environment. @cbalzage, @prattsoa, @governersisland

Asked by Kids is a global hub of arts-based educational children’s resources that are free, bilingual, and open source. Our goal is to make information more digestible for kids globally, by co-creating resources that are built from children’s own questions and ideas. Whether it be through a coloring book or workshop, our work spans multiple focus areas, from Covid-19, democratic processes, participatory budgeting and supply chains to children’s rights, and mindfulness practices. This project is co-created by Ana Holschuh and Julie Vantrease, two Integrated Design seniors at Parsons School of Design, who started collaborating on this project at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, when they connected with 14 children in 7 different countries to understand their questions and reflections about Covid-19. Today, our resources are shared with multiple organizations like Artists Striving to End Poverty, and thanks to these partnerships, we’re able to reach children facing the digital divide.

共生：梦于海与天之间潜入海底，愿我的身体化为珊瑚礁; 升入天空, 愿我是日落散尽前云里的颜色。海与天之间，是梦发出的地方。 Co-Emergence: Dream in Between Ocean and Sky Dive into the sea, may my body turn into a coral reef; Rise into the sky, may I be the color in the clouds before the sun goes home. In between the ocean and the sky is the place where dreams live.

Edward and the East is an embodiment of the diaspora of Jazz and Hip-Hop, the genres which have come in-between, and music’s connection to sports, art, and film globally Drawing inspiration from musical composition, this offering is meant for the modern - interdisciplinary professional, who adores unique and covert cultural references. The friction within this collection comes from the imbalance or dichotomy when society accepted and appropriated Jazz and Hip Hop for the elements they wanted, leaving a majority of a community out of the loop of participation. In EaE, there is a wrestle between street fashion and more restrained high fashion, resulting in what I would call a “Chic Swagger”.

A “city for bees” that allows bees and humans to coexist and thrive. Based in urban environments, these beehives are perfect for hotel rooftops or outdoor gardens. Beekeepers can keep bees safe and humans can observe and admire their beautiful work and habitats.

Fall injuries are a major cause of the elderly losing their mobility and independence. Hip fractures are the most common of these injuries and they increase the mortality rate of elderly patients. Pillo is a collection of fall injury protection clothing that protects the elderly from hip fractures while helping them retain a confident image. Its attractive, comfortable and easy to use design, combats the medical aesthetic that is present in traditional products which will help normalize the use of hip protective gear. Pillo will reduce fall injuries among older adults and help them age healthily and independently at home.

Infrastructure surrounds us, yet we don't fully understand it. Infrastructure is the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed to operate a society. From its definition, it can become a set of rules within a system or a game. That's where a workbook comes into play. A children's workbook is set up similarly to infrastructure, having frameworks for the questions and answers. The format also makes the topic accessible and approachable — reducing friction between what is known and the facts. The workbook investigates Jakarta's infrastructure through twelve activities on transportation, communications, energy, waste, and water management. The activities aim to highlight issues, such as the many causes of traffic and the hidden gems of Jakarta, such as the colors of the signage— increasing awareness and encouraging change. Through better insight into the infrastructure, people would understand their living conditions better — becoming more critical of what has existed.

We live in a fast-paced communication environment with text messages and video callings, communicating through texting a few words and one sentence with fast responses. Fewer people are willing to spend time waiting for answers in the process of fast-paced communication, so it causes the phenomenon that people don’t cherish personal relationships. However, keeping our inner calm is a communication attitude that we should hold. I hold a habit of sending postcards with my friends a few times each month to communicate our daily interesting things. I also write postcards when I travel and in some festivals to send blessings to my friends. We all enjoy the experience and cherish our relationship. Therefore, I want to transmit the concept of slow-paced communication under the fast-paced communication environment, making people value the importance of waiting in social communication through experiencing a hybrid of traditional communication with digital technology: digital postcards.

This visualization reimagines the past decade's worth of #311 "loud music" complaint data as a series of concentric rings of varying thicknesses made to resemble a vinyl record, speaker, or sound wave. The width of each ring is determined by the count for each month and a tooltip allows the user to hover over each of these to reveal the total number of complaints for the month.

A short VFX film that employs interactions with handmade masks to both reflect and intervene in moments of broken communication. The masks and the people who activate them serve as symbols for the inevitability of misunderstanding, especially in the time of the pandemic, and the creative potential underlying these points of confusion.

Anti is a multi-threat hazmat wardrobe designing against the fashion industry status quo. The purpose of clothing is to protect the body from harm to give the wearer a better chance at life. However, modern clothing does little to protect its wearers from heat and cold, let alone microbes, fire, and falling glass. City-dwellers are at a disproportionately high risk of unnatural disaster, from pandemics to terror attacks, due to the high population densities that make the potential loss of life during those events much higher than in less-densely populated areas. Modern street style, and the fashion industry in general, does not offer clothing that is both beautiful and protective. Anti designs against this paradox, presenting a capsule collection of garments designed to stand up against microbes, fire, and falling glass. Composed of Tyvek, Nomex, and Tychem, Anti garments challenge the definitions of fashion and protection simultaneously.

Museom is a museum map wristband that helps visitors tag their favorite museum experiences in different locations, they can hang up at home as a fun, personalized souvenir. Because visitors’ experiences will vary, Museom will be available as a series of limited edition designs, which should also increase the value and attractiveness of our products. Each wristband also comes with a hashtag that allows visitors to interactively share experiences.