Design that Thinks

This site analysis responds to Newtown’s limited family presence by proposing a network of wetland-based education spaces connected to nearby Unity Park. Through program diagrams, the project explores how outdoor learning environments can activate the landscape and draw families into the site.

This site plan analyzes topography, vegetation, circulation, and buildable constraints to understand how the Newtown landscape shapes architectural opportunity. By mapping contours, tree coverage, and the church alignment, the drawing establishes a framework for responsive massing and future development within the wetlands context. 

This massing study explores formal responses for the future art gallery, testing curved geometries that emerge from site circulation and wetland adjacency. Through iterative models, the design investigates how sweeping forms can guide movement, frame views, and balance the historic church alignment with the landscape. 

These concept diagrams translate site research into three guiding ideas: reaching toward the wetlands, shaping circulation through curved movement, and aligning with the historic church axis. Together, they establish a formal and experiential framework for the art gallery rooted in landscape, flow, and cultural context. 

This drawing situates the proposed massing within the Newtown site, illustrating how the form responds to topography, wetlands, and the church alignment. It demonstrates how the building’s geometry emerges from contextual relationships rather than imposed shape. 

 This section reveals how the proposed massing shapes interior space, movement, and views, reinforcing the building’s connection to the wetlands and surrounding context. 

This early sketch explores the bathhouse as a skylight-driven space, organized around three elongated apertures that shape light, atmosphere, and movement. The study investigates how natural light can define spatial rhythm and create a contemplative bathing experience. 

The floor plan establishes a clear spatial sequence, organizing bathing, circulation, and light to create a cohesive and intentional experience. 

The site plan defines the bathhouse’s relationship to landscape, circulation, and solar orientation, reinforcing the project’s light-driven concept. 

The sections illustrate how light shapes each room, demonstrating the vertical relationships, ceiling heights, and moments of illumination that define the bathing experience. 

The diagram visualizes the building’s relationship to the sun, showing how angled skylights respond to solar movement to shape light, atmosphere, and spatial experience throughout the day. 

A diagram showing how the bathhouse’s form emerges from the mountains, blending seamlessly with the landscape. 

An exterior perspective showing a hiker approaching the bathhouse, designed as a serene resting place that harmonizes with the surrounding mountains. 

An interior view of the bathhouse showing the hot plunge pool and the cold plunge, which connects directly to the surrounding river, blending interior relaxation with the natural landscape." 

An interior view of the bathhouse showing the main pool as the bath, with the skylight system casting light patterns across the floor, creating a serene and restorative atmosphere for visitors. 

The initial phase of the project presents a drawn topography of our imaginative Appalachian site, along with the original proposed paths. This drawing captures our early exploration of form and circulation before evolving into the final design. 

Section cuts of the final topography reveal how spaces, bridges, and circulation weave through the mountain-like landscape. Nature grows through and around the interventions, showing a seamless integration of terrain, architecture, and human movement. 

The site plan illustrates the full layout of the imaginative Appalachian topography, showing the arrangement of paths, bridges, docks, and spaces within the mountain-like terrain. It highlights how human movement and architectural interventions integrate seamlessly with the natural landscape. 

A render showing two spaces connected by a bridge, with a visitor crossing, highlighting how the topography and architecture guide movement through the mountain-like landscape. 

 A render highlighting the boardwalk along the river water source and a ‘stick’ balcony carved into the mountain, with a visitor experiencing the interplay of architecture and landscape. 

A render showing a large ‘stick’ bridge, shaped like a pine tree leaf from above, with holes for trees to grow through, as a visitor walks across, highlighting the integration of architecture and natural growth in the mountainous landscape 

A concept diagram showing how the wall’s fans were derived from a section cut of a pineapple core remover, translating the object’s curved forms into architectural elements. 

The site plan integrates the wall’s fan-inspired forms throughout the courtyard, shaping paths, an amphitheater, and stone elements, creating a cohesive architectural gesture across the space. 

Floor plan, sections, and elevation illustrate how people interact with the wall and its elements, showing seating, gathering areas, and the dynamic engagement created by the fan-inspired forms. 

A render showing the courtyard animated with students and professors: a girl eating at a table, the amphitheater hosting an outdoor class or pin-up, and a visitor painting on the wall’s canvas, highlighting the interactive and multifunctional nature of the space.