Schachner Meditation Retreat Cabin
Ithaca, NY
2018-2019
The design of this cabin retreat provides a place to practice mediation in the company of nature offering a peaceful environment to reground one’s spirit. While intended only for short stays the cabin provides basic domestic functions while maintaining spatial flexibility within the living area and exterior terraces capable of accommodating different forms of individual or group meditation practices.
The basic spatial strategy is the result of offsetting two volumes clad in wood, each containing a private bedroom and bath, to create a large central living space. This centralized spatial void is well connected to nature, but also protected by the stone walls that define the square plan of the cabin. The roof structure spanning across cabin interior spaces is composed of a three-layer glue laminated timber beam system incorporating a saw-tooth series of skylights providing a consistent diffuse natural light. The project uses many indigenous materials harvested from the site, such as the milled lumber for the beams, paneling, flooring and cladding, as well as the local stone used to construct the exterior walls. Water is also harvested onsite through the incorporation of rain gardens and a dedicated cistern.
Row-Co-House
New York, NY
2019
NYC Row-Co-House is an alternative living environment grounded upon a more collective attitude and interdependence among inhabitants. Many vibrant urban environments today are becoming increasingly too expensive for most lower and middle class people to buy a dwelling. The NYC Row-Co-House was a proposal submitted to the NYC Small Lots competition proposing an architecturally specific and financially viable dedicated co-living environment that is an efficient yet generous living environment.
Given the restrictive dimensions of the Small Lots sites the proposal is designed to feel open through the inclusion of two atrium spaces increasing communication between residents, daylighting and vertical transparency. Vegetative elements are also a priority through the integration of built-in planters, green roofs, and vegetative screenings. These help to purify the interior air and create a more pleasant living experience. Living and kitchen spaces are locally shared among several floors and accessible to all. This allows for greater efficiency and greater amenities for each resident. There are also strategically placed smaller scale spaces like study nooks, reading couches, as well as larger flexible activity spaces on the entry and basement levels. These may accommodate both increased privacy and greater collectivity depending on a resident needs.
Woodland Residence
Long Island, NY
2014-2015
This project for a private residence on Long Island, NY was designed while working professionally for Blaze Makoid Architecture in Bridgehampton, NY. The design blended a Modernist aesthetic with the vernacular cedar siding cottages of the area. A major theme was to extend the interior spaces of the house out to the exterior and beyond to the natural marsh area to the West. The house has an open living space containing the Kitchen, Dining and generous Living Room spaces all of which open out onto a large exterior terrace and covered outdoor dining area. In addition to the generous use of floor to ceiling glazing the primary exterior material is a cedar wood siding composed of both horizontal and vertical boards with varying reveals,
