I believe that social phenomenons are directly related to humanitarian design in human habitat. I have deep respect and desire to be part of this profession because I believe that architecture is responsible for the realistic innovations vital towards the future of our living and working conditions. The modern day cultural context demands for constant change. In an urban environment buildings are changed and re-designed, demolished and re-constructed constantly. Having studied interior design, this immediately signifies a hard quest. A design that is that is sophisticated to a level that can function as a cultural-multi-tool and yet manufactured to be used easily for the everyday conditions. Architecture in my mind plays a crucial role in this situation, architects and designers come together to satisfy both the economical and the cultural complexity that is bound to occur in any form of human habitat.
Studies geared to an understanding of human existence are crucial to me as is utilizing nature as an inspiration for design. This combination fascinates me, and I believe it is an approach for the future. I do believe that visual aesthetics are also vital to enhancement of nature inspired designs that will meet the true requirements of modern life. I believe that architecture holds the solutions and the tactics to achieve the right kind of modern environments.
ESI Design, New York, NY, US, Physical Designer
(Corporate, Institutional)
- Communicating ideas to the internal teams as well as to clients.
- 3D modeling and renderings of co-created designs.
- Working with Project Managers to oversee schedule and workflow.
- Presenting design concepts verbally and visually; both internally and directly to clients.
- Interacting with clients to establish design criteria and communicate concepts.
- Working with an internal multi-disciplinary design team including AV systems designers, UX /UI designers, writers and graphic designers.
Jorge Mastropietro Architects Atelier (JMA), New York, NY, US, Architectural Designer (Residential, Commercial)
- Architectural drafting (Using Auto CAD)
- Site survey for demolition & new construction
- Contributed to real estate properties greater development design
No.4 STUDIO L.L.C., Brooklyn, NY, US, Freelance Design Consultant (Residential, Commercial)
- 3D design development (Using 3DsMAX & Revit)
- 3D rendering, 3D Presentation video (Using 3DsMAX/Revit 2014/Final Cut Pro/Adobe After Effects )
- Assisted in construction and schematic design documents (Using Revit 2014)
Kushner Studios Architecture + Design, New York, NY, US, Architectural Intern (Residential, Commercial, Hospitality, Health Care)
- Worked alongside architects on construction drawing sets
(Using Vectorworks and Auto CAD)
- Designed and prepared presentation boards for clients (Using Adobe software)
- Built ‘abstract’ models using wood and metal rods with power tools
- Worked on digital renderings (Using 3Ds MAX)
- Completed and filed several permits and documents to NYC D.O.B.,
Brooklyn DOB, FDNY, NYC Building HUB and NYC LPC
- Handsketched site measurements to create CAD & Vectorworks construction document
- Worked on solar panel projects (From purchasing stage to installing)
- Worked on 3D printing models (From purchasing stage to 3D printing)
- Worked on specifying, ordering and purchasing materials for projects
- Organized and designed architectural charity camp for NYC children (Steve’s Camp 2013)
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, US, Bachelors, Interior Design
BFA Interior Design, Minor Art History
2014 Pratt Institute “GREEN WEEK” Award, Award
2014 Interior Design Exhibit
March 31- April 4
Pratt Studio 2nd flr & Terrian Design Gallery
Undergraduate Level: Interior Design
Prof. Deb Schnedierman: Sr. SOFA lounge (group)
Dina Digovine-Florence, Hyun Kyu Han, Ga Im Kim, Hyunji Kim, Ji-Eun Kim, Yujin Kim,Ashely Kuo, Jin Yeop Lee, Jessie Lu, Riely Mellon, Jenn Palomma, Sran Shi
Lounge installation commission by Metropolitan Pavilion ‘2014 Metroshow’, Honorable Mention
LOUNGES AT THE 2014 METRO SHOW
We are very pleased to announce that two Pratt lounges will be featured at this year's METRO Show. The lounges were designed by a team of faculty, undergraduate and graduate students from the Department of Interior Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, which is committed to social and environmental responsibility.
The lounges consist of two major elements - a seating scape composed of empty plotter tubes and a canopy formed from plastic bags filled with air. These combine to create a connection between fair visitor and the student/designers themselves.
The lounges were redesigned for this year's METRO Show, and mirror the show's mission of presenting a mixture of historic to contemporary, a cross-section of ideas/designs/genres. With their combined canopies and seating structures, they reflect both traditional decorative arts and contemporary functional objects.
To create the seating elements, the designers repurposed the typically discarded cardboard tubes used in plotting the students' designs. The tubes are joined with hand-stitched twine - referencing the tradition of furniture upholstery. The tops of the tubes are patterned with a floral pattern that was inspired by Chicago's most iconic designs such as Marina City, the Aqua Building, the Cloud Gate and Navy Pier's Ferris Wheel. The floral pattern in turn brings one back to the typical ideas and patterns used in traditional upholstery fabric.
The seating is sheltered by white plastic trash bags, filled with air, massed and hung to create a dome-like form. These objects of waste–upcycled into beautiful, interesting and functional structures, remind us of the massive amount of trash produced by our society, and the alternative at hand to think in new and innovative ways to find new uses for these objects.
The canopies will also be featured above the ticket and cafe areas to create a visual flow as fair visitors enter the show. The canopies above the seating areas will feature projections aimed onto the surface of the plastic bags. The projections will show the process of creating the lounges themselves.
Pending
SOFA Chicago 2013 International design fair: lounge installation, 1st Place
Pratt Connect Lounge
The Pratt Connect lounge is designed by a team composed of faculty, Undergraduate Students and Graduate Students from the Department of Interior Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. The Pratt Interior Design Program is an architecturally oriented program with emphasis on spatial design rather than surface embellishment. All aspects of space-scale, proportions, configuration, and light sources, as well as textures, materials, and colors-are studied in relation to their effect on the human spirit. The department’s educational community encourages philosophical explorations, ethical responsibility, aesthetic expressions, and practical applications. With a firm commitment to social and environmental responsibility, the department strives to create interior designers who effectively contribute to the enhancement of function, health, safety, and quality of the human environment.
The Pratt Interior Design project team began conceptual design at the end of the Spring Semester 2013. The preliminary proposal for the Pratt Connect Lounge was conceptualized by 2013 MS Interior Design graduates Kristin Lee and Molly Sherman, working with Pratt Interior Design Professor Deborah Schneiderman. In the early fall 2013 Professor Schneiderman continued the project with the Pratt Undergraduate Senior Interior Design Studio. The full team will develop the design and build the installation for the SOFA fair in Chicago Fall 2013.
The design for the Pratt Connect Lounge is inspired by the iconic art and architecture of the city of Chicago. 144 studies of seating and canopy design were produced between a studio of 12 students. These initial proposals were narrowed down, redefined, hybridized, modified and then renewed again until the final design was reached. The resulting design is derived from the studies of the iconic Cloud Gate designed by Anish Kapoor. The final proposal consists of two major elements, a seating scape and a canopy; which seek to create a connection between the SOFA visitors and the students of Pratt Institute.
Chicago’s skyline is a constant in the reflection of the Cloud Gate, yet it is sandwiched by the ever changing skies above and the movement of people below. This translated into the relative permanence of the different types of seating within the proposal – a permanent lounge and temporary modular seating form and interior landscape. Seating arrangements have been designed to make use of the discarded cardboard plotter tubes that amass in the school’s print labs. Imagery and plans of some of Chicago’s most iconic designs, such as Marina City, the Agua Building, the Cloud Gate and Navy Pier’s Ferris Wheel, were manipulated and abstracted to create a floral pattern set on top of a linear background. The lounge seating is sheltered by white plastic trash bags; hung and massed to create a dome-like form similar to the “omphalos” on the underside of Cloud Gate. The canopy mass is articulated by movement as the wind traverses through the structure. The concave chamber also offers a unique view to its visitors and is mimicked in the proposal through projections aimed within the “omphalos” but seen merely as a soft glow from the exterior. Projections show the process of the materialization of the installation: sketches, diagrams, models, methodology, time lapse, etc. as a means of promoting the infamous “Pratt process”.
The juxtaposition of the installation’s two elements, the canopy and the seating, references SOFA Chicago’s objective of providing a market for artists who are interested in combining traditional decorative arts with functional objects. In addition to connecting the SOFA Chicago visitor to the surrounding city, the environment seeks to create a connection between the SOFA Chicago visitors and the students of Pratt Institute. As noted above, seating arrangements are designed to repurpose the discarded cardboard plotter tubes that amass in the school’s print labs. The project will be built from approximately 300 of these tubes. As seen in the works of designer, Shigeru Ban, it is possible to repurpose mundane waste into beautiful and functional objects or structures. The Pratt Connect Lounge creates the opportunity for many people to sit on the same furniture piece while simultaneously composing a personal space and individual vantage point.
As the Pratt Interior Design Program is committed to social and environmental responsibility, approaching project design work for the remaining portion of the semester after SOFA through a social lens is befitting. As the students will have had the rare opportunity to visit Chicago as a team and work within the Navy Pier structure, it is apropos to continue to use the pier as a site for the studio final project. With radically shifting weather patterns at the forefront of our student consciousness following Hurricane Sandy and its devastation at our doorstep, Pratt students have learned first hand that urban mega structures are utilized as sites for relief shelter. For the remainder of the semester students will work toward an interior solution for the design of temporary relief shelters within a mega structure sited at the Navy Pier. Referencing Shigeru Ban again, as he utilized the strength of discarded cardboard carpet tubes for a design developed to house art, he also utilized the tubes for their strength and availability to design contextually appropriate disaster relief structures that provided occupants a personal space and sense of home when it was most needed.
Designboom architecture & design magazine Design for dead competition 2012 (final 20), Nomination
The journey to re-design 'death care service' was sought out to allow catharsis the deceased and their family. The purpose of the designed product is to positively reinterpret negative emotions that inevitably emanate from a funeral. Grieving is naturally one of the strongest emotions felt during a funeral. The visualization of sorrow is at its most heightened state during a funeral. With that in mind, the main goal of this design is to recognize the cathartic emotions associated with loss. While constructing the practical design concept, different elements that underlay the ritualistic funeral became critical components to this product.
The first element that was considered was religion, as funerals are often associated with religious ceremonies and rituals. Through research, cremating the deceased was identified as the most common practice of treating the deceased, covering 82 percent of the world including the three major religions: Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. Christianity believes in a spiritual afterlife elongated after the death of the body, Buddhism believes in a transitional period from one life to another, and the Islam believe death as a form of departure from earth rather than an end to existence. Cremation, commonly practiced, is a form of recognizing the end of one terminal life to a new state of promised spirituality in the realm of religion. Secular groups also commonly practice cremation as a way of saying farewell to the parted loved ones. The commonality of cremation was a key component in making an approachable design.
The second was the emotional reconciliation process that takes place during a funeral. Funerals are often a method to reconcile with the feeling of loss, a moment of emotional closure. It was crucial to stay away from a machine-like construct and allow a design that would suspend more attention to the emotional aspect of the grieving process. It was important to understand that the purpose of a funeral was to supersede the machine-like modern developments of technology with a spiritual blooming and to reconnect with the idea that death is not a technicality, but a profound incident in life that definitely is worth the grieving.
The third was to create an environmentally sustainable design. The materials used in the design reflects the idea of a cycle between life and death, re-creating the exit into a new entry for the deceased. This was why all of the materials used in the design had to be decomposable or made from natural materials. Plants and its symbolism were used to represent the idea of the circle of life and the final three that have been selected were the ones that would grow steadily as it represented the concept of restorative death care service. The Pine tree symbolizing immortality, the Cherry tree symbolizing death and rebirth, and the Birch tree symbolizing new beginnings and cleansing of the past are the final options of the product. The materials selected to support the design are Polymer glass and biodegradable paper.
