CONTENT:

Vertical Farm:A hydroponic farm designed to feed 50,000 people in the Harlem area of New York City. The design is derived from minimum surface and skyscraper explorations and research. The minimum surface is intended to maximize efficiency in sunlight and capacity. - Spring 2011, Group Project.

Student Dormitory:A critical re-imagination of a quad at Edward Stone's SUNY ALBANY campus, The concept is derived from the windswept sands of the indigenous pine bush landscape. The project intends to unify typical tower and block housing types in a single language. - Fall 2008, Group Project

Al Rostamani Headquarters:Al Rostamani Headquarters in Dubai, UAE is a new conception of the office tower. A single monolithic block hovers above the water front, providing a view for employees and the public within the tower. The headquarters utilizes tubes as both structural and circulation elements. When the tubes intersect the main block of the building, the leave openings for program variation. - Spring 2011, Group Project

Illusion of Reality:Developed in two stages, Research then design, this project attempts to find solutions to the extreme social and economic poverty in a major slum of Ahmedabad, India. The project forms as a delamination of an existing slum fabric, pushing a new commercial program space underneath. The structure allows for programmatic flexibility for advancement of knowledge and well being. - Fall 2009, Individual Project

The Socio-Ecological Network:The Socio-Ecological Network is the establishment of a symbiotic relationship between the components of a social network and an ecologic network. The social network is the society and hierarchy that develops codes of conduct for member and context interactions. The ecological network is the context for the social interaction. It is an interface for decision making processes. - Fall 2011 to Spring 2012, Undergraduate Thesis Project

FOLD: chair:This chair project was undertaken with a specific interest in the term fold or folding and unfolding with the understanding of its root in the work and philosophy of Peter Eisenman in the lineage of philosophy from Gilles Deleuze. It is responding to the specific conditions of a design brief for new Battery Park Green lawn seats in New York, New York and was undertaken as part of a final project during my first semester at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. - Fall 2012, Individual Competition

Peconic Ballet Theatre:Francis Bitonti Studio developed this Interior for the Peconic Ballet Theater in Riverhead, New York. White walls hover between the floor and ceiling, pulling you across, around and in. The lighting is situated to create diffuse space, one without shadows, time or solid ground, leaving us with only the dancers to provide us with a sense of time and place. - September 2012 to January 2013, Design Team Intern

VERTICAL FARM:A hydroponic farm designed to feed 50,000 people in the Harlem area of New York City. The design is derived from minimum surface and skyscraper explorations and research. The minimum surface is intended to maximize efficiency in sunlight and capacity. The design studio brief included a methodology of self-sustaining hydroponic systems in continuous flow. The vertical farm would support the nutritional needs of New York City residents by optimizing the amount of nutrition in particular plants and animals with the amount of space needed to grow and maintain the food. This optimization was achieved through the use of an atypical floor plate in the form of a minimum surface, which provided more usable space will also increasing daylight penetration.

STUDENT DORMITORY:A critical re-imagination of a quad at Edward Stone's SUNY ALBANY campus, The concept is derived from the windswept sands of the indigenous pine bush landscape. The project intends to unify typical tower and block housing types in a single language.

The ultimate result of an intervention at any of the dormitory quadrangles could not overlook the Stone factors of design and design consequence. We see rather blunt inspirations and architectural genius in much of the layout and general design. For example, we look to the location of each quadrangle tower placed in the corners closest to the podium. In the Dutch quadrangle in particular this allows the courtyard space to be free of shadow for most of the day. We see also the execution of further circulation development as it occurs in this same corner. Rather than place entrances to the quadrangle on all sides, they are set in the corners, allowing easy and equal access to both the tower and the bar style dormitories.

It is therefore these two particular concepts we have incorporated into our design. As a consequence of the sun angle and location for much of the school year, it became pertinent to have the taller components located on the northern corner. The circulation is best suited also for this corner and therefore must be kept open enough to allow entry.

AL ROSTAMANI HQ:Al Rostamani Headquarters in Dubai, UAE is a new conception of the office tower. A single monolithic block hovers above the water front, providing a view for employees and the public within the tower. The headquarters utilizes tubes as both structural and circulation elements. When the tubes intersect the main block of the building, the leave openings for program variation.

This project includes several programs including offices, conference rooms, cafes, and a lobby. It seeks to preserve openness both physically and visually towards the desirable view and space of the water-front. In order to maintain openness, the building floats above the site while remaining grounded to the landscape through circulation and structural elements. This connection is tempered for a smooth transition from landscape to building.

The building is located in an ideal site along the waterfront of the Business Center area of Dubai, allowing fro visual and physical movements out onto the water. The Headquarters utilizes tubes as both structural and circulation elements to support the idea of synthesis. These tubes generate the form of both the landscape and building while also creating a visual distinction. These tubes are utilized as vertical columns rotated to allow for open space from under the building towards the waterfront. The Al Rastamani project highlights the importance of openness through the reorganization of mass, which lowers the visual footprint.

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ILLUSION OF REALITY:

5

Take a Closer Look...

Street Entry

Sky Walk

Interior Apartments

Market area

Housing with urban fabric Continuity

Market and Commercial Space

Sky Walk

Interior Apartments

Housing with urban fabric Continuity

Street Entry

Market and Commercial

Space Market area

This Project is conceived as a method to introduce the concept of an in between space into a high-ly divided community. The Slum fabric was conceived as a programmatic layer that could be propped up by new programs. The Market area and Commercial space are the core of the intervention, cre-ating a new flow of income for the project without losing valuable space. As an additional sup-port, Higher-income housing is available within the project to help bridge the existing social gap.

A Park-like Walk way exists to promote social heterogeneity. It promotes a wide variety of people to travel through the roof’s urban fabric rather then just the inheritance. The walkway is sup-plemented by a network of openings and spacings for community and semi-private activity on the exposed surface of the project.

The Market and commercial spaces are intended to help promote social and economical equality. The space exists to serve both the poor and the wealthy. It is here that the basis of the project is formed. Here, the interactions be-tween the “Haves” and the “Have-nots” begin to occur on a regular basis, allowing individuals to see how they can help and be helped in the community. It is here were Common space becomes common interest, becomes common goal.

The surface of the project is conceived with a similar notion as the sub-level market and commercial space. It In-cludes a wide range of programs in-cluding religions institutions, schools, stores, markets, as well as housing. The schools would integrate students regardless of religion or economic status. The structures are intended to promote bonds with neighbors with-out completely shutting out others.

The city of Ahmedabad is on the verge of a massive population boom. However, as it stands, this growth will occur in the slums. Like in most major cities of India, these slums have been growing rapidly. Businesses and, in fact, the economy of these urban centers respond by using the influx of people who are looking for any work that they are given as cheap labor. And in a government and bureaucracy that works effectively only for those with money or connections, it is near impossible for the low waged workers to obtain better jobs. In fact many barely make enough to survive, requiring their children to work in order to make ends meet.

The problem still exists, though, when the slum dwellers are moved from their shanty towns to high- density, low-income, and high-rise housings; the slum dwellers are stuck in a "Culture of Poverty" as Oscar Lewis would phrase it. Within the core of this concept is the idea that those that exist in a culture of poverty do not contribute back to their environment. Here, the slum dwellers are forced to work at low wages in order to survive. Lewis seems to suggest that as a result, they are not able or willing to contribute to the development of the cities culture and society because of their economic status (creating a sort of illusion).

However, the choice is not between illusion and reality. In fact, reality is what the individual or society makes of it. The illusion behind the reality of these dwellers needs to be understood. The illusion suggests that some dwellers view themselves (whether known or not) as being in a different place and / or time then they actually are. The solution seems to be desire. Most desire a better life, whether it is more money, more food, or a better job.

view graffiti art

reduces measurable stress by 25 %

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Decision-Space Section

low environmental impact store

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Choice Envelope Transparency

high carbon footprint

SOCIO ECOLOGICAL NETWORK:

The Socio-Ecological Network is the establishment of a symbiotic relationship between the components of a social network and an ecologic network. The social network is the society and hierarchy that develops codes of conduct for member and context interactions. The ecological network is the context for the social interaction. It is an interface for decision making processes.

The Socio-Ecological Network is the establishment of a symbiotic relationship between the components of a social network and an ecologic network. The social network is the society and hierarchy that develops codes of conduct for member and context interactions. The ecological network is the context for the social network and has the ability to affect the efficiency and health of the social network and its members. Objects and correlations that are already related to each of these networks (Social network- friends, family, etc. Ecologic network- ecosystems, air quality) have significant roles in the other (friends and family certainly play a role in the histories and futures of the ecosystems and air qualities of their environments).

The Socio-Ecological Network is intended to adapt over time, thereby maintaining its usefulness. The network works because it adheres itself to the ambitions, intelligence, and experience of its members. These perspectives are aligned with user-selected non-government organizations that collect relevant information for decision-making processes. The resultant subjective perspective of the surrounding environment is based on the value sets of the member and their subscribed NGO's. Each of three systems works to accomplish this adaptation.

navigation: distance

Member’s Liquid Arrow visible to other members

Host Member’s Liquid Arrow appears once a choice is made

Member’s Liquid Arrow visible to other members

FOLD CHAIR:This chair project was undertaken with a specific interest in the term fold or folding and unfolding with the understanding of its root in the work and philosophy of Peter Eisenman in the lineage of philosophy from Gilles Deleuze. It is responding to the specific conditions of a design brief for new Battery Park Green lawn seats in New York, New York and was undertaken as part of a final project during my first semester at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

PECONIC BALLET THEATRE:

Francis Bitonti Studio developed this Interior for the Peconic Ballet Theater in Riverhead, New York. White walls hover between the floor and ceiling, pulling you across, around and in. The lighting is situated to create diffuse space, one without shadows, time or solid ground, leaving us with only the dancers to provide us with a sense of time and place.

This project was complete while interning as part of the design team of Francis Bitonti Studio in Brooklyn, NY from August 2012 to March 2013.