My intention with this chair is to create a piece suited both in character and in proportion to fit my mom, Karen Ann Madsen (KAM). The chair is my original design — an armchair for sitting fairly upright with good posture and support. Designing a chair is a challenge: defining its style and understanding its construction is a constant learning curve. Laura Mays described making a chair like connecting points in space to fit the body it is meant to hold in the position the designer intends — a sentiment I kept in my mind throughout the process. To learn from those who have made chairs before me, I looked to classic Danish designers such as Hans Wegner and Aksel Bender Madsen (a nod to my mom and my Danish roots), the Talavid chair by Carl Malmsten, and Ejler, Jim and Laura’s advice. I started by making a collection of small scale models to help make decisions about proportions and style, then moved to a full scale mock up to dial in comfort and details. I then found a beautiful board of rich toned Madrone wood and began to carefully make the KAM chair. It has been deeply gratifying to build a piece of furniture to hold the one who held me as a child. ♥ 

A dovetailed chest of drawers to hold precious papers (letters, paintings, the like). The coopered top case rests in the bridle joints of its stand. Made of solid madrone and walnut with hand cut joinery throughout.

C'mon, give me all the juicy details — write them down, draw them, keep them in a journal or send them in a letter. The intention behind this curvy pear writing desk is to create a space and surface for you to sit and put lines on paper — an act of healing: reconnecting your mind & hands. Our ever-increasing dependence on typing and texting often overshadows writing by hand. A handmade writing desk invites us to write again in our own unique script, an innately human gesture. 

Curves speak a similar language to handwriting, as it is difficult to create the exact same curve twice. The process of constructing a veneered pear wood table top with curved captured edgebands, curved skirt members made by bent lamination and sawn curved legs has been challenging and oh-so rewarding. I give a nod to Krenov and his Italian walnut writing table for inspiration and guidance in "The Impractical Cabinetmaker" and a few more nods to Ejler, Laura and Jim for help along the way.  

P.S. Apple products are not compatible with pear ;-) 

“Even keel” is a wall-docked vessel to celebrate the life of a boat builder made with love by his granddaughter. The design and process of building the cabinet are aligned with the dictionary definition of “even keel”: noun (nautical) the situation in which a watercraft is floating or in a smooth and level manner & (idiomatic, of emotions, etc.) the state or characteristic of being in control and balanced. Cabinet construction is derived from a boat's analogous parts — the carcass as the "hull" and the spine that mounts to the wall as the "keel". The cabinet is my first project at The Krenov School and is made of local claro walnut, chestnut drawer sides and bottom, ebony pulls, and custom brass hardware.

A ceramic tool box made for a special ceramic artist — hand cut joinery and wood scraps from my cabinet “Even Keel” (claro walnut & chestnut).

Walnut bookcase made with lot of love for my mom, completed August 2021. Learned how to do bridle joints.

Doll bed made from salvaged Mahogany for Cedar’s American Girl doll “Kira,” great opportunity for mortise and tenon joinery practice.

Cutting board made with an assortment of scraps (walnut, maple, oak, etc.) from Andy’s woodshop, design inspired by Andy’s technique, see his website here: http://www.andysfinewoodworking.com/misc-projects.html

Watercolor paintings done in fall 2020 online watercolor class with Tom Di Santo (my former fifth year professor) through Cuesta College and some more recent works 2021-2022 added :)

The intention of “Assemblage,” my fifth year thesis project, is to create architecture based in discovery, connecting with existing environments and materials. I hope to create a beautiful convolution of stories, histories in material and space—evoking the aura and spirit of a place and inviting thoughtful human interaction. Instead of starting with new, raw material (often energy-intensive to make/transport) I want to pick up on the richness left behind on existing material (maybe discarded, left behind, forgotten). I want to work from existing lines, taking cues from what is already there. There is something special about old, used material. It has a story to tell, and when it is reused, it clues to its previous life as it begins its new life. Our physical surroundings can express the touch they have felt. That is why I want to use the leftovers, the odd-sized remnants, the weathered, warping material—we have plenty of it. I hope my thesis can become one of many ways we can become alchemists, transforming scraps into art, using waste creatively.

The site of my thesis project is the Tin House, an abandoned building at the top of the ridge near Mcway Falls in Big Sur. It is a special place, covered in marks of those who have visited before and begging to be re- used. You can reach the Tin House by hiking up the Tanbark trail, a 3 mile one-way route switch backing through redwoods (trail head off Highway 1 at Partington Cove) or up the fire road just north of Mcway Falls on Highway 1, a 2.5 mile one-way route along the ridge. The full loop is around 6 miles, but is fairly steep, with 2,oooft elevation gain. The story of the Tin House is curious: it was built in 1944 for a wealthy couple, former New York Congressman Lantrop Brown and railroad heiress Helen Hooper Brown. They decided to built the Tin House up on the top of the ridge in order to escape the fog (their first property in Big Sur was closer to the ocean). The Tin House was built in 1944, when building materials were scarce because of WWII. The materials they were able to find were from two gas station buildings that had been disassembled and brought up to the site. It was a difficult task, but the rich couple hired an architect and builders to see it through. Rumor is, the couple only spent a few nights at the house and left because the metal walls and roof creaked all night in the wind.

The following projects are thesis explorations for this year. My intention through my thesis is to create architecture based in discovery, connecting with existing environments and materials. I hope to create a beautiful convolution of stories, histories, and memories in material and space—evoking the aura and spirit of a place and inviting thoughtful human interaction.

Humans have a tendency toward nostalgia and memory. I have a desire to harness that heavy ache—the vulnerability tied to human storytelling—and thread it into everything I create. Architecture, at its best, is filled with memory and all its mysteries. 

For the abstract art object, everything was found: the little bracelet, the encyclopedia of animal life, the metal stand, the string, the clamp, the acrylic cover, the watercolor paper and watercolors and pencils, the black paper, the metal bar, even the spray mount and glue sticks holding the 600-something pages [together. these items made something of a found object shrine]

I created SPILL with artists’ beeswax, watercolors, and graphite. It is an introspection charette in painting form. My initial inspiration stems from how a space can hold. As I was experimenting with materials, I made an exciting discovery about the beeswax. When it is hot and poured on watercolor paper (or any standard paper) it will appear translucent when lit from behind. I used this discovery, as well as my practice in watercolors to explore of the relationship between color, darkness and light. As I was painting, I would pour paint, or pour wax, letting go of my control. After the paint or wax dried, I would have to work with the result, no matter what happened in the process. An underlying message in the piece is to work with what you have, instead of having a definite plan from the beginning. This message ties into my thesis of found architecture, and creating what you need from what you have.

I created DRILL using scrap wood I found at Pacific Coast Lumber (in a pile three times my height). I altered some of the pieces in shop to show the color of the raw wood beneath its weathered surface. To connect the pieces, I used a hinge with rust as thick as its original body (no longer hinging). I found the hinge at the Tin House in Big Sur (my site for my thesis project). DRILL is a form analogue charette in sculpture form.  

I created FILL using trinkets I found when visiting the Tin House: melted glass from the fires that have swept through, colorfully patina’d metal, a stick from a nearby Madrone tree (rich red bark), and an old drape rod hanger. In studio I found an old jig for forming concrete (created by John Kim, a former student) and reassembled it. I also found clear soap base (melted and poured into the old concrete jig), and used the artists’ beeswax left over from the introspection project. FILL is a site analogue charette in sculpture form.

I created DAFFODIL using images I took at the Tin House and leftover artists’ beeswax. The collage is two-sided and mounted on a found weathered wood board from the balcony outside our studio.

All of these pieces are in parallel with my thesis explorations for fifth year architecture studio.  

Spring semester 2018 at DIS Copenhagen, I’ve been in the furniture design studio with a Danish furniture designer. The first half of the semester we made many design iterations through drawing and modeling in order to decide on our best design. The second half of the semester was just working in the workshop. We were given a 120cm x 120cm board of bamboo plywood and from there prompted to create a piece of flat pack furniture. At the beginning of the semester I was focused on exploiting the 120cm x120cm board to the fullest, minimizing any waste with my design. I came up with a stool design that perfectly packed into itself and wasted no material. Once I started testing the design in the workshop, and fine-tuning the proportions, I found that three stools that three-dimensionally pack into each other was my strongest design. So I created just that: a little stool, a medium sized stool, and a large stool that all flat pack, and when assembled, stack into each other. They can be used as side tables, or together as a kind of shelving unit, or simply as a stool for extra seating in a space. I created the stools by cutting the legs and tops out of the bamboo plywood, carefully crafting each set of legs so they would be exactly the same. I then made dovetail joints for the legs to slide into the stool tops. The stools are quick to assemble and take apart, plus structurally stable due to their design. Creating furniture in Copenhagen has been an amazing experience for me — I’ve been in the land of fine furniture design and have been learning about Hans J. Wegner, Finn Juhl, Kaare Klint and many other Danish designers in my Danish design and New Nordic design classes. Having the opportunity to create my own piece of furniture has therefore been even more exciting and rewarding.

I spent the summer of 2017 traveling with the Switzerland Cal Poly Summer Program. We explored Italy, Austria, Germany, France, and Switzerland. The first month was constant travel, watercoloring daily and taking in incredible architecture, such as Peter Zumthor's Therme Baths in Vals, Switzerland, Le Corbusier's Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France, and charming baroque towns all throughout Sicily, plus many, many more sites. The second month we settled in Scudellate, Switzerland (on the Swiss-Italian border). While we were in Scudellate, we did various artist workshops with local artists, including a pit-fire pottery lesson, aqua resina sculptures, steel sculptures, and graphic design. After the workshops, we spent the last two weeks of the program working on group studio projects.  

During double quarter third year studio at Cal Poly, I designed and fabricated a bar table and beer flight to accompany the Minneapolis brewery studio design project we worked on. For the bar table I used steel rods from the legs, plasma-cut steel hardware, and laser-cut birch plywood for the table top with an inset acrylic piece. The design of the table is based on the topography and city map of downtown Minneapolis near the Stone Arch Bridge (the site of the brewery I designed). The beer flight fits perfectly onto the bar table in a cut-out. The beer flight is also laser-cut birch plywood with layers of acrylic that reflect light.

Winter quarter 2017, we designed a 15-barrel brewery located on a small island-like site on the Mississippi river in Minneapolis, Minnesota with a restaurant, kitchen and taproom. During spring quarter 2017, a new program was added: an alcohol rehabilitation facility. We were encouraged to keep at least 70% of our brewery design from last quarter, so I essentially stacked the two bar-like forms of my previous building design to take up less space on the site to accommodate the new program (and to control circulation better in order to keep the two programs completely separate). I designed the new building and altered the existing design using design drivers from the previous quarter: site response, water flow/visitor flow, and specific space requirements to work with brite tanks in the brewery and soaking tubs in the rehabilitation space. The form of the buildings seeks to create spaces and circulation that moves people in a way that water naturally flows. My process has been rooted in making models by hand and drawing in section (both analog and digitally), but physical modeling especially.

Brewery and taproom/restaurant are a separate entity from alcohol rehabilitation spaces. Entrances are separate and on opposite ends of the site, but both are equally warm and inviting. Each of the distinctive spaces in the buildings are oriented towards the Mississippi river, to reconnect with the water no matter the life situation. Sitting on the hill across from the Mississippi river, you see shifting forms with brew tanks protruding through floors and thick heavy brick walls between Laughing Water Brewing and Healing Water Haven. The experiences of each building are completely dissociated — never would you go into both buildings. If your experience is within Laughing Water Brewing, it stays there. If your experience is within Healing Water Haven, it stays there. The two share nothing but the same site. 

A 15-barrel brewery located on a small island-like site on the Mississippi river in Minneapolis, Minnesota with a restaurant, kitchen and taproom. My design solution is inspired by water — my brand, Laughing Water, comes from the Native American word Minnehaha (the word for waterfall, also the name of the famous waterfall in Minneapolis) which translates into laughing water (an appropriate name for beer). I had the idea of creating a piece of architecture that allows people to flow through it in the way water naturally flows. I looked at how sediment forms (for programmatic spaces I wanted to remain more stagnant) and how tributaries meander to a watershed and then back out as deltas or alluvial fans (for spaces of movement). My process has been rooted in making models by hand and drawing in section (both analog and digitally). Areas I hope to improve on, especially with continuing this project next quarter, are to heighten the more experiential aspects of the program (to inspire a greater appreciation for beer among users), sort out the logistical aspects of the project with deliveries and potentially attempt gravity-added brewing. 

Classroom Design and Site Redesign

PROJECT DESCRIPTION SUMMARY: The program of the final project was to adapt a current K-6 public school to current standards (while pushing the limit on those standards), with a focus on interactive and environmental education. Emma Degnan and I designed a dynamic classroom module to replace the existing portables at Grover Beach Elementary and we redesigned the entire campus to create a fun and stimulating place for Grover Beach students to attend. 

PROJECT REFLECTION: The final project was extremely demanding...but in the end, extremely rewarding. There were so many important details of our project we needed to design and understand: every usable outdoor space, how the program of each building on site operates and the paths of travel throughout the site. I developed my graphic skills, planning skills, attention to detail, and gained an appreciation for design in a partnership with a classmate (and friend).

[frame_frame] MISSION MUSEUM

PROJECT DESCRIPTION SUMMARY: The focus of my project is the three most prominent levels I observed while on the site: the creek level, the urban level, and the tree level. The construction of the building mimics the identity of the levels through the density and thickness of material. The intended experience within the building is all about the interaction and framing of the different levels in the mission plaza and the way creek, urban, and tree shapes the landscape and identity of the place. 

PROJECT REFLECTION: Never before have I been able to fill up a whole wall with drawings—over a dozen Bristol sheets with the richness of gesso layers and trace paper. I went through a lot of revisions with this building, but my core ideas about the levels in the site and bridging the creek have always been the backbone of the project; however much the form changed. 

THE CENTER FOR THE RESEARCH OF LIGHT [metaphysical laboratory + observatory of body in light]

PROJECT DESCRIPTION SUMMARY: The Center for the Research of Light is a facility that focuses on the development and research for the innovation of light. I created a series of spaces (inspired from a section cut of trash) for a resident scientist to perform the following activities: research, experimentation, test, and showcase his or her findings to the public as well as space for innovation and community engagement. The project typology is a billboard in regards to frame [structure], screen + overall form to create a habitable structure that hovers over the flood plane as well as references the patina of Hollywood that has influenced Guadalupe over the past 92 some odd years.

PROJECT REFLECTION: I discovered my curiosity in the site, in the project, I developed my creative process, I found myself in my hands, in making. I saw myself fail in my fist design attempts and succeed in my final attempt by asking myself “why” whenever I made crucial design decision. I learned how to incorporate seemingly distant threads of interest into one cohesive and deliberate design.