Zebra Mussels Research Center

New studio project I started working on - we are designing a filter island located on the east of Chicago's Loop; the island is represented by series of biological filter chambers, filtering water from Chicago River until it enters Lake Michigan. 

The Island will host research centers, each researching different invasive species in the Great Lakes. My center will be concentrated on researching Zebra Mussels. 

Here are some sketches for the concept development.

1. The fascinating fact about zebra mussels is their ability to stick to any type of surface. I decided to use that feature for the concept and "stick" my building to the island underwater.
2. The research center has to have a public function to it. I chose to add a skate park to the institution.

Together with the species choice we had to pick up a mythological hybrid and study the ways different creatures are coming together into one. While studying harpies, which have a pretty "mechanical" looking connection, I was inspired by my friend's analysis of inner connection and tried to analyze how these two, a woman and a bird are connected anatomically.
The skate park will be just a roof of the building, but the building will "breathe and see" through the sculptural hardscape of it.

I am inspired by sci-fi movies, where one can get to a secret lab or office only though a telephone booth. I want to place only the entries to the building exposed on the park, while the rest of the functions will be "hidden".

Bringing the lake through the building to the surface of the park.

Zebra mussels are famous for their filtration capability. I'd like to educate people about their good side and have a demonstration pool, where visitors can see a clear difference between a water before and after filter chamber.

Light to get into the labs through swimming and decorative pools.

While my friends were gone...

Project - The Wall

One of the tasks I got during my summer internship at JFA in NYC - redecorate their entrance room with minimal expenses, basically enough just for a bucket of paint. I used some of their interior designs for the illustration for the drawing on the walls.
Special thanks to Aly for help!


Before

Study of the redecoration

 Sketch for the wall

 Process:

 Aaand finally - the result.

Final post about my Sleep Institute project - - - Model

The   Model I made for the final presentation of the project. Since the sleep boxes were supposed to be prefab, i made each model box separately; they were attached to the core with small magnets, hidden inside; you could remove each box and see the 12 floor atrium space with bridges and beams.

Sleep Institute on IIT web site

IIT College of Architecture posted another work of mine on their web-site. Woo hoooo!!!

http://www.iit.edu/arch/projects/student_march_arch544_2.shtml

Chicago Women in Architecture

Chicago Women in Architecture awarded me with the second prize for the design of Dance School and Performance Art Center for Columbia College Chicago. You can see the project on http://ruso-m.blogspot.com/2011/11/columbia-college-performing-art-center.html

the Draftery

My sketches were published by The Draftery:

http://thedraftery.com/archive/no-069/

Thanks to Jesen Tanadi.