Bulla Richards portfolio sample

WASH | URBAN HYDROLOGICAL NETWORKS FOR RESILIENT CULTURAL ECOLOGIES

SEAM | NEW RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

CITY MARKET | URBAN FOOD NEXUS

WASHING MACHINE | RIPARIAN REMEDIATION NURSERY

RATNA LING RETREAT CENTER

HAVEN HOUSE | ADAPTABLE HOUSING FOR THE HOMELESS

BREATHE HOUSE | HEALTH AND HOUSING IN HAITI

REGISTRATIONS | REPRESENTING UNSEEN ASPECTS OF PUBLIC SPACE

DIGITAL FABRICATION | REVEALING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN WATER LIGHT AND AIR

PROJECTS

PROFESSIONAL WORK

PROCESS

LEADERSHIP

IDROVIA | CLIMATE CHANGE LABORATORY

URBAN ALCHEMY | TRANSFORMING THE JONES FALLS CORRIDOR

Re-imagining underutilized residential streets and front lawns creates public space that can support everyday rituals, expanding the experience of water in the urban landscape.

WASH | URBAN HYDROLOGICAL NETWORKS FOR RESILIENT CULTURAL ECOLOGIES

ALTERNATIVE CULTURAL PRACTICES

The consequences of this engineered landscape extend beyond city, state and national borders. The actual watershed of Los Angeles has expanded to include Owens Valley, the CA delta, and the Colorado River. LA has an impact on ecosystems across the Western US and into Mexico. The city has contributed to a dry Colorado River Delta, endangered species in the CA delta and is responsible for the devastation of ecosystems and farming communities in Owens Valley.

SITE | THE MOST ARTIFICIAL WATERSHED ON EARTH

aja bulla-richards | design research | 2012-2013| advisors bill sherman, brian osborn, jorg sieweke | UVA

Colorado River Delta

Owens valley Mono Lake

California Delta LA Aqueduct construction

Imported architecture & landscape typology

Water scarcity in the Mediterranean climate of Los Angeles is not primarily a quantitative problem, but instead a mismanagement of resources in support of unsustainable cultural practices and landscape typologies. This one directional water cycle is illogical, treating a precious resource as waste. Visualizing the quantities and flows of the existing and proposed Los Angeles water cycles reveals that greywater reuse has the potential to dramatically alter this urban watershed.

URBAN WATERCYCLE



Reading the landscape of sub-watersheds and aquifers presents new potential identities for LA neighborhoods. Atwater village is proposed as an initial site for this intervention. The emergent nature of the proposal allows for the aggregation of individual street transformations over time, supporting a diverse range of implementation strategies.

FLOODPLAIN AQUIFERS | ALLUVIAL GROUND CAPACITY


The proposed system of gradient interlocking pavers and new street topographies supports the integration of ecological performance, and social engagement to redefine everyday experience. Various textures provide subtle coding of the street, indicating zones for pedestrians, cyclist and vehicles without limiting or isolating functions.

CONSTRUCTING AN ADAPTIVE STREET ECOSYSTEM

Flows between the home and landscape promote a new understanding of micro water cycles. Daily rituals are reconsidered in relationship to the public space of the street. Water used within the home is transformed and reused outside.

RITUAL AND RHYTHM


aja bulla-richards + parker sutton | venice studio | spring 2012 | professor jorg sieweke | UVA

IDROVIA | CLIMATE CHANGE LABORATORY

Relationships revealed and imagined

To represent the potential of the Idrovia canal situated within a historical context this Matrix of Modernization is an aggregation of cultural, political, economic and ecological events. These fragments are arranged spatially East-West along the corridor between Venice and Padua and temporally organized by a vertical axis of diversions in the Brenta.

Four transportation corridors are drawn based on this complex set of temporal-spatial relationships rather than their physical location.

Scientific models predict that by 2100 sea level will rise a minimum of 3 - 6 feet.

Venice and the Veneto are landscapes that have always relied on continuous hydrological management.

Historic traces of diversions of the Brenta reveal a correlation between waterways and higher-ground, suggesting a network of levees and flooded fields. The Idrovia is used as a backbone within this network, proving a canal for water transportation between Venice & Padua as well as levees for movement on dry land.

SEA LEVEL RISE | CLIMATE CHANGE


This proposal responds to the threats of climate change and the risk of catastrophic loss of biodiversity as opportunities to redirect failing land use models of subsidized monoculture.

By selectively decommissioning existing pumping stations and directing flood waters parcels are preemptively flooded around the idrovia corridor, using this easement as a laboratory for climate change.

CLIMATE LAB



The testing lab incorporates crop rotation as a flexible temporal-spatial strategy. Crop rotation recognizes the importance of alternating land uses to increase productivity and sustain healthy soil. Allowing land to be fallow for periods of time is also understood as a means of providing valuable wildlife habitat. This model of crop rotation utilizes multiple cultural, economic, and environmental needs by layering fluctuating cycles of use and production. The Idrovia corridor can become an active laboratory for future agricultural practices, while also providing for recreational needs of locals, and tourists, expanding the scope of arts in the region, and strengthening connections between Venice and Padua.

CROP ROTATION

This project transforms mono-functional infrastructure into multi-functional systems, addressing storm water issues and creating an identity for the largely uninhabited corridor that bisects Baltimore, Maryland. The unique space proposed is comprised of a series of wetland parks, formed through revealing and adapting the layered history of the Jones Falls River and expressway. Once buried and problematic infrastructure is re-interpreted as regenerative space that supports ecological and cultural functions, engaging both sides of the city.

Reveal layers of existing infrastructure. Daylight the culvert under Fallsway Road, and divert the Jones falls river base flow. Expose the geomorphology of the corridor by uncovering the bedrock layer at grade with the base of the culvert.

Transform mono-functional systems to serve multiple purposes. The culvert that once confined the last mile of Jones Falls River, now filters and stores stormwater, provides room for flashy water, irrigates the river, and becomes a boardwalk. The expressway structure supports multiple modes of transportation and shelters public events.

Generate public space where diverse flows intersect and overlap. The flood line can be understood as a generative edge, delineating a site for desirable and adaptable public space.

URBAN ALCHEMY | TRANSFORMING THE JONES FALLS CORRIDOR

aja bulla-richards + sarah shelton | baltimore Studio | spring 2010 | professor jorg sieweke | UVA

lower Jones Falls w

atershed

Storm water enters the culvertWater is filtered in chamber 1Water is stored in chamber 2

Water level builds in chamber 2Water enters chamber 3The culvert irrigates the river

HIGH WATER WET SEASON

LOW WATER DRY SEASON

Baltimore’s culvert and topographical change can be utilized to create a redundant system of stormwater filtration and infiltration. A system of street edge bio-swales filters stormwater runoff before it reaches the harbor effectively reducing the volume of water and the amount of pollutants being sent to the Chesapeake Bay. Adapted infrastructure, such as streets, sidewalks, and culvert, can function as a decentralized system of small moments of filtration / infiltration to reduce the load on centralized water processing plants.

greater topographical change(uplands) =

2nd filtration / infiltrationthrough terraces

less topographical change(lowlands)

= 2nd filtration in culvert

BALTIMORE TRIBUTARY STREETS

aja bulla-richards + sarah shelton | baltimore Studio | spring 2010 | professor jorg sieweke | UVA

aja bulla-richards + jie huang | ARCH 8010 | fall 2010 | professor charles menefee | UVA

Task: Provide housing for 3000 students in a didactic environment that promotes informal learning.

Strategy: re-construct the ground to create a threshold rather than a boundary between the forest and watershed of O-Hill and the university grounds. Reconnecting the forest through the site extends the experience into the larger landscape. Strategic planting of tree species defines threads of movement within the larger forest tapestry.

SEAM | NEW RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

aja bulla-richards | LAR 8010 | farmers market studio | fall 2011 | professor beth meyer | UVA

The proposed City Market on the IX site performs as the hub of a linear market district and urban trail network extending from the Downtown Mall to local creeks. The market is paired with other social and ecological programs, including storm water treatment, as well as an urban trail and campground in order to create public space that restores previous ecological functions of a stream corridor, and expands Charlottesville’s alternative transportation network.

CITY MARKET | URBAN FOOD NEXUS

WASHING MACHINE | RIPARIAN REMEDIATION NURSERY

aja bulla-richards |planted form and function | spring 2012 | professor julie bardman | UVA

Aja bulla-richards | team leader initiative reCOVER | director anselmo canfora | 2010 - 2011 | UVA

Initiative reCOVER teamed with the Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the homeless to address the lack of shelter available to individuals and families facing long terms homelessness in Charlottesville VA. The adaptive design proposal exhibits a novel supportive housing prototype and operates as a tool for creating awareness of the issues underlying homelessness.

HAVEN HOUSE | ADAPTABLE HOUSING FOR THE HOMELESS

The Breathe House is a deployable, panelized housing prototype for disaster relief. Key design elements include the use of natural light and ventilation, access to clean water and independent renewable energy. The design engages the involvement of regional building industries with the intention of expanding the local building trades and improving the overall building stock in the area.

BREATHE HOUSE | HEALTH AND HOUSING IN HAITI

The design of the central facilities for Ratna Ling was informed by Tibetan Buddhist mandalas. The existing lodge determined a timber frame structure and rustic material pallet for the meditation Hall and Conference Center.

RATNA LING RETREAT CENTER

Aja bulla-richards + dale zumfelde | professional work | ratna ling retreat center | 2004-2007 | cazadero, CA

Legend

A - existing lodge B - dining terrace C - roofed walkways D - library E - entry vestibules F - conference room G - meditation hall H - meditation garden

A B

C

D E

F

EC

G

DIGITAL FABRICATION | REVEALING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN WATER LIGHT AND AIR

Aja bulla-richards + nathan parker | digital fabrication |fall 2010 | professor jeff ponitz | UVA

fabricated portion of wall after the first snow

Fabrication process

implicate light explicit shadow

disambiguation

REGISTRATIONS | REPRESENTING UNSEEN ASPECTS OF PUBLIC SPACE

aja bulla-richards | experiential registrations |spring 2010 | professor chris counts | UVA

Documents

Bulla Richards portfolio sample