Meet Me by the Arroyo?
Project Type: Architecture Thesis
Date Completed: Spring 2024
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Advisor: Amelyn Ng
Recipient of the Undergraduate Thesis Award
...Is a meditation reimagining urban development in Albuquerque through collaborative design, emphasizing reciprocity, gratitude, placemaking, and environmental stewardship. By celebrating and revitalizing the arroyos, this thesis advocates for a grassroots approach that fosters a symbiotic relationship between human and non-human ecologies, challenging the prevailing top-down planning practices. This thesis is a call and testiment to the joy of collaboration and congregation, sharing knowledge through an embodied process and repurposing materials on site to bring exposure back to the currently overlooked lifelines of the city.
This project envisions a reality where the design
and process of change begins with an “experiential
archive” - the arroyo field notes. The archive
serves as a lasting platform for documenting
various materials related to the arroyos, including
books, projects, essays, artworks, and more. The
subject and history of the arroyos are expansive,
offering both excitement and challenges.
Working alongside the field notes is the arroyo
cookbook, a collection of material research in the
form of “recipes”. It’s a record of the embodied
process of designs and their iterations that is
available for current and future readers to build
and build on past entries and even add their own. It explores alternative building blocks utilizing
adobe construction practices and resources from
channelized arroyos, aiming to create a “cradle-
to-cradle” cycle for concrete and construction
waste found on site. This gives an opportunity to
transform materials that once hindered ecosystems
into structures that promote site regeneration.
The Thesis book can be found here
To access and contribute to the project’s digital archive, click here
Arroyo Field Note Entry by Jiyou KangArroyo Cookbook Intervention Entry #1 - A BirdhouseCollet Park Plan + Section - Year 2024Collet Park Perspective - Year 2024Collet Park Perspective - Year 2030Collet Park Plan + Section - Year 2030Prints in ExhibitionArroyo Cookbook Intervention Entry #3 - A BenchPlant BricksCollet Park Plan + Section - Year 2060Collet Park Perspective - Year 2060Collet Park Plan + Section - Year 2124Collet Park Perspective - Year 2124Arroyo Field Note Entry
Rocks in Wire Mesh “Bags” as Hanging Weights
The Arroyo CookbookThe Final Thesis Review Exhibition SetupRecipe SpreadArroyo Cookbook Intervention Entry #4 - A PavilionArroyo Cookbook Intervention Entry #5 - A WallArroyo Field Note Entry by Samuel Leung“
Plant Brick“
FootingsFootings Returning back to Where They Came From
Hardware to Prevent Bowing in the Two Pieces of Wood
Cabinet Knob as Beam Support
Monsoonal Calendar - Monoprint SeriesExploration in Wet vs. Dry #2
In Gratitude:
Thank you for supporting me in
this endeavor by lending me your
voice as well as an ear. This
project could not have existed
without you all.
Cheng Wei
Michael Holzrichter
Lily Gucfa
Samuel Leung
Jiyou Kang
Peiyu Hung
Richard Detry
Jadyn Gardner
Ryan Love
Kaci Jarry
Celeste Rudolfo
Ryan Sotelo
Amelyn Ng, Advisor
Debbie Chen, Secondary Advisor
Gabriel Feld, Mentor