Linh DamArchitecture Portfolio

2007 - 2012

Table of Contents

University of Colorado at Boulder

01 Habitat House

02 Grind House

03 The Kitchen

04 Mobile Storage

Personal Work

05 Paved Paradise

06 Photography

07 Sketches

Habitat House

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Habitat House

The objective of this project is to design affordable housing for the Flatirons Habitat with Humanity organization in Boulder. The site is located in Louisville, a suburban area on the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado. Due to the limited availability of affordable housing in Boul-der County, our mission is to provide as many housing units as possible on the given site. Ultimately, we came up with a compact 3 bedrooms housing unit, and then stacked two of the units on top of each other to create a two-story building. The building is then mir-rored across a central courtyard horizontally and vertically, resulting in 4 separate buildings with 8 housing units in total. Because of the ten feet variation across the site, we then enclosed the site with retaining wall and keep the second floor levels with the surrounding street. For the ground floor units, the northern ramp provides ADA accessibility.

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Living RoomBedroomBathroomLaundry RoomMechanical Room

Ground Floor Plan

Section A

Upper Level Floor Plan

Section B

Section C

Section D

Living Space View

Hallway ViewLiving Room ViewEntrance View

Grind House

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The objective of this project is to build a house using alternative building material. The site is located in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona. Known for its desert climate, it is important for the building design and its material to regulate the extreme heat. Therefore, the house is designed around a courtyard, with private space on one side and public space on another. Both the living room and the children lounge open out to the garden. The only thing that separates the interior spaces and the garden is a glass façade with sliding doors to provide light and fresh air. Using local material, rammed earth was used for exterior walls due to its heat retention and phonebook was devel-oped into the load-bearing interior wall.

Grind House

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Living RoomBathroomLaundry RoomMaster BedroomBedroomLoungeMechanical RoomParking

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Rammed Earth Wall

Phonebook Wall

Wood Panel

Glass Curtain

Using phonebook as a building block, the block can be stacked just like tradi-tional brickwork. Although made entirely out of paper, if the phonebook block is chemically treated, and stacked tightly with no pocket of air, the combustion property of such wall would be no greater than that of gypsum board. The ad-vantage of developing phonebook into a wall system is its load-bearing charac-teristic. At the same time, because of its width, the wall can increase the thermal mass of the building. The phonebook wall has been tested before as outdoor shelter, but if used correctly, the wall system can be adapted safely in commer-cial and residential construction.

Phonebook Wall

Entrance View Courtyard View Living Room View

Lounge View

North Elevation

Section A

Section B

Section C

The Kitchen

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The Kitchen

The objective of this project is to design a restaurant around a historical building in Boulder, Colorado. The design goal is to preserve the aging brick building in its setting while juxtaposing its beauty against a modern element. To preserve the setting of the historical building, the old house is enclosed by a vegetation buffer zone. The new addition is then arranged thereafter surrounding the buffer zone. To juxtapose old house and the new addition, the connection between the two programs is highlighted using glass curtain. The historic setting of the old house plays a major role in the concept of the restaurant: the space becomes a family dining environment, while the dining space across becomes a private dining environment. Pitting one setting against the other, the old versus the new, the private versus the public environment, the project’s objective is to set up a stage where the dialogue of time can be observed and ap-preciated.

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LobbyPrivate DiningFamily DiningOutdoor DiningKitchenRestroomStorage

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Section A

Section B

South Elevation

Original Site

Proposed Program

Structure

Skin

Section D

Section E

Section C

Private Dining View

Mobile Storage

The objective of this project is to design additional storage for the Columbia Cemetery. Located in Boulder, Colorado, the historic cemetery has long struggled to preserve its aging tombstones. With only one shed, the cemetery is running out of space to store and repair its tombstones. The original plan was to build additional storage in the adjacent space next to the current shed. However, the poetic setting of this project demands a less imposing structure. Therefore, the solution of mobile storage would be more fitting for the cemetery setting.

Columbia Cemetery, Boulder, CO

Existing Storage

Shed Close-up

Mobile Storage

Use #1: Transfering Tombstone

Use #2: Storage

Use #3: Resting Area

The 3’ cubes are designed to blend into the cemetery landscape. When opened, one of the cubes is designed for storing tombstones while the other is designed for transporting the tombstones. When not in use, the cubes can be locked against one another. In its locked form, the cube can also serve as a resting area for the cemetery visitors. Accord-ing to the storage needs of the cemetery, more mobile storage can be added throughout the site.

Paved Paradise

“They paved paradise to put up a parking lot” – Joni Mitchell

Photography

“This sublimity, belonging in a parasitical manner to the building, renders it, in the usual sense of the word, ‘picturesque.’”

– John Ruskin

Sketches