Living Data Pod Team

A design and research exploration between California College of the Arts, University of California at Davis, University of California at San Francisco and Stanford University
 
 
 

LIVING POD DESIGN TEAM

Margaret is an Associate Professor of Architecture at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, California. She is the Integrated Studio Coordinator and has developed the Buoyant Ecologies Studio curriculum which since 2015 has received five national AIA COTE Top Ten Student Awards for sustainability. Margaret is also a co-founder and co-director of the CCA Architectural Ecologies Lab that serves as a platform for collaborative research between designers, scientists, and manufacturers. The lab merges spatial practice with innovative techniques of material production and ecological research.The most recent project called the Float Lab, is currently moored in the Port of Oakland and designed to test a new type of resilient floating breakwater. In conjunction with the launch of the Float Lab, the Port awarded her with a Community Investment Grant to create an educational book called, A Guide to Field Identification, Marine Animals Coloring Book of the San Francisco Bay.

Adam is a Post Doctoral Scholar of Bioengineering at Stanford’s Prakash Lab. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of California San Francisco (2018) and a Bachelor of Science from Millikin University (2007). Adam has been working on the design evolution and fabrication of the PlanktoScope. The Plank a frugal high-throughput microscope platform designed with an open-hardware, open-software mentality. It was conceived within the idea of equipping the thousands of sailors exploring the oceans with a high quality instrument suitable for deepening our knowledge of the sea around us. The core of PlanktoScope lies in the ability of its community to redesign, customize, and hack individual platforms while expanding its functionality to explore niches and approach questions all over the globe.

Evan  is an Adjunct Professor of Architecture at California College of Arts (CCA) and practicing architect. As co-founder and principal of Assembly, an architecture firm located in Berkeley California, Evan has worked on many scales of projects from furniture and museum installations to landscape planning and multi-story housing projectsWithin CCA, he has specialized in integrated design studios focusing on novel design strategies for coastal resilience under the Buoyant Ecologies studio curriculum. This speculative design work has led to the formation of the Architectural Ecologies Lab at CCA (along with fellow professors Margaret Ikeda and Adam Marcus) and the fabrication and deployment of the Float lab in 2019. The Float Lab works with biological fouling to attenuate waves and create ecological habitats. The project received a 2018 Architect Magazine R+D award, a national 2019 AIA Innovation Award, and awarded a 2020 ASCA Faculty Design Award.

Bay Area designer and Assistant Professor of design at UC Davis. Beth is the director of Sol Design Lab, a design/build studio that specializes in solar charging stations for micromobility and ecological design. She has collaborated with public utilities, cities, and universities to provide elegant solar charging stations as a free public resource. She is currently a resident at the San Francisco Autodesk Technology Center in collaboration with the CCA Architectural Ecologies Lab. Recently, she participated in the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge, partnering with the award-winning team Public Sediment on their Unlocking Alameda Creek project.

Elizabeth Marley is a lecturer at UC Davis. Her MFA Design work at UC Davis is focused on research and design related to biological materials, ecological systems, and material culture. Her work has stretched beyond architecture to include design for public art, product design, renewable energy systems and modular construction, particularly as they apply to environmental responsibility and community building. Elizabeth Marley earned her B.Arch from Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and recent MFA Design graduate from UC Davis. She has an accomplished design practice with examples of completed projects and affiliations installed at the Berkeley Art Museum, Oakland Museum of California, Stanford University’s Anderson Collection, Black Rock Arts Foundation, City of San Francisco's Burrows St. Pocket Park, and more.

Dyche Mullins studied electrical engineering and mathematics before becoming fascinated with cell biology during his doctoral work at the University of Kentucky. After postdoctoral work at Johns Hopkins University and The Salk Institute for Biological studies, Mullins joined the faculty at UCSF. Since 2011, Mullins has also been an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Work in the Mullins Lab focuses on the assembly and regulation of cytoskeletal networks - collections of molecules that self-assemble into complex structures that enable cells to transport molecular cargoes, change their shape, and propel themselves from place to place. Understanding how cells construct these internal molecular 'skeletons' is key to understanding a wide variety of biological processes and human diseases.

Yitian Ma

Yitian Ma has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from California College of the Arts (2022) She is interested in the link between public engagement and design. She strives for practical and creative solutions that can operate at multiple scales. She has experience working with VR and interactive projection as new forms of architectural media.  

CONTRIBUTORS

Manu Prakash

Planktonscope: Prakash Lab, Stanford University Plankton Planet NGO, Station Biologique de Roscoff, France

John Oliver

Marine Biologist/Benthic Lab
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories

Kamille Hammerstrom

Marine Biologist/Benthic Lab
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories