Catherine Muller designed a Mobile Food Collective project for Archeworks in 2009-2010. The project included a Mobile Unit and Bike Fleet to support a public education campaign about rethinking relationships with food. The Mobile Unit serves as a hub for meetings, storage, and programming through various configurations like a mobile farm stand or demonstration station. The Bike Fleet extends the reach of the project into communities at a human scale. The goal is to inspire new thinking about food, heritage, ownership, exchange, and connection.

1. catherine muller
selected work

2. mobile food collective
archeworks fellowship, 2009-10
exhibitor, 2010 venice biennale
The Mobile Food Collective is a public
education campaign to inspire the rethinking
of our relationship to food, incorporating
heritage, ownership, exchange, and
connection into a new food culture. In
support of this campaign, Archeworks has
MFC
designed and built a Mobile Urban Farm Tool
consisting of an interrelated Mobile Unit and
Bike Fleet. This prototype is conceived as a
mobile architecture that supports and MOBILE UNIT
connects a variety of stakeholders of MODULE
established and emerging farming projects
BIKE FLEET
in Chicago.
The Mobile Unit serves as a hub for
meetings, storage, and a variety of
programming through a multitude of
URBAN FARM
RESOURCE
EXCHANGE
adaptations, from a mobile farm stand to a
demonstration station to a communal
harvest table.The bike fleet acts as satellites 2
for the Mobile Unit, extending the project's
reach in a community at an accessible,
human scale, while capturing the interest of
residents and drawing them back to the
Mobile Unit to enjoy further involvement. DESIGN ELEMENTS
CABINET OF CURIOSITIES MICRO-EVENTS HARVEST TABLE STOREFRONT ASSEMBLY ASSEMBLY
0:1 0:1 MANY : MANY 1:1 1 : MANY 0 : MANY
SEED STORY
ARCHIVE
INFORMATION
EXCHANGE
3
ADAPTATIONS
catherine muller
cat@mrsnoot.com
510.681.5974

3. urban transit center
graduate studio, university of texas/austin
technical communications—working drawings: fall 2007
critic: michael garrison
partner: erin holdenreid
Taking a cue from successful urban plazas, both in the US and in Europe, our placemaking goal was to create a
hub for the community, a bridge between residential and commercial sectors across a busy, triangulated set of
vehicle intersections, and finally, to provide an iconic gateway into vibrant east Austin from the ‘other’ side of
interstate 35.
The buildings themselves shelter the slightly sunken plaza from the sight and noise of traffic, creating a protected,
shaded space, together with a string of umbrellas demarking the boundary with another adjacent road. Both carved
from and built up from the earth, the structures turn a green, living face to the oncoming roads, and an open,
translucent façade to the plaza.
We focused on streamlining circulation of various kinds—car, bus, bicycle, pedestrian—integrating these paths into
a transportation-centered node providing facilities, bike storage, food/drink, and other retail, as well as a pleasant,
shady, green place to wait for a bus, or to meet a friend. With goals to both facilitate efficient movement throughout
the site, and to provide multiple stimuli motivating users to remain in the plaza/urban park, we hope to allow for a
cross-section of both pass-through and destination users, providing a diverse mix of people coming and going
throughout the day and night—creating a vibrant public space that serves as an anchor for the community.
rainwater register passive cooling
catherine muller
cat@mrsnoot.com
510.681.5974

4. mapping
graduate studio, university of texas/austin
spring 2007
critic: bill jackson
map: correspondence
a function such that for every element of one set there is a unique element of another set; translation
assignment: select any two disparate activities and design a space that mediates the activities by means of the
above definition.
As my activities, I chose a child trying to fall asleep in a room adjacent to his/her parents talking at the end of an
evening. I designed a wall that serves as both visual and auditory register for the child, abstracting the pitch and
cadence of his parents’ voices with subtle movement and sound, as both hypnotic distraction and soothing
assurance that safety and comfort is not far away.
catherine muller
cat@mrsnoot.com
510.681.5974

5. minimal dwelling
graduate studio, university of texas/austin
spring 2007
critic: bill jackson
Looking at the minimum program requirements for inhabitation dwelling—sleeping,
bathing, eating—this project aims to reduce those activities to an elemental state,
and then elevate each moment in a daily routine to the experience of ritual.
In addition, we explored the ideas of axiality, transition from public to private, and south elevation
dialogue between spaces articulated not only by mass, but changes in spatial
perception: materiality, light, permeability, enclosure and outlook.
north elevation
plan west elevation
WEST SECTION
1/4” 1’
west section SOUTH SECTION
south section
1/4” = 1’
catherine muller
cat@mrsnoot.com
510.681.5974

6. cocoon
graduate studio, university of texas/austin
spring 2007
c ocoon
critic: bill jackson
Looking at the idea of retreat, these movable ‘cocoons’ aim to create a
portable sense of both security and nurturing by mimicking the structure and
form of organic examples. They provide a means to exist within nature within envelop
a permeable structure that allows for modern conveniences, while also being
attentive to resources and minimizing impact. In this brief project we enclose
developed promotional materials as well as quick prototype models of our
concepts. retreat
transform...
a new approach to the
meditative retreat:
a minimal habitat that allows for
a reconnection with nature while
providing creature comforts that
nourish and rejuvenate.
the cocoon retreat literally breaks
down walls blending outdoor
space that is both inside and out
to create an outdoor space that is
both nurturing and liberating.
experience the cocoon for
yourself.
catherine muller
cat@mrsnoot.com
510.681.5974

7. site section
NOLA sustainable housing 1/16”=1’
competition entry
summer 2006
partner: carla hyman
2 bedroom
studio studio
f ruit t rees
green detail
Challenge: design a sustainable bios wale
residential complex in the New Orleans
Holy Cross neighborhood, which was
open play 2 bedroom
(and is) struggling to regain its sense of ent ry
s hade t rees
self after Hurricane Katrina. apartment plan, third floor
hc
1/16”=1’
play infant s
With our design investigation we posed
reception
play 3 -5 play t oddlers permeable paving 3 bedroom 2 bdrm
s helt ered bike 3 bedroom 2 bedroom
the following questions: open
open
parking
open
2 bedroom
How can the built environment catalyze
open
c onference
community? How can it learn from
kitc hen
3 bedroom 1 bedroom
apt off ice hc 1 bedroom
covered play
collective memory, particularly the history
lobby
bike parking
ent ry
and structures of New Orleans and
Katrina? And how can the built community room
environment learn from, foster and 3 bedroom
create connection to local ecosystems?
common pat io/
gat hering/ BBQ s pace
hous e 1
cons t ruct ed wet lands f or s t orm and greywat er
apartment plan, second floor
Our proposal was conceived around the compos t / greenhous e/ s t orage
1/16”=1’
notion of community and cooperation. hous e 2
We hoped to foster a sense of identity
and ownership by providing a network of gardens
interrelated, shared indoor and outdoor hous e 3
garden and green spaces that become
hous e 1
the nucleus of a thriving community.
By allowing for homeownership,
hous e 4
communal activity and enterprise, our hous e 5
design was intended to provide a means
for the residents of the local area to ‘dig
in’ and claim the territory as their own. hous e 6
LE
V
catherine muller
cat@mrsnoot.com
510.681.5974

8. meditation chair
graduate studio, university of texas/austin
wood design: fall 2008
critic: Mark Macek
Constructed of laminated 3” poplar
pieces, the meditation chair was a
marriage of low and high tech, hand
work and machining.
Intended as an organic ‘nest’ for
meditation, the chair has the feel of a
carved bowl, sanded super-smooth
where the occupant comes in contact
with the seat, left rough and a bit coarse
on the exterior.
As a grounding medium between the
meditator and the earth, the chair
ergonomically supports the points of
contact and posture for the lotus pose,
providing a subtle reinforcement of the
ideal seated stance.
catherine muller
cat@mrsnoot.com
510.681.5974

9. GHOST architectural laboratory
design/build apprenticeship
nova scotia, canada
summer 2008
GHOST 10 explored the concept of an urban
attitude in a rural setting, while examining the
essential programatic elements for living: eat,
sleep, bathe, work, socialize.
Elevating these elements to a ritualized status,
we designed the 1000’ house: two pavillions,
one for day, the other for night, separated by a
1000 foot ‘courtyard’ (and 80 feet in elevation),
defining an urban existance in the relationship
of each to the adjacent road.
The workshop is an intensive design and
construction exercise with 30 participants—both
students and practicing architects—who
collectively conceive, develop, and build the
group’s vision in a two-week period.
Brian MacKay-Lyons hosts the program each
year on his coastal property near Halifax, Nova
Scotia.
catherine muller
cat@mrsnoot.com
510.681.5974