Olivia Witte's portfolio contains projects from her architecture studies focusing on representation, fabrication, adaptation, environment, and expression. Key projects include mapping body movement, recreating a panel design from a single piece of plywood, designing a kinetic sunshade facade, and transforming Philadelphia's abandoned rail line into an urban kale farm. Her AP art selections depict her mother's extensive shoe collection.

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OLIVIA WITTE
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
College of Arts and Sciences ‘13
Bachelor of Arts in Architecture
witteo91@gmail.com
949.436.3046
PORTFOLIO

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Representation
EXPLORATION
p. 1Body Survey
p. 3
Recut
FABRICATION
p. 4
Panel
p. 5
Biomimicry
ADAPTATION
p. 7
Habit(at) p. 9
Sun Facade
ENVIRONMENT
p. 12
Urban High Line p. 15
AP Art
EXPRESSION
p. 17
Graphics p. 19

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Body Mapping
Using the dimensions and contours of the body, this project
focused on measuring the movement of a particular joint. First, I
created a photoshop image of the kinetic sequence. Next, I used
triangulation to map points and create hand drawings, which
detailed the change in movement and creasing in the foot.
ARCH 201: BODY SURVEY
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BODY SURVEY
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ARCH 201: REPRESENTATION
Balance Joints Shadows
Fisher Fine Arts is one of the libraries on campus, renowned for its
beautiful architecture. This project began with a photographic study,
analyzing a perspective from two different angles. My photoshop
image was created by pairing views of the staircase from the ground
floor and from the top floor.
From the photographic image, I utilized Illustrator to explore differ-
ent studies of the space created from this new image.I chose to study
three different representations:
3

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Recut: Recreate
Given a single 4x6 panel of plywood, this assig-
ment required recutting the material to create a
new design. From the small amount of material
given, I wanted to create a volume seemingly
much bigger. I did this by lasercutting identical
pieces that fit together to create this expanding,
spiral shape.
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ARCH 202: RECUT

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Environment
This project entailed creating a panel that took into account environmental surroundings.
The mobility of each of the individual panels allows for a space to be either fully enclosed,
or opened in an variety of different positions. To further facilitate the interaction with
humans in the space, the curve of the overall panel was created through a study with the
human body and how it would most easily fit in the space.
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ARCH 202: PANEL

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Half Scale Model
PANEL
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Hand Drawings, Orthographic Views
HONEY BEE
Latina name: Apis mellifera
Order: Hymenoptera
Honey bees are a subset of bees in the genus Apis, primarily
distinguished by the production and storage of honey and the
construction of perennial, colonial nests out of wax. The honey
bee’s mouth is made up of two parts: the mandible and the pro-
boscis. The mandibles are the strong jaws of the bee, while the
proboscis is responsible for all tongue functions, incuding food
exchange.
In creating an analog, I chose to focus on the surprisingly strong
and important mouth section of the honeybee; using simplified
geometric forms to show the vertical movement of the mouth
parts that usually goes unnoticed.
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ARCH 300: BIOMIMICRY
Analog, Axonometric

10. Analogical Model, Kinetic Sequence
BIOMIMICRY
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ARCH 302: HABIT(AT)
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Habit:
Our lives are made up of habits. This
project began by mapping and analyzing
a personal habit. For me, the first thing I
do every morning is put my contact lenses
in. I wear daily-use contact lenses, so I
have been forced to put my contacts in
every morning for the past eight years
of my life. While the location of where I
do this has changed over the years, the
movement and act of putting the contacts
into my eyes has become second nature
to me.

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Using the mapping of the movement, the project
was transformed to inhabit a space that would best
faciliate the habit. I chose to focus on playing with
the idea between being in focus and out of focus;
in other words, before and after my contacts are in.
The space designed creates an environment that al-
lows the habit to be performed with as little eyesight
as possible and then allows one to enter the open
world, in focus, after the habit is completed.
Interpretation:
HABIT(AT)
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HABIT(AT)
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In the next step of the project, I translated my
original habit(at) design into a public, interactive
space along Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River. Placed
along the popular running path along the river, I
wanted to create a relaxing oasis where not only
runners could cool off, but also where children
could play.

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ARCH 401: SUNSHADE
Weave to Sunshade:
This project began by studying a particular
weaving technique - in my case, the pearl
weave. The design for our sunshade, was
then developed by creating an originally
designed iteration of that weave. The final
design was fabricated and tested in the
sunlight to produce and analyze it’s shading
abilities and effects.

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SUN FACADE
Sunshade to Sun Facade
The next development of the project was to
take the sunshade design, and transform it
into a larger scale project in Philadelphia’s
own Rittenhouse Square. In this new design,
I chose to explore and refine the kinetics and
shading abilities of the window.

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SUN FACADE
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Operational Diagrams
Exterior and Interior Renders

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15
URBAN HIGH LINE
Urban Kale Farm:
Inspired by New York’s successfully
transfomed High Line in the Meatpack-
ing District, our final studio project
aimed to develop and evolve Philadel-
phia’s abandoned reading viaduct into
a thriving urban farm that gave back to
it’s surrounding community.
The project began by studying a
single crop - our group decided to
choose kale because not only was it
able to grow successfully throughout
all seasons, but it would also provide
healthy alternatives in a previously
obesity-stricken, and poor environment.
We then created a watering system
throughout the viaudct and its sur-
rounding areas, that was both able to
grow the kale hydroponically, as well
as create a visual spectable that would
make the viaduct a destination for all
community members.

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URBAN HIGH LINE
Watering System:
The watering system that we devised also
sought to rectify another growing problem in
Philadelphia - the sewage system. Philaelphia,
in fact, has an overabundance of water in it’s
drainage systems. In our watering system, we
collected the majority of the water in large
collection pools on the tops of surrounding
buildings, which then cascaded down the
sides of the buildings (as seen in the section
drawings). From there, the water was used to
water the crops, and then were drained and
pumped up back to the collection pools to
keep from overflowing the sewage systems.

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Shoe Craze:
These paintings (Acrylic on canvas) are selections from my AP
Art portfolio. For the theme of my portfolio, I chose to depict
the beautiful display of art that was my mother’s shoe closet.
I began the series by depicting just the shoes themselves, or
the shoes being used and put on, and then gradually grew
to depict the shoes becoming a life and entity of their own.
AP Art: Selections
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AP Art
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GRAPHICS: The Beet Box

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GRAPHICS: Rent the RunwayPublished in Rent the Runway emails every week

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GRAPHICS: Rent the Runway
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24. 24WITTE PORTFOLIO
witteo91@gmail.com
949.436.3046