Master's Projects

This page includes images of final renders as well as samples from works in progress from my master's program at DesignMorphine, part of the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Geodesy, an intensive, team-oriented program that compressed two years of study into eleven transformative months. Guided by a storyline, we designed a protagonist species, a domain, city environments, vehicles, a transit system, and a world map, all modeled using 3D and computational software. If a designer can construct an alien world, what demographic or culture could they not masterfully adapt?

For fuller context on the story behind these creations, read more on the concept, abstract storyline, and the project video trailer below.

The following describes the concept and the abstract for the story serving as the basis on which the alien world modeled throughout the year of the master's program. The program segmented into five units represented by chapters that introduced new software platforms implemented into each phase of development for the alien world we created. Below details a breakdown of the five chapters, the overarching concept, and the abstract of the story.

This project envisions an alien world through the lens of quantum physics, the study of matter and energy at their most fundamental level, to depict the intense conflict and aggressive discord between religious and political groups with polarized beliefs. It investigates the tragic consequences of socio-political polarization and the resultant turmoil as factions vie for dominance. In this exploration, we implement the allegory of Adam and Eve discovering the fruit of knowledge, metaphors for historic acts of devastation—including the first atomic bomb from World War II, historic diasporas by subjugated peoples, the cold war, and contemporary ideological polarization dividing nations.

We introduce an enchanted alien environment existing within an asteroid belt, inhabited by a species known as the Verde, whimsical creatures with a propensity for music and a natural disposition for peaceful coexistence within their habitat. This harmony persists until the discovery of a seductive force that heightens the senses and bestows power upon those who wield it. As an homage to the original group from which this story emerged, we center the storyline around the savior character Seraphina. The world described in this project serves as the backdrop for the preexisting conditions that Seraphina will resolve.

This world focuses on three main tribes or regions within the tree planet: The protagonist city of Luminalis, a city tucked within one of the tree canyons; their opponents, the Dark Enigma, who migrate to the top of the tree to best fit their style of music; and the rouge, migrant tribe, allies to Luminalis.

When the ancient Verde discover how to harness the mystical force of quantum energy to play on a physical instrument. Forged from the tree sap of the Great Ancestor tree, the frequencies emitted from the instrument intensity their senses with a heightened reality. However, the instrument also exhibits a cataclysmic side effect: When music played on the quantum harp cannot harmonize, the frequencies result in cataclysmic explosions. The Verde discover this in an explosion that nearly demolishes their planet. Yet, despite the devastation, the overwhelming allure of the harp and the temptation to play it.

After the explosion, the desire to possesses such an instrument and to experience such a frequency — especially following the destruction of their verdant skyline and lush landscaping — transfixes the minds and souls of the Verde with an overwhelming desire to play their style of music using the quantum instrument. However, knowing that only one form of music can play at once ignites a radical shift in the relations of the Verde. Once a creature unknown to spite, jealousy or rage, the Verde covet the instrument with the desire for the intoxicating experience of playing such an instrument.

The Verde gather in masses, groups of their own musical genre, with the group initiative to gain control of the harps. Thus, the Verde segregate and tribes are formed. A great diaspora followed as the tribes emigrate to various regions, distal to their original congregation as to escape the potential of catastrophic cacophony sounding from the otherworldly notes escaping the enchanted instrument. Symphony halls became war rooms teaming with strategy to possess all quantum instruments. The creatures that once rested under the open canopy of branches and thrived in harmony within the natural realm began industrializing their habitat with structures built for two purposes, war and music.

Infrastructure emerged as did technology. Reaches for power stretched far into the reaches of space where, between dimensions, the Verde sought quantum musical notes to collect and return to their homes. Threats loomed of attacks by the threat of quantum symphonies of the opponents to destroy their territories at the sacrifice of their own lives for the glory of the quantum music reigning their kind.

Hope seemed but an illusion and the seduction of the quantum music only strengthened from generation to generation. Only one music could play. Only one could rule.

But whose music would it be?

Master's Final Collaborative Trailer

DesignMorphine · UACEG · 2024

A collaborative trailer produced with fellow thesis students, presenting the final body of work from the MSc Computational + Advanced Design program.

Watch on YouTube. Video: After Effects, Premiere. Imagery: Unreal Engine 5, Blender, Maya. DesignMorphine / UACEG.

Prosthesis

Body-scale · Arm Challenge · DesignMorphine / UACEG

The first chapter operates at the scale of the body. The Arm Challenge brief asked students to design a speculative prosthetic limb for an alien organism, exploring form, articulation, and material logic at the human scale.

Corpuscle

Cell-scale · Creature design · DesignMorphine / UACEG

The second chapter descends to the cellular scale, designing the fundamental biological unit of the alien world — the chrysalis creature. Its form, surface logic, and material behavior establish the visual DNA that propagates through all subsequent chapters.

Amalgamation

City-scale · Residential + Public Space · DesignMorphine / UACEG

The third chapter scales up to the city. Amalgamation designs the residential fabric, public spaces, and urban infrastructure of the alien settlement — applying the cellular logic of Corpuscle to the scale of collective habitation.

Kinesis

Infrastructure-scale · Vehicle, Interior, Underground, Metro · DesignMorphine / UACEG

The fourth chapter designs the mobility infrastructure of the alien world — the vehicles, interiors, underground networks, and metro systems that connect the city. Kinesis explores how an alien civilization moves through and inhabits its built environment.

Cosmogony

Planetary-scale · World Map · DesignMorphine / UACEG

The fifth and final chapter scales to the planetary. Cosmogony constructs the world map, geological logic, and civilizational distribution of the alien world — the complete cosmological framework within which all previous chapters exist.