Current Works

Hey. Thanks for visiting.

I am an architectural designer, artist, and urban planner interested in using interdisciplinary design as a conduit for justice, equity, and joy.

Some things I have worked on
- architecture and resiliency planning in the Boston area
- film, urban planning, and community engagement in NYC
- public design intervention in Seoul
- exhibition production and lighting design in Romania

I am interested in using systems legibility as a tool for building power, ecological resilience, and cultural resilience. I like to work with collaborators on contextually specific projects that help imagine or physically build toward a future we can be excited about.

Roles I like to play:
spatial thinker, architectural designer, creative director, director of photography, furniture/object fabricator, editor, idea partner/ backboard, hype-girl, curator, event producer, graphic designer (sometimes), planner, critic, lighting designer, exhibition designer, community member

Brown B.A '18 / MIT M.Arch '24 / just practice Co-Founder with Sophie Weston Chien.

I’m generally down to collaborate or chat, so please reach out.
Contact me @ ugorjiamanda@gmail.com or on instagram.

These projects consider and work with:

SYSTEMS - that shape our world; ideas, industrial-complexes, webs
URBANISM - city scale interventions, research, phenomena
ROOMS - places we occupy, group dimensions, spatial conditions
BODIES - the scale of senses, perception, interpretations

Aquí vive el árbol

Research Book

Independent Research_2024
Mexico City, Mexico
Co-Author, Co-Designer, Co-Producer, Illustrator

In collaboration with Christopher Hassan Allen.

Aquí vive el árbol is an independent research project that focused on street trees and urban forests in Mexico City, and their environmental, infrastructural, and architectural roles as nonhuman "residents" of the city. This research comprised historical and statistical research, fieldwork, photography, the production of artistic and architectural drawings and analyses, as well as other forms of documentation. Chris and I co-authored a book compiling the research titled "Aquí vive el árbol," which compiled our observations and documentation in a collection of musings on street trees, cycles of urban de- and reforestation, and the role of arboriculture in the image-making of Mexico City. We collaborated on the design, editing, and production of the book.

The images include a series of excerpts from the compiled research.

cover me softly

Biennial Exhibition, Publication

Beta_2024
Timișoara, Romania
Lighting Coordination and Design, Exhibition Production, Publication Production

Biennial curated by Oana Stănescu
Lighting coordination and co-design supported by Anda Maier (consultant), Miruna Trașcă (Beta), Evelina Ursatii (Beta), Ana Lucas (Beta). Exhibition by many see here. Production by Beta Team.

“Sited in the historic Garrison Command, the exhibition brings together a wide selection of architects, designers, musicians, artists, activists, photographers, writers, directors, and those that refuse categorization to present their own take on the cover. The works exhibited demonstrate a range of fidelities to the original—some closer to a direct copy, others a distant reference. They reflect on life cycles of ideas and intellectual property as well as that of the material that makes up our built and natural environments, lending important perspectives for addressing architecture’s complicity in ongoing environmental degradation. Fundamental to this question, cover me softly encourages us to take stock of what is in front of us and imagine where we could go from there.”

-cover me softly exhibition guide book

Check out press coverage here. Buy the book here.

Image © Gabriel Amza

Image © Bianca Purice Azap & Dan Purice

Image © David Dumitrescu

Image © Gabriel Amza

Image © Marius Vasile

Urbi-box

Urban Intervention

PRAUD _ 2023
Seoul, South Korea
Designer (Primary), Map Maker

Urbi-box is an urban intervention designed to address urban cultural deserts in Seoul. Mounted on an outfitted pickup truck, Urbi-box travels to public streets, parks, and open spaces around the city with less access to libraries, community spaces, and cultural spaces. PRAUD activates each site with free programming like children’s reading rooms, concerts, and lectures.

You can follow Urbi-box and related work here.

Image © PRAUD

Architectures of Belonging:
Ownership in NYC

Interview Series, Interview Visualization

Independent Research _ 2022-2023
Cambridge / NYC
Qualitative Researcher, Data Visualizer, Narrative Builder

Research funded by the Ennis Research Award at MIT SAP.

Architectures of Belonging: Ownership in NYC is an interview series with NYC residents that addresses questions surrounding self-identified belonging and the built environment. The research was particularly interested in how minority-identifying bodies foster a sense of belonging within environments designed for exclusivity and, more generally, how residents can grow feelings of ownership over spaces in the city.

The participants shared a varied set of relationships to public space. Many interviewees described a connection between feelings of ownership and a local with a consistent point of return. Another interesting phenomenon was the connection some residents drew from with clear and unique spatial identifiers (e.g., a large sculpture or a unique piece of furniture) or environments in different parts of the city that have similar sensorial stimuli (e.g., the sound of water or proximity to bodies). Not so curiously, almost all participants felt on guard while waiting in the subway.

The featured interview is with longtime NYC resident Cecley Hill.

Tactile Furniture

Stool and Coffee Table

MIT SAP_2022
Cambridge, MA
Furniture Designer, Fabricator

Projects advised by Christopher Dewart.

Swell Stool and Tactile Table are two tactile furniture explorations. The process involved CNC milling experimentation, lathing, and a lot of hand sanding.

Swell Stool (ash and maple)

Lorem Ipsum.

Tactile Table (ash

Tactile Table (ash)

Seamless Transition

Speculation

MIT SAP_2022
Speculator

Seamless Transition is an investigation of an aging rental unit. The project proposes a retrofit for a typical developer standard apartment in Maryland that considers the specific dimensional needs of parents to young children, renters experiencing the effects of aging, including a lack of strength and potential sickness, and two roommates in need of additional storage. The design considers the intersection of care and dimensionality.

No Bend Zone

Academic Research, Accessible Design Research

MIT SAP_2022
Cambridge, MA
Research Compilation, Research Visualization

Scale figures sourced from dimensions.guide.

Sources include but are not limited to:
Boys, J. (2014). Doing disability differently : an alternative handbook on architecture, dis/ability and designing for everyday life. Routledge.
Cheung, O. (Ed.). (2018). Public restroom design. Images Publishing Group.
Cunningham, D. (2011). Psychiatric tales: Eleven graphic stories about mental illness. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Fischer, J., & Meuser, P. (2009). Accessible architecture : age and disability-friendly planning and building in the 21st century. DOM.
Sorensen, R. J. (1979). Design for accessibility. McGraw-Hill.

This is the first step in a long-term research project considering and compiling the dimensionality of access surrounding aging and varying physical needs.