Student Work

Course Description

BIOTIC CONTINUITY

Students: Lia Poore
Studio: ARCH 301 — Angela Yang and Claudia Rosa López — Winter 2025
Location: Seattle, Washington

Project Description

This project, Biotic Continuity, rethinks what power means in the heart of Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood. Once a 1940s electrical substation, the site is transformed into a place where energy flows not through wires but through people, ideas, and collaboration. The design recognizes the layered history of the building while opening new possibilities for the community it serves.

   First and Second Floor Plan.

At its core, the project imagines the substation as both “SUB” and “STATION”: a space adaptively reused to preserve its industrial heritage, and a stopping place where creativity and innovation take root. Artists and community stewards become the new hosts, activating the space with workshops, exhibitions, and gatherings. By shifting the narrative from utility to inspiration, the design breathes fresh life into a structure once defined by function alone. The result is a creative incubator that honors the past while generating new forms of connection and collective imagination.

                  Sun Diagram.

 

Physical Model.

 

Images from BIOTIC CONTINUITY.