Melanie De Cola

As leader of Hickok Cole’s research initiatives I have overseen the microgrant process which allows architects and designers to devote a certain amount of work hours to passion projects with the goal of enriching the field of architecture. This book is a reflection of a few of those projects.

This is a visual exploration into how various practice areas interacted and collaborated with each other on a thematic basis. Taking all practice areas and color coding them by category, I then connected them across the circle with thematic lines.

Infographic for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) explaining the fundamental principles of resilient and climate-adaptive design for architects. all icons were hand-designed and the illustration is a cc image used with permission from Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company. To learn more visit: https://www.aia.org/resources/8421-the-fundamentals-of-resilient--climate-adapti

A small series of images exploring the stages of a circular economy as applied to the built environment and consumer economy. These graphics were created to explore strategies for minimizing waste in the construction process to support research by and in collaboration with Joël Onorato.

The American Geophysical Union has renovated its headquarters building to target Net Zero Energy, this whitepapers lays out the strategies used to achieve this goal.

This nested wheel explores the alignment between the UN Sustainable Development Goals and other climate action frameworks and concepts.

An infographic exercise to both define the term energy sprawl and examine country-specific case studies from around the world. It is part of an effort to support renewable energy growth while remaining aware of land use and species conservation.

A booklet for all employees outlining Gensler’s 10 core guiding principles and a colorful range of project photography details. Printed as an accordion fold booklet measuring 5 inches by 34 inches.

A series of illustrations for a feature in Fast Company highlighting the use of architecture in flood zones to capture and make use of excess water. This series is a collaboration with Pierce Fisher and Rives Taylor. Read the article here.

Charter schools are a growing phenomenon in Washington DC, this infographic sought to understand their scope within the city and discover their influence by ward.

Designed during a fellowship at Architecture for Humanity’s San Francisco headquarters in 2009, this portfolio of 7 houses selected the work of the Biloxi Model Home program which matched prominent architecture firms with families who had lost their houses in 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. To purchase visit: https://www.blurb.com/b/1210359-rebuilding-after-disaster

These are graphics for a committee, called Full Circle, dedicated to socially-motivated projects and community engagement. These graphics were featured within the office of Hickok Cole and were a collaboration with Lucia Tang and Siobhan Steen.

This book celebrates Hickok Cole’s smaller scale projects and embraces the quirks of historical buildings and odd sites. This book augments a series of books displaying architectural work of all scales.

Generic infographic layout for survey result data.

Series of graphics, slides and a booklet outlining the powerful of incubator spaces on university campuses and how institutions can think about these spaces and designers can support them.

Booklet for a conference about retail design trends in Latin America featuring project work and quotes from retail leaders.

Layout and UX design for Apple for the “ipad in business” section of their website. This included a splash page gallery with a dynamic layout featuring videos as well as expanded pages for individual companies featuring case studies of how they used ipads to manage and expand their businesses. These designs were active for 2 and a half years on apple.com and were fully vetted by Apple’s design team.

Interactive interface for Best Buy to feature the latest technology, products and promotions. Layout and interaction design, including a style guide and back-end image and content management system. This design appears to still be in use at deals.bestbuy.com