Instagram story viewer> @emmasheffer> Tagged

Emma Agnes Sheffer

@emmasheffer

undefined

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

“Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”

Field Dressed armchair from Harvard Recycling Center turned Life Jacket™ ™ ™ by way of Jonathan Grinham’s Circuits, Circles and Loops Course at Harvard Graduate School of Design

XOXO,
Emma Sheffer, Sam Spencer, Dong Nyung Lee

(The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams)

@harvardgsd @harvardgsd_architecture

303

14

Ummm… wait.. what?? Really???

3

25

Theseus: A New Housing Typology
by Joe Russell and Emma Sheffer

⚓️

Studio: Core IV Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Instructor: Warren Techentin

🏘️

Theseus is a 150-bed housing project adjacent to the Port of Chelsea, MA, that repurposes cargo holds from decommissioned bulk-carrier ships, which are typically retired after just 25 years.

The project transforms maritime steel infrastructure into resilient, occupiable superstructures. The inherent strength and form of the cargo holds support the building, enabling suspended floor plates that keep the ground open for communal use and create a flood-able, adaptable civic space. Because the main structural load is carried by the steel hull and frame, the units themselves do not require structural walls.

This structural logic offers flexibility: residents can open operable party walls to expand or merge households, adapting to shifting domestic needs. The five-building complex addresses climate adaptation, material scarcity, and long-term housing stability. By reusing locally sourced steel and integrating public programming, Theseus reframes housing as long-term civic infrastructure that is scalable to other port cities. The project proposes a new architectural typology rooted in industrial heritage, designed not just to shelter but to support life, work, and community over time

2k

4

Joe Russell, Emma Sheffer, M.Arch I ‘27 / Core IV: Relate / Spring 2025 / Warren Techentin

8k

18

Theseus: A New Housing Typology
by Joe Russell and Emma Sheffer

⚓️

Studio: Core IV Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Instructor: Warren Techentin

🏘️

Theseus is a 150-bed housing project adjacent to the Port of Chelsea, MA, that repurposes cargo holds from decommissioned bulk-carrier ships, which are typically retired after just 25 years.

The project transforms maritime steel infrastructure into resilient, occupiable superstructures. The inherent strength and form of the cargo holds support the building, enabling suspended floor plates that keep the ground open for communal use and create a flood-able, adaptable civic space. Because the main structural load is carried by the steel hull and frame, the units themselves do not require structural walls.

This structural logic offers flexibility: residents can open operable party walls to expand or merge households, adapting to shifting domestic needs. The five-building complex addresses climate adaptation, material scarcity, and long-term housing stability. By reusing locally sourced steel and integrating public programming, Theseus reframes housing as long-term civic infrastructure that is scalable to other port cities. The project proposes a new architectural typology rooted in industrial heritage, designed not just to shelter but to support life, work, and community over time

2k

14

She’s back! Unpacked, patched and suspended from the ceiling!

Four projects are currently on view in the @risdarch BEB as part of the exhibition R-Value Accessories. The show will be up for one more week ❤️

R-Value Accessories:
A Case for Ultra-Thin Adjustments

Curators: Emily Ezquerro and Sam Sheffer
Work by: Emily Ezquerro @emilyezquerro , Sam Sheffer @sam.h.sheffer , Charles Kim @tnalscharleskim , Emma Sheffer @emmasheffer , Jeronimo Ezquerro @jeroezquerro , Stephanie Rae Lloyd @s.rae.lloyd

R-Value Accessories are devices for architecture. The work in this exhibition showcases additive systems that recalibrate existing buildings rather than replace them. It is a cumulative output of a multi-year research project that accepts what is already there and adds on.

Bringing together a series of speculative and material projects, the exhibition explores how layering, insulation, and garment logics can transform existing housing into responsive, climate-resilient systems. Insulation is no longer concealed within thick walls but becomes visible, adjustable, and precisely an accessory that can be added, removed, or tailored over time.

The four projects presented—A Non-Optimized Methodology for Doing Less, House Jackets, Paper-Thin Paper Paper, and Space.Suits.US—form an exhibition of distinct yet interconnected approaches to the same question: how might architecture evolve through R-Value Accessories? Each project takes on this challenge through a different lens, exploring subtraction, layering, wrapping, and re-skinning as architectural strategies, and over time, these investigations inform one another.

Together, they approach buildings as systems open to continual adjustment rather than fixed, finished forms, where accessories are not supplemental but fundamental. Whether by reducing conditioned volume, incorporating garment-like layers into the building envelope, reconceiving the wall as a field of ultra-thin membranes, or translating the logic of spacesuits into architectural assemblies, each project redirects attention from building anew to reworking what already exists.

391

7

Large scale category winners and Student Award winners #BuildnerUnbuiltAward2025 #ArchitectureCompetition Emma Agnes Sheffer and Joseph Robert Russell from United States!
-
Why do you enter architecture competition?
-
Participating in this competition pushed us to step back from our project and distill it to its most succinct parts. This helped us fine-tune how we think and talk about our work. It also allowed us to reflect on and celebrate the work we are really proud of.
-
More: https://architecturecompetitions.com/unbuilt2025/

3

2

Congrats to the GSD students who won at the Buildner's Unbuilt Award 2025!

@_joerussell (MArch ’27) and @emmasheffer (MArch ’27) were awarded first prize in the large-scale category, as well as the large-scale student prize, receiving a combined €25,000.

Buildner’s Unbuilt Award is an international competition that recognizes architectural ideas not yet realized, promoting speculative design that explores innovation, sustainability, and social impact across scales.

Developed as part of their Core IV studio, ‘Theseus: A New Housing Typology’ proposes a 150-bed housing development in Chelsea, Massachusetts. The project repurposes cargo holds from decommissioned bulk-carrier ships into resilient steel superstructures, creating adaptable housing that responds to climate risk and material scarcity.

Five buildings along Marginal Street buffer industrial noise while forming public passageways and floodable communal ground spaces. By reframing port-city housing as civic infrastructure, Theseus explores long-term stability, adaptability, and new possibilities for scalable urban housing. The project also received the Architizer A+ Vision Award in fall 2025.

This is one project of two that received awards in this competition--stay tuned for more!

📧 Comment "design" to sign up for our newsletter and receive more news and updates from the GSD! Side elevation rendering of two mid-rise residential buildings with rounded white frames, wood screening, exterior stairs, and illuminated balconies facing a shared landscaped courtyard at dusk.

2k

11

Emma Sheffer, M.Arch I ‘27 / Option Studio “New Rooms: Defining A Permanently Temporary Art Infrastructure” / Fall 2025 / Lap Chi Kwong and Alison Von Glinow

525

2

What a grateful semester with beautiful people❣️
Thank you @kwongvonglinow for your guidance to my first option studio @harvardgsd_architecture @harvardgsd❣️
How memorable the concerts with @radcliffechoralsociety were! Thank you to all the audiences for coming❣️

#harvardgsd #radcliffechoralsociety

92

6

I am grateful to have received an Individual Artist Award from the Rasmuson Foundation in support of my curatorial practice at Bivy.

This award is inherently communal: it exists through the artists, audiences, and communities it supports, whose work and presence give Bivy its life.

As my first time applying, I am thankful that the independent work I did during Bivy’s first iteration (2017–2022) has been recognized and that this award will help take Bivy’s practice into its next chapter.

@rasmusonfoundation @simonettamignano

(1) Portrait by Anna Morosini
(2) How to fold a fitted sheet by Hollis Mickey, Bivy, June 2018
(3) A note upon the ‘Mystic Writing Pad’ by Emma Sheffer, Bivy, February 2019
(4) Doing Doing, Susan Joy Share, Bivy, August - October 2019
(5) WORK / WEAR, group exhibition with Amy Meissner, Guido Segni, Karen Lowell, Hollis Mickey, and Juan Sandoval, Bivy, November - January 2020
(6) Using feelings to get rid of feeling VII, A Constructed World, with the participation of local performers and music direction by Quinn Christopherson, March - October 2020
(7) HOUSE PIECE, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Bivy, August 2020 - April 2021
(8) Rain Makes Little Lakes, with Indra Arriaga, Susan Joy Share, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Scott McDonald, Jimmy Riordan, Alicja Katchikian, and Zinc Comics, Bivy, August - September 2021
(9) Shit Must Stop Forever, “Chew gum and wear pearls,” on loan by Sean Licka, Bivy, June - July 2022
(10) Gathering on the roof of Bivy, last event after moving out of the building, July 2022
(11) OK Artissima, A Constructed World, Artissima, Art Fair, November 2022

157

13

SpaceSuits.US was made to be touched!

We loved seeing people engaging with the project during the opening week, and cherished the many screenshots and snapshots that were sent our way from friends abroad.

In an exhibition full of robots, AI generated content and “hard sciences”, it was so rewarding to see the public engage with our soft and bodily work.

SpaceSuits.US Team:
Sam Sheffer @sam.h.sheffer
Emily Ezquerro @emiwis
Charles Kim @tnalscharleskim
Emma Sheffer @emmasheffer
Jero Ezquerro @jeroezquerro
Stephanie Rae Lloyd @s.rae.lloyd

Many thanks to:
RISD Architecture @risdarch + Jacqueline Shaw @jcqlntshw
RISD Professional Development Fund @risd1877
RISD Academic Affairs + Conference Fund

209

4