005 — Isabelle Lee

ISABELLE LEE

Multidisciplinary Designer & Strategist

→ Currently
At the Harvard University Graduate School of Design
A Design Researcher at the MIT AgeLab
Member of the 2025-26 Climate Leaders at Harvard University

→ Previously
Architectural Designer turned Creative Strategist.

Shaped by radical speculation at Cook Haffner (Peter Cook, Archigram), ecological rigor at Henning Larsen, social impact at TEN-Arquitectos, and experiential storytelling at Rockwell Group. I bring a multi-lens strategic lens to complex, human-centered design challenges.

Imaginative spirit cultivated at the Rhode Island School of Design

About
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The Field

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005
Hemis Monastic School

Project Location

Ladakh, India

Brief

This new school reimagines what monastic education can feel like at 13,000 feet ; elevating thermal comfort, daylight, and spatial quality while remaining deeply rooted in Ladakhi tradition. Rather than importing a foreign architectural language, we worked with the intelligence already embedded in place. Himalayan granite, mud brick, high-altitude poplar, timber baulks, and willow form the tactile and cultural foundation of the campus. The result is a campus that strengthens local craft economies, reduces embodied transport, and enables long-term structural resilience.

Timeline

2018
2 weeks on site

Collaborators

Packman Lucas Engineering
Hemis Monestary

Images Courtesy of Packman Lucas

Design Goals

The Challenge

At 13,000 feet in the Himalayas, adjacent to Hemis Monastery, we were asked to design a 500-student residential school in one of the world’s most extreme climates. The site sits in a high seismic zone, with sub-zero winters, limited infrastructure, and complex logistics.

The challenge was not just to build safely at altitude, but to translate symbolism into structure, and resilience into lived experience without compromising spiritual and cultural continuity.

The Approach

We reframed the project as a systems integration challenge: climate, culture, craft, and engineering as one.

The serpentine plan follows the natural contours of the mountain, minimizing excavation while embedding the building into the terrain for thermal stability. Traditional Ladakhi materials — granite, mud brick, poplar, willow — form the architectural backbone, while discreet steel reinforcement and seismic ties elevate structural performance. Passive solar orientation and thermal mass transform vernacular intelligence into high-altitude climate strategy.

The Impact

The project delivers climate resilience, seismic durability, and long-term sustainability while reinforcing local craftsmanship and material economies. It demonstrates how tradition and innovation can coexist to create a contemporary monastic school that is rooted in place, spiritually symbolic, and built to endure.

Capability as Design Infrastructure

Rather than importing a construction system, the project began by mapping local skill sets. Stonemasons and carpenters shaped the structural logic, while external engineers embedded seismic reinforcement. The strategy: build from existing capability and augment where necessary, ultimately, minimizing risk while maximizing cultural continuity.

Deliberate Material Hierarchy

Local materials shape the character and environmental performance of the school. External materials provide structural insurance. The strategy reduces embodied carbon, supports regional economies, and ensures long-term durability in a seismic landscape.

Circulation as Thermal Infrastructure

Bridges span a glazed atrium that functions as a passive solar collector. In winter, the atrium accelerates morning warm-up; at night, thermal mass retains heat. The plan minimizes travel distances, improves supervision, and concentrates thermal performance . Movement becomes part of the environmental system aligning spatial choreography with climate intelligence.

Hybrid Tectonic Framework

5x18m timber frames provide modular repetition and ease of local fabrication. Steel cross-bracing introduces seismic reinforcement without disrupting the vernacular language. Material assemblies are layered for performance: poplar logs, willow infill, compacted mud, and grass insulation form a breathable, low-carbon envelope .

From Craft to System
Principles of traditional wood construction were studied, tested, and structurally upgraded. The bridge and truss assemblies demonstrate how engineered reinforcement can enhance vernacular techniques without displacing them . Traditional joints were prototyped with local builders, then calibrated to meet structural codes.

On Site Fabrication
Breaking the structure into standardized elements enabled precision, repairability, and scalability. The kit-of-parts approach reduces construction risk while increasing adaptability across future institutional projects. Components were fabricated locally and assembled in sequence, minimizing reliance on imported labor or heavy machinery. The construction process became a capacity-building framework for regional trades.

Learnings

Knowledge Transfer can act as infrastructure. In this project, construction doubled as education. By making structural logic visible and participatory, the project embeds long-term stewardship within the community.

At 13,000 feet, environmental extremes and seismic risk forced every decision to operate across multiple scales simultaneously: structural stability, thermal performance, workforce skill, and logistical feasibility. The project demonstrated that hybridization is most effective when intervention is precise.

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