MIST Lab

projectIn the Shadow of the Cloud

year2025

roleStudent Research Assistant

directed byAli Fard

Making research spatial: exhibitions as instruments of inquiry.

In the Shadow of the Cloud investigates the evolving relationship between data infrastructure and the urban fabric of Northern Virginia, focusing on the W&OD trail as a site where technological, social, and spatial systems intersect. As a research assistant in MIST_Lab under Ali Fard, I contributed to mapping and analyzing these socio-spatial networks, producing speculative design narratives that explored the adaptive reuse of decommissioned data centers.

Through multimedia visualization and critical design tools, the project reimagines these vast technical structures as civic and cultural frameworks that reconnect fragmented urban landscapes.

The exhibition incorporated projected maps, drawings, video, sound, and imagery in dialogue with a 1”:20,000’ scale topographic model of Northern Virginia. It traveled as an exhibition, shown at the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland.

read about the exhibition at UVA School of Architecture

Aerial site study of the W&OD trail corridor, the data center parcel picked out in yellow.

the data center study

Axonometric studies of a decommissioned data center reimagined as civic structure. — 01adaptive reuse studies, decommissioned data centers

Topographic model of Northern Virginia with the corridor traced in yellow. — 021/32 model of the data center

Visitors at the exhibition opening. — 03exhibition opening, photographed by Tom Daly

The exhibition installed: aerial photographs and a drawing on black walls, with the topographic model in the foreground. — 04installation view, photographed by Tom Daly

credits

A MIST_Lab project. My contribution was the data center research: mapping the socio-spatial networks along the corridor and developing the adaptive reuse narratives shown above.

curation

Ali Fard, in collaboration with Stephen Voss

student researchers

Leo Wehner, Sarah O’Donnell, Dorothy Philip, Treston Yetso, and Ari Bell

fabrication consultation

Trevor Kemp and Melissa Goldman

exhibition coordination

Kyle Sturgeon

exhibition photography

Tom Daly