ADAM SCOTTThe person behind Vast Effects
I’m Adam Scott, an architecture student at the University of Notre Dame. My work connects the design of buildings with questions about housing, shared space and the everyday life of places.
A working framework
Each project has its own questions. These connections give the work a wider context.
01
Buildings in relation to landscape and the city.
Zen monastery · courts & landscape ↗A monastery organized through courts, paths and shared rooms.
A market hall esquisse exploring commerce, gathering and a permeable edge to Piazza Brin.
A civic hall and two domestic volumes explore how a public room can belong to a steep village landscape.
02
Housing, shared space and everyday life.
Philadelphia · dwelling & street ↗Apartments and retail meet the scale of the urban block.
Research across trauma-informed housing, biophilic urbanism and a long walking study of American cities.
Walking Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky to understand how access, landscape and public space shape everyday participation.
03
The structures of long-term care.
Living Ground · exploratory research ↗An ongoing question about neighborhood stewardship, coordination and responsibility.
A proposed structure for a reviewed infill brief, used to test how evidence could support a next decision.
A new Civic House studies ordinary public life in relation to retained industrial buildings in Covington.
04
Research that can be revisited and connected.
Writing · research & reflection ↗Archived reflections preserve the development of questions. Compare the questions and observations across places.
A comparative walking study linking observations in Japan, Singapore and the Northeast Corridor with questions of urban nature, care and belonging.
Research across trauma-informed housing, biophilic urbanism and a long walking study of American cities.
A way to connect studies and questions, not a claim of completed impact.
Vast Effects is my portfolio and working platform for architecture, urban research, writing and experiments. It brings completed work together with the questions and projects I am pursuing now.
The common thread is an interest in how design choices affect people beyond the drawing: how a street is inhabited, how a school meets its landscape, or how a neighborhood is cared for over time.
Personal platform by Adam Scott. The featured buildings are unbuilt academic proposals.
University of Notre Dame
Bachelor of Architecture, expected 2027
Minor in Real Estate
2026–27 · Student leadership
President, Notre Dame. The club’s current guide describes a place for students to explore walkable, welcoming communities through learning, events and workshops.
2024 & 2025 · Research experience
McNeill Common Good Fellowship studies include trauma-informed housing research and biophilic urbanism. Read the fieldwork overview and paper summaries for the questions, observations and limits.
Explore research ↗2022–24 · Earlier experience
Sports graphics and merchandise imagery made within a university production team. This work sits alongside the visual communication developed through architectural studies.
The Sōtō Zen monastery study connects courts, rooms and landscape through plan, elevation and axonometric drawings.
Street edges, dwelling plans and shared courts
GIS maps, field studies and student development proposals
Walking fieldwork, paper summaries and developing research methods
01 / Ongoing
Academic thesis · In progress
A new Civic House studies ordinary public life in relation to retained industrial buildings in Covington.
Updated September 25, 2026
02 / Ongoing
Studio investigation · In progress
Site testing at Palasport is complete; architectural design is beginning at the edge of the Arsenale.
Updated October 2, 2026
03 / Ongoing
Exploratory · Pre-launch
A field-testing packet is prepared for consented testing of evidence, permissions and stewardship handoffs.
Updated October 2, 2026