ARCHITECTURAL PORTFOLIO 2023

AASTHA SHRESTHA

M.Arch Student @ University of Utah

PORTFOLIO

CONTENTS

Graduate Studio Fall-2021

PANORAMA HUB Graduate Studio Spring-2022 + Competition

DESIGN BUILD:TINY HOUSE Design Build SLC Summer-2022

TAXHAWK OFFICE BUILDING

Graduate Studio Fall-2022

MAIN MAGNA STREET BLOCK DEVELOPMENT

Graduate Elective Fall-2022

In Salt Lake City, there is a lack of residential houses that lies in between single-family houses and midrise apartments. Row houses can be introduced as a resilient typology for Salt Lake City that will create high density, transit-oriented development, address problems caused by the pandemic, and reimagine living spaces in the new normal.

The site analysis involved context mapping to find an appropriate site for the rowhouse development. It showed the growth of amenities towards the south direction from the Downtown area and the mixed zone indicated by a crescent as a prospective area for the project site.

HOUSES: A RESILIENT TYPOLOGY FOR SALT LAKE CITY

Salt Lake City, Utah

Graduate Studio Fall 2021

Supervisor: Prof. Matthew Daines

Location: 900 South State Street

Area: 16114.47 sq meters (3.98 Acres)

Area of the site

STEP 1 Creating Commercial Corner

Building commercial rental spaces in the northwest to cater commercial activities

STEP 2 Row Houses

Introducing row houses on top of the commercial spaces and the periphery forming a courtyard

STEP 3 Breaking the Volume

Breaking the overall mass in response to climate and existing vegetation

STEP 4 Levels of Open Spaces

Creating open spaces in different levels for public interaction and greenary

Case 1: 16 Single Family Houses in the site

Case 2: 206 Apartment Houses in the site

Case 3: 112 Row Houses in the site

DESIGN APPROACH

Bird’s eye view of the site and the building

The starting point of the design was not from the site but from understanding the need to tackle the problems of individual rowhouses. The parti was then generated in search of answers to these problems. Here the idea was to create 5-meter x 5-meter square grids that were wide enough to accommodate different kinds of living spaces and introduce a courtyard instead of grouping rowhouses together. This approach led to the stacking of the houses in an interlocking manner and provided different permutations for planning the houses. The other important consideration was to arrange the prime nodes (circulation and core) in such a way that the movement of the body within the space was not limited to a fixed direction.

These ideas led to designing a 20-meter x 15-meter building module that could be either attached linearly or mirrored and then attached to develop varieties of floor plans. The houses have open living rooms, 1-3 bedrooms, bathrooms, sunroom, balconies, terraces, roof decks, porches, etc., depending upon the types of modules. While planning the houses, some of the units on the ground floor level were designed in compliance with ADA, which ensured the inclusion of special population as one of the user groups. In addition to that different strategies were applied while planning for the site to get interesting open spaces and create better living environement which was felt necessary in the new normal after the pandemic.

Row houses are very practical for high-density development. However, they are not desirable to many user groups because of the existing problems in the design of typical row houses. For rowhouses to be desirable in the context of Salt Lake City, where Single-family houses and Apartments are the only options, the row houses need to evolve and become much more than just a rowhouse. It has to have the flexibility to provide variations, tackle lighting and ventilation problems, negate limited spatial experience, and provide healthy living conditions for the users. The design proposal manifests the different ideas, approaches, and solutions brought to the table to reconceptualize rowhouses as a resilient and promising typology to achieve high-density development in Salt Lake City.

02 PANORAMA HUB

Opatija-Rijeka, Croatia

Graduate Studio Spring 2022

Supervisor: Ar. Jörg Rügemer

AIA Utah Student Design Competition - 2022

Graduate Student Category - Merit Award

Team: Aastha Shrestha & Jaden Robertson

Motel panorama, designed by architect ivan vitić, is situated near rijeka in croatia. The area where the motel is located offers great views of the Adriatic sea and of the adjacent hills. At present, the motel is abandoned and in a dilapidated condition. Motel Panorama is a great architectural example of a building from Modernist era, listed as a cultural heritage site in 2015. Despite the level of deterioration, there is still a chance to revive the building and site. The location and the flexibility offered by the Modern floor plan provide substantial potential for its adaptive reuse into the “Panorama Hub.”

Panorama Hub is a proposal to establish a platform to facilitate connection and interaction between tourists and locals by creating spaces for shared activities and living. Furthermore, Panorama Hub strives to incorporate resiliency by developing a close relationship with nature by utilizing passive design strategies, framing views, and minimizing overall ecological impact. Access to and from the site is facilitated through an interface with public transportation as well as a gondola providing direct access to the popular beaches on the Adriatic, of which comprises a large cultural component of coastal Croatia.

The existing building is 31,700 sqft with 23,200 sqft of new construction, with the primary components of the program consisting of classrooms, library, gallery space, a restaurant, and a hostel. The organization of each program has been designed around flexibility with reconfigurable layouts utilizing movable partitions and furniture.

Panorama Hub is designed to facilitate connection and interaction between people and nature. It is respectful of the original architect intent, utilizing low impact high durable materials. Passive design strategies paired with innovative active systems allow for a complete EUI offset. A focus on circulation and accessibility allows for opportunities for users of any ability.

GLUE-LAMINATED WAFFLE BEAMS

SHEAR WALLS

GLUE-LAMINATED TIMBER POST

CONCRETE FOOTINGS

GLUELAMSTRUCTURE

GLUELAM STRUCTURE

BRACINGSTRAPS

FOOTING

FOOTING

BRACING STRAPS GROUND PLANE

GOUNDPLANE

The Design Build Salt Lake Summer program is an immersive program for students studying architecture that is focused on exposure to real life construction practice. The School of Architecture at the University of Utah collaborated with The Other Side Village to design and construct a tiny house. The Tiny House is a 280-square-foot dwelling that integrates sustainable materials and high-performance building systems. The design of the tiny house was developed by the students and faculty in the Fall 2021 semester. Our class was involved in the build phase of the Design-build which started in mid-May, with initial wood framing and structural system, and the home was completed in August. The construction took place on the concrete pad outside of our school, using the available resources, materials, and tools.

A group of 16 students worked in alternate days to complete the house. I was in Mon-Wed schedule with other 6 classmates. We were involved in almost all phases of the construction starting from levelling the floor beams to finsihing the interior and exterior of the house. It was a great hands-on experience where we learned various skills like construction, teamwork, tool handling, co-ordination,et cetera and also gained knowledge on stud wall construction, structure, fenestrations, rainscreen technology, HVAC, materials, building envelope, installation of equipments, et cetera.

DESIGN BUILD: TINY HOUSE

Salt Lake City, Utah

Design Build @ SLC Summer 2022

Supervisor: Sarah Winkler & Grant Marriott

BUILDING EXTERIOR SIDE OF THE ENVELOPE

Building the exterior wall was the massive task among all the other tasks. We had different layers to build like installing hunter panels, moisture barrier, metal channels both horizontally and vertically and then installing the concrete finished panels and C channels for final exterior layer.

Doing the interior side of the house was also exciting where I was mostly involved in the installation of membrane, fur, wooden planks, window, window frames, and gyp boards. I was also involved in painting the gyp walls, doors and kitchen cabinets, and caulking.

Overall, it was really fun and exciting semester that enriched our design build experience.

The studio extensively focused on exposure to real life architectural practice. The project involved shadowing an actual project being done by MHTN Architects in the studio. The project was designing a 70,000 sq ft office space along with pickle ball court and basket ball court. The client was TaxHawk.

The project involved learning different applications like Revit, Enscape, and Cove Tool to design the office space like a professional. An architectural set comprising of drawings, renderings, and energy analsyis were developed at the end of the studio.

OFFICE BUILDING AT PROVO

Provo, Utah

Graduate Studio Fall 2022

Supervisor: Ar. Roberto Pinon

BASKETBALL FACILITY

The building codes applicable to Provo City were considered while designing the site and building. About 300 parking spaces were provided and multiple vehicular entries to the site (two from State Street and one from the west road) were designed. The entrance doors to the building on both East and West facade were emphasized by creating portals with recessed slant wall. The planning was carried out in such a way that there would be gradual change in the degree of publicness (from South to the North part of the building).

Construction-wise, the building incorporates a moment frame system and the construction type is II-B. Different materials like brick cladding, metal panels, and glass were used throughout the building keeping the architectural expression of the surrounding context. Curtain walls were used to provide abundant daylighting to the working spaces and views of the mountains around the site. Operable vertical shading devices and internal shade were proposed to cutoff glare and excessive heat coming from southwest direction.

The urban design class focused on redevelopment of one of the blocks in Main Magna Street as an exercise and example to follow for the rest of the blocks along the Main Street. It was a team project where my other team mates focused on 2D planning, data collections, and presentation and I was mostly involved in conceptualization, program finding, 3D model making and visualization.

MAGNA MAIN STREET BLOCK REDEVELOPMENT

Magna, Utah

Urban Design Fall 2022

Supervisor: Mark Robert Morris, PLA

Team: Aastha Shrestha, Corey Bishop & Rachel Stein

Street Magna's Main Street was a major shopping hub in the 1970s

Neo-classical and Beaux Arts style theatre building in the vicinity

Concept: Creating programs that celebrates the history and advertises the Image of Magna Main Street (Food, Gallery/Museum, Photo Booth, etc.)

Important building within the site

Films were shot in Magna's Main

The goals of this project was to

i) Increase Economic Activity,

b) Improve Connectivity,

c) Emphasize Storytelling & Culture,

d) Integrate Biophilic Design & Landscaping,

e) Maintain Architectural Integrity, and

f) Focus on Universal Design. We proposed new housing units which were setback from the main street to provide density, privacy and maintain the commercial corridor intact. Another important point was to think of the entrances of the buildings and corners of the block where we proposed recessed entrances and chamfered corner that respects the architectural language of the place. We also proposed different signages, awnings, outdoor dining areas, seating, and scooter station to activate the street and increase flow of pedestrians.

Irradiance tower is the outcome of an extensive study of it’s site, context and the wish of the client to make it an iconic building. Market study of various kinds of buildings (hospitals, malls, hotels, schools, apartments, showrooms,offices etc), within an area of 2 miles radius from the site, guided to propose the tower as an office building. This 12-storey building houses rentable spaces for Class A offices, a rooftop cafeteria, a car showroom at its ground floor and a double basement for parking and utility. Open floor plans were designed to maximize rentable office spaces which not only provided flexibility for future tenants but also reduced construction cost drastically.

In this project, I was mostly involved in Site and context study, Research, Facade design, Design development, Interior design, Modelling, Visualization, and Presentations.

Office Building

Balkhu, Nepal

MAP - 2020

Design Team:

Site and context study

Kiran Mathema, Dipesh Shrestha, Bipin Niraula, Bibek Shrestha, Anu Maharjan, Aastha Shrestha

Offices Schools Hospitals Hotels Apartments Food & Beverages Car Showrooms

The volume and tapering shape of the building was guided by the existing byelaws in Nepal which restricts buildings to exceed 17metres without further setback. In order to build taller, the facade needs to recess back in the ratio 4: 1 and comply with the required setbacks.

Several massing options of the tower were created considering the byelaws and iconicity of the forms. Out of the options, Chevron massing was chosen and further worked out. After many iterations, shell option was chosen.

The Shell option had 250mm wide ductile link radiated from the bottom to the top like the lines of shell. 346mm wide ACP panels wrapped around the ductile links. The composition created privacy in lower floors and allowed views in upper floors.

Pagoda Massing Option 1

Book Stack Massing Option 2

Chevron Massing Option 3 (Selected after comparison of pros and cons)

[Facade

Experimentation with exoskeleton, slats and panels using parametric tools for facade development.

options: Drape, Hex, Star, Diamond, Tree, Pinecone, Rays, Wishbone, Chevron, Waves, Cross Louvers and Shell]

The Cube is the revised version of the previous Irradiance building. With the outburst of worldwide pandemic,COVID-19, and economic crisis, the client asked for redesign of the building. Accordingly, The 12 storey building was reduced to 7 storey with planning as same as the previous. The new facade consisted of fritted glass panels obtained from simulation studies of annual amount of sunlight recieved by each faces of the building.

In this project, I was mostly involved in Interior design, Modelling, Visualization, Construction drawings, HVAC planning and Cutsheets preparation .

Balkhu, Nepal

MAP - 2020

Design and Documentation Team: Kiran Mathema, Dipesh Shrestha, Bipin Niraula, Bibek Shrestha, Anu Maharjan, Aastha Shrestha, Parmila Maharjan, Sareena Manandhar, Angela Subedi

Each floors were planned in such a way that they could hold one to two tenants. Planning focused on utilizing maximum daylight into working zone and placing least use spaces like conference room, presentation room, meeting room, etc. in the spaces with minimum daylight. Moreover, Private cabins and breakout areas were well lit with ample daylighting and views to the outside. Overall planning ensures maximum utility of the given space and resources.

Single Tenant Office Floor Plan Layout

Double Tenant Office Floor Plan Layout

Raathi Residence is a 2 storey residential building for a family of 4 individuals. The local weather and urban location guided the overall design of the house. As a response to the very hot climate there, the exterior fenestration are minimized which helped to manage heat gain as well as privacy.

In this project, I was mostly involved in Design development, Interior design, Material Selection, Modelling, Visualization, Construction drawings, and Cutsheets preparation .

Residence

Biratnagar, Nepal

MAP - 2020

Design and Documentation Team: Kiran Mathema, Dipesh Shrestha, Anu Maharjan, Aastha Shrestha, Parmila Maharjan, Sareena Manandhar, Angela Subedi

The house is organized around a landscaped courtyard which becomes the central space and a source of light and ventilation. The tall and regular height rooms are combined to create sloping roof form with cascading gardens that insulates the roof during harsh summer.The overall height of the house is the tallest on the southwest corner. The roof gradually descends to a one story volume at the northeast corner to allow the prevailing summer breeze.

Kitchen

Daughter’s Bedroom 1

Dining Room

Daughter’s Bedroom 2

BIRUWA: RESPECTING THE ROOTS

Khapda Tiles CSEB

Green Concrete

09

BIRUWA: RESPECTING THE ROOTS

Sustainable Green Home Resilient to the Changing Environment

Janakpur, Nepal

SONA Design Competition - 2020

Professional Category

Winner Team: Aastha Shrestha & Prakriti Bhandari

The design competition was a Research and Design Competition. It was about coming up with a conceptual design for a sustainable green home resilient to the changing environment. The challenges involved were:

1. Communicating our understanding of Sustainability and Resilience.

2. Choosing a location appropriate for the proposal

3. Conceptual Design of the house

It was one of the first competitions in which I participated after beginning my professional life.

“Biruwa is a Nepali name for Sapling. Biruwa embodies a new idea that has still a place for improvement. Biruwa metaphorically represents the budding stage of good sustainable practice needed in the city. If many seedlings are grown, the city becomes the forest gradually. It embodies the idea of growth and multiplication to create ultimately a self-sustaining biome”

1. Concept of Sustainability and Resilience

The concept of sustainability has three pillars: Economic, Environmental, and Social. However, the emphasis is given only on the environment. The other two aspects are overlooked most of the time. Sustainability, for me, is a balance among these aspects. On the other hand, resilience is the ability to recover from calamities, expand, repair, and build and heal from difficult situations.

Janakpur is a sub-metropolitan city in Province no. 2, Nepal. Janakpur being the birthplace of Sita, wife of Lord Ram, is rich in culture and practices. Located in the Terai region, it experiences a sub-tropical climate (hot humid summer and cold-dry winter).

Various factors like climate, uncontrolled population, and unorganized urbanization led to a number of problems in the city like flash floods, high humidity, drainage problem, pollution, mosquito-borne diseases, etc. In addition to that, the prevalent pandemic in the city has aggravated the situation. Another major problem faced is the rise in modern buildings that looks out of place and the subsequent loss in the identity of the city.

Janakpur was an appropriate location for the site to draw attention to the problems faced by the city and try to solve them through design. Solving the issues became the foundation for the conceptualization of the house.

2. Site selection

Old Houses in a Vulnerable Condition

Sprawl of modern houses threatened the practice of old houses

Some new houses trying to capture old architectural elements like arches,cylindrical Pillars, etc., unconsciously

3. Planning and Design

The house was designed for a family of five members. The design was based on the concept of resilient planning. The overall volume of the house was divided into two rectangular blocks ( North as Block A and south as block B) with due consideration of the orientation towards the road and the climate.

The ground floor consists of two bedrooms in block A and a semi open space in block B which could be used in a flexible manner. Stepped plinths, pervious pavers and bare ground in front yard of the house could help tackle the flash floods during rainy season. The open plan allowed the building to expand in the time of need.

Moving up from the airy staircase placed inbetween the blocks, one can reach to the first floor. The first floor consistsof two bedrooms in block A and a living, a kitchen and a dining area in the block B. The top floor comprises of a bedroom, a workspace and a terrace.

The spaces were designed focusing on every individual’s need and separated yet visually connected to each other making them suitable for the changing environment.

SCULPTURE STUDIO

MOUND PARK

INNER ROAD

COURTYARD

Isolation in restriction

No interaction among students of various studios and classes lead to dull learning environment

10 RETHINKING ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT

Architecture Department

Pulchowk Campus, Nepal

Kaleidoscope College Round Architecture Student Design Competition 2018-2019

Winner

Qualified Chaos

Sweetspot of both quiet and noisy environment to students for effective learning.

Immersive environment

Intensive learning restricted in rooms and other remaining spaces for circulation

[Traditional pattern]

Immersive & Interactive environment

An extra space for interaction and collaboration among studios and classes

[Modern pattern]

Architecture is about creativity and it cannot evolve in a single room. The learning should extend beyond classrooms. The new architecture buillding was thus designed to provide effective learning environment with focus on 3I environment i.e. immersive, interactive and inspirational learning environment. Understanding the archi culture and site were the progenitors for the conception of the overall design. The planning emphasized on having learner centered classrooms, open studios with collapsible doors, multipurpose spaces, exhibition hall, crit spaces, interactive zones, research facility, gallery and other necessary spaces.

3Is environment

Immersive, Interactive & Inspirational Nature and art for better learning in addition to the immersive and interactive spaces

[Holistic pattern]

The department was designed simply with the combination of cubicle blocks interconnected to each other and surrounding the courtyard. The simple form ensured maximum utilization of the space and greater flexibility of the space. Moreover, this form helped to match the existing fabric of campus architecture.

Chaos in freedom

Disturbance to students in hyperactive learning environment

3D View From Entrance

-Main entry -Secondary path -Service entry ACCESS

The new building allows the dialogue between the site situation and itself which is missing in the existing building where there is no interaction with the historical buildings and surroundings. Thus the new one is more engaging and permeating providing more opportunities to explore the site.

VEGETATION

-Green

The building ensures least destruction of any vegetation and thus the idea of protecting the trees in the site was the progenitor of the entire concept of formal development. Also, the building is oriented in a way to have green roofs and be sustainable.

-Entrance

Besides interactive spaces in the inside, there is also the need of outdoor interactive spaces which boost the social aspects of the students. These places allow to enjoy views of the historical buildings, organize outdoor events, and also to relax and work outdoor enjoying winter sun.

-Public

The building is moulded in a way to give user friendly experience where the students, teachers, workers, differently able people, visitors etc. get the type of environment they need.

-Admin

-Masters’ -Bachelors’ MAIN PROGRAM BLOCKS

The department is overall divided into three blocks :

1. Administration

2.Bachelors‘ block

3. Masters’ block

-Entrance

-Interactive bridge -Multipurpose hall CONNECTORS

The connecting spaces are the liveliest and the most interesting spaces in the entire department allowing for better communication with each other and interactions regarding their field of study. It acts as the forum for meeting, exhibitions, gallery, Wi-fi zone, discussions, etc.

roof -Existing trees

plaza -Courtyard -Plaza -Cafeteria -Basket ballCourt PLACE

-Semipublic -Private USER

UNDERGRADUATE DESIGN STUDIOS

EXHIBITION HALL

ATRIUM

GRADUATE LECTURE CLASSROOMS

ART WORKS

NORTH

GREEN COURTYARD PLAZA

WINTER PAVILION CAVE

BASKETBALL COURT

CORTEN STEEL

11 THE MECHANICAL RESEARCH CENTER

Thapathali Engineering Campus

Balkhu, Nepal

Kaleidoscope All Nepal Architecture Student Design Competition 2018-2019

1st Runner Up

The design competition was about creating an academic research center for the department of Mechanical Engineering for Thapathali Campus with about 19000 sq meters of programs to be accommodated in a new site. It included a challenge of creating this center consisting of massive labs, workshops, research stations and other necessary amenities in the site which had a level difference of 9 meters from the proposed road.

THE MECHANICAL HILL

The simple idea was to absorb the site and let the building grow as per the site creating a new hill on the site. This hill is called as Mechanical hill which in every sense acts as the building for the purpose of research and lab activities with services and functions being catered through all the levels as per the demand of the programs.

“Conducting Research is much like a process of climbing a hill where you struggle to go to the top, you work hard and when you get to the top, you gain that clarity, an amazing view and a new perspective.” The Mechanical hill is the physical manifestation of this metaphor that tells the story of all the struggles one has to get through while conducting researches, experiments with uncertainty and all the clarity one gets as an achievement during the research widening their horizon of knowledge.

GOALS

Contoured site with level difference of 9 meters Form Forms developed by gradual raise in heights to fit in the site

and ramps

Core

The cylindrical core as the main hall and lively space that binds the adjoining spaces

Green spaces

Accessible green roof and vegetation to enhance the space

The building is thus hidden to some extent evoking curiosity. But as one enters to the building, they are able to discover this space gradually and experience the clarity in the form of openness and visual linkages between the various blocks and programs.

Moreover, the transparency and opaque spaces encourages in social and intensive work spaces respectively providing an ample environment for research activities.

PLAN AT -4 m

PLAN AT +4 m

PLAN AT +8 m

PLAN AT +12 m

PLAN AT +16 m

GRADUATE STUDIO 2022

Building Facade and Section study model (3D printed and laser-cut)

GRADUATE STUDIO 2022

Opatija-Rijeka Site Model

GRADUATE FINAL STUDIO (IN PROGRESS) 2023

Huntington Park-Site Model (Laser Cut)

STUDY MODEL 2023

Culture as Palimpsest

VILLAGE 2017

Medium: Water colors

HUMAN PORTRAIT 2020

Medium: 3B Pencil

ADHIKARI RESIDENCE 2020

Residential Building, Nepal

POKHAREL RESIDENCE 2021

Facade Design, Nepal

RAWAL RESIDENCE 2021

Residential Building, Nepal

Riverfront Resort, Nepal

NARAYANGADH RIVERFRONT MASTERPLAN 2021

Medium: Illustrator

Medium: Illustrator

DIGITAL ART 2020

HUMAN SCALE 2019

TWIST TOWER CONCEPT DIAGRAM MAP-

Medium: VRAY

Medium: Photoshop

FACADE 2019

2020