Aastha Shrestha - Architectural Portfolio

AASTHASHRESTHA

M.Arch Student @ University of Utah

PORTFOLIO

Provo, Utah

Graduate Studio Fall 2022

Supervisor: Ar. Roberto Pinon

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.

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.

Opatija-Rijeka, Crotia

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 that of the adjacent hills. At present, the motel is vacant and in an abandoned condition. The modern building then was a great architectural example of a modernist building. It had been listed as a cultural heritage in 2015. Despite the ruin-like condition, there is still a chance to revive the site and the building.

The location and the flexible plan of the modernist building allow the site to develop into a great tourist attraction center. It also has a great potential to connect tourists/visitors with the local community.

Panorama hub is a proposal to establish a platform for the interaction between the local community and the visitors. It will be some sort of a common ground where activities related to these complementary programs along with interaction with nature and public will take place. In order to improve access and connection of the site with the sea, a gondola system will be introduced that will connect the site to the northwest beach. This will indirectly increase the number of visitors into the site.

GLUE-LAMINATED WAFFLE BEAMS

SHEAR WALLS

GLUE-LAMINATED TIMBER POST

CONCRETE FOOTINGS

GLUELAMSTRUCTURE

GLUELAM STRUCTURE

BRACINGSTRAPS

FOOTING

FOOTING

BRACING STRAPS GROUND PLANE

GOUNDPLANE

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 siteCase 2: 206 Apartment Houses in the siteCase 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.

BIRUWA: RESPECTING THE ROOTS

Khapda Tiles CSEB

Green Concrete

04 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

Bringing

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

05 RETHINKING ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT

Architecture Department

Pulchowk Campus, Nepal

Kaleidoscope College Round Architecture Student Design Competition

2018-2019

Winner

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

Qualified Chaos

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

3DViewFromEntrance

-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.

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.

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 the views of the historical buildings, organize outdoor events, and also to relax and work outdoor enjoying winter sun.

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

The department is overall divided into three blocks :

1. Administration

2.Bachelors‘ block

3. Masters’ block

-Entrance

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.

-Green roof -Existing trees VEGETATION

-Masters’ -Bachelors’ MAIN PROGRAM BLOCKS

-Interactive bridge -Multipurpose hall

-Entrance plaza -Courtyard -Plaza -Cafeteria -Basket ballCourt PLACE

-Public -Semipublic -Private USER

UNDERGRADUATE DESIGN STUDIOS

EXHIBITION HALL

ATRIUM

GRADUATE LECTURE CLASSROOMS

ART WORKS

GREEN COURTYARD PLAZA

WINTER PAVILION CAVE

BASKETBALL COURT

CORTEN STEEL

06 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

Access into the building through multiple entries and

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