arjuna balaranjan
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arjuna balaranjan
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built work
1. The Phenomenon of Mirrors: Thesis Project, spring 07 2. Showroom Booth: for Fashion Designer, fall 07
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ideas
1. 2. 3. 4.
white box: competition entry, summer 11 3D Fantasy: design feature, spring 11 The Seine: Realizing a Border: studio project, spring 06 Materials Library: studio project, fall 05
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collaborations
1. Masterplan Modeling: Michael Fieldman Architects, spring 09 2. Skin Design: Michael Fieldman, fall 10 3. Other Design Studies: Professional, fall 07-present
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painting
1. Self Portrait: Maret School, fall 02 2. Pears: Maret School, spring 03
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ideas
1. white box: competition entry, summer, 11
Arjuna Balaranjan
1 of 5 finalists (out of 67 entries) selected pop-up store for menswear designer Patrik Ervell 4
Components
drop down (longer hanging)
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ideas
1. white box: competition entry, summer, 11
Arjuna Balaranjan
pull down (short hanging)
drawer (fittintg room)
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Design
display box with pull out seating
white box/ closet
drop downs/ clothing display
drawers/ fitting rooms
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ideas
1. white box: competition entry, summer, 11
Arjuna Balaranjan
overall
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Luxury retail architecture follows a “white box” model -- a few garments are displayed in a vast-, minimal space. This model elevates the garment from a part of someone’s wardrobe to an object worthy of a museum. Patrik Ervell’s brand is more about utility. While he is constantly developing innovative uses of materials, dyes and processes that enhance the “surface” interest of his garments, his cuts, fits and tailoring priotize function. Patrik’s brand calls for a new architectural model. His retail space should not be a museum for art objects, but a machine for the distribution of functional garments. It should be efficient in the way that a closet is efficient. Yet it should provoke you to touch it, move it and transform it.
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ideas
1. white box: competition entry, summer, 11
Arjuna Balaranjan
The intervention into the site is a “perfect white box” which unfolds to reveal over-scaled drawers and closet components. The closet, like the “white box,” is perfect until it is reconfigured over the course of the day by its users. Then, when the shop closes at the end of the day it returns to is “perfect” state. The interior of the box is glossy white, while the hardware components and interiors of drawers and boxes will contrast with unfinished metal and wood framing. 10
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ideas
2. 3D fantasy: design feature in PIN-UP Magazine, spring, 2011
Arjuna Balaranjan
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The narrow, winding Parisian streets were a stark contrast to those I was familiar with, in NYC and Washington DC. Much of the center of Paris felt like interior space. Leaving my apartment everyday required me to transition from the private space of my apartment into more and more open public space. I crossed a threshold from my apartment into a spacious staircase, then from the staircase into a courtyard shared with the surrounding buildings, and then from that courtyard through an arcade onto a narrow side street. The rest of my walk involved crossing through spaces which increased or decreased gradually in terms of their intimacy and their levels of privacy.
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ideas
3. Realizing a Border: NY/Paris - Paris Studio, spring, 2006
Arjuna Balaranjan
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ideas
3. Realizing a Border: NY/Paris - Paris Studio, spring, 2006
Arjuna Balaranjan
The site for my studio project was the bank of the Seine, where long and wide vistas are possible. The Seine is one of the few places near the medieval city of Paris where I felt that I was truly in an exterior space--a landscape rather than a room. In a sense the site on the bank of the Seine was the ultimate threshold from interior to exterior. I wanted to design a space where one could exist within this threshold, to simultaneously exist inside and outside the city
“Machines� studied ideas about joining which were then applied to the intervention.
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ideas
4. Materials Library: NY/Paris - NY Studio, fall, 2005
Arjuna Balaranjan
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Design Process device: to fragment Drawings documenting the lag between vision and spatial perception at Times Square, a site where billboards, sidewalks and traffic compete for the pedestrian’s attention.
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ideas
4. Materials Library: NY/Paris - NY Studio, fall, 2005
Arjuna Balaranjan
device applied to site: Bryant park
intervention triangulated paths which came from the above triangulated geometry and led down into a rectangular void in Bryant Park which connects with the NY Public Library stacks below. 20
Tactical Village enclosed NY Street environments for training scenarios
Dining Muster courtyard where recruit classes convene every morning
Lodging
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collaborations
1. Masterplan Modeling: Michael Fieldman Arch., spring, 2009
Arjuna Balaranjan
Car Training Pad with parking below
Indoor Firing Ranges
Fieldhouse
Academic Building (classrooms)
The new 3-million-square-foot police academy in Queens, New York City consolidates in one campus facilities currently spread-out across the city for civilians, recruits and active police officers. These facilities include 250 classrooms, gyms, a dining hall, an auditorium, an indoor pool, firing ranges, a vehicle training course, and tactical environments such as a mock up of a subway station where recruits and returning officers run training scenarios.
Main Entry Portal
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collaborations
1. Skin Design: Michael Fieldman Arch., spring, 2010
Arjuna Balaranjan As one of the earliest members of the project team, I was one of two architects involved in the initial masterplanning and production of the pictured model. As the team grew from 8 to 28, I focused on the development of the exterior cladding systems. Deliverables I worked on include renderings, models, working set drawings and construction documents.
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Typical section of exterior wall system modeled in plexi. Light shelves bounce light into classrooms. Unitized curtain panel system meets standards for thermal performance, blast resistance and LEED material requirements
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collaborations
1. Skin Design: Michael Fieldman Arch., spring, 2010
Arjuna Balaranjan
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Michael Fieldman Arch.
Kutnicki Bernstein Architects fall 2011
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collaborations
1.
Assorted Professional
Arjuna Balaranjan Revit Model Management
One of2.three on the Kutnicki team forBernstein the production of fall these Renderings: Architects, 2011 exterior envelope package drawings
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Mir
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rors
built work
1. Phenomenon of Mirrors: Wesleyan U. Senior Thesis fall, 2006 - spring, 2007
Arjuna Balaranjan
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The underlying question of my thesis is: How do mirrors “construct� space? Conceptually, I analyzed car mirrors and how they construct space. I experimented with the idea that each mirror acts as a prosthetic eye, in effect giving the driver eyes on the back and side of his/her head. My installation isolated this phenomena, making viewers aware of mirrors as prosthetic devices or eyes by shifting the horizons and angles of what they saw.
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built work
1. Phenomenon of Mirrors: Wesleyan U. Senior Thesis fall, 2006 - spring, 2007
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Designed and constructed showroom for New Delhi-based fashion designer Varun Sardana
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built work
2. Showroom Booth: Wills Lifestyle Fashion Show fall, 2007
Arjuna Balaranjan
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built work
2. Showroom Booth: Wills Lifestyle Fashion Show fall, 2007
Arjuna Balaranjan
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p painting
1. Pears: Maret School, spring, 2003
Arjuna Balaranjan
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2. Pear: Maret School, spring, 2003
p painting
Arjuna Balaranjan
2. Self-portrait: Maret School, fall, 2002
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arjuna balaranjan
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