Portfolio of Work_2017-2023

ABHINAVV SINGH PORTFOLIO OF WORK

ABHINAVV SINGH

Architect (COA-India) Urban Designer | NCARB, AICP Candidate

abhinavv@alumni.cmu.edu

(+1)412-680-0771

LinkedIn: abhinavv-singh Portfolio (click)

EDUCATION EXPERIENCE

HASTINGS, Nashville, TN

Computational Urban Designer | Feb 2023-Present

Formulated and executed a custom workflow to integrate ArcGIS data analytics with ArcUrban modeling, City Engine procedural model generation, exporting to Rhino Grasshopper using the Puma plugin, carrying out urban network simulations using Decoding Spaces and immersive visualization using Unity3D. Member of the Technology and Computation group creating Rhino plugins using Metahopper and C#

SOLOMON CORDWELL BUENZ, Chicago, IL

Computational Urban Designer Oct 2021-Feb 2023

Generated iterative optimization test-fit and conceptual design options in the Rhino Grasshopper environment using Wallacei, Galapagos, Elk, assisted with preparing marketing and submittal documents and consultant co-ordination of large scale masterplanning projects including the 6.6 million Sq Ft-30 Acre Bally’s Casino Entertainment District, City of Aurora and Bellevue Wilburton Downtown Revitalization. Member of the Advanced Information Design group

DEREK RUBINOFF ARCHITECT, Boston, MA

Architectural and Urban Designer Feb 2021-Sept 2021

Assigned the design of various urban, architectural, and interior scale projects using parametric workflows established in Rhino and Grasshopper, created design models and CD sets using Building Information Modeling tools like Revit, carried out code review, field visits for documentation, generated renderings using Lumion, 3dsMax, and Enscape, assembled client pitch presentations using Adobe Suite. Worked on 30 projects at different stages of design and construction

SIZEMORE GROUP, Atlanta, GA

Urban Designer Part time Contract | March 2021-June 2021

Generated design iterations for the master planning of a proposed 300 acre mixed-use development in Clarksville,TN. Assisted Principal planners and urban designers with ArcGIS mapping, topographic modeling using Auto CAD Civil 3D, presentation and graphics for master planning projects.

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, Pittsburgh, PA

Urban Design Research Associate | Aug 2020-Oct 2020

Website and database creation & management, conducted research for the publication An Atlas of Commoning, Symposium organization.

STG DESIGN, Nashville, TN

Architecture + Urban Design Intern May 2019-Aug 2019

Planned developments upto 500,000 sq ft based on Transit Oriented Development principles, Revit modeling of architectural and interior projects, conducted DIVA simulations to achieve improved daylight efficiency of spaces, conducted GIS Data Analytics, participated in community meetings and design charrettes.

HINGOO ARCHITECTS, Mumbai, India

BIM Architect June 2017-July 2018

Project lead on a bungalow scheme with a community center & K-12 Public school , designed and executed floor plans, elevations and landscape design of a 48 storey tower in Mumbai.

ARCHITECT HAFEEZ CONTRACTOR, Mumbai, India

Architectural Intern Nov 2015-June 2016

Designed elevations for 42 storey ABIL and IORA Towers in Mumbai by Versace, part of the competition team for 15,000,000 sq ft Karkadooma Transit-Oriented Development in Delhi.

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, Pittsburgh, PA

Master of Urban Design (STEM Designated) | Aug 2018-May 2020

Thesis: Water Resilient Koliwada, Designing a commoning framework that adapts the Koli community to sea level rise

Coursework: Urban design systems, Placemaking, Ecology, Computing urbanism, ArcGIS, Data analytics, Real estate design, Generative modeling, Urban Design Media, Commoning studio

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI, Mumbai, India

Bachelor of Architecture | Sept 2012-May 2017

Thesis: Architecture of Associations: Persistence of Memory

Dean’s List, Best Student and Best Technical Designer Awards

Coursework: Building construction, Building physics, Working drawing and detailing, Architectural design and services; HVAC, Acoustics

PROJECTS & RESEARCH

co-de Ai- HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL, Cambridge, MA

Venture Incubation Program fellow for a collaborative design (co-de) platform allowing designers to design with AI assisted feedback as a one-time process as opposed to iterative designing

REMAKING CITIES INSTITUTE, Pittsburgh, PA

Graduate Research and Design Assistant Jan 2019-May 2019

Assisted Prof Stephen Quick and Prof Don Carter with GIS Mapping, field visits, design research and preparing illustrator diagrams for design guidelines of Route 65 from Pittsburgh to Beaver County

SKILLS

BIM & 3D

Revit, AutoCAD, Rhinoceros, Sketch Up

C#, SQL, HTML, Grasshopper, CGA Programming

Plugins LadyBug, HoneyBee, Decoding Spaces, Climate Studio, Wallacei, Galapagos, Human UI, Urbano, Puma, Eddy 3D

Presentation

Rendering Documents

Analysis

ArcGIS, ArcMap, ArcUrban, Gephi, Carto

Adobe Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects) SketchUp & 3ds Max Vray, Lumion Bluebeam, Newforma, Ms Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)

Enscape, TwinMotion, City Engine, Unity AR/VR

Analogous Languages

Sketching, 3D Printing, Laser Cutting, CNC Milling English, Hindi, Marathi, Spanish (Beginner)

GRADUATE APPLICATION MENTOR Gradvine

Assisting prospective applicants with graduate school applications

OUTREACH AWARDS & HONORS

HINES COMPETITION,

Urban Land Institute

Leader of a team of 5 graduate students in 2020 edition

GEORGE W. ANDERSON AWARD, Carnegie Mellon University

1st place - Best graduate work empowering a community 2020

MERIT SCHOLARSHIP, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Pratt, U Michigan

Offered for urban and computational design admissions at 4 schools

Bally’s Chicago Casino Entertainment District Masterplan

Solomon Cordwell Buenz 2022

Rezoning, planning and approval process for a 30 acre former industrial zoned site into a vibrant mixed use district hinged around the city’s first casino and entertainment complex

The site presents some interesting existing conditions elements like the building housing the facilities of the Tribune Printing plant. A single spur of the Union Pacific Railway with 30 feet air rights above cuts through the site amplifying the challenge of creating a unified pedestrian realm that connects with the riverfront. The site presents the opportunity to reconnect the existing city street grid

Isovist simulations to determine best viewsheds for proposed massing

33’ incline

33’6”

28’6”

32’ Ohio Feeder Ramp Clearance 36’

Option 1: On ChicagoAve

Option

2:The South Bend

Option 3: Superior Henge

Union Pacific PacificAirRights AirRights

The massing and built morphology strategy entails creating a platform at 38’ feet level between Erie St, Halsted St and Chicago Ave. The platform helps address several issues by creating a unified pedestrian realm above the UP Air rights, bridging the different access levels from the three streets and burying the parking decks for the residential towers underneath.

View of the Winter Garden and Riverwalk looking South

View of the Riverfront Park and Event Center looking North

The open space strategy includes three ribbons of green space: a linear park above the UP Air rights, Jefferson Street boulevard and the extended riverwalk that draw the energy from the site and around into the riverfront park opposite the event center. A dedicated bike lane runs from Grand Ave to Halsted St and a winter garden that amplifies pedestrian access to the riverfront

Winter Garden

Activated Riverwalk experience with F&B options and steps to the river

Linear Park above the UP Air rights creating a unified pedestrian realm

Green Connection

KGIP- Wilburton, Bellevue

Solomon Cordwell Buenz 2022

Masterplanning of a 6-acre site east of Downtown Bellevue into a mixed-use residential development that responds to the Eastrail and proposed Grand Connection through an activated pedestrian realm

building massing program type

Site Strategies | Autometrics

Real

real-time yield calculation w/ linked pro forma

parking demand

floor height

resi mix + unit size

real-time display

WILBURTON DEVELOPMENT | BELLEVUE,WA |

The Tributary Development Proposal-River North, Denver

Solomon Cordwell Buenz 2022

Planning concepts for a 4 acre site south of the South Platte River intended to establish a connection between the River edge park and the upcoming developments in a rapidly transforming trendy neighborhood.

Externalized Mountain Descending towards the river

Internalized Mountain Eroded landscape to be discovered, ascending from the river

Downtown Office Conversion Study, Boston

Solomon Cordwell Buenz 2023

Response to an RFP issued by Boston Planning and Development Authority to revitalize the city center and reimagine a downtown where old and new residents, workers and visitors can live,play and work in new ways together4

Leverage Nodes and Create Affinities

Leverage nodes and create affinities

Activate Outward-Facing Edges

Activate outward facing edges

Activate Main Corridors

Activate main corrdiors

Create Neighborhood Identity

Create neighborhood identitites

Explorations with Ai and Grasshopper- Crypto Cities

Professional Development 2022

Exploring the relationship between mind and machine through abstract algorithms and testing the rationality through the rapidly developing AI medium

Incremental matrix showing how flow lines can be used as a prompt for generation of city layouts detailing blocks, pathways, building footprints and public spaces

Neither Utopian nor dystopian, AI allows for new ways to explore algorithms

1. Architecture of Associations: Persistence of Memory

Undergraduate Architecture Thesis: Expressions of space as a container for public memory

George Anderson

Correa

The fateful night of 2-3rd December 1984, also recollected by many as ‘that’ night was when an unsuspecting city, deep in slumber was turned into a gas chamber by the toxic fumes that leaked from the erstwhile Union Carbide factory. The Bhopal Gas Tragedy, as it came to be known, is widely acknowledged as the world’s worst industrial disaster, almost wiping out an entire city within a matter of a few horrific hours. The design proposal, symbolically and functionally, seeks to reconnect the vacant and abandoned site with the urban fabric of Bhopal and make a positive contribution to it. In the context of the Bhopal Gas tragedy, it seeks to communicate a meaningful and relevant narrative to its visitors by addressing the aspects of healing, remembrance and deterrence. The aim is to convert the site from an urban blight to an urban resource, from a site that inflicted trauma to one that evokes positive memories for the future

L.S.Raheja School of Architecture

Award Winner 2020 Carnegie Mellon University

Charles

Gold Medal Finalist 2017 UDRI, India

Gold Medal Winner 2017

The spaces in the museum use the objects of memory existing on site to evoke a particular feeling corresponding to the timeline of events

The subterrenean spaces help the visitors experience the layers of pollution hidden beneath the surface while maintaining the factory’s dominance over the surrounding silhoutte

The Gabion space

Deceit Inevitability

The Siren Suspicion

Memorium

Gabion

Looking Back

The Subterrenean Experiential Museum tells the story of that fateful night. It turns the timeline of the tragedy into an architectural narrative by taking people through the spaces that act as a guided path and eventually culminate in a view of the factory preserved as an artefact.

TheDeceitspace Displayingthefaulty equipmentleftonsite towardsEntryanddescent tragedy

Inevitabilityrampsleadtoan imminentdisaster

TheTheGabionSpace layersofpollution thatlurkunderground

PipesThenightsiren amplifythe nightsirensplayedthattowarnthecity

Thetragedystreets fromRecreatingthechaos thatnight

The frames of the victims are hung above giving a view of the factory through a shallow stream of water, signifying absolution from the structure that once maimed them.

History is the certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

The casting of the concrete involves bamboo formwork that is used to create grooves in the structure and used as hooks for the photo frames

The prefabricated memorial structure is cast in concrete and burnt. The burnt concrete texture signifies the charred lungs of the victims

-Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending, 2011

The memorial is located under the factory as a symbolic representation of the victims’ lost identity. It attempts to signify absolution for the victims from the same structure that maimed them.

The functions would be instruments that engender their own evolution guided by time and process and hence the design would materialize in phases. The memorial design, while being the conclusion of one process is envisioned as a catalyst and evolving point for the other functions over time.

Top: Section showing the factory preserved as an artifact and the prefabricated memorial space in burnt concrete undeneath

The built morphology of the museum structures speaks to bare bones and highlights the structural formwork as an expression of the grim mood of the site The buried pipes surrounding the factory signify the official death toll of 3000 whereas the greater proprotion underneath represents the countless deaths that were unaccounted for

Looking Beyond : The Tragedy of the Commons & Catharsis

Designing a system that imparts skill, with the vision of changing the citizens’ identities from victims to artists and activists, thereby catalysing their empowerment. The state has floated public design competitions and offered 250Cr INR as initial funding for proposals as a means of their absolution.

In light of the prevailing deteriorating conditions and the ongoing fight for justice, it is, now more than ever, pertinent to involve the citizens and stakeholders as active participants in the

Incremental Museum designed to display and accomodate the growing artefacts of the struggle for justice Auditorium

300 pax to hold plays and informational events

Skill center

Souvenir Shop sells local hand-made memorabilia to visitors

RevenueStream

Imparts essential life skills and technical skills to impoverished victims at no cost

Public Library

Displays and sells testimonies of victims and information about the tragedy to build public support

Offices for Non profits

Work on private and state funding to provide legal and medical services to the victims

Displayskillsettogetrecognition

BuildSkillsetKnowledgeDi

Medicare for women

Provides free medical assitance to women, several of whom have no access to toilets or post natal care in semi urban India

Art Display

Provides a platform for victims to display their skills and change their identity from victims to artists and activists

2. Ecological Revitalization of Chateau

Care, maintenance and design of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail precint Carnegie Mellon University Spring 2019

Team: Abhinavv Singh, Jinhan Liang

Contribution: Research, GIS Analysis, design, presentation drawings

Systems studio investigative project aimed at reconnecting the deserted and neglected industrial neighborhood of Chateau to the surrounding communties and fabric by emphasizing the role of the Three Rivers Heritage trail as an ecological connector. Primary aims included GIS Analysis, toolkit design and creating connections to trail neighborhoods by diversifying and expanding trail accessibility for users from 8 to 80 years old, In addition to the brief, underlying research revealed the need for expansion of basic facilities, creating trail awareness & encouraging sense of ownership by local residents

The city of Pittsburgh is profiled by the Allegheny, Monangahela and Ohio rivers. The rivershed has carved an interesting topography over the years which governs the builft fabric of the city. At the same time, it also makes the low-lying riverbeds potential flood proze regions. The loss of pervious surfaces over the years fueled by the growth, decline and eventual resurrection of the industrial city gives us an opportunity to fix this relationship through a holistic ecological lens.

Vaccuum formed model of the city topography with building footprints and flood plains overlaid

ArcGIS analysis is carried out to study the neighborhood through the lens of the triple bottomline parameters of Ecology, Economy and Society. Topographic, transportation and demographic information helps to understand the patterns in development and the underlying loopholes

Three different typologies of buildings were carefully studied from the context and designed to be reintroduced into Chateau- Housing, Institutional and Industrial Adaptive Reuse

Institutional structures are designed as focal points inspired by Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning

The housing has been designed as mix of market rate rental, home ownership and affordable housing components to foster a diverse community

Community amenities and local retail to be set up in Industrial Adaptive Reuse structures

Problem: The city displays a pattern of isolated developments devoid of ecological relationships to the riverfront. The route 65 highway has compounded the problem by cutting off the neighborhoods from the riverfront turning Chateau into a desolate, crumbling neighborhood.

Solution: Recognizing the potential of existing dense development as an opportunity for adaptive reuse and turning them into flexible programs like offices, retail, workshops tied together by an activated public realm.

Problem: Chateau is faced by the highly green neighborhoods of the East side on the opposide side of the river. These neighborhoods are underbuilt and propogate suburban sprawl

Solution: Best practise interventions would suggest a complete ecological revamp of the neighborhood which would be economically unfeasible, hence merging the ecology with the built programs and reclaiming the riverfront for ecological restoration would solve two problems at once

Fronting the erstwhile neglected river’s edge by reversing patterns of density and being ecologically tactful

Ohio River

3. Water Resilient Koliwada

Master of Urban Design Thesis: A commoning approach to adapting Mumbai’s Koli communties to sea-level rise

Integrating social, economic, spatial actors and proposing a design framework that combines data-driven, computationally generated, inventive ecological, and contextual infrastructural interventions. Tapping into the existing commoning practices inherent to the community can address their myriad water issues while aiding them in adapting to a new way of living through building new skills thereby making them more resilient

Urban Milieu assemblage

T1 Ecological levees and dikes

T2 Incremental housing with social distancing provision

T3 Integrated community amenities

T4 Simulated floating typology and aquaponic living system

After

T4: Floating typology

T3 The Bay Edge

T2 Inland Cluster

T1: The Sea Edge

Boat sections for buoyancy Bamboo formwork

Fish eye inception view showing a new buoyant - aquaponic living typology

Freshwater mussels Sewage collection Freshwater harvesting Hydroponic farming

4. LIFLOW: A Parametric approach for the revival of Bhaucha Dhakka, Mumbai

The design esquisse challenge as part of the generative modeling class called for urban analysis that would lead to a computationally designed solution within a two week period. The site chosen was the Bhaucha Dhakka Ferry wharf on the eastern seaboard of Mumbai, What served as the erstwhile portland for the city and the catalyst for its metamorphosis into a global metropolis, today lies in a state of neglect. The site displays tremendous potential as an untapped urban resource for the land starved city of Mumbai.

The design implements Autodesk Flow and CFD analysis to restructure the jetty based on sea currents as well as adopting a parametric approach inspired by local elements to generate a daylight responsive facade system with the intention of placing Bhaucha Dhakka on the cusp of a revival and catalyzing a new paradigm for design and urban regeneration in Mumbai.

North-South Urban sprawl of the Mumbai where 21 million people live on 468 sq kms of land- a lesson in extreme urbanism

The concrete tripods are synonymous with urban waterfronts in Mumbai. They line the sea walls to break the waves and counter the rising sea levels. Patterns in their design can be studied and optimized

The grasshopper script that generates the pattern for a parametric facade system that uses a sunpath as an attractor to automate the shading device and respond to glare the way the tripods break the water

Autodesk Flow analysis is conducted on the jetty structure to analyze the patterns in the waves due the artificial harbour and the analysis is used to inform the location of a new jetty structure.

Expanding the scope from the micro to the meso and macro scale, an iconic fluid form is designed a canvas for the parametric facade.

5. Computing Urbanism for an Eco Downtown,Pittsburgh

Finding order in disorder through a computational urbanism approach Carnegie Mellon University Spring 2020

This aim of this course was to develop our own procedural methods for reordering the urban fabric, analyzing the performance of design decisions. Using Downtown Pittsburgh as the site, the focus was on augmenting existing networks, reconfiguring urban morphology, and expanding the public realm. while learning the fundamentals of using urban data, multi-dimensional scripting, and specialized analysis tools.

Downtown

Pinning the vacant lots on an Eduard Imhof inspired topographic map generated in Esri ArcGIS

Network Analysis and Flow Simulation

Transport

Height field

Based on the network analysis and flow simulation, a custom algorithm is developed that returns specific nodes in Downtown with evident lack of public furniture, flood problems and scant vegetation thereby providing an opportunity to introduce a public amenity that addresses all the above issues delicately. Algae and moss filter out billions of tonnes of CO2 every year. Algae is considered more efficient than trees since it covers a lot less footprint. The component is designed to generate light by harnessing energy which is then used by algae in the process of photosynthesis thereby absorbing more CO2.

Toilet

Discussion

Built Morphology

Cluster Mapping

Heat Map

Waterfeature

Tree

+ = Canopy

Urban Tree Canopy

Artwork

Seating Workspace

The module

The canopy

algae filled testubes

6. Miamorphosis

ULI Hines Competition Entry 2020

Team leader, designer, illustrator

Team: Abhinavv Singh, Suprima Joshi, Michael Rath, Jayesh Khushalani, Vishal V

MIAMORPHOSIS is an inflection point for Midtown Miami. While real estate development in the region typically looks to the oceanfront, MIAMORPHOSIS recognizes the opportunity and promise of the Wynwood and Edgewater neighborhoods as engines of cultural and economic growth in Miami by emphasizing responsive density and leveraging the advantages of a new train station.

Mobilize will capture the intrinsic potential of a new mass transit stop by harnessing the newly generated commercial activity and residential demand and the tax incentives that accompany it

Station View: Tuttle Plaza Station helps to ignite the area’s change by allowing the exchange of people through the transit services and the strong green connection across the city.

Metamorphing Miami: Pushing on the levers of residential, commercial, and community growth in an intentional manner creates sustainable and harmonic progres

Merge focuses on channeling the change begun in Mobilize into mixed-use developments that benefit both new residents as well as existing ones to ensure that all benefit from the transformation

Magnify allows for the full realization of the transformation. With additional density being constructed, the impact of the development will be amplified even further as more people live and work, continuing to propel Midtown forward

Phase 1- The most obvious and significant markers of this phase are the Sunrise Building and Spark Tower to mobilize residential and commercial activity, along with Tuttle Plaza Station that catalyzes the whole development.

Phase 1- The most obvious and significant markers of this phase are the Sunrise Building and Spark Tower to mobilize residential and commercial activity, along with Tuttle Plaza Station that catalyzes the whole development. Additionally, preserving the collection of the Nader Latin American Art Museum in the new cultural building and the adaptive reuse of the future Cocoon Makerspace shows current residents that they can have faith in the development

Phase 2 – Many facets go in which increase the livability of the site including restaurants, fitness centers, and additional parking. Most importantly though, is Paseo Mayor which is the woonerf that merges the site together. Additionally, there are buildings that push for the fusion of existing and new residents, including the Wade Language Institute and Trade School that ensure that all can communicate and pursue their economic goals.

Unlevereged IRR: 11.85% Site Value Increase: $997 million

Miamorphosis’s success lies with its focus on responsive design, both architecturally and financially.

Ensuring that the plans identify gaps in what the community needs and what is currently available and filling those in a sensitive and equitable manner will result in a development that is vibrant and buzzing with life while being economically profitable.”

Levereged IRR: 38.74%

Miami: For more than just the beach

Phase 2 – Many facets go in which increase the livability of the site including restaurants, fitness centers, and additional parking. Most importantly though, is Paseo Mayor which is the woonerf that merges the site together.

Phase 3- more focused on the developments happening in Midtown, greater density allows for the capturing of the value that Miamorphosis has created

Phase 3 – Phase III magnifies impact by increasing its scope. With the attention of Miami and more focused on the developments happening in Midtown, greater density allows for the capturing of the value that Miamorphosis has created in the area.

WINTER SPRING SUMMER FALL

Programming the functions on site in response to the surrounding land-use.

7. Bloomfield PLUG-IN

Carnegie Mellon University Fall 2018

Lead designer and researcher

Team: Abhinavv Singh, Wenzheng Wu

The first year of the Master of Urban Design Studio required the students to work with the Bloomfield Development Coorporation to resolve a challenging 5-way intersection that would also act as an entrance to the Bloomfield neighborhood in Pittsburgh. The site model above shows the tricky topography and built morphology that needed to be considered as actors in the development

Studying the patterns of Bloomfield that defined its signature characteristics as a neighborhood- Its roof dormers, flat connections, the empty lots, the porches and stoops, street patterns and rich network of alleys each has defined and shaped the neighborhoods culture

Strategies to reduce the expanse of the intersection: eliminate sliplanes and reconnect alleys to connect greens & facilitate pedestrians

Fill the urban form with responsive density that caters to mixed use development and creates a feeling of entry

Retain existing important community elements on site and design the building typology as a mix of old and new with frontage

Abhinavv J Singh

Harvard Innovation Labs - Start It Track ‘21

Carnegie Mellon University - Master of Urban Design ‘20

Mumbai University - Bachelor of Architecture’17

Architect (1580 AXP Hours) | Urban Designer (Assoc AICP)

LEED Green Associate | COA- India

E: abhinavv@alumni.cmu.edu