ABDELRAHMAN ALBAKRI
DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover
Project One:
FILTRA RESEARCH CENTER
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Project Two:
PIROUETTE TRANSFORMER
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Project Three: NATIONAL WWI MUSEUM
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Project Four:
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FORGETTING ARCHITECTURE
EDUCATION 2015 –2019 Ames, IA Bachelor of Architecture(BArch). Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Design (BA). 2017 –2018 Berkeley, CA Completed [IN]ARCH ADV Program at University of California, Berkeley College of Environmental Design.
ABDELRAHMAN ALBAKRI 12 7. 5 W e l c h A v e , U n i t 4 01 A m e s , I o w a / M : 218 - 5 7 6 - 9 3 9 9 / A b i d . b a k r i @ g m a i l . c o m
2014 – 2015 Dubai, UAE Studied courses in Interior Design at the American University of the Emirates. 2011 – 2014 Madaba, Jordan Studied courses in CivilEngineeringattheAmerican Universityof Madaba. 2010 – 2011 Amman, Jordan Graduated from Modern American School in Jordan. (US accredited).
PROFILE I hold a current GPA of 3.53 I believe that hard work, dedication, and commitment are the fundamental keys which motivate me to thrive. I am energetic and vigorous in p roducing a nd achieving the best quality of professional work. I am a s ociable person with excellent communication and leadership skills which enable me to collaborate efficiently with a diverse group of people. My disciplinary vision relies in that architecture is for the people, and envelopes are designed to meet the needs of the families or inhabitants living in them.
LANGUAGES Arabic
2019-2020 Iowa, United States Undergraduate Research Assistant. Investigate demographics and data typological analysis from different countries. 2017-2018 Iowa, United States Assembly specialist at Danfoss Engineering. 2017-2018 Iowa, United States HSB Co-Chair Position, and the Honors Peer Adviser at Iowa State University College of Design.
English
INTERESTS Art:
Digital Media, contemporary art, rendering, interior
spaces, collage, and painting.
Design:
Parametrics, transportation, construction documents,
sustainability, and digital fabrication.
Others:
EXPERIENCE
Flying drones, motorcycle riding, poetry and traveling.
2016-2017 Iowa, United States Union Drive dining center. 2013 – 2015 Amman, Jordan Design Intern at the Consulting Engineering House of Arabia Company. Assisted in proposal analysis and documents preparation. I performed clerical duties to design documentations, files organization, and attended several company networking events. 2011-2013 Amman, Jordan Marketing promoter at Attention Field Marketing Solutions. Marketing supervisor at Ramz Group (event planning and advertising).
SOFTWARE Software - Experience with over 20 design programs and advanced skills in Rhinoceros (5 years). Figuring out suitable software for the program and the project, an extensive understanding, and knowledge of the software for data modelling and database processes that integrate with the architecture system. Fabrication - Experience with laser cutter, 3d printing, CNC Milling, and model making. Having an accuracy to creating initiative models for three-dimensional forms. Color theory, sense, illustration, and assertiveness to the process. Design - Advanced knowledge and ability with structural thinking, design strategy, aesthetics detailing, and visual representing the overall appeal.
AWARDS - University Honors Date: May 2019
Issuer: Iowa State University
- UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design [IN]ARCH ADV Date: Aug 2018 Issuer: UC Berkeley - International Dean’s List Society Date: Feb 2016 Issuer: IDLS - Global Student Award And Straight A’s Student Award Date: May 2011 Issuer: Modern American School
COVER LETTER
I am writing to express my interest as an intern architect at your highly prestigious firm. My experience is one that promises to bring great values to any team or project, as I have taken courses in civil engineering and interior design to add versatile dimensions to my architectural designs based on science and interior spaces. In the past years, I have learned the importance of representation through sketching and design development, as well as improved my skill of presentation, enabling me to exhibit and support concepts with different digital media. My early appreciation for art and architecture stemmed from my preliminary interest in the architectural philosophy of bringing into being what was once a carefully planned conceptual idea. Their building process, combining science and art, fascinated me to no end, subsequently igniting my understanding of function, form, and the structural qualities within the buildings around me. My university experience in the Arabian world had particularly impacted my approach to architecture, as it introduced and allowed me to engage with the aesthetic and functional aspects of design, both creatively and functionally. The historic city of Amman had been inhabited by all different cultures throughout the archeological layers of time, each leaving its lasting mark; from the Roman amphitheater, Byzantine churches, and Islamic Palaces of the Umayyad, Jordan is a historical melting pot of architectural precedents from which I drew on for my inspiration and ambitions as a designer. I have completed three years in civil engineering, one year in interior design, and earned a degree in interdisciplinary design in addition to the architectural pre-professional baccalaureate program at Iowa State University. All of which still evolving and seeking new ways to integrate the various disciplines. I became more aware of the architecture ability to bring out the dichotomy of tangible elements of space and the phenomenal conversation that elucidate and open the boundaries for a utopian society as an urban earthwork. the power of change to support a community using a technique that was used for long periods of time. It influences the attitude of community through the usage of loaded messages to create a communal empowerment and a way to prove that Neubian techniques were the spark in addressing a sustainable approach. In both eras of modern and history to clearly demonstrate that some level of mutual influence between the Islamic and vernacular approach. Further, that could influence the general public and some designers distinctions for these traditions for clarity and perhaps applicable.. Outside of academia, my work with CEHACO (Consulting Engineering House of Arabia Company) overseas has opened my eyes to different horizons and given me knowledge that I would like to incorporate into my goal of building a better future through designing a better built environment. I am confident that this program will be an opportunity to expand my knowledge and insights of design. I appreciate your consideration and look forward to going into further detail about my work, knowledge, and experiences. Thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you for your consideration, Abdelrahman Ala Albakri
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FILTRA RESEARCH CENTER Ames, Iowa
Description
Consideration of landscape as a constructed, cultural artifact. Project address the perceptual aspects and strategies of situation and location; examination of environmental phenomena and patterns of use and settlement as revealed and affected by the architectural artifact. Development of a critical design process is stressed. Section Thesis: For an anticipatory(speculative) architectural proposal; the project explore the blur of boundaries b/w architecture and landscape while focusing on biological (botanical) thinking.
As nature is increasingly produced (mediated) by “technology� what can we speculate and project as architectural responses. What new autonomous part nature part architecture objects arise out of these systems of ecology. To what degree should synthetic/ organic boundaries be maintained. Form finding and morphological development will be stressed.
Location
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ISU Horticulture Research Station
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Pine Wing Section
Form Mutation
Facade Iteration
Botanical Form ALBAKRI PORTFOLIO-4
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1. Main Lobby
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2. Laboratory Space
1.
2.
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PIROUETTE TRANSFORMER Manhattan, New York
Description
The Manhattan, NYC has the lowest vacant lot ratio in the United States. From these reasons, housing market prices continue to skyrocket and homeownership rates in Manhattan plummet to an all-time low. Studio will study these social issues in Manhattan and suggest new architectural solution.The proposed microscale infill dwelling between existing buildings in Manhattan.
In metropolis, you are easy to find abandoned alleyways between buildings and empty lot. It is potential to create unique architectural space within narrow areas and can be derived small infill house. Infill house occupies minimal footprint and facade surface, but it maximizes the usage of space. Project contributes to a denser, more sustainable city of the future.
Examining housing in the urban situation; diverse scales of use and occupation within the city as shaped by cultural tendencies. temporary occupancy that is rotated using gears system attached on the neighboring wall. An accommodation to a variety of programs such as residential, and commercial.
Location
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50 Vandam St. Lower Manhattan ,NYC
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NATIONAL WWI MUSEUM Venice, Italy
Description
Since the begginning, most architecture has been about visible expression of power. It’s all about being seen, as we become aware of our environment some architecture is not about fully seen, it is about fragmentation of perception. Seamlessly blending in with its environment, the scare of the war of construction integrates into the space within the site resolving the geometry of an impression left by scaring that is spatially expressed as you approach the museum. A solutionary throughout a healing process that fills and complete the wound left by World War I.
Explore the role of propaganda by initially researching its history/theory through the lens of one of the most effective modes of mass media: film. While there exist more pervasive venues than film for viral propaganda today (social media, for example), none equal the kinesthetic and aural experience provided by movies. We will leverage analytic and generative tools such as montage, collage, and other analog and VR-based forms of fragmentary assembly that makes the joints between different modes of analysis and representation obvious (obviam = in the way), i.e. visible, foregrounded.
Collaboration
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Sungwoo Park.
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L01 Floor Plan
North West Diagonal Precinct Axis
Site
Pedestrian Connections
Adjacent Cultural Facilities ALBAKRI PORTFOLIO-19
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FORGETTING ARCHITECTURE Murano, Italy
Description
I had to combine cultures. However, nations are preserved through tireless work that immortalizes elements and components of eastern life that are not compatible with “modern” life. While searching for an answer between the ancient Murano corridors, I found amongst its walls a thread that might lead to an agency
As I walked through the shops, exhibits were scattered; bar tops, doors, glass surfaces, utensils and colored pieces were strewn. Ornamentation (details) - I can almost hear its pulse and trimmings on the glass surfaces calling, “Here Murano, here my ancestral blossom and my glories”. There is the old Maestro known as Alberto, and he was waving a long blowing stick. With that tool, Alberto breathes a soul and a memory that he forms with fingers like music that draw the eyes and souls of the attendants above the tunes of his movement and his feelings. Workers’ movements, between forming glass and melting it inside the furnaces, are similar to the orchestra. The Orchestra works in harmony and draws emotion into the eyes of the spectator and their imagination tightens the secrets of craftsmanship in the utmost accuracy and quality.
Collaboration
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Chidiebere Uguru, Jiayan Cao, and Shimin Liu.
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My curiosity and enthusiasm drove me to talk and get close to Alberto. My friend asked him: What is the value of this art for the generations abandoning the traditions of glass blowing and obliterating its pioneering features? Why should they care?. {stress the I}I love the shards. I admire his beautiful art, acknowledging the essences of what they contain. The Maestro brings one of the pieces from the corner of the place where the dust rises and falls. He wipes it with a tip of his shirt like the Aladdin’s lamp, and it emerges in its purity of colors, like emeralds, charity and perfection. I have never seen anything like it. Movements, embodied in the details of each piece, tell the story of a human being. Then he referred to several glass figures such as the cypress tree and a red rose(coloured red), the details of which are like a mirage.
I asked him, the Maestro, if there other establishments that sponsor this authentic art because I have only found one so far. Alberto told me: There are some who are around but not the same as before. I said to him: This is irrational and absurd! Do craftsmen really remain, to this day, strange? He says to me: I am not a liar, I am saying nothing but the truth. I told him: Do not take me please, I am convinced that this craft has gone extinct a long time ago and that these utensils are leftovers from the archives of the past. It is the anxiety that you possessed about the dear relative that we thought had died, and if his heart beats weakly, it may be the will of the Almighty to return to life.
Curiosity used to pay my friend, and if she held a piece and asked the maestro: How long does it take to learn this beautiful craft? . He replied, “We did not learn this craft in universities or schools, but we passed it on; from the grandparents’ hands to the grandchildren.” If you want to revive this industry, you must satisfy this demand for us. His words triggered inside me a desire to try to return this ancient art by directing and chanting the melody of this place to embody their desires and direct feelings. It reminded me of the saying of the French writer Antoine de Santiksubri in his book The Citadel: “My father’s house in which every step has meaning.”
At the moment, I can do nothing and it is time for me to leave this island. We ride off on the return boat, and my friend says, “It looks like you’re tired after the day.” Should I ask you to order and promise to fulfill it? I told her: What you want is what you are able to make. She told me: Promise me to take a nap that you need the most. I told her: You have what you want. With the boat and the wave wading, I closed my eyes and followed for a while ideas to search for meanings to establish with them my thoughts that became for tourists only and ended up drawing dreams like a beacon in the darkness of the sea. I am not stable unless I find a suspension bridge that connects me to my habitation. Forgotten feelings, like a tear on the cheek, dried up to have a memory accompanying the walls of the place whenever a boat passes with it and no longer interests me. The dream ends here and here is the time for the two men to wake up to the voice of the captain of the Gondola, who hesitates between the corridors and the walls of the past.
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The Rorschach tests of feelings was made to encourage self-awareness in viewers; what are they feeling and why.
As many know, each shape is interpreted based on the cognitive associations of each viewer. In this way, the fragments of
M
memories amalgamate to form the solidarity of emotions. Additionally, viewers sometimes share what they see in the shapes
M
with others allowing for an understanding and summation of different perspectives. With a step back, we went through the
me
method of idealizing these feelings as disposable; what would it look like if these emotions were trapped and then discarded.
ture
We brainstormed the idea of a bubble which traps the emotions of people before dissipating in the atmosphere. The creation
thes
of that bubble resembled the foundations of glass blowing; taking a material from the earth (water, silica) and pushing it into
mem
an object for observation and/or admiration. From this we concluded: Glass blowing is a form of archiving human essences
one’s
and should be treated as such. ALBAKRI PORTFOLIO-27 PORTFOLIO-17
According to a dissertation by R.H. Malawaraarachchi, “experiencing happens at a [physical, emotional and an intellectual level]”.
Memories capture experience, archive feelings and further influence how people experience. The thesis of this project is about the rebirth of
Murano, Venice through the restructuring of its historical glass-blowing culture/experience. Traditions and culture create and are created by
emories and experiences. {Points to drawings of memories} The(se) drawings of “memories” serve to illustrate how the individual brain cap-
es scenarios and objects then disintegrates them. Many times people are unaware of how their minds fragment their experiences and how
se fragments further pierce through new experiences. The ‘particulation’ of the images (sourced from Italian/Venetian art) expresses how a
mory retains certain information from the actual facts based on individual filtration. There is a beauty in this and it is valuable to be aware of
s filters.
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