AMI NIGAM PORTFOLIO 2015/16
AMI NIGAM +86 183 103 16220 anigam@hotmail.co.uk DOB : 18th June, 1992
Work Experience: • DeFacto Design Factory Beijing Co-founder Beijing, China Ongoing Involvement
• LCC Architects Architectural Designer Beijing, China June 2014 - June 2015
• WVA Architects Architectural Designer Beijing, China Current Job
• XD Architects Architectural Intern Beijing, China March 2014 - June 2014
Education: • BA (Hons.) Architecture (2013) Arts University Bournemouth, UK Royal Institute of British Architects Part I Architects Registration Board Part I • International Officer (Students Union) • Student Mentor • Student Ambassador • Campus Internationalization Committee
CAD Abilities: Rhinoceros 3D Grasshopper Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop Adobe Indesign Sketchup
• Higher Secondary Certificate (2010) Mumbai, India A Levels Physics, Chemistry, French, Math, English • Indian Certificate for Secondary Education (2008) Mumbai, India
Autodesk Maya Autodesk Autocad Autodesk Revit Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe After Effects Processing
• DPA (London) Ltd. Architectural Intern London, UK July 2013 - December 2014
Tasks: • Leading Design Projects • Working with partners • Generating design concepts • Writing design briefs • Meeting with clients • Creating working schemes • Digital Modelling • Creating physical models • Drawing surveys • Producing presentation drawings • Consulting planners, contractors & engineers • Working in small to medium sized teams • Creating feasible proposals for various clients
Interests: • Graphic Design • 3D Printing • Film Making • Product Design • Web Design • Illustration
“Beauty is the oracle that speaks to us all”
- Luis Barragan
HIVE
DeFacto fashion design, product design, fabrication,generative design 3D Printing, self built, beijing design week HIVE was a design project by DeFacto for the Beijing Design Week 2015. This project was an exploration into community built structures, fashion design, temporary structures, contemporary fabrication technology, 3D Printing & modular fashion.
Hive Construction Video https://youtu.be/jY2WFCyaJD4
Why?
What?
How?
This project started as a result of the aftermath of Nepal Earthquakes in mid 2015.
HIVE is a temporary structure that is made up of 96 unique connectors and 142 unique MDF sticks that can be built within an hour. All of the sticks and connectors have unique numbers and letters and can fit inside a backpack.
The unique parameters and the location inside a mall led us to create an easily buildable, low cost structure that can be assembled and disassembled by anyone without any prior building experience.
We started looking at temporary structures that weren’t heavy on resources, would cost very little and could be built fairly quickly by anyone. During our experimentation, we were approached by Beijing Design Week to realize a project at Park View Green, a high end fashion retail mall in Beijing.
HIVE also houses the Queen Bee which is based on traditional Chinese motifs of a Qipao and a traditional western wedding gown. It looks at the idea of modularity in the fashion industry.
Uses: • Temporary relief structure • Pavilion for Festivals • Educational tool • Community building exercise • Spatial Element
Community Built Structures
Low Cost
Quick Build
Alienation and Isolation are often cited as problems in contemporary urban life. Community-built spaces and projects counteract this fragmentation and build communities by creating relationships between people. Community Projects also build great environments for sharing and exchanging of knowledge between participants.
One of the first parameters we defined in this project was to make it low cost as we wanted to see how much we could do with as little as possible. This is reflected in the final form and materiality of the pavilion which combines standard MDF sticks and 3D Printed connectors to create an enclosure about 4m in diameter.
For temporary structures to be successful, they need to be easy to construct, this structure takes about an hour to be built from the first line that defines the datum to the final connector.
Ease of Building
Fashion Design
Generative Design
Another important aspect of this project was to make it easy to build so that anyone could look at the instructions and build it quite easily, or it could be done with students as a learning exercise so it had to be as easy as an IKEA instructions manual. This was what Tsinghua University thought of this project and now HIVE has found a new home as a permanent pavilion at Tsinghua University’s new iCentre where their students are constantly adding intelligence to the structure.
During the Beijing Design Week 2015, HIVE was housed at Park View Green, a state of the art, high end fashion retail mall and we took this as an opportunity to look at how 3D Printing could affect the fashion market. We looked at the idea of modularity within fashion. We designed a top shell that is interchangable from a traditional Chinese Qipao to a Western Wedding Gown. We also used 3D scanning technology to ask questions about the future of 3D Printing in fashion.
This is a very innovative and cutting edge project that required us to work with cutting edge technology. We explored FDM and SLA 3D Printing with plastic and nylon powder, at the same time we were constantly working with Rhino and Grasshopper, testing, printing and problem solving constantly with the conceptual, schematic and construction design of the pavilion and dress.
GENERATIVE DESIGN
The algorithm asks for the following inputs: • Surface • UV Divisions • Radius of pipes for the connector • Thickness of the connectors
Brep Division into it’s constituent parts + Hexagonal Panels covering the surface
Using Kangaroo’s Physics Engine & Lines from Springs component to map planar hexagons on a curved surface and making sure that there’s structural tension for MDF sticks and connectors
Exploding Curves and finding the vectors from one connection point to the next
Creating 5cm lines along these vectors to create the basic framework for the connectors
Piping the newly created lines, putting a sphere at the connection points and combining them to make individual solid 3D Printable objects
CONSTRUCTION
HIVE is made up of 142 MDF sticks and 96 3D Printed connectors. The whole pavilion 1 packs in a backpack and is easy to construct. All we need is a connection document that tells us which connector connects to which stick like an IKEA manual. This makes HIVE it a community building exercise where anyone can come 2 and help build the pavilion. Moreover, the ease of assembly makes it so that the entire pavilion can be constructed in less than an hour.
• Grab a few people • Sort and lay out the sticks and connectors on the floor from the backpack • Create a datum • Mark the lengths and draw lines as per the instructions • Place the bottom connectors and sticks • Keep adding sticks and connectors as mentioned in the connection document • This process quickly builds a spatial element that can house people during emergencies or be used at festivals and other outdoor activities.
1 2
MDF - Connector Connection
1 2 3 1 - 3D Printed Connector 2 - 15mm Diameter MDF Stick 3 - 5mm Plastic Screw
3D Printed Connector Section
TESTING & CONSTRUCTION
HIVE Workshop with Tsinghua University’s High School Students, October, 2015 DeFacto were invited by Tsinghua University for their Maker Day event in 2015. The HIVE was built by high school students as a team building and problem solving excercise. This pavilion has since found a permanent home at Tsinghua University’s iCenter where they use the pavilion as a framework for their projects.
QUEEN BEE
BEIJING DESIGN WEEK 2015 CORE PROJECT
International Motifs
Modular Fashion
When we started working on the dress, we wanted to draw on our international backgrounds and rich Chinese culture that we were surrounded with. We decided to make 2 interchangeable dresses that would work with the 3D Printed Shell - a traditional Chinese Qipao and a western wedding gown.
This project also looks at fashion from an architectural perspective. We looked at the idea of modularity where the top shell structure can be paired with a variety of different dresses.
+
=
Modular Fashion The top shell structure is 3D Printed using Nylon Powder using SLA Machines. This allows for the rest of the dress to be interchangeable. We were also very interested in exploring the cultural infusion with technology. The Queen Bee is made of a top 3D Printed shell, a traditional Chinese QiPao and a traditional Western Wedding Gown.
3
2
1
Before Spatial Issues: 1 - Big south window facing the elevator with too much sun light an awkward view into the cafe 2 - Big curtain wall looking into the mall with a lot of movement and noise 3 - Exposed equipment Overall spatial feeling : noisy, too bright, exposed
Huamei Cafe
LCC Architects Role : Assistant Designer interior design, small scale, fabrication
3
1 2
After Spatial Solution : 1 - Big south facing window covered with mullions filtering direct sunlight into the space 2 - Big curtain wall broken up to create an intimate environment 3 - Exposed equipment hidden above the panels Overall spatial feeling : comfortable lighting and acoustic conditions, nested & protected
1. Blank Site
2. Envelope blocking the sunlight & Noise
3. Breaking up the envelope to filter the light & noise
4. Sculpting the envelope to create a nested environment
33G
33F
33E 33D 33C
33H
5. Envelope creating seating and furniture elements
6. Sub-dividing the envelope for CNC
33B
33A
The continuous and smooth curves of Huamei Cafe create a relaxing and tranquil amid a busy and crowded setting. The site is located on the ground level of Huamei supermarket, in Xinzhou, Shanxi province. The 50m2 site sits between a four-lane road on the West and checkout area of the market on the East, near the main entrance, surrounded by lighting,
acoustic and visual distractions. The panels wrap around interior facade, ceiling and part of seating area, form a cave-like space and evoke a calm and introverted atmosphere. The panels are designed to be cut with CNC mill. All the openings for joists, HVAC units, pipes and Lighting fixtures are considered and included in the cut file in
advance. The panels are cut and polished in the factory in Beijing suburb, and transported to the site for assembly. Compared to traditional interior design and construction process, digital technologies empower the architects so that they have better control over the process, allow faster construction and more accurate budget.
Xiamen School
LCC Architects Role : Architectural Designer large scale, urbanism, landscape design,
The brief asked for a school to be extended in the city of Xiamen in the Fujian Province of China. The existing site conditions and surrounding buildings dictated the exterior of the building to reflect a very conventional, red brick and glazed building that lacked the energy that was embodied by the pupils of this school. Our main challenge was to integrate this energy into the building. The driving force of this project was to create a playful, fun landscape to that invited the pupils to use the space in a variet of different ways, the could sit out on the grass during breaks or practice drama
in the sunken plazas, they could rest in shaded areas or play on the sunny playgrounds. This was accomplished by contouring the site conditions to have different heights and boundary conditions to integrate large stairs, bridges, slopes, etc.
Design Strategies
Creating a continuous weatherproof membrane that connects all the parts of the school
Creating dynamic, vibrant & playful open spaces that reflects the energy of students
Convenient 3 Dimensional Layout that enables spatial relationships
Creating a dynamic flow that allows multiple layers of access to and from spaces within the school
Friendly and harmonious urban interface that allows relationships with the existing urban fabric
Modern, simple and functional architectural image that allows for indoor and outdoor open spaces
Positioning of the Existing Primary School and Middle School within the site
Proposed Extension
Adding the proposed extension to the school
Existing Buildings
Analyzing the major pedestrian flows, need for a major connection, position of the sports facilities and activation points for landscape interventions Pedestrian Flow
Sports Facilities
Activation Points
Major Connection
6 2 5
3
7 1
4 8
01 - Entry Plaza 02 - Existing Middle School Building 03 - Connection Bridge with classrooms and a Green Roof
04 - Proposed Extension to the Middle School 05 - Central Amphitheatre Courtyard 06 - Entry Plaza II 07 - Green Roof Sports Facilities
9
10
08 - Parking, Gyms and Cafeteria underneath 09 - Students Courtyard 10 - Existing Primary School Building
Activation Points
The main courtyards are dynamic spaces that house various activities during different times of the day or year. They are designed to have good lighting qualities, easy access, good acoustics and playful elements that allows pupils to truly occupy the space and allow people from outside the courtyards to have a direct relationship with them. Their boundaries are also treated so that there is an easy transition to rest of the school. In addition to the landscape, the internal areas were designed to be passively lit from maximum sunlight during most days so that there was less dependence on electric lighting. This design decision was mimicked in the landscape to create light wells that would allow kids to play with them.
5
9
Large Green Spaces
Pedestrian Flow
Large Connection
5 9
O T H PROJ
H E R JECTS