00 PORTFOLIO FALL ARMAN
2017 NASR
01 . LATENT TYPOLOGY : CHURCH/LIBRARY
1
02 . BLACK BOX NEW MEDIA ART CENTER
20
03 . RAYSTOWN LAKE RESORT
34
04 . STEWARDSON COMPETITION
42
05 . AZADAN VILLAGE CLUB
46
06 . LAR MEDICAL UNIVERSITY ADMIN BUILDING
54
07 .VIDEOGAME - TURN
62
Spring 2016 - Master - Thesis Project
Spring 2015 - Master - Studio Design 2 Fall 2014 - Master - Studio Design 1 Spring 2015
Spring 2011 - Bachelor - Studio Design 3 Fall 2013 - Bachelor - Thesis Design
Spring 2017 - Master - Elective Course
ARMAN NASR ESFAHANI Address 445 Waupelani Dr, State College, PA 16801 Phone 814 883 0770 Email azn133@psu.edu Born in Esfahan, Iran. Currently based at State College, US
EDUCATION 2014-2017 2008-2013
Professional master of architecture 2014 - 2017 (NAAB Accredited) Pennsylvania State School of Architecture, State College, Us. Bachelor of Architecture 2008 - 2013 Art University of Isfahan (AUI), Esfahan, Iran.
EXPERIENCE 2014-2017 2011-2014 2011
Teacher Assistant in Penn State University Visual Communication 1 Course. Intern Architect in Piramun firm Esfahan, Iran, www.piramunoffice.com Summer Internship at Green Architecture Firm Esfahan, Iran
COMPETITIONS 2011 2011 2012 2012 2010
AUI Biomimicry design challenge - First prize Qeshm information booth design Velux Competition Light of life - An Urban Plaza in Jolfa (Team Project) Annual Memar Magazine Competition - Honorable Mention A look in to city of Shooshtar Workshop
SOFTWARE Rhinoceros Modeling Maxwell rendering engine Adobe photoshop Adobe illustrator Adobe indesign Autodesk Autocad 2d Grasshopper
Unity Python scripting Autodesk Revit 3ds Max Vray Render Microsoft Office
REFEREE Studio Supervisor at Penn State: Ute Poerschke: Associate Professor Tell:814.865.4238 Email: uxp10@psu.edu Supervisor at the Piramoun Architectue Firm: Behrouz Shahbazi : Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Art University of Isfahan, Esfahan, Iran, Tell :989133030736 Email : b.shahbazi@aui.ac.ir
ARMAN NASR ESFAHANI BORN IN 1990 MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE STUDENT
The question I always asked myself since the day I entered architecture school was: what does architecture serve to the community? Throughout the years I found so many possible answers to this question. During the 5 years of my bachelor program I always thought that the job of an architect is to provide spatially rich design for the community regardless of how realistic and executable that space is. I always designed my projects with this thinking structure that the created spaces should be visually appealing. After entering Pennsylvania State University as a Master Student that whole thinking structure that I had built in 5 years got transformed to a new one, that not always a rich space is the best answer to a problem. I was always forgetting one main aspect of architecture as a job: An Architect should build. This means literally everything that an architect designs should be realistic. This small detail in my thinking process caused my projects to become more realistic than the projects I had in my bachelor program. This is the line that separates an architect from an artist. An artist could create anything on a piece of paper, but an architect should build. This is the most important lesson I have learned throughout the 8 years of my education.
01
LATENT TYPOLOGY : CHURCH/LIBRARY SPRING 2016 SUPERVISOR: JUAN RUESCAS SITE: MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY
Currently there are nearly 300 active churches in Manhattan in which the majority functions only one day a week. The total square footage of churches existing in Manhattan is 2,600,000 ft² holding a land value close to 1.3 Billion$. Considering the amount of time these public spaces are unused creates a multitude of opportunities and possibilities of ways these spaces could be utilized when accompanied by another program. After analyzing and comparing a variety of possible programs suitable for partnering with a church the program most appropriate was library. Factors taken into consideration when comparing compatible programs were qualities such as, noise level, atmosphere, lighting, demographic, and several others. Presently there is an existing network of NYC public libraries unevenly distributed throughout neighborhoods in Manhattan. When examining the distribution and placement of libraries across neighborhoods, there were often many areas lacking a public library. After pinpointing a church within each of these lacking areas a study space was implemented into the church. Resulting in the birth of a new typology of “church” and “library”
351 CHURCHES
The Diagram above shows all the churches in Manhattan. There is wide variety of height, foot print size, and age in these churches.
51 CHURCHES SELECTING THE TRANSFORMABLE CHURCHES
After collecting data on all the churches in Manhattan, the goal was to select the churches that were able to be transformed into a church/library. The parameters that were defining if a church was able to be transformed were, Height, Area, and Age of the churches. The churches that were too small or too old or too new were crossed out to be able to gather the amount of churches that could become a church/library. After this process there were 51 churches that were suitable for this purpose. Then based on a set of info the locations that needed a library were pinpointed. These info were lack of education, number of students and the existence of a library in that region. After selecting all those regions the closest compatible churches to those regions were selected to become a church/library. There were a total amount of 22 churches that could improve the education level of a region and were able to become a church/ library.
51 CHURCHES
22 CHURCHES
51 REGIONS
Libraries Locations
Lack of Education
Number of Highschools
Lack of After School Programs
Number of Preschools
All The Data Combined
Selected Regions
22 REGIONS
THE PROTOTYPE
[Chosen Region]
1 REGION
PROTOTYPE LOCATION
One church was selected as a prototype to be transformed to a church/library. The church was 50 year old building and the size and height of it was suitable for housing an additional program inside of it.
1 CHURCH
First Alternative: Only changing the furniture
EXISTING BUILDING
The first step was to gather information about the existing building. The existing church was modelled and analysed to understand the best way to implement a library into the church.
THE MAIN ELEMENTS
There were several elements that were crucial to preserve in the process of transforming the existing church to a church/library. These elements were important to preserve the identity of the existing building while transforming to a new hybrid program. The existing old detailed windows, the painting, and the chandelier were the some of the important elements to help keep the identity of the existing building.
Painting
Pa
Exisiting Window Ex
Stone Walls
St
Existing DrainageEx
Intervention
Int
PLAN IMPLEMENTATION
As it is shown in the plan the main seating area of the church was located to divide the whole space into two.
EXTERIOR IMPLEMENTATION
The new elements that were added to the existing building were colored as white to show that the building has changed and is not the same. At the same time the newly designed elements were designed based on the existing building’s elements, like windows to help preserve the identity of the existing building.
EAST ELEVATION
The bell tower was transformed to a sight seeing space and was opened to public, as oppose to the existing bell tower of the church that is only accessible by the church community. Also the coding violations in the existing church was removed and a wheelchair friendly ramp was added to the building.
CHANDELIER
As stated before the existing chandelier in the church was a reminder that this building is still the same church, but has improved by housing a library in it at the same time.
PAINTINGS ON THE WALL
The existing paintings on the church’s wall was preserved to help keeping the identity of the existing church.
UNDERGROUND
In the underground of the church there were rooms for the priests to stay overnight in the building, since these rooms were not occupied anymore, they were transformed into intimate praying/study rooms.
ENTRANCE
The entrance of the church was transformed into a long hallway so it could be used as a temporary gallery, or to hang up announcing that the libraries have in their entrances.
02
BLACK BOX NEW MEDIA ART CENTER SPRING 2015 SUPERVISOR: UTE POERSCHKE SITE: PITTSBURGH
The Site of the project was an Urban-Industrial district, and the streets, and the sidewalks were rather disorganized. Therefore the site of the project was not welcoming for a new media art centre. The Cocept of this project was based on disconnection from the site and its surrounding environment; however there were three valuable moments in the site, and the only openings on the project are facing those moments. Those valuable moments were a gap on the North street elevation of the site that with a opening the view was uninterrupted until the river. Another one of these moments was the green hill on the south side of the site.
The Large two story opening in the figure shows the opening that is facing the green hill on the South side of the site.
SITE
The site was consisted of several markets and the with the help of the color contrast between the project and the surrounding buildings the new media art center was easily recognizable
INTERIOR MASSES
The main galleries were all formed based on the four valuable moments on the side as mentioned before. Then the empty spaces between the galleries were turned into a open space lobby with a sky light on the roof.
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
The ground level was consisting of four structural elements that were holding the whole project. The ground floor was also a plaza for street art/performances. The two blocks on the ground floor were the entrance stairs and the mechanical room.
PLAN 0
The first floor was consisting of a lobby, auditorium, a cafe, and the bathrooms. On the center of the lobby there is a staircase going to the first gallery.
ENTRANCE PLAZA
The entrance is located in the center of the plaza. The plaza can be used for open street market sales, art performances, and art exhibitions. This plaza is the main element that connects the project to the street.
STRUCTURE
The structure of the project consists of four concrete cores and the main beams that are seating on top of those cores. The exterior wall is a concrete load bearing wall that holds the interior spaces.
OPENING There is four openings in the project. Each of these openings are in one gallery. These openings are break spaces, that people can go to between their visit time to get some fresh air and continue to their visit.
CROSS SECTION The section shows how the auditorium is formed to help create a nice reverberation time for the performances.
LONGITUDINAL SECTION The main lighting core is placed in the center, with a skylight on the roof and a glass floor on 2nd floor to help create the lighting connection between the roof and the urban plaza on the first floor.
LOBBY The lobby is a space that connects all the galleries and during different times it can act as a huge gallery too.
ELEVATIONS The project has a very simple elevation. Since the majority of the lights are provided by the sky light, on each facade there is just one opening that is a balcony for each gallery.
03
RAYSTOWN LAKE RESORT FALL 2015 SUPERVISOR: REBECCA HENN SITE: RAYSTOWN LAKE
The site of the project has a great slope, in order to accomplish the concept, which is experiencing the site through different open spaces, the open spaces are cut out of the site mass, on the contour lines, in order to make the project well fitted in the site. The open spaces are connected to each other by walking trails. The Project is linear shaped in plan, which makes it possible for every individual space to have a view of the site.
The model above is one of the first conceptual models that is built to show the interaction of the building with the topography.
EXCAVATION DIAGRAM In each 10 feet of height a layer of earth is excavated and rooms are formed inside these excavated spaces. Also there is an open space in front of each room.
SITE PLAN The project is formed based on the contour lines of the site in a way that every floor is accessible with wheelchair. There are also stairs connecting all the floors as well.
STRUCTURE The project is wrapped inside a concrete block wall that helped keep the earth pressure of the interior walls. The roof is built with wood structure and it was filled with soil on top to have the green roof on top of all roofs.
RESTAURANT PLAN One of the main spaces in the project is the restaurant in the middle floor. This restaurant is the core of the building as all the gathering were happening inside of it.
The project is designed to be blended in its own surrounding.
The structure of the project is based on a CMU load bearing walls and a wood structure on top of that.
04
STEWARDSON MEMORIAL FELLOWSHIP IN ARCHITECTURE SPRING 2016 SUPERVISOR: REBECCA HENN SITE: RAYSTOWN LAKE
The project is a women’s school for the refugees in Syria. When a women ‘s school is going to be built for a group of people that all they have had for the past few months was a tent, that school is going to have a far more important role as an architecture piece, and an urban space. It is going to be the heart of that community, and it is not going to be just for women. This project is an expandable prototype that can be built for camps with arch tents, and it gives the feeling of a modernized Middle Eastern architecture, that help the refugees feel like home. The modular design of it makes it easier to be expanded in the future. The arches with different lengths create some exterior urban space that can be used by the community, and the courtyard makes the school Introverted, giving women a safer interior space. The direction of the building is toward Qabalah, and the tallest space is the praying room, giving the whole project a religious approach.
The overall look of the project reminds us of the traditional middle eastern buildings with the arches. The project combines that traditional look with modern tweaks to it to provide a unique appearance.
PRAYING ROOM The praying room of the project is the tallest space and is recognizable from a distance, which shows that it is a strong element in the middle eastern culture
The project was designed as a modular model for future development and also making the similar project in other parts of the refugees camps.
05
AZADAN RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX SPRING 2011 SUPERVISOR: BEHROUZ SHAHBAZI, MOHAMMAD FARZIAN SITE: ESFAHAN, IRAN
The goal was Designing a Urban Club for a region in Esfahan, called Azadan. The design started with sketching some of the main spaces of the Club, after that the plans of the Club were formed according to the sketches. The main concept of the project is to make people who go to the club feel the presence of time.
The project has a courtyard which is the main gathering point of the main gathering point of the neighbourhood and all the main social activities happen around that courtyard.
SITE PLAN The site of the project was consisting of many old houses and had an organic composition.
06
AZADAN VILLAGE COMMUNITY CENTER SPRING 2011 SUPERVISOR: BEHROUZ SHAHBAZI, MOHAMMAD FARZIAN SITE: ESFAHAN, IRAN
The goal was Designing a Urban Club for a region in Esfahan, called Azadan. The design started with sketching some of the main spaces of the Club, after that the plans of the Club were formed according to the sketches. The main concept of the project is to make people who go to the club feel the presence of time.
The project has a courtyard which is the main gathering point of the main gathering point of the neighbourhood and all the main social activities happen around that courtyard.
SITE PLAN The site of the project was consisting of many old houses and had an organic composition.
ACTIVITIES There were some important cultural activities in the village that they were all considered while designing the project to be able to house all of those activities in the village club.
PLAN The plan of the project was formed around the main courtyard and there were four different ways to approach the project.
SECTION Each of the activities were housed in a different part of the project to have different ways of attracting people to come to the club.
TEA HOUSE The tea house in the project is a main space that helps keep the connections between the villagers alive and keep a traditional program in the project.
07
ADMINISTRATION BUILDING OF LAR MEDICAL UNIVERSITY FALL 2013 SUPERVISOR: BEHROUZ SHAHBAZI SITE: LAR, IRAN
My Thesis project was a professional project in Piramoun Architectural office, which I continued it as my thesis project, the project was designing the administrative office building of the medical university of Lar. Lar is a city in Fars, Iran. The hot climate of the Lar is one of it’s most important qualities. The goal of this project was to provide courtyard open spaces that could be used during hot seasons.
The pattern on the facade of the project is based on the traditional modules in the city the project was designed for. The openness of the modules are based on the amount of light is needed in the rooms behind them.
MASS DIAGRAM The project was divided into 3 parts based on the 3 different space type in the project.
The project is designed in a very hot location and the pattern on the facade helps controling the sunlight penetrating the building.
FLOOR PLAN The middle mass in the project consists of main administration rooms and the side masses are consisiting of service rooms mostly.
ENTRANCE The entrance leads into a plaza that is considered as place for students to hangout. The side courtyards also can be used as waiting spaces for the students to pass time in a shaded location.
FACADE The modular facade is designed and developed in grasshopper with color coding each module based on the openness of the module.
WALL STRUCTURE The overall structure of the project is built with concrete columns and beams and the facade is attached to the structure as it is shown in this figure.
08
VIDEO GAME: TURN SPRING 2017 SUPERVISOR: ALEXANDER KLIPPEL
The project is going to provide an exciting experience that cannot be achieved in reality. The concept of the project is a space filled with stairs in different direction. The outcome of the project is a windows application that players can experience preferably using VR Headsets. There is no story or characters involved. The goal is to simply start from the bottom and go to the top and experience the revolving stairs. Halfway through the space the player will lose the sense of correct upward direction because of the stairs constant rotation
The project is designed in unity and can be experienced with any windows operated PC.
MODEL The proejct was first modeled in rhino then imported to unity to convert the model to a video game.
WORKFLOW DIAGRAM Diagram above shows how the project was created using different application to create the final outcome which is the video game.
09
FARVARDIN HOUSE SPRING 2012 - FALL 2013 SUPERVISOR: BEHROUZ SHAHBAZI MY RESPONSIBILITIES : DESIGNING THE FACADE VOLUMES, MODELLING, PRESENTATION
The project is located in Esfahan near the Imam square, which is one of the main urban elements of Esfahan. The project is trying to solve the different limitation of the site through architecture. The amount of incoming light from south facade is very limited and the west and east facade are the main light sources of the house. The concept of the project was formed around this light limitation and how to manage the different light sources, views, and privacy.
The West Facade has very minimal windows to limit the west light entering the house.
WEST ELEVATION
One of the main limitation of the west elevation was how to implement lighting, privacy and a good view in the project. This limitation resulted the project to have a very diverse elevation with each window having a specific view and a unique profile.
STREET CONNECTION
The question of how to connect the first floor of a residential building to the street is one of the main concerns in all residential buildings. In this project we solved the problem with having ground level open spaces acting as a buffer between the street and the first level of the house.
17 PORTFOLIO SPRING 2017 ARMAN NASR