rsalan Afshar Design Portfolio
1
A core factor in every effective design, the human nature needs to be understood carefully. Thus, embracing the weaknesses, celebrating the being and respecting the diversity of human kind as well as considering his/her own true way of happiness, are all just a small part of this architectural careness.
2
Table of Contents
17 Air
+
The Future Air Transportation System
21 Water Museum 7 Urban Holez
3 Queer Tehran 13 Cliff of Life
11 Mediated
Los Angeles
19 Folded Desert Rest Area
3
QUEER TEHRAN Thesis Challenge: How to create safe spaces for queer interaction in a country where it is illegal and punishable by death. POLITICAL CONTEXT Official Policy: The government has duplicitous policy: to the outside world, there are no homos in Iran but internally, queers are illegal justification is religion. Morality police who arrest people on sodomy charges; they are tried and punished by jail, lashing or hanging. Unofficial policy: The government unofficially tolerates a queer urban life so long as it can monitor this potentially threatening group. While other websites are banned or filtered like Facebook and YouTube, two digital platforms geared toward queers are allowed to flourish the app Grinder and website Manjan.com. Why does government tolerate queer life? Power asserts itself by using queers to set an example, by using them as a spectacle in the news media. How does government monitor? Surveillance. There are two strategies of surveillance that use virtual and actual space.
ANALYSIS Queer interaction is a function of age and class. Well-to-do-gay people with private homes have the privilege of meeting in private domestic space via internet, but lower income individuals and youth who live at home must rely on public spaces. Their primary site of meeting is the park. Daneshjou Park, which has been chosen as the site of the analysis, is the most famous park as a destination of gay youth. An analysis of this park yielded insight that the underlying issue for queer individuals is to find a balance between visibility (to be seen by other gay people-cruising-seeing and being seen) Vs. invisibility (not to be seen by general authorities, as well as the disapproving general public, religious people, neighbors or recognition by family members); the desire not to be outed.
Queer Tehran
Jun-Sep 2017 | Master’s Thesis | Advisor: Joel Sanders
4
My methodology was to map the narrative of a queer encounter that takes place over course of a day. This scenario describes two people from two different walks of life, a student and a young professional, who live in different neighborhoods, who meet virtually over the internet and then physically. Through this analysis, I discovered how the urban architecture of hardscape and softscape creates a sequence of open and closed, light and dark, visible and invisible. Spaces with critical blind spots tare the spaces where interaction occurs: from open entrance with lots of people and security to the dense grove of trees , to the outdoor room defined by trees at the park center which is place of first encounter and eventually returning to blind spot in the grove. Most importantly, while the park has many different kinds of trees, two species stood out as critical. The Plane tree which is porous and has a lower trunk and open leaves, and the Cyprus, which is dense architectural, like a column, fully concealing the body because it has no trunk.
5
DESIGN PROPOSAL The design proposal tweaks the government’s duplicitous policy to create a safe gay space in a way that does not threaten the government itself. The official government party line is to propose a beautification project justified by ecology and beauty. Trees are good to combat Tehran’s high pollution; they improve the life of all citizen and create a good impression for visitors coming to capital. The unofficial party line is to create isolated spaces known by queer people that are free from prying eyes of the general public, but can also be monitored by government. The design proposal takes the standard elements that have been discovered from the park analysis and transpose them to unoccupied sites associated with urban pedestrian and auto circulation. The typologies utilized are roundabout, median and corners. The design is a mutually beneficial private pact between the government and the gay community that builds upon these existing unwritten rules. It makes explicit what gays and government already know.
Queer Tehran
Jun-Sep 2017 | Master’s Thesis | Advisor: Joel Sanders
6
7
URBAN HOLEZ New York in 2057 is a structural reality that was made possible by building code laws that were written over many years (i.e. 1916 zoning resolution, 1960 law, etc.). The establishment of those generic rules enabled creativity of the architect to separate the masses of the city and shape its buildings. The division of masses above New York urban blocks is a world built of steel and glass over the last 100 years. Building code laws for air rights and continue to affect urban development and growth. Written in 2030, they initiated a process of more than one hundred and fifty urban years, wherein skyscrapers became a method of repetition to maximize profits and indicate technological ability. The new law in 2030, the “law of the urban hole”, based in lower Manhattan, was an innovation that included specific directives: Maximize the area of the “privately owned public spaces, or POPs” and make them more meaningful. Enable developers to add more floors to existing buildings or construct buildings, if they have a public hole to be considered. Open public space within a tower, which benefits the streets below, allowing the entry of light and air into the surroundings.
Urban Holez | In collaboration with Michal Rosenfeld
Jan-Apr 2017 | Graduate Research Design Studio II | Professor: Michael Young
8
9
75 Wall St. Builing Archive - July 2031
75 Wall St. Builing Archive - April 2036
Urban Holez | In collaboration with Michal Rosenfeld
Jan-Apr 2017 | Graduate Research Design Studio II | Professor: Michael Young
10
Courtesy of Noah Adam Wiley and Rose Easten May 2047
National Geographic Archives. Courtesy of Charlie Hamilton James January 2046
11
MEDIATED LOS ANGELES Assume you have never been to Los Angeles (LA), California. While you have frequently seen it portrayed in some film, photographs, TV or online. This mediated mode of perception poses the question of the relationship between the real city and the city as represented and simultaneously the question of the relationship between the real and the virtual city. In an interpretation from a Kantian perspective, one could infer that our mind tends to build a representation in spite of its true correspondence with the actual reality. According to Piaget, the mind assimilates this reality into its previously held schemas, already shaped by previous experiences and therefore it can only accommodate with the “real” if it in fact differs from the actual reality. From this perspective, it is in such a process that one’s “schema of LA” is developed. It seems evident that there is an absolute difference between the representation of LA for a native person and that of a foreigner (i.e. LA vs. P.LA). The reconstructed city, which comes from a mediated perception, is not only refiguring the real LA but in so doing it is also influenced by the particular personal, social memories and cultural context from where the mediated knowledge of LA is received/perceived creating thus a a new mental construct of the city. I would like to call this one’s own “Private Los Angeles”.
Mediated Los Angeles
Sep-Dec 2016 | Graduate Research Design Studio I | Professor: Diana Agrest
13
Cliff of Life In accordance with Iranian designs for residential accommodations, based on our common love for nature, the persistence attempts to materialise paradisal conceptions on earth are evident. Tranquillity is still a major topic in our theoretical discussions. The evolution of human spirit and wisdom has been adapted as established by the eastern schools of spiritual awareness, also known as Irfan (mysticism). “Enter ye the garden: no fear shall be on you, nor shall ye grieve.” (AL-ARAF (THE HEIGHTS):49). Mountains, the intersection between earth and sky; symbolising elation, mercifulness, greatness, holiness and persistence, a venue for spiritual gatherings and events in Persian illuminations, are widely reflected in Rumi’s the Masnavi. This world’s a mountain, our acts the voice; Reflects a voice on us, ten times the voice.
- Rumi – book 1, story 9.
Body and souls: As a purpose of Irfan, a common ground between humans and nature, can be established out of a philosophical contemplation regarding to the causality of the existence of mountains, and processes their innermost structure. “We bestowed grace aforetime on david from ourselves: “o ye mountains! sing ye back the praises of allah with him!” (SABA: 10). Light: Founder of the school of illuminationism, Suhrawardi, proposed the world is none but illumination. Light has a special place in Persian miniature, too. With respect to the illuminative contribution of light, it is evident that the composition and the positioning of all units are such that they enjoy a direct sunlight that is not disturbed in any way by other structural elements. “Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth … light upon light!” (Al-Noor;35) Tapster; brighten thou our cups o’ thy wine’s shine. chanter; the world shall all delight us, O’ saith thou. Hafiz – sonnet 11.
Creation and the tree of life: In Quran it is declared that the creation lasted 6 days, while 2 days took for the creation of heavens, as the most important tree is Lote-tree (in Arabic: Sidrat al-Muntaha). Tree of life is a widely used concept by Iranian legends. In Old Persian texts, it is portrayed in a battle of Ahura Mazda vs. Ahriman during which The Tree of All Seeds was protected by two fish against hostility of Ahriman’s frog. As illustrated in Persian rugs, the tree of life is a decorating element of eastern daily life and serves as mementoes of Zoroastrian legends. Portraiture (Persian miniature) I rendered the overall concept in this figure which I painted. The Creator is manifested as a mountain behind the tree of life, with the humans arranged in a miniature perspective (spiral) around them.
Cliff of Life
Feb-Jun 2015 | Undergraduate Design Studio IV | Professor: Atefeh Dehghan
14
figure 1
figure 2
By implementing cavities and height differences in certain parts of the mass, all units are able to enjoy natural light from the south without shading, whilst benefiting from a wider vista.
Afternoon
In order to prevent the mass from shading the adjacent buildings, a gap has been designed at the northern facet of the structure to allows for direct passage of southern light to the neighbouring buildings.
Noon
Morning
Climate information from Ecotect software application Climate : Tehran, Mehrabad Lat : 35 . 4ยบ Lng : 51 . 2ยบ (+3.5)
In parallel with the descriptions given for mountains, the process of their formation can also be analysed. By focusing on the lines that form a mountain and those that shape a human body, it is possible to extract common lines and deduce mutual geometrics, and visualised in figure 1. Lines extracted on the basis of these similarities constitute the prime principles of the structure, as illustrated in figure 2. It may be that a common ground between humans and nature can be established out of a philosophy that maintains the causality of the existence of mountains, and processes their innermost structure.
8 : 00 AM - 1 : 00 PM Shadow Range 9 : 00 AM - 4 : 00 PM Shadow Range
15
The Persian art of illumination (in Farsi : Tazhib) has been used to compose the landscape of the project and transform the initial concept into the final mass. figure 3
Canopy Design
symbol of The Tree of life
Cliff of Life
Feb-Jun 2015 | Undergraduate Design Studio IV | Professor: Atefeh Dehghan
16 Sample Plans
Building Access Areas
Units
150
ó < 150 m 64 ó 150 - 220 m2 45 ó 220 - 300 m2 33 ó > 300 m2 8 2
ó Ground floors of the complex include the lobbies, conference halls and lecture theatres, meeting venues, management rooms and building access areas. These areas additionally incorporate for the residents such facilities as swimming pools, gym, shops, restaurants, coffee shops and etceteras. ó There is a shopping centre located on the 5th floor of the western part of the complex. ó Parking (lvl -1)
17
Air + Diagram 1
As it is estimated that up to 2050, 16 billion trips and 400 million tons of cargo will be transported through air transportation, Therefore, the air transportation needs a paradigm shift in its development. The management of that huge displacement is divided in two parts: 1. Main and Macro (M&M); 2. Micro and Subsidiary (M&S). Former is considered for Short paths; later, is dedicated the long distances. Main and Macro (M&M) Managing large amount of passengers and cargo with high-speed, high-capacity airplanes (Diagram 1) and creating a new experience at airport terminal for the passengers, are intended. By reducing the number of M&Mâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s airports, the number of M&Sâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flights would increase to balance air transportation function. Micro and Subsidiary (M&S) Being fast and short-time would become a significant factor. Some advantages are: 24 hours availability for public, its availability in crowded centers of city, significant population mobility on one flight, high speed displacement, quick and easy access to the station through underground train, low cost, their high security and diversity in the cities.
Air +
The Future Air Transportation System
Feb-May 2015 | International Competition Design Project
(not to scale)
18 The main concept of the airport building structures have been inspired by the Iranian arches caused by tension cables and concrete rings and concrete inhibitor to make building static.
Materials used in the terminal are all renewable and recyclable, lightweight items. In addition to regular sources as solar cells, wind turbines and existing technologies, these airports are equipped with an electricity generation system from sound through which the energy of sound waves emitted by airplanes are converted into electricity through Piezoelectric Parametric Frequency Increased Generator reservoirs. Noise Pollution Converter 1
1. Noise Absorbing Lints
2
3
2. Reservoir 3. Insulator
Structure Diagram
19
Folded Desert Lightweight Concrete Plates Folded Plate Structure
3D Space Frame Spacetrusses Structure
Double Glazed Window
Beams and Columns Structure Filling Station Site
Creational-Commercial Mosque Residential Commercial Concrete Column
Pulley applied for opening and closing the west frontage plates at the time of winding and coldness
The road which connects Semnan to Damghan cities in Semnan province, Iran, was targeted to design a rest area called Folded Desert. As it is dual-purpose road both for passengers transportation and commercial transit, two separate welfare services complexes has considered corresponding to different needs and demands of the users. A filling station provides customers with gasoline, diesel fuel and gas. A mosque is considered which serves as a junction of complexes. The concept of this design was based upon a warm and dry desert along with mountains in background. Folded plate structures in combination with color of materials have applied in order to fulfill the concept. In addition, due to the fact that a limited time was assigned to establish the project ASAP, a modular structure was chosen as it can be easily transported and precisely constructed. Space frame structure was adopted for filling station to satisfy abovementioned conditions. Designed Space Unit
Folded Desert Rest Area
Sep 2014-Jan 2015 | Undergraduate Structure Design | Professor: Fariba Yahyavi
20
Main Plan
According to resist against sandstorm, which is attack the area from west to east, a movable structure is designed in which upward plates could bend downwardly to act as a shield, manually. Northern Facade
21
The aim of this project is designing a water museum in the middle of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pardisan Parkâ&#x20AC;?, alongside Hemat highway, Tehran. Considering some weaknesses of the location including poor accessibility and sight from the highway, a formal, attractive sculpturesque depth was designed. In order to attract people during the closing time of the museum, a special application was added to the last floor. Due to the fact that Iranian climate is moderately warm and dry, wells and sub terranes were usual ways of accessing water. Thus, supplying drinking water achieved so hard.
An empty place filled with water in the shape of an inverted cone as a symbol of womb & fertility was adopted in sphered by the depth of the building. The frontage is inspired by a drought land.
Water Museum
Feb-Jun 2013 | Undergraduate Design Studio III | Professor: Atefeh Dehghan
22
lvl+3, staircase
Entrance
lvl -2, gallery number VII
lvl -2, gallery number XII
In addition to the various usual facilities, two separate yards is considered for public and competitive kite games. In spite of the fact that people come to the Pardisan Park playing kite games, there is no special yard provided for them to do so. Thus, a playground is designed outside the building and a professional kite field is considered which is easily accessible for people with special physical needs. The source of wind is the building itself as it is designed based on Iranian windward. Thus, the building serves as a suction system through which wind can blow properly toward both the playground and the kite field.
23
Heading the acoustic laws in media zone; the ceiling is built in a cradle-like arch to cancel any noise and prevent audio disturbance for other parts.
The statue of the dead fetus:
this statue is inspired by the famous picture â&#x20AC;&#x153;how life beginsâ&#x20AC;? by Lennart Nilsson (1965) and completes its concept by the use of issues such as water shortage, drought and water contamination.
Utilization of numerous solar panels on the museum roof to provide the electricity supply for the complex.
Metal plates reflect various colors during the day depending on the weather changes and create different facades for the museum building (symbol of draught). This statue is placed on the eastern part of the museum building and carries a connotative blend of four terms: human, roots, tree, and vessel.
There is a two-floor platform in the northwestern part of the building. This platform is used to view the surroundings, the parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s landscapes, and the small outdoor amphitheater for watching projected images on the water surface (at nighttime).
In the final part of the reading hall of the library, indoor hammock beds have been placed for comfortable reading. Ramps with standard gradients lead the handicapped from the most northern part of the conference hall to the lowest section. There are also special stations prepared for their ease of stay within the hall.
Water Museum
collecting rain water for the complex uses.
Feb-Jun 2013 | Undergraduate Design Studio III | Professor: Atefeh Dehghan
The flooring of this field is inspired by Op Art. This type of flooring creates more attraction and stimulation in the playing field due to the fluid nature of its form and color.
24
lvl +2
B-B Section
25
Work In Practice
All work completed as part of design team member and in collaboration with office staff.
Artiman Residential Tower Remodel, Tehran, Iran | Bonsar Architects Responsibilities: Design development, 3D modeling, construction documents and oversite, renderings and client presentation materials.
26
Farmanieh Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran | Bonsar Architects Responsibilities: Feasibility study, schematic design, architectural drawings, 3D modeling, rendering and presentation materials.