DESIGN PORTFOLIO MArch ARCHITECTURE GRADUATE
ARCHITECTURAL ASSISTANT PART II
THESIS PROJECT MArch 2022
THESIS THESIS MArch
Dreams; Dystopia deconstructed applied to a failed Utopia
MArch
Digital Virtual Context
While Utopia and Dystopia are creations of capitalism, they rejoice in its destruction. A topography that entertains the unconscious. This is an e-motional field in which component part topographic relationships are not stable and fixed, but can be misplaced, displaced, or even replaced. An attempt to construct a “dream” where the narrative is drowned from my unconscious memories. I am the architect of the dream; a
1st Level of Inferno: Limbo/ Grief Dante’s Setting: Distorted Earth
2nd Level of Inferno: Heresy Dante’s Setting: Entrance to the C
psycho-logical journey by which one comes to experience being. An unconscious topography in which emotions can ‘move’ us, for they organise as a route. An embodied motion at different speeds activates the senses in an aggregated sequence of emotional responses. Evoking emotion in the shape of motion as one travels through it. The dream is an experience of my utopic memories (the reflection of how I perceive the world) blended to create my unconscious dystopia. Inspired by Dante’s Inferno, his psychological journey through the 9 stages of hell as a critic of 14thcentury society. This spatial experiment seeks to alter the experiential conditions of the user and the way by which they look at shaping that experiential engagement. Our current living spaces are rarely suitable with virtual reality’s rapid advancement, we require mediating spaces that would connect spaces to the virtual world. This umbrella
project explores new ways of spatial construction, bringing up matters of the physical atmosphere such as gravity, enclosure, and scale. These mediating-spaces have the potential to connect our physical world to the image-based universes that surround us that have helped create a new genealogy of spaces which is conscious of the current contemporary design landscape.
5th Level of Inferno: Gluttony Dante’s Setting: Frozen/ Burnt, a contradictive space
6th Level of Inferno: Lust Dante’s Setting: Storm
7th Level of Inferno: Treachery Dante’s Setting: Frozen State
City of Dis, flying tombs
The collages below are the initial abstract representation of the 9 stages of Inferno, translated from Dante’s poem to a visual, spatial configurations before they become experiencial spaces.
3rd Level of Inferno: Fraud Dante’s Setting: Earthquake
4th Level of Inferno: Anger Dante’s Setting: River
8th Level of Inferno: Greed Dante’s Setting: Mountain
9th Level of Inferno: Violence Dante’s Setting: Explosion
1st Level of Inferno: Limbo/ Grief Dante’s Setting: Distorted Earth
2nd Level of Inferno: Heresy Dante’s Setting: Entrance to the City of Dis, flying tombs
4th Level of Inferno: Anger Dante’s Setting: River
5th Level of Inferno: Gluttony Dante’s Setting: Frozen/ Burnt, a contradictive space
7th Level of Inferno: Treachery Dante’s Setting: Frozen State
8th Level of Inferno: Greed Dante’s Setting: Mountain
s
The final outcome is a video where the stages of the contemporary Inferno can further be effective as an interactive experience. To see the full video scan the QR code. Below the key frames of the clip in each stage. 3rd Level of Inferno: Fraud Dante’s Setting: Earthquake
6th Level of Inferno: Lust Dante’s Setting: Storm
9th Level of Inferno: Violence Dante’s Setting: Explosion
THESIS THESIS BA
Holfplatz Housing
BA
Berlin, Germany
The chosen site is at the back of the Jewish Museum by Daniel Libeskind. The triangle-shaped site is backed onto a hospital and a school on one side and is currently accessible via the two residential roads that form a small junction. In the initial site analysis, I have extracted the historical changes to the site’s urban forms. I discovered through this investigation the desire of the neighbourhood to have more public spaces and less rigorous/ traditional placemaking strategies becoming acceptable.
accessibility
junction accessibility
center focus
plaza creation
accessibility + plaza
pathways + views + courtyards
I have decided to make the provision of public space the centre of my project. To do so, I have named my project Holfplatz, which means ‘’a plaza that is shaped by a courtyard.’’ By setting back the buildings on the northern side from the hospital/ school walls, I have allowed access through the site to the public from all directions. In the abstract model, I have ‘pealed up’ the corners of the site. The idea is to create three large spine canopies over the building masses which are light and airy, shade the public courtyard on one end, and form a roof canopy over the upper terraces on the other. Below the two larger canopies are two residential blocks that
can accommodate up to 340 people in 95 compacted apartments ranging from studio flats to six-bedroom family units. Every apartment has a unique shape making the residence’s experience unique. The ground floor includes public spaces to maintain the feeling of the square. The small third canopy onto the southern junction is a multi-fictional pavilion that is designed to be a semi-open-air entrance. It is visible from both two access roads
around the site and is a welcoming gesture for the public space.
‘pealed up’ design strategy from the centre
volumes on the bottom for building formation
airy canopies by partially volume removal
canopy support by leaf inspired construction
Main structure The Spine
Third structure `The support
Secondary structure The beams
Forth structure The cladding
COMPETITION COMPETITION Sala Concerti ‘Chiesa Diruta’ Matera, Italy
Chiesa Diruta is a representation of holiness and an opportunity for the present. With the new design, the team aims to bring the building back in the heart of the community. The church embraces a sense of eternity that dictated our subtle, ephemeral architectural proposal. The parish of elements of the building did not stand in the way of fulfilling its holly purpose for centuries and so the team wanted to celebrate the ruin rather than polish it. Anything but a soft, temporary intervention seemed to be crude, almost malicious to the church. In the concept development three design aims were delivered as a dictation of the design; 1.the restructuration of spatial hierarchy as in piazza, 2.the replication of public, private and transitional spaces in the city within the building, and 3. the metaphorical representation of the society, bringing the community in the building.
During the site analysis, the team focused on understanding public spaces and their misuse. Piazzas around Italy and ultimately in the historical centre of Matera maintain in indicating the spatial features of a piazza from social to active and commercial purposes. The aim of the new architecture was to fulfil the social needs of the community through replicating the core principles of a piazza in the internal space of the church soon to be a community gathering space. By elevating the concert hall, the building benefits from a transitional space that could also work independently for holding cultural venues or community-related activities.
The new main entrance of the building is an homage to the ruin, a metamorphosis of the history with the future that welcomes the visitor in a space of transition. The circulation of the space has been thoroughly developed so that the visitor would manage to experience the entire space by the end of the performance. From the cloakroom, the visitor advances in the exhibition space, the end of the exhibition is outlined with an area destined for socializing, a
space for preparation to follow the next step of the journey, the elevation to the higher floor, in the auditorium. At the end of the performance, the audience can experience the authentic taste of the region at the wine tasting stand and proceed further down to the final destination, the gift shop and the former bell tower, contemplation journey to the panoramic view over the city. The main feature of the new architecture was the roof and the way it embraces the tallness of the building while fulfilling the technical sound and light requirements of a concert hall. We perceive the roof as an abstract representation of the community, where it is the individuals that shape the spaces rather the build environment itself. The more concentrated the space, the less light penetrates, and the fewer opportunities arise, whereas the spaces that bring large, open areas, give chance for self-expressing just as sunlight plays inside the concert hall.
SUMMER SUMMER HOME HOME Luxury Vacation Residence Rhodes, Greece
Illustrated below is the first project I worked on as an Architectural Assistant. The building is a luxury high-end residence where it would be used for the purpose of summer vacation. The site plan is approximately 4000m2 including each floor (110m2) and the swimming pool (100m2). The design was altered over the course of 9 months. For the client to better understand, a 3D digital model was produced. After many months, the design evolved and the 2D drawings and 3D digital models had to be approved by the city planning service. The building is currently under construction and is expected to finish in 2023. The swimming pool served as the inspiration for the design. One of the clients was a young boy with special difficulties who enjoys the water. In consideration of the building codes, the access to the beach and pool was made as simple as possible from the house.
Underground Floor Plan
East Elevation
Section A-A
Section B-B
West Elevation
3D Digital Model
Building in construction