Architecture Portfolio | Bsc (Hons) in Architectural Design

S E LECTE D WO RKS

FLORENT BAJRAMI

ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO POLITECNICO DI MILANO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE URBAN PLANNING CONSTRUCTION ENGINNERING ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

FLO R E NT B A JR A MI bajrami.florent@hotmail.com

| EDUCATION POLITECNICO DI MILANO October 2017-September 2019 Bsc. of Architectural Design | Graduated with honors 110 cum laude/110 GPA: 28.73/30 ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY September 2015-June 2017 Completed 2/4 Bsc. Years before transferring to Milan High Honors Dean List for 3 semesters GPA: 3.62/4

C U R R I C U L U M V I TA E

| EXPERIENCE A.R.KATANA Gjilan, January 2019 Intern position Helped the team with the design of the new residental project, planned several interior variations, and took care of the post production for the client’s catalogue. Designed the entry glass porch for the studio’s office as an individual project.

MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND SPATIAL PLANNING Prishtina, August 2018 Intern position Exposed to the Kosovo’s Spatial Plan 2010-2020+, Building Laws and the institute’s archive of the main public architectural projects in Kosovo. Gathered information and statistics for the tourism in Kosovo, which will be part of a longer report of the institute.

| EXTRACURRICULAR UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON July - August 2017 Summer School in the module: Urban Development in Contemporary London: Politics, Policy and Design KOSOVO MATHEMATICS OLYMPIADS 2013-2015 1st prize 2013 1st prize 2014 - Part of the Kosovo team for International Mathematics Olympiad 3rd prize 2015

| LANGUAGES ALBANIAN ENGLISH GERMAN ITALIAN

Mothertongue Professional proficiency | TOEFL iBT: 115/120 Intermediate level | Goethe Course Entrance Exam | B2 completed Basic knowledge

| SOFTWARE AUTOCAD PHOTOSHOP ILLUSTRATOR INDESIGN SKETCHUP ARCHICAD REVIT VRAY LUMION MS OFFICE

| ANALOG SKILLS Hand-drawing Conceptual diagramming Hand-modeling Professional writing

CONTENT

FRAGMENTED UNITY ARCHITECTURE OF DIALOGUE PARISH COMPLEX | CITTÀ STUDI, MILAN

| 06-23

THE CELL STREET FRONT INTERIOR MULTI-FUNCTIONAL INTERIOR SPACE | CORSO VENEZIA, MILAN

| 24-33

ALONG THE EDGE NATURE INSIDE THE BUILDING URBAN PARK | LIVIGNO-JENNER, MILAN

| 34-41

AUDITORIUM WITH A FIXED STAGE RESTORATION OF THE FORMER PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL AUDITORIUM | MOMBELLO, MONZA-BRIANZA

| 42-51

FRAGMENTED UNITY ARCHITECTURE OF DIALOGUE PARISH COMPLEX | CITTÀ STUDI, MILAN FINAL DESIGN STUDIO CRITICS | EMILIO FAROLDI, MARIA PILAR VETTORI, CECILIA ROSTAGNI COLLABORATORS | CATALINA MUTIS, OXANA LEMA, SALVATORE BORROMETI

| 07

A. E V E N T

B.

I.

BERNARD TSCHUMI’S MANHATTAN TRANSCRIPTS Conceived as a work in progress rather than a project, Bernard Tschumi’s Manhattan Transcripts offer architectural stimulus

II.

through their nature of representation. The Transcripts’ components of event, space, and movement are represented by photographs, architectural drawings and diagrams in a broken down manner that innately suggest the consequent constructing of these components

III.

to a whole. Tschumi advocates for an architecture of disjunctions, where form, use and social values are not interrelated but rather tangled in a new deconstructed reality.

IV.

CITTÀ STUDI TRANSCRIPTS

FRAG M ENTED UNIT Y

The analogous nature of The Transcripts is not only helpful for an alternative reading of the city, but also offers an initial point of design. The

V.

introduction of a new component to the transcripts (essence) through an additional representation method (verbal) helps to define the true E. E S S E N C E

essence of each of five case studies chosen in Città Studi. These essences then are transformed to architecture through manipulation of movement,

I.

space and event to arrive at a desired liturgical reality. As such the spirit of the site is retranslated in the parish complex itself.

A

II.

S

C

E

N

S

I

O

F. M

N

CO RE

III.

C O N N

CONNECTION C T I O N

IV.

V.

DECOMPRESSION R R R R R

E E E E E

C C C C C

U U U U U

R R R R R

. SPACE

MOVEMENT

C. M O V E M E N T

D. E S S E N C E

I

A

S

C

E

N

S

I

O

N

ANALYSIS: DECONSTRUCTING THE CHARACTER OF FIVE SPACES AROUND THE SITE

CO RE C O N N

CONNECTION C T I O N

DECOMPRESSION R R R R R G. S P A C E

E E E E E

C C C C C

U U U U U

R R R R R

H. E V E N T

DESIGN: REVERSE DESIGN PROCESS FROM “ESSENCE” TO EXACT ARCHITECTURAL REALITY IN THE SITE

SITE ANALYSIS AS DESIGN GENERATOR | 09

Designing a successful parish complex in such a mixed urban condition such as CittĂ Studi means dealing with paradoxic aims: inclusive

but

specific-user

oriented,

distinguishable

but

c

c

not

m

different, able to interact with the context but also function as a

USE HAL O H S ’ IEST ING

microorganism, able to host a large number of people but also remain local and personal. To be able to handle such task The Transcripts are used as a direct design tool that reinterpret the five essences in a liturgical architecture. The design process is a careful organization of distinguishable parts that correlate between each-other through their complex relationships. Thus Ascension, Core, Connection, Decompression and Recur cannot exist if the relationship between

FRAG M ENTED UNIT Y

them is not thoroughly considered. Three volumes with different proportions are supposed to house all the program required. Their fragmented character tries to solve the paradoxic requirements of the parish. The unification of space, movement, and event through essential open spaces and mechanical devices brings the project to a conclusion: a Fragmented Unity - an oxymoron mirroring the reality of religion itself.

OFFICE

PR

EAT

CA

SM BAPCTI H

rea a clasdr eno’s omll m s r se ha

chil

ultipurpo

ALTA RISTY SACR

S S CHO IR MA

LL

APEL

SEQUENCE OF INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR COMPONENTS

SPATIAL AND PROGRAMMATIC ORGANIZATION | 11

PLAY OF SOLIDS AND VOIDS

URBAN CONDITIO

ON OF THE PROJECT

EMPTY “CORE” SERVING AS INNER COURTYARD AND CONNECTING SPACE

VIEWS FROM OUTSIDE AND INSIDE THE SITE | 13

DUALITY (STRUCT (RELIGIO

SECOND FL

STRATIF TEXTUR

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

Y OF MATERIALS FOR FUNCTION TURE) AND SYMBOLISM ON)

LOOR PLAN

FIED AND FORMWORKRED CONCRETE

MATERIALITY AND SYMBOLISM | 15

BAPTISM AREA: NATURAL LIGHT

ALTAR VIEW: LINEAR CUT OF TH VOLUME TO ALLOW “GUIDING NATURAL LIGH

T ATRIUM

HE G” HT

NATURAL LIGHT AND INTERIORITY | 17

SECTION DESIGN THROUGH HEIGHT DIFFERENCE AND HORIZONTAL CONNECTIVITY

EUCARISTIC CHAPEL AND CHOIR

BAPTISM

MAIN ALTAR AND CONTEMPLATION SPACE

WEEKDAY CHAPEL

MOVABLE COMPONENTS ALLOW DIFFERENT SPACE CONFIGURATIONS

COMMUNITY EATING HALL

SUNDAY MASS

RECEIVEMENT HALL OF ANNEX BUILDING

SPECIAL CEREMONY

MECHANICAL FLEXIBILITY | INSIDE AND OUTSIDE | 19

DISAPPEARING WALL ALLOWS FOR ENLARGEMENT OF SPACE IN SPECIAL OCCASIONS

CROSS -SHAPED EXTRUSIONS ACTING AS ICONOGRAPHY

MECHANICAL FLEXIBILITY | REVOLVING DOORS | 21

RECOGNIZABILITY OF THE CHURCH THROUGH STRONG MATERIAL LANGUAGE

URBAN FACADE | 23

THE CELL STREET FRONT INTERIOR MULTI-FUNCTIONAL INTERIOR SPACE | CORSO VENEZIA, MILAN INTERIOR DESIGN STUDIO CRITICS | YURI MASTROMATTEI, CRISTINA FEDERICA COLOMBO COLLABORATORS | DANIELLE NAKASH, VERA VINCE

| 25

In part an attempt to solve the client’s extensive demands for multiple functions, in part a reflection on the original architect’s intents, the project in Via Salvini is resolved using the idea of the cell, with a core and a membrane. It tries to overcome the issue of multi-functionality by using flexibility as the provision of space, where all the services are compressed to a minimum core, leaving the maximum adjustable space outside. The functional necessity of having a two-dimensional element is solved by introducing the membrane as a background and rack.

On the other hand, Piero Portaluppi’s principles of oxymoron juxtapositions, hyperbolic expressions, and overstatement of details - possible testimony of his career as a cartoonist1, are simultaneous considerations of the design. The monumentalization of the core by its sculptural treatment, big scale, and expensive material - and on the other hand - the diaphanous effect of the membrane, back-lit and

TH E C ELL

translucent, are conscious gestures driven by Portaluppi’s principles.

1

Antonello Negri, Cinque album e fogli sparsi. Piero Portaluppi disegnatore umoristico e satirico, 183-189

1

CONTRASTED MATERIALS

EMPHASIS OF THRESHOLD

FACADES IN CORSO VENEZIA (TOP) AND VIA SALVINI (BELOW) HYPERBOLIC EXPRESSION OF ECLECTICISM

CONTINUITY OF MATERIAL

PORTALUPPI’S LANGUAGE | 27

M COR SKIN A

STRICT DIVISION OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC

MONUMENTALIZATION OF RE AND ENLIGHTENING OF AS HYPERBOLIC GESTURES

EXISTING PARTS PORTALUPPI’S LANGUAGE

CONCEPT

RIGID CORE FLEXIBLE MEMBRANE

PROGRAM

ARRANGING STACKING

MATERIALS

PALLADIANA SAPELE MAHOGANY AEGRELLE FROST ACRYLIC TRAVERTINE

CONCEPT | 29

EXHIBITION

LECTURE

RETAIL

ROUND TABLE

PROVISION OF SPACE AS ULTIMATE FLEXIBILITY

CIRCULATION PUBLIC PRIVATE

VIEWS

ONE, TWO AND THREE DIRECTIONAL

LIGHTING

DIFFUSED LIGHT SPOTLIGHTS

MIESIAN FLEXIBILITY | RELATION WITH OUTSIDE | 31

A CAR

ACQUIRING GESTALT THROUGH REFUL ARTICULATION OF SPACE

OBLIQUE VIEW OF THE MEMBRANE

SECTION OF THE MEMBRANE

COMPOSITION OF SPACE | DETAILS OF THE MEMBRANE | 33

ALONG THE EDGE NATURE INSIDE THE BUILDING URBAN PARK | LIVIGNO-JENNER, MILAN MIAW WORKSHOP CRITIC | KATHERINE ASHE COLLABORATOR | ANCA DUMITRACHE

| 35

CORRIDORE The Corridore is one of the earliest notions of the corridor meaning the space on and around the city walls. Due to its peripheral location and utilitarian nature, the bordering wall creates the perfect condition for the corridor. The wall determines a corridor by its mere physical presence, separating the inside from the outside and provides access to every part of the site thus becoming an orienting tool and a threshold.

THE EDGE CORRIDOR Historically planned as a hospital site, the site at Via Livigno-Jenner stands as an urban oasis north of Garibaldi railway station, an area going through recent rethinking and planning. It is now a walled park with most of its fabric

BORDER WALL

damaged severely and overtaken by nature, where local residents find their retreat from the city. The park’s dense built and green environment hardly allows for more architectural input, although its confusing state calls for organization and clarity. Considering its components from an exploded analysis gives a better overall understanding of the site. Consequent layering is applied for the design phase, where the only architectural introduction is a pavement running along the edge of the park while existing environment is renewed and reprogrammed. The edge corridor, an act of enriching the peripheral quality of the space according to Juhani Pallasmaa’s teachings2, acts as a silent actor in space, never being the focus but rather assisting the original focal points of the site. Through its indeterminacy and bareness,

ALO NG THE E D G E

the corridor is subjected to speculation: it acquires different architectural interpretations and functions allowing for a multiplicity of program and experience. The project therefore is a mere framework rather than a definite design.

2

See Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin

URBAN OASIS

EXPLODING EXISTING INGREDIENTS

DISTRIBUTION OF TREES

DEMOLISHED AND PRESERVED FABRIC

CONSEQUENT BLOCKS

EXISTING CONDITIONS | 37

PROGRAMMATIC STRI

IPS

LAYERING DESIGN PRINCIPLES

ACCESS AND CIRCULATION

JUXTAPOSITION OF THE EDGE CORRIDOR

PROGRAM

EDGE CORRIDOR AS A FRAMEWORK FOR SPECULATION

SPECULATIVE FLEXIBILITY | CONCEPT | 39

[T]he quality of an architectural reality seems to depend fundamentally on the nature of the peripheral vision, which enfolds the subject in space3.

The edge corridor acts as a peripheral actor to the site, while in its microsystem the existing wall is counteracted with a row of birch trees, that act as peripheral vision to the edge corridor. On the other hand, focus in the corridor is given to ephemeral structures that inhabit it occasionally.

As one of the few design decisions in the project, the materiality of the corridor is given particular importance. The process of the decision

ALO NG TH E ED G E

goes almost unconsciously through the main architectural approaches of rationality, aestheticism, phenomenology, and finally sensibility: the material of the pavement is made out of the rubbles from the demolished buildings in the park.

3

Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin, Great Britain: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 13

RATIONALITY

ANALOGY OF THE DESIGN OF PAVEMENT WITH ARCHITECTURAL APPROACHES

AESTHETICISM

PHENOMENOLOGY

SENSIBILITY

DIPTYCH: PERIPHERAL VISION (LEFT) AND FOCUSED VISION (RIGHT)

PERIPHERAL AND FOCUSED VISIONS | 41

AUDITORIUM WITH A FIXED STAGE RESTORATION OF THE FORMER PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL AUDITORIUM | MOMBELLO, MONZA-BRIANZA HERITAGE PRESERVATION FUNDAMENTALS CRITIC | ANNA ANZANI COLLABORATOR | MARIA KRITSKAYA

| 43

Former Psychiatric Hospital of Mombello, situated in the Monza-Brianza municipality, is now a deteriorated site with most of its buildings out of function. The expanded site - which also includes Villa Pusterla, an Othrodox Church, and the hospital facilities such as pavilions, offices, pharmacies and services - has been subject of continuous construction from the late 19th century to the 80s. In an effort to bring the Hospital to the former

AUD ITO RIUM WITH A FIXED STAG E

functionality and add to the programmatic offer of the site, the project tries to redesign the whole site and renew and repurpose the old thermal power plant for laundry to an auditorium with a fixed stage. The design of the site prioritizes the pedestrian areas with a grid system of walkways and a main boulevard. Green areas through formalist planning and natural occurrences create unique experiences throughout the site, which is also enriched with sports fields and water bodies. The power plant building is not structurally damaged, though its surface has deteriorated through weathering and vandalism. Small buildings elements, windows, floor finish, and tie beams have broken and need careful restoration and replacement. To appropriate the building to an auditorium several new additions must also be placed.

SWOT ANALYSIS Well preserved Simple structure Clear span High ceiling Generic materials

STRENGTHS OPPORTUNITIES Location in complex Sorrounding functions Interesting/walkable area Open space outside & around

Inaccessible west facade Ceiling shape (acoustics) Axial plan

WEAKNESSES THREATS Low density settlement Remote location Limited access Availability of original materials

EXISTING CONDITIONS | DESIGN STRATEGY | 45

FORMALIST PLANNING AND NATURAL OCCURRENCES

REPURPOSING THE BUILDINGS AND DESIGNING THE OPEN SPACE

SITE PLAN | 47

The design of the Auditorium revolves around three main design strategies:

AU D ITORI U M WITH A FIXE D STA G E

1. Preservation of strong elements, 2. Addition of new elements conforming to the existing building, 3. Programmatic repurposing. The materiality of the building is considered one of its few distinguished features. Flooring finish, industrial remnants and the brick ceiling are preserved and exposed.

A stage, cloak room, round table and seats for the audience are some of the new additions which reference the existing materials although being of a different nature. The wing tunnel and basement are repurposed to new service areas. Following Camillo Boito’s stance in Preservation, the design preserves all the artistic and historic components of the buildings and makes sure the new additions contrast with them, so that a clear reading of what is restored and what designed is possible.

MATERIALITY

RENOVATION, PRESERVATION, AND ADDITIONS

NEW FUNCTIONS

PRESERVATION, ADDITION AND REPURPOSING | 49

The somewhat dull facade of the former plant power has been vandalized continuously after it ceased to function. Though usually looked upon as

AUD ITORI U M WITH A FIXE D STA G E

degradation, the graffiti here has given the facade a coat of liveliness and has broken the sterility of the main facade. With the implementation of the new outdoor stage, the facade obtains the role of the background curtains of the theater scene. In order to satisfy this new role, a new facade is designed: white, metal sheets, perforated with canonical movie scenes - a post-mortem reference to the Pop nature of the frowned-upon graffiti. The metal facade is subject to planned weathering, which will unify it with the existing sun protection sheets that are already oxidized. In unifying with the existing materials, the new design acquires a synthesized character, while leaving the possibility for clear reading of the intervention layers by being strongly linked with the new function of auditorium.

POST-MORTEM REFERENCE TO THE EXISTING GRAFFITI

PLANNED DECAY OF THE NEW FACADE

DESIGN OF THE MAIN FACADE | 51

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Frampton, Kenneth, Modern Architecture, London, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1980.

Hertzberger, Herman, Lessons for Students, Rotterdam, 010 Publishers, 1991.

Loos, Adolf, Ornament and Crime, Penguin Books, Limited, 2019.

Negri, Antonello, Cinque album e fogli sparsi. Piero Portaluppi disegnatore umoristico e satirico, 2003 Pallasmaa, Juhani, The Eyes of the Skin, Great Britain: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2005.

Rossi, Aldo, Architecture of the City, New York, The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1982.