Ja Architecture Studio Inc
Summer Internship
JaStudioInc , a Toronto based Architecture practice is looking for an intern for the summer of We are looking for an Architecture student (second year or higher) who is comfortable with Aut and Rhinoceros and preferably familiar with Adobe Suite. To apply; please e-mail your C.V. and a few of work samples to: info@jastudioinc.com
Applicants should be motivated and tuned with the studio culture. Please review the website to s your interest is aligned with what we do: www.jastudioinc.com
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174 Spadina Avenue, Unit 104, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5T 2C2, T:4165942300 F:4165942301 W: http://jastudioinc.com
Who we are Ja Architecture Studio Inc’s Profile Curriculum Vitae
Ja Architecture Studio Inc Ja Architecture Studio is a Toronto-based architecture practice with great interest in the role that design- oriented practices can play in bringing life and excitement to the projects and cities. The commitment of the firm is in getting engaged with highly ambitious projects that have grounds on buildability and cultural relevance. Founded by a duo of a registered architect and a landscape designer, supported by a group of passionate designers the studio have been successful in participating in a range of realized projects of different scales and have been published in numerous international media.
Our team Nima Javidi Principal
Is a registered Architect in Ontario, Canada with a Master of Urban Design post-professional degree from University of Toronto. Having worked in award winning firms in Toronto he has developed an interest and expertise in crossing the disciplinary boundaries between Architecture and other design practices.
Behnaz Assadi Partner
is a Landscape designer with a bachelor degree in Fine Arts. She is a Partner in JaStudioInc in Toronto. Her interest and expertise in focused on topics and areas of our contemporary landscape that have been left out from the scope of traditional landscape design, mainly Landscape Urbanism.
Moon Joo Lee
Moon Joo Lee is an architectural designer with Master of Architecture degree from University of Michigan with years of professional experience in Korea and the US. His interest in design has brought him from corporate firms to a small design oriented practice while carrying with him an organized and disciplined approach to architecture design.
Curriculum Vitae Education . 2005, Master of Urban Design, Faculty of Architecture,Landscape & Design, University of Toronto . 2001, Master of Architecture, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran-Iran . 1993, High school diploma in Physics-Mathematics, Alborz high school, Tehran, Iran .
Registration and Professional Associations . 2009, Ontario Association of Architects, Registered Architect . 2008, Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), LEED™ Accredited Professional .
Nima Javidi, OAA, MArch, LEED AP
Academic Awards and Positions . 2005, H. Reisman Gold Medal in Design, Awarded annually to one thesis project among three programs of Architecture, Landscape and Urban Design in the faculty of AL&D
University of Toronto 2005, Wegman Fellowships . Wegman 2004, U. Of T. Fellowship, ARCLA . 2004, Visual Communication Teaching Assistantship . 2003, U. Of T. Fellowship, ARCLA . 2003, Visual Communication Teaching Assistantship .
Work Experience . 2009, Ja Studio Inc., Toronto, ON . 2005-8, Baird Sampson Neuert Architects, Toronto ON .
Residential: West Don Lands Block 23 (Market & Affordable) Housing, Toronto Canada. Design Project Architect and BIM (Revit) coordinator for parametric analytical studies (massing envelope, density, sun-shadow and program studies; quantity take-offs for consultants and manufacturers) from schematic design and design development
phase of the (21,000 m²) project.
program studies; quantity take-offs for consultants and manufacturers) from schematic design and design development phase of the (21,000 m²) project. Westside Lofts, Toronto Canada (2005-6) . Design Project Architect for marketing package; Job Captain for Site Plan Approval, Committee of Adjustment and Rezoning Applications (29,000 m²) to the city.
Institutional: University of Toronto Scarborough Campus Arrival Court (2006) . Job Captain. Construction document phase . University of Toronto Scarborough Campus Science Wing terrace additions (2006) . Design Assistant. Schematic design phase . Cornell University Plantation Visitor Center (2006) . Design Assistant. Planning phase . 2003-5, Prototype Design Lab, Toronto ON . PDLab booth in the Toronto Interior Design Show (2005) . Designer, CAD/CAM modeling and shop supervision . Hammam spa, Interior Design(2005) . Design, CAD/CAM modeling . Various Benson & Hedges stainless steel bars across Downtown Toronto clubs (2003-4) . 2001-3, Independent practice with A.Farzin, Tehran Iran . BM Residence (2001-7) . Design Architect. From schematic design through to construction drawing and one year of site review . 2002, A.Tec Consultants, Tehran Iran . VIP Terminal for IKIA (Tehran’s new international airport) . Competition Designer; First phase design . 1998, Draftsman in Aga Khan Award for Architecture . Redrawing the documents of the winner projects for AKAA publication by Thames & Hudson .
Competitions . 2003, Designing the High Line Competition, Manhattan-New York . 2003, Grand Egyptian Museum Architecture Competition, Egypt . 2002, VIP Terminal for IKIA airport (Tehran’s new international airport) . 2000, Student Design charrette, Tehran-Iran .
Curriculum Vitae Education . 2008, Master of Landscape Architecture Faculty of Architecture Landscape and Design, University of Toronto 2002, Diploma in Interior Design Faculty of Fine Arts, Tehran University, Tehran – Iran 2001, Bachelor of Fine Arts Faculty of Fine Arts, Tehran University, Tehran- Iran 1996, High school diploma in Science Paknejad school, Tehran-Iran
Behnaz Assadi, MLA, BFA
Work experience 2009, JaStudioInc, Toronto, ON 2008, Full-time employment in Centre for Landscape Research at Faculty of AL&D ,University of Toronto. Design assistant in Columbus Re-wired (AIA competition), Heights of Design (Competition organized by Unioncamere Piemonte and the Piemonte Region Authority in Northern Italy), Venice Lagoon Competition( 2G in collaboration with Santa & Cole, Città di Venezia, and Parco della Laguna di Venezia). Design coordinator, on Ontario Food Terminal Project, Toronto, Ontario. 2007, Internship at Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam. 3D modeling and rendering for Almaty science center in Kazakhstan, De Rotterdam in Rotterdam. Four of the drawings are uploaded on the Project section of OMA web site: http://www.oma.eu/ 2005-6, Research Assistant, Al&D University of Toronto Working with Professor Pierre Belanger on the “Underground Project” 3D mapping and modeling of the Toronto under ground pathway system. 2001, Full-time employment, Ayandeh Pardaz Co.Tehran-Iran Art director and Graphic Designer.
Competition and Awards 2007, Special Mention in 2G Int ernational Design Competition for Venice Lagoon. Organized by 2G in collaboration with Santa & Cole, Città di Venezia, and Parco della Laguna di Venezia. Design Team: Pierre Belanger,behnaz assai, Ed Zec, Hoda Matar. 2007, Honorable Mention in AIA Columbus Re-Wired Competition Organized by the American Institute of Architects. Design Team: Pierre Belanger, Behnaz Assadi, Ed Zec.
2007, Second Place Prize in Heights of Design Competition Organized by Union camere Piemonte and the Piemonte Region Authority in Northern Italy. Design team: Pierre Belanger, Behnaz Assadi , Ed Zec. 2006, Professional Experience Program award, AL&D University of Toronto A portfolio based award for student internship in five outstanding architecture and design offices; one student is selected for each firm. 2004, Brickstop awards, AL&D, University of Toronto 2002, Jury Selection, High Line Competition, NewYork. Collaborating with Nima Javidi
Architecture Interior Design Landscape Competition Furniture Architect: Nima Javidi, Afshin Farzin Office(s): Ja Architecture Studio Inc, Tadj Farzin Studio Location: Astalak, Iran Date: 2002-Present
BM’s Residence, Astalak, Tehran, 2003-2008 The project is a single family residence located on a hilltop in a region that is about 20km away from Tehran. The general concept is about a series of spaces that are organized around a central circulation core and follow the slope of the site and engage in a dialogue with the site while maintaining a straight forward circulation principle. The exposed concrete structure of the project has been the biggest construction challenge of the project as it has been one of the very few projects in the residential sector of Iran that has used this system and managed to deliver proper execution of this delicate system for a complex structure. Other than the main building there are a few ancillary functions in the program that have all been embedded into the topography of the site.
BM’s Residence Architecture Interior Design Landscape Competition Furniture Architect: Nima Javidi, Afshin Farzin Interior Design: Nima Javidi, Antonio Tadrissi Office(s): Ja Architecture Studio Inc, Tadj Farzin Studio, Prototype design lab Location: Astalak, Iran Date: 2009-2010
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The Fireplace of the party room of Bm’s Residence
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The fabrication process of the “great room’s” fire place
Family room’s Kitchen of Bm’s Residence
The fabrication process of the family room’s kitchen’s Island
The fabrication process of the working kitchen’s Island
BM’s Residence Architecture Interior Design Landscape Competition Furniture Architect: Nima Javidi, Afshin Farzin Office(s): Ja Architecture Studio Inc, Tadj Farzin Studio, Prototype design lab Location: Astalak, Iran Date: 2009-2010
The Ramp House As Part of the BM’s residence The ramp houseis a combination of a small house for the concierge of a big residence and an office space for the client. Both units are inserted in an appendix structure that integrates all of the peripheral and infrastructural requirements of the property. Aside from the live and work units the appendix structure incorporates a vehicular ramp, a pedestrian bridge, two mechanical rooms, a pool and the street sidewalk. The location of the main building on the site and the slope necessitated the creation of a series of retaining walls to support the circulation platforms to the base of the mainbuilding, these retaining walls were designed as hollow box sections to support the floors above them while housing the required functions inside. For example to support the vehicular access ramp of the main building, a tubular box structure is created. The hollow section of this structure is turned into an office space with punctured openings on its south face to provide light and view while minimizing the overwhelming presence of the whole structure on the site.
The concierge’s house is the below-grade portion of the property wall; it supports the soilbehind it while housing a small two story unit. The south face of the unit looks over the entrance vehicular ramp that provides access to the main building. The extreme proximity of the ramp and the residential space is mediated through the deep double skin façade.
View of the Gard house from the extendsion of the entry ramp
IDS -05 Architecture Interior Design Landscape Competition Furniture Designers: Nima Javidi, Antonio Tadrissi Office(s): Ja Architecture Studio Inc, Prototype design lab Location: Toronto, Canada Date: 2005
IDS 2005 Prototype Design Lab exhibition booth in IDS 2005, was to represent the ideas and objectives of a design and fabrication group with a conceptual space. The goal was to blur some of the driving lines inherent in the design and construction discipline .The proposal used IDS 2005 as a platform to reinvestigate the common concept in space design of our built environment and avoid residing on the familiar aesthetics and dare to experiment the new, while maintaining the finesse of every detail.
West Side lofts Architecture Interior Design Landscape Competition Furniture Designers: Nima Javidi Office(s): Baird Sampson Neuert Architects Location: Toronto, Canada Date: 2006-2007
Currently in design, Westside Lofts is a 335-suite condominium residence located in former industrial lands west of Toronto’s central business district. The project is situated at the centre of the emergent Queen Street West district, newly revitalized by a host of boutique hotels, art galleries, shops, and restaurants.
Drava River, Maribor EPK 2012 competition Architecture Interior Design Landscape Competition Furniture Designers: Nima Javidi, Behnaz Assadi, Amin Tadj Office(s): Ja Architecture Studio Inc, Tadj Farzin Studio Location: Maribor, Slovenia Date: 2010
Drava River, Maribor, Slovenia -EPK 2012-Competition European capital of culture-2012
The city of Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia and it is getting ready to become the European Capital of Culture in 2012. As part of the three catalyst projects to revive the historic riverfront of the city, the city of Maribor host a competition to design a 150 meter long footbridge for walking and cycling on the location of a demolished historic bridge. Ja Studio’s proposal was an effort to re-visit the idea of the bridge as a multi-functional urban surface that resolves its geometry between the structural issues of crossing and spanning and the functional opportunities that may potentially arise from these structural necessities. Below is the submitted description for our entry:
The Drava Experience
Crossing the new pedestrian Lent-Tabor Bridge would be as important as spending time on it. The proximity of the existing bridges over Drava along Lent Tabor embankment provides an opportunity for the new bridge to perform more than a crossing bridge and become both a landmark and a vibrant urban surface that is intensely engaged with water.
The spontaneity of use
The bridge is designed as a 15m wide surface that can create a variety of experiential condition between people and Drava. The undulation of the bridge surface on one hand provides the structural stability of the bridge and at the same time allows the users to
reach the water and engage in variety of spontaneous activities. From collective joy of watching a rowing competition during Lent festival to a romantic encounter on a narrow walkway down from the ridge, the range of possible interaction of people and water becomes infinite. People’s spontaneous use of this urban surface would turn the bridge to an urban spectacle. The top surface of the bridge would be covered with wood decking that turns to steps on the accessible areas and morphs into a single sloped surface on the steep conditions. The single surface areas will be protected from public access by a combination of steel tube guardrails. The ridge of the surface is a horizontal pathway that forms a datum for the bridge and connects the two sides of the bridge.
Drava as the reflection of Maribor
As part of the bridge experience would be from underneath, the underside of the bridge is clad with mirror finished copper roofing sheets to both protect the structure of the bridge and reflect the Drava ripples and the colors of historic Maribor clay tile roofs. The image of Drava is the reflection of Maribor and the bridge. The choice of copper as the material for the underside of the bridge once reflected in Drava would give more presence to this idea. The harmony of copper with the roof clay tiles would tie the reflected image of Lent to the reflected image of Tabor and would seamlessly connect the two sides of the river.
Plan of the pedestrian bridge proposal
The Drava Experience; Drava River, Maribor, Slovenia -EPK 2012-Competition
Kaohsing Maritime Cultural& popular music centre international competition Architecture Interior Design Landscape Competition Furniture Designers: Nima Javidi, Amin Tadj, Behnaz Assadi, Moon Joo Lee Office(s): Ja Architecture Studio Inc, Tadj Farzin Studio Location: Kaohsing, Taiwan Date: 2010
Project description Our project is an effort to find simple pragmatic solutions for the Urban, Landscape and Architectural challenges of the site, yet allow for an uncompromised layer of surreal to flow through the site and claim its presence. The proposal is three expansive but light buildings that float above a waterfront park and use the unique geometry of the port to define an urban marine square for the city of Kaohsiung.
Architecture Building typology- Porous biscuit is our recipe to create buildings on pilotis that would urbanistically function. Waterfront locations require buildings that are accessed from both city and waterfront sides. Although many building types with two active fronts can be envisioned, in most cases the very bulk of the building becomes a separator in the city –water relationship. By raising the building, our proposal seamlessly connects the city and the water and guarantees public access and public nature of such a key urban location. By incorporating a thin-porous building plate floating above a retail embedded landscape the proposed typology would eliminate the common shortcomings of the pilotis and creates a vibrant urban shaded area suitable for the subtropical hot and humid summers of Kaohsiung. The functional strategy- The three main buildings on the site are aligned with the three sides of the port. The North and West buildings would contain the Pop Music functions and the east building along the wharf would provide the Marine Culture spaces. The functional complexity of the project is resolved on three sectional layers; parking/service level, park level and elevated building lobby. The main ingredients of the architecture are: Spiral ramp/entrance- Visitors would take the spiral ramps to go up from the ground to the lobby level or to the roof of the buildings. The location of the spiral ramps is in the proximity of major access points of the site. Yingxiong Rd. and Seashore Rd. intersection has been defined as the main vehicular and pedestrian access point to the project and consequently the main entrance/spiral ramp to the north building is located in close proximity to this intersection. Each ramp on its spiral way up gradually splits to form two flows, one to the interior of the ramp thickness and other directly to the roof. The flow leading to the interior spiral would be controlled and used by the building users however the part of the ramp that have access to the roof can be used by the general public. Connective lobby- The elevated lobby of the building would be the connective tissue for the programmatic elements of the project. This connective tissue is punctured by an array of elliptical voids providing light and air to the interior of the building as well as the pilloti below. The surface of each void tubes is clad with the mirrored glass to reflect the captured light down while not blocking the interior visual continuity of the lobby.
Programmatic nodes- Performance halls, exhibition spaces, incubation centers,‌ would be the functional nodes that are all accessed from the connective lobby. The location of each node is decided based on the theme of the building, Marine Culture vs. Pop Music, and the proximity of the nodes to the entrance spirals and exits. Functional nodes with distinct form and figures have been used in contrast to the quite sublimity of the elevated buildings to create moments of distinct notes along the quiet horizontal lines of the biscuit buildings.
Landscape The landscape proposal of the scheme overlays two approaches to the design of the green open space; The contemporary approach of performative landscape on one side and the traditional approach of painting with nature on the other. Overlaying of the two approaches of dealing with landscape has been used to allow each approach to be autonomous and truthful to its essence. The first approach focuses on ecology and sustainability of the site and the latter relies more on the sensual role of the nature in the urban environment. The key elements of the landscape proposal are: The park- The public park is the performative component of the landscape. It re-surfaces the area of the site that has been released by raising the buildings with pedestrian and bicycle pathways, congregation platforms and the outdoor performance area. To address the parking and service space requirements, and also to provide private access to the buildings above, a series of half-level underground parking and service parcels are embedded into the landscape. The frontage of these elevated green parcels would be light commercial units that would give life, natural surveillance and vibrancy to the park. The green parcels at the south west end of the site would blend in with the geometry of the existing Sightseeing Terrace building and extend the beauty of this structure throughout the site. Green Dragon- A free flow of bamboo trees move through the site and tie the three main buildings as well as the east and west parcels of the land. The bamboo flow would resist the strong winds on the site, retain the run-off storm water at its base (bio-swale), replace the notion of Red Carpet with Green Carpet at key access points to the buildings and last but not least the green dragon would dance in the wind, and create a surreal tree-top view to the landscape from the elevated buildings, reminiscent of scenes viewed from the vantage point of weightless mythical characters in the cinema of East Asia. The TVs in the park- The interactive exhibit areas both for pop music and marine culture are housed in five giant TVs dropped across the landscape of the site, juxtaposing the extreme drama of pop music onto the everyday intimacy of an urban park.
The recipe to make a biscuit
The wind and the dragon, The Bio swale; Surface water runoff / gray water management .
Urban Marine Square- The urban strategy of the project is to use the orthogonal shape of the site and the large scale of the program to frame and create a marine square at the intersection of Love River, port and the city. The three main buildings would spatially define the square and contain the noise inside the courtyard. The open stage platform with its mobile extension would be the focal point of this urban space. In order to transcend the events held in the open stage theater from the site scale to the city-wide scale, a digitally augmented image of the stage would be projected into the space of marine square at a much larger scale and allow the spectacle of pop music become the giant performing ghosts of the Kaohsiung skyline. The technique used to generate the digitally augmented reality would be weaving imagery using the light rays projected from the projectors installed on the edge the biscuit buildings into the ultra-sound fog created from the port water. By placing the outdoor performance stage and the digitally augmented scenes in the center of the marine courtyard the capacity of outdoor performance area can potentially overflow from the immediate auditorium to the whole perimeter of the courtyard including the park piloties, elevated buildings and even on the roofs, suddenly the marine courtyard would turn into a one of a kind giant outdoor performance space with ten times larger capacity than its outlined requirement; a potential inherent in the unique geometry of the site.
General view of the proposal on Kaohsiung skyline
The thin-porous building plate floating above is punctured by an array of elliptical voids providing light and air to the interior of the building as well as the pilloti below.
The view depicting the proposed green dragon replacing the notion of Red Carpet with Green Carpet at the main entrance to the performance hall building.
The image depicts the technique used to generate the digitally augmented reality; weaving imagery using the light rays projected from the projectors installed on the edge the biscuit building
gs into the ultra-sound fog created from the port water.
View of the marine cultural museum at night