INSIDE Graduation projects 2016-17

INSID E / GR A DUATION

GRADUATION PROJECT

The Room of an Architect

ARVAND POURABBASI

A RVA ND POUR A BBASI

Country Iran Email arvand.pa@gmail.com Graduation tutor Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius (Raumlaborberlin) Website www.worknot.info https://theroomofanarchitect.tumblr. com

Rethinking the reality of a young architect’s life-work situation This project is a representation and proposal for the precarious life and work conditions of nomadic architecture students and young architects. I bring up this issue about the uncertainty of today’s architectural profession because it is frequently unnoticed and considered quite normal. Being in this position myself I researched the related design questions by re-drawing one-to-one scale sketches, making models and doing experiments in order to present firsthand takes on the issue. With these strategies I aim to provoke affordable spaces of living/working for young practitioners through inhabiting unused spaces of existing buildings.

Today the nomadic knowledge workers and young practitioners experience a blur of borders between places where they live and where they work. Generally their tiny bedrooms are set up as workspaces to connect them to the rest of the world, both through online and offline means. Ideally, working as a freelance architect you can afford to pay for a separate

THE ROOM OF A N A RCHITECT

working space but most of the time this is not the case. On the other hand, to get a job at an architectural office requires a long preparation of gathering skills and making portfolios.

In the contemporary history of architecture, especially in the sixties and seventies, the notion of working/living units has been addressed in numerous projects. Many of these projects have either remained on paper, or have never been realised because of their costly productions. Thus in my opinion it is still an issue that, especially nowadays, need to get more attention.

By experimenting with one to one scale build projects within existing spaces and to research their potential for the buildings and the urban fabric of the city, I hope to bring forward this tangible issue and to add an extra layer of veracity to my project.

Representation of the strategy for the room of an architect, inhabiting the back staircase of Kunst fabrik am Flutgraben e.V. Berlin. Photo by Ishka Michocka.

A RVA ND POUR A BBASI

Opening event of “ The Room of an A rchitect ” project in staircases of Kunst fabrik, featuring the Room occupying the staircase from below. Photo by Ishka Michocka.

Section of the staircase and the strategies of inhabiting its lef tover spaces, in the building of Kunst fabrik am Flutgraben e.V. Berlin.

THE ROOM OF A N A RCHITECT

A xonometric redrawing of three rooms used by architects. From lef t: Bauhaus dormitor y room, my room in parents’ house in Tehran, my current room in a shared flat in Rot terdam.

The interior of the Room (living / working space) showing its minimal and adaptable features inspired by elemental Persian spatial arrangements. Photo by Ishka Michocka.

Crawling into this lef tover space of the staircase transformed into an elevated reading room.

Photo by Ishka Michocka.

A RVA ND POUR A BBASI

Transformation of a par t of the staircase into a mini- cinema, featuring screenings for collective and group programs. Photo by Ishka Michocka.

Furnishing the stairs with adaptable objects, based on the shapes and dimensions of these stairs. This image shows the cinema chair. Photo by Ishka Michocka.

INSID E / GR A DUATION

GRADUATION PROJECT The Street as a Communal Space Faro, Portugal

ISADORA DAVIDE

ISA DOR A DAVID E

Country: Portugal Email: isadora_davide@hotmail. com Graduation tutor: Fokke Moerel (MVRDV)

Shaping a communal street through the vacant space. Faro, Portugal.

Streets are spaces of collective memory; they are spaces that create a mental image of the urban environments in cities and they must offer, for instance, more facilities for its residents then just parking spaces. To recover local streets is in my view fundamental for a successful urban regeneration and more sustainable development of cities all over the world. Also, the communal use of the street has the potential of bringing together residents with a different economic, social and cultural background.

Faro is my hometown and although some of its streets are unloved, I felt always intimate to this city. For my project I focussed on an in-between area between the medieval historical centre and a more urbanized, modern area where a large part of the population of Faro lives. It is also a part of the city which was developed before the automobile era and during the course of time the streets were forcedly adapted to serve the car. Due to this transformation, the streets lost their social qualities.

THE STREE T AS A COMMUN A L SPACE

Following an existing municipality plan for sustainable mobility, my project is developed on top of that as an extension on the city plan. My strategy is to involve the neighborhood with new possibilities of using the street aiming for a workable balance between being a meeting place and a traffic space.

The project is based on different layers by creating several scenarios using the commercial spaces as activators, insuring the presence of people as an essential tool to ensure safety in the street and by re-using the vacant buildings as an affordable economic possibility to provide new programme in the street. It is my ambition to contribute on how to reactivate the potentiality of the street as a communal space.

THE BYCICLE REPAIR HOUSE HOTEL

75 m2 STOP MINI BUS

THE LAUNDRY HOUSE

GROCERY STORE

75 m2 STATION BIKE SHARING

PARKING ENTRY/ EXIT

1180 m2 THE NEIGHBORHOOD COMMITTEE

CAFE

CONFECTIONERY

HAIRDRESSER

HAIRDRESSER

S PAS

CLOTHING STORE

AGE

JEWERELY STORE

CAFE

SUSHI RESTAURANT

AGE

S PAS

STATIONERY SHOP

THE READING HOUSE

SEAMSTRESS

TATTOO SHOP

RESTAURANT

HOTEL

SEAMSTRESS PASTRY SHOP

SOCIAL DAY CARE HOUSE

Street space distribuition

PIZZERIA

THE FARMING HOUSE

THE GARDEN HOUSE

ISA DOR A DAVID E

MUNICIPALITY

UNDERGROUND PARKING

BIKE SHARING NETWORK SQUARE COLLECTIVE TRANSPORT

VACANT BUILDINGS

COMMERCE

NEIGHBORHOOD COMMITTEE

NEIGHBORHOOD

DESTINATION VISITORS

SPACE MONEY TIME

The strategy organization

The proposal for the square

THE STREE T AS A COMMUN A L SPACE

Street scenario

Street vision

ISA DOR A DAVID E

Proposal for vacant space: The play house

The inside/outside relationship

Proposal for vacant space: The garden house

INSID E / GR A DUATION

GRADUATION PROJECT

The Unfinished House - What If This Was Great ?

KLODIANA MILLONA

K LODIA N A MILLON A

Country: Albania Email: klodimillona@gmail.com Graduation tutor: Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius (Raumlaborberlin)

My research has as a starting point the phenomenon of the incomplete houses left permanently under construction in Albania, an archipelago of unfinished buildings scattered all over the country. A whole landscape filled with concrete skeletons, some of them being in use, others completely vacant, and some still under construction. I explored this “unfinished” state with the aim to recognise values that can be translated into design strategies that advocate imaginative speculation, implying that it is not the fault of the house, nor the material, but of the social conditions.

By employing a banal optimism and a dose of humour, my research manifests itself as a kind of pseudo experimental methodology that questions the actual concept of the city.

Albania, in this case, provides a potential canvas to test speculations and interventions that have the disturbing and at the same time exiting question: What if this was great? What if this is the house of the future? The project tries to answer these questions by celebrating this permanent state of unfinishedness and encourage appropriation through time.

THE UNFINISHED H OUSE - WH AT IF THIS WAS GRE AT?

Anyone (including me in the beginning) could think that this is an in between situation, a turning point because of the economy and the political situation in Albania. But as I progressed my research I started seeing it as a way of understanding architecture itself. Strongly believing that architecture organises and builds relationships defining possible futures, this project supports the idea that it doesn’t have a beginning or an end and is always a continuity of something precedent.

Therefore, in this research the house is understood not as a single entity, but as a system of parts that go beyond its physicality.

“ Plug In” Interiors Cit y Today : A n A rchipelago of Dif ferent Rooms

K LODIA N A MILLON A

“ Unfinished Cit y ” Open Ended Future of The Cit y

Game as a Methodology Learning by Doing

THE UNFINISHED H OUSE - WH AT IF THIS WAS GRE AT?

“ Factor y of Societ y ” Negotiation as a new currency

K LODIA N A MILLON A

“ Decommodif ying the House” Built situations where social boundaries are continually negotiable

AT

AG

Life without dept Rethinking Domestic Space by promoting the sharing of facilities and the reduction of redundant domestic space.

INSID E / GR A DUATION

GRADUATION PROJECT The Kumamoto Memorial Site

MAKIKO MORINAGA

M A KIKO MORIN AGA

Country: Japan Email: guriko@tv-asahi.co. jp Graduation tutor: Aser Gimenez-Ortega (MVRDV)

Never ending memories in Japan My project is deeply connected with my experience of earthquakes in Japan. A severe earthquake hit my hometown Kumamoto last spring. Talking to victims and hearing their sad stories I started to think of two topics to relate to for my design: sharing memories and the inheritance of memories.

Will the memories of the disasters by the victims lead to a spiritual healing by sharing them with others? I feel it is my mission as a designer to contribute to the “healing” for the victims, “learning” for the visitors and “celebrating” for all people and to design a space to share memories together.

As a facility that respond to all three elements, I propose a Memorial Theme Park, re-using the existing Kumamoto Castle and its surrounding. Because in Japan there are a lot of theme parks for leisure activities all over the country, this memorial park can play a role in dealing with disasters and help to revitalize the damaged cities but also actively release the victims by creating a new community.

THE KUM A MOTO MEMORIA L SITE

To reach this goal I started with the Kumamoto Castle which was heavily damaged by the earthquake. In my proposal the Castle will be preserved as a reminder of the monumental disaster. To proactively preserve and show the traces of the earthquake, the building will play an important role to convey the tragedy to current and future generations. I also tend to do so by exhibiting art installations in the theme park dedic ated to the victims of the Kumamoto earthquake. In this way people will be able to emotionally share the tragedy of disasters although, unfortunately, it is impossible to control natural disasters and earthquakes may hit Kumamoto and other cities in Japan again in the future.

Poster main visual "KUM A MOTO Memorial Site"

M A KIKO MORIN AGA

"Healing" area

"Celebrating" area

"Learning" area

"A ll elements"

THE KUM A MOTO MEMORIA L SITE

The Castle Museum

The Castle Museum

M A KIKO MORIN AGA

The Factor y

The Bridge

Future of the "KUM A MOTO Memorial Site"

INSID E / GR A DUATION

GRADUATION PROJECT

King Of The Hood

MINJUNG KANG

MINJUN G K A N G

Country: South-Korea Email: minjung.kang803@gmail.com Graduation tutor: Fokke Moerel (MVRDV)

A sophisticated O2O service as a methodology to regain the lost values in a rapidly developing Seoul In South Korea the meaning of public space has evolved tremendously in the last century. From togetherness and sharing into spaced owned by the government into commercially and privately owned spaces used by individuals. Depending on its use public spaces are designed in different ways and the activities taking place has changed over the last decades.

Public squares in Seoul for instance are nowadays mostly used for demonstrations; a river park is filled up with tents and the owners claim the public space as theirs. Also private indoor places are rented for social gatherings. I studied a lot of these cases and find one historical place which connected all different kind of social uses, this is the Madang. This typical traditional Korean house with an internal courtyard used to be the center of the communal life where all kind of social gatherings occur, also for outsiders. However, during the course of time its social function got pushed out from the private domain into the public realm.

KIN G OF THE H OOD

In the course of my research I conclude that re-introducing the typology of the Madang can be an answer to design public space in Seoul that meet the needs of today Korean culture. In this way the Madang 2.0 will remind how relationships were shaped in the past. In my proposal I suggest to use the online O2O delivery service as a tool while everyone uses it frequently and it has the advantage that it is free of charge. It is my aim that this project will contribute in such a way that the residents will embrace a new identity of Seoul and that it will create a stronger bridge between the history and the current modern society. Hopefully it will bring back communal life in public space in modern Seoul.

Facade with messages for new gatherings

MINJUN G K A N G

A diagram for Type A Space

A diagram for Type B Space

First scenario for Type C Space

KIN G OF THE H OOD

Second scenario for Type C Space

Three scenarios for Type A Space

MINJUN G K A N G

A garden for personal use

A botanical garden for spontaneous meetings

INSID E / GR A DUATION

GRADUATION PROJECT

Wormholes

MILA TEŠIĆ

MIL A TEŠIĆ

Country: Serbia Email: mila_91@msn.com Graduation tutor: Aser Gimenez-Ortega (MVRDV)

Awakening togetherness in Belgrade passages I was not born in Belgrade, but I have found many great loves there among them a love for the city itself. This love is an irrational thing, but it is the impulse which drove me to think about how I can make that dear city into a better place. There are certainly many ways to make it as such; I have chosen to try to resurrect the lost togetherness among the residents of Belgrade.

Togetherness is a specific kind of publicness; an awareness of one’s environment- human, built or natural. To resurrect it, I took a look back at my life in Belgrade in search of a common cause which people could relate to. Three abundant cracks in the city fabric emerged in my mind: a historical neighbourhood and its river bank taken hostage by a megalomaniac investment; two closed national museums; two beautiful rivers being neglected.

Three underground passages in the city centre appeared as the place to mend these cracks; in the past massively used by pedestrians but nowadays abandoned and disregarded. In my

WORMH OLES

proposal they are transformed into three immersive underground spaces driven by water: The garden, The artist and The spa.

The garden shows the magical virtue of water as the source of life; nature in all its jolly richness will flourish beneath the asphalt, soaked by purified rainwater. The artist reveals water as the archetype of rebirth: the end of a residency cycle will be marked by an event of washing away the art that covered every span of the passage. The spa gives the strollers a place to linger; a misty, safe urban interior given to people as a place to talk and meet.

The A r tist- the event of washing away the ar t from the walls

MIL A TEŠIĆ

The A r tist- before the walls are covered with new ar t work, the remains of colors are visible

The A r tist- section

The Spa- a serene, intimate, public space which invites the people to gather around heated / cooled water areas

WORMH OLES

The Spa- a view of the outdoor sauna pool

The Garden- an urban underground jungle

The Spa- section

MIL A TEŠIĆ

The Garden- talking corners where people can linger and meet

The Garden- section