Kyra Ahier Architecture Portfolio '17 (Outdated)

Portfolio architecture + design

2017

KYRA AHIER

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Hello! I am currently in my second year of studies at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture.

My interest in the geometry of spaces and their impact on people translates to a thoughtful exploration of how we can decipher, represent and shape the complexities of our environment.

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2B University of Waterloo School of Architecture Cambridge ¡ Ontario kyra.ahier@gmail.com +1 613 869 8316

Contents

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01

Curriculum Vitae

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02

Reclaiming the City and the Home

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Ode to the Roman Empire 24·27

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Gridscape 28·39

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Installation Library

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Blanket 50·55

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Marchi Architectes

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Personal Work 62·65

40·49

56·61

8·23

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Curriculum Vitae

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E D U C AT I O N 2015 · present 2010 · 2015

University of Waterloo Candidate for Bachelor of Architectural Studies Lycée Claudel d’Ottawa French Baccalaureate System, Science Stream, Specialization in Physics-Chemistry,

Baccalauréat Mention Très Bien (Highest Honours), AP English

E X PE R I E NCE 2017 (01·04)

Marchi Architectes

Architectural Intern, Paris, France

SKILLS digital

analog

Rhinoceros 3D, Maxwell Render, Grasshopper 3D, AutoCad, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop hand-drafting (graphite, ink), model-making

E X H I BI T IONS · PHOTO GR APH Y 2015 2011 · 2014 2012 · 2014 2013 2012

Bridge Centre for Architecture + Design Shenkman Arts Centre SAW Gallery; Ottawa School of Art fundraisers Exposure Gallery; Chinatown Remixed Festival Orange Gallery; Galerie d’art Eugène-Racette

Cambridge Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa

AWA R D S · ACH I EVEMENT S 2017 2015 · 2016 2015 2014 · 2012 · 2011

President's International Experience Award University of Waterloo Excellent Academic Standing Academic Standing above 80% University of Waterloo President’s Scholarship with Distinction Entrance average 95%-100% University of Waterloo Young at Art city-wide juried art competitions Judges Choice Award, SPAO Award for Photography, Honourable Mention for Photography

L A NG UAGES English (fluent), French (fluent), Spanish (basic)

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Reclaiming the City and the Home

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Central Public Space

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Bloor Street W. Toronto · Canada

This project proposes a remake of the urban, social, spatial and economic structure of the city in response to urban disenfranchisement and social differences brought by Post-Fordist capitalism.

Addressing the social separation of different age groups, as well as the privatization of public space, this project establishes a symbiosis between these isolated population groups through two complemetary L-shaped buildings that, when pulled apart, create a charged space of potentiality — ­ a porous public space that translates Henri Lefebvre’s ‘Right to the City’. In addition to this return to the urban commons, this project focuses on housing through time, and therefore on a flexibility and spatial agency that allows for changeability in response to the inhabitants’ evolving needs and conditions. This spatial agency

happens through the formalisation of Gilles Deleuze’s ‘empty square’, this structuralist positive void that allows for appropriation and production of space in places of simultaneity and encounters, thus shifting social dynamics and power relations. This empty square manifests itself on multiple levels: through the public space delineated by the buildings, and in the common cores of each building. This appropriation of space and flexibility, spatial at the level of the unit and structural at the level of the cores of common space, removes this project from the capitalist cycle of consumerism and planned obsolescence, and therefore empowers the ‘urban inhabitant’ in the context of the Grand Domestic Revolution.

2A Design Studio · Adrian Blackwell Academic Work · Fall 2016

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M A R G U E R E T TA S T.

E M E R S O N AV E .

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B L O O R S T . W.

Ground Floor

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Roof Floor 7 Floor 3­·6 Floor 2

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Plan Elevation Positive Void

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Section

Typical Upper Floor

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Floor 2 (cafe laudromat)

Interior Common Space

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Section

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Street Facade

1 person (basic module)

2/3 people (basic module x2)

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3/4 people (basic module x3)

4/5 people (basic module x4)

Unit Plan

bright social

1 3

2 dry soft

4

6

5

wet hard

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

social · bright · soft/hard · dry/wet social · bright · soft · dry social · bright · hard · wet social · bright · soft/hard · dry/wet social · bright · hard · wet isolated · dark · soft · dry isolated · dark · hard · wet

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dark isolated

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dark · light

isolation · exposure

Spatial Qualities

soft · hard

dry · wet

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Process Sketches

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Unit Interior

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Model ¡ 1:200 (basswood)

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Model ¡ 1:200 (basswood)

Ode to the Roman Empire

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Model ¡ 1:50 (plexiglass, acrylic, museum board, mylar, basswood)

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Piazza San Marco Venice 路 Italy

Our project consists of a 1:50 physical model of a pavilion of our design, located in the centre of Piazza San Marco. Surrounded by arched facades, our project explores the use of arches as basic form. A rythmic array of transparent arches create a layered space, with each layer of arches slightly offset in order to create depth of field.

This weightless and fluid upper space sits above a darker and heavier chamber below that acts as a cavernous retreat in the middle of the plaza. These two spaces are mediated through artificial palm trees that perforate the plate seperating the lower and upper spaces, with 1m circular openings, providing lightwells and views down below.

The lightweight material of the palms flutters in the wind, imitating the swaying of leaves caught in the breeze.

Henry Pether, The Piazetta in Venice by Night

Partners: Rachel Lau 路 Ruth Lee 2A Digital Fabrication 路 Connor O'Grady, Jake Read Academic Work 路 Fall 2016

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Concept Sketches

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Chamber Below

Gridscape

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Intersections

Ontario Place Toronto · Canada

This project explores the development of large scale strategies of landscape, building and program for Ontario Place.

Our master plan consists of three layers: the grid, the topography and the landscape, which acts as a mediator between the first two. The gridded superstructure floats above the site at a single datum, while the topography undulates, interveaving between the grid, creating situations of tension between the artificial rigid infrastructure and the landscape.

The project creates an alternation between the dominance of the grid vs. the dominance of the landscape.

Visitors find themselves within these situations of tension between the grid and the landscape, creating specific

spatial experiences. The undulating ground plane creates a variety of spaces associated with different landscapes that are defined and organized based on their spatial qualities. The visitor discovers each landscape through movement through the site, following a direct and unambiguous pathway on the grid or a meandering pathway on the ground plane. The grid and the landscape intersect to gently bring the visitor on or off the grid. The play between infrastructure and landscape creates new ways in which one views and interacts with the surrounding landscape, constrasting removal vs. immersion in the landscape, both possible from within and away from the infrastructural grid.

Partner: Brandon Lim 2B Design Studio · Lola Sheppard Academic Work · Spring 2017

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1

2

3

30 4

1 Grid 2 Program 3 Landscape 4 Topography

Concept

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Model ¡ 1:500 (museum board, coloured cardstock, basswood)

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bright · dark

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loud · quiet

wild · maintained

protected · exposed

dry · wet

lush · barren

Spatial Qualities Section

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9 4

12 6

1

8

15

1

13

13

5 15

9

10

11

7

1 8

2 6

7 14

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Grassland (meadow) Grassland (hill) Grassland (shrubs) Grassland (flooded) Beach (fine) Beach (coarse) Rockland (low) Rockland (high)

9 Forest (boreal) 10 Forest (bamboo) 11 Forest (aspen) 12 Garden 13 Marsh 14 Asphalt 15 Exposed water 16 Protected water

Taxonomy of landscapes Section

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1.

2

3

4

7

8

9

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Program Matrix Section

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6

11

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1 Amphitheatre 2 Pods 3 Beach Pavilion 4 Log Cabins 5 Marina 6 Water Collection

7 Cinesphere 8 Geology Centre 9 Greenhouses 10 Farmer’s Market 11 Shelter/Pavilion

Program Distribution Section

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Towards Water

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Towards City

Installation Library

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1071 Queen Street W. Toronto · Canada

This project focusses on the idea of experience and journey by providing a multitude of possible pathways, letting the visitor wander through the building and discover the different spaces that are revealed through the action of moving. Playing with the succession of compression and expansion, light and dark, the building creates an acute sensory experience for visitors meandering between the solid concrete and marble masses and volumes contained within a veil. This library balances experience, learning and creating by providing a variety of types of spaces: installation space, working space, social space and a makerspace.

1B Design Studio · Lola Sheppard Academic Work · Winter 2016

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42 W H I T E S Q U I R R E L WA Y

Q U E E N S T R E E T W.

Roof Plan

FENNING STREET

1 Core 2 Installation 3 Information 4 Makerspace 5 Social 6 Gallery 7 Administration

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5

4

1

3

3

3 2

Third Floor

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3

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1 5

2

2 2

2

2

Second Floor

5

3

1

7

Ground Floor

Plans

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sectional perspective, facing south

Q U E E N S T R E E T W.

North Elevation

W H I T E S Q U I R R E L WA Y / FENNING STREET

East Elevation

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Elevations Process Sketches

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Sequential Vignettes

Q U E E N S T R E E T W.

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Section, facing East (top)

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Q U E E N S T R E E T W.

Section, facing West (bottom)

Blanket

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Bassin de l'Arsenal Paris 11e · France

As a way to address Paris’ lack of green space, as well as the revitalisation of the banks of the Seine, we suspended an undulating plane above the Bassin de l’Arsenal. The project explores a richer experience of urbanity through the vertical layering of space and urban conditions, providing an amenity for public events such as festivals and concerts while reclaiming the water.

The primary structure is a freeform space frame, composed of hollow steel members joined by node connections. The structure is suspended from four masts with steel cables. The slight angular differences between the individual steel members achieve a gently rolling landscape — a blanket over the water.

Bassin de l'Arsenal, view towards Bastille

Partner: Severyn Romanskyy SSEF 'Suspend' Steel Competition 1B Building Construction · Terri Boake Academic Work · Winter 2016

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vegetation soil filter fabric drainage panel / reservoir root barrier waterproofing membrane reinforced concrete corrugated steel space frame

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Detailed Section (top)

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Section (bottom)

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Above Structure

Planting System

Reinforced Concrete Corrugated Steel Sheathing

Space Frame (Freeform double-layered grid space frame with top chord and bottom chord held in position by the use of diagonal framing elements.

The individual steel pipes are assembled with the use of node connections.)

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Steel Masts

Node Connection (node, steel pipes, cable)

Node Connection (node, steel pipes)

Mast Connection (mast, cables)

Axonometric (exploded) Connection Details

Node Connection (section)

Internship, Marchi Architectes

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Study Model (museum board)

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Marchi Architectes Paris ¡ France

During my internship at Marchi Architectes, I worked on various projects of different scales, from residential to public buildings. My responsabilities included physical model making, 3D digital modelling, creating perspectival images as final representation drawings as well as design iterations, design proposals in terms of spatial organization, materiality and detail, and preparation of presentation material for clients.

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Professional Work ¡ Winter 2017

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Interior (design proposal)

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Sketches (design proposal)

Interior (project visualization)

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Concept (project visualization)

Personal work

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07

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New York

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Vienna

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Chicago

Kyra Ahier kyra.ahier@gmail.com +1 613 869 8316