Portfolio

Architectural Portfolio NANCY S. AL-ASSAF

Nancy Salman Al-Assaf nancy.alassaf@yahoo.com +962779007281

PhD of Architecture

contents

Architectural competition The Bardo Skyscraper

Undergraduate works The WALL OF RELEASE - Drugs recovery center framing the nature - villa design project Spontaneous order – children’s medical center break the rigidity -bank design Rehabilitation center for visually impaired

Morphological studies (graduate) douglas House by Richard Meier

- Constructive Morphology

The Rachofsky House by Richard Meier

- Constructive Morphology

01 The Bardo Skyscraper

In-Between Realms “Oceanic architecture is figured by ephemeral or interdeterminate boundaries that enable space to flow and thereby problematize fixed spatial identities”

Precepts • The creation of an ocean skyscraper means to be liberated from all building regulations at work; no rules or laws, no zoning regulations, and no restricting tradition. Only to respond to the forces of physical and metaphysics of the conceptual. It is the synergy of the abstract and the physical.

• It brilliantly captures the spirit of our era where design is no longer bound to the past or present conditions but to timeless principles and conditions that transcend time and space.

• The design of a skyscraper is not only the design of a building, it is the design of a transitional state or mediation between different realms; liquid and solid, natural and industrial, under and above, and more importantly between the tangible and intangible. It is the design of the in-between.

• To design a hotel is not only to design a lodging place for a short period of time; staying in a hotel is a joy in and of itself; it is the experience of the stay, not the purpose of the stay, in our opinion, that makes the stay in a hotel so appealing and enriching.

• A hotel is a paradox of providing a ‘home away from home’, a sense of excitement yet familiarity, alienation yet attachment.

It is the ultimate experience where you stay in a hotel for the sake of the stay rather than anything else. It is the delight of designing highly-serviced mega structures to provide ideal living conditions. In that sense, a hotel stands as a healthy balance of public and private spaces, personal and community interaction, and man and architecture.

Location: Pacific Ocean Date : 2014 Architectural competition: Honorable mention Team: Dr. Saleem M. Dahabreh & Rasha Alshami.

Role: worked on concept & form development + 3d Modelling and presentation

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Thus, the design an oceanic skyscraper hotel is the design of the ‘in-between’, a Bardo between realms. Bardo is a Tibetan word that literally means an “intermediate state” between two realms marking the end of one and the beginning of another.

Its ultimate manifestation of that moment of liberation between life and after life when the consciousness is not connected to the physical body but not yet part of the spiritual afterlife, accordingly being able to experience different phenomena.

The design transcends the design of a building to become the design of a liminal state that acts as a conscious state of being on the “threshold” of or between two different existential planes”. This ‘liminal’ state exists when structures dissolve and the stream of events undergoes a creative process of change, resulting in the spontaneous emergence of fundamentally new forms and modes of being. Thus a ‘liminal’ state is the state of being in the midst of a radical, whole system, evolutionary, quantum leap.

Architecturally speaking, the state of Bardo is created through two dimensions: • First : A spatial physical dimension where by creating a heterogeneous or hybrid structure that consists of a minimal hard structure of columns and beams that acts as a scaffolding that allows the skyscraper to stand, and a tensegric structure that uses isolated components in-compression inside a net of continuous tension, in such a way that the compressed bars or struts do not touch while the pre-stressed tensioned cables or tendons delineate the system spatially. Accordingly, the geometry of form oscillates between two extremes: an ideal geometry of order and proportions, and uncertain mathematics understood as probability and randomness. Henceforth, the line between the different spaces does not move in a specific direction but is a continuous oscillating movement, an endless back and forth between two or more spaces. It creates tension, vibration, and intensity. The composition contains a clear structure, but it is a unique and new, a self-forming structure, which is achieved by undoing the structure of fixed codes and static grids of conventional configurations. By mixing up different explicitly… a new form comes into being.

Thus, what we conceive is not only this or that style. What we conceive is basically the vibration—the clash in-between things, the process of becoming other.

•Second : The conscious dimension – experience (architectural motif): feeling of oceanic: in order to create a Bardo spiritually, the consciousness has to be detached from the physical body. This experience called astral travel “it is an interpretation of out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an “astral body” separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it” thus creating the Freudian “ oceanic feeling” a “feeling which he would like to call a sensation of eternity, a feeling as of something limitless, unbounded, something...“oceanic..“. The ocean here is used as metaphor because it provides the sense of limitless and boundless flow. Accordingly, the site naturally provides the feeling of oceanic in the horizontal dimension.

Therefore, in the tower, we are going to create this feeling in the vertical dimension. As a result, this will enhance the transitional state or the Bardo in the tower because it will act as a mediator between the oceanic feeling in the horizontal level and the vertical level.

Accordingly, the final form of the building represents a redefining of space via movement, the fusion of form, function, movement …, the transformation of the architectural figure-ground relation to become temporal rather than spatial, accordingly creating event spaces where architecture becomes event rather than an object suspended in a space of in-between that is fluid rather than static creating the traditional MA. This becomes clear in the pacific ocean architecture because “the openness of oceanic architecture derives from the sea.

Technological innovations Tensegrity structure is based on the use of isolated components in compression inside a net of continuous tension. It is a stable and efficient structure because it uses longitudinal members that are arranged in nonorthogonal patterns to achieve maximum strength. This principle makes it an important component inthe oceanic architecture to resist seismic forces.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion OTES and Seawater Air Conditioning SWAC through using Hybrid- “skeleton/skin� - structure.

Tensegrity

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion OTES and Seawater Air Conditioning SWAC

02 The WALL OF RELEASE - Drugs recovery center “Forms bathed in light. Inside and outside; below and above. Inside: we enter, we walk around, we look at things while walking around and the forms take on meaning, they expand, they combine with one another. Outside: we approach, we see, our interest is aroused, we stop, we appreciate, we turn around, we discover. We receive a series of sensory shocks, one after the other, varying in emotion: the jeu comes into play. We walk, we turn, we never stop moving or turning towards things” __ Le Corbusier

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Precepts Designing a center for recovery from addiction is an opportunity to study and explore ways of creating spaces and systems that bring their occupants closer to the cycles and patterns of human existence. The design approach is based on using architecture as a tool for reconnecting patient with their environment and themselves within places that stimulate human nature and evoke feelings, thinking and memory through unexpected experience. The building will act as a filter in order to provide safe places inside; and to act as a lens to see the world in new healthy way.

The creation on this wall and the functional organization follows two integrated theories.

First, the twelve-step program: international physiological treatment program for recovery from drugs addiction and second, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

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Location: Ajloun - hilly rural site Year : Fifth year - 2011

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Through the dialogue between nature and space, the project exemplifies a life time wall. Wall is a simple plane divides the world into two: on the exterior deflects the surrounding urban chaos and on the interior it encloses a private space. In three stages of treatment, this wall represents the changes in patient statues, it contains the wards and social platforms and supported by healing facilities in three phases of treatment. Throughout the healing Journey each space changes its identity according to the psychological needs of patients. While the patient progresses in the healing process, the spaces are transformed from being introverted to extroverted. Moreover, throughout the process of release, which exemplified during wall’s dematerialization, the patient ascends the mountain to reach at the end a rewarded suspended platform. In this platform everything is floated, only columns remain as traces from the wall to create a spiritual intermediate ending that connect sky with earth. To emphasizing the passage of time, different patterns of light are created: soft graduation of light and sharply contrasting light. In this project, light is used as design element to introduce life and soul to the building and to support the complexity of space.

site plan

third floor plan

fourth floor plan

fifth floor plan

interior shots inside the wall

interior shots inside the wall

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framing the nature - villa design project

The good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but one which makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before the building was built. __ Frank Lloyd Wright

Precepts The aim of this project is to design a house for a family where they can: sleep, live and work and interact with the surrounding nature. The interior spaces and the exterior landscapes are framed by floated planes to blur the boundaries between inside and outside. These planes deemphasize the solidity of architecture and replace it by glass planes to reflect and filter the events.

Location: Salt - hilly rural site Year : fourth year- 2010

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Left : form development White: sleeping zone Gray : private living zone Light green: public living zone Dark green: work zone

ground floor plan

first floor plan

elevation

section

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Spontaneous order – children’s medical center

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” __ Kay Redfield Jamison

Precepts The design is based on the duality of order and chaos.

First order, designing a hospital is mainly functional oriented, it follows modular concepts of space planning and layout as well as it emphasizes controlled circulation. Therefore, the aesthetics in hospital is closely related to creating a therapeutic environment. On the other hand, designing a space for children evokes sense of chaos as a representation of their overexcited nature. Accordingly, the strictness of hospital’s functions and the spontaneously of children’s nature are reflected on the configuration of form. While wards (children’s rooms) are represented as dynamic cubes, the hospital’s functions form a regular ordinary u-shape that embraces and supports children’s rooms .

Location: Amman’s airport road Year : fourth year - 2010

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main entry plan

ward plans

top : perspective shows the plaza near the entrance

Left : main elevation

Left : longitudinal section

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break the rigidity -bank design

Standardization leads to rigidity, and rigidity causes things to break __ Bill James

Precepts The aim of this project is to design a bank headquarter in a location that mediates between commercial district and residential neighborhood. The concentration was to deal with buildings regulations as setback and height as well as come with innovative design solution. For my approach, I started with the maximum allowed volume on the site then manipulating this volume to achieve two goals: create a work environment that embrace nature and day light and create welcoming entry approaches from the residential sector as well as the commercial one.

Through the dualities of: solid / void, light / dark and inside / outside the strict image of conventional bank building is transformed. In addition to the site regulations, this process of dematerialization follows a rigorous system of modularity. By doing so, the form creates tension between restriction and freedom to highlight the transformational processes.

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Location: Amman- Shmesani : an urban setting – commercial district Year : Third year -2009

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ground floor plan

second floor plan

fourth floor plan

top : section through the main central void

top : perspective shows the main entrance from the commercial street

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Rehabilitation center for visually impaired

My darkness has been filled with the light of intelligence, and behold, the outer day-lit world was stumbling and groping in social blindness. __ Helen Keller

Precepts The rehab center aims to restore blind and partially sighted people to a useful and constructive place in society in addition to accomplish a self-dependent life within the limitations of their disability.

The challenge of designing a rehabilitation center for blind and partially sighted people lies in using the unseen aspects of architecture i.e. light, texture and sound to create a highly sensible atmosphere. This atmosphere stimulates and evokes cognitive abilities to structure mental images and maps. Accordingly, a high contrast in the degree of lighting was structured to achieve the duality of light/dark in order to distinguish the main circulation and the functions. Besides the issue of lighting, the relation between the main circulation and the adjacent functions was distinguished according to the alterations in leveling and direction. Moreover, two nodes of outdoor courtyards were placed aligned to the main circulation to generate reference points in the constructed metal map. In those nodes, the natural light, the sound of wind and outdoor environment plays a crucial role in defining them.

Location: part of the campus of the University of Jordan: an urban setting – commercial district Year : Second year - 2008

first floor plan

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Douglas House by Richard Meier

1 A Generic rectangular prism : (two interlocked cubes )

2. Initial Subtraction

- Constructive Morphology

3. Horizontal stratification: use golden section

4. Longitudinal axis

- 01/2014

5. transvers axis: use 1: √2

6. creat syntactical center + spatial Layering + dulity of solid/void

8. Series of formal additions and subtractions

7. Series of formal additions and subtractions

9. Series of formal additions and subtractions

10. Fenestrations for the private sector/ grid of mullions for the public sector

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The Rachofsky House by Richard Meier

- Constructive Morphology - 04/2013

1. 3d module

3. Longitudinal axis: Subdivision into living sector and circulation sector

5. Subtractions: create a syntactical centre

2. A Generic rectangular prism

4. transvers axis: add 2 walls to define each axis

6. additions: vertical circulations

7. horizontal stratifications & rectangular subdivision of the living spaces

8. rectangular subdivision of the living spaces into served and servant space

9. the final interior spaces after subdivisions

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The Rachofsky House by Richard Meier

- Constructive Morphology

10. ADDITIONS : columns , horizontal circulations

12. ADDITIONS : three rectangular objects to animate the main living space and create objects dialogue

11. ADDITIONS : free standing wall to define the horizontal circulations

13. ADDITIONS : structural support elements

14. ADDITIONS : define all the horizontal circulation with free standing walls

15.ADDITIONS : BEAMS , LOW partitions

ARCHITECT’S STATMENT Completed in 1996, The Rachofsky House revisits questions of architectural scale and philosophy that have been central to our firm’s practice for three decades: the importance of procession from exterior to interior, and from formal to intimate domain; the role of natural light in defining living spaces; the relationship between manmade structure and its natural surroundings; and the correlation between private dwelling and community.

Because this residence has been designed for an individual, we were able to explore in it certain materials and design elements that might otherwise have been impractical for a family that has many different priorities, traffic patterns and schedules. In other words, The Rachofsky House is an ideal - an investigation into all of the possibilities of house as a building type without many of the usual compromises. I like to think that The Rachofsky House is a kind of elegant case study, an exercise that encourages us to reflect upon what our notions of house and home encompass.

16.ADDITIONS : ROOFS , free standing walls THAT MARK THE INNER circulation

A visit to The Rachofsky House unfolds as a kind of procession through a series of zones, taking one from the outdoors to indoors, and then back outdoors again. All of the spaces of the house, works of contemporary art, and vignettes of the surrounding landscape combine to animate the interiors of the house. Grass, trees, pond and sky are visible from every angle of the house.

The heart of the house is the second floor living room. Secrets of the entire site are revealed through the double-height plane of windows that serve as a permeable membrane between nature and home. Whereas the front façade of the house is reserved and opaque, the back façade dissolves and allows constantly changing plays of light and silhouette to amaze people within and outside the house. Ultimately, the purpose of The Rachofsky House is to provide a place of residence and respite. The potential of the house as a work of architecture is as a catalyst for further contemplation of nature and art, and the science of bringing them together in harmony.

Richard Meier http://rachofskyhouse.org/