M.Arch Portfolio | Nicole Mourad

PORTFOLIO ARCHITECTURE

NICOLE MOURAD

Pratt Institute --- GAUD Master of Architecture

ARCHITECTURAL CURIOSITY

ABSTRACT

Walk around just anywhere in the world and you will come to find that streets and buildings differ in nearly every city. The study of Architecture has brought passionate artists into the world who’ve successfully changed the landscape of what building design is to society. Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to join the list of artists who’ve changed the world. I fell in love with three major things, Art, Landscape, and Architecture. I realized the past needed change, culture, lavishes, and much more to please society. But today’s future needs something different; sustainability.

The environmental crisis is an issue that’s highly caused by inappropriate design and the inadequate integration of ecological concerns into planning. Through Architectural design, we have the opportunity to redefine what building design is to society and create a built environment that coexists with, rather than disconnects from, nature.

Art, Landscape, and Architecture. create a built environment that coexists with, rather than disconnects from, nature.

As my understanding of architecture has grown, I have become increasingly passionate about designing buildings that seamlessly integrate with the natural environment. My goal is to create spaces that reconnect people with nature. By studying the natural world, we can design our societies to mimic environmental systems.

This research endeavors to examine the complex relationship between humanity and nature, and investigate how fostering a harmonious connection can aid in

restoring ecosystems for a more sustainable future.

CONTENTS

TOUCH-SHAPE-CREATION

Design 04 (Spring 2022)

Queen’s, NY

In Collaboration with Danielle Pelletier

Professor: Justine Shapiro-Kline

The trace of NY city trash seems almost mythical, at least to those who aren’t processing it. New Yorkers produce roughly 26,000 tons of garbage a day, 80% of which makes its way to landfills to states as far away as Ohio or South Carolina. This is ultimately destroying a lot of our natural environment and compromising the air quality and health in nearby communities.

One of our main goals is to draw in local community members to learn about the effects of trash disposal, and to make the connection that as a New Yorker, what we do in our local environment has ulterior but significant effects on the natural world. We want to make the connection between waste and nature something that is tangible and experiential. While the relationship between humans and nature may have many meanings, we take it to be a relationship that is bidirectional and interconnected.

An example of this is thigmomorphogensis which translates to touch that comes into shape through creation.

Plants have a phenotype that allows them to take on different forms in response to mechanical stimulus which can be touch or wind. Plants that grow in very controlled environments like greenhouse are typically very long and beautiful but are not necessarily strong or evolved compared to wild plants that are exposed to wind. It’s been said that by physically brushing or stroking plants several times a day, crop quality for commercial farming may be significantly improved.

Relevant to our project because we want to show how this invisible human touch, leaving our trash out to be taken away and never worried about again, and invisible touch such as wind, can have visible impacts on our environment. Furthermore, that nature pushes back or adapts, which means that if we work together with natural forces such as water or wind, we can achieve a cleaner and healthier environment.

SITE ANALYSIS

Neighborhood Scale

Elevation

CHUNK MODEL

Waste to Energy and Green Roof

FLOW DIAGRAM

Recycling and Waste to Energy

Waste to Energy Recycling

Visitors

Sanitation Workers

D. Public entrance & Exit

End

A. Garbage & Recycling Entrance

B. Public Entrance & Exit

C. Public Entrance & Exit

GREEN ROOF

Key

Understory Trees and Shrubs . . . . .

Planting

Sand 2” Max

Filter Fabric

Drainage Board by others

Waterproofing by others

Beginning

NATURAL DICHOTOMY

Design 03 (Fall 2021) Brooklyn, Ny

In Collaboration with Diana Azbenova

Professor: Stephanie Bayard

With the increasing need of affordable dwellings, many large public projects were built over multiple city blocks, interrupting the local grid. Farragut Houses, site of our studio project, instead organized the towers according to sunlight and the desire to create public green spaces. The large strict fences surrounding the green spaces reinforces the feelings of boundaries and isolation.

Currently, there is a disjunction between the existing Farragut towers and the landscape.

Our proposal is to design a housing project that reconfigures the landscape, redefines community and education through Greenhouses and biological labs, reshapes the connection to the nearby Farragut Tower and overall, through the use of landscape, blurs the boundaries between different communities in order to bring people together.

PLAN

Level 2

A. Two Apartment Duplex

B. Core Atrium

C. Tiny Apartment Duplex 2

D. Public Balcony

E. Greenhouse

F. One Bedroom Apartment

G. Two Bedroom Apartment

Level 1

A. Two Bedroom Apartment

B. Core Atrium

C. Tiny Apartment Duplex

D. Public Balcony

E. Greenhouse F. One Bedroom Apartment

PHYSICAL MODEL

Conceptual

CHUNK MODEL

Oudoor Courtyard

Apartment

Interior Core Structure

Facade

WOVEN WATERS

Design 05 (Fall 2022) Inujima, Japan -

Professor: Nanako Umemoto & Jasmine Lee

Inujima is a Japanese island off the coast of Okayama in the Seto Inland Sea. Due to post-war economic collapse, today the island hosts only about 50 full-time inhabitants with an average age of 80 years old, warranting the island as a village in danger of soon disappearing.

Woven Waters proposes re-designing the island of Inujima with constructed wetlands to preserve biodiversity and re-connect people to nature.

Humans are becoming increasingly detached from wildlife and nature. Over the years we have intervened so intrusively in nature without considering the vast ecosystems that make life on earth possible. Because of human activities, wetlands have become the most endangered natural ecosystem today.

A network of diverse wetlands aims to strengthen existing habitats and create new habitats for biodiversity.

The island can be a vital piece of land that helps cultivate different species and create a harmonious experience where we feel a stronger connection to nature.

Scale = 1:250

Scale = 1:1,000

BETTER HOUSE

Internship (Summer 2021)

Karpf Khalili Architects

Project Team: Parsa Khalili, Bernhard Karpf

Nicole Mourad, Mahsa Malek, Anna Renken, Nicolas Schlegel

A BETTER House requires not only a better understanding of the complexity of building a house today, but also a vision for how to revise and rebuild outdated modalities that prevent the housing market from advancing in a smart way.

We believe that the future of the single-family home is one that critically re-assembles, intelligently re-engineers, and strategically re-composes the elements of a house, leveraging industrial thinking and technological innovation.

The premise of the Concept Design presentation is to build upon strategies of modular and prefabrication technologies while fulfilling the need for well-designed architectural spaces. Lessons learned from the preliminary Research phase were critical towards developing the design concepts of a BETTER house.

Most modular and prefabrication projects have operated within the domain of multi-unit housing in dense urban settings: well-vetted and established dimensions and areas for spaces that are repeatable, stackable, and typically identical.

The allure of the detached, single family house lies in reduced restrictions for the size and configuration of domestic spaces and its design strategies offer a broader range of customization. Current thinking in the field mostly revolves around industrializing the urban unit of living, but much of this thinking and advancement can be leveraged for single-family homes to capitalize on modular and prefabrication technologies as well.

This knowledge informs an approach for this project that is conceptually grounded and pragmatic. With an understanding of the specific benefits and drawbacks of modularity and prefabrication, we break the house into its key components—the Core, the Frame, the Fill, and the Slab—and address them individually. The BETTER house takes shape not as a whole product or even a set of modules completed in a single factory, but rather is formed through.

COMPONENTS BY CATEGORY

House (Assembled)

Frames

Beams

Piles

Frame+ Track

Screen (Fixed)

Screen (Operable) Screen (Trellis)

Glass Wall (Sliding)

Glass Wall (Operable)

Roof Ceiling

Core Kitchen Bathroom Mechanical Movable Partitions

Glass Wall (Fixed)

Smart Slab

Solid Wall (Variable)

Base Finish Floor+ Deck

Access

EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC SYNTHESIS OF COMPONENTS

House (Disassembled)

Screen (Trellis)

Glass Wall (Operable)

Solid Wall (Variable)

Roof

Beams

Ceiling

Frames

Screen (Operable)

“HAL”

Glass Wall (Sliding)

Finish Floor+ Deck

Movable Partitions

Smart Slab

Base

Access (Stairs+Deck)

Frame+ Track

Piles

Screen (Fixed)

FRAMEWORK SYSTEMS

The Core

‘The Core’ is a concentrated and highly engineered service space. It contains all of the ‘wet walls’ of the house: A modern kitchen with the minimum standard equipment is positioned adjacent to a fully equipped bathroom and mechanical room by which the centrally governing house systems (mechanical, electrical, water, battery, etc.) are located and accessible.

This is envisioned akin to the CPU of a computer, the most critical component through which the processes of the house are made. It will be the most technical and bespoke component, requiring specialized fabrication/manufacturing in a proprietary, centralized location.

‘Wet’ Infrastructure

- Potable Water

- Sewage

- Drainage

Connection to ‘Smart Slab’

‘Dry’ Infrastructure

- Power

- Data

- HVAC

The Smart Slab

‘The Smart Slab’ is a reconsideration of the floor and ceiling, emanating from the core and outlining the limits in plan of the house. It is conceived as a plenum through which all the major services of the house such as power, heating, cooling, and ventilation are distributed from the core, thus eliminating any installations in walls.

The vertical structure that connects the different levels of the house would be uncoupled from the position and placement of the walls and would be unitized and prefabricated based on specifications of the house. In many ways this operates like the Motherboard of a computer through which everything is plugged into and connected. Due to the technical demands of this component, it will require the same attention in its production as ‘The Core’, however it may be suited to be manufactured regionally.

This house typology is based on a simple linear extrusion of elements. Spaces are added sequentially to either side of the “Core,” elongating the house as much as the site or programmatic needs require. It operates as a house