Master of Architecture: Sample Work

NICOLE MOURAD

Pratt Institute --- GAUD

ARCHITECTURAL CURIOSITY

REFLECTIONS

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These project proposals 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.

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 could involve creating a human ecosystem that recycles products and energy, rather than directing them towards landfills.

I am eager to explore new and innovative ways that the human world can intertwine with nature, allowing ourselves to be fully consumed by its intricacy.

intertwine with nature

When we view ourselves as an extension of nature, we can recognize the shared characteristics between humanity and the natural world. We are human beings, composed of the same fundamental elements as other living creatures on this planet. From a biological standpoint, we are not separate from nature. The distinctions we perceive are a product of our own making. By embracing our innate connection to the natural world and adopting an environmentally-conscious perspective, we can learn to live and flourish alongside other species. This understanding would lead us to act with responsibility and respect towards nature. By breaking down the artificial barriers we have created between ourselves and nature, we can restore balance to ecosystems and promote a more circular and sustainable system.

CONTENTS

TOUCH-SHAPE-CREATION

Design 04 (Spring 2022) Queens, Ny

In Collaboration with Danielle Pelletier

Professor: Justine Shapiro-Kline

This project proposes designing a Waste-to-Energy, recycling, and greenhouse facility in Queens, New York. 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.

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.

Our proposal 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.

INTERWOVEN LANDSCAPE

Design 02 (Spring 2021) Brooklyn, Ny -

Professor: Maria Sieira

This design studio addresses a specific site through its interior. It emphasizes the related conceptual and material impacts of this “inside out” approach. Circulation, materiality, and spatial qualities are explored through the design of a middle school.

The design of this middle school will have an integrative design approach for the landscape and structure.

The environmental crisis is a predicament of inappropriate design and the inadequate integration of ecological concerns into planning.

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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.

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

The Red Crown Crane Reeds

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.

House (Disassembled)

The Smart Slab

The Core