2019 Portfolio

Dominika Demlova Portfolio

Projectile Acoustic Fiber Forest Type: Academic (University of Tokyo) Author: Collaboration of whole laboratory (20 students) Role: Development of concept with sound guidance Contribution: testing of sound guidance system, construction of the pavilion on site, assorting materials for construction Date: December 2017 Can the integration of digital technologies in design and construction processes be used for expressing personal tendencies through the creation of new architectural practices as well as novel aesthetics?

The University of Tokyo Digital Fabrication Lab (DFL) has annually been involved in an experimental pavilion installation, aiming at the application of digital technologies to architectural construction. Its projects are the embodiments of human-machine interaction, demonstrating its unique fabrication systems that make a worker behave as part of a 3D printer; translating human understanding of space through sound into design.

At the DFL, the role played by digital technologies in design and construction does not necessarily have to make them more efficient and streamlined. Their potential is instead focused on personalizing the fabrication process and human natural tendencies. In our view, the act of making as such becomes a design in itself by means of computer assistance.

The diversity that humans collectively show is organically expressed in the architecture.

PAFF is an architecture made by reference to sound rather than visual information. We developed a sound guidance system whereby a workerĘźs task is to recognize a sound source in a three-dimensional space, and shoot fibers into various targets. PAFF is expressed through the accumulation of the multi-agent system, revealing personal differences in the way that people perceive space through sound.

STEP01: Point With Deviation

STEP02: Machine Learning Curve

STEP03: Shooting Range Remapping

Digital Balancing Type: Academic (University of Tokyo) Date: February 2018 In todayʼs architecture it is fundamental to establish the relationship of the use of technology and people. It is the primary aim of this project to explore the idea of defining the role of technology and softwares available to an architect as a supporting role in the design process.

As such, the dialog between the designer and technological system becomes a highly supportive feedback loop which guides the process towards the targeted geometry while appreciating and incorporating the ʻhuman errorsʼ created during the production.

Targeted points on next layer an ideal location of compresive

front front front front

Actual scanned points of next layer with adjusted compresive elements

elements

back back back back Galapagos testing new points targets to keep parallel

top top toptop

NW NW iso iso NWNW isoiso

Optimasing new target points

bottom bottom bottom bottom

front Guiding top view

Guiding from calibrated point to new layer target: Layer 1

right right right right

NE NE iso iso NENE isoiso

back

front front SE SE iso iso SESE isoiso

front

back back

back

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NEi NE iso NE

Scanned Final Geometry

Targeted Prior Geometry

Musical Garden of Kada Type: Academic (University of Tokyo) Date: July 2019 Cities in Japan such as Tokyo and Osaka are increasingly restricting sound limitations across the city but especially in peoples' own apartments. The musical garden is a proposal to critique this situation by creating a space where people can experience sound in all its beauty.

Through creating twenty small rooms of different materials and shapes, where sounds resonate differently, the proposal suggests different types of societies and cultures would start to develop in the different rooms.

The musical garden would become a place for people from urban areas to come and experience music, which has been throughout history a binder of culture all over the world.

Project has been created as part of a 3 member team of students and has been presented and discussed with the local residents of the city, where the project is based.

The Veil for Johannesburg Type: Academic (Architectural Association School of Architecture) Date: June 2016 The proposed series of thickened spatial envelopes of materials, would be stacked, woven and folded through columns to destabilize ideas of enclosures and authority of the institutional objects in the city. The project explores how could architectural elements - column and surfaces mediate womenĘźs relation to the city and others across architectural scales: from the most intimate encounters between two people to addressing larger socialeconomical issues through creating opportunities for retail activities within the space of the veil.

The veil is defined as spatial arrangement of materiality in order to conceal/reveal, to have power over the boundary condition. Materiality is seen as the mediator and its importance to architecture and connection to femininity extracted from Adolf LoosĘź theoretical texts on cladding as well as contemporary South African artists exploring the idea of womanĘźs identity.

The proposed spatial envelopes latch onto the existing power structure of Johannesburg by associating them with the traditional shamans, sangomas, who are highly respected in South Africa. They further occupy the numerous taxi ranks and finally corrode the boundaries of civic buildings with downtown Johannesburg.

In 2035, the veil would begin to enclose whole buildings within its space and the power structure in Johannesburg would shift in favor of the microinstitutions of the veil.

Material studies to find an aesthetic in accord with field research done at magical potions markets

laws to address formal economy

official representation

enterprises small businesses

Taxi Rank Owners

Taxi Owners

Sangoma

Government

Market Manager

Employed - Formal Sector

GOVERNMENT

bridge between government and informal economy

inclusive street trading by-laws

interorganisational rivaries and conflicts of representation

relationship with police

Taxi Drivers

Men Visitors livelihood opportunities

Men Using Taxi

Women Visitors

alleviating poverty

basic shelter solid waste removal lighting toilets storage facilities

ANC Party

provides: 2 million people

Driver’s Wives

skill base experience business assets

(1 million women)

Other Politicians

Informal Economy

President

30% of GDP

Women Using Taxi

R160 billion

Police Retail Activity trade of goods and services

Victim

vendors

haircare services

most vulnerable unemployed women

Power in Johannesburg

Importance of Informal Economy

Unemploynment - 25%

taxi services

women seating

outside

view section diagram

Adolf Loos Moller House design and the concept of creating moments of control based on the idea of spatial arrangement with focus on the ‘’viewer/viewed’’ by Adolf Loos formed an initial design reference.

Using View to Give Control And for him femininity related to architecture through cladding and Villa Moller Adolf Loos materiality.

I would like to argue that spatial arrangement of materiality as a mediator Veil between oneself and anotherPhotographs in order to conceal, reveal - have power of

by Gertund Arndt 1930 the boundary condition - is inherently feminine quality.

Reconfiguration of face

(hip tourist area)

11 ~ Meat Grill Vendors

7 ~ Small Grocery Stores

ousing for Mai Community

6 ~ Consultation Rooms 8 ~ Manager

10 ~ Animal Preparation

2~ Housing

4 ~ Carpenters

5 ~ Skin Drying

3 ~ Auto Mechanics

The veil would form a bridge and support structure between the government and the most vulnerable women who could begin to use the space within the veil as the first step from from unemployment gain business assets and skill.

redesign of Magical Potions Market as space of microeconomical opportunities

reference library

age

bone throwing

wc haircare stall

student room food stall

waiting space

micro-economical opportunities surrounding existing building

waste disposal

women in the veil

Gaining control of oneĘźs personal boundaries, deciding when to conceal and reveal, would therefore directly affect the boundaries on the urban scale and would begin to create a condition of ambiguity and unreadability of space. The veil is the counterpoint to the much ingrained architecture of defined edges, which supports women in Johannesburg through materiality The last image is a speculation how the veil would begin to enclose entire buildings within it and would therefore begin to dramatically begin to create a condition of ambiguity and unreadability of a whole city. The veil would become the counterpoint to the much ingrained architecture of defined edges, which supports the microinstitutions of women in Johannesburg through its materiality.

Direct Opposition Separated

Direct Opposition United

Direct Opposition Dip

Opposition Hill

Opposition Dip

uniting visually, separating physically

uniting visually and physically, open plane, intermediate, mometary

uniting physically, united visually with shift in angle, open plane, intermediate, mometary

separating physically, united visually with high shift in angle, intermediate, mometary

separating physically with shift in angle,

Abrupted Floor discontinued, physical separation, visual continuity

Full Separation discontinued, physical separation, visual continuity, distorting

Large Volume Opague

Curved Enclosure Separation

creating large depth, large physical separation, large visual separation

open plane vs enclosed, transparent, visual onnection, spacious

Perforated Separation

Cornered with Light

Partial physical separation, partial visual separation

Abrupted Floor

Folded Surface

Layered Surface

Layered Columns

Large Volume Transparent

physical separation, visual disconituity

creating depth, degrees of visual and physical separation

creating depth, degreeof visual and physical separation

creating large depth, degrees of visual and physical separation

creating large depth, large physical separation, small visual distortion

Curved Enclosure Wall

Series of Columns

open plane vs enclosed, full physical separation, geometry enforced spaciousness

degrees of materials, degrees of visual connectivity

Direct Opposition Two Planes Light revealing, momentary

Folded Surface

Folded Surface

creating depth, degrees of visual and physical separation

creating depth, degrees of visual and physical separation

Separated Volumes

Top Separation Transparent

Top Separation

Tilted Surface

Two Levels

Layered Floor

High Floors

visually connected through varying perforation of material

visually connected, varying height

physically discontinued, yet possible.

discontinued through vertical platform, adding voids

Separation through vertical separation, absolute

degrees of materials, visually connected at parts

separation through void

Staging Scoial Interactions Through Degrees of Enclosures

social situations created through placement of architectural elements

consultation with sangoma

mediator of interaction

Migrating Coastline Type: Academic (Architectural Association School of Architecture) Date: June 2015 Proposal for a new hybrid houses to sustain the community of small-scale fishermen on the south coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka, who were evicted through series of laws after 2004 Tsunami. The ground shouldnĘźt be touched by law.

While studying the concept of land ownership from the point of view of ecology and social urbanism, new livelihood based on coastal management through planting and sustaining mangrove forests has been proposed as an alternative to the unsustainable small-scale fishing.

Suspended houses would be located in the tidal zone, and would move within the changing sea level. Upper part of the house would serve as housing and lower part would contain working - commercial - space.

The house would only touch the ground through the commercial space, which makes used of the loophole in the new set of posttsunami coastal building laws, which was the reason, the village could not be rebuilt in the original place.

Variety of mediums from traditional model making and hand drawing to advanced techniques of digital film and interactive robotics has been used in the process.

conceptual drawing of a house situated in the inter-tidal zone of Sri Lanka Coastline

Wastelands

Fisherman’s Land

Wetlands

Vaddas Territory

Droughts

The Split

the city

If you visit Wastelands multiple times, you will find that the land parcels are changing shape and sizes. What you first thought is finishing a wall separating a field is actually a continuous rebuilding of the wall merging and separating the parcels of the arguable land. Talk to the farmers about the cycle of sub-diving their rice-fields in their family, which results in parcels too small to create any profit and then selling them into larger groupings. “I have a nightmare that repeats itself over and over” said one farmer’s daughter to me once, “nightmare of the never-ending wall that moves like a snake through the land”. The snake that defines the well being of the farmers if the most important element on this island.

Leaving there and proceeding for three days toward the east, you reach the island made of sixty floating houses on water, where every man is a fisherman. Each house is specialized on catching a different type of fish, which they then exchange at the large market place in the middle of the houses. You will never forget the smell of the market after the fisherman flood the tabletops with their daily bounty. The whole islands smell-scape changes within minutes. The market takes place in the early morning after the fishermen come back from the sea. Their wives are in charge of the fish stands and the children go around and carry out the shopping. Young girls are the only ones who’s day does not rotate around fish as they have to take care of the garden and small potato fields on tops of each houses.

When you have arrived at the Wetlands, you rejoice in observing all the settlements above the water, each different from the others. Some are cambered, others are on pillars or suspended from between other structures. You see people move between the buildings through narrow paths bridging the gaps of the tiny islands that form the base on which the city holds itself. You notice several tall towers carefully positioned through the city. A woman who walks by explains to you that those are water-watchers stations, as she sees you looking at them. Periodically the tides overtake the settlements of the island, forcing the inhabitants to rebuild the place over and over again. Suddenly you hear a alarm coming from the towers. You cry with regret at having to leave the city when you barely grazed it with your glace. Soon the city fades before your eyes. .

Travelers return from the Vaddas territory with distinct memories of the vast open savannas full of grazing animals and grass slowly moving with the wind. They often forget to mention the Vaddas themselves, maybe because they haven’t come into contact with them at all through the journey. It is actually quite simple to overlook them in the savannas if you are not specifically looking to find them.

Their villages are so small and scarcely positioned around the land that people stopped acknowledging their presence. There is very few Vaddas colonies left in the land and together with their dwellings built underground into the cool soil, they perfectly blend into the yellow grass.

Visiting the droughts land leaves you with strong memories of the warmness of the soil and brightness of the sun.

In a land where shade is almost as valuable as local currency, the water-gods are religiously worshipped four times a day. A water-collecting canopy drapes over the majority of the land, forcing people to live their life in the space between the canopy and the dry soil. The water pipes become the infrastructure of the city that mark the water-wells throughout the fabric of the land. One boy took me to the well to show me how he can collect his assigned amount of water by scanning his retina. “Is it a life of restriction but it is our home and we are never leaving it.

Let the water-gods be merciful.” He then said.

The land of Split has been divided into two parts as long as any person can remember. They are however not two distinct countries but continually fight over the territory and their own sovereignty. The closer you get to the borderline the less lively and more dangerous the land becomes. At the edges you can walk barefoot through the warm sand of the paradisiacal beaches but at the frontline you cannot walk at all due to large amount of mines. The conflict starts to claim its own territory at the border as it defines the space of no-man. I witnessed people migrating from the central part of the land to the outskirts as the frontline thickens.

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The Island has been completely overtaken by a dense cityscape, which rises over the physical borders of the land.

While buildings continually compete in verticality in order to reach the sky, people keep rushing to places in the narrow streets on the surface. For them the sky is barely visible as the skyscrapers block most of the view. The streets are crowded with and people constantly bump into each other as they keep checking their email accounts, not paying attention to the street. Corporate hierarchies, follow the floor slabs of the skyscrapers with the most important business corporations of the island inhabiting the clouds.

You might find it interesting when a local tells you that in fact the majority of people in this city fear heights. .

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society

society

natural condition

density

. political

density

natural condition

Defining Conditions Islands

dissecting separate conditions of land

economics of the coastal villagers

Economy Ecology

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Tuesday 26th of May 2015, Intermediate Tide - 05:08 am, 10:10 am, 04:18 pm, 11:12 pm

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Village 2.4m Coral Reef

1.2m

Rope Factory

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Intertidal Zone - Mangrove Forest

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Culture

Risk Reduction

Land Ownership The fishing community lived on government land with living permit. As a after math of 2004 Tsunami, Sri Lanka established 100 meter no build zone on the coastline. It forbid to build any housing buildings in that area apart from commercial buildings.

Dehiwala Ecosystem By combining use of two trees to develop the livelihood, the village takes part in improving the environment of dehiwala. It will provide protection against storms and surges and strenghten the soil. Rope will increase Sri Lanka’s export and will provide the villagers with their own building material. By moving the village to the ocean, the beach will be left open to tourists and other commercial use.

Rain Collector 7.00 m

Pontoon

Spinning Wheel 2.40 m

3.00 m

3.12 m

Floating Base

3.03 m 1.70 m

Soaking Husks

0m

1 year

5 years

above: economical-social-environmental feedback loop section:20 stages of the houses on rails years

rendering of the appearing Mangrove Forest Migrating Coastline - Low Tide

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Southwest Coasline Train

Spinning Coir Rope

Coconut Trolley

Drying Coir

Soaking Coir

3.0 m

High Tide

1.5 m Median Tide

0m

Low Tide

section Migrating Coastline Scale 1:140

41 m

83 m

The Garden of Temporary Horizon Type: Academic (Architectural Association School of Architecture) Date: March 2014 The relation of the structure to the ground and sky is the central to the design as the garden is the ground itself. The section is a result of a constant dialog between the developments of materiality of the canopy, changing levels of ground and the nature and placement of the objects within the garden, which finally determine the final section. In fact, there are thousands of varying sections, as the topography of the sky changes throughout the plan.

The project questions the role and stability of ĘťceilingĘź as an architectural element.

The one thing, which remains constant is the new horizon created by being enclosed by the two delicate planes.

Placement of individual structures such as the tower and sleeping area has been used to hold the sky canopy at certain heights to create just enough space to carry out the event.

This has been the major driving theme in the design: to create soft and ephemeral space that uses the surrounding environment, particularly wind, in its performance.

Model has been hand-sewn.

model

alter forest

tower

eating

bun caves

o erings trail

temple medow

ower beds

-0.1m

-0.1m

plan

material models of canopy

Rosa fastidium Feasting tree also known as: Pantry of the Woods

Acantha laevindensis casuarinaceae Long branched acantha also known as Bastard She-oak, Barbed Fern

Quercus indenses Energising oak

Prunus somnum Sleeping peach

also known as: Imp’s Oak, Oberon’s Horn, Red leafed sprout

also known as: Prince's Drought, Sleeping Beauty, Chinese Pink Drowsy Fruit

section

The Interlocking Gallery Type: Academic (Architectural Association School of Architecture) Date: November 2013 The starting point was exploration of the interlocking of two square spaces.

Sections in three moments along the building reveal the equality of the interlocking. In first moment, you see the three ‘L’ shaped rooms placed on top of each other. The path is formed in the middle. In the basement the increased floor level steps in the other room. On ground level the floor of the room is increased and a wall of the other room steps in. The plan shows how on the second level whole volumes of the individual rooms equally step into each other.

The equality of the rooms is stressed by placing the windows always from one side in the upper level of the ‘L’ shape and never at the level of the visitors’ heads. All the rooms get the same sunlight.

design with plans, sections and elevation

Layered Monument of Soho Type: Academic (Architectural Association School of Architecture) Date: April 2014 A monument, made of layers of concrete, which are added every year over the timescale of 130 years. The monument overtakes the entirety of current Golden Square and transforms the public space into a public void, that changes its character over time as it returns to its original function after 130 years.

The monument ultimately changes the area on a urban scale by reversing the use of the public space, disallowing access to the site during construction works, reserving the streets of the promenade for pedestrians during the layering festival and by building the core 100 meters to the ground, stopping any future commercial building development in that area. It ensures that in 130 years, Golden Square will be a public space.

Model of the site with the void and the monument itself have been cast in plaster.

Project has been done in collaboration with Oskar F. Johanson.