Architecture Portfolio | Ramzi Alrefaee

ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

www.facebook.com/RamziDesignServices

Copyright © 2023 Ramzi Alrefaee All Rights Reserved

BIO. EDUCATION

Bachelor of Architecture

Junior architect with almost comprehensive experience preparing architectural designs for the full completion of residential, commercial, interior and public buildings, in addition to a mid-level experience in urban and landscape design. Skilled in applying creativity to design highly appealing and interesting yet functional designs that engage emotion.

Posses a proven ability to lead project teams to successfully deliver agreed upon superior quality solutions using my skills on a various design, modeling, visualizing and presentation programs.

The University of Jordan, 2021 Amman, Jordan

ACHIEVEMENTS

FIRST PRIZE - Library of JEA Redesign Jordan Engineering Association, 2021 Partnership: Abdallah Foudeh Amman, Jordan

INFORMATION

Ramzi Qaseem Mohd. Al-Refaee 23th. April 1998 Al-Aqsa st. Amman, Jordan + (962) 7 9795 6678 alrefaee_ramzi@hotmail.com

SOCIAL MEDIA

Ramzi Design Services Ramzi_Design linkedin.com/in/ramzi-alrefaee

WORK EXPERIENCE

JUNIOR ARCHITECT

Wael Al-Masri Planners & Architects

2021 - Present

Initially hired as an intern, but quickly was promoted. Effectively developed architectural and urban design concepts, visualizing and presenting deliverables upon superior quality through conceptual and schematic phases.

LUMION TRAINER

Element80 Academy

2022 - Present

Due to my previous experience in education, training students in centers Adobe Photoshop and watercolor rendering. Started training students on Lumion program online with Element80 Academy.

FREELANCE DESIGNER

Ramzi Design Services

2018 - Present

Started freelance design services for clients since studying architecture in the university including architecture, interior and graphic design.

SHORTLISTED - Rif’at Chadirji Prize Tamayouz Award, 2020 Group Work: Wael Al-Masri & Abdallah Foudeh Amman, Jordan

LONGLISTED - Student’s Graduation Award Jordan Engineering Assocation, 2021 Amman, Jordan

SOFTWARE SKILLS

AutoDesk AutoCAD

Lumion

AutoDesk Revit V-Ray

AutoDesk 3DS MAX

Adobe Photoshop

Google Sketchup Adobe illustrator

Rhinoceros Adobe inDesign

Throughout my experience in the univerity and career in WMPA, I managed to determine the skills and abilities that satisfy my interests and were appreciated by my work teams.

While talking about soft skills, I should first mention my high ability to engage easily and work effecient in a group or a team, therefore, I got the opportunity several times to lead a working group in the firm during project submissions, practicing the process of managing and leading by ordering tasks to members according to their abilities, laying out a break-down structures and supervising the procedure.

In addition, I’ve been appreciated for having an excellent level of communication skills, that helped a lot to overcome problems, discuss design concepts and persuade the clients with our theoretical approach by logical and scientific evidences.

Creative Thinking

Communication Skills

Group Working/Leading

My design skills vary between urban planning, landscape, architectural and interior design, starting from the initial phases of producing concepts, appednding it with research and analysis that supports it to establish the design theoretical approach, in addition to my skills in design development and its final output.

PARTICIPATION

I’m always trying to be active in the architectural field by participating in different events and activities held by JEA and universities, by joining discussion jurys in universities, to evaluate students projects, and help them to develop their architectural designs. Also I’ve given tens of lectures to students in universities about design and graduation thesis development. In addition, usually join competitions, local exhibitions and architectural events by posters of my company works and my music

ARABIC MUSIC TOWN

Year

Inspired by the region of Jordan/Palestine’s rich heritage of cultural arts, varies from music, songs, textile crafting and sculpting. The idea of the project arose as an attempt to establish an inclusive national mini town of Arabic music, as a complementary piece of the cultural strip in the heart of Amman, in Ras Al-Ain, creating a familiar Jordanian cultural hub, that attracts the different ages, categories and types of community individuals.

Project’s concept was a recreation of a language that describes the interrelationship between society and its own music, by recasting Amman architectural image, affected by a contemporary local prospects, to give users the desire to explore the source of his nostalgia for Arabic music, within an integrated familiar urban spaces with the context and the project’s interior facilities, in order to re-define the roots of cultural and social identity within individuals.

Serving the cultural-social impression of the project, the architectural approach is a contemporary derivation of the local architectural image of Amman, which is a state of a randomized order that consists of a clustered blocks, finished either with concrete or stone, distributed over mountains, creating a composition of rectilinear forms, integrated with steps and stairs of pedestrian that creates a sense of ambiguity and curiosity to explore the hidden sides behind walls and trees. The project was submitted for Tamayouz International Award 2021 and qualified to the longlist in JEA Students Award 2021.

Supervisor Dr. Nabeel Al-Kurdi

& Location 2021 - Amman, Jordan Work Type Graduation Project

Refugees came from Damascus during ottoman empire and built their urban life around Al-Seil.

1930s

Creating the famous public street “Saqf Al-Seil” by a strategic decision by municipality.

GAM proposed the comprehensive plan of Amman’s cultural strip.

1968 1968

2005 2018 PRESENT

HISTORICAL

Narrative

In the case of Arab societies, the ambiguity of social identity has increased with the deepening of the methods of cultural westernization, and the fading out of cultural assets that arose from the state of society and their daily life, to become today a non-renewable heritage, linked to the past and did not grow with the speed of development, with some exceptions for some Arab societies.

According to historical events, the rapid evolution of Jordan, the Arab neighbors’ refugees, the economic crisis, in addition to the technological development and the global openness using social media, Amman today is a city of incoherent diversity, with big cultural gaps between its regions, which is the natural result of the weakness to establish a local national cultural reference that attracts members of this community within events that confirm its connection to the place.

King Abdullah II decided to establish the national museum of Jordan; The Jordan museum. The circular ending of the cultural strip was chosen to be the final destination of the BRT project.

The valley of Ras Al-Ein is now a mature national cultural zone in Amman.

CONTEXTUAL INSPIRATION

The site faces two major poles in the surrounding context, the first is the residential buildings that articulate their hard living conditions due to its crowded clustered panoramic composition of cubic forms with a randomized squared openings on the old cement screed finishing elevations, connected with a long strenuous stairs, and the second is the iconic official and cultural buildings within the strip. When trying to read the architectural dialogue between these two polars, the most significant issue that interrupt this process is the gap of scale and proportion, which creates a sense of awe that prevent some people to visit these building, making these building as an exclusive for the high level of community despite it was built for all citizens.

The repetitive language of pointed and circular arches in Amman was an inspiration to use a more dynamic contemporary form of arhces; the parabolic arches.

Due to the analysis, the cultural strip’s buildings articulate a combination of several architectural styles that are affected by the local fabric of buildings, displaying a set of local and contemporary materials on its elevations, showing the stone as a primary local luxury material.

The Usage of Taffouh Stone as a Finish for the Exterior Elevation, Following the Stone Image of The Buildings in The Cutlural Strip.

An Additive Layer of GRC Screens Were Added to The Facades, Which Is Composited of a Parametric Squared Openings, Derived From an Abstracted Inspiration of a Panoramic View of Amman Concrete Housing Blocks, Distributed Over the Mountains, Which Increase The Architectural Dialogue Between The Project’s Image and The Contextual Background.

Simulating Amman Stairs and Steps Between Stone and Concrete Walls, as An Interactive Circulation Elements Between The Exterior Urban Space

Extracting Two Main Orientations due to the Site Shape and the surrounding paths

Three Main Masses Describes The Main Three Types of Users

Ordering Masses and Urban Spaces Around The Datum of Circulation Between Two Main Entries

Extruding Two Modular Masses to Add Balance and Defining Entry

Rotating A Part of The Composition Parallel to the Second Street

Creating An Integrated Composition of Massing and Exterior Spaces that Fits into The Site’s Boundaries

Modifying The Orientation of The Front Mass To Face Both of Streets

Pulling and Pushing Down The Masses to Simulate the Slope

Adding The Abstracted Screens Layer of Ras Al-Ain Panoramic View

FASHION HUB

EDGE Fashion Hub is a national center that was designed beside the international Airport road to be an attractive node for local people and tourists for fashion world in Amman. The hub afford visitors the opportunity to explore the full cycle of clothing production, as it attract the amateurs to get trained in the center, so they can produce clothes that will be exhibited in shops for visitors.

The project aims to advance fashion domain in Jordan with its unique and iconic designthat satisfies the contemporary fashion trends, to be a national attractive hub in such a noticable site in Amman,

Supervisor Dr. Ali Abu-Ghanimeh & Lamis Shaban

The creation concept described by two main masses separated by the time force showing the past and the present of fashion world then deforming the future mass creating a deconstructive mass beside a linear one. At the last stage creating an appropriate overlapping relationship between the two masses

In this project, Starting with two main linear rectangular masses inspired by the context, the idea of the transformation and the variety in the fasion world was applied clearly, by deforming one of the masses into several deconstructive masses by using site forces, program of the building, several categories of clients and other constraints. The balanced combination between these two architectural style, created an interesting scene to describe the complexity and variety we have today in the fasion world!

NILE LIVING PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE

Organizer (Competition)

Year & Location 2020 - Cairo, Egypt Work Type WMPA & Abdallah Foudeh (Group Work)

The Intention for this bridge was to offer a remarkable cultural journey accross the Nile, through an iconic form reflecting its unique context, and by celebrating its past, present and future. The previous equation shows the inspirational symbols layers that created the design guidelines of the bridge which was derived from the history of cultures that lived on Egypt’s land, starting from Pharaonic symbolised elements reflected by “Eye of Horus”.

That creates an elliptical interesting geometry to be achieved by the voids in the bridge, and the main landmark of Egypt “the Pyramids of Giza”, and their balanced power giving the sense of awe, which was reflected by the structural three main columns that’s holding the bridge. In addition to the main abstracted calligraphy of “ ” word, that created a familiar relationship between its smooth shape and the people of Egypt who has a high sense of connectedness with this land.

Tamayouz International Award 34 Nile Living Pedestrian Bridge

35 Nile Living Pedestrian Bridge

36 Nile Living Pedestrian Bridge 37 Nile Living Pedestrian Bridge

As an urban icon tying the two banks of the Nile together, this pedestrian bridge is intended as a regenerating cultural event for Cairo. In its multiple circular spans it maximizes panoramic exposure to the river and the city, while the overlapping walkways create shading for protected strolling, sitting, and gathering. In the following figure, the east bank central plaza is shown clearly within an active urban space surrounded by the bridge paths.

AL-SAKHNEH URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Located in Dead Sea Zone, Jordan, and around Al-Sakhneh hot water torrent. This development was designed in response to the client’s vision of revive the zone, to get benefit of the hot water, creating a unique entertainment resorts, Therapeutic spa, chalets and other public urban buildings.

The main element that connects most of project elements were the hot water torrent, that rises from mountains and goes toward the dead sea, while the project aims to get the maximum benefit of its flow, affording several and various locations that are affordable for all types of community.

The project consists of two five-stars rated hotels, public water park, private water park for women, private chalets, mosque, petrol station, green park, sport fields, commercial stores and a public beach.

Client Al-Sakhneh Tourist Investment Year & Location 2022 - Amman, Jordan Type Urban Design (Free Lance)

BEACH’S PARKING

WOMEN’S WATER PARK

PUBLIC BEACH

The project started initially with the east and west hotel, then it was developed to contain the other facilities. The main intention was developing the location to absorb the different needs of tourists, so they can satisfy their needs in one place. The project is considered affordable to the most of

community types, where they can book nights in one of the five starts rated hotels, or they can visit water parks, the public beach and the other facilities. Users can move in the project’s parts by golf cars in their own pathways, in addition, car parkings were designed to serve people in many spots of the land.

DESERT TANK FIELD

PRIVATE CHALETS

THE BIND HOTEL

The Bind Hotel is a five-stars hotel that is located within the boundaries of Abdali District in Amman, it continues the series of the high-rise buildings around the site.

The site was a big challenge that we tried to deal with its circumstances, a sharped angle triangle boundaries with a small area that doesn’t exceed 1000 sqm, taking into consideration the traffic solutions with the surrounding streets to get into 7 undergrond levels of parking.

The building has 29 levels above the street level, containing such a formal spaces in the lower podium, while the tower part containes 218 deluxe, royal and grand rooms with its services and VIP lounges and reastaurant in the roof level.

Supervisors

Year & Location 2019 - Amman, Jordan Work Type Partnership (Abdallah Foudeh)

Fadia Nassar & Ahmad Al-Husseini

Abdali is a mega urban project that was intended to be the new city center for amman next to cultural and old Amman districts, which was a critical action and site to chose for such a project. A lot of urban researches and architects criticised the presence and influence of new Abdali in that zone, in addition to the lack in its own vision of attracting Amman population to the zone as a city center.

This project was an attempet to redefine the edge of new Abdali as an average solution between the contemporary image of Abdali and traditional clustered view of Amman, by satisfying the hotel’s requirements in addition to its height, then covering it by a modular squared skeleton that serve the function of shading by its louvers and blending the tower elevations with Amman mountains background.

The starting was with the triangular boundaries of the site plus the additional underground space for the site to be used as an underground parking. A geometrical relationship were found by offsetting site boundaries 8m (room required length) toward the center, creating the core space of the tower, to use this drawing as a reference designing the whole building

In a synchronized process with the lines phase, the conceptual image of the project where developed according to various types of factors and inspirations. It started by extruding the final shapes that resulted in the previous phase, connecting them with a podium that covers the foorprint, repeating a ring of services floors across the tower, then comes the modular subtraction from the edges to add the diagonal patterned steel structure that symbolizes the contradicted appearance between Abdali and Amman.

Front Elevation Side Elevation

The exploded diagram shows the layers of screening glazed elevations, as mentioned previously to serve the identitical issue of hotel’s image to be blended with Amman background, in addition to shading function for rooms.

The glazed wall is covered by GRC skeleton that is designed through a clustered modular system following the structure of subtraction in mass, adding a layer of louvers to protect rooms from direct sunlight.

THE LIBRARY OF JEA

In 2021, The Jordanian Engineers Association launched a competition for one month to re-design the interior space of the Association’s library and its external side entrance from the health insurance building of the Association. Me and my partner Arch. Abdallah Foudeh joined the competition as a fresh graduated architects. The description of the competition mentioned the main goals and objectives that the renovation aims to, with the existing situation and the required functions, containing the number of books and offices.

Our design took advantage of the existing determinants, turning them into opportunities that we exploited to redefine the spatial experience of the users, splitting the visitors’ circulation away from the employees by dividing the interior space into blocks by partitions that are perpendicular to the natural lighting sources, using the neutral colors of wood and white gypsum boards, in addition to the hidden light strips that enrich wayfinding through space.

In December, the JEA held a ceremony for the participants to present their works in the presence of the jury where it was announced that our design achieved the FIRST PRIZE.

Year & Location 2021 - Amman, Jordan Type

Client Jordan Engineering Association

Competition - First Prize

The library of the JEA is located in the third floor of the association’s health insurance building, while its entry from the side stairs isn’t ligible for the users.

The competition has two main objectives; redesigning the interior space of the library and its entry zone in order to make it noticeable and clear.

The design responds to the ideal optimizing of the space by simulating the proposed spatial experience for the user in all its spatial dimensions, starting from the side entrance area, passing through the staircase, the library entrance, and then to the library’s multiple spaces, which enhances the guidance of the user to use spaces and tools in a flexible way that meets his needs, using contemporary materials and finishes that emulate the spirit of modernity.

The existing interior space of JEA Library

Left Interior Elevation

Reading Area PCs Area

Office

The proposed design responds to the circulation issue as a main controling force. The reception desk is relocated to be adjacent to the door with an enough space for the people to discuss the employee without preventing the other users to enter the library.

Book Shelves

Archive

Proposed Furnished Architectural Plan of the JEA Library

Beside the reception, a narrow corridor is created by book shelves for the other three employees to get into their offices and archive, while this corridor is lighted by the indirect skylight comes from windows and glass walls.

The main axis that cross the entry, goes through the central reading area and PCs area where users can surf and find books they’re looking for, while book shelves are designed to be perpendicular to the skylights sources (windows), to get maximum benefit from the skylight as shown in the isometric section.

Isometric Section of the JEA Library

Office 61 The JEA Library

AL-SARHAN COMMERCIAL

Ghaith Al-Sarhan is a jordanian dentist works in his clinic in Al-Mafraq, Jordan. Dr. AlSarhan decided to bulldoze his clinic to build a big commercial complex that contains his clinic, shops and offices. The client asked to deliver conceptual drawings and shots within one week, which was the main challenge I faced in this project.

The land’s area is less than 1500 sqm, and refering to local legislations, the maximum footprint area of the building was less than 700 sqm, while it should contain a number of shops, offices, clinic zone and services. The land is located beside an intersection of roads, which was the design’s main attraction force. The clinic zone is located near the intersection side, while its entry is on the intersection corner in order to be clear and ligible to the maximum number of drivers.

On the main elevation, there are three commercial stores entries in addition to the coffee house at the corner, where there are a side entry where women can go to the gym.

Client Dr. Ghaith Al-Sarhan

Year & Location 2022 - Amman, Jordan Type Commercial Complex (Freelance)

The building has a set of overlapped volumes due to its various uses, on the ground floor, the dentist clinic volume is located at the intersection corner and has its interior vertical circulation to the first floor, while it is accessible directly from its main entry from the street in addition to the side entry from stairs.

Stores on the ground floor are accessible from the front elevation to customers, beside the coffee house at the opposite corner, while the gym is located at the back side of the complex as it requires an additional degree of privacy for women, while first floor contains the upper part of clinic, gym and the coffee house.

Starting from the second floor (typical) to the fourth

floor, a central lobby is lighted directly by a skylight opening on the roof , while its surrounded by offices with a removable partition that can be edited to readjust the area of each office.

Visualization

Residential Interior Design - Amman

Visulaization

Company core

Trust Monitoring Office - Freelance

Al-Suhool & Rasheed Mosque Designed by WMPA

RAMZI ALREFAEE | LINKEDIN