portfolio by Rowa Elzain

Portfolio

Rowa Elzain 2 0 0 8 - 2 0 1 1

“I

believe that the way

people live can be directed a little by architecture. ~ T a d a o

”

A n d o

Academic Projects 2

Content

H O U S E WITHOUT WINDOWS

SQU STAFF CAMPUS HOUSING

Semester I- 2009 Basic s of Builing Desi n g

Semester III- 2010 Housing Typologies

FANJA IN TRANSITION Semester III- 2010 Integrated Project II

U P A D AIRPORT CAMPUS WORKSHOP

Semester IV- 2010 Basics of Building C o n s t r u c t i o n

SAWADI PORJECT Semester V- 2011 Integrated Project IV

House Without Windows

Group Work

Task The objective of this project was to design a house that has no external windows. Windows were referred to all straight, transparent glass areas situated on the walls that allowed a person to look in and out of it. While doing this we were to keep in mind the location, weather conditions and socio economic culture. Concept While coming up with the idea we used the privacy as the issue to be tackled while working on the design. Since the idea was to let light in without having windows we decided to have the roof made of glass and let all the light enter through it. We decided on making the structure very modern and unique giving a push to creativity and breaking limits. We made a structure that looked like a box and within that other rooms that were also box shaped. The idea was to create a structure like a box and then within that have several smaller boxes place in a rather random fashion. Each of the smaller box has different functions. They are surrounded by water as a reflective medium.

Court Yard

Kitchen

Guest Room

Court Yard

Dinning Room

Sitting Room Bedroom

Placing the rooms in a box with a glass ceiling and a water ground

Ground Floor

Store

Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Breaking down a house into rooms Office Bedroom

First Floor

Section A-A

Bedroom

SQU Staff Campus Housing

Group Work

Task The objective of this project was to establish a holistic understanding of the significant housing typologies in Muscat, in relation to its morphology. As a result the output took into consideration functional and dimensional analysis of the different housing typologies in Muscat. Site analysis Our selected case study was the staff housing campus in SQU ‘Sultan Qaboos University’; here we analyzed the ratio of build up space in relation to housing units and space. Our analysis outputs were: the small row housing typologies in SQU provided a more sustainable environment for living –comparing to the other housing typologies in Muscat-, as it considers the social factor by reducing the number of units in a neighborhood by dividing the many small ‘cul-de-sacs’, yet keeping in mind open public spaces in-between as a main ‘car-free’ gathering points.

Garbage bin

Private open_space

Garbage bin

Private open_space

Ground Floor Plan

First Floor Plan

Section A-A

Front-Side Elevation

Back-Side Elevation

Fanja In Transition

Group Work

General Fanja’s old city is a cultural heritage site; its 5000 Information year old civilization attracts many national and international tourists. It is situated 60 km from Muscat, on a plateau with a spectacular view overlooking a vast oasis. Aim The main objective of this project was to develop a strategy for persevering and saving the ‘ancient adobe urban settlements’ of Fanja, taking into consideration the modern life essentials such as electricity, fresh water supply, communication tool, etc. in order to encourage the residence to reinhabit the old city of Fanja, and boost the culturaltourism sector. Concept Our strategy for preserving the old city of Fanja is to keep and preserve all settlement (with a good foundation) and integrate them in a new urban layout that enhances the accessibility and traffic routes of the city. However, the new settlements will be constructed in same traditional adobe construction methods that have been implemented to the existing settlements. In order to achieve a successful cultural- touristic experience, we have integrated a traditional souq, crafting schools, museums, and a research center.

Section A-A

Section B-B

M a s t e r Pl a n Tree Existing/Restored Souq New Settlement Spring

Built Structures

Functions

New Settlement

Residential

Museum

Restored

School/Museum

Mosque

Existing

School

Restaurant

Research Center Mosque Souq/Restaurant/ Cafe Gate/Tower Spring

Traffic Car Traffic Pedestrian Traffic

Museum Ground Floor

Museum First Floor

UPAD Airport Campus Workshop

Group Work

Aim The aim of this project was to create a new workshop space for the students of the Urban Planning and Architectural Design (UPAD) Department In the new airport campus of GUtech. The workshop was to be located in the northern empty plot of the campus and must be a minimum of 25 square meters. Concept Our concept was to integrate the new workshop with the existing UPAD department in the 5th and 6th floor using the assigned material. As the material influences the form of a certain building, this workshop is formed in this way influenced by steel. Steel construction is known to be built faster and it could be shaped in several ways. It also gives a bigger inner space. There are several elements used in this structure to make it stable; hollow tubes used for shaping the façade, (I beams) to hold the floor plates, and (L sections) used for screwing the (I beams) to the beams of the main building. Breaking it down to three construction layers of the buildings envelop, the structure is stable by its load bearing beams and the triangular tubes, it is protected against sun heat and wind forces, and it is insulated by the foam and the openings.

Front Elevation

Central Section

Fifth Floor plan

Sixth Floor plan

Fifth Foundation plan

Sixth Foundation plan

Detail

Sawadi Project

Group Work

Aim Al-Sawadi is a fishermen village in the city called Barka located in the northern part of Oman. Although it’s a fishermen village our concept is leaning into gardeners’ village because the theme of this project was the importance of a space in the eye of a specific character, and the character of our proposal was a gardener. Concept The main objective of this concept is to embrace the green land while providing spaces for specific functions, such as hotels, restaurants, Gardening school, green houses, fresh-local products market, venue, pharmacy, Labs, Butterfly maze, and parks. The whole idea behind it is to stay green as much as possible. The whole area is going to be filled with different types of vegetation that in general becomes a botanic city.

Master Plan

Functional Map

Greenary Map

New Structures Green ground cover Sea

Trees New Structures Green ground cover Sea

Section A-A

Traffic Map Inner Routes Private Routes Main Routes

Hall Flower Shop/ Butterfly Maze Gardening School Hotel/Guest House Market/ Green houses Stores Pharmacy/Labs Cafe Restaurant

Trees

Tree h

Ground Floor

Green

Hotel House

ouse

Hot

Ground Floor

First Floor

Alternative Bedroom Units Second Floor

Professional Projects JULY-AUGUST 2010

Site Analysis The proposed student dormitories at the campus of GUTech are courtyard blocks. As they are very similar in their form, the architects wanted to create distinction between the different blocks with different landscaping for each courtyard. Our project began with an analysis of the circulation within each individual courtyards (shown above). The main routes are marked in red.

Courtyard for Female Housing

Another important factor was the angle of the sun at various times of the day and the shade provided. The housing blocks, that we worked on were all four stories (12 approximately). June- July is the hottest time in Muscat. We analysed the shade in the blocks during June, at noon when the sun is perpendicular to the ground.

Courtyard for Male Housing - 1

Courtyard for Male Housing - 2

Courtyard for Male Housing - 3

Concepts

Courtyard for Female Housing

Courtyard for Male Housing - 1

Courtyard for Male Housing - 2

Courtyard for Male Housing - 3

Based on our analysis, we developed four different concepts for each courtyard. In the courtyard for female housing, apart from the main access there was another route available for the students. This feature naturally divides the spaces. In the smaller space, we covered with grass and few seating, while the bigger space had a water feature along with seats. There was an overhead shade structure provided to reduce the effect of the sunlight. In courtyard for male housing 1, the water feature is alligned perpendicular to the main walkway. This is give a pleasant feel in the courtyard. Cubes (seating) are placed at the edges of the water feature. The second courtyard for the male housing was one of the most challenging one. There were many openings from the corridoor to the courtyards. We decided to block some of these entrances with elements like seating and shrubs creating a lively atmosphere for the students. The last of the courtyards was the smallest courtyard with only one entrance. In this courtyard, we have designed a special seating. As the area is minimal we tried to keep it simple with few elements.

Detail Courtyard Male Housing -1 This document is produced as a part of an intership at Landscape Designs LLC (August, 2010).

N 0

20 m

Content

Landscape Design for the courtyards - Student Housing

smooth boulders

Legend :

Seating Grass Water feature

Project

German University of Technology in Oman Landscape Design

Courtyard

Courtyard for Male Housing 3

Area

12900 mm x 12740 mm

Elevation - West Side

Section A - A

Personal Projects 2

Graphic Design Aspire is a national conferences hosted by AIESEC (nonprofitable student organization) Oman. Aspire aims to develop and improve the vision of AIESEC Oman. However, being part of the Organization Committee responsible of delegate service, our task was to come up with a logo in order to start promoting the conference.

The initial name of the conference was SUIT, therefore we had to come up with alternatives for the logo and most of all preparing a conference T-shirt.

Aspire 6th NatCo AIESEC, Oman

c adete n Sy pgr ova rm U nn sfo I ran T

envisioning the future

e c d n a ee Sy pgynr ocvraatdramte U Snnpgsfoov form I Urannn s T I ran T

Three minute city is an urban develop concept for the new city of Al Khoud (Six), part of our Urban Planning Law II course, this logo was developed by four students including myself. Integrated Neighborhood Gardens is a concept that was developed initially for an engineering entrepreneurship competition, however, the idea is thus to be continued. G.B.R is a logo created for a project run by two student which aims at fund raising for cancer through collecting donated books and selling them.

c ty garden

neighbourhood

integrated

I.N.G

GIVE BUY READ f o r C a n c e r

“ I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world”

~ Albert Einstein

Photography

Sketches