Urban design and planning portfolio - Sepehr Zhand

The Portfolio Sepehr Zhand

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Index

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ResumĂŠ Non-Linear Urban Dynamics Ph.D research project - Bartlett, UCL

Informality As A Method

Academic

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Academic

MArch thesis - AA School of Architecture

Tainan Integrated Mobility Strategy

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Academic Professional

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In Associaiton with Cheng Kung University

Lower Lea Calley

Academic

Urban Strategy Workshop | AA Housing and Urbanism Program

UbiQuiPlex

Professional

Competition, 54th IFHP International World Congress, Brazil, THIRD PRIZE

Qale Mahmoud Plaza

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Academic

Residental Complex, Design Studio V

Mortazavi School of Religious Studies

Professional

Conceptual design phase

Maryam Apartment

Professional

Commissioned design - under construction

PHOTOGRAPHY

Informal Urbanism

Academic Professional

Construction Detail Design

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Academic

BArch final project - University of Tehran

STUDIO PROJECT

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Academic Professional

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Sepehr Zhand Architect, Urbanist

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Teaching Experience: 2014-16 Azad University - Qods Campus

Design Studio Instructor (Housing and Housing Complex Design) 2015-16 Azad University - Parand Campus

Design Studio Instructor (Housing Complex Design) Studio Experience: 2018- Present Space Syntax Ltd. Project Consultant | Modelling and advising on urban design and planning projects 2013-18 Famitan Architects

4 Ash Tree Court, 106 Prospect Ring London N2 8GR UK

Architect | Responsible for design and implementation of upgrading solutions for

2014-15

PhD Candidate

Space Syntax Laboratory, Bartlett Faculty of Built Environment,University College London, London, UK

MArch

(Housing and Urbanism), Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, UK

2010-11

EDUCATION

2013

Informal Settlements and Dilapidated Fabrics in The Metropolitan region of Tehran and

Karaj

Tel: +44 7508 938 707 Email: sepzhn@outlook.com 2018- present

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

ACECR - Faculty of Fine Arts Branch - UT

Reseach Administrator

Agour Consultant Engineers

(junior Arcihtect) 2008-10

Nazar Consultant Engineers

(junior Arcihtect)

Freelance Clients: 2103 Mortazavi School for Religious Studies

Design Phase

2010

BArch

University of Tehran, Faculty of Fine Arts, School of Archi tecture, Tehran, Iran

2015 Maryam Architect

2006

High School Diploma in Mathematics,

2011

NODET [National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents], Kerman, Iran

LANGUAGE SKILLS

Farsi [Native]

English [Fluent]

Spanish

[Elementary proficiency]

Arabic [Elementary proficiency]

SKILLS AND SOFTWARES SOFTWARES:

SKILLS:

Rhinoceros, VRay, AutoCad, Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design, Lightroom, Premiere) SketchUp, ArcGIS, QGIS, Depth MapX,MS Office, NetLogo, Python

Amateur DSLR photography, Model Making, Amateur Wood working

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Apartment AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

AA Bursary

Graduate School, AA School of Architecture

2010

IFHP 2010 International Student’s Competition, Brazil

2006 2006- Present 2003

Admission and Full Scholarship in University Of Tehran Member of “National Elite’s Foundation of Iran”

Third Prize

Khwarizmi National Award First Rank in Physics and Robatics

PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES

2016 Design and Implementation of an upgrading programme for Hesar-e-Bala | Programme Lead and Coordinator , Karaj, Iran 2015 Housing Typology Design as a part of the Gentrification Scheme for Bagh-e-Azari | Architect and Designer , Tehran, Iran 2014

2014-15

Mosha’ , A two week workshop on re-thinking of Shared Spaces in Mass Housing Projects | co-curator and critic A Research on Mehr Social Housing Programme funded by the Ministry of Road and Urban Development | Research administrator

Non-Linear Urban Dynamics

Space Syntax Laboratory | Bartlett | UCL

September 2018 - present

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The traditional planning and decision making in the context of developing countries, has not been able to assess the impact of the implementation of development policies in an informed manner. While shortcomings in the delivery of development goals in this context are attributed to various external forces, there is enough evidence to show that shortcomings such as informal growth have been intensified as certain policies have been implemented in the past few decades.

This research uses spatial analysis to assess the impact of NACH - radii 40 km | global movement routes

NACH - radii 5 km | Local movement routes

development policies on the metropolitan region of Tehran, and significantly it will be looking at how the implementation of these policies have resulted in emergence or intensification of informal growth.

Therefore this study uses space syntax methodology, modelling the evolution of this area, and setting it against the process through which planners aimed to shape a modern, prosperous city. Accordingly, using spatial analysis to read the patterns of growth during recent decades of change this project tries to explain how the implementation of various regulatory frameworks have been received and responded to, by urban dwellers.

The assessment of spatial characteristics of settlements in relation to the way in which they have evolved through time, and through different scales, provides an initial understanding of how organic city fabrics grow and function.

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NACH - radii 1 km | Super local movement routes

Normalized angular choice measures the network betweenness. At various radii, this can show how the movement passages behave at different scales.

Normalized Angular Integration Analysis identifies the parts of the system most probably chosen as detination in a global scale

As a rapidly growing metropolitan area, Tehran has been rarely modelled to show its potentials for growth

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Using spatial analysis, this project tries to unravel the systems and subsystems, that govern this metropolitan system.

Ultimately studying the morphological patterns of an urban whole would reveal the underlying social streucture that are evident through specific settlement form. This research aimes to explain the quiddity of unplanned growth through quantitative spatial analysis.

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Identifying the potentiality of local centres using accessibility analysis

Informality As A Method

AA School of Architecture

Dharavi

Mumbai

June 2012 - March 2013

In this oversight, Dharavi is being considered as an entry point in Mumbai; the place where people initially find job and a place to live, get experienced and then have the option of staying, going back or moving to different industries in other parts of Mumbai or India. With such definition for Dharavi, there seems to be a need for a set of guidelines which are originally extracted from Dharavi itself.

The patterns that the industries, the life styles, ethical and regional characteristics of the people, who just arrive in Dharavi will be shaping such guidelines.

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Dharavi is dense fabric of housing and industrial units which are supporting and producing the services needed for India and Mumbai. This situation has emerged when the people started to building it up out of regulations in Mumbai.

The pull factor –active industries- in the area functions as a magnet for people, who lack jobs or looking for a platform to enhance their life. The outcome of such situation is a flux of work force that migrates to Dharavi in certain patterns and ways. For people who arrive in Dharavi there is always an opportunity of a job to get them started and settled. Such an immediate availability of job vacancies, illustrates the flexibility and adaptability of such territory.

“Dharavi, in fact, symbolizes the problem the growing cities in most developing countries face-that of unequal development. The countryside is deprived, stagnant; the cities become the ‘engines of growth’, attracting capital, creating avenues for work, providing access to services ad allowing some people to make millions and many more to subsist. Inevitably, those who cannot survive in the countryside-usually the poorest-have no option but to migrate to the nearest urban center.”

Dharavi’s Composition as a system of industrial components, social Nagars and movement economy

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Live and work typology is a central element to the generation of such intense urban conditions

With the special situation in Dharavi, such as the over growing costs of land and the existing financial and educational poles around it, the industries in Dharavi are in the danger of being wiped out and get replaced by high rises and their massive negative effects in the living conditions of Mumbai.

Exploring the new live work conditions in Dharavi not only help enhance the quality of the housing units and industries but also justifies the logic for keeping the industry and dealing with the real estate forces in a more sustainable way.

“but we also know that the sequence of movement and settlement that characterizes migrancy was seen to have a range of unsettling effects: jeopardizing social cohesion; straining housing and servicing infrastructure; disrupting sense of home and belonging; inducing social resentment and racism, and herein lay the ‘threat’ to the territorial logics of nation and metropolis.” (Crains, 2004)

Crafting their own solutions of survival, the infomality as a complex adaptive system, tends to respond to various physical, natural and economic conditions and address the external shorcomings with inventfulness

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Cutting through the physical fabric of Dharavi, one can see the complexity of parallel processes that at the same time makes the living conditons possible and intense at the same time. this complex composition makes Dharavi one of the most environmentally friendly examples of urban living, where the number of jobs is more than the number of people.

The informal growth in this study, is taken as a resource for learning from, and the derving measures o ultimate survaval that are both sustainable and justifiable. moving away from conevtional standards, the proposed system aims for requalifying the edge as well as responding to the growth of Dharavi in a resourceful manner. By using the grid, basic infrastructure, and the pocket spaces, the system contorls the density. The overgrowing of the fabric is controlled by the use of the physical boundary of the canals.

The change of quality happens as the informal method of Dharavi is maintained in an informed manner.

The productive characteristics of Dharavi can benefit Mumbai and yet due to the strategies of the proposal the living quality of the area would be enhanced.

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Being able to truly understnad Dharavi, one must take into consideration the multiplicity of simultaneous acts that happen at the same time. and in order to propose an upgrading solution for it, that addresses its physical precarious conditions and the health related issues, one has to refer to itself, to learn and adapt from its logic

Having the advantage of being a part of Dharavi’s productive sector, the proposed system of growth would be responding positively to the growth of Dharavi.Dharavi in my thesis was the systems that it has informally established. We can actually use the informality as a method, for redeveloping such conditions that previously were known to be a burden for the planning strategies.

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mobility Tainan Integrated Mobility Strategy

In associaiton with Cheng Kung University

Tainan

bus stops and routes

major city ac2vi2es

hierarchy of mobility system

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Taiwan

May - June 2012

As a rising center for knowledge and technology, developing an integrated mobility strategy for the city center of Tainan becomes of utmost importance. linking the means of transportation in micro, meso and macro scales, the strategy tends to provide a seamless interaction between the knowledge and production centers, thus creating synergies that are innovative in nature.

Being the intersection of two major axis of mobility, the enhanced mobility system in the region would result in enhanced industry as well as knowledge. Through this strategy not only the various means of mobility are synergetically connected, but the arcade and the alley way typology of the built environment is also being used efficiently.

The overall argument tries to efficiently use the existing condition, making the least necessary physical intervention. Considering that the site is connected to the rest of the technological hubs of the country through the high-speed rail, using the integrated mobility system arguablly increases the chance of intersecting productive innovation and industry.

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Lower Lea Valley Workshop

AA School of Architecture

Housing and Urbaism Programme

January - May 2012

The Lower Lea Valley has the potential to sustain its industrial quality if an argument is made to integrate it with the urban character of the region. The aim is to investigate the industries, to structure, develop, and re-qualify them such that they become more productive, not only for their individual gain but also for the surrounding communities. This requires vast amounts of detailed investigations, tests and strategic theories to address the multitude of layered facets and results in interventions with local and regional impact.

Thus an argument emerges to transform the Lower Lea Valley into more than just an industrial sector near the center of London, to develop an industrial urbanity that supports and encourages the coexistence of various types of industries and public integration within the industrial areas that are conducive to such expansion. This transformation not only fosters productive relationships between the various industries themselves, but also with the surrounding institutions and neighborhoods. A multi-scalar approach to introduce an industrial urbanity would give Lower Lea Valley the ability to adapt to the ever-changing context and technologies thus giving it a better chance to survive the development pressures in becoming a mono-functional suburb of London.

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To enable the Lower Lea Valley to be successful at the regional scale and productive for its local context, smaller interventions within the valley will not be adequately effective without a strong argument and regional strategy. Institutions, Infrastructure and Industries were found to be the predominantly relevant elements. A proposed productive combination of these three elements could work as a conceptual methodology having the potential to develop into drivers for change and development in the Lower Lea Valley.

Furthermore the use of a spatial methodology consisting of points, lines, and territories helped to investigate and structure the site.

The Lower Lea Valley has many points of interests that have varied functionalities and unique characteristics. These are sometimes institutions, industries, parks or iconic developments.

In addition, the valley has many strong lines which are often infrastructural, manmade, or natural. The combination of these points and lines produces some interesting territories within which exists a great potential to develop meaningful synergies between insitutions, infrastructure and industries, which are established under an umbrella of a conceptual approach.

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BoroughofTowerHamlets

Borough of Newham

To structure the investigation of Lower Lea Valley, the established concepts and methodologies were used to study the qualities, complexities, and potentials of the existing territories and to understand, question, and test the relationship between the local and regional fabric.

The analysis of the Lower Lea Valley was carried out along three particular lines of infrastructure – the greenway, the railway line, and the roads.

The lines were specifically chosen as tools of investigation, as they are completely different from one another in terms of the speed of movement along them, their porosity and their physical characteristics. Each of these lines reveal complexities as they traverse different conditions and circumstances along their length, thus these lines of infrastructure became interesting tools to investigate and analyze the Lower Lea Valley and gain an understanding of the whole region.

Thames River

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The propositional strategy aims to transform the Lower Lea Valley into more than just an industrial zone. The larger framework sets up a sustainable industrial region by requalifying existing industries and developing new typologies to facilitate synergies between industries and with the surrounding neighbourhoods making it more productive at the local scale.

This proposal is supported by urbanizing the industrial area and introducing institutions and support infrastructure to service the neighbouring communities as well as create meaningful collaborations with the industries. In addition the institutional clusters at the proposed town centres behave as nodes of transition from the residential to the industrial character of Lower Lea Valley.

The existing mobility systems in Lower Lea Valley are high speed infrastructure which function regionally but create a landscape of isolated zones at the local level. The proposed secondary infrastructure system consist of enhancing a few locally relevant vehicular roads and a pedestrian network linked together with landscape allowing for the blurring of boundaries between what used to be rigid land uses. This secondary system synthesizes the various territories of the Lower Lea Valley.

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Thus the proposed transformation of Lower Lea Valley becomes relevant to the neighbouring communities on either side of it as the secondary mobility system’s public realm makes the various institutions and support infrastructure accessible.

Thus Lower Lea Valley develops into a new type of neighbourhood which is characterized by a productive industrial urbanity.

The aim is to to create a spatial strategic plan for the entire region of Lower Lea Valley, which details out the larger concepts to setup the entire proposal.

The development of a master strategy rather than a master plan, which allows for flexibility and has the ability to adapt to a changing context, is a more sustainable approach when dealing with a large peripheral urban region like the Lower Lea Valley.

Even if the specific programs and ownerships of the proposed interventions alter to adapt to a changing context, the larger framework of the master strategy of retaining the industries by introducing urban integration, creating institutional collaborations and developing a secondary infrastructure system through landscape to synthesize the valley would still remain relevant.

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UbiQuiPlex 54th IFHP World Congress, International student competition

3rd Prize

Porto Algre, Brazil

November 2010

The abandoned region of Morro Santa Teresa, porto alegre, RS, Brazil was presented as a part of City with potentials that could used in order to enhance the life of the favelas surrounding the area along with providing tourist attractions for all the city.

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UbiQuiPlex The tesselation is adjusted so as to make smaller parts around the slums which could hold for profitable and necessary functions for them-like small shops-and grow to bigger pieces in the middle of the site or toward the shore.

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The apllied pattern provides tiles which can be used for variety of functions according to their usage

The tesselation provides an accomodation between the proposed fabric and the surrounding fabric.

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UbiQuiPlex The pattern used for providing the tesselation was generated by a natural logic, same as the one which is creating the favela rural texture. three attractor points was used according to the places where the slums are mainly focused.

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The Voronoi algorithme, Generated by Grasshopper plugin

To absorb the traffic flux of the city to the region, what we proposed is essentially made of “streets” and “pedestrians” and differentiated the region based on them.

We intentionally avoided building anything that could be categorized under “architecture”, I will explain the reason later.

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BArch Thesis University of Tehran

Qale Mahmoud Plaza Kerman

september 2010 - February 2011

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Addressing an architectural question with an urban scale, the project tries to bring local functions to address the urban importance of the site as well. The site of the project has been an adjascent plaza to a castle and the sand dug from it to build the bricks for Qale Mahmoud had left an arena where social and commercial affairs of the citizens used to be addressed.

On another hand with the gorwth of the modernized movement structure there is a danger of this heritage being merged into a commercial fabric.

The proposal suggest an elevated structure for pedestrian movement to be able to experience the ancient surrounding fabric, as well as the restored and raised plan of the deteriorated urban plaza.

The functions surrounding the redefined plaza include commercial passage, concert hall, as well as schools and a foodcourt. The complex as whole seeks to provide an urban public space which would compensate for the demolished old urban fabric.

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Design Studio V University of Tehran

Housing Complex

Tehran

February - July 2009

The main goal to achieve a sustainable design in the residental complex, among a variety of perplexicated factors seems to be “ Bringing back life to the Neighborhood as It is meant to be”

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Inspired by the living method used by the Old Iranians as based on “the Shared public space” provides the whole Concept Of the

Housing complex.

Trying to rethink a multi unit family dwelling complex ,the design approach derived from simple understading of the site as well as the common typology in the area which corresponds well to the topology of the surrounding. it is an struggle to re-envision the joint family cluster typology, while using the natural and site constraints as design axuillary guidelines.

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Mortazavi School for religious studies Conceptual design phase

Mixed Use Building Kerman

Previously a housing estate belonged to the Mortazavi family, the brief demanded a revision of the previous building, which used to accommodate religious rituals as well as housing a big family. The client already requested a place for religious studies as well as exhibition and commercial section which would bring economic independence to the school.

The inward looking structure of the educational section is derived from the original house, the void in the entrance is used as a hinge to link the two part in meaningful way, conserving the intimacy of the school as well as ttaking advantage of the two main axis on the sides of site.

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Maryam Apartment Commissioned design | Under Construction

Residential Building Kerman

September 2015 - August 2016

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On a commission to design a 5 storey residential building in the city of Kerman, Iran, this is an effort to provide optimum accommodation for five large families (4+ per family) including parking space for all.

The cirterias in the design process include providing the maximum sunlight in through the northern and southern windows as well as the possibility for natural ventilation through open corridor within the plan, which would allow for the strreams through and assist natural cooling.

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Photography Informal Urbanism Tehran Nikon D80 As a part of a personal interest and research, this is an effort to depict the various, yet similar specificities of the the informal urbanism around the world

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As an ultimate way of survival, through informality the extreme conditions of inaccessibility, draught and socio political segregation is met and addressed via somehow intelligent solutions

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Photography Informal Urbanism Mumbai Nikon D80

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Despite the common misconceptions, the informal urbanism, not only supports the city through providing services in the background. Generating synergies between live and work conditions, the informal city is a natural response to the failing planning discipline.

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Construction detail design Phase II detailing

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Kerman

September 2009 - Feb 2010

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Residential Unit

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An unusual housing design, this project demanded custom detailing.

And because of certain regulations needed

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Construction detail design Wall section detail desing

Art Gallery

Tehran

September 2009 - Feb 2010

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