Suzan Ibrahim
Portfolio 2010 University of Waterloo
Like the nature around us, homes and spaces are in constant need to be taken care of, understood and regularly changed. I try to understand the material around me; stones that split in various ways, plants that are planted first as seeds and then harvested, how bees shape their honeycombs -anything that can be broken down into new shapes and create new patterns of function in themselves. Study of materials and its uses can help ground architectural concepts and ideas to allow each person to form their own pattern of experience.
Projects and Studies
Urban Hotel- The Promenade
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Installation- Box Vortex
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Settlement- Rythm
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House- Focus
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Prefab- River Oasis
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Carbon Neutral House- Dtwell
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Work Experience
MUTOPIA Arch., Copenhagen Denmark
-Sports Centre
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-Carved Towers
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HSB Turning Torso, Maha Mustafa, Malmo Sweden
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Spadina Underpass, Concord CityPlace, Toronto Canada
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Sketch Studies
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Projects and Studies 7
The Promenade
This project was a challenge to study a large empty parking lot and transform it into an urban hotel for Cambridge city in Ontario. City-, cultural-, and massing studies were the main focus to create a revitalizing project that engaged the small city with its people.
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B o x Vo r t e x
This group project explored the structural and spatial potentials of unconventional building materials -in this case, a food take-out box. In groups of five, we designed a structural system by reconfiguring the connections of the box without altering its original structure. The installation brought an active play in the flow of the space as people walked around and by it.
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Rythm
This project is sited along the Grand River in Cambridge, Canada. The proposal tackles suburban lifestyle while adopting the area as housing enclaves in an unspoiled landscape. It was inspired by the heritage area of Cambridge’s Amphitheatre.
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Focus
This conceptual space involves the contrast and transition of materials and light as the visitor moves through the house. It takes one through an engulfing experience from darkness to light, concrete to grass which in the end is revolving around turning strangers to friends in the small but intimate space.
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Main Floor Plan
Ground Floor Plan
Roof Plan
Back perspective, Photoshop
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River Oasis
This was a group investigation in constructing a prefabricated house in an untouched natural environment. The site is located in the middle of the forest in North Ontario near Credit River. The study included a plan under 40 square metres and a quick assemblage of a house under a time frame of 20 days.
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Dwell
Together with a partner, the project’s main focus was to create a comfortable and carbon neutral house for a small family. Lighting/ shadow models, LEED checklist and other studies were part of this project.
Ground Plan
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Second Floor
Site Plan
Summer Model
Winter Interior Space
Green Roof/Green Wall Section
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Wo r k E x p e r i e n c e 29
Kalundborg Sportscentre
Denmark
This was a project done in a group of four at MUTOPIA Architects in Copenhagen, Denmark 2010. City of Kalundborg has a beautiful landscape but a troubled suburbs where youth have nowhere to spend their free time after school. The city wanted a building that would engage the youth with the community and its nature.
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C a r v e d To w e r s , M u l t i u s e b u i l d i n g
Mongolia
This was a project done in a group of four at MUTOPIA Architects in Copenhagen, Denmark 2010. It is a competition proposal still waiting for approval from the client of a mult use high rises that include offices, residential apartments, hotel and a sports facility. This was the first part of the design process, the facade was inspired by the Icelandic Soljebasalt mountains and their vertical character.
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Around Me
Malmo, Sweden
During the completion of the public and residential building, Turning Torso in Malmo, Sweden, by the architect Santiago Calatrava, Maha Mustafa was one of the few artists to be picked for the public artwork comission in the building. The main artwork involved two large sculptures that would enhance the aesthetics of the lobby space of the tower. The collaborative result was an eyecatching installation and became almost interactive with the residents and visitors who experienced it through the every-day passage in the building.
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Spadina Underpass, To r o n t o , C a n a d a
This project was installed for the revitalization of a part of Toronto Downtown by Concord CityPlace. This lighting piece was a collaboration with the international artist Maha Mustafa and was recently completed in summer of 2009.
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Personal
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Wo r k s
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Studies:
Helsingborg, Sweden
Assited the artist Maha Mustafa for her entry in the Love & Light Festival in Helsingborg, Sweden. It involved an architecturally incorporated projection on Sundstorget’s glasshouse.
Map for installations
Piece from the Newspaper
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Suzan Ibrahim suzan.ibrahim@hotmail.com P. + (226) 339 9284 18-2 Water Street North Cambridge, ON N1R 3B1 Canada