University of Arizona
M.Arch II
College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture
Yuseph Sakr
Selected Work
Contact
Statement
Yusephsakr@gmail.com (808) 352 8022
I’m a developing master of architecture student. I fell in love with architecture infront of the Khanqah of Shaykhu in downtown Cairo and I’m continuing my studies in the University of Arizona, Tucson. To me, design is an infinite cycle of playful trials of mediating between modernity and tradition rather than a finite linear path with definite start and finish. These trials are in the form of rough physical models. The models are not made only for the basis of presenting but to visualise materiality, Structural integrity, Spatial connections and form potential in a design process. My Brief internships With Sahel Al Hiyari and other prominent Jordanian architects, introduced the important principles of architectural design in the Levant region. I understood further the courtyard house when I was part of a team that designed the 2021 Biennale exhibition installation “Petrichor”. I developed a profound passion for answering the question: How will we live in the future? Where I explore the answer through mediums of simple construction techniques for the arid climate.
Contents M.Arch II The City Within The plume
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Personal Kolda’s Secondary School Beit Vault
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B.Arch Kharanah Kindergarten
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Product Design, Furniture Assembly and Material Experimentation
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A City Within the Plume Intructor: Charlotte Algie Individual Project
M.Arch Year 1 During the 1950’s and 60’s a series of maintenence and cleaning drills were conducted at the south Tucson military base. The improper treatment of the chemicals used in that period caused toxic chemicals to enter the subsurface groundwater. Seeping into the water, soil and strucutures. This created a 6 mile long toxic plume spanning from the south Tucson airport to Nogales Highway. Rendering the whole area as a superfund site. This projects deals with a city that falls within the plume. A city that has been fragmented by the contamination. This fragmentation inspired a new alternative to the modern way of living. A city that uses simple construction methods to be built by the people. A city the rises above the contamination. A city that roams freely within a rigid structural grid. Inspiring an incremental way of living. Weaving its way through the existing city. In times stitching the fragmented, in other times it creates new functions. In some scenarios, using the same grid, it goes under ground following the direction of the contamination. A city within the plume asks the question: How will our cities be shaped after destruction? 1
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A story about a villager From Al dilingat, Egypt. Who traveled across the north atlantic ocean. He heard about how the people of south Tucson rebuilt their fragmented city. He walks through their structures, he experiences different ways how they dealt with distruction. He experiences structures with movable partitions and panels. Structures that deal within a 3 dimensional structural grid. Structures that operate under the ground. He experiences these typologies in the hope one day he can rebuild his own city.
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A city fragmented by the contamination, a new city arises. A city that overlays it. A city built by the people.
A City Within the Plume. 10
Kolda’s Secondary School Kaira Looro 2023 Competitiom Entry Individual Project
Modular metal sheet roofing panels
The Rosewood Column is stabilised within a clay wall 11
Personal project Built by the community, Kolda’s Secondary School is located 300m NW of the Casamance river, Ziguinchor, Senegal. The school consists of 3 main building modules revolving around a 15m Kapok tree. The horizental modules adopt a vaulted form cladded by metal sheet roof panels. The structure consists of rosewood beams and columns stabilised by clay walls. Within the structural grid, perforated laterite brick walls cools the passage of air before entering the spaces. 150 students are distributed into 6 classrooms. The Wooden dowels is used as a fastener classrooms are seperated from the central courtyard by a bamboo shaded loggia. As the student heads to class through the loggia, he notices that scenes on the either side of him are contrasting yet they’re still connected. Where the lack of vision and hearing creates a sense of mystery to the nature of the space behind these walls. Through the informal act of entrance to the project, the user feels that he enters a space of purpose, yet he is not disconnected from the outdoor environment.
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Beit Vault
Personal project Inspired by Aranza de Ariño’s Casa tiny, Beit Vault is located in the heart of the Sonoran desert. Made out if mud-brick, Beit Vault adopts a non-conventional form of a double vault. Both Vaults are subtracted but the overlapping creates a unified shell between the 2 vaults. This allows the entry of only soft light into the building and the exit of the hot air. This cools the space inside in the arid weather of the Sonoran desert. The structure houses a 1 bedroom studio-like space. The shifting of the vaults splits the interior spaces into 2, A private space (Bedroom + Bathroom) and a semiprivate space (Half kitchen + Half Living room).
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The Cellular Kindergarten Instructor: Mohammed Khalid Individual Project
B.Arch Year 3 Each classroom is made up of 3 5x5m cells. The first cell is the gathering cell. The second is the reading cell. The Third one is the learning cell. Its where the children learn around a tree with the absence of a roof on a concrete bench. The elevations of the classrooms vary from one another depending on the position of the classroom on the site and the function of the cell, ex: if the class requires concentration, the windows will be located in a higher position to prohibit visual communication of children across classes, if specific class emphasizes social connection between students then windows will be placed at eye level.
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The Kharana Retreat Instructor: Mohammed Khalid Individual Project
B.Arch Year 4 Aimed at millenials, by using the farm life as a way helping them see the bigger picture in life. The rehabilitation community is located in the jordanian desert near the historical umayyad place, the Kharana. The main building has 8 sleeping cells, each is roofed by 2 smaller vaults structurally connected to a larger 3-centered vault. Under this vault is the living area leading to the first courtyard that eventually leads to the main courtyard.
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Typological Analysis The form of the 3-centered Vault was chosen in relation to the form of the Umayyad Qasr Kharana and the Jordanian desert’s Climate
Spatial Analysis The interchangeable assembly of the spaces and the scale in the Umayyad Period inspired the spatial geometry of this project
Experiential Analysis The act of traveling from private to public is inspired by the hero’s journey
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Product Design, Furniture Assembly and Material Experimentation
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Part of a collection of sarcastic images, these 2 collages were from a visual study I conducted that critiques the typology of buildings in my home Country, Jordan.
Bauhaus in Jordan?
Architectural use of space
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The Upcycled Waterpump Table
In my first year of undergrad, I found a 20 year old broken waterpump in my parents house. I decided to construct it into a table where the metal pipes are to be the vertical supports of the table.
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Manufacturing Lee Broom’s White Street sofa
During my time in Nabe’ Salwan Woodshop, I was responsible for redesigning and in reconstructung Lee Broom’s White Street sofa using green MDF and white pine veneer.
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The Sad Story of the Rammed Earth Vault
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Plaster Molds Experimentation
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thank you.
hope you didn’t fall asleep