2023 | Mayukwayukwa, Zambia
Competition Entry
Public | Phased Construction
The competition brief asks for a design of a new Sustainable Development Center in Mayukwayukwa, with the focus on using local and sustainable materials and easy-to-build construction techniques that can be replicable by the refugees when building their own houses.
While researching refugee camps in Zambia in general and Mayukwayukwa refugee camp in specific, a number of challenges and questions were identified:
1. The farming potential of Mayukwayukwa is not ideal given its sandy soil’s lack of nutrients and water fluctuation at ground level
How can the proposed project provide a testing ground and a source of information for the refugees regarding appropriate and successful agricultural practices in this context?
2. The availability of a limited variety of construction materials and methods for housing provides options but limits specialties
How can the proposed project act as a comprehensive reference for the limited variety of the locally used construction materials and practices?
3. The lack of participatory design opportunities during the design and construction of shared public spaces such as community and development centers leaves the valuable feedback of the primary users out of the process
How can a participatory process be incorporated in the design and construction of the proposed project without affecting the efficiency of its implementation?
The proposed project attempts to answer the questions posed by these three challenges by providing a flexible and diverse space that incorporates a variety of construction materials and practices in its composition, provides a testing ground for different agricultural crops and practices and is phased in a manner that establishes a set of parameters and limits for design participation.
Corrugated metal and thatched roofing are both used over concrete block and adobe brick construction to provide a reference point for all possible combinations of using these four typical and local construction materials and methods.
The layout and form of the proposal’s components are designed to utilize and illustrate passive environmental design practices to control temperature and light in the bedrooms and classrooms.
The project is phased based on an incremental strategy that will start by constructing the horizontal and vertical limits of the projected final proposal (with room for alterations), construct the necessary programs to create a destination and gathering space for the refugees by the time the first phase is completed and allow all the volunteers to move in as early as possible to expedite the construction process.
Design participation, adaptation to various refugee requirements and the completion of the project will occur after the completion of the first phase.
2022 | Vogar farmland, Iceland
Competition Entry
Movie Pavilion
The competition brief asks for a design of a movie pavilion in a flat, secluded and barren area in northwestern Iceland. The inherent programmatic inflexibility of a movie theatre coupled with the potential destructive intervention in a flat, undeveloped, barren, unique and protection-worthy landscape does not justify a limited use program. After researching the aimless stylistic diversity of Icelandic rural architecture and the more distinct voice of Icelandic artists and film makers, the design question was reframed as the following:
How can a context sensitive intervention feasibly celebrate the distinct and dynamic Icelandic visual arts movement with a focus on Icelandic cinema and its characteristics?
A subdued, robust, directionally-indifferent, compact and resilient approach was adopted to propose a programmatically flexible and diverse intervention in this expansive, edgeless and unprotected site.
A cylindrical form is sunken into the site responding to different environmental forces and houses a main circular flexible theatre space that can adapt to different modes of artistic expression with focus on cinematic viewing experiences. The project provides a space for a diverse visual arts expression modes, movie viewing experiences, film production activities and hospitality events to take place in one location. The diverse program feasibly justify a secluded intervention for a traditionally inflexible program usually located in urban settings - the movie theater.
The proposal attempts to celebrate the Icelandic visual and sensory arts movement by incorporating one of their main characters and muses in the design - the Icelandic Landscape - in every aspect of the visitor’s experience.
Rather than having a closed-off movie theatre and exhibition space, the main flexible theatre space has a controllable visual connection with the surrounding landscape and Hverfjall Volcano. In addition, a meandering and circular walkway echoing the hiking routes to volcano summits is embedded in the proposal and allows the wanderer to venture to an elevated view-point with unobstructed views to the surrounding landscape.
2019 | Toronto, ON, Canada
Competition Entry
Installation
Winter stations is an annually held public art installation competition that asks participants to design and construct an installation along Lake Ontario’s beach in Toronto. The theme of the 2019 competition was “Beyond the Five Senses“. The proposed installations should be designed to incorporate an exiting lifeguard tower located on the beach and to be constructed for less than $5,000 CAD.
The compression/expansion trick is used by architects as a device to amplify the sense of volumetric change, to emphasize the hierarchy of adjacent spaces and to direct attention towards a certain aspect of the experienced space. The installation uses this trick to allow the visitor to explore their sense of space, volume and natural surroundings. Through a curated passage, the visitor enters the installation through a dark and narrow opening and exits through a bright, reflective and expansive one to a view of Lake Ontario.
The project attempts to intensify the experience by using inward-leaning, dark-painted walls at the entrance and outward-leaning, reflective walls at the exit. The section connecting these two extremes is designed to act as a transition gradient between the feeling of compression and the feeling of release.
The visitor transitions between the dark, narrow and claustrophobic passage to a bright, expansive and deceptively infinite exit towards the lake.
The installation uses the existing lifeguard tower as a main structural armature and sits in the landscape as a foreign and intriguing object.
2017 | Damascus, Syria
Competition Entry
Bunker | Tactical Intervention | War Architecture
The objective of this 24hr competition was to design a bunker - a temporary war refuge that can be reproduced several times in different parts of a city that is under attack. The brief did not specify a site and allowed the participants to choose one.
The proposal studies the possibility of having war bunkers in a typical dense middle-eastern neighborhood; in this case in Bab Al-Jabiyeh neighborhood in Damascus, Syria.
The informal character of these neighborhoods combined with the tight alleyways connecting them make it hard for a typical bunker design to take place. These sites are congested and on occasion contain a vacant piece of land nestled in them.
The project proposes a series of personalized private bunkers, connected to each household from one end and to a series of tunnels running underneath the alleyways leading into a main public bunker hall from the other end.
The goal of having a connected cluster of private bunkers with a centralized public hall is to preserve the urban fabric (even if it was demolished), by keeping each family within its respective property while mirroring the cultural and urban significance of a shared public space. This will facilitate rebuilding, preserve the urban syntax and maintain the distinction between the private domain and the public domain.
2016 | Al Mafraq, Jordan
Thesis Project
Incremental Housing | Public Space | Urban Design
*Recepient of Irving Grossman Prize (more in CV)
The quick-relief, militaristic and temporary approaches in designing refugee camps fail to address the complexities of the rapidly developing ‘city’. Their treatment as isolated islands in a contextual vacuum fails to acknowledge the rich urban and architectural qualities and character they possess.
This thesis project proposes an integrative and incremental framework in designing and maintaining a refugee camp in the Middle East based on three scales ranging from the architectural to the urban. The project attempts to design for permanence without the use of permanent actions.
An analysis was first conducted to study and classify refugee camps around the world to find patterns and common trajectories to their urban and architectural formal and informal growth.
The study provided evidence that refugee camps are usually efficient and effective as an immediate settlement response but have poor long term strategy. It also illustrated that the difference and specificity of their evolution results in a unique urban and architectural identity. Lastly, they are to be looked at as the “ground zero“ of the profession since they emerged from conditions of tension, conflict and contextual vacuum.
The design is based on four phases and three scales. The phases are utilized in the design as thematic and time-related indications of the level of permanence of the design. The phases in chronological order are emergency response, resistance + interface, exchange + shared space and integration + tactical intervention.
The different scales are designed according to a specific level of resolution that facilitate the possible integration with the host city. The three scales are: city wall (urban), common wall (public) and domestic wall (private).
The refugee camp was looked at as an urban transformer and as a place of control and exchange to establish a theoretical framework that would frame whether the refugee camp is relevant from an architectural and an urban point of view. An essay of the same title written by myself in spring of 2016 touches on these topics in detail and concludes by establishing that refugee camps: 1) are efficient and effective as an immediate settlement response but have limited and poor long term strategy, 2) have urban and architectural identity resulting from differences and specificities in their evolution and development, and 3) can be described as the "ground zero" of the profession since they emerged from conditions of tension, conflict and contextual vacuum.
A number of refugee camps were analyzed and studied from a contextual, site, planning, block structure and integration point-of-view to understand their structure, successes and failures.
+ Refugee camps younger than 25 years.
From left to right (age, population) : Yayladagi Refugee Camp (3-6 yrs, 2.97K), Karkamis Refugee Camp (3-6 yrs, 7.10K), Kilis Refugee Camp (3-6 yrs, 13.42K), Ceyianpilnar Refugee Camp (3-6 yrs, 21.40K), Al-Zaatari Refugee Camp (5 yrs, 79.9K), Gihembe Refugee Camp (20 yrs, 19.05K), Hagadera Refugee Camp (24 yrs, 106K)
+ Refugee camps older than 50 years.
From left to right (age, population): Shatila (68 yrs, 10-22K), Bourj el-Barajneh (69 yrs, 17.95K), Bourj el-Shemali (62 yrs, 22.79K), Amman New Camp-Wihdat (62 yrs, 51.50K), Marka (49 yrs, 53K), Baqa’a (49 yrs, 104K), Rafah (68 yrs, 104K)
The proposed design is catered towards the Syrian refugee situation. A number of sites in Jordan and Turkey (top 2 host countries for Syrian refugees) were considered and the chosen site is situated in northern Jordan close to the city of Al-Mafraq.
Al-Mafraq is located 80 km north of the capital Amman and 16 km south of the Jordanian-Syrian border. It has an approximate population of 60,000 people. The site was chosen in close proximity to a city to anticipate integration with the host community in case the camp became a permanent settlement.
The design is based on four phases and three scales. The phases are utilized in the design as thematic and time-related indications of the level of permanence of the design. The phases in chronological order are emergency response, resistance + interface, exchange + shared space and integration + tactical intervention.
The different scales are designed according to a specific level of resolution that facilitate the possible integration with the host city. The scales in order of size are domestic wall (private), common wall (public) and city wall (urban).
The site was located in an empty lot north of Al Mafraq city, and takes advantage of the existing infrastructure (highways and a train track) in the form of imposed borders. The initial camp configuration houses 20,000 refugees and grows at a 3% annual population increase (according to UNHCR guidelines). The planning of the camp is set-up in a way that anticipates permanence by orienting the main/commercial strip of the camp to intercept with its counterpart of the host city. The camp evolves throughout the four phases by infiltrating the host city and by accepting the infiltration of the host urban syntax.
Starting from the temporary tent and ending with a permanent two-story apartment building, the domestic dwellings of the camp evolve in both form and permanence. The tents at the beginning are arranged in the appointed and reconfigured lots to anticipate the long term possible permanence of the camp. Following the installation of the prefabricated units (caravans), every four ‘lots’ will share a core with an implied structural grid that house plumbing, washrooms, electricity and vertical circulation. The core provides the residents/refugees with the necessary elements needed to construct their individual dwellings and give them the possibility to grow vertically. The typology of the insinuated dwelling unit takes cues from the existing context of the host community and from the cultural background of the residents/refugees.
+ Residential block evolution
2016 | Toronto, ON, Canada
Option Studio Project
Urban Design | Transportation
Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) - such as Uber or Lyft - commonly serve single passengers, essentially the same as a taxi, however there are new developments - such as networked car pooling, shuttle buses, or commuter vans - that use online platforms to coordinate transportation for multiple passengers. These services are just starting out, but in the future, if multi-passenger TNC services become more ubiquitous as a mode of transit, they raise questions and suggest opportunities for how public spaces could be used and occupied. Where might such “hotspots,” be? Could such locations also serve as places for public gathering in parts of the city where they are lacking? What will be done with parking lots once this system reduces their need? And how would suburban infrastructure - currently designed for personal car use - be adapted to address these questions and provide public space to accommodate this particular form of pedestrian and transit activity?
This studio speculates on new forms of public space at suburban sites, that would serve as nodes, or “hotspots,” in a transportation network system of multi-passenger vehicles. In designing new civic nodes for this system, this studio is testing out formal techniques of aggregation as means to produce density in spread out suburban areas.
The intervention presented is proposed in the neighborhood of Malvern in Toronto. It appropriates Malvern Town Center and uses it as a centerpiece for civic hubs “hotspots“ for future TNC services. The proposal investigates the addition of 4 extensions (hotspots or civic nodes) to the mall. The articulation of such nodes varies from adding parking structures as beacons to adding a market-like, human scaled objects under large canopies. The decisions related to their articulation are based on their surrounding context, their relation to the mall and their location in the grander scheme of public transportation in the city.
Disruption in the mundane: the Uber stations were designed to disrupt the regular pattern of the suburban block to introduce unique character and distinct objects that signifies the nature of their program
Ground-level plan showing the circulation on ground level and the relationship between the urban fabric and Uber stations. The light-blue highlighted areas designate major Uber (transposition) hubs. Their location and design react to their immediate context and to their location in the overall scheme of public and private transportation around the mall. The four edges of each station are addressed based on two conditions: one edge has to be connected to the mall and any naked edge is to face a unique courtyard building.
The south-east Uber station. The station contains mixed-use parking structures, small commercial buildings and a pick-up/drop-off/queue areas, all under a perforated canopy. Mixed-use parking structures were added to make-up the loss of surface parking spaces that were removed in the densification progress. This ‘Uber’ station will handle the majority of the traffic in the area, since it straddles a main intersection with bus routes passing through it.
The north-east ‘Uber’ station. Given the lower frequency and traffic through this portion of the mall, a smaller design was adopted. The perforated canopy and structure face an open courtyard of a U-shaped building to add an element of open space to the area.
The south-west station. The design of this station addresses one edge of the mall by introducing a second main entrance to it. It also addresses the edge facing the sport-oriented courtyard by having a commercial structure that house cafeterias and other recreational programs.
2015 | Toronto, ON, Canada
Option Studio Project
Mixed-use Residential | Formal Exploration
The studio objective was to design a 100 unit mixed-use residential building at a corner site along Lake Ontario’s waterfront in Toronto. The brief encouraged incorporating the boardwalk and water into the design.
The proposed project is split up into two different formal treatments stacked on top of each other responding to the program within them. The lower portion is a porous platform-like structure that will house the public, commercial, retail and recreational programs of the project and the upper portion is a solid form that will house the private residential units.
The lower portion is a structure consisting of a number of platforms with a minimum and strategic amount of enclosures to create a continuous path from the Lake’s boardwalk allowing the user to meander through a covered and interconnected series of floors and ramps containing commercial and recreational programming.
The porosity, lightness and interconnectedness of the lower floors are intended to draw people in and allow them to go through a programmed “shortcut“ around the corner and provide a focal destination point along the boardwalk.
The upper solid portion contains the residential units and emerges from the lower structural and irregular portion of the building. It is sculpted to provide cover to the platforms below, to provide an unobstructed views to the lake and city and to allow in natural light to the residential units.
The sculpting of the form presented an opportunity to explore the effects of this formal adaptation on the interior of the residential units. It created accidental yet welcomed “inefficiencies” which have been exploited to create unusual spaces and diagonal surfaces with framed view-points into the lake and the water.
+ Ground floor plan and an axonometric view looking south-east
+ Levels 4,5 and 6 Floor Plans
+ Levels 4, 5 and 6 Unit Plans
2015 | Toronto, ON, Canada
Comprehensive Building Studio Project
Institutional | Bridge | Sustainable Design
In Collaboration with: David Di Giuseppe
The studio attempts to address a void in the fabric of the Lawrence-heights neighbourhood in Toronto. The void was created forty years ago when the construction of the sunken Allen Expressway separated two neighbourhoods. This void creates both a spatial and social divide between the Lawrence Heights community and its surroundings. The lack of connectivity constantly undermines the successes of the local community. A large development proposal containing a spatially divided park is proposed for the neighbourhood which demonstrates further the constant difficulties presented by the void. There is a great need for increased community programs and an identifying nucleus in the neighbourhood.
Our proposed project is a community arts-bridge that re-connects the Lawrence-Heights neighbourhood spatially, reinforces the community link across the void inducing Allen Expressway and embraces the identifying dichotomy of a split-yet-together community.
The proposal attempts to remedy both the spatial and social gulf by creating an infrastructural link between the neighbourhood’s opposing sides. vThis infrastructural link takes the form of a community center which unites arts-exhibition, arts production, and social/commercial innovation. This arts-bridge enables the continuity of both parkland and community across the Allen Expressway void while creating a united nucleus both spatially and socially in the Lawrence-Heights neighbourhood.
The design starts off by establishing two lines connecting both sides of the sunken highway and providing a North-South connection. The roof of the proposal is utilized as a pedestrian bridge with multiple access points from the ground level by means of five circulation towers distributed along the length of the building.
The program is divided into clusters addressing the context of the site by having the art exhibition section on the east-end, the center of innovation (workshare) on the west-end and art production studios bridging both sides.
A series of meandering ramps connects and straddles different spaces and provide viewing opportunities into them.
+ Cross section cutting through performance theaters (interior + exterior), dance studios and the meandering ramp
+ Ground floor plan with a longitudinal section cutting through large exhibition spaces
+ First floor plan and a longitudinal section cutting through the theater and studios
+ A series of short sections (East to West) shows the meandering ramp that runs throughout the length of the building as a circulation element with viewing opportunities into the creative spaces of the project
Each of the five vertical circulation towers resemble a solar chimney that drives air ventilation passively. Distributing the five circulation towers along the length of the building enabled the adequate use of the solar chimneys to control or contribute to the interior environment.
The building is wrapped with a perforated, faceted and triangulated metal scrim with varying opacity corresponding to the program behind it and controlling the amount of light and heat entering the building.
