MULTI UNIT RESIDENTIAL APARTMENT
This project is a modification to the Client’s existing design to improve the apartment layout of the five storey building, achieve a more cost effective design and create a modern apartment block to better meet user requirements.
The new proposal refocuses the public facilities within a living space, namely the living room, dining room and kitchen. Brought together, they achieve a bigger open-plan activity space and assume a prominent position oriented towards the north east. The private facilities, such as bedrooms, bathrooms and utility facilities are located at the opposite end. The balconies and overhangs along the front facade are prominent. They are deliberately exaggerated by having bevelled side walls and ceilings to create a sense or illusion of different depths when viewed from the front.
Another key modification was to reduce the depth of the apartment blocks to create a narrower plan. Rather than keeping the one attached block the redesign provides two wings. Having increased the façade surface area and therefore windows, it brings in more natural light and improved cross ventilation within rooms. Wet areas are positioned along the facades to also benefit from natural ventilation.
To make the design more cost effective, spans between columns are reduced. Likewise, the semi-basement parking is replaced with ground parking accommodating eighteen spaces. Ducts for drainage pipes and niches for AC outdoor units ensure that mechanical services are discreetly contained to maintain a clean contemporary exterior look. By inserting smaller balconies along the sides, it helps to breaks down the otherwise long side facades.
The apartment typologies include one, two and three bedroom units. This is proposed to allow for diversity in prospective tenants. It also provides an alternative in a market where the majority of apartment blocks are of a single unit type, in most case with three bedrooms. The shared activity space is raised upwards to allow for parking and other services required on the ground floor.
SPEECH, LANGUAGE AND HEARING CENTRE
Sikika Speech, Language and Hearing Centre is a concept proposal for a private children’s centre to be built in Moshi, Kilimanjaro. The Client, a Speech and Language Therapist, required a small centre where she can test and provide therapy and training to children with hearing impairment. The facility needed to accommodate an office and treatment space with an audiometric test cubicle and observation room. A multi-purpose activity space forms the main room for the centre, and is supported by a kitchenette and a small nap room. Another requirement was to provide a shop where the Client would stock and sell products that they produce. There was also a need for a small photography studio, which is pursued as a hobby.
The design is meant to be quirky, playful and unique; to amuse and have a child-like nature. It also mimics traditional hut forms coupled with contemporary materials, finishes and details. Board formed concrete walls gives texture to the exterior. By being left in a natural state, it would age well and thus be easy to maintain. Timber framed windows are finished with a thick white band, which makes them stand out and exaggerates their irregularity in size and positioning. The windows perforate each of the modern huts, creating different viewing experiences from inside and out. The cool gray concrete walls contrast well with the warm timber framed doors and windows.
The interior spaces are bright with white painted walls. Custom designed plywood furniture effortlessly fits the circular interior. They create the flexible tables and seating, the bookshelves and storage niches. The material is affordable, light in weight and one does not need to be too precious with it. Vibrancy and colour is brought out through fabrics and geometrically patterned tiles on portions of the walls and floors.
The three structures are circular in form so that the kids can literally “run-around” in the garden space. The garden is intended to also be part of the overall experience at the centre. With allotment gardens, small compost pits, rainwater storage tank, and a play area, it serves as a place for additional learning as well as fun.
ADAPTABLE SHELTER AND SETTLEMENT FOR REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS
A home is one of the most basic needs for human beings. Housing in emergency situations adopts the most basic type of shelter - a tent structure. Although tent structures met the immediate needs of displacement, they fail in long-term use. There is a need to provide an emergent dwelling that adapts to the needs of its inhabitants throughout different stages of displacement.
The point of departure is the lightweight steel structure. The design facilitates the transformation of the shelter from a temporary structure with a plastic sheet membrane to a flexible and durable housing unit made out of replaceable bamboo panels. This rapidly growing and locally available material is proposed to encourage inhabitant to self-produce and repair their structures without having to rely on external resources. The form typology focuses on a rectangular structure that can expand or shrink within segments, to meet the needs of family sizes and living activities throughout the displacement period.
Refugee settlements are often places in remote locations with limited infrastructure and services. The dwelling proposed includes sustainable technologies to provide basic needs, through rain-water harvesting, waste management, natural ventilation and lighting, composting and small scale allotments. The housing structure informs the settlement development. An alternative settlement layout is based on a fractal system. It creates communities with different sized private and public spaces that house the necessary amenities in the settlement.
- In collaboration with Marcus Chiu -
FUTURE HEALTHCARE CENTRE FOR KIRUNA
The northern city of Kiruna, in Sweden, is currently in the process of relocating some of its major facilities due to land defragmentation. The municipality is interested in proposals for a future healthcare facility that is in keeping with the historic nature of Kiruna as a mining city with strong cultural ties to Finnish, Swedish and Sami people. The vision for future healthcare is care that is integrated in people’s lives. The new hospital is designed more like an urban district or “health-district” with nine pavilion hospital structures. The small-scale structures are in keeping with the traditional look of the existing city of Kiruna.
“Hospitality” summarizes the image of Kiruna’s new health-district. Like in the city, a central courtyard will be a meeting point that is functional in summer and winter. A diagonal pedestrian and cycling path branches from surrounding paths to cut through the courtyard. At night it will be a light yard that will illuminate the area, making the new health-district a beacon of light, especially in the long winters.
The design principle is based on a 9x9 grid. The buildings are situated with the tallest building (5 levels) to the north and the short buildings (2 levels) to the south to take full advantage of the day light. Building volumes are equally divided by streets also 9 meters in width. The second floor is an important connection point of the facility. All nine buildings can be accessed from this level; in a sense, raising a central public street through this corridor belt.
The material of choice for the façades is weathered pine timber panels. The seamless pinewood is resistant to fading and weather damage. Shutters are critical for utility. The sliding louvers create a porous façade expression when opened. From a street perspective, a dynamic and constantly changing building will be experienced. The use of wood stems from traditional building techniques and material use. Other cultural motivations include the over-sized fire places inspired by the Sami wooded huts.
The individual structures allow the flexibility to grow and shrink following the city grid. The general layout of the departments is divided in three specific zones. The first zone is the reception area, which houses the general patient lounges. The second zone is the treatment areas, where patients and medical staff interact. The final zone is the working area, where staff frequent in an open-plan work environment and individual offices.
This unique layout is proposed to control communication flows throughout the buildings. Since, interaction of patient and staff is so complex within medical facilities, this design would facilitate different levels of signage depending on the users within the zones.
- In collaboration with Alexandra Gustafson & Niosha Saadatirad -
RESILIENT WATERFRONT HOUSING COMMUNITY
The waterfront at Gullbergsvass along the Göta Alv in Gothenburg, Sweden, has strong industrial characteristics and an informal structure of living. The main idea is to emulate the industrial nature and construction methods, and preserve the old gas tower. Responding to the challenges of rising sea levels that will affect the city in the future also influences the proposal. The main concept focuses on versatility of generalized unit and floor plans. As a small scale intervention, it is barely a speck on the master plan. It will accommodate adaptable living and working spaces, workshops and offices, for a clientele such as the student, commuter, young couple or freelancer.
Two types of units will be used to configure ones living space, categorized as wet and dry units. The wet units (bathroom and kitchen) are the stationary ones since they are attached to service cores aligned in regular intervals of 20 meter. The dry units are designed to respond to changing water levels. Amphibious units will rise with the water, while mobile ones can be completely re-positioned by the proposed industrial crane. Depending on the amount of space that the occupier needs, they can configure a comfortable housing environment using different combinations of wet and dry units.
- In collaboration with Adela Skrok & Kamil Szczesny -
SPACE FOR HOUSING, HEALTHCARE AND WORK
When designing for seniors, it is important to be aware of the users’ different characteristics, abilities and limitations. This project proposes more than just a home. It proposes a “life-style” to meet the needs of a diverse group of senior citizens. A variety of facilities such as restaurant and cafe, gym, pool and sauna, conference facility that also function as a screening room, laundrette, hair dressers and groceries store, provide public amenities that would also benefit the surrounding residential community.
The proposed structure - a terraced house - is positioned further into the site to allow for a garden square and park that is also open to the public. The position strategically buffers the elderly housing from potential noise along the south-western main road, and the existing kindergarten on the north-west of the proposed building.
All the terraces are in a southerly direction, benefiting from daylight and the optimum sun direction. Residents can enjoy the view and interact with their neighbours if desired as well as retreat into their own unit when seeking privacy. The space generated under the living units houses the recreational facilities. With a completely glazed facade with screens that mimic the adjacent woodlands, the space should feel as though it merges with the exterior.
The units are designed with the flexibility to alter the level of privacy throughout the house. Sliding walls are used to partition the open-plan living area. The corridor demarcates the living room and the kitchen from the bedrooms and bathroom, the areas where the elderly need most assistance.
- In collaboration with Tansu Bozdogan & Yalda Boozari -
HOMELESS SHELTER AND LEARNING CENTRE
The project looks at developing a derelict warehouse into a multifunctional facility where homeless people can live, as well as participate in aspects of work and learning alongside public users. Creating a long-term solution, it not only sustains homeless people, but helps to socially rehabilitate and integrate them into the mainstream society where they belong. In an inner city location; in Clerkenwell in central London; the homeless individuals get a chance to provide worthwhile services in the community, re-establishing dignity and a sense of worth. The facilities will enable residents to live, learn and interact alongside public users. Through training, counseling and mentorship by experts, the residents will be empowered to provide services and undertake manageable running and maintenance of the facility which they inhabit.
The concept focuses on retaining the natural feel of the industrial warehouse. Contemporary materials are used to bring forth a striking contrast between the old and new. To disguise the monotonous grid-like layout created by the structural bearing columns, spatial forms fold within the space, acting as central cores of different activity hubs. In the canteen for example, the form seemingly directs users through the spaces, and even spills out into other activity areas as a symbol of breaking through boundaries. Similarly, they form the seating hubs at the entrance foyer, reception lounge and lobby.
They redefine the interior and appear as though temporarily inhabiting the space. These meandering forms characterize the spaces. They are bold in color and form, which emphasizes and draws out the significant contrast between the old, rustic industrial building with the new modern materials and forms. The overall concept strives for a coexistence of different design periods, materiality and people interaction.
