Landscape Architecture portfolio by Ahmed Faisal

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P o r t f o l i o o f A H M E D FA I S A L Graduate Landscape Architect (AHO spring 2020)

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AHMED FAISAL

Student member Norwegian Association of Landscape Architects (NLA) Arkitektenes fagforbund (AFAG)

Motivated landscape architecture graduate skilled in researching and interpreting ideas through digital and physical media and looking forward to an international career focused on research-based design.

Previously has experience working in the architecture and construction industry for five years and comfortable cooperating with multidisciplinary teams.

Associate member Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB) Olavskleivå 22, 4005 Stavanger, Norway ahmedfaisal0905@ gmail.com +4746241808

EDUCATION Masters 2018 - 2020

International Master in Landscape Architecture Arkitektur- og Designhøgskolen i Oslo (AHO)

Urbanism and Landscape

Bachelor 2006-2013

5-years Bachelor in Architecture Bangladesh University Of Engineering And Technology (BUET)

Built Environment

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES 2013-2018

ARCHITECT AT ‘ARCHEGROUND LIMITED’, DHAKA

2013-2017

Bhaowal Resort Ltd: Gazipur, Bangladesh A boutique resort and spa

Concept Client

Site Detail

Responsibilities included constructtion drawing preperation and negotiating with hydrologists regarding the masterplan rainwater drainage decisions according to the main design scheme.

2013-2015

Loom Shade for Amber Denim: Gazipur, Bangladesh Hand loom factory Prepared site analysis based on client recommended left over metal pipes which were used as the main structural elements of the design. Besides, designed typical section for waterbody collaborating with suppliers.

2013-2015

Vacation House at Rampal, Jessore, Bangladesh Private family residence.

Designed brick detailing and worked with realistic 3D images and preparing construction drawings based on structural design.

2013

The Daily star Bengal Art precinct Interior design and construction of lifestyle outlet Low ceiling height was a challenge for incorporating HVAC ducts and lighting design for exhibits where I coordinated between the teams and came out with a solution that was appreciated by the client and saved budget.

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Software

Model Making

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

LANGUAGE SKILLS

Autocad Rhinoceros 3D studio Max Arc Gis Sketchup Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe InDesign Corel Draw Graphic Suit Microsoft office

English Norwegian Bengali

Hand Techniques 3D printing, CNC, Laser

INTERESTS Photography 9 years experience in street Photography with national recognitions.

Karate 1st degree Black Belt in Shotokan Karate

AWARDS AND ACHIEVMENTS Jan, 2020

Jun, 2019

Apr, 2017

Winner ‘Pris for fremragende Landskaparkitektur’, AHO Awards

Studio: The Unseen Garden sponsor: AHO

Winner ‘Profesjonalitetsprisen’, AHO Awards

Studio: The Unseen Garden sponsor: ARKITEKTBEDRIFTENE

Nominee ‘Excellence in urban design and planning’, AHO Awards

Studio: The Unseen Garden sponsor: AHO

Nominee ‘Excellence in architectural computer graphics’, AHO Awards

Studio: The Unseen Garden sponsor: GRAPHITSOFT

Nominee ‘Best Exhibition, whole studio’, AHO Awards

Studio: The Unseen Garden sponsor: AHO

Winner ‘Pris for fremragende Landskaparkitektur’, AHO Awards

Project: Hydraulic Tendencies sponsor: ASPLAN VIAK

Nominee ‘Pris for fremragende byutvikling og planlegging’, AHO Awards

Studio: ‘Acting like summer, walking like rain’, sponsor: AHO

Nominee ‘Profesjonalitetsprisen’, AHO Awards

Studio: ‘Acting like summer, walking like rain’ sponsor: ARKITEKTBEDRIFTENE

Nominee The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 2019

‘Loom Shade for Amber Denim at Gazipur’ : Project Architect

May, 2017

‘Mention’ Category C: Industrial Buildings ARCASIA Awards 2017, Jaipur, India.

Oct, 2015

‘First Prize’ Category: Commercial Buildings ‘Asia Architecture Award 2015’, Istanbul, Turkey

Jun, 2015

Honorary Mention Open design competition for the monument at Nagasaki Peace Park, Japan

The Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh : Designer and Team leader.

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Chapter 1 The Moongrove Garden

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Diploma Studio Spring 2020

Chapter 2: The Unseen Garden

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Studio Fall 2019 The Ocean Garden

Chapter 3: Hydraulic Tendencies

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Studio Spring 2019 Acting Like Summer, Walking Like Rain

Chapter 4: Being Part Of A Process..

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Work Experience Archeground LTD

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Supervisor: Luis Callejas Professor, Institute of Urbanism and Landscape, AHO External Supervisor: William Veerbeek Senior Lecturer in Flood Resilience, IHE DELFT 2020 / 12 803 Diploma Project

AHO Diploma project: 2020 Spring

CHAPTER 1: The Moongrove Garden At the tide country where man meets the mangroves.

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Bengal Delta & the Tide Country The Bengal delta can be considered as an estuary where accumulation of water from different sources, specially precipitation from the Himalayas runs over a flat plain and meets the Bay of Bengal creating numerous divisions and branches of rivers and canals, only to evaporate, form cloud and go back to the mountains with the monsoon wind to repeat the same play of wetness over and over again. The Himalayas bless the Indian plate not only with water and wetness, but also it gives away billion tons of sediments every year. Because of the flatness of the clay terrain and the force of the water being flown over it, the rivers meander, change pattern, erodes and deposits on everything that comes across their pilgrimage toward the salt water at the sea.

Before meeting the sea, the rivers have to pass through an archipelago of loam clays and mangroves. There lies the Sundarbans with its protector tigers and crocodiles. The coastal human forest interface of this area is locally called ‘The Country of Tides’, where the inhospitable saline land of mangrove meets the manmade freshwater landscapes in the fractal matrix of countless rivers and channels that are fed by the moon tides.

The research started with an interest to look into how these two types of landscapes meet in terms of land use and cultural practices.

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Lands Without an Owner

....... When the goddess tries to keep balance between man and mangroves, the rivers still continue to erode and deposit at the polder outsides. Therefore, lands are created in between the rivers and the polders which are in close proximity to the forest and do not have any clear law about who does those belong to. Mangrove tries to migrate into these parts by sending over floating germinated seeds while man tries to take control by creating salt water shrimp ponds.

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POLDERS; who FIGHT TIDE AND HATE SALINITY A polder is an artificial hydrological management system that uses dikes or embankments to secure a controlled waterscape.

The embankments become routs of communication. The water needs to be controllled from coming in during dry season salty tides and during the monsoon, the excess water needs to go out from the polders. This water mangement is done with help of sluice gates. Local people keep traces of saline and tidal data and decide collectively when and how to control the gates. The polders create a cultural landscape that is different from higher land agricultural practices. To secure reserve of fresh water, the lands beside the embankments usually have a series of ponds.

These ponds are filled with freshwater during the monsoon king tides and used for fish farming and irrigation.

Salt water shrimp farms

Gher farmingSHRIMP FARMS SALT WATER

Floating gardens

Elevated ‘sorjon’ gardens

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SALT WATER SHRIMP FARMING Intensive version of this farming involves lot of pollutants and even spreading of artificial salt during the seasons of low salinity. Affects adjacent fields by increasing salinity.

‘SORJON’ ELEVATED GARDENS

1. Cross dam 2. Sluice gate 3. Emnakment 4. Primary canal 5. Salt flooded 6. Fresh water flood 7. Tidal influence 8. Well managed

Sorjon is practiced where land is subject to regular tidal inundation. The raised beds used water hyacinths or rice husk and can be used year around to grow crops on the platforms.

THE FLOATING GARDENS Farmers use water hyacinths with bamboo structure to create beds that can float when tide comes. And during the dry seasons, the beds compose and enrich soil nitrogen level.

GHER FARMING Part of the field is dug and the earth is used to raise the bunds or filed isles. Then the dug part becomes water storage where fish can be farmed and the regular elevated filed is used for rice farming.

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MANGROVES; who LOVE TIDE AND FIGHT SALINITY Though mangroves are well known for their existence in saline conditions, it is not a pre requisite for them. Rather, they have the ability to fight salinity using their thick leaves with salt accumulating devices. The knee, stilt, buttress or plunk roots allow them to breath and withstand tidal surges. Their seeds germinate while still attached to the mother tree and can travel long distances floating on tides. Patch formation of the mangrove species vary according to soil salinity and frequency of tidal inundation which are often determined by local elevations. Based on the geomorphic profile, mangrove trees show four major type of ecology that varies in different locations. Regular diurnal inundation creates canal Nypa patches, which is followed by the mudflats of red crabs. The ridges are inundated mostly by the full moon tides and usually the back swamp basins are flooded during the king tides or storm surges.

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BONOBIBI; A GODDESS WITHOUT A TEMPLE People of Sundarban have a mythical belief which has been surprisingly successful in creating a strong communal existence among the Hindu and the Muslim inhabitants. The guardian goddess, Bonobibi, according to the belief, was born in Mecca and was sent to this tide country to maintain the balance between man and nature. The myth is deeply rooted in the history of early arrival and settling of the Muslim preachers in Bengal and it is a derivative of people’s early struggle to survive in a hostile land. It tries to ensure that no conflict of interest caused by differences in beliefs or necessities takes place. The goddess belongs to land and tide, not in an enclosed temple.

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1. Kalasa ( frsh water and honey jar) 2. Haystack, nypa plam stack 3. Mandapa, raised platform for sacred plants and rituals 4. Water control from one field to another 5. Small dike 6. Stepped edge with water storage 7. Water control with different elevations 8. Water inlet from larger source such as river tides 9. Ritual platform and raised platform for cultural and social gathering, usually have an iconic sacred tree which gives shade and create space 10. Sitting platform from islamic garden 11. Fountain that stores and distributes water, also becomes a sitting place 12. Painting showing indian ‘vaana’forest garden 13. Historic painting of the garden of the taj 14. Image of a transplant of local sacred plants into a grid of an islamic garden

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The project is a garden for the community in one of the lands without an owner at the coastal human forest interface of the Bengal Delta, where a goddess without a temple tries to keep balance between man and mangroves by sending over moon tides. If left alone, those lands could become pioneering mudflats of the migrating mangroves, but because of their close proximity to the embankments, people will always be there to use it.

Hence, seen from a strategic point of view, the project in one hand will belong to the community, which means lesser chance of being occupied by the shrimp industries, and on the other hand it will use mangroves as garden patches which will mimic part of forest ecology.

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FOLLOWING THE WETNESS & DESIGNING LANDFORM ‘There are no borders here to divide fresh water from salt, river from sea. The tides reach as far as three hundred kilometers inland and every day thousands of acres of forest disappear underwater, only to re-emerge hours later. The currents are so powerful as to reshape the islands almost daily — some days, the water tears away entire promontories and peninsulas; at other times it throws up new shelves and sandbanks where there were none before.’

-Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide

TIDAL INFLUENCE IN EXISTING TERRAIN

TIDAL INFLUENCE IN EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE

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E L E VAT E D WA L K WAY S The walkable areas are made of a combination of brick pave, grass and mangrove patches. the width and the surroundings of the paves vary from place to place and they guide us to farms, ponds and public spaces of different quality. Based on tidal changes and iterations, form and materiality of public spaces also change. The lowest part is a plinth on the clayey mudflat, the middle part is a tidal pond trail and the most elevated part is a platform inside a freshwater swamp. besides, the distributed salt water and fresh water from the tidal pond creates cluster of farms and ponds of their own types.

B R I C K PA V E S

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BRACKISH TIDE IN PROPOSED LANDFORM

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MONSOON TIDE IN PROPOSED LANDFORM

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GHAAT: THE MUDFLAT The tide enters the garden through this platform of the mudflats. Inspired by the shape of the raised platform of sacred groves, the Ghaat becomes a viewing point of all the activities that take place on the large mudflat in front of it. During winter, a big portion of the mudflat is dry and it becomes an ideal place for winter fair and festivals. And during monsoon, the sweet tides bring fish and mangrove seeds which can be collected from the mudflats.

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VAANA: THE TIDAL POND TRAIL

The sluice gate lets the tide enter the pond ‘Vaana’, which is the term used for accessible domesticated wilderness. Here the tides inundate mud terraces of different height throughout the day. Parts of this pond is accessible by trails. The trails are changed, when the water level changes. The terraces are edged with bricks so that the tides do not change their shape. When the pond is full of water, it looks like a swamp forest; But when the water starts going away, trails emerge from it; and so do the mangrove roots and mud crabs.

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BRACKISH TIDE IN PROPOSED LANDFORM

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E 1.5

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Rice, fish and vegetables

Garden of the ridges

Guardhouse and store

Rice, fish and vegetables

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Garden of the ridges

Fountain of the swamps

Part of the sweet wter overflow from the tidal pond goes to the adjacent mangrove Patch and helps preserving soil moisture

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DARBAAR: PLATFORM OF THE FRESHWATER SWAMP Passing through the chaadar, the tide reaches the base of the ‘darbaar’. It is a term used for a public gathering where collective decisions are made. This part of the garden is less subjected to changes due to less tidal activity. The walkable platform is given a bit more formal expression inspired by the plinths of Islamic gardens. During monsoon, the swamps recharge themselves for the rest of the year. Small floating beds made of water hyacinths allow to farm vegetables.

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B 2.8

A 3.2

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GARDEN OF THE RIDGES

Apart from the tidal ponds and the farmlands, parts of the ridges also have accessible spaces to experience. Adjacent to the existing embankment, a walkway is added which loops the whole site. Parts of the edge is perforated to bring in water from the king tide to the fountain, which stores this water for irrigating the mangroves during dry season. The shape of these gardens follow the memory of some of the existing elevated lands and they can be found all around the farming areas.

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Studio: Luis Callejas Janike Kampevold Larsen Gro Bonesmo Dale Steven Wiebe

Winner ‘Pris for fremragende Landskaparkitektur’, AHO Awards, AHO

2019 / 60 525 Studio Project, Group of Two

Nominee ‘Excellence in urban design and planning’, AHO Awards, AHO

Winner ‘Profesjonalitetsprisen’, AHO Awards, AHO; nominert av: ARKITEKTBEDRIFTENE

Nominee ‘Excellence in architectural computer graphics’, AHO Awards, AHO; nominert av: GRAPHITSOFT Nominee ‘Best Exhibition, whole studio’, AHO Awards, AHO; nominert av: AHO

AHO project: 2019 Fall

CHAPTER 2: The Unseen Garden An Attempt to Expose the Unknown Strange Giant Mounds of Cold Water Corals in Norway

‘Lophelia!’

In the world of oceanographers, the term CWC, which stands for Cold Water Coral, is still new. They lie at the deep ocean; they do not rely on sunlight and they play a vital role in oceanic biodiversity. They create strange and surprisingly giant paradoxical carbonated mounds which can be kilometres long in places where you won’t expect them! Our site, Træna has a great ice age scratch mark at the sea bottom which helped creating cold water coral reefs here. Their existence in Norway, despite being known from 1970, has only been mapped as ‘dots’ yet.

Some of the reefs that have been mapped are only due to off shore oil activities.

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The Imaginative Discovery In Norwegian continental shelf, the cold-water corals have a strange relationship with undersea gas bumps.

They create an ecology, that helps coral reefs. Perhaps that is one good reason that the coral research is connected to the deep-sea oil operations in Norway.

Marine geologists often rely on full imagination for interpretation when it comes to underwater landscapes at depths beyond light penetration. The first part of the project is an attempt to map the unmapped by using imagination through juxtaposing the known parameters of finding cwc in Norway.

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Unidentified Strange Cones!

‘A July morning, in 1982, near Fugløya island, north of Tromsø.

We were busy mapping the seafloor with the survey vessel ‘Master Surveyor’ of Ålesund for a potential pipeline from the Askeladden field. With the side scan sonar towing over the stern, we suddenly recorded a mysterious looking cone-shaped feature on the seafloor. It was 280 meters below us on a sill, perched on a slope leading down to a sediment basin at 320 m water depth. But it did not look natural. Was this, perhaps, a human-made submarine listening device, of the Cold War? Rising 15 meters up over the surrounding seafloor, and being 50 m wide at its base, we concluded that this feature, although being unnaturally regular, must be a trick of nature. Soon, the corer hovered at 260 meters depth, right above the top of the ‘UNIDENTIFIED STRANGE CONE.’ -Martin Hovland, Deep water coral reefs, 2008.

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The Unseen Garden Inspired by an artistic photo montage of a fossil reef at the Sahara, this project makes an attempt to recreate the awe inspiring and dramatic presence of those ‘Unidentified Strange Cones’ using different scales and orientations of the cone shaped mounds and the round gas pockmarks as landform objects while designing a centre for coral research with ‘CULTURE AND CHALLENGE FACILITY’ at Ytterhakksholmen, which is a former quartz mine.

As a tribute to the deep sea oil operations responsible for the coral reef discoveries, part of the matrix of the landscape uses a succulent arctic plant, that also looks like coral, locally named ‘The Living Fossil’ ( Equisetum hyemale), which is knowingly a major contributor to the coal and oil deposits from the carboniferous period 300-350 million years ago.

The rocks that are curved out from the site due to land modification will be used to create moisture traps. The objects positioned on the field of rough quartz then becomes a place for endless exploration with stone wind breaks, coral reef audio tracks, trails along the ridge, amphitheater, sculptures and the research facility itself.

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ndscape Plan

Plan at +3m level

The objects

interac�ve cone interior concave surface projects underwater reef footage

audio cones plays reef audio

Being delicate and very little known, the cold water corals then become a topic to expose and to demonstrate to common people. The coral mounds are translated into strange objects based on the explorers explanation. Then the project tries to work with different scales of those objects, resulting in a research center connected to people.

interac�ve cones people can go in and find �ny informa�on devices while experiencing the coral texture of the interior finish

wndbreaks

the floa�ng experience the floor is finished with rough quartz stone from site to give a reef effect part of the Træna music fest can take place here

the watch tower becomes an iconic place to experience from indoor and outdoor

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UNSEEN GARDEN 50

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The design is based on the forms found from the objects during the research phase. The fact that the deep sea corals are responsible for creating giant mounds is almost always unseen to the rest of the world. Corals are often highlighted as plants. Some know that they are animals but it is often recognized as tiny cute colourful creatures.

But in deep sea cold water benthic habitats they create large conical mountains that remain there for thousands of years. The shelter they create becomes home to thousands of species and thus they are biodiversity hotspots in the deep sea dark environments.

Hence, the site being located at a culturally charged area to young people around Norway becomes a potential premise to tell the stories of the unseen gardens created by the cold water corals.

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watch tower reef audio interactive cone windbreak interactive cone sculpture interactive cone windbreak waterbody coral amphitheatre public entry

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Studio: Sabine Müller 2019 / 60 615 Studio Project, Group of Two

AHO-Awards Winner: Excellence In Urban Design And Planning,:The Whole Studio AHO-Awards Winner: Prize For Excellence In Landscape Architecture (Asplan Viak) AHO-Awards Nomination: Excellence In Professionalism

AHO project: 2019 Spring

CHAPTER 3: HYDRAULIC TENDENCIES Acting like Summer, Walking like Rain; Architectures of Water and Weather in Greater Oslo

The studio was divided into groups of two, and each of the groups were given two watersheds. The work then became studying and researching about respective areas of each group in order to gather knowledge about geography, history, agriculture, settlements and other facts that can be considered unique for that watershed. A variety of tools have been used ranging from hand drawing to photography. Models were made to do situational studies and then photographed with scaled human models. Parts of work also included extracting information for ARCGIS and using grasshopper scripts to generate terrain models. Finally, the watersheds were 3d printed for the final exhibition.The design interventions were done based on local or agricultural techniques with an intention to make a cultural shift. This chapter here demonstrates the design interventions made in Nesodden and Bunnefjorden which initially focuses on using the snow from winter as an irrigation tool for summer.

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Treasure Hunt!

The peninsula has been for a very long time a productive landscape with farming, ice making, lumber industry, or quarries. It has been so because of its proximity to Oslo and it’s natural resources such as soil or accesibility to geological layers.

1 Berger Gård, Bergersletta 2 To Gård, Toveien 3 Stone island, Kongerbråtveien

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1 Grain Texture 2 CReased texture

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Morphology and Site Finding

1. Road network 2. Mountain 3. Farm, mountain & houses 4. Soft sediments and farms 5. Farms and topo 6. Steep slope 7. Slope and farm 8. Exposed rok and houses 9. Farmland and houses

Finding appropritae site for interventions by setting rule of games. Looking for islands of exposed bedrocks in connection to main road and trail.

The layers shown in the previous page were juxtaposed to the satellite image of the site.

Initially suitable ares were traced out from the printed image and then converted into cad lines.

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Winter snow, Ice mounds on stone islands and Fruit garden patch to hold moisture

The design proposes collection of snow during the winter and gather them as piles of snow on the xposed bedrock islands that are found after the previous step. The snow will melt in summer and the water goes to a wetland that is a part of a trail that connects all the islands for the hikers. In order to preserve more soil moistures in a more effective way, the wetland is surrounded by fruit orchards. The orchards then become cultural space while holding more water in the soil through their roots. The thin soil layer of nesodden reamins wet during the summer.

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Snow from the surrounding area is collected during the winter and brought to sites which are in close proximity to the main road. The snow is piled to create giant pyramid like forms. Location of the snowpiles are inside the clearings made within the exposed bedrock islands covered by pines and blueberry bushes. In summer, the snowpile melts and water starts flowing along the channels parallel to the walking trails and goes to an orchard through a kidney shaped wetland for filtering the water from salts.

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The Cultural Trail

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Principal: Jubair Hasan, Archeground Ltd Dhaka, Bangladesh

2019 : Shortlisted for the AGA KHAN award for architecture 2017 : Exhibited in ‘Bengal Stream. The Vibrant Architecture Scene of Bangladesh’, at Swiss Architecture Museum S AM, Basel, curated by Niklaus Graber, Andreas Ruby and Viviane Ehrensberger; Produced in cooperation with the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements, Dhaka 2017 : ARCASIA Awards 2017, Jaipur, India.

Received ‘Mention’, Category C: Industrial Buildings 2017 : IAB (Institute of Architects, Bangladesh) Awards 2016 Received ‘Mention’, Category: Industrial Buildings.

2015 : ‘Asia Architecture Award 2015’ held at Istanbul, Turkey.

Received ‘First Prize’, Category: Commercial Buildings.

Wo r k E x p e r i e n c e 2 0 1 3 - 2 0 1 5

CHAPTER 4: Loom Shed For Amber Denim, Bangladesh Project Architect at Archeground Ltd

This project is critically acknowledged across the world because of the simplicity of sturcture, innovative local material use and the critical relationship between indoor and outdoor environments that creates a homogeneous formal expression. A lot of decisions regarding the design were taken on site, often modifying details at the last minute.

Steel pipes, bamboo and in-situ cement made roof tiles - these are the basic elements of design and I had a great opportunity to assist the principal architect in every steps.

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Unused Pipes that Became Beams and Columns The picture shows the 13 meter long MS pipes, 10mm in thickness. 17 km of those were bought by the client for a gas connection network for his factory but unfortunately were left unused due to a technical mismatch. Two of those pipes, in combination created the whole pitched roof span and one of each pipes produced two columns. These dimensions later on guided the size of the project.

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Pipe Pipes

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Columns Beam

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Rainwater + Semi open space

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AHMED FAISAL https://www.linkedin.com/in/ ahmed-faisal-2402966a

OlavskleivĂĽ 22, 4005 Stavanger, Norway ahmedfaisal0905@gmail.com +4746241808