Sasha Belitskaja Portfolio 2021 by Aleksandra Belitskaja

SASHA BELITSKAJA 2021

Hello, I am an AR/VR experience designer bringing ideas to life through prototyping, experience design and its deployment into the real world.

ABOUT I am a designer currently based in the UK. Currently I work as AR Designer at Bentley Systems. I also co-founded and lead iheartblob, a creative studio offering various immersive digital design solutions. I am a keen NFT creator facsinated by the intersection of design and technology.

I am passionate about designing the future of AR experiences. My background in architecture and design helps me to identify the right problems by observing human behaviour in the built environment and creating solutions that can make a positive difference to the community and its users. My professional experience includes 5+ years of working in design and technical roles at architecture, design and software development studios, including Grimshaw Architects, Bentley Systems, Coop Himmelb(l)au and others. I am also a co-founder of a Mixed Reality Design studio called iheartblob where for the last 5 years I was able to successfully direct and deliver projects ranging from MR architectural art installations to online interactive experiences. My interests lie in the range of AR/VR, new technologies, design, architecture and human behaviours. Kind regards,

CONTACT

Sasha Belitskaja

+447988200618 a.belitskaja@hotmail.com www.aleksandrabelitskaja.com UK

Sasha BELITSKAJA Designer and XR developer

EXPERIENCE behance artstation NFT

Bentley Systems

AR Designer/Developer

2021 - present

Front end development for iTwinXR application in Hololens,

Grimshaw

XR developer

2019 - 2021

AR/VR app development, Immersive Experience Design, XR Prototype development, creative technologies development.

iheartblob

EDUCATION Die Angewandte MArch / 2019 Studio Greg Lynn (Focus on immersive technologies, computational design, Unity)

Co-founder 2016 - present Extended Architecture Design start-up producing installations, Augmented app development, Immersive Experiences, Real-time visualizations and publications.

Synthesis DNA

Architectural designer 2018 Computational design (grasshopper) development, 3D modeling, concept design, Augmented Reality app development for competition submission

FUKSAS

Architectural designer

2017

Computational design, Concept design, Parametric facade code development, Competition submissions package preparation.

University of Dundee BArch / 2016 (Focus on architectural planning, design development and production)

Coop Himmelb(l)au

Architectural designer

LAVA Architectural designer Rendering, BIM, Masterplan development, Furniture design,

SKILLS Zbrush Rhino, Grasshopper Cinema4D AR/VR/MR Adobe Creative Suite Keyshot Model making 3D printing Unity, C# Photogrammetry English, Russian, Estonian

2016

Computational design, BIM, Physical model making, Drawings and diagrams preparation, Concept Design, Proposal preparation.

AWARDS/EXHIBITIONS TAB 2022, 2nd place winners, Tallinn, EST Winter Stations 2020 winners, Toronto, CA Thicc Seams, Magazin Gallery, Vienna, AT Wireframes: The Visualization of Architecture, A+D Museum, LA, US Frankentypes (Group Exhibition), Architecture Fringe Festival, UK Papercave (Group Exhibition), Studio Lynn, Die Angewandte,Vienna, AT Souvenirs: New New York Icons, Storefront For Art and Architecture, NY, US iheartblob, KugelMugel,Vienna, AT Amphibious Habitats (Group Exhibition), La Termica, Malaga, ES 2nd place winners Energy Design 3rd place in Amphibious Habitats competition by Bartlett Lobby Honourable mention in ARCCHIVE competition 1st place in London Internet Museum Competition Finalist of the National Student Awards, Women in Property 1st in the DIA Vertical Urban Connection competition Gordon Lamb Prize

2015

TAB 2022 Link

The proposal is a new decentralised and systematic approach towards architectural design, fabrication and funding in which the community are both the designers and investors leading towards an emergent structure that evolves and grows over time. Rather than designing architecture elements ourselves we proposed to build an NFT generative tool in which individuals could design and “mint” (the process of creating and authenticating digital ownership) their own objects. This project is the first step towards empowering citizens to become stakeholders of their own built environment.

Blob House Link

Blob House is a pavilion commissioned by the Vancouver Mural Festival, and currently on exhibition in Canada.The work was inspired and conceived as a reconfiguration of a baroque architecture, which reconstitutes the symbolic nature of historic ornamentation with digital defaults. Unwrapped, the facade becomes the net of the platonic house which it engulfs, allowing us to play with - and question - notions of scale on this platonic form.We use AR to embellish the digital defaults and allow them to transition from flattened surfaces to revealing their 3-dimensionality all the while stretching our perception of architecture today and more importantly provoking ideas for a mixed reality architecture of tomorrow.

ARc de Blob

Arc De Blob Arc De blob is a mixed reality architecture for Winter Stations 2021, designed, constructed and experienced through augmented reality.View the extended reality through each of the portals into a virtual refuge beyond our physical constraints.

Link

Rhubarb& Custard Link

Rhubarb & Custard - WebXR Experience for Vienna Design Week 2020 - @viennadesignweek . Designed space features a looping path - a new Teatro Olimpico in which perspective, profiles and textures create multiple narratives based on position and movement within a single space allowing for multiple cinematic experiences simultaneously.

NFTs

over 200 NFTs produced and sold on hicetnunc tezos blockchain using various 3D tools, AR and VR tools.

Link Link

iTwinXR Link

iTwinXR for HoloLens 2 is an early access mixed reality application that will stream any reality mesh to the HoloLens 2. Powered by iTwin and reality data, you will be able to perform remote inspections, thus make savings on maintenance activities, reduce downtime, improve availability, and minimize the number of physical checks needed to complete. The user logs into their iTwin project via a web viewer to generate a unique QR code which the iTwinXR app can then scan, and reality mesh will start to stream to the Hololens device. Once the model is visible, the user can navigate the real scale, create measurements, add issues.

_spaces Link

‘_spaces’ is not a digital hangout space but rather a digital city to inhabit and explore – standing as a testament to the importance of digital spatiality today. architects are often beholden to clients and planning regulators or shackled by confined budgets. however, new concepts of decentralisation and virtual spatiality have enabled the architect to design without constraint, without budget… in a world without gravity or building code. blockchain contracts enable architects the opportunity to create non-fungible tokens (nfts) and directly distribute digital architectural spaces.

Abstract

Abstract compositions made for NFT. Animation, Loops and still renders.

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CHARACTERS

Character design, animation and rendering for NFT minting on hicetnunc.

Link

iheartblob book Link

iheartblob – Augmented Architectural Objects: A New Visual Language corroborates sharply-pointed, short- form architectural thought and criticism, tantalizing imagery and augmented reality content.The Architectural Objects contained within both enchant as well as reflect on the crisis of thought plaguing architecture today by orchestrating new and established ideas as though they are materials, engaging seriously with each, whilst remaining at a distance from full immersion.These objects are balanced with essays from key architectural thinkers and prac- titioners including Kutan Ayata, Gerald Bast, Fredrik Hellberg, Lara Lesmes, Greg Lynn, Andrew Witt and Michael Young which provide an in-depth look at key components of related technology, architectural aesthetics and architectural theory.The book is an object in itself – a hybridized beacon of architectural experimentation wherein pages are augmented to unveil digital counter- parts, resulting in a novel approach toward navigating architectural discourse within a fragmented and hypersaturated society.

Scale Rule Link

This years Nextgen pavilion has been designed and created online for a 2020 digital launch. Students from Harris Academy developed a strong sustainable concept for the pavilion. For now, enjoy scrolling through this digital design and explore it at home on instagram and facebook, links below.

THIS IS US Link

The 21st century is about community. Online platforms have united us like never before.This project is about creating an online platform for simultaneous multiplayer collaboration. Everyone must be included. I propose that we gamify all architectural processes in order to celebrate the architecture for all, where no hierarchy is assigned directly to any players based on ability.The created framework was tested by asking three non-architects to work in collaboration, where they imagined how cities would expand in the future beyond the traditional linear framework architecture is accustomed too.

Grimshaw Link

At Grimshaw I am part of Design Technology team, XR department, where I am developing custom made applications for presentation and design discussions. App development is including Augmented reality (AR),Vurtual Reality (VR), and stand alone applications, such as tablet apps and smart tables. Alongside the app development, I am also part of the R&D team, where I am constantly looking for new way of immersive interaction and integrating with computational design systems.

SWEEPR:

collaborative design Link

This project is an attempt to bring an issue of architectural profession and architects role within the industry. Architects have always been given a ready set of tools, pen and paper, a computer, 3d-software, parametric tools, etc. Now it’s time to design our own customised tools.This project is an exploration of how collective intelligence manifests itself within a multiplayer design game environment. Simultaneous collective cooperation has been tested through a multitude of projects, including such projects as “Twitch plays pokemon” and “Place”. Both of these projects are experiments which involved online community into creating something together. I believe that 21st century is about community, and old model of architecture, where master architect is in charge of everything, and everyone is below him, is outdated. I am proposing a new model of architectural design and collaboration, simultaneous collaboration through network of players in a game environment. Architect’s position in built industry is shifting, and I am proposing to replace master architect with a toolmaker.

Internet Museum Link

Embracing the brief of a London Internet Museum the project utilises the internet and it’s collective qualities to generate the architecture.Thus with this in mind, the project develops in the form of using the internet as the platform to generate form. An application gives the user the capability to construct objects, choose recycled materials, to upload and have their work rated.The highest rated objects would be composed into a collection of emergent forms.These emergent forms would in turn be arranged on the site.The architect here is still acting as a facilitator as formal massing arrangements stem from a process where users online decide the arrangement, the process of arrangement becomes incomprehensibly large in quantity and quality of individual options.

Second Hand Link

What is the future of construction and design? What if there was a database of all the leftovers suitable for reusage in architecture? SecondHand is the project questioning the notion of newness in architecture, and how can we be more sustainable. A library of objects was used in VR application to allocate those in a structure. New modes of representation and construction were used to speculate that using Oculus and Virtual Reality to construct a structure by throwing objects with their real material qualities and therefore physics.

Paris PRIX Link

Nestled in the heart of Noisy Le Grand, Fort de Villers sits still, dormant yet egger for explorers to scale its walls. Hidden alongside the Fort, in a mass of foliage sits interwoven courtyards, sunken architectural ruins and mighty boulevards which intersect them. Only the brave dare explore all aspects of this forgotten future, like the nearby dystopian utopias of Ricardo Bofill and Manuel Núñez Yanowsky, the architecture speaks of its introvertedness, yet, up close it gives us a glimpse of its own empathic personality - it is in conversation with each but only a whisper. Ultimately it depicts an architecture which may think about its own personality, each individualised object - unique to its programme, location, possible inhibition and its possibility for its own reinterpretation. The architecture itself celebrates Paris and the unique qualities that have derived its

Metlife Link

This project explores how architecture and its fictional context can be incorporated into the reconstitution of this iconic skyscraper within New York City. Firstly it considers its many lives in which it has led from being the home of Pan Am to that of Stark Industries, for us both realities are equally important. It’s role in movies and it’s destruction or deformation enhances the life of it as an object.Tormented and mocked, the 1963, Pan Am icon stands as a punching bag for Hollywood’s distortion and destruction within New York City. Now, Metlife, stands as an outdated, exploited and vulnerable structure wherein Hollywood presents the buildings weakness, yet its importance through the destruction, mutation and exaggeration of its presence. Therein, this proposal stands as a satirical remark towards the show business ethos, where instead of being the brunt of explosive CGI taunts, the building embraces its past, its future and its torment through an expressive skin indicative of its Hollywood present.

Synthesis Link

At Synthesis DNA I was involved in numerous projects both in competitions and residential projects in LA. In Gunagzhou Tower Competition I was part of the design team developing conceptual idea and formal and massing articulations. I was constantly providing digital modelling of design options and grasshoper definition building. One of many other intereseting projects, AR Drawing collaboration was particularly interesting. I had the chance to develop a custom made Augmented Reality app to showcase one of the interactive drawings produced by Synthesis. Augmented Reality Drawing gave an immersive experience and customisable settings in order to interact with the drawing.

noodle feed Link

Our senses are no longer confined by the physical world. This is the installation of a physical object and our collective digital sense of place.The colourful forms and tangible nature of the ‘noodles’ attracts attention of the visitors! The rough matte texture of recycled sailcloth contrasts with the soft, springy cushioning of the objects and invites visitors to move them into chairs, beds and shelters. An Augmented Reality App lets visitors leave digital traces of their time at the installation: photos, stories and drawings that can be seen by other users in physical space. This is a place that goes beyond physical senses and creates a shared augmented reality environment where people can interact in new ways and consider that the world is much more than we perceive.

thicc seams Link

Thicc Seams looks at the world not as physical versus digital objects but as two juggernauts jostling in the same space; their seams, their edges and their layers are becoming exposed as the digital is beginning to seep out. It is these moments that give us the most understanding about the relationships between physical and digital objects. Here they share interactions and reflect upon a phenomenal transparency as well as a literal transparency; a digital transparency and therein a phygital transparency. This is a notion of visibility that opposes a separation of physical and digital and encourages the digital to tear at physical seams. Seams within purely physical architecture are the residue of parts – a legacy of tectonics that the digital does not have. Here, the digital uses these seams expressed as the interplay between physical material connections, high contrast edges, corners, projections and a myriad of spatial and formal overlaps to forge a new type of relationship between parts to wholes, and manifest themselves in a much more nuanced way than the mere agglomeration of physical architectural parts.

iheart blob Link

iheartblob is an independent research group, where we explore the notions of architetcural theory and philosophy through architectural objects.We are exploring the idea of the Architectural Object. Our discipline invests so much meaning into objects that they develop a metaphysical existence of their own; this coupled with advances in technological tools is driving us towards a singularity wherein the role we serve as architects is clearly vague. Our project attempts to articulate both formally and verbally the crises of thought we as a discipline are encountering (for better and for worse).While we primarily draw on core tenets of OOO (Object Orientated Ontology) and Thermodynamics, we further attempt to entwine theoretical principles of post modernism, post structuralism, formalism and others.We rely on a new visual language of architecture. Our designs are rarely seen in plan and section and rather expressed using renders, mixed realities (physical and augmented) and animations in an attempt to reflect their Lagrangian derivations. Our work invites broader conversations, and we strongly feel ideas for and against our work should be discussed. Without such discussions, our discipline is doomed to exist in a nearempty and slowly draining pool of Deluzian Parametricism pastiche, forcing architects and students alike to work derivatively rather than seek out new innovations.

FUKSAS

At FUKSAS, I was involved in two competions (concept to delivery stages): Porte de Saint-Ouen for a mix use complex in Paris and Monaco shopping mall. In both projects I was helping with design, 3D modelling, rendering and producing diagrams and presentations. The building will contain a mix of cultural and commercial spaces spread over five storeys, which will open out on to a series of curved, linked terraces. The new Fontvieille site offers a contemporary, fluid and organic architecture.The greening of the building introduces nature into the urban space, creating a new landscape up to the sea

Coop Himmelb(l)au

At Coop Himmelb(l)au I was working on a series of competitions in Moscow and China and mixed-use redisential project in Vienna. I was part of a design development team working on conceptual ideas, preparing submitions and making physical models.

LAVA

At LAVA in Stuttgart office from June to January 2016, I was involved in projects ranging from Masterplan in Riyad to furniture design. I was working on 3D modelling, planning, rendering and producing diagrams. The KACST development is primarily a research centre for innovative and sustainable technologies and research but additionally will be a sustainable, activated and engaging precinct for learning and knowledge exchange.

Think Tank Link

The focus of the design was on three referential concepts, inspired by Schinkel: 1.Tension/contrast between elements, atmospheres and spatialities. 2. Reinventing the ornament as structure, services, and animated overlay of natural elements. 3. Framing and choreographing of views and paths. Schinkel used trees and columns for framing certain views, while choreographing circulation to lead people to it through a certain experiential journey.

MR Archive

Using current technologies and machine vision concept we have developed a new architectural language which accommodates the means of a contemporary archive. Space was designed by wrapping geometry with a single surface in the same way as machines generate meshes through photogrammetry and other scanning techniques. A single surface gradient is applied varying from voxalated to smooth in order to accommodate different content of the archive: digital and physical.

Science Centre Link

The proposal relies on three design concepts: 1) integration with the existing site context by raising the landscape into a plinth – the “Science Square”, 2) the building itself becomes a living “breathing” exhibition of science and sustainability, and 3) the integration of Augmented Reality throughout the structure to create a bridge between the physical architecture and the digital analysis and information which is collected by the ‘smart building’ systems we incorporate.The creation of a raised Science Square allows for demonstration value in the both the integrated nature of the landscape with the site, and through creating formal and spatial differentiation with key programmatic clusters – “Pearls” resting atop of the raised landscape.The building itself – spatially and architecturally separated into small clusters becomes a series of exhibitions in itself.This is especially evident in its architectural façade treatment and approaches towards sustainability.The Pearls are wrapped in ETFE panels: super-lightweight, 100% recyclable structures which inflate and deflate as well as change opacity to react to environmental conditions in real time.

From point to paper Link

This project explores the potential of Fuzzy Logic in modular assembly systems as an alternative to the standard protocols of digital fabrication.Through the use of AR, to place geometric formwork in realspace, and modules which have implicit, yet flexible, connection information, we give the assembler agency to improvise structural articulation while still arriving at an explicit goal geometry, in this case the point cloud information of a cave). Formal Accuracy ≠ Metric Precision; Assembly = Authorship Our aim is to create an assembly system based on realtime geometrical and structural intuition and evaluation. Instead of reading a set of construction documents, which describe a rigid construction sequence of explicit parts, we’ve designed a set of modules, of various scales which are able to be swapped, rotated, and flipped to perform at nearly any point within the structural whole.

AR Effects

Face Filters made in SparkAR to discover relationship of real-time video feed, surroundings and face features.

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Spray concrete Link

One-week workshop where a concrete shell had to be constructed. Our team used a formfinding method based on gravity and simultanious feedback loop back and forward through grasshopper. After hanging the plastic over three support points, a photogrametry was taken and the resulted 3d-mesh was analysed in Kangaroo in order to obtain stress lines. Resulted stress lines were fed back to the digital, through Augmented Reality.They were layered with the real model, in order to act as a guide to making folds for additional structural strength in the folds. After fixing the base, concrete was sprayed in 6 layers, dried and lifted around.

Everydays

1000 days of everydays @iheartblob.

Runway ML

Research experiment study on training ML algorithm on 1000 images of iheartblob, and pre-trained facial library.

Wire frames Link

Wireframes is the first exhibit to track the art of architectural visualization since its inception.The exhibit presents a series of narratives, snapshots from the discipline’s vibrant history.Through illustrations, projections, and interactive technologies the visitor is immersed in the story of architectural visualization.With over 30 artists participating,Wireframes exhibits the infinite possibilities for creative visual communication. Artists include iheartblob, Games of Deletion, Squint,/Opera Hayes Davidson, dBox, Studio AMD, Neoscape, Mir, Luxigon, Alex Roman, and architect-turned-director, Joseph Kosinski. The Wireframes exhibit was curated by A+D and a global team of visualization experts from Kilograph, Chaos Group, CGarchitect, and Gensler. Animations were produced in a gaming engine Unity with real-time rendering.

3-WAYS Link

3-ways consists of 3 canvases lying in wait, suspensefully awaiting words, touches of light and movement. it is a series of objects, all familiar but with purpose removed allowing for a projection of relationships and meaning to be assigned. each conversation may begin with a familiar if not recognizable voice but will not be tied to it. each character is allowed its vices, its prejudices of its predispositions and their acclimations. landscapes, buildings, graphics, and lines will all be spoken and assigned yet none shall imply the appearance of the other. 3-ways is a conversation in which you are neither the subject or object but inserted as an ‘other’ awaiting a stabilization of relationships and loyalties.

Franken types Link

In 1818, Dr. Frankenstein stitched three crucial elements together: Life, Death and Technology. His ‘monster’ was a grotesque and sublime representation of the interwoven nature of these contrasts; life and death not as opposites but as distinct halves of the same whole.The White Hotel Room explores this idea of stitching together two collectivememory-architecture typologies: the amusement park and the cemetery.

Amphi bious habitats

It’s a Mixed Reality game, which corresponds to the colorful blob 3d prints, and which behave accordingly to their locations. Blobs follows each other according to their hierarchy.

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In Search of Matryo shka extra vaganza

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Jiaxing branding

Our cities are slowly becoming readable by machines and as their diversity grows our cities identities must be embraced by all.We propose an identity which embraces digital and social diversity, each important fragment of jiaxing is represented through a collection of puzzle pieces. Each piece identifies a core piece of the jiaxing puzzle, without each piece the puzzle is incomplete - representing the desire and importance of the diverse history, architecture and society. Jiaxing is a melting pot of creativity and a unique, machine readable identity is imperative for a city looking at the future like jiaxing is. Our proposal looks at each key visual language of the city and embraces a pixel logic, similar to that of the well known QR code which allows directly for an augmented reality digital identity, making jiaxing the first city in the world with their own augmented identity, each puzzle piece exemplifies the previously stated diversity and its augmented reality application which is specifically tailored for the branding, aims to allow visitors and citizens alike the ability to leave and embrace others digital trace in the urban realm through an almost scavenger like experience. Each puzzle piece must be found to have a clear understanding of the cultural, social diversity and technological foresight of Jiaxing.

PUSH N’ PULL

Architecture and our world has been exclusively physical, stagnant and immovable. Push n Pull, proposes an architecture which is entirely in flux – constantly in play.We encourage you to scan your surroundings, and with friends, begin to push and pull to reshape your environment. Our proposal does not focus simply on the overlay of augmentation on our environment but instead enables a mixed, hybrid reality which encourages community involvement and play with our surroundings.

See more on my website