Portfolio 2025

PORTFOLIO INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE FAISAL AL SALEH

CONTENTS

BIO CURRICULUM VITAE PROJECTS OPTICS BENCH PIER

WORK VILLA GYM CONSOLE MISC. HOPE TOPOGRAPHY MAQUETTE BLAZE

BIO

Faisal is a multi-disciplinary designer and Interior Architect with a keen focus and passion for sustainable and pro-social architecture. With a BA in Interior Architecture from the University of Brighton, he has worked on and contributed to a wide range of projects across Europe and the Middle East, ranging from interior architecture to furniture and graphic design.

Faisals most recent project was the highly praised “New Museum of Optics and Astronomy” an institution which aims to not only preserve but revive the craft of heritage telescope making using sustainable techniques and practices.

A dedicated team player, Faisal was nominated for the Award for Collaboration and Interdisciplinary Practice for his role in the Butterfly Bench project, which aims to revive the butterfly population of Brighton while encouraging socialisation following the pandemic.

His ability and commitment to integrate context into design is showcased in his project, The Big Picture, where he used LiDAR detection data to create a 3D model of Newhaven and cast a plaster terrain map, highlighting his attention to detail and big-picture thinking.

Having completed his Degree in Interior Architecture, Faisals next step is beginning his professional career in the architecture and design industry.

CV

Education 2025

BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design University of Brighton

2020

Foundation in Art and Design

University of Brighton International College

2019

International Baccalaureate Selected Subjects: Higher Level English Higher Level History Higher Level Visual Arts Standard Level Psychology

FAISAL AL SALEH PersonalInformation D.O.B.

01.08.2001

EMAIL

faisal.alsaleh1@gmail.com

2019

High school Diploma

2018

Pencil & Graphite Drawing Course Artspace Q8

2018

Software: Sketchup Vectorworks 3DSMax V-Ray Twinmotion Enscape Adobe Illustrator, Indesign,Photoshop Affinity Design Suite

Work Experience 2024

Designed, Developed Pilates Gym

2022

Architectural Visualisation & Design Dev.

2021

Designed, Rendered Living Space

2021

Designed,Rendered, Fabricated Entertainment Centre Centre

2020

Languages: English, Arabic - Bilingual Fluency

Internship, Dform Architects, Kuwait

Freelance, Evian LesBains, France

Designed,Fabricated Kitchen Island,Pantry Freelance, Kuwait

Voluntary Work 2018-2019 Ambassador,Behavioral Counselor Student Ambassadorsof Goodwill • • • •

Other: Site & Context Deep Research Terrain Mapping & Modelling Team Coordination Environmental Sustainability & Carbon Impact calulations

Freelance, Rise Studio, Kuwait

Freelance, Kuwait

ArchiCAD Fabrication: Model-Making 3D Printing Laser Cutting Hand Sketching Plaster Molding

Summer Architecture Course ORA, Oxford

PHONE +44 (0) 7460799834

Skills

American Creativity Academy(Kuwait)

2017

Mentorship of Students Behavioural Guidance Counseling Academic Counselling and tutoring (English,History) Administrative Support (Events, PTConferences)

Administrative Support & Camp Counseling BlankHunts Assigned role of Administrative Help desk and Student Counselor • Managementof Workplace Communication • Management of Student Recordsand Attendance • Student Advisor + Supervisor

PROJECTS

OPTICS

New Museum of Optics and Astronomy

An exercise in sustainable design

Workshop Observatory

The aim of this project is designing a “New Museum” situated in the now defunct Singleton railway stations Goods Shed.

A Museum is a building or institution in which objects of historical and cultural interest are preserved, stored, and exhibited.

The New Museum is a space in which culture and objects of cultural interest are preserved and interacted with. The aim and virtue is to reignite and keep alive what is stored here rather than

In the case of this project, The New Museum will be preserving and reviving a heritage craft that has been deemed endangered by the UNESCO accredited Heritage Crafts organisation.

The chosen craft “Optical Instrument Making” is now Critically Endangered and is practiced by a total of only 2 professionals in the UK.

The New Museum of Optics and Astronomy will provide visitors all necessary equipment and supplies required to create Optical Telescope lenses from their most basic materials, and points in which visitors can then use their lenses for night sky observation.

In essence, this project fulfills environmental, architectural, social, and cultural sustainability by using locally sourced materials to reform the existing built environment to host the public in the preservation of a cultural interest.

New Museum of Optics and Astronomy

”Hot Room”

The “Hot Room” serves as the glass working hall, housing the full lens-making process of melting, annealing, and casting glass blanks. Eight horizontal barrel kilns are arranged symmetrically along the refurbished Goods Shed, with four on each side. The spatial arrangement allows for safe visitor circulation, clear viewing lines, and direct engagement with the craft process.

Glass Cone

Hot Room

Preliminary atmospheric rendering

Process atmospheric rendering

Firebrick

The kilns are designed to both melt and anneal small lens blanks within the same chamber by utilising electrical coil-based temperature control and controlled cooling, replicating heritage glass cone furnace versatility in a modern format.

Brick reclaimed on site ( from demolished office structure )

Coil Heating Elements

Hinged lid

The salvaged brick plinths supporting each kiln directly reuse historic site materials, embedding the narrative of site-based reuse and circular construction within the new craft processes. The firebrick kilns reflect the balance between technical performance and material honesty.

Power input

New Museum of Optics and Astronomy

”Glass Cone”

The Glass Grinding Cone, inspired by true glass cones of the Industrial Revolution, sustainably provides the space, water and lighting conditions necessary for lens production.

Light Source

The top of the glass cone is covered by a convex glass lens, redirecting light towards the floor of the cone for use during the testing of lenses after grinding and polishing.

Preliminary atmospheric rendering

Water Source Vertical Timber Rib Frame Charred Timber Cladding (Shou Sugi Ban)

Plywood secondary skin

The internal surfaces of the Glass Grinding Cone are finished in Tadelakt; a traditional lime-based plaster technique that creates a fully waterproof but breathable surface. This allows rainwater harvesting and direct contact in the grinding basins while maintaining natural moisture regulation within the rammed earth structure.

Rain ‘gutter’ / collection ring

Tadelakt Plaster Rammed Earth Block Masonry Wall Rainwater collection Basin

The timber rib structure is infilled with CNC-cut plywood sheathing panels, forming the continuous enclosure which supports external cladding layers and internal finishes

Oil based Sealant (likely linseed oil)

Stabilised Earthen floor

Limecrete Floorplate

Local Rubble

Gravel drainage Layer

The Glass Cone sits on a breathable rubble trench foundation composed of local stone, crushed brick, and recycled site materials. This passive foundation system distributes load evenly while allowing for natural drainage, eliminating the need for conventional concrete slab systems and fully aligning with circular design principles.

New Museum of Optics and Astronomy

”Observatory”

The Observatory employs a tilted inverted cone geometry constructed from prefabricated Glulam ribs and external ring beams secured through all-timber dowel connections.

The rotating CLT floor plate sits on a limecrete foundation ring, protected by a COR-TEN perimeter ring and stainless steel ball-bearing rotation system, all resolved through circular design logic.

Fixed-elevation telescopes are housed within the rotating structure, allowing seasonal alignment through horizontal rotation, encouraging visitor interaction with the celestial cycle.

Charred Wood Cladding

24mm Plywood Diaphragm

Glulam Telescope Frames

Vertical Timber Rib Frame

Weather treated CLT flooring

Preliminary atmospheric rendering

Process atmospheric rendering

The Observatory operates as a functional astronomical calendar. Visitors engage with different celestial bodies throughout the year by rotating the structure to align each fixedelevation telescope to its seasonal target. The observatory’s six telescopes track both winter and summer targets, blending crafted lensmaking with the temporal nature of astronomy.

T4 - Summer (Hercules)

T2 - Summer (Cygnus)

Telescope 5

Telescope 1

Telescope 6

Telescope 2

Telescope 3

Telescope 4

T2 - Winter (Polaris) T6 - Winter (Sirius)

T6 - Summer (Virgo)

T1 - Winter (The Moon) T3 - Summer (Arcturus)

T3 - Winter (Pleiades)

T5 - Summer (Altair) T5 - Winter (Orion’s Belt) T4 - Winter ( The Andromeda Galaxy) T1 - Summer ( Vega )

Hand crank rotates the structure at 1 rotation per minute

BENCH

“Escapefrom University to sit in a beautiful floral garden with butterflies”

Honey Suckle Plant

Wild Flowers The aim of ‘The Butterfly Effect’ is to serve as not only a social seating area for students and passers by but also as a home to the ever growing population of butterflies in Brighton. Situated in a well used corner near the future main pedestrian bridge, the design is in the perfect location for commuters to stop for a coffee or for students to sit and study while feeling at one with nature. The Honeysuckle canopy creates the perfect habitat for butterflies to thrive and act as a home for the duration of their life. The simple to assemble self-supported temporary structure requires no glue or screws and instead relies on a slot together structure where each layer is stacked onto a pole system allowing the design to be quickly assembled or taken down. The shape of the design allows for multiple uses with the main use being aimed at a group of 2 or 3 people being able to sit in the booth like part of the design and have a more private interaction while also allowing for people to sit on the outer benches and corresponding stools (Made from the centre offcuts from the CNC cutting) providing more space and functionality for bigger groups or individual people to make the most out of the space.

Specific wildflowers such as kidney vetch, knapweed and marjoram are known to attract butterflies and will be planted in the planters of our structure. Having a wide variety of plants will create a bright and colourful grouping of plants which will be overall more visually attractive to users and will also help to attract all types of butterfly in the area.

Site Context

Honey suckles are a type of vine which is commonly used in butterfly gardens around the world, this is because it is the perfect home for caterpillars to transition into butterflies, this is due to honeysuckle being a very tangled species of plant causing them to create balls and thick weaves around the plant netting creating the perfect home for butterflies while also being home to a hugefloral display of primarily pink flowers which bloom on the vines.

270

0mm

Connections Between Layers

72mm

Canopy Poles

1100mm

The Butterflies Most Commo

Butterfly Life Cycle June

July

May

August April

Small Blue September

March January

October

February

November December

Caterpillars Hatch

12

Butterfly Dormancy

Caterpillar

Chrysalis

Butterfly Season

Young Butterfly

Eggs are layed

Adult Butterfly

Butterfly dormancy

Butterflys go into hybernation/dormancy

The small blue is the smallest of all the UK’sbutterflies. Adults are on the wing from May to August and can be seen feeding on common bird’sfoot-trefoil or horseshoe vetch on chalk grassland, but only where kidney vetch also grows - the sole foodplant of the caterpillars. Males set up territories in sheltered places and the females lay their eggs on the kidney vetch or commonly on honeysuckle; the emerging caterpillars feed on the flowerheads.

The weathering of plywood over 6 months

Plant Netting

Treated Plywood

The canopy structure will be created out of Plant netting allowing for the honey suckles to grow and weave into the netting giving them the perfect base to grow into. Plant netting I lightweight and easy to erect onto the hook structure atop the poles. The plant netting will also allow for cocoons to have a perfect home while they develop and hatch entangles in the honeysuckle and plant netting canopy.

Treated Plywood is a cheap and easy to source material,Its also perfect to be used alongside a CNCcutter allowing for precise large shapes to be cut out of the sheets creating a more precise overall finish. Having the plywood treated ensures it will hold up to the weather for as long as the temporary structure is erected. Plywood is also not too heavy making it easier to be transported to site and meaning it will take less people to assemble.

60mm

CNC Cutting The main structure will be constructed of CNC cut plywood and then layered together being supported by a series of 60mm poles around the structure. CNC cutting is a cheap and quick source of fabrication for wooden parts and will allow us to use large sheets of ply to cut our shapes with the offcuts being used as stools to accompany the main structure. The main benefit of using CNC cut ply is that is means every layer will be perfectly cut allowing the structure to fit together without any alterations made. CNCcutting is also very quick meaning the fabrication time for the entire structure would be estimated at around 20 hours.

monly Found in Brighton

White-letter Hairstreak The white-letter hairstreak is a small butterfly that breeds in elm trees in hedgerows, woodland rides and scrub. It can be hard to spot as it flutters around the treetops and vine covered surfaces, but does come down to lower levels to nectar on flowers like bramble. Adults are on the wing from June to August, and there is only one brood per year. Caterpillars are well camouflaged, looking like young buds and leaves.

13

PIER

16

WORK

VILLA

Dform Architects, Kuwait

Tasked with converting Lead Architects Floorplans into a 3D Model and Render

GYM

Design Development - Materials Board

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MENS GYM GENERAL LAYOUT FIRST FLOOR ( MENS GYM )

GENERAL LAYOUT

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WWW.SQUARE-DC.COM. TEL # +965 22256105 - +965 22256106

Zoomed in plan of pilates Machine Spatial Arrangement

25

CONSOLE

Entertainment Center 3DModel + Render (Sketchup, Enscape)

Entertainment Center (Plywood, Veneer, Paint, LEDStrips )

MISC.

TOPOGRAPHY

Topographical Models of Newhaven

(Python, 3DEM, Blender, Sketchup, Procreate, Affinity Design Suite)

Topographical Model

Topographical Models of Singleton

Topographic Terrain Maps synthesized from Lidar Data collected by DEFRA

(Department for environment, Food, and Rural Affairs)

Fully digital maquette depicting the New Venture Theater in Hove.

Sketchup, Vray

Additional cubic forms added to emulate surrounding buildings and accurately depict light/shadow conditions throughout the year

HOPE

“HOPE” “HOPE” (adobeIllustrator) (Adobe Illustrator)

Designedfor Designed forCOP COP26 26Summit Summit (UNFCCC) (UNFCCC)

BLAZE

Silver Blaze is the title to the first and most cherished long story in the audio drama Sherlock & Co.

STILL LIFE

SILVERBLAZE SILVER BLAZE (Digital Painting) (Digital Painting)

Commissioned and paid for by Holy Smokes Audio Productions, the piece is used for merchandise as well as the series main artwork on social media and patreon.