Amr Ragaei Architecture portfolio 2020

P ORT FO L IO Amr Ragaei Selected works 2017-2020

Education POLITECNICO DI MILANO

MSC in Suistainable Architecture and Landscape Design 2016-2019

ARAB ACADEMY FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Cairo, Egypt

Bachelor of Architetcure (RIBA1) 2008-2013

Work Experience

Amr Ragaei Nationality I Egyptian Date of Birth I March 1991

Contact +39 3347510019 amr.ragaei.91@gmail.com Via Valle 50, 25100, Brescia, Italy

CABRAS ARCHITETTI ASSOCIATI Brescia, Italy

Architect February 2019-Present

MESURA Barcelona, Spain Intern Architect 2018 (August-December) STM FOR ENGINEERING AND CONTRACTING Cairo, Egypt SiteIProject Architect 2015-2016

NCG Cairo, Egypt Links

Junior Technical Architect 2013-2015

https://issuu.com/amrragaeiabdelwahab/ docs/portfolio_new

Software Skills

https://www.behance.net/Amr_Ragaei https://www.linkedin.com/in/amr-abdel wahab-a17595156/

Advanced AutoCad 3ds.Max Vray/Corona-3ds.Max Adobe Photoshop Adobe InDesign Intermediate Rhinoceros Adobe Illustrator Google SketchUp Beginner Autodesk Revit

Languages Arabic| Mother Tongue English| Fluent Italian|Limited Working Proficiency

Index

Academic 01. Narrative between Art, Nature and Architecture Reviving Arte Sella I Borgo Valsugana, Italy 2019

02. The Anatomy of the Square

A contemporary multifunctional dome I Porto, Portugal 2018

03. Auditorium for Contemporary Music piacenza, Italy 2017

04. Regeneration of Bereguardo Canal

Designing a logistic system among the farmsteads of Berguardo canal I Milan 2017

05. Lake Over The City

Development of Lugano’s waterfront I Lugano, Switzerland 2018

06. Architecture Against Nature

An Observatory in a natural site I Old Harry Rocks, UK 2017

Professional 07. The Exhibition Space as an Urban Tool MNAA Museum I Encamp, Andorra 2018

08. Complesso Piazza Savoldi

Proposing a new vision for an existing historical complex in the heart of the old city I Lonato, Italy 2020

09. Casa Peschiera del Garda Garda Lake, Italy 2019

Narrative between Art, Nature and Architecture A vision for reviving Arte Sella

Politecnico di Milano 2019 Master Thesis Project Location: Borgo Valsugana, North of Italy

Building for environmental hazards has always been a necessary truth within the discipline of architecture. When it comes to creating durable structures, function all too often overrides form for reasons of limited resources, ease, and practicality. The thesis will focus on the ability to recover from natural disturbances through adapting the architecture to nature. It is a study about the derivatives of architecture from nature’s alterations and its affinity to the natural system. Arte Sella showcases a distinct experience combining the mountains, forests, and landscape in one framework where works of naturalist artists are traced. Those works symbolize a congruous symbiosis with nature and, therefore, will eventually degrade to coalesce with nature. Today, Arte Sella is considered one of the most valuable cultural centers of our contemporary living. Our objective is to revive the regretfully abandoned artistic center and explore ways to implement social strategies. Our approach aims at encouraging people to frequent the presently deserted place due to the calamity it has suffered from. We will design a sentimental and sensorial journey through the landscape that evokes meditation, contemplation, and self-reflection. The architecture will speak to different landscapes and narrate a tangible description of the place. The behavior of the landscape inspires resilient approaches. The enamoring beauty of the landscape, which experiences a process of decay by the wrath of time, compels one to think of the ephemerality of life, a quality rendered with fragility and impermanence. But, the decay is antithetical to growth, the evolution of nature, a quality rendered with ambition and perseverance. Architecture is the journey of growth, decay, and time.

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Arte Sella

is an international event of contemporary arts that is staged in the forests of the Val Di Sella valley.

Since 1986 the meadows and forests of the Val Di Sella valley, part of the municipality of Borgo Valsugana, have Been venue for an international event of contemporary arts. Arte Sella is not only a simple exhibition, rather it is A creative process. The relationship of people towards nature and respect of nature make part of the artistic masterpieces. Moreover, every day again and again, the artist needs to search for inspiration in nature. To put their Ideas into practice.

Art Sella reinterpreted the notion of the land art and gradually evolved the idea of the landscape as a product of the integration of art and landscape, where the artists turns the natural landscape into not only the context of the work but the work itself.

Since 1998, the Malga Costa area has been added to Arte Sella. Around this typical mountain construction, once used for the summer grazing of animals, developing a large park where some of the most impressive works of Arte Sella take place. Over time, Arte Sella has established itself more and more, and is constantly evolving: as today it represents an international reality of the highest prestige having entered the European Land circuits. The approximately 60 works of Arte Sella, located between the Garden of Villa Strobele, the Arte Natura Route and the Area Malga Costa are made with local materials such as wood, earth, stones, and inserted in a manner of the all harmonious in the context in which they are found. The time factor here is fun-damental: the life cycle of the installations the artists expected is to be slowly reabsorbed, as the seasons go.

Calamity On 29th October 2018, a calamitous event struck Arte Sella. It damaged a wide area of the woods and left a destroyed art park landscape.

The Sunday before the disaster had gone very well at Arte Sella. At the cash desk has sold more than a thousand tickets.

The pouring rain had not risen to reach at 999 meters of Malga Costa. On that Monday 29, the rain had become a storm, and in the evening, bad weather has taken away half of Arte Sella’s works. The wind, even more than the rain, has scattered the destruction.

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ARTE SELLA HISTORY MUSUEM A museum of the disappeared works, it will be a place preserving the memory and the traces of the works of the art that had disappeared in arte sella it will host the remain of what have been destroyed by the storm, it will also include what has been inevitably removed by the natural renewal and evolution process of the park.

The museum is a place to remember the experience of the artists and creative talents, it will evoke their interventions that has become one with nature.

The museum is located in the beginning of Arte Sella, the museum is a connection between villa strobele where everything in Arte Sella started and Arte Natura, the impressive artistic path that has been destroyed by the storm and to be revived as part of our whole intervention.

The museum starts at villa strobele where there is the entrance reception, admins offices and a book shop.

Then the users go out of the villa on a concrete platform approaching the museum. The first unit is dedicated to an introduction to arte sella and showing the history of the art in nature movement. Then you go out and start going up on a concrete ramp within the nature to the second unit which is exhibition space afterwards the third unit which has the tree trunks erected like pillars in the middle of the space as a memory of the storm.

Then another 2 exhibition spaces before you eventually start rising up to the mountain through the staircase tower until you reach Arte Nature, the path that has been revived as a part of our whole intervention.

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The semi temporary structure consists of wooden elements speeded along the connection, throughout the rising contour on a concrete platforms allowing the nature to go in between the units so the users can experience the nature throughout the museum journey.

Although the boxes are spreaded in the nature they are internally isolated from a direct connection with the nature except from some sky opening to introduce the light and the trees shadows also some of the rains when its happens, this idea gives the statement that the art inside the museum is no longer alive since the art in nature was supposed to perform in nature but after it has been destroyed it doesn’t perform anymore so it should isolated from the direct connection with nature, just some glimpse are there.

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SKY OBSERVATORY By the end of the revived Arte Natura path we start going lowerthrough the topography profile which starts by digging in the ground long staircase, while going down the intensity of the light decreases and the space becomes darker and darker until we reach the pure open roofless space, the moment of illumination, where the users can appreciate the sky excluded from all the other obstacles.

The intervention is a subtraction excavation reacts as a concealed and non-distracting architectural presence in the soil creating a pure space dedicated to the sky the excavated space announce itself from the interior not from the exterior. The sky void encourages visitors to look up as they reflect inside the intimate space.

Users stars to continue the journey through another path going down in the contour again until they reach the forest where another experience starts.

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The intervention is so discreet from the exterior users can just see the tracing of the underground excavation through the wooden trunks units that are extended very slightly above the ground. The wooden trunks surround all the excavated space where they are fixed on a concrete walls that creates the underground wholes to prevent the soil lateral force.

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FORREST ELEVATED PATHWAY Following the intense underground mountain experience a new promenade is starting in contrast to the former journey. At the light of the day, a walkway through the forest vividly appears before the eyes of the visitor. The path elevates as the ground slopes downwards. It, then, gradually becomes a bridge and formulates a complete circle over the lowest point having a preserved pond before the bridge started to gradually get attached to the ground again and keep moving up with the contour until the users reach the next viewpoint. The walkway is made of wooden units of locally sourced timber. A dynamic network of a bridge and paths liberates the user’s movement through the forest of vale de sella. A natural escape into nature emanating senses of freedom.

The experience of the woods changes as the visitors walk from perceiving majestically erected trees to developing an intimate relationship with the trees. The path arrives at a proximity to the leaves of the trees. The visitors can touch and feel the smooth texture of the leaves, the rough texture of the branches, and the liquid aspect of the dew. They are embraced under an umbrella of a bouquet of colors such as the green leaves, brown branches and silver beech trees‌ They have been immersed in the forest at all angles.

It is a piece of architecture which exists for the woods as the forest exists for the architecture.

The circular ramp overlooks the beautiful pond (Il Laghetto) in the middle of the forest. The circle symbolizes the cycle of life. Inevitable. Irresistible.

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The location has the full potential to host artwork.

Hence, it can be a destination for artists, designers, connoisseurs and poets. It is a latent location featuring the new open museum and future extension of the existing Arte natura. The structure consists of v-shaped timber pillars supported on a concrete base. The pillars are attached to the wooden blocks of the bridge using steel connections. The wooden pillars goes elegantly convenient with the flying element.

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OBSERVATORY TOWER The observation tower stands autonomously on a high-altitude vantage point offering comfort and pleasure to users seeking to blend with a picturesque nature from a bird’s eye view.

The tower starts after a 700 – meter- long woodland walkway path and a bridge that weaves woodlands together.

The 37-m high observatory tower is arranged among 25-35 m high beech trees and spruces.

A harmonious vertical man-made entity now belongs to nature.

The visitors climb upwards reaching higher than the treetops. In this regard, the heavenly nature is before their eyes. And, they literally feel above the world.

Within the border of the forest and the open fields lies an independent area, almost island-like, the location of the tower. The building is a spatial reference in the landscape. Hence, it is visible from the path through the woodland and oriented towards the destination of the journey Malga Costa which is attached to the new art center.

The tower is therefore identified as a landmark in the landscape that radiates a sense of orientation and navigation.

Ascending the stairs is a spatial experience marked with feelings of curiosity, abruptness, and surprise.

The journey begins with total darkness confined in solid masses. Light starts to penetrate slightly but gradually at the shifting of the cubes and the intersections of the stairs. The view is not revealed immediately to intensify feelings of curiosity. As the visitors intrude furthermore, openings orient and frame selected elements of the landscape.

Arriving to the roof level, visitors are showered with light under an open view acknowledging the entire surrounding landscape. The view communicates a mystical amalgam of mountains and forests. A green, primitive, and natural creation.

An intersection of natural and artificial designed to intertwine.

The orthogonality of the tower contrasts the natural curvature of nature. Yet, the façade borrows the wood material from its surrounding in order to fit in. The construction material is made entirely of timber, existing in the site after the calamity, and adopts stripped logs timber techniques.

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Moreover, the intervention is considered sustainable, for cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency, carbon footprint are optimized to mitigate any risks on the environment. The structural conditions use innovative techniques and joinery to avoid the use of steel supports as much as possible.

The construction basically consists of wooden pillars that support wooden beams. In turn the wooden beams support subsidiary 1-way beams carrying wooden strips of the flooring.

The main beams support the façade. The stairs are interconnected wooden blocks supported by regular conventional wooden beams. An open theatre, built following the existing topographical contours of the natural landscape, succeeds the tower. Here, the natural landscape loses its key identity, as the context, and unifies with the project. The connection is no more a sensory perception but a physical transformation. Now, the edge between artificial and natural is blurred. An integration with nature is achieved.

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The orthogonality of the tower contrasts the natural curvature ofnature. Yet, the faรงade borrows the wood material from its surrounding in order to fit in.

The construction material is made entirely of timber, existing in the site after the calamity, and adopts stripped logs timber techniques. Moreover, the intervention is considered sustainable, for cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency, carbon footprint are optimized to mitigate any risks on the environment. The structural conditions use innovative techniques and joinery to avoid the use of steel supports as much as possible.

The construction basically consists of wooden pillars that support wooden beams. In turn the wooden beams support subsidiary 1-way beams carrying wooden strips of the flooring.

The main beams support the faรงade. The stairs are interconnected wooden blocks supported by regular conventional wooden beams.

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ART CENTER The last destination of the journey is Malga costa, an open air museum in nature that displays art pieces. The park has few existing buildings at its entrance. They consist of a small auditorium and a restaurant, services and toilets, and bookshop and ticketing office. Respecting the existing architectural composition and natural context but simultaneously introducing a contemporary intervention is a challenge. The art center is a challenge of creating a solution well adapted to the context, to work seamlessly with the existing to create a one big complex by Malga costa.

The new presence must improve the understanding of the old character.

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Malga costa complex is configured to host the devices and facilities that a contemporary building must possess. It emphasizes space and its content and creates a scenery for life. Public spaces, plazas, and public activities serve to create a socially coherent environment. Three main buildings spreading out from a central distributive core create a dialogue with the existing open space between the existing structures. The first building is an auditorium of 180 seats located in the west part of the complex. The second building is a workshop space located in the east part of the complex. The third building is a library. It completes the enclosure of the defined patio from the north side.

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The patio is located at the very heart of the complex on absolute greenery. Trees are also added to increase the value of the green spaces. This courtyard recalls a green theatre, an agora, a stage for young people to communicate and socialize: an empty space that accommodates them. It connects all the performance venues and creates a destination for informal performances and spontaneous interactions. To magnify the imposing perspective on the surrounding mountains and reveal the scenery, the building has to be discreet. Therefore the buildings follows the contour profile, is assigned a low height, and grants an unblocking view to the mountain.

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The long faรงade of the library is directed to the north with a thin glass skin to ensure the indirect sun light necessary in the library and the unique secluded environment isolated from the crowded part. The faรงade is framing the forest and the mountains in the north like a painting hung on the wall. The library itself consists of several steps.

Thus, the library acts like a theatre, and the forest mountain landscape is the ongoing play. Visitors slow down their normal pace and embrace the feeling of longing an loneliness. The platforms for seating are raised towards the back, so that everyone has an unblocking view to the stage. Towards the mountain, the building is enclosed by a series of operable glass walls at ground level.

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The Auditorium is oriented to the north using the existing topography profile to create the step needed for the audience. Over the stage is a skylight that sheds light and shadow according to the time of day. Relatively, the experience of the performance changes according to the light of the day.

The intervention is a mixture of concrete and wood. The platforms, stairs, ramps, shear walls and ceilings are concrete. The selection of concrete was decided to give the complex a more permanent identity more a functional quality.

The walls are wooden units chosen to define the spaces throughout the buildings keeping with the consistency of the bare sustainable material throughout the project.

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The Anatomy of the Square Politecnico di Milano 2018 Architectural Design Studio Location: Porto, Portugal Collaborators Hazem Elshafie - Desiree Abboud - Mohamed Samir - Rita Zeinon

Inspired by the suprematism movement, the supreme form composed of circle on square is displayed on nature, unbounded and free. The rotation and offset liberate the ground level and maximize permeability. Visitors walk freely in nature on no defined path and are immersed in forest-like nature. Thus, senses of freedom and uncertainty are heightened. Arriving to the structure, it is found void in a mass. The mass is holistically structured, built in, carved and carefully sculptured. An entire, whole, and holistic. It is stripped of accessories, cladding, and furniture: Naked in the landscape. A blissful sense of liberation.

And the circular void is the spirit. The soul of architecture.

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Kazimir Malevich Black Square and Red Square 1915

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In the beginning we choose to analyze supremati sm paintings. They are pure geometric forms displayed on white canvas to represent vastness.

The mass designed is displayed in nature unbounded and free.

Four principles lie behind the approach of the dome. Freedom, uncertainty, pivot and balance.

The principles guided all the design decisions that were taken.

Freedom is reflected in the chosen location of the dome. Uncertainty is depicted in the approach of the users towards the interventi on. pivot is one of the purposes of the dome is aimed to fulfi ll. Finally, balance is clearly perceived through the landscape interventi on.

Moreover, four connecti ng points lead to the interventi on it is crucial to keep in mind that the principles are also reflected in the connecti ons.

The fi rst connecti on is from the round-about to the existi ng runway.

The second is through the existing platform in which events take place from ti me to ti me.

The third is through the ocean and the highway where the connection between the ocean and the park lies under the highway. Last, users can reach the interventi on through the park that is the city park of porto.

The landscape reflects unbound and free movements. It is designed while considering the existi ng state the landscape that has natural hardscape welcome in new noninvasive species like birch trees, that are planted on a visual grid on a certain direction. This interventi on acts like a transitional element between the natural park and the concrete mass.

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Ground Floor Plan

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Birch trees, that are planted on a visual grid on a certain directi on. This interventi on acts like a transiti onal element between the natural park and the concrete mass.

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The design approach reflects an envison of a complete and entire mass, then we started substracting voids in order to open for visual connections, physical accesabilties and function areas. The circle has the most important function that brings together the people into the nucleus of the square.

In the first floor each entrance has its appropriate experience. You access the first floor through the platform, you access the ground floor from the landscape The ground floor is accessible through stairs or ramp. You enter the volume and get exposed to volumetric masses carved in the mass.

Then an interplay of mass and void, light and shadow keep interchanging as you experience the praca, finally voids in the first floor allow light to the ground floor. birch trees, that are planted on a visual grid on a certain direction. This interventi on acts like a transiti onal element between the natural park and the concrete mass.

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In the first floor each entrance has its appropriate experience. You access the first floor through the platform, you access the ground floor from the landscape The ground floor is accessible through stairs or ramp. You enter the volume and get exposed to volumetric masses carved in the mass. Then an interplay of mass and void, light and shadow keep interchanging as you experience the praca, finally voids in the first floor allow light to the ground floor.

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Auditorium for Contemporary Music Politecnico di Milano 2017 Architectural Design Studio Location: Piacenza, Italy

Piacenza is a city which has a high density of people in the center of the city and residentially it extended a few blocks outside the old wall of the city. The lack of life outside the city walls pushes the people away from expanding further specially without proper transportation system and depending on cars to move around.

High percentage of residents move within the old wall of the city using bicycles or on foot and the rest use cars even with the existing of limited traffic zones within the city wall. However, when it comes to move outside the walls most prefer cars or public transportation.

Roads map shows how easy to move around within the city walls due to its grid. The only public transportation in Piacenza is the bus with a poor service, inadequate timings and stations locations.

The project is located in Via Emilia Pavese which is the west entrance of Piacenza. The site is an abandoned old military base with a total area of 31 hectares. The chosen location is the hinge between the historic wall and the west periphery of the city. We aim to use this strength to make an integration by creating an attraction point which will bring life to the west side and encourage people to expand the residential and social periphery. Attracting people by using common interests to all and presenting a new auditorium, library, music school, exhibitions and a new landmark “The Agriculture Tower” to the city which revives the essence of Piacenza “agriculture” and form varies interaction vibes.

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GEOMETRIC STRATEGY The east and west sides of the site are not connected. By studying the green density of the existing forrest trying to preserve the greens as much as possible. So we have decided to demolish the existing buildings in order to construct the project in the least green density area.

Then applying the main axe that connects the east and west sides and the second axe coming from the high way which respects the orientation of the context and the tracing of the demolished buildings.

PUSHING THE CITY TOWORDS THE WEST The idea is to create a boom in the near west area of the city that will attract the people, its not going to be a destination, it is just a station towords the far west of the city.

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The project is pathway spine integrated with the urban fabric of the city that includes a lot of elements to increase the denisty of the people and the intensity of the flow. The idea was to make the functions with the space of the city flowing between. we took the public space through the building. This opens the comples to the life of the city. The building feels like a city in miniature.

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Regeneration of Bereguardo Canal

Designing a logistic system among the farmsteads of Berguardo canal in Milan Politecnico di Milano 2017 Urban & Landscape Regeneration Location: Morimondo, Milan Collaborators: Foteini Pierrou - Giuseppe Avenia - sravya lutukurthi

The present project attempts to propose the design of a logistics network which will aim to collect agricultural products from the farmsteads around Bereguardo canal in Milan and distribute them in the wider area of Milan and Pavia.

Bereguardo canal used to tranfer a great amount of products in the past. The canal network is aimed to be regenerated and put into use again developing a sustainable environment for the farmers that reside the area.

The project is designed between the farmsteads of Fornace and Conca. The first farm is used as a hub storage for the products of the sourrounding area and at the same time as a terminal point on loading the products onto small driveless boats. In the second farm a big storage is designed to maintain the diary products and load them in scheduled time onto bigger boats that will distribute. them to the final destinations.

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Milan

Naviglio Grande

Abbiategrasso

Nav iglio

Pav

ese

Morimondo

Cascina Conca

iglio

Nav

Cascina Fornace

o ard egu

Ber

Ti cin

o

Ri

ve r

Canal L oc k Wa te r Mo to rw ay R ailwa y Buil t Agr icultural Ti cino Pa rk

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Pa rk

Pavia

Cascina Conca

Cascina Fornace

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Creating a Sustainable Network that can Preserve the Cascinas of Morimondo Defining a Design Module

MILK PACKAGING HYPOTHESIS Dimensioning V Bricks pallets needs less space for packaging, storaging and transport of milk 100 Tons=125 Pallets (Module)=108,75 Sq.m Sustainability X Bricks can not guarantee a reuse of milk single packaging Milk Brick [60x90x195 mm]

Milk Pack [282x128x210 mm] 30 bricks

Milk Pallet [1128x768x1300 mm] 800 Kg 24 packs/5 layers 720 bricks

Cascina

Milano Transport V

The bricks pallets needs smaller boats or less journeys for transport Small boat (8 Pallets/J) = 16 Journeys/Day (100 Tons) Big boat (16 Pallets/J) = 8 Journeys/Day (100 Tons)

Single module [1,128x0,768m]

x4

Dimensioning X Glass bottles pallets needs more space for packaging, storaging and transport 100 Tons=247 Pallets (Module)=214,89 Sq.m Sustainability V Glass bottles can be reused for milk single packaging Cascina Milano Transport X

Milk glass bottle [89x267 mm] 1460 Gr 1 bottle / 1L

Milk Pallet [505x305x1650 mm] 118.5 Kg 15 bottles x 5 layers 120 bottles / 75L

Milk Pack [505x305x330 mm] 23.7 Kg 15 bottles / 15L

Glass bottles pallets needs bigger boats or more journeys for transport Small boat (8 Pallets/J) = 31 Journeys/Day (100 Tons) Big boat (16 Pallets/J) = 15 Journeys/Day (100

BOATS HYPOTHESIS

Smallest (from Cascina to Dock)

Medium (2Ëš small or 1Ëš big boat)

Biggest (from Dock to Milan)

8 Pallets [4,5m x 1,5m = 6,9 Sqm]

16 Pallets [9m x 1,5m =13,9 Sqm ]

32 Pallets [18m x 1,5m = 27,8 Sqm ]

6.400 Kg x Journey 100 Tons in 16 Journeys

12.800 Kg x Journey 100 Tons in 8 Journeys

25.600 Kg x Journey 100 Tons in 4 Journeys

Logistic scheme Cascina Fornace 100 Tons per day

Milano 100 Tons per day

Big Boat

Small Boat

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Dock storage 100 Tons per day

o

 STABLE

MILKINING AREA MILK PROCESSING MILK STORAGE



 SILO CEREALS PACKAGING



 RESIDENCES

VEGETABLE GARDEN

 FARM HOUSEKEEPER

 DRY STORAGE

OFFICES DAIRY PRODUCTS PACKAGING





 MILK PACKAGING YOGURT PRODUCTION BUTTER PRODUCTION CHEESE PRODUCTION

 COOL STORAGE

TERMINAL POINT

 MORIMONDO MUSEUM  IMROVING THE BIODIVERSTY

 PLANTATION OF NEW TREES ALON THE ECOLOGICAL CORRIDOR

 CANAL LOCK  LOGISTICS DOCK COOL TEMPORARY STORAGE LOCK CONTROL BOAT REPAIRING

   









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Logistics dock & Temporary StorageCascina Conca

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AXONOMETRIC EXPLODED MODEL

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Storage & Terminal, Cascina Fornace

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Lake Over The City

A new vison for Lugano’s Waterfront Politecnico di Milano 2018 Landscape Design Studio Location: Lugano, Switzerland Collaborators: Frida Rueda - Enrica Pili- Eleonora Serra

The main intention of the project is to give attention to the areas interested by the flood in some periods of the year, in a way to help the city to come back to a normal situation.

THE CITY AND THE FLOOD The center of Lugano is located in the area affected by the rising level of the lake as a result of heavy rains every year. Adapting the city to the flooded environment landscape exchange. The city welcomes the water by allowing it to flow through public places generating a temporary new port in higher proximity with the layer of buildings and the pedestrian life.

Lugano, rather than containing the flood, conceals with it by extending the city line to an alternative journey over the lake, granting pedestrian life even in flood scenario.

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Detail between the platform and shore secures the connection throughout the different levels of the water

pilotis to avoid horizontal displacement rails to facilitate displacement

Junction from structure beams to oating system

Junction from displacement ring to structure beams Flooring structure

Wooden ooring

Concrete and polyurethane pontoon

Connection stability system preventing the horizontal movement and giving tolerance to the vertical one resulted from the flood.

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steel rign to keep strictly vertical displacement

Alternative Personality The integration between a public space, sport activities and artistic expression invites a collection of people with very different interests This is the new image for Lugano’s waterfront, and eventually for the whole city.

To Dive or not to Dive ...

In order to reach the alternative city, the path welcomes the users into a versatile environment, providing water love activities.

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Secluded A corner not seen or visited in large numbers. Lonesome charm is also a part of every city. The alternative path becomes Lugano’s vibe.

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Architecture Against Nature Designing a cabin in a natural site

Politecnico di Milano 2017 Architectural Workshop Location: Old Harry Rocks, United Kingdom Collaborators: Foteini Pierrou - Khilna Shah

The present Workshop attempts to propose ideas on theway that architecture interacts with the landscape as the main representation of nature. The aim of the project is to design a small scale cabin in a selected site that manifests attributes of extreme natural conditions. In the specific project the area selected is the Old Harry Rocks on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, in southern Englan.

Old Harry Rocks is a natural site constituted by three chalk formations after the influence of the natural forces of wind and waves on the chalk cliffs of Studland.

The intervention proposes the creation of a space buried into the edge of the peninsula of Studland. The site is mainly accesible by walking on the top of the cliff and by boat visitings from the sea. The space is distributed in four different levels and experiences that encourage the visitor to enjoy the natural site intriguing all the sences. Entering from the top of the cliff the visitor can insert and experience the chalk formation finding also isolation. In a second stage one can find himself enjoying the view of the Old Harry rocks from the edge of the cliff. Finally, a ladder leads you in a protected pool in the sea. The visitor can encounter the extreme conditions of nature to the extend of its will.

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esign Strategy

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The Exhibition Space as an Urban Tool MNAA Museum

MESURA 2018 Contest, Second Place Location: Encamp, Andorra

Culture is the constructive force of individual and collective identities. It encompasses both tradition and the change thereof.

The cultural space is then by definition a place to experience our society, a space to exhibit its challenges and contemplate new possibilities. This brings the museum into the realm of urbanism, as it creates a place to deeper understand, form and share identity, reinforcing as such our sense of citizenship. For the new Museu Nacional de l’Automòbil d’Andorra we applied this idea to a building by giving more space to its citizens.

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R

Render by PlayTime Barcelona

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A MOTOR OF CHANGE, A CHANGE OF MOTO The automobile has been an important force in the development of communities, especially for Andorra, a country located in the Pyrenees, which was isolated from the world until the democratization of cars made it possible to connect, trade and travel. In the midst of the evolution of transportation, cars went from being a symbol of progression to a restrictive component for the citizen, as towns and cities are now designed for cars rather than people. The town of Encamp (Andorra) therefore initiated a new urban strategy by making the main road surround its city center rather than cutting right through it, thus restituting the space to the community.

As part of the second phase of Encamp’s urban plan, the MNAA aims to transcend the construction of a new building for Andorra’s history of the automobile by prioritizing and humanizing the public space around it. Positioned between two

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public buildings (the Town Hall and Ministry of Culture) the building creates a dialogue between the three entities, while two additional squares and a staircase add new value to the public area.

The museum thus takes over the preliminary role of the automobile by becoming a catalyst for connection, movement and change.

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MUSEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES: TELLING ANDORRA’S STORY The design of the museum is underpinned by a new topography that allows for the building to blend into the urban fabric of Encamp. In order to not overpower its surroundings, the building delves underground, where we find the new public squares that let in natural light from above. A variety of inside ground levels creates rhythm, favouring a dynamic exhibition circulation that plays with the views of the visitor. Above ground, the emerging facade comes in a translucent and fragmented shape (both by the vertical structures and the contorted roof), providing the pedestrian lane with a symbolic endpoint.

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Render by PlayTime Barcelona

Though the MNAA’s catalogue is considered one of the most important ones in southern Europe, the museum doesn’t solely focus on the singularity of its pieces. Vehicles are showcased in a route following the evolutionary narrative of Andorra and its transportation methods. A set of temporary expositions spurs visitors to reflect: What did the automobile mean for Andorra?

What does it mean to us today? What are new transportation approaches and how will these affect us? Does moving faster necessarily imply we are progressing? The museum thus becomes a symbol for the evolution of Encamp and Andorra, while projecting new ideas for the future.

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Complesso Piazza Savoldi

Proposing a new vision for an existing historical complex in the heart of the old city Cabras Architetti 2020 Category: Residential Location: Lonato del Garda, Italy

The project proposes a new vision for a historical complex consists of three historical buildings Related to the 19th and early 20th centuries, located in the center of the town of Lonato in Lombardy north of Italy. Where we are transforming the abandoned plot into a contemporary residential complex that brings together all the buildings in the landscape. The proposal includes the renovation, refurbishment of the existing buildings to be used for residential purposes and a new contemporary pavilion which will work as a residential house. As well the landscape interventions that includes the paths and the pool. The project recovers the lost spaces in the surrounding landscape and charges it with new meaning, the spaces and courts are now revived and defined to create private and semi private void. The voids are defined using the existing trees and the new introduced light bushes.

One material, light stones has been used through out the whole landscape intervention preserving the consitency throughout the project. .

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The main gathering actor of the intervention that collects all the complex users together is the pool, a permanent sheet of water placed directly in front of one of the historical buildings (casa A) gives us the opportunity to the see the reflection of the 1920th building on the calm water creating a poetic dialogue between the old and the new .

The pool platform follows the same material of all the landscape interventions, the usage of semi polished light stones.

The usage of the stones for the pathes has been precisely designed to give the users more conscinsenness of the topography as it reflects the intensity of the elevation by increasing the number of stone pieces

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Minimal interventions have been made to the facades of the existing buildings by adding glass panels and new wooden shutters or fixed window with the same material used in the new volume to keep the consistency throughout the project.

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There’s been a tension between contemporary and historical buildings since the beginning of modernity, with conservationists believing it is important to stay true to original techniques and materials when working with historical sites or even more conservatives who believe we should not intervene within the historical areas at all.

With poetic examples of architectural reuse in mind, the new pavilion intervention pays respect to the existing heritage and appears in a very humble way. It is a neutral concrete and modest one floor intervention, which avoids overwhelming the existing buildings, all the while adding meaning to it by respecting the same width of (casa B) and the continuity of the built-up line.

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old and new elements continue going in one direction creating the border of the plot together representing the inevitable timeline.

The site have a topography with almost 2.5 meters from the beginning to the end which will put our new volume in the lowest point in the space adding another level of modesty to the intervention, however, we have increased the level of the soil by 50 cm to create a regular flat void in front of the pavilion. The volume location intergrates with the surroundings to define two patios the first main patio is in the north side which is defined by the historical side walls and the frontal light bushes that also gives a clear definition to the private garden.

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The house consists of one solid rectangular volume, then the wooden shading pergolas were added to the southern and western façades as a sun-shading devices, allowing a better control of light and heat-input in summer.

From the north side a pleasent corridor’s like patio is created between the building and the north historical wall where we find the presence of the Italian cypress trees as a row of sculptures in the shaded patio.

The presence of the north and south facade openeings on the in the same position gives a sence of transeperancy to the new volume allows a visual continuity and a stronger perception of the southern historical wall.

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Casa Peschiera del Garda Cabras Architetti 2019 Category: Residential Location: Peschiera del Garda, Italy

The area subjected to the intervention is located on the southern shore of Garda Lake, in the municipal area of ​​Peschiera del Garda. The Lot is bordered in the North by the State Property Area (of which a concession for exclusive use has been issued) facing the lake. The design choices focuses mainly on the particular sensitivity to the natural landscape. It is indeed happened that the most relevant historical emergencies in the territory are the fortified architectures of Peschiera at the riverbed del Mincio to the east and the isthmus of land of Sirmione to the west. These historical emergencies, although they offer limits and visual perception, they belong to a territorial scale, therefore definitely far beyond the scope and the fallout that the project presented here may have. In keeping with the settlement strategy, the compositional criteria holds a strong consideration to the logic of the openings in relation to the configuration.

The built volume is presented in a strongly oriented way with the view of the lake. Towards the street, on the contrary, it is very sealed. The only large opening on the facing street is an underground level created inside the patio, this opening allows better lighting for the living area, capturing the best light coming from the south.

The built volume, also acting as a connecting space between the three levels, it is surrounded by walls that conclude the road / lake level difference.

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The arrangement of the open space maintains consistency with settlement logic. The few materials chosen for the finishes of the external surfaces have been chosen to harmonize with the surrounding landscape.

The connecting ramp between the road and the lake level will be built with lawn and stones resting on the delimit of the roadway. The entrance and maneuvering area will be made of grey stone material as well as the pool plate. The retaining walls between the road level and the lake level will be made of ‘exposed’ reinforced concrete.

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The procedures of the selection of the openings in the volume happened precisely. Depending on the view, the volume is more or less open.

In particular, the frontal street is penalized by heavy traffic, however, it would represent the best view in terms of radiation; therefore proceeded with limited openings to the necessary, but at the same time characterized by strong setbacks of windows in order to protect mostly openings.

With the exactly inverse methodology we proceeded with the openings of the front facade towards the lake. First of all the wall box has been almost totally eliminated for the favor of large glass surfaces; at the same time it intensifies the perception of the single large void that crosses the two floors of the building while the staircase is revealed in an abstract way, This artifice manages to allow the building a dialogue with the landscape perceived by the Lake.

In the second floor, this large hole is completed by a system of windows, loggias and parapets which, in accordance with the internal distribution provide the scale of detail of the building.

The idea is to have two reading scales of the main facade: the scale of the landscape given by the volume and the scale of the context provided by the details of the finishinings.

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+39 3347510019 amr.ragaei.91@gmail.com Brescia, Italy Amr Ragaei . 2020