Alwin Mathew
@ar.alwinmathew
ar.alwinmathew@gmail.com
+917907925617
EDUCATION
May 2013
Completed High School Education with 94.0% from Montfort School Anakkara, Idukki, Kerala, India
May 2015 Completed Higher Secondary Education with 95.2% from St.Antonys Public School, Kanjirappalli, Kerala, India
July 2020
WORK EXPERIENCE
Completed B.Arch with 7.92 CGPA from Nit Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India
June - Nov, 2018 Intern architect at QDC (Qatar Design Consortium), Doha, Qatar (Work involved : Design, Working Drawings, Presentations)
May - July, 2019 Intern Architect at SDeG (Sujit Nair Design Group), Bangalore, India (Work involved : Working Drawings, Presentations)
July - Oct, 2020 Research Associate under Dr.Benny Kuriakose on Sustainable Architecture (Work involved: Reading and documenting literature on sustainable architecture)
Jan 2021- Present Freelance Architect (Work involved : Sole Architect responsible for design and execution of various projects )
SOFTWARE SKILLS
MS Office Word | PowerPoint | Excel
Adobe CC Photoshop | InDesign | Illustrator
BIM / Render Revit | Vray | Lumion
Other Manual sketching | Creative writing
ALONG THE STEPPED TERRAIN
CONTEXT : The site is located in the village of Arakkunnam, 25 km South East of Kochi. It is surrounded by residences of middle working class, which are mostly built in the early 2000s . A new residence is one that invites both attention and scrutiny from society. Hence early on, the options of exposing concrete or brickwork was unthinkable to the client
CLIENT : Mr. Robin George works for the police force in the nearby town of Mulanthurithy. His wife Elizabeth is a nurse and they are blessed with a 5 year old daughter Chinnu.
The family is on a strict budget of less than 28 Lakhs for the residence of 1600 Sq.ft. Their requirements are of typical 3 BHK, a dedicated prayer space and reading area.
SITE : The site is the most pivotal element of the project as it is a typical rubber plantation with a contour difference of 3m from the Road access edge to the rear edge. By splitting the site by 0.9m and designing the house in two levels, we are able place the building with minimum impact on the site. This reduces the site development costs and material by a crucial 65%.
THE SUN : The house is designed to minimize the afternoon heat intake, by reducing the openings on the NW facade and by providing horizontal and vertical sunshades. By reducing the afternoon sun falling inside rooms, the rooms remain significantly cooler throughout day and night.
The morning sun however is crucial to the well being of the residents and hence is welcomed into the living, prayer, reading and kitchen spaces through windows and skylights.
THE WIND : The tropical climate with the oppressive hot summer and occasional humid days calls for ventilating environment. The concrete roofs typical of the area heats up over the day and radiate heat from afternoon to night. Thus making the usage of ceiling fans a nightmare. This need for cross ventilation and blocking direct sun light is combined is done by strategically placing windows for each spaces. Every room in this home has the provision of clear and direct path for cross ventilation.
Drone shot Courtesy : Sriram Anob
THE RAIN : Having a Vaastu constraint of building the entire house in one floor, has left a lot of terrace footprint, which can fortunately be used to harvest rainwater.
No elements are introduced so as to enhance the aesthetics of the building. The projecting roof slabs serve the purpose of providing additional shade to the walls.
The play of volume and light occurring as a result of responding to the site contour.
Long section
Top and Bottom : Exterior Renders of the house modeled in Revit, rendered in Lumion and post processing done in Photoshop
Top and Bottom : Various interior renders of the house modeled in Revit, rendered in Revit Vray Next 5 and post processing done in Photoshop
• Stone Foundation
• Steel Windows
• PVC Skylight
• Ferro cement Furniture
• RCC Retaining Wall
• Wooden Doors
Living Space and Skylight Prayer, Dining and Staircase View from Dining to Living Perspective view from Approach
• RCC Stairs • RCC Roof
• Laterite stone walls • Concrete Block Steps
(Construction ongoing)
1. The exterior view of the house
2. Drone shot of the site in parallel projection
WHITE LILY
The space is an old apartment located in Croatia, to be renovated for rental purposes for the client Mr. Darko. A few existing walls were proposed to be demolished in order to achieve a spacious and modern open living program. The aesthetics were intended to cater to a wide variety of social groups and thus centered around a warm, minimal and cozy atmosphere with a touch of luxury.
Shades of white, grey, black, beige and some pop of pastel colors were used. Parquet wood flooring, marble paneling and a matte white finish for the wardrobes is the general material palate. Pastel toned artworks and decorative indoor plants are used to bring the spaces to life.
The concealed ceiling lights and hanging pendant lights brings in a visual appeal that is sleek and modern. A cool white, bright and rejuvenating theme runs in spaces like open living and bathrooms, whereas a warm, comforting environment is induced in the bedrooms.
Family living space
Open living, dining , kitchen space
1. Master Bedroom
2. Master Bathroom
1. Bedroom 2
2. Common Bath with laundry
In order to tackle the rising sea level, the building had to be built in an elevated level. One option was to raise the building by 2.4m using columns in order to safeguard an extreme flooding situation, also rendering the basement space available for usage.
The other was to raise the site level by 1.2m as a rather moderate precaution and this was chosen as it best suited clients spatial and economic requirements.
The house is designed around the pool on the east and the courtyard on the west. The various living, sleeping and working spaces of the house engage a connection to these relaxing spaces. Thus evoking a sense of living alongside a water body and a lush green space. The green and the blue. The layout also minimizes heat intake from west and every space allows a direct path for cross ventilation.
The elevation is kept minimal and true to the integrity of the layout. The play of volume in the facade itself brings a pleasing composition to the eyes.
The front yard is imagined to be a sloping lawn plain set to accentuate the placement of the building. Further, the two feet sunshade extension in roof slab is cladded with wood.
Toilet details of Parents bathroom drafted in Revit.
Electrical Looping Drawing for Ground Floor drafted in Revit.
Top and Bottom : Few pictures from completed work
Reception Area
Work showcase
Son’s Office
MODULAR SUSTAINABLE LIVING
CONTEXT : ARCspace is a division of Sustainable Building Council, Ltd., centrally headquartered in the Downtown Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor. ARCspace creates efficient, affordable, and cutting-edge solutions to the problems of homelessness, affordable housing and contemporary/ modern sustainable communities built for the post pandemic world.
STRATEGY : Prefabricated steel modular building systems that are built from the ground up using sustainable materials such as discarded shipping containers. Solutions including grid-independent power and water, impermanent foundations that support relocation, smart home/building technologies, energy-efficient materials, hurricane impact glass and fire-retardant materials are used
DESIGN : Above showcased are housing units of various capacity (using 2 and 3 shipping containers ) that I’ve designed for ARCspace. These container homes are designed to be modular, scalable, easy to relocate, sustainable and affordable. The design also focuses on engaging the users to their environment, whether it be the community around them or the natural landscape they are located in.
The project discussed here in detail uses 6 shipping containers of 40’ x 8’ x 8’ size. The ground floor comprises of four shipping containers, which creates the open living, dining and kitchen space, one bedroom and a bath with an overall footprint of 1280 Sq.ft. An outdoor deck and pool is also provided to connect the interior and exterior.
The first floor is comprised of two shipping containers which creates two bedrooms and a bathroom, with an area of 640 Sq.ft. This arrangement provides us with a first floor deck of 640 Sq.ft area as well. The ground floor spaces are provided with shaded corridors on two sides and is connected to the garage.
The site chosen to erected in various sites around Los Angeles, individually or in groups as a community development. The building layout is designed such that the front entrance faces east, resulting in blocking the afternoon sun in the rear facade. The north and south facades are heavily shaded and a green roof system is proposed to minimize heat gain.
One of the chosen sites, McGinty Mountain Trail, 7.2km away from Jamul, CA
Exterior views showing the integration of the building with its surroundings.
Rendered using Vray Next for Revit and post-processed using photoshop
ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND EXPERIENTIAL MUSEUM
SPATIAL PERCEPTION AND COGNITIVE EXPERIENCE OF ARCHITECTURE
“More than the other senses, the eye objectifies and masters. It sets at a distance, and maintains that distance. In our culture, the predominance of the look over smell, taste, tough, hearing, has brought about an impoverishment of bodily relations… The moment the look dominates, the body loses its materiality.
-Santiago Calatrava
DOMINANCE OF VISUAL SENSE IN ARCHITECTURE
Historically, the experience of architecture has been largely through the visual sense. Based on a fundamental representation of the body throughout history, many architects have neglected the experiential or emotional role of architecture in favor of an architecture that is mediated by the visual sense.
The structure of Greek columns, plans of roman churches, the Vitruvian man and the modular man, all portrays the impact of human body and the dominance of visual sense over the rest in architecture. The human body as the centre of visual dominance, being the most evident one, visual dominance in architecture is universally accepted and indeed a necessary aspect. The aim of this study is to represent the lack of a wholesome spatial experience which often results in a feeling of placelessness and void.
Correlating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to the field of architecture, it is only in the recent past that designers and users have started to approach the final need for self actualization.
ARCHITECTURE AS A COMPLETE SENSORY EXPERIENCE
Architecture is phenomenologically (study of lived experiences) experienced in three ways, first person approach (the user experiences the space through a narrative that develops from personal experiences and architectural history), existential approach (through the narrative of another individual or group) and hermeneutic approach (through the content itself without correlating it to any perspectives).
PERCEPTION -> COGNITION -> AROUSAL STATE
Perception (the ability to become aware of something through the senses) is achieved through our bodily senses. The senses to which we can cater to is represented alongside. Perception causes either cognition (the mental action or process of acquiring and understanding knowledge) or arousal state(the feeling of emotions or experiencing bodily reactions) and these may trigger each other in the process. A wholesome experience is achieved by triggering cognition and arousal through perception.
INTRODUCTION
Environmental psychology is the study of transactions between individuals and their physical settings. In these transactions, individuals change the environment, and their behaviour and experiences are changed by the environment. The three main fields of study and practice that contribute heavily to the research and development of the subject are Architecture, Psychology and Engineering. Hence the necessity of a platform that brings together all the contributing factors of field under one roof.
AIM
•To enhance the research and development prospects of the field of Environmental Psychology.
•To contribute to a sustainable future environment by understanding human impact on environment and supporting engineering interventions for resolving various environmental issues.
•To research on the understanding of human spatial perception.
•To contribute to the field of psychology via understanding human emotional susceptibility and tolerance.
The chosen site is located at the heart of the city Banglore in India and measures an area of 33.4 acres. Koramangala is a vibrant and lively city centre with a non-stop flow commercial and residential activities making it ideal to locate a research institute and experiential museum.
OBJECTIVE
•Design and develop academic spaces that engage students in inter-disciplinary research and practice .
•Rendering a highly advanced facility for environmental engineering research and development.
•Study human spatial perception through spaces of experiential museum that evoke emotional cognition.
•Develop a database on emotional l susceptibility and tolerance of users through emotional cognition mapping techniques.
Above diagrams showcase the various climatic and site specific characteristics considered such as sources of noise, various access points to site, wind directions and sun path.
Banglore has a dry tropical climate with moderately hot summer and comfortably cold winters.
Space.
Perception.
Impact.
CONCEPTACHIEVING SENSORY ARCHITECTURE via
1. Material Integrity (Vision, touch)
2. Vegetation (Smell, vision, touch)
3. Water (Vision, touch, sound, cold)
4. Form and Volume (Vision)
5. Natural curtains (Vision, touch, sound, cold)
6. Play of light and shadow (Vision, heat)
7. Transition of spaces (Vision)
CLIMATIC DESIGN CONCEPT
1. North Lighting
2. Cross ventilation and stack effect
3. Placing minimally used spaces as a buffer for west facade heat
4. Horizontal and vertical sunshades
STRUCTURAL CONCEPT
5. Stone foundations
6. Rammed Earth walls
7. Filler slab roofs
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CONCEPT
8.Rainwater harvesting and bio-gas
9. Porous landscaping
10.Solar Farming
• The design aims to blend the boundaries between man made and natural elements by deliberately including landscape features in and around functional spaces.
• The planning engages users in an immersive experience of interior and exterior spaces.
• Adequate natural lighting is provided for all functional spaces, enabling a proactive and energetic environment.
FUTURE EXPANSION
EXPERIENTIAL MUSEUM
PARKING FACILITIES
ACADEMIC BLOCK
CENTRAL SPINE
16M WIDE MAIN ROAD
• Water harvesting systems, trees, vegetation sun-shades and seating areas are some of the site features
• Every primary space can be operated in such a way that it allows movement of fresh air using cross ventilation and stack effect.
INSTITUTE MACRO HOUSING GREEN HOUSES
WATER HARVESTING
• Micro housing is designed by up-cycling shipping containers. Greenhouses and water collection areas are included within a cluster of six micro houses
• Community spaces and terrace gardens are provided to cater to the social needs of the users.
• The campus encourages one to interact with ones environment and be in tune with the external stimuli.
MICRO HOUSING
COMMUNITY SPACES
12M WIDE ACCESS ROADS
A representation of student and staff accommodation buildings, landscape elements that integrate vegetations, water bodies and act as a social gathering space.
“The challenge for architecture is to stimulate both inner and outer perception; to heighten phenomenal experience while simultaneously expressing meaning; and to develop this duality in response to the particularities of site and circumstance.”
-Steven Holl
LANKA LEARNING CENTRE | FEAT COLLECTIVE AGA KHAN AWARD NOMINEE 2022
MAUSAM HOUSE OF SEASONS - ZERO STUDIO
THANK YOU
Graduate Portfolio -NIT TRICHY 2015-20
