Design Portfolio l Ashish Bhandari l Architecture l Taubman College l University of Michigan

ASHISH BHANDARIPORTFOLIO 2015

CONTENTS Bohdan Soroka Exhibition.................................. 4 Installation

Memorial to Victims of War............................... 8 Memorial in Washinton DC

Feeding the Machine.......................................... 20 NSA and Architecture

Capturing Motion................................................ 32 Learning Center and Train Station

Above the Trees.................................................. 44 Public Ski Lodge

Transcendence Urbanism.................................. 52 Urban Design

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Bohdan Soroka Exhibiton Year 1, Exhibition Advisor: Robert Adams Team Members: Ashish Bhandari, Joseph Diamond, Ian Donaldson, Martin Elliot, Daniel Glick-Unterman, Nathan Orleskie, Dwight Portocarrero, Roger Salinas

During the University of Michigan visit by the former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, the school of social work and a group of students from Taubman College teamed up to hold an exhibition in honor of Viktor Yushchenko. The University displayed the art of artist Bohdan Soroka and for the exhibition they hired a group of students from Taubman College to design and build the exhibitions. Dan Glick-Unterman and Martin Elliot were the original designers who put together a team of Undergraduates, UG1 and UG3. Joseph Diamond and Nathan Orleskie worked with the site work, Ashish Bhandari, Roger Salinas and Phil Marcantonio aided with fabrication. Martin Elliot, Dwight Portocarrero and Ian Donaldson worked on the documentation of the process and the event.

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Memorial to Victims of War Year 2, Studio 4 Instructor: Anca Trandafirescu The National Mall in Washington DC is a location for memorials to commemorate victors of war and iconic figures. We tend to see only one side of war, the spoils. This project is a criticism of our war-loving society. I researched the glorification of war in the America and focused on and memorializing the victims of war rather than conceive another devoted to the glories of war. This memorial is designed to enlighten our society of the other side of war, the side that is rarely heard, let alone seen. We tend to think of memorials as a physical site to visit where our emotions will be brought out of us. Like Aiweiwei’s sunflower seeds, this memorial is designed to use the vastness of the site and the characteristics of one material to bring forth the issue. The way this memorial is designed, the individual visiting the site will be participating on a ritual. The ritual can be compared to the likes of the process of entering the airport terminal, the steps taken during our advancement through the TSA line which can be argued as the real memorial to 9/11.

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Right: Path taken by the refugees into Europe Left: Collage representing the refugees making their way through camps towards the promised land of Germany

“ The most shocking fact about war is that it’s victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemed by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own”

Bottom left: Timeline showing the growth of the number of refugees

- Aldous Huxley

Number of Refugees 10,549,686

Year

2010

10,404,804

10,500,234

2011

2012

15,405,164

2013

16,700,234

2014

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Site Plan and Analysis of the National Mall in Washington DC.

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Ritual Architecture – Anonymity It’s March 20th 2100, The Conflict Victims Recognition Day, a crisp spring breeze blows throughout Washington DC. We approach the DC war memorial, a memorial dedicated to the lost lives of World War One. We disembark the bus, unload the box and walk to the memorial. This box we carry is important, it contains sand mixed from all 52 states that have donated it to the memory of war victims. The sand is mixed to represent the unity of the country as we remember the seldom remembered. Although natural resources differ from state to state, sand is ubiquitous among all of them. As we approach the memorial, we observe the pile of sand in the middle of the memorial and an individual who is struggling to keep from blowing away. We set the box down, open it and grab a hand full of sand and walk around the memorial five times in counter clockwise rotation. As we walk we notice it is hard to hold on to the sand as it seeps out from even the

tiniest cavities formed by our hands. All the while this is going on, the wind is blowing stronger than ever, the sand from the middle of the memorial is blowing away faster and the individuals are employed to keep the sand contained is now working harder to do their job. After the completion of the turns, we drop the sand in the opposite of the blowing of the wind so it will reach the middle. While the ritual is being performed, nothing is said but what we have in our conscious is important.

As this comes to an end we move to the next memorial, World War II memorial. This memorial is bigger but the same principles of rituals are followed. The sand pile in the center of the memorial is bigger than the last and the individual making sure the sand doesn’t blow away is having a harder time containing the sand. We repeat the same ritual at the Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Iraq War Memorial. As we finish we have run out of the sand in the box and we load the box back in the truck, as the same box will be used again next year for the ritual.

The box is loaded on the truck and we head back to the last memorial we stopped at. From there we pick up the sand and put it in whatever things we have brought with us, some have brought containers others put the sand in their pockets this is to signify the hardship of the refugees that have to carry their personal possessions in any way possible. After we have decided on the amount of sand we have is enough, we head towards the White House. While we are walking, we look at the ground and observe the sand seeping out of the pockets and leaving a streak on the ground, it almost looks like a trail we are leaving behind. We could see the trails taken by other individuals as they took upon the same journey. No one says anything during the journey.

When we arrive in the front lawn of the White House, pile of sand is bigger from what has accumulated over time from the individuals that have been on this journey before. The sand pile is big enough as to where people could climb on

top of it. After reaching the area we perform the same rituals and stop facing the white house and we pour the sand on top of the existing pile. As we pour the pile some of it is picked up by the wind and taken away while others fall on the pile. From the corner of my eyes we can see a city worker whose job is to keep the sand contained struggle and losing the fight against the wind. After pouring half of the sand we head towards Capitol Hill, the other site of the memorial.

Arriving at Capitol Hill we notice another pile of sand and more people walking around and pouring sand onto the pile.

Some have brought buckets on this journey while other have brought a hand full. It is eerily quiet as they pour the sand. At the last stop for the memorial we pour the sand facing Capitol Hill in silence. We pause and think about the meaning of this memorial and the people affected by them. This journey is complete but the problem still persists.

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May 20,2015

May 20,2100

May 20,2015

May 20,2100

May 20,2015

May 20,2100

May 20,2015

May 20,2100

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As the time passes on, the wind will blow the sand throughout the city of Washington DC. This Vignette shows the sand has blown and covered parts of the Korean War Memorial.

The sand has blown and covered parts of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, it has not been swept off as a memorial to the refugees.

The sand has covered the National Mall in front of Capitol Hill.

Even though the walkway has been swept, it still resides on the sidewalk.

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Feeding the Machine Year 2, Studio 3 Instructor: Dawn Gilpin This project looks at the issues of individual privacy and the government in collaboration with corporations using my data to serve other agendas. I designed a data center for the NSA that formally supports transparency and in the midst of the program of many American cities and public spaces densely populated with tourists for entertainment. The slaughterhouses designed by Temple Grandin were an initial interest as I saw the herd mentality of the animals as an analogy to how the public actors have participated in this collection process. The architecture which was influenced by Lebbeus Woods and Daniel Libeskind, is designed in a way where my concept for the project of awareness is intruding the normality of regular architecture. The transparency of the NSA facility on Navy Pier is trying to provide clues to the general public about the wrong doings and the misuse of our information and the intrusion of privacy. The goal is to get to the larger issues of the invasion of our personal information through the conversation of the controversial program of this building.

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Top: Physical object in motion Middle: Trying to capture the intangible space within a physical model Bottom: Drawing of Chicago and the way information can be projected from the site of Navy Pier Right: Composite drawing of intangilbe interactions

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Above: Collage drawing of the creation, storage and distribution of information Opposite: Site analysis of Chicago with data producers and data consumers

DATA CONSUMERS

DATA CONSUMERS

DATA PRODUCERS

DATA PRODUCERS

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Capturing Motion Year 1, Studio 2 Instructor: Melissa Harris This project dealt with the concept of motion. The site based in Ann Arbor, Michigan was situated in the area where there was a lot of movement. I saw this as an opportunity to use the idea of movement for my project. The program was a tutor center for the community as well as a train station for the city. I saw the idea of motion not only in the site but also in the program, the motion of the train as it passes through the station, the motion of people as they walk through the building, the motion of knowledge being passed from one person to another or from the books to the individual. This project investigated how to characterize motion and capture it into the architecture. This architecture uses motion to spatialize motion and uses it as a basis of design. The design of the building captures the motion occuring in the site and uses it for spaces. In the design, the void in the center represents an anchor that holds the motion occuring in the site together as a way to distinguish motion with something standing still.

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Opposite: Top: Train passing through the site Left: Site analysis of different types of motion present on the site Bottom: New style of capturing the site, panoramic

This Page:

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A: Rockite model of the effect of motion on a stationary object B: Model of motion C: Object within the fabric of motion D: Object being engulfed and shaping motion Study models reflect the formal evolution of the influence of the site onto the architecture.

B

C

D

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Floor Plan 1

Floor Plan 3

Floor Plan 2

Floor Plan 4

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Section 1

Section 2

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Above The Trees Year 1, Studio 2 Instructor: Melissa Harris This project was a two week exercise done in my second semester of school. The program of the project is a ski resort. The site for this project is hypothetical and it was a ski slope covered with trees. To get the best view of the surrounding area you would have to rise above the trees. This project was designed so the ski resort could soar above looking down the mountain. This height allows for a perfect viewing area of below to where you could see animals and other individuals skiing. The building sits on two vertical trusses. The floor plate and the roof plate sadwiches the interior space which has glass around it to give a panoramic view of the surrounding.

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Exploded Axonometric

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Top: Close up of the building from below.

Opposite: Whole view of the building.

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Transcendence Urbanism Year 2, Design Forum Club Advisor: Robert Adams Team Members: Abdullah Alsahafi, Ashish Bhandari, Gaurav Sardana, Victor Lee, Jasmine Al Momar, Jordan Lutren, Saswati Das, Sulaymaan Suhrawardy, Umang Lathia, Raymond Ching

An urban design competition comprised of four parts: The Promenade, first in the sequence of landmarks to be implemented is the “Prome- nade” which is broken up into four sections and which draws it’s fundamental form from the Transcended Urbanist. The Lace is second, which is an occupiable bridge with ambiguous programmatic elements which foster unconventional uses and span the railroad tracks connecting the existing park to the Promenade. Lines of Inclusion is the third part which extends out perpindicular to the promenade into the fabric of Sungang Qingshuihe like roots of a trees that transfer water and vital nutrients to the rest of the plant. Finally the Civic Capacitors are where the Lace meets the Focal Line are the third phase of the sequential landmarks with each intersection acting as a proverbial capacitor of civic energy, whose form bleed into the crevices of the district each of which proposed to alleviate urban issues such as congestion, sustainability, economic cliffs, and lack of social programing.

Visual Consistency in renderings done by Victor Lee. Right: Drawing by Jon Hanna

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0m

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200

500

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Residential 1 Southern Promenade 2 City Center 3 Central Promenade 4 The Lace 5 Mountain Pass 6 Northern Promenade

Above: Axonometric drawing of the parts of the project

by Jordan Lutren.

Left: Site plan of the project by Jordan Lutren and Sulaymaan Suhrawardy.

Far left: Design sketches for the Lace.

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Above: Rendering of one of an eddy, as imagined by Victor Lee. Top Left: Rendering of an Ampitheatre space in an eddy as imagined by Jasmine Almomar.

Bottom Left: Rendering of the underside of the Lace near a train station as imagined by Jordan Luteran.

Opposite: Rendering of the lace from within as imagined by Ashish Bhandari.

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