Danica Mitric Portfolio

DANICA MITRIĆ

GLASGOW MOD ADAPTIVE REUSE KENTIGERN HOUSE

Year 2023

Solo Project

Modules Design Thesis & Vertical Studio II

M.Arch Studio Year 2

Softwares Used Revit | AutoCAD | V-Ray | Photoshop

Project Manifesto

In a not-so distant future, Scotland has decided to secede from the United Kingdom and refocus on the needs of their citizens. In doing so, they have decided to abolish the monarchy and replace it with a representational democracy with both a parliament and a senate.

Serving as the foil to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Kentigern House is a former Ministry of Defence building in Glasgow which has been adaptively reused to house the new Scottish Senate.

This building provides the setting for the new Scottish Senate as they are elected or appointed, while also aiming to open up what is usually the very internal and secretive affairs of the government to the people of Scotland and the local Glasgow community by taking out a portion of the southern façade and opening up the senate to look towards a marketplace and the River Clyde.

As the public enters the building through the large new square on the south side of the building, they will come up a modern staircase of local Glasgow sandstone. In front of them will be the public access to the Scottish Senate Debating Chamber which can also serve a double purpose for holding cultural events in the city such as musical and other performances. In front of the square is a security entrance leading to both the debating chamber and the courtyard refectory which is sunken down into a pit which helps to bring in light to the lower levels and the library. This side of the security line is more often arrived at through the eastern entrance to the building by federal and civic employees along with the senators. The eastern entrance to Kentigern House opens up into an A-frame atrium with large windows on the western side which overlook the ceremonial entrance to the Senate Debating Chamber through the winter garden and pond.

The winter garden and pond, courtyard café, entry plaza and debating chamber are all surrounded by the original 1980s era brutalist MOD building with a contemporary ETFE roof held up by multiple tree-like columns which serve the multiple functions of structure, ventilation, rainwater collection, symbolism and aesthetics.

The exterior ring of the building also houses the various offices and committee rooms for the Senators and their staff.

To the south side of the site, atop what was formerly an empty brownfield plot, is now a covered market where the people of Glasgow can come to shop and eat during their day working in the city centre. This site connects Kentigern House to the River Clyde, providing a view of the river which helped to expand Glasgow into what it is today.

1:100 Wooden Tree Column Model

1:500 Plaster Cast Pond Relief Model

Debating Chamber Render

Senator’s Ceremonial Entrance & Winter Garden Pond Render

NOTTINGHAM COUNCIL & EXCHANGE BUILDING ADAPTIVE REUSE COMMUNITY WINTER GARDEN & LIBRARY

Year 2023

Existing Building Modeling NTU M.Arch Class of 2023

Design Solo Project

Module Heritage & Conservation

M.Arch Year 2

Softwares Used Sketchup | AutoCAD | Twinmotion

Project Description

The Nottingham Council House and Exchange Building is located at the heart of Nottingham’s city centre. A Grade II* listed building, which acts concurrently as the Nottingham City Hall, as well as a shopping exchange, it was designed by Thomas Cecil Howitt and constructed between 1927 and 1929. The building is neoclassical in style with a tall Italian Romanesque clock tower rising above the centre of the building. It is a landmark in the area, with the two lions to either side of the front facade used commonly by residents as a meeting location in the city centre.

The current building has a lot of potential for intervention as the upper levels of the Exchange portion of the building is currently unoccupied whilst sitting in a high traffic area with many shops and cafés lining the ground level of the building and the surrounding area.

The Exchange portion of the building is currently underutilized. While the ground floor level has shopping lining both the exterior, as well as the interior arcade, the upper levels sit empty and unused. Most shoppers and passer-by use the interior arcade mainly as a way to get through to the other side of the building.

Additionally, the Council House, Exchange Building and most events which occur in and around Market Square have a costly barrier to entry. Almost all events are activities which occur in this area require a fee to be paid, whether it is for entry, participation or for a good or service. While the Council House is open to the public and free, it requires advanced booking and is otherwise closed to the public. All of these barriers mean that there are relatively few free and open spaces and activities in the area which can be accessed by anyone and everyone.

By utilizing the currently empty upper levels of the Exchange Building for free, community driven uses, we can open up the space for the entire community.

The programming of the building became a combination winter and community garden on the southern side due to the prevalent southern exposure availble for plants thanks to the large windows, while the north side would become a library. Large skylights would be brought in as the main un-reversible intervention, so as to bring in as much natural light as possible into the deep floor plates.

Non-permanent interventions to the site include the new main staircase running through the centre of the arcade of building to allow for a new primary access to the new interventions. There are a few more permanent interventions in terms of access to the rooms by removing two windows on either side of the upper level of the arcade in exchange for doors.

The arcade will also gain a larger presence of greenery to indicate the new additions to the building and it's new, inviting use.

Debating Chamber Render

Senator’s Ceremonial Entrance & Winter Garden Pond Render

Arcade Staircase & Walkway Render

Skylight Render

HESTIA GARDENS VENERA TOWNHOUSES

Year 2020

Partner C. Lalit

Module Housing Studio

B.A.S. C&S Studio Year 4

Softwares Used Sketchup | AutoCAD | Twinmotion

Project Description

Parkwood Hills East is a 13.6 acre low-income housing complex in Ottawa, Canada, owned and operated by the Minto Corporation. Wishing to expand their options in terms of variable housing units, mixed-use buildings and developping a potentional community centre on the site, they appraoched the Carleton University Housing and Urban Development module leaders with the oportunity to allow students the chance to create their own design proposals for the site while following all building codes and regulations for Ontario and Canada.

The Hestia Gardens Urban Housing Development Proposal would include combinations of multiple high-rise, mid-rise and a few low-rise buildings which would triple the current amount of residential units to 1156, while also deeply broaden the demographic and income spectrums of the occupants of the site. The buildings step down towards the existing low-rise neighbourhood to the South of the site. 1, 2, 3 and even 4-bedroom flats and townhouses are avaible in Hestia Gardens, which will also include a community centre building for the larger community, and retail space on the ground levels of the high-rise buildings.

A stormwater retention pond will be a focal feature of the site, providing a park for the community and it's residents, right next to a community garden (allotments). New pathways are also featured meandering throughout the site, with accessibility as the primary focus for the site.

The large size of the site will mean that it will need to be a phased building, starting with replacing the lowest density housing on the easternmost portion of the site with some of the highest density housing. The large size of the Minto Corporation will allow for current residents to have their pick of other avaible housing at no extra cost during this transition.

The Venera Townhouses are located on the southeasternmost portion of Hestia Gardens, near the existing low-density single family homes of the neighbouring properties. The two buildings are 3 and a half story wood frame buildings with concrete foundations and a small parking lot between them. They each consist of 2-story, 4-bedroom Athena (blue) and Ares (green) townhouse layouts, which are comfortable for low-income families or as a possible condo option for the developpers.

The Athena levels are stepped back to allow for large balconies, while the Ares townhouses have access to the small gardens and have a larger floor area, their lower levels are partly below ground. None of these were designed to be fully accessible as they are multi-level, however there are large accesible flats avaible in the high-rise buildings which have private access to the community gardens.

Venera Townhouses Spring Render

Venera Townhouses Rendered East Elevation

Venera Townhouses Rendered West Elevation

Construction Components

A

I-Joists

Wood Stud Wall

Sheathing Blueskin

Air Gap

Rigid Insulation

Wood Stud

Air Gap

Wood Siding

B

Exterior Wall Carried Up for Railing

Gap for Water Collection

Aluminium Gutter with Drip Edge

C

Wood Stud Wall

Reinforced Concrete

Flashing Termination Bar

Steel Relieving Angle

Rigid Insulation

Air Barrier

Brick Facade

Drip Edge

SCOTTISH WIDOWS REHABILITATION S Ù BAILTEACHD

Year 2022

Solo Project Module Intervening In the City

M.Arch Studio Year 1

Softwares Used Revit | AutoCAD | V-Ray | Photoshop

Project Manifesto

During the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of students around the world turned to virtual learning to continue the course of their education. During this time, it became clear that access to education would forever be changed with the abundance of options and opportunity to conduct postsecondary instruction online. However, the caveat to this was the loss of both the hands-on aspect of various types of education, as well as the social interactions and collaborations which occur naturally through the course of in-person studies.

Additionally, as we get further into the fourth industrial revolution, the world continues to change at such a rapid pace in which many industries have a hard time keeping up. On the educational front, having flexibility in their studies means that students get the chance to adapt their courses to suit the everchanging needs of the workforce. By bringing all of these options together to create a flexible learning environment both virtually and in-person, students can create individualized futures for themselves while still having the opportunity to collaborate with others in a creative way.

The Scottish Widows will become a flexible learning space for flexible postsecondary education. By combining the flexibility of virtual learning with in-person hands-on specialized learning spaces where collaboration can occur, the possibilities of the future of education can become endless in their variety. Students’ education will no longer be defined by restrictive course requirements, and they will be able to create and define their own education based on what they want to learn and what practical applications will be needed in their desired career path.

The building and site will be split up into 3 main sections. In the eastern 3 modules of the building, along with the surrounding site, the programme will be focused on the sociable aspects of an educational building. This will include flexible social collaboration spaces on the ground floor and a café/bar space in the basement, which will open up onto the beautifully landscaped site for students to enjoy. The ground floor will also connect via a walkway to Holyrood Park Road, and by extension, the Pollock Halls campus of the University of Edinburgh.

The middle portion of the building is where the library will be located, which will have an emphasis on verticality by the removal of the middle portions of the floor plates, allowing one to see the roof from the ground floor. There will be little balconies located sporadically throughout the space, allowing for quite study spaces amongst the stacks of books lining the walls.

The Western portion of the building will focus on quieter and more focused educational spaces, such as laboratories, workshops and lecture theatres. In the Western and Eastern portions of the building, all of the hexagonal floor plates, with the exception of those located in the basement, will be split up into modular triangles which will flexible and movable so as to allow for the consistent flexible and specialized creation of space specific to what the students need on that day.