PORTFOLIO
Darien Timur Mirzoev
1. Queer Housing Toronto, ON
2. Bryant Park New York, NY
3. A Day at the Library Toronto, ON
4. How to Steal A Country Donbas, Ukraine
5. Vintage Depot Toronto, ON
6. Cabinet of Curiosities Toronto, ON
1. QUEER HOUSING
UofT St. George Campus, Toronto, ON, Canada
Academic project, University of Toronto
ARC362 with Lukas Pauer April 2022 (3rd year, 2nd semester)
This project reimagines a block of the University of Toronto campus into a housing cooperative and community center for Queer students. The site’s original rowhouses have been merged, remodeled, and duplicated in a formal gesture inspired by drag’s transformative appropriation of gender norms. A food bank, community kitchen, mental health center, and LGBT-inclusive clinic address problems disproportionately affecting queer students. An art studio, theater, and multiple libraries provide various study, relax, socialize, and meet their Toronto’s traditional architecture to create grounded place for a city whose Queer increasingly rare.
theater, gym, laundromat, food market, various environments for students to their needs. This project reconfigures create a safe, welcoming, and locally Queer ‘third spaces’ are becoming
Queer student center
Art, culture, and community
Study spaces, studios, a theater, and an outdoor stage create space for parties, club nights, concerts, performances, and art shows.
Health and wellness
A clinic and mental health center offer LGBTQ+ students specialized healthcare and support.
Social services
A food bank, laundromat, clinic, & shower facilities serve homeless and low income students.
Reuse, refurbish, and exchange Students can buy, sell, or exchange clothes at a student-run thrift store. Residents can exchange old furniture at a workshop where they can find new items or refurbish what they have.
Equating drag with housing seems like a stretch.
Housing as drag?
Hear me out!
Façades of the site’s expensive row houses are grafted onto units to create a rippling mass of pediments, columns, and balustrades.
This exaggerates the formal language of local rowhomes beyond a ‘point of no return,’ much as drag critiques gender norms by pushing their physical markers beyond the limits of heteronormativity.
Based off 671 Spadina
Based off 655 Spadina
Drag queens push the boundaries of gender. A house isn’t a living thing, it’s a commodity whose relation with wider society is defined by the people who occupy it and the systems in which they’re embedded.
Fair enough. A person has an agency that a building doesn’t. A building can’t solve systemic problems, but architects can still aspire to address Queer issues through their spaces.
I’ll be there in 5.
Based off 667 Spadina Ave.
Based off 673 Spadina
Based off 663 Spadina
Based off 669 Spadina
Social condenser
Each floor has communal kitchens, dining rooms, gathering spaces, and study lounges to encourage a sense of community among residents. These common spaces have ample seating that residents can freely move around to make room for events and social gatherings.
Communal kitchen
Corridor and study space
Units
The building offers a wide variety of housing options for single students, couples, and families. Some layouts are inspired by university dorms, while others follow that of a typical Toronto studio apartment. A given unit can house anywhere from two to four students.
The building’s ground floor workshop lets students borrow, refurbish, or dispose of old furniture in line with the common practice of curbside furniture ‘stooping.’
2. BRYANT PARK: A contested landscape
Midtown Manhattan, New York, NY, USA Academic project, University of Toronto
ARC363 with Behnaz Assadi April 2022 (3rd year, 2nd semester)
Bryant Park is a 9.6-acre urban oasis that shares two Midtown Manhattan blocks with the NYPL’s main branch. The park’s frequent concerts, book fairs, and food festivals have earned it the reputation of a beloved retreat from city life. But, beneath this image lies a deep history of social exclusion and inability to meet NYC’s need for ecologically regenerative parks.
This project examines Bryant Park’s past, present, and future with an emphasis on homeless issues, New York City’s lost wetlands, pollinator ecosystems, and runoff remediation to reimagine it as a more diverse and ecologically integrated space that acknowledges its exclusionary past.
Bryant Park is a popular spot for weddings and parties
London plane trees shade the Lower Terrace
Ivy beds sprout among Terrace’s London
The Upper Terrace’s honey locust trees attract local pollinators
Seasonal floral displays link Bryant Park to NYC’s pollinator gardens among the Lower London plane trees
Bryant Park shares space with the NYPL’s main branch building
A grass lawn covers the NYPL’s vast underground stacks
The lawn hosts popular events like yoga classes and movie nights
I. PAST: Discipline & spectacle
Policymakers have consistently deployed overt policing, ‘social surveillance,’ and an aggressive event schedule aimed at attracting ‘desirable’ parkgoers to push homeless New Yorkers out of Bryant Park.
Since its 1988-1992 renovation, the Bryant Park Corp. has managed the park as a profitable site of consumption within NYC’s extensive system of public-private parternerships.
1966-1988: Open space spectacle
Parks commissioner Hoving introduces event programs to attract ‘desirable’ parkgoers.
1960s-70s: ‘Needle Park’
Bryant Park attracts homeless residents whom the city’s press stigmatize as ‘visiting undesirables.’
1966-1988: Heavier policing
NYPD ‘clean sweeps’ of the park’s homeless residents accompany new event programs.
1980: Public-private partnership
Bryant Park comes under the management of the BPC, a private ‘not-for-profit’ organization.
Revenue streams
The BPC’s reliance on site revenues brings cafés, a grill, kiosks, and an extensive event program.
1988-1992: Renovation
The BPC hires firm Hannah/Olin to renovate the park, removing its outer wall and internal barriers to incentivize ‘social surveillance.’
‘Social surveillance’ is a disciplinary system Jane Jacobs termed in which parkgoers’ spontaneous watchfulness would discourage ‘undesirable activities’ like public sleeping.
The NYPL offers homeless residents much-needed services
The Upper Terrace hosts a profitable grill and café
Bryant Park’s lawn hosts over 600 events every year
Frequent events ensure that the park is busy at all times
Kiosks and food stalls distribute activity throughout the park
The Lower Terrace hosts shops during ‘Winter Fairs’
II. PRESENT: Green desert
Brick, pavement, gravel, monoculture ivy beds, and a water intensive lawn occupy much of Bryant Park’s small 9.6-acre surface. The park’s planting scheme consists of London plane trees, honey locusts, ivy, and seasonal floral displays that sprout from the small plots along the Great Lawn’s fringes.
The park’s floral beds boast 20 varieties of perennials, 13 varieties of shrubs, and 50 varieties of seasonal annuals. Despite these impressive numbers, the flowers’ limited range does little to contribute to NYC’s biodiversity and collapsing pollinator populations.
Boreal forest
Eastern flyways
Western flyways
Bryant Park’s lawn, fences, and buildings.
Seasonal floral beds and displays.
Annual bird migration paths. Birds play a vital role in NYC’s ecosystem as pollinators.
Grasslands +20% 0
Boreal forests
West c. forests
General Tundra
East c. forests
Arid lands
Coastlands
Wetlands
Bird population change in the US and Canada since 1970. Net loss of ~600 million birds.
Midtown Manhattan’s London plane street trees with Bryant Park in the center.
Total tree cover.
Brick, pavement, and gravel surfaces.
All NYC public parks, with Bryant Park (black) southeast of Central Park.
Manhattan island’s large public parks, including Bryant Park (black) and Central Park (outlined).
NYC pollinator gardens with a bee’s 3 mi. foraging radius. New York state lost 29.7% of its bees from 2018 to 2019.
Manhattan’s privately-owned public spaces (POPs).
5.0+ HVI
4.0-4.9 HVI
3.0-3.9 HVI
2.0-2.9 HVI
1.0-1.9 HVI
m
m
m
0.0-19.9 m
Midtown building heights; trees cool elevated temperatures produced by local skyscrapers
Park-owned grills, cafés, and kiosks.
Areas by Heat Vulnerability Index rating, measuring vulnerability to high temperatures.
III. FUTURE: Urban oasis
This project responds to Bryant Park’s exclusionary management and ecological shortcomings by replacing the lawn with a lush wet meadow capable of remediating runoff pollution. The library shares its building with a homeless drop-in center and plant nursery to care for the park’s wildlife. The terrace grill has become an apiary for local bees. Over thirty new species of trees, flowers, sedges, grasses, and weeds create an island of biodiversity attractive to vital pollinators like bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and beetles.
Mounds guide rainwater and runoff to shallow ponds
Ponds support a rich environment of riparian flowers and sedges
The park’s native wetland plants remediate urban runoff
Earthen mounds are formed from recycled local soil and aggregate
Each mound supports a grove of pollinator-friendly trees
Field maples, silver tulip poplars attract
The terrace grill has been turned into an apiary for the park’s bees
The upper floor reading rooms have been turned into a plant nursery
silver birches, and attract pollinators
Part of the NYPL building has been turned into a homeless drop-in center
Aggregate is recycled from development sites like Willets Pt.
Riparian zones 3 and 4 +6” to +12” above water
Metal grates minimize plant disturbance
Riparian zones 2, 3, and 4 -12” to +12” above water
Recycled sourced
Riparian zones 1, 2, and -12” to +6” above water
Carex Wind-pollinated
Carex comosa Wind-pollinated
S. cyperinus Wind-pollinated
Verbena hastata Pollinated
S. novae-angliae Pollinated
Lysimachia ciliata Pollinated
Iris versicolor Pollinated
I. capensis Pollinated
Bidens cernua Pollinated
A. incarnata Pollinated
Lobelia siphilitica Pollinated
Lobelia cardinalus Pollinated
Recycled mulch and topsoil are sourced from NYC’s Clean Soil Bank
versicolor Pollinated and 3 water
A. americanus Pollinated
Hummingbird nests encourage the birds’ presence
Riparian zones 1 and 2 -12” to -6” above water
Pondeteria cordata Pollinated
Typha latifolia Wind-pollinated
stricta Wind-pollinated
Carex spicata Wind-pollinated
vulpinoidea Wind-pollinated
S. pungens Wind-pollinated
Self-pollinated
Wind-pollinated
Wind-pollinated
S. eurycarpum Wind-pollinated
Scirpus validus
Carex
Alisma
T. angustifolia
3. A DAY AT THE LIBRARY
Eberhard Zeidler Library, Toronto, ON, Canada Documentation project, University of Toronto
ARC480 with Zachary Mollica April 2024 (5th year, 2nd semester)
This is an extremely precise point cloud model of the Eberhard Zeidler Library‘s newly renovated interior. This was part of a broader heritage documentation project that combined analog measurement with close-range photogrammetry and LiDAR scanning to digitally reproduce the building in detail.
Group members: Sariah
Role: bookshelf and library model and point
0.660 x 2.13 m, 1 shelf
0.735 x 2.13 m, 1 shelf
0.745 x 2.13 m, 1 shelf
0.960 x 2.13 m, 1 shelf
0.328 x 2.13 m, 1 shelf
0.445 x 2.13 m, 1 shelf
0.845 x 2.13 m, 1 shelf
0.965 x 2.13 m, 12 shelves
0.375 x 2.13 m, 1 shelf
0.484 x 2.13 m, 4 shelves
0.965 x 2.13 m, 43 shelves
0.965 x 3.07 m, 24 shelves
0.435 x 2.13 m, 1 shelf
0.525 x 2.13 m, 2 shelves
0.970 x 2.13 m, 8 shelves
0.970 x 3.07 m, 4 shelves
stack room point cloud models, point cloud assembly
Sariah Hurd and Tomi Bamigbade
The Stacks
The library’s stacks contain University of Toronto’s largest archive of books and periodicals on architecture and design.
General collection
The collection covers multiple disciplines and has several books that can be located with help of library staff.
multiple several rare with the contain the largest periodicals
Archived periodicals
Periodicals are bound by red, green, or blue book covers whose color depend on their publisher.
HOW TO STEAL A COUNTRY
Russian Edition: Invasion of Ukraine Exhibition from March 4 - May 14 2024
Professional project, Vertical Geopolitics Lab Supervisors: Lukas Pauer and Bethany Scott Role: senior research assistant
Responsibilities: 3D modeling, drafting and illustration, exhibit design and curation, open-source (OSINT) research, translation, class workshops
How to Steal A Country uses four detailed case studies to examine how the Russian state has used mundane objects of the built environment to set the stage for its occupation of Ukrainian territory. At the VGL, I worked with a team of eight designers from various creative backgrounds to help research, design, and produce this exhibition.
In total, I illustrated 39 drawings, modeled 7 trucks and buildings, and worked on 5 dioramas. As senior research assistant, I used open-source (OSINT) research methods to collect much of the exhibition’s Russian and Ukrainianlanguage source material.
The four case studies are represented by scene drawings and dioramas that highlight relevant ‘key objects.’
‘Journalist Reporting’ Scene
(Exterior model, 1:56)
Description. Ukraine initially agreed to a humanitarian aid convoy sent by Russia, to inspected by Ukrainian border control officers. However, after bypassing the agreed-upon border checkpoint near Kharkiv, Russia’s humanitarian convoy pivoted toward a border checkpoint seized by the paramilitary forces of Russian-backed separatist authorities. Facing criticism over the lack of Ukrainian officers’ involvement, the Russian government organized a photo opp, inviting journalists of various media outlets to ‘inspect’ the trucks. Peering into one of the many trucks containing food, water bottles, and essential supplies, a BBC journalist found that these vessels of aid were far emptier than anticipated.
Modeling occupation: Scene drawings and dioramas
The exhibition explores four case studies of how Russia has used mundane objects to create ‘facts on the ground’ in occupied Ukraine. These are ‘key objects’ whose usage is explored through scene drawings and dioramas, with two of each per case study. This diorama is from the third niche, which documents Russia’s 2014 ‘humanitarian aid’ convoy to the Donbas. Modeling these scenes entailed extensive collaboration, with the above diorama involving five people.
be agreed-upon border
Facing organized into journalist
‘facts scene which entailed
Role: model design + planning, truck models, background + panel illustration
Tiffany Jiang: model design + planning, 3D printing, spray painting + assembly
Fig 3. Truck flags
Fig 2. Truck cargo
Fig 1. Journalist and film camera
Farwa Mumtaz and Michelle Li: spray painting + assembly
Youngmi Kim: diorama base
1. August 2014: Russia’s first ‘humanitarian convoy’ into the Donbas gets intl. coverage
2. Convoy enters Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian-backed separatists
3. Orthodox priest blesses convoy
4. Russia stages convoy ‘inspections’ without involving any Ukrainian or intl. observers
Mapping occupation: Perspecta article
These drawings are for an article on Russia’s ‘humanitarian’ convoys into the Donbas, depicting the highly publicized moment when the trucks first entered Ukraine via a checkpoint that Russianbacked separatists had seized in August 2014. The exhibition’s third niche discusses the convoy as act of power projection through scene drawings and dioramas that expand on the journalist reporting (1), checkpoint crossing (2), and priest blessing (3) drawings.
1 : 2,000 checkpoint map depicting Russianan reporting
Role: building linework, trees, ground texture, trucks and people
Michelle Li: grid overlay, GIS road and building data
Publication information
Lukas Pauer, “Aid Theater: On Russian Humanitarian Aid Operations as Sovereignty Markers in Ukraine,” Perspecta 56 (Jul. 2024).
‘Loading Russia’s undersea cable to Crimea’ Scene (Exterior Drawing)
Description. Laying telecommunications cables to facilitate a foreign power’s reach over a disputed area is a long-established colonial practice. After annexing Ukrainian Crimea, Russia extended a cable across the Kerch Strait to bypass Ukrainian telecommunications networks, rerouting data directly to the Russian mainland instead.
Fig 2. Cable-laying ship
Fig 1. Telecommunications cable over
5. VINTAGE DEPOT
Kensington Market, Toronto, ON, Canada Academic project, University of Toronto
ARC465 with Anne-Marie Armstrong December 2022 (4th year, 1st semester)
Vintage Depot is a Toronto thrift store priced and marketed on the premise of a local boutique with a carefully curated selection of items that it sells at a significant markup. Although thrift stores typically rely on low prices to attract customers, expensive boutiques like Vintage Depot have been opening across North America’s major metropolitan areas. We chose to study Vintage Depot as a case study whose popularity could help us understand the dynamics behind this shift in the secondhand retail market.
Street presence
Many interviewed customers stated that they found the store while walking through Kensington Market. Vintage Depot is among many local thrift stores whose storefront decoration leans into the area’s reputation as a trendy bohemian neighborhood to attract customersa dynamic implicit in online reviews that cite the store’s distinct atmosphere.
David, 30
Freelance writer, ~30k/year
$100 budget, didn’t buy anything
“I came here looking for some shirts. I chose this store because it’s pretty close to my hotel, and I like thrifting for sustainability reasons.”
Jenna, 24
Film consultant, ~50k/year
$30 budget, bought a $20 beanie
“Oh, I’m just here because I was passing through the neighborhood and thought it looked cute. I thrift pretty often because I can find cool stuff stores don’t have.”
Mehmet, 31
Legal assistant, ~50k/year
No set budget, didn’t buy anything
“I actually go here pretty often to browse for stuff. Didn’t get anything today but I kinda wanted to see if they had anything cool I could get.”
4.1 stars, 84 Google Reviews
★★★★★ - Laura Krajacic
“Pretty cool grunge atmosphere. You can find some really great gems here for great prices.”
★★★★☆ - Michał Rożen
“Awesome atmosphere and even better clothes.”
★★★☆☆ - Kathleen Johnson
“Quaint. Can find hidden gems.”
curated attract metropolitan dynamics
Group members: Tiffany Jiang and Victoria Yan
Role: axo and perspective
★★★☆☆ - 1981
“it’s got a[n] okay selection of clothes for okay prices. clothing isn’t too bad, but the store itself is pretty bad. it smells, and is very unorganized, so I have no clue what sizes are what.”
Clutter
Vintage Depot’s carefully cluttered interior is typical of boutique secondhand stores in trendy neighborhoods like Kensington Market. Vintage Depot’s layout and decoration creates the stereotypical atmosphere of a indie “grunge” thrift store. Consequently, its layout is much less explicitly rational than larger, less expensive stores like Value Village and Salvation Army.
Shelves are unlabeled; multiple clothing types are crammed on the same rack
The small front intimate than
Exposed walls, wires, vents, and hanging lightbulbs create a “grunge” atmosphere
Unsold clothes are hung from the ceiling to enhance the atmosphere
front desk more is more than a conveyor cashier
The store sells scattered accessories like scrunchies, bracelets, and patches
6. CABINET OF CURIOSITIES
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, Canada Academic project, University of Toronto
ARC465 with Anne-Marie Armstrong December 2022 (4th year, 1st semester)
Despite the ROM’s extensive collection of non-Western art from Indigenous cultures across the world, the majority of these objects are either not on display or relegated to a single room - the Shreyas and Mina Ajmera Gallery. While the museum’s European collection is divided into specialized rooms organized by region and time period, most the world’s Indigenous cultures are only given a single room where artifacts from as close as Mexico and as far Australia jostle for attention within the same exhibit.
Hand-embroidered man’s outfit
c. 1965
Huichol culture
Jalisco, Mexico
majority While most of far as
Group members: Tiffany Jiang and Victoria Yan
Role: Shreyas and Mina Ajmera Gallery spread(s)
Headdress (Kruapu) made and worn by men
c. 1966
Kayapó (Xikrín) culture
Para State, Brazil
Igi Gelede headdress
“Collected” before 1923
Yoruba culture
Benin, Nigeria
cup with dancing maize god K’awiil Holmul-style polychrome ceramic vessel Maya culture; Naranjo, Guatemala Classic period, c. 250-900 AD MAS.IB.2010.017.084
Kerr number K1837
Cocoa