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CONTENTS 01

MERIDIAN HILL PARK. Academic project. Individual. University of Toronto. 2020 Fall.

CASE STUDIES. Academic project. Individual. University of Toronto. 2021 Fall.

AGENCY VIA AMBIGUITY. Academic project. Collaborative. University of Toronto. 2021 Winter.

FLUCTUATE. Academic project. Individual. University of Toronto. 2020 Winter.

BAYVIEW & EGLINTON. Academic project. Individual. University of Toronto. 2020 Winter.

URBAN GRADIENT. Academic project. Collaborative. University of Toronto. 2021 Winter.

NATURAL RECONCILIATION. Professional Project. Collaborative. North Design Office. 2021 Summer.

MONTERREY. Academic project. Individual. University of Toronto. 2021 Fall.

PAINTING. Academic projects. Individual. Miscellaneous Institutions. 2018 - 2020.

Individual Project Fall 2020 Meridian Hill Park, also referred to as Malcolm X Park is a classically-designed park in the neighbourhood of Washington D.C’s Columbia Heights. The park, located three kilometers north of the White House, lies in a contentious geographical position that has a history of chaos and an uncertain future. Through a series of drawings, this semester-long project explores the site’s past, present, and future through an architectural lens. With a focus on climate change and social justice, this project envisions a more sustainable and equitable future for Meridian Hill Park.

MERIDIAN HILL PARK

Meridian Hill Park ARC363, Landscape Architecture Studio III Instructor Behnaz Assadi

Image (right): Section of rain garden and permeable brick walkway in proposed design intervention.

Meridian Hill Park, Present Plan

PRESENT: PLAN

The present plan exhibits the park’s position in the

dense urban fabric of Washington D.C, as well as its open mall and central waterfall. The plan features neoclassical elements such as tree-lined alleys and planned views of water bodies. Altough opulent

in its original design, the park is currently not well maintained; trees have overgrown and the mall’s grass has worn out. The present circumstances of Meridian Hill Park set up obstacles that are addressed in the new design proposal.

Close-up of Florida Avenue and 14th Street, 1968.

Meridian Hill Park Timeline

PAST: TIMELINE AND HISTORICAL PLANS

Throughout history, Meridian Hill Park has been infiltrated by political turmoil. The timeline highlights the park’s events from its inception to the present day. It features its involvement in the 1968 riots after Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination. The plan of Meridian Hill Park (bottom right) showcases the chaos of the riots, pinpointing locations

Close-up of Meridian Hill Plan, 1968.

where destructive events occurred. Accompanying the main plan is the plan of 14th Street and Florida avenue (top right). This area near the park, known as Black Broadway, was filled with outrage during this time, resulting in the burning and looting of buildings. The government responded violently, releasing army troops into the streets.

Close-up of Meridian Hill Park Section A, 1968. Section showcases political altercations during the riots and the park’s general deterioration.

Close-up of Meridian Hill Park Section B, 1968. Section showcases political altercations during the riots and the park’s general deterioration.

PAST: HISTORICAL COLLAGE AND SECTIONS

The park was also in economic decline during the 1968 protests. Maintenance was not provided and upkeep was neglected. The riots resulted in the park’s

Collage of Meridian Hill Park Protests, 1968.

deterioration, with graffiti on the concrete monuments, litter on walkways, trees degrading and dying, and statues being vandalised.

Annotated Plan, Meridian Hill Park

Proposed Plan, Meridian Hill Park

FUTURE: ANNOTATED PLAN AND PROPOSED DESIGN INTERVENTIONS The design proposal focuses on the ecological and social aspects of the park’s deterioration. As shown in the annotated plan (left), Washington D.C. suffers from tree loss and warming temperatures due to climate change. The park’s steep topography creates

excessive surface runoff. As well, the grass in its open mall is degraded due to a lack of maintenance. The new proposal replaces 80% of the mall’s lawn with a semipermeable paved walkway, surrounded by rain gardens to intercept runoff (Plan, right).

Proposed Plan Detail, Meridian Hill Park

FUTURE: PROPOSED PLAN DETAIL This detailed proposed plan showcases the semipermeable walkway in the open mall, which allows precipitation to pass into the roots of the adjacent rain gardens. The rain gardens provide a new local attraction

and intercept pollution from runoff. Additionally, the new open mall is lined with protected elder white oaks that sequester high amounts of carbon.

FUTURE: PERSPECTIVE The final collage shows the new Meridian Hill Park and its views of Washington D.C. The interventions give life to the park, bringing families, students, and even local drum circle dancers together. The implementation of paved walkways and lush gardens highlight Meridian Hill Park’s breathtaking views, monuments, and waterfalls—moving it into a bright and maintainable future.

Case Studies ARC461, Senior Seminar in Design (Research) Instructor Laura Miller Individual Project Fall 2021

Image (right): Close-up of a Wikipedia diagram, underlining the collaborative worldwide network that it creates.

CASE STUDIES

The topic of the University of Toronto’s 2021 undergraduate thesis in architectural design is the constructed environment of generosity. As preparation for creating our own thesis design proposals, architectural and non-architectural case studies were analyzed, uncovering their history, purpose, and role in providing generosity. The research findings are showcased through a series of analytical drawings.

Timeline for the Appalachian Trail

Appalachian Trail Features Map. Showcases the trail’s national parks that are ecologically diverse and protected by the US government (red), and the trail’s 32 maintaining clubs (blue). Volunteers in these clubs are responsible for the general upkeep of the trail, protecting rare species, and building shelters.

Conceptual Diagram for the Appalachian Trail

APPALACHIAN TRAIL: TIMELINE, MAP, AND CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM

The Appalachian Trail provides the eastern United States with scenery, campsites, clubs, and outdoor amenities. The trail is documented and studied due to its generosity of providing cost-free, abundant access

to nature for all citizens. The timeline highlights the feat of creating the trail, which quickly expanded from a one-man plan to a confederation of workers.

Topic: Wikipedia

Direct Correlation

Associated Correlation

Limited Correlation

Wikipedia Consensus Decision-Making Spread

Wikipedia Diagram: An Infinite Library

WIKIPEDIA: CONSENSUS, CORRELATION, AND LIBRARY DIAGRAMS The realm of knowledge was once safeguarded by

academics and historians. Wikipedia’s generous collaborative editing model contradicts traditional processes of knowledge-keeping. This case study

Wikipedia Correlation Diagram. Illustrates the correlation level of hyperlinked words in an article, exhibiting how quickly a user can be introduced to new topics.

investigates how Wikipedia functions as an open information software, asking if collectivity is the new education system.

Collaborative Project Winter 2021 Through ambiguity children develop a sense of creativity, curiosity, and enhance their decisionmaking skills. By creating new, multi-use spaces, agency in the form of ambiguity is provided at Fern Avenue Public School. The design proposal seeks to grant children with multiple options of play. Initial site analyses illuminate a relationship between prescriptive play and hardscaped surfaces; thus, the proposed design implements more soft-scaping and ambiguous play zones. Additionally, the project transcends common notions of a schoolyard, considering public use and implementing infrastructure that satisfies both students’ and the surrounding community’s needs. With ambiguity at the forefront of the design, the project celebrates children’s curiosity and aims to translate the quality into real-world skills.

AGENCY VIA AMBIGUITY

Agency via Ambiguity ARC364, Landscape Architecture Studio IV Instructor Alissa North

Image (right): Analytical study of prescribed and ambiguous play zones at Fern Avenue Public School. Collaborative role: I created this drawing individually.

Autumn Front Entrance Plan, close-up illustrates the Tree Lined Walkway.

Winter Back Centre Plan. Featuring a Slip N’ Slide Rink, Adventure Playground, Forested Gathering Zone and Asphalt Activity Zone.

Ambiguous Play Plan for Fern Avenue Public School

SCHOOL PROPOSAL: FINAL AND SEASONAL PLANS The proposed plan for Fern Avenue Public School allows for numerous modes of play, providing flexible spaces for all seasons. This is done through the prescription of ambiguous surfaces, such as a sand pit that is flooded in

Autumn Front Entrance Plan, close-up illustrates the Parent Social Pick-up Zone.

Autumn Front Entrance Plan for Fern Avenue Public School. Close-up illustrates the Learning Gardens and disposal area.

the winter to become a skating rink (Winter Back Centre Plan). Many areas, such as the Learning Gardens, have suggested uses, but their impervious ground cover allows for many activities.

Collaborative role: Ambiguous Play Plan (left): I had a major role in concept creation. I did most of the graphic production and detailing for this drawing. Winter Back Centre Plan and Autumn Front Entrance Plan: I created these drawings individually.

Fluctuate ARC201, Design Studio II: How to Design Almost Nothing Instructor Carol Moukheiber Individual Project

Winter 2020 This project’s challenge is to design a space with high constraints and design limitations. The site’s obstacles include its sixteen columns that have to be integrated into the design, and that the structure must be composed solely of vertical surfaces and openings. With these instructions, the word fluctuate was chosen as a precedent in order to create a space that allows for movement and coherent circulation.

FLUCTUATE

Image (right): Close-up of the final model created for the project.

Longitudinal Section

Plan Oblique

FLUCTUATE: PLANS, SECTION, AND MODEL

This project explores fluctuation in terms of repetition

and curved forms. Thin paraboloid forms are placed in close proximity to each other and are suspended from the ground level in order to create ungulating waves

Final Model

Plan

Close-up of Final Model

in both X and Y directions. These forms collectively create walls, forming rounded rooms and bending pathways, allowing light to enter each section through gaps between the forms.

Winter 2020 Toronto’s population is increasing at an exponential rate, and with this comes a heightened need for housing. This semester-long project studies residential patterns in search of a way to increase urban densification near Bayview Avenue and Eglinton Avenue in Toronto, Ontario. Beginning with a set of analyses, the project intercepts which areas in the neighbourhood are most congested, and which have space for urban interventions. After the analyses are completed, a design proposal of adding dwellings to larger properties is suggested.

BAYVIEW & EGLINTO

Bayview & Eglinton Densification Study ARC200, Drawing and Representation II Instructor Laura Miller Individual Project

Image (right): Plan of Bayview and Eglinton residential area, colour-coded to signify property density (lighter blue is lower density, darker blue is higher density, navy is N/A).

Close-up of Isometric Plan, Bayview and Eglinton Residential Area

Cul-de-sac and Linear Street Photographic Analysis

Isometric Diagram of Risk and Congestion, Bayview and Eglinton

Cul-de-sac and Linear Street Comparison of Property and Residential Area

Urban Densification Dwelling Addition Proposal

NEIGHBOURHOOD STUDY: ANALYSES, DOCUMENTATION, AND PROPOSAL

Beginning with an isometric plan (top left), the analysis highlights the site’s spatial layout. The isometric diagram (bottom left) illustrates the neighbourhood’s congestion and high-risk properties. Through a series of drawings and photographs, the study discovers that cul-de-sac

properties usually have a higher property and residential area. With these findings, a new dwelling typology is proposed for the residential area—single-family homes added to the backyards of larger cul-de-sac houses to increase densification.

Single-family Dwelling Additions in Perspective

Isometric Plan of Proposed Dwelling Additions (New dwellings in red)

NEIGHBOURHOOD PROPOSAL: PERSPECTIVE AND ISOMETRIC PLAN

The

cul-de-sac single-family dwelling additions decrease the size disparities between properties of linear blocks and cul-de-sac blocks. The new dwellings

are separated from the cul-de-sac homes through fences, and access to the additions is provided through the cul-de-sac homes’ front lawns and driveways.

Urban Gradient ARC364, Landscape Architecture Studio IV Instructor Alissa North

Urban Gradient: Enhancing Interaction along the Toronto Rail Path begins by analyzing the layered interactions surrounding Toronto’s Queen Street and Dufferin Street underpass, mapping the many elements that produce a complex hub of urban activity. The proposal for the site’s bike hub caters to different types of social interaction through formal moves, planting strategies, and circulation. Therefore, the proposed plan acts as an ‘urban gradient’, ranging from extroverted near the intersection, intermediate in the centre, and introverted towards the east. Ultimately, the project creates a space within Toronto’s dense city core that grants residents and visitors agency within the urban realm, allowing people to interpret a singular bike hub through a multitude of unique approaches. Image (right): Southeast perspective of final design proposal, highlighting the introverted area. This area’s vegetation type is a wooded garden. Collaborative role: I created this perspective individually.

RBAN GRADIENT

Collaborative Project Winter 2021

Close up of Underpass Interaction Analysis

Queen Street Sections, Underpass Interaction Analysis

INTERSECTION ANALYSIS: SECTIONS

The analysis of the Queen and Dufferin underpass is

layered; showcasing sound, pathways, speed, and social interactions of underpass users. Through a colour-coded system, the sectional diagrams highlight Collaborative role: I took part in concept creation and taking base sections. I had a minor role in drawing detailing.

Close up of Underpass Interaction Analysis

the interaction patterns of pedestrians, public transit, cyclists, vehicles, and trains—emphasizing the animated nature of the intersection.

Close up of model with pathway and sound layer on

Model with pathway layer on

Model with pathway, interaction, and sound layer on

Close up of model with pathway layer on

INTERSECTION ANALYSIS: MODEL

The intersection analysis model directly corresponds to the intersection analysis sections; it examines the different pathways, sound habits, and interactions of underpass frequenters. This model utilizes the

same colour coding as the sections. Atop of the base layer, pathways are delineated using pins and string, and sound and social interaction are displayed with stackable acetate layers.

Collaborative role: I created this model individually.

Urban Gradient Bike Hub, Concept Diagram

DESIGN PROPOSAL: PLAN, DIAGRAM, AND MODEL The proposed plan utilizes vegetation, seating, and pathways to delineate an urban gradient of interaction ranging from extroverted in the west, intermediate in the middle, and introverted in the east. As the plan progresses towards the introverted area, large walkways become smaller and more intertwined to reduce sound and sightlines between patrons. Vegetation in the introverted area is more abundant to emanate solitude.

Urban Gradient Bike Hub, Plan

Collaborative role: Plan: I had a major role in concept creation. I did most of the graphic production and detailing for this drawing. Concept Diagram: I created this drawing individually. Conceptual Model: I created this model individually.

Conceptual model of social-intermediate area mound seating

Urban Gradient Bike Hub, Extroverted Area Perspective

EXTROVERTED AREA: PERSPECTIVE

The extroverted area includes a staircase, amphitheatre

seating, and a ramp entrance. The space is open, containing few trees and plantings to maximize space for socialization. The vegetation is composed of edible

and pollinator plants to allow for visitor interaction with nature. The mound seating towards the east acts as recreational means of interaction.

Collaborative role: I created this drawing individually.

INTERMEDIATE AREA: PERSPECTIVE

As the bike hub moves into the intermediate and

introverted zones, perennial plantings and trees are used to limit interaction between park visitors to create smaller social apertures. The intermediate area uses Collaborative role: I created this drawing individually.

pollinator and wildflower plants to create less vantage points between visitors. The mounds in this area become more secluded to allow for quiet seating.

Urban Gradient Bike Hub, Intermediate Area Perspective

Collaborative Project Summer 2021 Canada’s prairie provinces face many landscapebased issues due to heavy resource extraction and the agricultural grid. This competition entry for CBDX: Borderlands, held by the University of Calgary, proposes a continuous act of reconciliation that highlights fragmented borders resulting from colonialism. Natural Reconciliation proposes the development of natural infrastructure on agricultural land to encourage healing on both sides of the ‘borders’. When farmers participate in creating constructed wetlands, planted buffers, bioswales, and other forms of natural infrastructure on their land, they are incentivized. Due to industrialization, many Indigenous groups have to travel increasingly farther to harvest traditional medicinal plants. In this project, Indigenous communities are welcomed in natural infrastructure zones to harvest plants, gather, and socialize. Through the revitalization of disparate communities and damaged ecologies, Canada’s agricultural fragments can begin to heal. This entry won a finalist placement in the competition. Image (right): Close-up of the cover drawing for Natural Reconciliation.

NATURAL RECONCILIATION

Natural Reconciliation, Competition Entry Work-Study Program, North Design Office Instructor Alissa North

Collaborative role: I did not have a role in the creation of this cover drawing.

Diagrams of the Colonial Grid and Proposed Natural Infrastructure

Perspective of a Planted Buffer, Natural Infrastructure

Collaborative role: Diagrams (top): I had a substantial role in concept creation and graphic production. Natural Infrastructure Perspectives (bottom): I created these drawings individually, with direction and fine-tuning given by my instructor.

Perspective of a Bioswale, Natural Infrastructure

NATURAL RECONCILIATION: PLANS AND PERSPECTIVES Natural infrastructure such as bioswales and planted buffers offer a way for the environment to recover, as well as providing a meeting place for residents. These spaces utilize native plantings such as red-osier

dogwood, choke cherries, and pitcher plants, many of which can be harvested and eaten. This expandable project seeks to remember the past and create hope for an ethical future.

Monterrey: An Ecological Study of the Past, Present, and Future ARC386, Landscape Ecology Instructor Fadi Masoud

Image (right): Close-up of topographic relief map of the state of Nuevo León, with Monterrey highlighted in white.

MONTERREY

Individual Project Fall 2021 In this project, the biome of Monterrey, Mexico is studied and documented in order to unveil its past, present, and future ecological conditions. This study specifically observes living matter in Monterrey, documenting biodiversity, migration cycles, evolution and extinction of plants and animals over time. The present diagram documents Monterrey’s current climatic zones and emphasizes biodiversity issues that come with rising human populations. The future diagram envisions Monterrey in 2080, and stresses that water issues, pollution, and species extinction are likely to grow as time progresses.

Present Diagram of Living Matter in Monterrey, Mexico

Portion of Future Diagram of Living Matter in Monterrey, Mexico

MONTERREY: PRESENT AND FUTURE DIAGRAMS

The climate of Monterrey, Mexico is mainly arid, however, it features a mountainous zone that is home to a multitude of vegetation types and species of animals. The future diagram (bottom) highlights that climate change is likely

to create water shortages and warmer temperatures, leading to the desertification of some climate types and thus, the extinction of many mammal species.

Selected Paintings Miscellaneous Practices Individual Projects 2018 - 2020

I have long had a passion for the visual arts, especially for drawing and painting. During my time in the Claude Watson Arts Program in high school, I developed a fascination with acrylic painting, specifically for portraiture and augmented realism. I have carried this practice into my undergraduate courses, and I still paint on my own time as a hobby and as inspiration for academic or professional projects.

PAINTING

Image (right): Close-up of sketchbook preliminary work for the Vibrance painting

Sour Key, Acrylic on Canvas, 2018. Completed in the Claude Watson Visual Arts Program

Lollipop, Acrylic on Canvas, 2018. Completed in the Claude Watson Visual Arts Program

Ring Pop, Acrylic on Canvas, 2018. Completed in the Claude Watson Visual Arts Program

SWEET TOOTH: A SERIES OF PAINTINGS

This set of paintings explores the connotations associated with the feminine form. Gloss-covered lips and colourful candy display how femininity is often

associated with temptation, and illustrates how a woman’s features are automatically linked to standards of physical beauty.

Defects, Acrylic on Canvas, Winter 2019. JAV130 Visual Strategies, Instructor Sahar Rezazadeh Tehrani

Vibrance, Acrylic on Canvas, 2018. Completed in the Claude Watson Visual Arts Program

SELF PORTRAITS: A SERIES OF PAINTINGS

These self portraits represent two vastly different sides of myself. On the left, Defects, an acrylic diptych, displays aspects of my personality that I want to change. The black and white line painting showcases a dark, repressed portion of my personality. The close-up,

realistic painting exhibits one of my worst habits; biting my lip when I feel stressed. This piece is juxtaposed by Vibrance (right), a painting based off of a candid photo taken when I felt content. Here, bright colours and sharp geometry represent my uplifted spirits.