My Portfolio

ELELETA BELAY SEYOUM

SEPTEMBER 2022

KONSO REIMAGINED

Hot air escapes through the top openings

Hot air travels up heating the water in the reservoir

Rain water is collected & channeled through walls

Short top window allows light to enter through

The Konso are southwestern Ethiopians who live in stone fortified settlements on hillsides that provided protection from wild animals and enemies. The Konso have various structures they build in one family’s area, each function has a separate structure built. Some programs are Agita (arenas for celebrations and big functions), Manna (sleeping space or a recovery house for a mother who’s given birth), Kossa (mainly used for storage), Reqa (multi-level storage space for various goods), Paffta (communal space), and Udda (kitchen).

BASEMENT LEVEL (STABLE) GROUND FLOOR LEVEL MEZZANINE FLOOR LEVEL

“Ashenda” like guides that guide the water into the reservoir

Pipes that channel water into the reservoir

Uniform “Tukul” like strucutre

Short windows for light (resembling the prieri house)

Straight wall for furniture and water passage

Essential functions all in one structure

Large water tray

Stable for cattle

Lower water tray for smaller cattle

Water is the biggest issue with the Konso living system. They’re repeatedly affected by drought which is why each structure they build has some sort of storage mechanism built into it. By using local grain storage barrel like object made of bamboo and layering it with waterproof mud mixture, the material becomes waterproof and can hold water. This material is also what will be used to construct the entire house as the whole house is a water storage system.

Primary rain water reservoir

Opening for hot air to escape

Extra ceiling space for hot air to travel

Water proofed “Ensula” like strucuture taht stores water from the roof

Fire Stove Stead of the outside stove

Access to the containced water Separate water reservir for cattle

SINK CONTAINER SHOP

During my internship at Heartbeat Design and Construction (now renamed Asharachen), I was able to design, present and site supervise a project constructed in Entoto Park. This project was financed by BGI Ethiopia PLC under the Senqnesh Project; a project with the initiative is to help women of Entoto make a better living. The space was designed using shipping containers for the structural part and local rocks for the landscape framing.

Site survey conducted in the beginning stages of construction,

Required facilities and plumbing work being constructed alongside gypsum work,

Final stages of landscape construction and mapping out layout for plants.

Preparation of framing areas for metal framing post drywall and gypsum work,

THESIS PROJECT

The exponential growth of plastics mainly, the handling of it’s waste is poor. we have a produced a significant amount of 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic we no longer use.

Meanwhile, the mining of conventional building materials marches on assuring that we run through resources faster than nature can produce them. Steel production is estimated to run out/ deplete in as little time as 65 years.

PROBLEM . STATEMENT

The production of conventional building materials is increasing and polluting the earth while the produced contents of the plastic industry are irreparably damaging the earth in producing large amounts of single use plastics.

PROPOSED . SOLUTION

The solution is to use the output of one industry; the plastic industry, and use it to fuel the resources needed in the other industry; construction.

HDPE roof tiles

concrete and plastic bottles

plastic bottles and steel frame wood truss furniture

eucalyptus door frame

assembled brick wall HDPE floor tiles steel frame/ skirting concrete with plastic bottles plastic bottles steel bars

Plastic is only as famous as it is because it really is useful. The material is durable, malleable, strong, and lightweight; it has all the qualities we look for in the ideal construction material. It’s rational to use it in construction. By mixing molten plastic and sand, we get the perfect building block; a sort of life size Lego piece.

End Result of New Building Material

The shape with which I designed the blocks makes them durable enough to serve multiple buildings. Once one building is built and no longer needed, one can dissemble the building and use the same blocks to build a completely different building. They’re material simplicity makes these blocks adjustable to any structure. The perfection lies in the material; plastic.

Concrete Mold

Plastic + Aggregate Mold

COMPETITION PROJECTS

The first of its kind training and convention center to be built by Oromia International Bank at Gelan Town has an area of 15 hectares. It consists of training center, convention center, dormitory apartments, residential areas, health and fitness center, mixed use building, and other supportive functions of the OIB.

Awash Insurance Company (AIC) is set to jointly build its ultra-modern G+30 New Headquarters Building, on which it plans to build a unique High-Rise with its Sister company Awash Bank at the very heart of the capital city.

Teamwork is an essential part of any project. Working at JDAW Consulting Architects and Engineers in a formal office setting has taught me just that. Architects, engineers, accountants and plenty of other professions all work together to create a dynamic design. While at JDAW, I worked on two competition projects one of which won second place and was negotiated for construction.

Physical model for AIC (Awash Insurance Company

Headquarters design competition

TOKKE CHURCH

In the rural areas of Ambo, there is a local protestant church in the city of Tokke. My church has connections with this church and as soon as I’d graduated, my church elders approached me for a simple and economical design to be constructed at the Toke site. I designed a 300m 2 hall with offices at one end. To make the design easy for construction and efficient in its cost, I designed the structural elements to form the floor, the columns and the roof as well.

Preliminary Design

With inspiration from St. Margaret’s Anglican Church, (Eltham, Australia) and Jinan Changshuang Church (Jinan, China), I initially designed the Toke church to have a ¾ audience seating arrangement with large windows facing the pulpit.

Finaly Design

The final design keeps the light’s aesthetics aimed at the pulpit while introducing the audience from a sheltered two entrance foyer. The church is structurally strategic in that its columns extend to fold at an angle to become the church’s roof structure.

PAINTINGS

I took up mandala art a few years through arch school. I developed it over the pandemic to large scale art pieces for different spaces. I found mandala to be a form of organized pieces of expression.

I find expressionist art to be pure emotion intrepreted on a canvas through paint and brush.

It’s why I started painting.

Color and black art go hand in hand, which is why I found interest in digital black art. Culture and color in collision make meaningful and beautiful art.

GRAPHICS

I started comic book like illustrations based on my experiences in arch school. Regretably, only this illustration made it onto the digital realm.

I’m very much interested in magazine design. I was able to experiment with it through various school assignments. This particular assignment and two other works of mine were published as reference works at Hope Enterprise University College.

CRAFTS

Lighting is something that adds aesthetic value rather than a mere utilitarian detail of the room. I believe that design is determined by what is available to the designer, rightly so culture heavily affects my designs. As such, I use a local material called Qacha, formed into thin braids to create lighting fixtures.

BRANDING

Coffee packaging design for a coffee export company by the name Yimu Coffee

EL/AMEN BAKERY EL/AMEN BAKERY

Logo design for a local bakery shop by the name El-Amen Bakery