Architecture - Urban Design & Planning Portfolio

RAZAN ELMRAYED

Unanswered Inquiries | 2015 - 2023

Architecture - Urban Design & Planning Portfolio

The Guardian Museum

Accumulated relics, protected lands and iterated stages of history,anchored change

The city that sits balanced between the coast of the Mediterranean at north and cradled by the Saharan desert from the south, Tripoli throughout history, have gone through numerous reigns, empires ascended and empires have fallen, distant lands have sought to conquer it, and have succeeded, some briefly, some for decades and centuries, leaving imprints, relics that signify historical scenes of their time of power, of their attempts to dominate and establish their foreign habitats atop the soil and among the local dwellers of this country.

This project is a reproduction of those times, a mimic of the victories and defeat, of the duration of power and the essence of those dynasties, combined in a single time frame that is present, a reiterative machine that sits by the sea, guard of whats to come and keeper of what has come, navigating those whom bypass to and amid a rapid momentum of the vital and changing periods of past times.

The majority of Libyans today, lack knowledge of the vital times of their history, this has resulted in an extensive uneducated chunk of society that continue to repeat the faults of past times, resulting in yet more wars, schools do commence history education in their curriculum, however, the majority of individuals that this project targets, are those whom alter history, causing visible change, be it, a bad or a good one, granted that change is almost always associated with the concept of complete eradication, those types of individuals usually fail to excel academically, poverty may contribute partly, but lack of purpose and thus of attention, is the central cause, the sort of individuals that choose to learn for themselves rather than be taught, but what’s to influence the collection of that knowledge, the constitution of that purpose? What element affecting their daily whirl of life that will urge them to broaden their awareness?

A war history podium, a museum, that sits distinctively horizontal amidst a vertical fabric, adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, among the stakes of highrise buildings, composed of separate platforms each raised above the other,

a conflict of surfaces, linked by fortresses enclosing vertical flow, each platform exhibits one historical era of reign, the visitor rises gradually and circularly along the platforms that signify the pass of time, while the observer does maintain optical connection to the past and the future, however by a contradiction to reality, a reverse of some sort, the concealed part the one unseen, is of the present, secured still, beneath the whirl of time.

The platforms are enclosed by six forms that manifest anchored chaos, tied into an unordered whole, a foreboding form of matter intimidating as well as entrancing passersby, luring them in, above and central to the form, extending from the threshold of the gate to the top, is a luminous portal of light, that transmits geometric forms of natural light to strategic spots within the display platforms, out by the sea and sky is yet the largest platform, exposed for all to see, for those who are near and those that reside far beyond the sea, a podium that is dedicated to present time, to the diverse incidents that manifest daily, a record replaying each incident visibly and loudly with no constrains nor shields, a single space, seen by all, ominous to foe, and celebratory of peace.

Academic | Design Studio ll Spring 2015

Location: Tripoli, Libya

Instructors : Touraya Ashour, Anwar Al Jurnazi

Prepared By: Razan F. Elmrayed

Creating quadrilaterals to serve as the vessels that contain each exhibition era

Post-Blast Beirut as Heterotopia

The sea as a dynamic space, Fragmented land, Projected Islands

Academic | Studio Spring 2021

Location: Beirut, Lebanon

Instructors : Prof. Robert Saliba - Prof. Hana Alamuddin

Design Proposal: Razan F. Elmrayed

The heterotopic approach challenges the existing order of post-blast Beirut and attempts to articulate a model that reciprocates the conditions inherent in contexts of crisis. The literature likens heterotopic structures to linguistic disorder and describes it as a process that seeks to map out the knowledge underlying several, juxtaposed sites of resistance or conflict. The design development attempts to speculate the possibilities of integrating heterotopic urban conditions as an extension of the urban character and the performance of post-blast Beirut, in order to identify strategies through which heterotopia is no more fought but exercised.

Since the Mediterranean plays a crucial role in Beirut’s growth and sustenance, the heterotopic dimension of Beirut is present most prominently along the sea/city edge. As such, Beirut’s port area consists of heterotopic patches that serve to fragment the shore edge through spatial and vocational conflictions, that seek to exploit the sea on one end and the and land on the other further expanding the divide. The august blast has deepened the separation between these patches and has reinforced the spatial conditioning of their heterotopic identities, resulting in abandoned, damaged and isolated islands that neither engage the sea nor the city. Rather, they now behave as buffer zones alienating the relationship between the two.

Since different parts of Beirut encounter many of the previously discussed hterotopic conditions, it is viable to identify strategies through which heterotopia is no more fought but rather exercised, to use it as a tool for acknowledging heterotopic conditions as valid urban phenomenons that has the potential to be appropriated and reinforced efficiently through design. As such the study reiterates notions of fragmentation and division in attempt to identify their inherent space of opportunity, wherefore strategies of separation are tested through context related heterotopic conditions to better Inform the theoretical understanding of Beirut’s post-blast area.

Heterotopic Patches Along the Coast

Detaching Land, Creating Autonomous Islands

Beirut’s Landmarks Landmarks as Anchor Points for the Urban System

Projected Islands of Commerce

Island of Market and Exchange

The Port area is proposed to be a place of economic exchange between island dwellers and the rest of the city, the island of exchange is boarded by walls of advertisement that constitute the interface to the city, the island is occupied by storage facilities, and shopping centers.

Island of Manufacture and Recycling

The Karantina area is proposed to be a place of Material recycling and solid waste treatment, the island is connected to the train station that represents a landmark where the collection and storage of material takes place. The island is also a hub for local building and manufacturing, where dwellers of the island can conglomerate to take advantage of the waste material and encourage local craftsmanship.

Projected Islands of Industry

Island of Material Import and Export

The container port is proposed to maintain its container storage vocation while also introducing administrative and regulation facilities across its southern edge for inner city import as well as establishing a hub for national exports.

Karantina Scout’s Urban Park

Mobilizing the Military as an Active Agent in the Community

Academic | Studio Spring 2023

Location: Beirut, Lebanon

Instructors : Prof. Howyda Al-Harithy Prof. Jala Makhzoumi

Design Proposal: Razan F. Elmrayed

The military base located across the coastal region of Quarantina has resulted in the spatial segregation of local communities and the negligence of its immediate surroundings including the open spaces at the edges of the residential quarter. Additionally, the military base’s sheer size fully separates Quarantina’s residents from access to the sea edge. The following proposal seeks to mitigate the impact of land privatization and securitization that is imposed by the existing military presence. Through a reclamation strategy the study identifies a network of open spaces that emerge from the dense residential area and gradually infiltrates militarized land. Through an interplay of temporary and fixed programs, the design proposal aims to activate those spaces and open up the sea edge to the communities within the residential quarter.

STRATEGIES

The design strategy operates in incremental phases, it kickstarts through a tactical intervention scheme that targets strategic spaces around the military base to question the existing narrative and give power back to the community.

Throughout the second phase the design scheme uses private land as an incubator to reclaim a segment of the municipal land that is occupied by the military. The strategy reinforces the programmatic diversity existing in the private land through informal and temporary interventions and leverages these programs to spillover to the militarized land.

The final phase operates through a strategy that allows the military to become a key agent within the design scheme. It sought to build a relationship between the military and the local community by introducing programs that are closely related to military culture that includes youth programs in boys/ girls scouts, camping activities, archery training and active community workshops.

01 Karantina Market Hub

02 Haven: A Sustainable Ecological Sanctuary for All

03 Karantina Boulevard

04 Reban Active Spine

08 Iben Sarjoun Street

05 Scout’s Urban Park

06 From Dump to Community Garden

07 Sempiternal Pulse

09 Maritime Promenade

Campsites(NaturalSpace)

Counter Spaces for Urban Violence in Mediterranean Cities: Martyres Square

In Beirut and Tripoli

Incomplete Thesis/Individual Project 2022

Location: Beirut, Lebanon

Design Proposal: Razan F. Elmrayed

The coastal regions of Beirut and Tripoli are both historically politicized spaces, marked by colonialism, fortifications, and warfare. Modernization periods within these contexts often prioritized economic development exclusively in the coastal regions, perpetuating an uneven geographical development and subsequently unequal distribution of resources, and producing a coastal geography that is largely influenced by sociopolitical unrest. A critical spatial analysis of geopolitical urban violence in these two different cities along the stretch of the coastline, could shed light on the shared and often conflicting basis of spatial oppression and violence in Mediterranean post-colonial cities that informs a wider discourse in urban violence that has transformed the interface of these cities into tools of instilling fear and oppresiion . Ultimately, correlations could be drawn from both cases, not so much as to amplify similarities but to stress an underlying operative relationship that shapes urban violence in the Mediterranean region.

In the following study, methodology takes precedence throughout the formulation of a hypothesis and in identifying and analyzing urban problematics. The study seeks to establish theoretical grounding that is rooted in mapping as a performative tool for testing hypothesizes, mediating contexts and generating relations between the essential geography of the city, its internal structural logic, and the ingrained social narratives that translate into urban violence and vulnerability.

Urban violence and vulnerability translate in the city through the degree of access and exposure to urban resources, transitory links, social belonging and urban ecology. The research seeks to identify where and how these aspects of the urban occur spatially and temporally in a polarized manner. Through the agency of walking across pathways defined by pre-determined situations, of which are characterized by geographical, spatial or social constraints materializing through notions of extreme violent and vulnerable pluralities. These situations are superimposed against the top-down structure of the city to establish a generative discourse for the city in which dominant political underpinnings are revealed and contested through mapping. As Corner argues “To contest and destabilize any fixed, dominant image of the city by incorporating the nomadic, transitive and shifting character of urban experience into spatial representation”.

MEDITERRANEAN

MARTYRS SQUARE

Martyrs Square

Tripoli, Libya

Martyrs square in both case studies represents a space of exposure, a tool used by people and the government to convey narratives and proclaim rights. Urban violence occurring in Martyrs Square as a social space is one that serves to suppress and silence. This calls into question the temporal dimension of urban violence, as a singular event that either generates prolonged spatial repercussions to the point where such repercussions become an identity as observed in Beirut. Or as in the case of Tripoli, it conveys an alternative narrative in which the spaces surrounding the square are kept public and yet, in times of political tension the square and the highway are blocked and entirely militarized. Demonstrating that former forms of violence are not directly observed through state intervention however space is reformed by the state to anticipate future violent uprises

Space as an Antcipatory Tool for Urban Violence

In this thesis my goal is to use space as a tool of analysis to document forms of violence across the coastline to create synergies between both case studies and ultimately to amplify people’s responses to violence through design interventions. Accordingly, identified five localities along the coastal highway of both case studies that provide an opportunity for theorizing urban violence in a shared discourse and for articulating space in relation to it.

Martyrs Square Beirut, Lebanon

Martyrs square in both case studies represents a space of exposure, a tool used by people and the government to convey narratives and proclaim rights. Urban violence occurring in Martyrs Square as a social space is one that serves to suppress and silence. This calls into question the temporal dimension of urban violence, as a singular event that either generates prolonged spatial repercussions to the point where such repercussions become an identity as observed in Beirut. Or as in the case of Tripoli, it conveys an alternative narrative in which the spaces surrounding the square are kept public and yet, in times of political tension the square and the highway are blocked and entirely militarized. Demonstrating that former forms of violence are not directly observed through state intervention however space is reformed by the state to anticipate future violent uprises

Space as an Antcipatory Tool for Urban Violence

Curiosity Museum

Maximize and minimize the breadth of perception simultaneously, ebbing the obstructions of time and space, a maze without walls.

Academic | Graduation Studio Spring 2018

Location: Tripoli, Libya

Instructors : Dr. Mohamed Aburawi, Dr. Abdul-Jawad Ben Swessii

Prepared By: Razan F. Elmrayed

To this day we remain infinitely lost, groping our way in the labyrinth of existence, our knowledge base of worldly facts is fragmented, lost in time, confused in diversity, trapped in space. At the time that we uncover one truth of existence we are confronted with yet an imposing buildup of walls that obscure both former discoveries and prospective ones, this creates an ultimate defect to the breadth of comprehension that we conceive of a singular fact, unable to string the truths to form a whole pattern, we are limited by our centeredness to the duality of existential proportions, we sit halfway between the infinite vastness of the universe and the brevity of the microscopic existence, we’ll therefore constantly address the options of either extending up so tall penetrating the galaxies or to shrink down to face the microscopic world, our knowledge will repeatedly bare the same biased deficiency if we continue to proceed in a singular direction, we must adopt an oscillating flow that carries us above and below the obstructions of time and proportion in a rhythmic, timely procedure, thinking becomes a wave reaching a maximum point external to the holographic illusion, a plane where all is visible, all the connections deciphered, all the meanings realized, this unifying truth will be accomplished when we exist in a number of places at once.

A maze devoid of walls will still possess the innate quality of being disorientative, however the cause for such sensation is neither that of walls nor of intertwining paths, it is of the vertical elevation, the observer maintains visibility of the entire spatial configuration of the maze evidently being everywhere at once, the quest therefore changes, from a means to an end to a means that justify the end.

This is the process that takes place when a curious observer begins to unravel a natural phenomenon, the museum imitates the process of uncovering scientific truths, to allow the visitor to fully comprehend its contents, the elevated inconsistent platforms provide an organized stream of knowledge, relevant to the classifications of each scientific discipline, the intertwining ramps allow the observer time to absorb former knowledge and contemplate the panoramic perspective of the facts of life viewed as a whole, thus constructing for lack of a better word - a spatial taxonomy of science.

Single Horizontal Trajectory

Single Vertical Trajectory

Contrary to popular belief, Martyrs’ Square is in fact a space that provokes segregation rather than unity of purpose, the project examines the visual, functional and historical characteristics of Tripoli’s central built environment and its effect on different social classes and ages, the impact of an environment that was neither built by Libyans nor used by them until later. Familiarity to foreign bodies breeds mental and emotional detachment, and to respond to such indifference, a disturbance to the monotonic built fabric was necessary, by implant ing an element of shock, the proposed architecture embodied design typologies that entirely contradicts and opposes the context in question which in turn contributes to spark a consistent curiosity within the city’s different social classes and age groups. The concept was developed into a science museum that unifies a purpose guided by knowledge seeking.

Internally, the museum provides an interactive experience between the user and the information being presented through an open space and mounted platforms connected by intertwining pathways that guide the progression of the museum’s discourse.

Bourj Hammoud as a Destination

Tactical Activation of Bourj Hammoud’s Urban Fabric through the Grid

Academic | Urban Planning Studio Spring 2022

Location: Tripoli, Libya

Instructors : Dr Serge Yazidi, Dr. Karim Moussawer

Prepared By: Razan F. Elmrayed

A homogenized immigrant space

Bourj Hammoud posses a transitional character, the entire region has become an infrastructural zone that pedestrians and vehicles use as means to an end. The project sought to identify the unique experience of Bourj Hammoud through its history, morphology, and its subsequent densification. It captures Bourj Hammoud’s early urban development from a homogeneous urban fabric to its gradual decline into a center of uncontrolled urban densification. In so doing, the project implemented the grid system to activate its existing vital commercial character.

Bourj Hammoud grew in three phases led by the provision of land in the agricultural field of Bourj Hammoud, to later become a center for commerce and local craft production, untill 1974 when other natitinalities immigrated to the area in search for affordablig living provided the housing market, and low cost goods being sold in the adjacent shops.

The homogenized grid structure was established based on the fair distribution of land and supported by the flat land of bourj hammoud, the area was organized by a grid of streets with small plots of 50-150sqm in between them, the uniform grid pattern was influenced by the need for an equal distribution of state wealth to the armenians. The grid system culminated into a somewhat rectangular block with an average area of 4000 sqm, The consistency, orientation and the area of the grid decreases farther away from the shoreline due to the existence of topographic terrains surrounding Marach and down to Nabaa region.

Commerce is considered a vital component to Bourj Hammoud’s historical growth, the built fabric and the distribution of the shops along the streets of Bourj Hammoud convey dynamic centers of commerce that overlap with the intense vehicular activities occurring within the grid system. These centers of commerce relate to one another through the the distribution of the shops along the secondary streets of the grid system forming different cores and interlinked by a central diagonal core.

Regulated grid system for the the fair distribution of land

Vertical expansion among Armenians due to a sustenance in livelihoods through commerce

Densification through housing infill resulting in a linear grid system due to immigrant flows

Conceptualizing Bourj Hammoud

Inconsistent Grid Hierarchy

Conflict Resolution Table

The truth of the surface; a medium for delivering information. The structure; a conjurer of innate knowledge, an architecture that educates

Experimental Individual Project 2018

Location: Benghazi, Libya

Prepared By: Razan F. Elmrayed

At the time that the influence of foreign ideals was fully ejected from Libya, the decorated surface was eliminated as well, bringing forth a forty two year course of stationary detached development, a period of meeting generic standards of living, of reforming an authoritative environment that passively imposes a way of existing, of surfaces that serve to continuously remind society of who’s in charge, of architecture engulfed and degraded with large prints that express the literal aspect of the term “heads of authority”, suggesting the notion of being constantly subject to surveillance. Following the 2011 revolution is a period of resilience, of continuous stretching towards the direction of extremities, the deformities that resulted from such conditions served to uncover the absolutes that society would partake to deal with momentums of threat over the course of unpredictable time. Resorting to the strength and concealing properties of walls to protect against the dynamics of speed, impact and destabilization they were driven to the notion of improvisation.

A land inhabited by men of primordial ideals, Libya’s society is of limited awareness in terms of architecture, and have inadvertently conceived the aesthetics of Tripoli’s architecture, forming an architectural unity through means of de facto standardization, the built environment have become the image of improvised construction for security, the makeshift bare surface have become a permanent measure, lack of economy have ceased to be the cause for such measures, it has become an authentic embodiment of needs for safety and security, house fortifications define Tripoli’s streets, Iron palisades reinforce every gap and void, the visible vertical mass have become a defense mechanism against both physical and visual infiltration.

The potential for a design to initiate a dialogue with the user is strongly depended on the nature of the user’s individual connection to the characteristics of the design, because the line that separates a design from being irrelevant to the user, to thought provoking is in fact found in the methods that design solutions are communicated through, the manner of which can only be delivered with a thorough sense of familiarity.

Slab

A design that is able to summon the user’s existing knowledge in the subconscious mind and evidently connect it to the perceived structure, is the initiator of the dialogue, whereas to fully install that knowledge within the user’s mind, physical interaction between the design and the user must be encouraged and performed in alignment with the nature of information being communicated between the design and the user. This connection is achieved through the identity and individuality of the user, through embracing the problem, and finally through the clarity and directness of the solution and the way in which it is conveyed through a known and familiar mediums.

The ability for a design to educate is in fact relative to the identity of the user, in other words an only English speaking person will not learn much from information communicated in Chinese, and on that account and amidst choosing Libya and its locals as an example, a country that suffers from economic and safety issues which have resulted in partially built and exposed skeletal structures. The use of the concrete slab, columns and block-work walls is dominant, these will be the familiar elements relevant to the identity of the spectator, equally we move to the elements relevant to individuality, the ones that will encourage physical interaction, the concrete slab carried up on four columns is a structural assembly that most clearly strikes up an image of a table with four legs carrying the tabletop, through these aspects the design reaches for the subconscious mind of the user suggesting three elements;

1. The Primary Element horizontal concrete slab/Table top a design solution used to meet the demands of sitting, carrying, coverage.

2. The Secondary Element vertical block-work wall/chair-back a design solution used to support or as an auxiliary to the primary element. 3. The Tertiary Element the columns/Table legs a design solution used to raise the primary element at different levels.

The design process thus administers the function of a table and chair through the use of the structural elements that make up a building’s skeleton.

Ultimately, this process results in a reciprocal space that invites the conduct of intellectual activities, within an enclosure that prompts the remembrance of the past and its ongoing affect, and by creating different assemblies of the familiar structure, clearly presenting its functional purpose, the users are able to physically interact with it and ultimately absorb the design process that went through their surroundings, comprehending the reasoning behind each element, and influencing similar actions.

The design is a public, semi-outdoor working space that provides individual and group seating areas for reading and working, inspired from the table surrounded by chairs, the space is enclosed by the backs of the outdoor and indoor seats, allowing entrance to the inner space through the distances between each seat, the structure provides working areas at different levels and locations, starting from the bottom containing the main working spaces, and going up the steps that which deviate into working desks as they rise up, reaching the top the seating spaces are located in an inspiring outdoor and elevated plain providing panoramic view of the problem and solution as a whole, and as a reflection to the table surrounded by a multitude of seats, similar to the manner of meetings to solve conflicts, the center of the space contains a movable large table top that rises up emerging as a composition of book shelves and when lowered

A Traveler’s Hotel

A provoker of emotion and an instigator of discovery

Academic | Design Studio lll Fall 2015

Location: Tripoli, Libya

Instructors: Dr. Adel Al Zaitouni

Prepared By: Razan F. Elmrayed

Curiosity have been and still is the force to mankind’s ultimate discoveries, the idea of matter and knowledge unknown is almost eerie, an element that holds great power over humans, an abstract tool that urges as well as manipulates man into marching forward to uncover hidden truths, the soil and sea are the floors to those truths, the two surfaces merged into a puzzle of a form that continues to this very day to invoke man’s curiosity, by virtue of its size, the observer could never view the land upon which he stood as whole, thus never to acquire concrete direct visual evidence of its image, always the desire to uncover the portions unseen, that yearning for knowledge stemmed from the emotions invoked during a time when man stood at the very brink of earth, gazed at the sea, awed by the vast vicious waters, mesmerized by the sinister depths of waters and compelled by that one sharp limiting line that separates the waters of the sea from the abyss of the sky.

The mindset of an exile gradually transforms into the like of an explorer’s, upon entering foreign lands, driven by questions raised by conflicting emotions that in turn stimulate consecutive movement, and together they draw up a course of conscious process known as experience, all of which are responses to the nature and effects of elements that impact during their journey, the explorer wanders upon the host to the bare external discoveries; earth, and encounters man-made elements bestowed upon that very earth, on different foreign lands, within and at the outskirts of cities, and near the line that divides land from sea, safe havens within which the explorer reflects on the collective internal discoveries.

What of a place that harbors a journey of discovery within itself, a place endowed to serve as safe haven to those alienated their surroundings, a shelter that provides the fundamental factor of contempt as well as the wonder of unique experience, for this will empower the sense of curiosity and never to entirely extinguish the sense of discovery, the safe haven would serve as a tool to further deepen the experience of the traveler through the emotions invoked, providing a visual connection to the uncertain beyond, a scene viewed solitarily of oceans filled with menace, and a scene viewed and experienced collectively of the arbitrary ripple of those same oceans.

The form of the hotel would serve to abstract the conflicting thoughts and experience of the traveler and the explorer, the conflicting assumptions of earth’s form, of curve and straight, of infinite and limited, and of open and enclosed, such conflicts were generated in ancient times from views of the natural environment, primarily from the image of the sea, thus the center form that is an epitome to man’s individuality stands to serve in solitude and to connect each and every traveler directly and solely to the vast oceans, the platform upon which the center form stands would serve travelers collectively, an atrium, enclosed by transparent walls that connect with city and nature, and lidded by ceilings bore at tremendous heights, a space filled with the expectancy of the ones below and the empowerment of the ones above, at either sides the platform provides spaces for the rituals of foreign ceremonies, of the savory of foreign cookeries, and of trade, craft and culture in a merge of individuals of both foreign as well as local decent.

VISUALY PRESENTED KNOWLEDGE, DERIVING INQUIRY

Mimickery of Nature

The absolute inhibitation of a piece of solid wood, an overlaying of the processed and the natural

Competition Entry 2018

Location: Kemeri, Latvia

Project By: Razan Elmrayed

The objective for this project is to create an environment that is accessible to anyone, we created a space that adopts the elements of nature and in using those elements the design aims to stimulate the travelers’ journey through mimicking and recreating the process of learning and discovery when done amidst nature, the design concept followed the route that the travelers take to reach the bog boardwalk, the route was further extended within the site creating an additional environment that is both separate and complementary to the bog boardwalk. The visitor center will be a multi-functional project that serves as a junction point between the nearby trails and routes which at a certain point meet within the site, creating a dynamic habitat that serves to accommodate and teach the visitor about the area, the project aims to deliver an experience that involves both those who are able to walk, and those that aren’t, providing a cultivated experience of the bog boardwalk through a network of ramps an platforms extending simultaneously along the arrival route and through a path surrounded by flat expositions along its length. As the visitor continues through the journey, the sense of nature further deepens, providing expositions that touch on the science, reality and art of nature, the building is composed of two separate forms that enclose a space that is partly outdoors and part ly indoors allowing nature to merge with the building’s physical structure, multiple linear planes along the length of the form define a particular func tion, two outer planes define a space dedicated to children where they could play and learn correspondingly, the center also provides a space dedicated to the exposition of local artist work to encourage locals to par ticipate in the protection and conservation of the Latvian natural heritage.

PROPOSED VISITOR CENTER BUILDING

CAR ARRIVAL AND PARKING

EXTENDED JOURNEY LOOP #2 ONE AND HALF HOUR

7 MINUTE ROAD CROSSED ON FOOT OR ON BIKE

FOOTBRIDGE STARTING POINT

FOREST COVERED FOOTBRIDGE

FIRST AND SECOND LOOP INTERSECTION POINT

OBSERVATION TOWER

2. ACROSS FORESTS

Museum for Arab Art

The vulgar and the vague, instruments to articulate historical significance and present implications

Competition Entry 2019

Location: Sharjah, UAE

Design Team: Razan Elmrayed, Walid Elturki

Graphics: Razan Elmrayed

The design is a continuation to the chronicles of the Islamic arts, the vertical solidifies and innovates the evolution of arches in Islamic architecture, while the horizontal reinvents the significance of paradise and its expression in history through the centralized order of the Islamic garden that was later metaphorized into the intricate geometrical patterns of the Islamic Carpet. The proposed design is tied to the passing of time and history, where day presents us with a simplified identity, and night reveals the depths of the Islamic history and its architecture.

Located in the Heritage district of the UAE; Sharjah, home to a variety of architectural Islamic typology. The Museum is composed of two separate forms connected by a circular central open ground. The site boundary is conceptualized into the basic pattern of the Islamic carpet, taking in the borders and creating sub-structural forms that each rise higher than the other creating an arena-like exterior exhibition space thereby inverting the internal/external spatial relationship of the Colosseum, and forming ideal openings for the exhibitions inside. At the heart of the stepped borders, is the central cylinder form, ringed by a fountain basin with water sheets pumping from 4 arches at the main axis of the centralized design to follow the basic scheme of the Islamic garden. The cylinder form constructed with the Islamic arches and enveloped by a translucent material is seen blank by day and brightly overlapped by a spread of arches by night. The simple surface of the form allows for visual projections, to advertise exhibitions or for outdoor film screenings. Internally, it encloses platforms connected by spiraling ramps, each dedicated to a particular form of display for temporary collections.

Gradually distancing from the arches through platforms that Transcendently narrow in diameter

Cylinder Concrete Structure

Penetrated by Rotating Islamic Arches

Translucent Material Outer Skin that veils and reveals according to the time of day

Water cools hot airflow and distributes it within the circular center and between the skin and Arches

Time Ordered

Razan Elmrayed | Unanswered Inquiries | 2015 - 2023 | r.elmrayed@outlook.com