Design Portfolio

DESIGN PORTFOLIO Karen Dionisio-See

Application ID: 173823 Student Type: International Student Program: MC-ARCH 200pt stream Previous Qualification: Bachelor of Environments, Major in Architecture Year Completed: 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CV EDUCATION

Tertiary Bachelor in Environments, Major in Architecture Ļ

2013-2015

First Class Honours in Construction Analysis and Architecture Design Studio: AIR

WORK EXPERIENCE

Student Summer Internship MOA Architectural Designs, Philippines

2013-2014

Student Summer Internship Jose Siao Ling & Associates, Philippines

2014-2015

Graphic Designer Xynergy Realty, Melbourne

2016-current

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A small firm that designs residential, commercial and recreational properties Prepared AutoCAD and SketchUp files

A well known firm that works with residential, office and commercial buildings Prepared AutoCAD, SketchUp, Photoshop rendered and Lumion files

Worked with the marketing department in making artworks for magazines, window cards, brochures, newsletters, etc.

Studley Park Boathouse

3

Merri Creek Pavilion

7

Spectrum City Tower

11

Other Works

15

studley park BOATHOUSE The Studley Park Boathouse is a place where people go to enjoy Yarra River. There’s boat storage, workshop and hire counter as well as a kiosk, café and restaurant. This building is an alternative approach to the existing boathouse in the manner of Louis Kahn’s architecture. Similar to Kahn’s style, this project focuses on design elements taken from classical architecture – order and monumentality. The idea is to celebrate and emphasise the function of the structure as a boathouse. Order is used in designing the orientation of the boathouse and the placement of the spaces included in the brief. The boathouse is divided into two buildings – for food amenities and for boat amenities. In each building, the spaces are organised according to their purpose – serve and service spaces. Monumentality is taken into consideration when dealing with the slope of the site. As users move towards the river, the building becomes larger, highlighting the primary areas of the boathouse.

3 BOATHOUSE Karen Dionisio-See

Studley Park, Kew 2014, Second year Individual Work

3x3 grid Geometrical Shapes

The boathouse is on a slope, parallel to the car park, pathway and river. The concept of monumentality works well with the elevation of the site. Variations of the buildings’ height gives significance and hierarchy to certain spaces such as the boat storage/ hire counter area and the café/ restaurant area.

Symmetry

Kimbell Art Museum

YARRA RIVER

New Studley Park Boathouse

The boathouse has two buildings, one for boat services (hire counter, boat storage, boat workshop, office) and the other for food services (kiosk, cafe and restaurant).

The form of the boathouse is inspired by Kahn’s design strategy in most of his building.

Kahn often uses a 3x3 grid to layout and arrange the floor plan. He focuses on axis, order, symmetry, and geometry to create a perfectly balanced structure.

CAR PARK

The buildings are both rotated in a 30 degree angle. This gives users an idea that the buildings are pointing towards the river, the main attraction of the site. Moreover, this gives a sense of interaction between the two buildings. People from the cafe/ restaurant can view the boat storage area, highlighting the main function of the boathouse.

Restaurant

Boat Services & Office

Toilets

Cafe

Kiosk

Boat Amenities

4 BOATHOUSE Karen Dionisio-See

Food Amenities

Kahn has introduced the concept of serve and service spaces. Serve areas are the main spaces of a building, while the service areas are the utility spaces such as toilets, kitchen and storage.

The floor plan shows the materials that would be used in the design.

Timber floors on most of the serve spaces against dark concrete floors highlight the difference between the two areas.

The diagrams on the right illustrates the serve and service spaces in the buildings. Serve spaces are used by both guests and staff, while service spaces are primarily used by staff.

Serve Spaces Circulation of Guests

Service Spaces Circulation of Staff

5 BOATHOUSE Karen Dionisio-See

Kahn creates structures that allow natural light into the buildings. For instance, he creates holes or gaps between walls and roofs to let light enter interior spaces naturally.

The sketch, photo of the model and diagram show how light is played in the design scheme. Larger gaps on the walls of the buildings bring natural light in the main spaces, giving more contrast to the serve and service spaces.

Physical Model of the Boathouse

Boathouse Section Elevation

6 BOATHOUSE Karen Dionisio-See

merri creek PAVILION The Merri Creek Pavilion is a design installation along the terminal station that uses biomimetic algorithmic approaches in contrast to the transmission lines and station plant equipment. Residents and CERES Community Environment Centre have spoken against the Brunswick Terminal Station due to its unhealthy and unsafe environment that would affect the wildlife in Merri Creek. This pavilion is designed to encourage pedestrians and cyclists along Merri Creek Trail to focus more and to interact with the natural environment they are in, and to draw them away from the industrial facility and power lines. This is done through meticulous analysis of the site to decide on the form of the pavilion, location of its openings and its overall design.

7 PAVILION

Karen Dionisio-See

Merri Creek Trail, Brunswick East 2015, Third year Individual Work

CERES Community Environment Centre

Merri Creek

Brunswick Terminal Station Site Boundary

Industrial Area

Merri Creek

Residential Area

Main roads

The Merri Creek Pavilion is located along the Merri Creek Trail adjacent to the creek and Brunswick Terminal Station, which would not disrupt the current circulation of pedestrians and cyclists.

The form of the pavilion is directly related to the site. In the diagram above, it shows that each curve/ opening correlates with certain points in the site.

The pavilion has three openings. Two along the trail and one that opens towards Merri Creek.

This is to encourage users to stop and appreciate the creek, rather than be distracted with the power lines.

The overall design of the pavilion is inspired by a natural pattern found in several living organisms - Fibonacci Sequence. This pattern symbolizes growth and nature that is present around Merri Creek. The centre of the spiral is the highest point in the pavilion, projected and pointed towards CERES.

8 PAVILION

Karen Dionisio-See

This idea of implementing biomimicry patterns in the design is developed by analysing and reverse engineering the Research Pavilion in University of Stuttgart, Germany.

2D pattern

Layout curves in relation to the site

Create a KANGAROO definition to project pattern into the curves

Add and scale openings to allow light into the structure

Add thickness to show the plywood material.

Thickness becomes less at the middle of the arch

Include wedges to help connect all panels together and in controlling the angles of each panel in the pavilion

The diagram illustrates the process of virtually building the pavilion with Rhino 3D, Grasshopper and Kangaroo algorithmic definitions.

The image above portrays how light is played in the design. There are larger openings on panels on the right side of the pavilion compared to the side of the energy station. The light gradually spreads from one end to the other in the pavilion, which allows people to move towards the creek, and away from the energy station.

This second prototype has 2 wedges per intersection. Similar to the first one, it connects the panels with stability. This is the one used in the physical model because of its time and material efficiency.

This third prototype is a wedge with notches in them to insert the panels. This connection detail can be used in a larger scale model, providing accuracy and rigidity.

9 PAVILION

Karen Dionisio-See

The first diagram represents a section of the pavilion. It shows how the panels become thinner at the top. Since the panels are only connected with wedges or joints, using thicker panels on the outside compared to the topmost areas would help the pavilion to support itself.

The second diagram shows concrete slabs supporting the base of the pavilion. Bolting the pavilion to these slabs would hold the structure up and prevent it from sliding down.

10 PAVILION

Karen Dionisio-See

Inside of the Pavilion

spectrum city TOWER The Spectrum City tower is a motel and business headquarters facility to be built in 2045 for dispersed special interest groups such as KDS Architects (own firm), National Association of Visual Arts, and Yoga Association of Australia.

In 30 years, cities would continue to change, their appearance, population, transportation, etc. Nevertheless, the different elements found in cities would still be evident such as zoning, public/ private areas, and dynamic and static parts of the city. The idea is to apply these aspects into the building while encouraging people to interact more with each other through colour.

11 TOWER

Karen Dionisio-See

Spencer St/ Batman St, West Melbourne 2015, Third year Individual Work

Rooftop Garden Bedroom Suites Bedroom Suites Bedroom Suites Bedroom Suites an Batm

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Stre

Private Spaces Quiet, relaxing

Bedroom Suites Hall Offices Gallery Restaurant Lounge

Public Spaces Loud, energetic

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Future Flow of Vehicles and Pedestrians

Low Density Medium Density High Density

The tower is situated on the corner of Batman Street and Spencer Street near Southern Cross Station.

Analysing the flow of cars and people around the site gives importance to designing the circulation around the building.

In the future, there could be low density of cars and more pedestrians and cyclists.

The building is divided into two spaces - public and private. Primary public amenities are on the first three floors while private areas such as the bedroom suites are on the top floors. Each floor is assigned with a certain colour in the rainbow. These colours represent the atmosphere and feeling around that space.

To highlight the importance of interaction in the building, there are also public spaces in private floors. These spaces are filled with colour, from walls to furniture. While public and main spaces are covered with bright colours, private and utility areas have neutral colours. The use of colour is important in the overall design of the tower. It helps attract and direct people towards the tower and to its public spaces, encouraging them to engage with each more.

12 TOWER

Karen Dionisio-See

Yoga space

Restaurant

Entrance

Summer Spring Winter Fall

Aluminium single glazed window Automatically operated colourful vertical louvres First Floor

Aluminium double sliding windows Bracket to support curtain wall Grates to allow airflow through the gap Double Facade System

The four seasons are important in cities and are part of why cities are dynamic. They will always be there even in the next 30 years, but they continue to change how people move and act.

The main facade represents the dynamic part of the city using colours of the seasons. As illustrated above, this is a double facade system with automatically operated colourful vertical louvres.

These louvres can be controlled by guests and users of the tower, always changing the appearance of the facade.

Ground Floor

13 TOWER

Karen Dionisio-See

The facade on the north and west elevation symbolises the static part of the city such as heritage buildings, roads and bridges.

Public Space in Bedroom Suite Floors

Dispersed Special Interest Groups Office

Public areas are located on the side of Spencer Street, where pedestrians and cars pass by more often compared to along Batman Street.

Section of the building showing private and public areas

14 TOWER

Karen Dionisio-See

paper LANTERN This is a paper lantern with LED lights that can be worn on the arm. This is a first introduction to the digital world of architecture, learning about softwares such as Rhino 3D and the process of fabrication using card cutters.

This design is inspired from the pattern found in a starfish, showing growth and the 5-point symmetry system.

ivanhoe grammar school SECTION MODEL Detailed section model of Ivanhoe Grammar School by McBride Charles Ryan Architects. Studying the different systems and materials used in the building, and analysing the importance and purpose of each element. From foundation and floors of the building to the walls, suspended ceilings and roof systems.

2015, Third year Group Work

15 OTHER WORKS Karen Dionisio-See

(worked on the walls, windows and ceiling system in the model)

2013, First year Individual Work