Architecture Portfolio, Rania Moussa, M.Arch

University at Buffalo Housing Competition

Partner: Heidi Flores

With the development of the new University at Buffalo Medical Campus being placed in downtown Buffalo within the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, this would increase the amount of medical students living nearby.

Our proposal is to create student housing suited for the medical students and integrate it within a public library program. This library for all age groups would provide both an active and engaging atmosphere for people to socialize and study while the residential space would provide students a place to sleep and study.

Exterior render looking south from Ellicot Street

Balcony cut outs are carved out of the residential shell to bring in light into the library by creating a balcony. This also creates a boundary between the residential and public programs.

Floor cuts are made to create thinner hallways that separate the private residential space from public. This also brings height differences within each floor in the social spaces, as well as creating unique viewing points among each of the floors.

Book stacks are placed where the least amount of light occurs and feed off into the residential spaces blending the public and private program visually and physically.

A residential shell is located on the perimeter facing south, east, and west with a communal space placed away from the public library spaces.

Hayes Hall Bench Competition

Partner: Heidi Flores

The FlexFlow bench is a wooden structure that conforms to each body like memory foam. By rethinking the properties of wood and how to integrate them into a space, a fluid like structure would not only be a comfortable seating area but durable as well. The bench pieces compress and move to form to every individual’s body. Upholstered seating and basic benches lack durability and comfort. Flexflow provides the comfortable softness of an upholstered piece of furniture and the beauty of durability through wood through wood.

The drive behind the FlexFlow bench comes from the properties of wood and how it relates to a bench. When analyzing how a bench is integrated into a public space, it is mostly meant to be used for temporary usage. This is established through the material. By redefining and changing wood it became a comfortable material, we can activate the bench space while also being a comfortable and relaxing space to be in for a longer time. Using linear members to create a tangent generated curve not only allows a sturdy leg structure to be created but also gives the appearance of wood taking on a flexible and fluid property.

Render of bench proposal located in Hayes Hall

Situated Technologies Research Group

Faculty: Mark Shepard and Jason Geistweidt

Team Members: Shayan Amirirad, Aubrey Fan, Zach Fields, Heidi Flores, Ramola Khamitkar, Frank Kraemer, Jelani Lowe, Nishika Niraj Dhariwal, Devanshi Shastri

Pluvious (adj): of or relating to rain

Pluvious is a responsive environment that evokes the childhood sensation of playing in the rain. The installation, generated out of a graduate architecture studio in situated technology to investigate sound, light, and motion

with sensing technology to investigate questions of spatial contingency and the limits of predictability through an interactive, multi-sensory experience. The installation was created as a place where the inner child could come out and play in the rain.

Image of Pluvious with occupants. Photograph taken by Douglas Levere

Roof Structure

Grid-Eye

Ceiling Panels/ Fiver Optic Lighting

Servo Arms/ Rainsticks

Fleece Walls

Wall Structure

Studio Room

Situated Technologies Research Group

Partner: Heidi Flores

By analyzing Boston Valley’s Terra Cotta’s Factor, it was clear that communication between workers and machines was not present. By embracing the restoration process within the factory form as well adapting the automation part,

the factory would be re-imagined to communicate in terms of the production of material and visually. The two production ribbons allow for larger flows of production due to the cart system implemented in between. Adjacency in the ribbons helps create a central communication space between the two workflows.

Exterior model showing terra cotta ventilation facade system

Visibility = Latitude

Adjacency = Longitude

Diagram demonstrates each worker doing their own task without communicating with the rest of the line VSM adjacency + visibility

Situated Technologies Research Group

Partner: Heidi Flores

Geodesic Shells

The design studio focused on the development of shell structures as a response to internal displacement caused by natural disasters and conflicts.

Through paper and digital simulation form finding, the geodesic shell came about. Through various prototype analysis, composite material application, clustering patterns, and fabrication workflow, the final form is optimized and assembled as a proposal for internally displaced people.

The panelization of the shells shows light entry because of the two opposing angle

Original unrolled template

Division of the template horizontally

Splitting the template into two separate pieces

Overlaying the separate pieces

The two pieces come together to be formed as a single piece

Once the pieces are binded together, another set is created and mirrored across from the original pair

The two pairs are brought together to become binded together

Once binded, the final unit is created

Because of the binding, the pieces come together like a book

One unit Two unit

Final form ready to be compressed together to form the two unit cluster

Three unit

Four unit

Dock Frames

Buffalo Maritime Center

Through the creation of a studio group boat, in which three structural frames where used. Working sectionally was further implemented and exaggerated to create The Buffalo Maritime Center.

Exposing the structural frame, the use of wood and glass would play a critical roof to bring in natural light for workers within the building.

Exterior render demonstrating the structural frames

Section D-D

Section C-C

Section B-B

Section A-A

Microclimate Voronoi

Study Abroad Summer Program

Partner: Heidi Flores

Using compiled data into seeds, the groundwork for the voronoi was established to form the UB cultural campus landscape. The use of the voronoi through the circulation and form create the necessary connection between the natural landscape and the city into a fluid and continuous movement.

Voronoi formations in the natural environment can be found in a larger scale such as the desert ground or to a minuscule scale such as the cells of a leaf. The separations created, demonstrate the use of the voronoi to organize, create relationships, as well as create separations between the same elements.

Campus in Madrid, Spain

Once the final placement of each of

Once the final placement of each of the programs was placed onto the site, the information was collapsed to see the relationship between each of the programs.

The first voronoi generated resulted in large volumes.

The first voronoi generated resulted of specific programs, and division of

Through manipulation, multiplication of specific programs, and division of the program was inserted into the landscape. These divisions resulted in the formation of the pathways promoting the circulation of the private and public through the use of thicknesses.

The final landscape was generated

The final landscape was generated and redivided to enhance and surround the private spaces through the use of natural vegetation.