Architecture portfolio somansh arora by Somansh Arora

ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO SOMANSH ARORA

Architecture Portfolio

Contents

Somansh Arora

004 Misfigured Assemblies and Fuzzy Monoliths- 'Drip It!'

056 Superimpositions- 'Whiplash'

020 Building the Picture- 'Boundless'

064 Coding Form

030 College of Architecture

068 Weird Nature- 'Grotto misreadings'

042 Mixed Use Development- 'pub-lic'

076 Weird Tectonics- 'Weird Bismuth'

052 Artist hub

084 Advanced Coding Form- 'Slime Mold'

088 Wall Design

089 Furniture Design

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Somansh Arora

Misfigured Assemblies and Fuzzy Monoliths- 'Drip It!' Critics: Marcello Spina, Casey Rehm The project investigates the use of color as not only an aesthetic addition to the object but also as a physical and material entity that is inextricable from the object. Digital data is used as a starting point for the aesthetic approach, which is later translated into analog. Color is used as a material agency for translating the digital information onto the object by continuously registering data, resulting in a hybrid tectonic assemblage. Robotics is combined with the inherent entropic agency of the material to allow for both controlled and uncontrolled results. The generative processes discovered in this investigation allow for the production of new complex and ambivalent objects.

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Motion-1

Motion-2

MOTION-1

MOTION-2

45ยบ

Somansh Arora

Drip It [opposite and below] Different motion diagrams [pp. 08-09] Motion 1 and analog effects [pp. 10-11] Motion 2 and analog effects [pp. 12-13] Motion 3 and analog effects

Motion-3

MOTION-3

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Architecture Portfolio

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Drip It [below] Close-up view of the physical model

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Drip It [below] Motion 1 physical model [pp. 16-17] Motion 2 & 3 physical models

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Drip It [opposite and below] Unfolded elevations of the final objects used to produce new objects

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Building the Picture - 'Boundless' Critic: Elena Manferdini The traditional role of skins in architecture has changed from being just practical folding devices for buildings to being more interactive binding instruments for producing improvements in urban life. The envelope now challenges the idea of what is inside/outside, natural/ artificial, and public/private. The envelope enables a multi-directional approach towards architecture specifically in the form of spherical buildings. Spherical envelopes are able to incorporate a wide variety of programs under a single roof. Moreover, they also challenge the concept of what is the facade, ground, or roof. Owing to the shift in the politics of the envelope, this project focuses on challenging the edge condition in buildings. It manipulates the edge to examine the idea of what is inside vs. outside and what is real vs. virtual. The project does this by using simple linear patterns and playing with gradients in order to explore depths of surfaces. The result of the project reveals a structure that creates illusion of depth through manipulations of the facade and questions the boundary of the envelope. In addition to the above, the building also serves as the new headqaurters for the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Architecture Portfolio

Somansh Arora

LVL 10 - 11 SHOC Room//Control room//Print & Storage// Data Processing//Office//Meeting

Boundless [opposite] Site plan showing the new WHO headquarters next to the old building [left] Exploded axonometric view showing area programming and zoning of different functions

LVL 7 - 9 Lounge// Individual office//Open offices// Washrooms//Directorâ&#x20AC;şs office//Quiet room// Print room//Maintenance//IT room

LVL 4 - 6 Lounge// Individual office//Open offices// Washrooms//Director's office//Quiet room// Print room//Maintenance//IT room //Meeting room// Archives//Stationary//Storage//Data Processing// Data Storage//Multipurpose// Cafeteria LVL 1 - 3 Lounge// Individual office//Open offices// Washrooms//Director's office//Quiet room// Print room//Maintenance//IT room

PLINTH LVL. Landscape//Cafeteria// Restaurant//Open exhibition// Cocktails//Reception// Open seating

GROUND LVL. Entrance//Exhibition//Gallery// Multipurpose//Modular Conference// Archives//Technical room// Storage// Restaurant//Kitchen//Cafe

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1. SIMPLE 1.1.SIMPLE 1.SIMPLE SIMPLE CUBE CUBE CUBE CUBE

3. CUBE 3.3.CUBE 3.CUBE PROJECTING CUBE PROJECTING PROJECTING PROJECTING OUT OUT OF OUT OUT OF OF OF CUBE CUBE CUBE CUBE

4. MIRRORED 4.4.MIRRORED 4.MIRRORED MIRRORED CUBES CUBES CUBES CUBES

REAL REAL OBJECT REAL REAL OBJECT OBJECT OBJECT

REAL REAL OBJECT REAL OBJECT OBJECT REAL OBJECT

VIRTUAL VIRTUAL VIRTUAL VIRTUAL OBJECT OBJECT OBJECT OBJECT

VIRTUAL VIRTUAL VIRTUAL OBJECT OBJECT OBJECT VIRTUAL OBJECT

VANTAGE VANTAGE VANTAGE VANTAGE POINTPOINT POINT POINT

PERCIEVED PERCIEVED PERCIEVED PERCIEVED

2. CUBE 2.2.CUBE 2.CUBE INSIDE CUBE INSIDE INSIDE INSIDE CUBE CUBE CUBE CUBE

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VANTAGE VANTAGE VANTAGE VANTAGE POINTPOINT POINT POINT

PERCEIVED PERCEIVED PERCEIVED PERCEIVED

VANTAGE VANTAGE VANTAGE VANTAGE POINTPOINT POINT POINT

PERCEIVED PERCEIVED PERCEIVED PERCEIVED

REAL REAL OBJECT REAL OBJECT OBJECT REAL OBJECT

VIRTUAL VIRTUAL VIRTUAL OBJECT OBJECT OBJECT VIRTUAL OBJECT

VANTAGE VANTAGE VANTAGE VANTAGE POINTPOINT POINT POINT

PERCEIVED PERCEIVED PERCEIVED PERCEIVED

Boundless [left] Diagrams showing proof of concept and solid-void iterations

Boundless [left] Renders showing how the original envelope is altered using solid and void studies

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Boundless [below] Elevations of the new WHO building [opposite above] Section through the new WHO building [pp. 26-27] Final physical models

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Somansh Arora

College of Architecture Critics: Ashok Grover, Savinder Raj Anand, Puneet Chadha The site was located in Vasundhra Enclave, Delhi having an area of 4075 sqm. The surounding areas included a number of vacant plots and a few housing complexes. Being on the outskirts of New Delhi, the area is a developing zone with a number of housing complexes, institutions, colleges etc. coming up in the nearby surroundings. A new college was to be created for the students of architecture. Since it was a developing zone, the idea was to create an iconic structure that would attract students who wish to study architecture. The spaces are designed to expand minds of the young students and explore new innovative ideas, forms, and expressions. The design consists of a composition of cubes of different sizes, rotated along a curvilinear axis, in an attempt to create spaces that are extraordinary and unique. The design focuses on interaction between the students and the professors by creating an open space through the middle called ' the central street.' An emphasis is also given to the planning of the different spaces using the form and understanding of the sun-path patterns throughout the year. The planning distinguishes walkways and courts, which are active during different parts of the year. An extra focus has also been given to the appearance of the college in order to define the emphasis of art in architecture.

Architecture Portfolio

Somansh Arora

College of Architecture [left] Site plan [below left] Diagrams showing the derivation of the central street [below right] Elevations

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College of Architecture [opposite and below] Plans at different levels [pp. 36-37] Sections showing interior spaces, the central street access and the amphitheatre

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College of Architecture [below] Rendering showing the central street and access to the separate levels

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College of Architecture [above] Triangular gateways acting as thresholds to the central street [below] The dynamic quality of the spaces created

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College of Architecture [left] Aerial view of the main entrance driveway, the amphitheatre and access to the central street

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Mixed Use Development - 'pub-lic' Critic: Stephane Paumier The site was located in the heart of Sector 18, Noida, which had an area of 14250 sqm. Being one of the earliest and the most estabilished commercial centres in Noida, the Sector houses various malls, hotels, offices, retail outlets and resaurants, making it an active public place. Owing to its estabilished nature, it is a high value real estate property, making it one of the most highly demanded commercial sites. Due to an excellent connectivity through the Delhi Metro and developed infrastructure, the site becomes an ideal spot for a new public space within the sector. The project focuses on redefining the ideologies associated with a mixed use development. The idea was to create a building/site that would attract all strata of the the Indian society and create a space which could be 'public' in its true sense, while maintaining privacy for its inhabitants. One of the prominent feature of the building is the different zones of green belts incorporated within the form, namely: The Promenade (Z1), The Mall Roof (Z2), The Sky Gardens (Z3), The Hotel Face (Z4), The Roof Top (Z5). The different zones act as breather spaces within the building for its inhabitants as well as spaces for leisure and activty for the public.

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pub-lic [below] Diagrams showing how the site tries to incorporate the essence of the neighbourhood, deriving its program from the surroundings itself

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pub-lic [below left] Sun-path analysis and the derivation of a central courtyard for the building [below right] Placement of the different functions within the building according to the active hours during the day

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pub-lic [below] Site plan showing Z1: The Promenade

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pub-lic [below left] The Mall Roof, and The Sky Gardens [below right] The Hotel Face and The Roof Top

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pub-lic [opposite and below] Sections showing different programs within the building and their inter-relationship and interconnectivity with the open spaces

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pub-lic [above] View of the central courtyard from the office space [below] View of the stepped Sky-gardens

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pub-lic [above] The Mall Roof [below] The central court and aerial walkways

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Somansh Arora

Artists village Critic: Amrita Madan The project explores passive solar techniques and strategical planning to create a climatically responsive building. In additon, the project houses a community for like-minded artists to live, work, and promote art. The site was located in an area contiguous with the Aravlli hills, having an area of 2275 sqm. The building consists of an exhibition space for the artists, individual living units, living units for the staff, common community hall, dining area, and public and private interactive spaces. One of the prominent features of the design is the solidvoid composition. The form acts as wind tunnels ensuring a constant supply of fresh and cool air through the building voids. These voids also function as private balconies for the artists. The building is oriented to minimize the heat gain from the east and the west side, and ensure a constant supply of north and south light, maintaining a nice working environment. The central courtyard was designed to promote interaction between the artists.

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Artist Hub [below] Aerial view of the hub

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Artist Hub [below] Sections across the building

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Superimpositions - ' Whiplash' Critics: Peter Testa, Devyn Weiser The project challenges the idea of perceived enclosures vs. true enclosures. The idea of 3 dimensionality is questioned by reverse engineering an object through lines and grids. Through the translation of the grid and the augmentation of its nodes, new surfaces and forms are developed, leading towards a new underlying grid. Miesâ&#x20AC;şs Mansion House is taken as the object of experimentation for this process. Through a series of offset and rotational operations, lines achieved via grids of the Mandrel House are translated to create an augmented grid. The physical offset and rotation allows a parallel to escape 2D and enter 2 Â˝D. By virtue of mimicking an analog effect robotically, the physicality of an object in the form of a pen is then added to the new augmented grid. By adding the qualities of the pen, an analog implication is fed forward and superimposed with the digital process. All these effects blur the purity of the 3D form and decrease its legibility. Material effects, through the analog processes create a physical rendering of the perception of the augmented grid, which then forms the enclosure.

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Whiplash [left] Workflow diagram and analog line drawings made with robots

MIES GRID

SMEARED GRID

REALIZATION

DENSITY 01

MANDREL

DENSITY 02

LINE EFFECTS

POINT EFFECTS

OBJECT

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PHYSICAL DRAWING

Whiplash [left] Different iterations of line drawings and their respective fuzzy halftone versions

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Whiplash [left] Digital line drawings and fuzzy effects leading to halftone

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Whiplash [left] Digital rendering [right] Physical model

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Coding Form Critic: Satoru Sugihara The project investigates coding/scripting as means of generating complex and articulate form. Python and grasshopper scripts are used to manipulate surface geometries to derive new articulations. These forms are further corrupted and divided into multple geometries to produce new forms. Various iterations that are produced in the process are then combined to generate a hybrid assemblage having different qualities.

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Coding Form [above] Diagrams showing derivation of geometry through python scripting [below] Renderings of different iterations formed through the script

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Coding Form [below] Final render: Different iterations of geometries are combined to form an object

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Weird Nature - Grotto misreadings Critic: Marcelyn Gow The project recasts the role of nature and, more specifically, landscape in the context of contemporary architecture. In considering the possibilities of weird nature and weird landscape, the seminar posits that the imaging of landscape is a generative, rather than a representational tool. Using notions of fusion and fission, complex terrain defined by the interference between nature and artificiality was examined. The process involves manipulation of the documentation of sites, objects, and spaces to engender multiple authenticities. Photographic and cinematographic techniques were combined with digital and analog modeling to produce a fusion between architectural form and forms germane to constructed natures. The design seeks to amplify latent environmental and atmospheric interactions in the interest of producing a landscape that has the capacity to integrate multiple concepts of nature. The final proposal consists of discrete landscape objects, which act as constituents of an urban parkscape. The site was siutated on a portion of the LA River.

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Somansh Arora

Grotto misreadings [above] Elevation of urban parkscape [below] Section across parkscape

This project can be broken down into 3 basic phases: Fission: The qualities of the thing break off from the thing as a whole and seem partially distinct from it. This will result in a mass of strange features or qualities that are difficult to unify. The strangeness suggests something that is known or recognizable yet is detached from its usual associations. A basic tree branch was used as a starting point for this process. Fusion: The qualities are brought together in an uneasy relationship with an object, working through the translation between an image and a 3D model. Weird Nature: The proposal of discrete landscape objects based on the principles of fusion and fission act as constituents of an urban parkscape.

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Somansh Arora

Grotto misreadings [above left] Plan of parkscape [below left] Close-up of parkscape showing the plan in detail [right] Physical models showing close-up of the parkscape

The different forms react to reflectiveness, which opens up the way of reading the object in many ways; something you can imagine but you can't rationalize. The sharpness of the shadows interplays with the materiality of the object breaking the laws of geometry. The edges are surrounded by a hollowness created by transforming material that misreads the scale of the surface giving many readings to the crust of the landscape. The convexity appears flat and the concavity appears infinite. The sharpness of the grotto counteracts the ambiguous mush creating an uncomfortable relationship between the two. In between the dry islands we find leakages of marsh-like masses that seep out of the conglomerate.

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Grotto misreadings [left] Interpretation of the parkscape through 3D printed physical models

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Grotto misreadings [above] Different iterations of the physical model made to reveal characteristics of the parkscape [below] Final model of site

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Somansh Arora

Weird Tectonics- 'Weird Bismuth' Critic: Tom Wiscombe This project deals with the defamiliarization of conventional tectonics made possible through composite materials. The focus was to create strange scalar effects and mysterious joinery and seaming techniques, which create a sense of surprise and mystery not possible with mineral materials. The project explores how seams and components can begin to exhibit autonomy and avoid generalizing conditions often associated with construction systems by focusing on an exceptionally high degree of discreteness of components. An integral part of this investigation was looking at ways of moving away from the homogenizing panelization promoted by parametric design. To achieve this, the possibilities of joints and seams to become jagged, near-figural, and even fake were examined. Joints and seams are no longer understood as the site of hardware, but rather of interlocking, friction-fitting, keying, and gluing.

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Somansh Arora

Weird Bismuth [below] Diagrams showing the extraction of the bismuth as a tectonic and aesthetic element in design [opposite] Final digital rendering

As a starting point for the project, the interest lay in extrapolating the qualities found in a bismuth cube and to take those qualities to create an object having a weird tectonic assembly. Features of the bismuth were extracted through different readings and mis-readings that were later translated into a new object. Various components as well as joints and seams were then extracted based on the image of the bismuth.

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Somansh Arora

Weird Bismuth [above] Sections showing interlocking details [below] Digital and physical models showing how the different components come together

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Weird Bismuth [opposite] Close-up showing surface details [below] Digital and physical models

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Advanced Coding Form- 'Slime Mold' Critic: Satoru Sugihara This project uses agent-based computational design as means of deriving various operations and functions that can help to create and mimic slime mold. Processing is used as the core software for the design. Varioius functions are then scripted through a research-based analysis of the naturally occuring slime mold. Through imitation of the natural phenomenon, an artificial environment is created where the slime mold can grow, find food, feed on it, avoid obstructions, and estabilish a network of connections based on the food source. The project not only tries to mimic the slime mold, but also tries to create an artifical landscape having surreal qualities of an alien space.

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Somansh Arora

Slime Mold [opposite above] Diagrams showing the growth process of the slime mold [opposite below] Final rendering of the virtual landscape produced through the process

Slime Mold [right] Research images of the naturally occuring phenomenon [left] Final rendering

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Wall Design [below] The Wall designed for SSAA

Created as part of the annual college festival, the wall tries to portray an illusionary effect on a 2-dimensional surface. Round colored patterns are created to create a psychedilic effect on the mind of the viewer. The figure of a woman emerges from the pattern creating the effect of a 3 dimensional virtual space inside the solid wall.

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Furniture Design [below] Centre table and diagrams showing the derivation process

The centre table was created for the living room area in a small residential unit. The design is derived from the upholstery pattern in the living room. By a process of addition and subtraction of figures found in the original pattern, new figures emerge, creating the form for the table.

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