Portfolio 2016

SURAMBIKA PRADHAN PORTFOLIO 2016

SURAMBIKA PRADHAN

surambika.pradhan@gmail.com 312-758-3818 3050 S Parnell Ave Chicago IL - 60616

EDUCATION

ACHIEVEMENTS

Illinois Institute of Technology

M.Arch

National Institute of Technology

B.Arch

Chicago, IL

(2015)

Jaipur, India

(2009)

Peter Hans Prize for Excellence in Visual Training (Photography 2014) Illustrated Hagia Sophia for Harry F Mallgrave’s new anthology Project mentioned in an article in Journal of Architectural Education Event Coordinator for Museum of Muslim Arts, India Executive member of the Fine Arts Society, NIT, Jaipur for 3 years National level prizes for painting, calligraphy, sports and creative writing Selected participant - Annual Open House at COA, IIT

EXPERIENCE

SKILLS

RGLA Solutions, Inc.

Associate Architect

Chicago, IL

Olsen Vranas Architecture Chicago, IL

(March 2016 - July 2016)

Intern Architect

(April 2013 - December 2015)

Harry F Mallgrave (Phd Hon FRIBA)

Teaching Assistant

IIT, Chicago, IL

(August 2012 - May 2014)

Marg Institute of Design and Architecture Swarnabhoomi, Chennai, India

JDS Architects Chennai, India

Architecture Paradigm Pvt Ltd Bangalore, India

Public Works Department Chennai, India

Asst Professor

Design Software: Revit

AutoCAD

Rhino 3D

Grasshopper

Sketchup

3D Max

Graphic Software: Adobe Photoshop

Illustrator

Lightroom

InDesign

(April 2011 - July 2011)

Junior Architect

(February 2010 - April 2011)

Intern Architect

(January 2008 - June 2008)

Summer Intern

(June 2006 - July 2006)

Other:

Painting (Oil, Ink, Watercolor, Graphite) Photography

Language Proficiency:

Woodworking

English

Hindi

Bengali

Oriya

Emotions + The Berlin Wall Collage

LIST OF CONTENTS

ACADEMIC PROJECTS DISAPPEARING CITY LAND PORT OF ENTRY MERIT MUSIC CONSERVATORY THE WING PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS AMY MORTON RESTAURANT ART PHOTOGRAPHY FURNITURE & WOODWORKING

Disappearing City

Cloud Studio Fall 2014 (with Cameron Cortez, Keefer Dunn and Michael Finn) Studio Assignment: To give an plan, with a 1 mille x 1 mile square plot example,how cities will change in around 50 years, showing the changes in culture, politics and economy through a documentary.

Around the Block Ink and Pencil color on Paper

The Answer: While a dystopian future was not the option we wanted to pursue, the answer was that the city will become dysfunctional, operating as a giant museum to show how the past was. While the trade and commerce is focussed on the internet, maximum development will take place in the suburban region where people prefer to live.

Another aspect of our answer was redefining the elements of the built environment today to make them cohesive with the future. ‘Fundamentals’ (roads, vegetation, fences, cul-desacs, big box buildings, walls, street lights, etc) as we call them, will change, and the overall plan is a result of all the fundamentals combining to form the built environment.

STUDIO PROJECT: DISAPPEARING CITY

Cul-de-Sac Vegetated Land

Fences

House

Parking & Roads

Utilities

Fundamentals

Site Study

STUDIO PROJECT: DISAPPEARING CITY

Signages & Billboards

Openings Model showing vegetaion extent

Model showing building coverage

Sculpture, Public Art, Traffic Lights and Street Lights

Land Port of Entry Fall 2012 Grand Portage, MN

Concept: Land port of entry at Grand Portage in the state of Minnesota deals with small but important traffic coming from and going to Canada.There is a lot that goes in to planning and designing a border control station, as it deals with emotional state of the users. But as the technology advances, the borders and the emotional tension attached to them are vanishing making the path across the world infinite.

This idea of infinite is reflected in the plan of the building. It gets modified as the building reacts to the site, the terrain , the river, the view and orientation. The building becomes a part of the trail running through the state park where it is located making it a part of the surrounding forest.

Structure and Material The structure is simple cast in concrete walls and columns. The facade however is made of local wood planks, which are held together by clips acting as a rainscreen and also having slit openings giving the whole building a glow in the dark but still discreet. The slits also let diffused light in during the day.

STUDIO PROJECT: LAND PORT OF ENTRY

View of the transit booths

View in winter

Site and Form development

STUDIO PROJECT: LAND PORT OF ENTRY

Rainscreen detail

Conceptual forms

Ground floor plan with overlayed motion plan

Building Model

STUDIO PROJECT: LAND PORT OF ENTRY

Elevation

Transverse Section

Cross Section

Merit Music Conservatory Fall 2012 Chicago, IL

The concept of the design is "Transition through Spaces: Filtering as a mean of Progression". The process of making music happens in steps and these steps need specific spaces. According to the function of the spaces, there are only specific people who use them. The idea was to place these spaces in a level of hierarchy in a way that in becomes a continuous loop of composing and performing music. Practice is the major part of becoming a musician and practice rooms are a major part of the program as well. Hence, the practice rooms are intended to guide the students from one space to other. Showing them in spirit, the importance of practice.

Model View Massing Model view from the streets

STUDIO PROJECT: MERIT MUSIC CONSERVATORY

Concept: Transition while progressing

Plan: Ground Floor

Side Elevation

100 Practice Rooms

Auditorium: The entrance is on W. Monroe Street as it is one of the major streets in Chicago hence accounting for street presence. The approach to the building is through a curtained porch into a grand lobby, leading to the auditorium.

Music college: The music college begins at a mezzanine floor accommodating the administration.

Half a floor up, the practice rooms begin, leading to the classrooms, and then it becomes a continuous band of spaces rising half a floor at each ascension. At any point of music college one can see rows of practice rooms. The space between the bands is a green roof/ terrace garden which acts as a civic space meant for interaction of the students.

Sructure: The structure of the building has been kept as minimal as possible. There is combination of braced trusses and Verendeel trusses. While the auditorium roof is supported by six feet deep braced trusses, the cantilevering practice rooms are hung from two Verendeel trusses which are three floors high, on each side. The same structural vocabulary has been extended to space in the front and back with three floor high trusses supporting three floors by two feet deep beams running between them. The remaining two floors are hung from the trusses above by cables.

Facade: The facade pattern brings out the idea of progression, same in spirit but different in execution. The curtain wall is made up of double-paned glass wall. Some of the panes have Aero-gel in between them instead of air to account for translucency and sound barrier along with insulation. The panes are placed in a patter which shows a transition between floor, more opaque at the bottom, getting less dense as we move up. The front porch and the side entrance to the auditorium have slit walls in front to generate a sense of entrance also inculcating a sense of intrigue of the spaces beyond.

View from side

STUDIO PROJECT: MERIT MUSIC CONSERVATORY

View from front

Floor Plans: Mezzanine, Second, Third and Fourth floor

Auditorium

Sectional Model

The Wing

Spring 2012 (with Kuan ju Chen, Weiben Li, Caitlin Mehta, Elliot Stevenson, Tim Wang, and Tongyu Wu) The studio assignment was to design and construct a mega structure, 60’ x 15’ out of wood in a span of two months. The model was an active display at Open House Annual Exhibition 2012.

The project was also mentioned in an article by Prof. Catherine Wetzel in the Journal of Architectural Education (link given below). http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10464883.2012.715980

STUDIO PROJECT: THE WING

Concept Photos

Top beam

Cantilevers

Design: The construction project began with the idea of a simple arch in form of a Vierendeel Truss, spanning around 60’, from ground to top of the doors of Crown Hall. Several modifications and structural development led it into being a double cantilever. Each bay has a central rib of two Vierendeel Trusses connected by a beam. These trusses have beams in the bottom from which there are cantilever members attached. These trusses form the compression members. Hence to balance them and make it into a closed system, tensioned cables are introduced.

Structure: The ribs or the centra Vierendeel Truss are joined by moment connections at the top beam and the bottom beams. The wings which are tapered to get a lighter structure have webbing in them to prevent buckling. They are joined to the bottom beam of the Vierendeel Truss by moment connections.

At the centre there are compression members spanning accross, connecting the top arch. There are members connecting the two bottom arches as well.

STUDIO PROJECT: THE WING

Details

Amy Morton’s Restaurant

Evanston, IL Olsen Vranas Architecture (Ongoing)

The project was to turn a run down barn into an upscale restaurant for the famous Chicago restaurateur. The scope on the work included design drawings, detail drawings, permit drawings, code matrix and conceptual perspective views.

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT: AMY MORTON’S RESTAURANT

Bar Perspective

Interior Perspective

Ground Floor Plan

Mezzanine Floor Plan

Restroom details

People #2 Chicago, IL 2013

Clicked as a part of an assignment, this photograph was one of the winning entries of the 2014 Peterhans Prize in Visual Training (Photography).

The assignment was to photograph two people to capture, in a subtle manner, the emotions in their body language rather than expressions.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Sears Tower Kemper Tower, Chicago, IL

People #1 Oak Park, Chicago, IL

Who I Am Bridgeport, Chicago, IL

Crown Hall IIT, Chicago, IL

ME #7 Bridgeport, Chicago, IL

Study in Movements #2 MTCC, IIT, Chicago, IL

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul Illustration - Ink Fall 2014

The freehand illustration of the Great Museum of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, was done to be included in Harry F Mallgrave’s new anthology, ‘Critical Concepts in Architecture’, set to publish soon.

The illustration was required to be made by hand and showing both the beautiful facade of the building and magnificient interior details of the building, which probably has the most illustrious history in the built environment.

ARTWORK

The First Glance Watercolor and Graphite on Paper

The Cat Watercolor on Paper

Skeletons in my Closet Ink on Paper

Green Ink on Paper

Diomira - from Italo Calvino’s Invisible CIties Ink and Pencil color on Paper

Pantheon, Rome Illustration - Ink Fall 2014

This was another illustration done for Harry F Mallgrave’s new book.

The illustration was to capture the intricate details of the interiors of the Pantheon in Rome, while showing the form of one of the most famous temples of the world.

ARTWORK

Seasons Oil on Canvas

Seascape Oil on Canvas

Desk with collapsible Easel Red Oak Fall 2014

The idea of the desk came from the personal struggles of managing to fit and store a piece of furniture to accomodate every tool of painting material I need. This desk is compact when the easel is down and the surface are not extended out. The advantage of keeping it compact is it is easy to carry and fits into that corner of your small city apartment but still lets you indulge in the art of painting. The planks connecting the easel and the desk act as a storage space for canvases.

FURNITURE & WOODWORKING

Ulmer Hacker Stool Red Oak - Reproduced as a studio assignment

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Lamp Red Oak - Reproduced as a furniture assignment

Pine candle votives Pine wood

Tea bag dispenser Zebra wood

3 layer bowl Walnut - Mahogany - Purple Heart

Soy sauce bowls Mahogany

Seat4One - Piano Stool

MDF Board Studio Project Fall 2012 (with Corey Nissenberg, and Yikai Zhao)

Concept and Design: People call architecture to be the king of arts, we call music the queen.

Just like form, function and structure combine to form architecture, rhythm, melody and harmony come together to form music. The concept was to combine all three elements and put them on the figure ground, the legs of the stool.

Production: The stool consists of four sets which fit into each other like a jigsaw puzzle. each set is made of three same units. the parts fit into each other in a way that there is no need for glue to hold them together.

FURNITURE & WOODWORKING

Piano Stool

Assembly Process

Cubes

Various kinds of wood Spring 2013

Project: The project was a 15 week long attempt on finding the properties of a material and working with it while establishing a visually appealing rule and establish aesthetics in to an object which closest resembles architecture.

The projects were about studying wood, and wood-joints. The idea was to establish a path, either a close loop or open, in to a cube while mastering the art of wood-working.

FURNITURE & WOODWORKING

THANK YOU

A Box for brushes and palette Pine wood, red oak and white acrylic