As I embark on my professional journey after pursuing an M.Arch at the Illinois School of Architecture at UIUC, my goals are manifold. To me, architecture is not merely about erecting buildings; it is about crafting environments that bring together urban spaces and geographical landscapes down to the smallest design details and materials. I aspire to design spaces that foster a sense of belonging, harmony, and connection between people and their surroundings. I believe that well-designed architecture has the power to shape behaviors, evoke emotions, and encourage sustainable living. I focus on re-dedicating architecture to its contemporary design commitments.
URVI VARMA, LEED GREEN ASSOCIATE, AIA Assoc.
+1-224-628-6503 | urvivv98@gmail.com
multi-team collaboration | building performance | enivronment and community oriented
EDUCATION
Master of Architecture (M.Arch) - Concentration in Building Performance | GPA: 3.9/4
The Illinois School of Architecture (UIUC), Champaign, USA | Graduated-2024
Coursework: Planning And Design Of Structural Systems | Experimental Envelopes | Building Life Cycle And Cost Assessment | Mass Timber Design | Sustainable Urban Design Theory | Environmental Control Systems | History And Theory Of Architecture | Globalization And Urbanization
Bachelor in Architecture (B.Arch)
The Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU), Vadodara, Gujarat, India | Graduated-2021
ACHIEVEMENTS
AIA Medal of Acdemic Excellence
Awarded the Miller Hull Partnership Scholarship, 2023
Ratio Design Prize, Large Scale - Grand Prize, Graduate Excellence Award, Fall 2023
Awarded Honourable Mention—Graduate Excellence Award, Spring 2023
CAREER OVERVIEW
ILLINOIS SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE – UIUC 2023 – 2024 Graduate Teaching Assistant
COURSES
Arch 536: Planning and Design of Structural Systems (Graduate Course) | Aug - Dec 2023
Arch 171: Concepts and Theories of Architectural Design | Aug - Dec 2023
Arch 435: Structural Systems and Construction Methods | Jan - May 2024
PROJECT PUBLICATION, ACSA 112TH ANNUAL MEETING: DISRUPTERS ON THE EDGE
Integrating Building Technology and Computation into Urban Design: A Contextual Approach
Co-Authors: Anushree Parkhi, Graduate Student, Prof. Yun Ki, Ph.D., Assistant Professor., UIUC
INTERACTIVE DESIGN ARCHITECTS, CHICAGO, IL, USA
2022 – 2023 Full-time Emerging Professional (Jan - Aug 2022) - Internship (May - Aug 2023)
Obama Presidential Center
• Fort Wayne Capital Security Project - (GSA) Historic Courthouse Extension
SAMVAD DESIGN STUDIO, BANGALORE, INDIA 2019 Internship (May - Nov 2019)
• Cricket Academy
• House Of Two Courts
REGISTRATION
NCARB AXP Experience Hours Record - 2049 hours Approved/ 1691 hours Remaining – In Progress
Travel Studio to Japan, Teammate- Carissa Mysliwiec
Nominated for Graduate Excellence Award Spring 2024
Context
The studio project calls for a comprehensive cultural institution and gallery which is conceived with the intention of promoting Japan’s, especially Kyoto’s, most enduring (timeless) cultural, architectural, environmental, and artistic (aesthetic) heritage. Currently a baseball field, the site is in a culturally important Okazaki Museum District south of the famous Heian-jingu Shinto shrine.
Project Brief
The main goal of our project is to mirror the iconic mountains that frame the landscape of Kyoto. Our design incorporates a stepping form reflecting into the cascading pool and forming an axis through the historic promenade with an inviting public plaza to celebrate the history of the site context. The project aims to create perspectives through placemaking that embraces the past, present, and future of Kyoto’s historic and contemporary architecture through a fusion of materials, contemporary interior spaces, and organic landscaping, such as a zen garden, rock garden, and intentional water features.
S open,welcomingplaza
SITE PLAN N
S open,welcomingplaza
S open,welcomingplaza integratereflectingpool
integratereflectingpool
S open,welcomingplaza
integratereflectingpool
S open,welcomingplaza
S open,welcomingplaza
EXTERIOR VIEW ENTRANCE LOBBY
2 3
1
“If I can create some space that people haven’t gives them a dream for the future, That’s the kind
experienced before and if it stays with them or kind of structure I seek to create” _Tadao Ando
02. ILLINOIS ROWING CENTER
Integrative Architecture Design Studio, Teammate- Michael Chan
Award- Grand Prize, Graduate Excellence Award Fall 2023
Context
The site is located at Clinton Lake in DeWitt County, about 35 miles west of Urbana-Champaign. The natural landscape surrounding Clinton Lake is characterized by a mix of wooded areas, grasslands, and the lake itself. The shores of Clinton Lake are often lined with wooded areas, providing habitat for various flora and fauna. Trees such as oak, hickory, and maple may be found in these wooded sections, creating a scenic and shaded environment.
Project Brief
The Illinois Rowing Center and Community Boathouse is a new 25,000sq.ft. boathouse for the University of Illinois Rowing Club, incorporating spaces for training, boat storage and maintenance, and lake access. The program also includes a Community Boathouse where members of the general public may rent boats.
STRUCTURAL FRAMING
STEEL GIRDER
GLULAM BEAM W/ TAPERED EDGE
6” HSS STEEL COLUMN, TYP
PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION
WALL SECTION, ENVELOPE DETAIL
A descent towards the lakefront through a light,floating structure that reflects movement along the contour lines encompassing the shoreline.
03.
URBAN IQ
Second Semester Graduate Project, Teammate- Anushree Parkhi
Publication-ACSA 112th Annual Meeting: Disputers on the Edge
Integrating Building Technology and Computation into Urban Design: A Contextual Approach
Context
Urban IQ is responsive urban intervention, designed to grow, adapt and proliferate according to the needs of the cities. The prototype city used for the research and design is Chicago.
Project Brief
This was an attempt to develop computational methodologies to face complex challenges in our built environment, such as climate change, population growth, and urbanization. It is essential that we find innovative solutions that can help us design more sustainable, efficient, and resilient cities. To achieve these goal we used programs like MidJourney to draw inspiration, Grasshopper-plugin Wasp for effective generative and parametric design and Wallacei, Honeybee and Ladybug for optimization and simulations. These approaches can help architects and urban designers create more complex and adaptive designs, which can be customized to meet the specific needs of different users and contexts.
Building Technology and Computation into Urban Design : A Contextual Approach
ANALYTICAL IMAGE MAPPING
Analytical study of the people’s experiences in various spaces is mapped on a grid to analyze different built environments by feeding various prompts, to categorize twitter feeds of people.
arrangements of the line in the form of a column beam; and the plane in the form of a slab help generate different volumes as shown in Figure 4 (Top). Some of these would be open, some semi-open and some entirely closed. The varying degrees of openness can be used for varying functions within the space. Open modules can be used as spaces for open markets, play
MODULECONNECTION POINTS CONNECTIONRULES
CONNECTION RULES DEFINITION
1_VOLUME OF AGGREGATION
Volume is proportional to material and cost
AGGREGATIONFORMATION PARTCATALOGUE
Parametric generative design to grow, adapt and proliferate according to the needs of the city. To achieve these goal we used programs Grasshopper-plugin Wasp Wallace, Honey bee and Ladybug for optimization and simulations. These approaches can help architects and urban designers create more complex and adaptive designs, which can be customized to meet the specific needs of different users and contexts.
DEFINING PROPORTIONS OF DIFFERENT PARTS SELECTEDAGGREGATION
2_STABILITY OF AGGREGATION
Depends on average height
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
In the urban, everything is calculable, quantifiable, programmable; everything, that calculated, quantified,
that is except the drama that results from the co-presence and re-presentation of the elements quantified, and programmed.
04. CENTRE FOR SIMPLE LIVING
Undergrad, Fifth Year Thesis
Context
The site is in the rural backdrop of Jambghoda wildlife sanctuary with water channel for irrigation passing across the site. It is surrounded by undulating hilly tracts covered by natural vegetation,plantations and cultivated lands. The climate is hot and dry.
Project Brief
A Living-Learning based demonstration and teaching center to bridge the gap between rural and urban realms of India and establish a platform to create, share, learn and restore nature.
A retreat to help people bring more meaning and vitality into their lives. Create a holistic and programmatic vision of what as a society one needs to contribute for a sustainable and conscious living by demonstrating practical solutions for self-sufficiency.
Respecting the existing contours on site opening the ground spaces as semi-open covered spaces.
Combination of double height, semi open and courtyard spaces.
Considering the contours certain part is taken below ground floor to receive advantage of geo- thermal cooling.
Interlinking the building with courtyards and forming street typology inside the campus controlled the character and atmosphere during the hot summers.
Natural context specific design solutions
Rain water harvesting and permaculture
Dense native vegetation in south west direction. (Channel cool air with high pressure through water stream)
Critical regionalism, materiality, local skills empowerment
Climate responsive and responsible
Light vegetation and courtyard in north (Hot air rising up creating low pressure)
The use of vernacular material gives a sense of empowerment to people
gives the building a place of origin and people and encourages sustainability.
06. CAFETERIA
Undergrad, First Year Project
Context
The location of the cafeteria besides (east) the historic D N hall building is a strategic one, as it connects with all the three buildings of the architecture department at MSU.
Project Brief
Design approach was intended to create space not only to eat but a place for retreat, a public square, an amphitheater, a garden, and a place of work. One can truly experience the campus life as they make their way through the carefully designed journey that exerts a form of control on every user moving through the built form, making circulation more than just a route to get from point A to B.
Slit opening in the vault that dispersed natural light into space. At the end of the space lies the opening with brick jali creating a play of light and shadow.
Rainwater is playfully channeled through the vaults, funneled along the site by the slick channels to water troughs.
1. Recreational Activities
2. Cafe 3. Reading Room
4. Outdoor Cafe
5. Kitchen and Services
Vault is used as contemporary architecture gesture to subtly compliment the historic arches in the context and suit to the local climate
Natural light from the slit in the textured brick vault gives sense of axis to the space.
Water influenced design through its dynamic and fluid nature yet evoking sentiments of calmness.
Bold red brick vaults resting on the load bearing It is still a simple and repetitive
brick walls form different volumes in the design.
repetitive form of logic.
07. PROFESSIONAL WORKS
INTERACTIVE DESIGN ARCHITECTS, CHICAGO, IL, USA
Full-time Emerging Professional (Jan - Aug 2022) - Internship (May - Aug 2023)
OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER
• Managed construction administration by effectively reviewing and timely correspondence on submittals with design architects, engineering consultants, and contractors
• Coordinated architectural drawings from DD set for drawings issued by various agencies involved in designing space for museum exhibits at different levels in the presidential tower
FORT WAYNE CAPITAL SECURITY PROJECT (GSA)
- HISTORIC COURTHOUSE EXTENSION
• Developed a BIM model using Revit from a set of hand drawings produced in 1986 for the Historic Courthouse in Fort Wayne—to analyze the structure, circulation, security, and programming of the building
• Delivered comprehensive construction drawing sets, encompassing meticulously prepared floor plans and detailed drawings
SAMVAD DESIGN STUDIO, BANGALORE, INDIA
Internship (May - Nov 2019)
HOUSE OF TWO COURTS
Created detailed physical models with an iterative and comprehensive approach to study design outcomes
Conducted market surveys for material selection for effective cost analysis and detailing of the project and efficiently delivered working drawings.
CRICKET ACADEMY
Synthesized material, structural and tectonic expression—using compressed stabilized earth blocks, passive cooling technologies which generated the massing, environmental and energy responsive strategies evolved to address the tropical hot and dry climatic zone.
• NOTE: THESE IMAGES ARE STRICTLY FOR REPRESENTATIVE PURPOSES, INTENDED TO DEMONSTRATE THE DIVERSITY AND SCALE OF PROJECTS I HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO. DRAWING SETS HAVE NOT BEEN SHARED TO MAINTAIN CONFIDENTIALITY.
08.
AI EXPERIMENTS
Generative AI Renders
Midjourney is a text-to-image generative AI app that can help architects create new designs. It can take into account factors like materials, space, and environmental impact when generating ideas for buildings and structures. AI in architecture is gaining traction with tools to automate aspects of image generation, schematic design, urban planning, interior layout, and more. As AI capabilities in architecture become increasingly sophisticated, architects will be able to take more curatorial roles. These are some of the experiments that I undertook in order to learn about new possibilties in architecture.
09. RESILIENCE
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others
-Pericles
The image shared here is a common sight that can be captured in any city in India. In terms of political language, these spaces are considered as ‘chaos’. Today the cities are evolving at a much faster pace than ever before, striving to adapt to the perfect notions of Western societies. The places underneath the tree anchor the multifaceted layers that are formed in the Indian context with rituals, activities, which co-exist in harmony with humans and natural orders despite the apparent chaos.
These sites form a resilience in the urban fabric of the Indian cities. It provides shelter, forms social interactions, exchanges of ideas and commodities. Here the trees act as the foreground of the socio-cultural intermix. These inorganic forces support the economy of the poor migrants and serve as a pivot of the environment. The spaces through considered inorganic and chaotic create sustainable and interconnected ecosystems within the city fabric. It forms a resilience between the multiple aspects of public life and nature.
Competition Entry: Finalist, Climate: Through Your Eyes, Science Gallery Bengaluru
Brief: The prompt involved capturing how are communities readying themselves for climate change. The interpretation showed the theme of resilience in society.
