THE BRICK HOUSE | AHMEDABAD, INDIA Professional Studio 2019
DELLEN ART MUSEUM | DELAWARE AVE, BUFFALO Design Studio 2021
MATERIALIZING LOSS | UB SOUTH CAMPUS, BUFFALO Design Studio 2022
GLOBAL INSTITUTE | UB SOUTH CAMPUS, BUFFALO Design Studio 2020
TRACES OF ACCESS | OUTER HARBOUR, BUFFALO Design Studio 2021
PUBLIC LIBRARY | NALANDA, INDIA Design Studio 2018
Location : Ahmedabad, India
Year : 2019
The Brick House is conceived and designed as an intelligent, adaptable and sustainable family home at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. A rather simple brief prompted the design for a home that would be aligned with the principles of vastu, and yet be expressive of the present. Bringing in the green and with it the warmth that natural materials evoke, Brick House intends to blend the boundary between the inside and outside. The two bays of the public and private zone are ‘stapled together’ by the main circulation spine. The clients requirement for peace was articulated as fluid spaces, use of natural materials, external courtyards, green cascades and waterbodies in and around the site. The home includes three courts: the temple court, the winter court and the summer court, serving shading, natural light and ventilation, play of hardscape and landscape with waterbodies. As elevated the house conceives engaging programs like theatre room, multifunctional room, Jacuzzi and bar area along with terrace garden. The exterior body is wrapped with thick walls against the sun hours and have massive glass facades on the shading side to balance the cool and hot temperature, along with planted greens all over the site.
The master bedroom is 26’6” X 16’10” in size and is divide by two zones private bed area and private seating zone for reading, watching and chilling with family/friends, along with book shelf and passage leading to dressing room.
The daughter’s bedroom is 19’3”X 14’1” in size and has glass facade on two side and the wall is build of exposed concrete. The room has spilled semi-open space outside, with private zone connecting terrace garden.
RENDER VIEW OF MASTER BEDROOM
Son’s Bedroom
Family Living Area
Watch
TERRACE
FLOOR
The terrace consists of bar /kitchen with outdoor seating and party space.
The second floor consists of one bedroom, multifunctional room and jacuzzi bath area with spilled terrace garden with outdoor seating and bar area.
The first floor consists of two rooms one of which is master’s bedroom and also has theatre room to engage family living on central floor.
The ground floor has one guest bedroom, private/ public living room and kitchen which is connected to two courtyards and front garden area.
The solar panels are installed at roof for generating enough electricity for the house.
The facade is a play of parametric brick jali enclosing dressing rooms in interiors.
The central courtyard is of double height space with multi-use zone, which is visually connected to the public and private living areas of the house.
Front Elevation Rendered View
Picture showing central courtyard and interior passage
Picture showing the entrance of house and public living
Instructor : Annette Lecuyer
Location : Delaware Avenue, Buffalo
Studio 3 : Architectural Building
Design 2021
The Dellen Art Museum is located at the corner junction of the Delaware Avenue and Allen Street, Buffalo. The designing of art musuem is stated for an exploration of distinct art around the world and within the city. As it is located at one of main street, the museum lays its entrance and connecting functions is in direct conversations with the streets, to engage people outside and inside the building. The facade pattern of the museum is designed on front edges, where the ground floor columns are glazed open, connecting the street and museum. While the upper part of connecting facade is enclosed as it has Gallery program which serves the art display in confined space. The form of the building is linear alinged with the site shape and the interior functions are a play of trapezoidal spaces.
The diagram is the site plan and it is located at the corner junction of Delaware Avenue and Allen Street. The plans shows the surrounding context and existing vegetation which serves the idea of public and vehicular circulation around the site. It also gives the idea of connecting street to enhance the site circulation.
CONCEPT /
Site Building Volume
Creating Trapezoid Lightwells for the Lower Ground Level
Subtracting to create in Atrium
Diving the mass in Trapezoid
Trapezoidal Skylight
Core of the Structure
Longest gallery view connecting other two gallerys which is juxtaposed with each other
Central atrium view enhancing the interactive staircase connecting the gallery and main floor
Section Perspective Virginia Place
The original design approach assisted in determining the museum’s massing in relation to the voids and spaces that provide daylight and a visual experience for visitors. The structure’s center core is dedicated to circulation, which creates a congregation space and allows for visible connection between people. The whole concrete structure of the Museum was created with readily accessible local materials, allowing for quick construction. The gallery space are designed in trapezoid shape to form long walls for displaying art and it is juxstaposed to each other to create mysterious journey for art display.
Instructor : Miguel Guitart
Location : South Campus, Buffalo Research Studio : Manufacturing Variability, Material Culture 2022
The sense of loss of a loved one is universally shared amongst everyone, regardless of our background and history. Loss can come in many forms and has the potential to bring out some of the most intense emotions. It also has the potential to teach many things about ourselves and others thereby promoting growth. The history of the patients, immigrants, and inmates at the Almshouse and Poor house of Erie County deserve to have a final resting place that can remain undisturbed and not forgotten. The project proposes an installation that encapsulates the struggles these individuals went through during their lives. The proposals’ goal is to uncover a historical memory of their time on earth with a physical material memory of Buffalo. The materials used within the construction as well as the assembly itself resemble a physical manifestation of their location through site, their ambition through material, and their struggle through form.
Archaeologists and anthropologists at the university carefully excavated and attempted to identify the remains as they were found. Remains were eventually reinterred at a cemetery in Grand Island. While the university has also created a memorial garden on South Campus, the location of this monument is far removed from the location of the existing graves, still forgotten under a parking lot and patch of grass next to the university’s daycare.
Lost Cemetery: Almshouse Grounds, Buffalo’s Anonymous Burial grounds remembered
The material concept is to create an initial structure from a relatively soft, erosive block which will degrade over time. Using this as a formwork, a harder, more lasting, resilient internal structure is indroduced in the form of concrete poured into the vertical and horizontal network of cells and grooves within the modular block wall. To achieve the desired qualities, a precise mixture was devised for the block; one which was firm enough to be transported and stacked, but also weak enough to deteriorate and erode to reveal the internal core.
We utilized the Aurum 3000 Earth Block Press to produce modular blocks with voids which allow us to pour a concrete mix into the network of block cells to create a rigid, unified, interior structure. Local materials were used for the blocks. Soil, lime, and sand were sourced from a local quarry.
1 Place blocks in square formation allowing for vertical rebar in each cell.
2 Concrete is poured into existing cells as the wall is gradually built up.
3 Horizontal reinforcement laid in grooves in prefabri cated blocks and concrete poured around.
5 Final blocks put in place and concrete poured.
4 Build higher row by row, pouring concrete with every two block courses
6 Finished structure
Year One : The visitor approaches the installation. She circles the installation, but find it is solid and enclosed on all four sides. The interior is shielded from view. The visitor reflects on the reasoning for this structure and what may be inside.Subtle variations in block color reflect the diversity of the people buried in the ground below. Almshouse residents included locals as wellas immigrants, many of whom spoke French or German. Additionally, many residents lived with physical or mental disabilities.
Year Ten : The visitor approaches the heavily eroded installation. He can see into the void of the enclosure, where a rich pattern is being cast by the shadow of the exposed concrete skeleton. On the ground, the built-up pile of eroded earth connects the installation organically to the sacred ground underneath.
erosion
3 years, Completely eroded and sedimented crumbles passing through the burrial grounds. “Cycle of Life”
Option 1: Placement over body. Priviledges one body over all
Option 2: Placement on empty ground between bodies. Memorializes all
As the block erode, the skeletal structure filters the sunlight to create dynamic and ever changing pat terns on the interior of the structure.
Instructor : Brian Carter
Location : UB South Campus, Buffalo
Studio : Architecture Building Design Studio 2020
The Global Institute serves the universal platform where it has Latin, Caribbean, Native, African and Canadian Studies. It is designed at South Campus near Hayes Hall where the site has connection to the main street and also all campus connection leads to the institute. The design of Institute has central atrium like long path creating connection to the function spaces. It is three storey building having roof garden, floating bridges and glass/steel roof with rain water collection system. At the etrance of building there is roof extension that porch out serving the entrance access.
View showing connection of central space to the auditorium and library building, along with roof garden and outdoor reading space
View showing office and auditorium building, with front space of news reading and deck seating spaces. Upper level functions restaurants which leads ramp to roof garden
Native American
African American
Canadian American
Isometric View of The Global Institute in surrounding context of South Campus, UB
Isometric Section View of The Global Institute in surrounding context of South Campus, UB
Structure of building roof resides lika a peripherals guard of the Global Institute. The row of Metal columns serves as support system to the roof structure and stand like decorative elevation element, along with glass panels. Glass panels acts as wind barriers for the open spaces within and let the light pass through sides. The concrete glass roof body brings in indirect light and its variation through out the day.
Location : Outer Harbour, Buffalo
Research Studio : Situated Technologies Studio 2021
As we explored the site, we came across an individual who was swimming in an area that we had thought people weren’t allowed to swim in. This created a feeling of curiosity fixed with frustration and essentially powerless. With our focus being fixated on the emotion that was evoked when seeing someone else do an activity that another perceived as unauthorized. That emotion of curiosity drove our interest to understand the perceived and actual activity on the site. To understand what activity was perceived as “acceptable”, we had to understand how the site was regulating activity without an authoritative figure. The signs on the site explained what activity was and was not allowed on the site. We began to document the signs that we found and the activity that occurred in the space being “regulated” by the sign. The more signs that we searched for, the more we came across portions of the site that seemed inaccessible.
Evidence became our way to capture activity that we aren’t physically able to witness ourselves. To see if the stories in our mind matched with what actually happened, we began to enact these risky activities our selves. Then we began to set up cameras in different locations to view what activities actually occur when no one is watching.
We essentially were capturing the uncaptured. The mental and physical boundaries made us feel power less by regulating what activity that it forced us to perceive as a transgression. But the more activities that we learned that people got away with doing, the more comfortable that we became with the site and all the activities that we can do there.
By setting up cameras in different locations, we were able to view what activities actually occur when no one is watching. By also capturing activity in the sky, we were able to access the sites that were made fully inaccessible to the public. We essentially were capturing the uncaptured. We again change our position on the site from the powerless to the powerful.
The mental and physical boundaries made us feel powerless by regulating what activity that it forced us to perceive as a transgression. But the more activities that we learned that people got away with doing, the more comfortable that we became with the site and all the activities that we can do there. But how do you create such a liberating feeling of enacting risky activities for others?
By making ourselves and our experience the apparatus through virtual reality. The virtual space creates a way for the user to view the site from our eyes in a way that the data that we collected through surveil lance could be easily digested. But it also evokes the emotion of being the powerless to the powerful.
Scan Here
Seeing the site from multiple perspectives that we extracted information from, changes the user’s po sition from being surveilled to being the observer and ultimately becoming the participant. The more knowledge that we provide, the more comfortable one becomes with the world of transgression.
Instructor : Rupinder Singh
Location : Nalanda, India
Studio : Architecture Building Design, Louis Kahn 2018
Nalanda was a renowned Buddhist monastic university in ancient Magadha, India. The project aim was to design a new campus plan for the university and to design a Public Library for the local people of the Nalanda city. The planning is inspired from Louis.Kahn works and the campus plan had different academics building, student/faculty housing and cafe/resturants etc. The scale of site and campus is spreaded across the radius range of 1Kilometer with fairly consistent heated tempeture throughout the year. Water bodies is well spreaded across the campus, seeking for cool atmosphere and rows of trees are planted for shading the campus paths and buildings. The Public Library share a centre platform on the campus,connecting academic buildings and faculty/student housing. The design of Library is also inspire by Louis.khan architecture where there is play of additional facades, sky light and staggering atrium for diffused light within the building.
Slit glass fenestration near reading and stack area for light from side
Exhibits the staggered central cutouts to bring in diffused lights and for interaction within the building
Three circular central cutouts and two lights well penetrating througout the building
Addition of screen layer for preventing direct sunlight
Staircase working as service and fire escape core
Main stack and reading area at edges of the building
Central atrium with cutouts and light from dome
Light wells penetrating light on every floor
with staggering light penetrating dome
Service core with lift and staircase
Through projects that I have practised in academics and during internship, I have become enthusiatic about how to use architecture as an device to impact everyday life of people and to transform the social interaction between humans and within communities.
