Zain Kossous Polimi Master's Portfolio

Sustainable Architecture & Landscape Design Portfolio

By Zain Kossous

“I am not from the East or the West, but somewhere in between..

I was planted in Jordan, grew in Canada, and bloomed in Italy. I aspire to be a global citizen, writing chapters of my story in different parts of the world. My name is Zain Kossous, and I graduated from McGill University with a BSc. in Architecture. This portfolio is a collection of work from my ongoing Masters in Sustainable Architecture and Landscape Design at Politecnico di Milano. My design philosophy is one that extracts inspiration from the Nature recognizing it as the Ultimate Designer. My vision is to create a greener future with an understanding that we are intertwined with all Life Energy on Earth; Mother Gaia. Earth is a shared space for all its creatures designed for coexistence and diversity, rather than capital competition. I am on a path of self-discovery as a human and a creator, in awe of the universe and its infinite dimensions. I am also a yogi, musician, social and environmental activist learning to become a conscious consumer. My work lies at the intersection of Art, Architecture, Ancestral History, BioGeometry, Geopolitics, Spirituality, and Ecology. If I can give one book recommendation to anyone, it would be A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

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ZAIN KOSSOUS SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECT | ARTIST | GRAPHIC DESIGNER | EVENT PLANNER | INTERIOR DESIGNER | ENVIRONMENTALIST

Nationality Canadian / Jordanian Date of Birth 11/04/1996 Languages English, Arabic, Basic Italian Email zain.kossous@gmail.com

EDUCATION 2019-2021 Politecnico di Milano

MSc. Sustainable Architecture and Landscape Design Gold Scholarship Piacenza, Italy

2014 – 2018 McGill University

School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering Bachelor of Science in Architecture with Distinction Montreal, Canada

2012 – 2014 King’s Academy

Advanced Placement and SAT Highest Honor Role Madaba, Jordan

SOFTWARE SKILLS Photoshop Illustrator InDesign AutoCAD Rhino Revit Sketchup Grasshopper 3ds Max Enscape QGIS

WORK EXPERIENCE July 2020 - September 2020 NAMA Strategic Intelligence Solutions Concept and Design Developer Amman, Jordan September 2018 - July 2019 Teeple Architects Junior Designer Toronto, Canada July 2017 Dar Al Handasah Shair & Partners Co Intern Amman, Jordan June 2015 AlNasser + Partners Architects and Engineers Intern Amman, Jordan

CERTIFICATES Circular Economy for a Sustainable Built Environment Interior Design for Restaurants Necessary Architecture (Tigray Refugee Camp) Sustainable Interior Design

PUBLICATIONS Folio Magazine Issue #25

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/65597196/issue-25

Amman Desgin Week 2020

https://www.intimatesessionsmag.com/zein-qussus

Wallzy

https://wallzy.com/collections/zein-qussus

Fonoon

https://fonoon.co/collections/zanzoon

Bachelor’s Portfolio

https://issuu.com/zainkossous/docs/zain_kossous_portfolio_2018

Curator’s Collective: Venice Biennale Bench Exhibition Museo di Storia Naturale Exhibition in Cremona

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CONTENT

I Milan, Italy

II Sardinia, Italy

III Barcelona, Spain

IV Piacenza, Italy

V Tigray, Ethiopia

VI Jerusalem, Palisra 5

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I

ECO-PARK. MILAN

Urban and Environmental Design, Politecnico di Milano 2020 Instructors: Fabiamo Lemes & Israa Hanafi Collaboration with Babar Khan, Basma Tarek, Sara Cecere, & Yara Serageldine

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HABITAT HEALING HUMAN “As we work to heal the Earth, the Earth heals us” -Robin Kimmerman Our vision is to welcome nature back into our cities and thus create a more balanced way of life. By doing so, we begin to heal ourselves as well as the Earth in an interconnected relationship. We aim to raise awareness to the fact that nature is a place of therapy for humans. Our goals include shifting Milan’s infrastructure from grey to green in order to create a more sustainable and resilient future where the next generation will grow up with closer proximity to nature and have a better understanding of the natural world. By creating a stronger connection between existing green areas, we will begin to soften the boundary between the natural and the concrete. We aim to change the status quo of humans spending 90% of their time indoors by creating welcoming outdoor meeting spaces that will strengthen community ties and lead to an increase in happiness and well-being with nature as the main tool and resource. This project comes as a natural response to the stress driven lifestyles of the Milanese people.

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"The Milanese? Stress Patients"

100k

Milanese regulardly use psychotropics

15%

Suffer from addictions

700k

Packets of prescribed psychotropic drugs per year

300k

Suffer from anxiety disorder

50%

% of anxiety and stress caused by work

Healing With Nature Program

EN AND BLUE ATEGY MAP

Green and Blue Strategy Map

xisting Parks

Legend

Community Garden Existing Parks

ensory GardenCommunity Garden

Green Wall

Sensory Garden

Green Wall xisting Educational Institutions Existing Educational Institutions

icycling Sharing Station

Bicycling Sharing Station

lectric Charging Station

ioswale

Electric Charging Station Bioswale

Green Noise Barrier

Green Noise Barrier

ermeable pavement

Permeable pavement

edestrian Street

Cycling Path

iver + Naviglio

Pedestrian Street Cycling Path River + Naviglio

unning Track Running Track

ioretention pond Bioretention pond

Naviglio Interventions Naviglio Interventions

xisting BridgesExisting Bridges

Proposed Bridges roposed Bridges

roposed Site Proposed Site

nergy Zone

Energy Zone

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Bridge Node 10

Health Cafe

Farmer’s Market

Green Houses

Garden of Senses

Facility Buildings

Community Garden

Contemplation Pods

Main Attraction Points Bridge Node Connection

Healing Center

Agriculture School

Storyboard Walk-through

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Sustainable Urban Furniture

Bee House

Section A

Healing Center Flooding Solution

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Solar Tree

Section B

A

B

B

Section A + B

NBS Solutions Plan

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II

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ECOTOURISM. SARDINIA

Advanced Landscape Design, Politecnico di Milano 2021 Instructors: Henrique Pessoa & Nahid Vantapour Collaboration with Maya Nariman, Seray Uluderya, Sezin Tutuncouglu, & Yara Serageldine

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HEALING LANDSCAPE TRAUMA “The longest journey you will make in your life is from your head to your heart” -Sinoux Indian saying This project aims to revive the lost connection with nature and simultaneously our own human nature. The approach will be taken from a spiritual point of view that will heal both the human and the landscape from the historical and intergenerational trauma of war and destruction that took place on the site during WW2. The vision of the existing abandoned park is to become a site for pilgrimage where the journey is equally as important as the ultimate destination. This experience is for the soul traveler who wishes to go far in order to travel within. For the purpose of this project, we will be referring to “God” interchangeably with “Divine Intelligence”, “Source Energy”, “Nature”, “Life”, a miraculous organizational power of the universe that creates everything that we know. We reference Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs as a way to question how landscape actions can respond to these needs.

We focus our project on the pinnacle point and define self-actualization as improving one’s soul by connecting with the source energy and becoming one with all beings of nature. We recognize that therapeutic landscapes of spiritual significance allow for cultural and personal quests for alleviation, connection and renewal. Our main challenge was: how do we transform spirituality into tangible reality? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngWEjrVoVls

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Concept - Going Within

On an Island with low population and high density of nature. A blue zone famous for its centinarians and longevity of life

A city surrounded by mountains and disconnected from dense urban life. Ancient Nuraghe wisdom transfered through storytelling

Battery Park; once a battle field for WW2 soldiers who died in isolation. The landscape and its people are wounded

Returning back to our origins as natural peaceful beings. Journeying towards our true selves by realigning ourselves with nature

Life on Our Planet

Territorial Scale - The Green Hug

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Program

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Landmarks

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Material Palette

ed Rocks

te e l

R ing ist

nS rte

d E a rt h

ob e rAd

me

hS ac

and

egetatation +V

ite an

ae

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pe

m

Landscape Interventions

Be Gr Al g

Ex Co Su Ra

H & BELVEDE PAT RE

ND

DU

NES

MP RA

P

ALG AE

MEDI TAT IO N

ND

AG

OU

TH PA

C OA S TA LS A ZIG Z

GR

ER UND

SEN SO RY

O

E+ AZ

ND

M

ITORIUM AUD

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Battery Park - Transforming State of Neglect and Abandonment Entrance Design

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Plan

Front Elevation

Left Elevation

Back Elevation

Individual Temple A place for meditation, contemplation, and connection with the Divine

Plan

Section

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Finding Light in the Darkness

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Sensorial Path

Earth Accupuncture

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Superadobe Earth Domes - Workshops and Exhibition Spaces

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III

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SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS PRISON. BARCELONA Architectural Design I, Politecnico di Milano 2019 Instructor: Karin Hofert Collaboration with Tanya Pletneva & Lizet Bonilla

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THE CELL “Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the Creator.” -Antoni Gaudi “The cell” is a place of growth. It is a play on words referring to both the confined space an inmate is sentenced to serve time in as punishment for a crime, as well as the cell being the functional unit of all organisms and therefore known as “the building block of all life”. We are absolutely connected to our natural environment as well as each other. Our concept is based on the fact that in our true essence, we are all one. Therefore, an inmate should not lose connection to society. We want to provide inmates with the opportunity to connect with themselves, each other, and their surrounding natural environment through our rehabilitation program.

We have integrated an agricultural/hospitality program to implement a “learning by doing” approach, where our inmates will have a chance to learn the skills required to plant fresh fruits and vegetables which will later be served in the restaurant managed by them. Our prison differs from conventional prisons because it does not delay the growth of an individual, rather it gives them a chance to improve themselves from the inside as well as outside.

CONCEPT - ONENESS AND CONNECTION

NEURON CELLS 36

CITY LIGHTS

THE UNIVERSE

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Master Plan

Section A-A

Section B-B

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Sectional Perspective A-A

Cells & Common Spaces Roofless Plan 39

THE GUEST HOUSE Administration

Library

Ground Floor Restaurant Roof Plan Green Roof

2nd Floor Hotel rooms

West Elevation

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Guest House Sectional Pespectives

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IV

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THE GREEN CITY. PIACENZA

Urban and Landscape Regenration, Politecnico di Milano 2020 Instructors: Emanuela Dentis, Raffaela Laviscio, & Rosano Bolpagni Collaboration with Dicheng Yang, Jingjing Ni, Nouran Elbegarmy, & Yasamin Yaghmaei

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REVITALIZING THE RIVER CITY “Infinite regression is the moment when an artist, having regressed to the point of Infinity, himself becomes a part of the picture he has painted and is both the observer and the observed.” -Quantum We are all subject to the passing of time, yet each of us feels and perceives it in our own way. Time itself has no shape or boundary and cannot be fixed or grasped. We aim to preserve monumental historical moments and to depict time and space as sensations shared by both viewer and environment. In our project, we attempt to shed light on the history and important events in Piacenza and integrate them into the spatial dimensions to bring them back to life. Using wayfinding strategies, canopies, installations, and sensory activators; the project aims to preserve and fully requalify historical locations and landmarks where they become new open micro nodes that act as a pole of attraction and an element of social interaction by creating unfamiliar itineraries and new low impact natural interventions that complement the existing urban fabric. Our vision is to transform the city of Piacenza from a transit city to one that is a key destination inviting people to recognize what it has to offer. The entire design process of the new master plan aims to create a protection band and filter, improving the relationship of the ring road with the historic center and the riverfront, while allowing for ecological access. Our goal is reconnecting and redeveloping the areas between the river and the city center while focusing on the existing heritage of Piacenza. By promoting social development, security, and social participation we are allowing the inhabitants to be more involved in the riverfront and city and by proxy increase biodiversity and ecological connection through their increased awareness of the River Po natural system.

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Focus Area

Masterplan

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Sustainable Transport

Green Buffers

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Outdoor History Museum

Flexible Functions

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WATER HAS MEMORY Experiments done in many countries around the world have shown that water receives and makes an imprint on any outside influence, remembering everything that occurs in the space that surrounds it. Water is capable of recording and storing information and has been described as the most “malleable computer”.

Diatoms are a major group of algae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of the Earth’s biomass: they generate about 20 to 50 percent of the oxygen produced on the planet each year. This inspired the structural system of the floating restaurant design, as the strength and disaster resiliency of the system can be optimized by mimicking the design of a diatom skeleton, while also raising awareness about the importance of these species and the impact climate change is having on their gradual decrease in number.

Moreover, floating gardens use plants as a means to clean up pollutants in a process called phytoremediation which is a technology for decontaminating soil, known to be both efficient and economical.

Root systems absorb contaminants, leaving behind clean water and soil.

When it comes to urban beautification and cleanup, floating gardens are an ideal solution: they rehabilitate wetlands and waters; they provide a reliable source of food and livelihood; they are sustainable and often biodegradable; and they remedy the problems of the past (pollution) while withstanding the challenges of the future (changing water levels). They are practical without being intrusive, and make healthy what was once poisoned. Therefore, floating gardens were integrated into the architecture as a Nature Based Solution for the water pollution mitigation of the river.

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Diatom Shaped Floating Restaurant

Boathouse Rentals with Floating Gardens

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V

ECOSCHOOL. TIGRAY

Necessary Architecture Workshop ARCO 2021 (2 weeks) Instructors: Alisia Tognon & Luca Trabattoni Collaboration with Luigi Pagani, Samrawit Gebremichael, & Ula Ali

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MOTHER NATURE EDUCATION “Education is the movement from darkness to light.” -Unknown This project was set in the May Aini Refugee Camp in Tigray, Ethiopia with a goal to improve educational facilities for the community. Our vision for this project is to design a primary school by day, and a community space by night, specifically focusing on creating a safe and empowering environment for women. We aim to employ green architecture to design a multifunctional and adaptable space that will become an active meeting hub for the camp residents. In the mission for education we include practical life skill education as well as the traditional academics to acquire a wholistic work life preparation. A key element in our masterplan is the agriculture space that serves as an education program as well as offers a chance for revenue.

Our goal is to balance between necessity and aesthetics in order to design a space that is sustainably constructed from local and upcycled materials such as adobe bricks, bamboo, and recycled corrugated steel. The masterplan is arranged in an S shape to promote inclusion and community building by placing the functions around central courtyards while creating a green buffer with the rest of the camp for noise and air pollution mitigation.

Section A

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Ground Floor Plan

A

Program 1. Classrooms 2. Offices 3. Multi-functional rooms 4. Dining hall 5. Kitchen 6. Multipurpose semi open space 7. Tailoring rooms 8. Beauty salons 9. Women’s workshop rooms 10. Professional training rooms 11. Bathrooms

Agriculture Masterplan

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Elevation

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VI

POST PANDEMIC HOUSE. PALISRA

Architectural Design II Politecnico di Milano 2021 Instructors: Camilo Rebelo & Kiana Jalali Collaboration with Dicheng Yang, Jingjing Ni, & Mariya Hamada

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HOUSING MOTHER & CHILD “Your house is your larger body. It grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of the night; and it is not dreamless. Does not your house dream?”

-On Houses by Khalil Gibran In a world paralyzed with fear, panic and uncertainty, we ventured on a quest to find home within one’s self on a turmoiled landscape that is longing for inner and outer peace between its inhabitants: Jerusalem. They call her different names, Urshalim and AlQuds, she is Eden and The Garden of Earthly Delights.. yet she is also hell. She is mother and child, heaven and earth, good and evil, love and war, light and shadow, yin and yang, life and death. Stitching a wound longing for healing, among three hills marked with the trilogy of the Church of Visitation, Mary’s Spring, and the Covenant of the Sisters of Zion.. A Jerusalemite mother planted her offspring in the Biblical landscape of Ein Kerem before settlers cut off her branches. Mother is a Bathhouse connecting the heavens to earth. She reminds us of the time when we were floating inside of her womb. Yearning for purification to heal, her veins drink from Mary’s Spring. The child is a lighthouse, a place of meditation and contemplation.

Curious defiant and playful, he grew in height chasing the sun. When the darkness of man reappears and she had nowhere to hide.. She dug deep into the ground to find refuge in the Uterus of Mother Earth. In situations of panic and isolation inside a concrete bunker, mother nature provides with medicine, nourishment, and beauty to lift the spirits high. The architecture marries the sacred to the mundane and the ancient to the contemporary.

Mother and child are the museum of our past, the house of the present, and the ruins of the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIAe_V9IuhU

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“The playful child grew in height chasing the sun..”

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“Her generous walls radiate warmth to her children floating ins

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side her womb..

..cleansing as a ritual for purification of mind and body” 67

Section A

Section B

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Underground Bunker Floor Plan A

B

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CEREMONY & RITUAL 28.03.2021

The Palm Sunday feast commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four Gospels. Palm Sunday is celebrated by the blessing and distribution of palm branches (or the branches of other native trees). An event was designed for a few students in Piacenza who are celebrating away from their families and have come together as a new chosen family; a home away from home. The event was seen as temporary architecture, focusing on the table as the central nucleus that transforms and evolves from day to night. The table is where we cook, eat, work, create, and communicate. We invited nature as a guest from the outside into our living space, therefore blurring the line between inside and out. In the spirit of sustainability, we bought fruits, vegetables, and both fresh and dried flowers from local vendors. We mostly used dried flowers as we were attracted to the idea that they were frozen in time and are less harmful to the environment. Our collective subconscious memory is nostalgic to the time when man was cradled by Mother Nature in the Garden of Eden. This inspired the theme for this event that allowed us to cross the threshold between heaven and earth.

We designed a living, transforming, evolving, partially edible model.

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Mama’s Salmon Tart

Beetroot Hummus

Date Cake

Spring Salad

Truffle Bouchee

Seashell Spinach Ricotta

Eggplant Fatteh

Red Thai Curry

MENU

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TABLE “A homemade ceremony is a ceremony that makes a home”

Ceremony is a vehicle for belonging-to a family, to a people, and to a land: marrying the mundane to the sacred 74

LANDSCAPE

Forraging from local Piacentini vendors in upcycled bottles 75

PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PLANTS, PLANTS, & & PLATES PLATES

The table as the nucleus of the home

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EVOLVING EVOLVING USE USE Day to Night

The table as a place for work and play 77

Dar Petra Hotel Conceptual Interiors The Lobby

The Bedroom

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“Spaces blending ancestry and art as portals to a sustainable reality” The Restaurant

The Bar

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The End