Zulfiqar_2025_Portfolio by Sarah Zulfiqar

Sarah Zulfiqar

Virginia Tech Interior Design Portfolio

1 NEXT Advertising Agency Office

Fall 2024 8 Weeks

Revit I Photoshop I Enscape

This design for an advertising agency office in West Fulton Market, Chicago, focuses on the innovation aspect of advertising. The concept is inspired by the idea of “collision” and how innovation is collision. Advertising agencies thrive on different ideas and ideas do not always agree, they collide and this collision leads to collaboration which ends up in a final innovative breakthrough. Through the use of a central geometry colliding, and resulting in diagonal angles, the design creates a break in the linearity of collaboration and allows for a new ideation to flow throw. Additionally, the “collision zone” houses an AR/ VR testing room where there is an intersection between physical and virtual realities. Paying homage to the rich innovative and industrial history of Chicago, the space utilizes 4 main materials: steel, glass, concrete and wood. This project was part of the Steelcase NEXT competition.

Looking at the natural column grid of the building, I divided it into smaller sections and worked with the existing diagonals to come up with geometries. The diagonal in the parti above is the defining shape for the flow of the space, including the stairs

Parti

Collision zone

The staircase responds to the forms created through the collision piece and acts as both a seating area for the reception and seating for the screen-based client display.

Flex Mod LED Panels

Arktura Slant

Tresco Lighting Side-Emitting Neoloop, 4800K

Client Display Axon

Inside VR/AR room

Steelcase

Coalesse Less than Five

West Elm Kent

Steelcase Umami

Office Axons

West Elm Belle

Coalesse Less than Five

Steelcase Umami

Work Cafeteria

Virginia Tech Health and Design Research Center

Spring 2024 8 Weeks

Revit I Photoshop I Enscape

This design for a higher education research building for the Virginia Tech Carilion School, located in downtown Roanoke, VA, focuses on solving the issue of different wellness needs for office employees. The concept is inspired by the fragmented patterns in nature that symbolize how the workplace is made up of people with different needs and desires who come together to create community. Through the use of geometrical forms mimicking fragments, the design creates wellness hubs throughout the space, serving the different needs of its users. Spaces range from public to fully private, and vary in degrees of how much biophilia is present. All spaces coexist just like all different fragments coexist in harmony in nature. Additionally, the project was a competition sponsored by the company Haworth

To emphasize the central volume, I did a fragment pattern on the side to add another dimensional element and exaggerate the relationship between the two floors.

Parti

501 Salem Ave SW

I wanted to analyze the space and see where the most amount of natural light would come in. This allowed me to make the space more welcoming and allowing people to experience the outside, inside.

The first level hosts more public and learning spaces for easy navigation. The second floor is more quiet and is a focus zone to allow for more privacy as well as noise control for the apartments.

Indoor

Group

Intimate

Large

Private

Moss wall

Built-in seating Padded acoustical panels

Central Meditative space

Makerspace Axon

ARMSTRONG

Acoustical ceiling

tiles

LED Dimmable

Lighting

Robotic Arm

Allows for easier lab demos. Innovative approach to learningn

BuzziBalance

Cassina Shelf Contour Lamp

Haworth Highlights

Lady Lounge Sofa Ribbon Stool Cultivate Table

Individual Meditation Space

CALI Floors Crystal Crescent

Interface Carpet Tile: Open Air 403: Nickel Rust

ECOS Paints 1152 Berry Patch

Haworth: LARA Blue Ice

Polished Concrete

FLOR Carpet Tile: Open Air 403: Transiton

Haworth AZURE

Haworth: Silica Marigold

FLOR Carpet Tile: Step by step Turquoise

Square Co-Working Office

410 S Jefferson Roanoke, VA 2023

Revit I Photoshop I Enscape

This project’s aim was to identify an existing problem in the workspace and design a solution to solve it. The problem I chose to solve is the lack of accommodations for remote workers with a focus on working parents who lack easy/immediate access to childcare. Square is a tech-based E-commerce company whose goal is to help small businesses thrive and being inclusive to everyone. The company’s guiding principles are simplicity and the effort to “empower outside and inside its walls”. The space uses two main design features: a children’s room and a grand collaborative stair. The mezzanine is curved to add a playfulness and to allow the employees to feel connected to the second floor. The staircase acts as an opportunity for conversation , thus, making employees feel welcome and accomodated.

• Curve implemented into room shapes

• Dramatic Curve

• Curved walls for most rooms

• Curve adds “playfulness“

• Level 1 focuses on collaboration and interaction

• Space is open as soon as someone enters and has more collaborative spaces

• Level 2 focuses on private spaces

• Children’s room is at the front of the mezzanine, combining it with the open aspect from the first floor.

Exploded Axon

Study of curved forms

Abstracted logo pattern which lights up

Abstraccted logo for stair lighting

Felt Panel Wall

Cloud Lights

Playing Cubes

Mounted car track

Branding and accent wall

Under the playhouse

Night view emphasizing stair lighting

Mafia Island Cultural Museum (MICM)

2024 Group Teammates: Eva Bean, Mackenzie Shipman, Yaju Maharjan

Revit Photoshop

This project aimed to create a cultural museum space for Mafia Island. The project focused on learning more about the area, and innovatively displaying the important aspects of its culture and history . Mafia island sits on the coast of Tanzania. A place that is yet to be explored, the history of this island goes back a long way.

The concept for this space was inspired by basket weaving. Basket weaving is an existing skill in Tanzania which is used to preserve both cultural heritage and is used as a source of income for women.

Much like the art of iringa basket-weaving, where individual strands come together to form a cohesive whole , Mafia Island reflects a beautifully interwoven tapestry of cultures and communities . The space hopes to show the rich parts of Mafia island through a connected space centered around community and history.

Role/ Contribution

• Compiling research

• Designing the immersive sensitive exhibit and its corresponding poster display .

• Building the continuous loop bench in the poster exhibit.

Parti

Immersive Exhibit- Sarah Zulfiqar

Poster Exhibit- Sarah Zulfiqar

The two displays for the sensitive topic allow the option to learn about the topic in different ways.

Space planning consisted of a sensitive exhibit of slavery history in between the other two to create relief areas before and after one goes to see the sensitive exhibit.

The cultural and aquatic exhibits have higher ceilings whereas the sensitive exhibit has a lower ceiling to creat a more immersive experience, different from the rest of the museum.

Ceiling Design Axon

Bamboo structure makes it durable region.

This part allows for an easy location for branding as well as creating a visual block enters the space.

Abstracting the idea of weaving , the ceiling feature adds an element of dimensionality as it curves through the space, merging into seating and space division.

Axon created by Sarah Zulfiqar

Perspective by Yaju Maharjan

Perspective by Mackenzie Shipman

Virtual Walkthroughs

Perspective by Eva Bean

Kanwal Retail Store

2023 Individual Sketchup Photoshop

Kanwal means lotus in languages across South Asia and it is a clothing and accessories store which celebrated the similarities of all cultures across South Asia. Lotus symbolizes rebirth and unity, making it a central symbol in South Asia. This design was a for a retail store in downtown. Chicago, celebrating the cultural connections between the nations in South Asia. The flower used in the model has seven petals, representing the 7 countries that make up South Asia and repeats in colors that are common in the flags of the region. Each space has a modernized approach to a cusped arch and acts as a gateway into the category following it. There is a lotus pattern abstracted on the floor.

The mezzanine spot acts as a central viewing point where one can observe how similar the cultures are and gain a deeper appreciation for the talents and crafts of South Asia.

Blue-Mezzanine Red- First Floor

Playing with natural angles, each parti used the angles to define the two spaces.

Jewlery Exhibit

Dropped ceiling

Metal Laser cut Panel

Abstracted Islamic Arch- metal+ steel

Floor pattern with curves of a lotus

The color palette for this project was a pastel version of a complementary palette between pinks and greens. This palette aided in making the spaces seem more welcoming and was subtle enough to keep the floor pattern a focus point.

South Asia Wall Art Glass Display

Section 2-

Color Palette