Located in Hafencity, a newly developed area of Hamburg, HafenHaus is a mixed use complex consisting of hybridized hostel and an office/retail space. The hostel will provide tourists and locals a low cost living option as well as luxury residential units. This will help to offer a more culturally authentic experience to the guests staying with the unit.

The goal of this collaborative studio project was to create an outdoor space for the attendants of the university to enjoy and study during the finals week of the semester. After consideration of different types of programs, a pop-up library option was selected. Based on the requirements of the program selection, this installation features series of book shelves and benches to encourage reading and trading books.

The structure itself was created by welding steel rods in a triangular grid, and using polypropylene panels. The form of the structure was designed based on numerous computational growth simulation investigations. Formal results of the growth simulations were translated into a triangular grid, then steel rod modules were applied.

A few of the modules used to create the final structure

Generative scripting and form course taught students how to design elements by using the grasshopper plug-in for Rhino, and how to implement computer coding into architecture. Coding by using Python Scripting in particular helps designers tremendously as it allows the user to break the boundaries of different design software. In its simplest meaning, Python Scripting allows the user to code his/her own commands which ultimately gives the advantage of designing elements that would be impossible to design in traditional software.

After learning about python scripting and numerous grasshopper techniques, several elements were designed, rendered, and post processed to test this technique?s power.

Conventionally, architects have relied on qualities of several elements such as materiality, light and shadows, solids and voids, patterns and paintings, mass, volume, etc. to break out of the static nature of the space, and enhance the way users experience and perceive architecture. Even though some of these elements and methods helped create more dynamic spaces, architecture is still bound by conventional, namely the physical constraints of the discipline. With the introduction of technologies such as augmented reality(AR), it is becoming easier to blend digital, and physical realities, and create new types of spatial qualities and experiences. This ultimately creates possibilities that had not existed for architects before. As AR technology becomes streamlined and commonly used, architects won?t be bound by the aforementioned conventional and physical constraints as a result of being able to blend digital and physical elements. Since this technology is not limited by the constraints of the physical world, the nature of the effects AR can bring are unlimited, and dynamic by its nature. Even though AR cannot replace the primary and conventional qualitative elements in architecture, it can be used to supplement and enhance the experience and qualities they provide.

To explore how AR can enhance the way architecture is experienced and perceived, a museum in downtown Cincinnati will be designed, and AR will be used along with conventional methods(e.g., materiality, light and shade, etc.) to mediate spatial experiences. The history of spatial experience and perception in architecture, as well as the history of AR technology will be studied to better gauge what is possible with the technology, and how meaningful relationships between digital, and physical worlds, and between architecture and the user can be created. Results of this thesis will be beneficial for future designers and will help them understand how AR will be one of the methods they can use to enhance the overall architectural experience, spatial qualities, and the perception of space.

Architecture exists in two domains simultaneously…

Even though the power of this technology could be tested on virtually any typology, a museum was selected to be able to explore different types of emotions, namely the type of museum where architectural and spatial experiences are in the forefront of the overall experience.

Museums that depict memories, and stories of people through architecture is a really strong way of mediating experience and emotions, so the idea of displacement, where people are forced to move out of their homes because of one reason or another was selected as the program of the museum. The act of displacement was divided into 4 main parts, Home, Passage, Arrival, and Beyond Arrival, which are also the main experiential and spatial elements of the museum.

As a warm-up to Cincinnati and to graduate school, this project focused mostly on the form. The site?s located in Cincinnati, so as part of the design process, I?ve studied what?s significant to the site and the surrounding neighborhood. A retaining wall on the project site was one of the significant elements on the site, and it was used to start the design of the form.

Moreover, the design was divided into 3 buildings to create a courtyard over the Central Parkway, which has a historical significance to Cincinnati. By creating this courtyard, visitors could relax, and enjoy the view. In a sense, the design itself forms the outdoor space, and the outdoor space creates a special connection between the visitors and Cincinnati?s rich history.

As mentioned, this studio focused mostly on the form, spatial organization, and the experience without getting into detailing part of the design, which was reserved for the upcoming semester.

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The main interest of this design in the interchange of actor and audience in an abstract way. One major difference from the regular actor and audience interchange is that in this design, actors and audience are the same people at different times. Whenever they walk from one point to another, or viewing from outside, it makes them the audience since in an abstract way of thinking, they would be watching the people who use the community center ?act?. On the other hand, whenever a group of people use the community center, they would be on an imaginary stage, which makes them the actors.
There are also two main circulation patterns, which aids the concept. First one is the one that wraps around the gym and goes up, which creates a public space and allows the views from the site to the majority of the city. The second path connects two important sides of the city by going through the building and the site. Moreover, by layering the views and allowing natural light to penetrate through these layers, creating the same feeling of a breathtaking performance made possible.