Red Barn

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Red Barn is a converted utility shed elevated above a lake inspired by Central Otago in the lower half of the South Island, New Zealand. The area is dominated by ranges and basins. Central Otago is a massive block of schist, part of the 85-million-year-old Zealandia continent. I was inspired by the rugged beautiful landscape and the rich history when I visited the area a few years ago. From whaling to farming to fruit to gold the area has had a very diverse past. There are lots of historic buildings that helped serve these industries – some beautiful and some not so, but most are very functional.

In designing Red Barn, I took the quintessential kiwi “shed” you see scattered throughout rural New Zealand and reimagined it as a holiday home. Sheds by nature are simple structures designed for maximum function at minimum cost. I created a piece of vernacular architecture that honours the essence of the shed, without looking out of place nestled into the rural landscape.

Red Barn from the outside is simple in form clad entirely in corrugated iron finished in red oxide paint containing a mix of locally sourced iron ore and oil. The barns roof and central doors both front and rear slide open simultaneously when in use. When unoccupied the barn closes to protect itself from the harsh weather. When in its closed configuration only four windows are visible limiting the amount of change in material showcasing a more monolithic silhouette. In its open configuration a central glass atrium is revealed, and the roof creates wings that cantilever high above the ground.
The Interior is finished with locally sourced raw materials that complement the surrounding landscape that are rugged and beautiful and rich in texture. Timber lined walls, floors and ceilings on the upper level and concrete floors on the lower level. Schist feature walls and Pounamu (greenstone) inspired mosaics in the kitchen and bathrooms. The plan is simple with 2 bedrooms and a shared bathroom wing on either side of the upper-level split by a bridge that spans the atrium. A spiral staircase takes you down to the lower level with open plan living. The entry door leads you directly into the atrium, but the barn can also be access through a utility room that flanks the kitchen. There is a small bathroom/laundry/wet room located behind the living room too.

The idea was that the atrium space could be used for many different functions such as seating over spill for larger gatherings, a play area when the weather was bad, studio/craft area, maybe you could house a large telescope and gaze at the stars when the roof is opened on the northern side of the atrium.

The furniture is simple and minimal to help inform the rawness of the area. I tried where possible to use locally designed furniture and fittings.

Everything is contained within the footprint of the barn to limit its impact on its surroundings and to keep that “shed” like feel. When you are outside you are truly outside!

Animation:

Forsaken (final images)

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Forsaken final images (converted challenge project)
High res images:https://we.tl/t-AhTkZkOarW
While I was trying to think about how I’m going to convert my building to something new, I thought about pretty much everything, and I came up with the idea of an actual agricultural centre, as I mentioned before there is no agricultural centre where I live. So I merged this Idea and the new Idea of vertical farming in my building and I used its huge amount of roofed space for providing sunlight for the plants and crops inside. I removed the roof of the building which was made out of concrete and had no structural role in the building and replaced it with a transparent roof. Since this was going to be a research centre I decided to use the environmental spaces as well and planted as much greenery as I could including tea leaves (you can see them in the first image). And looking at some small researches I made on new technologies in agriculture, I noticed that they use drones to control the farms and even use them to spray all over their crops (you can also see the drone, one on top of the building and one airborne)

Making a water flow through the fields was necessary, so I used some tricks on cinema 4d to replicate whatever was in my mind.
The whole complex has two main buildings, one on the side and the other is the main place of research and farming (I used the building attached to the main structure for a small staff office, for disinfection and lockers) the building on the side is dedicated to offices and study labs)
Coming to interior place other than the platforms I made to hold more plants and crops and gain more space, I also designed rounded stands and scattered some grass and greenery on them, you can also see small pools and water flowing in the interior image. I was talking about technology, also added robotic arms to harvest the beans and crops from both high and ground platforms.
Soft wares and plugins I used: Cinema 4d, corona renderer, speed tree, substance source materials, substance designer, substance painter, Forester and real flow.
That was pretty much everything I did in this project I spent so much time on the idea and what I was going to do with my building, and these are the results, I learned a lot during this process including substance suite and etc. it definitely improved me and was quite challenging for me and the most important I met beautiful designers and people in this community, I will share all my projects here in the future.
Best regards
Erfan

Ordinary Beauty

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Concept

I imagine this project as a new heart beating center for the city.
Community is the center of these visuals. The message and the story I wanted to tell are not the architecture itself. The scheme is meant to surround and frame people’s stories and feelings.
It is not about outstanding offered services or modern and beautiful infrastructures, but how the new amazing area will inspire and change people who are living there, who are working there and who engage with it.

People having a relaxing time into the park, enjoying the sunshine on a beautiful Saturday morning. A model having a photo shoot for a magazine inside the awesome Vessel, inspirational design building which is the iconic face of the Masterplan. Some friends are enjoying life after a long day on a roof terrace with a fantastic panoramic view, enhancing the beauty and magic of lighting.

Sunshine through nature. A night in the sky. Eccentric fashion.
These are the main themes I’ve explored within these visuals to tell a story about the Scheme and how beautiful it could be to interact and engage with it.

Get there. Get inspired. Eat and drink all the beauty.

M-15

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‘They are not humans. What rights do you expect them to have?

M15 was used to hearing such words from humans, but they never failed to hurt him.
He wasn’t sure when it started, but one day he started experiencing feelings. He wasn’t supposed to feel hurt, tired, or happy, he wasn’t supposed to develop hopes and dreams. After all, he was a robot.

Ever since the pandemic hit the earth in 2020, humanity tried its best to win against the newly surfaced enemy. The tragic losses made the world realize how fragile the human body is, and that awakened their survival instinct. Millions of new inventions were mass-produced each day, tested, perfected, and put in the market.
Amongst the mass-produced products were the robots. Humans abandoned jobs that they deemed unworthy to sacrifice their life for, however, they were vital for the city. For that reason, they resorted to using robots to fill out the menial tasks that keep the city running.
For the most part, things were running smoothly, all the prevention measures were working, businesses flourished again. New York was back to its previous glory and glamour, although not as jammed. The city overcame the burdens rather quickly, it regained overnight its status as ‘city of dreams’, a place where hopes and wishes became a reality.

(01)That was the case for M15. Visiting New York was a dream of his, one that he would realize today. At 5 am, he headed to the old station and took the ‘train’ to Hudson Yards. It was a dark and long ride, the train was barely used nowadays; ever since the new station was built, other modes of transportation were slowly abandoned.

(02)At noon, M15 arrived at his destination. He was feeling anxious, here he was defying the rules. “But no one would know”, he told himself. After all, robots looked the same, and no one bothered to check their serial number unless an accident occurred. Taking a deep breath, he climbed the stairs, looking forward to starting a new life.
The first sight that greeted M15 was the Vessel, which he could see through the screens. His dream was finally coming true. Hopeful, he continued up the steps, ready for his new life.

(03)He knew what to do now, he would blend in with the cleaning robots, tasked to clean the streets. They were many of them, his presence will not be detected. He started cleaning, no one paid him any mind.

(04/05/06/07)Day in, day out, he worked. He was content but was not yet satisfied. Something was missing, After all, he was only pretending to be part of the scenery. He wasn’t free, he couldn’t express himself.

(08)One day, he was mindlessly cleaning the screens. Suddenly, looking up he found himself standing below the vessel. The structure bewitched him, pulling him to visit it.

(09/10)At last, he entered the vessel. He stood still, what he saw amazed him. Looking up he could see the sky the buildings the greeneries and the people. To him, it looked like paradise, a safe haven that shelters him from the outside world.

(11)He stopped on the third floor. There, he could see the sunset, filtered through the vessel. He sat down, laid his feet on the rail, and enjoyed the scene. Bathed in gold rays, he looked at the world in a new light, filled with hope.

Link for VR images;
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o1rrtiQoEIFnQE9DCAbpF6znnOYP4Tcs/view?usp=sharing

link for high-resolution images:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NCXHsXyQF6CFh2a08VU8wdicFIuSjha3/view?usp=sharing

Thank you
Amer Farah

Architecture dilemma between Investment and life qualities

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Architecture has developed through the ages, especially after the world war-2 when we discovered ourselves as Urban communities that, war was no longer useful for us, from that point human started a new era, of being a bit more civilized than ever before, in terms of resources utilization and life qualities.
Imagining Architecture as a movie or a memory flash back, we see how the human urban development has reformed from horizontal expansion to vertical expansion pattern, as a methodology to maximize profits, and make the best use of our limited resources such as Lands (reachable-view-value-location-services) instead of the early urban Utopian cities that imagined heaven far from our life city centers, where we have less pollution and more greens, the lower building levels and higher quality life values.
In fact this is how i imagine Newyork in 20 years ! it’s not gonna be bad ! But not as bright, life within 20 years will not change that much but humans will keep trying to overcome the existing feeling of horizontal expansion (which is a must sooner or later to avoid congestion), taller, agile, glossy towers with connections, bridges and some of that, a life that will expand more and more vertically, to respond to our higher density withing the congested-remaining city, within its services, buildings and existing infrastructures.
On the other hand humanity will keep using our old infrastructure ! Because come on nothing changed yet ! But less light, less attention to the those old streets, less clean and unfinished works everywhere, A real contrast of old vs new life forms, different technologies but still seems familiar, like seeing nowadays an electric car, seems a normal car ! But with a closer look in sounds different it has no compositions, no drag no noise ! Its electric.
With the observatory in the middle i tried to imitate the attempt of contrast a soft new modern structure than penetrates the existing gap, the gap between the towers, it’s our way as human to breath, break the habits and make an impact, it’s our way to overcome the hardships and see through the dark ! Yet its still possible to beat the dark.
Finally, this vision may not be real, it is not positive too, and yet to know its just a theory, but due to our life today am kind of skeptical about its bright future, hope am not too dark, but with such a healthy skeptical dose towards the future we may have a brighter one, and thanks for allowing us to be in such a very ingenious and amazing challenge.
Mohamed Ahmed Mahfouz,