Baobab Waterfall

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Category: Mixed-Use Infrastructure
Competition: Jacques Rougerie Foundation
Location: Madagascar
Lead Architect: Ahmad Eghtesad
Project Architects: Mohammad Aghaei, Nastaran Fazeli
Tutor: Ali Nazari
Visualization Artist: Ahmad Eghtesad
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A Crisis of Resource and Opportunity
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Madagascar is rich in natural resources and unique biodiversity, yet severe energy shortages leave a vast majority of the population without electricity. This energy crisis contributes directly to economic hardship and rising crime rates, leading to severely overcrowded correctional facilities. The project seeks to address these interconnected crises through a radical architectural intervention that turns a societal challenge into a profound economic opportunity.

Harnessing the Ocean
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The design proposes a massive and continuous system of deep ocean waterfalls, generating renewable electricity on a scale akin to natural wonders. These monumental cascades surround the facility, creating a spectacular architectural landmark that draws global tourism while providing a sustainable power grid for the surrounding infrastructure. It is a dual-function structure acting as both a power plant and a monument.

A Catalyst for Social Renewal
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Initially envisioned as a rehabilitative facility, the architecture encourages constructive interaction between residents and tourists. Inmates manage their own physical and societal needs by cultivating crops within the facility and trading goods, fostering vital skills for a healthy economic life upon release. As crime rates decrease and society heals, the complex is designed to seamlessly transition into a multipurpose resort and green energy hub, securing a prosperous future for the island.

Punta Bianca Suspended

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Punta Bianca is the ideal Sicilian summer escape, shaped by extraordinary coastal geophysical formations and a 19th-century “time capsule” relic. The intervention embraces this context with a minimal approach, allowing the environment and the historic customs house remnant to speak for themselves. The glass upper addition, set on a metal structure that rests atop the exposed stone walls, along with its suspended platforms and cables, transforms the ruin into a serene pause: a panoramic observatory and a refreshment point.

The challenge of reinstating the missing floor while protecting the entire building with a roof, without crowding the limited usable areas with support columns, led to the suspended nature of the project.

The entrance space functions both as a foyer and a wine cellar, where visitors can taste and purchase local wines. Wine bottles are displayed on wire cable racks, allowing an unobstructed view of the stone masonry. Every new element, along with the lighting, and excluding the furniture, is conveniently suspended from above via steel cables, maintaining a sense of lightness and respect for the original structure.

The interior central wall makes circulation difficult, so four new openings mirroring the exterior windows are introduced, creating visual and spatial continuity across the ground floor and the suspended level above. A new lightweight, perforated metal staircase connects all three levels, replacing the old, narrow stone one.

On the one side of the stairs, a bar is located with direct access to the outdoor patio, made possible by converting the northern window into a door. On the other side there is storage space and a WC.

On the middle level there is exhibition space, while a perforated metal “route” extending into the foyer, invites visitors to walk through and observe both the building’s interior and the west-facing views, under the diffused light coming from the glass floor above.

On the top level, the glass “box” offers an immersive experience of the surrounding nature reserve landscape, as well as unhindered views of the mediterranean. Its framing is constructed with glass columns and beams to further enhance the sense of transparency.

The exterior space is consciously left untouched as it already serves its purpose of providing a transition and a place for relaxation. Intervening out here doesn’t make sense, since the rocky formations beneath take priority in terms of respect and preservation.

All the outer windows and doors are fitted with glass paneling to enclose the structure while clearly distinguishing them as new additions.

The main metal structural elements, along with the new opening’s framing and the additional walls and platforms are corten-finished to match the roughness and weathered identity of the ruin.

3D Recreation of “Puce Apartment”

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Personal project inspired by Iya Turabelidze’s “Puce Apartment”. I decided to reconstruct one of the spaces originally photographed by Mikhail Loskutov as a material/light study. No 3rd party assets were used· everything was modeled in Rhino 3D and rendered using V-Ray. For more information on the original work, please refer to: https://leibal.com/interiors/luc/.

Absorbent sandstorm skyscraper Dubai

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The open arms of the Absorbent Sand Storm Skyscraper
The Absorbent Sand Storm Skyscraper project consists of 25 towers on the Dubai coastline, whose design idea to deal with the sand storm in Dubai has turned their form into an open embrace to absorb dust particles.
The United Arab Emirates often suffers from sandstorms that are much more intense than what is shared in photos and videos. These storms reduce visibility to below 500 meters and disrupt transportation and airlines and often occur during the summer or at the beginning of spring when rising temperatures cause strong winds. Therefore, it is expected that with the increase in global temperature, the intensity of storms will also increase.
Besides all of these challenges, we believe that architecture is an infinite art; sometimes it moves on a horizontal surface and forms a wide space or sometimes it rises from the ground and creates skyscrapers. Architecture can be a monument or a multi-hectare complex with different functions. In each of these cases, what is ultimately important is the efficiency of the answer given to one issue. The method of designing a building provides the opportunity so that when an accident occurs, instead of being destroyed, it can withstand without bearing additional pressure and even change critical conditions for its benefit.
Designing skyscrapers is one of the most popular types of architecture in Dubai. So, we set ourselves the challenge of providing a suitable solution to the sandstorm in Dubai through the integration of creativity and technology. According to the location of the Absorbent Sand Storm Skyscraper, and the high possibility of storms, extensive studies were done regarding this phenomenon, before starting to design.
Design Process
How to deal with sandstorms has formed the main concept, and the final design will be an answer to how to control this issue and make positive use of it. The glass structure slowly rises from the ground and covers the facilities that form the main part of the skyscraper, and the whole design process is inspired by its function.
Pre-design studies showed that soil particles are electrically charged. Therefore, the main structure of the towers consists of two deep cavities to absorb soil particles. Sand particles enter the cavities and are attracted to the smart panels inside the holes, which open to a certain extent according to the intensity of the storm. Then to ensure that all particles are neutralized, all their electric charge is taken during two stages. Due to the larger diameter of the soil particles at a lower height, the lower cavity has a larger opening.
In a sustainable approach, the installation of sand batteries in the tower’s facilities is considered, which can store energy for several months, and this energy will be used even in other buildings in the region. Only one skyscraper is not enough to control sandstorms. So, we have predicted the presence of 25 towers on our site, which will overlap and improve the function of each other. Our ultimate goal is to create a multi-functional area centered on scientific research, and each tower will be dedicated to a specific function. The considered zoning will include residential use and research institutes for physics, aerospace, technology, biology, and medicine.
At the end
In the design of the Absorbent Sand Storm Skyscraper, the creative integration of structure, and facilities, along with a sustainable approach, will lead to the formation of an area that, in addition to improving the weather conditions of Dubai, has a vital role in reducing energy consumption and will become a place for gathering those interested in scientific research.

The Smart city

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I envision a groundbreaking startup that leverages the Metaverse to empower architects and investors in the realm of Smart Cities. In 2023 and 2024, I’m committed to realizing this vision.
My goal is to create a Virtual platform, utilizing Unreal Engine SDK, to assess the energy efficiency of physical structures.
This innovative platform will be open source, allowing architects and designers worldwide to integrate their data and upload 3D models for evaluation.
This initiative serves as a bridge between the tangible world and the boundless potential of the Metaverse.
It’s a visionary endeavor poised to revolutionize the architecture and sustainability sectors.

If you’re a developer with hands on the Unreal Engine and you envision something similar in the realism of smart cities feel free to contact me.

The Project will run on a crowdfund, there’s no seed capital at the moment.

Eco Loop

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The project begins with the possibility that the loop’s unlimited connections can solve the physical distance at the campus site. The loop dismantles and decentralizes the density and the hierarchy of the facilities of this complex. It eliminates and replaces rigidity and regularity with flexibility and buoyancy. Based on the above-mentioned concept, the proposed campus design is possible by eliminating the conventional and predetermined relationships between project programs and their connections through a sustainable transportation system with advanced technology as well as active and constant connectivity. The goal of this project is to create a decentralized communication order. It removes and transcends the usual topographical, geographical, traditional, and social constraints of the site for designing a campus program, thus offering a new perspective and a communication method to enhance spatial capabilities for scientific social groups and professional developments.