ZAIN KARSAN

Selected Work 2009-2011

ZAIN KARSAN
Candidate for Bachelor of Architectural Studies Honors Co-op Program Faculty of Engineering, Waterloo 15 Snow Leopard Crt Brampton, ON L6R 1J4 Canada Mobile: +1 647 339 8675 Home: +1 905 458 8675 Email: zainkarsan7@gmail.com

CONTENTS
REFERENCE LETTER POETS RESIDENCE HAITI HOUSING DEVELOPMENT HOTEL INFINITY JCI ARCHITECTS WZMH ARCHITECTS
Page 5 Page 6 Page 12 Page 16 Page 22 Page 26 Page 30

POETS RESIDENCE
The Lake Isle of Innisfree WB Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnights all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnets wings. I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray, I hear it in the deep hearts core.

The design focuses primarily on the nature of separation that exists between the poet and his surroundings. This separation is achieved in the design through the position of the house in relation to its surroundings and the organization of the plan. The forest serves to separate the residence from surrounding houses. The plan confines communal spaces to views looking toward the forest, safegaurding a magnificent view of the lake for the poet. The house extends out over lake, resting on piles.

PLAN

Top Left: The path toward the house Bottom Left: Interior rendering Above: The threshold connecting communal and private space Next Page: Panoramic View from the study

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HAITI HOUSING DEVELOPMENT

The premise for this project was to develop sustainable housing solutions for Haiti after the earthquake. The site was the side of a hill that was a slum area. The design allows for a level of interaction between inhabitants on two levels of the hill. The construction begins with emergency relief in the form of a series of shipping containers. The containers are constructed from four thickened container walls that slide out of a frame, and fold into preliminary shelters. Additionally the container segments act as a retaining wall. As soon as a piece of land is excavated, the house can be placed, unfolded and made inhabitable. The next phase includes the growth and harvest of bamboo that is used in the construction of the second floor. The rooftops become cash crop garden space. The houses that comprise the community can shelter approximately 200 displaced people.

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FOLDED CONTAINER WALL

UNFOLDING CONTAINER WALLS

UNFOLDED CONTAINER WALLS

EXPLODED SHIPPING CONTAINER

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UNFOLDED CONTAINER WALL WITH BAMBOO ROOF

SECOND STOREY CONSTRUCTED FROM BAMBOO

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HOTEL
The premise of the project was to design a hotel in Cambridge that might act as a catalyst for urban development. The hotel replaces a large parking lot, occupying very little of its overall area and converting the remainder into a small park. The strategy involves separating the site by a small boulevard that increases permeability such that the hotel occupies one half and the park occupies the other. The idea that the boulevard and the park create a place of gathering for locals and visitors became central to the project. The hotel itself allows for several areas of interaction on multiple levels, submerging the bar lounge program into the ground, raising the restaurant to create overall views of the park, and lifting the spa and gym to the height of the hotel creates views of the city and the Grand River that divides it. The lobby is itself a large atrium that connects all programs of the project adding a level of theatricity to the hotel. This strategy of organization permeates to the rooms which overlook the park and are framed by slender columns that extend the full height of the hotel to create vignettes that can be seen from the boulevard.

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BASEMENT FLOOR PLAN

TYPICAL FLOOR PLAN

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

9TH FLOOR SPA PLAN

2ND FLOOR RESTUARANT PLAN

10TH FLOOR FITNESS ROOM

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BAR & LOUNGE

PARK

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RESTAURANT

SPA

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INFINITY
LAND ART GENERATOR COMPETITION 2010
Infinity relies on the movement of water through a system of turbine rotors to generate electricity. The form is created from an array of curved hollow structural steel members in the shape of an ellipse, inscribed in which is the frame for the turbine rotors. The steel members are arrayed along a path that travels along the site in three dimensions. Half the structure is sunk into a concrete foundation deep in the ground. The installation is primarily clad in glass and a series of fresnel lenses that focus light in specific places within the structure. The intent of Infinity is to question ideas about perception, the prescence of light and its reflection off various surfaces that comprise the installation, water, steel members, is therefore integral to the aesthetic. The idea of transparency is another important feature of the project. Infinity attempts to challenge this concept through its shear size and expansive footprint. The site is almost completely inhabited by the structure, yet the motif of transparency remains through the installations materiality. In another sense, the design attempts to be an alien object for in some way it is disconnected from its surroundings by its form. The installation essentially recreates its environment through its highly reflective skin, yet the world within the chamber created by the cladding is entirely different.

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CONCRETE FOUNDATION AXONOMETRIC

STEEL SUPPORT AXONOMETRIC

TURBINE ROTOR AXONOMETRIC

GLASS CLAD AXONOMETRIC

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21 PRINCE CHARLES
JCI ARCHITECTS
JCI Architects is an architecture firm with 3 partners, Jaegap Chung, Richard Shaw, and Sue Jean Chung. While at JCI Architects, my task was to work on three projects: Prince Charles House, Glengarry House, and Peterborough Housing and Retail Complex. The Prince Charles house was a modern house with classical korean proportions. The massing of the house attempts to create a floating volume above the lower level. The plan revolves around a central atrium which forms the circulation from level to level. When I began work on the house, the projects plans had been established and needed to be expressed in a digital model. My task was, with one of the partners, to construct the model, as well as assign to the massing the materiality. Once the preliminary design and model had been established, the drawings were shown to the client who made revisions. My task then became to help the partner redesign the house as per the clients new requests and prepare the new presentation drawings.

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Top: Front Elevation Bottom: Back Elevation

Above: Basement Plan Center: Ground Plan Right: Second floor Plan

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PROJECT BORR
WZMH ARCHITECTS
From January to April, I had the privelege of working at WZMH Architects on Project Borr, a large scale institutional project. The project was modelled completely in Revit, which required frequrent coordination between Mechanical, Electrical, Structural, Landscape, Interior, Civil, and Architectural revit models. Because of the large scale, the project was split into several parts, most of which were classified. As a result, the only area of unclassified work that can be disclosed is the Parking Garage. I worked on this part of the project for the first month of my time with WZMH. After the Parking Garage was issued for Tender, I worked on coordination of site services between the various disciplines. I also worked on a sectional model for 3D print. The fast pace of the project required the use and creation of detailed and fully parametric families to adapt to design changes. I was able to create families that were later used and analysed by consultants from other disciplines. I was also heavily involved in the production of working drawings and schematic drawings for the Parking Garage and other areas of Project Borr.

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Section- Column Head

Section- Outer Edge of Glass

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Left: Section Top: Plan of Plate Connection at Column Bottom: Plan of Forked Plate Connection at Beam

Section- Column Base

Section- Inner Edge of Glass

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ZAIN KARSAN
Candidate for Bachelor of Architectural Studies Honors Co-op Program Faculty of Engineering, Waterloo 15 Snow Leopard Crt Brampton, ON L6R 1J4 Canada Mobile: +1 647 339 8675 Home: +1 905 458 8675 Email: zainkarsan7@gmail.com

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