ABOLFAZL MEKANIK M.ARCH

PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITYwww.mekanika.weebly.com |Tel: (503) 200 7715

I have started my education in architecture in Iran since 2005. I have gained lots of ex-perience by living in different countries such as UK, Malaysia, Iran, and United States. on my view, architecture is more about having great ideas in order to change the world by considering quality of space for people and respecting the natural world. The design pro-cess is my main favorite part of the design in which architects and designers experience different media in order to develop their design. In my architectural world, nothing is impossible and during my education I have proved this fact to many students and pro-fessors. I am always excited and proud of my work and I feel there is a point that a design is on the right track and finding the right path or solution is the best part of the design.

This thesis seeks to address the benefits of the everyday living spaces that most of the people in the world inhab-it- the ubiquitous apartment building. It seeks to redesign these spaces in ways that bring a sense of the “poetic” into our everyday environments by harnessing and mak-ing evident in each space our connection as humans to the ever-changing dynamic forces of the cosmos. These forces are governed by universal laws of motion, vibration, and attraction and are understood through human per-ception/sensibility. The distractions of the modern world create a sense of fragmentation that separates humanity from a coherent relationship with the cosmos. By redesigning my own banal apartment, I hope to exam-ine how a realignment of the human experience with the forces of nature can bring a sense of the poetic into every-day life.

POETICS OF DAILY LIVING

BATHROOM

Based on the activities that are performed in the bathroom, we see that most are related to water. In the other words, water is crucial in the bathrooms and water is one of the main el-ements in nature that gives life to the universe. Water exists in different forms such as ice, rivers, rain, and oceans. Due to the rainy styles of the showers and their feelings, this diagram shows how rain can literally be part of the design of the bathroom. The sound of the rain and water hitting the skylight has deep meanings and ele-vates the human senses into feeling the beauty of being present in nature. Wood is used in the design to induce feelings to the user, allowing them to think they are bathing or showing in the woods or jungles.

The bedroom is the space that humans lie down and rest for hours. Therefore, the body’s orientation is not vertical, as usually is during the day. While the body is resting on the bed, the eyes can solely see the ceiling of the building in ordinary architecture. The ceiling is one of the main architectural elements that plays an important role in making meaningful space. Based on the main activity in the bedroom, having skylights make users connected to the in-finite source of light, motion, and beauty. This poet-ic aspect promotes the quality of the bedroom as the wood and concrete is used to neutralize the morn-ing sun by the warm color wood texture and defuse the afternoon light by the rough coldish concrete surface. The skylight is designed to connect people to the sky in a way that users can see the sky but they can also hide from being exposed to it.

BEDROOM

In the living room, translucent panels on the exteriors walls behind the curtain walls help the users control the view and gives them the feeling of being out-doors. The view is essential for each apartment building. The users can control the view based on their mood, and create a specific view of the mountain or a flower in the courtyard. These are opportunities for the users to set their poetic environment using this new design. Viewing the sky is the secondary poetic aspect of the living room in which each user may have a view to the sky in the specific location of the living area.

LIVING AREA

In the kitchen, different activities such as cooking, washing, and preparing food take place. To carry out these activities, counter tops need to be placed in the kitchen. In this thesis, specific natural lighting for counter tops have been considered as the poetic aspect of the design. The other activity is cooking and working with the stove. The material used in the kitchen is con-crete and wood. The concrete is on the back wall of the stove and brings the sense of tradi-tional cooking to the users and reminds them of when people used to cook on fire near stones.

KITCHEN

Museum of the Moon was designed for the M.Arch program at Portland State University. The intention of this design is to make a building that is a showcase for the nocturne paint-ings of the famous artists across the world about the Moon. The Moon has a complicated motion in each month. It sometimes rises midday, and sometimes depending on the Moon cycle it rises at midnight. Moonlight has a really great feeling at night and people have different stories about it. Portland has lots of cloudy days and celebrating the Moon when it appears in the sky can attract people from across the world to this beautiful city. To choose a location for this museum in the city, different aspects of Portland’s geo-

graphical context have been considered. One attempt was to find out what locations on the horizon are where the Moon starts rising most often. There are basically two direc-tions that the Moon raises in the Portland area. One is on the North East and the other one is South East. Therefore this museum has faced these two distinctive directions. Next, in order to eliminate the buildings and natural environments such as hills to prevent obscuring the moon and its magnifi-cent light, some shadow studies have been done. The best location has been chosen by also mapping the darkest lo-cation in Portland.

MUSEUM OF THE MOON

ENTRANCE

POSSIBLE LOCATIO

NS

MOON SHADOW STUDY

SECTION

This museum follows the concept of the Moon. It means that it has specific openings to show the most significant moments, such as the Moon rising, to the visitors. Visitors enter the museum and follow the path going down and then raising up, following the rise and setting pattern of

the Moon. Moonlight penetrates downwards towards the moon paintings on the concrete wall. Visitors exit the museum in the same spot they entered; exactly like the circulation of the Moon around the Earth.

The cracks on the roof bring down moonlight to the ground surface and make patterns of natural light which guides the visitors to the main gallery and stair-cases.

MAIN GALLERY

HOTEL- URBAN vs. NATUREPortland is a great city with beautiful natural envi-ronment. However, this natural context is getting impacted by the growth of Portland. This trend is happening across the world and it is hard to find natural beauty landscape close to the cities. Hence, the design intention of this hotel is to marry the beautiful natural context of Portland with the busy urban fabric sense of it. For this reason two concepts join together in one of the busiest free-ways on the North East of Portland. Freeway num-ber 30 is the main freeway which connects the PDX Airport to the city center and it is somehow the gate of the city. The site of the project has really interesting characteristics.

DESIGN PROCESS

SECTION

In this design, the intention was to use these interesting features as potentials for the final design. The rooms are on the North side of the site and have access to the inner natural environment core (nature) with waterfalls and green views, while at the other end, the south side has another core (urban) hovered on the freeway which consists of the restaurant and bar for the outside users and hotel inhabitants. The nature core is very calm, relaxing and peaceful and the urban as-pect is very busy and crowded. The na-ture core also helps with the natural venti-lation of the building and improves the air quality of the rooms.

URBAN CORE|RESTAURANT AND BAR NATURE CORE|HOTEL ROOMS

INNER CORESURBANNATUREvs.

GIRL SCOUTWASHINGTON STATE

FOREST EDUCATION CENTERTHE MAIN LODGE

There are two main programs in this building. One is doing research about the forest by researchers and organizations and the other one is an education section for Girl Scout. The crucial thing is how to connect these two sections to each other or how to make spaces that girls can interact with the researchers and learn from them. The research center needs research tools and laboratory and connection to the forest conceptually in order to manifest a serious re-search and study which is executed by the researchers.

The Girl Scout has to connect to the more dynamic spaces and the nature of the space should be totally different from the research center. A new space or threshold should be at the middle of these two programs that connect the research center to the Girl Scout education center.

Accordingly, the courtyard is the best place for outdoor activity and as a con-nection for these two components. Furthermore, exhibition and open class-rooms seem to be a good connecting point for this purpose.

BUILDING PROGRAM ANALYSIS

FOREST EDUCATION BUILDING INTERIOR SPACE

SECTION

COU`RTYARD EXHIBITION|RESEARCH CENTER

BUILDING SIZE AND PROGRAMS

MULTI FAMILY HOUSINGLOCATION: HAMEDAN|IRAN

Historically, Iranian families and their sub-branches tended to live together in a big nice family house. Today, Iranians are still family oriented and at the same time have become modernized and ex-pect more privacy. Multifamily house is designed for such reason in modern days.

ENTRANCE

BACK YARD

WATER CONTROL SYSTEM

GREEN FIREPLACE

GATHERIN AREA

BACK YARD

GROUND FLOOR

WEST ELEVATION SOUTH ELEVATION

HAMEDAN INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONLOCATION: HAMEDAN|IRAN

The notion of this design came from the approach that buildings can effectively change the atmosphere of the cities and especially their district. Hamedan International exhibition is designed to make a differ-ence in the lives of the people of the suburb it is located in. The site is in a crowded part of the city with low income residents, located across the main road connecting Hamedan to the capital, Tehran. Ample numbers of factories surround the region making the air polluted. Build-ing the exhibition in such environment helps to improve the cultural and economical aspects of the suburb.

FEELING THE FRESH AIR

The passive system of this building enhances the quality of air for visitors. The trees in the underground glass rooms provide a refresh-ing environment at the exhibition. This passive system is also used at night time based on the fluctuating temperatures in Hamedan city. In the winter when the weather is extremely cold in Hamed-an, these glass rooms provide reliable warm air that can be used around noon time.

ENTRANCE

PERSIAN RUG MUSUEM LOCATION: HAMEDAN|IRAN

MAIN LOBBY

SITE PLAN

Persian rugs have many spectacular designs. There are various magnificent motifs in every rug design making each rug a unique marvel. Each line and motif inside the rug design has reached the climax of perfection. Therefore, rugs are re-ferred to as the sight of paradise. In traditional architecture in Iran, the beauties and conditions of Iranian gardens were always considered sym-bols of paradise. Buildings in Persian gardens are the focal point of the whole garden in which everything else is happens around and inside it. Furthermore, water is the other element that is significantly important in Persian gardens. Water crosses the building in the gardens and passes through it beautifully underneath the building. In this re-gard, this design is attempting to merge Iranian garden with Persian rug. Warp and weft is the basic framework of a rug. In addition, nodes are used for weaving a rug. Warps and wefts are a number of perpendicular strings in which all the nodes are located on. In this design the fea-tures of warp and weft are used to demonstrate some patterns similar to a real rug.

MAIN GALLERY

ENTRANCE

DESIGN IDEA

HAMEDAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTLOCATION: HAMEDAN|IRAN

Hamedan is one of the cities in Iran which experiences the four seasons. It is crucial to consider the weather in all architectur-al designs. The main concept of this de-sign is inspired form the historical parts of the city of Hamedan. The bazaar is one of the main elements in the old cities in Iran which has many benefits regarding the environmental conditions and also the structural specifications. Due to the economical aspects, most of the cities in Iran are traditionally developed around the bazaar. The bazaar has different to-pographies and patterns. In this design, the straight pattern is used which satisfies the airport functionality and programs. The concept of the evolved dome is also used in order to make modules for the structure pattern.

ENTRANCE

MODULE PROCESS

MAIN TERMINAL DEPARTURE AND ARRAIVAL MOUDLE

SITE PLAN

BOARDING TERMINAL

MAIN TERMINAL

EAST WINGWEST WING GATES

WEST WING

RESIDENTIAL TRANSIT

ARRAIVAL TERMINAL

BAGGAGE CLAIM

WEST WING LOBBY

RESIDENTIAL COMPLEXLOCATION: HAMEDAN|IRAN

Multifamily housing: In this design a resi-dential complex is designed based on the module of the boxes. Each unit is designed depending on the connectivity of cubic spaces that can satisfy human needs in a residential complex. One of the aspects of this design is to avoid making space simple and ordinary. For this reason, units are not ordinarily set behind each other. In contrary to the normal apartment build-ings, units are assembled in a way that each unit has a different plan layout. Walk-ing paths are designed around the site to allow people to have access to the event nodes where different activities such as playing tennis, ground play for children, and memory boxes for adults take place. These activities and events increase the sense of attachment to this residential complex.

DESIGN PROCESS

SITE PLAN EXTENTION SOCIAL COURBACK YARD

BUILDING CONNECTIONS AND ORIENTATIONS

BOX CONNECTIONS AND PROGRAM

The tube has a wooden structure with laminated wood finishes which makes a suitable place for children to play and spend joyful hours with their parents and friends.

UNIT ORGANIZATION

SECTIONNORTH ELEVATION

UNIT ONE UNIT TWO UNIT THREE UNIT FOUR

LOCATION: HAMEDAN|IRAN

ARCHITECTURE HOUSE| REVITALIZATION OF IRANIAN ARCHITECTURE

Iranian architecture has historically been one of the best architectures in the Middle East with its outstanding characteristics. Iran as a source of art and architecture, has always impacted the eastern architec-ture and it is origin of Islamic architecture. However, after historical events that happened in Iran, Iranian architecture became diluted with modernization and fast development of Iran and without a doubt it is going to be vanished in the next decades. This thesis initiated with the specific design consideration of the tradi-tional architecture in Iran and also its responses to the modern lifestyle of the modern era. In other words, this thesis has proposed to use tradi-tional Iranian architecture as the grammar of the design process and modernized aspects of today’s lifestyle as the alphabet of this design. The sense of space in this design is derived from the Iranian tradition-al architecture and the form comes from the mixture of Iranian and modern architecture. The main concept of this design is based on the garden in Iran and the inner sense of space and privacy. The inner privacy was a regula-tion for building houses and gardens in historical Iran due to the state of society and public demand that came from Iranian culture and environmental conditions.

GARDENENTRANCE

DESIGN DESCRIPTION

DESIGN CONCEPT

ENTRANCE TO THE GARDENCOURTYARD

SITE PLAN

EAST ELEVATIONSOUTH ELEVATION WEST ELEVATION NORTH ELEVATION

GROUND FLOOR

MAIN GALLERY

OTHER DESIGNS

The intention of this design is to make a building that gives the feeling of flying and being in the sky. The structure of the building is attached to the cliff 30 meters in height. Having a great view to the sea in this build-ing delivers a sense of infinity suspended in the sky while the view is pan-oramic due to the glass curtain walls. Each level of the building has a different function and the narrow staircase provides a vertical connec-tion between the floors without taking much of the inner floor space. This building does not block any natural view of the cliff due to the fact that it is attached to the side of the cliff. The structure of the building is tied back to the cliff.

INFINITY HOUSELOCATION: SEVEN SISTER| BRIGHTON, UNITED KINGDOM

Yaghobyari caravanserai is one of the old caravanserais in the old bazaar of Hamedan city. This bazaar has changed dramatically during the past centu-ry. The elements of bazaar such as “Rasteh”, “Caravanserai”, and “Hashti” are

markedly iconic in Hamedan’s bazaar. Unfortunately these elements have been neglected in the history. Yaghobyari has had less maintenance during the years and it is in a bad condition.

The structure system is still in good condition but the ornaments require precise reno-vation. The new roof system in this building will help the building to be more secure in bad weather conditions. Also this new roof enhances the air circulation and natural

ventilation. New programs help this caravanserai to be more useful. Hence, usage of more people of this building makes it important to keep in a good condition while people are using it.

BUILDING RESTORATIONLOCATION: BAZAAR|HAMEDAN,IRAN

COURT YARD ROOF SYSTEM

SECTION

NEW ROOF SYSTEMAIR CIRCULATION

WOODEN ROOF STRUCTURE

HAND DRAWING

BABATAHER TOMBLOCATION: HAMEDAN, IRAN

PICKATHON TREELINE STAGE

LOCATION: HAPPY VALLEY, PORTLAND, OR

AIA HONER AWARD WINNER 2015

The Treeline Stage, designed by Kendra Bostwick, Abol-fazl Mekanik, Nic Pectol, Tim Ruppel, and Jenna Wasser, and faculty Clive Knights and Travis Bell and built by a team of students at Pickathon 2015, was honored with the Jury Award at the AIA Portland 2015 Architecture Awards

EMAIL: ABOLFAZLM87@GMAIL.COM