Monograph

Columbia University | GSAPP

critics Ada Tolla, Giuseppe Lignano and Thomas de Monchaux
Spring 2016

ICP  |  International Center of Photography

Columbia University | GSAPP

critic  MARK RAKATANSKY
Summer 2015

The International Center of Photography is a world-renowned cultural institution involved in innovative exhibitions, education, and publication. The goal is to transform the International Center of Photography into a multi-media and multi-use visualization lab and workspace. 

The project site is the famous and infamous area of Manhattan known as the Bowery. Today the Bowery is rapidly becoming a new cultural district, with the advent of the New Museum, designed by SANAA and the Norman Forster designed Sperone Westwater Gallery. This cultural development now cohabits with the still active homeless missions and the influx of businesses coming from the surrounding neighborhoods of Chinatown, the East Village, Little Italy, the Lower East Side, and Soho, a mix in keeping with the long-standing social engagements of the International Center of Photography.

The project defines Photography Museum as a long exposure through which visitors capture the exhibition and the city.

The building itself is as an experience of photography.

By looking into different exposures of the photography history through the permanent gallery, the visitor defines its own lens in the end of the journey. By experiencing extended interactive exposures between programs, the visitor defines it’s own lens and in the end of the journey captures the city.

Station House
Toward a Community-Centered Police Station

Columbia University | GSAPP

critic  Jeanne Gang
Fall 2015

The project embodies ideas of equality, trust and security by creating diverse grounds and spaces with the “column structure”. Heterogeneous, non-scripted space of the landscape and parks provide opportunities for playful  and free decision making. The project is about exploring how this sets the stage for better more normalized relations between police and community. 
Suggested reforms to policing have recommended that cities focus more on to serve the well-being of  understanding of the issues that impacting residents including. Therefore, the building contains third program that is rehabilitation center. The project aims to make police work more as a social service. The rehabilitation center provides family support services, advocacy services, domestic violence and mental health services. 
The materials that have been used are wood and concrete. The more public spaces are wooden structures and the more public ones are concrete. In different parts of the building these two materials are colliding. The roof merges the three programs by creating common top for the column forest and people.

Playground | Gathering Space

Columbia University | GSAPP

critic  Jeanne Gang
Advanced Architecture Design Studio  |  Fall 2015

| Playground | is a space to gather for police and community members. The project creates various grounds for conversations between police and community.

BRAIN RESEARCH CENTER

Dessau International School of Architecture | DIA
Spring 2013 | Berlin, Germany
critic Arie Graafland

The challenge is to design the Brain Research Center in such a way that it provides an innovative and inspiring environment for researchers, which will improve teamwork and foster communication between researchers and the public.

The main concept of the center is based on the idea of the noosphere, which, according to Vladimir Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin, denotes the "sphere of human thought". The noosphere is the third in a succession of phases of the development of the Earth, after the geosphere and the biosphere. Just as the emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the emergence of human cognition fundamentally transforms the biosphere. The noosphere emerges through and is constituted by the interaction of human minds. /Wikipedia/

By creating a space that is a visual representation of the noosphere, the aim is to promote the creative interaction of human minds and encourage scientific discoveries. 

The building is detached from the ground and floats above the campus to open up vision and movement. Only pillars and elements of circulation are touching the ground. The terrain is free for green and informal meeting spaces. In some parts the terrain is opened to the underground spaces, where are located open-air green spaces and an amphitheater for open-air meetings. There are three underground floors with workshop spaces, laboratories, and parking. Above the ground there are thirteen floors with laboratory spaces, formal and informal meeting spaces, an exhibition hall, a library, and conference and workshop spaces. 
The volume of the building wrapped into a steel space frame, which represents the “Noosphere” floating over the campus.

Professional Work
Spring 2015 | Jermuk, Armenia
with  ARCHcoop
www.archcoop.am

neverending project | daily procrastinations